Chapter 25: Chapter 25
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As the hunting parties returned Aerwyn was snacking on the salted meat that Sera had packed. He ordered Bon to take a few goblins and begin making rope while the rest of his group was ordered to join Kabba in clearing out the debris from the walls.
Teek arrived a short time later followed by Velk's group. Aerwyn noticed that the goblins bone armor was in tatters, they clearly had a tough fight. Walking over to the Velk, he asked.
"What did you fight?"
"...Orc..."
"Orc? How many? Did they follow you here?" Aerwyn appeared agitated and shot out questions in rapid succession.
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"..One... None followed..."
"What did you do with the body? Did you take it's mana..." Aerwyn only now noticed the troll was carrying something else besides it's usual tree trunk. A brownish red corpse hung from it's massive hands.
"...Put it down, i want to see it."
The orcs corpse was sprawled out in front of him. It was a little taller than Aerwyn but far more stocky and broad. The body was covered in wounds, only being overshadowed by the large hole in its chest undoubtedly made by Velk's axe. The orcs face was full of leathery creases as if it was in a permanent state of scowling.
It wasn't pleasant to look at but it still looked fairly human. It had a short flat nose, small pointed ears, and a small under bite that showed its bottom teeth off. He didn't know much about orcs but the one in front of him looked fairly young. Calling out and pointing to one of the returning vosk he asked.
"Don't bother pretending, i already know you can speak common tongue. Was this someone the orcs will look for? Or retaliate against us for killing?"
"No a true orc, look small teeth. Lesser orc it be, a rozkra." The vosk pointed its long claws at the corpses mouth, lowering the orcs bottom lip.
"Lesser orc?"
"Dey little bit betta den vosk... Little bit... True orc has long teeth, skin greener, no red. True orc born to fight, rozkra born to farm, make things. In war dey only fight to tire enemy, like shield meat."
"...I think you mean meat shield but regardless, as long as they don't come looking for him, all is well. Velk, avoid attacking orcs unless you're defending yourself from now on. The last thing we need is an army of orcs coming to attack us. You and your group go join Kabba, i need you to help chop down trees."
"...Yes..master.."
"Rorik, since the tenri and direwolves have nothing else to do why don't you take them out on a hunt around the area. Stay close though and don't fight anything too powerful. I'm going to need souls if we're gonna populate this little city of ours with more undead... Oh, and send a direwolf back later with dinner, preferably a boar or a deer."
"GRRR!"
Rorik ran off probably speaking the word 'master' under his breathe when he was a good distance away but Aerwyn couldn't be bothered to reprimand the overgrown dog right now. All of his undead were now busy besides his two tiny protectors, Rin and Ren. There wasn't much for him to do as the undead cleared out the debris from the walls so he decided to go and explore the city.
He started in the city center, there were still six building that showed signs of use and appeared to be in decent condition. The signs being the pungent smell of ammonia that assaulted his nose when he got near. The boarded up windows and pelts covering the doorway worried him, if the smell was so strong outside then it would smell unbelievably worse being sealed inside by the pelts.
Aerwyn used his spear to knock down the pelts and shabby boards, letting it air out for a few minutes. Going inside the smell was so bad he just wanted to shoot a few flame lances and burn the whole building down. There wasn't much of anything in the building, only some scattered furs and bones lining the floor in a messy fashion.
The stairs leading to the second floor looked to have crumbled long ago as there was a hole leading to the second floor but no way up. He didn't trust the second floor to be able to hold his weight, even if he was skin and bones so he decided to just ask a goblin to go up and explore another time.
The next building didn't exude a horrid smell which left Aerwyn thanking the stars. It was only one story and looked much more secure, having a makeshift door that seemed solid. There was only one window on the building and it was boarded up as well. He tried to push open the window to take a look inside but it felt as though it was being blocked by something on the other side.
