[Anastasia’s POV]

So, what now? Why does he want my name? I notice the female stripped. Does she want to mate with this goblin? She looks irritated. Is she jealous? This… is actually ridiculous.

Two goblins start a discussion. This is very strange. Goblins are too stupid for that. Hobgoblins can only barely speak. Orcs, the next stage of goblins' evolution, can speak but they are only on the level of stupider humans. Only ogres, 4th tier monsters are as smart as most regular humans.

The discussion last for a bit, and then they mate in from of me. I’m once again surprised. They have sex like humans. There’s no aggression. Goblins shouldn’t behave that way. After the deal, the goblin comes to me again. Is he going to rape me?

He points to the spear. What does he want? I visibly sigh and tell our names while he points. Then, he points at the spear.

“Spear,” I tell him. He repeats. Then, he points at the ax. He wants to learn my language. This… I don’t know what to think about it. I just tell him what he wants. He will need me conscious to teach him… Perhaps he can provide me with regular meals?

Soon, the feeder goblin comes around, with gross nipples on his hands producing drugged milk. He feeds two other women, but I refuse. The small goblin notices and then leaves the shack. He returns after maybe half an hour with steaming meat. I salivate. He feeds it to me. I eat it like crazy. I don’t know how he got it, or how he knows humans need cooked food. Is he some kind of spy for monster kingdoms?

This forest is only in 1st tier zone, but there are monster kingdoms in higher-tier places. Bright Gods are lawful, but Dark Gods of monsters are chaotic in nature, which reflects on their people. Monster kingdoms constantly fight enlightened races or each other, though most of the fights take place in mana-rich, high-tier areas. There is always a possibility that some intelligent, high-tier monster decided to invade and sent a spy. Maybe both of them are spies.

Right. They have names. Regardless of their goals, this means I will have more time to escape. It’s best to play nice for now.

“Thank you, Smag.”

“Thank you.” He tests the word.

Smag lies down beside Axi, and they fall asleep. I’m thinking about another escape attempt, but I back down for the same reason I didn’t escape from the previous chieftain. I won’t be able to sneak out, and I have no chance of fighting my way out. Technically, I'm a 1st tier human. I used the Archer class to tier up. Archer class gives quite a lot of Strenght, but without a bow, my fighting skills are rather lacking.

The next day, Smag gives me breakfast and asks for more words. I comply.

“Thank you, Anastasia.” He says at the end.

The situation repeats for several days. After that, he is good enough that we can have a simple conversation.

[Smag’s POV]

In the last few days, we have completely taken hold of the tribe. Axi taught goblins how to make traps, and forced them to use group tactics. I also interrogated hobgoblins and send Axi to gather information, like the terrain around us.

Adventurers come here sometimes, but they are usually at hobgoblin level or even weaker. I will have to wait and ask Anastasia later, but I will believe it for now.

Given how fast goblins can reproduce I believed that my new race can outnumber everything else. This is not the case. Many goblins die in fights with local fauna. Most animals here are mostly harmless, but that just means they are prey to stronger predators. First, there are a few 3rd tier monsters in the area. Some of them are predators, but not all. For example, there is a 3rd tier hedgehog. This is the first danger to goblins in the tribe. Those monsters are too few to wipe out the entire tribe, but the tribe has been losing members to the 3rd tier maws on a regular basis.

The second danger comes from wolves. They are in the area as well, but the fights are rather sporadic. Wolves prefer to hunt other monsters, but sometimes attack goblins when out of available food.

The third danger comes from ants. Actually, those ants are herbivores. They are rather smart as well, eating only the excess and allowing nature to rebuild. Ants are the primary source of food in the area. They can fight back, though. Large hosts of 1st tier ants can be dangerous to everyone. They may have 2nd tiers too, but unlikely in large numbers. Herbivores don’t hunt, so they don’t get experience. There’s also a possibility they don’t have a natural evolution and simply can’t evolve without some other conditions.

I also learned there is another tribe one day of travel far to the southwest. I asked Axi to check on them. They reacted with some hostility to hunting on their terrain, but otherwise, they are neutral.

I created my own niche in the tribe as well, realizing myself as a proper shaman.

You have killed 34 1st tier monsters. You have earned 960 Experience Points.

Your Tracking skill has advanced to level 9!

Your Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 4!

Your Move Soul skill has advanced to level 3!

Your Leadership skill has advanced to level 9!

I started offering healing and buffing service. Soon, hobgoblins started to bring me monsters to kill and give them a blessing, that is, use my Blood Buff perk on them. This means I have a steady source of Experience Points without leaving the tribe.

As for why I don’t leave, it’s because I train my skills. I want to have at least level 30 in my primary mana skills, possibly level 40. This means grinding. I may leave after I interrogate Anastasia, though, just to reach the max level first and be able to evolve anytime.

