Chapter 12 – Training Day

Back when the game started I made one crucial decision. I chose to play as a goblin. There was but a single reason for me to play this race of tiny green creatures. Apart from them just being freaking cool obviously.

No. The reason I chose to play as a goblin was to pursue a tactic based on guerilla warfare. A heavily trained group of individuals capable of maneuvering at great speeds, use the terrain to their advantage and use stealth to ambush and whittle down the enemy forces while taking few casualties. I didn’t choose them to play fair. Not at all. I chose a race that excelled at being cunning and ruthless.

I look out towards my training field.

And I facepalm. Hard.

All the great plans and strategies that previously excited and motivated me came back and kicked me in the ass. Am I just a hopeless optimist? Or perhaps far too naive? Maybe both?

The presumably cunning bunch of goblins in front of me doesn’t really live up to my expectations. Sure, they have come a long way from when I first started playing. They do know that weapons usually have a pointy end, and that particular end is supposed to be stuck into non-goblin things. Their expertise doesn’t stretch any further than that though.

“Is it really worth the trouble?” I ask Gut who idles by my side. He is currently occupied with digging out some earwax… and eating it.

“Yes, young one. They can be taught new skills. It just takes some patience.”

“Of course… Isn’t there some sort of minion I can train to like… teach them for me?” I ask hopefully.

“Well…” He finishes cleaning his ears. “A lieutenant can teach away his skills to other goblin minions. The ones he already knows and are proficient at at least.”

Hope swells in my stomach. “Really!? I can? How can I get one? Shit. Why the hell didn’t you tell me earlier?” I start shouting.

“You didn’t ask.” He shrugs. His attention slipping away.

I try to resist the urge to give him a backhand slap. I settle at scowling at him angrily. He doesn’t seem to care. He starts to pick his nose.

What the fuck is wrong with my V.I. today anyway? His personality has been all over the place lately. Is it broken? … He can’t be. Can he? I don’t think that can happen really. Not unless someone tampered with his source code. And that seems unlikely.

It is bugging the hell out of me though.

I try to open some sort of options menu or help section to contact some kind of admin. I need to get to the bottom of this. It takes a few seconds, but it seems like the game does have a bug report feature built in. I am not going to bother asking why I haven’t been informed about its existence earlier.

As I report my advisor’s odd behaviour, a blue window appears.

Report received.

Report filed and stored in databank.

Processing request…

…

…

Processing complete.

Detected 6278 corrupted files in Virtual Intelligence#355 Codename ‘Gut’.

Initiating reset of Virtual Intelligence#355 Codename ‘Gut’.

Processing…

…

…

Processing complete.

Virtual Intelligence#355 Codename ‘Gut’ has been restored to default settings.

Uncorrupted memory files have been loaded into Virtual Intelligence#355 Codename ‘Gut’.

Scan of Virtual Intelligence#355 - Codename ‘Gut’ results are stored in databank.

Report complete.

What the… Corrupted? Really? How? Why? Did someone tamper with my V.I? Who? To what end? It can’t have been a fluke. No way. Not a V.I programmed by SinTech Entertainment. It’s just not possible.

Thoughts swirl around my head as I can’t seem to make heads or tails of them. This is just too suspicious. Wait. Could someone have tried to hack my V.I? Preposterous… Or is it? But once again… WHO!?

It can’t be anyone at SinTech. They wouldn’t do such sloppy work. Neither would they need to. I’m sure they have access to every single bit of information about what I do without feeling the need to hack my V.I.

Could it be someone influencing the game from the outside? Who would gain anything from that? And why me?

…

Richard.

It’s not beneath that bastard. But why the hell would he go to such lengths? To defeat me? What would he gain from that? There are over five hundred people playing this game. Chances are we won’t ever meet. We’re probably going to get picked off by other players long before we cross swords. Why spy on me now? This early? What could he possibly learn? What would drive him to risk everything to get me? Does he really fear me this much?

