Goblinkin a deckbuilding.., p.14
Goblinkin: A Deckbuilding LitRPG, page 14
“Dedicated. We are dedicated to our cause,” Henig said. He glanced back up at the moon, though to Mariska he made no motion. Without eyeballs, the subtleties of certain expressions were lost. Henig found he was jealous of the Golden. Whilst she had similar issues with expression Neferure had at least seen fit to give each of her children a pair of stone eyes, perfectly round orbs that rotated around in their sockets.
“An excellent turn of phrase. I certainly approve. It is beautiful at night, the what is it called? Rainforest? Not sure I follow. It rains most places. Even in the desert on rare occasion.”
“Not like here. Here it will rain for an entire season. Months at a time.”
“Really? Can’t say I’m looking forward to that. My people don’t do well in the rain,” Mariska said, her eyes following the moon. “Erosion is always a problem when your body is made of stone.”
“I can well imagine. Thankfully it appears the spiders have finished building your new home. I trust that everything is to your liking?”
Mariska nodded. “Indeed. Tax and her people are a marvel. Hardly surprising considering their superior construction. They managed to build things to our exact instructions and still impressed. I could do without the walls being see-through, some privacy would be nice.”
Henig nodded, exaggerating his motions to make his expression clear. “Large frond leaves have been particularly popular amongst the populace.”
“I have noticed. I have already taken the liberty of arranging a delivery from the pyramid. Some curtains, enough to cover every wall if needs be. Consider it a gift from my people to your own.”
“They are hardly my people. I do not rule them, nor do I wish to. I understand what you mean though, and I appreciate the sentiment. That should go down a storm I would imagine. Speaking of things from the pyramid, I was under the impression that our intrepid groblin engineers needed something from yourselves?”
“That they do.” Mariska turned away from the window, her jackal-shaped head casting a long shadow across the wall as the moonlight framed her. “That is something of a bigger request than some curtains. There are few runecrafters amongst our number and finding one willing to work for organics will take some time. Curtains you can buy in bulk from nearly any fabric merchant. Intricate magical devices tend to be rarer if you excuse the understatement.”
“Consider yourself excused.”
“I will take my leave now. This view is beautiful but sometimes it seems a scribe’s work is never done. Despite sending me here to act as a diplomat I’m still expected to complete all the paperwork assigned to me for the pyramid’s guild. It would seem my work is never done.”
Henig chuckled, a slightly disconcerting sound echoing through his skull. “At least there is no guild here to generate anyone. Once it’s done, you’re a free woman.”
“Hardly. This place could do with some order. A new guild here might be just the ticket. Especially if this settlement continues to grow.”
“It’s hardly like there’s going to be another wave of refugees, sadly. We still don’t know what’s going on in the city they came from.”
Mariska stepped onto the lift in the centre of the chamber. “No, and yet you’ve gotten Golden, the spiders and these groblin things to move here. To think that similar things won’t happen in the future is more than a little foolish. And when this duellist of yours does return from that city, what happens if they have a hundred people in tow behind them? No, paperwork might be effort but it's worthwhile effort. A little order goes a long way.” Mariska stepped on one of the runes that sat in a ring at the centre of the platform. It began to descend, the runes glowing as it moved. “Good night, Henig.”
Henig watched as the stone woman vanished through the hole in the floor. “Good night, High Scribe.”
Chapter Fifteen
Chameleonic Glider defeated. 296 experience points gained.
A smile crept across Gareth’s face. Magda and Sarkuran had managed to find and slay the beast, or he assumed so anyway. It was hard to imagine any other monster that could have that same moniker. The pterosaur fit it perfectly and Gareth was sure enough in his friends’ abilities that he was certain they had managed it. No matter what happened to him at least the goblins would be safe from the beast.
“What are you smiling at? The experience notice?” Imelda said. She was sitting on the ground next to Gareth with her back to the wall, her eyes locked on him constantly. Imelda was no doctor but her first aid training had made it very clear that watching for changes was important.
“Yeah. I honestly expected them to just bicker the whole time and scare the thing off.”
“Still plenty of time for them arguing to cause problems. Maybe draw in more of those elementals or something.” Imelda reached out and grabbed the makeshift stretcher, pulling it closer to her. “You’ll have to get on this when they get back.”
“Great,” Gareth said, the words grumbled under his breath. “That’s a great look for me, isn’t it? You know when I first came here, Acamida, I wanted to become this great hero? To prove the gods wrong for not picking me? Hardly the best look to be carried around on a stretcher.”
“I didn’t know you still cared about that.”
“I don’t, not really, but also, I kind of do. Does that even make sense? I don’t feel this need to prove myself anymore, not when I know what’s going on up there, but I won’t lie and say it would be nice to get some kind of recognition. For all of us. We’re working hard to try and save all of reality. A thank you wouldn’t go amiss.”
“I think it would be hard for people to thank us for something they don’t understand,” Imelda said. “How are you going to explain what’s going on without sounding insane? Besides, I think people are thankful, those at the tower anyway. We helped save them from, well, who knows what? Take your wins when you get them.”
