∼ Day 22 ∼

Once the rather forceful hobgoblin girls had managed to push me out of the Mistress' castle, I finally got to realize the truly breathtaking scope of the city and the place on which I stood upon.

What the castle was situated upon, was apparently a smaller mountain of sorts. It was raised high above the entire city, laying it splayed out before me crimson-red eyes who greedily took in the sight.

The sheer size of the city utterly stifled me. While I couldn't exactly accurately guess the size of the population by just seeing the city from here, I estimated that it would be no less than a million or a couple. But with the rate that greenskins reproduce and grow up, this number doesn't seem all that outlandish.

I know from my own tribe, by talking with, and a few inquiries I've done, that goblins seemingly are only pregnant for less than a month and that's pretty much the same amount of time before they're fully grown. Not to mention that goblins usually gives birth to two or three children at a time.

Hobgoblins of course don't give birth to goblins, they give birth to hobgoblins like themselves. But their pregnancy and maturity time is basically only the doubled amount of time that it takes for goblins. While I didn't know about the orcs, greenskins seems to generally just have an insanely high reproduction rate.

But that usually also coincides with the fact that they die every other day. A greenskin dying of old age, would something of a miracle. With all that in mind, it's not that unbelievable seeing the sheer size of the city.

While I had no idea how far I was from my small little tribe since I was unconscious on my way here. But it was hard to think that such a behemoth of a city filled to the brim with monsters existed here...

Scanning the epic view from up high, I could note a few places of interest. The city was seemingly in a valley created by eight towering hills or small mountains, one of those being the one I was currently on.

From what I could spot, on each mountain, there was a castle and numerous buildings and structures scattered around. The layout and construction for everything populating each of these small mountains being seemingly different each one from the next.

Seeing this, I needed no hints as to guess that the Mistress' was definitely not the only one of authority or status here in the city. That made me wonder just where on the power structure did the Mistress lay within? Were there even more terrifying existences than her here?

The last two things that otherwise caught my attention about the city, other than the colossal colosseum in the heart of the city, was a particular series of large buildings and the expansive wall surrounding the city.

Cresting the edges of the boundless city were thick and high reaching stone walls. From what I could guess, they easily reached the height of 4-story buildings. At certain points, I could squint my eyes to spot guard towers and gates scattered over numerous places on the walls.

As for the buildings, they laid off to the side facing the colosseum. The biggest reason why they captured my attention was the fact that their size was the second next biggest thing in the city other than the colosseum itself.

It was a giant castle with numerous offshoots of buildings and structures surrounding it. Whoever lived there, was definitely someone of the highest status.

Feeling the familiar push of a rough but feminine hand on my back, I finally get pulled out of my stupor as the annoyed hobgoblin maids patience ran thin. I simply let out a sigh as I continued to walk down the snaking stone-paved path leading from the castle down to a series of buildings scaling the lower side on the mountain.

I couldn't exactly figure out what the buildings' purpose was or what they exactly were. But if it were my guess, I would say they were the barracks mentioned by the Mistress.

Occupying a large part of the mountain, they ran up and down the mountain. What caught a small part of my attention, was the fact that the buildings seemed fewer the higher they went, and became more numerous the lower on the mountain they were.

But consequently, the quality of the buildings also seemed a lot better the higher they were. Obviously signaling some kind of hierarchy of those who lived in them.

The closer I approached the more I could distinctively make out the sounds of bellows and the clinging of metal from inside the complex of buildings. It sounded like a great many people were fighting.

Looking behind myself I all of a sudden realized if not for these damn bands around my wings, I would've just been able to fly right out of here. Unfortunately, they weren't that stupid to leave them free. But I'm still glad to see that they've mostly been healed back up to their pristine condition during the time since I broke them.

Once the path cresting the mountain stopped going downwards and flatted out, we soon arrived before a heavily guarded gate. While I wasn't sure exactly how many guards were stationed at the Mistress' castle itself, this place had seemingly even more personnel.

Thinking about it, I soon come to realize that the Mistress really didn't need any guards. That woman was a powerful and menacing monster, I doubt any intruder walks out of here again... or alive and whole...

Stopping before the gate of the complex of buildings scaling the mountain, the maids showed the guards a badge, which promptly gotthem to open the metal bars of the gate.

Moving past, we only had to walk a few dozens of meters before we reached the first building. Currently, we were around the middle of the complex's length. The equal amount of distance between where it ended at the top of the mountain resting against the Mistress' castle and where it ended before reaching the base of the mountain.

Moving inside the rough-cut sandstone-looking building, my ears were met with the scratchy and lackadaisical voice of a creature that I've never seen before.

Sitting behind a worn wooden desk, was a small and plumb creature reminding me of an even uglier, but bigger goblin. Its ears were long and shriveled, and its nose was long and occupied a great deal of its face with warts covering its length.

Everything about this creature was ugly but one thing that stood out was its beady eyes. The sheer cunning and trickery that reflected in those brown eyes were unmistakable.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Jeerbal

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "Jeerbal" STR 6 Skills ??? -Race- Gremlin VIT 8 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI 18 Titles ??? -Rank- G- DEX 32 Resistances

-Level- 18/20 INT 22 Health 52/52 CHR 2 Physical Resistance 3 Stamina 18/18 WILL 4 Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG 1 Mental Resistance ???

A... gremlin?

It gives me the feeling of a greenskin by looking at its features, but how come I've never seen one before? Is it a rare race?

