Goblin Raid l

[Congratulations! you have broken through to the 3rd circle!]

"Huh?"

Astaroth was about to get up and leave when he got that message, at first, he was surprised but didn't give it another thought.

At the end of the day as long as he gets stronger that's all that matters.

As he was entering the main hall where Lapis and Volcanis were supposed to be practicing, he saw the two of them comparing balls- fireballs, and trying to see whose was bigger, Lapis held in the palm of her hand an azure blue fireball around 1.5 meters in size, however, Volcanis was holding a ruby red fireball that was only 1 meter in size.

When Lapis noticed Astaroth's entrance she laughed triumphantly.

"Ha, I guess a goblin is still just a lowly goblin even if they can use magic, isn't that right my lord. said Lapis in a boastful tone

Instead of praising Lapis as she wanted, Astaroth conjured a fireball that was 2 meters in size and threw it haphazardly at the two.

Seeing that a fireball was coming towards them, both of them got out of the way as fast as they could but to no avail, they were barely far enough to not get burned, however, they still were hit by the shockwave of the attack and were sent flying a few meters in the opposite direction.

Once the two landed on the ground face-first they both got up and dusted themselves off, at first, they wanted to ask Astaroth why he had done that, however, when they looked over at him all they saw was two fireballs in both of his hands waiting to be thrown.

So, taking the hint, they both got up and walked to his side with their imaginary tails between their legs.

"Are you two idiots done messing around?" asked Astaroth in a cold manner

Hearing this, they nodded slowly like a dog who just got yelled at by its owner.

"Now, it's finally time to go and destroy the goblin encampment, Volcanis, what is the name of this tribe you came from, and are they the only ones within the immediate vicinity of the dungeon?"

"The tribe I'm from my lord is called the howling wolf tribe, and no my lord, we are not the only goblin tribe around, in fact, I'm pretty sure there are a few kobold and orc tribes around here too."

"Hmm, I see, and what is the strength of your former tribe, will we be able to take them down with our current strength?"

"The average fighters' strength is at peak G rank - early F rank, the chief of the tribe is an early E rank, the chief of the tribe is called Trak, he's a Hobgoblin. The tribe numbers 300 while only 75 of the tribesmen are combatants."

"So, I'm assuming the rest of them are women and children, and on top of being a Hobgoblin, he's an early E rank huh, I should be able to take him, but it'll be a struggle, while you and Lapis can't take on 75 fighters by yourselves, using the strategy I have in mind we should be able to wipe most of them out upfront."

"Ok, we'll go with that, once we get to the encampment, I want both of you to conjure one fireball each and throw it into the camp to alert them if all goes planned then fighters of the tribe will come to check it out and group up."

As he was talking Volcanis and Lapis were both listening intently, while Volcanis had a few reservations about wiping out the tribe he was born in, those doubts were pushed away once he remembered how the Lord had named him, causing the power boost he has now.

"And once they are grouped up than the three of us will launch spell after spell into the group, hopefully taking out most of the troops, the survivors we'll sweep up, and once the chief comes out then I'll take him, and I'm assuming there are "generals" of the tribe, so I'll leave them to you two."

Once he was finished explaining the plan, the three of them left the dungeon and set out to the encampment, hoping that their plan would work out.

...

While the group was walking towards the goblin village, Astaroth pulled up his status screen.

[Name: Astaroth]

[Race: Demon Lord]

[Main Class: n/a]

[Sub Classes: (Apprentice Mage) (n/a) (n/a)]

[Magic tier: early 3rd circle]

[Aura tier: peak 1st tier]

[Innate Skills: (Perfect Memory) (Aura of a Conqueror Lvl 01) (Appraisal) (???) (???)]

[Skills: (Basic Mana Meditation Lvl 04) (Basic Mana Manipulation Lvl 06) (Basic Lightning Magic Lvl 05) (Basic Mana Reinforcement Lvl 03) (Basic Fire Magic Lvl 03)]

[Dungeon Points: 50]

[Dungeon Management]

[Dungeon Point Shop]

[Demon lord tutorial: have 5 subordinates - 2/5]

After looking at his status the first thing that jumped out to him was the new additions to his innate skills. Astaroth didn't know how or why these new skills firstly showed up and secondly why the skills read as (???).

