Chapter 13.
Richard felt a twinge of something uncomfortable in his chest seeing her like this, not quite sympathy but something similar to it, so he turned away and shifted his focus to the goblins instead, he'd rather not see this shameful side of her.
'Huh?' At this point, he noticed that the goblins' guarded gazes had all changed to something else entirely, something that looked a lot like fascination.
Their small eyes were wide and bright as they looked at him, their earlier fear replaced by an almost childlike wonder, as if watching a human stand up for them against other humans had left a deep imprint on their minds, something they had never seen or experienced before.
Well, so long as it was in his favour, Richard was happy, because having a group of creatures who looked at him with admiration was far better than having a group of creatures who looked at him with suspicion or hostility.
It simply meant he could use them when it came down to it.
'System, can you help me move the cage inside the fence?' Richard said silently, keeping his expression neutral as he studied the goblins' reactions.
While Eva seemed down right now, broken even, he didn't dare trust her completely, because while the bars of her cage were nearly glued together with no gaps large enough for her to squeeze through, it wouldn't surprise him if she tried to reach her daggers through the gaps and cut him the moment he let his guard down.
[-1 SP]
[Total system points: 7]
Just like that, the cage along with Eva vanished from outside the fence and reappeared inside the compound, settling onto the grass near the log cabin with a soft thud that made Eva gasp in surprise.
The goblins flinched at the sight, their small bodies jumping backward as the metal box and its contents teleported across the barrier, but after the initial shock passed, even greater looks of fascination emerged on their faces, their eyes practically sparkling with wonder.
Richard couldn't help finding their little faces cute right now, despite their green skin, pointed ears and the sharp little teeth.
'Alright, on to the next step,' he thought to himself, turning his attention to the forest around him. 'Now that I've saved them, I should go further and give them a place to stay. The more indebted they are to me, the more they'll be willing to work for me, right?'
To Richard, it was simple, he believed that if one invested in others, they'd feel grateful, and gratitude translated to loyalty, which translated to labor, which translated to more resources for everyone involved.
The goblins watched him as he approached a random tree on the edge of the clearing, their heads tilting in unison like a flock of curious birds, and the next moment, said tree vanished into thin air with a flash of blue light, leaving behind nothing but empty space and a patch of disturbed dirt.
" Ke?!" Several of them gasped.
Before he knew it, The goblins suddenly began chanting something that Richard didn't understand, their voices rising in excited unison, but he ignored it for the time being because he was too focused on his task.
Richard did the same thing over and over again, moving from tree to tree with his hand outstretched, because he was planning on creating a home for the goblins somewhere near his own cabin, which meant he needed more system points to fund the construction, and the battle just now had used up some of his remaining points, so he planned on replenishing his stock before he built anything substantial.
More and more trees vanished into thin air as Richard worked his way around the clearing, expanding the open space bit by bit, and by the time he finally stopped to catch his breath, the entire area had become a true clearing with a good amount of space for building, the trees pushed back to a respectable distance that gave him room to breathe.
[Total system points: 30]
'This is the largest number I've seen since arriving in this world,' Richard was genuinely surprised by the profit he'd earned from all that tree conversion, his eyes widening slightly at the blue panel hovering in his vision.
The thought of deforesting this entire forest suddenly crossed his mind, imagining the mountains of SP he could generate if he just kept going and going until there was nothing left but open land, but he quickly buried such an idea because he wasn't here to destroy the environment.
'System, I'd like to create a passive skill that will allow me to talk to other races,' Richard requested, because as useful as the goblins' admiration was, it would be even more useful if he could actually understand what they were saying.
[Analysing]
[Cost: 10 SP]
'The heck?!' Richard's jaw nearly dropped as he read the price. 'Why's it so expensive?!'
[Notice: There are a nearly infinite number of racial languages across this world and beyond, some of which have never been documented or studied. In order to meet the host's request for comprehensive communication, system has tweaked the skill description to Soul Conversation, which bypasses individual languages entirely by communicating directly through the soul, since every living race possesses a soul regardless of their linguistic development]
Richard considered this for a moment, because while Soul Conversation sounded incredibly useful in the long run, ten SP was a steep price for something he didn't strictly need right this second.
'What if you simply let me learn the goblin tongue instead?' He asked, because those were the only creatures he needed to talk to at the moment, and he could always buy the more expensive skill later if the situation called for it.
[Analysing]
[Cost: 1 SP]
'That's much better,' Richard let out a sigh of relief and selected the new skill, watching as his total points dropped from thirty to twenty-nine.
Right after confirming the purchase, he felt a new stream of information flowing into his mind, the transfer didn't feel painful or overwhelming, but strange and unfamiliar, like a door opening somewhere deep in his brain that had always been closed before.