The entire dungeon looked like a natural cave system of winding passageways and larger chambers. Thankfully, I'd read up on the place, so when a group of goblins tried to sneak behind me via one of the secret passages that criss-crossed the warren, they found me waiting by the door as it opened. The disguise was decent, the door looking like natural stone, but the seams were obvious if you knew what to look for, and listening at the doors let me hear the goblins' gibbering.

  Still, the fact that they'd attempted an ambush before I'd even found my first normal group of goblins was a surprise. How did they know I was here? I was still using [Expert Stealth].

  Maybe I smelled as bad to goblins as goblins did to me. An amusing thought, for sure.

  The next chamber was equally empty. There were typical goblin structures—roughly hewn boards of wood leaning against each other in a way that would be unlikely to survive a stiff breeze—but no actual goblins.

  A suspicion began to form. A suspicion that only grew when I heard distant shrieking. Speeding up, I came out into another chamber where a party of five was locked in combat with a dozen goblins.

  Drat, the dungeon was already occupied. They must have cleared the other chambers, and the dungeon eaten the corpses but not respawned new goblins by the time I passed. Unfortunately, I couldn't deny that they'd arrived first. The dungeon was linear, so I couldn't just head off somewhere else. Etiquette demanded that I let them have first pickings, and from watching them fight, it didn't look like they needed help. I doubted they'd acquiesce to an offer to join them.

  Hmm... The dungeon was supposed to be linear, but maybe I could cheat.

  I backtracked slightly to the closest secret door and poked at the wall, trying to figure out how the darn thing opened. Worst case was that it only opened from the inside, but then how did the goblins get in? If they simply spawned inside, I was kinda stuck.

  Another option was to employ [Expert Stealth] to sneak past the party while they were busy fighting, but there was a chance I'd be spotted, and I wouldn't get far ahead.

  I turned my back on the door. "Oh dear. I'm in such desperate need of a rest. I do hope nothing attacks me from behind while I'm sleeping."

  Nothing happened. Not that I'd really expected it to. It wasn't as if goblins spoke my language, even if there were any around.

  Of course, I could always simply wait, but the thought of standing around doing nothing when I should be earning experience kinda made me feel itchy.

  I tried ramming my daggers in the cracks around the door, but it didn't achieve anything. [Stab] wouldn't break through, and would likely just break my daggers. Shoulder-ramming it only served to injure my shoulder, and I couldn't get enough of a grip with my fingers to exert force in any other direction.

  Maybe there was a fixed chance of goblins spawning each time I walked past? I did a few loops between the pair of chambers and, on the third pass, a distant gibbering met my ears. Success!

  I waited by the door as the gibbering drew nearer, and then it shut off. The door slid open, and I charged in.

  The goblins were not expecting that.

  The first fell to a slashed throat before it could even react. The second leapt at me, but only scored a dagger through the face for his trouble. The third stepped backward and began howling, but his single step was insufficient to get him out of danger.

  "Stab!"

  The final goblin fell, blood flowing from a hole in his forehead.

  I stepped inside, the door closing behind me with a clang.

  At that point, it occurred to me that the doors only opening from the inside was not, in fact, the worst-case scenario. The worst case was that they didn't open at all. That they were operated completely by dungeon magic, and I'd just trapped myself.

  I hurriedly spun around, only to find a really obvious lever on the wall. Pulling it caused the door to open again, remain open for twenty seconds, and then slam closed.

  I released a breath I hadn't even realised I'd been holding. Maybe I'd have been lucky, and more goblins would spawn and I could follow them out before I starved to death, but I wouldn't have wanted to bank on it. Sneaking into these tunnels was not a strategy that I'd seen documented.

  I rushed through the new tunnel, which fortunately still had torches installed at regular intervals, hoping that the secret tunnels were actually connected and I wasn't simply heading into a dead end. In fact, it came out into another open chamber.

  One that was somewhat larger than those I'd been in so far. Some of the shelters looked... well... sturdy. More like actual shacks than half-built bonfires. I could have sworn I even saw a nail or two.

  I didn't know where goblins would have got nails, but that was a secondary issue to where all the wood was coming from. It wasn't as if trees grew in caves, and there was nothing growing in this one, even mushrooms. Not that it bothered me. I'd already had enough experience with dungeons to not expect them to make sense.

  No, what was bothering me was this camp. It was the first goblin village I'd seen that actually deserved the title of 'village'. This hadn't been in the documentation. It was just a series of chambers, each containing one of the villages I was used to, albeit on a smaller scale, and then the boss, a D-rank goblin chieftain. There was nothing in there about this.

  Was I really the first one here? Or had it simply never been documented?

