Chapter 53

Finally.

The promised day had arrived.

Jemisha, first disciple of the great Master Divine, had been looking forward to this day for the entire week.

And what an exhausting week it had been, keeping an eye on her siblings had been the hardest thing she had done until now.

Jemisha was proud to say that she had done it well and that there had been no trouble under her watch.

None at all.

All right maybe not none at all, but at least there had been no big trouble that had disturbed their master’s cultivation and they hadn’t gotten punished or lectured even once this week.

And it was all thanks to Jemisha, only because of her had her siblings managed to behave and had not given their master a reason to cancel their trip into the Lost Tooth Tribe’s tunnels.

That the trip would happen today was her achievement.

She really hoped it would pay off and that it would be an interesting trip, because it really hadn’t been easy…

Jemisha had stopped Lubia repeatedly from starting random fires…

And from playing with already existing ones.

Lubia was so annoying.

Lubia had developed an unhealthy curiosity about fire.

After seeing what Lilith could do, she wanted to be capable of the same.

Master had already told them, that to gain similar powers they had to work on their meditation first.

And then, they had to learn how to control their Qi.

Only much later, they would find out which elements they were suited for.

Lilith was an exception because she had such a high affinity for fire and master had said that they shouldn’t obsess about it.

Lubia was such a stupidhead, not listening to master.

As if she could accomplish it on her own and surpass the great First Disciple Jemisha this way.

Lubia could dream on.

She would never beat her.

Jemisha wouldn’t let that happen.

But Lubia’s antics hadn’t been Jemisha’s only challenge.

Divine’s first disciple also had had to keep Oni in check, who had been annoying Lilith with his constant food stealing the whole winter.

Standing between Oni and his food was an even harder job than keeping an eye on Lubia.

Oni had never fought back against her this hard and she had been surprised to find out that he was much stronger than she had thought.

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Still not as strong as her but impressively strong nonetheless.

It was definitely a job for a lifetime, regulating Oni’s food acquisition, and Jemisha was happy she only had to do it for a week.

Lastly, Jemisha had had to control herself, and also her siblings too, to tone down their favorite activity, playing with the humans and the minions.

Only three times this week had they played, and even then, only with the human’s minions, or minion prospects how Master Divine liked to call them.

Targeting the minions that stood even beneath the humans was the compromise Jemisha had thought of.

First Disciple had made sure they didn’t target anyone else this week, because even though Master didn't explicitly prohibit their playing, he didn't particularly like it if they played them too much.

It disturbed the minions’ productivity, master had said.

This hobby was hard to quit for the disciples because it was so much fun.

Neither minions nor humans ever retaliated, and that made it even more enjoyable to annoy and torment them.

Knowing you could do whatever you wanted to someone without fearing any consequences just felt great.

Fortunately for Jemisha, the last of her three siblings, her second brother Samael, was well-behaved and didn’t create trouble without them.

So at least he didn’t make things hard for her this week and Jemisha had a new appreciation for Samael.

At the moment, Jemisha was standing at the cavern's exit next to Venus and reminiscing.

She was waiting for the trip to begin.

She had already stood here right after waking up, but Master Divine had wanted to eat and go through their training routine first before going out.

At least Master had said that he was satisfied with their behavior and their effort during training this week, and that he wouldn’t cancel the tour.

That had been hours ago and now she was standing here waiting again because Master and Fourth Brother were still sitting at the table.

A few eternities later and they were finally finished with the meal.

Lilith accompanied Master Divine to the exit to send them off.

Lilith would be staying at home, and Jemisha hoped she would welcome them back with a sweet treat later.

Then, they finally set foot into the dim tunnel.

Her siblings were excited too, but Jemisha had looked forward to this for quite some time.

She had always wondered what was beyond when she stared into the dark tunnel or when the goblins came with the offerings.

It had to be at least as impressive as the outside.

