A Sly Goblin

Aldritch saw the goblin shaman and the kind of behaviour he exhibited.

'Do you think a goblin is going to outsmart me?'

After passing some instructions to Lina, Aldritch sent her forward as his representative to hear what the goblin had to say.

'I can probably beat that guy senseless, but I can't really trust shamans at all. Those guys are like necromancers, dealing with spirits and weird stuff.' Of course, Aldritch drew his conclusions from his own knowledge from his previous world, whether it applied or not, he could not say. It was also possible that the goblin was not a shaman, but there was no need to take chances now, was there?

Aldritch made sure to watch the interaction carefully until Lina was done speaking with the goblin and returned to Aldritch.

"What does he have to say?"

"Yes, master. He said that this tribe is under the rule of the ogres and that it would be good for us not to do anything that will cause us to regret in future." That wasn't all as Lina went on to say some other things, but this was the gist of it.

'Damn, do I look that weak?'

There was a way to go around this, but there was just one major problem. The ogres that would come here would mostly be male warriors and not ones he could make good use of, because Aldritch wasn't sure his hypnosis skill would be so successful on the mentally stronger ogres. The goblins were weak after all, so his skill working against them was really a good standard of measurement...

'Even then, I'll just stick with my original plan.' Too bad there would be no such thing as a female ogre leading the ogres.

"I WILL STAY HERE FOR AS LONG AS I WANT, UNLESS YOU WANT TO PASS ON TO THE AFTER LIFE. WHEN THE OGRES COME, THEY WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF." Aldritch spoke in a powerful tone. The shaman could do nothing against him, at least he didn't try to. Aldritch didn't know what kind of magic the shaman had or why he didn't even try to resist further, but he was sure that he would be able to win against the shaman if he went all out.

Though the shaman who was the chief of the goblin tribe here tried to negotiate with Aldritch other ways, Aldritch was clear about them being under him and his own tribe. This was the wild lands of the monsters after all, human logic didn't exactly apply here. He was sure that this goblin shaman was a bit smart, trying to use Aldritch's human mentality against him. At the very least he would have thought of Aldritch as human.

The goblins didn't eat anything other than meat, so it was convenient. Even though they had food previously, it was not enough to feed all the new mouths, so they left to hunt for more. The old and the new goblins tagged along, leaving behind mostly the hobgoblins from Aldritch's side, after all they were the only side with hobs. The hobs now served one major role, which was guarding Aldritch's residence and watching the perimeters and patrolling them. As for Lina, she quickly turned into Aldritch's right hand man as she was meant to be.

The day went on uneventful as Aldritch waited for the night to fall upon them.

Towards the evening, the goblins were back with a huge haul of rodents and other small animals. It was clear just how wide their search had to be to bring back that many. That evening, everything was prepared and later that night feasted upon. Aldritch, after a long time, attempted to eat some food to see if it would have any effect, but even after eating it, he couldn't taste much of it, and it didn't even fill him at all. More like it just took up space in his stomach.

Eating after a long period of starvation and fasting, the goblins were tired and filled, which meant that they would enjoy a good sleep that night, well, except for those on guard duty.

'It's a bit strange that the shaman would not try to do anything even when we seemed vulnerable...' Aldritch thought, there was definitely a reason.

There was no way he could trust such a monster when he hadn't even finished trusting humans. With that in mind, he wasn't going to wait until the next day, lest he died without knowing the cause. He stood up at night to find the shaman.

He just did not trust the goblin shaman one bit. He had agreed way too easily and it bothered Aldritch. Not because of the goblins and the risk of losing them, no, it was because it was unsafe for him. Something that should be understood is that Aldritch was a very self centred person at times who rarely cared about other's opinions especially when it didn't matter, unless it was of value and would help him. He would do almost anything for his benefit and comfort, the rest could just die. Of course, Lina was a little bit different to Aldritch, since he saw some use for her past just the moment.

You might think this is unreasonable, but for someone who is living amidst monsters, this was perfectly reasonable. Past this, he was going to be looked at as a monster himself. It was survival of the fittest out here, and only the selfish, greedy and extreme could survive and grow in power. Now, to survive, one could do it without being cruel and all, but to grow in power, it was absolutely impossible not to be hardened and decisive.

"What brings you here, my lord." The goblin shaman respectfully welcomed Aldritch into his hut.

'Your lord? Two faced bastard.'

Aldritch saw all the different antiques spread across the entire hut, he was both a little irked and interested in what this goblin was capable of. Alas, the fear of the unknown was not a good thing.

"We have some serious discussion."

"I am always at your service, my lord."