Chapter 18

  Only five hours had passed since we left Borderton. The sun was high in the sky, yet its rays could not penetrate the dense canopy of the Blood Thunderer encampment.

  “Is this it?”

  Fleur looked around, clearly unimpressed by the ramshackle setup. I was sure she would come to appreciate their charm soon.

  “Goblins only need an hour’s sleep a day. They have no real need for housing.”

  I explained, quickly stopping Fleur from stepping into a concealed pitfall trap.

  “And they love traps. You’ll need to learn how to spot them, because they either won’t tell you about them, or forget they exist.”

  As if to demonstrate my point, a goblin running around suddenly dropped into the ground with a screech. I peered over and saw him jumping at the wall, trying to climb back out.

  “Doesn’t look like they’ve had time to make them all lethal yet, though.”

  I smirked and pulled him out of the hole. He immediately scurried away without a word.

  “Will fix soon.”

  Gotrut grumbled in response to my criticism.

  “Last camp had good traps. Stupid imps ruined everything.”

  A goblin base was hard to notice, as they often lacked any obvious buildings or constructs. Goblins would just conk out on the spot to sleep regardless of terrain or weather conditions, and thus did not need bedding. They didn’t bother storing food as they could eat anything, and just looked for something to eat when they got hungry. Plus, every goblin always remained armed, so an armory was unnecessary.

  Really, the density of traps in the surrounding area was the only indication of entering a goblin lair. If they had been here longer, I would expect to see a cave or pit to house their infants, or holding pens for prisoners. But judging by the bone armour and weapons I kept seeing the goblins wearing, the kobold prisoners Gokil mentioned were harvested before the move. It didn't seem they had any offspring at the moment either.

  Gotrut led us to the centre of the camp, and the other goblins gave him a wide berth.

  He kicked a goblin slouching by a tree and took their spot, gesturing for us to gather around with him. I drew my axe and kept it in my lap as I joined him.

  “Fleur, keep your weapon out. Goblin politics are basically the opposite of what you would expect. Remain armed and openly hostile, or he won’t trust you.”

  She happily obliged and remained standing with an arrow nocked behind me. Gotrut only looked at Oliver—who was unarmed—and scoffed.

  “What your plan?”

  No pleasantries, just straight to the point. This is why I loved goblins. Well, one of the many reasons.

  “Olly, the maps.”

  I didn't take my hand off my weapon, and instead let Oliver lay out our maps on the ground.

  “We already know where the bases are for the kobolds and imps. The kobolds are far to the west, they’re hiding in a cave. As for the imps, they’re northwest of us, right between you and the kobolds. They have taken an abandoned fort atop a hill.”

  Gotrut looked at the map and listened.

  “We kill imps first.”

  He declared, but to show my dissent, I threw a rock at his head.

  Clank

  It bounced off his helmet, and he glared at…

  “H-huh? But I—"

  …Oliver.

  Gotrut picked up the rock and threw it at Oliver, who yelped and hid behind Soot. Gotrut then turned back to me.

  “Why not kill imps?”

  “We shouldn’t attack either base if we can help it. Both of them are death traps, and far more fortified than this place. We should instead lure them out and ambush them.”

  “Ambush good. Blood Thunderers kill many that way.”

  Gotrut smirked, but I knew better than to trust in the patience of goblins.

  “Ok, we go lure them now.”

  He stood up and scraped his claw-blades together.

  I slammed my axe down into the ground and glared at him.

  “No. You and the tribe need to prepare better. Just give us three days. In three days, I swear we can win, and the Blood Thunderers will be in control.”

  Gotrut glared back at me, our staring contest continued until he finally grunted and turned from me.

  “Three days. No more. If you not helpful in that time. I kill you all.”

  He pointed at Oliver in particular, then marched off into the wild.

  “...What now?”

  Oliver waited until Gotrut was well out of sight before piping up.

  “Now it’s your time to shine as our trump card.”

  I grinned at him wickedly.

  ***

  The first day was spent getting Oliver prepared for the gruelling work required of him. In the meantime, I sent Fleur off to focus solely on finding the source of corruption, and I tamed some birds to use as scouts.

