[Slimy Slime] Chapter 55: The Slime King's Hatred.

This week. Sucks. It sucks so much. It’s boring! It’s been a few days now and, and, and, nothing. I was doing nothing! I mean, sure, I trained all the time harder than ever, used the mana we were getting to reinforce the stone, created weapons for all the goblins, even a few bows, sparred with Krrrgg, “helped” Sandra, and even started eating different acids to help with a secret evolution, but it wasn’t enough! I wasn’t, I wasn’t really doing anything! It’d be different if we were all fine but that’s not how things are!

For once in my slimy slime life… I was feeling the saying “Hurry up and wait.” It was driving me insane! Just attack already! Wait, no no no no, don’t attack! Ever please! If my super cool divine pals could just, drop me a carepackage with a few warm socks, a nice pair of pants, and oh you know 100 or 200 stats, that would be great!

GAH!

“K-King Slime. You’re melting the floor.” Said… someone. But not just any someone.

This wasn’t Michael or Sandra or Krrrgg or even little baby tilia.

This was Orivk. One of the fifteen [Hob-goblins] and honestly… surprisingly good with a bow. I knew dexterity helped with ‘finesse’ but seeing is believing. It was enough to make me wish I could use weapons but we still had a ways to go before that particular curse was over.

I was currently helping them all train! After all, they were my most elite of elite after all! I may not want them to fight… or any of my goblin citizens to fight, but that doesn’t mean I went crazy overnight. This is a slime eat slime world… uh… actually I hope not. Jesus, that sounds horrible. Slimes are probably all best bodies actually! But anyway! The world was dangerous yo. So, that meant helping train up my goblins! If fighting monsters have taught me anything was that stats? Secondary. Great, important, but secondary. Skills are what matter! Skills and experience of course.

How often do you get to fight someone as strong as Tier 2?! Well… I guess most people in develops nations would be able to do it almost any time they wanted… but! How often do my [Hob-Goblins] get to?! Probably… all the time since Krrrgg trains them.

Well… variety is the spice of life!

Honestly, fighting them was pretty scary! They weren’t really that far from how strong Krrrgg was… and all fifteen at once? They could probably take us both on, for now. Stats were super important and it was like I was missing a tooth. Gah! My good sets of numbers, my equalness, ruined and gone and forever never returning to me! I would kill to kill something right now-

Okay. Wow. No. That thought was a bit… Jesus. I must be a lot more anxious than I thought. It’s okay slimy slime, be a proper King for your people. Just, there are just sometimes like this right?! In fact, isn’t this better? The longer it takes, the more my goblins can train up and gain those little natural stat points. Eventually, more might even evolve, even without food! And, and, I can keep training! Yeah, actually, this is great! Just, just a few m-months of this and-

Suddenly the bell began ranging and my whole slimy body turned into a puddle in relief.

Finally, we were being attacked!

Wait, no! We were being attacked!

Suddenly a general’s hat morphed onto my head and I was flying as fast as I could on my own hands. I sped to the tower, surprised to see I wasn’t the first one there. But I should have expected it. Krrrgg was faster. Behind me, the [Hob-Goblins] rushed towards the gate. I’d made four towers, which were ‘big enough’ for the circle. The circle was large but not that large and never intended to be the ‘final wall’. There would be at least 3 or 4 circles when everything was said and done.

I floated up, arriving next to Krrrgg and looked down and-

….what.

There were goblins attacking my wall. This was true. They were clearly not doing so lightly. They did it with their full strength. Their fists beat on a stone wall, even as more came out from the distant tree line.

But… why were there so few?! I’d seen fifty coming at me in something that almost approached orderly lines… kinda… if you squinted really, really hard. Okay, fine, no, it was more of a mob. But this was just… it seemed like a bunch of random people coming in one’s and two’s to attack me. There were probably less than twenty goblins and I mean, they were goblins beating on stone. The effects were… none.

This is what I had been so scared of? This was the ‘100,000’ goblins? I felt like laughing and turned to Krrrgg to see if she had just been playing the prank of the century, only to see the absolutely dead face she had. Her face was pale green and was like chiseled dread.

“Krrrgg? Are you… okay?”

“It has begun.” She said in perfect common.

How?! HOW?! I know you only started learning common less than two weeks ago! You can’t possibly learn any language that fast… I think! Not completely fluently. Was [Universal Speech] a useless skill buy? You know that’s part of my soul forever right?! How on earth are you and every single goblin learning common so fast-

It hit me like a brick. Common was common, yes. Yes, it was the most common language. But that wasn’t the only reason it had that name. It was thee common denominator. The original language. Like latin for a bunch of languages.

Goblin…. Goblin wasn’t goblin at all! It was broken Common. They were all just relearning how to speak properly!

