As the women talked and yelled, I tried to take a moment to relax and let go of the constant worry and tension that had been building inside me. I sat down and began to eat, trying to push the thoughts of rebellion and danger away. But even as I tried to relax, it was clear that the tension in the air was tangible, a reminder of the stakes in this fight.

  A few women approached me, asking if it was true that I had weapons. Without hesitation, I offered each of them a dagger. It was clear that not everyone shared the same aversion to arms. I was sure they would all be punished eventually, but these women preferred fighting over being subjugated, so I had no qualms giving them what I had. Even if the other women objected, I would still hand out a weapon to any Goblin who wanted to defend themselves. I knew this could cause trouble later, but in that moment, they needed it.

  Exhausted from the day's events, I devoured my modest meal, hoping to replenish my energy. The fatigue, which had been creeping up on me all day, finally overwhelmed me. My eyelids grew heavy, and I could feel myself slipping into sleep. It might not have been wise to rest in such a vulnerable position, but knowing Rabbit was on watch eased my mind. With a sense of security settling over me, I allowed myself to surrender to the pull of sleep.

  I was suddenly shaken awake.

  My eyes shot open, and it felt like I had only slept for a few minutes. As I sat up, a dull throbbing began to pulse in my temples. For a moment, my thoughts were scattered, and I struggled to make sense of what was happening.

  “I’m sorry, master, but they have requested you,” said a small young Goblin. Her uncertainty was obvious. She didn’t know what to call me and resorted to "master," a term she was accustomed to using when talking to a man. Still, it felt strange in my ears.

  As I stood, a wave of numbness rippled through my stiff body. My neck and back were aching from the awkward position I had slept in on the unforgiving ground. But as I walked toward the others, the numbness began to recede, and I felt the remnants of my headache gradually dissolve.

  Thank goodness for Grey Elf healing.

  Female Goblins of all ages had gathered, including the ones I had met earlier. Their numbers had grown significantly, and I hoped there weren’t as many males in the city as there were females gathered in front of me then. At the front stood the two leaders. Bubble seemed poised to speak, while Sparkle, looking furious, stood half a step behind her.

  “We’ve talked and reached a compromise,” Bubble declared in a loud, clear voice. “This agreement depends entirely on your actions. If you choose not to help us, we’ll take your weapons, if you allow it, and save them for a future generation who might need them. Of course, we’ll offer as much as we can in trade for the weapons.” She glanced at some of the crowd, frowned, and then looked back at me. I wasn’t sure what the gesture or the frown meant, but she continued, “If you do help us, however, we’ll give you everything we have. With the condition that you agree to set an age for child marriage and that you won’t harm any of us.”

  She paused, clearly expecting me to respond. I was lost, so I said, “I’m not here to harm, but will defend myself if I’m attacked. This isn’t about rewards. It’s about how you’re being treated, especially when it comes to child marriages.” I meant every word, but I still couldn’t grasp why they thought I might oppose setting an age limit.

  Why would they even question that? Did they think that I wanted to save that woman and her children just so they could be mine?

  “Good. I sensed you had a kind heart,” she said softly. “Blanket already mentioned that most of the missing troops are out in Sacred Tree territory. What Blanket doesn’t fully grasp are the reasons behind who left and why. Our leader keeps the strongest Goblins away because if too many stayed, they might group together and challenge him. While he’s here and safe, they risk their lives. This makes him vulnerable, though he doesn’t realize it. None of the Goblins left behind can challenge him. But you could.”

  “You want me to challenge him? Then what, free all of you?”

  “Not exactly. If you did challenge him and won, of course, you would then be in charge, but you are an Elf,” Bubble explained. “Everyone would challenge you, one after another, until you or all of them were dead. If you were to kill him with our help, then run away, it would leave a power vacuum. Without the strong Goblins around, this would cause most power-hungry Goblins to fight among themselves, trying to secure power before the others got back.”

  “But why would they do that when they knew stronger warriors would come back and then challenge them for leadership?” I questioned.

