A week had passed in an instant. Souta didn't hunt much in the passed few days. He want to confirm something so he trained his body. His guess was right. He could increase his stats by training. The only problem about this method is that it's hard too increase his stats by exercising. He should have tested this method while he was still at level 1.
For now, Souta decided that he wouldn't grind exp for the mean time. He would only kill monsters for food and that's it. He need first to increase his base stats without leveling up because it will get hard to increase his stats by training if he was already strong.
So in the passed few days he do nothing except training his body and his skills. He also managed to level up his mana manipulation skill to level 2.
He also managed to level up to 8 in these few days. He was worried that the meat in the storage room will rot so he use it as a bait to hunt new fresh monster. He even dispose the meat of the dead goblins here in the nest.
"I wonder how it will take me to find a way to return back to earth." Souta muttered. He already missed Aisha, his childhood friend from the orphanage. It's only been a week but he was dying to meet her.
He remember that he couldn't go back looking like this. A real goblin would become a target of scientist back in earth. He don't want to become a lab rat of a mad scientist.
Suddenly, Souta heard a lot of footsteps.
He stood up and looked behind him. He quickly hid himself in the corner and waited for the monster to come.
He didn't have a plan to confront what will come here. Based on what he heard there's a lot of monster that enter this nest. He can't afford to fight a lot of monsters at the same time. If it's only one then he would be able to kill with a sneak attack.
After a while, he saw a lot of short green skin humanoid monster.
"Goblins..." Souta muttered in a low voice.
He looked at the goblins. There's ten goblins in this group. What made him surprised is the leader of this group.
A hobgoblin.
Yes, a hobgoblin. The leader of this group is a higher form of goblin. It seems that this group of goblins is more powerful than his previous group.
There's only one hobgoblin in the group he was in previously, and that hobgoblin was the leader of the who nest. But the one he was seeing right now don't looked like a leader of a whole nest. It looks like he was only the captain of this squad.
He wonder how strong is this hobgoblin. He wouldn't dare to use the appraisal against this sort of goblins. It would be able to detect him if he use the appraisal.
Then, an idea came into his mind. What if he join this group of goblins? This idea was immediately put down as he remember that he don't understand the language of these monsters.
Unfortunately for him, the hobgoblin saw him hiding in the corner.
'What?!' Souta was surprised that the hobgoblin noticed him. He grabbed the sword at his side tightly.
'I should escape... but how..?' He thought.
The hobgoblin walked towards at his direction.
"Huff..." Souta took a deep breath and he revealed himself. He stood in front of the hobgoblin while pointing his sword at it.
The hobgoblin observed him before it opened it's mouth.
"Shc#@bfkhdi"
Souta didn't understand what it was saying. He just have a feeling that this hobgoblin was asking him. He squinted his eyes and observed the hobgoblin in front of him. It seems that this hobgoblin didn't have any killing intent towards him.
He didn't know what he should do right now as the hobgoblin didn't have any killing intent towards and he also couldn't understand what it was saying. If he attack it then the rest of the group would attack him, at that point he don't any strength to defend himself.
"Bch#jiiv@$ndlugvu"
The hobgoblin was still saying something that he couldn't understand.
He continue to observed it.
The hobgoblin then turned around and started to walked away. In just a few meters the hobgoblin stopped and looked at him. It once again said something that he couldn't understand.
'Is it telling me to follow him..?' Souta thought to himself. He hesitated first before he lifted up his feet and follow the hobgoblin.
The rest of the goblins also followed behind the hobgoblin. They hunted first before they go to their nest.
When they arrived at the nest, Souta was shocked. The nest was double the size of his previous nest. There's also many hobgoblin inside the nest. Each hobgoblin commands ten goblins.
Souta wanted to wander around the nest but the hobgoblin that took him didn't let him. It seems that there's thing that forbidden to do here. He was curious about the leader that could managed this kind of group.
He just followed the hobgoblin who took him here to avoid any risk. He was curious about everything here but he don't want any accident to befall him.
He don't know how he would fair against goblin but he know for sure that he wasn't a match of hobgoblin. His instinct was telling to succumb to the higher existence in front of him. And there's twenty, no, thirty of them here in this nest.
'I'm really at the bottom of the power scale.' Souta thought to himself. His power wasn't enough to survive alone in this labyrinth. Thankfully, he didn't met the truly powerful monster here in the labyrinth. If he met those monster then he wouldn't even survive till now.
He smirked inside and felt his blood pumping wildly just thinking that he could die anytime. He took a deep breath to calm himself and swore to himself that he would do anything to survive.
For now, he would follow these goblins as he have a higher chance to survive in this labyrinth if he's with them.