“Goblin One, you stay here. The rest of you can gather the other goblins so we can hand out the food.”
Standing in front of the goblin’s residential area, Elijah began to issue commands to the goblins he hunted with. Although the goblins were tired from the hunt, they didn’t hesitate to follow Elijah’s command with their green bodies covered in torn furs, blood, and sweat. This was because Elijah made sure all the goblins had their fill of tier one beast meat before they returned to the village.
Dawn was about an hour away when Elijah led the goblins back to the village. Elijah was exhausted from the night of hunting, but he was satisfied with the gains he made. As the goblins carried out his command, Elijah reflected on what he experienced.
After Elijah sensed the arrival of the bears, panthers, and other beast, he decided to quickly evacuate the area. Elijah was confident in his own abilities, but he knew he would lose a few goblins in the battle. They were in the forest to hunt, not to wage war.
From that point, Elijah was on high alert, and he constantly observed his surroundings as he led the goblins. His head was constantly moving as he monitored the sky, the ground and what was beneath the ground. Sadly, the creatures of the night still managed to get the drop on Elijah, but he didn’t get mad.
Before, Elijah was upset because he wasn’t doing his best to remain aware of his surroundings. Since he did his best being mad at himself seemed foolish. Instead, Elijah admired the stealth abilities that the creatures of the night had, and he started seeing his encounters with them as an opportunity to improve himself. Also, it helped that there were no more deaths and very few injuries from the surprise attacks.
The remainder of the night was full of walking, sneak attacks, running, fighting and of course, blood. Honestly, the experience reminded him of his first day in Fallen Heaven. Of course, he was no longer alone like he was in the past and he now had the ability to fight back.
“Foods here.”
“I heard there’s meat this time.”
“Is there a lot?”
“Let me eat first.”
Elijah was abruptly pulled from his thoughts by the chatter of the goblins gathering in front of him. Elijah looked at the disorganized mass and immediately began setting them straight. Elijah was more familiar with the nature of goblins after a night of hunting, and he knew that there would be a lot of violence and arguing if he tried to hand out the meat without organizing the goblins first.
“Alright, that’s better,” Elijah said after he finished organizing the goblins. Elijah arranged the goblins from shortest to tallest. With the shortest in the front and the tallest in the back. Naturally, all of the young and most of the female goblins would be in front of the males.
“Now before we begin, I would like to say a few words. First, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the effort of those that hunted the meat you are about to eat, and the lives lost in the process.” Elijah called for Clink and the others to step in front and receive the recognition of the other goblins.
Looking at the crowd of goblins Elijah could tell his words were falling on deaf ears. He was putting on a symphony for a bunch of pigs. It was obvious the goblins were focused on their next meal and didn’t care about what Elijah was saying at all.
Of course, Elijah’s words weren’t completely useless. Clink and the other goblins from the hunt now looked proud and gratified because they felt like all of the goblins were respectfully looking at them. Elijah was amused by their reactions, but he didn’t dwell on them. He decided to push forward and hope that his next words would have a better effect.
“The next thing I want to talk about is the duration of your sentence as slaves,” Elijah announced. Elijah noticed a shift in the attention of all the adult female and male goblins.
“Heh, got em,” Elijah thought to himself.
“Don’t worry,” Elijah said out loud. “I don’t plan to increase your sentence. I came to tell you that there is a way to gain your freedom earlier and one of you already has. Goblin One, come here.”
Goblin one walked toward Elijah with a confused expression on his face. All the other goblins were confused as well, but they were definitely paying attention. With a smile on his face, Elijah rested his hand on Goblin One’s head and spoke.
“From this day forward, you are a free goblin within my territory. The first, free goblin within my territory. As long as you don’t attack another human being or go against my order, I will not take this freedom from you. I will now grant you quests, and you will have the same rights that the humans in my territory have. Today I grant you freedom.”
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After saying his final words, Elijah unshackled Goblin One’s will. Goblin One was shocked by what Elijah said. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and his eyes shone with disbelief when he reopened them.
“I’m, I’m really free?”
“Of course,” Elijah replied. “You can do whatever you want.”
“I, I don’t know what I should do next.” Goblin One was nervous, confused, and most importantly, lost.
With a smile on his face, Elijah was more than happy to give some guidance to this lost sheep. Of course, many would find Elijah’s actions questionable. However, the system definitely thought he was on the right track.
Congratulation! You have reached level 40 in the Ruler specialty. +1 to all stats, +1 to attack and +1 to defense.
“Alright, you can go ahead and start handing out meat to everyone,” Elijah told Goblin One. “And remember, you’re in charge.”