Don’t be stupid Greg. Why would he? How did he even do it? Outside help? He can’t have had time to prepare such a massive undertaking against me on such short notice when he didn’t even know I was a participant until launch day. Or perhaps this was just a long scheme plan to spy on everyone?

Aaah. Why do I bother wasting brain cells on this.

It doesn’t matter. I’m sure SinTech must know about the hacking attempt by now. The report I filed must have been flagged by several of their internal artificial intelligences already. The only problem now would be… What could he have learned? How much? If I assume everything… How bad can that be? It’s still early game. It would suck if he knows my location though.

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I’ll beat him senseless at some point anyway. Let him have this handicap. I’m ready for him.

…

Or I’m going to be ready for it… Hopefully. These green little good-for-nothings don’t really inspire hope.

I inwardly sigh as I size up my combat force. Ten strapping young goblin fighters are all standing at attent- ... loitering about, their lazy eyes fixated on me.

It has been a couple of days since I started this venture already, and I have to admit, I have noticed an improved, albeit slow progress in the skill gains. Most of my goblins have earned about five levels each in their selected weapons proficiencies along with a matching [Melee Mastery] level. It does appear the mastery corresponds to the highest weapon skill progression the goblins possess. Probably. I make this assumption out of the fact that my cutlass wielding goblin got a [Melee Mastery] at level 7, [Sword Specialization] at level 7 and [Shield Specialization] at level 3.

Anyway.

It’s time to start my newest training exercise which will be the supporting pillar behind my future fighting force. I’m obviously thinking about; Stealth. The most important part of the guerilla warfare tactics I have planned.

“All right everyone. I’m about to teach you sorry lot about how to conceal yourself from sight. This will be one of the most important things you will learn from me, so you’d better not fuck around.” I give the goblins a stern look. The little misfits does indeed appear to sharpen up after my speech, but not by much. I secretly cross my fingers and hope for some quicker uptake than before now that they all got a few skill levels under their belts.

I continue. “To achieve this goal, we are going to play a little game I’d like to call ‘Hide and Seek’. That’s right everyone. The rules for this game is easy. I will cover my eyes and count to twenty. During that time, you will all spread out and hide out of sight. After I finish counting, I will start looking for you. Your mission is to not be found by me for as long as possible. Do you understand?” All I receive in return is a few vacant eyes, some random buttscratching and a couple of half-hearted shrugs.

I’m pretty sure they don’t get it.

Sigh. Why does this have to be so goddamn hard? Why do I have to feed these little creatures information as if they are toddlers? This makes no sense. I refuse to believe it’s this difficult to instruct a human NPC. These little gremlins appears to be retarded on a whole new level. I mean, come the fuck on. There wasn’t anything in the racial attributes that hinted towards goblins having an IQ level that matches the number of their teeth, was there? I don’t think so. So what’s the freaking problem? Is there some sort of trick to make them understand?

As if he is reading my mind, Gut growls behind me. “Perhaps some motivation is necessary, young one?”

Uhm. Motivation? What does he mean by that? Rewards? More food? No. I have already tried that. Apart from the [Glutton]s in my midst, none of the goblins eat more than one unit of food each day. What could motivate these simpletons? I don’t get it.

I turn around and look for something I can use. I don’t see much other than my workers scurrying about and my pile of resources. There’s nothing to use here.

My eyes keep scanning and eventually linger on Gut, who seems to stare menacingly at me. He lightly taps his staff against the hard packed dirt on the ground. A cold shiver runs down my back as I remember the pain that stick has caused me over these last days. If only violence would help…

Wait. Why wouldn’t violence help? Gut seems to love hitting me. Hell, when I think about it, they love hitting each other every opportunity they get. My goblins brawl amongst themselves half the time I’m not talking to them. It’s also how they decide who eats first and who sits where. They even brawl with my workers! Shit. Can it really be this simple? Can violence really be the solution here?

