The nursery was packed, as usual. Onze felt like one of those sheep the humans raised, constantly being milked. But as grumpy as she always was… she couldn’t help but love her son. The boy had nearly killed her coming out, but that was expected and planned for. The faint scar where they’d pulled him out was almost a memory, even.

It honestly could’ve been with their healers… but she’d wanted to keep it. Ponze was a good memory to keep on her skin.

Other goblins like herself were among the new mothers. Kobolds didn’t breastfeed as long, but she found it interesting that they did so at all. She would’ve thought they just laid eggs and left them to fend for themselves like lizards, but they apparently gave birth to live young themselves. It was an interesting education, though she wanted as little to do with the healing class as possible. She’d gone through too much pain, both her own and that of others.

Which also kept her from trying to expand her old role as grudge-keeper of the goblins and integrating it into the Speakers of the kobolds. It was a clear upgrade (being an actual class), but she was done with leadership, religion, and memory. She’d fight for her people, and would lead them in times of emergency… but the small green person in front of her, swaddled in soft linen as he fed from her breast… that was what she wanted now.

One of the kobold nurses reached out, and Onze handed off her son while she stood. Feeding time was over, and she needed to train the war mages some more. A lot of progress had been made there, with many of them reaching the second level and Onze herself reaching the third. Conceptualizing mana into every energy type she could understand had resulted in potent destructive spells, and now that her students were reaching the point where they could work on understanding the same, she left a few second-levels to train the basic drill. The sound of them yelling at the trainees who hadn’t yet mastered basic proficiency was music to her ears.

It’s so nice to know a few of them understood the actual lesson and took it to heart…

Her own lessons were on hold today so she could train her own skills. Now that she had the basics down, she wanted to develop more advanced techniques. Skills that could hit larger areas, strike single targets harder, or even damage an enemy while leaving an ally unharmed.

For that last one, she had the perfect target in the form of a certain rabbit. They’d reached a better accord now that Onze knew more about the girl’s past, but her personality still grated a little sometimes. Though she was fine with that, she knew most couldn’t handle her own attitude and Guiying was… well, she always tried to make the best of things. It was a quality she could appreciate.

Even if it meant she wanted to set the bunny-girl on fire sometimes. But since Guiying was basically immune to elemental damage at her level, she was alright with that. Besides, the girl needed toughening up for the front lines. Rhys was sending her out to deal with his counterpart personally, and they were pretty sure the elf king would be a Level 5 in at least one class.

So they trained her up. Speaker was tricky, but Guiying had three levels there and some thoughts on how to train it further. Apparently, guides didn’t exist for classes that were still being pioneered. Monk had an easy guide because Guiying’s world had developed a really solid path for advancement on it.

Though speaking of which, that particular class was still only Level 4. Guiying had brought a few people to the third level, and had reached the stat threshold for the fifth… but the last step involved finding a way to become one with mana. Well, Onze and the war mages started calling it mana. Guiying referred to it as qi, and Rhys insisted on calling it “cosmic energy.” Was all the same stuff, just tapped a different way… she thought. Hard to know, maybe she’d figure out more as she progressed.

“You’re miles away, Onze. Sure we should be playing right now?”

A deafening explosion of sound, as several bolts of lightning landed in the field they practiced in. And not one lick of the cascade touched the trees, grass, or rocks, all landing harmlessly on target patches of glassed soil.

Well, three hit Guiying, but it didn’t harm her in the slightest. In her own words, she’d mastered lightning even before the prologue… whatever that meant.

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“Not bad. Good power still, and your aim is disturbingly accurate. How are your stats looking?”

Onze blinked, and checked.

Onze (S. Emulato)

War Mage 3

Strength 5

Agility 6

Dexterity 5

Constitution 4

Intelligence 11

Wisdom 9

Charisma 8

Luck 9

“Mostly recovered from lugging Ponze around, though I doubt I’ll ever have double-digit Agility again in this lifetime. Mental skills going up, mostly through study and developing some force of will, I don’t doubt. You doing alright learning the human language?”

“Oh yeah, the spoken part’s easy. Still working on the hieroglyphs, but my native language’s written form was similarly complex. Hopefully the elven script won’t be quite as bad.”

Onze nodded. The kobold alphabet was so simple in comparison, with just a letter for a sound, divided between what sounds only a kobold could make and what sounds only a hominid throat could produce. Whatever unique tongue her own species once possessed was lost during their subjugation under the humans, but it was nice to have a way to communicate that wasn’t so easy to lose as spoken words and living memories.

“How are Lilac and the others doing?”

“Quite well! Rhys has them isolated still, but mostly because he wants to help them… evolve a bit. Says they have a fair amount of potential outside of the class system, but need to be preserved until they can build their population up and start reaching that potential. But as to boosting your physical stats…”

And that was how Onze spent the rest of her afternoon fidgeting with other would-be monks, trying to grasp meditation. She really didn’t understand Guiying’s approach, mostly thinking it was silly nonsense. Chop wood, carry water? Everyone did that, it wasn’t so special. Working yourself to death without any sleep? Happened all the time, you bore through it or you died. Even the meals she described were an absolute feast to her mind, and she could tell that the other goblins around her thought the same.

[ ] Reach a minimum of 5 in all stats.

[X] Develop sense of true humility.

[X] Open your mind to cosmic energy (qi).

Huh… What was humility? On her way to feed Ponze, she asked that question to Rhys.

“Oh, Guiying has you trying to develop Monk too? You’re not the first to ask. Basically, it involves abandoning all sense of pride. Common issue among a lot of species that have built something they consider valuable, but most kobolds and goblins seem to find the concept almost foreign, and easy to set aside. No, I’d have to guess that your issue is still being relatively weak in Constitution, thanks to a lifetime of malnutrition, physical abuse, and your recent pregnancy. Your son has a natural 5 in the stat, which is pretty baseline for most.”

“Okay… so how do I increase it?”

“Physically? Develop a form of cultivation, which means taking at least a level in Monk. Since that’s not gonna work, and we’ve done about all we can to bring your body up to its best, you’ll have to work on your mental health a little.”

“Huh?”

“Feed Ponze, for now. He’s waiting for you.”

Onze nodded, and sat in her usual chair, taking her son in her hands. As he nursed, she went over some of the mental circulation exercises Guiying was talking about. She guessed the point of the heavy labor was to break you down, get you to stop thinking about… huh. What should one think about? She had the connection, she had the mindset… but what was hurting her so badly now?

The grudge held a bit of her still, she supposed. So many hurts, so many voices, so many of them silenced. Two centuries worth of an entire people’s desire for revenge… but would that solve anything? Yes, the elves needed to pay, but the goblin and slime lands no longer existed, long divided and changed by humans and elves. The humans themselves? Most she’d met were the cruelest of the lot, but that was teaching. They weren’t born callous, and weren’t particularly mean to goblins until they grew older and followed the examples of their elders. Most didn’t even realize that goblins were a sentient race, and avoided slimes like they carried some sort of plague.

Which just demonstrated what little they knew, really. The only refuge their cities could take solace in would be the fact that it was still cold outside, so the refuse didn’t stink that horribly. Without goblins to remove the garbage and slimes to clean the streets and purify the water, humans would be lucky to have a functioning military now that it was starting to warm up a little.

Ponze bit down a little, as if telling his mother to pay more attention to him. She shifted him a little, and stroked his head as he ate. She’d been far too busy lately. Probably time to focus on what was really important, and let the outside world go. When it came, she’d be ready. But until it did, this little miracle in her arms needed his mother.

And with that, mother and son relaxed into a comfortable post-dinner nap.