The door required a surprising amount of force to push open making Aerwyn question how any of the goblins outside Velk could open the thing. In the dim light he could see the sparkle of gold on a makeshift table on the other side of the room. Walking over and taking a look, the table was sporadically covered with various coins, ores and uncut gems.
"..." Aerwyn didn't know how much the assortment of treasure was worth but he imagined it was at least worth the same as the mana cores he traded to Marik the blacksmith. In total there was four gold coins, a hundred and ninety two silver, and eighty nine copper. Some of the coins were different sizes with different patterns on them and Aerwyn assumed they had come from different races or kingdoms.
He couldn't even begin to speculate what the ore and gems were worth as he didn't know what kind they were to begin with. Leaving behind the table of treasure he went to seek out Bon who was nearby making rope.
"Why didn't you tell me there was treasure here? We could've bought more weapons for the goblins or supplies to help rebuild the city!" Aerwyn howled at Bon causing him to drop the rope he was working on.
"M-master you never a-asked... I didn't think of it, please forgive me." Bon dashed into a kowtow at Aerywn's feet making him feel bad for yelling at the hobgoblin.
"Ugh... It's fine Bon, stand up. We'll just use it the next time we go to Setrhyn. Is there anymore treasure in the city or anything else that i should know about?"
"No master, that is where we kept it all... Ah, there's the caverns to the southwest but we never used it. Those that went in never came out so we filled it in with rubble."
"Cavern? Take me to it." Aerwyn ordered. He didn't want anymore surprises, whether they be pleasant or otherwise.
The southwest was all rubble as if a horde of giants had plowed their way through the walls until they reached the center of the city. There was barely even foundations left, the ground and piles of stone were wrapped in grass and vines as if nature was attempting to reclaim the broken stone back to her bosom.
When the reached the location of the cavern Bon pointed out what appeared to be stone stairs leading underground that had been filled in with dirt and stone.
"Hmm.. Perhaps it was a basement? Or maybe it was a way out of the city for whatever noble controlled this territory..."
"When i was still young i grew curious and looked inside. There was a long stone corridor that went on for as long as the eye could see, after a few steps inside i heard noises echoing from down the corridor and fled. I reported it back to the leaders and after losing two dozen goblins attempting to explore it we decided to seal the entrance with stone."
"We'll leave it for now. I want the walls to take priority, at least until our population grows more... Speaking of, are there anymore goblins settlements nearby?"
"Yes master, there are three smaller tribes to the south. Each tribe has between a hundred and three hundred goblins."
"...I've been wondering this for a while. How do goblins reproduce? I don't think I've seen a single female in the two tribes I've encountered."
"M-master, goblins... Goblin females look no different than males. I-in fact, the one you call Teek is a female. If she can evolve into a hobgoblin she will appear more feminine to human standards. A-also if she can evolve once more into an ogre she would look no different than a human or an elf, except for the horn on her head."
"WHAT?! But... I named her Teek! That's an awful name for a female! Ren why didn't you warn me!?"
"KWEEEEEE!" Ren defended herself as if screaming that she was not to blamed before scampering away in anger.
"Maybe we can use a nickname..."
"Master, any goblin would feel grateful having been given a name by you. I-i'm sure she doesn't mind the name Teek." Bon's words snapped Aerwyn back to reality and caused him to remember the discovery he had made in the darkness about his named undead.
"Why?"
"Names are required for evolution master. They can only be given out by people, like humans, elves, demons, and orcs. If a hobgoblin gave a name to a goblin the furthest they would be able to evolve would be a hobgoblin but if it's a person then they can fully evolve into ogres. I-i was named by a hobgoblin along with Velk and Kabba, so we will never be anything more than hobgoblins."
Aerwyn went quite. All of the undead souls that he had named looked different, they seemed larger like they had been wrapped in more purple flames than the rest. Perhaps the different soul sizes had more meaning than he thought. If a hobgoblin naming a goblin limited them to only ever evolve into a hobgoblin then perhaps names were far more important. He would have to speak to Tylin about it the next time he saw him.
