The suffocating air and the stench of rotting moss finally thinned out. A breeze carrying the scent of wet earth and fresh leaves swept across my canine nose. Blinding light seeped from the end of the ascending tunnel. It marked the exit from this underground hell.

I climbed out while panting heavily. Two undead followed behind me. They were the old Goblin and a Cave Rat. I glanced at the Goblin. The gaping wound on his thigh was starting to close, stitched together by tendrils of blackened flesh.

'Passive regeneration,' I thought.

It was slow, but at least this asset wouldn't rot halfway before I could maximize his use.

My steps halted right at the mouth of the cave. A crack in the stone wall revealed several chunks of glossy black stone. The texture resembled obsidian glass, but its surface rippled faintly, emitting a familiar energy signature very similar to the anomalous black hole that had sucked me in earlier while I was at the mine on Earth.

My miner instincts flared up. I didn't know what kind of mineral this was, but my gut screamed it wasn't ordinary coal. There was a distortion around it. I dug out three small chunks with my claws. I would just take them for now. If they sold for a good price, great. If they could be used as throwing bombs, even better.

Instantly, a transparent panel appeared.

[Material Object Detected]
[Status: Distorted by Dimensional Anomaly]
[Store in Inventory Space]

I confirmed it quickly. The three stones vanished, sucked into a void space within my mind. At least this system provided free storage.

Once completely out of the cave, my eyes narrowed against the glare. A giant emerald forest canopy stretched out before me. Sunlight filtered softly through the leaves, creating pillars of golden light. Birds were chirping, and the grass under my paws felt incredibly soft. It was a sickeningly peaceful scenery for a world filled with corpse eating monsters.

'Damn it,'

I cursed in my mind. A world this beautiful and I was stuck as a crippled dog. Was my original body on Earth in a coma? Buried in the mine? Tch, screw it. Thinking about it now wouldn't bring my human form back.

The smell of rusted copper suddenly pierced my nose. Fresh blood. The fur on my neck stood on end. Without a second thought, I immediately pressed my belly to the ground. I sent a mental signal for my two Vassals to drop prone behind the fern bushes.

Twenty meters ahead, behind the roots of a giant banyan tree, a corpse lay sprawled. The condition of the wild dog headed humanoid was gruesome. Its skull was partially crushed by repeated blows from a blunt object. From the haphazard and savage pattern, the culprits were obvious. It was a pack of Goblins.

I crawled closer and touched its cooling chest.

'Arise.'

[Fatal Error: Host's central nervous system (brain) destroyed. Vessel invalid.]

It was an anatomical trial and error that provided an absolute answer. This parasite needed an intact brain network as a control room. A corpse with a crushed skull was nothing more than a pile of scrap meat for my army.

Without hesitation, I immediately switched tactics.

'Absorb.'

Black tendrils crackled out from my footpads, stabbing greedily and draining its remaining essence dry. However, instead of the usual hot sensation that instantly healed me, an incredibly dense, foreign energy forced its way into my chest.

[Absorbing Biological Essence: Kobold]
[Anomaly Detected.]
[Target's genetic structure exceeds current Host's vessel tolerance limit.]
[Direct status assimilation canceled.]
[Kobold genetic fragment sealed in latent archive.]
[...]
[Trigger conditions not yet met. Response delayed.]

My eyes narrowed as I read the string of flashing warning text. Zero additional attributes. Zero passive recovery. The system swallowed the essence whole without giving me the slightest tactical advantage for now.

I snorted softly. Still, the word 'delayed' was a certainty. The power wasn't gone. It was just locked. There were no shortcuts. I had to survive in this crippled form a little longer. Whatever trigger the system needed to unlock that 'latent archive', the answer lay with bipedal monsters like this. I would hunt them down later.

My ears caught the sound of clinking iron and hoarse laughter coming from the north. I ducked down again, peeking through the gaps in the roots. Five muscular Goblins emerged from behind the trees. They were far bulkier than my frail Vassal.

But what made my fangs grind was what they were dragging along. Three humans. Two women and one man. Their necks were tied with coarse hemp rope like livestock. The man already looked extremely exhausted. His body was covered in bruises and his steps dragged helplessly across the grass.

The woman at the very back of the line tripped over a tree root. Instead of helping, one of the Goblins turned around and kicked her hard in the stomach. The monster laughed gleefully watching its victim cough up blood, then grabbed her by the hair to force her back to her feet.

Five muscular Goblins against one crippled dog, one rat corpse, and one frail Goblin. A frontal assault was tantamount to suicide. But seeing those breathing captives made my eyes narrow. I needed information about this dimension, and Goblin corpses clearly couldn't talk. Living humans were assets.

I glanced at the old Goblin. His frail body was trembling violently. Through our mental connection, a thick, potent hatred flooded my mind. He recognized that group of bastards.

'Good,' I thought coldly.

With silent steps, I began tailing the group deeper into the dense forest.

Their formation was a mess. Three Goblins led at the front, dragging the man. One Goblin walked in the middle to keep an eye on the first woman. The last one was at the very rear. It deliberately walked slowly to continuously torment the woman who kept tripping. The distance between the rear guard Goblin and the main group was about ten meters. A blind spot.

The problem was that the forest floor was covered in dry twigs and dead leaves. My short Chihuahua legs were not built for stealth movements in this kind of terrain. One broken twig, and all five monsters would turn around.

I needed a distraction. My gaze shifted to the Vassal Cave Rat crawling to my right. Through our mental connection, I sent a highly specific instruction.

'Sneak around to the left. Find the thickest bush. Make some noise.'

The black rat darted away like a shadow. A few seconds later, a harsh rustling sound came from the thicket to the left of the group.

The footsteps of all five Goblins halted. They turned their heads in unison. The rear guard Goblin grunted in annoyance. It released its grip on the woman's hair and walked toward the source of the sound while raising its wooden club. It moved away from the formation, stepping right into my strike zone on the right side. The main group's blind spot.

Once the distance was close enough, I sent an execution order to the old Goblin.

'Kill it. Don't make a sound.'

The old Goblin lunged from behind the shadow of a tree with a speed forced out by pure vengeance. His left hand immediately clamped over the young Goblin's mouth from behind. At the same time, his right hand sawed the dull bone knife into his target's neck with full force.

Green blood sprayed without a roaring sound. The rear guard Goblin thrashed weakly. Its eyes bulged in horror seeing the crippled elder who was now tearing its throat apart. Its body collapsed slowly onto the moss, which absorbed the sound of its fall.

In the distance, the main group was still focused on looking toward the bushes on the left. They were completely unaware that their comrade in the back had just become a corpse.

I crawled out of my hiding place, staring at the fresh blood pooling beneath my Vassal's feet. A feral smile unconsciously formed on my snout.

The first hunt in this world had begun very smoothly.