9
The Opinions of Others
Kill one human. Those three words held so many implications. First of all I needed to find humans. I hadn't asked any of the goblins, but we were in a forest, and I hadn't seen a single sign of civilization. If humans were nearby then they didn't often venture this way. Assuming I could find humans before being overrun by trolls, I then needed to kill one.
If humans here had anything like the ingenuity of earth humans then that itself might be a problem. Even finding and quietly killing a single lone human might bring down the hammer of retribution on my head. And this all assumed I was ok with just killing someone. Was I ok with killing a person? My morals had been on shaky ground for a while, and now they were truly being called into question.
Since being sent to this world I had mostly gone along with the flow. I had done some messed up things, but they all had good justification, at least in my head. I attacked some defenseless goblins, but that was to protect them and save them from the trolls or other wildlife and monsters. I had killed several trolls but that was self defense…
No… that wasn't quite right, I commanded a young girl to kill several trolls and she did. That felt worse and I didn't feel like my flimsy justifications really covered that one. Now I had to face killing a human that hadn't wronged me in any way.
A bit more thought only made the bad taste in my mouth more bitter. This was like the trolls, I wouldn't be doing the dirty work, not all of it anyway. I couldn't leave the dungeon, so I would have to send someone out to look for and either kill or bait someone into chasing them into the dungeon, like with the wolf just now.
My hands were mostly clean, but that was only because others were the ones doing the deed. Why hadn’t I paused to think about this until now? Could I do anything about it?
Ever since dying my emotions had been muted, I had thought I was getting better with all of the amusement and compassion breaking through, even the anger at Lilith and worry over the trolls had broken through. I had felt it, maybe not as strongly as I should, but I did feel things. But I hadn't really thought about what I was doing and my actions were being fueled by cold logic more and more. Did becoming a zombie really turn me into an unfeeling monster?
Maybe it was time to step back and rethink some things. I didn't necessarily need to get stronger and fight off the trolls. I could work toward hiding instead.
In one of my trial and error sessions in the construction interface I worked out that the dungeon required me to have an open entrance twice as wide as the largest inhabitant and half again as tall. Tessa was the largest monster at something like eight feet tall and five wide. That meant the dungeon door was basically a garage door, and that was hard to hide.
I might be able to do something though, hide the door at the bottom of a pit maybe. We had the minds for the task though, I wasn't the only one who could think up solutions to problems.
I called in Geoff and Tessa for a chat, this time leaving out Gale, she was smart but I really felt bad about ordering her to kill the trolls now, and it was time to start changing things.
I opened the meeting with my makeshift council of sorts, “We need to decide how to move forward.”
The two monsters looked at each other for a moment before Geoff asked their question for the both of them, “What do you mean?”
I explained the situation to them not leaving anything out. I told them about how I wasn't always a monster, about how I didn't know anything about this world, about the dungeon tier requirements, and about my worries over losing my own sanity, and my desire to hide the dungeon away rather than fight. They listened quietly until the end, showing surprise and concern in equal measure. That made me realize that the muted emotion problem was unique to myself, and not a zombie trait.
I should have noticed it earlier. I had, in some fashion, realized that the goblins and trolls still felt emotions just as strongly as they had in life, but I hadn't put it together until just now. The signs had been there though, Geoff was too terrified to move when fighting the trolls, Terry was terrified when he woke from their weird sleepwalking and immediately called for his mother, Tessa was protective and loving of her child, and Gabriel surely had PTSD or something like it from being killed over and over.
I was the only one who had trouble feeling anything aside from extreme emotional turmoil. That realization only served to fuel my worries. Something was wrong with me.
Tessa took the lead in the conversation, “So, you can't feel compassion or protectiveness? And because of that you worry that you will send us to do something truly evil, so your solution is to hide away from the world. Did I get that right?”
I nodded nervously.
“You're an idiot.” Geoff declared.
I blinked at him in shock, Tessa just nodded in agreement.
“What?”
Geoff grinned “What have you done since coming here from… wherever you came from? You took in the first person you met, and offered them protection, even though I tried to kill you. You helped me save my people and extended that protection to them even though you never met any of us, and it put you at risk from the trolls. Then you did everything you could to save the trolls who came literally howling for blood.
At every turn you have done everything you could imagine to save, protect and comfort those who need it. So what if you can't feel things properly? And I don't think that is entirely true either by the way.
Your actions tell a different story.
Even now when you see what you feel is your own compromised decisions your first response is to bring us in and ask our opinions and offer to hide and protect us again.”
Geoff looked over to Tessa and addressed her next, “I can’t speak for you or Terry so stop me if anything I say rubs you the wrong way, the trolls are your people after all”
Tessa had a shit eating grin on her face and nodded. I was flabbergasted at Geoff's speech, but he wasn't done.
