Chapter 3: We Hunt So That We Can Eat
The forest smelled of leaves and dirt. This was all so foreign to Scitus, he lived in a world filled with technology and never once stepped into a forest. The wondrous sight almost made the growing pain in his feet bearable. Although he had supposedly become a god, he had the same stamina he did more.
He looked to his left, the trees grew erratically, some grew close together, others grew far apart, then there was the grown that felt as if it was constantly shifting beneath his feet. Unsettled didn't even begin to describe how he felt, but the goblins were not much better.
To his right was the elder goblin, his hands trembled as he constantly looked behind him to assure that everyone was still fine. The forests in a world where huge flying lizards existed was also a place one couldn't take leisurely walks. Scitus understood this at a fundamental level and because he knew this he steeled his will as to not cause panic. He was a god to the goblins if even a god is afraid it would break the tribe down.
"all, no speak." Scitus raised his hand forming a fist, the goblins had never seen it but understood his will and obeyed. Just beyond a large boulder that had been encapsulated by a tree was a large plain. A few feet behind the tree were several animals with the appearance of deer. Scitus breathed a sigh of relief, he was only half expecting to see a normal animal.
"raise bow, shoot same time," Scitus whispered as he saw in the corner of his eye one of the deer notice them. Noticing this, Scitus raised his bow haphazardly aiming at the deer.
"Pull" Scitus whispered as the goblin copied his form. "go." At his word, dozens of arrows shot through the air many of which thud into trees. Only 6 make it to the group of deer and of the six only two hit.
Eegh!!! Never had Scitus heard a whimper so terrifying, in his surprise he didn't notice a goblin run towards the deer with a jagged rock he had found earlier.
"Stop!!!" Scitus ran towards the Goblin yelling stop in English confusing the other goblins into thinking that running towards the deer was the correct decision. They tried to chase the deer, forgetting their bows in the process. As the deer escaped into the other side of the forest, one deer only made it halfway before being caught by the goblin that ran towards it. The goblin would soon regret catching up. With a powerful WHAM!!! The deer kicked the goblin, knocking it several feet back.
"STOP!!!" Scitus, this time in goblin, yelled for them to cease. In the same moment he yelled this, he saw the deer collapse to the ground. Scitus turned to see the goblin girl he showed how to make the bow looking back him with frozen fear. He turned back to the goblin that was injured, the goblin was thirty feet away, Scitus wasn't used to such strenuous activity, unlike the goblins who were walking muscular systems.
The clenched his teeth to fight the pain. The blood that leaked from his mouth was a sign that internal bleeding. When Scitus arrived he called the elders son.
With a single point of his finger, the young goblin understood his mission was to finish injured deer off. The goblin ran towards the struggling deer. The whimpers and tragic way it limped would have caused Scitus discomfort if he had seen it.
The goblin was heavily injured and even though sixty seconds had passed, the injury wasn’t healing. Scitus knew why. Scitus had a healing Aura but it only healed minor injuries. To heal bigger ones, he would need to claim a piece of land as his. Only then would he be able to heal his subjects of all possible injuries. The healing effect wasn’t in the book so his knowledge was limited to its effects.
"While a god is in his land, all his abilities are amplified." Scitus quickly examined the injured goblin, he noted that the goblin was biting through his lips. Two minutes had passed since his injury, there wasn't much time.
Scitus lowered his body to place a single hand on the gentle grass below him. it was wet from morning dew.
“I claim this land as mine…” woosh… the feeling of loss returned as he felt something inside him leave.
"guh!!!" it was uncomfortable, almost nauseating but at the same time, he knew it was safe to continue to pour more of whatever this mysterious liquid was into the earth. He consciously made an effort to force more of his mana into the earth not knowing if it made a difference or not.
By the end of it, he had a single knee touch the grass and a feeling of being home filled his chest. The claiming of the land took him 5 minutes, the moment that the land had become his, he understood that it was 100 square miles in size.
It was more than he had expected, but he had no time to dwell on it. The goblins were already mourning the loss of their tribesman. Scitus walked toward the group and gently pushed a young goblin girl, her eyes met Scitus for a single moment before looking for someone in the crowd.
"hurt no more" Scitus knelt down to inspect the goblin closer. The resilience was extraordinary, beyond Scitus's expectations. He noted that even without healing magic and a decent medical kit the goblin could still be saved. As his mind contemplated their resilience a dark aura formed around the goblins chest. This dark aura seeped into the goblin's skin, healing the injuries he sustained and returning him to a healthy state.
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The goblin sat up taking a large gulp of air as he slowly came to realize that he was healed.
"I better?" The truth was still difficult to understand so he looked to his god who was kneeling beside him.
“you better.” With a raised hand, he performed a familiar gesture, patting the goblin on the head. Though his expression had angry look to it, mostly because of his slightly furrowed brow, the goblin felt a sense of compassion emanating from Scitus.
"Not do again." Scitus changed his tone, he stood up and straightened his back and then glared at all the goblins until they nodded their heads.
"all listen or you get hurt." The more he made his awkward movements, movements that were part of the language, the more he hated the goblin tongue.
"I'll have to teach them English." He thought as he walked towards the elders soon who had by that point already ended the deer's life.
