Over the next few weeks, the Halflings came to quickly settle into their new homes and lives, although it was quite a long and arduous shift. Every time they meet one of the previous residents of the bakery, they would scream in fear and run. For the Lizard Men, it made sense. It was confusing to see them scream and run from Teto despite having already seen him. It was downright stupid to see them panic before the Small Torah, despite acting normal around regular sheep. And finally, it was just irritating to see them panic over the sight of the baby Wyvern despite it being the size of a small melon, half-blind, and unable to move on its own. On a side note, Basil called the baby, Melon, from how small it was and how its downy feathers gave it a round appearance.
Basil tried many times to assure the Halflings they were in no danger whatsoever, but he quickly grew more and more irritated. Before he blew up at them, he decided to get to the bottom of it and see why they were so jumpy around literally everything! When he appraised them for the third time, he discovered that Halflings are regularly hunted, not just by monsters and wild animals, but also by intelligent creatures like humans and elves! Apparently, their meat is very delicious. So, with this knowledge in mind, he reserved himself to be as patient as possible until they finally realized that nothing had happened to them. On the plus side, he got two free goats out of the whole process!
Once the Halflings had settled in and the Lizard Men finished one of his crop fields, they showed off their natural talent for agriculture in stride! Apparently, all Halflings were born with a lesser version of his Magic Farming Skill and could cultivate the land and make crops grow twice as fast! Before he knew it, the Halflings had already planted, grown, and harvested their first haul in under a week. 98% of it went to the Halflings for the winter, which Basil didn't mind.
They even had another skill called Magic Ranching, which allowed them to do what magic farming does, but only for animals. Under this effect, animals would produce products even quicker and with high quality, in addition to maturing, mating, and rearing young even quicker! Seemingly overnight, all the sheep he had got pregnant and were ready to give birth by the current day. This was needed since Myeon couldn't provide enough silk sheets for all the Halflings at once, and they were all petrified of the giant spider!
Eventually, things became peaceful once more. And during this time, Hopkins and Basil grew closer as friends. He gave the young man someone to confide in on the same intelligence spectrum as himself and not an animate object, a creature he had to summon, a child, or someone who simply couldn't understand his ways or words. Eventually, it got to a point where Hopkins and sometimes his family would visit him for one of their many different meal times, watch the kids, or even help in the bakery. He was even called Uncle by the Halfling children.
One day, when Basil and Hopkins were experimenting with combining Halfling and human recipes, Hopkins' ears shot up in distress. As he looked around, he saw something approaching the bakery. Just as the figure approached into view, he screamed in fright before hiding under the counter, "AH! BUGBEARS!"
Basil sighed at his reaction and his own stupidity for not telling them of the Bugbears beforehand. He pulled him from under the counter and told him, "Calm down, Hopkins. They're not gonna eat you there-.", before he could finish, the doors were flung open, and Burr flopped onto the ground with a painful and heavy THUD alongside his wife and child.
Seeing this, he said, "Really hurt?", jumping over the counter and running towards his friends, he blabbered out in a mess, "Burr! Brex! Brex, What happened to Burr."
Burr looked like a mess! He had missing patches of hair, gash marks, bruises, and probably a few broken bones that weren't immediately apparent. He was breathing low and harshly, with one eye swollen shut and blood running from his nose and mouth. Brex looked in rough shape as well, but not nearly as bad as her husband, but her fangs and claws had blood on them. She had been in a fight and…got out of it. Luckily, Wander was spotless.
"Mister lost title. No longer Chiefy.", Brex told him while helping her husband roll onto his back.
Burr breathed painfully and, in between painful bouts, explained, "Did what yous says-tried to change things. Brium didn't like. Fought with Bruim and lost. Now Bruim is Chiefy."
"That's bad.", Basil replies while biting his fist.
"How bad, sir?", Hopkins asks, after hearing him mutter with his advanced hearing.