I shook that great revelation away, focusing back on Krrrgg. What had she said again? Right, it has begun, like someone badass at the ending of anime episode.

“So? I mean…. There’s not exactly many of them…”

At that, Krrrgg growled with a rare fury.

“Wrong. So… wrong. Weak. There should be [Goblin Commanders] leading troops, consisting of [Hob-Goblins], [Goblin Archers], [Goblin mages], and more. [Goblin Sneaks] should be around and even a [Goblin Shaman] should be possible in a normal forest… But they’re just a… mess. A slow mess.”

“I don’t think I understand. Them being weaker is great, right?”

“Yes but… it’s just so wrong. This is how the [Goblin Chief] does it. He simply sends [Goblins] in a general direction.”

I looked at the goblins slowly increasing from a dozen or so, to two dozen or so.

“So, what, this is the first wave?”

Krrrgg shook her head.

“There are no waves. Merely [Goblins]. More will keep coming.”

“How many more?”

Krrrgg shrugged. Right, how on earth was she supposed to know? The goblin chief could’ve sent a thousand out and they were just, slowly walking here as a disorderly mess. Well… alright I guess? Actually, no, this was great.

“Alright, so, you can just go recruit them and-”

Krrrgg began to slowly shake her head.

“They see me. I can’t overcome a [Goblin Chief]’s skill.”

“What? No, we can’t just kill them. Surely you can just… do something to break it? It’s not like it’s actual mind control that’s-”

“It is.”

I blinked. What?

“What?”

“[Goblin Chief] has [Command Goblins]. They will follow. My [Leader Markings] are just markings. They say I am fast and strong and a leader. Look.”

Krrrgg pointed and I saw. One of the goblins had a broken leg, no idea how that happened. Could’ve been anything but was probably a wolf. Yet he didn’t stop. He continually pounded on the wall, even while his leg must be sending tremendous amounts of pain. My slimy eyes shot wide open. I… I had no idea this is what Krrrgg was talking about!

“Will you be okay?!”

After all, if the goblin chief could command all goblins…

“Doesn’t work on tier 1 and up.”

No wonder the [Goblin Chief] was so adamant about not letting goblins evolve… and why he wanted to become a [Goblin King]. He probably hoped his skill would evolve. And it just might. So my own goblins…

“What about our own goblins?”

“Too far. If he comes closer…” Krrrgg trailed off, face looking strained.

The full horror of what I’d suggested and what was reality was finally hitting me. Mind control. Actual, real, mind control. Mind control that could affect my citizens. Mind control that… had turned his entire people into slaves or waiting slaves.

A fire began to burn in me. No, not just in me. Even though I wasn’t wearing my Crown, it felt like it was on fire. I felt something I hadn’t felt since the I’d been given the option for Domination Authority. Something so disgusting, so vile, so against my very way of life and being and soul that I had to destroy it. All of my hands clenched into fists at once as I felt my slime began to practically vibrate in raw unfiltered hatred.

It went beyond just mortal. Beyond just morals. I didn’t know what kind of God I’d become but I knew one thing for certain. I could abide by no slavery and no mind control. To rob others of their thoughts and free will, to make them become nothing but zombies in all but health… No.

No.

“I’ll kill him.” I said simply, yet Krrrgg flinched like I’d slapped her.

I needed to calm down. The white hot rage I felt met the cold calculations of ice and transformed into unyielding stone. I would crush him and tear him apart. No tier disadvantage, no skills, no amount of power or barrier would stop me. His death was certain, necessary. I could not continue in this multiverse with him in existence. I would never know peace until he was dead.

“What are your orders?”

My orders? With great difficultly, I tried my best to focus back on the task at hand.

“About what?”

“The goblins.”

I could feel the stone growing heavier, more dense, as my heart sunk and my own despair grew multiple. Goblins were like psychotic, chaotic creatures with no filter or barriers. They’d rape, eat, and kill at a moment’s notice. They had no conscience, no sense of right and wrong outside of ‘like or dislike’, and no thought for others besides goblins, most of the time. They could be taught and learn but they still remained a bit… psychopathic or sociopathic. Even now, I could see how Krrrgg looked at the mindless goblins. Yes, fear, despair, sadness, and worry. But I could also see she was drooling. She wanted to eat them and grow stronger.

“Is there no way to save them?”

“Killing the chief maybe?”

A chief who is a known coward. A chief outside my 30 mile barrier. A chief who was a Tier 3.

I gave the order.

“Kill them.”

Krrrgg moved swiftly and I didn’t move an ounce of slime. This… was the first time I’d ordered anyone to kill for me. The first time I’d killed what I considered innocent people who just had the bad luck of wrong place and wrong time. It probably wouldn’t be the last.

As Krrrgg marched out the gate with only a few [Hob-Goblins] for clean up and retrieval, I watched. I wouldn’t turn away from this side of being King.

So began War.