Chapter 15: The Queen's bloody path

Survival.

This was the hardest part on the second method. Without a horde, surviving outside is not easy for a princess. Especially if they have never learned how to hunt before. And this is very common in most princesses as their job was to only give birth all year round.

And even when they do manage to survive, they would be hunted continuously by the horde they had escaped from. In most cases, the queen would not follow up too much on an escaped princess. After all, although princesses are important, losing one is better than losing all of them.

If the queen went to find the escaped princess herself, her current princesses may take the chance to run.

So the queen could only send the male goblins to find the escapee.

But there are special cases though. Depending on the level of trust, the queen may send another princess to hunt the other down. And this situation may be what will happen to Erka. Raal seemed completely interested in being the queen's dog. So it wouldn't be unexpected if she sent her to find Erka.

In any case, after survival, it is necessary for the princess to get a horde.

Normally, the princess would escape alone. As the goblins in the horde follow the queen's orders, none can be trusted. So the first thing they do is to collect food. They collect food for the coming pregnancy. In order to get their own horde, the princesses would need to give birth to many children.

The princesses would kidnap as male goblins and use him to grow her horde. Of course, this can lead to a lot of incest. But luckily, Xera had alredy dealt with that problem. Because of the small environment, this was one the problems she had to first sort out before the creatures grow to a sizable limit.

And the goblins used this advantage greatly.

Anyway, the princesses would thus grow their own horde slowly while in hiding. When the time comes, they would challenge other hordes to grow stronger.

This was the slow approach. But there is another approach.

Directly attacking another horde.

This was she path that Erka chose, she did not want to give birth to grow slowly. She was going to find a smaller horde and take it over. After doing that, she would take over other smaller hordes. When she is strong enough, she would find her mother.

This was likely the most suicidal way to become queen. As the goblins were not lions, there won't be some sort of traditional fighting between queens. When someone enters into another's territory, a full on battle erupts. The queen would send all her man power to kill the invader.

If a princess without a horde attempted this, she would no doubt be killed.

Erka though, was not afraid. She was going to attack a horde all on her own.

Erka does not like how the queens rule their hordes. Nor does she like the way they gained strength. She wanted to be different. She wanted to make her own system that she finds true.

Although the queens have managed to make large and strong hordes, Erka does not like the way they live. They have to constantly be on watch about how the princesses will attempt to take them over. Because they have to suppress the princesses, they not only lock down the princesses, but also themselves.

She wanted to make a diffence. And the best way is to start doing different things.

...

Erka suddenly stopped.

Without warning, a rock flew at Erka!

She swiftly turned and blocked its path with her spear.

Bam!

The rock was deflected. But it was only the first of many. Another rock came towards her. This time, she did not deflect it, she jumped out of the way and started running.

Whoosh!

This time it was a spear.

Erka swung her own spear and cut the flying spear in two. But she did not expect that another rock would whistle towards her. At that moment, she was still in a swinging position and her body was in no position to jump away.

Bam!

The rock hit her head.

"Ah!"

She staggered and almost fell. Her mind was in confusion, but she still managed to see the goblin running at her. She swung her spear, but the goblin ducked. It continued foward with its spear. The spear went towards Erka, ready to pierce her.

Bam!

She kicked the incoming goblin. Although the goblin's spear was long, her legs were longer. Before the goblin could react, she stabbed it with her spear.

She raised the goblin with her spear and turned around. The goblin squirmed, but he could not get off. The goblin had not had yet died, but a spear suddenly pierced its back. Only then did it die.

Erka pulled back her spear and charged to where the spear had come from.

At that moment, another rock landed on her!

Luckily this time, the rock did not hit her head, but instead her collar bone. She turned back and looked at where the rock came from. She saw a green figure flash past. She resisted the urge to run to him and rushed towards the other goblin.

When he saw Erka running towards him, the goblin was startled. He turned and ran. He knew that he had no way of beating a princess on his own. So he chose to run.

Erka did not worry or hesitate, she threw the spear with all her strength.

Puchi!

The spear pierced right into his back. This caused him to trip and fall. He tried to take the spear out, but he felt a hand holding the spear. Instead of pulling it out, the Erka pushed it foward. She then pulled it back, making horrid wound on the goblin's body. When the spear left his body, so did all semblance of life.