"We all might get eaten.", Basil said out of the blue, only to immediately regret it. He turned his gaze to the Halfling, and just before he could scream and panic, Basil covered his mouth while following up, "Calm down, Hopkins! No one is getting eaten! Got it?! I'll handle this."
After Hopkins calmed down and nodded understandingly, Basil summoned the fairy triplets. Before any of them could speak a word, Basil promptly told them, "You three help patch up Burr; I'm gonna deal with this Bruim character before it's too late."
The fairies said nothing in response, only sensing his profound aura before nodding and fluttering to the goblin, sprinkling their healing dust on him, causing him to recover slowly. While the fairies were busy helping him recuperate, Burr grabbed Basil's arm with what little strength he had and asked him, "Yous sure, Basil?"
"Have I ever been before?", Basil asks back.
Burr smiles at his response and says, "Yous is true scrunk."
He released the man's arm and allowed himself to rest and be healed. Just before leaving, Brex glazed his cheek with her meaty finger like a mother would her child, and Wander ran up and hugged his leg in a tight hold.
He looked up at him with big, teary eyes full of concern and told him, "Yous careful, Uncle Basil. Brium bad."
Basil kneeled down and rubbed his head with a smile to assure him. Then, he left the bakery and headed to the new Goblin citadel. As he walked, he quickly noticed he was joined by Hopkins, who inquired, "Sir Basil, do you even know what you're gonna do?"
"Not really, but I do. I have an idea of what to do, and that's to fight.", Basil told him while clenching his fist with a determined look.
"You're gonna fight a Bugbear chieftain!?", Hopkins exclaimed with shock and awe until he pondered it and inferred, "Then again, you did kill that wyvern."
"Well, it was already pretty beat up, and then Gossamer piled it up and drove it into the dirt. But I can handle this…I hope.", Basil said to him with a slight undertone of worry.
He then asked why he was coming with him, and Hopkins explained that the Bugbears were looking at him funny, especially the baby. Basil just sighed and told him no one would eat him and that the chance would be far greater if he followed him. To which the Halfling told him he just felt safer with him in any situation. So he shrugged and accepted it.
xXx
Once they made their way to the quarry where the Bugbears lived, Basil noticed how a large stone wall had been constructed all around the perimeter. Once past the walls, they saw how the interior of the quarry had several spots with small stones and dozens of wooden spike walls! They had really stepped up their game from last time.
Upon entering the cave, Basil saw that things hadn't changed apart from the smoothed walls and strange crystals illuminating the many branching hallways. Using his Appraisal skills, he discovered that they were called Moss Light Crystals--rock formations caused by bioluminescent moss calcifying. Interesting, Basil thought.
Before going further down into the cave, he quickly popped his head into the room where the vampire's coffin was and saw the stack of rocks piled to the ceiling, much to his relief. Then, he proceeded deeper only to find an enormous opening and a long, winding set of stairs that led to the bottom. Hopkins looked at him as if asking what this was, and Basil shrugged.
So they descend into the darkness. Luckily, Hopkins can see pretty well in dark areas and leads the man by his hand so he doesn't trip or walk straight off the edge of the stairs, which have no railings. Once they got a certain distance from the entrance, Moss Light Crystals began to pop up and light the area, allowing Basil to walk freely.
The moment he could see it, he almost wished he couldn't, as he saw the massive amount of work the Bugbears had done over the last several months! In the dim darkness of the cave, he noticed a sprawling landscape of stony towers with light in each window or hole opening. The jagged tall towers all lined the deep dark area deeper and farther out than his eyes could trace! Had they really made all of this? How much more was there down here? Was there more to be seen? How far did they go, and could it go further? But he pushed these questions aside as he focused on the task at hand.
Traveling further down, they eventually reached the bottom, where the floor was more jagged and uneven. As they looked around, they heard the loud noise of many voices shouting or cheering. Using Hopkins to follow the sound, they found an area covered in the Moss Light Crystals. It looked like a fighting ring of some kind, with dozens of individuals surrounding it or on top of odd-looking boulders made to act like bleachers.
