9 Chapter Nine: Goblins
THEY were green and small in size, and some of them were almost skin to bones and filled with wounds.
'I guess even monsters are affected by the curse,' Aldric said in the back of his mind as he kept observing them without uttering a word.
The gobliins' faces were dirty and devoid of intelligence.
Their swords had rust on them, and their armor was thin and torn at the edges. Some of them were dressed in nothing but stained rags.
Their suken eyes that showed signed of dehydration, as well as their weapons, were trained on Aldric, although a few of them were ready to flee at the least provocation.
Aldric smelt blood on them. Blood of other goblins.
[Appraisal Activated]
[Name: Unnamed Goblin]
[Level: 5]
[Stats:
- HP: 35/35
- MP: 15/15
- STR: 8
- AGI: 5
- INT: 2]
[Skills:
- Basic Swordsmanship
- Scavenge]
[Info: A small and weak goblin, often treated as the lowest rank among their kind. Their survival skills are essential in harsh environments, and they rely on scavenging and basic combat to stay alive.]
"One, two, three…. there are ten of them…They look fierce, but they are so weak that one hit they would surely explode, and they also seem to be afraid of me. Is it because I am a human?"
Aldric then noticed that they did not seem to be threatening, and instead, he looked at them with pity.
He notices a child goblin hiding from one of the goblins who is bigger than him, and unlike the other goblins he wasn't shaking and looking at Aldric with fear instead he was looking at the meat that Aldric's was holding while rubbing his stomach.
Saliva was gathering at his mouth as he eyed the meat with longing. His whole body was so thin that Aldric could see his tiny bones.
Aldric suddenly remembers the kids when he was at the orphanage.
He sighed and took some cooked meat and threw it away in their direction, but this only made the goblins alerted.
"Krk!"
They let out a goblin yelp, and all stepped backwards, but the child goblin was desperate and hungry. He ran towards the meat without hesitation, scared that his family would steal it from him.
The little goblin cautiously sniffed it, then tentatively took a small bite. As soon as the taste of the meat entered his mouth, his eyes gleamed with pure delight.
Aldric could not help but find the little goblin cute.
The little goblin was about to take another bite when one of the goblins who was holding a staff and looked older than everyone smacked the little goblin on his back and the piece of meat in his mouth fell to the ground.
"No! You idiot!" the old goblin shouted angrily as it kept smacking the little goblin. "Spit it out!"
Watching this scene, Aldric was too shocked to move.
"T-They can speak? I didn't know monsters could speak! I didn't anticipate that these creatures would possess the ability to communicate in a language I could understand!"
"Stop! It's poisoned!"
Another goblin joined in and tried to stop, but the child didn't show any sign of stopping as he almost gobbled up all the meat.
The next thing that happened almost made Aldric spit the meat out of his mouth when suddenly one of the goblins who seemed to be female, according to her lavender skin color and her faintly bulging chest, chanted a healing magic on the child goblin!
Her hands were glowing as she said some spells that Aldric's could not understand.
"D-Did it not work?" the elder goblin nervously asked.
"No, there is nothing wrong," the female goblin answered, and Aldric managed to see her licking her lips while looking at the meat. "The meat isn't poisoned."
Aldric shook his head and threw more meat on them and this time the Goblins were hesitant but driven by their hunger they finally ate it, but they still didn't let their guards down as they kept looking at Aldric with fear in their eyes.
The leader and the woman were every bit up to the post, his steely eyes practically drilling holes at Aldric.
*****
Aldric had finished eating, and his energy was restored.
"Night is approaching. I should go and make a door for the cave," he mumbled to himself and left the cave again, leaving some meat cooking for him to eat later and for the goblins to steal.
When the goblins saw him standing up, they were all alerted and pointed their weapon at Aldric while chewing the meat and stepping backwards until they hit the corner of the wall.
Aldric didn't cast a gaze on them and left the cave.
"It might be good to make friends with the locals," Aldric joked.
****
IT didn't take him long to find another Gila monster. He found out that this certain area was their Egg-Laying area when he saw a Gila Monster laying eggs.
He didn't hesitate to kill it and took the eggs with him.
[You have obtained Gila Monster Hide.]
[You have obtained Gila Monster Meat.]
[You have obtained Gila Monster Scales.]
[You have obtained Gila Monster Fang.]
[You have obtained Gila Monster Eggs.]
"Maybe I can make the eggs hatch and tame them. I have a tame skill, but I can also cook them," Aldric said as he put the items he got in his spatial magic. "This should be enough. Overall, I hunted five of them, but I didn't level up this time. Is it because I need to kill a stronger monster?"
Aldric wasn't disappointed. He wanted to get stronger quickly.
Aldric nodded in satisfaction as he saw his inventory.
"I should go back. The night is approaching. It will be dangerous for me to stay here."
As soon as Aldric stepped inside the cave, he saw the goblins kneeling in front of him, and the only woman, the mage, was standing and look at him with soultry eyes and she wasn't wearing anything, exposing her body parts.
Her lavendar exposed skin flashed Aldric's eyes, and he abruptly turned his gaze somewhere.
'W-What the hell is happening? W-Why the hell is she naked and staring at me? Where are her clothes? Did she use it as fuel?'
Taking a deep breath, Aldric faces the kneeling Goblins.
"What is happening here?"
The elder goblin shivered a bit. Then, firming up his resolve, he raised his head.
"Oh, strongest one, we will offer our kind to you, my daughter. She is the most beautiful and is knowledgeable about night duty. I beg of you to accept our offering and let us live in your cave and serve under you. We have seen your abilities and seen how you killed those lizards. We wish to follow you."
Aldric's eyes widened in disbelief at the unexpected turn of events.
"I-I appreciate the gesture but—"
[Goblins have requested to be your subordinates and join your kingdom. Do you accept?]
'Kingdom? Subordinates? Right, the Dreadwolves are now also my subordinates after the system gave me $3,000,000,000,000 as a reward. If I accept, will I receive money again? But Kingdom? Is it because my class is the King?' Aldric curled his lips.
"I don't need night duties. What else can you offer to me?" Aldric asks, his tone cold and his expression serious. "If I take you all under me, what will I gain? What will you give me? Do you even have anything to give?"
After everything that happened to him, he couldn't trust anyone anymore, even if they were monsters, but he also hated being thrown away because of being weak and the state of the goblins reminded him of his past self.
Aldric knows what will happen to the goblins if he refuses. They were weak and will be another meal for either the monsters that roam this land or the Demonic Monsters that wreaked havoc at night, but he wasn't too kind either to simply accept them. He must know if having the Goblins under him will be worth it or not.
The elder goblin bowed his head, "We will swear our loyalty to you! If you want me to kill myself right now, I shall do so, and the same are for others! Please accept us! We beg of you!"
The whole body of the elder was shaking uncontrollably, and it was obvious that he was afraid of Aldric, but it didn't stop him from begging and saying what he wanted to say.
'Impressive,' Aldric said in the back of his mind.
"Then, I shall accept your loyalty," he said. "You will be my people from today on."
"Thank you, mighty one! We shall serve you with all our might!" They all said in unison.
After he said that, the elder still pressed on with having his daughter serve Aldric, but Aldric refused.
Having his entire life ugly, fat, and despicable, Aldric never even had a girlfriend in all his life. The first time he saw a woman's naked body was today, and it's from a monster.
Aldric could only sigh at his future.
