As they made their way downstream, Lenora told them how she came to be there.
While she could not remember her creator, she did remember waking up buried under a shelf of snow and ice. After digging herself out, she had found herself in the desolate land to the North, an icy wasteland with howling winds and almost no life to be found.
Winding her way blindly through the constant blizzards and snowstorms, she soon found herself at the base of a vast mountainous range. Here she came face to face with a young dragon and they fought a fierce one-on-one battle.
They fought for almost an hour, as Lenora described with gusto, her magic and its flame breath carving through the ice and stone. Their battle was so fierce and lasted so long, that other dragons came to watch as well. Eventually she had lost, the strong defensive properties of dragon scales proved too much for her to handle. Battered and dented, she was nevertheless still quite proud to stand toe-to-toe against such a formidable opponent.
The dragons, admiring her strength and now quite respectful of her, accepted her into their fold and she had lived among them for a short while. She still travelled up and down the ranges, still searching for clues of her creator. Training with the dragons had helped her boost her magic prowess even further and now she could sometimes best a dragon in a fight on a good day.
She then left when she could find no more clues, making her way down into the land of demons. In the burning and arid desert of the southern she wandered but did not make it far as every creature there seemed hostile and would attack her without mercy. They could barely even reason with her, let alone talk rationally.
After a fruitless journey, she wandered out of the desert and found two rather interesting goblins.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Utho said shaking his head in disbelief, “you’re telling me you just woke up in the northern frostlands, fought a bloody dragon and then just wandered through a desert? That’s your whole story?”
“Ooh it sounds like so much fun Utho!” beamed Ashur, her expression full of wonder, “when can we fight a dragon? I want to fight a dragon!”
Well it hardly surprised him either way. Given her strength and her being a golem, she would have an easy time travelling through hostile territory without even a need for food or water.
But fighting on par with dragons? How ridiculous. Simply absurd, he thought. Even his past self had trouble dealing with that proud ancient race.
***
They had walked quite some distance and had made good time by sticking to the river.
They stopped for a bit to take a short break. Utho sat down and pulled a shard from out of his pouch. It was a fragment of the defeated golem’s core and still pulsed with a faint blue glow. He had managed to salvage a few pieces of the core before they had left.
Utho knew he’d need a way to disguise himself completely as a human once they reached their destination. The problem with that was that all the races naturally emitted a faint aura unique to their own race. In order to be able to eventually make his way to the capital, Utho would have to deal with this problem.
Generally, people in the capital and especially the palace hated all non-humans. They saw themselves as a superior race and the only one deserving to stand atop as the proper rulers of the world.
He had no such superior dispositions when he was alive, but this sentiment was expressed by almost everyone he knew. Getting in as a non-human, let alone a filthy little goblin, would be impossible.
His appearance was not an issue. The ability [Shape Shift] seemed to allow him to imitate any creature he had previously come into contact with. During their previous break Ashur had delighted in fondling his pure white floppy ears while he was shape shifting as a rabbit.
Unfortunately, the effect didn’t seem to last too long. At the moment the transformation only lasted about half an hour before he turned back into goblin form. However, as the skill was based on mana manipulation, the effectiveness of the spell would depend on how well developed his magic core was.
A magic core was the basis for all magic used by living creatures.
Cores are created when mana condenses into “Essence” and materializes in the individual. Then, in order to increase one’s magic ability, that individual would have to take in mana into the magic core. This strengthens and improves the magic core.
This process was hard to master and even Utho was not very adept at it, managing only to reach mediocre levels for his magic core.
Now, he held the shard in his fist and concentrated as mana flowed down out of the golem’s core and into his own.
To solve the problem of his leaky aura, by forming a mana core he would be able to control the mana that exuded from his body. People would immediately be able to tell he could manipulate mana but they would no longer be able to tell what race he was.
That, combined with his ability to shapeshift, would be enough to disguise himself as a human.
As he focused, he realised that the gathering of mana into a core was happening much more easily as a goblin than as a human. Perhaps goblins had some aptitude for magic after all.
