The noises coming from beyond the door were enough to have anyone cowering in their boots with any common sense. Horrifying roars and clashing steel, war cries and screams of pain. Nothing that Raka wanted *anything* to do with. In her extremely boundless wisdom she had decided the best course of action that would aid the defense of the cave lair of her Ogre boss was to stay out of sight and wait for the right opportunity. Of course, some narrow minded fools might call this cowardice but Raka would argue it was genius at work.

There was a great thunderous crash from outside that shook the cave, sending pebbles from the ceiling falling from Raka’s extremely clever hiding spot in the lair’s storage room. She had to protect the supplies after all, someone had to most certainly! Imagine if they were unguarded. Yes indeed, plus she was certain her fellows and their boss would do just fine without her intervention. 

She wasn’t exactly the most imposing thing around, the redheaded goblin dressed in little more than patchwork rags and with little more to her name as a weapon than a dagger. Not exactly someone to strike terror in the hearts of great heroes. Yellow eyes gazed out through a slight crack in the door and she winced as she watched a spear wielding goblin get cut down with an expert swing of a warrior’s sword. Could be her if she was out there. No. Thanks. 

She spied through the crack as a magical bolt of lightning lanced through a towering ogre, the thing letting out a death rattle as it collapsed over to the ground, very dead. Raka wasn’t exactly *sad* to see the brute go honestly. It was always Raka go clean the store room, Raka go make the stew or you’re gonna be thrown in it, Raka clean the bones out of the cave. Stupid brute, got what he deserved. Served him right for ordering around someone with such unparalleled genius as her just because he was bigger!

Of course his falling left her in something of a dicey situation. The trio had just finished up the room from enemies and were inspecting the fallen ogre, talking among themselves. Brute he might have been, but he was at least a dumb wall of meat between her and some threats. Now that was gone. It was *probably* a wise move to make a very discreet exit. Though… her eyes turned to a crate nearby that she knew held a good deal of coins in it. Perhaps it would be best to, ah, ensure that it didn't fall into the hands of the adventurers. After all, why let something go to waste? She was doing them a favor, lightening their potential load when they looted the place. 

So it was the short green skinned woman picked up the little crate and hefted it up. She checked out the crack in the door to make sure their attention was still held with the ogre and their backs were turned to the exit. Excellent. Now she just needed to-

“Eh? Gah!” 

As soon as she stepped outside the door she ended up tripping over the arm of a fallen goblin and fell face first on the floor. The crate flew from her hands and landed with an extremely loud clatter and crash, breaking it open and spilling out gold coins onto the floor. She blinked for a moment as she stared at the gold ahead of her. Then realized exactly what had happened and turned her gaze toward the adventurers. 

Yeah they had noticed her immediately. Curse her dumb former comrade for having the stupidity to die in that spot! It was his fault! No wonder he was dead!

“Great, missed one. What did I tell you, have to search everywhere or else some of them get away.” Remarked a man in green armor with pointed ears. An elf. 

“Galen, could you just zap that one so we can get on our way?” A blonde human woman rolled her eyes at the sight of Raka on the floor trying to scamper to her feet. 

“Sounds like a waste of a spell to me, just whack it with a sword or something.” Another human, a male with short dark hair and dressed in the robes of a mage. 

Not good. Raka let out a little scream of fright and started running toward the exit… only to be cut off by the incredible speed of the blonde woman twice her height. She idly waved her sword around, a smirk on her lips like the devil herself. Raka almost fell back but managed to turn and run in another direction… only for the green armored knight to cut her off. And then the mage stepped around the other side. She was pretty much surrounded and looking around wildly. So she did the only thing she could think of. 

“Wait, please! No need to kill me! None at all, see, I’m unarmed! No threat to great heroic adventurers like you, yes? Very harmless! Totally, completely! I’m a pacifist goblin! Total vegetarian as well! Really I was more of a prisoner here!” Raka fell to her knees and held her hands up, pleading for her life. 