On my training side, I figured more about souls. They crumble after a few hours of being left unattended, probably into soul mana or something like that. I have done some experiments, like trying to place a soul into a corpse and then using Transfer Vitality. It didn’t work. The vitality got transferred, but it failed to latch onto the corpse’s vitality, as there wasn’t any. Regardless, resurrection may be possible, but it would probably require access to controlling vitality or soul mana, maybe both.

Finally, it’s time to interrogate Anastasia. I enter the shack and find her bound to it just like I left her. The two other women I gave to the remaining hobgoblins. I don't really care to have sex with them, but it's a bit of a waste to just kill them. Anastasia now wears some furs I gave her, but they don't cover much of her body. Her body is athletic and rather sexy, with exception of her arms. She has arms like a bodybuilder. Her face is rather average for a human, but compared to goblins she is way prettier.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I spend a lot of effort learning her language. It was especially hard to learn conceptual words. Fortunately, she knew I wanted to learn the language, so we have been making progress. I think she tries to learn my language as well, though I doubt she learned more than a few words. I don’t teach her, after all.

“Where humans?” She is surprised about the question. She must have thought we will continue our lessons.

“Where?” I ask while pointing in various directions. She hesitates for a moment and points to the east with her head.

“Far?”

“Day. Day.” So two days. I figure she's done it by walking slowly through the forest, so perhaps fifty kilometers. This means my previous cave was close to humans. She can lie, obviously, so I can’t be certain.

I ask her more about humans. They have villages to the east, and kingdoms. I ask about her, too. She is an archer from a poor family. She was hunting in the forest with a group of adventurers looking for money and experience. Since monsters can have very powerful bodies, a lot of human economies are based on monsters’ parts. Generally, it’s not a very profitable job, unless you can find something precious.

We continue to converse for days. I ask about her skills, and she tells me that enlightened races have a different progression system.

“Our classes based on skills. One skill, one class. Better skill, better class. Have to high skill to upgrade.”

“Many classes?”

“Five.”

I ask why it’s different. It comes to the creation myth. In the beginning, Bright Gods created enlightened races, so they worship gods with arts and talents. The Dark Gods didn’t care for art, but they didn’t like that their enemies had something they didn’t. Dark Gods created monsters so they can kill and bother enlightened people for the Dark Gods' amusement. Monsters were created for war and destruction, so they were winning. Bright Gods created the system so enlightened races could fight back.

The system allowed them to overpower monsters. Dark Gods were once again irritated, so they stole the system. They didn’t want the same system for monsters, as they believed many skills were unnecessary, like art skills. Dark gods reworked the system for monsters, but because they didn’t care too much, they did sloppy work, copying most of the features.

I asked her more about gods, but she could only tell me there are priests who wield holy powers. Both gods groups have priests, and churches wield considerable power. I also learned high tier monsters have their own kingdoms in the high mana regions.

I ask her about her skills. Rather than crafting skill group, enlightened races have enlightened skills. The change isn’t great. It just allows for art and pure knowledge skills, like language skills.

As for her own power, she has an Archer, Hunter, Novice Mage, and Farmer class, using bow skills, tracking, and rune knowledge skills as a base. She has a farming skill from her childhood. To my delight, she also has Runic Knowledge skill in the magic section. According to her, she wanted to become a wizard and attended some lessons in the Adventurers Guild. Unfortunately for her, she failed to attune to an element and had to abandon wizardry for a more practical job.

After that, our discussion topic change to magic. Enlightened races and monsters do magic differently. Monsters collect mana in their cores, while enlightened races have it in their souls. Enlightened people can attune to many elements, while monsters can only attune to one. This means Axi is locked to earth magic.

She tells me there are six basic elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Order, and Chaos. From these six, you can combine them into advanced elements. I ask her how many elements are there, to which she replies that there are three theories. The first one is that there are 2076 mana affinities. Quite a lot. Each basic element has at least two aspects, like fire, which can be just a hot flame and also symbolize extremity and transformation. Water symbolizes adaptability and change. Air is fickleness and etherality. Earth symbolizes something unchanging and enduring. Order physically restores things to how they should be while symbolizing creativity and progress. Chaos destroys and mixes things while symbolizing irreversible destruction and the inevibability of it. This means each aspect can merge with ten others, as there can’t be an advanced mana type with the merger of two aspects of fire.

That was only a theory, though, as the next theory believes there are more than two aspects to each base mana type. In this second theory, there are a countable number of mana types, but we can’t count them because we don’t know how many aspects there are to each base mana type.

The third theory says there are an unlimited number of mana types because there are an unlimited number of aspects to each base element.

Regardless, there seem to be a lot of mana types. Human mages rank themselves based on how powerful a mana type they have access to.

