Day 9: Taking Over
-Day 9-
Opening my eyes to another day, I could immediately notice a difference as my pink hair was now much longer and covered my face all over the world in a messy way. As I moved it out with relative ease when compared to what I was told about having long hair and get up, feeling a bit dizzy from the difference I felt in my height. It was definitely the feel of waking up in a new much taller body.
My once greenish goblin skin was now greyish instead, not only that but I felt a surge of energy and power all over me. It was like bathing in the concept of strength directly, but it was obviously just an illusion of invincibility created by my sudden and immediate rise in power. Something that was kept and improved was the muscularity of my body, as I could now notice better with my hobgoblin constitution.
"Good Morning, Master. And Congratulations on your evolution!" Complexia spoke after waiting for me to finish observing my new body.
"Morning and thanks. It took a bit, but it's time we start changing things... Though, I have to test something before we start." I replied with a smile before turning to one of the cave walls and preparing by positioning myself to strike the wall, and so I did with a quite strong punch.
A hole was created as the wall shattered to my strength, leaving a rather deep and wide crater considering how small my fist looks in comparison to it. I wouldn't say that I'm super powerful or anything, but I'm definitely no longer a weak goblin with high survivability.
This action woke up many of the goblins in the cave as it caused some ruckus and the walls to tremble because of the force imposed on them. I wasn't really worried and was more so, satisfied with the results, I can definitely start the real grind now, but before that, I'll make sure to put things in order, my order.
"Damn! Someone woke up all powered up... It almost makes me regret, not going hard enough on you when I had the chance to." Goburia broke the silence that permeated as everyone was focused on me.
I rolled my eyes at it, then looked around and asked. "Which one of you can make clothes?" Despite knowing that in canon, Kanata could, it just wouldn't sound natural if I just walked up to her and asked, especially considering what she's mostly known for so far.
"I could easily learn how to with a bit of time." Complexia was the first one to reply with clear intent to be helpful.
"Well, I already know how to work with pelts to create proper clothing, and was actually thinking of doing it, when it was raining last time, but since you asked me to help the newbies, it was out of the window. Just give me the materials and I'll have it done in no time." Goburia entered the conversation and as I expected, she knew how to.
While both Gobumi and Gobukena didn't answer with a rather disappointed look on their faces, which I assume comes from feeling inept due to the lack of contributions to the party by them, so far. Honestly, it isn't unfounded but it's not like they had much time to do anything, anyway.
On the other hand, Complexia didn't seem to like the fact that she doesn't have the upper hand on this one. Not that her feelings are unfounded as Goburia seems to want to one-up her, just for the sake of doing it, though I might be reading it wrong, who knows what goes in that head? I surely don't.
"Fine. Both of you can work on it later. For now, call everyone. I have an announcement to make." While it would be nice to change from my goblins loincloth, which is barely even clothing at this point, but I'll just take care of this first and worry about that after I'm done.
Having received my order, they went on to rally up all of the goblins in the cave, which was relatively easy, especially considering today is another one of the rainy days.
It wasn't long before all of the goblins were gathered. Many of them seemed confused as to why they were called or made to cone here, which is to be expected since the older generation didn't do much for them after the first and only announcement. Then again, it's only due to their lack of a sense of responsibility towards the younger generation that I could just do whatever, so I guess I should thank the goblin way of life.
"All of you were gathered here today, for a very simple reason. I've decided to become the leader of this place. In all honesty, you're mostly all idiots and can barely survive on your own without any directions. It's almost a worthless waste of time to take you in, but I have a lot of time and I'll use it to make all of you into powerful individuals, at least when compared to the current you. Anyone with any objections can raise them now or stay silent and accept me as your new ruler. If you do object, you have two choices. Challenge me for the title of ruler or leave, I won't stop you." I announced nonchalantly as many of the goblins looked around or at the older generation for some sort of advice on how to proceed, but unfortunately for them, the older generation knew what the difference between a goblin and a hobgoblin is, especially since they knew me and had an idea of how strong I and my party were, they were the first ones to submit with no questions asked.
Of course, no matter where it is, there will always be individuals who try to fight change with their own hands. It was no different in the goblin cave, as three goblins stepped forward with confidence evident in their eyes. Either blinded by their own naive views of the world or simply out of pure stupidity, these three believed they could go against me... Then again, I only gave them the option to challenge me cause I expected this. It will be much easier to build the image of an overwhelming but fair ruler if I give them the illusion of choice. That way the blame for the death of those who challenge me, call only be seen as their own fault for misjudging themselves strong enough.
Unfortunately for them, I don't really plan on giving them any false hope on how they can catch up to me someday or something stupid like that. If you want to dethrone me, be ready to be put in your place. I might not be that strong in the world perspective, but for normal goblins, I'm definitely out of reach.