Without any hesitation, he pushed through the crowd with no fear until he finally broke free to the center. Looking around, he noticed two things: first, whatever was happening before had ended. Second, there were a lot more Bugbears present. In fact, there were dozens of them now! Including a few more creatures that were definitely a part of the goblin race, but he'd figured that out later.
Standing without fear before the silent crowd, he announced to the massive crowd, "So sorry to disturb…whatever is going on here, but I'm looking for the new chieftain."
Suddenly, a figure sitting atop what looked like a throne of bones and stone stood up and walked down to him, saying, "That be me."
The figure came into view, and Basil saw it was another Bugbear who looked like Burr. But then again, he did have face blindness for just about any non-human race he'd met, so he knew it wasn't him. He had some injuries on his face and body that were still fresh, and he knew this was the goblin he was looking for.
Standing before the huge creature, Basil proclaimed boldly, "So you're this Bruim character I've heard so much about? Under different circumstances, I'd say it's nice to meet your acquaintance."
"Yous not welcome here. Leave!", Bruim roared at him.
Hopkins hid behind Basil's legs as he wiped the spit from his face. Once cleaned, he shot back, "Oh, I'll leave, but right after I've said my peace."
Bruim narrows his eyes and demands, "What yous want, man scrimp."
"It's been a while since I've been called that.", Basil chuckled at the nostalgia hitting him. But seeing the Bugbears' annoyed expression, Basil got to the point and told him, "I've come to challenge you, chieftain Bruim! For the right as chieftain of this clan!"
Silence and a small gasp filled the room until it broke into laughter! As everyone, including Bruim, bellowed out laughing, Basil just stood there with a despondent expression on his face.
After calming down, Brium told him flat out, "Yous can't challenge me! Man's can't be Chiefy of goblins. Now go!"
He then turned to return to his chair, and just as he reached the base of it, he heard Basil vex him, "Oh, what's this? Is the biggest and strongest in the clan scared of a man scrimp, hmm?"
A collective ooo made its rounds amongst chuckles and snickering. Brium stopped in his tracks, craned his neck, and asked rhetorically, "Yous think I fear yous?"
"Then why don't you fight me?", Basil challenges as Hopkins gets even paler with each word.
But Brium still doesn't look intrigued, so Basil pulls out his ace and offers, "How about this? Let's make a deal. If I win, I become the chief, no ifs, ands, or buts about it."
"And when I win?", Brium asks boldly.
Basil smiled at his question and replied, "You can eat me, everyone who lives on my land, and everyone in Ash End."
"Sir Basil!", Hopkins exclaimed.
Hearing this and seeing the Halfling's reaction, Bruim licks his teeth, smiles, and says, "Deal."
So the two take opposite sides of the large ring, and just before they meet in the center to go face to face, Hopkins chatters, "Sir Basil. Can you really take on a bleeding Bugbear of all things?!"
Basil gives a small sigh, wondering that himself until he tells the Halfling, "If you had asked me that same question a few months ago, I would have said no. But now I can take him."
Just to be sure, Basil quickly took a quick peek at his stats and saw that it read;
Bugbear: 20 Strength, 15 Stamina, 33 Health, 4 Charisma, 15 Fortitude, 2 Knowledge, 0 Magic, 22 Speed.
He was happy to see that he wasn't considered a chieftain yet but also curious. Pushing that thought aside for now, he looked at his own stat sheet and saw that his new stats were;
45 Strength, 101 Stamina, 177 Health, 20 Charisma, 48 Fortitude, 33 Knowledge, 99 Magic, 33 Speed.
Smiling impishly at this, he says under his breath while approaching, "Oh, I can definitely take him!"
When the two fighters come to the center of the ring, they stare one another down or, in Basil's case, up at him. After trying to get the other to back down, Basil quickly inquires, "So what are the rules of this fight?"