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As the hunting parties returned Aerwyn was snacking on the salted meat that Sera had packed. He ordered Bon to take a few goblins and begin making rope while the rest of his group was ordered to join Kabba in clearing out the debris from the walls.
Teek arrived a short time later followed by Velk's group. Aerwyn noticed that the goblins bone armor was in tatters, they clearly had a tough fight. Walking over to the Velk, he asked.
"What did you fight?"
"...Orc..."
"Orc? How many? Did they follow you here?" Aerwyn appeared agitated and shot out questions in rapid succession.
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"..One... None followed..."
"What did you do with the body? Did you take it's mana..." Aerwyn only now noticed the troll was carrying something else besides it's usual tree trunk. A brownish red corpse hung from it's massive hands.
"...Put it down, i want to see it."
The orcs corpse was sprawled out in front of him. It was a little taller than Aerwyn but far more stocky and broad. The body was covered in wounds, only being overshadowed by the large hole in its chest undoubtedly made by Velk's axe. The orcs face was full of leathery creases as if it was in a permanent state of scowling.
It wasn't pleasant to look at but it still looked fairly human. It had a short flat nose, small pointed ears, and a small under bite that showed its bottom teeth off. He didn't know much about orcs but the one in front of him looked fairly young. Calling out and pointing to one of the returning vosk he asked.
"Don't bother pretending, i already know you can speak common tongue. Was this someone the orcs will look for? Or retaliate against us for killing?"
"No a true orc, look small teeth. Lesser orc it be, a rozkra." The vosk pointed its long claws at the corpses mouth, lowering the orcs bottom lip.
"Lesser orc?"
"Dey little bit betta den vosk... Little bit... True orc has long teeth, skin greener, no red. True orc born to fight, rozkra born to farm, make things. In war dey only fight to tire enemy, like shield meat."
"...I think you mean meat shield but regardless, as long as they don't come looking for him, all is well. Velk, avoid attacking orcs unless you're defending yourself from now on. The last thing we need is an army of orcs coming to attack us. You and your group go join Kabba, i need you to help chop down trees."
"...Yes..master.."
"Rorik, since the tenri and direwolves have nothing else to do why don't you take them out on a hunt around the area. Stay close though and don't fight anything too powerful. I'm going to need souls if we're gonna populate this little city of ours with more undead... Oh, and send a direwolf back later with dinner, preferably a boar or a deer."
"GRRR!"
Rorik ran off probably speaking the word 'master' under his breathe when he was a good distance away but Aerwyn couldn't be bothered to reprimand the overgrown dog right now. All of his undead were now busy besides his two tiny protectors, Rin and Ren. There wasn't much for him to do as the undead cleared out the debris from the walls so he decided to go and explore the city.
He started in the city center, there were still six building that showed signs of use and appeared to be in decent condition. The signs being the pungent smell of ammonia that assaulted his nose when he got near. The boarded up windows and pelts covering the doorway worried him, if the smell was so strong outside then it would smell unbelievably worse being sealed inside by the pelts.
Aerwyn used his spear to knock down the pelts and shabby boards, letting it air out for a few minutes. Going inside the smell was so bad he just wanted to shoot a few flame lances and burn the whole building down. There wasn't much of anything in the building, only some scattered furs and bones lining the floor in a messy fashion.
The stairs leading to the second floor looked to have crumbled long ago as there was a hole leading to the second floor but no way up. He didn't trust the second floor to be able to hold his weight, even if he was skin and bones so he decided to just ask a goblin to go up and explore another time.
The next building didn't exude a horrid smell which left Aerwyn thanking the stars. It was only one story and looked much more secure, having a makeshift door that seemed solid. There was only one window on the building and it was boarded up as well. He tried to push open the window to take a look inside but it felt as though it was being blocked by something on the other side.