“Weirdly good advice,” Gareth said. “I will, but only if you stop blaming yourself for this happening to me.” As he finished speaking Gareth began to cough, his chest throbbing with pain as it convulsed.
“How am I supposed to do that when you’re barking like a dog?”
“Oh, come off it. It’s not your fault I fell. It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“You’ll have to be more specific,” Imelda said, suddenly worried Gareth’s mind was failing him.
“I mean how we’ve got this magic box that can protect us from someone firing an arrow at us or a dragon trying to bake us alive, but it can’t help with slipping and falling,” Gareth said. He would have shrugged if he wasn’t certain moving too much was going to start another coughing fit. “Just seems odd. You would think Magdalena would have made the shield work in that circumstance too.”
“Probably too hard runically.”
“For a goddess?”
“No, but she made deck boxes so that other people could make them too, right? Like she wanted to spread them across Acamida. Henig said it was something to do with a weak mana connection or something?”
“Ah, yeah you’ve got a point.” It had been explained to Gareth once already that every world had a different flow of mana to it and that the people who lived there also had varying connections. On Acamida the current was vast, but the people didn’t have much of a natural connection. That was probably fortunate, a world where everyone had access to unfathomable magic probably didn’t survive very long. Deck boxes served to amplify a person’s connection to Acamida’s mana flow in a way that was controllable. In a way, the relic at Gareth’s waist was like a transformer, a device designed to alter the flow of power to something manageable. “You think if there was a stronger connection, we could do some healing magic? That sounds perfect right about now honestly.”
“Yeah tell me about it. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I really am sorry about what happened to you.”
“Could have been any one of us.”
“Well yeah that, but I mean coming here, to begin with. You died, right? That’s what happened?”
“Oh, yeah I guess so,” Gareth said. It was literally a lifetime ago now. “It’s uh, not something I would recommend. I’m just glad that I got this second chance really. I honestly can’t say much about it because it’s all kind of a blur. Which makes sense I suppose, it wasn’t like I was conscious in the same way I am now.”
“Do you mind if I ask? About how it happened?”
“Well, I didn’t fall off a dinosaur if that’s what you’re asking.” Gareth winced. He was thankful that there was no boring dinosaur nerd from Earth here to tell him a pterosaur wasn’t the same thing as a dinosaur. “I basically bought a faulty bit of equipment. When I went to use it, I died.”
“It exploded or something?”
“Something like that. Lots of things on Earth are powered by electricity. Basically, kind of…bottled lightning? Yeah, sort of. Trouble is if something goes wrong, well, that lightning isn’t so bottled anymore.”
“Seems dangerous,” Imelda said. She couldn’t fathom having bottled lightning in your home. It seemed like a catastrophically terrible idea.
“Not really. Like ninety-nine-point nine per cent of the time, there’s no risk at all. Everything is designed to basically shut down before there’s any danger. Unless of course you’re stupid like me and buy something from a guy in a car park in the middle of the night. Oh, I guess on Acamida the equivalent is getting something from a guy two alleyways away from the market.”
“You bought a fake and it wasn’t made properly,” Imelda said nodding solemnly. “My cousin Ervald did that once. Came back to the caravan after a trip to Wildermount proud as punch, reckoned he had managed to pick up a cooling rod for a single gold coin.”
“Uh-oh,” Gareth could see where this was going. Cooling rods were a common runic item in Wildermount, enchanted shafts of iron that absorbed heat from around them. Placing them in a trunk turned it into an effective refrigerator. They were common in the bigger grocers, though they were often chained to the box they sat in to prevent theft. Even basic runecrafting wasn’t cheap.
“Uh-oh is right. The first time he tried to use the thing it went crazy and began freezing everything around the box he put it in, frost creeping across the grass and all that. We had to pry the thing out with tongs and have someone scratch the runes so they didn’t work wearing like, the thickest stack of coats you’ve ever seen.”
Gareth braved a laugh despite it hurting his chest. “I can imagine that. I bet he didn’t live it down.”
“No, people still needled him about it when I left, and it had been two years since it happened.”
“Yeah, people don’t like to forget things like that. It’s just too funny. Thank you, Melda. This does make me feel better. Now we just need these others to get back so we can, you know, not stay in this pit. I uh...I’m not feeling too good.”
“I can see that. Is it still hurting?”
“Oh, you know me, grin and bear it. And I’m doing a lot bearing it.”
“It’s getting worse?”
“Slowly,” Gareth said. “But yes.”
“I’m not going to lie,” Imelda said, standing up and stepping over to Gareth. She lifted his shirt and ran her hand over his bandages to check for fresh blood, “that’s not good. You’re right, we’re going to need to get you back tower as soon possible.”
“Nice to hear we’re on the same page,” Gareth said with his best fake smile. “Just got to hope those two are moving at a decent pace.”
***
Grobbit sat at the edge of the great ruins looking down at the history of his people. The darkness was no problem for him, goblin vision long since adapted for life in the tunnels. Once they had lived in what Grobbit thought of as strange artificial caves. He had never understood why his ancestors had used them. There were plenty of perfectly good natural formations nearby and even if they had needed more space simply burrowing a hole had to have been easier than digging out the rock and then shaping it. They were adding an entire extra step.
