When Rae woke up from his fight with Norton, he found himself lying on the ground, wet from the water that came from the bucket in front of his face. ‘Couldn’t they have woken me up normally?’ Rae complained.

Eric then pulled out a crystal from his pocket and ordered Rae to stand up. ‘Is that the「Universal Language」Crystal they mentioned yesterday? Interesting, if「Universal Language」could be learned in this way, does that mean other skills can too?’ questioned Rae.

He was just born into Altera not too long ago, so learning a new way to get stronger would be valuable information.

After Rae did as he was ordered, Eric said, “Accept all of the information that is coming forth into your mind.” Then he put the crystal on Rae’s forehead, making the two touch. The crystal glowed a brilliant light blue for a few seconds and turned to dust.

Rae didn’t feel anything. He figured it was because he already owned the skill.

Norton spoke to Rae in a gruff tone. “Goblin, do you understand me?”

Rae sighed in relief inwardly. ‘Looks like everything looked normal’

Rae then looked at Norton and smiled enthusiastically. “Yes, Master.”

Rae thought it best to reply in a simple manner as Norton looked like a no-nonsense kind of person.

But when Eric and Norton heard Rae’s pleasant voice and saw his resplendent smile, an odd feeling overtook them. As if they were building a favorable impression of him even despite his dry reply. After a quick moment, they laughed at the thought. As goblins had always been treated as things; nothing more, and nothing less.

“Good. Remember to call me ‘Captain’. Now Eric, use appraise on it,” Norton said. He was shocked at the strength Rae had shown yesterday, so he was extremely curious about this mutated goblins stats.

‘Oh shit, they can do that?! What should I do?’ Rae panicked for a bit at the thought of his secrets being exposed and being made a target for it. Truthfully, he could easily escape if Norton was not around as the humans had an overwhelming trust in the collars that did not work on him, but he was ignorant of the state of Altera. He didn’t know if goblin slavery was accepted in the rest of the world and would maybe have wanted posters of him everywhere and especially tracked down as something that could defy their all-powerful collars. He would not take any drastic actions until he found out as much as he could.

Then he decided.

After Norton was done confirming that Rae could speak, Eric took out another crystal that fit perfectly in the palm. This one was filled with a multitude of colors, unlike the only blue「Universal Language」Crystal.

Eric repeated the same actions as before. This time, the light that was flashed was also rainbow like the stone itself, but the color became grey and dull as it crumbled to dust. Just like the 「Universal Language」Crystal, Appraisal Stones also crumbled.

But he and Norton were surprised yet again by Rae.

『Status』

『General Information』

Gender: Male Age: 9 Days Race: Mutated Goblin Level: 1 Class/Level: 「N/A」

All they could see was his gender, age, race, level and nonexistent class. What was this? They had no clue what was happening before, nothing could escape an Appraisal Stone. But now? This – albeit very strange and exceptional – lowly goblin had subverted that truth.

Rae had hidden everything except his general information, even his own name. They knew Rae had「Swordsmanship」from observations and wouldn’t find it unreasonable to see「Dash」and「Barehanded Combat」, but he thought that if he showed them that, they would find it even stranger that they couldn’t see the rest of his information.

“I command you to tell me why the rest of your status does not appear,” Eric said in a grave tone. The implication that a goblin could hide from the Appraisal Stone was serious.

Rae made the most heart-rending puppy dog face he could make that would fluster even Helen, who had grown immune to Mary’s puppy dog face when she got in trouble. “Master, this one has no clue either,” Rae said in his most pitiful voice that would even impress Mary.

Although it irked and wounded Rae’s pride to refer to himself as ‘it’ and continuously calling someone ‘Master’, bullshitting his way through the situation right now took precedence.

『Akashic System』Charisma +2!

*Bang*

This time, Eric and Norton could not resist Rae’s beautiful face and voice and their hearts took a hit.

“Norton, what do you think? Maybe it’s because it’s a mutated goblin,” Eric said in a skeptical but much less serious voice.

Norton was also less tense but was still extremely curious. “I don’t know. I’m not an expert on mutated creatures, but it could be possible. It is the only mutated goblin and it’s not like mutated creatures have a standard anyways, since they’re so rare.”

“I suppose you’re right. And its Race does say ‘Mutated Goblin’. Alright, fine. Can you tell us your attributes then?” asked Eric.

‘Damn, they bought it? I guess that explains why I received a notification about my Charisma. Mary would be proud of my natural abilities at lying,’ Rae thought triumphantly. Actually, he had never lied much, or at all in his previous life. He made a mental note to make use of the skills he learned from Mary from now on.

“Yes, Master,” Rae said then told him that his physical attributes rounded to about 100. While the rest of his attributes were in their 20’s

“Is that so…,” said Eric as he fell into thought.

Norton then asked, “Tell us about your skills.”

“I have 「Swordsmanship LV2」,「Dash LV1」 and「Barehanded Combat LV1」,” Rae said. He wasn’t necessarily lying either, as he really did have those skills. He just didn’t list all of them.

“Okay, I’ll just train those three skills since we only have a month. And a dungeon is too far away for it to level up its attributes,” Norton said after some thought.

‘Damn, these people really have absolute faith in these collars! They don’t believe it’s possible in any way for them to be lied to as long as the person they’re questioning is wearing one. Well, I also have high Charisma. I can take advantage of both of these factors,’ Rae thought. He was glad for their faith in the collars and high Charisma.

But then he remembered one word Norton had said: dungeon. 'There are dungeons in this world? I wonder how those are like. Usually, there are monsters and a dungeon boss with a core at the end,' Rae imagined. But then he thought he would worry about them when the time came.

“Since this is settled. I’ll go back and tell the Elders,” said Eric. And he left the two of them to train.

********

In the Elders conference room, the Elders were discussing what Eric had reported about Rae’s hidden status.

“Only his general information was shown?” asked Berkley in a doubtful tone.

“Yes,” replied Brandis blankly as he was processing what he heard. He also believed the Appraisal Stone to be absolute.

“Well, what was its status?” asked the Elder in black.

“It said it was a ‘Mutated Goblin’,” said Brandis.

“Well then, isn’t it all fine?” said the Elder in black in a very carefree manner. He honestly did not care and only gold mattered to him.

“I agree as well,” said the Elder in blue.

Then he continued. “Even though his status not showing from the Appraisal Stone is unprecedented and strange, it is, after all, a mutated goblin. Also, it was wearing the slave collar when Norton and Eric questioned it, and although its attributes are much stronger than a regular goblin, there was nothing strange about its skills either. Thus, we can just sell it. All who agree, say ‘aye’,” said the Elder in blue.

“Bruno, what if the collar malfunctioned or something and the little bastard lied about its attributes and stats?” Berkley asked. Although he was a bit doubtful, this mutated goblin proved too strange.

The Elder in black laughed out loud, “Berkley, although you’re usually uptight, don’t be ridiculous. Ever since Anli Tuldaas invented the enslavement spell and collar for the goblins, they have never failed.”

“Brandon is right, they have never failed. So let’s just drop this and sell it. Again, all who agree, say ‘aye’,” said Bruno.

“Aye”

“Aye”

“Aye,” Berkley said hesitantly.

“Alright, then meeting adjourned.”

Berkley did not know why, but he had a strong premonition that something terrible would happen as a result of today’s vote.