He depleted the mana from the shard during the break and they set off again.
Great, we’re making good progress and I’ve got a way of getting into the capital as a goblin, he thought.
The plains were being left behind, the rolling hills and rocky outcrops turning into sparse groups of trees. The rocks seemed to be a more uniform shape in this area and they found large clearings between large groups of trees.
As they passed into another clearing, they were greeted by the sight of a great ruin. It was a relatively new ruin, with low walls of stone that weren’t completely overgrown with ivy yet.
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Slanted columns and collapsed roofs told the stories of disrepair. The place seemed to be abandoned, but there could be squatters and bandits alike taking shelter in the ruins as it still could be used as a makeshift home amongst the rubble strewn about.
Utho couldn’t remember any ruins being close to Aeston. As far as he knew, the area around the adventurer’s town had a few settlements but none were abandoned like this one that they were making their way through.
“Ashur, do you sense that?” he muttered, glancing about without moving his head.
“Yeah, seems like someone is watching us,” she replied. A goblin’s sense of smell and hearing were quite sharp, allowing them to detect beyond the average range of a human’s. “Maybe a few? Hard to tell, there are a lot of rocks here.”
“What do you think Lenora?”
she said, pointing directly at the bushes.
“Oh, well I guess so.”
They split into three directions, Ashur to the left and Lenora to the right. Utho cut straight through and reached the wall.
Upon realizing that their position was revealed, the unknown party tried to retreat. Squatters then, and fast ones at that.
“We can leave them, they’re probably harmless,” he called out.
Ashur and Lenora both came back. Ashur was running along unburdened but Lenora seemed to be dragging something along with her. It was the three individuals that had tried to run, bound together in a squirming tangle of arms and legs.
Most importantly they were human and they were the first humans he had seen since being reincarnated. They looked terrified by the presence of the golem and the goblins and were crying out piteously.
It seemed that they had gotten over the initial shock of being captured and were begging their captor to let them go.
“Please don’t eat me, I swear my meat is disgusting and I’d taste terrible. Like eating lemons soaked in pond-scum. Try Darron’s, he’s got some tender meat. Just please leave my flesh alone,” cried one, a red haired man with speckles over his face.
“Oh no, he’s a filthy liar this one,” his companion retorted, his face almost as red as the other man’s hair. “And I know for a fact that liars make a great barbeque, like a nice fat seared steak crackling on a high heat! Me on the other hand, am an honest soul. I never did lie once in my life. Yes I am of such a truthful nature that my bones would rot your teeth and your tongue would fall off at how rancid my flesh is. Honestly don’t try it, you don’t want to find out.”
The third person in this strange trio was a woman with dark auburn hair who looked very fed up with the two bickering men. She remained silent, however, watching the group with a look of unease.
“Um Lenora, I thought I said we could leave them. Why did you tie them up and bring them back?” he asked the golem who was poking a metallic finger into the cheek of one of the human men.
she responded.
“Do you uh ‘question’ every sentient being you come across?”
“Ah, I see,” he said, “Well I think there’s a better way than torture.” He could see that the blood had drained from the three’s faces at the mention of torture. Now they watched him expectantly.
He knelt in front of them.
“My name is Utho and I come from the Abyssal Forest in the east. This is my companion Ashur. Who are you?”
“Uh, oh we’re just living here at the moment. Trying to survive in this crazy world you know,” one of the men piped up nervously, trying to play it cool. However, his constant trembling somewhat undermined his efforts at casual conversation.
“Uwaa, so soft,” Ashur had started patting one of the men’s hair, amazed at how smooth human hair was compared to the coarse tangle of goblin hair.
“Yeah we’re just simple adventurers. It’s not bandits have taken over Aeston and forced us to fend for ourselves or anyth-ouch!” the other received a hard elbow and a piercing glare from the woman.
“What’s this about Aeston?” he asked the sharp-eyed woman. She seemed smart and cunning unlike her oafish companions.
She seemed to weigh his words for a bit, briefly flicking her eyes to Lenora who stood silently by the group.
