Joanna was weaving. After having some tea in the morning and breakfast, she would begin in her handiwork, truly immersing in her work until the dusk came. It was her everyday routine and she really enjoyed it.

Still, her disciple hadn’t visited for a while. Although the harpies, and sometimes the goblins and snakes, would bring her some food, even a large wolf, whom she fed every day, was staying around the vicinity of her shack. She would still think of the strange goblin.

The goblin’s job and skills were actually the same as her former captain who died in the forest many years ago. Although the job passed on to the monster she was sure that the goblin was not a reincarnation of the captain.

She finished a part of the dress she was making. It was of the sheep wool that Skulk had been delivering to her from time to time.

“Maybe I will go to the hot springs tomorrow!” she said, she was really satisfied with the sleeve of the dress she had just finished.

Then the forest began shaking for a few seconds, dust began falling from the 2nd floor. “The hell was that?” she said as she hung the sleeve as a part of the whole set. She had a mannequin that was the same size as her.

She went outside and saw the wolf standing just beside her door, she approached it and started ruffling its fluffy hair.

The wolf stared at her like saying that it was all alright. She smiled back and stared up into the sky, she could see birds flying away from the direction of the rumbling sound.

<--->

Sword Summon: A magic that allows one to summon 1 of the 100 ungodly swords, magic must be continuously supplied for the sword to manifest. Summoning also would contract the sword to the summoner and wouldn’t be able to change it.

Requirements: Be in deep shit without any swords, Sword Mastery Lv10, Lv50+

This information flashed on Skulk’s mind. That was really fair, really fair. The goblin’s mind began racing. It seemed that the ogre’s movements had stopped. It must have been regenerating itself.

Using his eyes he pressed the skill and the swords flashed on the next screen that came out. The pictures of the swords mostly had some red tint, which meant that he could not use them at the moment.

“Isn’t this just perfect?”

A floating sword began forming in front of him. He was using wind magic to make it float. Now that the adrenaline had passed already he was beginning to feel the pain in his limbs, still, he began swinging it into his bag. He had a potion there.

Gritting through the pain he took a potion, with the last 3 fingers that were still moving (Goblins only have 4 fingers! Thumb included,) with his hands shaking he took it and then swung his limping arms into his mouth. Using his teeth he removed the cap and then downed it in one gulp. “Aargh!” the potion was really effective but the exchange was to feel the pain of it healing again.

It was so painful that his knees buckled down. But he held through the pain and the sword was finished too. He then held the sword in his hand, surprisingly it was light.

Exorcist Blade: A blade that could dispel any variant of control magic or spirit.

The definition of the blade was the one he needed for the moment. He began hearing the ogre’s movement thudding in the whole cavern. The Exorcist Blade was consuming maybe around 0.5 percent of Skulk’s magic.

He promised that he would begin assessing the stats after this fight. He was too busy and occupied with developing the village and he hadn’t been able to use the scanning staff that the dryad gave him.

The goblin began bunny steps and it was confusing the charging ogre. “Yeah! Where do you think I’m going to attack!?” the goblin screamed with a fearless glare.

The ogre then again decided for another sweep attack, this was what Skulk wanted, he timed his jump into the air rotating while landing a cut at the ogre’s hands holding the club.

The club flew away from the ogre’s grasp, it made another loud crashing noise in the cavern.

“Daigo! There is an insect in your right shoulder! Squash it!” Skulk screamed.

The right hand of the ogre stopped for a while before it rushed to inflict a bash on the ogre’s own right shoulder but it was stopped.

“I see…” Skulk analyzed what happened, the sword was not that effective. It just freed the hand of Daigo for a moment. If he could hit any part of the ogre then the control of the insect would be dispelled.

“You know you are no longer holding the goddamn club!” Skulk screamed.

The ogre or probably the insect understood this and began running in the direction of the where the club flew. It was a good chance for Skulk to attack.

He began from the lower limbs to the upper body. “Daigo! Don’t move!!” while screaming this, the insect had begun trouble in controlling the ogre’s body.

“This is the end!!” Skulk said as the ogre’s body fell to the ground. Skulk slashed the insect down. Blood sprayed as his blade disappeared from his hands. “Daigo! You are clear!!” Skulk said tapping the large body of the ogre.

…

The ogre and the goblin were now sitting face to face.

“Damn it… I really fell for that Dominamantis… and even trashed my meditating place,-” Daigo was clearly annoyed, “-Sorry for causing you trouble, but why did you come here in the first place?” and the ogre wondered.

“I’m actually here to ask for an acknowledgment to be one of the lords of the forest,-” the goblin stood up and bowed “-I actually have plans to conquer the whole forest and I heard from the fox, Rory that you are displeased with me… I’m here to know why and probably fix it.” the goblin was respectful.

The ogre glared at him. “I’m displeased because of that human woman who was living in the chimera’s territory… I don’t want any humans living inside the forest, kill her and maybe I will be willing to consider,” the ogre was resolute to his words, and Skulk could feel the seriousness of the ogre.

