Another month had passed since Basil began to travel with the Bugbears, and life seemed almost normal with them. Every day seemed to go the same, but even a life of constants felt slightly different with viewing vast parts of the Empty Lands, collecting more ingredients while expanding and perfecting any recipes he had. He had grown close with many of the bugbears, including the Chief, his wife, and their child, who he later found out was named Wander. He also came to find that Bugbears don't give their children names but nicknames depending on one thing that stands out about them. They only get their true name once they reach adulthood, and Wander got his nickname from constantly going off on his own at the slightest thing to catch his attention.
One particular day, the tribe was walking east alongside the road raised by a steep, gently sloping cliff. Things had gone like they usually do, with the tribe waking up to collect what little possessions they had before setting off for somewhere else to settle for a day or two. The men would go off and raid or hunt while the women stayed back to watch the young and make food for the hard-working men. When they returned, they would eat, sleep, train, raid or hunt, pack up, and leave for another spot. Rinse and repeat.
It was a hard life, but one that built character and fortitude, a little fact Basil noticed one day when he saw that his fortitude went from 5 to 10. Not a big jump, but progress was progress. While walking with Wander, holding his hand, he heard something strange. As he slowed down to try and pinpoint or figure it out, the other Bugbears noticed him distracted.
They would ask him what he was doing when Basil piped up and asked, "Hey, does anyone hear that?"
Burr stops to raise his ears and listen, only to confirm, "Yeah, it's a fight. But not ours."
Basil nodded in agreement. Sure, he'd love to see what the commotion was about, but Burr was right. It wasn't his place to run into something that did not concern him, specifically if it hindered survival. He was about to continue walking when he noticed something strange about the small child he was holding. It turned into a rag!
So looking around rapidly, he questioned, "Hey, where's your kid?"
"Pup?", Burr questioned as he looked around for his child. Seeing no sign of him, he yelled, "Pup!"
Only for Basil to see him scampering off into the bushes. He yelled after him, "There!"
Quickly whipping his head to where Basil was pointing, he saw the tail end of his child disappear before yelling, "Pup! Come back here!"
The tribe went after the Bugbear cub in a panicked frenzy! Everyone began to feverishly search every last bush, flower, and blade of grass since Bugbears had unusual camouflage. Only Basil had the slightest clue about where he was, thanks to his Appraisal skill in locating his tracks. Eventually, he followed the tracks out into an open part of the cliffside, where he saw Wander standing over the edge with a knife and looking ready to jump over the edge!
Without a second thought, Basil ran, and Superman jumped towards him! Grabbing the child before he could plunge himself over the edge, Basil held tight to the squirming child as he held him off his feet and snatched the knife with his teeth. After dropping the knife to the ground and keeping it underfoot, he looked the small Bugbear over for any injuries, and when he was satisfied, he sighed in relief.
"You little rascal!", Basil scolded the squirming and angrily glaring child. "I know you're excited for a fight like the rest of your kin, but you can't just rush headlong into the first sign of conflict. You're far too small. Plus, you have to know how to pick and choose your battles…wisely.", Basl trailed off as he heard the sounds of battle far more clearly, only to see something that caught his attention.
Looking down the side of the 30-foot slope, Basil saw several armed men fighting one another in medieval attire, armor, and weapons. The ones in light armor had to be paid guards, while the ones in dirty leather had to be thieves since the nicer-dressed ones protected a finely crafted horse-drawn carriage with something inside it.
Taking a closer look, he made a startling discovery and stated to himself, "Those are…humans. Actual humans!"
It had been so long since he saw another human in this world, apart from when he tried to sell his first loaves of bread, that he almost assumed he was the only one left! Especially since he had been living with inhuman creatures for longer than he cared to remember. So he just stood there in shock of finally seeing one of his own!
As he watched the fight unfold with Wander in his arms, another set of long arms snatched the Bugbear away! Basil broke out of his trance and looked where Wander was snatched, only to be relieved when he saw Burr holding and scolding him.