The outside with its mountains, its forest and its high sky with the uncomfortably bright sun had really made an impression on her.

It was so different from what she had known in the cavern.

The outside was so different that she never could have imagined it.

And now she would see a different kind of new place.

Jemisha couldn’t wait to discover all the wonders.

What Jemisha got instead was a tunnel with the same stone walls as in the cavern and the same glowing mushrooms.

There was no great view, and everything looked the same.

The first cave they came across smelled really weird and Master Divine didn't let them go inside.

He herded them farther up the tunnel.

The first goblin they encountered was digging a hole at the entrance of a cave.

Likely making a trap.

Jemisha had gotten Lubia with a hole in the ground that one time too, making her stumble and fall on her nose.

Oh, how Jemisha and her brothers had laughed.

When the goblin noticed them, he stopped digging and eyed them nervously, acting totally suspicious.

When the goblin recognized them, or more their high-quality robes, he fearfully took a step back and stumbled over his own hole.

The goblings laughed, highly amused.

Jemisha laughed the loudest because she was reminded of Lubia’s fall again.

First Disciple smirked at her sister mockingly and Lubia stopped laughing.

Instead Lubia started staring at her sister fumingly.

Master Divine only shook his head in amusement and walked on.

Master let them inspect one of the empty caves and Jemisha was disappointed by the little space and the lack of items that weren’t garbage.

And every consecutive cave was more or less the same.

The further they went, the more goblins they encountered.

So many dirty goblins, who all talked in that primitive Gobble.

It was maddening.

Fortunately, the goblins always cleared the way for them with respectful haste when they saw Master Divine.

Seeing that was an experience, but until now, the trip wasn’t as interesting as Jemisha had pictured.

Then at the end of the tunnel, they found a pile of corpses.

It seemed the goblins were collecting Venus’ food there before bringing it.

Behind the pile of four dead goblins was the second and also the biggest cavern Jemisha had ever seen.

A sea of green, just like the forest, Goblins everywhere, as far as her eyes could see.

She wouldn’t have thought that this many goblins even existed.

It took a moment but even this big mass of goblins made way for their master.

They even pushed and squeezed into other goblins as long they could get out of their master’s way.

It was a funny spectacle.

When master and disciples reached the middle of the cavern, a group of goblins came to receive them.

A goblin with the bony jaw of a shadow cat on his head got pushed to the front of the group, eyed Master Divine with trepidation and nervously bowed.

The group he brought quickly followed his example.

Apparently, he was the leader of these goblins, but before Master Divine, he could only scrape and bow.

That filled the disciples with pride.

Accompanying him were ten of the best equipped goblins Jemisha had seen that day.

Of course, in her eyes their equipment was still total trash, but it showed that these poor goblins were at the top in the Lost Tooth Tribe.

Only the last goblin of the group made a bigger impression on Jemisha because she reminded her of Lilith a little.

Not because of her looks but because of her vibes.

The meek leader and the goblin woman began to talk to Master Divine in Gobble.

Jemisha stayed by her master’s side and listened in, even if she only recognized some words.

She wanted to learn.

“Great Divine” was something she learned to recognize five sentences into the conversation.

Her siblings on the other hand quickly grew bored and used the fact that their master was occupied to take off into the crowd.

Lubia pulled Samael along in one direction.

Lubia seemed to have no particular plan and was just following her adventurous spirit.

Oni took off into another direction from where the strongest food smell was reaching them.

Jemisha let them and didn’t alert Master Divine.

Because as of today, after an arduous week, she finally didn’t have to be her sibling’s keeper anymore.

Her wish to tour the territory of the Lost Tooth Tribe was already being fulfilled and her siblings weren’t her problem right now.

Also, Jemisha hoped that stupidhead Lubia would get into trouble and receive a harsh scolding from their master later.

Jemisha would just stay by Master Divine’s side, learn what she could and watch the chaos unfold.

The trip could still become great for her even if there were no great sights to see.