The door required a surprising amount of force to push open making Aerwyn question how any of the goblins outside Velk could open the thing. In the dim light he could see the sparkle of gold on a makeshift table on the other side of the room. Walking over and taking a look, the table was sporadically covered with various coins, ores and uncut gems.
"..." Aerwyn didn't know how much the assortment of treasure was worth but he imagined it was at least worth the same as the mana cores he traded to Marik the blacksmith. In total there was four gold coins, a hundred and ninety two silver, and eighty nine copper. Some of the coins were different sizes with different patterns on them and Aerwyn assumed they had come from different races or kingdoms.
He couldn't even begin to speculate what the ore and gems were worth as he didn't know what kind they were to begin with. Leaving behind the table of treasure he went to seek out Bon who was nearby making rope.
"Why didn't you tell me there was treasure here? We could've bought more weapons for the goblins or supplies to help rebuild the city!" Aerwyn howled at Bon causing him to drop the rope he was working on.
"M-master you never a-asked... I didn't think of it, please forgive me." Bon dashed into a kowtow at Aerywn's feet making him feel bad for yelling at the hobgoblin.
"Ugh... It's fine Bon, stand up. We'll just use it the next time we go to Setrhyn. Is there anymore treasure in the city or anything else that i should know about?"
"No master, that is where we kept it all... Ah, there's the caverns to the southwest but we never used it. Those that went in never came out so we filled it in with rubble."
"Cavern? Take me to it." Aerwyn ordered. He didn't want anymore surprises, whether they be pleasant or otherwise.
The southwest was all rubble as if a horde of giants had plowed their way through the walls until they reached the center of the city. There was barely even foundations left, the ground and piles of stone were wrapped in grass and vines as if nature was attempting to reclaim the broken stone back to her bosom.
When the reached the location of the cavern Bon pointed out what appeared to be stone stairs leading underground that had been filled in with dirt and stone.
"Hmm.. Perhaps it was a basement? Or maybe it was a way out of the city for whatever noble controlled this territory..."
"When i was still young i grew curious and looked inside. There was a long stone corridor that went on for as long as the eye could see, after a few steps inside i heard noises echoing from down the corridor and fled. I reported it back to the leaders and after losing two dozen goblins attempting to explore it we decided to seal the entrance with stone."
"We'll leave it for now. I want the walls to take priority, at least until our population grows more... Speaking of, are there anymore goblins settlements nearby?"
"Yes master, there are three smaller tribes to the south. Each tribe has between a hundred and three hundred goblins."
"...I've been wondering this for a while. How do goblins reproduce? I don't think I've seen a single female in the two tribes I've encountered."
"M-master, goblins... Goblin females look no different than males. I-in fact, the one you call Teek is a female. If she can evolve into a hobgoblin she will appear more feminine to human standards. A-also if she can evolve once more into an ogre she would look no different than a human or an elf, except for the horn on her head."
"WHAT?! But... I named her Teek! That's an awful name for a female! Ren why didn't you warn me!?"
"KWEEEEEE!" Ren defended herself as if screaming that she was not to blamed before scampering away in anger.
"Maybe we can use a nickname..."
"Master, any goblin would feel grateful having been given a name by you. I-i'm sure she doesn't mind the name Teek." Bon's words snapped Aerwyn back to reality and caused him to remember the discovery he had made in the darkness about his named undead.
"Why?"
"Names are required for evolution master. They can only be given out by people, like humans, elves, demons, and orcs. If a hobgoblin gave a name to a goblin the furthest they would be able to evolve would be a hobgoblin but if it's a person then they can fully evolve into ogres. I-i was named by a hobgoblin along with Velk and Kabba, so we will never be anything more than hobgoblins."
Aerwyn went quite. All of the undead souls that he had named looked different, they seemed larger like they had been wrapped in more purple flames than the rest. Perhaps the different soul sizes had more meaning than he thought. If a hobgoblin naming a goblin limited them to only ever evolve into a hobgoblin then perhaps names were far more important. He would have to speak to Tylin about it the next time he saw him.
