Chapter 54

Of course, it didn’t escape Divine’s notice when three of his disciples sneaked off into the crowd of goblins.

But he let them go unhindered.

It was a test to see if they could get by on their own between all these goblins.

Divine had big plans for the disciples and he had to check if they were ready for the next step.

Jemisha was the smartest and strongest anyway, so he didn’t force her to separate from him and participate.

Divine ignored Groby, the current Chief Mouth, who was nervously babbling at him, trying to figure out if Divine’s visit would spell his doom.

Instead, Divine walked right through Groby’s group of goblins, who parted before him like the Red Sea, in the direction of Witchtooth’s fireplace.

Jemisha followed on his heels and Groby with his entourage a few steps behind.

Witchtooth was watching her female servant stirring her pot when Divine neared.

The servant startled noticeably when Divine suddenly appeared on the other side of the pot.

Witchtooth on the other hand, only calmly waved at him, a wide happy smile stretching her wrinkled face.

The crazy old bat hadn’t changed at all, it seemed.

Divine neutrally returned her gaze.

The goblin hag continued smiling at him, without even blinking.

Looking at her ugly mug and into her turbid eyes wasn’t pleasant, but Divine didn’t break eye contact.

It was a matter of dominance.

Because Divine wanted to take Witchtooth down a peg, he decided to give it his all.

So, he gave it his all for at least five seconds.

Then Divine quickly grew bored by their staring contest.

Witchtooth had an unfair advantage anyway.

Who knew what she could even see with her old turbid eyes.

And even if she could see the weight of his gaze clearly, she still would have the advantage of having the much more pleasant view.

Old Witchtooth was really ugly.

So, when they were still staring at each other ten seconds later, Divine gave Witchtooth a shove with his Qi.

Only a light one, making her sway a little, break eye contact and even lower her head.

Now Witchtooth was finally startled, too.

Because she didn’t understand what had just happened.

Totally puzzled, Witchtooth checked her body, counting her body parts and touching herself all over.

Now that he was the winner of the staring contest, Divine could finally take his eyes off Witchtooth’s ugly face.

So, he examined what was boiling in the pot in front of him.

He sniffed, trying to figure out what Witchtooth and her servant were concocting.

Divine still wasn’t sure if Witchtooth could do or make something magical.

There were the rumors, that the goblins told about Witchtooth, about her powers.

And the late Chief Mouth’s boosted strength had to have come from somewhere.

But Divine had never personally witnessed Witchtooth’s magic.

The only thing Divine knew for sure was that Witchtooth had a stronger Qi presence than any normal goblin.

That was why Divine wanted to check their concoction, maybe what they were preparing at this moment would give him an answer or at least a clue.

Disappointingly, it was just simple meat soup.

The soup didn’t smell as appetizing as Lilith’s cooking, but it smelled much better than everything else in this goblin-infested cavern.

“Give me bowl!” Divine ordered in Gobble.

Witchtooth stopped poking her own limbs and looked at him again.

She didn’t give any kind of clear response, but she started smiling at him again.

Slowly, Witchtooth was starting to really annoy him and Divine’s eye twitched a little.

Her servant pulled nervously at her sleeve, afraid Witchtooth had gone completely senile and was courting death now.

But only when Witchtooth gave her an affirmative nod did the female servant quickly grab a bowl and filled it for the intimidating Divine, and not before.

She really didn’t want to provoke the great Divine, but personally, she was still more scared of her teacher.

Grabbing the bowl without acknowledging the troublesome duo further, Divine looked for the cleanest and most comfortable spot close by and sat down.

The bowl of meat soup he placed before him as an air freshener.

He had no intent to eat it, he was only using it for its smell.

Jemisha sat down next to him, happy to realize that he had no intention of conversing with the goblins.

That meant she could grab his attention and pepper him with all the questions she had thought of lately.

“Master…? Why do we have only two arms? Wouldn’t three be better?” Jemisha asked with the innocent curiosity only a child could have.

“Maybe. But two is the number of arms life has given us. Just use them to your best ability and be happy you don’t have an additional body part to train.” What else could Divine say to that right now?

He would get into the topic of evolution with the goblings in the future, but it was definitely still too early in their education for them to understand.

“Master, what does food think when we eat it?” Jemisha had asked herself that when she had been watching Oni, and now, she asked Master Divine.

Divine had to chuckle.

Jemisha was happy because she had managed to make her master smile.

“Nothing, our food doesn’t think. Because we are civilized, we make our food stop thinking before we eat it.” Divine changed the topic before she could question his answer. “Why didn’t you run off to explore like your siblings? You were the most excited to go exploring…”

“I can learn more this way.” Jemisha leaned into her master’s side and smiled. “What are those goblins doing?”

Divine looked to where his disciple was pointing and saw a flock of chieftain groupies watching him amorously and giggling to each other.

“They’re doing nothing. Just wasting time. Ignore them.” Divine definitely didn’t want to explain that to his little disciple now.

Jemisha really had a knack for asking questions.

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Oni followed his nose to the closest cooking fire.

Even the stinking mass of goblins couldn’t keep the smell of grilling meat from his fine-tuned nose.

He waded through the many tall and dirty goblins.

His well-developed girth proved to be a boon yet again, helping him make his way.

Many a goblin stumbled or directly fell to the ground when their knees and thighs collided with the mighty form of Fourth Disciple.

Finally, after many bodychecks, Oni reached a fire with six unfamiliar small animals grilling above on sticks.

