ALL NOVEL Chapter Sixty-four – In which Ark understands quickly, that a smart goblin can also be a bratty goblin, but will still be loved by him all the same.
I looked down at my pint-sized progeny.
“Okay. That’s not a big deal is it? I mean, Lily was a runt and she turned out just fine.”
The Old One nodded, surprisingly. She had then moved on to do the same eye-test she did with Button, and this daughter of mine reached out to grab the finger.
“But this goblin is also a smart one.”
“Is that different from a strong one?” I asked her.
“Rare. Smart ones talk with the spirits of the tribe. Learn from them, make important decisions.”
“Were any of my other daughters also smart ones?”
Old One laughed.
“No. The last smart one born to the Bloodmaw was Stupid-one. I expected something like this to happen once you taught her your human magic. It's a good thing she survived long enough to have a child. She finally found a way to make herself useful.”
The Old One continued to laugh.
My newest youngest daughter held out a hand and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Formula magic runes began to ignite in the air, swirling around her tiny arms. Three runes were invoked: Power-Wind-Water. A blast of water as harmless as if it came from a cheap plastic water pistol shot right into the Old One’s face.
The Old One stopped laughing.
“Stupid!” the Old One spat, and I was somewhere between absolutely floored and dying of laughter. Then my daughter turned that dangerous pointing finger at me, and I was the second recipient of a small blast of ice cold water.
Cold?
“Do it again.” I said to my daughter.
She shot me again with the water, but for a moment I saw it.
“How the hell…?”
“What strong one do, Husband?” Berry, with an alchemy pot full of lukewarm water drawn from the basin by the bath, had been slowly cleaning up Vera’s aftermath.
“I… can’t sense any mana from her. But the formula magic she used… that’s… at least intermediate level.”
“What that mean?” Berry pushed the question along.
“It means she’s at least as strong as I am. No, she’s probably stronger than I am at using formulaic magic. Probably stronger than Vera as well.” I admitted. “Shit… let me see if she can duplicate this… then I can say it with certainty.”
I am by no means proficient at it, but I can also manifest formulaic runes. It’s far different from using force magic as it requires me to basically calculate something similar to mathematics in my brain, and I at most can utilize maybe two or three of them at once, but doing so will almost instantly drain me. I didn’t study past the entrance-to-the-intermediate stage of formulaic magic, but I could make a fireball happen with it as a last resort attack. That much was my earliest goal when I first began learning magic from my mother.
“Power-Wind-Fire.” I told her, unsure if she would catch it. Runes ignited around my arms, swirling towards my hands and I pointed upwards, intending to let my spell fizzle out before activating. My intention with showing her the formula to the fireball spell was only to see if my daughter caught the Runes I used and could duplicate it at will.
To my surprise, she did so with ridiculous ease, and as the Runes she manifested circled her arms and chained together in the order I formed them, she pointed up and the entire cave was subjected to a wide blast of orange fire. Thankfully it wasn’t any kind of impacting attack, just simple combustion to generate a scorching flame which the stone ceiling absorbed. There was a powerful scent of scorch left behind, and the Runes remained rotating around her hand until each one burnt away into nothingness.
She stared at me a little longer, perhaps expecting me to test her in another way, and when I hadn’t, she lost interest in me, going back to sucking on Vera’s milkies.
“I stand corrected. She’s far more stronger than I am with formulaic magic. I’d be lying on the floor right now from mana exhaustion after doing something like that.”
The Old One was squatting down, hands over her head, having been completely unprepared for the fireball.
“Shaman!” She screeched in excitement.
“What?” Berry shouted.
The Old One pointed at my daughter.
“Shaman! Shaman! GYAK GYAK GYAK! So the Stupid-one had a smart one, and they will become a Shaman for the Bloodmaw!”
“Is that good?” I asked.
I obviously thought that having a daughter who somehow could use formulaic magic from the get-go was good, even if I couldn’t sense an iota of mana from her tiny body.
“Yes! Having a goblin shaman will make the Bloodmaw tribe much stronger! Though you are hideously ugly for a human, your big seed is another story.”
The Old One was looking quite thrilled now, and I decided to accept the obvious insult as a compliment.
“I will teach her.”
“Teach her what?”
“I will teach her the way of the Shaman.”
“Old One… are you a Shaman?”
The Old One shook her head. “No. But I know what shamans do. The one who made me, was the last Bloodmaw shaman.”