"There you are, pup!", Burr angrily exclaimed as he began to pinch his cheeks hard in punishment. "Yous had me and your Mooma worried. Don't rush off again!", he yelled at the child as he tried to squirm free.
After seeing his son's face red, he nods and looks back to Basil to thank him. Only to see him once again engrossed in the fight going on below. Approaching him, Burr asked, "What man scrimp looking at."
"Humans! I think some of them are wealthy.", Basil told him while pointing down at the carriage.
Burr snorts in response to this and tells him firmly, "Not our fight. Let's move."
"Wait!", Basil yelled as he pulled on the goblin to stop him. When he turned around with a displeased expression, Basil breathed heavily before saying, "We should help them."
Burr raised his thick brow as high as it could go and questioned, "Huh? What for?! Man's never help us; why return the favor."
"Because…Because it's the right thing to do!", Basil tried to convince him with a half-baked explanation, only to get an unconvinced expression in return. "Because this could help with the stereotype of goblins being nothing but filthy, conniving, brutish monsters?" Basil tried again with less enthusiasm, getting a more annoyed expression in response to having wasted time. Thinking about his third and final response carefully, Basil offered, "Because…he could help us. If he's as wealthy as he looks, maybe we could get into his good graces, and he might be able to give us a permanent place to live."
This caught Burr's attention, and he inquired, "Why would Goblin need permanent home?"
"Aren't you and your tribe tired of moving from one place to the other because you're afraid if you do, you'll get raided or killed by humans or other monsters?", Basil asked back, getting a thinking expression from the goblin. Seeing his hooks were in, Basil went in for the kill and told him, "If we help him, it will not only give you a good reputation but also a potential new home to finally settle."
Burr thought about this for a long while before answering. His people had suffered in this lifestyle for many generations. Many years ago, they could have built a stronghold, but that would attract raiders. The nomadic lifestyle, although keeping their population low and the high death rate among the young, did contribute to them having the strongest Goblins around. But even he was becoming wary of continuing to move around and always fighting for survival. In his mind, he knew it was finally time to settle down.
Finally, he sighs in defeat and hands Wander back to him as he says, "Alright. I'll grab men, and we'll fight."
Looking back over the cliffside, Basil sucked air between his teeth as he told him, "I'd hurry on that; the guards don't look like they're gonna hold out."
Upon the fall of the last guard, the thieves began to surround and try to open the carriage. A feminine scream came from within alongside a baby's cry, causing the outlaws to become more encouraged as they shook and banged on the carriage more violently to get it open! That is until they heard the sound of a ram's horn being blown, and looking at the sound, they saw Burr standing on the cliff slope and blowing into it by himself. Putting the horn back on his belt, he raised his spiked club into the air and roared! With that, all the other Bugbear warriors rushed out from the foliage atop the cliff and slid down the slope with weapons in hand as they roared a battle cry and ran towards the armed men who, upon seeing this, lost all their confidence and bravado!
"Bugbears! Run!", one of them shouted in panic as he and all the others began to run for their lives.
Even though the Bugbears had stumpy legs, they were extremely quick at short distances and managed to catch up with the thugs just enough for them to turn and try to defend themselves! Which was the worst thing they could do since the Bugbears had the advantage of strength and reach! Any thug brave enough to try and 1v1 a Bugbear would find themselves at death's door when the monsters would swing their extended arm and not just break their weapons but their whole bodies! The Bugbears made quick work of the villains as their weapons were made to be sturdy enough for smashing steel, and whenever a thug made a blow against a Bugbear, the weapons would either bounce or slide off its tough hide. Any time an attack was made to break their defenses, the monster wouldn't react because of how shallow it was or would get angrier. At one point, one of the Bugbears began to spew a strange yellow liquid from their mouth onto or near the thugs that looked and smelled like honey.
Seeing some of it land near his shoe, Basil asked Brex, standing beside her as the two watched the battle unfold, "Ew! What is that stuff your husband and his men just threw up!?"
