I slowly walk up to it on all four and open my mouth, ready to swallow it whole. I hear and feel my jaws cracking as it extends, my body changing in its structure, so that the giant spider could easily slide into my belly. The bitter taste of the spider feels horrible, definitely needs some seasoning. I even start to gag as its furry body enters my elongated throat.
When I'm done with swallowing the frozen spider, my body shifts back to its original size, hearing and feeling the crunching noises as the body of the spider is crushed as I turn back and make my way back to my nest, to my unhatched children.
After what feels like hours of walking, I arrive to the scene of me standing near the largest wood and bone nest, with all my children standing around me, rotten. Some of their bones visible with a dark mist coming out from their bodies, similarly to me. I feel the rage rising up in me towards myself. I feel the same cold of the negative matter coursing through my body. I focus on me, but unlike with the spider, nothing happens.
I quickly shift strategies, and feel the bitter corrosive taste of the acid in my throat and shoot it towards me, but unlike how I remember it, I see myself teleport to the opposite side dodging completely my attack.
At that point, I end the memory. I've seen what I wanted to see. As I expected, I won't notice being put in an illusion. It's a bit vexing, but for now the only thing I can do about that is to just get stronger. Besides now, I have better layout of this labyrinth layer of the mountain.
I hear the faint noises of small legs scurrying towards us. I quickly notice the three smallest undead basilisk children return, and their collected knowledge enters my mind. One of them went the same way the basilisk mom went, the path leading towards the lair of the spiders. It managed to sneak past some spiders, but was clever enough to not enter their lair. Maybe they just ignored it.
Doesn't matter, anyhow, the second went along until it reached a point where there are clear signs of people living, or at least setting up a living space. The dark natural stone like path slowly turned into a greyish marble like corridor. Even though, from what I see in the memories, it has been deserted or what is more likely, invaded and taken over. They probably never really finished the corridor, I mean if I'd build one, there would be a gate to keep out any unwanted visitor.
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Anyway, the last one managed to find the river flowing in the mountain after a long journey. It did run into a few goblins and undead fighting, or more like the undead massacring the goblins. Contrary to what I expected Goblins to look like, they resemble weird monstrous monkeys, at least their body structure and skin colour. They are a lot less furry than the stereotypical monkey, while their face is crude, monstrous with four small tusks peeking out from their lower lip. Some that were holding staves, the shamans, or druids, even possessed tails like some monkeys does, using it to cast spells.
Anyway, it stayed hidden while the undead consisting of raised skeletons and zombies quickly finish off the small band of goblins led by the two shamans. By the looks of it if they kill something, they also raise it to undeath. After the whole thing went down, the undead basilisk started to follow the group into their lair or home is the better word, I think.
Their home starts with a large open area on the other side of the river, and there are a lot of undead that just stand in one place, probably guarding the pathways. Speaking of the pathways, there are three, one on the left and right, and one in the middle. It didn't really venture any further, so for now what I know is that their place is heavily guarded by undead, and I'll have to cross the river for it. Also, the goblins that were raised disappeared in the middle pathway while the group that killed them stopped moving closer to the river, like they robots whose batteries ran out halfway.
Anyway, now I have a better layout of the labyrinth, it's time to make a decision on which way to go.
First currently, all three options outnumber my forces, probably by a wide margin, or at least two of them, but most likely where the corridor is leading is probably occupied by whoever took it from the previous owners. That part is out of the equation, at least until I have the numbers and scout the deeper parts.
Secondly, the spiders outnumber me, and their webbing will be a great problem if I go in with only the few undead basilisk children, even with the Death Gaze ability. And they probably have a leader, probably either a Greater Spider or an Arachnid. That I'm sure of thanks to him briefing me.
The undead's home feels like the best bet. They are also in overwhelming advantage in terms of number, but the undead are much easier to deal with than the spiders and the unknown. I'm probably going to lose the undead basilisks, but it is a worthy sacrifice if I can reach the necromancer controlling them. If I get them, I get the army of undead.
Well, that settles it for me. I stand up and give the mental command to the undead basilisks to follow me, and we quickly leave behind their former nest.
- The co-creation of The Mother of All Monsters, Hanuman and a forgotten God of War, with their original concept being foot soldiers for the latter two.
- Their physical appearance mostly took after Hanuman, giving them a monkey like appearance mixed with the traits of the forgotten God of War who is also responsible for the orcs, a distant cousin of them. Their skin color ranges in the same way, from pale whitish to a darker gray, possessing extra two tusks, small pointy ears and small wicked eyes ranging in color from grayish white to yellow. In terms of height, the smallest goblin stops at 100 cm while the tallest goes up to almost 160 cm.
- The Shamans are on the top of their hierarchy, whose main trait is their tail that shows they are blessed by their main father, Hanuman. Goblins are incapable of using magic, the only exception to this are the shamans. Directly below them are the hobgoblins who are the tallest of their race and act as bodyguards for the shamans and pack leaders for the hunting parties. And below them are the crafters and gatherers who most often the smallest goblins, making them a harder target for bigger monsters that often hunt them.
- Goblins are by nature a nomadic race, that never stays the same place more than 4 months, usually living in caves and mountains, but some migrate to forests where they dig holes for their temporary homes which often pits them against the wood and moon elves. And in the past few decades, many goblin packs joined the Horde in the Northern Basin acting as their foot soldiers.