So… Old One’s mother was the tribe’s last Shaman?
“Alright. I don’t think Vera will say no to it. But she’ll also be taught human magic by us.”
“Yes, yes, good! Teach her all your magic, Human. Smart one doesn’t need to become a goblin hunter. Her being Shaman is much more important.”
Honestly, I don’t get it. But up until now, the Old One hasn’t seemed to give a single shit about any of the children born as far as I’d seen. Outside of the day that Beast-talker died, this is about the longest I’ve seen her stay in any particular place in the cave and be sociable.
“Five suns. Have her and Stupid-one come to my cave-hole.”
“Uh… okay?”
“Good. I will leave now. There are many things I must do to prepare!”
The Old One was cackling to herself the entire way out of the breeding room.
Berry, who had patiently been cleaning up the torn space between Vera’s legs had asked me if I had a name to give my newest daughter.
“There is a name… only…”
Berry looked at me with concern, as I was obviously being reluctant to say it.
“Glace?”
I spoke the name that was written on the side of the dais.
The little one looked at me for a moment before pointed a finger at the stone dais. More runes burned into existence around her hand.
Power-Wind-Water-Cold-Push.
Shit! That’s a formula for…
KLINKOOOM!
I watched as the dais was completely blown apart as a huge solid block of ice the same size of the dais bulged instantly into existence and shot towards it at point blank range. The evidence of the letters which were once carved on the side were now rubble.
Was that intentionally done?
I know I somehow have been given some exceptional goblin kiddos, but…
It took me damn near half of my second life studying and practicing magic just to break through to the second circle. And this little twerp just exhibited the ability to use five Runes…
A smirk.
She smirked at me, this little green brat!
“I don’t know if you understand words yet, but don’t you dare use Power-Wide-Push-Land-Pull in this cave, or I will spank you if we somehow survive.”
Glace squinted at me. Then as if ignoring my warning as impotent, went right back to sucking milk from the source.
“Husband, what mean what just say?”
“It’s uh… magic. You saw those glowing symbols floating around her arms? That’s the kind of magic that would bring the whole cave down on our heads.”
“Vera smart one can do that?”
“You saw the fireball, and I know you can see the block of ice over there that crushed the stone dias. She can do it. It might only be to a cave-hole as big as this one for now, but I wouldn’t doubt that she could bring the whole of goblin-home down on everyone soon enough once she gets more familiar with using her ability.”
“Smart one… not like Diana Artemis.” Berry spoke with a hint of nervousness and quickly backed away. With the cleanup of Vera’s crotch and legs done, Berry discreetly returned back to her cave-hole, leaving me time to be alone with Vera and Glace.
With Berry gone, I held Vera’s limp hand. She was asleep and breathing shallowly. Glace would periodically cast a glance my way, a very smug look resting on her face.
“I’m serious, Glace. Don’t even do it as a joke.”
I was summarily ignored.
The alchemy pot was left behind, and I reached for the rag, taking the time to slowly clean off my daughter who was still coated in some blood, and Vera’s upper body which also was a bit smeared in red.
I sighed. I should have asked Berry if she had any idea what Vera had been up to in the last few days. Maybe I could have gotten a clue as to how these sudden instant-term pregnancies happen.
I think I will try and press Vera for more information later, after she has time to recover. Or perhaps Glace herself might know. She seemed to understand my words, but whether or not she’ll be like Vera and poor at communicating remains to be seen.
I couldn’t return to Prima’s room now that this had happened, and aside from me, and thankfully Berry who I can count on, there would have been no other person to be here by Vera’s side for the birth, and aftercare.
“Glace, do you think it’s safe to move Vera to her cave-hole?”
Glace made a familiar sign with her tiny digits. Index finger touched thumb to make a circle while middle, ring, and pinky fingers extended upwards.
In other words, I got the okay.
I scooped Vera’s body up, Glace coming along for the ride. It was a short walk across the breeding room and into Vera’s cave-hole. I deposited her limp, light body, onto the straw bed, and then went to the room next door to take the large rag so that it would cover the three of us.
Prima can kill me tomorrow, but tonight… I will do my best to put out of my mind what I saw, and try to be happy just being with Vera and Glace. In the end, the goblins that matter to me the most are my daughters, but if these adult goblins can also one day come to love me, then that won’t be so bad a thing, either.