Then he noticed the next big change in his status.

"Huh, I got a subclass? hey Lapis, how come my first class is a subclass?"

"Any new class you unlock is automatically a subclass, only once you are ready is when you select which class will be your main, however, once you've chosen there is no going back, you're stuck with that class as your main for the rest of your life, my lord."

Learning that, Astaroth now realized how much thought he would have to put into which class he would choose in the future to be his main one.

The next thing that he noticed was the dungeon points. considering after he summoned Lapis, he was left with zero points, he came up with a theory, but first, he needed confirmation if he was right or not.

"Lapis, I'm going out on a limb here, is it right to assume that any creature my subordinates kill, I'm given the dungeon points?"

"Yes, my lord."

After that, he finally got down to the last thing on his status screen, the tutorial.

Astaroth wasn't told anything about this by Shin or Ellis so he's guessing this was one of those things he had to find out about himself.

One thing he wondered though was, do all of the demon lords get the same tutorial, or does it vary, if so then he's either ahead of the others or he's fallen behind.

he decided to leave that thought for another day since they were coming up on the goblin village.

...

After another few minutes of walking the group was approaching the settlement, once Astaroth caught sight of the walls, he was truly surprised, these weren't some makeshift wooden walls you would find at any other goblin settlement.

No, these walls were very similar to wooden palisades made by humans during the early medieval era, not only were there palisades, but the goblins also set up four archer towers in each corner of the wall with two at the entrance.

This goblin settlement didn't look like some temporary camp made by goblins, no this made it look like they were set on settling the area, while this usually wouldn't be a big deal if it was near a kingdom, the reason this was alarming was due to the fact that the Forest of Darkness had plenty of space for the goblins to expand.

This would spell danger for Astaroth if he left them to their own devices, while their numbers may only be 300 for now and less than a third of the were warriors, the goblins' reproduction rate alone would put their numbers in the thousands in a few months.

A village or even a small human town could already be overrun by these creatures if they numbered 500 so imagine what they could do in the thousands.

Goblins may be weak individually, but their true strength comes in numbers, that's why human adventurers usually are given quests to exterminate goblin nests before they get too big, because if they let the goblins fester and grow in number then they could run the risk of being overrun by a flood of goblins.

While Astaroth doesn't care if goblins or even monsters in general kill humans, he knows that eventually while they expand, the goblins will find his dungeon and try to capture it using any means necessary.

Who could blame them though, if the leader could kill him and take control of the dungeon, imagine what kind of kingdom those goblins could make using the dungeon floors which have unlimited potential.

Keeping that in mind Astaroth decided today was the day to rid this settlement of existence.

he signaled Volcanis and Lapis to each move to the left and right side of the wall, once they were in position, he would walk up to the gate and kill the guards with a lightning arrow each.

Then on his signal, they would both start bombarding the settlement from each side with fireballs and any kind of AOE spell they could cast.

Seeing they made it to their respective spots he started casually sauntering up to the gates, that's when he heard the goblins call out to him.

"Hey! who are you, identify yourself!"

"I would've never thought I'd hear a lowly goblin ask me that"

"How dare you, have it your way, archers, fire!"

Once the goblin archers heard the command of their superior, they nocked their arrows pulled back the string, and released a volley of arrows towards Astaroth.

"kekeke, that'll show you for being arrogant, huh?"

As the goblin gazed back to where Astaroth was originally standing, expecting to see him skewered like a pin cushion, all he saw was a flash of lightning before his world went dark and he drew his last breath.

When the goblins saw their superior get impaled by an arrow made of lightning they were initially confused, that is, until another 5 arrows flew at them and struck and killed 4 goblins while mortally injuring the other.

After Astaroth fired another dozen arrows killing the goblins on the towers, he sent a fireball into the air alerting his two subordinates to start their bombardment.

