Battle Admin System 15

15 - Goblins and Loot

With the sponsorship business tabled for another day, Lillea’s attention shifted toward the goblin matriarch waiting off to the side. She’d been there for a while. Fiona noticed her for the first time.

“Oh, should I, um, leave you two?” Fiona asked.

“You may stay,” the matriarch said with a disinterested voice. She looked boredly from Fiona to Lillea. Strands of glossy white hair fell into her eyes. She slowly tucked the stands behind her large green ears. “Nice arm. Interesting demon.”

Fiona blinked, looking from the goblin to Lillea’s arm. Confusion, evident. “Maybe I should go?”

“Stay,” Lillea and the matriarch said at once.

Lillea took over. “I’ve never caught your name.”

“Doza,” she answered simply.

“You helped greatly, Doza. How may I return the favor?” Lillea asked.

“No need. I just felt like helping.” Doza shrugged.

Lillea smiled tensely. I can understand Fiona, and I can understand Lord Oxford, but there’s no way a goblin is altruistic.

“Well, I guess I’m not being honest,” Doza continued. “Goblins were in trouble. The human Fiona treated it seriously. I’d feel bad if I didn’t treat it seriously, too. So here I am.”

“You helped so you wouldn’t feel bad?” Lillea blinked.

“Yeah, why else would I help?”

Lilla stared at the goblin. Am I the only powerful person who is selfish? That was a sobering thought. Lillea shook it off and shifted the conversation to understand Doza better. “If that’s the case, you don’t even have to address me right now.”

Doza blinked. “But I do. You’re the head matriarch, and I’m in your territory. I figured you’d summon me when you’re ready. But since we’re here, I guess we’ll talk.”

“About what?”

“Dunno, anything you want. I’m just a little sister. I will do what you want.”

Lillea nodded slowly. “Is this you acknowledging me as the leader of the goblins? Also, there is no issue with our levels, is there? You’re a hundred levels above me.”

Doza blinked slowly. “But you’re above me where it counts most.”

Lillia’s lips pressed into a thin line. Doza was aware to not speak further on the subject. The Legendary Rank should stay unspoken.

Fiona looked around with growing confusion.

Lillea recomposed herself and thought logically about what was happening. I’m gaining a brave and quirky apprentice human. And I’m gaining a goblin matriarch as my little sister who’s nearly in the Level 400s and ranked a noble. Lillea wondered what more could come from this day.

“Ah, ladies, hello! Sorry to interrupt.” An adventurer jogged up with an extra bright smile on his face. He did his best to look in the vicinity of Lillea while avoiding her gaze. “We’re getting ready to leave. But, well, there’s the talk of loot–”

“Mine,” Lillea said.

“Er, well, we understand your major contributions lend itself to having first pickings. And of course a majority should go to you. But–”

Lillea bent down and picked up a half-eaten corpse. “I’m a bit ravenous.” Her eyes flicked toward the captured bandits. “But I prefer fresh or cooked. And the prisoners are yours.” Her eyes opened with faux-cheer. “Ah, yes. That should settle our problem. You have the prisoners as your loot.” She dropped the half-eaten corpse next to the adventurer. “Everything else is mine.”

The adventurer jogged back the way he came.

Doza turned to Fiona. “First lesson. Learn to be scary. How? By actually being scary. Why? So you can be in control. Why again? It is better to have control than to be controlled.”

Fiona summoned an inked quill and a different book. Despite her discomfort, she jotted down Doza’s words as if they were the words of the ancients.

Lillea overlooked the instant adherence of a human to a goblin before a sudden question came to mind. “How did you get through to Lord Oxford?”

Doza’s ears moved up and down slowly. “The simplest way.”

“What is the simplest way?”

“I raised my hand to the gate and made it go ka-boom.”

“Ka-boom?”

“Ka-booooooom.” Doza waved her arms slowly to pantomime an explosion.

Lillea looked up at the sky. I feel like the balance between being a leader and having solo adventures will become more difficult.

“Do you want me to bring down that bird, big sister?” Doza asked.

There was indeed a Level 300 Cold Air Buzzard flying overhead. Its wingspan was four times longer than Lillea’s height. It made Lillea think of crafting herself a bow but the time spent on enchanting reliable arrows would take too long.

Before Lillea could respond, weakness and hunger nearly made her swoon. She hadn’t slept for the past couple of days. She’d stayed awake to reach her goblins and to help defeat the bandit army.