"No rules! Fight with might until yous win, and no tricks.", Brium tells him while pounding his chest.
"Is magic allowed?"
"Magics is might, so ye."
Basil smiles at this realization, and the two take a few steps away before another Bugbear roars to start the fight! In a moment, Brium shoots out his arm to grab Basil, but he ducks and counters with a fireball! The flame hits the creature head-on, but when the smoke clears, he's still standing like nothing happened.
"I had almost forgotten how tough you guys are. Guess I gotta be more creative.", Basil says to his opponent, who only roars back.
Bruim tried to fire his arms out at him rapidly, but Basil dodged every time and shot light magic at him, which did nothing more than make him even angrier! Foregoing his long-ranged tactic, Bruim rushes in to attack while Basil stands there and continues to shoot light magic with a suspicious light ball floating around his head.
Once he is in range, Basil causes the light ball to fly in front of him and explode in a flash of light, temporarily blinding the beastly goblin! While Bruim covers his eyes, Basil goes in with the old one two three on his stomach, which is one of the few soft spots on a Bugbear's body. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough strength to do any damage and tries to double back.
However, Bruim grabs Basil with one hand, sharp nails digging into his flesh! After clearing his eyes, he tries to bite Basil, but he realizes too late that he hasn't grabbed both arms. With one arm free, Basil sends a stream of fire directly into the monster's face until he is finally dropped, allowing him to run away!
Once, a fair distance away, he heard Hopkins shout at him to be careful. While Bruim was busy ripping his melted eyelashes apart, Basil gave Hopkins a thumbs-up and winning smile, only for his smile and complexion to fade fast. He felt his body grow weak and numb while his skin grew pale. He felt sick and dizzy. He was confused and wanted to know what was happening and how to stop it before Brium got the upper hand.
He quickly appraised himself and found he had been poisoned with some kind of neurotoxin. He knew that Bugbears weren't toxic, so he appraised Bruim again, this time adding Clairvoyance to the mix. There, he saw that the Bugbears claws were coated in the same stuff. It was no wonder Burr lost, Bruim used a trick! This also meant Burr was still Chieftain despite the loss since it wasn't won with honor. That's why Bruim wasn't considered a chief in the system!
Now, he just had to get rid of this toxic substance, but he quickly found that the effects began to wane as fast as they came. Was it a weak dosage or had a short impact? He appraised himself again and realized he had gained some new Skills. Apparently, they were from the Lizard Men he named, and he mentally hit himself for not realizing this before. He had gained the skills of Semi-Aquatic Respiration, Tough Claws, Sharp Fang, Tough Gut, and Minor Restoration. Looking over the skills they all described;
Semi-Aquatic Respiration: grants the ability to hold breath for several minutes including being able to breathe through skin.
Tough Claws: causes nails of any length or type to be used as a weapon.
Sharp Fang: causes teeth of any length or type to be used as a weapon.
Tough Gut: grants the ability to digest any kind of material, whether rotten or inorganic.
Minor Restoration: grants the ability to regenerate from minor injuries and poisons.
Bingo! That's precisely what he wanted to see! Thank God he picked up that skill from the Lizard Men; otherwise, he would've lost this fight. Then, a ten-foot arm hit him in the face.
He rolled backward several feet until inertia stopped him. Rolling to his stomach and sitting on his knees to rub his sore face and broken nose, he saw Bruim charging at him with a spiked club! First, he'd beat him and then expose his lies! But how to do that was the problem. So he turned on thought acceleration, and the world slowed down. With this time, he quickly thought up a plan.
He would just have to hit him harder than his natural armor could withstand and keep out of range from his ten-foot reach!... Thought Acceleration doesn't make you smarter. Either way, he still had something. So he shot off a mix of fireballs and light balls at the beast until he was covered in smoke.
