Chapter 171: Goblin

Chapter 171: Goblin

We all bent down to examine the Goblins, who we just realized could apparently speak Human.

“Ainash,” I messaged, “what’s it thinking right now? Is it really saying all of this with the intent to communicate?”

“Think so,” she said. “Could feel the bad monsters changing feelings when you and mother were talking, but thought it was because they were angry from being imprisoned or something. But now I realize was because they could understand you! Should get them to teach me your language.”

I laughed, caught off guard by her sudden declaration. Was she getting jealous of the Goblins that they could understand us? But then I shook my head, trying to focus on the issue at hand. “Okay, so, it’s obviously a problem that they could understand us that whole time. Pass this along to mother, by the way. We should talk mentally while we’re around them. But this could be a massive benefit, too. If we can talk to them—even if they aren’t very good at talking—we can negotiate for information.”

“Can tell if bad monsters are lying, too!” Ainash said. “Will probably be able to feel when they are feeling deceptive while they answer, so will not have to worry about lies.”

“That’s perfect,” I said.

There was a pause in the conversation, and then Ainash messaged, “Mother says we should definitely bring as guides now. Bad monsters will not try to escape if we tell we will kill them if they try. So can bring them and tell them to walk ahead of us, that way we just walk where they walk and do not have to worry about traps. And have them lead us to their home, too!”

“Yeah, I definitely see her side of the argument a lot more now,” I nodded.

“Also, mother did not say this, but I can feel mother does not want to kill bad monsters because she would be sad if they die.”

“Really?” I messaged back. “Are you sure you should be telling me this?”

“Think she is embarrassed,” Ainash said. “But she sees them talk and feels like they are kind of like Humans. I do not understand why Humans like things that are kind of like Humans, but she feels that way. I do not want to make mother sad, so I do not think should kill these bad monsters.”

“Yeah, well, I think it’s probably best to keep them alive regardless. And I do see where she’s coming from. Killing defenseless prisoners in cold blood, especially when they’re intelligent enough to negotiate, feels pretty ruthless. One thing if they’re trying to hurt us, but as long as we can reason with them, I don’t see why we shouldn’t at least try.”

“They really want to kill us!” Ainash said. “But I also think should let mother not be sad and should be weird and not kill them right now.”

“Sure,” I responded.

“Do you understand me?” Erani had crouched back down in front of the two Goblins while Ainash and I had our conversation, and was trying to start a dialogue between herself and the pair of monsters.

“You are stinky!” one of the Goblins responded.

“So is that a yes? You do understand me? I’m trying to help you.”

“Stinky!”

I sighed listening to the attempt. They certainly liked using that word.

“Look, I just want some information. If you’re cooperative, we’ll help you, okay?”

They both just sneered at her.

She continued, undeterred. “Where is the main base? Where are the rest of the Goblins located?”

The two shared a glance, and one of them nodded its head to its right—opposite the direction we knew their base to actually be in.

Erani frowned. “That’s the direction you’re saying it’s in?”

They nodded.

“Are there any other bases? Significant structures?”

They shook their heads.

I walked forward and looked down at them. “We know you’re lying. We know there’s nothing in that direction. We know exactly where your base is.”

Their faces paled. One of the Goblins started to say something, but stopped, evidently deciding it didn’t have much it could say that could make it look innocent.

The older goblin scrunched up its face in thought. It seemed to be the one with the wider vocabulary between the two. Eventually, its face lit up when it found the word it was looking for, and it said, “Months.”

“Oh,” Erani said. “So...around seven and thirteen years, then. I guess Goblins mature faster than Humans. At least, I certainly hope so.”

They just shrugged at that.

There was a pause as Erani translated their answers to Ainash, and then Erani spoke again with another question. “What are your names?”

“Sloblin,” the older one said without hesitation.

“Wonpoblin,” said the younger one.

I’d been half-listening as Index was talking to me, and at that blinked and looked over at them. Even Erani seemed taken aback by their answers.

