The very next day, I spent most of my time in the basement with the goblin cabled to the pulse bar of the treadmill. The treadmill was set to five miles per hour, which was a light running speed for the short goblin, and the goblin was wearing a vest bearing fifty pounds of weight. On flat ground, the goblin could jog with fifty pounds for about half of an hour before he starts dragging at the cable cuffs.
Using the surprise given to me by Lucinda after dinner, the goblin only needed until I could no longer run with weights before they were ready for another test run.
After dinner, Lucinda presented me with what was possibly the most expensive gift anybody could have gotten for me. The gift was a quarter-inch thick rectangular plate of iron melted down from a native Earth artifact found in the territory. The original artifact was a bed frame that, like many common native artifacts, radiated healing energy. This particular artifact was high in grade but the government decided it was more profitable to part it out instead of sell it whole.
The entire bed frame was so rich in MP that just the leg used to make my plate came out as a lower D grade artifact. Even though it was higher in grade than I was, this thing probably was not as strong as the healing magic of someone like Ms. Gwyn. However, it could make a normal person heal twice as fast as I could.
For me, this artifact could speed up my general recovery rates by at least double what they were now. If I already healed fast enough to full-body workout once a day, I basically healed fast enough to double my leg day in the same day. In other words, I probably healed only a little slower than C grade slime could eat flesh.
On the open market, a recovery artifact of this level with a range of six yards could sell for close to a hundred thousand dollars. With this size, no less than one hundred thousand. Made into a higher grade alloy and shaped like an armor plate, quite a bit more.
The goblin, though, could heal its strained and torn tissues and organs in three hours with the help of the artifact. Three hours was long enough for me to put my entire body through a 'light' regiment on the machine. I had already slept in proximity to the artifact so I had no worries of any muscular strains like I normally would.
The first hour was mostly spent hanging upside down from a pull-up bar and seeing how many upside-down sit-ups I could do. After five minutes of letting my heart rest, I put on a weighted vest with forty pounds on the front and back before I started doing pull-ups on the same bar. Despite my general strengths, I could only do these slow pull-ups for less than half an hour before I retired from the bar.
For the rest of the time I spent waiting I jogged on a level treadmill at thirteen miles per hour with the same weight as the goblin. My entire body was burning when I finally turned the treadmill off and just sat down then and there on the belt. One of the reasons why I had chosen to work out on my day of rest was to somewhat start a schedule for the goblin as well as leave an impression on it.
Even though the goblin had already seen me kill its ogre leader, I felt that it needed to see the difference between our endurance as well as the different things humans put their bodies through. Then, after a short break, I checked the time and dropped the goblin's vest on the floor in front of them before pointing at it. He already knew how to wear it from me forcing it on him and seeing me wear one similar so all I said was, "Pick it up."
After two seconds spent looking back and forth between the heavy vest and I, the young goblin finally got up and picked up the cut down vest in both hands. I was only a little surprised that he picked up on his own but then he actually tried to raise it up and put his arms through the holes. The first arm was a struggle, but the next one was little more than a couple shrugs.
Last time when I first introduced it to him, he simply stared at the vest and then kicked it. I smacked him 'half' hard enough to knock him down and then forced the vest on him. Since it was also the same goblin I had smacked in the portal, this time I only had to fasten it for him.
Without slapping him.
However, when it came time to cuff them to the treadmill cables they were more than a little resistant. They had gotten on the treadmill just fine but the cuffs seemed to be where they drew the line. It was simply too early in our relationship to allow the goblin to draw any lines at all, so I shoved the goblin to the front of the bed and held it with one hand while cuffing with the other.
Just like last time.
Not only that, but he also ran the same pace and time. This time, though, I lowered the pace to three miles per hour after twenty minutes and then again to one-mile-per fifteen minutes later. One might have been a crawling speed for most creatures, but to this guy who had already spent about half an hour hard running he was hurting when I first lowered the speed.