From what Grobbit had seen doing things the hard way seemed to be how the big people went about doing things. He had winced as he had watched one of them accidentally stumble onto the beast they had been sent to kill and go tumbling down the cliffside. They had beaten the thing eventually, but even goblin children could have spotted that something was off with the rock. It was almost like Grobbit’s new friends hadn’t spent their lives living in tunnels or caverns.
At least the beast was dead. It wasn’t a problem for the goblins right now, but it was only a matter of time before the creature noticed they were skulking through the jungle. Flying monsters were the most dangerous for the small creatures. They could hide easily from the monsters that walked the forest floor, crouching beneath ferns or hiding in tree trunks but it was almost impossible to stay hidden from those in the air or canopy. Half the time the goblins didn’t know they were being stalked.
Grobbit lay down flat against the earth, crawling as close to the edge as he dared. Finding the tall folk seemed like a good idea. The one that fell had to be hurt and Grobbit figured that taking them back to the warren was a better idea than letting them wander through the jungle bleeding everywhere. That was guaranteed trouble, some of the monsters could smell blood half the world away.
To make things worse Grobbit had no idea how tough the newcomers were, especially the one who had fallen. Goblins were a hardy bunch and Grobbit knew that any of his kin would have simply gotten up and walked away from a fall like that. Something about goblins made them bounce more than they should have. The one called Gareth, he was a goblin of sorts. Not all of him was and Grobbit was worried that the weaker half of Gareth would have been enough to cause him serious harm.
A glimmer of light caught Grobbit’s beady red eye. It was the tall folk, it had to be, their constant use of their magic rocks had been how Grobbit had watched them battle through the ruins. The boss had been very clear to stay away from them, but Grobbit was an explorer and there was no better opportunity to explore the ancient remnants of his people than when four powerful wizards were there. Watching them work had been impressive, monsters appearing from nowhere to do their bidding. Grobbit couldn’t help but wonder what kind of monster he might call forth if he ever found himself with their power.
Having found the talk folk Grobbit stood up and began to walk towards the ramp downwards. He knew that the pit was dangerous, the boss had gone on long rants about the monsters who now called it their home. Grobbit wasn’t worried about them. He had dealt with elementals before, though Grobbit’s idea of dealing with them was running away at top speed. With the beating that the newcomers had given them, they were bound to be keeping their distance for now. Elementals were creatures just like anything else, just made a little different. They were as afraid of death as anything Grobbit knew of.
As he stood atop the ramp Grobbit was starting to regret his decision. It was a long walk, especially for someone with such short legs. He thought briefly about throwing himself off the side and letting his rubbery physiology take the blow but at this height, there was still a chance he could get hurt. Once he was about halfway down the pathway, near the gap where the flying monster was sleeping, then he could clamber down most of the way and then jump the last distance.
“Hang on, Grobbit is coming to help with the doings!” the goblin declared as he marched forth.
***
“You look rough,” Magda said. It wasn’t the first thing she had expected to say on seeing Gareth, but it was what had come out. “Is he going to be ok?” The goddess’s question was directed at Imelda.
“I think so, maybe?” Imelda’s voice was heavy with uncertainty. She had done everything she could do for Gareth, but the truth was without knowing how bad his internal bleeding was Imelda was just guessing. He needed a healer, a real one, and quickly. “The quicker we can get him back and resting the better.”
“Not exactly up and jumping around here, am I?” Gareth said. He was trying his best to remain upbeat. It was obvious that the others were worried about him. “I know what you mean before you say anything. Trust me, I’ve got no intention of letting things get to that point. I’ve died once, don’t want to make it twice.”
“We should start back now. Despite it being dark I trust we don’t want to waste time,” Sarkuran said, realising that someone needed to take charge of the situation. “Besides you have to survive so you can open these.” Sarkuran reached into his pocket and produced a handful of the booster crystals he and Magda had recovered.
Gareth’s eyes lit up. There was a lot, and each of them contained new cards for him to explore. Sarkuran was right dying now would mean he wouldn’t get to see what they did and for Gareth that was unbearable. The joy of exploring new cards had always been one of his favourite things but now it was more important than ever.
“We should open at least one of those now,” Gareth said, unable to contain his excitement. “You know, for like, a motivational boost. Make me forget all this pain.” His statement wasn’t entirely a lie. For a few brief seconds on seeing the booster crystals, Gareth’s attention had been on nothing else.
“You can open them when we’re back at home,” Imelda said, her words immediately sending Gareth spiralling back fifteen years to having his mother buy him booster packs as a child.
“Come one, just the one, I can look at it whilst you lot start carrying me out of here. It won’t slow us down.”
“Fine,” Imelda conceded. “Just the one.”
With some considerable effort, the group helped Gareth roll over onto the makeshift stretcher they had built. As Imelda and Sarkuran lifted each end Gareth was relieved to find that the vines helped, easily carrying his weight. He wasn’t relishing the possibility that they could snap and send him thudding to the ground. That had happened more than enough today.
“Here,” Sarkuran said, removing one hand momentarily to toss Gareth a booster crystal. “Your promised toy.”
