After a few minutes were spent with Kida and the female Goblins putting something together, her main private areas were finally covered enough. Of course, the pelts taken off the black wolves cannot be used yet because they are still fresh and haven’t been dried properly. So being only partially covered would have to do for now.
“Kida, how do you feel?”
“Mr.Rick… I’m not quite sure yet.. I still feel normal but at the same time, I feel like a whole new Maglin. Almost as if I’ve just been reborn. This is nothing like the first evolution I went through. It might take some time to get used to this.”
“That's fine, you're no longer in the plains so you’ll have all the time in the world you need to get properly used to your new body and all the strength that comes with it. We’re really close to the cave, let's first get there and we can talk more about your evolution.”
So they set off again, and with the new growth of Kida, anyone who saw the group of Goblins traveling would think their group was quite a funny composition. One really tall female Goblin, two fairly tall male Goblins with one of them being skinny and the other looking quite strong. Then came two Goblins that seemed to be the normal height for how tall you’d think a Goblin should be.
And if one didn’t look carefully they might’ve missed the two small Goblins that were barely two and a half feet tall, scampering along in the middle of the group. But they went along towards their destination, which took the rest of the day. It was late into the night when they finally arrived at the small cave which was Dran’s home.
Which meant a journey that took them almost three months to complete due to having to take multiple breaks, fighting from time to time, and even educational lessons was close to ending. Either way, they were finally at the cave, and now only a few days away from the tribe.
Once they made it into the cave, everyone settled in and went to sleep straight away, they all came to an agreement that all discussions could be left for the morning.
After a truly restful night that saw everyone sprawled all over the cave, a very important morning came around. Very important for Rick that is. He would first have a conversation with Kida regarding her new evolution but that wouldn't be the most important thing on his mind at all.
He had a decision to make regarding going home. He was now in familiar territory. His tribe is only at most a day or two away from where they are now. But to get there he would have to go through the territory of the creature that could have almost definitely taken his life before his journey to the plains even began.
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He could try to avoid it and probably succeed in doing so, but he knew there could be really good benefits if he could successfully kill that creature.
Only monsters stronger than himself could adequately evade Velora’s scanning system, and it was those types of monsters he needed to kill if he wanted to grow immensely any time soon. Killing a bunch of monsters far weaker than himself could only take him so far. He would need to have riskier battles with stronger beings if he really wanted to grow.
Especially since he knew that reaching Tier 3 wouldn’t solve their problems since the Orcs most definitely had the means to deal with that based on his assumptions. He didn’t know how far he needed to go before he evolved into something capable of fighting back, so it was important to take the opportunities he could when they presented themselves. Though before it came time to make that decision he should talk with Kida, and then do something he probably should’ve done at the start of the journey.
It didn't take too long for all the Goblins in the cave to wake up. Immediately after waking up, Dran took Sigi and Lagi with him to go get breakfast. While Zargi promptly began tossing around question after question towards Kida about the new evolution. Kida herself seemed a little flustered but she understood his excitement, she would probably be doing the same thing if it was Zargi who evolved.
As for Wala, she seemed to be fiddling with something in the corner of the cave, Rick took notice and realized she was just cleaning up the pelt they brought in for Kida, before setting it outside to dry.
“Alright, Zargi leave Kida alone for now, we’ll do some talking after we get something to eat. Breakfast is the most important meal in every Goblins' day.”
So with that, Zargi backed down and even made a mental note in his head to make sure he eats breakfast every day from now on. In fact, both Kida who was now on her second evolution like Rick and Wala who was busy doing her thing also made mental notes to eat breakfast every day. In fact, this would be a movement that would spread far and wide in the Goblin community. In the future Goblins far and wide would be making sure to eat a healthy breakfast just off this one passing comment from Rick..
Of course, Rick didn’t know about all the mental notes being taken down, or any future Goblins taking their breakfast seriously, he was just repeating something he heard back in his human days. Anyways Dran and the others eventually came back with the same type of rodents he gave Rick when he was first here, Gimbos. Though this time instead of two it seems they caught twelve of them.
Everyone came together to clean up the Gimbos and prepare them for cooking. Once that was completed they were skewered on sticks Dran had laying around the cave. A fire was quickly started and before long the wonderful smell of roasted Gimbo spread around the cave.
Not a lot of talking was done between the Goblins while the Gimbos were being cooked or even when everyone was eating. Except for the one occasion where Zargi seemed to be passing very important information onto Dran, Sigi, and Lagi who all made mental notes of their own. Of course, Rick saw them talking but paid no mind to it, so he had no idea what was being said, nor did he care about it.
At some point in time, everyone finished eating and Rick could finally begin his conversation with Kida, much to the happiness of Zargi.