Well damn. They are goblins after all. According to common goblin lore, Goblins are a notoriously violent race. Can the problem really be that I treat them as I would treat a human? No… really? If this is true, then it would be a total brainfuck regarding my already dubiously established moral standards.

This game is seriously fucked up.

…

I have to try it though. No matter how fucked up it sounds.

I clear my throat and regain the attention of my Fighters. “Everyone go hide right now. If I can still see you when I turn back around, I will punch the living shit out of you until you do it right. Am I making myself clear?” I shout at them.

As if the magic of the gods themselves suddenly descended all at once, my goblins jump to. They straighten their backs and their eyes are filled with fear. “Y-yes chieftain!” They all squeak back at me in near perfect synchronization before they start bolting into the forest.

Dumbfounded at this development, I nearly forget to turn around and close my eyes.

Slowly counting to twenty, I turn around with a glowing spark of hope throbbing in my chest. The view that greets me strikes me like lightning on a clear summer day.

My goblins… Well… I suppose it can be called hiding…

The little green misfits can be described as… hiding… if one is feeling especially optimistic. I however, am not feeling particularly optimistic these days.

I take a couple of steps off into the forest and come to a stop in front of a loose branch seemingly floating in the air in the middle of an open grassy clearing. It’s not a very leafy branch and a couple of round brown eyes are clearly trying to stare me away from behind it. The most aesthetically pleasing part of the floating branch is the pair of green legs and a loincloth sticking out beneath it.

I unceremoniously raise my right fist and rocket it forwards.

*Smack*

The floating branch lets out a short pained yelp before the branch falls to the ground, revealing the moron behind it.

“You useless little…” I swivel around and give him a good kick to his ass, propelling him forwards. “Head over to Gut and start practicing your weapon skills until I’ve gathered the rest of you incompetent little idiots.” I growl at the goblin. He wordlessly runs off towards the designated training field where Gut is sitting across a rotten log, sipping from his wineskin.

I turn back towards the forest and quickly make a headcount of the nine remaining goblins. They all fared a little better than the first goblin, and they are all standing behind trees, rocks and bushes. The problem is however, that they all have their heads peeking out, looking at me as if we are all part of a comedy routine from the nineteen sixties.

I let out a deep sigh and roll up my non-existing sleeve.

*Smack*

*Smack*

*Smack*

*Smack*

*Smack*

*Smack*

*Smack*

*Smack*

Aaaaand….

*Smack*

The last goblin to be struck is the cutlass wielding goblin. I saved him for last because he had at least put some leaves on top of his head before he peeked out from behind his bush. It didn’t help his hiding ability at all, but I recognise his effort. The goblins are all gathered at the training grounds and are all back to sparring one another. They haven’t been at it for long, seeing as it only took me roughly thirty seconds to find and beat them all. At least they aren’t lazing about.

I head over to them and raise my voice.

“All right you sorry lot. That was dreadful. Absolutely freaking disgusting actually. We are going to keep at it for the remainder of the day. The first one of you to be found shall receive an extra beating. And mercy be upon you if I find one of you first twice in a row. I will strip you of your weapons and turn you into live target practice for my crossbow. Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes chief!” They shout back in unison. I turn around and start my count.

After going through the process of counting, punching them, yelling at them and then repeat it all for about ten times, we are finally starting to see some results.

First of all, I gained a skill point in [Unarmed Specialization]. This unexpected reward brought me the first smile of the day. Not bad at all. Probably not very useful in combat, but I think I do feel some extra power behind my… disciplinary actions. It does wonders for goblin motivation.

The other good news is that some of my goblins finally learned the [Concealment] ability. The first one to learn it was my cutlass goblin, and the results were immediate. His body slightly, but just slightly fade from view. He no longer sticks any of his body parts out from cover and he manages to decently cover his entire body while still managing to maintain eyes on me. His skills are pretty much on par with a five year old child, but it’s a remarkable improvement from his previous ability which could be compared to a retarded three-legged cow.

