Timothy and Gustav eventually made it to the castle. They hadn't been attacked by anything else ever since they killed that mantis, which was weird, but they were happy about it nonetheless, because neither of them wanted to pour their mana points on every corner along the way.
They discovered that the castle had a big, wooden door, which surely kept the outside world away. The main entrance was ten-meters tall, while the castle itself was about fifty meters tall. It was the largest building Timothy had seen ever since he stepped into Valporovus, he was impressed!
Anyway, such large doors were quite difficult to push, especially for tiny goblins such as the two of them. If the door was barred from the other side, then it was virtually impossible to enter this castle, and this was concerning, because neither of them wanted to walk around in this red hell right now. They wanted to rest, even though they didn't feel good about entering a mysterious castle.
“Any bright ideas this time?” Tim asked.
“No… unless throwing our backs out pushing this door is an idea?” Gustav added.
They were stumped, but after a moment, Timothy wanted to shift into a ghost, so he could pass through the door, and see what was hiding on the other side. It was a good idea, but he wasn’t allowed to execute it, because suddenly, someone called out for them from a tiny window from the castle, and this window was covered with iron bars, so they couldn’t see who it was that called them.
“Hello there! Who are you?” A man called out.
“I'm Tim, and this pale guy besides me is Guss!” He yelled out, and then asked. “Can you let us in? We've gone through hell ever since we jumped in that stupid portal!”
“You willingly jumped in it? That's stupid.” The man said, and then, without much of an explanation, the doors of the castle suddenly opened.
The two of them were baffled, because the doors moved so smoothly as they opened inwardly, but once they opened, they saw that there wasn't anyone pulling them. Whoever spoke to them, had opened the door through the aid of magic! It had to be a form of telekinesis magic, and this was a rare practice no matter the universe.
Anyway, they walked into the castle, and found a bit of comfort within its two-meter thick walls. This was a place that no bug could pierce, or so they hoped, because they wanted to spend a couple of hours here, to rest.
A minute later, a man floated down in front of them. He jumped down from the balcony that this large entrance hall had, and landed without bruising so much of a toe. As he greeted them formally, they could tell by his voice that it was him who talked to them before the castle doors opened, this part was easy to pick up on. The castle doors closed again just seconds later, and took the remaining natural light with them, but Tim was beyond excited now regardless of the lack of light, because he had noticed a couple of features on this man that looked a lot like human features!
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“Are you friendly, or a dick?” Tim asked him, because he wanted to initiate a conversation. “We don't want to fight you.”
A mere, hand-held torch shone some light on their surroundings afterwards, and it was the host who lit it. He had walked close to his guests, and as Tim got a better look at his tall stature, the prior conclusions he had were confirmed, this was a human!
“You’re a human!” Tim shouted, and although his tone came out as threatening, he was in fact the happiest he has been in a while. “I've been wanting to meet humans since forever!”
The other had backed away a bit once he was yelled at, but then he understood that his guest wasn't hostile, but just enthusiastic. It was rare to run across such enthusiasm, so he ended up feeling a bit perplexed.
For that matter, he asked. “There are several human species that I know of, also countless races. I don't understand why you're so excited to meet me?”
“I’ve been wanting to shapeshift into a human since forever now, but I still can't. If you spent a few months in the sea yourself, you'd understand why being a human is one of the best things that can happen to you.” Tim explained, he told a portion of the truth.
In any setting, he guessed that it would be stupid to mention that he used to be a human. If he told them that his soul came from an entirely different universe as well, then he'd likely be labeled as crazy, so he avoided mentioning that he was from earth all together.
Thankfully, this human was cooperative enough, and said. “Well, I hope you become a human someday, then. Let me introduce myself, I am Tonirus, a telekinetic mage from the Light Feet sect, and you're more than welcome in our castle.”
“There are more of you?!” Tim exclaimed, he was even more excited now. “I want to meet all of you, please, humans are so cool!”
Again, that was not the entire truth. He remembered hating at least half of the humans he knew back on earth, he hated them wholeheartedly. However, he still missed the feeling of being around humans, and he wanted to watch them, just doing human things.
The latter was a psychological need that had been buried deep in his heart up until now. He was sick of seeing both goblins, or fish, and wanted his soul to feel whole, and normal for once. It was a basic human need to be around other humans.
“You'll meet them eventually,” Tonirus said, and then he turned around, to walk towards the staircase that led upstairs. “Please follow me, let us treat you with some food, and maybe we can help each other too. I'm guessing that you've never tried roast crickets before… they're not as bad as they sound.”
“We killed a giant ass cricket like twenty minutes ago,” He pointed out, “Well, it was a Mantis, but it's dead either way. You can harvest its body, if you eat that stuff.”
“It's amazing that you held your own against a Giant Mantis, we'll go have a look at it later on.” Tonirus said, and as he walked forward, his guests were temporarily coated by the shadow of his tall stature. “Did you take the mantis’ brain? You could make a shield with that, you know? One that deflects most elemental attacks.”