Forming the Goblin Legion
The characteristics of the Minion of the Underworld skill were as follows.
Army of the Dead: Increases maximum minion summon limit by 1 for every 3 levels of Minion of the Underworld.
Elite Soldiers: Summon duration of 1 hour. Final stats increased by 100%. The duration and stat bonus grow as the skill levels up.
Blood and Flesh: Minion of the Underworld can consume corpses. Damaged flesh is restored upon consumption.
Out of the three, the ones that gave me the most trouble were Army of the Dead and Elite Soldiers.
Blood and Flesh was certainly useful, but right now it was far more efficient to simply create new minions than to have them heal themselves, so it didn’t catch my eye.
After long deliberation, my choice was Army of the Dead.
Kiek!
A minion goblin rose from the ground, its eyeballs melted away and blue flames flickering inside empty sockets.
The number of goblins killed by my Night Crows was five.
I resurrected one first. While that one dashed into the forest to hunt its former kin, I cast Minion of the Underworld the moment its cooldown ended.
That was how the goblin count began to grow—one every ten seconds.
In the meantime, the resurrected goblins quickly joined the fight and steadily increased the pile of corpses.
The abilities of my resurrected goblins were incredible.
Even though it was daytime, Hemera’s Joy doubled my stats. On top of that, Thanatos’s Baptism multiplied the effects of my (Undead)(Death)(Soul) skills by five, which in turn raised the minions’ final stats by the same amount.
Moreover, the Army of the Dead trait didn’t simply add to the base summon limit. It granted an actual skill effect that increased the cap. Thanks to the fivefold multiplier, the +1 limit per three skill levels had effectively become +5.
This was exactly why I had chosen Army of the Dead instead of Elite Soldiers.
The minions’ stats were already overflowing, so I decided that increasing their numbers would improve versatility and stability. Besides, once the skill reached level 20 I would get to pick a second trait anyway, so I could take Elite Soldiers then.
Slash! Slice!
Kiek!
Former comrades showed no mercy. Blades split goblin chests open, blood spraying everywhere. Heads flew off, blood gushing like fountains.
Even as the original goblins dwindled rapidly, the number of new minion goblins continued to climb.
Of course, I wasn’t resurrecting them at random.
The goblins of the Goblin Kingdom were on an entirely different level from the simple creatures found in regular zones. They were far smarter, stronger, and specialized into distinct combat roles with genuinely high-level fighting power.
That had made the kingdom a living hell for other hunters, but for me it was nothing short of a stroke of luck.
‘Three goblin assassins and two swordsmen so far…’
I searched for the corpses of goblin warriors that could draw aggro and tank from the front line.
“Found them.”
Fortunately, I located two goblin warriors who had been killed by the minions I’d already resurrected. They lay with deep wounds in their necks and hearts.
“Sowon, can you use bonus looting right away?”
“Yes!”
Once I resurrected them I wouldn’t be able to loot bonus drops, so I asked her to use the skill first, then cast Minion of the Underworld.
Two goblin warriors rose with blue flames burning in their empty eye sockets at ten-second intervals.
Unlike regular goblins that only reached my waist at 182 centimeters tall, these warriors stood as high as my chest. Their bodies were packed with muscle, giving them a real warrior vibe.
They gripped round shields and spiked iron maces, then took the lead.
In the end, the total number of resurrected goblins was…
Ten warriors, seven swordsmen, five assassins, five archers, and five poison dart throwers—for a grand total of thirty-two.
Thanks to Army of the Dead, my maximum summon limit was fourteen base plus twenty from the trait, totaling thirty-four. I deliberately left two slots open as reserves.
If I found any particularly useful specimens, I could resurrect them immediately.
“Warriors take the front line. Swordsmen follow in the rear and watch our surroundings. Assassins, archers, and poison dart throwers move through the trees and prepare for ambushes.”
Kiiik!
These goblin soldiers had been my enemies only moments ago. Now they were my loyal minions. The sight of such reliable forces must have reassured her, because Sowon turned to me with an excited little smile.
“Everything’s ready, so shall we head straight for the boss now?”
That was what a normal party would do. Clear the shortest route, take down the boss quickly, and push through the dangerous boss floor to minimize casualties.
But I shook my head.
“No. This is only the beginning.”
“Th-the beginning…? Of what?”
She must have sensed the ominous tone in my voice; her words trembled slightly. I drove the point home.
“Kingdom cleanup.”
This place wasn’t a goblin kingdom. It was heaven.
Kieeeek!!
Kiek!
Just moving a short distance brought swarms of goblins pouring in from every direction. The sight alone explained why so many parties that challenged this floor rushed to kill only the boss before fleeing.
