If there was one gripe she had over her skill as a [Seamstress], it was how...brutal her techniques would ultimately become. It wasn't something she consciously did, certainly not, but the rapid snapping and movement of string through flesh tended to spray untold amounts of blood all over the ground.

Sometimes, Deliah wished her attacks could be cleaner.

It didn't help that her bloody attacks was inadvertently helping the grue, giving him more and more blood to use against her. Not that it'd do much; the grue would die from bloodloss before it could understand, but annoying nonetheless.

The grue growled, charging as it shaped the blood coating its hand into claws. The woman met the claw calmly, tearing apart its entire arm with a quick and brutal slice using the threads of her sleeve. The monster snarled, and Deliah quickly moved back before it could attack with its other arm.

Silently, she watched as the grue brought its severed arm back onto its shoulder, pulling it using the buckets of blood it'd spilled throughout their encounter, before melding the arm back onto its body. Healed, the grue turned to her and snarled, very much annoyed at the many failed attacks it had made.

Deliah frowned slightly.

Something about this grue didn't feel right. Their kind was intelligent, or as intelligent as they could be at least. Charging at their enemies and turning their blood into claws over and over again wasn't something an intelligent monster would ever entertain, much less do.

Sighing, she manipulated some of the threads coiled around the nearby trees, and they all shot forward. Before the grue knew anything, it found itself wrapped in a tight cocoon. It snarled and thrashed around, but at her command, the threads began to spin, grating painfully against the grue's body. It continued to struggle, pushing against the cocoon of spinning threads, but it was hopeless.

Before long, enough speed was built, and the threads dug straight into the grue, causing it to explode into a giant shower of blood.

Their task done, the threads went back to the trees they were coiled around, waiting to be used.

Deliah looked at the puddle of blood the grue was reduced into and frowned. Something was clearly not right with it. Its body turned into a giant splatter of blood, but there were no remaining organs, not even a speck of flesh. It was impossible.

With a breath, the threads of her sleeve unfurled and shot back, stabbing right through the grue that was sneaking behind her back. It growled for a moment, before she wrapped the thread around the grue's head and slammed it against a tree, breaking the grue's head with a loud crack.

Then, the grue's corpse broke apart, leaving nothing but a puddle of blood.

Deliah sighed.

This was another reason she hated fighting them. Grues are capable of manipulating blood, and particularly skilled in shaping their blood to take different shapes. This, somehow, also allowed them to create clones from blood.

Why and how they were capable of that was poorly understood, but she didn't care for it all that much. The grues could make clones; dumber clones, but still clones.

This unfortunately meant she wouldn't be able to secure a corpse for her son to use. She would've been interested to see what skill he'd be able to draw from its corpse, but, for now, they wouldn't be able to find out.

A growl came from her left, and she quickly sent a pair of threads towards the incoming grue clone, cutting the clone into three clean pieces. Defeated, the clone broke apart and fell, splashing the earth with even more blood.

It was becoming increasingly hard to keep her shoes free of blood.

Frowning, Deliah looked up and saw a dozen grue clones or so, sitting atop the branches and looking down at her, all glaring and snarling.

It was becoming clear that the grue was trying to overwhelm her with numbers, which meant that the actual grue was somewhere else, waiting for its clones to come back and relay the information they gathered. An annoying, but understandable strategy.

Still, she should return now. Her son was definitely shaken by his encounter, and she had lunch to make.

So, tapping her finger on her waist, every thread coiled around the surrounding trees shot outwards, and before the clones had any clue what was going on, they found their heads impaled by a number of threads. Deliah snapped her fingers, and every thread she controlled moved, brutally snapping the clones' heads from their bodies and letting their decapitated bodies fall onto the earth.

Silently, she watched as they all broke apart into puddles of blood. She recalled the threads she'd sent out, and frowned when she saw how mangled they'd become. She could still use them, but she wasn't willing to have her threads snap in the middle of a fight.

With a small sigh, she coiled all the threads into a small ball and threw it away, leaving the forest behind with splatters of blood and a small ball of mangled threads.

The kingdom of Atria truly blundered this time. Waiting for the Goblin Lord to amass treasures was...stupid, but understandable. Failing to deal with it after was just sad.

It wasn't Atria's fault as a whole, of course. The Kingdom of Atria was, first and foremost, a capitalist kingdom. Their foundation laid in the desire to generate gains, either for the individual or the kingdom. Admittedly, their ways had served them well. They weren't the most advanced kingdom, nor were they the strongest, but people gravitated to it, drawn by its promise of wealth and fame. The variety and quality of the wares they had in store were second to none.

Still, Deliah dearly wanted to head to those nobles and bonk them on the head, but she'd done that enough in her years as a maid, and she didn't quite want to do that all over again.

...Still, perhaps going to Atria would do her and her son some good. She could buy some more materials, and her son could search from some new seeds to cultivate on his farm.

Evel was certainly shaken after the encounter, and his mom, bless her, listened to his ramblings as they ate lunch. His words were frantic and all over the place, but he eventually managed to retell his encounter.

"There's nothing wrong with running." She said after he finally finished. "Recognizing that you won't win a battle and retreating led you to survive, and that's all that matters, right?"

He blinked. "Really?"

"It is. If only more people listened to it." She deadpanned, and Evel couldn't help but laugh slightly.

"And there! Grow good and strong all of you!" He said, smiling as he gave the new magical tomato plants their pats. He'd never tested if the seeds of the Goblin Tomatoes II could grow on normal goblin corpses, but he hoped they could! It'd be a terrible waste if they couldn't!

He could only plant three; he only managed to kill three goblins after all. Two would be crossed with one another, and the third he'd leave to grow on its own, mostly to see how many tomatoes it would yield. The original Goblin Tomato grew six magical tomatoes, and he wasn't sure if the second tier would do the same.

Well, that was the reason he was planting them in the first place, wasn't it?

But! Onto more interesting news,

His mom said that they'd be taking a visit to Atria soon! He was fairly sure he'd been there once, but he was really young back then, and his memory of it was spotty at best.

It'd pretty much be a first visit!

They'd be there to mostly shop. His mom wanted to buy some thread for her to use, and he wanted to get some new seeds for him to grow, but she said that it'd be fine if they went sightseeing for an hour or two.

So yes, Evel was very excited.

Which was why he was spending more time on his field at the moment. He'd be leaving his plants for some time after all, and he couldn't help but worry for them.

He was a [Farmer] after all. They were essentially his children!

[Farming Lv - 3]

[39% towards next level] The earth blesses you. Anything you plant will grow 200% faster.

The spirit of the world aids you. Anything you plant can never die from diseases.

Nature gifts you its blessing. You are now able to grow magical plants.

"Hmm..."

"Evel? What's wrong?"

Evel turned to his mom and frowned. "Mm, just thinking for another name for Goblin Tomatoes." He said. "They don't feel...right, I guess."

His mom hummed for a moment, pondering over it, before she simply said. "How about Gobatoes?"

He blinked. "...Gobatoes? Like, combining 'Goblin' and 'Tomatoes'?"

She nodded, and he blinked again.

...Honestly, that didn't sound so bad.