After almost a full hour on the treadmill, the goblin finally gave in and let itself collapse under the weight of exhaustion while the belt slowly stretched its body out before dragging noisily on its gnarly and curled toenails. If this thing ever found a home or a way to stay here, something would have to be done about those toes. The greenish brown skin under the dirty and vaguely yellowed keratin made the entire thing a puke-like color.
Simply standing there and watching the coarse surface of the belt start to scrape thin streaks from each of the creatures three-toed feet made me want to hurl. As soon as I realized the treadmill was being contaminated, I cut it off and cut him loose before dragging the poor guy off of the treadmill.
I felt worse for the treadmill than him, though.
After deciding now would be a great time to give the rotten little bastard a bath, I take him to the small shower in the equally small downstairs bathroom. Sitting the goblin down on the floor of the glass shower, I detach the head from its holster high on the wall and start running hot water. With no idea what temperature a goblin would like, though, I set the water a little below what I usually used.
Then a little lower, again, because I usually used just hot water. The goblin did not seem to mind to water I suddenly sprayed its legs with after watching me spray my hand the entire time. So, I put the shower head back in its holster and just hosed the goblin down. Once the goblin dressed in fat toddler shorts was soaking wet, I found a rag and a brand new bar of generic lavender soap to wrap in it.
After a minute or two of scrubbing the goblin's head and upper body while being mindful of its teeth and getting soap in its eyes, I made it stand up to take its shorts off so that I could wash his legs. Until, of course, I suddenly remembered the hobgoblin from yesterday's assignment that had just officially traumatized me. I decided to leave its shorts on.
When I was done lathering up the entire shower to compensate for the discrepancy, I hosed the entire place down and then stood the goblin in front of a small winter heater outside the bathroom. While the goblin was drying, I started cleaning up the rest of the basement. Once we were both done, I took the goblin back into the reach of the artifact since it had naturally stabilized and then take them both back upstairs.
Instead of chilling out in the living room despite Lucinda's permissions, I took the goblin up to my room to watch alphabet and simple word videos on a tablet. Goblins were basically slow people, they could not learn full sentences but words to things they desire or training commands and the like can be spoken by them. Like a parrot.
Lucinda almost dated a younger Bureau agent until she found out they had a clipped goblin for home protection who only knew 'kill', 'follow', and dirty words. Despite having three toes, goblins had four fingers and thumbs not unlike ours and their fingers were all oddly the same length and we think its for digging purposes but they can still learn some sign language. Some.
For now, I was going to let it learn to recognize letters and simple words both written and spoken. Like a child. And, just like a child, the goblin was currently sitting on the floor and just staring at the bright and noisy flat object in its hands.
Since my bedroom was originally remodeled with wooden beams for walls, floors, and ceiling I did not worry about leaving the goblin unrestrained. However, I still flipped and twisted and turned the set of bolts and latches I had drilled into the top of my door and frame. I was not taking any chances with that.
Even though it was still pretty early and Lucinda was not home it was simply safer to keep the goblin up here for now. After a brief round of messages and phone calls just as a cursory check for any openings for my goblin, I turned on my computer to kill some time placing orders and monitoring online markets. There were sometimes some good stuff here.
Because I could only loot a few objects of a few different types in exchange for contribution, there were some contribution and credit markets that used contribution points as a cryptocurrency. Even if a civilian sold a goblin's pelt for contribution, though, they could not spend it in valid markets without registered sponsorship. There are, of course, black markets that also accept contribution points.
In most of these markets I had made some small contribution for credit conversions and then did my best to grow them buying bullets like stocks and biding my time. After a few wins and losses, I gained more than I invested and now just played the game every now and then since my first two months after graduating. There were a few nice items I had up for bids but I never got any bites, too.
Now, though, I had a little surplus contribution that I could convert into credits. After checking the values of things that held my interest across multiple markets. I then checked across the different markets for which ones were selling the same type of items that I was. When I saw there were several places with either requests or offers for either my items or the materials of, I quickly pulled most of my stocks.
