Chapter 9: meeting the queen

Alex followed Norina silently, bit deep down his mind was in turmoil.

'She was kidding right?'

But as he looked at that sword on her hips with rough edges, he shuddered. Walking foward suddenly felt terrifying.

'Damn it this world is dangerous. Its only been two days and i have been close to death more than five times. The would have been normal, but my identity as a reincarnator has alredy been exposed. There goes my plan of getting overpowrred slowly using my cheat. Not only that, it turns out i am not the only reincarnator in this world.'

Alex let out a soft sigh. He looked at Norina 's back and thought, 'i wonder if she has a system too.'

Although Alex's whole knowledge of this world comes from novels, it was always common for transmigrator and reincarnators to be born with systems. He himself was the best proof of this.

So he was very curious if Norina had the same, but he did not dare ask her. Not only is he not close to her, he was not in the position to ask her anything. He was but mere goblin. Yesterday, he had seen a goblin get beheaded by a female goblin just because he was staring too much. He did not think he is special because he is an irregular. He was not sure how far that tittle put him. What if there were many others like him?

Only the cautious and smart main characters survive.

As he kept walking, he noticed that he was getting deeper in the cave. Once again he was marveled by how large the place was. Along the way, he changed direction more than five times.

'Where are we going?' He thought, but he did not ask.

The deeper he went in the cave, the smoother the walls became. The inside of the cave was darker as they went. He kept seeing more and more blue crystals on the wall.

At this part or the cave, there we no longer any goblins loitering around. There was only the dark cave walls to accompany them.

But a little while later, other than his own and Norina's, he heard footsteps achoing in the cave. Soon another figure appeared.

The person wore large robes that covered her face in darkness. Only the green skin of her chin was visible. The rest was covered by a wooden mask above her face.

"Romona," Norina greated her.

The woman of greated back and continued on her way. But as she passed him, Alex felt a pair of eyes fixed on him.

Alex was just going to pass it of as just his misconception, he after all did not have some magical skill to sense these kinds of things.

"You seem to have caught Renoma's eye"

Caught her eye? Alex was confused, although he used to be dashing back in his past life, he was now but a goblin. He was ugly. What was there to look at on him?

"Is that a good thing?"

"No. She had used many goblins lile yourself to test her poinsons."

Alex turned pale.

"Don't worry. She was probabbly interested in your ability. After all, you did make a clither puff potion without much problems."

"What's a clither puff potion."

"You don't even know what you make? The clithre puff is poisonous plant that's a bit rare in the forest. it is her favourite poison, but the plant is not easily harvested. The plant puffs poisonous dust to anyone who tries to take out its contents. plus, it is very hard to find in the forest. So its not so simple to get it. Romona is probabby interested in your ability to make it."

"I see."

After hearing that, Alex became interested in the system more. When he drew the jar of poison earlier, he did not specify what type of poison it would be. But the system had made one from the surroundings. He thus became more interested in knowing how it works.

After a while, Alex got tired of walking. Well, it was not that the distance they walked was long, but rather Norina was walking slowly. She was walking as if wherever she was going was not at all important. As if it could wait another few minutes.

So Alex took his time by looking around. And the further he went, the more he got amazed. At the mouth of the cave, walls had always been made of rock and soil and had rough edges here and there. The tunnels were round and it was hard to get a good grip sometimes.

But as he went foward, he saw evident changes in the structure of the cave. The rocks became smoother, there was less soil on the ground and the tunnels were no longer circular. Instead, they began to become square shaped. The blue luminous crystals on the ground had started to become less common. And in their stead was blue lines that trailed the top of the tunnels. Well, at this point, Alex did not feel like calling them tunnels, calling them corridors was more accurate.

"Wow."

Alex felt like he was back on earth. The ground and walls gave Alex the feeling that he was in a high level military compound back on earth. The blue lines illuminating the ground made made his doubts more prominent.

"Do you like it?"

"Where is this?"

"This is the palace."

"Palace?"

"Yes, its the queen's palace."

Alex suddenly remembered that yesterday he was told by Norina herself that they had a queen that they should serve.

At that time, Alex was still stoic about reincarnation, so he did remember much of what she said.

Soon, a door laid right in from of them. The door was just like all the other doors in the cave, they were made our of stone. Even though it was made out of stone, it looked like it was cut out by some futuristic machine.

Alex wondered what kind of world he had actually ended in. 'Isn't this a midevil fantasy world?'