“The armoured one with the weird voice has a very interesting choice for slaves,” she said, with a level tone. “Even more interesting that she allows you to speak for her.”
“Slaves?” asked Ashur, looking up. Utho shook his head. Slaves were made illegal by his king, a law enforced by his own knights.
“What made you think we were her slaves?” he asked.
She seemed taken aback for a brief second. She exchanged a look with the other two
“Well you’re goblins. Goblins are weak and make good slaves for holding baggage. The thing is, she’s strong enough to make good money, enough to afford better slaves,” she said pointedly, as if her words actually made sense. The way she spoke so openly about this issue, it was almost as if the rules against slavery never even existed.
“Utho, I don’t like this talk of slaves,” Ashur said, tugging at his sleeve. He comforted her with a gentle pat on the head and a “there, there” before turning back.
“You speak about slavery so openly, like it’s fine to just buy and keep slaves. Is slavery not illegal?” he asked. Once more he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
She snorted and looked at him in derision.
“Were you living under a rock? Slavery has been legal for 5 years now.”
***
He felt a plunging sense of despair. At least 5 years had passed, then, since he had died an reincarnated. Who knew where the assassin could be now, there would have been plenty of time to make an escape after such a long period of time.
No, I can’t let it go like this. Think Utho, think. If there was indeed an assassin, then they would have had to be living in the palace with me in order to place the curse on me. I would have surely sensed fresh malice if a stranger had tried to put me under this spell without my knowing.
The old man was definitely suspicious. For one, he had originally come into the palace as a noble merchant and made his way up the ranks to the position of adviser to the King. This he had done using his skills as a merchant to gain influence within the royal court.
Then, soon after he got the position, I was made to kill the King and Jular was crowned as next in line.
However, he had kept close tabs on the old man from the beginning and never saw a plot against him or the King.
Although he never meddled with court affairs, he himself employed a spy ring composed of talented individuals skilled in disguise and intrigue. There was always at least one member watching the old man at all times, day and night. They had never seen him dealing with any suspicious third parties at all.
He himself had confirmed first hand that the old man knew no magic, arcane or demonic, what-so-ever. He didn’t even have a magic core.
Other than that, he didn’t really have a clue as to who might have been able to carry out such a high-level magic plot against him within the palace.
Regardless, he was no longer on a time limit to figure things out. If worst came to worst, he could simply abandon his quest to find the assassin and help Jular rule the kingdom instead.
Although he was sentenced to death by the boy, he held no bitterness against him. It was his duty as King to make decisions that no other person could. That being said, it was rather annoying starting from scratch. And as a goblin, no less.
At least now he had some time to regain his strength back to its former glory.
***
“Um hello? Look can you untie me, my wrists are getting sore here,” one of the men chimed in, looking much more relaxed since the goblins didn’t seem to put eating him as top priority at the moment.
Utho looked them over and sighed inwardly.
“You haven’t even told me who you are yet,” he said curtly.
“My name’s Benward. This here buffoon is my brother Beaven and she is our lovely sister Genta. Together we make the ‘Entriage Trio’,” one of the brothers crowed.
“You’re the buffoon, if anything. And I thought we agreed on the ‘Ventria Triplets’,” the other one scoffed.
“We’re not actually triplets you asinine halfwit, I thought we went over this already.”
“Both of you. Shut. Up,” her voiced cracked like a whip, silencing the bickering brothers. “Yes, we’re siblings that used to hail from the town of Aeston. I’m assuming that you’ve heard of Aeston at least?”
Ashur had started grabbing tufts of hair again, causing the men to wince slightly as little strands were liberated from their scalps.
“Yes, we’ve heard of Aeston, you mentioned it before. We’re actually heading there now. Do you know how to get there from here?”
“You’re heading there now huh,” she said slowly as her eyes slid to Lenora who now seemed to be contemplating different torture methods, “In that case, we can lead you there directly. On one condition.”
“What condition?”
“There’s someone we want dead. We lead you there and you kill a certain man for us.”