[SS] Chapter 19: A Hob-Goblin can be a friend... right?

This, this, this was a real person! One that could speak and, and everything. Sure, goblin language seemed to consist of growls and screeches but they were specific growls and screeches. And right after I had been complaining about being alone!

The Hob-Goblin in front of me was female, quite clearly. They were wearing a loin cloth but that was it. Their breasts were just, full out there for the world to see. And they were dirty. I understood that goblins and I guess Hob-Goblins didn’t exactly have great access to showers and baths but it still took me by surprise. She wasn’t exactly covered in dirt but no one in their right mind would say they were clean.

They were green skinned, around I guess 4 feet tall, and their eyes weren’t quite human. A yellow-ish tinge to the whites of their eyes. Very slightly reminded me of a lion's eyes. They had their hair just going wherever but that made sense. Overall they seemed lean. They had a wooden axe in their hand and were currently staring at me.

I didn’t really know what to do. Do I, do I wave? Was this the start of a beautiful friendship?! I could, I could figure out how to produce the language and then have an actual conversation with someone! I could give them names and help out their whole village against a bunch of wolves and then we can make those wolves our friends and-

Why is she drooling?

“Food!”

She ran at me. FOOD?! I’m an Acid Slime! How am I meant to be food you insane creature?!

Ah. Right. Stats. Can you even eat a slime for stats?!

Either way, the Hob-Goblin certainly seemed to think so and I realized I was going to have to do something like right now or I’d be taking an axe to the face. I summoned a spirit hand and socked her in the jaw.

She leapt backwards, doing an impressive backwards leap, and then stared in wide eyes at my hands. I had summoned two. I don’t want to do this my new Hob-Goblin friend but I’ll give you a beating if you’re asking for it!

She stared at my hands, at me, and then… ran away.

What.

Wait, no, I turned around just in time as she suddenly seemed to appear and nearly cut me in half. I caught the shaft of her axe with one of my hands. It was more luck than anything.

Too close! This Hob-Goblin had a skill! And whatever skill it was, it seemed to increase her speed. She hadn’t run away, she had sped away and then back to try and catch me off guard. What was it like, [Boost] or [Accelerate] or something? I was starting to regret not picking up appraisal. Knowing the stats and skills of my enemies would have been really helpful.

Still, she may have sudden bursts of speed but that doesn’t help much if you can’t move. She was currently pulling on the axe with all her strength but it wasn’t helping much. She was strong but, well, I must’ve had more strength. Again, some of my skills are worth their weight in gold. But what do I do now? I could summon six hands and kill her… that thought pained me a lot. I had been in a bad place when I had killed the wolves and now that I was a bit more here and the fact that she was a humanoid figure at that… it didn’t sit well with me at all.

She was smart enough to plan a way to attack, maybe she’d be smart enough to surrender? I used my other hand to sock her in the jaw, making her finally let go of her axe. She hissed and growled at me, which the translation in Goblin Language was such a disgusting curse I nearly blanched. Alright, she was not happy with me at all. But you attacked me you asshole! I honestly expected her to surrender right then and there, or for her to run away.

What I did not expect, was for my Danger Sense to go off and then for her to let out a deep whistle.

Suddenly, I heard the sounds of more voices coming towards me. Soon, eight more goblins had shown up.

Oh. That might be an issue.

What struck me was the pure nudity. The Hob-Goblin was the only one wearing anything. And the only one with any weapons. Now stood before me eight creatures that looked… well, more like how I imagined goblins. A mix of ugly and, annoyingly, cute? Sharp teeth, shorter bodies, red-ish tint to the whites of their eyes. They looked like little devil things. There was a mix of male and female but to call it a mix was probably wrong. Out of eight goblins, there was 1 female. After I got over seeing abject nudity in front of me again, the next thing that struck me about their appearance was that they weren’t bald. I don’t know why, but I just always imagined goblins without hair. It wasn’t anything special one way or the other, it didn’t make them look less goblin in anyway, but it was still a bit weird.