But not me.
“Open fire.”
The moment my minion goblin archers and poison dart throwers began shooting from the treetops, hidden goblins rained down like hail.
A normal goblin archer might loose one arrow per shot, but my minions fired at least ten each. Even if our numbers were lower, the sheer volume of projectiles was overwhelmingly in our favor.
Unlike archers fixed in one spot, my poison dart goblins darted through the branches like agile swallows, swiftly eliminating every hidden enemy.
Ambushes from above were no longer a concern.
The same went for the goblin waves charging from all sides.
“Formation!”
At my command, the goblin warriors spread out and blocked five directions around me. This was precisely why I had resurrected five of them.
By maintaining tight spacing and covering every angle, the warriors couldn’t be breached easily. No matter how hard enemy goblins swung their maces, my minions’ shields didn’t budge. Their counterattacks turned enemy heads into smashed tofu.
“Hiiik…!”
In that instant, a goblin swordsman charged at Han Sowon while she was focused on bonus looting. She flinched in alarm, but the attacker’s head hit the ground with a dull thud before its body toppled forward.
Beyond the corpse stood one of my minion assassins. The moment its task was complete, it vanished back into the forest shadows.
Besides the two assassins, I had assigned three swordsmen as her personal guards. Thanks to the warriors drawing the bulk of the aggro, not many goblins reached her.
Still…
‘My heart can’t take much more of this…’
What porter in the world looted corpses on the front line like this? It was her first time experiencing anything like it since she started working as a porter.
Yet considering Ahn Humin’s insane hunting speed, she had no choice but to loot in real time. Otherwise far too many corpses would go to waste.
She ignored miscellaneous items and collected only the valuable mana stones, yet they were still piling up at a ridiculous rate.
High risk, high return.
The boss floor delivered experience and loot as generous as its brutal difficulty. The amount per monster was far higher than on the eleventh floor above.
Ahn Humin hadn’t chosen this hellish place on a whim. If you possessed the strength to handle the danger, the boss floor was a gold mine of experience and mana stones.
How long had they hunted in that frenzy?
“Humin! The inventory is full and the backpack is over ninety percent capacity!”
“Already? Even though we only took mana stones?”
“Yes!”
I couldn’t hide my surprise at Sowon’s report. We had certainly slaughtered goblins at a fierce pace, but I hadn’t thought much time had passed. Yet the backpack was already nearly full of mana stones.
‘Now that I think about it, we’ve already hit the experience acquisition limit too.’
No matter how many goblins we killed, my experience points refused to rise any further. When I checked the time, only six hours had passed since we started hunting here.
‘It usually takes over ten hours to reach the limit on regular floors. The boss floor really is different.’
“Then let’s go take down the boss.”
“Okay!”
The path to the Goblin Kingdom’s boss, Goblius, was surprisingly straightforward. Follow the kingdom’s main road and you would reach the goblin citadel. That was where he waited.
The only problem was that the road to the citadel had an unusually high concentration of goblins, but that no longer mattered.
Slashslashslashslash!
Thudthudthudthud!
The lead minion goblins had already cleared my path. When arrows and poison darts fell like rain, hidden goblins tumbled from the trees in droves. Goblin packs blocking the road were swept away by my warriors and swordsmen until only corpses remained.
All I had to do was walk the blood-soaked road and smash open the citadel gate blocking our way.
BOOM!
The citadel gate exploded. Beyond it, the king of the goblins, Goblius, sat waiting. A cold smile spread across his face as he looked at me.
“…Huh? The goblin’s speaking human words?”
Goblius, seated upon his throne, narrowed his eyes in surprise. Of course, he wasn’t the only one shocked.
“What do you mean the goblin is speaking human words? What are you talking about, Humin?”
“Didn’t you just hear him? He called us his final adversary…”
“He only made those usual kiek kiek noises like all the other goblins. Don’t tell me you actually understood what Goblius said?”
When Sowon asked in astonishment, I finally realized I was the only one who could understand him. I was stunned.
‘Just what the hell did I awaken as?!’
Goblius rose from his throne.
“Duty? Homeland?”
One million.
The number was staggering. Yet when I thought about how many hunters from around the world Goblius had killed over the past thirty years on the tenth floor, one million didn’t seem so unrealistic.
In other words, just as we had reason to kill them, they had reason to kill us.
My answer to Goblius’s merciful proposal was simple.
“Night Crows.”
Five Night Crows spread their wings at once and streaked toward Goblius faster than the wind.
EX-class, kicked from the guild without knowing.