“go get other food, bring here.” Asking the elder to bring the food they had stocked elsewhere while he inspected the deer.
"forgive, I wrong." The elder goblins son stared at Scitus with different eyes than he had before, his palm was outstretched towards, on the small green palm was a dagger made of a sharp black stone. The object was his prized possession, he made it himself and was he admired for it. Giving the blade was a form of sincere apology to Scitus.
Scitus closed the goblins fist much to the surprise of the goblin. "Keep, I no need.". Trust was important among small communities, forgiveness was important especially when given a sincere apology. Scitus's view was that the first to make the mistake would be forgiven and go unpunished but if the mistake was made again whether it be by the first or another person altogether, only then was punishment necessary. Even then, the punishment was only used as a last resort, positive and negative reinforcement guarantee long-term habits and actions, punishment only works short term and only while the Punisher is watching. Scitus felt that if he couldn't forgive a mistake, in the future no one would admit to their mistakes, this would eventually lead to ruin, so he decided to forgive instead.
“I forgive.” The young goblin raises his head as high as he can, after putting his blade away, he forms a fist and pounds his chest 3 times, each pound a half second apart. This was a sign of loyalty among goblinsEach pound had a different significance and depending on the number meant the degree of their loyalty. The first meant I trust you, the second meant I will follow you and the third meant, I will die for you. The gesture was rarely used lightly and in some cases used as an insult towards goblins a person hated, but the goblin was never one to make jokes or insult others in such a way.
At that time Scitus didn't understand the significance in its entirety but he knew it wasn't a light gesture, something he concluded after noticing the stares he received from the other goblins. The look on their faces wasn't just surprise, it was something stronger, something that couldn't be described in a single word; it was like seeing a born leader decide to follow someone else.
Scitus asks for his duffle bag to be brought to him, the bag had an odd glow to it. the glow came from the fact that it had obtained a magical property, near infinite storage space, something Scitus discovered shortly after his arrival. The duffle bag weighed approximately 5 pounds regardless of its contents and would inform the person reaching in whether the item they are looking for is inside the bag, though to Scitus it informed him of everything that was inside it. Scitus reached in and grabbed one of the echos.
"yes, what may I do for you master." Contrary to the white-haired man, what appeared was a black haired woman. Her appearance was decided after looking at thousands of different designs, in the end, it was decided that the echo could change into all of them. Scitus found it odd, the hologram before him wasn't a hologram at all, it was a nanite projection a feature that he was sure he didn't activate and not only was it a nanite projection, her appearance was different than what he remembered.
“I need a book that shows me how to cut a deer.”
"Yes, master." Suddenly a hologram was projected onto the deer itself, dotted lines formed around specific places on the deer. Scitus looked at the hologram and it smirked as it raised it's head as if asking if he needed anything else.
"another time," he whispered to himself. He proceeded to tell the elders son where to cut on the deer and translated the instructions provided by the echo.
By the time The goblin was finished, a terrible stench made its presence known to Scitus. the awful stench was coming from a couple goblins that were dragging several maggot pied dog corpses. Scitus had to hold his desire to vomit and plugged his nose in disgust. The goblins weren't pleasant smelling, to say the least, but they were bearable almost oddly so; so seeing something so disgusting took Scitus by surprise.
Then another thought popped into his head or rather a small projection of letters appeared in front of him. This screen showed the nutritional value of the dog corpses.
Chance to causes disease: 5% nutritional value: Low
This was followed by a long list of bacteria and even some parasite names, alongside it came the quantity of vitamins and proteins per pound of meat.
"not eat no more," Scitus managed to say before collapsing to the floor as his throat involuntarily tried to vomit. Scitus touched his nose and shut his smell off, an ability he didn't know he had.
Scitus, although still disgusted, was now able to compose himself with the awful smell gone.
"Not eat no more." He said as he stood up and picked up his bow off the ground.
“We hunt more deer.”
The goblins mimicked Scitus, raising their bows, notably, only one didn't do this, it was the same goblin that was more concerned for another goblin rather than the injured one in front of her. Scitus watched her in the crowd.
The world he found himself in was real, he wasn't inside a game but rather an actual world. Whoever that person who brought him to Orana was, Scitus understood that it wasn't human. He had truly become a god, this was made all too clear when looking at the goblins. Their Ai was simply too advanced and as far as Scitus knew he was the only person ever to create a true artificial intelligence.
"conclusion, this is real…" He looked at the goblins, most had smiled in their faces, this was the result of his presence, he was their beacon of hope. He chose to lead monsters because it was something he couldn't do in the game, but now he understood why. The monsters of this world were seen as mindless creatures with a desire for human blood, but the reality was very different at least it was true for the goblins in front of him. Seeing them reminded him of himself, and when he met his maid and her siblings. He saw a kindness in her family that he had lost long before.
"This Kingdom will be known as the Guardia" the Spanish word for Guardian. His mother would often tell him that everyone had a guardian angel, he liked to pretend it was true, it brought him comfort in those lonely days. He knew Guardian angels, even If real, never did anything for anyone so as he looked at the hopeful faces of the goblins before him, he decided that he would be their guardian.
This was the beginning of the legendary city of monsters and the first step Monster kind took towards being acknowledged as people.