I spend the next few days doing a lot of reading. There are a great many possible skills, too many for me to actively want to clutter my character screen with. Still, even if I’m planning on trying to avoid combat, that leaves many fields that can be explored.

Reading historical books is a little surreal. Corwen’s library makes sure to cover important historical figures, which means there are multiple books about a Mythical Wizard named Merlin. Well, Ash Corwen was clearly not King Arthur, and Apple the [Tempest Archmage] was not Morgana, but if I squint I could probably find similarities.

I decide to unlock some crafting skills. And use them to recreate some of my favorite board games, as a fun little exercise. This… requires getting good enough at crafting to actually recreate some of my favorite board games accurately. Simple round stones would be easy enough to make. Detailed figurines will probably require a few extra skill levels.

“Anise, why are you letting your son handle a knife like that?” asks a nosy busybody who isn’t even related to me.

“I bet you that he can use it better than you could, Bell,” Anise retorts.

Skill acquired: Crafting (Woodworking)

I survey the uneven grid I made, and the pile of wooden discs painted black on one side and white on the other. It’s not the best Reversi set ever, but passable enough to unlock the skill at least, and it was a board game Corwen didn’t already have in its game room.

“Oh, hey, that’s a good idea,” Milo says, coming over to see what I’ve made. “We could give unique designs from Earth to goblins to craft and sell. I bet we could find interest in new games. I know your own Hearth is quite affluent, but what of the neighboring Hearths?”

“They’re not bad off and would probably love it,” Anise says after I relay the question to her. “You can run some ideas by me and I’ll let you know if I’ve heard about something like that.”

The morning of the delivery comes, and we set off with a caravan hauling wool. Meadow is leading the way, since we still need a Ranger to be able to find the entrance to the Underside near Grubwick. Also accompanying us are a couple of relatives I don’t know well who don’t gossip much, but are happy to join in on the Goblin Language lessons.

When we arrive at the location where Skullburn Outpost had been, there is no longer any trace of it except for some scorch marks and trampled grass.

“That was quick,” I say.

“They likely came back over the past week and took the bodies and materials,” Milo says.

We reach the tunnels and shortly arrive back in Grubwick. As we head into the goblin village, I have to marvel at their shoddy hide tents surrounded by walls they would not have had the capability of building. Did they revert to the stone age at some point? Are they squatting in ruins of another Hearth? Or did the Hearth’s aether core simply call these walls into existence from nothing?

“Milo, have you spoken to Grubwick’s core yet?” I wonder.

“Only when it walked me through how to use the system in my third eye,” Milo says. “Which is simple enough that a goblin can use it. I did not find a secret core room like the Hedge Maze had. I fear I did not even think to look.”

“You should probably ask it how much it is willing and able to help with what we’re trying to do,” I say. “You may need to find the core room first. I don’t know about Grubwick, but Corwen is definitely more chatty if you’re in the core room.”

I suspect I know why. I’ve been trying to raise [Aura Sight]. All the stray vis in Corwen wafts toward the Hearth, the hearth, and the core from there. The aether core is at the center of a drain underneath many trickling faucets. Being closer helps it gather more vis faster.

“Good idea,” Milo says. “You guys will have to stay out here, though. Outsiders aren’t allowed inside our Hearth either. I’ll make sure everyone knows not to harm you no matter what you do, but they’re kind of dumb sometimes. I’ll be back shortly. Hopefully it’s not too hard to find.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Anise pretty much immediately makes friends using her powers of booze. I don’t want to stray too far from her and the others in case any goblins get stupid. Our trade agreement is a new, fresh thing and they’re not yet used to having humans around. Still, I can safely get a look at how they live from the safety of behind an Elite Sorcerer.

Building up Grubwick is going to require advancing along its tech tree. I never imagined I’d wind up getting involved with the industrialization of goblins, but here I am. And strangely, being a toddler among goblins may make things easier rather than harder. Even if I tell them how old I am (once I figure out how to say numbers), that won’t mean anything to them. Maybe they’ll see me as just a human who is closer to their size. Or a gnome or halfling or something, I guess, if we have those around here. At least this is good practice for learning Language (Goblin).