The door opened and inside was a large hall. The hall had many other doors on the sides. Although there were not many people, there was 10 or so hob-goblins walking around. In the middle of the hall, was a large statue of a woman with a large exe in hand a tyrannosaurus rex below her feet. The statue looked majestic and heroic. Alex felt his heart beat just from looking at it.

Alex was in awe of its imposing aura.

"How did you build this?"

Alex looked at the marble like floor that reflected himself and the surroundings. 'I look so out of place.' He was currently only wearing a loincloth. Compared to this very cool looking hall, he looked like a caveman who accidentally travelled to the future.

"The queen did."

He looked at the statue of the exposing woman. He soon noticed that... 'She is a goblin.'

"Is that your queen?"

"Yes. Please be more well behaved when in her presence later."

"Got it... wait what do you mean by later?"

"You will be meeting the queen soon."

"The queen? Why."

"It is not every day that we have an irregular like yourself. So of course the queen wishes to meet you."

Alex was not sure if this was a good or a bad thing. There are two way this could go out. One: the queen takes a liking to him and help him get stronger, two: the queen takes a liking to his ability and takes it.

Although he has never seen one, he did not rule out the possibility if people who can steal either people's skill and abilities.

'that is if the laceration ability is really mine and not the system's.'

After they passed the large statue, they went through One of the door is the hall. After another turn, he arrived at another door and entered. In the room, was a large pool of water.

"Get in."

Alex looked at Norina. She all looked back at him. Then she repeated what she just said.

"Get in. We wouldnt want you meeting the queen smelling would we?"

Alex did not dwadle any longer. He went close to the pool and prepared take off his loincloth, but his actions stopped when he looked at the woman behind him.

'Could you turn around,' is what he wanted to say. He felt embarrassed to be naked in from of a woman. But before he could even say anything, Norina beat him to it.

"You are wasting time. The queen is waiting for you."

He immediately took of the his loincloth and jumped in the water.

"Ahhh-"

And he regretted it.

The water was cold. Although the water wasn't freezing cold, it was far from Alex's liking. You can't blame alex though, his whole life he has been bathing in heated water. Of course this level of heat would not satisfy him.

"What's wrong," Norinaasked.

"The water is cold..."

'Cold?' Norina frowned. The water was not at all cold. Although she herself has never bathed in the water, she was pretty sure it would not be cold. But a thought suddenly hit her, 'Was Alex a prince in his past life?'

"You will be fine. It is not like the water will kill you."

'F*ck,' Alex cursed.

He could only grit his teeth and take bath.

...

A little while later, he was done. He looked sup and saw Norinastill looking at him. Although he stripped in front of hermit too long ago, he still had his back facing her. But now he had to face her if he wanted to get out. The pool was not small at all. The water alone reaches his chest. If he wants to get out, he would have to use his full strength. And that was not possible with his back facing her.

As such, he finally got the courage to ask.

"Could you turn around?"

Luckily though, Norinadid not say anymore had turned around.

He quickly dragged himself out of the water and wore his loincloth.

Now Ying turned and looked at Alex. He was hugging himself and shivering slightly. His while body was still dripping cold water. "Uhm... are there towels around here?"

"No, we do not have any of those," she said. "But if you need them, why don't you just make them?"

It suddenly hit Alex. He wanted to make them but suddenly stopped. 'Oh yeah, I don't have energy to make them.'

"I can't."

"Why. Are there limitations to your ability?"

"Well, yeah."

'Does that mean i will have to stay like this till i dry normally?' Alex thought. The door was soon opened and goblin game in. In its hand was cloth.

Norina took the cloth and threw the chloth at Alex. "Use this," she said.

"Didn't you say there weren't any towels?" But Norina did not hear any of that. She was already on her way out.

...

The two soon reached a certain part of the palace. The place had two large doors that reached the ceiling. Besides the doors were two statues. They were both of dragons that seemingly guarded the doors. The detail on the dragons made Alex shiver. It was almost as if the two Dragon were actually real.

The coolest part about them to Alex was that the blue luminous lines that trailed the ceiling had also trailed on the dragons and reached their eyes. Making the eyes of the dragons luminous.

"That is so cool."

"Rememeber what i said about the queen. Dont look her in the eyes, don't lie to her, she will know if you are and be as well behaved as you can. Fail to do that and you might die. The queen doesn't have a good temper."

Alex swallowed hard. From the look in Norinas's eyes, he could tell she wasn't lying.

The large doors were slowly opened. Alex felt like he was about to face the last boss of a dungeon. Of there was background music playing at that moment, it would be perfect.

'Except, isn't this a bit too early?'

...