The blonde rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, haven’t heard that one before. I bet when we turn our backs you’d love to slide a knife in our ribs.” The rogue remarked. 

Okay so maybe she would have but was that such a crime? “Not at all! Really I’m beneath the notice of such great heroes as yourself, legendary champions of greatness and glory! It would be a waste of your valuable time and energy to kill me!” 

“Hardly a waste, this’ll be quick.” The armored elf said with a shrug as he hefted his blade up. 

So this was it huh? Killed trying to make her escape. Effortlessly dealt with by beings that she never had a chance against. That was the lot of most goblins she supposed but she had thought it might be different for her. The knight advanced and stepped forward with his blade raised high and… the spot he stepped on… Raka’s eyes widened when she spotted a rune on the floor just before he stepped. 

Immediately adrenaline surged through Raka and she found the surge for survival kick in as she dove right between the Knight’s legs and scurried toward the cave wall. Just in time as well, behind her as soon as the knight stepped on the spot a flash of blue light enveloped around all three of the adventurers and then it flashed so radiant it could blind someone. Raka squeezed her eyes shut as the cries of the adventurers were suddenly cut off and then the light vanished as suddenly as it appeared. 

She was breathing heavily, the green skinned woman holding a hand over her hammering heart as she turned to look over her shoulder. It had been a trap placed by the former shaman. Well. Before he got tossed in a stew for angering the Ogre boss. Never knew what it had done, but well. As she looked around and then looked down upon hearing some squeaks near the floor of the cave she now knew what it did. 

The adventurers, rather disoriented from the trap, had been incredibly reduced in scale. Down to the size of little more than bugs compared to Raka. Yellow eyes stared uncomprehending for a few moments as the heroes tried to get their bearings below, suddenly finding themselves in a vast landscape of stone. To them it must have seemed like a different world. Like they had been teleported. 

Raka… grinned a very broad and toothy grin and let out a laugh, a very loud booming thunderous laugh to those below. It was a bit grating and nasally, not a pretty laugh at all. It drew their attention in the distance and they could see her, towering and looming above bigger than any giant or dragon they had probably faced. Their eyes all widened and the blonde human actually squeaked in terror and fell over! Raka felt a surge of confidence roll through her as she stepped toward them. 

“Ha! Serves you dumb dumbs right! I mean, come on now, it was such an *obvious* trap! Stupid adventurers!” Raka mocked. Nevermind she hadn’t noticed it until the last second either, that wasn’t important. It had clearly been *instinct* that had her standing in that spot. You couldn’t teach that, it was just some were born for greatness clearly. 

Her steps shook the pebbles near the heroes, every footfall of her bare feet quaking the ground beneath them. They were stunned, gazing up at the shortstack goblin that had just moments ago been cowering before the trio. Well, who was cowering now? Certainly not Raka as she let out another laugh as she stopped right before the trio. Her gaze trailed down toward the floor as they stared up at her, dumbfounded. 

The mage, Galen, was evidently the first to snap out of it and started stuttering out the words of some kind of spell. “Yeah no.” 

Raka wasn’t having that. She lifted her foot up and shifted her leg, a dark shadow falling over the human mage. He fumbled out the words of his spell, fizzling it out as he was caught under the darkness of her step. He tried to turn and run but that wasn’t happening. Raka brought a single toe down upon him, pinning him to the floor as he was pressed under her big toe. Her dark clawed nails gleamed in the torchlight above as she started pressing down harder. 

It was such a rush. Moments ago she had been at their mercy and now… now she could feel his brittle bones groaning, hear his pitiful cries for mercy. Mercy? Like they had been about to show her? Not happening. His friends were flinching away from where her toe had impacted down, their eyes wide with horror as bones started to snap and the mage was reaching out to them for help pitifully. 

“Marie! Lethelan! Hellaghg!” 

His words were cut off in a gurgle as blood started to pool around him as Raka applied more pressure and her lips curled in glee, eyes narrowing as she slowly ground him into the cave floor. For once she had all the power here. For the first time in her life the little goblin thrall was the one in charge, she was the one-!

