Chapter 20

  Finding my way out of Arach’s lair was much simpler than the entry method. My newfound spider-friends guided me down a different tunnel that was wide enough to accommodate my size.

  The sun had yet to rise outside, but the moonlight still shone through the entrance, marking my return to the fresh air.

  As we walked out, the spiders huddled closer to me, and Tiara hissed at them from my shoulder.

  “You’ll have to get used to them, Tia, they’re here to stay.”

  “Myaaoo…”

  She gave a low whine and turned away from me. Now, I had a cat butt pointed at my face.

  The spiders all tried to climb into my coat, wanting to escape from the outside world. I expected this, of course, thanks to Arach’s information about this species.

  Visceranids. That was their name. They hate open spaces and spend their youth in deep, dark places. The ten visceranids I was given had never left the tunnels before now, and their instincts were taking over. If not for Arach’s will overriding these instincts, I would probably have died in that moment.

  They were too large to all fit inside, so instead they stacked onto one another and hugged my torso tightly, carefully positioning their sharp legs in such a way that it didn’t skewer my soft bits.

  With our bizarre group hug, we walked back to where I left Fleur, but I could not see her anywhere.

  Perhaps she went back on her own?

  The thought occurred to me, but I realised I now had a better way of confirming.

  I meditated. Doing it while standing made it a little uncomfortable, but my clingy friends made it too hard to get into the proper position. Still, Poggy’s teaching—and beatings— were thorough enough that I could get into the zone even now.

  Immediately, I felt something that wasn’t present before. The spirits had already returned to the forest, and I could feel the familiar flowing energy of Piki around me. They hadn’t been physically summoned, meaning I was definitely feeling Piki’s true form in the spirit realm. With it, I could trace the link between Piki’s soul and Fleur’s.

  “There you are.”

  I followed that link to a tree and looked up. Fleur was asleep in a branch high up there, her bow still gripped in her hand and brows furrowed. It looked like she was ready to react to danger even now.

  As if to prove my point, her ears twitched and she snapped to action, drawing an arrow and aiming it at me without a moment’s notice.

  “Rex… You did it?”

  She relaxed, seemingly noticing the shift in the forest’s atmosphere. But as she dropped down to join me, her posture stiffened once more. Her eyes locked on to the many, many legs embracing me.

  Her face paled, and her usual habit of standing too close was nowhere to be seen as she silently shuffled further and further away.

  I frowned at her behaviour.

  “Come on, they’re just spiders. Look how nice their patterns are.”

  I gently stroked one of their bodies, appreciating the sleek, shiny surface and vibrant colours. They quivered at the touch. A delightful clicking noise escapes their snapping pincers.

  “I am aware of what they are. Why do you have them?”

  She didn’t seem impressed by the visceranids.

  “And you call yourself an Elf…”

  I let my disdain show on my face and started walking back towards the goblin camp. As my back turned to her, I let a wicked grin wash over me.

  ***

  Oliver woke up in the dead of night, still exhausted from emptying his mana capacity with constant enchantments. He saw that the scorched crown of bones had fallen into his lap in his sleep, so he picked it up and gingerly balanced it on his head.

  It might seem silly, and Oliver still feared the goblins around him, but he liked the blatant looks of idolisation they showered him with just for casting simple magic.

  He wasn’t like Rex and Fleur, who seemed to always know the time based on some kind of outdoorsy knowledge, but Oliver figured it had only been four hours at most since he fell asleep.

  The constant noises of the goblins running about, digging holes, rigging traps, beating each other for fun, and dropping new materials at Oliver’s feet made it impossible to rest soundly.

  “Oh well…”

  He accepted that he wasn’t getting back to sleep tonight and began rifling through the pile before him. His mana capacity was measured at 4.7 the last time he was checked, and the flow of mana through his bloodstream was an impressive 7.0. It was due to this that he could refill his capacity so rapidly.

  Fire Resist, Bless, Flame Burst, Ironskin, Impact, Leap, Longstride, Alarm, and Signal.

  These were the spells he had been engraving into all kinds of objects nonstop. While Rex had been sleeping for three days, Fleur and Oliver had planned their countermeasures for Team 1, specifically Lily and Meztili. Team 2, as far as they were concerned, was impossible to overcome, but Rex insisted he had a way, so they left it to him.

