This ability that Svampe is using is really quite unnerving to watch. It is like watching time move forwards at an accelerated rate… and I mean way faster than normal. He has only been over there for about an hour and already the corpses look as though they have been decaying for months. The flesh is starting to liquify… it looks disgusting. Even the monstrous python’s size is now diminished. The insides that were strewn across the floor and into the water are now just mush. I’m glad that I finished my soup before things got to this point or I wouldn’t be able to finish it.

  I really want to go over there and talk to him about it. Offer him some support. But he needs to focus and I fear I would serve as nothing other than a distraction. I keep taking breaks from watching him and talking to the others, but every time that I look back everything has advanced so drastically that it makes me want to keep looking. But when I do keep looking it feels as though nothing is happening. I suppose this is why they say a watched pot never boils.

  Agaroth is still unconscious. Dietrich, Farrow, Phoenix, and Damecus are patrolling the area, making sure that there are no other worrying creatures lurking in this place, ready to murder us all. Then again… if there were and we were able to kill them to, then it would give Svampe more material to work with.

  Kiyui keeps flicking between Agaroth and I. Making sure we are both alright. Not that Agaroth can answer him. Agaroth is still fighting off that poison… even with the antivenom that Damecus gave him, a malignant python’s poison is still a difficult thing to beat. Kiyui keeps having to clean the sweat from him. He was stripped so that his clothes could be hung and dried, so he simply has a thin blanket covering his modesty… but even so… you’d think he was in a sauna based on how sweaty he is. And given how hairy his body it… he looks like a disturbingly large clump of matted hair.

  I’m glad Kiyui is fit enough to be the one to take on the duty of looking after Agaroth. I think cleaning all that hair would turn my stomach a bit… especially since it is so soaked in sweat. I can smell him from here. Then again… the smell from him definitely isn’t as bad as the smell of decomposition from all the corpses.

  I can tell from how delicate he is with looking after Agaroth that Kiyui really cares about him. I mean, Kiyui really cares about everybody. But those two do seem to have some kind of weird bond that I have never understood. They are absolute polar opposites. Kiyui is so sweet and caring… and Agaroth has such an… abrasive personality. I know that Agaroth is a good man who is way more moral than his demeanour would suggest… but even so… I still find them an odd pairing.

  Thinking about it… I wonder how on earth he ended up being blessed with holy magic. Holy magic is rare… and those who use it have normally spent their lives dedicated to the temples. They spend their spare time praying and offering themselves to the gods. Agaroth… well… he spends his spare time worshipping at the altar of Big Bertha… who… whilst certainly impressive… definitely is not a god… and certainly cannot bestow the gift of holy light upon anyone. Maybe he used to dedicate himself to the temples, but this has waned over the years. Or maybe blessings from the gods are to do with your internal relationship with the gods instead of external acts of public worship.

  Maybe when he wakes up, I should ask him about his past. I know bits… like the fact that the mother of his son died. But I still don’t really know what exactly their relationship was. I know that they weren’t married… but that’s about it. I really should ask people more about their lives. I guess that all those years overthinking how to keep secret the fact that I’m a goblin has led to me not asking people personal questions through fear that they would respond in kind and put me in an awkward situation. I guess old habits are hard to shake. Especially the overthinking thing… fucking hell I wish I could shift that.

  Kiyui came over to me and cuddled into me.

  Dwynfel: “How is he doing?”

  Kiyui: “He’s getting better. I think he’s through the worst of it now. Fever seems to be going down. He should wake up soon. Then he can cast restoration on himself and he’ll be back to normal.”

  Dwynfel: “Kiyui… umm… before… why were you so keen to explore this place? You and I aren’t made for direct combat… we can’t handle these things on our own…”

  Kiyui: “I know that… I do… I just… it’s the first time that I’ve been able to be the one doing the exploring. It’s always you sneaking off ahead to do recon, or it’s Damecus striding forwards to draw the ire of the enemy. I never get to be the one to discover things.”

  I can certainly understand that. The drive for adventure… to see and discover things. Hell, if I wasn’t so pathetically small and physically weak, I would have loved to have been the strong one striding into battle first and protecting those behind me… just like my dad… just like Damecus… hell… even like Asmodeus.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Honestly… before the whole… reveal that I was a goblin thing… I always admired him and thought he was an amazing paladin and leader. Odd to think that… given how much I actively try to avoid the guy now. Then again… when somebody is stood there… actively willing your downfall… it does make them rather difficult to be around.

  I’m getting off track again. My point is that I couldn’t be what I wanted and had to compromise for the ranger role.

