“Chief, we also brought the healleaves we collected from the forest here.”

“Healleaves? Are you talking about the pile of herbs you had near the entrance of the cave?”

“Yes. Healleaves do not have much healing power, but when grinded they can be applied on smaller scars and wounds to swiften the healing process like low level healing magic.”

“I see – thank you. Correct me if I am wrong but you dark elves seem to be knowledgeable about herbology. Would you mind creating a group of dark elves to join our expedition teams to map the vegetation of the forest? There may be usable resources that we overlooked like edible herbs or vegetable.”

“Of course, Chief. I will make sure to gather a group and inform you.”

“Great.”

Afterwards Tyulha kept telling me about the world outside the mountains. The hostility of humanoids against the monsters, the conflicts between different races, and the political unrest that is enveloping the continent. However, most of these were not useful information since crossing the mountains was insanely difficult according to the account of dark elves. So, there was not much need to worry about them. At least for now.

Tyulha also told me about magic. Apparently, the magic was practiced by most of the dark elves for daily tasks, and by their warriors for body enhancing. However, not many of the dark elves could use it, although it was much more common in dark elves than in goblins. Since their group had couple magic users, I hoped they could practice magic with Gobo.

Tyulha himself was not a magic user, but Ryiya, to whom Tyulha left the command when he visited Harren, was one. Buy, unfortunately, Ryiya was also unable to understand the magic. He said something along the lines of:

“I cannot trace your magic. I cannot feel its core. You seem to be gathering magic power not from this world, but from a void.”

Maybe, that void was where the gates opened to. That seemed to be the most logical outcome my thinking was able to reach. My magic forced me to open those gates that allowed monsters from another place to enter this world until I learned to control it. So, maybe, the source of my magic is the place that is beyond the gates – the place where I cannot reach. This brought another question to my mind: will I ever be able to see what is beyond the gates?

Actually – hold on… I was not born like any other being of this world. I was just there – I woke up. The only other creatures who have not born here are the ones that I call. What if I was called here as well? Goblins and orcs that came here through the gates do not have memories – nor do I. What if this is not a coincidence?

Or else, is it possible that I called myself here? Maybe I was living beyond the gates and opened it up only to end up in this world. This, although a hypothesis, is the most reasonable conclusion I can get to for now. Because it allows me to also think maybe the reason the goblins and orcs whom I call here call me their master is because they have the unconscious memory of me actually being their master – in another world. This still has a fallacy though: I am a human, and they are monsters. How can I be their master?

Everything needs another assumption to make sense, so it is better not to think about anything about this issue. Questioning only boggles my mind since I neither have any proof, nor any way to reach to one. But one thing I still am not sure about is why I was able to call orcs after I killed one. Let’s say that evolution really requires a certain life energy which can be passed on via taking a life. This should also apply to my case. I killed an orc, and I was able to call orcs. If I kill a bear, does that mean that I will learn of the bear’s life energy and be able to call a bear through the gate? Moreover, is it going to obey me?

Surely it is worth a try, but I doubt that I can do that. Both orcs and goblins are sentient beings, although they are monsters. Even if I can call a bear, there is just no way that it would obey me.

What about a dark elf? Well… I do not intend to kill a dark elf, so let’s not think about that. At this point, we can welcome anyone who is not a threat to Harren. Even though the dark elves were initially hostile towards the monsters, once they were welcomed in a village when they were desperate to survive and figured out that they can communicate with monsters like this, their attitudes started changing drastically. Maybe the same thing would happen with other humanoids. That is my hope. Although, listening to the stories of Tyulha, I doubt it would happen with the human kingdoms.

“Do you have any miners or blacksmiths?”

“Uh, yes, Chief. We have couple. Since a lot of our warriors died fighting the humans chasing us, most of the dark elves here are craftspeople and farmers. But we do not have the tools.”

“We actually have some. They are quite old and rusty, but that’s a start. Can you also gather a mining team – I would like to get our hands on some metals.”

“Right away, Chief.”