Chapter 135: The Tribe (3)

Aiden continued making his way towards the decorated hut that belonged to the previous leader at a steady, slow pace. As he continued his trek, the goblins that were busy on the streets all made way for him, creating a sort of gilded route made of goblins for him. He felt so out of place, a sort of new, uncomfortable feeling welled up inside his heart.

''What have I gotten myself into!' – he grumbled to himself.

While the village itself wasn't overly big, maybe the size of an average district in the city, it still housed several thousand goblins, strangely, mostly males. It was hard to guess the ratio from a glance, but Aiden estimated that for every 9 males, there's maybe 1 female. Also, most of them were either too young or already over the prime of their lives.

'How do they keep up the population? Or maybe they just arrived, and the rest of the villagers are still on their way?' He ruminated. In all honesty, the latter was a real possibility, as all the huts and shacks seemed to be hastily put together, in fact, in some places the mud they used to 'paste' the wood together still hasn't dried up completely. 

He continued to focus on the silent whispers his enhanced senses could pick up. While he still had no skill and was unable to understand the meanings behind the phrases, he noticed that the language itself is pretty basic, and borrows most of its structure and words from the Common, with some weird animal mimicking noises mixed in. A snort here, a gnarl there with some words he felt vaguely familiar with already. 

After a while, about halfway towards his journey towards his destination, he felt two presences behind him. Halting his steps, he turned around, only to notice the two youngsters following behind that he 'blessed' previously with reverent faces. As soon as Aiden turned around, both of them immediately knelt down on the ground, with their right fists over their hearts and their gazes plastered to the ground. They also spoke a word loudly and proudly in unison, which Aiden couldn't understand still, but he could already guess it was some form of address towards him.

With a sigh, he motioned with his hands to stand up. Since he still couldn't properly communicate, he decided to go with the flow and motioned them to follow him. Both of their faces lit up with reverence as a response and nodded while exclaiming once again, a short phrase that was probably in compliance with the same address added to the end. 

Turning around, Aiden continued his slow-paced journey. He could already see the row of armored warriors standing guard and blocking the entrance in the distance. Compared to the ones at the village gates, these were much better armored, with real weapons. They were probably higher ranked members, warriors of their society. 

They were all wearing a furred leather chest plate that covered all of their torso while keeping their arms free. A similar furry, leather gloves protected their hands, and thick, padded leather pants hid their lower body. They were all wearing steel lances, not sure if it was something made by them, or stolen. One thing that was sure is that their weapons were regular-sized, making it look humongous next to their smaller frames.

None of them were wearing any helmet, they let their small patches of hairs proudly swing in the afternoon breeze. Their skin was mostly dark green, with small brunette patches every now and then. Adding to their higher standing in society, they all had blemishes, gashes, records of their battles on their arms.

While he understood that their race is an aggressive, mostly evil race, Aiden couldn't help but see that there were all kinds of members already in their society. Yes, the males mostly seemed like battle-ready, but amongst them, there were those that seemed like normal villagers that just wanted to live in relative peace.

'What should we do with them?! Although from his memory, I can already tell their primary goal for coming here, it just doesn't feel right to wipe them out... ' He was lamenting. As he was surveying the village, his eyes paced behind him, noticing the proud expressions of the two youngsters following behind. 

'And what should I do with these two now?!' He sighed inwardly while making sure to keep a dignified appearance on the outside. 'I need to end this charade soon…'

After the awkward march, he eventually arrived in front of the guards, who immediately blocked the way by crossing their lances in front of him. Looking past them, he could see some light coming from the hut with the edges of a shadow of a humanoid figure peeking out. Someone already took the previous leader's place! 

'Huh, that was fast… So the knowledge I gained was true after all. They really do not waste time…' He smirked. 

Taking a quick peek at the timer for the skill, he sighed defeatedly. 

[Analysis complete, processing information, creating skill. Remaining time: hours 1 minutes 27 seconds]

'That's too much time, to just awkwardly stare at them… Hmm... what should I do?!' As he was thinking, his entourage, the two youngsters came forward and began to speak in a proud, arrogant tone with the guards, occasionally pointing at the wand in his hand. 

While not exactly sure what they were talking about, he could still vaguely guess the contents. As they pointed at the gnarled magic wand, he slowly raised it into the air, grabbing it with both hands. 

Just noticing the sacred weapon in the hands of this strange goblin, their faces turned pale with fright. This was their holy relic! Their sacred weapon! The defining memento of their tribe! How did it end in the hands of this stranger?! 

However, they had no time to ponder on these questions, because the goblin started the ritual already! The two youths immediately prostrated on the ground as they saw the weapon raised into the air, with reverent expressions on their faces. Quickly, the guards dropped their weapons and followed suit, not daring to look at the outsider or his weapon at all. 

Seeing that the same trick worked once again, Aiden smirked inwardly, while keeping the stern, dignified expression on the outside and slowly lowered the weapon, tightly gripping, keeping it in his right hand.

He gently patted the heads of the two youths that followed him, signaling them to stay at this place. They both fervently nodded, jumping on their feet, and stood in front of the entrance, not letting anything through.

The guards who were previously standing there obediently stood to the side, letting them do their jobs. They didn't know who this newcomer was, but based on his incredibly long, lush hair and the sacred relic in his hands, he must have been someone very high above them, which meant these two youngsters following him must have been his escorts, people they definitely couldn't afford to offend in any way.

Approaching the decorated hut's entrance that resembled more like a tent than anything else, he noticed a silhouette of a larger humanoid figure sitting in an armchair in the far corner. As he entered, the shadowy figure loudly sniggered. Despite the set of candles that lit up the room, his figure was still kept in the shadows, almost as if some sort of spell was cast on him.

As the figure saw that the newcomer arrived, his vague shape stirred, then stood. In the next moment as if the spell that hid his presence faded and revealed a larger humanoid creature that looked like a mixture between a goblin and another pig-like race. It was almost a head taller and bulkier than the rest of the goblins. It had dark brown skin, closer to black than anything else. He wore no armor on his upper body, but a set of tribal-looking ritualistic bone-white tattoos covered almost every inch of his body. He had a full head of black hair, with a growing beard on his face.

Amidst the curvature of lines, four distinct animal heads could be made out. On the left side of his chest, an eagle could be seen, on the right, it was a boar. On the left biceps, you could see something that resembled some sort of horse-face, and on the right, it was something that he couldn't recognize at all. It had a vaguely humanoid shape for a head, but with 2 pairs of eyes, with two large fangs protruding from his lower jibs. Whatever that creature was it looked much more terrifying and sinister than the other three. 

He wore no pants, only a fur tribal loincloth that only covered his delicates. He held no weapon in his arms, but despite that, Aiden felt that this guy in front of him could put up a decent fight. With his large black eyes, the tattooed goblin looked at the new arrival, and with its croaky, loud voice it spoke, surprisingly not on their own, but using the Common. Although he had trouble with the grammar, it was still understandable.

"You! Hair too long! Where did you come from? Why you have Sacred Relic?!"