Syl

Chapter 32: Goblin Tribe

The goblin camp was more than I expected, considering it was inside a cave. There seemed to be a constant team of goblins who worked towards expansion and digging deeper. There were goblin cooks, farmers, and crafters. They really had a whole community in here, only lacking smiths to make better arms and armor, and any metal bits they owned came from dead humans.

I was apparently the talk of the town, as goblins came to approach me or stared from a distance, often calling me Tarz. I could have changed to one of the other two absorbed goblins, but that might lead to more questions, and I'd still be another stolen identity. Turning back into my slime form would likely cause a panic, and I'd be unable to communicate.

I asked one of the crafters if they were able and willing to make me a better outfit if given the materials. There was hesitation until I pulled out some of my boar hide and the mostly ruined bear pelt. I also sweetened the deal by offering a few tusks to use as spear points. If I liked her work, I planned to ask her to make something for my elf form, assuming I could get it working. The goblins were shocked that I had a 'storage power' as the Chief had the only storage bag in the entire tribe, looted from a dead adventurer ages ago.

Lastly, Garz brought me to the lodging they offered me, which wasn't much, and it seemed devoid of any furnishings and belongings. I was used to living inside a tree, so upgrading to four walls and a door was an upgrade as far as I was concerned. Garz's tour might have been so they could claim the contents before bringing me. I thanked him, and he said he would fetch me in the morning.

With privacy obtained, I started to strip until I got the idea to use my storage directly. The clothes vanished inside and saved me a lot of fumbling around if only I could do it in reverse. I confirmed my earlier theory by shifting into the other two goblins I had consumed, and then I moved on to my brand-new bear form. My core automatically pulled from my slime reserve to fulfill the volume requirement, and I felt myself growing into the bear form.

'Yes! I thought I was close to a mimicry level, but I'm not going to complain about both going up. The perfection and first-time bonuses are so damn good. I should ask the goblins if they know of any other bonuses.'

Wanting to test my success, I cycled through every form I had perfected. The shifting between forms was smoother than ever, with only a minor delay. If I could solve the clothing situation, I could lose a pursuer by walking around the corner and rapidly shifting.

I spent the rest of my evening trying to turn into Sylthaeryn. There was a noticeable improvement from my improved traits alone, and I could walk, but it was far too goopy still. It was finally complete enough for me to test [Mana Sight], which created glowing auras of anything containing mana. Looking around, I saw that almost every aura had an almost unique coloring and was distinctly goblin-shaped. When I casually raised my hand in front of my face, I let out a gurgled scream when I was suddenly almost blinded by the bright light and canceled [Mana Sight].

'Okay. That felt dumb, like staring directly at the sun. I maybe should have expected that with [Mana Slime] being maxed out...'

It was time for sleep, but I wasn't going to do so out in the open. I focused on making a tiny hole using [Acid Slime], barely larger than my core, and ensured my tunnel wasn't just straight down by including a few curves. It was surprisingly entertaining drilling through the rock like this, and if I didn't want to keep my cards hidden for now, I'd likely even volunteer to join the miners. I finished off my hiding spot by using my [Sub-Core] to plug the hole by turning it into a rock, connected back to my body with a trail of minimal-density slime.

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Waking up to a surprise notification was great, and my sleep was peaceful without any nightmares. My [Sub-Core] had once again been a diligent worker throughout the night. I should definitely consider giving it some subordinates eventually. I transferred vision to check for threats, and when I confirmed it was safe, I exited my hole, which I plugged with a real rock that I still had in my inventory.

I turned back into a goblin and then tried withdrawing my clothes directly, which sadly didn't work out, so I fumbled my way through putting them back on. Deciding to wait for my escort, I started to experiment now that I finally had hands.

I withdrew slime into my palm, forming a large ball, which I then shifted into shapes of various armaments. A sword, a spear, a mace, a greatsword, a shield, a dagger, and obviously a rapier. I tried making a bow, but it was pretty bad and unlikely to work, so I withdrew the bow that belonged to Tarz and consumed it. With [Consuming Osmosis] giving me information, I tried again. This attempt was better, and if I bought the trait [Elastic Slime], I could probably create one of the best bowstrings ever.

I thrust a slime spear at the ground as hard as possible and noted the impact. I then absorbed both spears I had claimed, completed the profile, and created another spear to repeat the process.

The impact point was much more noticeable, and examining the spear closely, it had a sense of actually being the weapon. My theory was that the first spear only used [Shape Slime], while the second spear was also being enhanced by [Shapeshifting Mimicry].

"I'm going to be eating one of everything at this rate... Gluttonous really was appropriate," I muttered, then slapped my hand to my mouth, "I'm so used to talking to myself, and now I can actually talk to others..."

Garz finally arrived while I was in the middle of swinging a sword around. He was surprised at first and then actually laughed at me.

"Tarz, you swing that around like a goblin child." He declared, then realizing his mistake, corrected himself, "Syl, I mean. Sorry."

"Well. I don't have any skills for weapons. Or many skills at all, to be honest." I responded dejectedly, "It took me forever to get [Evasion]..."

"Maybe you can train with warriors. Need good dodging, or humans kill us easy."

"That sounds like a good idea." I replied while putting away my sword, hoping to disguise it as my 'storage power' they knew about, "Also, I was wondering if I could trade more fangs and tusks for some weapons. I need one more bow. Not sure if you have two swords? Any weapons, I think even broken, would work."

Garz agreed and took me to a different crafter than the one I met yesterday. I ended up trading a large number of wolf fangs for a bow, which evidently was very hard for the goblins to make. I traded all my remaining boar tusks and a few wolf claws for two rusted swords, two broken shields, and a greatsword with a cracked blade near the cross-guard. Without a doubt, I kept my rage boar tusk and wouldn't even show it to the goblins unless they had something amazing for trade.

After sneakily consuming my acquisitions, we headed towards the training grounds, but not before another surprise notification, and I suddenly could see much further in the cave.

"Garz, what level is your [Dark Vision]?"

"Five. Maxed. Like most goblin."

I nodded and thanked him. It made sense if they lived in a cave, the trait would be constantly in use. Speaking of traits, I decided to use [Enhanced Strength], [Enhanced Dexterity], and [Enhanced Agility] for my mimicry. I wanted to keep the maximum mimicked traits active to put pressure on my core, which was much harder to do since improving [Core Refinement] and purchasing [Enhanced Intellect].

I was eager to see and join the goblins in their training.