Each of those sticks was in the hand of one goblin.

Apparently, they belonged to them.

And each only ate one. What weirdos.

“Give me one!” Oni ordered in English.

The goblins only stared at him in incomprehension and fascination.

Oni had forgotten that they were so stupid and didn’t even know English.

“Food!” Oni said in Gobble and gestured at the grilling meat.

That was the only word he knew in Gobble, but he had made sure to learn it correctly.

The six goblins exchanged glances.

This was taking Oni too long.

So, he just grabbed for one of the sticks.

The goblin wasn’t surprised at all, being used to things like this happening, but even though the goblin was mentally prepared he was chanceless against the faster and stronger Oni.

The goblin got his stick snatched and watched dumbfounded when Oni didn’t run off and started eating right in front of him instead.

That wasn’t how these things went normally.

The baffled goblin exchanged glances with his fellows who were as surprised as him.

His fellows caught themselves earlier than him and gestured him to do something.

Hesitantly, the goblin tried to grab his stick back.

That was a taboo for Oni.

He could snatch others’ food, but no one snatched food from him.

Because Oni was eating, he had no hand free, so he gave the offending goblin a kick.

The poor goblin sailed shortly through the air and landed on two other goblins from another circle.

A fierce brawl ensued between them.

Then their two groups got caught up in it and suddenly there were eleven goblins brawling.

Oni finished the unfamiliar small animal.

The meat wasn’t that good and it was grilled even worse.

But it was still food, so Oni grabbed a second stick.

It was even easier since everyone was distracted.

Then Oni left the ruckus he created behind in search for something else he hadn’t tasted yet.

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Killy and Filly were young and they only had each other.

But they had quick fingers and that was how they survived in the Lost Tooth Tribe.

The two were having the best haul of their life right now.

For some reason everyone was so distracted, they didn’t even need their superb teamwork.

They usually didn’t prowl in the main cavern but after this day they would definitely come more often.

Much food and even a few small weapons had already changed ownership and had landed in their dirty sacks.

Killy was just watching for the next easy mark when he saw it.

Something really shiny caught his eye.

It was the best-looking dagger in existence.

Two young goblins were squeezing through the crowd.

They were wearing the finest cloth Killy had ever seen, it had almost no stains and was completely whole.

The one with the pretty dagger on her hip was dragging the other with her.

Killy signaled Filly and they followed the goblings.

The two young ones were very strange, it wasn’t only the get-up.

They regularly stopped in the middle of the crowd to point at different goblins and laugh at them.

And no one started a fight with them or robbed them.

The reputation of the main cavern goblins wasn’t only exaggerated, it was complete bogus.

Not only were they easy marks, but they were also even scared of little goblings.

Cowardly frogs.

If word of their weakness spread around, the goblins from their cavern would make this cavern their bitch.

Killy knew they had to act fast if they wanted the best slice of the meat. That wonderful shiny dagger.

Killy gave Filly quick instructions.

Then Filly approached their mark first and Killy followed two steps behind.

The plan was for Filly to make a grab for the dagger first.

If his try didn’t work out Filly would serve as the distraction for Killy to make his move.

As soon as they had the dagger, they would make a run for it.

Killy watched with bated breath as Filly made the grab.

Filly’s quick hand went forward…

Blurry movement…

A flash of red…

A cry of pain…

Filly went down.

Killy froze in shock and stared.

The two goblings looked a little surprised at the downed Filly.

Then the two left unperturbed.

Another cry, and Killy finally ran to Filly.

Turning him around, Killy saw that Filly’s arm had been slashed open and broken at the same time.

It didn’t even look like a dagger wound, more like from unnaturally sharp goblin claws that had hit Filly’s arm away with such force that it was mangled now.

Filly couldn’t stop whimpering in pain.

And he was losing so much blood.

Filly was dying.

Killy didn’t know how to help.

Filly needed help, immediately.

The other goblins around didn’t even give them a pitying look, either ignoring or scorning them.

Killy’s thoughts had never run this fast.

Witchtooth!

The famous Witchtooth was their last hope.

Praying the rumors were right this time, Killy put his arms under Filly’s armpits and around his chest.

He started dragging Filly in the direction of Witchtooth’s famous fireplace.

Filly was unhandy and the mass of goblins hindered their way.

Filly’s whimpering was becoming softer. He was getting weaker.

“Hold on!” Killy doubled his pace.

They weren’t far off from their destination when they encountered a mass brawl.

Killy had no time for this now.

He pulled Filly right into the middle of the conflict.

At least everyone was busy brawling so the two went ignored.

Killy only had to avoid the brawlers.

They almost made it through when some goblin tit was pushed right into them.

Filly fell from Killy’s hands and Killy stumbled to the ground.

The goblin tit landed softly, right on top of Filly.

A moment later another goblin came and pounced on the goblin tit, burying the injured Filly under even more weight.

When Killy managed to get back on his feet the couple fighting on top of Filly had already disappeared somewhere into the chaotic crowd.

Killy ran to Filly’s side and was just in time to witness his friend’s last breath.

Filly’s eyes lost their spark of life and became empty.

“No. No. No! No! No! NO!! NOOOO!!!” Killy let out a scream of raw desperation. “AHHHH!!!”

Killy couldn’t believe it.

His partner in crime…

His only and best friend…

His family…

… was dead.

Filly was dead.

Hate bloomed inside of Killy.