Esdras used his quick wits and devised a method on the fly, but it came at a cost. He was cramped, his body was under tremendous pressure and he couldn't stay down here too long without air.

He detected that something was wrong but because his senesces were disturbed he couldn't put his finger on what it was so he decided to just kill the goblin and be done with it.

Who would have expected that whole thing was a trap, yet he was certain he heard the goblin talking to him. How could he have done that? The source of the voice was surely from the puppet.

The goblin was much more dangerous than expected, he must not dally.

The thing that saved his life was that he attacked from far away, if he was a melee fighter he would have been done for.

Esdras extended his mana and manipulated the earth to crawl out, his clothes were ruined but he was otherwise unharmed.

He dusted off and looked around, the room looked in terrible state, whatever explosive that was, it certainly wasn't a joking matter.

The fire was still burning the place and it left scorch marks on the ground but there was no sign of any goblin around.

Esdras would probably have to expend some time and effort to search, in the meantime he would open himself to sneak attacks and traps like the one before.

Not a bad strategy. If Redthorn fought elsewhere he would be at a disadvantage, this is why he didn't leave. Leaving meant abandoning his strongest defenses and exposing himself to the enemy.

But, he met the wrong opponent.

Esdras took a deep breath, that breath was actually not normal. It was abnormally deep, and it went on for a long time as it went on the surrounding air, kept on accelerating swirling around and faster and faster.

If, Redthorn survived this, then great but if he died then it couldn't be helped.

The alcoves that made up the roof of the room, started shaking with the gale. A whirlwind started forming around Esdras finally fire bloomed by a flower within a tornado.

That also swept away the smoke that obscured him and revealed the fact that he survived the explosion.

Before he could release the flame whirlwind several arrows or shot at him from the alcoves. The arrows were all deflected by the strong gales.

Esdras smiled, they chose to reveal themselves but it was already too late, he was not going to stop his attack. Getting the whirlwind going was the hard part and it was over.

It was like the scene of a storm that ravaged the entirety of the throne room, forcing the goblins above to defend themselves against the raging flames in the cutting wind blades that he hid within the whirlwind.

[+ 200 EXP]

One of the goblins that survived was red and well dressed, he was the leader of this goblin tribe. He was a little shorter than a hobgoblin but he was much leaner and had clear eyes.

[Name: Redthorn]

Rank: 2

Race: great goblin

Class: Mechanical engineer

- Domination Lv.1

- Leadership Lv.2historical

- Spirit Bear's digestive system Lv.1

- Trapsmith Lv.2

Traits:

- Evolution key: Growth type trait. All subordinates and followers will get the chance to evolve alongside the bearer of the trait.

'Holy what???'

Esdras's eyes open wide at the trait that this goblin had, it explains everything. No wonder the goblins of the Redpeal tribe started evolving so fast.

After all, even if the first catastrophe was around the corner, I did not explain the sudden increase in the intelligence and the appearance of rare goblins, like hobgoblins in the tribe in particular.

Thanks to his third eye, he knew that Redthorn who is not a fighter call them he was around to creature he was no match for him in front of confrontation.

Perhaps it was the reason why Redthorn didn't want to show himself so much.

Suddenly a giant, and hit Brooke through the room from the outside and truck at him.

Esdras did not run away nor did he dodge, he took the strike head on with his mace.

[Ant queen Lv. 6]

Rank: 2

Esdras willed the mace to turn into liquid form and solidified it after entering the mouth of the giant ant queen. Several silver spikes skewered the ant from within and Esdras finished the job with full power Flamethrower.

[+155 EXP]

The corpse of the giant any queen fell which caused the place to break down even faster.

Redthorn tried to run, Esdras had incredibly high level agility so how could he escape?

The rest of the goblins were dealt with in q matter of seconds before he finally pinned this slippery goblin and looked him in the eye.

"Alright, where is it?" Esdras asked as he pressed the goblin down and restrained his hands.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know damn well!" Esdras slapped him with a force that knocked out a few teeth. "Tell me if you don't want to die!"

"You're going to kill me anyway!"

"I am not, at least not if you agree to my conditions." Esdras's eyes gleamed. "Here, sign this."

Esdras took out an old but clean-looking parchment paper, it was blank except for two dotted lines at the end.

"An agreement? You really think I'm stupid? There's nothing even written there!" Redthorn predictably refused.

Esdras was slightly embarrassed, he didn't know that he would be using it today. So how could he have prepared it?

"Just sign here, or die. Are you even in the position to negotiate with me?" Esdras wasn't about to listen to some bullshit right now. "It's just blank now, I will add the details later."

"Oh, fuck off then! Might as well die anyway. You will never find the item you are looking for, hahahah" Redthorn, unexpectedly had a stubborn personality and refused to bend in the face of certain death.

Suddenly as the fire raged around them it burned down some walls and the material fell to reveal a secret room filled with gold and precious goods.

Redthorn:...