C12: Devoured

Bane glanced at the piece of rag with disdain.

"I hope its not second hand."

Bane would rather move around naked than sharing clothes with someone else. He had his own reservations when it came to hygiene.

But then again, Bane wore it anyway at least for now. After all, Bane had no idea how to deal with goblins.

'I need their help, that is for sure.'

Even now, Bane had experienced it first hand. Bane couldn't differentiate between the tents set up in the tribe.

Bane was puzzled.

The problem was that most structure were built of similar materials and contained their natural colors with no paints being used unlike human settlements.

Because of that the tents seemed too similar to each other. Not to mention that there were no definite pathways.

'It was only a given that a native like the goblin guard would easily be able to differentiate.'

Bane being new certainly had difficulty.

Not to mention, that ever since Bane had been reborn as a goblin he felt like he had lost his sense of direction.

Not only was his line of sight almost halved but also his field of vision had decreased a lot compared to the time he was a human. Bane was having troubles adjusting to his new height.

'But then again it is their territory in the first place. Seems like blending in would be harder than I thought.'

This time blending in wasn't as simple as picking up just a single language skill from the skill store.

'That did work in the human settlements but here it won't be enough.'

Bane literally had to adapt himself to a totally new race and their way of living.

"We need to decide on your work too. Griguek. Since you are new, there would be a bit of leeway but no slacking here, you here?"

"Yes sir. Griguek."

"Call me brother please. Hmm, is there anything you are good at? We don't really have a chief to help you out you see."

Something that Bane was good at?

"Hunter... I am good at hunting."

Bane was a hunter by profession in his previous life. A dungeon diver to be exact.

And considering the situation he was in, it was pretty much the shortcut to his independence.

"Hunter huh? Grigeuk. Sounds pretty risky for a newbie. Griguek. If you are into weapons and stuff, should guard duty me. Wouldn't that be much more to your taste? If you do good you might switch out on my post. Grigueuk. It's close to the girls if you know what I mean. Keuk keuk."

The goblins face bloomed to a smug. It seemed that he was quite enjoying his work as a guard.

But Bane...

"No sir, I want... no I must go for hunting duty."

Was it fun guarding on a room while others fucked? Bane had no idea what the guard was talking about and why he had such a smug face.

'Hunting' would always be his first choice. It was rooted in his veins.

If Bane wanted to grow strong it was something he must dash towards with no fear in his heart.

And Bane indeed had no fears, indeed.

He had already lost everything. There was nothing that he held dear, not even his life.

But he must preserve his life for the sake of his purpose.

And at the same time, he had to find a way to make changes to his current body.

'My body won't be changing unless I go to higher levels.'

Although he had just evolved to a goblin, but a goblin's body didn't have any growth potential. The only way out of that was to make changes as the system itself had proposed.

It had failed once before, because of his low level but in higher levels it might be possible.

"Quite resolute, I see. No wonder you are barren down there. Keuk Keuk. Gam might like someone like you. I will talk to him in regards to your position."

Bane chose to ignore the comment about him being 'barren' as he had already dubbed the goblin in front of him as unreasonable.

But if he was helping him out Bane couldn't be displeased either.

"Yes, sir."

The goblin nodded.

"Now, where do I find that Gam. I don't want to deal with him but this newbie seems pretty enthusiastic," the goblin muttered as he left the tent leaving Bane behind.

At that moment he saw in the distance his self proclaimed brother was rushing towards him.

"Brother Brother Griguek!"

"Oy, didn't I tell you to be on guard?"

"That's not the problem brother! There is nothing to guard. Griguek, all the women inside are already dead! No women, No women!"

"What!? Are you sane?"

The goblin screamed in shock. Just what could have happened under his watch? He just went out for but a minute to show around a newbie.

"I checked twice brother."

The goblin's face turned tense. It began gritting its rotten teeth.

"Griguek, it must have been him!" his eyes flared up red.

The first one to come under his suspicion would of course be Bane. The time of death and his appearance coincided with each other perfectly.

But why would Bane be doing something like that? Wasn't he one of their own?

'Not to mention that guy didn't touch a single woman and killed them instead?'

For a goblin's point of view it was illogical.

But his goblin brother seemed to be denying it as it shook his head.

"No brother, it's not him. Only one of the women in the nest had a fatal injury that killed her. The others didn't die because of any attacks."

"What do you mean? Aren't they already dead though?"

"Yes, it's just that..."

"What?"

"It's the children that ate up the others!"

"Children?"

The goblin was confused.

Indeed there were a lot of goblin infants in the nest and even more so popping out each day. But they shouldn't be eating up their mothers.

It was only when a special medicine made by the goblin dwarves was mixed with the flesh that the children begin to devour them by themselves. Otherwise those dumb kids would pretty much die out of hunger.

But the goblin guard could hardly figure out the reason behind such an outcome no matter what he did.

He was a monster after all and couldn't think much about how such a thing happen.

He could only do one thing and that was to blame everything on Bane who seemed to be the cue for everything.

He rushed to the tent and pulled Bane out.

*Thrash*

Bane was thwarted outside as he fell onto his butt.

"Griguek, open your damn mouth. What did you do to the women?"

The goblin couldn't help but be suspicious.

All the women were bitten to death except for one.

Wasn't that too much of coincidence?

But if Bane really wanted to kill them then why would he go to the lengths of using medicine, when he could just kill them himself?

And it was even stranger as to why he would bare just one woman with his fangs.

Such kind of thinking and reasoning was beyond the goblin.

'Such kind of roundabout method... there was no reason for it wasn't there? What for? Women were better to be used as for copulation wasn't they? If he is barren then it is still understandable if he doesn't touch them. But why would he kill them instead?'

The goblin couldn't put head and tails together. The women were going to be used as fodder anyway after their wombs were thoroughly used for breeding. What was the point of killing them early on?

It was hopeless to think.

Thus, he could thus do only one thing.

That is to extort information from Bane by force.

"Are you mute or what? Can't answer?"

Bane was staring at the earth for some reason.

"I didn't kill them," he whispered. "Was that answer to your satisfaction?"

Bane lied.

He did indeed kill them.

Or rather he was unable to let them live.

He had killed his Silvia because he couldn't watch his comrade suffer in pain.

But the others?

It was just his guilty pleasure. Or rather something he needed to do for a peace of mind.

But Bane did clear up his mess, making it seem as if the goblin infants were the ones who had devoured them alive. The medicine that was stacked in the nest were easy to reach once he gained a bit of height after evolution.

But that kind of 'clearing up' didn't seem to be particularly working on the goblin in front of him. For it was too devoid of reason.

The goblin kicked him in his gut.

"Ack!"

The only thing that Bane could do was bear onto his pain as he didn't want to buy even more trouble than he already has.

"Speak the truth you fool!"

"Ack!"

Bane was being thrashed again. It wasn't too vast but Bane could clearly feel the difference between their strengths. A veteran goblin wasn't to be underestimated in his current state. That was a lesson he got to learn.

'Had I not killed those women, his kick would have knocked me out.'

In the end, it was the women who got him into trouble and it was also the women who were saving his ass here.

A little bit of pain for the sake of taking his revenge on humans. At least Bane could take in that much after all of this.

Goblins weren't his target. Humans were. He had already killed enough goblins in his previous life to have grown sick of killing them.

Bane needed the goblin village now. He couldn't oppose them now.

"I didn't kill them."

As such he could only bear onto the pain while chanting the same verse.