All of her denseness had gone away, too. She was starving. But she refused to eat human corpses in front of Fiona and Lord Oxford. And she had a preference for fresh or cooked meals like she had said.

“Yes, please,” Lillea requested quietly.

“Wait, here.” Doza gestured for Fiona to move back. The matriarch walked away for fifty feet. She hopped up and down. Wriggled her hips. Then she braced herself and looked up.

One explosion later, Doza reached the same altitude as the Cold Air Buzzard. Then after two more explosions, the buzzard fell at full speed.

The second explosion had hurled Doza onto its neck. The final explosion blasted away the back of the monster’s skull for an instant kill.

Doza rode the buzzard down until she jumped off and hit the snow safely. The buzzard crashed behind her as she dusted herself off.

“Was that adequate, big sister?” Doza asked.

“That was more than adequate, little sister.”

“Is this what it’s like to be a true adventurer?” Fiona asked. “My goodness. The gruesome parts are very gruesome. But everything else is beyond my imagination!”

Lillea wondered if Fiona’s apprenticeship would give her an unusual view of adventurism compared to other human adventurers. Eh, that’s not my problem.

Lillea dove onto the fresh meal and ate with disregard for table manners. She planned to ignore the horrified stares from the guards and adventurers and hostages. But then she changed her mind and stared back with every chomp, crunch, and swallow. After eating the good meaty parts along with the bones, Lillea felt an improvement with her mood. Her surface wounds healed, too.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t realize you truly needed to eat a lot.” Fiona was standing right beside the giant for some reason. Lillea hadn’t noticed while lost in consuming a meal. “I’ve misjudged you, my lady. My apologies.”

I didn’t explain how meat and bone are very important for me. Yes, I wanted the bandits to suffer, but they helped improve my survivability, too.

Lillea had wanted to keep her skills secret until Fiona needed to hear them later. But it was good Fiona noticed the connection between eating and Lillea’s health. She had a sharp wit. Unfortunately, some of the others watching her could notice, too.

It’s impossible to hide everything. My demonic traits are getting noticed left and right, apparently.

There were a handful of new circumstances and challenges Lillea needed to face. Her life had become more complicated than she expected in the past month. She was demonic now. The Hall of Admins was still a dark monster in her head. I need to get to Level 300. But I need some rest, too.

No doubt, Lillea needed a big reset to think clearer. She needed to get back to Cold Tooth and have her civilized pleasures. Food, drink, and entertainment at Gimmer’s Throne. Hot baths and pampering at Hina’s. And visits to other places of note that worked hard to deserve Lillea’s business.

“Home,” Lillea said. “I want to go home.”

She moved without further thought. Doza and Fiona followed. Her goblins regrouped around their giant matriarch.

Apparently, I’m a matriarch.

Her feet took her to the bastion where guards stood watchful of the greedy adventurers. The guard captain was there.

He gestured for Lillia and her group to go toward the bastion.

“You never talk to me,” Lillea said.

The guard captain shrugged.

“What goes through that mind of yours?”

The guard captain shrugged again.

“You annoy me.” Lillea huffed and knelt next to the bastion. “Little sister, tell me where they hold their hoard.”

Doza ran inside. Minutes later she came out and pointed Lillea toward the second floor. After a few knocks with her fist, the giant created a new entrance to the hold. Trunks of gold coins, jewelry, enchanted instruments, and more glistened with the extra sunlight let into the room.

A few adventurers wept openly.

“Wait, everyone. I’ll be back.” Lillea stood and walked away.

She returned half an hour later with her backpack, emptying it out as she moved. Monstrous teeth, bones, and other wild materials fell behind her. To the discerning eye of an adventurer, those were worth some good coins.

Lillea waved at her droppings. “You can take those.”

The adventurers didn’t need to be told twice. Some of the dropped items had size to them. But adventurers hauled them on their shoulders or over their heads anyway.

Lillea knelt in front of the hole again before looking to Lord Oxford. “Come, take what you are owed. Without you, the bandit lord would’ve gotten away.”

“Well, I won’t say no to that offer! Yippee!” Lord Oxford looped over the adventurers’ heads. He sprung with the youthfulness of a young adventurer he’d once been and dug up some loot for himself. He even gave a lecture as he plundered.

“Ah, do note, we have to give the hostages an opportunity to claim what they believe is theirs. But the option to do so before or after loot collection is at your discretion. You can also have them appeal through the guild and receive a monetary percentage of what an adventurer takes in the act of rescuing them. Which may be taken from your pay in future jobs or shouldered by empire taxes.”