+10,000XP

(LEVEL UP!)x5

“Eh? Who said that?” Raka started looking around, shifting her foot and resulting in the poor mage’s body being reduced to little more than a red streak on the cave floor. The voice of a rather monotone woman had come out from nowhere. She couldn’t see anyone else. Just the shrunken adventurers and a lot of dead goblins and the dead ogre. 

(Trait awarded: Heroslayer. Dread Level Increase. Maximum Level for Goblin Class Reached. Please Select Upgraded Class.)

“Seriously, who is that? Where are you? Are you invisible or something?” Raka turned around in place. 

Her steps were cataclysmic below as both of the remaining adventurers had to recover from their shock really quickly as she shifted around. The blonde woman dove out of the way and barely avoided being trampled, rolling as she landed. The knight let out a cry as he was knocked aside by a step, impacting into the side of her foot before being knocked onto his ass with his breath torn from his lungs. 

Raka blinked as three options appeared before her eyes. She couldn’t, ya know, read or anything but for some reason she could read the hovering words before her eyes. Goblin Warrior, Goblin Scout, or Goblin Shaman. Those were the three options. She scratched one of her big ears and considered this phenomena before realization dawned upon her. She had heard of this thing before! 

The Ogre she used to work for liked to talk when drunk and once he had rambled about hearing the Voice of the World when he’d killed a group of soldiers for a kingdom nearby. It had bestowed him with power evidently. So this had to be that Voice of the World and she was being bestowed power because she killed an Adventurer perhaps? Well, she guessed that made sense? No, it made perfect sense! After all, Raka was no ordinary goblin. Clearly. Only she was worthy to hear this voice. 

“Hmm… not really keen on taking a blade to the face, and the last shaman I knew liked to eat frogs, so lets go with Goblin Scout.” She mused aloud. 

(Class Upgrade Confirmed, Raka registered as Goblin Scout! Traits Gained: Stalker, Enhanced Sneak, Backstab, Trapping, Superior Goblin. Stat Increase Granted.)

All at once Raka felt a surge of power course through her. It was… intense. She had never felt anything like it. It was like all at once her body felt lighter, her senses felt sharper, her *mind* felt like it had expanded. Her reflexes increased as well. She looked no different outwardly but Raka could feel the change as she marveled at the sensations that flowed through her body. She suddenly instinctually realized she was *more* and it felt… amazing. 

She let out a long sigh before her eyes trailed down again. So. She had gotten ‘XP’ from killing that adventurer. That had led to her ‘Leveling Up’ five times as the Voice stated. She stared at the tiny figures on the floor. It stood to reason then, that if she killed more of them, she would get more XP then. So she could level up more. And she could feel *that* again. She grinned a particularly mean grin as she reached down. 

The blonde woman, Marie, screamed and flailed as she was gripped by thick green fingers and hoisted up through the air. Her companion tried to grab at her but he was too late. She was lifted up more and more until she was held up before the goblin’s face, Raka slowly licking her lips as she leered at her. 

“B-but you said you were a vegetarian right? P-please mercy!” The human rogue pleaded. 

“Pssshhh, when did I say something dumb like that?” Probably when she was begging for her life minutes ago but details. 

She casually tossed the screaming woman into her maw like she was a piece of candy. The woman screamed and flailed as she landed atop Raka’s tongue with a splat, pleading for mercy before thick lips closed behind her. The goblin woman idly swished her struggling treat around her mouth, considering her taste for a few moments. Needed salt honestly, but she wasn’t about to be too picky of an eater at the moment. 

The human was pushed onto a back row of molars and had only moments to realize where she was before Raka started chewing. 

MUNCH CRUNCH MUNCH!

Bones snapped under her teeth, flimsy compared to them really as she chewed up the human rogue. She idly wiped at the corner of her mouth, dealing with a trickle of blood before swallowing the remains of the human. The elf below had fallen to his knees, staring up in absolute shellshock as he ate his companion alive. The goblin looked at the back of her clawed fingernails and didn’t so much as blink from the act. Honestly, it felt great. Natural. Like this was how it should be. 