  “It has happened in the past when the leader was getting older and weaker. He sent out the strongest on a mission. Instead of killing each other like they usually did, they teamed up and planned to take control. When the leader heard of this plan, he collapsed several of the entrances except for the areas near Dwarf control. As that group didn’t live long, it has been a valid way to protect the city from changes in control.” Bubble replied.

  From what she was saying, she was intimately familiar with the territory of the Goblins and exactly how it would play out in a power struggle. I assumed that with her years, she must have seen a lot.

  “If I kill the leader and flee, you think the remaining Goblins will start fighting each other, and then your group takes over the city. After that, when the larger army arrives, you plan to hold them off?” I repeated, trying to piece together all the information.

  “No woman will fight actively. That was the compromise,” she clarified. “We will only defend ourselves and our children. As the others tear each other apart and their numbers dwindle from infighting, we’ll step in and demand their submission to new leadership. We’ll also demand protection for ourselves and our children, including an agreed-upon age for child marriage. If they can accept these terms, they can stay. If not, they’ll be forced to leave, or killed if they refuse. We’ll keep our weapons to maintain balance, hoping the next generation can build something better. As for the larger army that will eventually come, I don’t know what the outcome will be.”

  “If you aren’t willing to fight, I doubt I can take on the leader and all his guards alone.”

  Goblins were smaller and weaker than humans, so while I was a poor fighter, I might stand a chance against a good fighter. However, like that Union soldier, I wasn’t capable of defeating an entire army of Goblins. I really should have stayed up and listened to their discussion, as this whole situation was absurd. They didn’t want to fight, yet expected me to face impossible odds. Then again, it had been a long day, and I needed the rest.

  “We’ve already sent some women to wake up three men we know we can trust. These husbands have proven themselves, but they aren’t powerful and aren’t considered much better than we are. They’ll distract the guards while you face our leader. Our men aren’t capable of challenging him,” Bubble explained.

  It was disheartening to realize I’d be relying on inexperienced fighters for help. It looked like I’d have to take on this powerful Goblin almost entirely on my own, with nothing but my strength and a few newly acquired spells to back me up. Given how much stronger this Goblin was supposed to be, I worried I wouldn’t stand a chance. I hoped my physical strength could compensate for my lack of fighting skills.

  In this world, strength was measured not just by physical attributes, but also by the underlying body. A fruit fly and a human might both have a Strength score of 20, but the difference between them would still be massive. I was counting on the fact that, since the Goblin was smaller, built like a young teenager, his base strength would be lower. Of course, that was probably offset by him having better overall Attributes. I could only hope I wasn’t too outmatched, but even knowing I might die, I felt this was the right decision.

  “I kill the Goblin leader, and then flee the city. That is my part?” I surmised my part of the plan.

  They all started shuffling around and looked at each other. Even Bubble didn’t reply for a moment. I could see from their shifty eyes and feet that this couldn’t be good.

  “This is the tricky part, and we don’t have a perfect solution,” Bubble admitted. “There are three possible paths, but one of them is off-limits if we want this plan to work. The first path is the servant’s passage, which will get you into the room. However, you can’t use it to leave, or our people won’t see you. If you exit and reenter through the servant’s passage, the guards will follow, and the fight will spill over here, completely undermining the goal of avoiding a direct battle.”

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  “Which is why I said we should fight,” Sparkle cut in. “There’s no better option, and he isn’t going to go the other way.”

  “Yes, we know, Sparkle, but this is the compromise we all agreed upon.” Bubble shifted her attention back to me, ignoring Sparkle’s nasty looks. “Right now, Rock is living on the top floor with the other powerful and influential Goblins. As we mentioned before, most of the strong men have been sent on a mission, so that floor is nearly empty. It’s also the most direct route out of the city and into the spiral.”

  I cut in. “I assume Rock is the leader? And what is the spiral?”

  “Ah, yes, Rock is our current leader. The spiral is an area where you can see all the levels. They are massive bridges that crisscross. Only the city levels can be seen in the city, but the spiral goes all the way down the Labyrinth. It’s also the way out,” Bubble replied.

