Free Web NovelChapter 11: Chapter 10: Divine Level Item
Divine Level?
Shire wondered aloud, "The quality of the equipment before was either Crude or Common. Now I’m in a treasure room and it shoots straight up to Divine Level? Is the range really this wide?"
’So, Bear Goblin, this is the surprise you had for me?’
’My apologies. I spoke too soon.’
He caressed the palm-sized hemisphere, the feeling of familiarity growing stronger. However, the last sentence on the panel kept nagging at his reason.
According to the myths, the Creator God fell into a deep slumber after creating the world. Before sleeping, He commanded His four children to watch over it. From then on, the world began to worship the Four Pillar Gods.
Over several thousand years of evolution, this gradually formed the Four Great Churches, which spread across the various Kingdoms.
Most people believe in one of these Divine Beings. Shire’s family, for instance, were originally followers of the God of Night and Destiny.
"But ’surpassing the Gods’... that’s a bit much," Shire said, fiddling with the hemisphere in his hand.
’If you grabbed someone on the street and told them you had a way to surpass the Gods, they would definitely curse you for your blasphemy.’
’Everyone believes that Divine Beings are eternal, indestructible, and supreme.’
’So the "we" in the Note must be some incredibly powerful beings.’
’But since no one has ever heard of anyone succeeding, it must mean "we" are all dead.’
’Who were they? Why did they leave no names in history?’ Shire stared at the hemisphere in his hand, feeling as if he had already stepped one foot into a swirling vortex.
’Unfortunately, my knowledge of history is terrible. The one person I can remember who might be able to answer this question for me, that black-haired, purple-eyed girl, is probably far away in the Royal Capital, adored by all.’
"Who cares who they were? It couldn’t have been goblins, anyway." Shire stuffed the Divine Level thingamajig into his tattered pants pocket. "Besides, it’s useless." freewebnσvel.cѳm
’I can only rely on those few Short Swords and Long Spears for hunting. If we can coordinate well, it might just work.’
"Coordination." The moment Shire thought of that word, he heaved a long sigh, rubbed his face with his hands, and then started scratching his scalp.
’This is too hard.’ He would rather be back explaining a PowerPoint to his old clients and answering their tricky questions than face a dozen goblins, each with a mind of its own.
’You have to arrange their positions, tell them the order of attack, how to respond when the prey fights back, and most importantly, tell them not to scatter in a panic and start a running race.’
’It’s like entering a large room full of children, each playing with their own toys, and your task is to get them to perform a synchronized dance. That’s when you realize just how divergent human minds can be.’
’Goblins are pretty much the same. The only difference is that they’re all green-skinned.’
"What a pain. I don’t know how many brain cells this is going to kill." Shire turned and walked out of the cave.
’It’s a pain, but they have to be trained. They’re my own... lovely subordinates. No matter what, they’re combat power. If I train them well, they might just produce some surprising results.’
Outside the cave, the Nightmare Forest was lush and verdant, quiet and mysterious.
Sunlight filtered down through the gaps in the leaves, the silence occasionally broken by the chirping of birds.
A dozen or so goblins lay contentedly in a clearing.
Some were grooming themselves and picking off bugs, some sat cross-legged picking at their feet, and some were already starting to snore.
Shire looked at this heartwarming scene, walked over happily, and roared with a smile, "Get the hell up!"
With a single shout, he roused his subordinates and started assigning them tasks.
Six of them were to chop down ten tree trunks, each as thick as an adult’s calf. They were to bring them back, sharpen one end, and plant them at the cave entrance as a defense against wild beasts.
Three were to clean the cave, throwing out all the filth and garbage inside. After the cleaning was done, Shire planned to fumigate the cave to get rid of pests.
As for the three who had feigned surrender, Shire ordered them to carry the Bear Goblin and the dead unlucky bastard far away and bury them.
Once all these tasks were finished, all the goblins were to go to the river to bathe.
Shire had no intention of ever sleeping in the Bear Goblin’s "bedroom." Once his subordinates cleaned it out, he would let them sleep there. He himself planned to live alone in the storage room; after all, the chamber was over a hundred square feet, more than enough for him to sleep in.
A bonfire would be lit in the main hall to effectively deter wild beasts.
Then, he took Red Eyes and Buck Teeth with him to patrol the Hunting Ground, pulling up the skull markers along the way.
...
Scarface pushed aside some branches, and a bird’s nest appeared before him.
Inside the nest were four thumb-sized eggs.
He chuckled, "Heh heh," as he picked up the nest, freeing one hand to shoo away the incubating mother bird.
He hadn’t managed to grab much of the wild boar soup at noon, so now he was taking advantage of the task of burying the Bear Goblin’s corpse to slack off and find food.
He slid down the tree trunk, doing his best to keep the eggs intact.
Scarface found the new leader very strange.
’In his world, the Bear Goblin was nearly twice Shire’s height. It should have been impossible for Shire to kill him.’
’He had seen the Bear Goblin swing its hammer at a goblin before, sending it flying a great distance—as far away as that big tree up ahead.’
’But Shire had killed the Bear Goblin so easily. He couldn’t understand it.’
’And yet, he also felt that the new leader was only four-foot-three. As long as he ate his fill, he could beat him. If he killed him, he’d be the new leader. Then he could eat first from the big pot, and the other goblins could only eat after he was full.’
’What’s more, the new leader was taking people to pull up the skull markers at the edge of the Hunting Ground. Where was everyone supposed to find food after that?’
’Making everyone work in the afternoon instead of napping—lying around after eating your fill at noon was a rule passed down from the goblin ancestors! Even the Bear Goblin had never broken it.’
"The new leader is an idiot." Scarface was certain of it. ’He has none of the makings of a leader,’ he concluded internally.
He grabbed two eggs and was just about to pop them into his mouth when he suddenly froze, remembering that he had been caught by Shire and his group while looking for a bird’s nest before.
Scarface hunched his neck and looked around furtively. Seeing no one, he immediately stuffed the eggs into his mouth and swallowed them whole without chewing.
Just as he was about to grab the other two eggs, he realized something was stuck in his throat.
Scarface frantically pounded his chest, jumped up and down, and clawed at his throat, but nothing worked.
Throughout all this, his other hand clutched tightly to the bird’s nest, making sure the remaining eggs didn’t fall to the ground.
As breathing became more and more difficult, Scarface spun around in a panic, looking for the other two goblins to help. But he had forgotten that he had intentionally wandered far away to find food.
Soon, he saw a large, fallen tree with a section of its trunk jutting out.
A look of joy appeared on Scarface’s face. He took off at a run and, with a SMACK, slammed himself into the protruding trunk.
Then, clutching his stomach, he collapsed to the ground, coughing painfully. The egg that had been stuck was knocked out and sent flying.
After his coughing subsided, Scarface searched all over the ground for the egg he had coughed up, only to find it had long since shattered, its liquid already seeping into the soil.
He looked down at the nest in his hand; the other two eggs had also vanished, flown off somewhere.
He hadn’t gotten to eat any of the four eggs, and he had even hurt his stomach. He was furious. "This is all the leader’s fault! If he hadn’t made me come out to work, the eggs wouldn’t have fallen on the ground, and I could have eaten them all!"
"I’m going to find something else to eat. I need to get full so I can beat him."
"That way, I’ll be the leader, and I won’t have to go out looking for food anymore."
Grunting and puffing, Scarface climbed back to his feet and walked toward the next tree.
