Chương 366: (359) 5.55. Little Green Men

Vin stared down from the wall at the vast fragment before him, at a total loss for words as he dismissed his notification that he'd discovered a new fragment in the fifth ring. This was the very first fragment in all of Edregon that appeared to be industrialized, in the sense that all the golems were moving around and operating as if they were well-oiled machines.

It was only after he'd watched them for a minute that he realized there were in fact people mixed in among the golems here and there, they were simply small enough that he'd missed them at first glance. It was hard to judge the exact scale from so high up, but the people were definitely on the shorter size. Not quite petian levels of small, but definitely close.

Roughly two feet tall with skin tones that seemed to run the spectrum between green and gray, Vin blinked as his Common Ally passive informed him of who lived within this fragment and was responsible for the army of golems running around. Goblins. He wanted to stand there and continue watching the golems for a bit longer, but the notification that he'd discovered a new fragment helped redirect his thoughts, and he shook his head before hopping back down to his friends with a cast of Slow Fall.

Landing beside them, he laughed.

"You guys aren't going to believe what's over there…" He quickly explained what he'd seen, and to his surprise, none of them had ever heard of goblins before. Logically, he knew it made sense that their worlds wouldn't always contain specific races of people. Hell, he'd certainly never heard of neilans or meriders back on Earth. But goblins were such a staple of Earthen culture that it still surprised him.

"So they're big guys who make golems?" Scule summarized, looking largely unimpressed.

"That's it?"

"I wouldn't call them big, but yeah, they seem to specialize in building from what I could tell. It would certainly explain how they got the wall set up so quickly," Vin said, laying a hand on the smooth metal wall separating the beastkin fragment from the goblins.

"We've already long since confirmed that artifacts carry over to Edregon just fine, which means the goblins had a massive leg up on everyone else," Shia said, tapping her chin in thought.

"Not to mention the floating library proves that the Gods didn't care about golems specifically. So even when the goblins lost their levels, they still had hundreds of golems to run around carrying out their tasks for them."

"Lucky bastards," Alka said, gently knocking a hand against the wall as if trying to work out just how much force would be needed to break through. Twisting her head around an unnatural one hundred and eighty degrees toward Grunch and Emrelda, she gestured toward the odd metal.

"And the rankers never managed to break through the wall?"

"Correct. Not for lack of trying, however," Grunch said.

"Blunt weapons did little on their own, and empowered skill strikes barely left a dent. A few attempted to cut their way through the wall and managed to leave scratches and marks, but the wall seems to gradually heal itself somehow."

"This might be your people's ticket out of here," Vin said, growing excited.

"Unlike the horrible dangers of the other fragments, the goblins might be willing to work with us. If we can just convince them to take down a portion of their wall temporarily and allow your people to pass through, we can take a leisurely stroll over to the next fragment, and the rankers won't be able to follow!"

"It isn't quite that easy," Emrelda said, giving him an apologetic smile.

"We had the same idea. A few of my people have scaled the wall and attempted to strike a deal with these goblins as you suggested, but they seem extremely wary of outsiders. Admittedly, we may have just come across as a tad too desperate, but most of our attempts ended with my people fleeing as hundreds of golems attempted to swarm them and take their lives."

"I suppose that's not all that surprising," Lumel pointed out.

"Any people who would immediately construct a massive, impenetrable wall are almost certainly not ones who want to talk to their neighbors."

"You said most of your attempts ended that way," Shia said, looking curious.

"Does that mean some came close to working?"

"I wouldn't say close, but there was at least a little progress. From what we've gathered, while they are wary of outsiders, the goblins are incredibly curious people. One of our attempts involved sending someone over who didn't have a means of speaking other languages, so we provided them with a runic object to assist with translation. When the goblins realized this, they grew excited and entertained them for a bit, at least until they managed to convince them to hand over the runic object for study.

Once it was in their hands, they chased them off again."

"So they're thieves?" Scule asked, chuckling at the story.

"Maybe these guys aren't so bad after all."

"Not thieves so much as they don't understand the concept of ownership," Vin explained, using Common Ally to gain some information on goblins from the System.

"What a strange culture… Personal property isn't something these people comprehend, let alone care about. They all share everything. If they can get their hands on it, they're allowed to utilize it for their own purposes. The System also says they are a rather frail people, which is probably why they build and rely on so many golems."

"So a natural dislike of outsiders, and a penchant for taking whatever they want, which means they probably don't understand trade all that well," Alka said, summing up their findings.

"How exactly are we planning to convince these people to let a few thousand orcs and beastkin travel through their fragment?"

"I'm not sure just yet, but the first step is probably meeting with them and asking them directly," Vin admitted.

"Do you guys think going on my own is better in the hopes of not scaring them off, or should we all head in?" Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"You think we're leaving you alone so soon after the last time?" Scule scoffed.

"As entertaining as the thought of you getting yourself thrown in prison a second time is, I don't need you inventing any more spells to invalidate my existence!"

"What Scule means to say is we'd rather come with you and make sure it all goes smoothly," Shia said, attempting to flick Scule off his shoulder only to fail as the petian nimbly leapt over her finger before throwing her a rather rude gesture.