  “Well, if it’s the way out, then that seems the easiest.”

  “Well…” Bubble stretched out the word. “The problem is that the top level of the city connects to the control center. Sorry, I forgot you aren’t familiar with the layout here. The city has different levels that can be seen from any other level. Those levels enter the spiral, and they have different levels that lead to different areas. For instance, there is one that leads to the garden where you met Blanket. The problem is that if you leave directly, you enter the bridge to the control room. No one has ever made it to the control room because the corridor is protected by lightning.”

  I remembered hearing that corridor firsthand. The Union soldier went in, and then something went boom. I thought they set up the traps, but it seemed like something else was happening. If I could get a look ahead of time, Rabbit might be able to figure it out, so I asked, “Does anyone have the Trap Detection Skill? Maybe we can find a path through it.”

  There were actual giggles in the background, and Bubble smiled while replying to me, “It’s not traps in there. The entire corridor forms a single defensive structure. We believe that some type of protection was set up in the control room before the Ancients left. According to what we heard from the men, they have never heard of another Labyrinth city that had that kind of protection. All the others were found long before the present day, so the knowledge could be lost to time. The point, though, is that there is no way in.”

  “That’s not true,” someone said in the back. I didn’t see who it was.

  “Yes, Book is right,” Bubble agreed reluctantly, turning back from the Goblin who said something. “We Goblins have tried over the generations to get into that control room. The problem, though, is that it requires a large number of sacrifices. The lightning can only target one Goblin at a time, and there is a lag time between each lightning strike. What had been tried, but should have worked, was sending in a long line of Goblins. The original plan was that the Goblins in front would be damaged, or if too weak, killed. But as the next Goblin advances past the first, they should be struck by the new lightning strike. Then the next would take the first place and so on.”

  “And did it work?” I asked curiously.

  “The first attempt was the most successful. Our people made it almost through, but one Goblin was scared he might be killed and tried to turn back. This caused the Goblin in front of him to get struck twice and die. This scared more Goblins as they didn’t want to be anywhere near the Goblin that was fleeing. It was a massacre. We lost so many people that day, and it weakened our clan. Every so often, a new leader tries to gain entry into the control room so we can push out the Dwarves once and for all. However, we all know the stories, and we haven’t been nearly as successful for generations. The more patient of our kind believes that if we let our numbers flourish, we would have taken control of the whole city from the Dwarves long ago. Patience has never been the most reliable talent of our leaders, and thus it’s a death trap.”

  Through that whole explanation, my mind wandered in different directions, trying to make sense of their system and the implications of their oppression. At first, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of Goblins in the area, but then I started to think about how their system could potentially benefit their breeding practices. If the females were denied fundamental rights and forced to produce offspring for whoever was in charge, they could theoretically eliminate the non-essential males while maintaining a necessary number of males to ensure protection and reproduction.

  In fact, killing off most of the males might even increase the number of offspring in the next generation. This was because, as they had explained earlier, if a male acquired a new female, he was likely to kill all the male children of her previous husband. If there were less competition for females and everyone had more than enough, the next generation could potentially be larger than the previous one.

  I felt like this society didn’t help anyone but the few Goblins at the top. It seemed like, for the average Goblin, you were either a sacrifice or a piece of property. Neither was good, but it did seem to have the effect of a higher population over time.

  My second thought was of the control room and a possible solution to our problem. If we could somehow lure all the Goblins into the lightning tunnel, it could be a perfect way to take them out in one fell swoop. But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I dismissed it just as quickly.

  The biggest problem was the lightning that would attack whoever was in front. I doubted that the Goblins would let me Scooby-Doo the situation and chase them from behind while they got massacred. Besides, they had been working on the place for some time and hadn't found a better solution. It was clear that we needed to devise a new plan, one that would enable us to eliminate the Goblins without putting ourselves in harm's way.

  "Since you can't go into the control room, the second option would be to go down to the Labyrinth and hope to survive long enough to come back out after we have taken the city."