“Is there any way to change your mind, she is actually very nice!” the goblin said trying to defend his teacher.

“My clan was killed by humans, we are the first settlers of the lands near the forest of Reed but the humans invaded us and now I’m the last of my kind… I will never forgive humans… I hate them and loathe them…”

“I will not harm her… and don’t you even try-” Skulk glared at the large ogre. “-I can’t do anything about your clan but I will not leave here for nothing, I have defeated you, this must-have amount to something!” the goblin was a pacifist… that’s why he didn’t want to kill Daigo and even sacrificed a slot of his Sword Summon just to fix him up.

There was a silence in the cavern, drops of rocks and dropping waters still filled the cave.

“Hahahaha! You… you are not even afraid of me! Okay… as long as you promise that the human won’t do anything then I will acknowledge you!-” the ogre then stand up. “I know you have Lammy’s scales for a bag, can you at least help me clear the rubble?” the ogre said.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Skulk was surprised, the monsters in the forest were really reasonable ones as long as he could talk to them.

“Are you really the last of your kind?” Skulk said making the ogre stop his movements as he was beginning to clear the rubble.

“Yeah… it's been 20 years, haven’t seen one ever since,” the ogre said with a lonely face.

Skulk sighed… then the ogre began checking around his hair, in a few while he took out a piece of monster tusk. “This is a sign of my acknowledgment, show it to Lammy.”

Skulk received it and placed it in his magic bag. He felt sorry for Daigo, the ogre must have felt very lonely, he promised that he would make the ogre come to the parties that he would hold every year.

“Sorry…” the goblin said.

“... Don’t trust Lammy too much… she is delusional, probably because she holds too much power,” the ogre suddenly stopped as he found his already culled club in the crowd. “-What happened to my club!! The wind crystals are gone!!” the ogre complained.

Skulk reasonably began increasing the speed of his work.

<--->

Lammy could still remember when the god of the world talked to her in her sleep. She was given a task to govern the whole forest, to make sure that the forest remained intact for the coming of a savior, that was the use of her power. She could manipulate Time and Gravity, and often used it to manipulate others to her liking.

She had been using her gifts to take command of the whole forest but even though she had too much power, she couldn’t stop the forest from going into chaos. Dangerous monsters still roamed the whole forest.

The Large Wolf of the Silver Mane, the shy dragon, the lonely ogre, and that scheming fox. Even after using her magic to travel through time back and back again, she couldn’t prevent the worst from happening.

The forest would be destroyed after a while and it was because of those monsters.

The large wolf would find battle until the forest became exhausted, the dragon would burn down the forest just to sleep peacefully, the ogre would bring in humans for the sake of his revenge and the fox would plant all the fruit trees changing the whole ecosystem of the forest.

At first, she plotted to make them kill each other, some of them died but the prominent ones would always triumph so she went back in time and proceeded to change her actions.

That’s why she named the lords and gave them territory to govern, this was the stalemate that she was looking for. This was the most balanced and possible way to maintain the fragility of the forest. Her magic of going back in time was already then exhausted so unlike before she can’t use it.

She has been alive for a very long time now, she was afraid that she already had exhausted her limited time and that’s when the goblin appeared. The goblin was a wanderer then, it was the first time that she had ever seen a goblin that was not afraid of her, the goblin stumbled on her den when he fell above.

Talking with the goblin really brought joy to her that she gifted him one of her scales and the goblin turned it into something inconceivable. The goblin was ingenious in his ways.

Since then the forest began to change and became more livelier. All of her instinct was telling her that the goblin was the savior that she had been waiting for. Still, Lammy was still looking for something inside the goblin. Then the day of the meeting came, and the goblin announced that he wanted to conquer the whole forest and the first step was to become a lord.

As much as she was fond of the goblin, it did something she really didn’t want: it allowed a human into the forest. This human, rare as they were, had killed a chimera. Eliminating this human would likely benefit the existence of the Reed Forest.

For some reason the goblin sheltered her, even taking care of her. The first time she laid eyes on the old woman she knew that she wouldn’t be living that long, unlike monsters that gain life span as they level, humans had a set number of life span that was really hard to change.

Still, Lammy wanted to teach the goblin about how humans worked, that’s why she led nomad humans to take the Owl’s egg. Still, it failed, the goblin was able to resolve the problem peacefully.

Now the last chance was on Daigo’s vengeance against humans. She heard once that Daigo complained to the fox, urging the fox to make a scheme to kill the human or lead it away from the forest but the fox didn’t care that much at all.

Daigo then went into his favorite meditating spot and stayed there for seclusion. The snake then summoned a Dominamantis to control the ogre. She wanted to know how far the goblin could go to protect that old human.

To her surprise, it was also resolved properly by the goblin. It was reported by her children who vigilantly watched the forest.

But she hated humans, they would always leave a lasting mark every time they visit the forest. Those wretched creatures that didn’t care about others. The goblin might visit her soon now.

