Reyal sighed and simply stood at the side, not intending to obstruct Zellin. But he shook his head in disapproval. Why even bother with a goblin? He asked himself.
Zellin lifted his hand above the mini-goblin’s body, and his hand began to glow with a blue light. A contract imprint appeared on the mini-goblin’s chest which absorbed Zellin’s mana ravenously, until Zellin struggled to stand, continuing until all his mana was depleted. After absorbing Zellin’s mana, the little goblin had visibly grown a couple inches.
Zellin’s intention in contracting this goblin was simply to let it grow faster as he really couldn’t be bothered to raise a goblin all the way to adulthood when he, himself, was only seven years old. As this little goblin would eventually grow to be semi-human, it seemed kind of wrong to contract it. But that was only a preconception he gained as a result of his earlier life and growing up in a society that looked down on slavery.
Who’s to say if contracting animals was any worse than contracting humans? But of course, if the distinction was made where Zellin realized he was treating his pets unfairly and that they didn’t enjoy being in his care, he wouldn’t hesitate to give them their freedom.
This decision to let the mini-goblin eventually escape the contract was a little instinctual, but his preconception of intelligent life forms or what is essentially human and what he assumed to be their natural reaction to being ‘contracted,’ was reason enough to stop him from keeping this little goblin as his pet. And of course, what’s the point in overthinking it and imagining a world of happy slaves or where everyone is essentially ‘free?’ That’s just wasting your life, Zellin thought. It’s better to let instincts handle this one.
The goblin looked up to see Zellin watching it and smiled innocently. It made some baby sounds and lifted its hands towards Zellin.
Zellin laughed as he picked up the baby goblin. “You know, for a goblin, you’re pretty cute. I hope don’t get too ugly on me in the future, or I just might abandon you.” He joked with a smile. “Yes, a-ban-don.” He continued in that voice you use to speak to babies.
Reyal continued to shake his head, but with shame instead of disapproval. I can’t believe I’m friends with this guy… Reyal thought to himself.
After looting everything but the goblin chief’s house, they made their way back to town. As Liu saw the baby, he gave it a funny look, but decided not to say anything. As for Coral, since the baby was still cute, she picked it up and insisted on carrying the little guy while she played with him.
After turning in their Spice Flower quest, they returned home. For some reason, Zellin was incredibly sleepy, so he asked Coral to take care of the baby while he took a nap. Little did he know, it wouldn’t be until the afternoon of the next day when he would awake again.
After waking up the next day, Zellin simply shrugged it off, and ignored the abnormal nap he took. I’ve slept for longer, he thought proudly. Several days afterwards, he was finally forced to buy some energy pills to stay awake for longer than 8 hours.
Every day, his friends would go out to do quests and to hunt, but Zellin was always in a half-tired state, so he would stay behind. He would simply send his pets to go out and hunt, to gather experience for him, while he took care of the mini-goblin, which he named Greenz. He also studied medicine while he was at home, as he couldn’t do anything else too active.
He tried to see a doctor, but she couldn’t do anything to help. Then he sought out a healer, who told him that something was sucking out all his energy, even his mana, continuously. Zellin asked if it had something to do with having contracted 4 pets, as he had his suspicions, and the healer nodded her head.
She explained that the mental connection between Zellin and his pets is absorbing all Zellin’s energy to remain intact, and having 4 pets was pretty much Zellin’s limit. Her only suggestion to resolve the situation, was to quickly get his class. “The Summoner’s College should have a way to resolve the problem.” She said.
Because Summoners were usually weak when it came to defending themselves, and the class was expensive to level, unlike classes where a lot of the skills can be taught, not many people bothered to learn anything about Summoners.
Nonetheless, Zellin assumed the truth to be as such, and resolutely made the decision to not contract any more beasts.
About three seasons later…
Zellin’s friends have all reached Level 5 after constant hunting and quests, and Zellin’s pets were all on the verge of getting Zellin to Level 5 as well. The only thing Zellin had done to contribute to the group recently was make them medicine for their forest excursions.
