Why a Goblin?

After going back and forth with Velora about training for a few seconds, Rick spent the rest of the day talking with Dran about various things, such as the things he’s able to build currently and how daily life was in the plains.

Based on everything Rick learned from Dran it seems like TinkGoblins are the combined versions of various different craftsmen-type jobs on earth. Whether it be metalwork, glasswork, and of course any type of woodworking they did it all.

But the knowledge to do all those things came from both individual evolutions and passed down knowledge from much older TinkGoblins.

Dran himself has only gone through one evolution even though on his status it says he’s already seven years old, which is much older than any other Goblin in Rick’s tribe back at the cave. It seems even though he is a different type of Goblin the requirements to evolve are the same as any other Goblin such as Geedi for example.

That requirement put a lot of strain on the TinkGoblins due to them not being suited for any form of combat, yet they still had to go out and hunt like the rest if they wanted to earn experience and eventually evolve to gain more knowledge.

Dran also mentioned to Rick that his evolutions didn’t bring much change to their actual appearances though. Their height pretty much stayed the same throughout, the only real change happened mentally and inside their bodies.

Such as more defined and flexible muscles and even higher bone density, but it was hard to notice these things if you just looked at any evolved TinkGoblin.

Though one of Rick’s most important questions was left unanswered, it was what came after a Hobgoblin. Dran himself didn’t know, but he said there was a chance one of the older members in any of the tribes might know more about it.

But it would be hard to get in contact with them just for that since those older Goblins didn’t leave the tribe too much anymore. It was only the younger Goblins who hunted in the Nameless Forest.

So Rick gave up on that knowledge, for now, it's not like it would change his conviction to continue to get stronger and evolve anyway.

After that Rick asked about the Maglins but Dran didn’t know too much about them other than what he already told Rick regarding their frail bodies and ability to use mana from birth.

If Rick wanted to know more he would have to ask an actual Maglin.

Three days had to pass by before Rick finally felt like he was at a hundred percent again, and after moving around a bit and getting everything ready to go. Rick left on his two-month long journey to the plains with Dran by his side.

Though Dran wasn’t actually by his side, he found himself on Rick’s back holding on for dear life while he ran since he wouldn’t be able to keep pace with Rick on foot.

Of course, Rick wasn’t running full speed, but almost any speed Rick ran at was still a lot faster than what Dran can do himself.

Rick did his best to avoid any needless fights or confrontations due to traveling with Dran, but he still fought every now and then where avoiding a monster would be too big of a detour.

Rick was also really wary of any more attacks in the night similar to the ones he suffered at the beginning of his journey where he almost died.

Fortunately, he never encountered them, otherwise either he or Dran might not have survived.

Anyway, two months slowly went by without anything significant happening except for a few battles here and there. Though all the essence gained was absorbed by Velora.

With Dran and Rick being at the edges of the Nameless Forest, Rick was now able to see the plains for the first time.

“Wow, it's truly beautiful. Vibrant green lush grass as far as my Goblin eyes can see. It’s truly a sight to behold. It's definitely a lot bigger than a couple of football fields and for some reason, I thought it’d be completely flat but there's a few small hills dotted around the place. Wait, Dran you said there’s a river? I can’t see it though.”

“What's a football field? And the River is still way beyond that small hill you see in the distance. That's how far Goblins and the other weaker races are forced to live from the River.”

“Oh, a football field is just a...type..of field? Yeah, let's just go with that. Also, don’t worry about that anymore. Before you know it, Goblins will rule these entire plains and our rule will stretch far past the plains before you.”

“That's..That's hard to imagine for me right now, but I’m sure every single Goblin around the world or at least in the plains would love to see that happen.”

“Don’t worry. It will. Anyway, I don’t see any Goblins around here, point the way to the closest tribe.”

“One should be close by, let's just move along the edge of the forest so we don’t get spotted by any Orcs that might potentially be on a patrol right now.”

Dran and Rick walked north from their current position along the edges of the forest for twenty minutes before finally seeing the outlines of what appeared to be some sort of camp.

It consisted of a few small buildings made out of wood, and around twenty Goblins of all three types just like Dran explained to Rick.

They also spotted a small squad of four Goblins coming out of the tribe heading straight for the forest.

The squad consisted of three High Goblins like Geedi and the rest while the last member appeared to be a Maglin. It was quite tall. It stood just a few inches under Rick who himself was already six feet tall.

So Rick and Dran made their way over towards where they would enter the forest so they wouldn’t be spotted by anyone else.

This squad of four is going to be the group that spreads the word that Rick is here to change things. It's also the start of a tale told in many Goblin homes over the years of how one Goblin changed the fate of many.

Though that's a story for another time.