“Sorry,” she said, “are you serious? Sloblin and...Wonpoblin?”

They nodded.

“Isn’t that really, really similar to ‘Goblin?’ Your species name?”

They nodded again.

“...Okay. Why are your names like that? Are all Goblins named like that?”

“Names like that because like that,” the elder Sloblin said.

“...Uh huh,” Erani said with a nod. Then she looked back at me with a questioning look on her face.

I shrugged. “Maybe it's a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. They might just not know whether they’ve been named after their species, or their species name was somehow chosen after their naming traditions. Or maybe it’s just a thing with this one tribe, or something.”

“I suppose,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not sure if I can translate the pun over to Ainash. Getting sounds over to her is difficult.”

“Maybe she was right, we just need to get around to fully teaching her how to speak Human. Clearly other monsters can do it.”

“Well we’re certainly going to try at some point,” Erani agreed, “it’s just a question of whether we can spare time away from our current efforts to get her into town in the first place. Though, maybe it’d be a good idea to at least help her understand what’s being said around her before she comes in?”

“Yet another thing on our plates,” I said. “Let’s just take it one step at a time. For now, Goblins. Oh, and, uh, Index has, like, nine, ten things it wants me to tell you. It calls them ‘constructive criticism.’”

She sighed. “Lay them on me.”

It took a while, but eventually we made it to the Goblin base. Well, ‘base’ was sort of both underselling and overselling it simultaneously. At least, it certainly wasn’t constructed the way I’d typically think of a base. It was massive—around fifty paces by one hundred paces—and built partially on the side of a mountain, so the walls were put up at a slant.

Normally, such a large size would make a building look quite impressive. However, this one was missing a roof. There was no top to be seen on the set of walls, leaving it completely open to the sky. And the walls were all varying heights in different rooms. Some barely even seemed like they’d pass my own height, while others were at least four, five times as tall as I was. With plain wooden log walls, I suspected they were constructed in such an uneven way simply because they cut trees down and lined them up without bothering to cut them into even lengths before doing so.

All in all, the place was shaped like an extremely uneven pyramid, and its position at the base of the mountain, slowly curving upward as it went on, only added to the unstable feeling of it. Seeing such a place suddenly made me feel very uneasy about the explosives that were likely held within. If even one bomb went off, would the entire thing collapse in on us? Though I had to imagine the Goblins weren’t so stupid that they’d create such an unstable structure and then fill it with explosives. Hopefully, they wouldn’t carry the things around in here, and they stored them off somewhere else, too.

After the two hours of walking, my Health regenerated back up to full through use of Regenerate, so I was effectively back in top fighting condition. Erani and Ainash didn't have that Talent, of course, but they hadn't taken too many hits to begin with; Ainash was simply skilled enough that she'd dodged almost every projectile that'd been shot her way in the previous fight, and Erani had been protected by Angelic Shield from everything that hit her. And all of our physical Stats were high enough that our Stamina/Minutes were higher than the natural amount of Stamina naturally consumed by walking unassisted by Expedite, meaning that aspect of our Statuses was topped out, as well.

“Bad monsters feel very very nervous,” Ainash said as we got closer to the towering pyramid of wood. “Do not know why. Not nervous like lying. Well, sort of nervous like lying. But also nervous like other way. Afraid of something. Do not know what means.”

“Mhm,” I responded. The exact way her empathy ability eluded me, especially with the exact way she felt other monsters’ emotions. I effectively had no experience in interpreting that sort of thing, so I left it up to her, typically. And if she said she had no idea what that meant, then I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to figure it out, either. Especially when all I got was a description of what she truly felt coming from them.

Index, I thought, any imminent danger? Traps we don’t know about?

“Not that I can see. But there might be more as you continue to approach. Keep an eye out.”

“Okay,” I said to Ainash, “guess the only way to figure out what’s going on with that base is to just head in. Let’s go kill some Goblins.”

“Yes! Will kill so many bad monsters!”