Now, here came a very important question. Could I take one Hob-goblin and eight goblins at once? Maybe… I didn’t really know. I had no basis besides recognzing that the Hob-Goblin was faster than me. That made me grimace, well, grimace in my head and kinda compress my slime a little. If I was distracted for too long then the Hob-Goblin might get a hit on me. I could be whittled down.

I summoned four spirit hands. I couldn’t run away. That wasn’t some heroic thing or some inner personality trait or anything crazy or stupid like that. I was literally a slime and although my Agility definitely did something, it wasn’t getting me away from a bunch of goblins anytime soon. It was a tense stand off but it only lasted a moment. Soon, the Hob-Goblin barked out a command. It was as simple as it was effective.

“Attack!”

Eight bodies rushed at me and I swung like a mad man. Something very, very important that I was only realizing as five goblin bodies made it to me along with a Hob-Goblin. I hadn’t at all practiced actually fighting with multiple hands.

Ah. Oops.

I saw my life briefly flash before my eyes, but not literally, as I disappeared.

[Black Mage’s Cuffs] - When worn, gives the wearer Magic Skill (Dark) at Tier 4 and the ability to turn into an inky immaterial shadow once per day.

The next part is where normally, I’d jump on the goblins and melt them into paste. At the very least, I could definitely do good damage to the Hob-Goblin.

But, I couldn’t just act like it was an empty act now. I’d feel them. I’d feel as their skin bubbled and boiled and melted away, as they hopelessly screamed in horrific agony, as their muscles began to become liquid, as blood seeped out in all directions, as I caused all of that. Now with any sort of ability, but with my body directly, to these humanoid creatures.

The very idea made me sick. I couldn’t.

Instead I used the moment of being an immaterial shadow (which was weird and freaky) to go underneath all of them and quickly send four fists flying towards the Hob-Goblin's head. To my shock, they reacted almost fast enough to dodge and instead of four solid fists landing on their skull, it hit their face.

I blanched, I could feel the bones in their nose shatter and their face just kinda, squelch a little. I had succeeded in dazing them though and hesitation had cost me too much in the past. It had literally got me killed for a second time and nearly a third. Some lessons are learned the hard way. I punched out again, ignoring the sensations my hands were feeding me, and they went down like a pile of bricks. The eight goblins all saw this and for a second, I was worried I was going to see some sorta cannibalistic dog pile. Or worse, they were going to react with rage and all try to attack me at once again. Instead, they saw me knock out their leader and ran away screeching. It wasn’t even goblin language, it was just screeching in fear.

And like that, the fight was over. I sighed. I didn’t know whether to feel happy or not. A quick fight was great as long as I lived, but I’d have to get better at fighting if roaming bands of Goblins were out and about. I looked over and saw the Hob-Goblin. They weren’t unconscious but they were well and truly dazed. They probably had a concussion.

I had a decision to make and for once, I felt fully cognitive and aware of the stakes.

If I left this Hob-Goblin alive, I gained nothing. They tried to attack me, they would probably try to attack me again, and there was no benefit. If I killed them, I’d get a few stat points. But I’d sooner murder myself repeatedly before I became that type of disgusting being that cared about stats enough to kill for them.

So, what do I do?

Well, honestly, I felt it was simple. If I couldn’t get any benefit from them being alive, I’d make a benefit. I reached out towards them with my four hands and soon after, I was on my way… with a kidnapped Hob-Goblin floating behind me.

I had no idea how I was going to use them but, hey, they could talk and I knew the language. If we could open up a dialogue, who knows. It wasn’t a long journey back home and annoyingly, in that time, the Hob-Goblin had gotten aware enough to struggle. That made the last few minutes a pain the ass. Be a good prisoner of war already!

We both stopped when we saw the entrance to my dungeon though.

Holy Shit.

Standing in front of me, bleeding profusely, was my lifeless Hob-Goblin. And behind them was a massive corpse pile of wolves. How they won was a mystery but my eyes were glued to the corpse pile. That was way too many wolves. The worst part was the torn apart Goblins though. Far more than eight of them. I hadn’t given any commands to my Hob-Goblin about what to do if it ran into goblins but it didn’t seem it had attacked them either. They looked as if they were torn apart by claws.

A dawning realization came to me.

I think… I had accidentally started a territory war.