Bruim broke through the smoke and saw that his opponent had vanished, with the only thing in his place being a precariously placed rock. Another large rock hit his side when he looked behind it, causing him to tumble over! He quickly got to his feet, roared toward the thrown stone, and got whacked in the back by another one! He turned around but heard another rock being thrown at him and intersected it with his club, smashing it to bits!
He saw Basil dashing between several large rocks and throwing them in his direction! Bruim kept smashing each stone that was thrown at him, and Basil slowly lost ground. Once the Bugbear got close enough, he spat his honey at him, and Basil blocked it by erecting another stone. He then erected more around Bugbear and threw the one covered in honey at him just when it would explode! With no way to dodge and not enough time to swing his club, Burim took the full explosion!
Basil waited for the smoke to clear, but a large hand shot out and grabbed his neck! Holding him up in the air, a toasty-looking Bruim came out with a smug expression. His claws dug into his flesh, injecting more of the toxin, but Lesser Restoration kept it from advancing through his system. Basil even caught sight of the Bugbear chewing on something, and when he appraised it, he found it to be something called Rough Root. A subterranean root plant that, when eaten raw, causes the Fortitude stat to increase alongside the Health stat gingerly.
Basil grimaced at this and choked out, "So that's how you did it." Bruim looked at his statement strangely until the man said, "I know." Bruim's prideful expression dropped as he continued, "I know you cheated and how. You didn't win; you're not the chief!"
Bruim sneers at him for a moment, but worry hides behind his eyes. He then smiles and says in a low tone, "Yous won't be alive long enough to say."
"Humph. Is that a fact?", Basil asks back with his own smug expression.
Slightly distracted by his bravado, Basil took his chance to strike and dug his nails into the bugbear's flesh with Tough Claws, causing him to cry out! Once his neck had some wiggle room, he separated the hand from his neck and bit down hard with a mix of Sharp Fang and Venomous Fang! Once he was dropped, he doubled back and allowed Lesser Restoration to take effect. Using healing spells was risky since it would cause him to lose stamina faster.
After doubling over in pain, Bruim got up to attack but stopped before he could take a second step closer. He fell to his knees with his vision blurred! Seeing this, Basil boasted to him, "What's wrong, Bruim? Is my venom too much for you to handle?"
"Yous cheat!", he argued loudly, trying to get him disqualified.
But Basil quickly shouted, "You said the only rule was to fight with all your might. That means anything natural to you, and my venom is natural!"
He then collected the venom in his hands and covered both his hands in them. Activating thought acceleration, he ran to the Bugbear, moving slowly, and began to land a flurry of blows on his face and stomach! At one point, he was knocked to his back, and Basil pinned him on his knees and began pummeling his face left and right!
"Is this how you did it, huh?! Is this how you beat Burr before Brex kicked your ass!", he yelled at the beastly goblin until he was grabbed by the ankle and held up.
Covered in bruises or venom, Bruim shook his head before telling him, "It was! And this is what I did to his misses!"
Bruim then lifted the man up and slammed him on the ground multiple times! Luckily, Basil saw this and caused plant life to sprout where he was being slammed to cushion his impact! But he knew he couldn't do it forever, so he manifested a knife and stabbed it into the goblin's wrist! Bruim roared in pain and threw Basil away, only for him to cause more plant life to burst up from the ground and catch him.
As Basil picked himself up from the ground, he saw Bruim pulling out the knife and crushing it in between both hands! He then took a large leap and covered a huge distance before running to close the gap! But Basil acted fast and shot out spider silk from his hand! The web hit his body and the ground, but the goblin easily pulls it off. So Basil kept shooting webs from his fingertips individually until Bruim was all but covered in the stuff! He next shot one wide web connected between all fingers and ran around before jumping off and spinning around the goblin until he was entrapped entirely by the web!