"You're strong, but you can't take us all down." One of the goblins says.
"Yeah, nothing makes you a better ruler than us." Another one follows up.
"If you really are that strong, fight the three of us!" The last one added.
Chuckles escaped my mouth as I didn't know what to say, but I soon pinched myself to remember that I should never underestimate my enemies, something like that has fucked up too many for me to fall into the same trap. I decided that whoever my enemy is, I'll go in believing that I am facing a greater foe, and that way I escape both the Goku trap of going easy on enemies and the Seiya trap of being too overly cautious... What am I saying?! There is no such thing as being too cautious, so long as you act upon it rather than falling to fear! Don't forget that! Characters like Seiya and Batman should be examples to keep in mind, not to avoid!
Refreshing my mind about how I should conduct myself, I look at the three goblins and actually observe what they have on them. It will be better the more information I have about my adversaries.
As I had suspected prior, they don't seem to actually have any proper plan or dangerous weapons on them, but it will still be better for myself if I kill them as fast as possible and leave little chance for them to do anything that could potentially be dangerous.
"You three are courageous, I'll give you that, but I don't think that's enough. If you truly want to prove you can do better than me, then feel free to attack, I'm right here." Let's boast their egos a bit more and encourage reckless behavior. Considering how susceptible to external input goblins are, this should be enough to give me a small advantage.
Immediately taking my word, the three goblins charged at me. Unfortunately for them, their speed was far from necessary to properly engage in combat with me.
Using my vast advantage I punched the first of the goblins immediately resulting in an explosion of blood and meat as the goblin's head was destroyed by the force of the impact. A destiny that was fated to the other two as well. Soon three headless bodies lay on the ground.
Once again, silence overtook the place as everyone looked at me, many not knowing what to do now or what would happen to them.
"If there are no more objections. I still have to announce the new structure of this place." I calmly say.
The silence persisted, as none dared to say a word, though I could still see individuals that seemed to want to object, but were too afraid to actually take the risk.
"Good. From now on, things will change. First, as you heard from me previously, I'm your new ruler, and the second in command to me will be Complexia, followed by Goburia. If any of you wish to have a position of power, you must prove yourselves, not only in terms of combat prowess but whatever other productive skills you may have. Second, all of you will be required to know the basics of combat and to at least partake in a minimal period of two hours of training per day. What you do with your time, excluding the time you'll put into whatever responsibilities are assigned to you, is totally up to you. Third, there will be various sub-factions in my legion to choose from, many of them unrelated to combat, so any of those uninterested in the battlefield, will have plenty of chances to shine. Forth, all females have the chance to go on a different path, and rather than staying a member of the Legion, can apply to instead join my harem or simply be picked by me. It will depend on you and your luck whether you get this opportunity. That about makes the basics of how things will work from now on. You will be taught about it in more detail, later." I declared making sure to be imposing without sounding too overbearing, at least in tone.
The goblins were doing their best to internalize and digest this sudden change of things.
"As for rules. First, similar to before, all of you must contribute, but unlike before it will not be necessary for you to go hunting. As I mentioned before, those without interest in combat will have the opportunity to choose between various fields to instead focus on. Second, in case of any disputes, you must seek those in positions of command, and they will make the judgment after listening to all the parties involved in the conflict and have a final say. Third, Killing fellow members of the community is forbidden and can only be done to traitors or during a duel to the death. Forth, to attempt any romantic or sexual interactions with members of my harem is punishable by a minimum of 10 days of torture before death to an unknown limit, it will vary and depend on a case-by-case basis. Lastly, for major rules being, loyalty is key, no matter how untalented, weak, and whatever weakness or disadvantages you have, as long as you keep your loyalty to me, you won't be mistreated, quite the opposite actually." I explained the five major rules.
From then I moved on to talking about other rules and laws, about other things, such as stealing, and all that stuff, also mentioning the punishment anyone but me will be subjected to if they interact sexually with someone else's partner and so on.
It took some work, but making sure to establish things early on will save me some trouble later on. Moving to a different topic, four major factions or divisions were created in the end. The combat faction, led by Goburia, obviously focused on battle, guarding, hunting, and the army of my forces. The intellectual faction, more focused on logistics, economics, and management, was led by Complexia. The production faction which focused on arts, farming, mining, and all those related things, was led by Gobumi with Complexia's help. Lastly was a special faction, which I titled the underworld faction, currently for those with an affinity toward stealth for my personal assassin squad, but I plan to in the future when I lead an actual kingdom or simply a bigger legion, I'll make it the faction that deals with the black market and the world of crime in general, so I can have control of it all, both legal and illegal side of e things.
This process took the whole day and we're still not exactly done. Tomorrow I'll focus on seeing the changes that came with the evolution.
That was the end of my 9th day in this world.