The goblin learned the skill after our seventh attempt, and the other goblins quickly start copying him and gain the skill on their own.

Pleased at the notion that I’m finally starting to see some good results, I instruct Gut to take over for me while I go practice with my crossbow. Gut didn’t even grunt in disapproval once. He quickly takes to his new job as an instructor slash thug with vicious abandon.

Things are looking up!

----------

The day passes by without much fuss. I spend a lot of time practicing with my crossbow, gaining two more levels in my [Crossbow Specialization]. This brings it up to the nice even number of fifteen, the same level as my [Ranged Mastery]. I suppose future levels won’t come as easy anymore. It’s not all bad though. The five extra levels I gained since I started amounts to five percent more damage. That’s a lot really. Especially since I have a weapon that deals a ton of damage. Every little extra helps.

Oh! I also gained a new ability when I hit fifteen; [Snipe Shot]. It’s pretty darn sweet, I’ll tell you that!

I spend the evening sipping from Gut’s bottomless wineskin mostly in silence, but I do smile just a little bit after hearing that my fighters managed to reach [Concealment] level three during the day. My resource pile is steadily depleting of construction materials, but there is now a noticeable heap of useable crafting materials gathered up. I believe it won’t be long until I can start recruiting a couple of crafters. We’ll see tomorrow.

My eyes wander over to the feasting goblins for a while. I’ve built up a certain degree of contempt for these little buggers over the last few days, but I still can’t shake the fact that they appear really life-like.

The way their jagged teeth tear into the meat, the way their whole body shakes from laughter at seemingly anything and the glint of ferocity in their eyes when they start brawling. It’s really well done. I’d hate to say it, but I have to tip my hat to Logan for the graphics in this game.

Something bothers me though.

“Gut? ... are they all male?”

“Grrmfl?” Gut grunts beside me. He just took a massive bite out of his meat.

“The Goblins. They are all male. Are there no female goblins?”

Gut swallows hard. “What are you blabbering about young one? There’s three females right there.” He points to a cluster of goblins. A spear wielding fighter, one of the builders and my herbalist. Apart from the fact that these three goblins are the only ones who spawned with linen shirts, I can’t really tell them apart from the others.

Noticing my confusion, Gut takes the opportunity to do what he does best.

*Thump*

“OWW! FUCK! WHAT!?” I scream.

“Insolent little whelp. Are you blind?” He scowls at me.

Noticing my still clear mix of confusion and fury, he raises his staff once more.

“I swear to god. If you hit me one more time, I’m going to slice off your ears and slap you with them.” I growl at the mage.

Gut pauses as he eyes me suspiciously. We stare each other down for about a minute before he eventually lowers his staff. He still glares at me venomously. I don’t back down however, and fuel my stare with all my built up rage from the last couple of days.

And what a huge ass fucking shitload of a stockpile that is, let me tell ya.

“Sit your fucking ass down or you’ll regret it.” I say through gritted teeth.

Gut’s eyes widen for a moment before he eventually breaks eye contact and lower his eyes. His grip weakens and his face retreats beneath his cowl.

Damn straight I’m the boss around here.

I hold my stare for just a little longer before I turn away.

I release a huge breath. Damn. I took a huge risk here. I’ve been trying to figure out how the NPCs work after that whole hide-and-seek speech, and I really just had to try some stuff out. So far, I’ve noticed that Gut’s personality seems to respond to however I treat him. I learned the hard way that he responds well to intelligent questions and flattery, while disliking stupidity and disrespect.

The mistake I seemed to make was to assume these were the main points to determining his affection towards me. Sure, I could have played Johnny-good-shoes all day long and sucked up to him every opportunity I got. Hell, I could have treated him like a nun teaching at a catholic school, asking all the smart questions and get a imaginary A on my ‘How to manage a goblin tribe’ exam. But that’s just not how I roll. Oh no. That just ain’t happening.