“We need to simplify the problems. The trolls are dangerous, and are not likely to stop being so any time soon. We need to get stronger in order to protect ourselves, but also, and more importantly, to put an end to the threat. And yes we do need to end the threat. Hiding won’t solve the problem and we don’t want to hide anyway.
Just getting stronger might not be enough because there is something off about the trolls, it doesn't seem like they are attacking of their own free will, and after Terry and Tessa woke up they weren't the same at all. We all know if there is any chance to wake up the trolls and save them from whatever is making them act like this then you will take it.
So we need to come up with a plan, AND get stronger. That brings up the next, and frankly, less troublesome problem.
We need to kill a human to get stronger. That isn’t even a real problem.”
I started to protest but Geoff held up a hand and rolled over my arguments, “No, it really isn’t. We know where the humans live, so finding them won’t be difficult. You can barely make yourself kill a troll that is actively attacking you so I know you won't want to attack an innocent.
I don't know much about humans, but I can tell they aren't that different from goblins, they aren't all innocent. We just need to find a bad human and solve our problem as well as clean up the world a little bit.”
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I hesitated at that thought, “Vigilante justice?”
Geoff waggled a hand in the universal ‘sort of' gesture, “Maybe, if that option presents itself. OR we can just ask, surely the humans have criminals they need executed. We can offer a service.”
Tessa and I just stared at him. And I was worried that I was the dangerous unfeeling monster.
Tessa threw a bucket of cold water on that plan though, “We can't ask them anything. We all only understand each other, we cant even speak our own languages anymore let alone human speech.”
She had a point, even this conversation was just a series of moans, wails, and groans. Except there was one other person here who did speak other languages.
“Lilith, can you be a translator?” I asked.
“No" She said simply.
It was the goblins all over again. We would have to resort to the worst options just because she refused to cooperate.
“Lilith, let me rephrase. You can be a translator.” I stated in a dull monotone.
This time she sounded pissed rather than apathetic, “Here's an idea, fuck you. I spend all day up here wondering who I am and what is happening. I can’t DO anything except talk, and the people who I talk to obviously hate me.
The only time you deign to speak to me is when you need something. You never ask how I feel about something. I’m just constantly dragged along and expected to jump when ordered, never mind if I have legs to jump with or not.
Let me spell this out for you.
I. Can. Only. Speak. Monster. Tongues.
You telling me to do something I can't do won't make it possible.
So one last time for those in the back not paying attention, FUCK YOU.”
Well… shit. I spent all this time worrying about the goblins and trolls, and whether I was making them do things they didn't want to. All this time worrying about treating them poorly and totally missed Lilith's troubles.
She had told me before that her lack of control over her own body was a sensitive issue. I had thought I was doing a good job being considerate and not forcing anything on her, but when she acted out in the only way she was able I stopped trying. Even she didn’t understand why she acted like she did, that and her missing memories were serious concerns that I just brushed over.
The silence was heavy, and I knew it would only make her more angry, but I had to say my piece now before these wounds festered and created resentment.
“I'm sorry, you deserve better. I won't make excuses. I treated you poorly and didn't consider your situation.”
She didn't respond, but I hadn't expected her to. In fact, no response was best, she could have lashed out. Hopefully that could serve as the first step in fixing that particular fuck up.
I tried to push the meeting forward, “Ok… so we aren't going to hide then. We have a long way to go before we can tier up, so we can put the human problem on the back burner for now. Until then we need to come up with a way to get some more coin and redesign the dungeon.”
The rest of the meeting was mostly unproductive. The best money solution we could come up with was hunting, but our hunters were out of commission. Geoff offered to spread the word and see what the general goblin population could come up with.
Tessa volunteered to work closely with Gale in designing more dungeon suggestions. Tessa knew what sort of things the minions needed for day to day life, and Gale might be the smartest of us when it came to unorthodox defenses.
In the meantime I returned to the surface to collect myself and my thoughts. Nearby Squirrely McSquirrel delivered a shipment of tree nuts to Terry, who buried them for the squirrel. When the squirrel noticed me it stopped and stared at the crown again.
That was becoming unnerving. The first time the squirrel stared at the crown it was funny, and I wondered what a squirrel dungeon would look like. Now the weird little tree rat had basically moved in, and every time we crossed paths it would stare at the crown until something interrupted. What did it know?
Without breaking its gaze the squirrel left Terry to his work and slowly approached me. A spike of fear shot through me, and I wondered if it had somehow heard my thoughts.
I pushed down my irrational worries and stared down at him. Finally his eyes left the crown and locked onto my own. Without breaking eye contact the squirrel started scratching at the dirt.
It took far too long for me to realize what it was doing. I knelt down and looked at where Squirrely McSquirrel was drawing in the dirt. The squirrel was a damn artist and he wasn't actually looking at what he was doing, just staring into my eyes, and the canvas was hard packed dirt. Despite all that, the image was clear as any printed photo without colors. It was a series of images like a comic book telling a story.