"What're you staring at you ugly git?! Never seen a gremlin before?" - Jeerbal

Before I could even respond, one of the leading hobgoblin maids moved past me to hand a scroll and the same badge that she had previously shown at the gate, to the plumb gremlin behind the counter.

"Hmm... yes, yes... ugh- stupid meathead orcs..." - Jeerbal

While reading through the scroll the gremlin muttered around a loaf of bread that he'd seemingly pulled out from thin air. Rolling the document back up, with and grunt of seemingly great exertion he got off whatever he had been sitting on to help him look over the counter as his stature was on the smaller side.

"Move weird thing to the fodder holding yard... hmm- and get him cleaned up before throwing him in there. He stinks." - Jeerbal

He was obviously curious as to what the hell I was but quickly lost interest as he simply waved us away. Without any further ado, another series of pushing and walking down a paved path cresting the building, I reached the lowest part of the buildings complex after also receiving a thorough scrub down.

They had simply just thrown cold water and some weird herbs that created a soap-like substance onto me, and with rough hands and brushes scrubbed me down, removing most of the dirt and blood covering me from all the way back from the ghouls in the crimson core caves.

Basically kicking me the last step into an archway tunnel of the building in front of me, the impatient hobgoblin maids left. With the clatter of a thick metal barred gate being shut, I'm left standing in there alone.

The archway stretched on for about a dozen meters and ended out into the outside, with the obvious clatter and murmuring of voices that could be heard coming from wherever it led.

I could only sigh at the predicament of a situation I've found myself in. Moving along the arching tunnel of rough sandstone, I finally laid my eyes on what was on the other end.

It was a rather large courtyard, filled with greenskins and a very few peculiar monsters that I've never seen before. If I were to give a rough estimate, then there were about thirty of us in total.

Standing in the entrance with the clatter of my shackles, obviously, everybody's attention was drawn to me as a deafening silence filled the courtyard. Ignoring the burning gazes of the orcs and various monsters, I simply moved along the wall until a found a relatively open spot where I sat down with my back propped against the rough wall of the building.

I couldn't help but notice that I was the only one with shackles on, which annoyed me a great deal as they were quite uncomfortable and unwieldy.

As time went on the sounds of talking and whispering started to pick up yet again and they began promptly ignoring my existence. But the few gazes that still occasionally glanced over me didn't manage to escape my notice. They had seemingly already recognized me as a potential threat, or they were just curious as to what the hell I was. But I was leaning towards the former rather than the latter.

Using this time, I began taking stock of everybody here and their strengths. There was in total 27 orcs, no hobs, or goblins. Each of these orcs was just as, or stronger than the strength of Rena and Grul.

As for the other monsters, there were a total of six from what I could see. Two of them were apparently from the same race. They looked like humanoid reptilians, reminding me of lizardmen. They had scales like a crocodile and their mouths' were elongated like that of a lizard's reptilian snout and somewhat reminiscent of a crocodile.

Cresting the insides of their large maws, were numerous, long, ragged, and deadly-sharp teeth. But that was definitely not their only natural weapons as their hands and feet also ended in long and crooked claws that were made for purely rending flesh like their teeth.

Even their long tails swaying behind them were bulky and long, layered with thick muscle, and could probably give out a strike stronger than any punch or kick ever could.

The other four unusual monsters were from a whole other race altogether. They seemed to be what I would presume as being beastkin. They weren't like the typical anthropomorphic monsters that you usually see in modern earth fantasy, as they bore much more animal characteristics.

What most people would associate beastkin with, is just humans with animal ears and fluffy tails, but these are quite different. If we were to take the only female of the four as example, her characteristic clearly hinted towards a feline descent.

Looking at her legs you instantly could see the difference. She stood upright on two legs as any humanoid, but her legs didn't bend and fold in the same way human legs did. They resembled exactly like that of a cat.

A pristine mane of short black fur also covered her body from head to toe. While her legs were like that of a cat, her arms were more like that of a human. The only difference being that her fingers ended in claws rather than nails.

Her face was pretty much human, only a few characteristics like that of her nose being more buttoned and her pupils being more that of a cat's were different from a human. Lastly, she also had dainty car ears on the top of her head, and a fluffy and cylindrical cat tail swaying behind her.

I definitely wouldn't deny that her exoticness didn't stir something within me up as I quite appreciated her looks. While I doubted that she was the prettiest of her race, she was still quite attractive as her type of beauty was something you could not find in a human.

Pulling up the statuses of one of each race, I inspected them.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Saurian

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 22 Skills ??? -Race- Saurian VIT 30 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI 10 Titles ??? -Rank- F+ DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 8/35 INT 7 Health 222/222 CHR ??? Physical Resistance 8 Stamina 141/143 WILL ??? Magical Resistance 4 Mana 0/0 MAG 1 Mental Resistance ??? Appraisal - Fealas

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 10 Skills ??? -Race- Fealas VIT 10 Traits ??? -Sex- Female AGI 35 Titles ??? -Rank- F DEX 24 Resistances

-Level- 14/35 INT 8 Health 89/89 CHR ??? Physical Resistance 5 Stamina 34/35 WILL ??? Magical Resistance 1 Mana 0/0 MAG 0.3 Mental Resistance ???

Those saurians definitely seem to pack some power but the beastkins' agility and dexterity shouldn't be underestimated either.