Chapter 33

Nola looked at the goblin leader, who was spraying water on the giant flower or whatever that corpse-eating thing really was.

With wet hands, he softly rubbed the parts of the three vines Beorn, Torm and her had damaged.

It was bizarre, seeing the goblin almost lovingly taking care of that horrifying plant.

A shudder ran down Nola's spine.

Even if she had to admit to herself, that she had gotten used to the plant a little, too.

What could she say, it smelled really nice.

"What are we going to do, now that the vines are off? Let's just get out of here." The words Torm whispered carried his pain from the earlier beating in them.

"No. The point the 'goblin' made is valid. I was so focused on getting rid off my chain, that I hadn't thought about how to get through the forest. It was a mistake. I was too rash and impatient, tempted by the fact that the 'goblin' left for the first time, since we got imprisoned here." Beorn whispered back remorseful.

Beorn always enunciated the word 'goblin' particularly, if he talked about the goblin leader Divine.

Nola wasn't so sure, if she believed his words.

Beorn had acted alone at first.

They had only participated, because Torm had caught Beorn, working on his vine.

"And what do we do now? If we can only move safely through the forest with the goblin's protection and he is the one keeping us here...?" Hearing Torm's words, Beorn looked at Nola with a gleam in his eyes, that she didn't like the look of.

"One of us should try to befriend Divine. He only needs us to teach him Cathalish. It doesn't seem like he needs us for anything else. With the rapid progress he is making, this won't take all too long. Maybe then, the one, who befriended him, can convince him to help us get back to the empire. " Beorn was looking over to Nola repeatedly as he said this... very suggestive.

She noticed how Beorn suddenly called the goblin by its name, too.

It definitely wouldn't work how he said, so what was Beorn's agenda here?

Would that goblin really let them leave to tell everyone about him? Not a chance.

And she didn't even want to go back to the empire right now.

Torm looked skeptical, but was ready to entertain the idea.

"Beorn, you talk to the goblin the most, even almost exclusively. Do you really think you could befriend him?" Torm asked a little hopeful.

"No, I don't think I could." Beorn looked at Nola again. "But Nola could."

Nola just looked at him silently.

"Don't you realize that you are treated differently from us? Look, Torm and me got beaten viciously for something you did too. Divine didn't even touch a hair on your head. And... " Beorn talked until Nola interrupted him.

"No, he only almost put his sword through my head." Nola argumented, wanting to refute Beorn's declaration.

"But he didn't. And even the other goblins know to treat you differently. If Torm or me slack off with the work, we get punished, but you never worked seriously at all and still, they always leave you be. Divine definitely has his eyes on you." He said it, but Beorn hadn't slacked off with the work once and hence hadn't been punished.

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Nola was a noble or at least she had been one and she knew when someone wanted to influence her thinking and make use of her.

"Did you go crazy? How can you suggest that Nola gives herself to that monster?! That's disgusting!" Torm's voice went above a whisper and there was some heat in it, as he berated Beorn.

"That is not what I am saying at all. It's just about getting closer to our captor and build up a rapport." Beorn sighed sadly, when he saw the both of them were unconvinced. "I just want to go home to my family and I thought with Nola we would have a better chance, but I will do it myself and try to get closer to our captor..."

Nola wasn't fourteen anymore and not that easily manipulated.

To show Beorn that she wasn't even entertaining the idea and that it would be impossible to convince her, she didn't answer him, just gave him a condescending look and ignored him.

She was glad, when one of the goblins brought their meals, distracting the three from their earlier topic.

The food they got here was surprisingly good. It lacked a certain variety, that she had been used to, but it was undeniably eatable.

After the meal, Nola watched as the goblin leader led the four little goblins and that overseer through different positions and movement sequences.

Until now, Nola hadn't payed much attention when they did that, but now, she noticed something.

There was something special about the movements.

It didn't look like a simple martial art, more like a genuine knight technique.

One that could help internalize mana and strengthen the body.

It looked pretty exotic, but she didn't know how it compared to the knight technique of her Geroge family, Shifting Wind Sword.

Or it could be, that she was reading way too much into it and it was some kind of weird ritual dance.

But then, how did that goblin leader become so powerful?

Now that she observed that, she thought about picking up her training again.

It could only help her. With her condition and her future path.

Would the goblins even let her practice?

Who cared? She would try and see what happened.

Only because she had realized that she didn't want to die, didn't mean, she didn't dare challenge their captor.

So she just got up, going past the corpse-eating flower and in the direction of the exit tunnel.

Nola could feel the looks at her back, but she didn't turn around.

She waited for someone to come and get her back, but she didn't hear anyone coming.

Surprisingly, she made it to the exit without getting stopped.

Would Divine really let her leave, if she went out now?

She felt conflicted as she stood there, right before the dark tunnel, that definitely led into danger and maybe to freedom.

She sighed.

Taking a few steps back, Nola went to stand in the middle between the exit tunnel and the corpse-eating flower.

After stretching a little, she took the first pose of the Shifting Wind Sword technique.

Since Nola had no sword, she held an imaginary one and started going through the motions.

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Divine was helping the disciples correct their stances, by poking them with his finger, when he noticed the woman walking to the exit tunnel.

Keeping his qi sense on her, Divine didn't let himself get distracted from teaching the goblings.

When Nola pretended to leave, Divine didn't react. Because he knew, she wouldn't get far.

But when she started doing these movements, that looked like a mix of a martial art and a dance, Divine got interested.

The two men looked with complicated expressions from Nola to Divine and back.

Divine left the goblings with the instruction to repeat what they had just practiced under Scarface's supervision and went over to Nola.

As he went, he felt Scarface's gaze at his back, but Divine ignored it.

Nola's movements were a little stiff and didn't flow entirely smoothly.

Pretending to hold a sword looked a little funny, but Nola had never looked better than at this moment.

She was really immersed by now and didn't even notice Divine's arrival.

Enjoying the show, Divine analyzed her technique at the same time.

Even if he wasn't an expert, Divine definitely had some knowledge and experience by now.

Nola's movements were getting faster and her face was slowly reddening through the exertion.

She was sweating a lot, making her robe cling to her lithe body.

Doing a kick bared a very nice leg.

Sadly, it was a sword technique and kicks were very rare.

Even though Divine didn't want to take his eyes off of her, he closed them.

Concentrating on his qi sense, Divine felt the qi flow, that was around Nola.

At first Divine didn't detect anything special in the natural qi flow of the cavern, at least not around Nola.

He gave it a moment and explored her body with his qi sense.

It wasn't as satisfying as looking, but he discovered something.

It was miniscule, but she was actually gathering a thin and patchy film of natural qi on her skin.

At least it was something, even if it was in no way comparable to his body cultivation manual.

It was so much weaker than his technique, that if he had trained that, he still wouldn't be in the body tempering realm.

And achieving foundation establishment with this technique was a pipe dream, at least with Nola's proficiency level.

It was no wonder the disciples and Scarface were catching up to her.

The quality and quantity of the qi in Nola's body was equivalent to a cultivation of the second stage of the body tempering realm.

The goblings and Scarface were quickly nearing the first stage.