Chapter 35

Time passed.

For some of the cavern's inhabitants, the time passed very slowly.

And for the others, it passed very fast.

The Witching Forest's green leaves turned brighter and more colorful.

Divine diligently cultivated and taught the goblings regularly.

He also took on a huge new project.

Teaching the minions the art of processing animal fat.

It was a grueling test of Divine's patience.

The first step of processing animal fat was tossing animal fat slices in a pot with some water and heat it up.

After that, it had to simmer for quite some time, stirring was necessary so that it wouldn't get burned.

Divine made sieves from bone bowls, by corroding many little holes into them with his Dark Qi to filter the melted fat.

After filtering, it only had to cool down and the animal fat was ready.

Divine showed the goblins to add beeswax to make leather polish during heating, too.

The whole process wasn't complicated.

What took the longest were the experiments to determine the ratio of water and fat and which animal's fat was most appropriate for their use.

The initial purpose of the whole project was wonderfully fulfilled in the end.

The minions managed to polish his Sea Serpent Robe very well, making it shine again.

And after they had accomplished this, Divine wanted to teach them the additional steps necessary to make soap, too.

Adding lye water to the fat, that had already been melted, filtered and was cooling down, was already enough to make plain soap.

Making lye water wasn't hard, needing only rainwater and hardwood ash.

Conveniently, the wellwater could be used, too.

The biggest challenge was determining the right ratios, again. For mixing ash and water to make lye water and after, for mixing lye water and melted fat to make soap.

That took a lot of time.

With every failure, Divine only became more determined to make passable soap and roped all of the cavern's inhabitants into this project.

Divine, his disciples, his minions and his humans, all of them tried their hand at it, or at least helped.

It was a challenge, that brought them all a little closer.

They even had fun together. At least sometimes.

Divine prioritised soap making more than the work on the tunnel leading outside.

Since he already had the fairy dust to help with his Light Qi control, a quick and comfortable way to the outside wasn't as important anymore.

And since Divine had let the humans off their chains, he didn't want to tempt them with an easy way outside.

At least not so soon.

Finally, after much experimentation and a whole lot of work, they all could finally enjoy the soap of their labor.

Under Divine's lead, the cavern's inhabitants already had been the most hygienic goblins and prisoners in all of the lands, but now they were definitely reaching noble standards.

Other luxuries would follow. One after another.

-----

Concerning his cultivation, Divine slowly accumulated.

After breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, his cultivation speed had slowed down.

Divine knew that reaching the Golden Core Realm would definitely take longer than rising to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The goblings and Scarface still hadn't entered the first realm of cultivation, but they were making progress and getting closer.

By now, there was new participant in their body cultivation lessons.

A week after Nola had started training, she had copied the moves Divine taught his disciples.

Discovering that it was superior to her families knight technique Shifting Wind Sword and that no one stopped her, Nola had continued.

After some time, she had joined one of their practice sessions wordlessly.

And she hadn't missed one since.

-----

The minions lived and developed well.

The challenge of the animal fat processing and soap production was really good for them.

Not only did it give the minions a chance to develop and grow, it gave them the opportunity to prove to Divine, that they weren't as hopelessly stupid as he had always thought.

Not that the minions, except maybe Scarface, weren't stupid.

But it was proven, that if he was patient and took his time, Divine could teach them to do all kinds of work, even if they did weird and stupid stuff occasionally.

For example, Fourth Disciple and Minion Fatty repeatedly burned themselves, trying to snack from the simmering animal fat.

That Fourth Disciple did it in his youth was at least excusable, especially since his skin was tougher than Fatty's, but she didn't have such an excuse.

Divine witnessed it once again.

Fatty was humming a grating tune with a content smile in her face and stirring the melting fat.

Carefully, she scooped a little with her claws and licked it off.

While she was stirring with one hand, her other alternated between snacking and rubbing her big belly.

The third time, she scooped a little too much and burned her finger.

She grimaced, shook her hand and put the finger in her mouth.

At least she didn't stop stirring.

After sucking on her finger for some time, she used the same hand, but a different finger to continue snacking.

Divine shook his head in exasperation.

Next to him stood Scarface and followed his gaze.

"She look happy." Minion Scarface smiled as she looked at Fatty. "And healthy."

Stupid goblin. Obesity wasn't healthy.

Divine sighed and shook his head again.

"Some day, me want same, too." Scarface shyly scratched a circle into the ground with the claw on her big toe.

She repeatedly glanced at Divine from the corners of her eyes.

What could he say to that?

"Then eat more." Divine shrugged his shoulders.

Now, it was Scarface's turn to look at him strangely.

Then she started laughing.

That was untypical for Scarface.

It was an innocent and pure laugh, full of mirth.

Divine was surprised. Her laugh was infectious and he couldn't suppress a smile, even if he didn't get, what she was laughing about.

Scarface caught herself and looked at him smilingly. "Master Divine, would you feed me, so that me can be like that, too?" Her cheeks gained a red hue, that looked quite interesting with her green skin.

The picture of this shyly smiling goblin girl was only marred by her scars.

Divine was sure now, he had missed something.

In that moment, Minion Hooknose came running to Fatty, presenting her with an offering of yellow berries.

Divine realized, Hooknose was really nervous as she tasted them.

Only after she had nodded in confirmation did Hooknose let out a breath of relief.