Our relationship has deteriorated since day one. A fact made clear at the notion that Gut has been hitting me much more frequently as of late. I’m new to this game, of course I have to ask a lot of dumb questions. I also have a sarcastic oriented personality. And no, that’s not going to change… so sue me.

This shouldn’t have mattered though. I’m certainly not the only sarcastic player in this game, and definitely not the only asshole. Even if it’s just an unlucky draw of a bad V.I personality, or just the fact that goblins are a bunch of douchebags by default, I don’t know.

It was this question that I used as a basis for my stare down with Gut.

Earlier today, my goblins definitely reacted differently after I started threatening them. I have come to doubt threatening them is the real reason for their submissiveness however. It just wouldn’t fly to put such a feature in a game supposed to be marketed towards an audience. Leading my troops through violence alone would quite literally force me to be portrayed as a villain, no matter how you look at it. I just can’t believe this is how Logan wanted the game to be. The act of threatening someone is almost exclusively seen as evil, so I had to think: What’s a more neutral counterpart? My guess is that the real reason for their new behaviour towards me is tied to my show of authority. It’s how most goblinoid societies function in theory.

And if the goblins respond so well to authority… Then why should Gut be any different? I’m the goddamn chieftain over here. I wasn’t sure if this guess would blow up in my face or not, but I’ll be damned. Gut actually backed down!

We sit in silence for a moment. Gut still has his head lowered, and I feel like I should let him whimper in fear a little longer. A part of me wants to forgive him and move on, but I’m not ready to drop my grudge quite yet.

We sit there for a while, taking in the sights and smells of the goblins partying on as if all is good in the world.

“So…” I eventually say. “How do you tell them apart?”

Raising his head, Gut gives me a confused look. His eyes lost some of its red shimmer and his shoulders are slumped. He doesn’t spring into motion until I give him a sideways look. “The ears… they are sticking up on a female.” He mutters.

Giving the female group another lookover, I notice their ears are indeed pointing slightly upwards. my hand instinctively raise itself and I start feeling out my own ears. Damn… They really are sticking straight out. How weird…

“Thanks Gut.” I say.

His muscles twitch at the sound of my words. Surprised, he hesitates for a while. I can figuratively hear the gears in his head grinding. I start to chuckle at the sight of him, which makes him just look even more flabbergasted. I can’t help myself.

My chuckle turns into laughter, which only increases in volume the more shocked Gut looks. Green heads turn all around us to look at all the commotion. Their chieftain apparently going insane with laughter, while the advisor looks scared to death.

Like the simpletons they are, the goblins start laughing with me one after the other. They look confused at first, and they sure as hell don’t know why they’re laughing, but that doesn’t stop them from partaking in the roaring laughter. Soon after. Everyone is laughing. Goblins punch each other in the shoulder, food is being thrown around and teeth are knocked loose. The whole scene looks surreal.

Gut slumps to the ground on top of a tuft of grass. He looks as if he just blew some sort of V.I circuit. He doesn’t get it…

What the hell is going on?

Thoughts are racing through his mind until it eventually goes blank.

…

A smile can be seen on his lips.

----------

The next two days goes by in a blur.

Nothing really noteworthy happens. We finish building the [Longhouse] and also a [Cooking Fire]. The last one doesn’t take much effort and is finished after only a few hours. It needs a cook to operate and I can finally start properly preparing the uncooked pile of meat that has started to stack up. It’s a good thing too, considering my food stores are starting to dwindle.

To balance things out, I also recruit another [Hunter] and a [Fisherman]. Because why not? I have a nice pool of water close to home. Seems like a safe source of food income. I do have some grief over the quality of the fishing gear he spawns with though, but I suppose I will get to rectify that as soon as my [Blacksmith] is built.

Oh yeah, I started building a blacksmith. My [Miner]s have started to rack up a decent amount of copper, and my fighters are in dire need of some decent equipment. It has become a pressing concern.