At the bottom are Disciples with only the common Mana Control skill. Then, Senior Disciples with the uncommon Mana Manipulation skill.

Having access to a basic mana type makes you a Novice Magician, often called only Novice or Magician. Each additional tier means a better, fancier name.

Two-merged mana type: Mage

Three-merged mana type: Senior Mage

Four-merged mana type: Wizard

Five-merged mana type: Archmage

Six-merged mana type: Magus

The system gives them rarities, starting with the rare for base elements and ending with the mythical for six-merged mana types.

My Mana Manipulation is uncommon, so I would be Senior Disciple, assuming I’m a human. Enlightened races gain access to more mana types through understanding and epiphany. They meditate in an area rich in specific mana to attune to it. Treasures, like the one Axi ate, help too. Humans don’t eat them, though.

Generally, only those with a title of at least a Mage are considered proper magic users. A proper mage is required to have a bunch of mana types, each for the right occasion. Monsters can’t do that and are stuck with one mana type. This means Axi is going to have only basic earth mana for her whole life. It’s not very bad, as it’s still better than having no magic. However, monsters with stronger magic would always have an advantage over her, and she can be easily countered.

You can only have one affinity trait, and that allows you to cast spells on a body. It also strengthens spells of that affinity. Monsters get the affinity trait automatically, while most enlightened don't even want them, as this supposedly messes with unlocking more mana types.

For example, Axi sending earth mana into her body makes her more resilient, but it would be killing someone without affinity trait, just like I felt only pain when she tried that. This means enlightened races have limited options for internal spells without specific mana types.

Speaking of counters, I asked about magic defense. The most popular and basic form of defense is Mana Shield, made from isolating mana. Mana Shield creates an isolating barrier for all mana types, preventing the intrusion of mana into someone's body or equipment. The full-body shield method is preferred by pure physical fighters who only train magic to create better shields, self-buffing magic, and close contact mana types. Mages who attack from a distance usually use a mana shield dynamically. Moreover, the mana shield only blocks mana, so physical attacks won't be blocked. This includes spells, for example, tossing a huge stone with magic.

The next form of magic defense is to counter an element.

“So, counter fire with water?” I ask

“No? Water turn steam. Better earth or no flame.”

“Counter water?”

“Ice. Ice water, more ice.”

“Earth? Water to mud?”

“No. Mud no earth nor water. More stuff wins. Neutral.”

I get it. It becomes dependent on the environment. A water mage near a huge reservoir of water is going to win with an earth mage, assuming their skills are similar.

“Order? Chaos?”

“Enemies. Both.”

So order and chaos mana types are opposing each other. I guess it’s some kind of mutual destruction.

After more days of learning the language, I learn some two-merged mana types from Anastasia.

Fire +

Water = Steam

Earth = Lava

Air = Gust

Order = Warmness

Chaos = Ignition

Water +

Earth = Mud

Air = Mist

Order = Ice

Chaos = Poison

Earth +

Air = Sand

Order = Metal

Chaos = Erosion

Air +

Order = Pressure

Chaos = Tempest

Order + Chaos = Catalyst, a conceptual element that helps trigger things. Rare because both Order and Chaos are hard to learn.

These are only the most common mana types. For example, Fire + Earth can create the Candle Flame mana type, which causes fire to burn long and steadily. This is a combination of regular fire and the conceptual qualities of earth, that is, stability, slow changes, and so on. The theory with the lowest amount of mana types says there are four two-merged mana types with each combination, after all.

Anastasia doesn’t know many of them, as they are kept secret by governments and influential people. There is strength in staying in the dark, but it also helps to prevent the spreading of elements. When merging, you need to know what outcome you want. There are a lot of possible combinations, so it’s possible to guess, but it’s harder.

Another aspect is that you can get similar mana types, especially at lower tiers. For example, there’s a way to get Ice Mana combining fire, probably with water. The fire concept includes being prone to extremes.

The elements are unique, though, so the actual mana type is probably not Ice Mana but something like Freezing, or maybe Frozen Water.

After learning common knowledge, I told Anastasia to teach me runes. She knows only the basics, but it’s still way more than me.

You have learned Runic Basics (Uncommon) skill

I know Anastasia could have lied about previous matters, but I can just test a rune, so there’s no problem here. I also wonder what to do with Anastasia. I can let her go, but there’s a high chance she may look for revenge. I’m still afraid of humans, or at least stronger adventurers.

I can kill her, I suppose, which would be probably the cleanest way to end it. I’m not sure I want to be such a man, though. She didn’t try to escape yet, but I believe it’s because of her bulging stomach. Time passed, and she is going to give birth in a few days. I don’t plan to have her raped after that, so there will be no more problems for her to escape.