My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 15: Progress For The Sake Of Progress

'Damn! I just survived one fight and now I'm going to have to jump straight into another!' he thought while panicking. 'I'll have to be careful on how I use my skills, if my AP or MP empties out I'll be toast in no time.'

The rain slowly became heavier as he rushed as fast as he could towards the cavern. Without resting it took him nearly a full day for him to enter the Smalltooth Tribes Territory. 'I don't know if it's my stats or because of my monster body but whichever it is thank you!' he thought as he considered the reason he could travel such distances without getting tired.

As soon as he crossed the boundary line a couple of primitive arrows suddenly flew towards him. These kind of attacks were of no threat to him anymore as he struck them down. Holding his hands high he spoke to trees surrounding him.

"Take me to Shagrat! I am a friend."

Silence followed his declaration until a mad chattering began. Ten goblins appeared from the area around him, eyeing him warily. Some of these were wearing crude armour and carried nasty looking weapons. This confused Kace because as far as he could remember this type of armour did not exist among the Smalltooth Tribe. 'Shit! They're with Kharja!'

Before he could prepare himself for battle a familiar voice rang in his ear.

"Welcome back! Hahaha, I trust your hunt was fruitful?"

Kace spun in shock at having been snuck up on. Only to come face to face, after looking down a bit, with a grinning Durz.

"Durz! You sly bastard, don't sneak up on me like that." He exclaimed excitedly in reply as he gripped the shorter goblins arm in greeting.

"Yeah, yeah kid. Nice to see you alive. We thought you might be dead since you were taking so long." Noticing how I was looking at the other goblins he continued. "These guys are from the Dweller Tribe. The King sent out a call to arms to all four of the other tribes in the domain. So guess what?"

"What happened?" Kace replied, curious about it though he thought he knew the answer.

"They all came. The Dwellers, Redskulls, Trappers and Scavvies! All four answered the call! For the first time in so long, the goblins stand united! Those Orcs have no idea what they're meddling with now." Durz replied with a cackle which set the others off.

Getting caught up in the atmosphere Kace let out a soft laugh joining in with their optimism.

"Come, come. The King will be wanting to see you kid." Durz said as he marched off. The other goblins falling into line behind him.

"So Durz, what else has been happening since I've been away?" Kace asked casually.

"Well, we've been pretty busy. The Redskulls have been working with our lot to set up defenses. Walls, towers, pitfalls that kind of thing. Since all they know how to do is fight anyway. These fellas from the Dwellers brought a lot of ores with them. So they set up a forge and have been busy making weapons and armour for us. The Trappers... Well they've been doing what they do best. I'm sure I don't need to explain that one. As for the Scavvies... Well they're a strange lot."

The other goblins voiced their agreement with this part before Durz continued.

"That lot has a strange fascination with humans, they go around collecting garbage that they drop. Strange instruments and gadgets. Then after all that hassle they just take it apart after awhile! I don't get what they're thinking at all. They carry around all these weird things that have been mashed together from all the different parts as well. Something must be wrong with their heads."

Yet again the other goblins agreed with this, they all had pitiful looks on their faces for the sake of the Scavvie Tribe. If Kace had to have an opinion on the matter well he was rather interested in this tribe, more so than the others. For he recognised them for what they really were. Inventors!

'I guess I'll have to convince Shagrat that they would be worth paying attention to. Well, only if they actually make anything useful I guess.' he thought considering the next steps he should take.

As he was lost in his thoughts large wooden walls and towers made of thick tree trunks lashed together and stuck into the ground came into view. Goblins wearing armour and holding bows stood along the top and occupied the towers. Unlit torches seemed to stationed at regular intervals throughout the length of the walls. Here and there some goblins with metal instruments dangling from their leather jackets were dotted around. Seemingly trying to assemble a number of contraptions. Kace noticed Durz shaking his head at this.

"They're just taking up plenty of good fighting space on them walls. The King should never have agreed to allow this tribe to do what they themselves thought would be best."

Kace just stared curiously at all the different parts of the contraptions the goblins were working on. He himself had no idea exactly what they were trying to build. Though if he had to guess then he would assume that they were trying to build siege weapons. Which of course would be extremely dangerous to their enemies and useful for themselves.

As they got closer a few of the armoured goblins on the wall became busy. A few seconds later a portion of the walls began to open slowly. 'Hmm, a gate that looks no different to the surrounding walls eh? That's actually quite clever. The enemy won't be able to tell where the weakest spot is.' he thought, marvelling at the insight of this.

As they passed through the newly opened gates he saw what appeared to be a type of mechanical winch system to either sides. Each one requiring three goblins to operate.

'I guess this was probably the Scavvies doing. Though the gates themselves were probably done by the Redskulls.'

There were makeshift little wooden huts and walkways all over the place in the clearing between the walls and the entrance to the caverns. Goblins of all sorts wandered around as if it were natural. Kace was extremely surprised by the progress that had been made in such a short amount of time. 'They would need hundreds of goblins to pull this off.' he realised as he noticed that it was beginning to take the shape of a sort of fortified town rather than a primitive monster nest.

Another fortified gate had been placed over the entrance to the caverns. This one was not as durable though, Kace noticed as they passed beyond it. 'So they've also dug some new passages.' he thought contemplating the reason behind it. 'I guess they had to make more living space with the sudden increase in numbers.' He felt that this was the most likely explanation.

As they passed one of the new tunnels, which was situated quite close to the one that lead to the eating area, the slight banging of metal on metal could be heard coming from it. 'That must be the new forge then. I'll have to stop by there later. My gear is clearly lacking in protection' he had reached this conclusion from his fight with the Hunters. 'Though I wonder about the quality they could manage, something is surely better than nothing.'

As they continued on their path the other goblins split from their little group as they began to pass by others. It was at this moment that an unusually small goblin lumbered out of one of the concealed tunnels banging into Durz. The metal trinkets hanging from him made a racket due to banging against each other.

"For fuck sake Gyn, I've told you before to watch where the hell you're going!" Durz let out with fury.

"Ah, my bad, my bad. Got a little caught up in my thoughts. Hey Durz! What do you think of this! We could make giant metal buckets! Yeah, then fill them with oil for pouring over the Orcs when they attack! We can turn them into a grand bonfire! Ahahahah!" Gyn said excitedly, enthusiastically waving his arms around the place.

"You idiot!" Durz replied smacking him over the head. "And what would we do if the walls caught fire? We'd be doing them a favour!"

"Ah, never thought of that? Hmm."

"Actually, that could be quite a good idea." Kace interjected. "It would be quite useful if you filled pits with it a distance away from the walls instead. Cover them up with something that will break when a large amount of orcs are on it."

"That's it! That's brilliant!" Gyn exclaimed.

"Oh yeah." replied Durz sarcastically. "And how do you suppose we can reach them with torches at that kind of distance kid? It's just not possible!"

"Not with torches. Just wrap arrows with something that would catch fire. Light them with the torches then shoot the oil in the pits. It would only take a single arrow to kill or harm scores of them." Kace countered nonchalantly. The pair of goblins stared at him in disbelief. It was such a simple thing but no goblin had ever tried it before.

"I'll have to mention this to the King later." Durz said while rubbing his chin. "Speaking of which, we've kept him waiting long enough. Come on kid, you too Gyn. You could probably explain it better to him than I can."