Jacked busted through the double doors of the mayor’s mansion. The guards tried to stop him at first, but they recognized his bald head. On his back was Dumog, still unconscious. He carried him to an office on the lower floors, dropping him on the large table. This startled the purple-robed woman awake.

“What the fuck are you doing here? It’s midnight!” The woman said, groggy from sleep deprivation. “This isn’t a Goblin,” she pointed at Dumog.

“Good morning, Nox. Since you asked a favor from me, can’t you do one for me?” Jacked smiled sheepishly.

“You haven’t even finished the job yet. Bother me when you're done,” she tried going back to sleep, pulling her sleeping mask down.

“Come on, can’t I get an advance? This is my new disciple, they’re pretty rare these days, you know?” He pleaded.

“I’m deducting it from your pay.”

“Give me a friend discount as well. Oh, and I got the nuts.” He tossed her the bottle it was kept in.

She caught it with a pair of tongs in the air. “Ugh, you make the potion for the old creep. I’m going to be busy with your new student. Where’d you pick this one up from, the homeless camp?”

“Destiny, I guess,” he chuckled.

“Oh, ew. What happened to your eye?” She just noticed his swollen left eye. “You look nearly as beat up as this one,” Nox moved Dumog to an operating table. It had several magical, medical instruments suspended above it. “It was just one Goblin right, how are you guys this beat?”

Jacked gently touched his bruised eye and smiled. “Oh, a Goblin didn’t do this to me.”

Nox scanned Dumog’s body using one of the equipment above him. The information popped up on the crystal screen on her desk. A few minutes in and several beeps could be heard from it. They both peek into it, alarmed.

“Why is the screen all red?” Jacked asked.

“That’s weird for a homeless guy,” she scratched her head.

“Why what’s wrong?”

“Says he’s around the age of 24, but he has the constitution of a newborn,” she pointed at the screen. “Look at all these diseases and allergies this thing is picking up on him. Where did you get this guy again? It’s like he’s not even from here. There’s an unknown curse on him as well, hence the device’s beeping.”

“I think he’s from some faraway remote village. You know those types tend to keep it in the family, like the royals,” he laughed at his own joke.

“Yeah, inbreeding could have caused some of this. I can treat the majority of this. The others are non-lethal anyway, he can just build up his own immunity on his own,” she prepared a tray of needles and vials.

The door to Nox’s office slammed open, revealing a six year old boy standing in the doorway. He had a very serious and unnerving look in his eyes, they were concentrated on Dumog. Jacked yelped at the sight of him.

“What the fuck is wrong with that kid?” He hid behind Nox. “Is that one of your ghost friends?”

“Hey, be careful with your words. That’s the mayor’s kid. He comes in here to learn from time to time. We’ll be out of a job if he says anything to his parents,” she whispered.

“But look at him, he looks like he just saw a ghost.”

“You go check on him, I’m busy with this corpse you brought.”

Jacked walked towards the kid. He was wearing sleeping clothes, a deep navy blue with a silver star on his left chest. The kid hadn’t blinked since coming to the room. Not noticing Jacked approach him, he gets poked on the shoulder a couple of times.

“What’s his name?” He asked behind him.

“Cletus, they said the kid changed his name when he started talking. And he started at a really young age apparently. The mayor and his wife are convinced he’s a genius. All I’m going to say is he’s a fast learner.”

“Weird name he chose. Is it from a book?” He continued poking the kid. Still no response.

He crouched down to the kid’s eye level. Cletus’ eyes were still on Dumog’s body on the table. Even when Jacked got in between his line of sight Cletus looked through him, unblinking.

“You good little man? Don’t worry he’s not going to die, I think,” Jacked didn’t like the way the kid’s eyes looked, it made him seem older.

“He should have,” a single tear went down Cletus’ cheek. Though he wasn’t sad, Jacked sensed rage and nostalgia from him. Cletus ran away.

“Kids be creepy. Do you plan on having some in the future?” he asked Nox.

“Fuck no, too expensive,” she flicked at the needle’s container with her finger, making the bubble’s rise up. “How about you?” She injected Dumog with a second needle.

“The bachelor life is perfect for me,” he spun around in her chair.

“You probably can’t have any with all the shit you’ve been taking,” she strapped Dumog to the table with leather belts.

“I’m quite healthy, that’s my whole specialty!”

Dumog stayed in her office for nearly a week, unconscious from all the medication she gave him. Cletus would pop in there and observe from afar, the same expression every time. They would try and talk with him, but he wouldn’t respond to any of their questions.

The two mages continued on their own work, making quick progress. Memories of when they were younger, studying under the same master were brought up. They started really young in their magical endeavor, both for different reasons. Despite having contrasting end goals and ambitions, they both ended up seeking the same master.

They're older now. Jacked’s disciple half dead in Nox’s office. Dumog woke up from time to time, calling out to either Amihan or Jacked, sometimes a name they were unfamiliar with. The first time he saw Nox he thought that the Goddess had finally come to give him an introduction to the new world. He’d asked for blessings and powers from her. In other times, his body would react violently from the medicine.

