“Wait.” The sheriff said and held up his hands. “I’ll carry the stuff inside. Just don’t kill us.” I hesitated for a moment. I finally decided to see what the sheriff did. Maybe he wouldn’t be as much of a coward as the ranger.
“Okay but you hurt. We fix first.” The shaman said and then knelt down next to the sheriff. He pulled out a bunch of herbs and smeared them on while chanting. The sheriff looked surprised but didn’t fight. Probably because he had half a dozen goblin spears pointed at him.
“Mind if I ask a question. Why don’t you just carry the stuff inside the cave yourselves?” The sheriff asked in a voice filled with curiosity. I couldn’t blame him and had actually been hoping he would ask the question.
“Goblin no can leave cave.” The shaman said causing the sheriff to frown.
“Are you saying it’s impossible for the goblins to leave the cave?” The sheriff said in surprise.
“Maybe if goblin forced out of cave they leave. No goblin choose leave cave though. No goblin ever leave cave before.” My shaman clarified.
“What about the orcs then?” The sheriff asked curiously.
“No orc leave cave. No anything in cave leave cave unless forced out of cave.” The shaman explained.
“Skullshaker done healing now. You go bring stuff inside cave.” The shaman said a few seconds later.
The sheriff moved his shoulder and then stood up. “That’s amazing. It feels almost completely healed.” He said in surprise. Of course that was due to the blood magic I had used, not the shaman’s healing.
It took the sheriff ten minutes and a dozen trips to get everything into the cave. There was a lot of stuff out there. Finally when it was done the other goblins released the last hunter. The sheriff stood there for a moment. “Ummm. I suppose I should thank you for healing me.” He finally said to the shaman.
Then the sheriff gave a slightly depressed sigh. “Not sure how my report on all of this is going to end up. Yesterday you killed two men. And then today you killed another eight people including three of my deputies.”
“You come in goblin home. Come to kill goblins. We defend home.” The shaman said.
“Yeah I guess from your perspective you were just defending yourselves.” The sheriff’s eyes suddenly widened. I grinned as I realized that he had just come to a very unpleasant realization.
“Shit if this went to court I’m not sure what they would decide.” I actually saw a trace of fear in the sheriff’s eyes. In the eyes of the law if my goblins were considered humans then it probably wouldn’t turn out good for him.
If it wasn’t for how they looked, I was pretty sure most juries would side with my goblins. After all four men killed two of them when they were just standing at the entrance to their home. Then they walked into the cave intending to kill the rest of my goblins. Of course my goblins fought back, killing two of the men.
The next day another group of men including police showed up. The police didn’t have a warrant and clearly intended to kill everyone. So my goblins fought back again. The fact that they killed seven more people didn’t change the facts of who was in the wrong first.
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Of course the other side would probably argue that my goblins were dangerous animals. In that case I wasn’t sure how the legal fight would go. My goblins clearly weren’t human.
The sheriff may be a bit afraid but it was unlikely a court would do anything to him if the full truth got out. None of my goblins had died because they were basically immortal while in the dungeon. I couldn’t show them any bodies since they disappeared a few minutes after the goblin died. Technology wasn’t working, so even if I had a camera it probably wouldn’t work. I’d have to rely on witnesses or a confession. And goblins taking the stand in a courtroom sounded like a recipe for disaster.
“Goblins always dying. You go now. Return in many days we talk again. Maybe orc want to talk. Maybe trade.” My goblin said and held up a hand seeming to indicate five days. Goblins weren’t very good with numbers or learning new words. I had first tried to tell him six. That had resulted in a lot of confusion for my shaman so I had him hold up a hand to indicate five. Intelligence wasn’t equal to knowledge and goblins didn’t have a number system. I added teaching my goblins basic numbers later. They should at least be smart enough to count up to ten.
The sheriff considered the offer to return and finally nodded. “I was planning on having to come back anyway. I’ll see you again in five days then.” The sheriff said and then he and the hunter left. The hunter was still stumbling a bit but the sheriff helped him through the forest.
While I waited for my avatar to respawn I started looking at all the gear that had been dropped. There were multiple handguns, a few more rifles including two semi-automatics, and all the associated ammo. Plus there were all types of other equipment. I absorbed a couple dozen different small items such as flashlights that didn’t work, compasses, one of each type of weapon, and one of each type of ammo. For now I left the professor’s gear alone. I didn’t have the mana to recreate it if I absorbed it.
Meanwhile the shaman checked the various goblins. Two of them were actually alive. Both had been shot and passed out from the pain. I managed to use blood magic to heal them.
The notification indicator was flashing so I happily selected it. After all that fighting I was anticipating having quite a few points. I frowned when the notifications opened up but I only received two points. There were a bunch of notifications though and my mood improved as I read through them.
One of your goblins has become a goblin berserker.
One of your strangle vines has become a blood vine.
One of your strangle vines has evolved into a hangman’s tree.
A new spore shroom has been born.
A new spore shroom has been born.
A new spore shroom has been born.
A new paralysis shroom has been born.
A new spore shroom has been born.
A new mind shroom has been born.
A new spore shroom has been born.
I quickly looked around my dungeon for what was going on. The goblin berserker was dead so I couldn’t investigate him until he respawned. Finally I found the first new variant that was alive. The vines that I had laced into the tree had merged with it. It had dozens more vines but they all seemed to be a single monster instead of individual monsters.
The next one I found was near the last hunter I had killed. A nearby strangle vine had been covered with blood. It looked different now. It was the color of blood and covered in quarter inch thorns. Those thorns would easily shred anyone it grabbed.
Finally I found the new shrooms. They were on the body of the deputy that I had killed. He had been one of the men that had been covered with spores earlier. When he died some of the spores had turned into shrooms.
The mind shroom contained a more powerful hallucinatory effect than the regular spore shroom. As for the paralysis shroom it could paralyze someone for a short time. The other shrooms were normal. Although it gave me a good idea of what to do with the bodies all over my dungeon.