I sit, leaning on a trunk,, and beckon Axi."Come.” We cuddle together. It's not usual behavior for goblins, but I like it. Axi likes it too. I suppose we both like some intimacy. The darker side of my brain brings my sword a bit closer. Anastasia should be here soon, and who knows what she decided to do after spending a few months surrounded by her fellow humans? I wonder, did she find a human lover out there? If not, she will surely envy Axi a bit.
Half an hour later, Anastasia walks into the shack. She immediately looks at us, and I see a bit of envy. Good. I will have to give her some love later on, unless… She sits down opposite me. Nope! If she planned to betray me she would have already attacked. Or attacked with a small army.
Axi stands up and sits down to the side, so we are now in a triangle. “So, how are the humans?” I ask.
She sighs. “You were right. We need to migrate. I told people back in camp that they should migrate as well, unless they actually want to settle down and return to being farmers. We should coordinate with them so we go in different directions.”
“You mean, we tell them where they are forbidden to go."
She furrows her browns and then nods, “Yes.”
That’s unexpected. I thought she would want to defend them or fight to arrange a better position for humans. Had they had a fallout? If so, that’s great for me.
“We have some food remaining, but it will last no more than a day or two if we need to feed the entire tribe.” Axi tells us. “We will need to hunt on the march.”
“Hopefully there’s more game elsewhere. Have you found nice hunting grounds?” I ask Axi.
“I thought we could go to the 2nd tier zone. I spotted some creatures looking a bit like goblins, but with scales there.”
“Cobolts.” Anastasia informs us. “They are tribal with quite good organization. Their scales are somehow resistant to magic and can fetch a nice prize.” She shrugs. “At least that’s what I learned in the Adventurers Guild. I never fought or even seen one myself.”
“This means they are not going to be a good source of food. Ideally, we should find a nice spot in the 1st tier zone with plentiful game and a location fairly close to the 2nd tier zone. That would allow us to have a stable food situation and be able to feel out the 2nd tier zone.” I conclude.
“We will need to march further north.” Axi contemplates. “It’s just that we don’t know how long until we find such a place.”
“We can make a stop elsewhere, as long as the game is enough.”
“I will tell Adam to go south." Anastasia says. That concludes the meeting. She goes up and leaves. “I will return tomorrow.” She says.
“Sure. I will be waiting.” I say it with, hopefully, a welcoming smile.
“I’m going to take a few hobs and go hunt something. There is no point in wasting a day.” Axi says. I nod. She could craft something, but we have all the basics, and any additions would only serve as baggage during the migration.
Left alone, I go to shack with my experiments, practice puppeting for the rest of the day, and then go to sleep.
I’m awakened by a fire. My shack is on fire. What the fuck!? I hear an explosion. Adrenaline removes any sleepiness. I take a peek outside, and someone is throwing fireballs at the village. Actually, quite a few people. At least a dozen. Who knows how many of them hide in the forest? Damn. Couldn’t they wait just one more day? Damn! Damn it all!
Fire is hurting me, but I grab first my most prized possessions: the earth core, a sword, and an alchemy book. I remember everything else by heart by this point. I grab some food, throw it all into a backpack, and run outside.
I look around. Some goblins mobilized and rushed at attackers. Great! They volunteered to be my rear guard!
I run in the opposite direction. Wait! If I were the leader of human forces, I would place a trap. I change direction and move north, since humans seem to be attacking from the east. Running, I take another look around. Most of the shacks are burning. Goblins are either fighting humans and dying or running to the forest. Some goblins join me and run hegind me. A large group is just asking to be attacked. I need to stop my group from growing any larger.
Just as I’m about to run into the forest, a fireball flies my way. I raise a crude mana shield a meter from my body, which collapses as a fireball hits it. Whatever, the shield has done its job. A fireball exploded on the shield, burning me slithery. A goblin and a hob behind me had worse luck and were badly burned. I’m not going to spare any mana for them and continue to run.
Fortunately, nobody attacks us, and after a few minutes, I only jog. Three hobs and two goblins are with me. Now, we need to find Axi. My Lieutenants perk should activate as soon as I’m within a range of a few hundred meters from her.
[Ferdinard’s POV]
“This is all,” Adam finishes his story to Roheb’s governor.
“I understand you may feel indebted to the witch; hell, you most likely are, but let me reassure you. She'll get a fair trial.”