Clink was unhappy with that statement, but he already received a look from Elijah and knew not to say anything. Becoming the leader of the goblins was one of the paths Elijah suggested for Goblin One when he gave him guidance. The other path was cooking meals for the goblins and the rest of the village.
After a brief discussion about these two paths, Elijah stepped back and let Goblin One hand out the meet they hunted. Elijah planned to watch from a distance and step in if things got too violent. However, he hoped that Goblin One would be able to manage everything without his input.
“It’s good to see you came back in one piece.”
Elder Jeb called out to Elijah as he approached him from behind. Elijah turned around and smiled when he saw the relieved expression on Elder Jeb’s face. Elder Jeb quickly closed the distance between them and the two of them exchanged pleasantries.
“So, how many died?” Elder Jeb knowingly asked.
Elijah felt a little embarrassed when he saw the look on Elder Jeb’s face. “You were right. I encountered a lot of dangerous situations, and I lost five goblins.”
“It's good that you got to experience how dangerous the night could be, and I hope you think twice before going out again. Also, you shouldn’t feal bad about the five deaths. I expected a lot more goblins to die. It’s good that you went with them instead of the villagers.”
“Yeah,” Elijah dragged out the word. “Unlike the villagers, the goblins are slaves and aren’t officially under my rule. However, in the future I will grant them all their freedom. They will officially become my people and be under my protection. So, its best if less goblins died.” Elijah saw Elder Jeb furrow his brows and asked a question after a brief pause. “Will that be a problem?”
Before Elder Jeb could respond, both of them turned their heads when they heard someone approaching them. It was Jenny. She was full of energy and quickly ran to Elijah side. Immediately she began looking over Elijah’s body.
“Chief, how are you? Do you have any injuries?”
“I’m fine.” Elijah smiled at the healer seriously examining him. “I’m a little tired from using my abilities, but I don’t have any injuries.”
Jenny listened to Elijah, but she still examined him for a few more seconds. “I don’t see anything wrong. If you feel tired, then I suggest you head home and get some rest. You should skip cultivating this dawn as well.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Elijah thought to himself.
“Do you mind taking a look at the goblins?” Elijah asked.
“Sure,” Jenny happily agreed.
Looking at the goblins Elijah saw that everything was going well. Naturally, all the goblins ate the meat raw, so the scene was verry bloody, but it was still peaceful. Other than Goblin One, Elijah called for all the goblins that were in the hunt.
Jenny quickly spoke up and said she would examine five at a time. The rest could wait at the side or continue doing what they were doing before. The goblins were eager to receive healing, so all of them chose to wait nearby.
“Not going to say anything, huh,” Elijah thought to himself. He watched Elder Jeb quietly observe the goblins and Elijah decided to mimic his silence. He was the Supreme Ruler. Elijah expected his directions would be followed and he didn’t need to beg Elder Jeb to tell him what he thought.
Instead, Elijah turned his attention back to Jenny. She spent a few seconds looking over the injuries of the five goblins before she began healing them. As Elijah observed her, he considered stepping in to assist with the healing, but he decided not to do so.
One reason was Elijah didn’t want to take away an opportunity from Jenny. She had the healing specialty, so any help Elijah gave would be hindering her growth. Also, from his observation, Jenny didn’t need his help at all.
Jenny started using the Minor Healing Stream skill on the final goblin she examined. Initially, nothing unexpected happen when she began using the skill. There was an initial burst of healing energy followed by a slow channeling of healing energy to the goblin. However, Elijah was surprised when he saw Jenny move to heal the second goblin.
Unlike Elijah, Jenny didn’t stop and restart her skill when she moved to heal the second goblin. She continued using the healing stream she already started and began healing the second goblin. This continued for the third, fourth and fifth goblin.
Elijah didn’t know how to do what Jenny did and he was surprised to see her figure out a trick to the skill he discovered. “Hey, how did you do that?” Elijah questioned Jenny after she was done.
“Do what?”
“Keep the stream going?”
“Oh.” Jenny became excited and a beautiful smile spread across her face. “I figured this out when the Minor Healing Stream skill reached the late stage. I realized that not all of my patients needed the full healing energy the skill gives when its first used, so I wanted to change the way I used the skill so I can use less energy and not over heal my patients.”
Jenny went on to explain the specifics about how she made the changes to the skill. Elijah listened because he was curious and because he knew he might be able to use her ideas with his other skills in the future. However, while Elijah listened to Jenny speak there was one clarifying question, he was dying to ask her.
“You said your skill was at the late stage?”
“No, it’s actually at the peak stage now.”
Elijah looked at Jenny. Then he looked at his skills and saw the initial indication next to his Minor Healing Stream skill. Elijah looked back at Jenny and came to a conclusion.
“I think it’s time for me to go to bed.”