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Was it worth the risk to assault?

  I decided that yes, it was. I was even stronger now than when I'd decimated the previous goblin village, and I needed every drop of experience I could get. But I would at least maximise my chances.

  As expected, another Mark. Or maybe 'expected' was a bit strong; had it followed the same pattern as growth markers, I'd have needed a hundred and one. I knew the logic—I'd got my first growth marker for completing level twenty, not for reaching level twenty-one—but there was still a chance.

  Not the best effect in the world, but I wasn't really sure what I was hoping for there. At least it was 'slight' and not 'very slight'.

  As for my skill points, I wasn't sure if they were best spent on [Dagger Expertise] or [Stab]. I'd keep them for now; I could always use them in the middle of battle, if things grew that desperate.

  I flexed a few times, getting used to my suddenly faster body, then eyed up my target. I couldn't get a good look at the entire thing without leaving the passage, which would likely get me instantly spotted, but I could still see half a dozen goblins from where I stood.

  A couple of them looked bigger than goblins should be, with visible muscle definition. While they still wore nothing more than a loincloth, they were carrying clubs. Dedicated fighters of some sort, but they were still considerably smaller than I was. Hopefully not too dangerous.

  Then again, I'd been underestimated by a lot of people who were bigger than me, and look where it got them.

  At least nothing I could see had long-range weaponry. If they turned out to outmatch me, I could probably run away, back the way I'd come, then flee the dungeon. Or maybe I'd get lucky and could sneak in with [Expert Stealth].

  I waited until every goblin I could see was looking away, then dashed out from my cover.

  [Expert Stealth] shattered, and a screech instantly started up from behind me. Every goblin I could see turned to stare.

  Crap.

  Having second thoughts about the situation, I spun around, only to spot a goblin standing on either side of the passage. The entire time, we'd been less than a metre apart, with only a corner of rock between us. I hadn't stood a chance of leaving undetected.

  They were, however, both unarmed. They made hurried grasping motions—now looking rather slow and clumsy with my increasing Stats—so I responded by slitting their throats as I ducked back into the passage.

  By that point, the goblins had registered the intruder, and a cacophony of screeching had started up behind me. The closest few had reached the tunnel entrance.

  "Stab!"

  The Skill covered a greater distance than previously, impaling a pair of them, but still not reaching the third.

  The third continued to plunge forward without hesitation, driven by the self-destructive instinct of monsters to attack humans, but he suddenly halted as a large hand was placed on his head. One of the warriors grasped, lifting his smaller kin into the air by the head and tossing him backward. He stepped in, and the second warrior followed.

  "Stab!" I yelled, impaling the first of the warriors straight through the heart.

  If the creatures weren't going to wear armour, who could blame me for taking advantage?

  The narrow passage was rather fortuitous. It provided a choke-point, preventing the goblins overwhelming me with numbers, but with my daggers the cramped conditions didn't have a huge negative impact on my movements. Not to mention that I had enough Mana to [Stab] most of the camp, particularly if they lined up nicely enough for me to catch them in pairs.

  The second warrior stepped over the corpse of the first, club raised, more goblins jostling to get into the passage behind him.

  "Stab!" I repeated, and he toppled over backward, landing on the other corpses.

  If they continued to act with such incompetence, this was going to be easy. It was a pity I wasn't going to get bonus assassination experience, but I could hardly complain when the bags of experience were serving themselves to me on a silver platter.

  "Stab!"

  The crowd of goblins trying to get in was bigger than when we'd started, and yet more were rushing out of the village, but it wasn't yet beyond what my Mana could handle.

  And then something else stepped out of the village. A goblin even bigger than the brawlers, a feathered headdress atop his head. That must be the chieftain, but why was the boss here? The goblin chieftain should be alone!

  "Shet glin," he declared, and the goblins fighting to get into the passage immediately ceased. Then they backed away slightly.

  So... the chieftain could speak and employ strategy. That was... unideal.

  "Ja cit igla,"

  Four goblins detached from the group, no larger than the regulars, but better dressed. Their loincloths were noticeably cleaner.

  Also, [Mana Sensitivity] was pinging.

  I made a split second decision, and it saved my life. I leapt from my cover and dodged to the side just as the four goblins launched fireballs straight into the tunnel. Distant booms echoed, the tunnel exit flashing with orange light. Had I tried running, I never would have got out of their line of sight in time.

  So, the goblins had mages. The goblins were organised, with a competent chieftain giving orders. I was now out of the cover of my tunnel, with a substantial crowd of the monsters staring at me. One or two seemed to be salivating.

  "I appear to have made a tactical error," I muttered.

  "Bi!" yelled the chieftain, and the goblins charged.