Adam nods his head. There is not much of a choice since over a hundred of the governor’s men and adventurers are in the village. As for the witch, she is cuffed and guarded right now. Still unconscious after a blow to her head. Honestly, I expected a bit more caution from her, but she practically completely let her guard down after entering the village. Ambushing her was too easy. Now, the governor needs to transport her to the town, which shouldn't be too hard. In general, to imprison someone, you need to restrain their physical strength, skills, and magical powers. Physical restraints are just cuffs. Steel ones are enough for everyone up to the 4th tier. After that, I heard strength-focused warriors can wear down the steel with some effort, so you need either specially made cuffs or ones made from magical metals.
For the skills, it’s also easy. A priest can bless any cuffs or just any restraining device to inhibit skills. The only way you can fight it is with the power of gods, so only other priests and those blessed by gods can do it. Obviously, physically removing restraints works as well. The hardest part is to restrain mages. Powerful mages are rarely taken prisoner. Most just kill them.
There are three ways to do it. First, have someone way more powerful completely suppress their will. Like two, preferably three tiers stronger. Obviously, this is not a common solution. The second option is to ward against their mana types. Priests used the Inspect skill, so we know the witch only has ambient mana skills, though again, she could have dropped stronger skills temporarily. This is the first problem with this method. The second problem is that most such wards use prisoners mana as fuel. This works for low-tier mages, but better mages can control their mana too well for this to work. The third problem is that you need wards for every mana type a prisoner has. Ambient mana is easy. Six basic mana types are common. Two-merged mana types are too many for most cities to afford such a complex restraining device.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The third method is to isolate mage from outside mana. This makes it impossible to restore their mana, but as long as they still have some mana in the pool, they can use it. Such a device also needs to withstand a mage’s will, since a powerful will can just forcefully seize mana.
Monsters are the easiest to restrain magically, as you just need to remove their core. This kills them normally, but with healing, it’s possible. Outside of some sick perverts, nobody does that. You kill monsters.
“Good. You are not pregnant. Your mind is also sound.” A priest tells that to one of the girls.
“She must have spared them. Goblins don’t behave like that. Besides, she isn’t even a true witch yet. She still lacks one title for a consolidation.” Another adds.
“Do not absolve her of her guilt. A thief is not a saint for only stealing half your money.” A discussion starts, which I ignore. Scouts should return soon. I suggested to the governor that he send a group of people to surprise attack their camp and destroy their storage, arguing that would give us an edge. In truth, I wanted to warn the goblins. By my estimates, there should be a few hundred goblins in their camp. A surprise attack would likely give the governor an easy win, assuming he could pull it off, but as long as the goblin commander is half competent, it will be harder to win for the governor’s army. Additionally, with their stores destroyed, goblins will be more motivated to attack Roheb. Practically, it’s their only way out of starvation now.
The skirmish team comes back after another hour. Nobody missing. I suppose it was too much to hope for. Those guys are rather competent.
“Sir.” Their leader nods toward the governor.
“You are all back. How are the results?” Governor asks.
The captain grimaces. “Too easy. The goblin camp was rather ordinary. Not even a hundred of them.” The captain starts, and my heart sinks. “We attacked anyway, but those goblins were very cowardly. Some of them attacked us, but it was without command or formation. The rest used the ongoing chaos to escape. There’s no goblin camp there anymore. Honestly, I feel that skirmish was a mistake.”
This can’t be!
"Anyway," the captain continues, “we only killed maybe a fourth of the goblins there. The rest escaped. We killed one mage.” He takes a wind core and shows it to the governor. “We did discover a furnace and fleshy abominations back there. She must have taught goblins how to smith. About the abominations…"
“She doesn’t have any skills like that. Anyway, take twenty men and go kill any stranglers. Don’t pursue them too far.”
“Yes!”
What do I do now? Should I just lead a goblin army and sack a barony? I laugh. Even if that were to work, which is unlikely, this would be the end for me. I could never walk streets again. Do gods really wants me to die so much?
“Mr. Ferdinard. Although it seems the witch tried to lay low, it’s true she is a dangerous individual, and you helped bring her to the end. I think splitting the reward half to half is appropriate." He was half asking. What should I do?
“Sure.” Whatever. This kind of money won’t help me.
“Let’s take the witch to Roheb. After that, we will have ample time to interrogate her and learn about these abominations and all other unholy practices she has taken part in.”
[Smag’s POV]
I know more or less where Axi should be, but only that. So, I meander on my way there, hoping to find any tracks. No luck with that; I should have expected that from my low tracking skills. I sigh. At least more goblins joined my group—around fifty of them, which is half of the tribe. After uniting with Axi’s group, that amount will swell a bit more. I suppose our losses are not that big. Frankly, I lament the loss of all my books more. Most goblins grabbed more useful things before escaping; they are not complete fools, so we are not completely screwed either. Most of them have weapons, at least.