  I had to keep returning to Oliver to settle issues with the goblins, who didn’t take kindly to his existence. It was becoming tiresome repeatedly convincing the same goblins not to eat the skinny dwarf, so I asked Oliver to start his work now that he understood what he had to do.

  The goblins' equipment mainly consisted of scavenged weapons and ill-fitted armor. The rest was hastily assembled wooden shields and bows. They did have a decent amount of cloth and leather leftover from their attacks on travelling merchants, so I gathered it all in front of Oliver.

  “Enchant one of these with the Ironskin spell. And put Flame Burst on this stick.”

  Oliver picked up a piece of fabric from the pile and delicately moved his hands, tracing a symbol with his finger before it faintly glowed and then returned to normal. He did the same with the random stick I tossed to him.

  “Done. What are you going to do with that?”

  I picked them up and inspected each item carefully, but there was no discernible difference from before he enchanted them.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  “I just need an activation word, right?”

  I asked, still a little skeptical.

  “Yes, you can also simply feed mana into the item, and it will trigger the enchantment automatically. The activation words are just the same as the spell name, so Ironskin and Flame Burst, respectively.”

  I nodded and pointed to a goblin with a large axe on his back.

  “You. Swing that thing at me.”

  The goblin didn’t even pause to ask questions; he just lunged at me with a bloodthirsty grin… I hope this works, Oliver.

  “Ironskin!”

  I swung the fabric through the air in front of me, and the moment the spell name was called out, the fabric hardened, and the goblin’s axe bounced off the surface with an audible clang!

  The fabric then crumbled away, revealing the stick I pointed at the goblin.

  “Flame Burst!”

  The stick exploded into splinters and, as the name would suggest, a burst of flames blew the goblin back. He rolled around immediately to put out the flames and launched back up.

  “Oi! Gimme one!”

  He ran over to Oliver and threw another stick at his feet. Soon after, a crowd of goblins had swarmed him, each wanting their own magic stick.

  “Weak dwarf is powerful shaman!”

  “New shaman the best! Old shaman die like idiot.”

  “Bring shaman crown! Bring it!”

  I left him to his newfound fame and went to find Clink, who had set up a rug where he laid out his wares. He held a well-made crossbow that he had stolen at some point. He must have already used it to kill two goblin thieves, as their bodies were pinned to the tree behind him with bolts sticking out their throats.

  “Fire pig!”

  He greeted Soot and me as a singular entity.

  “No spider balls left. Come back tomorrow.”

  “I’m not here for that. You said you had oil, right? Show me.”

  He grinned and rubbed his grimy green hands together before using them to dig into the freshly disturbed soil beneath him.

  He had buried all of the oil in a hole like a dog. It was held in various containers; he clearly collected this over a long period of time.

  “What you want with Clink’s fire oil?”

  “Just checking how much you have. I think this is plenty, make sure you dont give any away until I tell you otherwise.”

  “But what if we want make big fire?”

  “Hold onto it, and I’ll show you the greatest fire of your life.”

  Clink’s eyes lit up as he envisioned a world of flames and smoke.

  “Okay! Clink burn you if you lie, yes?”

  “Yes, yes.”

  I nodded along, and we came to an agreement.

  ***

  Nightfall arrived, and Fleur came in along with the moonlight.

  “Here.”

  She handed me the map I gave her.

  “Oh? You found it already? I was expecting it to take at least another day.”

  I praised her efficiency and focused on the area she circled multiple times.

  “Hmm… I don’t remember anything of note being here. You’re sure this is where the corruption is originating from?”

  “Yes. I also could not find anything of note there, but Piki flew straight into the air when I summoned her in that spot.”

  “I see. Good work, I’ll go immediately.”

  She looked at me with confusion, the bags under her eyes showed how tired she was, and Oliver had passed out despite his fear an hour ago.

  “Now? It will be sunrise by the time you get back. Do you not sleep?”

  “No.”

  I answered simply. I couldn’t be bothered explaining that a soul bound to the Feral Abyss loses any need for sleep in exchange for the other thing that happens when I rest.

  “Are you perhaps…”

  She invaded my personal space and looked at my ears closely again.

  “...Descended from goblins? It would explain much.”

  I stared at her, dumbfounded.

  “Yeah. You got me.”

  I put my hands on her shoulders, pushed her back to a comfortable distance, and changed the topic.

