"Now then"

Rey walked away from the Hobgoblin bunch and left them to their duties while he explored something else he had noticed in the process of fighting the Hobs and freeing the rest.

It was an opening that led somewhere else.

'I'm curious'

One of the reasons for that was because the place was open. That meant it had to be available to the general populace.

Other than that, it was also glowing a little, so that meant it had to be special.

'Let's check it out!' Rey smiled as he approached the entrance.

He had to bend a little since it wasn't originally designed to fit a human. However, all things considered, the experience wasn't too uncomfortable.

The closer Rey approached the end of the hallway, he could sense what awaited him was.

'Don't tell me no way!'

His eyes widened, but he quickly squinted them thanks to the light that radiated from the end.

Finally, Rey reached the end of the hallway and emerged into another massive clearing.

"Hehe hehehehe"

Rey slowly opened his eyes, ensuring he acclimated well to the light as he took in the ambiance that greeted him.

"Hahahahahaha"

As his eyes now flickered open, he graced his sight with piles of Monster Cores.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

His laughter echoed throughout the great clearing, and his eyes could not stop shedding tears as he watched the immense stockpile of Monster Cores.

It was insane!

'There's at least hundreds of thousands of them here!'

They were in so many piles, and it was crazy just how abundant they were.

'I expected them to have kept a lot of NightWolf Monster Cores, but not to this extent!'

This was this was unbelievable!

Monster Cores didn't expire, so they could last for years upon years.

Rey could only imagine how Hobgoblin civilizations had come and gone to be able to produce something of such magnitude.

The more he calculated, the more his head hurt.

'What do they even use these things for? I have to know!' Rey beamed.

'I should call one of them over to explain this to me!'

*******

"I-I see"

Rey's tone teetered between disappointment and an underlying expectation.

'I should have known' His thoughts trailed as he watched the Hobgoblin he called interact with the Monster Cores.

'Hobgoblins are smart. But not that smart.'

The Hobgoblin in front of him was lying down on the Monster Cores and closing her eyes, pretending to be sleeping.

'This place is their resting spot. That's what she's telling me.'

Apparently, it got crazy cold in the night, and Hobgoblins derived a lot of warmth from the Monster Cores.

As a result, this entire clearing made for a very comfortable bedroom.

They were warm by sleeping among the piles of Monster Cores, and since they had to close their eyes when sleeping, the Goblins weren't bothered by the light.

Before approaching the room, they would put on blindfolds and enter.

Once morning arrived, they would leave the room before taking off their blindfolds.

The more Rey learned, the more he nodded his head, but also shook his head in disappointment.

'If only these guys knew how to refine, or even directly absorb the energy that is stored within those Cores they could have become much stronger than they are now!'

It was a shame that they didn't think of doing any of that.

'Well, I think it's only a matter of time. If they were under some kind of major threat, they would have figured it out eventually.'

Necessity was the mother of invention, after all.

'Thanks to their considerably comfortable lifestyle, they never really thought of the Cores as anything else.'

This was all pretty amusing for Rey, but it also caused him to reflect.

'Right now, I have a lot of power. If I let myself be complacent, I could become like these guys'

Once someone got to the top of the food chain, they ended up losing sight of what made them rise to that position in the first place.

'I can't let that happen to me!'

He had to keep improvinggrindingall so he wouldn't eventually be stomped down by some supreme power that he could not resist.

The last thing he wanted was to become like the very Hobgoblins he had conquered.

"Alright, you can go back now!"

Rey tapped the Hob and saw her fidget slightly.

Apparently, she wasn't pretending to be asleep at all.

She was actually sleeping!

'What the fu!'

*********

"Alright. I should be leaving now."

The Hobgoblins had successfully packaged all the Monster Cores for him, and he had taken as many Monster Cores from their depository as he could carry.

'It'll take me at least a few weeks to clear out all those Cores.'

By that time, he could show the Hobs how to use fire, so they would no longer need the Monster Cores for warmth.

'I could make a fortune with all these Monster Cores!' He could feel himself salivate internally.

However, he had to control himself.

Everything would come to him in due time. He just had to be patient.

Before Rey left, he made sure to burn the feces for the Hobgoblins, completing the first step in his restructuring plan.

'It'll take some time for me to fully breed them, but so far so good.'

Since it was already getting pretty late, however, Rey decided to leave things the way they were.

"I'll be back tomorrow. Take care until then" Rey waved his hand at the Hobgoblin group.

Surprisingly, they waved back at him.

'Ah these guys'

They were all his prey, so it felt a bit uncomfortable for them to treat him this way.

He chose to ignore them and floated off.

'If this was some anime or manga, perhaps I could be their friend and even develop their society for the greater good.'

However, this was real life.

Monsters were Monsters.

And he was an Otherworlder, brought to this world for one reason alone.

'To kill Monsters and grow strong enough to challenge the ultimate Monsters.'

The Dragons!

Rey knew he could not allow himself to grow soft at this point.

He had to keep growing stronger.

'That's the only way to guarantee my own survival.'