She loved thinking and reminiscing like this while she was having a nap in her cave but then she noticed movements inside the dwelling where she was staying. It was not of a snake since it was not a slithering movement. Then she felt a hand touching a part of her body.

“Lammy! I got the acknowledgment!”

<--->

Skulk was lucky that he found a part of Lammy’s body, although the snake was really long it was actually hard to notice her movements. But finding a part of her would allow communication just by touching any parts.

Lammy’s body began moving, her head must be going to his location so Skulk just stood there and waited. After a while, the large head of Lammy appeared above him.

“Ssssskulk, ssssso you already have all the acknowledgementssss I presssssume?” the snake’s words slithered as she spoke.

“Yes!” then the goblin showed a tusk that came from the ogre himself.

The snake stared at him for a while before speaking “Followww meee,” then the snake’s head began moving.

“Can I ride you?” Skulk tried asking but-

“nnNooo” Lammy said without batting an eye.

But it didn’t take the enthusiasm from Skulk as he followed. Even though the cave lacked any source of light, the two creatures could see in the dark. The snake navigated her dwelling in a way that allowed the goblin to follow. Their journey lasted for some time. For them, the luminescence from the moss and the drips of water provided enough light to travel by.

“Weee are herrreee” the snake notified Skulk.

It was a small pool of water. “Few years ago… the goddess gave me a revelation… a change was coming into the forest…” the snake spoke then with a snap movement of her head she slithered her tongue touching the small pool

The water in the pool began floating… it glowed dimly and the past actions of the snake were revealed. From the snake naming trying to stop the destruction of the forest, the different attempts, her using her time magic, and finally, her naming the lord. Lammy, guiding the humans to steal the owl’s egg to Daigo suffering under the Dominamantis.

Skulk gulp. Probably the strongest monster in the forest was just playing with him but “Why?” the goblin muttered, she viewed Lammy as his patron ever since he received a piece of her power. “But why?” he muttered again.

“The god said that you will triumph through anything, isn’t that what happened?” the snake said surprisingly in a straight way.

“If you are going to conquer the whole of the forest then you must understand its secrets,” the snake said, with her looking at the water from the pool she began saying words that were impossible to understand.

The whole cave began shaking. “This is the secret of the forest… the password is ‘~@#$##$’ touch the crystal and speak it,” Lammy said, her words didn’t mix up with her tongue which really sounded very strange for Skulk.

What went out of the pool was a very large stone, its crystal glowing dim and the inside was a pulsating movement of an array of colored water.

“It's called the Aetheris Stone,-” then the snake’s head slithered more closely to the goblin. “-Touch it and meet the god!” the snake said.

It was Skulk’s first time seeing this Lammy’s side. He felt eerie but followed the instruction from the snake, he touched the stone and spoke of the words. “~@#$##$” Skulk said just mimicking the words he heard from the snake.

Skulk’s mind blacked out, and a wave of magical pressure swelled from his hands flowing out from the stone.

“Skulk… well done!” a voice rang in his head.

<--->

It was the same place he was when he died or before he was born as a goblin, he remembered that he didn’t have anybody by then but now he was standing in that plane with the body of a goblin, standing in white space, not floating.

A light was flickering in front of him.

“Skulk, long time no see… it seems that you have met the bare minimum of your mission,-” the light began flickering brightly. “-But before that, how’s the world that you’ve been transferred into?”

The goblin just stood… not feeling overwhelmed, just staring at the flickering light.

How could he say it in words? From being born as a goblin, a lower species that was also called Degaya. Encountering the large wolf, having fun with the beavers, harpies tripping on him, and the large shy dragon. That duel with the wolf, and building the goblin village, and finally that battle against Daigo.

“It was somewhat meaningful… there was no moment in my life that I felt bland… it was amazing-” Then the goblin made a thumbs up “Thanks for reincarnating me here in your world,” It was the honest words coming from Skulk’s heart.

“I see… now for the task… the task of really conquering the forest of Reed,-” the ball of light flickered more, “In one year's time, a dungeon would sprout in this forest, you have to conquer it, that is what it means to conquer the forest!”

There was no change in the goblin’s expression. “I see… how deep would it be?” he needed more information though. “What’s, beneath it?” another question even before the god spoke again.

“There is a living stone at the bottom of the dungeon, the heart of the dungeon,-” the ball of light began to move closer to Skulk, “Every 10 years the stone must be shaved, failure to do so would result in a dungeon overflow.”

The goblin nodded, his knowledge from his past life was the reason.

“Humans are weaker than monsters and giving this task to them would possibly wipe them out,-” Then out of thin air a projection of the human’s largest settlement, it was the first time he had seen its look. “-They won't’ be able to keep up, I got high hopes with them at first but they had been stagnant for a very long time now, I’ve run out of time.”

It would be impertinent for the goblin to ask more but he had to ask more questions, the reason why he had to do it. That was the only way to find his resolve.

“Can you explain more?” the goblin asked.

“... Of course…” the ball flickered.