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Yeoman’s party took one day to reach the goblin encampment. Under normal circumstances, a caravan should’ve taken two to three days to travel the distance their party had traveled; however, their circumstances were anything but normal. Cody had the party rent a caravan, but he didn’t rent the horses to drive them. After all—in Cody’s words—why spend money on horses when we have Yeoman? Thus, Yeoman was designated as the caravan driver and puller. He didn’t mind. The caravan wasn’t heavy at all. It was like using on a treadmill, his hands gripping a bar to steady himself as he walked.
During the lookout at night, Aakash stayed up with Yeoman. Apparently, Aakash could take turns sleeping with each one of his heads to remain awake all night whilst still feeling refreshed. As a zombie, Yeoman didn’t need to sleep; however, he could enter a resting state: he didn’t move, and his thoughts slowed drastically. He imagined it was similar to how spiders stayed motionless for so long.
For food, the group—except Yeoman—ate biscuits and jerky which Ella had traded some crocodile meat for. There were two water-generating flasks which was enough for everyone to share. Yeoman suspected the aliens wanted the abductees to focus more on killing and less on survival; otherwise, why would water be given so freely? The fact they started in a town and the missions assigning them with elimination quests supported his theory too. Speaking of which, Yeoman wondered how difficult their first quest was going to be. They were standing a bit away from the encampment, waiting for Cody to come back with a scouting report.
It didn’t take long for Cody to descend from the sky. “The camp is bigger than I thought, about the size of a small town.” He frowned and picked up a stick. He planted it into the ground and drew lines, but they didn’t really show because the grass was too high. “Anyone have paper?” When he saw everyone shaking their heads, Cody shrugged. “Well, if I had to take a guess, I’d say there are around seventy goblins in that camp.”
“Seventy?” Kat asked, her pupils widening. “What do the goblins look like?”
Cody rubbed his chin. “They look like moss-covered chimpanzees,” he said. “They’re not as glossy as I thought they’d be. They’re actually a bit furry, and they aren’t that much shorter than humans either. They’re around Ella’s height.”
“Seventy Ella’s,” Kat said. “This seems harder than killing a shadow panther.”
“What’s the plan?” Joanne asked. “I’m assuming you have one, leader.”
“I always have a plan,” Cody said. “Yeoman and I will fly above them and pick them off from the air. I didn’t see any ranged weapons on them.” Cody glanced at Yeoman. “You really need to pick up an ability that lets you attack from a distance even if it’s just dropping spider webs down or something like that.”
Yeoman agreed with Cody’s assessment. He also approved of Cody’s plan. In warfare, the one with air supremacy tended to win, and it would be stupid of their party to not take advantage of that fact.
“What about us?” Joanne asked. “You’re always assigning Yeoman with tasks; when are you going to let us in on the action?”
“You guys will be in charge of the escaping goblins.” Cody gestured towards the nearby trees. “You’ll want to take cover. If they see you, all of them might swarm you, so you’ll have to focus on picking off the stragglers. There’s no way for us to go in and fight all of them at once. There aren’t any defensive structures for us to take advantage of.”
Yeoman frowned as he looked around. There weren’t many boulders in the vicinity. How was he going to attack the goblins from the sky?
“What are you looking for?” Ella asked.
“Ammunition.”
Ella snorted. “When eagles hunt, do they drop rocks on the mice before eating them? No! They swoop down and grab them.” She patted his arm. “All you have to do is snatch a goblin. That’s your ammunition.”
Yeoman blinked hard. Ella always came up with brilliant ideas; however, they were always so … dirty. They definitely made him feel a bit slimy, and there was always some repulsion to her plans, which is probably why he couldn’t think of them by himself. “I think that could work.”
“Then it’s settled,” Cody said. “Let’s begin.”
“Wait!” Joanne said. “What if the goblins escape in the other direction?”
Cody shrugged. “Not our problem. As long as we kill the goblin chieftain, it counts as our quest being complete.” He turned to Ella. “Speaking of which, you should have Zamuro tail him in case he tries to escape.”