  But even the ranger role grants me a level of exploration that Kiyui’s role doesn’t. As he says… I get to scout ahead… see things first… then feed information back to the party. Always being at the back, never stepping forward first… I can see why he would want more. But at the same time… we have that formation for a reason… and it would kill me if something ever happened to him. Seriously… I would be so doomed if I didn’t have him in my life.

  You know, I am genuinely glad that my life span is shorter than his… it means I will never have to go through the pain of losing him… or any of the kids. Makes me wonder about Damecus actually. He’s going to outlive all of us… and our kids. In two hundred years we’ll be several generations down and him and Nomius will be the only ones of us left. I mean, Mother of Mercy, that has to take its toll on you. Not that he will have experienced it before… he’s always been around lizardmen until recently.

  Then again… the lizardmen do have a very matter of fact attitude towards death. Maybe that attitude will help with this kind of thing. Or maybe the fact that they don’t believe in an afterlife will make it worse. I mean, my faith has the whole reincarnating until your soul is worthy of heaven idea… so the belief that the essence of who we are lives on and our loved ones are still out there, just in a different form, could be quite a comfort. I’m not sure the belief that my loved one is nothing more than a decaying corpse would be any kind of comfort at all.

  Then again… there are so many theories about what happens after death that I have no way of knowing which is right… and Damecus’ explanation is much more scientific than any of the religious explanations… and what Svampe is doing over there does highlight Damecus’ knowledge of scientific matters. Damecus was able to explain that stuff better than Svampe… and Svampe is the one doing it. Fuck… if he is right then that means that death is so… well… final. Gods, that is fucking depressing.

  How the fuck did I end up here again? Oh yeah, Kiyui wanting to explore.

  Dwynfel: “I get that Kiyui… I really do. But the party formation is the way it is to protect you.”

  Kiyui: “I know, I just… I feel kinda useless sometimes.”

  Dwynfel: “Why on earth would you ever feel useless? You completed our party. You made things so much better. Connected voice alone has made adventuring and battling a thousand times easier.”

  Kiyui: “That’s just one spell, and it doesn’t even require concentration for me to maintain. After I cast it, I sometimes feel like I have nothing else to do.”

  I forget sometimes that he gets insecure about things too. I always think that he is so confident and self-assured… due to his confidence in more intimate areas… that I forget he is still relatively new to adventuring. We didn’t even do a full year of adventuring with him before the teleportation incident. And during the journey back, his role was more childminder than anything else. Then, after rescuing Alexi and everything, we stopped adventuring for four years.

  So really, he still hasn’t even had a full year of adventuring experience yet.

  Dwynfel: “Sorry Kiyui. I forget how few adventures you’ve actually been on. To me, it feels like you’ve always been here… I genuinely struggle to think of the times before you were in my life. Please… seriously… please… do not think that you aren’t a useful member of this party. I know that your spells are a tad uncommon, but they are incredibly helpful. That blade enhancement that you cast before allowed my dagger to cut through that troll’s flesh like warm butter. Previously it had been such a struggle to damage the thing… I had to use all my strength to stab my short sword into the other one’s neck… but you… you allowed me to cripple it… if I hadn’t been able to do that. it would have been much more mobile and it probably would have completely obliterated me instead of just crushing a few ribs.”

  Seriously… if I hadn’t been able to cut that thing’s tendon I would have been so utterly fucked.

  Kiyui: “But if I had more offensive spells then maybe I could have killed it before it was able to damage you at all.”

  Dwynfel: “Offensive magic is great… but it consumes way more mana than support spells. Phoenix has to be very sparing with her spells. Meaning she is an occasional heavy hitter. Having somebody who can enhance our abilities consistently throughout a fight is just as important and can mean the difference between life and death. You are not doing nothing… and nobody in this party would ever accuse you of that. Everybody here values you to the heavens.”

  Agaroth: “He’s right, Twinky. We’d be fucked wi’ out ya.”

  Fucking hell… when did he wake up? I jumped out of my bloody skin.

  Agaroth: “Restoration.”

  Kiyui: “Don’t strain yourself, you need time to heal.”

  Agaroth ignored Kiyui’s advice and proceeded to stand up. The thin blanket that covered him fell to the floor, revealing… well… everything. Not that he cared. Kiyui rushed over and started fussing over him, but Agaroth ignored him and went straight to the bowl that was being kept warm by the fire.

  Agaroth: “That soup? Fuckin’ crackin.’”

  He grabbed a bowl, filled it with soup, and glanced over at Svampe.

  Agaroth: “So… what the fuck’s goin’ on ‘ere then?”