Lillea blinked as Lord Oxford draped himself in expensive necklaces with fat amulets and had on rings for each finger. He wore a lavish hat with gold stitchings and tucked a diamond-topped cane under his armpit. He floated out with a stern posture and pockets filled with coins and gems that were nearly bursting from the seams.

“Though, in my long experience, hostages will try to present you favors for returning the most important items to them and let you keep the rest,” Lord Oxford explained, adjusting his fancy hat. “You have options, just saying.”

“I appreciate your wise counsel. I’m sure Fiona found that educational.”

“I’ve never had a case like this before so this is indeed new to me.” Fiona was jotting everything down in her apprenticeship book.

“Do you know how to sense magic items?” Doza asked Fiona.

“Not without an appraiser.”

The little matriarch looked up to Lillea. The giant matriarch reached in and plucked a simple enchanted item. She lowered it to Fiona, who tucked her book and quill into the crook of one arm and received a ruby-colored orb in her free palm.

“All items have mana. But few items can turn mana into magic,” Lillea instructed. “If it’s naturally infused with high magical potential, it’s a reagent. A symbolic creation of Kolossi. That can be used in the place of runes, sometimes, when using rune scripts. But if an item is designed with a purpose, it’s enchanted. The easiest way to tell is to channel your mana. Imagine the world’s mana caressing the item as it enters your palm. You’ll feel one of a couple of things.”

Doza took over. “If you feel free flowing mana, it’s a dud. Nothing special other than the normal value. If you feel crackling power, it’s a reagent. Be careful, you might trigger what it’s supposed to symbolize. If you feel less mana channeling through your hand than usual, it’s enchanted. It wants to be activated. It’s siphoning from your channeling.”

“Oh, okay. Huh. That was all an amazing and simple way to understand this magic item business. I’m still struggling to feel it. But, hm, maybe there’s a pinch less going to my channels. I’m not sure.”

“You are feeling the pull of an enchanted item. With more levels and more experience, you’ll grow your sense of mana movement and improve your control,” Lillea said.

“At my level, you become fine tuned to mana flow and its movement inside and outside of you. It becomes vastly easier,” Doza said.

“How do you tell what an enchanted item does?” Fiona asked.

“You will need an appraiser or a skill for it. Or you test it yourself. Safely,” Doza answered.

Lillea turned toward the little matriarch. “You are very helpful.”

Doza shrugged. “My big sister has an apprentice. I would feel bad if I didn’t help.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. I don’t think I’m responding appropriately to anything, honestly. She simply calls me big sister and I’m just accepting it.

Solo wanted to be called big sister, too. The demon wanted more acknowledgement once they were in private and away from prying eyes and ears.

Lillea patted her metal arm before shoveling a fortune of treasure into her bag. It clattered down like a waterfall. Every adventurer and some guards eyed the raining loot entering the large backpack.

There were no holes at the bottom. It was well made and enchanted to the noble rank. Tougher than Lillea’s usual leather outfits.

The goblins cheered and danced at the sight of the falling fortune. To most goblins, the richer their big matriarch became, the richer the gang. It was endearing for Lillia to have her greed be celebrated.

It would fall into her goblins’ hands soon enough, anyway. Lillea would make sure of that. Goblins deserved their pay plus more for their loyalty.

For now, she invited goblins to run up and help pick out any leftovers. They darted around the interior and to the hole in the wall, dropping handfuls into Lillea’s backpack with glee. Some goblins looked eager to dive into the backpack like it was a pool of water.

Lillea sighed and picked five at random to jump into her backpack and guard the treasure from within. Which meant they would fool around until it was time to get serious.

But Lillea figured they could have their fun. After last night, she knew in her heart the goblins were tougher and braver than what people thought.

Lillea shrugged on her backpack filled with loot and goblins and stood tall. She smiled down at all the faces below. “Let’s go home.”

“Home!” cheered the goblins.

Some goblins dashed up front to lead the way. Others ran faster to scout further ahead. Goblins took to the flanks close and far. While others watched Lillea’s back or lingered farther behind to catch stalkers.

Without being told, Fiona stayed by Lillea’s side and ran to keep up. Doza ran next to Fiona. The goblin matriarch came up to five feet, which was taller than the males. But short enough where they had to run harder than most. Doza had no issues because of her levels.

“Aren’t you moving too fast?” called an adventurer. “What about the hostages?”

“Do your job,” Lillea said over her shoulder. She kept walking at a casual pace for a giant. “I did mine.”