That "battle" he had with the goblin guards had wiped out about 10 of them so there were still 65 goblin fighters left in the settlement.

Once Volcanis and Lapis saw the fireball signal, they both conjured multiple fireballs and started launching them randomly into the settlement, while Volcanis was a little hesitant since these goblins were his kin, that hesitation immediately left once he remembered how Astaroth had given him this power.

While Volcanis was hesitant, Lapis was the complete opposite, she truly enjoyed launching the fireballs and hearing the goblins scream, she didn't care that most of them were women and children, she lived for the screams of agony they were admitting.

As the flames started to spread from hut to hut, Astaroth sauntered into the settlement picking off goblins with his lightning arrows.

After a good 10 minutes of carnage, he finally arrived in front of the cave where the chief was, this tribe had settled next to a cave where they stayed for a while, and once they grew enough to where they set up huts the cave became the personal quarters of the chief.

Astaroth was 3-4 meters away from the entrance when a red figure walked out carrying a great sword on its shoulder.

This red monster was the hobgoblin chief, he stood around 175 cm tall, he had a toned build, not too buff but not too skinny either, the hobgoblin was sporting a pair of leather pants with only a beat-up iron chest plate on.

Once the monster was 3 meters away from him, Astaroth used (Appraisal) on the enemy.

[Name: Trak]

[Race: Hobgoblin Fighter]

[Magic tier: mid 1st circle]

[Aura tier: peak 3rd tier]

[Rank: mid E rank]

[Innate Skills: (Warriors Tenacity Lvl 05)

[Skills: (Basic Aura Reinforcement Lvl 06) (Slash Lvl 03) (Swordsmanship Lvl 04)]

"Hmm, not bad for a hobgoblin. It seems he evolved since the last time Volcanis saw him, that might be a problem, how should I deal with this." thought Astaroth

Before Astaroth could think of a plan, the Hobgoblin planted his foot and launched himself towards Astaroth.

Barely reacting in time, Astaroth managed to avoid the fatal strike aimed at his neck but that wasn't without injury, a cut around 3cm deep started to open on the side of his neck, while this won't kill him it sure as hell hurt.

"Hey, you bastard I wasn't done thinking, take this!" Roared Astaroth

In the next moment he conjured a spell and 5 Lightning arrows appeared around him, with each level (Basic Lightning Magic) goes up, he's able to cast another lightning arrow.

Trak the hobgoblin immediately sensed the threat so he backed off a few meters away from Astaroth, however, the demon lord did something Trak wasn't expecting.

Astaroth used (Basic Mana Reinforcement) on himself and launched his body in the direction of his opponent, due to this catching Trak off-guard, he was able to launch all 5 of the lightning arrows at the hobgoblin.

While 3 of the arrows hit their mark, one in the thigh, arm, and shoulder, the other two missed the mark completely.

Even though the initial attack wasn't as successful as he hoped, the result still worked in his favor.

And so, without wasting any more time Astaroth dashed towards the hobgoblin with what looked like a dagger made of lightning.

While all of this was happening, Volcanis and Lapis had entered the settlement and killed the rest of the goblins while leaving only 7 warriors alive.

At first, Lapis wanted to kill the hostages, but Volcanis stopped her due to the chance Astaroth would want to take them as his subordinates, if these were any other goblins then Volcanis would've agreed with Lapis however these 7 were the last of the elite guard that originally number 10, who was left.

Once they made sure the goblin hostages couldn't attack them, they looked over to where Astaroth was fighting, the saw him charge forward with the lightning dagger in hand however, once he seemed to have made contact, a huge blast resulted in the collision, leaving the two subordinates disoriented as well as the hostages behind them.

After they found their bearings, the two looked over towards the direction of the blast and what they saw was a shocking sight.

The hobgoblin was still standing, albeit his "armor" was in shambles, next to him was Astaroth, his robe was torn in all sorts of places as well as, he was struggling to breathe.

the reason for this was quite surprising, as well as grim... he had a short sword embedded in his chest!

when the two saw this, they both cried out.

"My lord!"