"Come, follow me." The leader, Hobgoblin, said to him before he turned around and left.
Souta just remembered that he received the Goblin Language as an inheritance in evolving to Hobgoblin. He could finally understand the Goblins.
He nodded and followed behind the leader. He don't have any idea about what's happening to Earth.
He don't know where this path leads to. He just know that he came back to the Goblin Nest. He looked around as he observed the path. He finally understood that this path was the forbidden one when he was still a Goblin.
He finally know what's going on. He's going to meet the leader of this nest, the most powerful one in this place, the one who holds power to command every Goblin here.
He wondered who's the leader who could command all those Hobgoblin. Since, he evolve into a Hobgoblin, the leader finally noticed him. He's not an ordinary mob right now.
After a few minutes, they arrived in the depths of the nest. There's a wide space here that could compare to the "main road" outside the nest.
Main road. That's what Souta called the wide path outside the nest that connects all the place here inside the Labyrinth.
At the center if the room there's a throne, and a four meter tall humanoid creature was sitting there. The creature have a dark green colored skin. Standing beside the creature were four Hobgoblins.
'What's that? Is that a Hobgoblin or an Ogre?' Souta thought when he saw the creature.
He observed the one who was sitting on the throne. Let's called it Ogre for now. That Ogre look menacing with it's posture. He was wearing a black tottered robe and a ragged shorts. There's a black tribal tattoo at his chest.
Souta wants to used appraisal on him to know his level, but he restraint himself from doing so as he don't want to offend him. He have a feeling that he would die instantly if he fight him even if he's already a Hobgoblin.
Souta then observed the four Hobgoblins at the side. The feeling they're giving was much stronger than the rest of the Hobgoblins in this nest.
'There's really someone on the top.' Souta thought as he gulp after he felt the aura that they're releasing.
"I'm the ruler of this place, Jabuzi." The Ogre introduced itself as Jabuzi. Jabuzi looked at him with cold eyes and said, "I didn't think that my forces would increase once again. Just one more Hobgoblin and it would be enough to invade the others."
'Others? It seems he want to conquer the other nest.' Souta thought.
"I shall grant you a squad of your own and access to the women." Jabuzi said to him.
'Access to women? Just like the previous nest this nest treated women as breeding sows.' Souta thought when he heard those words. It looks like that evolving was a requirement to become an official in this nest. One of the benefits was the access to women. He couldn't imagined how's the condition of the women here.
"I expect great things from you. You may leave."
"Yes, sir." Souta said in a respectful way. He didn't want to offend this Ogre so he became respectful as he can.
He bowed and turned around. He looked at the Hobgoblin (his former squad leader).
The Hobgoblin nodded at him and said, "Come, I will show you around."
Souta nodded at him and followed behind. He wasn't lower in rank to him anymore as he already have his own squad.
The Ogre looked at them with cold eyes until they left the room.
He looked at the Hobgoblin and asked, "What should I call you?"
The Hobgoblin glanced at him before he replied, "Jack."
"You can call me Souta." Souta said his name. Well, this Hobgoblin named Jack took care of him before so it's not bad to talk to him.
After a while, they arrived in front of a room. Jack opened the door and enter inside. Souta just followed behind Jack.
Souta saw twenty plus women here. To be exact, there's twenty six women here. He observed them and found that some of them weren't human.
Ten of them were Goblins, Five were human, while the rest are beast folk. All of them were naked. Their bodies were full of wounds. They just slumped down on the ground like a lifeless dolls.
'There's even Goblins here.' Souta was surprised to see a female Goblins. To think that they would even do this kind of thing to their own.
Jack looked at him and said, "You can do what anything them. Just don't kill them or else Lord Jabuzi will kill you."
Souta nodded at Jack. Of course, he know that women are important for them to reproduce their species.
He took a deep breath and he turned around. He said, "Let me do it, later."
"Okay." Jack nodded at him and he left the room with Souta.
...
'I wonder if that's the evolve form of a Hobgoblin?' Souta thought. He wondered what's the requirement level to evolve to higher species.
He lifted up his head and looked at the six Goblins standing in front of him. They were his squad from now. They would only listen to him and wouldn't listen to other Hobgoblins with the exception of Jabuzi, the ruler of this nest.
He lifted up his head and used appraisal on the Goblins. He looked at their levels and saw that the highest was only six and the lowest was four. This number was lower than he expected. Other squad have ten or more members but he only have six. He guess that he could recruit from outside just like what Jack did to him.
He would train these Goblins to became the most powerful squad here. He will become the ruler of this place and this is the first step.
Lucky for him, his squad was a hunting squad just like Jack's squad. But they have enough food to last for a week so they don't need to hunt. If it's the other squad they wouldn't hunt until they run out of food but Souta was different. His squad's priority wasn't food but to increase their level.
Souta looked at them and said, "Introduced yourself to me one by one starting with you." He pointed at the Goblin in front of him.
"Name...?" The Goblin looked at him with a confused expression.
"We don't have that... Names are only for Hobgoblins." The other Goblin said.
Souta nodded at them. So they don't have a name yet. They will only think of a name for themselves when they evolve into a Hobgoblin. He will trained them and give them a name later so that he could easily remember them.
He stood up and said, "Nevermind that. We will go hunting right now."
""Yes!"" The Goblins said at the same time. They were respectful to their seniors.
"Good." Souta walked towards the exit of the nest while the Goblins followed behind him.
He remember that there's twenty three Hobgoblin here in the nest. Those twenty three were a squad leader and he didn't even include the four Hobgoblins in Jabuzi's room. Those four Hobgoblins were clearly higher level than the squad leader.
Each squad consisted of 10-15 Goblin with the exception of his. There's also a Goblins who didn't belong to any squad here. They other Goblins treated those Goblins who didn't belong to any squad as slaves.
Currently, he was the weakest Hobgoblin in the nest. He only need time to reach and eventually surpassed their levels.
"Let's go." Souta said as he walked outside of the nest with his squad.