In the dirt I could see the image of a tiny squirrel holding a coin nearly as big as its own head. In the next panel a person took the coin and it turned into a doorway, you could see through the door and on the other side was a city. The squirrel went through the door and into the city. The next image was of a clock with spinning hands, I noted that it was a twelve hour clock like on earth. Then the squirrel returned through the door, and held out a necklace to the person who then put it on.
Once he finish drawing he continued to stare at me and point at the image. I wasn't stupid I could understand he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't get past how smart this random squirrel was. If there was any doubt left over whether or not he was following me then that had just been settled.
But what did it want me to do, and should I trust it? I didn't really understand, but I looked back at him and nodded once. He nodded back and slowly reached into his cheek where he had been storing nuts while gathering his hoard.
When Squirrely McSquirrel produced a gold coin and held it out to me I fell on my ass in shock.
I tentatively reached out, not really sure if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. Before I could touch the coin though, he snatched it back and pointed at the drawing again shaking his tiny paw furiously.
I looked closer and he was indicating the panel where the coin became a doorway. He was willing to give me this gold coin but I had to use it to make a door? What door? With this I could make thousands of doors, doors for days. Whatever doors you want little guy.
I nodded again but he narrowed his tiny eyes at me and shook his head pointing at the door again. This door specifically, but what sort of door leads to a city.
Then I realized what he was trying to tell me. I had just been wondering about this, and now the solution was right here. He was offering to pay for the portal.
Something in my face must have shown my understanding because the angry rodent relaxed a bit and offered the gold again. Rather than take it, I activated the interface, absorbed it, and placed the portal in the back of the boss chamber.
Before confirming I stared at the window displaying the gold coin about to be spent. I could do so much with that money. I might even be able to set up a defense that no troll could penetrate. If I did that then I could make this money back in time, and all the troubles would be solved.
The temptation was strong. So, so strong. When I finally confirmed the portal I was grateful for the time stop, I had spent far too long wavering.
The squirrel didn't react when the gold coin suddenly disappeared from his hand, instead looking at me expectantly. I waved him in and guided him to the portal door where he stopped and looked at me again. We stared at each other again for a while before he shook his head and gestured at the door.
I didn't understand and cocked my head to show that. I was starting to get the hang of non verbal communication. He threw his hands up in exasperation and walked slowly to the door. Without breaking eye contact he proceeded to jump up and down waving his tiny arms around.
Oh! I hurried forward and quickly opened the door, he scurried through without looking back.
I watched for a moment as he disappeared into the crowd. Then I had to really look.
On the other side of the door really was a city. It was dark, perhaps night-time, though this was apparently another dimension, who could say if there was such a thing as night and day. Even though the sky was dark, the street was not. Lights lit most windows, and I could see the buildings were all different styles.
Some had a familiar architecture, wooden walls and shingled roofs or stone walls and metal roofs. Some though were completely alien, with materials I couldn’t identify, some were even clearly organic, one looked like a giant turtles shell hollowed out, one looked like some sort of meteorite and had weird mantis like creatures flitting about from one opening to another.
That made me look closer at the people. Despite the darkness the street was packed, people constantly moving and pressing through the crowd and in and out of buildings with purpose. But the people weren't human, not a single one. Rather every one I could see was some sort of monster. Centaurs, orcs, goblins, bipedal wolves, fairies, floating brains, fox people, tentacle monstrosities, something even flew by that I could swear was a dragon.
A city of monsters indeed.
Contrary to what I would have expected from a gathering of monsters I didn't see any fighting. Several times I noticed someone bump into another, but every interaction was polite and civil.
I started to walk through the door to get a closer look, but smashed my face into an invisible barrier.
Error: Dungeon crown and Dungeon Boss may not leave the dungeon at the same time.
Right… I still needed to figure out how to remove Lilith without removing Lilith.
It could have just told me that without smashing my face though, that hurt.
I went to close the door, but received yet another error.
Error: You may not close the portal while your dungeon has a representative in the Dungeon Market.
Uhhh… so the squirrel is my representative now?
I thought about sending Geoff through to have a look around, but ‘market’ implied that there would be shopping, and without the gold coin I was again broke. Plus I really wanted to see it for myself dammit.
Before I could stew for too long a familiar tree rat came bounding back through the portal, and settled in front of me holding up a pendant. Right, the dirt comic strip showed him returning with something.
I took a look.
Legendary Artifact
Name: Amulet of Babel
Effect: Allows the wearer to select any living creature.
Effect: All spoken language is translated into the targeted creature’s native language.
Effect: All spoken language by the targeted creature is translated to the wearer's native language for the wearer only.