"I won't tell you anything!" The Fin'r Goblin shouted again. The ax against his throat appeared to barely faze him.

Dammit, do I really have to torture this guy? I thought, wondering how waterboarding worked. I had read about it once but never imagined I might need to use it.

"Tell me where and when your patrols are!" I growled, pressing the ax against his skin until a line of blood appeared. The Goblin just glared at me, and I got up and suppressed the desire to roar at him. I had a few weeks left, but if I had to dodge patrols and perhaps move around villages, I might not make it.

A soft snort came from the side, where Smell and Scar were sitting, looking at me. Smell's eyes held obvious mirth.

"What? You think you can do better?" I said, the idea of waterboarding the Goblin becoming more appealing by the minute. Smell got up and moved closer to the Goblin, and to my surprise I saw terror on the green, leathery face.

Smell snarled, and suddenly I saw the resemblance to the Wirg I had killed weeks ago. I shivered as she stalked closer to the Goblin, her teeth bare and drool dripping from her teeth.

"Get away, undomesticated monster!" The Goblins words made me blink. What the hell kind of Goblin was this? Did he get born with double intelligence or something? Well-spoken! The words popped up into my head together with the realization I had been neglecting some of my attributes.

Smell leaned closer to the Goblin, looming over him as her head inched closer until it was almost touching his. The Goblin panicked, trying to move back as much as his bindings allowed. “Get it away!” he screamed.

I sighed and shook my head. Smell was better at intimidating Goblins than I was; I had to work on that. Glad the Wirg was there, I grinned, took a step forward, and kicked the Goblin's leg to get its attention.

"If you tell me what I want to know, I promise I'll keep her away from you."

The Goblin turned angry, about to snap something at me, when Smell bared her teeth and lunged to bite him in the neck.

"Nooo! I'll tell you, I'll tell you!" the Goblin screamed, almost in tears. Smell stopped, her teeth almost touching the Goblin.

"Talk fast. Do you know of an old ruin a week's travel from here?"

The Goblin's eyes didn't leave Smell as he nodded carefully. "Yes. The Angry Vines temple, it's five days if you take the freepaths."

Angry Vines? That sounds fantastic, I thought. "Tell me everything you know about the temple."

The Goblin blinked in confusion, but a low growl from Smell made it squeal.

"The temple is dangerous, and there are no towns or camps within a day's travel. Legend says that long ago, the god and goddess of the forest lived there... "the Goblin's voice trailed off until it softly muttered, "that's all I know."

"How many towns and camps are between here and the temple?"

"I don't know. More camps spawn every month. It's hard to keep track."

"What do you mean, spawn?" I said in confusion.

A look of uncertainty and fear came to the Goblin's face. "I… I can't!"

The hell is wrong with this thing? I thought.

"Fine. Can I get to the Angry Vine temple without getting close to towns or camps?"

The Goblin shook his head, seemingly relieved it didn't have to answer the other question. I'd leave him his delusion. I was going to get the easy answers first.

"Yes, no… maybe!" It said, sounding confused. "There are parts of the forest that are too dangerous, and there won't be any towns there. If you go through those..."

I snorted. Sure, if they are too dangerous for towns, it seems like a great path to take.

"Tell me all the locations of all the towns you know and the paths between them," I said, holding up the map so he could see.

The Goblin's eyes widened, and a greedy look came to his face. It disappeared almost immediately, but after that I thought he seemed less afraid of Smell. He began telling me locations of towns, and as he did, pings came from my status. At the same time, dots appeared on the map.

Such a nifty thing, I thought, happy that Rathica gave me the map.

The Goblin continued for ten minutes, and when he finished my happy mood had evaporated. Dozens of towns and ten times that many camps dotted the map, barely leaving any room between them. A single massive dot sat in the middle, blocking the easiest path I could take. A few small lines snaked between the dots, moving through the only open areas. The dangerous areas.

I thought for a moment, about to ask more questions, when I stopped and remembered my knowledge limit. I quickly opened my status. Besides a point in strength and stamina, one other thing that had increased, and not the one I wanted.

> Knowledge 375/443

Shit. I just wasted sixty-one points of knowledge on fucking locations!

Suppressing my anger, I reasoned that I needed the knowledge so I could get to the temple alive. Taking another look at the map, I knew that without this knowledge, I wouldn't get through without alerting Rathica-only-knew how many goblins.

I turned my attention back to the Goblin that was staring at the map with far too much interest. I was about to continue asking questions when I had an idea. Well-spoken, huh? Thinking back to how I had to speak with my grandparents long ago, I formulated a question.

"You have been most helpful, and you have my thanks. Now would you be so kind as to explain what spawning means?" I said, the words effortlessly flowing from my mouth.

An immediate ping came, and the Goblin gaped at me, all interest in the map gone.

"I…I…" It muttered.

Grinning, I decided to see how far I could take this. Thinking back to the old movies I had seen, I decided on a specific pattern.

"Yes, you-you. Fear not, I shall not harm you if you contribute to my growing knowledge."

Another ping came from my status, and I almost laughed out loud. Why hadn't I thought of this before?

The Goblin just stared at me, its mouth agape. A bit too much, perhaps? Well, I would find the right amount eventually.

"Fin'r creates them if we give him sacrifices," the Goblin said almost in confusion. Immediately after speaking, its eyes widened and its jaws snapped together. The look of fear was different from what Smell had caused.