Amihan, on the other hand, spent the majority of her time in town, studying the area, replenishing supplies, and looking at the locally made maps. She calculated how long she had left in her personal pilgrimage, it would take her less than a year of walking to get to her destination. The closer she got, the more she doubted the place existed.

She decided to extend her break in this town, to recollect herself and find motivation to go forward. She visited Dumog every day for a few minutes, during times that Jacked was gone or asleep. Her and Nox exchanged a few words of greetings, though neither wanted to interact with each other any more than that. During those visits she would sometimes catch the mayor’s son staring at Dumog, hostile energy coming from him. Amihan dismissed it, thinking a six year old wouldn’t do anything bad.

***

Deep in the mountain’s elaborate cave system, thousands of Green Goblins wearing robes gathered around a giant cast iron cauldron. Atop of a platform by the cauldron’s opening, sat a small and wiry Goblin. Bald, the only hair on its body were long eyebrows touching the ground.

It stirred the pot with a several-meter-long ladle, tossing the liquid up in the air in intervals. Inside the pot was a bubbling concoction of death. The old Goblin had been perfecting it for decades. Through trial, error, and using the poor souls who wandered through the mountain’s labyrinth as live test subjects, the Goblin had formulated a recipe that could rival Dragon’s Breath.

Unlike typical Goblins, the thousands gathered there were all quiet. They all observed the old Goblin, taking in whatever knowledge they could get from his ancient and mundane actions. The average Goblin would have lost concentration and caused a ruckus within minutes if they were to partake.

Goblin acolytes–wearing the same robes as the rest of them in a different color–entered the chamber. They carried a stretcher with a Goblin on top. This had finally broken the silence among the group, drawing pained gasps and whispers. Another one who shares their pain. Despite it being a common occurrence as of recent years, it never lessened the agony of seeing your own kind robbed of their future. Some among them think it was a fate worse than death. Nevertheless, they continue to struggle for a possibility of hope.

The old Goblin motioned with its ladle to bring the injured one up to its platform. It still had its eyes closed yet it can perceive everything happening within the mountain. With creaking joints, it stood up from their throne of bone.

“Rise,” the Goblin ordered. It sounded like a whisper yet it echoed through the walls and into their heads as if it was saying it from within them.

With a single word, they all followed. As the acolytes passed through the crowd, some of them silently wished the injured one a speedy recovery. Watching their brethren go through what they had experienced before, made them relive the pain.

“He was retrieved just outside the cave, Greatest One,” one of the acolytes said to the ancient Goblin.

“When will it end?” The Greatest One asked no one in particular, their voice resonated within everyone under the mountain.

“We do not know,” the acolyte brought his head down.

A slight crease formed in between The Greatest One’s eyebrows. It still had its eyes closed. The ancient Goblin walked towards the injured one, which seemed like an eternity. With an outstretched hand, the acolytes lifted the young Goblin up for his head to touch the hand.

A flash of light happened as soon as they touched. The wound below his waist was no more and he awoke. Clarity and tears in his eyes, he dropped down to The Greatest One’s feet. His wound might be healed but what was taken from him wasn’t there anymore. He looked up to meet the old Goblin’s face.

“Give me strength to fight for what was taken from me, from us,” he prayed to The Greatest One.

“This body of mine is merely a husk, but my soul is as mighty as ever. The opposite for you. Do you agree to become my vessel, our vessel?” It turned its palms upward.

The young Goblin received its hands, accepting the deal. The Greatest One opened its eyes for the first time in decades. A beam of white light shot through them. It tilted its head to the cave’s ceiling at first, then slowly pointed them down. Until it poured the light into the young Goblin’s eye sockets.

It was a blinding process for the Goblins present there. After a few minutes the Greatest one’s body went limp and fell. The young Goblin picked up and wore the Greatest Ones Robes. He then threw the old body into the giant cauldron, the Goblins screamed. Its body melts and evaporates in the air in an instant.

The young Goblin raised his arms and opened his eyes, the same ray of light coming from them. He blasted and drowned them all in the light. Then the rest of them shot light from their eyes as well.

“We are One,” he said and smiled.

Humans and other races would often use a Goblin’s reproductive organs in their alchemical recipes. Most of the time for aphrodisiacs. And the thousands in the cave under the mountain were all victims of the harvesting.

A phenomenon would happen when they lose their reproductive capabilities. They would gain access and understanding of the arcane. And it would boost their intelligence, making them nearly as capable as the smartest Sentients.

In recent years, this harvesting has become popular. Which amassed thousands of Goblin Magi. It would also decrease their birth rate greatly, forcing their race to hide the children deep within the mountains, never seeing the outside once.

A regular Green Goblin scout stumbled through the room, sweating and panting. “The Blue Kobold leaders are here! They want a meeting with The Greatest One.”

“We already know of their plans,” they all said in unison, rumbling the entire mountain as if it was a volcano. Their eyes weren’t shooting beams of light anymore either, but they still shined. They were all connected, a hive mind. “We agree to join the Vermin Horde!”