"Special made Goblin Honey. Come from guts.", Brex said proudly while patting her stomach.
Using his Appraisal Skill, Basil looked at the droplet by his foot and saw what the window had to say.
Bugbear Honey- a material produced exclusively by Bugbears. Its comprised of indigestible material and a yellow mucus that binds it together. Warning: do not attempt to eat! Despite its smell and look of regular honey, it is not. After this honey has been exposed to air and pressure, it will detonate.
With his brain slightly foggy and not registering the last word, he briefly wondered what it meant until he watched as the Bugbear Honey suddenly turned red before several of the thugs suddenly burst into an explosion so violent that the shock wave could be felt from where he was standing on the cliff side! Basil was left shocked by the site of the crooks bursting into fiery bits, almost not registering it until his mind finally caught up to his intelligence.
"This stuff explodes!?", he exclaimed in a yell as several more explosions went off, and he carefully turned his gaze to Brex, where he inquired in fear, "Can all of you do that?"
"Even pups.", Brex confirmed with a nod, making Basil turn pale.
Had he known about this from the beginning, he probably would've been walking on eggshells with the Bugbears the whole time he was with them. That thought alone almost wanted to make him wet himself, but luckily, he had enough self-control just to stand there and sweat bullets as the men wrapped up the one-sided fight.
With the dead or blown remains of the thieves littering the bloody battleground, the fight light in the Bugbears died down till they looked less aggressive and were now just looking at the remains or winding down from getting so wound up.
"These man scrimps not even challenge.", one of the Bugbears commented as he poked at a thief who had his head clubbed off its shoulders.
Seeing the battle finally ended and the coast clear to intervene, Basil slid halfway down the slope of the cliff only to trip and roll the rest of the way, getting the attention and amusement of the Bugbears who laughed at him! When he finally stopped his embarrassing tumble, he found himself in front of what appeared to be one of the dead soldiers. Before he could freak out at the sight of the dead body, he heard the man let out a small groan of pain. Realizing that he and many more could just be injured, he thought about how to help. He thought he could use his Alchemy skill to make a healing potion or to help stabilize them, but he quickly realized he never used that skill unless he wanted to grind something down.
So he looked through his Skill tree to find something and quickly found himself staring down the Skill Tree for the Light magic category. He had upgraded the skill enough to reach one of the branches and saw that he could unlock one of the two at no extra cost of his accrued skill points. The first is called Root of Dawn, and the other is called Root of Dusk. Thanks to his Clairvoyance skill, he saw what upgrade he could get ahead of each one and saw just what he was looking for. In the Root of Dawn branch, he saw an evolved version of Light Magic known as Healing magic. So, without thinking twice, he unlocked all of it, and several message windows popped up.
Root of the Dawn has been selected
Healing Magic has been added to the Magic list
Heal Minor Wounds has been added to the spell list
This was good, but he knew he needed more, especially since time was of the essence, so he unlocked the next part in the branch, ignoring how many skill points it had eaten up, and another message window opened to inform him again.
Mass Healing has been added to the spell list
So, with his new healing spell acquired, he reached deep within himself and tried to think about turning on the magic like a switch. When that didn't work, he thought about a wave of good energy spilling out and healing the downed soldiers. Almost immediately, his thoughts came to reality, and a pure white light spilled out over the whole battlefield from him as its center point; within seconds, the soldiers got back onto their feet in astonishment at their bodies suddenly filled with newfound vigor and all their wounds, no matter how severe, close up like they never happened. Basil only stopped this act when he felt himself getting exhausted from it and cut off the magic while falling to his butt as he breathed heavily and started to sweat buckets.
Looking at the fruits of his labor around himself, he was utterly shocked at seeing how every person seemed as good as new and how long he could hold it ongoing. Curious, he pulled up his stat block and saw that his magic stat had increased to over 35. This momentarily shocked him until he remembered how much of his magic he had been using. It shouldn't surprise him that his mere stats increased the more he used them or unlocked new things.