As the hunting parties returned Aerwyn was snacking on the salted meat that Sera had packed. He ordered Bon to take a few goblins and begin making rope while the rest of his group was ordered to join Kabba in clearing out the debris from the walls.Teek arrived a short time later followed by Velk's group. Aerwyn noticed that the goblins bone armor was in tatters, they clearly had a tough fight. Walking over to the Velk, he asked."What did you fight?""...Orc...""Orc? How many? Did they follow you here?" Aerwyn appeared agitated and shot out questions in rapid succession.Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.novelhall.com for visiting."..One... None followed...""What did you do with the body? Did you take it's mana..." Aerwyn only now noticed the troll was carrying something else besides it's usual tree trunk. A brownish red corpse hung from it's massive hands."...Put it down, i want to see it."The orcs corpse was sprawled out in front of him. It was a little taller than Aerwyn but far more stocky and broad. The body was covered in wounds, only being overshadowed by the large hole in its chest undoubtedly made by Velk's axe. The orcs face was full of leathery creases as if it was in a permanent state of scowling.It wasn't pleasant to look at but it still looked fairly human. It had a short flat nose, small pointed ears, and a small under bite that showed its bottom teeth off. He didn't know much about orcs but the one in front of him looked fairly young. Calling out and pointing to one of the returning vosk he asked."Don't bother pretending, i already know you can speak common tongue. Was this someone the orcs will look for? Or retaliate against us for killing?""No a true orc, look small teeth. Lesser orc it be, a rozkra." The vosk pointed its long claws at the corpses mouth, lowering the orcs bottom lip."Lesser orc?""Dey little bit betta den vosk... Little bit... True orc has long teeth, skin greener, no red. True orc born to fight, rozkra born to farm, make things. In war dey only fight to tire enemy, like shield meat.""...I think you mean meat shield but regardless, as long as they don't come looking for him, all is well. Velk, avoid attacking orcs unless you're defending yourself from now on. The last thing we need is an army of orcs coming to attack us. You and your group go join Kabba, i need you to help chop down trees.""...Yes..master..""Rorik, since the tenri and direwolves have nothing else to do why don't you take them out on a hunt around the area. Stay close though and don't fight anything too powerful. I'm going to need souls if we're gonna populate this little city of ours with more undead... Oh, and send a direwolf back later with dinner, preferably a boar or a deer.""GRRR!"Rorik ran off probably speaking the word 'master' under his breathe when he was a good distance away but Aerwyn couldn't be bothered to reprimand the overgrown dog right now. All of his undead were now busy besides his two tiny protectors, Rin and Ren. There wasn't much for him to do as the undead cleared out the debris from the walls so he decided to go and explore the city.He started in the city center, there were still six building that showed signs of use and appeared to be in decent condition. The signs being the pungent smell of ammonia that assaulted his nose when he got near. The boarded up windows and pelts covering the doorway worried him, if the smell was so strong outside then it would smell unbelievably worse being sealed inside by the pelts.Aerwyn used his spear to knock down the pelts and shabby boards, letting it air out for a few minutes. Going inside the smell was so bad he just wanted to shoot a few flame lances and burn the whole building down. There wasn't much of anything in the building, only some scattered furs and bones lining the floor in a messy fashion.The stairs leading to the second floor looked to have crumbled long ago as there was a hole leading to the second floor but no way up. He didn't trust the second floor to be able to hold his weight, even if he was skin and bones so he decided to just ask a goblin to go up and explore another time.The next building didn't exude a horrid smell which left Aerwyn thanking the stars. It was only one story and looked much more secure, having a makeshift door that seemed solid. There was only one window on the building and it was boarded up as well. He tried to push open the window to take a look inside but it felt as though it was being blocked by something on the other side.The door required a surprising amount of force to push open making Aerwyn question how any of the goblins outside Velk could open the thing. In the dim light he could see the sparkle of gold on a makeshift table on the other side of the room. Walking over and taking a look, the table was sporadically covered with various coins, ores and uncut gems."