No message appears about players being eliminated during these last few days. I seriously doubt no one died. There must be dozens, if not hundreds of players trying to get a head start. Never in the history of battle royale games have there not been a bloodbath during the first ticks of the round. Things definitely happened. And the developers are keeping a lid on it for now. I don’t like the silence. I hate not knowing. There are other players out there, and I would really love to know what’s going on around me. I still haven’t forgotten the false sense of security I had before Harvalon appeared…

Anyhow.

We haven’t spent these last few days idle. I spawned three more [Fighter]s to keep my military up to date. I now have thirteen of the little rascals, and their skill levels have reached some good heights. My strongest [Fighter] who towers above the rest is of course my cutlass wielding goblin. He has managed to reach two skill levels higher than any of the other fighters. I’m not sure if this is because he has the best weapon, because he saw the most action during the fight with Harvalon or because he still wears the torn leftovers of my level 3 armor. Maybe all of it? Nevertheless, he is showing great results!

I inspect him and open up his fully extended stats list.

Goblin Fighter

Class: Upgrade Available

Perk: None

Morale: 0%

Skills

Melee Mastery: Level 10

-Sword Specialization: Level 10

--[Power Slash]

--[Riposte]

-Shield Specialization: Level 8

--[Shield Bash]

Utility Mastery: Level 5

-Concealment: Level 5

-Tracking: Level 1

Equipment

Main Weapon: Tier 2. Rusty Cutlass (84%)

Secondary Weapon: Tier 1. Rusty Buckler (46%)

Head: None

Chest: Tier 3. Leather Chainmail Tunic (15%)

Legs: Tier 3. Leather Chainmail Pants (13%)

Hands: None

Feet: Tier 3. Hardened Leather Boots (34%)

Bag: None

Items: None

Yep, his skills have come a long way. I learned for certain that you gain a new ability every five levels of a weapon specialization you get. The first ability at weapon specialization five is usually a generic powered-up version of a normal attack, which is basically what [Power Slash] is all about. Most of my other goblins earned something similar. At level ten though, he gained [Riposte]. I watched him try it out in a spar with another goblin. It nearly took the other guy’s head off! It’s pretty sick. Luckily the other goblin didn’t die, but it looked close. Faaar too close.

Gut discovered another nice treat too, mainly because he grew tired of training up my Goblin’s [Concealment] skill and assigned my other goblins to do the searching on rotation. My goblins were being completely useless at it of course, but strangely enough, after enough time, they eventually unlocked the [Tracking] ability!

LUCKY!

It’s like knocking out two birds with one stone. It didn’t take long for half of my goblins to learn the [Tracking] ability which is certain to become useful at some point. Probably.

There’s also a morale counter on all my goblins now. It got unlocked at the same time I built my first [Longhouse] for some unknown reason. It would appear--

Woah!

Woah, woah, woah, WOAH!

I have to scratch my eyes to check if I’m dreaming or not. My goblin can upgrade his class? How the hell did I miss that!?

I mentally tap the option to upgrade the class before I have time to berate myself for my inattentiveness.

Attention!

Your Goblin [Fighter] has the possibility of upgrading his class to one of the following options:

[Warrior]

Unlock Criteria: Any Melee Weapon Specialization Level 10.

Gain: Possibility of raising mastery levels above 10. 50% increase to [Melee Mastery] acquisition. Unique passive ability: [Enhanced Strength].

Lose: 75% decrease to [Spell Mastery] acquisition. 25% decrease to [Ranged Mastery] acquisition.

Warning!

Choosing this class will cause the unit to lose all accumulated skill levels in [Ranged Mastery] and [Spell Mastery].

Oh. There is only really one option but… wow. It seems like I learned a whole lot about how the class system works. Apparently, my Goblins are unable to level up the mastery levels unless they attain a class. It sounds fair enough I suppose. At least when you take the drawbacks into consideration. It seems like the game won’t let me level my goblins to be both magicians and swordmasters at the same time, and makes me have to focus on choosing their path early.

