Chapter 207: One Man’s Trash

Chapter 207: One Man’s Trash

“Tribe welcome you, Human one,” a Goblin said, bowing its head in respect.

I wasn’t sure how to respond. Was I supposed to bow back? Tell it to raise its head? Say ‘what’s up?’

In front of me stood around a dozen Goblins, all around half my height and dressed in the barest of tattered clothing, most of it strictly functional, such as little belts with tools and weapons strapped through the loops. One seemed to take the lead, standing in front of the others and speaking for them. Erani and I stood, looking at them, as Ainash stood to their side in the shaded forest, watching them with a look of approval.

“...Hi, everyone,” Erani said, raising a hand in an awkward wave. All of the monsters stared at her. “Um, thanks for your help, and...stuff.”

“Uh, yeah,” I said. I’d switched to Light Plate once we were in the privacy of the trees, so I no longer heard the familiar sound of my voice reverberating in Dark Plate’s closed helmet. “Good work, everyone. You’re all some really good shots.”

Erani turned to Ainash. “You taught them? They’re all...very obedient.”

“Yes!” she responded. “One in front is named ‘Koblin.’ I assigned it leader of group, so they do what it says. Have you finished saying hello?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I responded.

“Okay! I will discipline them now.”

“Wait, what? What for?”

As I asked that question, Ainash walked over to the group of Goblins and picked one up by the scruff of its neck. It wailed in fear as she walked back to a clearing where there were some holes dug in the dirt and tossed it in. I counted about a full second and a half before I heard the thing distantly hit the bottom of what was evidently a very deep pit.

“Woblin missed most number of shots during fight. Should be punished for poor accuracy,” Ainash responded calmly, walking back to us.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

“Woah, woah!” Erani rushed forward, looking down the hole with wide eyes. “You can’t just throw it down there like that!”

Ainash tilted her head like a dog who’d just heard a new word. “Why not?”

“Do they even know why they’re being punished? I mean, you can’t speak to them, can you? I know you can get some messages across nonverbally, but there’s a point where they won’t even understand what they did wrong.”

“Goblins are smart. Can figure it out.”

Erani turned to look at me with wide eyes.

“...I don’t know if that’s the best way to do things,” I said, agreeing with her. “I mean, if you just punish them all the time for no reason, especially in such a...violent way, they’ll just grow to resent you. Even if they fear you now, they’ll be constantly looking for a time they can kill you, run away, anything to escape. You want loyalty to come from people genuinely respecting you and wanting to do what you say, right?”

Ainash frowned. “Thought I was doing that by rewarding them.”

“It’s not just about rewards, it’s also about punishment. You can’t buy loyalty by saying some nice things while also beating them. You have to let them understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, and they have to believe your reasoning is fair.”

“It’s also just not right to hurt them like that when they’ve done nothing wrong,” Erani said. “Maybe if that one isn’t good at shooting, you could find another job for it.”

Ainash’s frown deepened, and she stood in thought for a moment. Eventually, she simply said, “Having soldiers is hard.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Honestly, I don’t think I could even get them to follow my commands, much less lead a concentrated strike force. You’re already doing great. Just, y’know, there’s always something you can improve.”

She seemed to lighten up at that, smiling and jogging back over to us and the main group of Goblins. The leader, Koblin, still stood bowed before us. I honestly wasn’t sure what to do about it.

“Oh!” Ainash said, “I have been learning, too! Have been working very, very, very hard on something!”

“What is it?” Erani asked.

“Are you ready? I have to prepare.”

“We’re ready,” Erani said, looking between me and her. “At least, I assume we are?”

“Okay!” Ainash took a deep breath, fiery white eyes narrowing in concentration. She looked at the group of Goblins, raised her hand, opened her mouth, and shouted—aloud—”Kneel!”

At the same time she shouted, she also raised her foot and stomped her heel into the earth in a deep thump. Her voice had a heavy accent, like her mouth was full of cotton, but nevertheless, the moment she uttered it, each of the dozen Goblins instantly fell to one knee. They didn’t quite move as a single unit; they weren’t acting with any sort of coordinated rhythm, instead each one using a different knee, hitting the ground at a different time, bumping into each other and trying to correct themselves as quickly and quietly as possible. But within a couple seconds, they were all on one knee, heads bowed.

I wasn’t spending too much time looking at the Goblins, though. Instead, I stared straight at Ainash.

I shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. Can’t hurt to have it, right?”

The line eventually ran to the end, the final Goblin placing down its final item. This one was the leader—its name was Koblin, I tried to remember—and it put down some sort of orb before stepping off to the side.

“Well, thank you everyone,” Erani said once again to the group of Goblins with a friendly wave. Then she turned to Ainash. “They understood that, right? I hope they understand what I’m saying.”

“Think they do,” Ainash said. “Are good at understanding.”

While they spoke, I bent down and examined the orb that last Goblin had placed in the pile. It wasn’t broken or damaged like most of the other stuff we’d received—that was all obviously just random shiny stuff the Goblins had found lying around or looted off of dead adventurers. This seemed to be something else.

“Hey, Erani.” I grabbed it and held it up. “You know what this is?”

“Hm?” She looked at it closer. “Uh, no, I guess not. I just assumed it was some ball from a children’s game, or something.”

“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “Feels way too heavy and well-crafted for something like that.”

Ainash overlooked our conversation. “Do not think Goblins know what that is. Just got it from pile.”

I frowned. “Huh. Hey, Index, can you tell me anything?”

“Try pushing Mana into it.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“Just do a little bit. Nothing will happen if it isn’t a lot.”

I did as she said, treating the orb as I did the Mana Batteries I charged for the teleportation and sending some of my own Mana into the mechanism.

As soon as I did so, I got a notification.

Beacon is charged with 1/1k Mana.

“Beacon, huh?”

“Is that what it’s called?” Erani asked.

“Yeah. Apparently it needs a thousand Mana to charge to full. After that...Index, can you really not tell me anything? Is it dangerous?”

“Can’t say much. But it isn’t dangerous, no. At least, it’s not dangerous for you to just charge it up like you’re doing now.”

“So then I can just use it to see what it does?”

“That’s not entirely true, either. Once it’s activated, it’s activated. You can’t deactivate it. Well, you can, it’s just that it’ll stay powered off for quite a while afterward. It forms a connection with its activator and with the location it’s activated in, so you don’t want to turn it on haphazardly.”

“...Is this a good location for a ‘connection?’”

There was a pause before Index eventually responded, “Actually, yeah, considering the timing and circumstances. This might be a good place to turn it on.”

I glanced around. “I guess I’ll just do that then.”

“You’re charging it?” Erani asked me.

“Yeah. Index can’t tell me what it’ll do, but it says this isn’t a bad time to use it, so presumably it’ll help us out.”

With the Mana in my storage—plus the regeneration I had available to me—it wasn’t much of a problem to go ahead and charge the Beacon up to full. In fact, with my Mana/Minute having passed 100 by now, I could get back the Mana I spent charging the thing in less than ten minutes. So with little effort, I watched the number soar up to its maximum.

Beacon is active.

The moment I did, the little orb in my fingertips lit aglow, beginning to hover above my hand so it was just below my eye level. The light it emitted didn’t fade away completely, but dimmed enough that it wasn’t too noticeable. Taking a step back, I found that it stayed completely still in the air where I left it, hovering without issue.

The Goblins stared at me, wide-eyed. Considering neither they—nor their ex-overlord the Dragon—had access to Mana, I assumed the orb must have just been collecting dust in their possession. But now it was turned on.

“So,” I said, looking at the device, “what does it actually do?”