Milo returns after a while, looking pensive. “Grubwick was highly encouraging and explained to me how essence works. It’s a resource aether cores use to make items. While it is unwilling to permit me to make essence purchases directly, it explains that upgrades will be applied automatically once certain milestones are reached. And said you would probably understand better the tree we had to climb. You were an engineer, weren’t you? What is this ‘tree’ of which it speaks?”

“I was once asked to design a phone that could survive being run over by a truck and then put in the washing machine,” I say. “But yes, if it means the tech tree, that I know.”

“I fear I’m more acquainted with the art of convincing prospective clients that they really need what you are offering,” Milo says. “Where do we even start with advancing their civilization?”

“Civilization, heh…” I say. “Where do we start? First, we introduce them to the idea of agriculture…”

“Agriculture, of course!” Milo exclaims. “They’re having to rely on gathering mushrooms to trade themselves, and it’s hit or miss whether they can find any of a specific type even with Search (Mushrooms). Search can’t find something that isn’t there, after all. But if we can grow them ourselves… hmm. This will require figuring out the conditions the mushrooms need to thrive.”

The goblins of Grubwick immediately become hooked on cider but don’t know how to make their own booze deliberately yet. Agriculture would do well toward increasing their limited supply of mushrooms to trade. Milo goes to try to explain how farming might work to some goblins who are not currently drunk.

“I’ll probably need to talk to the goblins you’ve gotten drunk after this,” Milo says. “They are the ones who will be most motivated toward making sure they can get more booze, provided they don’t wind up with hangovers that make them swear off alcohol forever. At least we won’t have to try using the open Underside yet. We’ve got lots of caves and warrens underneath the Hearth. There’s a lot more goblins here than the ones you see.”

It takes them a bit to understand the concept of trying to grow their own mushrooms, especially the concept of utilizing any more of the area vulnerable to monster swarms than necessary.

The monsters emerge from the depths and swarm past Grubwick on the way to the surface. If the goblins were capable of killing more of the monsters as they come by, the surface would have to deal with fewer monsters. Many of the entrances to the Underside have goblin villages near them, since they like being close enough to gather resources or conduct raids on the surface. There won’t be anymore raiding from Grubwick, but we will need to convince the other goblin villages one by one.

This leads to our next idea: scouring the Underside for crops and livestock accessible to goblins but not so readily to humans. (This will likely have to be done by someone higher level than us, but we can relay the idea back to Corwen Hearth.) Sure, they could just plant things on the surface, as they’re close enough to the entrance to tend them regularly. But a domesticated resource that can be obtained nowhere else would be much more valuable and might stir interest in people who are dubious about trading with goblins. Corwen has already shown interest in Grubwick’s gathered mushrooms. What else might they be able to make use of?

“I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with once they figure out how fermentation works,” Anise says.

“Have you explored the Underside before?” I ask.

Anise shakes her head. “I’ve mostly just done dungeons that can be accessed from the surface. But the Underside is wilderness like the surface and not just a dungeon. There are dungeons in it too, but vast tracts of area that’s not dungeons but also has a higher chance of having monsters than the surface except during swarm season. All I know is what I’ve heard from other adventurers, though.”

The goblins don’t really know what to do with wool yet, but I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon enough. We load up the mushrooms intended to Corwen and head back out. Although the goblins have been friendly enough, we still don’t trust them enough to stay the night in their village, also they don’t have an inn yet and there’s not many monsters wandering on the surface this time of year anyway. Milo opts to stay the night in Grubwick and meet up with our camp in the morning so that he can impart some otherworldly knowledge upon them.

“I think that went well,” Anise says, hiccuping.

“Did you find out if Language (Drunken Slur) works even if you don’t understand their regular language?” I wonder.

“I’m… not really sure,” Anise says. “Their tone came across fine. We just weren’t exactly having any riveting philosophical discussions. Many of the phrases in Language (Drunken Slur) are things like ‘I want more booze’ and ‘Hey everyone, watch this!’ followed by doing something stupid. Like juggling stone knives. One of them totally tried to juggle stone knives.”