After transferring items, credits, and two hundred points between market, accounts, and warehouses I finally started posting my items under some requests or under entirely new markets where similar items did not exist. This time, though, I slightly lowered the prices. Maybe fish in this pond would bite bait that fish in another pond did not, who knew?
With my little bit of trading work accomplished I could then go back and compare some items and materials in their ratings and prices one more time. Only then was I finally willing to fork out an overall twelve hundred contribution to two accounts to convert into credits and then place some orders.
Having spent the better part of an hour brokering money and goods to the best of my meager abilities, I checked the time and then sighed unhappily. The goblin was still content with more than half of a battery and a bottle of water they chewed the top off of. This, at least, was a blessing of sorts.
Returning to my computer, I started looking into some cash markets. Since these places used real money and I liked real money more than contribution points, I did not try to play stocks here. If I went here, it was usually to buy something or look at services. I did not loot much worth selling and I did not do escort jobs in territories, so there was not much for me here either.
Now, however, I had a goblin of questionable want. To settle this, I posted a picture of the young goblin during its first run on the treadmill when it was running almost comfortably and asked for both cash and item offers. Even if I did not like the offers, I could refer them to someone from Ms. Gwyn's team who had portable buildings for… critters.
Aside from my ammo orders that were finally ready to be delivered, there was not much for me to look at. There were some weapons I liked and some craftsman whose videos I enjoyed watching, but nothing that really caught my attention at the moment. Finally, with nothing else to do, I picked up my phone to call Johnathan for the sixth time since Lucinda scolded me.
He had, for obvious reasons, been avoiding me and the certain shit storm that was probably coming his way. As much as I tried to explain that Johnathan did not know anything about the items I provided him with, she was still upset with her ex. Probably for conflicting reasons that I would never known about.
For the first time in the better part of two days, I heard back from Johnathan. Though, instead of answering my call even though I knew he was already off of work, he sent me a text. The text said my current stuff has been ready for pick up but the ogre project will take a little longer.
Having to wait longer on the project I was actually paying for, I tell him to simply take his time and deliver the goods whenever he can because I was grounded. He sent his condolences and asked if I wanted my weapons tomorrow or to arrive with the ogre equipment at my next assignment. He was basically asking if I wanted to show off or not.
I told him I would like to start weapons practice with the blades as soon as possible but then asked how much it would cost to have more trollkin products made. After asking Lucinda very sweetly to measure myself and my collection, I found that not only had the slime spider carapace plate stagnated at a little over one hundred but the trollkin skulls had already dropped below one hundred. All I had to rely on now were the barely valuable sternums of three hobgoblins surrounding my potted thorn shrub.
If they were anything like the trollkin skulls, the hobgoblin sternums would likely stagnate in just a few days. However, I could still have them worked into different crafts or just scrapped into material in general. When handled with a magic printer, or 'Earth' magic in general, an exposure stagnant object would be renewed back to its living prime through the use of healing energies and maintain that MP rating but it would no longer 'expose' MP.
The keratin plate cracking up in my coat and the pieces remaining could probably make a weapon or be printed into the centerpiece of a shield, but little else on my person would be of use. That, of course, was only what I had on my person. Mix the carapace stuff I kept with the stuff I already scrapped and it could make a full shield.
After talking about my material stockpile and options for a little while, I ended up honestly getting good discounts for high quality items. Despite the fact I had to pay for everything involved not covered by his private or work printing programs, such as leather and keratin products. I only paid thirty thousand overall and the ogre skin product was still unknown to me.
Not long after that, Lucinda got home and started on dinner. So, I decided to kiss ass by hanging out with her. Replacing the goblin's tablet with one that was fully charged, I put the a simple shock-collar restraint on him before leaving. If he ever yelled or pulled on the light steel cable leash, he would take some voltage.
When I saw the TV was still off in the living room, I turned it on to some Protector related news network just for background noise. Even though I hung out outside the kitchen to avoid being in the way, I did not sit down to watch TV and made it obvious that I was here. However, Lucinda was still very unhappy with me.
She simply ignored me for most of the cooking process.
*