Before he could continue to pat himself on the back for this achievement, he quickly took note of Burr violently shaking and yelling at the carriage, "Man scrimps alive in there!?"
Screams could be heard from within the carriage, and Basil practically tripped over himself to get over! Once there, he got in front of the Bugbear Chief and pushed him back while exclaiming, "Woah woah woah! Easy Burr! Let me handle the negotiation.", Burr snorted in response but stayed back as he stopped shaking the carriage. Basil returned to the carriage, took a deep breath, straightened himself out, and lightly knocked on the ornate wooden door while calling, "Hello? Is everyone alright in there? I can heal anyone who isn't?"
Suddenly, the door peeked open, and a single eye looked back at him. Upon seeing him, the eye widened, and the door was flung open as an older, plump, well-dressed gentleman launched himself at Basil and proclaimed, "Oh, thank the gods! Have you slain those nasty Bugbears!?"
"Slain?", Basil questions back.
Confused by his words, the man was about to open his mouth to ask a return question when he saw the looming figure of Burr standing behind the young man; immediately jumping to conclusion and back inside the carriage, he yelled while pointing at the monster, "Ah! You're working with them!"
Throwing up his hands, Basil exclaimed back, "What!? No, no, no! They just saved you! They're not trying to hurt you!"
"It's true, dearest, I saw it through the curtain.", a beautiful woman sitting inside the carriage told him.
The man calmed down at hearing what was assumed to be his wife assuring him; he looked back to the young man and inquired, "So you control the Bugbears?"
Basil blinked dumbly at the question before explaining again, "What? No, I don't control them. They're my friends."
The man's face lit up, and he began to rant beamingly, "I Can't Believe it! What a magnanimous, amazingly astonishing thing you have done! To think that anyone could tame these ravaging, ravenous, mindless beasts is beyond the scope of anything I have ever seen!"
As the man continued, Basil tried to interject and say, "I just said I don't control them. They're my friends!", but the man continued his praising rant, only for Basil to see this and exclaim, "Hello!? Are you listening!?", and yet the man continued to mindlessly talk as Basil stood in shock and irritation as he commented, "...oh my God you're still going."
Burr arched himself down to Basil and said in a low tone, "Man scrimp, is this plump man scrimp broken?"
"I think so, Burr, I think so.", Basil confirmed as he sweat dropped before the still-ongoing man.
"Should I whack him?", Burr offered in excitement while holding up his spiked club.
Basil shook his head and said, "No, just let him tire himself out. Shouldn't be much longer…hopefully."
But the man continued to go on and on, and at that point, Basil was more than ready to allow Burr to bonk him. But before he could, his wife stopped his ramblings with a single tap on the shoulder and a soft voice as she said, "Dearest, you're rambling again."
"What? Oh! Sorry.", the man apologized while sweat-dropping in awkwardness. He cleared his throat and correctly introduced himself, "My name is Sir Earnest Pomfret. Owner and operator of Pomfret Trade and the wealthiest merchant in Eadatria."
Ernest was an older man of about fifty years of age, short as a child and round as a ball with a kind yet bright smile upon his face. Gray long hair was slicked back off his head and covered by what looked like a beret with a thick furry mustache covering his upper lip. He was dressed in finitely ornate garments of red and violet, jewels, and covered in rich smelling perfume. This man screamed high wealth!
He means all of Xagrington.", the woman in the carriage corrected him, making the man laugh.
"And this is my beautiful wife, Lady Elizabeth Pomfret, and our new son, Jackson Pomfret.", Earnest introduced the only two carriage passengers.
Elizabeth was an older woman like her husband but a bit younger by about ten years or so. She was far taller, thin as a twig, with a softer smile than her husband's bright and overpowering one. All her golden gray hair was ornately braided and tied back in a jumbo French medieval braid. She was also dressed in ornate clothing colored red and violet, jewels, and covered in more pungent perfume. In her arms was a tiny baby no older than six months old, swaddled in soft, warm wrappings and wearing a baby bonnet. Basil couldn't see his hair, if he had any, but could see he had violet eyes like his mother.
