I took a moment to study the goblins and their community more closely. My gaze fell on one of the warrior goblins trotting past, and Identify kicked in.

"Brown Goblin Trooper. Common. Level 32. Making up the bulk of the brown goblin army, the Goblin Trooper is a vicious fighter who lives to kill and prefers to eat the heart and the brains of their victims to absorb a fraction of their life force and mana."

The Troopers were about 5 feet tall and more muscular than non-fighting goblins. They wore heavy leather armor with bits of metal attached in random places. Most carried crude swords with serrated edges, spiked cudgels, or similar weapons.

Several classes of goblins mingled together in the wake of the destruction I'd caused. The lesser goblins seemed to be all support monsters, like townsfolk, generally with levels below 25. Raiders tended to be lankier than the Troopers, and each carried packs of javelins and small, round wooden shields. Scorchers were more interesting, carrying heavy tanks on their backs with hoses ending in bronze nozzles, or multiple bandoleers of crude black ceramic spheres.

"Goblin Scorcher. Uncommon. Level 28. These insane pyromaniacs tend to die young and destroy a lot of others in the process, but when they're unleashed, they wreak enough destruction to make the cost so worth it. Armed with incendiary grenades and crude flamethrowers, they can burn through astonishing numbers of enemies before getting killed or, more often, self-destructing."

A few much larger goblins towered over the others, as tall as me. Covered in thick, spiked armor plates and gauntlets, they carried massive spiked shields and enormous spiked maces. Definitely a single-minded theme, but probably effective.

"Goblin Bonebreaker. Uncommon. Level 35. These berserking goblin elites plow into enemy ranks with total disregard for their own safety. Their mighty power, quick regeneration, and bloodlust make them the perfect heavy assault force."

And finally came a few goblins dressed in elaborate bone headdresses and robes. They barked orders in hissing, cruel voices and were clearly the leaders of the tribe.

"Goblin Blight Shaman. Uncommon. Level 45. Wielders of death and suffering, they command the tribe with absolute authority. Their brutal magic consumes the life force of their followers to sow death among their enemies."

One of the Shamans wore a fancier headdress. I assumed that designated him as the tribe leader. Honestly, I was impressed. They had a more comprehensive community than I'd expected. I counted over 200 various-sized goblins, and within seconds the army started getting organized. Just in time for Alpha's long, heart-stopping howl to echo from the dungeon entrance.

I triggered a Wolfsbane potion. Didn't want to make things easier for Alpha until I figured out how to defeat his new reflective rune shielding. I'd considered several ways Alpha might have changed his attack to gain advantage over me, but a super rune defense was not one of them.

Was that talisman the same one I'd seen on Noctarus's desk? How could it be? If it was, what did that mean?

One thing was for sure. If Alpha had somehow gained access to a powerful rune talisman from Noctarus, taking him out was going to be entire magnitudes more difficult than I'd expected.

With a growl of annoyance, I leaped to the roof of the hall to observe. With Mirror Cloak still activated, it offered the best vantage. First, I scoped the rest of the cavern. The floor was mostly flat, covered in dirt and rocks. A cave in the wall opposite the entrance was probably the exit to the next level. The goblin village occupied the center of the giant space, with sorry looking fields of wilting crops ranging out in all directions.

I also spotted hundreds of huge insects, like beetles the size of goats. Identify proved even more fascinating. They seemed to be grazing along the outside edges of the cave, eating lichen or moss, or something, and their elk-like horns glowed faintly green.

"Glowhorn Beetle. Common. Level 10. These docile herd animals provide light, meat, and valuable crafting materials for the goblin community. They also secrete a sticky resin used for waterproofing clothing and creating glues and cements."

Huh. Again, the goblins were proving far more complex as a people than I'd assumed. From video games and fantasy books, I'd assumed the goblins were nothing but mindless fodder for farming experience. This pack was challenging that assumption.

Unfortunately, as interesting as the glimpse into their culture might be, they were still monsters seeded into a dungeon, which meant they were still going to die. I didn't make the rules, and even if I might have simply slipped past them in search for more powerful monsters who might give me real experience, Alpha wasn't me.

The werewolf boss sauntered into the cavern, looking smugly satisfied with himself. His rough voice boomed over the shouts and cries of the goblin army as they rushed to form up lines outside of the town, facing him.

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"You thought me a dumb animal, did you? Tonight you will die for that folly and pay for your insults. Without your magic, I would have eaten your heart the first time we met. Now that I've taken the power of the necromancer, your tricks cannot save you."

I hadn't expected him to start monologuing so soon, but I didn't mind. He'd already revealed vital clues. So he had somehow gotten his claws onto that necklace. If only I'd asked Noctarus about its properties last time I was in his office, I might have a better idea how to block it. I couldn't believe he'd killed the old necromancer, but even stealing from him was more than I'd ever expected.

Did Noctarus know Alpha had stolen from him? Did that mean Burns and his team would find the castle easy to infiltrate? Or would they find defenses heightened as a result of Alpha's incursion?