  “Oliver has his work cut out for him already. I want you to scout around the outskirts of the goblin base until I get back, don’t engage anyone, but if they get too close to finding us, do what you can to drive them off.”

  “I would rather go with you. I wish to see how a Druid can heal the spirit realm.”

  “...hmm…”

  Thinking about it, her presence wouldn’t necessarily be an issue. She shouldn’t know anything about Blightblade or the Stag Lord. Even if she caught on, Elves did not follow any Gods, so they wouldn’t find my actions sacrilegious.

  “...If you insist, I can’t stop you.”

  I relented in the end. The only way I would shake her off my trail would be to fuse with Tiara, and I couldn’t afford to waste her mana right now. Besides, Oliver was respected now and even wore Gokril’s bone crown. The goblins wouldn't harm him now, especially with Soot guarding him.

  Maybe.

  "I won’t be stopping. If you fall asleep, I’ll leave you where you lie.”

  Fleur just nodded at my words and followed quietly.

  Even if I took only the shortest paths to reach the area Fleur marked down, it would still take the better part of an hour even at full speed with no interruptions. I decided to break the silence and chat with my teammate a little as we travelled.

  “So, have you thought about visiting your home while we’re here?”

  “The Leafwhisper commune would take five days to reach from here.”

  She responded curtly.

  “What about you? Where is your home?”

  “Me? That’s a tough question… The wild is pretty much my home now. This place feels more familiar to me than any city or town.”

  “Do Druids not work in close circles? Wouldn't that be your home?”

  “Yes, but I don’t belong to a circle. My master is self-taught and looks down on the others. He says they’re too narrow-minded. I’ve never actually met another Druid besides him though, so I’m not sure if he is right about that.”

  “Where is your master now?”

  I laughed at the question and remained honest with her.

  “Not a clue. He tends to do whatever he wants and never tells me anything I don’t need to know.”

  “Sounds like you.”

  I paused as I ducked beneath a hanging branch.

  “How so?”

  “Until now, what have you said to any of us that wasn’t intended to achieve a goal of yours? You may talk to all of us, yet we do not know what kind of person you are.”

  “Haha, you may be right.”

  I looked around and mentally placed my position on the map. We still had time.

  “Okay then, what do you want to know?”

  Fleur looked a little shocked at my remark, but I just grinned and kept moving.

  “Well then… Do you have any siblings?”

  “Yes, three of them. One of them is also in the IMA, though she isn’t aware of my presence yet.”

  “Tell me more.”

  "Ahh... family troubles. Let's just say I was estranged some time ago and don't know how to reveal that I'm still alive."

  "Does it need to be a difficult thing? I would be glad to see my sibling after a long seperation."

  "...You’re probably right. Maybe I just don't know where to lay my roots anymore."

  "Family does not have to be what you are born to. Who do you think of when you picture family?"

  The image of my son and wife immediately came to mind and with them, a crushing sense of loneliness.

  "...People who are lost to me."

  Silence loomes over us as this casual chat took a depressing turn. I lamented the loss of my mask as my grimace was laid bare.

  "...perhaps you can create a new family someday."

  Fleur tried to cheer me up, then not-so-subtly shifted gears to a new topic.

  "What's your favourite colour?"

  "Red."

  We continued making small talk as we progressed. As always, I left out certain details when broaching certain topics, but I did my best to open up and be honest. She returned the favor, and I learned some interesting things about her in return.

  “...So you can’t actually use the bow?”

  Our latest topic neared its end as we came to our destination.

  “I can. But only to a Human’s standard. My spirits usually guide my arrows, so I don’t need to aim or put much strength into it. That is why I want to remove this corruption quickly.”

  “Makes sense... Ah, we’re here.”

  We found ourselves right over the spot Fleur marked, but just like we both thought, there was nothing of interest here. It looked like any other part of the forest.

  Fleur summoned Piki, and just as she described, they shot up into the air without hesitation. I had to squint to see where it stopped. Piki was now just a little blip in the sky.

  “What do you think?”

  Fleur looked at me expectantly.

  “Well, it should be clear, right? You found this place by moving in the opposite direction of the spirit, so what’s the opposite of up?”

  We looked down at the ground in silence.

  “...Do you have a shovel?”