Taking a moment to step back and breathe, Basil knew he couldn't keep this up for much longer! He had to finish this quickly! Even his own unique brand of venom wasn't very potent, and the Bugbear had already shaken it off. He really underestimated their resilience, and that Rough Root gave him a boost. Using Future Sight, he saw it wouldn't be long before he made the first break in the restraints and broke free.
"Come on, come on! There's gotta be some kind of weakness!", Basil stressed to himself while looking all over his opponent with Clairvoyance and Appraisal.
Only for both skills to level up and something strange to happen to his eyes. Upon looking at the beast, he could almost see what looked like a reference sheet for its weaknesses, immunities, and so forth. Putting this aside for now, he glanced at weaknesses and saw that Bugbears had an innate weakness in electricity!
"Wait! No. I don't have any Lightning spells…unless.", Basil began to think, only to be knocked out of his thoughts by Brium breaking one arm free!
So Basil causes stones to erect all around the Bugbear to give himself more time! He quickly opens his Skill Tree and looks for the first thing that looks like something related to lighting! But after several seconds and a dozen webs snapping sounds heard from the rocks, he begins to panic! Then his Clairvoyance kicks in, allowing him to see past his anxiety and figure something out. Lightning is just sharp fire!
So he went to his light magic tree and looked around for something to help! Then, a skill called Electro Persuasion was just a little bit off and connected to a completely different skill tree from the Root of Dusk. Thinking nothing of it and forcefully unlocking everything up to where it attaches to the Root of Dusk, he quickly put up a giant cutting board as a stone was launched at him! He looked behind it and saw that Bruim had freed both arms and most of his upper body. He was chucking the rocks layered with his honey!
Basil knew that he didn't have it in him to blast him repeatedly with lightning since he probably had something that could help him resist it. So it had to be big and strong! He rummaged through his Magic Pocket as an exploding boulder hit his only line of defense. Finally, he pulled out a sack of melon seeds, which gave him an idea!
He touched the ground and could feel it was wet. The floor was moist, and there must have been water underneath it. So he threw the seeds as fast as he could between himself and Bruim, then used his nature magic to make the seeds grow rapidly!
Once the seeds were fully formed with fruit, he made the vines around Bruim rise into the air, and the roots on all plants dug deep into the stoney floor. They quickly hit the water, and Basil caused the fruit to swell up with the water, making them look more like water balloons than melons.
He then threw a light ball between all the fruit and caused it to splash in a line between him and Bruim, who got covered in the liquid! But this didn't deter him from throwing explosive rocks at the surprisingly intact cutting board, even when his legs were free and he could charge him!
He knew nothing about using his new magic, so he held his index and middle fingers together, curled the others into his palm like a ninja, and focused!
"Come on! Work, damnit!", Basil cursed.
Suddenly, his fingertips buzzed and sparked with electricity, and before he knew it, his whole hand was covered in lightning! He smiled at this and heard a Bugbear's short, harsh footsteps charging him! He knew it was now or never, so he clasped both hands together, allowing the lightning to be shared and double in power!
He jumped from behind his barrier and slammed both hands into the water! The lightning carried through the water in a second, and Bruim lit up like a Christmas tree! A roar of pain echoed from his electrically charged throat, and when the circuit was cut, the pseudo-chieftain fell to the ground!
The roars of cheering from the crowds of goblins went dead silent in a single sharp gasp! Basil stood to his feet, half dazed and exhausted in the silence. A single voice and clapping hands broke the deafening quiet, where all eyes fell upon the only Halfling in the room!
"Bravo! Bravo! You did it, sir Basil! You did it!", Hopkins cheered as he bounced to Basil in two hopes and tackled him in a hug!
Basil laughed at the praise but told him in a small voice, "Thanks, Hopkins, but take it easy; I'm still in pain right now.", to which the Halfling obliged.
Once Basil stood back up, a tall goblin creature approached him and said, "Human. You…actually beat him."
Basil looked at the well-spoken goblin and replied with confusion, "Is that really such a surprise? You guys often come to blows with humans. Don't you?"