Greenz has grown to be about Zellin’s size recently, so Zellin had removed the contract. Greenz had long, pointy ears, a slightly longer face than Zellin’s, and his nose was a little larger, but other than that, and his green skin, Greenz looked pretty normal. Perhaps it was a result of raising him around humans, but he seemed much more similar to a human than the other goblins Zellin has seen, with those huge pointy noses.
After removing the contract, Zellin had much more energy, but he still stayed home usually, to teach Greenz, he claimed.
Greenz was also more intelligent than your usual goblins. After learning to speak English, Zellin forced him to study, with a skill book bribe. Thus, his intelligence rose pretty quickly. Eventually, Greenz realized he liked to study as he was pretty good at it, and whenever he was free, he would have a book in his hand.
One day, as Zellin was eating his meal and a white light suddenly enveloped him. He saw a notification appear before him saying, “Congratulations, you have risen to Level 5!” Zellin simply nodded his head as if this was due for quite a while. Nice, he thought.
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“Congratulations, master.” Greenz said at the end of the table in an oddly clear voice for a goblin.
“Greenz, what did I say about calling me master? Call me Zellin; you’re a free goblin now, and you don’t have to treat me with that level of respect.” Zellin responded, like a father scolding his son. This feeling of respect was extremely awkward for someone like him, whose base personality was basically that of a loser in life.
“You’ll always be master to me. Or would you rather I started calling you papa again?” Greenz said with a mischievous grin. Zellin simply shook his head. That might be the weirdest experience I’ve ever had, he thought to himself. Zellin didn’t know if it was because Greenz was a goblin or if it was just the general feeling of being called someone’s dad, but it was truly a weird experience.
“You know, I really hate you.” Reyal replied off to the side. He had stayed home today, to teach Greenz some cooking, and unfortunately had to witness this scene of Zellin be rewarded despite his lazy nature. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone level up while eating and simply nod his head in approval. Don’t you have any shame?” He asked, with a mixed feeling of disappointment and jealousy.
“You don’t know this, but I’ve actually earned a lot of good karma in my past life.” Zellin lied shamelessly. “It’s just the heavens giving me what I deserve.”
“At least we can make our trip to the city now.” Reyal said, comforting his agitated mood. “We’ve been waiting for quite a while.”
“Have you decided on a class?” Zellin asked casually.
“Hmm… I’m thinking about the Enchanter class, but mainly because of the group. We’re not very good with head on confrontations. As you get more pets, I think it will become really useful.” Reyal replied. “But I fear being too weak to defend myself…”
“Hmm… Good luck with that.” Zellin responded without thinking, as he ate.
Reyal frowned at this. He was actually hoping for some advice, but he happened across this extremely insensitive guy. “You know, Liu’s right. You’re a jerk.”
Zellin simply snorted. “What am I, your girlfriend? Fine, I’ll give you some advice. Choose the Enchanter class. You won’t have to worry about being too weak, because we’ll always have your back. If worse comes to worst, at least you’ll die with your friends.” Zellin said in a slightly disdaining attitude.
Reyal suddenly laughed at this. “You know, you put up a lazy exterior, but you’re actually quite caring.” He said with a smile.
The next day, the group went to their respective families’ homes and told their parents that they would be making a trip to the city, which was, oddly named, Ultimate Super Fighter City. It was the capital city of the Super Kingdom. Apparently the king was an extremely eccentric individual…
In Ultimate Super Fighter City…
“And so our quest has lead us here, to this city of heroes.” Zellin said as he looked at the city around him. All the buildings were at least 3 stories high, the walls surrounding the city was at least 20 meters high, and apparently its size was over 1000 square kilometers. “I wonder what adventures we’ll have, and the tales we’ll tell of bravery and romance once we’ve conquered the land? Come, brothers, our destiny awaits us!” Zellin said in a theatrical manner, waving his hand forward.
