Now that I had my home for myself again I felt a lot more relaxed. The observation had been fruitful, yes, but I never really felt at ease with my territory invaded by someone I disliked. There it was again. My human interests going against my instincts. I really had to figure out who I was. A monster, or a person?

I thought about this question for days. My cave was a safe space other than overloading on flux, so I had no other worries to keep me occupied. I still regularly connected with the node to drain more mana into my inner gate, now getting both aer and tenebrae to flow on their own. Flux accumulated and I took breaks to hunt but most of the time I was just sitting there, not doing much. Even so, I was incapable of coming to a conclusion. I had a lot of success following my instincts and living as a monster. On the other hand, boredom was something monsters, or even just animals usually did not deal with. At least not as much as humans, right? There was a philosophical question I did not want to touch. But maybe I should? I was most definitely bored when all I did was hunt and sit around all day. And I was very confident that was my human side talking most of the time.

For now, I decided to rely on my instincts. They were far more likely to keep me alive. Only when I was really bored would I consider what my human side wanted. And even then only to keep me from doing something stupid.

As the days had passed, my Status no longer showed slightly wounded. Sadly, mana enriched did not change from medium. At least [Aerial Combat] had gained another level. So had [Owl Senses] for some reason. Maybe the Skill helped with seeing my mana and flux and using it for that had levelled it up?

There was the matter of breakpoints. A lot of my Skills were now at or close to level four. I would have to figure out a way to advance them, hopefully reliably. Growing stronger was something my instincts heavily agreed with. In this last week, I had also tried to find a way to push [Maths] a little higher but I did not make any progress. Just repeating my old knowledge and going through mental calculations did not progress it. I probably had to do something special, maybe even using mana.

The reason why I could not do that right now was the group of goblins near the entrance of my cave. I had heard them coming and stopped draining the node. There were five of them approaching and from the clicking of bones I figured one of them was Roguk with his hair ornaments. That turned out to be correct as he called out to me.

“Hello Fio, are you home? Are you alright, we haven’t seen you in a while?”

He sounded concerned and a little bit nervous. I answered with a hoot and flew up to the entrance. Roguk was there with the hunters I knew. Minus Meeny, who had been replaced by another male goblin with a staff. As Roguk spotted me a small smile spread on his lips.

“It’s good to see you, Fio.”

I nodded an answer. Instinct told me to keep them away from my territory, but that was only the inside of the cave so I would tolerate their presence.

“How are you doing? You are careful with the node, right? No more flux overcharging?”

I nodded.

He smiled, not understanding my impatience. I wanted to get back to absorbing mana. It had slowed down considerably and every moment wasted could be spent on gathering more power.

“Good! Grag told me you wanted to see the valley. The scouts decided to let you join an expedition, as long as you agree to follow their orders, or rather the group leader’s orders. We would also give you more details about what to expect and how you should behave beforehand, of course. Is that okay with you?”

I tilted my head. The valley? I had the node to absorb energy from, there was still much to gain here. On the other hand, it would be annoying to try and ask for them to take me along a month from now. There might be more things down there to fuel my growth so I was definitely still interested in exploring. I decided to just join their group for now. I would follow along and get an idea of what was down there. Then I could still plan how to use it and go once I had nothing more to gain from my node.

I rightened up and nodded again. There should be no problem.

The goblins shared glances before Roguk spoke again.

“Alright. These four will go with you. You already know them so it should be fine. Luk is the leader of this group. Can you come by the village the next two nights? They will tell you what to expect and the signs they are using.”

I did not want to leave my cave for that long. More importantly, I did not know when the nights started. I had no real sleep schedule while absorbing mana from the node. So I shook my head and pointed a wing at the ground.

“You can’t come? Or you won't?”

I had no idea how to tell them I did not know when night started.

Instead, I pointed at the ground again. This time Luk spoke.

“We can come here after breakfast. Won't be much of a problem. We’ll wake you up if you’re still asleep.”

I liked Luk. Even though the other goblins stared at him accusingly and groaned, nobody openly complained. And so it was decided we would be going down to the valley three nights from now.

We were silently making our way through the tunnel. After closing the barrier behind us only a small amount of luminous moss lit the way for our steps. Contrary to my expectations the tunnel did not go up. Instead, it sloped downwards in a curving and twisting path. Luk had taken the lead with Jiro right behind him. I sat on Haro’s shoulder, my steps were too loud on the bare stone, and the last goblin whose name I must have forgot made up the rear.

