Chương 23: Chapter 22 - Quest
Tect and Shota wasted no time in leaving the wasteland. With Shota's new body, and the fact that they were no longer looting, the trip back was very fast. In two days of hard running Shota and Tect returned to the camp, on the way they only saw a few rats, the few stragglers that were not with the rat king. With such low numbers they posed no threat at all, Tect and Shota only killed the rats that attacked them but still killed almost a dozen on the trip. The mana released from Tect's body was slowly making its way across the dead lands, it would take time but soon the remnants of destruction would be limited to the melted structures of the once great city.
As the beautiful dragon bridge came into view the two goblins finally slowed their pace. They now noticed all of the others milling about the camp, a few new tents were visible, and animal skins were drying on wooden racks. Moidra was directing goblins to their daily tasks when she noticed the two approach. Her eyes grew wide at the sight, "Shota, what the hell. You've been gone six days and you come back slightly less ugly. What happened?"
Tect immediately began laughing, the other goblins were looking on in awe. "We have a lot to discuss, tonight we will gather everyone to talk. Tect's ring began to flash, "Oh god, I thought Shota was your sickly ward, do all goblins look like this now?" Tect frowned at the comment, "Yes, all goblins look like this. Are all dragon's as rude as you?" Tect could feel the indignation as Azulak replied. "Dragons are not rude, Dragons are honest. We do not engage in the flowery double talk of other races. Regardless, I was unaware that the curse was so bad. I guess 100 generations is not enough to weaken such a powerful magic." Tect visibly scowled, "I told you it's been 20000 years, not 1600 years." Confusion passed from the ring to Tect. "What is the current lifespan of your people?" Tect thought for a moment, " Some of the Elders nearly reach 50 years old but I've never heard of a goblin older than that." The ring began to flash rapidly, a wave of guilt and sadness erupted in Tect's mind, "Tect, we must break this curse as soon as possible, the Elders I fought against Lumnos with were all over 1000 years old. Even the common goblins should live to be 400 to 500 years old." Tect's face went white, his people were slaves, they were treated worse than animals, and now he finds out that they have had their lives literally taken, probably by the god of humans. Tect was furious.
As the evening settled in, all the goblins gathered to eat. As they enjoyed their food Tect told them everything he had learned, about their history, the world, the gods, and their curse. He did not tell them about how their lives were only a tenth as long as they should be, he thought that that would be too much. Finally, he told them about his plan to leave.
"Soon, I will be leaving. I will be going on a journey to free as many of our brothers and sisters as possible, and I want to find a way to break our curse. You can all see how Shota has changed. I wish I could do the same for all of you but I can't. Azulak and I have discussed it, and even though you can't learn magic to break the curse, you can all cultivate your bodies which may enable you all to transform as well. If you can, the hold the curse has on you will weaken some, if not I promise to do my best to break the curse on you as soon as possible. Azulak has given Shota the knowledge of Cultivation, so every day he can help you all practice. Tomorrow I will be heading to a mine North of here to train. Azulak says the crystals that power the gate are found there, and the main power station is there, if I can I will reactivate the systems and you will all be protected from any danger that may come during my absence. While I do that some of you should head to the south, the ancestors have a lumber mill there, if it still stands then when I restore the main power perhaps the mill will be usable. We need to prepare and build permanent housing for everyone, and for those who I will be freeing in the future. I don't think food will ever be a problem. We have only seen one quarter of the Mountain Heart. The entire rest of the land is split into various areas and has different food and animals. This is where the Kingdom of Goblins begins. It's going to be a lot of work but if we all work hard soon we will stand taller than any other race on the continent, soon all of our people will be free, soon we will explore the continent without fear of enslavement, and soon we will raise families that will never know the pain we have known." The other goblins began to cheer and many hugged Tect, tears of joy streaking down their faces.
Everyone woke early the next morning to begin preparing their new kingdom. Tect and Shota showed Moidra all of the herbs they had found. "These are fantastic, but at half a day's journey to get some of these it's not practical to go get them regularly. I'm thinking we may need to plant a garden here, but I'm not sure the slimes will allow it. They seem to eat any plant they don't plant themselves." Azulak was using thought transmission to join in the conversation and had a solution. "If you plant a green crystal underneath your plants the slimes will begin cultivating them as they do the other plants. They even replant, and replace crystals on their own. They evolved from a creature your ancestors made, and they were able to give them basic rules to live by. For the greens I've already explained, the browns churn the earth to bring up minerals from below and aerate. If you get the security system working more slimes may come out but you can't control those so just ignore them if they do." Shota became visibly excited, "What about the Silver slimes like you had at your house?" Azulak sighed, "That wasn't my house imbecile, that was the security headquarters. If you want one, you must first build a house and have special glass windows, the sunlight hurts them. If you can do that I'll teach you how to summon one, they live in tunnels under the road." Shota squealed with excitement, but Moidra rolled her eyes. "Thank you lord Azulak, I will be sure to remember what you've said." Tect felt Azulak's smile even before he whispered to him, "She's smart, you should leave her in charge when we leave." "You just like her because she flatters you." "Yes, I do."
"So boss, what kind of training are you going to do at the mines?" Shota's eyes sparkled, clearly he wanted more adventure, but they had already decided he would remain with the others. "Azulak says that the mines have a natural rift linked to the primordial plane of earth, which is what makes the crystals grow in the mine. In addition the rift allows minor elementals to pass through…" Shota jumped up, "YOUR GONNA GO THROUGH A PORTAL?!" Tect sighed, "No, if you'll let me finish I was going to say, I'm going to kill the elementals and take the metal core from their bodies. I need to make a sword and armor if I'm going to go on a journey. Even if humans didn't want to kill me, wild beasts would. I have no experience fighting or using my mana yet, so I'm going to use the weak elementals to train." The three friends talked for a few more minutes before Tect stood to leave, Moidra gave him a hug. "Be safe, just because you're not the chieftain doesn't mean we don't need you. Besides, we are building a kingdom, and there's only one king candidate." Moidra laughed and walked away. Shota shook his hand, "It's been fun boss. Do me a favor while you're gone, don't change again. While you're gone I'll be the best looking guy here, can't have you coming back twice as handsome ruining my mojo." Tect smiled, "I can't ruin something that doesn't exist." Shota made a face like he'd been stabbed, "Boss, you wound me sir. If I thought I could win I'd consider dueling you right now." Shota laughed, patted Tect's shoulder then ran to catch Moidra. The last thing he heard was Shota getting slapped, apparently Tect wasn't the only one who thought his mojo was broken.
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DissonantWhispers
DissonantWhispers Holidays are coming. I'll try to make sure I post at least 3 chapters a week, but no guarentees. Also, So many of you have been giving powerstones. I greatly appriciate your support, I have a tendancy to start things, go strong for a while, then lose interest, but the comments you guys have left and the powerstones keep me motivated to continue. Even when work and life seem to have other plans.
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Dissonant
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