"Lumel can just teleport us all past the wall, but Alka will need some help over it."

"Eh, you guys check out the goblins. I'll head over with Grunch and Emrelda and get a look at the last two fragments we have for potential options," Alka said.

"If the goblins work out, great, but if they don't, no sense wasting time."

"Sounds like a plan," Vin said, smiling at her.

"Let's meet up at this spot again once we're both done. I don't know if that will be in an hour or a day, so no sense putting a time on it."

"Works for me!" Alka said, turning to their hosts.

"Alright, on to the next fragment!"

"Good luck with the goblins," Emrelda wished them, before leading Grunch and Alka off along the border. As they left, Vin turned and rubbed his hands together.

"You guys ready?"

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty curious to see just what we're working with here," Scule admitted. Vin had no doubt the thought of a culture where ownership wasn't exactly a thing excited the Rogue to no end, and he shook his head as he took Lumel's hand." Mass Dimensional Shift." The world twisted, and suddenly, they were about twenty feet further forward than they'd been a moment ago, now on the other side of the giant wall. Glancing around, Vin spotted a goblin barely a dozen feet away, staring at them with wide eyes.

The goblin held some sort of tool that looked like little more than a glass ball on the end of a stick, and he stood frozen with his arm raised, as if he were about to tap it against the wall. Vin hadn't been able to tell from up on the wall, but the goblin wore a small set of heavy-duty working clothes, complete with a toolbelt strung around his waist and goggles hanging from his neck.

"Hello there," Vin said, doing his best to come off as unthreatening by giving the goblin a warm smile.

"Sorry for appearing so suddenly, but we need to talk to your people about something. I'm Vin, who are you?"

"Crocket," the goblin answered automatically, his eyes still wide as they bounced from one of them to the next. Swallowing hard, the goblin went to take a hesitant step back, only to remember his back was already pressed up against the massive wall.

"…What do you want?"

"We'd love the chance to talk to whoever has the power to temporarily create an opening in the wall," Shia said, doing the opposite of Vin and distinctly not smiling, lest she scare the small man with her serrated teeth.

"Do you have a leader or a group of people in charge we could speak with?"

"You want to open the wall?" Crocket asked, barking out a harsh, vicious laugh. As he laughed, Vin noted the goblin's own sharp teeth. They weren't nearly as terrifying as Shia's but they definitely looked like they could do some damage for his small size.

"That's not going to happen."

"Well we weren't asking you, now were we?" Scule stated, earning a surprised look from the goblin as it finally spotted him.

"Take us to your leader!"

"No leader," Crocket said, now snickering more openly as if having decided they probably weren't going to kill him.

"Go back to where you came or I'll sick the golems on you."

"Well, negotiations have officially broken down," Scule sighed, thrusting a finger at the offending goblin.

"Quick, take his stuff!"

"We're not robbing him!" Vin frowned, spotting movement in the corner of his eye. Already there were a few more goblins that had been doing something along the wall just like Crocket now making their way toward them, some with golems in tow.

"Look, Crocket, the lives of thousands of people are at risk here. All they want to do is use your fragment as a method of escaping from their own fragment and traveling elsewhere, they're not going to harm your people or anything."

"They definitely won't harm us if the wall stays up," Crocket pointed out.

"Why take the risk?"

"To save thousands of lives?" Lumel repeated, looking shocked.

"Isn't that worth helping?"

"Their lives, their problems," Crocket said, crossing his arms as the first of the goblins finally arrived.

"What's up, Crock?" a female goblin asked, riding on the shoulders of a golem as it stopped directly beside Crocket and stood facing them. The golem was slightly smaller compared to the average human, coming in at about five feet tall. It had four fingers on each hand, which Vin only then realized was modeled after the goblins' hands themselves. The golem was even more featureless than Alka, not having so much as an impression of a face on it as it stood there, facing their group.

"Hey, Garni. Bunch of outsiders want us to take down the wall," Crocket snorted, as if the idea were hilarious.

"I was just telling them to get lost."

"Wait, did you see his arm?!" Garni gasped, her own eyes gleaming as she stared at Vin's prosthetic arm.

"What is that? I want to see!" At her words, all of the surrounding goblins gasped, their eyes going wide as they stared at Vin's arm as well. A few of them even licked their lips as they started drooling, and Vin tried not to look nervous as he decided to take advantage of their rather blatant interest.

"I'll let you take a look at my arm if we can talk to your leaders," Vin offered, just trying to get a foot in the door somewhere.

"No leaders here," a third goblin said, coming up behind them with two more of the simple golems on either side of him, each one seemingly made from the same odd metal of the large wall. Now that he'd seen three up close, Vin was able to tell that there were small differences here and there between the golems. Rather than all of them being perfectly identical like those in the floating library, each one showed marks of their individual crafters.

Longer arms, differing heights, one even had some graffiti scratched onto its chest that Polyglot translated as 'Mirk was here.' While he was examining the golems, the third goblin continued.

"No leaders, but we can bring you to the conclave."

"The conclave?" Shia repeated, looking curious.

"What's that?"

"It's where the decisions are made," Garni answered, grinning at them with sharp teeth as her eyes burned with barely contained hunger.