I only unlocked the [Warrior] class, but I guess there are similar class requirements for both spellcasters, ranged units and even utility based units. There’s probably a whole lot of different possibilities and variations of classes. Hell, I guess I can even further upgrade the [Warrior] path given enough skill levels…

The drawbacks of not being able to create a spellsword sort of class without a hell of a lot of time spent grinding is disappointing though. That last warning effectively stops me from exploiting the system by grinding all my skill levels to level 10 before I choose a class. I also love how the classes get their own unique passive abilities to set them apart from one another. It really makes it feel like class paths matter. No matter how I look at it, this information is a huge game changer.

I need to start experimenting with this.

“Gut!” I yell.

I look around trying to spot the familiar hunched goblin that usually lurks nearby. It doesn’t take long for me to see him idle near the resting area where we built the [Cooking Fire]. Making eye contact, I quickly wave him over.

Humping over, he quickly asks. “What’s the matter, young one?”.

“Sit down.” I beckon towards the other end of the log I am currently sitting on. “I’ve made some theories about the class system and our strategy going forwards. I was hoping for your input on some of them.”

Gut sits down and leans his wooden staff against the log between us. He starts to caress his beard tenderly.

“What do you need me to do?”

I try to hide a smile which has had the opportunity to creep over my face over the last few days after Gut finally became much more inclined towards being helpful.

“I want to start unlocking some more classes, and to do that, I need you to take on a few apprentices.” I explain.

Gut’s face immediately stiffens. “Err, young one. I… would rather not.” He throws a glance over at my three newest [Fighter]s who just started their training regiment to learn [Concealment]. It looks… just like it used to…

I pity him. I really do. I wouldn’t even want to assign the job of being the designated trainer for these little pests to my worst enemy.

Okay, I probably would. Fuck you Richard, wherever you are.

“Trust me. I understand, but I need you to do this. I don’t know how to do magic, and we definitely need a few spell casters.”

Gut shifts uncomfortably in his seat. His newfound subordination is the only thing that prevents him from bursting out in a fit of rage.

“I’d rather not, young one. Perhaps I can teach you?” He asks.

Wow. I didn’t even consider that possibility. I didn’t know I could even learn magic! But won’t I have restrictions as well? Perhaps I can learn it because I’m a player? Oh damn… The possibilities…

My eyes fill with wonder and my mind starts to wander. I really do want to have some magic at hand...

My eyes settle on my [Fighter]s who just started a new round of hide and seek. One of the fresh recruits dug a hole in the ground and stuck his head into it…

...

Oh hell no.

There is just no way in hell he’s going to shift responsibility of teaching those creatures magic over on me.

Sneaky old bastard.

“Maybe later Gut. Right now I need you to take in two of the fresh recruits as your apprentices. I want you to teach one of them fire magic, and the other one blood magic.”

Gut raises his hand and opens his mouth in order to respond, but I cut him off.

“Do it Gut. That’s an order. It’s for the good of the tribe.”

He lowers his hand and grits his teeth. His eyes basically scream the longing to argue his cause, but regardless, he has to back down when it’s an order. He has learned his place, and he will do his utmost to work towards the betterment of the tribe in any way he can. Even if his responsibility seems completely unreasonable.

“Good. I’m glad you are on it. I promise I will have both of those apprentices teach others in the future instead of you. You have my word.”

Satisfied by my promise, Gut gives a short nod before he turns towards the Goblin fighters and starts walking, trying to find some suitable apprentices among the new arrivals.

A final thought strikes my mind. I give him a shout.

“Oh and one more thing Gut! Have the last of the three new recruits be the designated seeker for all of the hide and seek games. Teach him the basics until he learns tracking, will you?”

Gut freezes mid-step for about half a second before he keeps walking, pretending he didn’t hear me. He doesn’t answer, nor does he turn his head around, but I know he heard me. A fact made clear by all the unintelligible curses I can hear being carried by the wind.

“Sorry Gut…” I whisper so he can’t hear. “But rather you than me…”