Chapter 527 Goblin Companionship

'Dammit.' Lee Seng began to panic. Before he realized it, he was a goblin with his clothes and mask still on. The goblin wandered over and noticed Lee Seng the goblin standing there.

"Gra ne ma?" The goblin tilted its head.

"Uh…." Lee Seng began to say as he thought whether or not he should've just killed the goblin or not.

"Gra ne ae gr?" The goblin spoke. It slowly came in and leaned in and took a large whiff of Lee Seng the goblin. "Hm. Gra ne ja ln?" When Lee Seng didn't answer it asked again, "Gra ne ja ln?"

'Charm.' Lee Seng panicked. His eyes flashed and he watched the eyes of the goblin twinkle for a moment. Red and blue washed over its eyes and it shook its head.

"Gra ne ja ln? Ane gae me?" The goblin asked.

"Uh… Friend. I friend." Lee Seng spoke.

"Ah ah." The goblin nodded. It patted Lee Seng and pulled him in. "Jane akea jow nw rta. Jal jia ne grc?"

'Is there a way I can learn Goblin?' Lee Seng asked the AI. When the AI didn't answer Lee Seng sighed.

"I don't understand you, friend." Lee Seng awkwardly told the goblin. The goblin nodded and pulled him into the camp. He left him at the entrance and stuck a finger out. The goblin moved over to a tent and a moment later, came out with a rod of sorts. It looked like it was made out of something crude, but had a nice clear glass orb at the top.

"Gra ne ma lw. Bte na jla ie." The goblin spoke to Lee Seng. When Lee Seng tilted his head like he didn't understand the goblin motioned at the rod and then waved it around and pointed it at him. A bolt of energy flew at Lee Seng, which made him panic.

'Did the charm not work?!?' Lee Seng thought, squeezing his eyes shut. A moment later, nothing happened and the goblin was closer.

"Do you understand me now?" A strange voice asked him. Lee Seng opened his eyes and noticed the goblin was standing much closer. It looked at him like he appreciated him. Like he was a friend or something. "Did this dumb thing work? We stole it from the humans and it supposedly allows people to understand languages."

"Uh…" Lee Seng cleared his throat, straightening himself out. "Yes. It worked. Thank you, friend… I got zapped by that earlier and could only speak the tongue of humans."

"Ah, that's why you were so scared!" The goblin cackled. He patted Lee Seng an uncomfortable amount of times and turned around. "I'm glad you've gained your Goblin back, friend. Must've been hard to not get killed by the others."

"Haha… Yeah… A hard time…" Lee Seng went along with it. "Say, friend, what is your name? My memory is foggy after the humans messed with my head."

"They messed with your head too?" The goblin poked its head out. "My name's Groy. You must not remember anything, huh?"

"N-no… Just that the humans want to kill me and everything else does too." Lee Seng replied.

"Is that why you wear that mask? You can take it off y'know." Groy pointed. He moved towards Lee Seng to try to pluck it off but Lee Seng grabbed the mask.

"N-n-no. I-I'm fine with it on… I-It's better this way." Lee Seng stuttered. Groy gave Lee Seng a long look before he simply nodded.

"Alright then, mate." Groy nodded. "Sit. It'll be awhile until our other companions come back from their scouts."

"Scouts? Is that why nobody's here?" Lee Seng asked. Groy nodded, leading Lee Seng over to the spot he was sitting at. Groy motioned for Lee Seng to take a seat and watched the nervous goblin do so.

"There's been humans running around as of late. Along with the usual Vyrks and Werewolves. The humans seem to be looking for another human. I dunno why but they're tearing through other camps just to find the poor sap." Groy explained, sitting down. Groy grabbed his tin cup and took a sip of the drink. "Want some?"

"No. I'm fine." Lee Seng shook his head.

"More for me." Groy shrugged.

"So the Vyrks, Werewolves and humans are stirring up trouble?" Lee Seng summarized.