Joanne exhaled and nodded. “Alright, even if we don’t contribute much now, there will always be other missions in the future.” She glared at Cody. “You can’t treat us unfairly just because we didn’t do as much work. The only reason we aren’t contributing as much is because you won’t let us.”
“Relax,” Cody said. “I’m a great leader. I’ve taken all these things into consideration.”
For some reason, Yeoman doubted that very much. However, Yeoman knew how to navigate through social situations; after all, he worked with a team for over a decade. If Cody started playing favorites, Yeoman would put an end to that even if he benefited from Cody’s bias. “Are we ready?”
Cody looked around. Kat pulled out her two teeth. Aakash equipped a sword to all of his hands. Joanne took two shields out from the caravan. Ella stretched her hand out towards Yeoman, and he passed her his spear. He wasn’t going to need it. Aakash glanced at Joanne, and all three of his heads spoke at once. “You attack with those shields?”
Joanne lifted one leg, flashing a giant talon at Aakash. “I attack with this.”
Aakash’s middle head nodded. “Point taken.”
“Seems like everyone’s good to go,” Cody said. He grabbed his bow with his right hand and leapt into the air, flapping his wings. “Let’s have a competition, Yeoman. Whoever kills less has to pay for tonight’s drinks.”
Yeoman admired Cody’s optimism. The Asian man actually thought they’d make it back to a tavern before the day was over. Even if Yeoman wasn’t as optimistic, he wasn’t going to be a spoilsport. “You’re on,” he said and crouched down, bending his knees until they touched his chest. With a grunt, he straightened his legs, launching himself into the air, and pumped his wings at the peak of his jump.
The camp wasn’t what he expected. It was more like a jungle than a camp. There were crude shelters made of leaves and sticks attached to the trees. The structures reminded him of those survival videos on a popular video streaming site where people started off with nothing. Cody was right. The goblins looked like moss-covered chimpanzees. If Yeoman didn’t know any better, he’d say they were chimpanzees. Yeoman made eye contact with Cody and nodded. The moment of truth had arrived.
Yeoman didn’t have to breathe, but he took in a deep breath anyway. He had seen a few videos of eagles catching their prey, but obviously, he couldn’t mimic them. He had to catch the goblins with his hands, not his feet, and there were lots of trees obstructing him. If he took too long, the goblins might swarm him, keep him on the ground. However, Yeoman had confidence. It came from the fact he couldn’t feel any pain, and also the fact his sense of fear was blunted by the zombie fungus. Yeoman leaned forward, angling his wings downward.
“What’s that?”
“A bird?”
“No, it’s a human.”
“Humans don’t have wings.”
“That one does.”
Yeoman was a bit disturbed. The goblins could speak English. He thought they were unintelligent creatures, but apparently, they were civilized despite the squalor they were living in. Yeoman wondered whether or not he was doing the right thing, but he didn’t have much time to think. He landed on the ground, grabbed a nearby goblin, and leapt back into the air before the other goblins could stop him. An arrow rained down from the sky and hit the roof of a shelter, causing the goblins to scream and take cover.
The goblin in Yeoman’s arms squirmed. “W-w-w-wait! I’m afraid of heights!”
Yeoman flew higher and higher, holding onto the goblin’s biceps.
Seeing the ground getting so far away, the goblin stopped struggling, but its lips kept on flapping. “Spare me! I have a pregnant wife! Please, whoever you are, you don’t have to do this!”
Yeoman’s brow furrowed, and he ascended to the same height as Cody. “There’s a problem.”
“Problem?” Cody asked while adjusting his bow. “Hell yeah, there’s a problem. It’s really hard to hit things from up here.”
“No, it’s not that,” Yeoman said and raised the goblin in his arms so it was face to face with Cody. “Listen to it.”
“Please, spare my life; I’m begging you. I’m an expecting father. I don’t even know how to fight! I’m the one who goes to get water for the clan every day. I’m not tasty either; look at how dirty I am. If you eat me, you’ll get a stomachache.”
Cody made a strange expression. “What the hell am I supposed to be listening to? Its breath stinks; move it away from me.”