They said something to each other, that Divine was too lazy to filter out of all the other sounds he could hear.

Suddenly, Fatty cried out loudly. "Kick! A kick! It was kick!" Fatty excitedly took Hooknose's hand and gently laid it on her big belly.

Of course, Fatty was pregnant.

Divine cursed in his head, but outwardly kept his composure.

What annoyed him most about it was that he had missed it.

It was so obvious now.

Another horrible thing came to him, her minion name didn't fit anymore.

Maybe he shouldn't give the minions names so carelessly, but on the other hand, who cared?

As long as it could amuse him from time to time, that was already good.

And the minions didn't understand English anyway.

Scarface was still looking at him and he remembered her question.

Divine hesitated, not knowing what to say.

He realized, he actually felt somewhat awkward.

"Go make food!" Divine ordered with a serious expression.

Then he turned around and went into the opposite direction.

Soft giggles followed his retreat.

-----

Beorn endured.

He taught Divine and kept his head down.

He adopted a new habit.

Beorn would stand in front of the exit tunnel and just stare into the darkness.

Every time one of the goblings looked at him, his gaze turned sad and expressed a deep longing.

Beorn wasn't happy that the works on the second exit tunnel had been suspended, but what could he do?

He kept a particularly close eye on Divine's and Nola's actions and interactions.

That was a development, Beorn was happy about.

Since Nola had joined their exercises, she and that creature Divine had gotten closer.

They didn't exchange many words, but they interacted and grew more comfortable with each other.

It was a start.

Beorn pitied Nola for her naivity and he didn't like to use her, but getting out of the Witching Forest safely was his one and only aim.

Soon, it would be time to nudge Nola further along.

For some inexplicable reason the creature let it develop slowly and didn't use force.

Divine was inscrutable.

Beorn had learnt and had stopped trying to guess at that terrifying creature's thoughts and plans.

Just like, when he pulled the production method of this 'soap' out of nowhere. Out of his green ass.

A group of goblins came down the tunnel and were taken aback by the man standing there in their way.

They stopped and eyed him warily.

Beorn took a few steps to the side and waved for them to go on.

When the goblins realized that Beorn wasn't aggressive, they carried the offerings inside.

A bowl with fruits, a sack of apples and two sacks filled to the brim with nuts were placed just behind the exit to the side.

Two other goblins came and carried a small fawn inside.

While they were bringing the offerings, they repeatedly looked at Beorn, curiously inspecting him.

The most had never seen a human before.

They were interested and excitedly talked about him.

Beorn had listened carefully and worked hard. And by now, he could understand Gobble.

The strange language Divine used to talk to the little ones proved too difficult to learn, especially since he couldn't listen in during their lessons, but Gobble was easy.

"Oh, Leader Goblok, look! Divine's human. So tall and big."

"... and so hairy."

"Yes. Human dick is big and hairy."

"It's ugly."

"Unlike human tits. They're great."

"You can see?"

"No can see."

"You see human tits before?"

"Yes. Me got glimpse, when me bring offerings before."

The others were impressed and envious.

"Don't make ruckus! You want anger Divine?"

The goblins shuddered at the thought.

"Bring corpses!" Goblok ordered.

Six goblins stepped forward, carrying three dead goblins.

The leader of the group stopped them as they passed him by.

"What happen to them before?" The leader pointed at two of the corpses.

They were naked and blood wasn't the only body fluid staining their dead bodies.

The male dead goblin had multiple stab wounds in the stomach.

The dead female had a pointy stick in her eye that matched the wounds in the male's stomach.

Both of them had a lot of bruises and scratches.

"They mates for long time. Always loud, always fighting. Everyone that know them always say, in the end, one kill the other. There are bets, who kill who. Now, both sides right and both sides wrong." One of the goblins shared the gossip with the others. "Me grow up in cave not far from theirs. It's sad. Me bet on her killing him with poison."

The leader nodded and looked at the third corpse.

One of the goblins carrying it, informed the leader without prompting.

"Me find dead old dick. Look like old dick fall, break many bones and die."

The leader waved them along.

After the goblins had put down the last of the offerings, they still lingered around, looking at Beorn or trying to catch a glimpse of Nola.

Beorn hesitated to talk to them.

That he knew Gobble was still a secret.

And he didn't have an agenda for them anyway, so he turned around and left.

He disappeared from the goblins' view behind the giant flesh-eating plant.

They didn't dare to follow and left shortly after.

----------

Divine still went hunting sometimes.

Mostly alone, but Flaming Paw came to get him to hunt two times.

After Divine's breakthrough he hadn't only caught up with Flaming Paw, he had surpassed him.

Divine chose to keep this fact hidden from the fox, always prepared for an ambush.

But he didn't try to kill Flaming Paw either.

Divine liked Flaming Paw and that that fox was running around everywhere, patrolling the territory.

After the first time the fox had come to get him, he hadn't eaten a goblin in front of Divine again.

Since then, Divine hadn't even heard of a single goblin, that had been killed by foxes.

When Flaming Paw came to get him, it was always about hunting the more dangerous ones.

The ones Flaming Paw needed a lot of fire to take care of.

The ones that had magical beast cores Flaming Paw could consume to grow stronger.

Divine always stayed carefully in the background during the fights and only attacked with quick ambushes, retreating right away.

Mostly Divine was there to prevent forest fires and collect Blood Qi Essence.