Basil stared down at the baby, who was staring back at him, for several seconds before beaming at the child and cooing, "Cute."
Burr also looked at the baby and commented aloud, "Man scrimp pup ugly.", earning him a return stomp on the foot from Basil.
"And as thanks for saving us and my hired help from such a dire situation, please ask anything of me, and I will grant it to you!", Earnest offered.
Feeling his intuition proved correct, indeed stroked his ego, and Basil gave a knowing look to Burr before turning back to the tradesmen and telling him in a coy tone, "There are a couple of things we could use."
"A small sum of money?", Earnest asked with a knowing expression and raised an eyebrow.
Basil chuckled dryly while rubbing his head before admitting, "Well, yes, that, but also a map of the world, the continent we're on, and the countryside."
Earnest nodded and said, "Done. Anything else?"
Putting on a front before the man, Basil taps his fingers together while acting coy and telling him a sob story, "As you can well imagine, me and my friends have been traveling all around the Empty Lands for a long time. And we'd like a place to settle down and call home. So if you would be so kind, we could use a home or even a stretch of land if you have it."
Earnest smiled while nodding his head at the young man before telling him with a wave of his hand, "I know just the place! It's a lovely cottage in a forest on the main trading road. Follow me."
With newfound excitement in his soul and a smile on his face, Basil happily accepted the offer, and he, alongside the healed soldiers and Bugbears, walked along the path to the promised cottage. To say things were calm after that would be a fat lie. Despite having their lives saved from certain death, the soldiers were agitated around the Bugbears, and the Bugbears shared the same sentiment with the soldiers, looking like they would strike at them in fear at any moment. Even the two wealthy merchants could see the tension between the two groups, apart from Basil smiling happily and without a care in the world. Head empty, no thoughts.
That is until the tension became too much for Burr, who was getting weird looks from the lance wielder and whispered to Basil, "Man scrimp, when are we gonna get there, and when can we eat plump man scrimp?"
Patting his shoulder, Basil assured and told him, "Patience is a virtue Burr so just continue doing so. And no one is eating anyone, no matter how rude or empty-headed they may be."
"What if he gives us a reason?", Burr countered.
Basil sighs and replies before divulging his fantasy, "That would have to be a pretty good reason. Besides, aren't you excited! He's going to be giving us a cottage for absolutely nothing! We'll have our own place to sleep. And a way for me to start up my bakery business pretty soon. I'll make all the bread, cakes, and cookies I have wanted!"
Burr suddenly slapped him on the back of the head, knocking him from his fantasy, and commented, "Man scrimp is daydreaming again. Also, does that count as a good reason?"
Basil looked out to where Burr was pointing, confused by the statement, until he saw it himself and nearly froze up in shock! On their journey to the cottage, they had diverted up a thick, unkempt, weed-infested dirt path that led up to what Basil was so gobstruck by! Standing in what was probably the only part of an open area amongst the whole mess of plant life was a run-down home, if you could even call it that! It was so shabby that the word shabby was a mere pittance compared to what stood before him! The whole place looked like it was either haunted, cursed, or beyond what rats and termites should live in! Broken windows, sidings, rotted roof, a door with one half a hinge holding it up, the wind that whistles through the empty body, and a constant creaking sound that emanates from within.
"What the what!?", Basil finally snapped out of his shock, yelling and pointing to the thing barely looking like a home. Looking at Earnest, he exclaimed, "What is that?!"
"It's your new cottage. Isn't she beautiful?", Earnest told him with an exuberant tone and smile.
Basil snapped his neck to him and exclaimed in a half yell, "Beautiful for Malibu Betty's termite dream home, maybe! This thing looks like a haunted house where the neighborhood kids would tell ghost stories about what they heard from their grandparents. The ones where 'if you go and you never come back out' kinda stories."
"Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?", Earnest tried to persuade him.
Basil's eyes nearly bulged from his head as he stated in irritation, "A bit!? This place looks like it'll fall in on itself if we so much as breathe on it!"
At that moment, Wander, who had done as his namesake entailed, wandered to the run-down cottage to explore it. But before he could step into the death trap, his curiosity was brought to a single bent nail sticking out. So, as any child would, he pulled the nail out, only for the entire structure to suddenly collapse before everyone's eyes! Taking note of the situation, Wander dropped the nail and vanished before anyone saw him. Back with Basil, as he saw the rundown cottage fall to the ground in an explosion of dust and broken bits, the only possible thing for him to do in this situation was pass out.
Meanwhile, Earnest begins to feel nervous at seeing the home break down to nothing, and when he tries to back away, he backs right into a wall of fur and muscle. Angry fur and muscle! Looking up, he saw the irritated expression of both Burr and Brex looking down at him with glowing eyes and faces shaded over by their mass, blocking the sun from Earnest's view.
"Misses, are you hungry?", Burr asked his wife.
Brex nodded and answered, "Oh yes Mister, very hungry. How does man scrimp meat pie sound?"
With that, the two Bugbears lick their lips as they look down at the fat man, only for him to jump away from them in a panic with his arms up in defense as he exclaimed, "The Pomfret Trade company will provide you with any materials necessary to build a new cottage from the ground up at no extra cost, and will be set out to you as soon as possible! Have a good day!"
With that, he threw a small pouch of money onto Basil's unconscious body and jumped back into the carriage that raced off down the worn road with the soldiers tailing right behind! As the Bugbears watched the carriage and people disappear in a surprisingly fast cloud of dust, they all felt as though they had been scammed. Typically, they would punish such an offense, but due to their biology, they would never be able to catch up in any manner.
So Burr just growled in the direction they left and snorted, "Sneaky little man scrimp."
Meanwhile, Brex and a few other female Bugbears were aiding the unconscious Basil, who was slowly regaining consciousness. When he finally woke up, his eyes shot open. He stated in shock, "Oh, what happened? I just had the strangest dream. I was saving a traveling merchant, and as thanks for my help, he gave us this ratty-looking cottage that completely…oh my God, it's real.", he trailed off as he once again looked before the sight of the pile of rubble that used to be a building.
"What now?", Burr asked him.
Basil thought on this for a moment, and Brex helped him to his feet, then began to tell them in a chipper tone, "Well, let's look at the positive side of this. Sure, it might be a ratty, weed-infested, overgrown, unkempt, possible wasteland that he dumped on us because he couldn't get rid of it. But we still got this entire section of land all to ourselves, and it can be built however we please!"
Burr thought on this for a moment, then turned to his tribe and addressed them, "Man scrimp right! We've all been in and survived far worse than some ugly plants. We can build, survive, and live!", with that said the Bugbears voiced their cheering as they raised their clubs and other weapons into the air.
"Then let's get to work!", Basil cheered with them.
xXx
Meanwhile, back at the carriage with the Pomfrets, the two merchants and the soldiers guarding them outside had finally come to rest and not be as tense as before since they covered some distance between them and the Bugbears, who looked ready to rip them apart as they fled. After they had caught their breaths, they continued back on the main path towards…wherever it was they were going. After a few hours of silence and peace, it was apparent that Elizabeth was on edge about something. A fact that Earnest could see on her twisting face.
Before he could voice his concerns to her, Elizabeth piped up and inquired, "Dearest, are you sure it was right to give them that land? Isn't a Hag living in the swamp just four miles away?"
Giving her a reassuring smile, Earnest waved off her concern and said, "Quite right, darling, but that's the only reason the land has never been sold; apart from that, it's perfectly fine. And besides, it's not like the Hag has ever done anything. So he should be fine considering he has all those Bugbears with him.", in reality, he didn't know the answer; he just hoped that Basil would either be able to deal with or get rid of the Hag.