+12,000 XP

(LEVEL UP!)x5

(Traits Gained: Maneater, Heroeater. Dread Level Increase. Maximum level for Goblin Scout Reached. Class Change granted to Goblin Rogue! Traits gained: Superior Stalk, Superior Dexterity, Superior Agility, Enhanced Backstab, Enhanced Trapping, Master Goblin, Silver Tongue, Monster Leader, Tracker. Trait Gained from Heroeater: Written Language Mastery. Stat Increase Granted.)

“Ahhh… ha…” 

It was like a jolt of pleasure that surpassed the other one. She felt *amazing*. Better than she had ever felt. Had she ever really been living before? She’d been thinking in such simple patterns before, all about survival and just running and hiding. Now she just. Knew. She knew more. Could do more. It was enough power that she felt like she could have taken on that brutish ogre with ease. Hell, he probably would have bent his knee to her and simpered and bowed on instinct! As well he should have because Raka was the best. 

Of course. The best could always get better. So it was her fingers came for the knight, gripping him by his cape. He was numb before she gripped him, almost uncomprehending. Then he started struggling and cursing her in his elven language. Dummy, he should have started begging and pleading when at another’s mercy. Didn’t he know anything? Clearly not. Adventurers clearly weren’t the sharpest swords on the rack. 

“Well since this oaf isn’t using that anymore…” She stepped over the body of the fallen ogre, trampling over it without any respect for the dead and stepped up toward the throne. 

She idly tossed the armored and flailing and cursing elf up onto the throne. The very. Very large throne. Raka tilted her head at it and frowned. It was taller than she was that was for sure. Well she wasn’t going to let that stop her! It maybe wasn’t quite that imposing when the little goblin woman had to physically climb up onto the throne to seat herself upon it. Good thing no one was watching because they were all dead. 

The elven knight got to watch her rise up and climb onto the throne and then looking up he got an eyeful of an *extremely* ample rear. Never let it be said that Raka was filled out in all the right ways. Probably was from sneaking all that food from the storage room when no one was looking. A vast sky of green ass hovered over the elven knight for only a moment before landing atop him with a thunderous boom. 

He wasn’t crushed instantly, his armor keeping him from that mercy. Instead the weight of the goblin woman’s massive rear was slowly ever so slowly compressing at his armor. Which compacted in upon him as well. He was conformed and smooshed into her rear for moments longer before he finally gave out and expired completely, no match for the fearsome move which was a goblin sitting down. 

+20,000 XP

(LEVEL UP!)x5

(Dead Level Increase. Maximum Level for Goblin Rogue reached. Class Change granted to Goblin Trickster. Traits Gained: Master Stalk, Master Sneak, Master Dexterity, Master Agility, Enhanced Intelligence, Slaying Backstab, Master Trapping, Magic Trapping, Goblin Lord, Enhanced Charisma, Enhanced Monster Leader, Enhanced Tracker. Magic: Illusion, Magic: Transmutation. Lair Creation. World Insight. Stat Increase Granted.)

It was a rush that was the greatest of all of them today and drew a moan from Raka’s lips. It was like the world had expanded for her. All at once she could see things. She could see that items had descriptions. She could see a red bar associated with her name. She could actually understand what the traits she had were and what they meant. It was overwhelming but it was almost like she had woken up to what reality was. And she liked it. 

Raka looked over the cave and the fallen goblins and ogres and snorted. Lessers one and all, Raka was the best of them and the fact she had outsmarted and killed three skilled adventurers proved it. Of course… those three were now dead, no more levels up for her it seemed. Not yet anyway. The goblin woman wasn’t exactly about to just live with *this* mere level of ability. There had to be more. First things first… she needed to find some thralls and minions to do *her* bidding. 

Ahhh… life was pretty good.