"Ah yes, sacrifices. Such a good way to please a deity, don't you think? What, pray tell, do you sacrifice to Fin'r?"

This time there wasn't a ping, but I was starting to enjoy the whole thing and planned to see how far I could take it.

The Goblin just shook his head, a snarl on his lips.

"Now now, dear boy. Just speak your mind. No need to hold back, it will just cause you indigestion!" I said with a grin.

Another ping came from my status, and the Goblin's eyes seemed to lose focus.

What's going on? I thought, but then the Goblin started talking almost mechanically and dispassionately.

"We sacrifice the adventurers we capture in the woods, and sometimes we send the mindless-ones to raid the surrounding towns," the Goblin said. After he finished, his eyes cleared up, widened, and he began shivering.

"No, stop it!"

Wait, so… I had to try again to be sure, but it seemed that increasing Well-spoken caused every next question to be somehow answered against the questionee's will.

"Such thorough creatures, you Goblins. Another question, if I may. What are mindless-ones?"

No ping, and no answer. Continuing with some meaningless sentences to try and get the Goblin to talk, after the third, another ping came. The Goblin's eyes glazed over, and he answered.

"Mindless-ones are what we call those born with a learning rate of one and a knowledge cap of ten," the Goblin said before snapping out of it and snarling at me.

My eyes gleamed as I realized the implications of what I had just discovered. Looking at my Well-spoken, I saw it was six now, leaving me with fifty-four sure-fire answers. I couldn't remember when I had gotten the first two points, but it hardly mattered. I wondered what else would change if I increased these non-combat attributes. I scanned the rest and took a better look at Grooming.

It's true, I thought as I looked at the parts of myself I could see. I hadn't really bothered with any of that. I'd have to check what increasing it would do.

"You said you would let me go!" The Goblin suddenly snarled, and I thought back to what I had said. He was right. I might, at one point, have said I would let him go, trying to get him to talk. As soon as I realized this, I also knew I had to let him go. Somehow, the idea of keeping him and breaking my promise seemed…wrong.

Looking around the dark woods, I knew letting him live would be asking for trouble. What more had I said? Something about letting him go and that I wouldn't harm him. But that was just talking about me. Taking a look at the two Wirgs, I grinned. They could harm him as much as they wanted to. Getting ready to let the Goblin go, I blinked. How was I going to let him go if I didn't know how to stop this spell?

I stared at it, eventually trying the spell again. It was the only thing I could think of. A green wave from my hand made the branches swirl around again, and they released the Goblin. As soon as it landed on its feet, it jumped away, disappearing into the bushes.

I looked at Smell and didn't even have to say anything. She turned and padded away with a hungry grin. I should probably feel bad, but I didn't. Instead, I felt secure that the knowledge of the map wouldn't get out there in the wrong hands while not breaking some new, unfamiliar rules.

I turned to the corpses of the Goblins and began collecting their swords. They were lighter than my ax and roughly the size of shortswords. Putting them all with the tip in the ground, I examined the rest of the corpses. The armor was far too small, but four of the Goblins had studded leather wristbands that seemed adjustable in size. Removing two pairs, I touched the already cold and clammy flesh, but it barely bothered me.

I need to have a conversation with Rathica about what she is doing to my mind, I thought while removing my own poorly crafted arm guards and replacing them with the well-made leather ones. A bit too short to reach my elbows, they fit perfectly, and as I swung my hands around, ideas on how to incorporate them in my fighting style flashed through my mind.

A loud scream tore through the forest, silencing the few birds and animals. I stared at the swords for a second, thinking about what Smell had done with the Goblin. Then I shrugged and focused on the swords. All were of equally poor quality, which came as a surprise after seeing the well-made armors.

They probably don't have good smiths, I thought.

Besides, leatherworking was probably much easier in the middle of the forest. I unbuckled two sword belts and placed them above each other on my hips. Bad swords were still better than no swords. The tips of the leather sheaths thudded against my leg above the knee, something I would have to get used to as soon as I could. Placing the swords inside the sheaths, I examined the bodies one last time but they had nothing else of use.

Time to look at those bows, I thought with a grin.

Smell came back a minute later, and I had equipped both a quiver and a bow.

"Good job," I said, patting Smell on her head. She pushed her head against my hand and closed her eyes. With a grin, I ruffled her hair a bit more before turning to Scar. "Let's go." The other Wirg yawned and got up.

Moving through the forest, with the help of the detailed map, we didn't encounter any more Goblins, but we didn't cover as much ground as I had hoped. When we set up camp between two large trees, I examined the map and tried to come up with a plan that didn't involve moving around the entire Goblin infested area.

When darkness fell, I had come to two conclusions. There was no way to get around the area and reach the temple in time, and there was something odd about the positioning of the towns.

I used my hand to flatten an area of dark sand and took out my knife to make marks for all of the towns. When I finished, I drew lines to connect the dots and then stared silently at the odd diagram in front of me. It reminded me of a magic symbol, but I couldn't recall where I had seen it. What I did see was that the Angry Vine temple was at the exact top spot, like some gem in a crown.

That can't be a coincidence.

Wondering if I should contact Rathica about it, I shook my head. She had made it abundantly clear that she had something important to do. No. This was something I would have to figure out on my own.