Chapter 197

197 Make them obedient, please! part Receiving that message was like a blessing from heavens, Ryu felt like a huge weight was lifted from his heart and was finally able to think straight.

There were several issues that needed to be adressed and the sooner he did it, the sooner he would be able to reunite with his friends.

He would have gone back home right away, but he didn’t want to deal with the monkey circus, so he decided to go back home only after the girl’s fight had subsided. It could take an hour or a whole week, but he couldn’t go back without a solution.

The first thing he needed to sort out was his objectives.

It’s been long since he actually thought about what was his goal in life. Of course he wanted to get back his memories, but after experiencing so many bad things, he was also a bit scared of finding out he was a terrible person or something like that.

After thinking for a while, he decided his first goal was to get his love life sorted. He didn’t need to make a decision right away, but he needed the peace of mind.

Then, he needed to help Bardun in leading the goblins for a while. He wasn’t thrilled, mostly because he knew it would be a difficult task. Making goblins obey a human was a challenge in its own, but also he knew little about their way of life and without Bardun to guide him he was bound to make many mistakes along the way. Still, it was something he needed to do to repay the goblins for their help and it was also nice to have a safe place to remain until he had to make a move.

After that, he needed to find his lost companions. He knew they were alive, but that’s all he knew. They could be in trouble or hurt, but Ryu decided to trust them. It wasn’t the first time Bob and Luke went missing, and they were fine then, there was no reason to think this time would be any different.

Lastly, he really needed to understand the source of his power and why everything was different for him. Everyone could activate skills by voice, which was his case, but he was also able to activate them by expelling the right amount of energy or mana in the right way. There was so much he needed to test with his energy manipulation skill, but he knew himself too well, the minute he started researching he would get so immersed into it he would forget about the rest of his tasks.

.....

Goblins walked the streets carrying small packages, purses and rucksacks, they all looked so busy that Ryu started feeling useless. He had already made up his mind, but he needed to wait a couple hours until things settled back home so he went for a small stroll through the village and then check on his pets.

He didn’t get into any elevators and simply checked the ground level, most stores were located there because getting heavy stuff up on the trees was too bothersome and goblins were a very practical race.

Ryu made sure to note the things that were on display on most shops, he was glad to see that there was a butchershop now and there were some grocery shops that offered cooked meat. But that wasn’t the only novelty, the weapon shop displayed several weapons made of bone, not only the basic carving knives that Ryu taught them how to do, but also spears, arrows and even clubs.

Ryu used identify on a random weapon, only to be amazed at it’s unusual durability.

>Forest armadillo club 850/850 (bad)

It had a high durability for something that was supposed to be of bad quality, he wanted to ask the goblin in charge of the shop about it, but he decided against it.

Goblins had a different way of buying and selling than humans. They took any payment, a stone, a leaf, anything will do. It’s kind of a trading system, it’s a bit odd at first, but once Ryu realized that the point wasn’t to get rich but make every single citizen cooperate as much as they could and to make daily necessities and items available to everyone, it made sense.

The same knife could be sold for a stone pebble or for a chunk of meat, they didn’t care. In a sense, goblins shared everything they had, but in a chaotic way.

After an evening browsing through the wares of many different shops and accepting the kind offerings of some goblins, Ryu went back home.

What awaited for him wasn’t anywhere near what he expected. Every single one of them was busy knitting dolls. Even Sera, who wasn’t that great with crafts, was doing her best in learning while Mia gave instructions.

“Oh, hi Ryu!”

Anne barely lifted her eyes from the doll she was making.

“Master Ryu, you’re finally back! did you have something to eat already?”

“Uhm, yeah, I’m fine, goblins made me some fruits on the way here”

Ryu didn’t want to disturb the peaceful scene in front of him, it took him a while to gather the resolve he needed to confront them, but he didn’t expect to find them like this. If he was to bring up the subject it would be him the one causing a ruckus.

Or that’s what he thought, but mia faked a cough catching everyone’s attention.

“I believe everyone here wants to have a word with you master”

The girls trembled at Mia’s words and they didn’t dare to lift their gaze from the dolls they were making.

“I-I’m sorry mister Ryu”

Sera was the first to apologize and the rest followed suit. Ryu was speechless, he couldn’t possibly ask for a better outcome than this, but he didn’t understand how did things become like that.

Mia had her hands behind her back and moved slightly from side to side, a simple gesture she usually made whenever she wanted to be praised. This lead him to believe that she was the one behind the girls sudden change in attitude.