Chapter 42

‘Hehe! Finally, I’m back!’

Rey exclaimed with a wide grin on his face, stepping confidently down the spacious passageway of the seventh floor.

He had been looking forward to this moment for a while now, and there were a lot of things he couldn’t wait to start doing.

‘I made sure to properly understand every single detail about Hobs that I read.’

Despite the incomplete research on them, Rey had understood practically all there was to know at this point.

Now, the time had come to put that knowledge into action.

As per the plan, he would ensure their civilization flourished by teaching them a bunch of useful things and ensuring that they evolved a lot in the process too.

‘I need to also conduct experiments to observe the effects of different Monster Cores on them.’

Rey was genuinely curious about what would happen, and he was itching to find out.

“SKRRIAAAK.”

“GURRIAKKA.”

“HUKAKAYA.”

The sounds of Hobgoblins greeted his ears as he entered the clearing.

The familiar putrid odor lingered in the air, though not as overpowering as before, it was still disgusting.

"Well... I'm back," Rey muttered under his breath, observing the Hobs as they acknowledged his presence.

The instant they saw him, all of them—women and children—rushed towards him.

They all kneeled and bowed their heads in subservience, speaking words in Goblin language that conveyed a clear message of submission.

‘Guess we’re back to this…’

Rey didn’t particularly dislike it, but he also wasn’t a fan of being worshiped.

Well, as long as they did what he wanted, he didn’t mind either way.

"Well, let’s get started, shall we?”

*******

It took all day for Rey to properly teach the Hobgoblins about hygiene.

‘I honestly thought it would be like last time…’ Rey thought to himself as he watched the Hobgoblins.

Unfortunately for him, teaching them about the important aspects of development wasn't nearly as easy as instructing them to harvest Monster Cores.

While intelligent for monsters, the green-skinned creatures had their limits.

Rey acknowledged this fact, recognizing the need to adjust his approach accordingly.

‘Well, at least we made some progress today.’ He comforted himself with that thought.

Not only were they able to properly set up a waste disposal system, but Rey also taught them all about fire and its diverse uses.

The Hobgoblins now understood how to use fire for cooking, warmth, and to burn their wastes.

When Rey asked them what their source of water was, the Goblins showed him a pool of murky water that probably contained as much infection as the feces problem he had gotten rid of.

Water dripped from crevices in the ceiling at particular intervals, and when it did, they let it gather in a ditch they dug themselves.

Unfortunately, this setup resulted in water mixing with the dirt, making it unsanitary.

Also, since the water was stagnant, it improved the odds of disease thriving in it.

‘Monsters are living things too. While these ones have adapted to tolerate sickness in an unhygienic environment, it isn’t absolute.’

Ninety percent of Hobgoblins died before reaching adulthood, and even among the survivors, only seven percent lived to old age.

It was that bad.

‘If I solve all these problems, just how well will they prosper?!’

Rey was genuinely curious about that.

To solve the water problem, he instructed them to make large pots from the Orichalcum that was abundant among them.

This would allow them to cook and also collect water into clean vessels.

‘I don’t know much about complicated stuff like homemade equipment and health practices. Maybe I’ll have to learn about that too…’

He wondered how he would approach Alicia for a book recommendation on those topics.

Wouldn’t it be too weird?

‘Sometimes I wonder just how much she knows about what I do…’

He often wondered why Alicia never asked him any questions regarding how he spent his time or what he was up to.

After being caught sneaking around the Royal Estate, Rey had thought he would be closely watched by her, but that wasn’t the case at all.

‘Does she know, and she’s hiding it? Or is she really clueless?’

The Alicia he knew was typically curious and suspicious of things she didn’t understand.

That alone made Rey suspect the former.

‘I can’t be too sure, though. I just have to remain lowkey…’

If she didn’t say anything, he wouldn’t as well.

‘Welp! Back to topic!’

The Hobgoblins were still in the process of constructing the pots Rey had instructed them to make.

He knew it would take a lot of trial and error, but they were bound to get the hang of it eventually.

It was getting late, though, and Rey knew he had to leave pretty soon.

Before leaving, he had two crucial tasks to complete.

The first and most important was to extract as many Monster Cores as he could from the Hobgoblins’ depository.

As for the latter, it was already staring him in the face.

‘I guess I should do this first…’ Rey smiled widely as he stared at the ‘thing’ that had now become his opponent.

It was a NightWolf.

The dark fur of the beast swirled in the stale air within the arena that the Hobgoblins had made for him, and its blackened eyes reeked of starvation.

NightWolves were typically fed a diet consisting of Hobgoblins' feces, occasionally supplemented with ground Orichalcum mixed with dirt.

The Hobs thought of this as the perfect revenge against the very beasts that had tortured them for Eons in Goblin Time.

‘That’s a pretty nasty meal if you ask me…’

As a result of their terrible diet, NightWolves were extremely weak.

Compared to the healthy-looking Hobgoblins, their bodies were pretty disproportional.

The NightWolf that currently faced Rey had a bloated stomach, but its limbs were unnaturally thin.

Its fangs had been clipped off, most likely by itself.

‘I noticed they occasionally eat their nails so their bellies stay full…’

It sucked to be the NightWolves, and their pathetic existence reminded Rey that the Hobgoblins were just as cruel as he was.

No… perhaps they were even worse.

‘Monsters will always be monsters.’

“GRRRRRRR…”

As the NightWolf growled menacingly, Rey braced himself for whatever attack might come his way.

‘I’m not expecting much, but I’d like to see what it can do!’

*

*

*

[A/N]

Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the lore-dump, but I enjoy writing it.

If it gets too much, let me know.