Greg heard the centipedes way before he came to see them. But when he did, he was nonetheless surprised. Three of the five centipedes were here, and they were munching on goblin bones and organs. One centipede had died and others looked injured too.

  The four goblins had killed one centipede and managed to injure others, which was a commendable feat. Greg quickly finished them off, as he didn't want to leave any monster alive in this area. He had great plans for this misty cavern, especially after finding a magical source of healing water like that.

  He then looked for the last centipede that had wandered away from the group for some unknown reason. But Greg had a trail of black and green blood to follow. Immediately, he knew not all goblins were dead and this centipede had chased whoever had survived to a remote part of the cave.

  His theory became a reality when Greg saw an armored centipede, who had lost one of its pincers and more of its legs, standing outside the cave. He closed the distance without the centipede ever finding out.

  Before attacking, he extended his claws and they became the length of pointed daggers. He reinforced them with his energy and swiftly jumped on the creature's back, who was occupied elsewhere.

  His claws dug through its brain and came out from the other side. The centipede lost the color of its eyes and later its body started twitching. Greg moved its corpse away and didn't forget to store the essence core under his clothes.

  When he was done, he approached the small cave the armored centipede was guarding.

  "I know you're in there," he grinned. "Better come out before I come in and end you in your miserable hole."

  Greg moved away and waited. At first there was no response, but soon the sound of crawling was heard and a bloody figure of a goblin came out. He was poked and punctured in all the important places and he could barely walk.

  "What's your name?" Greg asked.

  But the goblin looked more concerned with the centipede corpse lying flat in the distance. He finally understood the man in front of him was no ordinary goblin and the task they had thought of killing him was such an impossible one.

  "Chit," he muttered out.

  "What?" Greg said with an impatient expression.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  "My name is Chit," the hurt goblin repeated.

  "Nice to meet you again… Chit." Greg closed in the distance. "Are you the only one left?"

  The bleeding goblin nodded and backed away, trying to make distance. But soon he reached the corner of the cavern and didn't see an opening to escape.

  He was soon grabbed by Greg from the neck and raised up from the ground like a doll. He later started coughing and Greg made his grip a little loose.

  "You have two options, my dear goblin," Greg said, exerting dominance. "I can kill you here and now, or you can come back to the village and confess your crimes."

  Then Greg released his grip and let the goblin fall on the ground, where it tried to breathe heavily. After some time, Chit said in a dark tone, "The chief will kill m—"

  But before he could complete his sentence, Greg took one of his arms and bent it in a way that didn't look possible. The stupid goblin screamed for a while, and when he could talk again, Greg warned him warmly.

  "I can be much more horrible than whatever your chief can do." Greg sighed and continued with a thoughtful expression. "And if you do what I said, your chief would be more worried about the villagers' rage than worrying about killing you."

  Chit thought for a while and, with a little more "persuasion" from Greg, readily agreed.

  By the time Greg was done with the goblin, he had two black eyes, he could barely walk, and both his arms were twisted into weird angles and then twisted back to look normal. A mixture of snot and cry covered his green face.

  Greg told him to follow and Chit obeyed like a loyal dog. Soon they reached where Greg had left Bog and Eka alone, and by the time he was there, they were done with their shameful acts and were out of the water.

  They both looked healed and back on top physique. But when Bog saw the figure of Chit walking behind Greg, he felt enraged and immediately attacked the poor fellow.

  Greg was quick to intervene, knowing the other party could not take any more abuse, and held the husband goblin back.

  "Wait," Greg said, sighing. "We need him."

  "No, let me kill him, Greg. We don't need any more traitors!" Bog tried to lunge at him again, but Greg easily stopped him again.

  Soon the male goblin calmed down and then Greg explained how he planned to use Chit by telling all the villagers about the chief's schemes.

  Bog then channeled his anger towards the chief and said, "I'll break that old man's back and drag him through the streets if I have to!"

  Greg nodded helplessly and later let Chit take a bath in the healing water. He wasn't planning to let him completely heal his wounds, but just enough so he could walk back to the village and not die in the middle because of blood loss or deeper wounds.

  After an hour, Greg commanded Chit to get out and he got up immediately.

  "What did you even do to him, Greg?" Eka asked, seeing the figure loyal to the chief acting so submissively to Greg.

  "Umm... a few things here and there," Greg chuckled, not wanting to elaborate.

  "Remind me to never get on your bad side," Bog added with a nervous expression.

  Greg immediately took the two goblins by the shoulder and started walking towards the exit.

  "You could never," he laughed. "You're my first few friends in this world."

  The couple were not really worried, knowing how Greg had helped them multiple times, but they still felt relieved after hearing that.

  "I'll cook something good for you when we get back home," Eka said happily, and they all marched back to the goblin village.