8 Goblin Teacher
The day started the same on his 6th morning. Preparing the Soybean becomes a norm to him after he'd been doing it for a few days since Xiao Qing joined his camp.
But today will be a much more surprising day for the unexpected Mu Qing Lang. He brought the cooked soybeans out to the crowd, but weirdly, the hungry fellows did not group outside of the carriage today.
His first impression is,
"Don't tell me they went to a secret meeting again?"
In fact, he's somewhat expecting something good to happen because of the first experience, where Xiao Qing comes back with eleven fellows. If this time they brought another ten goblins over, won't that be nice?
And it was more than that.
As he scanned for the goblins, they're on their way back to the camp. Following the crowd is a Dark-golden goblin about 5 feet tall, a feet plus taller than the other goblins about 3,28 feet. (100cm / 150cm. That's quite an increase)
Mu Qing Lang thought perhaps there's one new evolved goblin joined their camp, but no matter how he calculates their number, it is still twelve. Does that mean there's no additional goblin, but one of them evolved?
And the question is, who?
Once all of them stopped before him, the goblin kneeled. That act itself tells him the possibility of second guesses is higher than the first one. Even the feature of this evolved goblin seems similar.
"Master, it is me..." the evolved goblin greets Mu Qing Lang with the language understandable to both of them. This made Mu Qing Lang's expectation suddenly boomed.
"Xiao Qing?" he called a name.
"It is me..." the goblin replied to the name Mu Qing Lang mentioned.
"Alright. Tell me what happened and how come you can speak the same language as I do?" the explanation isn't that matter to Mu Qing Lang, but the fact Xiao Qing can speak Chinese Language from his previous life is what puzzling him!
"Is that weird? The language comes into each of us naturally. While we're still in the green goblin form, our vocal chord is not well developed, making us only can communicate with some simple hint and sound tone. But once we evolved, the language comes into our head naturally." Xiao Qing replied nonchalantly.
"Really... No wonder you guys understands what I'm trying to teach to all of you. That was a surprise. Does this mean if we go to the human settlement, we can communicate without the issue of understanding one another?" Mu Qing Lang tried to make sure his assumption is a correct one.
"That won't be a problem at all. Even evolved fierce beasts like Ashen Wolf King or Two-Tailed Fox also can speak the same language. If I'm not wrong, this was what a merchant told the deceased Goblin Leader while trading with us using food."
"The human comes from far west, he said it took him six days travel to found a goblin village. If I'm not mistaken, the place he came from is called..." Xiao Qing scratched his head trying to remember the name.
"Ah!"
"Ka-Ruo Settlement!"
"That human also says that they got about 60 people living in that settlement." Xiao Qing tells Mu Qing Lang about everything he can remember.
"It helps to hear that there's other human living a week away from our location. When the camp's security is better, we'll pay the settlement a visit and see what we can exchange with them."
"So, what's your evolution?" Mu Qing Lang did not forget about asking Xiao Qing on his evolution and the specialty.
"My evolution path is Goblin Teacher. Everything I've learned can be practiced, mastered, and taught to the others to increase the ability in doing certain jobs. I had one more finger grown on my both hands, to complete the task faster."
Xiao Qing explanation is easy to understand. There wasn't any wrong explanation from the beginning to the end, and every information he gave is significant and personal.
And with an upgrade of a goblin to a teacher, Xiao Qing should fit into their crowd and teaches them about the agriculture and what to do. This upgrade of his manpower can be said to taking off a portion of work away from Mu Qing Lang.
But that was not all for today. Mu Qing Lang noticed two smaller stature goblins seems to be pregnant.
Well, there's both genders of the goblin in the group, so having their own additional activities wasn't an issue at all. But with two of the female goblins is pregnant, won't the manpower dropped to 10 workers? For a camp like his, this might become a problem sooner or later, because the work might get delayed, while the food consumption increases.
"Xiao Qing. The two goblins there, are they pregnant?" Mu Qing Lang wanted to confirm his suspicion and see what will the goblins do.
"The answer to master's question is [Yes]. Two of our four female goblins is pregnant. But my master can put aside your worries because it will not affect them in any way. They can continue to work until it's their labor day, which is about 29 days later." Xiao Qing confidently reply.
"Ah, that's great..."
"NO! WAIT!"
"What do you mean by twenty-nine days? You mean they only take a month of pregnancy to give birth? What are you carrying? Chicken Egg?" Mu Qing Lang cannot believe everything he heard. If the goblin only needs one-month of pregnancy to give birth, doesn't that means they can give birth to two hundred and forty goblins if they don't rest?
"Yes, my lord. Actually, our village can be said to be the weakest in the whole prairie because we're too poor to afford to hire a goblin mother. That's why our number is quite small, compared to the other goblin village with around 100 to 200 members."
Xiao Qing bowed as he asked for Mu Qing Lang's understanding. Again, this puzzled him even further.
"What is that Goblin mother thing?" Mu Qing Lang continued.
"Human prostitute, my lord. The word [Goblin Mother] is used to call the woman that willingly impregnated by the goblins. It is frequently practiced because a human female is fertile enough to carry between four to five goblin babies at a time."
"As for the payment, it is between ten to twenty shiny pebbles." Xiao Qing explained meticulously so his master would understand. But to Mu Qing Lang, a single, died a virgin, this kind of truth...
-
Hurts!
-
"Even my subordinates, the goblins! Touches a human female, and even copulate and make them pregnant!"
-
"My life ah!!! Pitiful!!!"
-
The situation continued for a few minutes longer before things went back to normal. After making sure the female goblins will not exhaust themselves too much during work, Mu Qing Lang allowed them to continue working during their one-month pregnancy.
And, to make sure that the goblin babies developed well in their wombs, he allowed the two female goblins to enjoy the Xian-Ren Grass every day. Once the goblin child is born, they are allowed to choose either taking care of the child or working.
At the same time, Mu Qing Lang gives them a hint, but not too obvious, that they should continue in procreating their next generation. It was because of two rather significant reasons.
First, he may leave this camp anytime with Xiao Hui, in case he found a reason to leave the goblins. Otherwise, he will remain here both as a teacher and master that brings them a significant change in term of lifestyle.
As for the second, it is because the goblins by his side are too timid. While he had quite an expectation on them and their future offsprings, the law of the jungle required them to be able to protect themselves.
Based on the copper knife in his hand, Mu Qing Lang knows that the human settlement had already grasped the usage of fire, while the goblin is still accustomed to hunting and raiding. But the main problem is linked to the goblin's stupidity.
You need tools and weapon to forage and raiding! Against a human settlement that grasped the usage of fire and fierce beast with fangs, claws, and speed, what kind of outcome they expect?
This is why, while he can leave them hungry, he cannot let them remain stupid. Luckily, except Xiao Qing, there's no one know what happened on the party of six coming to plunder Mu Qing Lang and his carriage.
If he knows that the goblins are here to raid him, but end up becoming a meal to the Ashen Wolves, one might wonder either will he laugh on their stupidity, or get angry on their intention.
That night, the goblin harvested 100 stalks more from their 2nd plot of 50 plants. Now, there are enough seeds for them to plant the first 500 plants plot on tomorrow morning. Additionally, they're planning on settling a lot of Chang-Er Bronze Wheat and Mingwen Soybean also on tomorrow morning.
But for Mu Qing Lang, there's something more important than sleeping.
"I got additional Xian-Ren Grass with me."
-
"And I got 300gm of Prairie Herbal-Cress."
-
"It's time to concoct the Xian-Qin Pill!"