At that moment, another rock flew towards her face. And this time, it was very accurate. But Erka was prepared. She stretched our her hand and blocked the speeding rock. The rock was almost as large as her hand. One could imagine how painful it would have been if the rock hit her head.

When she held the large rock, Erka was angry. The person who hit her so many times with rocks had hit her nerve. Erka took her bloodied spear and sprinted toward the goblin. Like the previous goblin, he ran away without even thinking further.

Erka raised she spear and threw it at the goblin.

Whoosh!

But she was not lucky enough this time. The spear was not even close to the goblin.

"Errgh!"

She grumbled angrily. She continued chasing the goblin. On the way, she pulled her spear and prepared to try again.

But before she could throw the spear, something tripped her feet.

Bam!

As such, she slid on the ground with her face. She turned to look back. Not too far away was a rope made of vines tied tightly to two trees. Because of her anger, she had not managed see or consider the though of trap being laid for her.

She gnashed her teeth in anger.

"Ahh!"

She got up and chased after the goblin again, but at this time, he was already far away.

Erka then stopped. That was because the next step foward should lead her to the territory of another horde.

This was where her path begins.

But although she stopped, she did not hesitate. She trekked the forest with caution. By now, the goblin had likely already reached his horde. They are probably running towards her now.

Erka had of course thought of the possibility of them escaping, but she did not think they would fear a lone princess in the forest.

In fact, they would most likely be elated to know that she entered their territory. The queen might even come to take Erka herself.

As many thoughts were going through Erka's mind she went foward, but a little while later, she suddenly stopped.

Her instincts as a hunter told her something.

'I'm surrounded.'

...

On the other side of the forest, a lone goblin with silver hair walked alone in the forest. In his hand was a cooked fish held up by a stick. He ate the fish with relish and ignore the danger of the forest and walked as though the forest was his.

"This is so good."

Zeno said after taking another bite at the fish.

Yesterday, Zeno had been exploring the world. He saw many wondrous creatures. Tasted many delicious plants and experienced many mystical wonders.

But although the forest was beautiful and wonderful, he couldn't help but think, "it lacks people."

Yes, Zeno wanted humans to fill the world. Technically, the goblins could also be considered people. But the goblins were still very far behind. Their civilisations and technology was still in the stone age. Far from what he wants. Zeno of course was not looking for them to make cars and other technological creations.

What he wants is a world from the middle ages back on earth. A world where magic and mystical creatures live among the people. A world where dragons pass through the clouds. Elves and dwarves bicker at every passing moment. Great wizards build academies to teach the world magic. A world where people pray to the gods and the gods give to the people.

And above this world would be him. Watching over it.

Like a creep.

Compared to the vision in Zeno's head, this world was just beginning. Heck he hasn't even figure out how to make the mortals use magic.

The world has grown greatly, but it was still far from the necessary size. After all, how will there he kingdom wars when the whole world can barely fit a single city within?

Although the goblin queens are called queens, they are only worthy of having the tittle of tribal chief.

In order for things to go in the right direction, he has to grow bigger first.

Whenever a mortal dies in a dungeon, their spirit consciousness gets eaten by the dungeon. The dungeons uses this spirit consciousness and turns it to origin energy. But not all of the spirit consciousness is turned to origin energy. Some of them are used to grow the dungeon. From the measly two kilometers in diameter, Zeno had grown exponentially ever since the goblins became mortals.

That was because goblins die every day. Because the spirit consciousness of goblins is far below in quality compared to humans, the amount he can get from single goblin is still low. But because of his time acceleration, he is able to get them in quantity. With this, he was able to grow well.

But this was not enough for Zeno. He wants to grow more. He wanted to grow faster. Not many days are left before the protection period ends. When the time comes, many humans will all come invading his world. Zeno has a vision in mind.

What if when the invaders come, instead of a simple linear dungeon, they find a whole planet sized world inside?

As such, Zeno wants to become bigger. So big that he would be a true world.

In order to accelerate his growth, he stoped converting spirit consciousness to origin energy. He directly converted all his energy to his body, making himself getting bigger.

Only this was of course not enough. What he needed was few a more deaths. More mortals to die in his body.

An that was where Erka came in.

Zeno looked at the sky. "Don't disappoint me Erka."

But suddenly, it turned dark. To be exact, a large creature had blocked the sun from Zeno's view of the sun.

SCREECH!

It was a wyvern!

Zeno looked at the approaching creature and smiled wrily.

"Fuck!"

...