I walk for a few hours until I feel my signal has been received. I have practiced this scenario with Axi and Anastasia (me looking for them), so Axi should stay put as I’m sending a ‘looking for you’ signal. After marching a few hundred meters in a hopefully straight line, I’m out of range. I walk back and retract my steps to around half the range between getting in range and moving out of it, then turn randomly left. After a minute, I notice Axi’s group.
“Whoa! Why did you find me with half the tribe?”
I sigh. “The point is, this is the whole of the tribe. At least right now.”
“What? Where’s Anastasia?”
“I don’t know.” I tell her about the attack and my tactical retreat.
“This wasn’t Anastasia’s fault.”
“I know.”
“What? I thought..”
“Look, I’m not an idiot. I know Anastasia wouldn’t prepare such a half-assed attack if she were to betray us. Humans Anastasia takes care of don’t have so many mages either; this wasn’t them.”
“We need to find her.”
“That’s the problem. Do you know where she is?”
She frowns.
“There are two options. First, she is dead.” She tries to argue, but I keep talking. “Let’s assume it’s not true for now.” She nods. “Second option: she escaped and is looking for us as well. Anastasia is a good tracker, and we are not exactly stealthy. She will have no problem finding us. In this scenario, we don’t need to do anything.”
There is actually a third option as well. She has been taken prisoner. But if that’s the case, we can’t do anything. Trying to rescue her is suicide, so I’m not even going to mention it.
“Anyway, this means we are migrating early.” Assuming Anastasia won’t return, we would need to settle in a 2nd tier region, though. Only this way can we replenish our numbers.
“I left some things in the camp… What about Windy?”
I shrug. “I haven’t seen his die, but given he isn’t here..."
“Damn.”
I nod. We just lost a Wind Mana Core. I shouldn’t give it to anyone.
“I hate it. Let’s move slowly, so Anastasia has a chance to catch up.”
“Are you not afraid there will be any pursuers?” I ask.
“If they are, it’s better to stay longer here. This will give Anastasia a distraction to pass any pursuers.”
“You are right.” I nod, but let’s not stay here any longer.
[Anastasia’s POV]
I wake up. I groan. My head is killing me. What happened? I open my eyes. A cage, cuffs… my heart sinks. This isn’t the tribe. I’m going to die…
I try to open my system.
Access denied. Your system access has been blocked by the divine.
I should have expected this. I try to control mana. I can control it inside my own body, but not outside. I suppose I can buff myself, but that won’t help me much. I look around. A few dozen adventurers are escorting me while I’m in a cage, riding a cart. Why would they capture me? Do they want a fancy execution? Maybe they want to interrogate me.
What should I say? I think it over. To survive, I must be useful. Do I have useful information? Maybe. Giving them would make me no longer useful, though. I need to use something I have that the town’s adventurers would never have, or at least it’s something hard to obtain. Something valuable enough to keep me alive.
The cart moves, and I bump up and down in the cage. It’s uncomfortable, but I don’t dare to complain. At least I’m not tortured. At least, not yet.
As the cart moves through the town’s gates, I find my answer. Goblin language? This is easy enough to learn. The only thing I can use is Axi’s and, to a much lesser extent, Smag’s trust. This means betraying them. I suppose I can try to wait for a rescue, but I’m not naive. I know Smag. He isn’t going to risk himself for me. Why should I die for him? Screw him. The knowledge that he is a former warlock is potent. The governor is not going to let him be. Hopefully, the governor will want to kill Smag enough to use me as a bait.
I sigh. I don’t want to betray Axi, but I can just keep silent about her. This will give her higher chances of escaping alive. Now I'm hoping they'll actually question me; otherwise, I'll curse Smag from the burning stake.
I’m thrown into a cell. I get a meal. So far, so good. The next day, I’m taken out of the cell and led to a room. A torturer's room.
“Wait! Wait! Wait! I will tell everything!”
“I know.” He strips me naked and cuffs my arms to a wall. It’s cold. Some of the tools are really scary.
“There’s no need. I have important information to share. Call the governor. He will want to listen to it.” The guy just starts to tinker with some tools, the purpose of which I don’t want to know.
“I’m not the boss. It was a reincarnated warlock. Very powerful. He mixed monster parts for fun. His magic was five-merged.” I start telling. I really don’t want to be tortured, especially since I plan to tell everything anyway.
“Fine!” The torturer groans. "At this pace, I will never raise my torturer skill cap.” He mumbles. So he wanted to torture me just for levels? Fucking psycho! Damn him! I grit my teeth.
A few minutes later, the governor comes with two priests and a few guards. It's time to play my hand.