  Bless and Signal were crucial for dealing with Team 1, so Oliver decided to focus on those two spells for now.

  He fell back into his work. Bless for the blunt weapons, and Signal could be placed on random sticks before being sorted into a different pile from the near-empty Flame Burst wand pile.

  Every goblin in the tribe had at least one of these wands now, and Gotrut had to start beating them to stop constant discharges of the spell from blowing the entire camp away. Apparently, Rex’s note about physical trauma being the best way to teach a goblin was absolutely correct.

  “Kikiki, Biggyspop!”

  One goblin used a large piece of bark and applied the Ironskin spell.

  “Diediekillkilldiestabdie!”

  Oliver wasn’t convinced the second goblin wasn’t just screaming death threats, even when the Leap and Impact spells activated on their boots and club, respectively.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The second goblin flew through the air, and the swing from his club shattered the reinforced bark, along with the first goblin’s arms.

  The goblins cheered, including the one whose arms were now flailing about like jelly.

  This kind of scene was not uncommon, but Oliver was still surprised. Rex, due to having no Mana, had to use the command words. Oliver and Fleur could use them at will with mana, but the goblins’ method simply made no sense.

  They shouldn’t have any mana since this tribe no longer had a shaman, yet they could use any enchantment at will, even if they didn’t know what it did. They were shouting random words for fun while they did so, but the correct activation words were definitely not being used at any point.

  “Stackachacka kiko buk cha!”

  One goblin lookout appeared from nowhere and began shouting. The others, Soot included, quickly ran off to follow him.

  Oliver cautiously looked over from his spot and saw that Rex and Fleur were returning.

  “I am not scared, I simply do not like their presence being too close to mine.”

  “Uh huh, and that’s why you squealed like a mouse?”

  “Mockery to one elf is mockery of all elvenkind; you had best watch your words.”

  “So all elves are scared of bugs?”

  “No! I… haaaaa...”

  They looked to be having fun. Fleur rarely showed any emotion at the academy, but Rex seemed to have a way of drawing out her personality—intrigue, annoyance, confusion, amusement... These were all emotions she didn't show to Oliver.

  Must be nice.

  Oliver couldn’t help but be envious. The presence of an elf had so enamoured him, but she only spoke to him in the context of being teammates.

  He stood up to greet them.

  ***

  On the way over, I had held one of the visceranids out to Fleur’s face without warning. The scream she released was hilarious and totally divorced from her usual image.

  Considering I was technically much older than her, could this be considered bullying of a child? Yeah, probably.

  Did I care? Nope.

  “Hi guys, what’s g—”

  Oliver froze and stared at me with wide eyes. I wordlessly tossed a spider at him.

  “Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!”

  The visceranid latched on, then quickly scurried back to me. That brief moment of contact was enough to shatter Oliver’s soul. What man screams like that?

  “It’s funny every time. I wonder if this would work on Axel?”

  I chuckled and pulled Oliver up from the ground.

  “We’ve fixed the spirit issue and obtained a lucky bonus as well. Come on, let’s find Gotrut so I can introduce our new partners.”

  The goblins, Gotrut especially, loved the visceranids. Their adoration only intensified when I explained what they did.

  Visceranids are parasitic creatures that burrow into flesh and inject venom from the tip of their legs and fangs. These toxins greatly empower the body, but they also kill the nerves, leaving the victim unable to move. Instead, the visceranid pilots the body while the victim remains aware and helpless, using it until they die and a new host can be found.

  This alone made the goblins excited, but it was the next part that really mattered.

  There was a way to negate the negative side effects of their venom, essentially turning these spiders into stimulants. It still meant letting them partially burrow into your flesh, but no pain, no gain, right?

  Oliver and Fleur staunchly refused to try it out, but Gotrut immediately ripped off his chestpiece.

  “Show me.”

  He demanded, his arms outstretched.

  “You’re lucky, you were born for this kind of thing.”

  I pointed at Gotrut, and one of the visceranids leapt onto him. Its legs fanned out and skewered his chest. Due to Gotrut's small size, the legs had to wrap all the way around to Gotrut’s back, and the rest of the visceranid was still protruding from his chest.

  “Kihihi. Tickles.”