..." Aerwyn didn't know how much the assortment of treasure was worth but he imagined it was at least worth the same as the mana cores he traded to Marik the blacksmith. In total there was four gold coins, a hundred and ninety two silver, and eighty nine copper. Some of the coins were different sizes with different patterns on them and Aerwyn assumed they had come from different races or kingdoms.He couldn't even begin to speculate what the ore and gems were worth as he didn't know what kind they were to begin with. Leaving behind the table of treasure he went to seek out Bon who was nearby making rope."Why didn't you tell me there was treasure here? We could've bought more weapons for the goblins or supplies to help rebuild the city!" Aerwyn howled at Bon causing him to drop the rope he was working on."M-master you never a-asked... I didn't think of it, please forgive me." Bon dashed into a kowtow at Aerywn's feet making him feel bad for yelling at the hobgoblin."Ugh... It's fine Bon, stand up. We'll just use it the next time we go to Setrhyn. Is there anymore treasure in the city or anything else that i should know about?""No master, that is where we kept it all... Ah, there's the caverns to the southwest but we never used it. Those that went in never came out so we filled it in with rubble.""Cavern? Take me to it." Aerwyn ordered. He didn't want anymore surprises, whether they be pleasant or otherwise.The southwest was all rubble as if a horde of giants had plowed their way through the walls until they reached the center of the city. There was barely even foundations left, the ground and piles of stone were wrapped in grass and vines as if nature was attempting to reclaim the broken stone back to her bosom.When the reached the location of the cavern Bon pointed out what appeared to be stone stairs leading underground that had been filled in with dirt and stone."Hmm.. Perhaps it was a basement? Or maybe it was a way out of the city for whatever noble controlled this territory...""When i was still young i grew curious and looked inside. There was a long stone corridor that went on for as long as the eye could see, after a few steps inside i heard noises echoing from down the corridor and fled. I reported it back to the leaders and after losing two dozen goblins attempting to explore it we decided to seal the entrance with stone.""We'll leave it for now. I want the walls to take priority, at least until our population grows more... Speaking of, are there anymore goblins settlements nearby?""Yes master, there are three smaller tribes to the south. Each tribe has between a hundred and three hundred goblins.""...I've been wondering this for a while. How do goblins reproduce? I don't think I've seen a single female in the two tribes I've encountered.""M-master, goblins... Goblin females look no different than males. I-in fact, the one you call Teek is a female. If she can evolve into a hobgoblin she will appear more feminine to human standards. A-also if she can evolve once more into an ogre she would look no different than a human or an elf, except for the horn on her head.""WHAT?! But... I named her Teek! That's an awful name for a female! Ren why didn't you warn me!?""KWEEEEEE!" Ren defended herself as if screaming that she was not to blamed before scampering away in anger."Maybe we can use a nickname...""Master, any goblin would feel grateful having been given a name by you. I-i'm sure she doesn't mind the name Teek." Bon's words snapped Aerwyn back to reality and caused him to remember the discovery he had made in the darkness about his named undead."Why?""Names are required for evolution master. They can only be given out by people, like humans, elves, demons, and orcs. If a hobgoblin gave a name to a goblin the furthest they would be able to evolve would be a hobgoblin but if it's a person then they can fully evolve into ogres. I-i was named by a hobgoblin along with Velk and Kabba, so we will never be anything more than hobgoblins."Aerwyn went quite. All of the undead souls that he had named looked different, they seemed larger like they had been wrapped in more purple flames than the rest. Perhaps the different soul sizes had more meaning than he thought. If a hobgoblin naming a goblin limited them to only ever evolve into a hobgoblin then perhaps names were far more important. He would have to speak to Tylin about it the next time he saw him.
