Chapter 19: The War (3)

Earlier it was just a hunch but was confirmed after this little episode. There indeed a ‘unique class’ among the ranks of goblins. Moreover, this one excels in potion craft. From Logier’s descriptions before, I was able to conclude a few important points about the so-called unique class.

One, the unique class is a rare phenomenon. A mutation of sorts. So rare that even a whole decade would pass without one appearing in a monster tribe. Second, monsters as a whole considered these unique class individuals as both blessing and curse. Once one appears in a tribe, changes are bound to occur. The previous rule will be usurped and new ones would take their place. It might be a good or bad thing as a whole. Third, the unique class monsters all born with high intelligence and a special talent. Their growth rates are extremely high, as normal evolutionary laws of monsterdom do not apply to them. From birth, these monsters are extremely strong to the point of going toe to toe against adult monsters even though they were infants.

Putting aside the memories of Alex, the human, everything else about me leans towards the unique class. This put me in a dilemma. I began to question myself, am I a unique class because of the strange circumstances I faced and my memories as a human, or it’s because I am unique class that I reincarnated into this body? Which one was it?

Moreover, what if all the unique classes were actually humans or other higher intelligent beings… just like me? It wouldn’t be funny if that’s the case. Regarding the strange circumstances that led to me reincarnating to as a monster, I am leaning towards believing it. Perhaps, this way we can find camaraderie among ourselves.

“Haha!!” I burst out laughing, scaring a few infant orcs beside me in the process when my sense of reason caught up to my thoughts. Despite everything that happened with me since the day, I came to this world, my naïve self still exists within me, baring its ugly head every now and then, and successfully disrupting my rationale. After getting myself under control, I started to think about what my current opponent will do.

I have ordered Logier to violently retaliate for the attack they received. He had to take a bunch of orcs and raid everything in the vicinity. The goal was to find the goblin community. Currently, we are in the light while the green things are hidden in a perfect camouflage provided by thick forest, bushes and damp grounds. We still don’t know anything about their real home, their origin. One more worry on top of it was their chemical weapon. I don’t know what other things they have in store.

…

Logier gathered a huge army, just a little less than twice the initial number gone to war. Then, heeding my advice, he rampaged around the forest. Destroying everything in their path, as they trampled towards the unknown, this line perfectly describes the situation with them.

Trees? Uprooted…

Huge stones? Crushed…

Thick bushes? Pulled out…

Damp Marsh? Just walk around it…

Logier and his merry band adopted this strategy to display their anger. Since the destruction was going on a wide scale this time rather than the subdued one from before, it was bound for the goblins to show up once it went for a while. Just when the group of orcs about to destroy a weird coiling tree, they showed up with their trademark pole like weapons.

However, this time, instead of sending those weak infants or juvenile goblins, the opponent had sent buffed up and probably adult class goblins. They had tattoos all over their body, accenting their wildness by a few levels. The number was twice that of the orcs, and each of them looked strong.

However, there was something strange about them, which I couldn’t put my finger on. It’s a feeling I started to have after seeing them. As if, something’s wrong with this group of goblins that showed up. I also went with the group but remained hidden among the orcs. My dark, leathery body went well with the shadows cast by the orcs’ huge forms. Since I started to have this feeling, I reminded Logier to be careful and exercise caution when dealing with this particular group.

Having already seen the underhand means of these goblins, Logier and the rest of orcs obediently listened to me. In fact, ever since that weird gas incident happened, I saw a change in orcs’ behavior towards me. Their initial contempt and doubt, they no longer show such looks when facing me. Although doubt was still there, there was another emotion added in the mix.

Tolerance! Perhaps that’s what they started to feel towards me. They were not tolerant of me as a species; rather, they were tolerant of their leader’s decisions. Either way, it was a positive sign. It means that day wouldn’t be far when they start to respect me for real.

Orcs didn’t bother to have a talk with them. They initiated attack the moment their enemy dared to show themselves. The first attack was initiated by Logier, which was obvious because he was the leader as well as their tribe leader. After the talk we had about growth, he was more pumped up than usual. Moreover, it wasn’t on the level of ‘pumped up’ anymore. He was downright savage.

The first attack he initiated against one of those tattooed goblins, he just grabbed it and twisted its neck. The poor creature died even before it could mount an attack. That wasn’t the weird part, however. Logier and the rest soon engaged in all-out combat with goblins, but, since I was only an observer in the area, I could see more than them. The goblins, even though they died by the hands of orcs in the worst possible way, didn’t show a single expression of pain.

Why...?

You have killed five adult goblins and earned 10 EP.

While I was observing the fight between them, this message appeared out of nowhere and successfully threw me off guard. Aside from some pointers about the line-up, I haven’t helped the orcs in any way. Then from where did I gain the EPs?

I looked at everything a little deeper after this message appeared. Then I was able to see something interesting. That orc, Gyuk, every time he kills a goblin, I gain some EP. I continued to keenly observe his fights and saw this phenomenon. For every five adult goblins he killed, I gained 10 EP. In just a few minutes, I gained more than 50 EPs making the total number of my EPs 60.

Why did such a thing happen? Let’s say it’s because I advised them with the strategy, which counted as indirect participation. But if that’s true, then why didn’t I gain anything when Logier kills someone? This question spun in my mind as I continued to watch Gyuk slaughtering his way.

One thing I am sure that due to some unknown circumstances, Gyuk and I share a connection. And this connection allowed me to gain EP. The only thing I did with Gyuk was to throw him in my Illusion Realm.

Is that how this link created between us?

However since this matter needed my further contemplation, I threw it to the back of my mind, together with my other to-do's. I concentrated on the battle at hand that was starting to become rather exciting. The adult goblins had gotten used to the way orcs fight, and thus, started their counter-attack. While none of the orcs was yet to be killed, I saw a few heavily wounded ones who couldn’t fight and thus retreating to the back.

It was a good thing that they were obeying my order seriously. After watching the fight for such a long time, I started to have doubts as I began to question in my head, ‘are these guys not feeling pain? They fight like robots…’ and that’s when the realization struck me like thunder. I finally understood why I felt weird and different from this group of goblins.

This group couldn’t feel pain and therefore fighting like robots. They were using the corpse of their comrades as a stepping-stone to fight on even terms against the orcs. Such a brutal method of fighting, only the goblins who had a superior proliferation rate could manage.

‘Nice move unique class, nice move indeed’ I have to give it to that unique class goblin. He really did it this time. He considered the goblins’ reproduction rate and employed this method of fighting style. What separates a living being from a robot? That’s obviously ‘life’ and the various feelings that came with it. And pain is one of these feelings that make living beings self-cautious. If you remove ‘pain’ all that would remain are soldiers who couldn’t feel anything.

In other words, a perfect soldier.

It’s brutal and downright evil, but if I learned something after coming to this world; that would be, good and evil are just a matter of perspective. The empire summoned me to this world and treated me like a slave, against my wishes. To me, it’s evil and unacceptable. However, to the people of the empire, what the king did was the greatest thing one could hope for. Instead of sending his own people to die in the war, the king summoned ‘extra help’ to take over the burden.

This king might be a benevolent ruler, a person with a good reputation in this world; however, to me, he will be eternally evil and egoistical bastard without a shred of care for others.

So I couldn’t call this ‘evil’. To survive, I have to abandon this naïve way of thinking. Use whatever tool necessary and grow strong, that’s what this unique class was doing and so should I. Only that way I can win this war against that goblin who had a lot of tricks under its belt.