  He proudly posed in front of the crowd, and black blood trickled out from his wounds. Suddenly, he doubled over and let out a bloodcurdling cry.

  His muscles bulged, and his veins looked fit to burst from his skin. The pain he would be feeling must be immense.

  But Gotrut bore it all and roared with maniacal laughter, breaking into a furious sprint and tackling a tree stump, partially uprooting it in one go.

  Even I was stunned by the level of strength he suddenly displayed. I felt a little sad that I had to be reborn as a human in this world.

  The way to partially negate the venom was simple: you just needed to have good enough poison resistance, but not so good that it canceled out the benefits. Poggy made me eat all kinds of horrid concoctions. Sometimes, he would just jam a centipede down my throat and let me vomit and suffer in the corner of his hut. It was brutal, but as a result, my body could already filter out most poison.

  But goblins were better… The one reason I chose them above any other option was their unmatched adaptability. Within a single generation, goblins can evolve significantly to suit whatever environment they are born into. The basics always remain: small stature, big heads, chaotic tendencies, but one goblin tribe might breathe water while another could swim in lava. The former could even be the parents of the latter.

  So what did the Blood Thunderers have? Born in the Verdant Divide, known for abundant wildlife and its natural mana density, how would a goblin born here adapt?

  The answer was simple. Natural immunity to poisons and illness to combat the forest’s dangers, and bodies that can innately shift the mana around them. If this tribe were to be taught properly, all of them would be able to cast spells, but only in mana-thick regions like this one.

  If I were born a goblin, and with my intelligence, I estimate I would probably be two, maybe three times as competent as I currently was.

  “KAHAHA! Gotrut strong! Gotrut KING!”

  The other nine visceranids attached to me must have understood the situation. They quickly scattered to latch onto the strongest-looking goblins, leaving me with just one that clung to my back.

  “Gobbo Spider Biters!”

  “Gobbo Spider Biters!”

  Gotrut yelled first, and the other eight juiced-up goblins echoed his chant.

  And thus formed the Gobbo Spider Biters, an elite troop of the Blood Thunderers.

  ***

  It was daylight now, and Gotrut and the Spider Biters were passed out. It turns out there are still side effects from forcibly strengthening your muscles, even for a goblin. Now, they had to sleep a staggering five hours a day after overusing the visceranid venom. This was unheard of for a goblin, and some of the tribe were convinced they were dead by hour three. I had to stop them scavenging Gotrut’s armour and cremating them on the spot.

  Fleur had just returned after scouting the other Teams. Thanks to being able to speak to the spirits again, she finished much sooner than expected.

  “Hey Fleur. What’ve you got for us?”

  I met her in front of Oliver’s shaman seat—a poorly made wooden chair with furs haphazardly tossed over it.

  “Team 2's moving, specifically Axel and Guy. They only had a handful of kobolds with them. No sign of Paris anywhere, and the rest of the kobold camp is still holed up in their cave.”

  “Moving where?”

  Oliver joined the conversation.

  “They plan to attack us. Axel is confident he can do it with their small numbers. Do not worry though, they clearly do not know where we are. They seem to think the goblins are still at their previous camp.”

  Oliver fell back in his seat and sighed with relief, but my words brought dread to his heart once more.

  “Good, let’s eliminate Axel.”

  “What? No. If anything, we should attack the camp while they’re gone.”

  Fleur also made her disapproval clear.

  “And then what? Axel will return and annihilate all of us with nowhere to run. Look, I’ll be the one to fight him, you guys just need to deal with the others and keep the kobolds off me.”

  They still didn’t look convinced, but I knew this wasn’t an opportunity to pass up. Whether they wanted to assist or not, I was confident I could win with the goblins’ help.

  Sure, it was a day sooner than I planned to go on the offence, but with Arach’s gift, I could push it through now.

  I didn’t wait for them to make their decision, I grabbed what I needed from Oliver’s stock of enchanted goods, then ran to find Clink.

  Fleur put her head in her hands and sighed. She had to accept that she had no choice in this matter.

  “Oliver, you stay here with the Spider Biters. Let them know what’s going on if they wake up before our return.”

  Goblin eagerness for blood was in full swing, and the tribe was mobilised under the command of a man who had only arrived a day earlier.