"Just the humans, really. Causing Werewolves to think they're being threatened. Y'know how it is…. Well, I guess you wouldn't know since you lost your memories to those humans…" Groy set the tin can down and turned to look at Lee Seng. "It's like this. Werewolves, Vryks, those bloody black ink birds in the sky — they all mind their own damn business. That's how it always is. We have our territories and the humans come in here ruinin' all of that."

"What happens if we try to take more territory from the others?" Lee Seng asked.

"That's small stuff you don't need to worry about." Groy brushed it off. "The real problem is these humans that have been messing everything up! That's why the Orcs are rounding up the Hobgoblins and other goblins to try to create loose alliances with other monsters, but that's been a rough time in of itself."

"Sounds like you have your plate full." Lee Seng settled into the chair. A caw caught his attention and Groy grumbled as he got out of the metallic seat and stepped out into the sun.

"Oye, ya back already? I thought you left with your master!" Groy shouted. He whistled and the bird dived down as Groy stuck his arm out. Lee Seng noticed it was a inky black bird. It was smaller than an eagle, bigger than an hawk. The inky bird landed and Groy picked the note off of its ankle and unraveled it. He muttered the note to himself and then sighed.

"Off ya go. Let yer master know I got it." Groy shooed the inky bird away. The bird turned to look at Lee Seng and squawked at him. "Aye! Don't be mean to our friend. He's just a bit shy that's all. He's a friend, stupid bird! Go to yer master now!" Groy shooed the bird who reluctantly listened to him and took off into the sky. "I swear that bird is stupid. I don't know why they keep it around."

Groy went back to his seat and tossed the paper to the side. Lee Seng looked at it as Groy picked up his tin can and chugged it.

"They ran into a problem and now I get to hold down the fort for the REEEEST of the day." Groy smiled.

"Ah, that's a good thing?" Lee Seng asked.

"Of course!" Groy looked at Lee Seng like he said the wrong thing. "Working hard with these people is a nightmare! Having time to just chill and do nothing is great!"

"Ah." Lee Seng nodded. "So out of curiosity… Could I take a walk outside?"

"Why would you wanna do that? That mask and those clothes will probably make people think you're a human." Groy shook his head. "Anyways, mate. I think we gotta get you a name. It'll be hard to distinguish who's talking to who when they're all back, so we're gonna have to just name you."

"Name? I'm okay with 'hey you!' Or 'The one with the mask!'" Lee Seng shrugged.

"Nah, nah, nah!" Groy shook his head. "You're a Goblin. We're gonna treat you like a Goblin, alright? Who knows? You might have a chance to evolve and become something greater for the whole team! Now… What screams brainwash goblin with a mask like that?" Groy tapped his chin as he began to think of names.

"Groy? No, there can't be two wonderful me's… Gald? Gray? Getal? Grass? G'tone?" Groy began to list random names that simply started with G.

"G'tone? What's that supposed to be?" Lee Seng asked.

"Grink? Gorc? Goglin? Geglin? How about Gity?" Groy looked at Lee Seng. Lee Seng shook his head and Groy continued on. "Gib? Goy? Gest? Gruel? Gitty?"

"How about Gray? That sounds good." Lee Seng picked a name.

"You sure? It sounds pretty bad to me." Groy looked at Lee Seng like he was strange for picking an odd name just like that. "I personally still like G'tone better than Gray, but if you like Gray then we can go with that. You're Gray now!" Groy smiled at Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded.

'Did I just get named by a goblin?' Lee Seng asked himself. He looked over at Groy and let out a sigh. He settled into the seat and closed his eyes.

"I'm gonna take a nap." Lee Seng told Groy. He folded his arms and let out a sigh as Groy simply nodded and whistled.

'Gray, huh?' Groy thought to himself. 'I wonder what the humans did to you to make you forget everything. You've even forgotten the way we walk. The others will need to see you soon. Maybe they can answer my questions about you.'