Yeoman frowned. “He’s telling you to spare his life, and you’re just going to ignore that? How can you be so cruel?”
“Have you lost it?” Cody asked, lowering his bow. “What do you mean it’s begging me to spare it? All I hear is a bunch of growls and clicks.”
“You don’t understand it?”
“You do?”
Yeoman frowned. How come Cody couldn’t…? Oh. “I figured it out. When I unlocked my orangutan muscles, I was given a bonus reward: I can speak with any member of the Hominidae family.” Yeoman glanced at his fleshwatch. As expected, the aliens had displayed the message he was referring to.
[Completely unlocked family Hominidae and unlocked traits in all its genera.]
[Obtained: Hominidae Language]
[Hominidae Language: You can speak with members of family Hominidae fluently.]
“Is that what the reward was?” Cody asked. “Language? I received the message too, but I didn’t unlock traits in all the genera.”
Yeoman nodded. “It seems like goblins are part of family Hominidae. They look like green chimpanzees because that’s probably what they are.” A strange expression appeared on Yeoman’s face. “I thought the reward was going to be useless because I didn’t plan on interacting with gorillas, but I didn’t expect it to work on goblins.”
“Some kind of reward that was,” Cody said and snorted. “All it’ll give you is a guilty conscience. If you want to sit this one out, I won’t blame you.”
“You’re still going to kill them?” Yeoman asked.
“Please, you can’t! We haven’t done anything wrong! Why do you humans always do this!?”
Cody wrinkled his nose. “What did it say?”
Yeoman repeated what the goblin had said, causing Cody to frown. “I think we should go back down and tell everyone,” Yeoman said. “This doesn’t sit right with me.” Yeoman took no pleasure in slaughter. With everything he killed, he felt a little piece of him disappearing. If it was for survival, he would’ve dropped the goblin right then and there, but did the party really have to kill goblins to survive? They could always take on a different mission, one that didn’t involve sentient beings.
Cody exhaled. “Goddammit, I knew this was how this was going to go when people started turning into animals.”
Yeoman tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t I already tell you? In web novels where the main character isn’t human, he’s always surrounded by a harem of female monsters.” Cody sighed. “It’s probably because I got these wings. I bet a female goblin’s going to fall in love with me. I guess we have to negotiate between the goblins and humans now. Or … we can pretend we never took the mission and move on with our lives.”
Yeoman frowned. If they purposely failed their quest and let the goblins live, other adventurers would take the same mission, and the goblins would die anyway. Could he really walk away and let people commit genocide? It was an easy choice. It wasn’t any of his business. No one he knew was affected. However, just the thought of the goblins screaming and crying whilst being hunted made Yeoman feel sick. Sometimes, the easy choice wasn’t the right one. “We have to do something for these goblins.”
“You’re not going to be convincing many humans when you look like that,” Cody said, shaking his head. He sighed again. “I get where you’re coming from though, and as a main character, I can’t just blindly follow the script. I have to forge my own path even if it’s unconventional.”
Yeoman relaxed. He didn’t think Cody would support him that easily. The Asian man was a bit crooked in the head after all; he had sacrificed a whole camp of people to save himself from a zombie herd. “You tell Ella and the rest what’s going on. I’ll go into the goblin camp and see if I can figure out where this problem stems from.”
The two split up, and Yeoman brought the goblin back down to the camp. Unlike what he expected, there weren’t any goblins ready to swarm him. He saw them cowering underneath their crude shelters, holding wooden shields and stone axes. Yeoman released the goblin. “Bring your chieftain here.”
“Yes, right away,” the goblin said, bobbing its head up and down. It sniffled, sucking a line of snot back up its nostril. “Thank you for sparing me. Really, thank you.”
The goblins could clearly feel sadness, happiness, relief; they were emotionally intelligent creatures. Yeoman furrowed his brow. The problem was they couldn’t communicate with humans. Yeoman felt it was a shame. It was similar to how elephants were emotional creatures capable of feeling grief, yet poachers still killed them for their tusks. However, the humans here viewed goblins as pests; they didn’t even make up any excuses of goblin teeth having medicinal properties.