The scouts had briefed me over the last two nights. I knew about what to expect but it still took my breath away when we reached the exit. We left the confines of the mountain a few metres above the valley’s ground. By all means, there should be no way to have a path to the sky here and yet there was. And it was not just an open ravine or a large cave with a cracked ceiling. No, this was a proper valley, just like any other. Slopes covered in trees and meadows went up on both sides. The bottom was covered in trees and I heard a river flowing somewhere. Despite the moon being only a small slice of silver in the sky, there was magical light glowing from multiple places in the woods. It lit up the flanks and trees in soft oranges, reds and yellows. If there was more flickering I would have thought it to be wildfires. But the light was calm and stable, just like the crystals lighting the goblin village.

The peaks reached confusing heights. This valley was at least twice as deep as the one I had initially taken into the mountain. I was especially befuddled to see no snow coverings. The mountains were blank rock and gravel above a certain height but it felt wrong. They simply reached too high not to be snowed in.

A crackling crinkle drew my sight back to the forest. There was a short purple glow as of lightning illuminating the treetops not far from us. I knew the mystery species living down here had set up some sort of ritual site near our tunnel. Apparently, only a single individual would peruse it, some sort of shaman, possibly the chief. Thankfully our approach was hidden deep within the foliage, the exit of the tunnel was small enough Haro had to carry me in her arms, otherwise, we would not have fit.

I had explicit orders to stay with the group. Back up in the village, I had thought it would be fine but now that I was down here I really wanted to take off and explore. There was just so much more out here. Still, I honoured the agreement. No reason I could not find my way back here by myself. Or anywhere really.

Luk waved us forward and we carefully made our way through the undergrowth. There were a few animal paths we followed partially but often times the goblins just sort of glided through the foliage. I tried to find any traces of their passing but looking back from Haro’s shoulder only a few leaves and branches swayed. They were real scouts. Not hunters, like Meeny, was. Luk had explained to me, hunters were something like scouts in training for their tribe. They had to get certain Skills beyond their first Breakpoint and then succeed on a lower tunnel mission to unlock their Class upgrade. That got me thinking. Could I upgrade my class? Not finding a way to make my question comprehensible for the goblins I had set it aside for now, but it seemed logical to me that an upgrade was possible.

We soon reached a small clearing. It was a bit swampy and a faint greenish glow lit up the surroundings. It had a very similar colour to most of the village’s light crystals. I soon spotted the reason for that. Tiny crystal growths had formed in between blades of grass. They looked almost like grass themselves, only slightly transparent. But the main source for the glow came from somewhere higher in the air. There was something about two metres up giving off a very faint shine. If it had been day I would not have noticed it, but it was definitely there. I only noticed it was the actual source of the glow when Jiro walked around the clearing and threw a shadow as if the floating light was a mini-moon.

The goblin carefully picked his way through the clearing making sure not to step on any of the crystals. A few times he bent down and pocketed one or two slightly larger ones. They seemed to almost sink into the ground in some parts.

As he returned Luk gave a nod and some hand signs to the rest of the group. We got moving again, this time a slight way up the mountain. Every few steps one of the goblins bent down and picked up or cut off some plant. This lasted long enough to make me very bored again. Salvation came and went quickly when Luk shot a hog resting under some ferns. The goblins picked it up, making sure it did not bleed on the ground, and we made our way back towards the tunnel. Only a few minutes later Luk signalled to stop and hide. Instantly, the whole group disappeared into the undergrowth. I made out slow, rustling steps in the nearby bushes. Someone was coming. A patrol of the mystery species, most likely. Maybe I would finally get to see what they were? I layered some shadow over my and Haro’s hiding place as the steps came closer.

Then I finally saw it. A large muscular frame covered in green skin. Pointed ears adorned a bare scalp. The mouth had two tusks protruding over its upper lip. The nose was broad and large. An ork. Now I knew what that word meant. Although, it looked far less monstrous than I imagined after all the stories from my previous life. It looked almost like a muscular human with tusks and pointed ears. And green skin of course. But I had expected the nose at least to be more pig-like. Or the skin to be rough and covered in warts and filth. But none of those was true. It even wore rather normal clothes. More like armour, but still. Very normal. An axe hung on its hip and a spear was in its hand. And they had metal blades. The first time I had seen metal. It looked like steel to me, but it might just have been well-maintained iron. Still, very impressive.

The ork made its way past us while looking around carefully. I willed [Sneak] to keep me as inconspicuous as it could. If it helped or not, I did not know. All I cared about was that we were not found. After the ork had passed us by, we made our way back to the tunnel. I had thought about staying out here, but now that I saw that ork? Maybe using my node to grow as strong as I could first was the smart move.