“Why are you being so melodramatic?” Coral said as she gave Zellin a funny look. “It’s just the city. It’s not that impressive.”
“Look at all the high-level items some of these people have.” Reyal said in awe. “When will we get that strong?”
“Hurry up, you guys. Let’s go get my class already. I can’t wait anymore.” Liu called out from ahead of the others.
After 45 minutes of walking, they made it to the Warrior’s College, and Liu went inside while the others waited outside. Non-warriors weren’t allowed inside.
Liu came out 20 minutes later with a conflicted look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Zellin asked with a confused look.
“Heh, I got my class, but…” Liu began to explain.
“What?” They all asked.
“Ah, I couldn’t buy any of the class skills…” Liu said with a pitiful face.
“Do you need money?” Coral asked straightforwardly.
“Ah, no, you guys don’t have to. I’ll find a way to get it eventually.” Liu politely refused.
“Don’t be modest, I have a lot of money.” Coral replied casually. “How much do you need?”
Zellin raised an eyebrow. Was she this rich? Zellin wondered to himself.
“Ah! Really? Thanks Coral. It’s actually not much; only about 300 gold.” Liu replied as casually as possible.
Zellin and Reyal’s eyes widened. “300 gold!?” They exclaimed.
Coral opened her inventory and took out a bag of gold. “Here you go,” she responded, handing over the bag of gold.
Liu bowed repeatedly. “Thank you, thank you. I promise I’ll pay you back soon!” He called out, gratefully, before going back in to the Warrior’s College.
“Do you guys want money too?” Coral asked nonchalantly.
“Ugh, no, Coral. I can’t possibly. I’ll just work for the skills I can’t buy. My parents gave me 250 gold, so I should be okay for now.” Zellin responded as he waved his hands.
“I’m really sorry, Coral, but could I bother you for a loan? My parents only gave me a 100 gold, and from the looks of it that’s pretty much the cost of the class upgrade. Liu also went in with a 100 gold.” Reyal said shyly. He wasn’t like Liu, who could probably be taught enough skills to keep his class relevant to the group; the Enchanter class could only be properly cultivated with skill books.
“Sure,” Coral replied, also handing over 300 gold.
Next stop was the Summoner’s College.
“Huh? Is this really it?” Zellin said in confusion as he looked at the map and then up at the dilapidated, wooden building. It was only one floor high; it was basically a badly taken care of, regular, wooden house. “Wait here,” Zellin instructed the others as he went in to take a look.
“Hello?” Zellin called out as he reached an empty counter. “HELLO!” He yelled after hearing no response.
“Ah? A customer?” A voice called out. The sounds of footsteps quickly approached from behind the door beyond the counter. The door opened to reveal the figure of a black-robed middle-aged man.
“Ah!? Principal Lin!?” Zellin exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Do I know you?” Principal Lin asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you have a twin brother?” Zellin asked in doubt. “Or are you just trying to trick me?”
“I have multiple clones, but don’t mention those guys to me. They’re all very irritating to look at.” Principal Lin replied casually as he waved his hand.
“Ugh, oh kay.” Zellin responded weirdly. He really didn’t know what to think about what this guy just said. “I’m here to upgrade to the Summoner class.” He said, intending to just get on to business.
“Right, right. A new summoner. That’s pretty rare. That’ll be 100 gold please.” Principal Lin said with an uplifted hand.
“Right…” Zellin responded dejectedly as he handed a bag of gold over. 100 gold was quite a lot of money, especially for a jobless kid like him.
Afterwards, Principal Lin played with some menu options and a screen popped up in front of Zellin, asking him if he wanted to become a summoner. Zellin pressed on the ‘yes’ option and a notification appeared saying, “Congratulations! You have become a Summoner!”
Several pop-ups also appeared saying that Zellin’s Intelligence, Wisdom, and Mana have all increased, causing Zellin to smile as he thought, nice.
“Do you want to see what skills are now available to you?” Principal Lin asked.