I sent a quick message to Burns, warning him to be extra careful. I also knew a little about that rune defense. It included powerful warding and a crazy strong rebound. That was all powered by runes, and I'd been studying runes. I could counter it. I had to. Something that powerful must consume vast amounts of mana, but was it powered by Alpha's own bottomless regeneration, or something else?

"You cannot hide behind this fodder," Alpha growled, prowling toward the village. The goblin army had formed up into ranks and looked nervously prepared to meet the apex predator.

I might have felt bad for the goblins if they weren't monsters seeded into a dungeon, specifically designed to stop me from delving deeper. If Alpha wasn't enjoying that rune protection, they'd stand a chance at driving him out.

Now, I doubted it, but the effort of trying might weaken him. The doomed goblins would die either way, though. If Alpha didn't kill them, then I would need to in order to finish clearing the dungeon. Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't let them try their hardest.

Time to goad both sides on a bit. I triggered my temporary spell Knock Knock, which I hadn't used since my crazy death battle with Bristleback. I chose a ramshackle shop at the edge of town.

An annoying nasally voice boomed through the cavern. "Knock Knock!"

Several goblin Bonebreakers charged right through the little building, crushing it under their hobnail boots, but the annoying spell kept talking.

"Imma . . ."

"Imma gettin' old! Open the door."

Growling and gnashing their wicked teeth together, the Bonebreakers stomped the spot where the sound emanated from, then smashed spiked clubs into it until they tore the innocent spot of ground to ribbons.

"Stop playing games and face me!" Alpha roared, breaking into a loping run toward the spot. That triggered everyone.

With a universal roar, the goblin army charged, and the sight was a lot more inspiring than I'd ever thought goblins could be. From my vantage, I could easily estimate where most of the fighting would happen, so I cast one of my new class spells.

"Potential Hammer. Area of Effect. Cast Potential Hammer at the beginning of a battle to cover an area 5 yards in diameter in an invisible field. All energy usage within the affected area for the next 5 minutes will add charges to a pool of pure kinetic energy."

Sweet. Hopefully it worked as well as the description suggested. Mana poured out of me as a circular area between Alpha and the goblins started glowing softly silver. The energy field would be invisible to them, though, and they charged right into my experiment.

Waves of black smoke appeared around Alpha, some kind of ranged attack from the Blight Shamans, but he passed through without obvious harm. Then the black-clad goblin Blight Shamans staggered at the back of the army from the magical rebound.

Incendiary grenades started raining down over Alpha like hail, obscuring him in waves of explosions and orange flames. He strode through, his rune shield shining brightly along his entire body. Interestingly, I couldn't spot any rebound effect from the grenades. Was that because no goblins had been holding the grenades when they struck? That might prove a vital piece of information

Javelins bounced off next, and again no Raiders suffered rebound. The rune barrier seemed to block just about every kind of attack, shattering javelins and sending pieces flying away. It couldn't tell where ranged attacks came from to rebound them against the casters, though. Then the Bonebreakers and the Troopers closed in, roaring guttural battle cries.

Alpha could have just let his rune defense smack them around, but instead leaped into action, claws and fangs rending. He moved in a blur of motion, death incarnate as he ruthlessly ripped apart every goblin that drew close. One Scorcher, screaming maniacally, unleashed a torrent of flames from his flamethrower, but Alpha picked him up and hurled him into a pack of other Scorchers. One detonated, triggering them all.

That explosion blasted goblins back 50 yards, and boiling flames erupted high into the air. Alpha prowled through the blast zone, pouncing on the injured and disoriented goblins.

I watched in disgust at the one-sided slaughter. Alpha was a killing machine, even without the protective runes. With the runes, he was nothing short of terrifying. He'd walked through a lot of damage and the defense did not seem to be weakening. The rune shield rebounded physical, elemental, and even magical attacks. That was way more advanced rune magic than I could manage.

Such a complex array would be incredibly difficult to build, but like with most things, breaking it would be much easier. I scoured my knowledge of runes, enhanced by that second tome I'd ingested. An idea began to form as Alpha methodically murdered his way through the goblin horde and fed me more and more power to use against him.

I'd set my Potential Hammer spot perfectly, right where Alpha ended up slaughtering most of the goblins and where they unleashed most of their useless attacks against him. A new counter appeared in the corner of my vision and it ticked up faster than the U.S. national debt clock. By the time Alpha killed his way out the other side of the charge area, the counter stood at over 2000.

Unleashing the equivalent of 2000 of my punches in a single blow with Hammer Strike could smash him to a pulp, but only if I disabled his rune protection. Otherwise, I'd only end up pulverizing myself. As I considered several potential options, I got an idea. First, I needed to set up a few things.

"Worth a try," I muttered. As Alpha tore through the final remnants of the goblin horde, I jumped from the roof of the hall and jogged toward the far exit leading to the next level.

Part one of my mission had succeeded, although not as well as I'd hoped. Alpha was in the cavern, isolated from the pack. If my high Luck stat gave me a break, I'd figure out how to break through that rune barrier and finally kill him.

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