“Hello.”
Yeoman turned his head. He might’ve been able to see the old goblin walking up to him from the side with his crow eye, but he still felt more comfortable making eye contact with his human ones. The goblin had graying furs on the sides of its face and underneath its chin. It reminded Yeoman of an aging Labrador he had once seen. “You’re the chieftain?”
“Yes.” The old goblin nodded. “Are you here to kill me?”
Yeoman shook his head. “I’ll admit I came here to do that, but when I realized goblins were sentient and not just beasts, I changed my mind.”
The goblin chieftain blinked hard. “That doesn’t seem to stop the other humans,” it said. “You, are you human?”
Yeoman glanced at himself. He was a winged zombie. If a child saw him, they’d definitely call him a monster or demon. However, he still considered himself human, but would it be dishonest to call himself one? What did it mean to be human anyway? “I’m not sure, but I do work with them. Tell me, why do the humans hunt you?”
“They want our land,” the goblin chieftain said. “Before, only goblins lived in these lands. Then, the humans came. They killed us, burned down our homes, cut down the trees we depend on to survive. We couldn’t fight back; they were too strong. All we could do was run, give them the land they wanted, but they aren’t satisfied. They have no predators. More and more humans appear every summer, and they demand more and more land. Soon, there will be nothing left for us.”
Yeoman nodded. Humans killing to expand their territory, it was a pretty common theme back on Earth. As far as Yeoman knew, there wasn’t a solution to a problem like this. Humans forced other humans of different beliefs to conform. Humans didn’t care about the lives of animals when they burned down jungles and forests to create farmland. The goblins clearly fell under the latter situation. On Earth, there were people who cared about the environment, but Yeoman didn’t think Virlyce established any environmental protection agencies in The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons. In fact, Virlyce made the humans as ugly on the inside as possible.
“Humans! There are humans coming!”
“Wait, stop! Those are friends. They’re friends of the man over there.”
“Is the man our friend? He’s scary.”
“He’s very scary, but he didn’t eat me. He must be a friend.”
It seemed like Cody was bringing the group over. Yeoman nodded at the chieftain. “The approaching humans are my companions. They won’t harm you or your clan.”
The chieftain tilted his head back and hooted. “Stand down!”
Aakash was the first to appear, standing in front of the group with his six swords drawn, ready to take action if any of the goblins approached. Kat and Ella came next, followed by Cody and Joanne. Yeoman waved at them and gestured for them to come over. “This is the chieftain.”
“And you don’t want us to kill him,” Joanne said. “Are you sure you cleared every single mission assigned to you?”
Yeoman nodded. “The goblins are facing problems of habitat destruction thanks to human expansion. I want to find a way to help them.”
“And that’ll give us more points than killing them for the mission?” Ella asked.
Yeoman coughed. “Not exactly. I don’t know if it’ll give us any points at all.”
“I vote we kill them,” Ella said. “In the first place, they aren’t even real.”
“You can touch them. If you hurt them, they cry.” Yeoman shook his head. “That’s real enough for me.”
The goblins bobbed their heads up and down. “We’re real; we’re definitely real!”
“If we weren’t real, then this wouldn’t hurt.”
“Ow! Don’t hit me!”
“See? He’s real!”
“What are they saying?” Kat asked and swallowed. “They seem like they want to eat us.”
“They’re proving they’re real by stabbing each other,” Yeoman said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going to kill any goblin. What’s your decision as the leader, Cody?”
Cody frowned. “Well, we complete the mission by bringing back the chieftain’s head. Why don’t we bring back the whole chieftain? Let him try to convince the humans with you acting as a translator.” He sighed. “Honestly, this is the most we can do for them. We can’t fight against the tide. You saw the guild master. There are dozens of adventurers as strong as him. If we start a goblin uprising, we’ll be the first to die.”
Yeoman was a little disappointed, but honestly, he couldn’t think of a better solution. He was an engineer, not a politician. Preventing a genocide was way outside his job scope.