  That sounded like suicide, and I was not going to do that. I ignored her suggestion and returned to our earlier subject. "Why would you even try to go into the control room if you didn't have a ring?"

  "The sun is going down, and we shouldn’t waste time on useless history," Bubble replied, but seeing my expression, she relented. "We expect the ring to be in that room. From what we have learned from the Dwarves, when the ring is unbound, it will naturally reform here. What better place than the control center? It's where the ring is used, so why not form there?"

  And just like that, I had confirmed my answer about where this ring I had could be used. If I gained some power in the future, I might be able to claim this city. Or perhaps it could be a bargaining chip. Either way, if regents were willing to go to war over it, having something so valuable seemed advantageous.

  "But why do you want the city so badly?"

  "We want to transform this place into a Warrior City for all Goblins to come to. The plan is to create a place where Goblins can become the greatest fighters, providing a safe haven in the world for them, instead of just being leveling fodder for the other races."

  It must have been tough to be the weakest race around, always struggling to survive in a world where strength and power were everything. At the same time, I couldn’t condone their behavior. Their single-minded focus on fighting and domination was not only cruel and oppressive, but it also kept them from developing other skills that might have helped them thrive. That just seemed to be the way of things in this world. If you weren’t fighting, you were skill grinding. The Dwarves, for example, focused on their crafts rather than combat, which made them an easy target for the Union. The Union viewed them as a weak group to capture, one that offered numerous rewards. My hope was that by attacking the Union, I could at least help save some of the Dwarves and make the Union think twice before kidnapping innocent people again.

  "Okay, so it seems I can't go back, and I can't survive the Labyrinth, so that's not an option," I said, frustration evident in my voice. Things weren't working out. "What if I make it to the spiral? Is there a way out from there?"

  I knew that had been my way in, but I couldn't climb back up even if I wanted to.

  They began shuffling a little faster, and Bubble replied, "Yes, well, that is the third option." Clearly, this was getting worse. "As I mentioned before, the different levels of the city have paths to the spiral. If you can make it two levels down, there's a pathway that will lead out of this place. Alternatively, if you can reach one level down and then go up two levels, there's another exit. There are pathways everywhere, but the problem is that all the Goblins will be looking to kill you. The third path I would recommend is to go directly through the city. You need to descend one level, then proceed to the spiral on the other side, ascend two levels, and exit our territory. We'd have to show you the path you'd take."

  This thing was getting out of control, so I asked, “How many Goblins do you think I would be facing on each level?”

  “There are about a dozen on the top level, forty on the second level. Everything below that, you are looking at nearly a hundred,” Bubble informed with a straight face.

  “How many people are in this settlement?” I asked, stunned. I hadn’t seen nearly those numbers before.

  “About 800 adult Goblins are left in the city, but there are over a hundred warriors. Additionally, it’s almost night, so the Goblins won’t be awake right away. Some will wake up faster than others to help,” Bubble explained. “We hope that you won’t meet many when you run through the city and that you only have to deal with a couple of guards blocking the spiral.”

  The breakdown wasn’t as bad as I had expected from the previous comments they had made. I was still surprised by the number of Goblins. Before going any further, I needed to talk it over with Rabbit.

  “Give me a moment to think about the best course of action,” I told her.

  “Very well. Just know the longer you take, the closer we get to when everyone wakes up,” Bubble replied, sounding like a threat.

  As I was walking away, I could hear Sparkle say, “He is not going to do it. It’s suicide. We should just attack.”

  I ignored her. I refused to dwell on the thought that this was a suicide mission from the start. Instead, I focused on the possibility of freeing these people and putting an end to their suffering. It was a risky move, but it was worth it.

  Deep down, I knew that there was a chance I might not make it out alive, but I was willing to take that risk. In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but hope that if I did die, I would somehow wake up in my own world. But for now, I had a mission to accomplish, and I was determined to see it through to the end, even if it cost me my life.

  “Rabbit, what are your thoughts?” I asked.

  “They are good, so be prepared to be dazzled,” Rabbit exclaimed.