"We didn't expect someone like you to do it.", the goblin explained.
"Big things come in small boxes.", Basil said back with a shrug.
"Indeed, we all misjudged you.", the goblin agreed.
Suddenly, all the goblins, Bugbears, and whatever else around him began to fall to their knees and bow their heads before him. Feeling uncomfortable by this, Basil inquired awkwardly, "Soooooooooo now what?"
"Whatever you want. You are the new chieftain.", the tall goblin told him.
After a minute of organizing his thoughts, he asked the strange goblin, "Well…can I ask what you are? Are you some kind of taller, hairless, red Bugbear?"
The newly announced hobgoblin informed him, "I'm a Hobgoblin. Have you ever heard of my kind?"
The Hobgoblin was much different from the Bugbears in just about every way! If it weren't for him confirming he was a goblin of some kind, Basil would have assumed he was just something else entirely. They stood taller than the Bugbears but far less broad at the shoulders. They lacked the rippling muscle, and the only hair they possessed was on their heads, which was long and black. Their skin was a cream and hard red mix, with oval opal-colored eyes, small mouths filled with sharp teeth, short pointed ears, and a broad, flat nose that reminded him of an elephant seal. Surprisingly, this one and all others wore proper armor or clothing as opposed to the pelt and loincloth worn by the Bugbears. And he was very well-spoken, not the broken English that the Bugbears use to communicate all while carrying a fine-looking spear.
Basil shrugged and replied, "Only Bugbears. So if you're a Hobgoblin, they're Bugbears, then the little guys are-?"
But before he could finish that sentence, a small something tugged at his pant leg, and he heard a shrill voice yelling at him in a high pitch, "Man's! Man's!"
Looking down, he saw what was the most iconic description of goblins he had ever seen pulling at his leg. A small green humanoid with beady eyes transitioning between red, off-white, and black, sharp teeth, large ears, sharp features, and clothed in garb that it probably robbed off some poor sap. In addition, there were two.
Seeing the two goblins pull at him like children, Hopkins attempted to scare them away by treating them like pesky chickens.
"Shoo shoo! Get away from sir Basil!", Hopkins tried swatting them away with his tail.
One of the two goblins jumped back, but the other stood his ground, bared his teeth, and gargled, "Meat no talk! Meat runs and screams!"
This is enough for Hopkins to panic, and he jumps onto Basil's head while yelling in fright, "AH! HOLD ME, HOLD ME!"
Looking down, he replied, glancing over at the hobgoblin, "Yes, little…goblin?" to which the hobgoblin nodded in confirmation.
"Man's have gold?!", one of the goblins asked in a demanding voice.
"I-what?", Basil questions.
"Gold! Man's have gold for goblins!?", the other demanded.
"No.", Basil replied with an uncomfortable tone.
Suddenly, the two of them went completely silent, and before Basil could say or do anything else, they both started to make a sound similar to that of a child screaming, crying in complaint, albeit at a much higher tone! But before they could continue their horrid noise, the hobgoblin came in and swiftly kicked both of them away, causing one to fly into the crowd while the other scampered away like a bug!
After ensuring they wouldn't return, the hobgoblin told him, "Goblins are stupid."
"So I've seen.", Basil says back before following up, "So besides looks, how are all goblins different from one another?"
The hobgoblin looked shocked by this question but explained to the young man, "We Hobgoblins are the tallest and smartest of goblin kind. Bugbears are the strongest but lack wit. And standard goblins are witty, crafty, and very adaptable."
"That explains why you're so well-spoken.", Basil said under his breath before inquiring, "So what exactly do you all call yourselves? I know the Bugbears refer to themselves and all goblins as just goblins, but I'm sure you have your own system."
Now the hobgoblin looked even more impressed and slightly taken aback by his inquiry, but in a good way. He hadn't been asked these questions, but it was nice nonetheless. So he explained to Basil, "Gobbledygook is very hard to translate certain words into the common tongue, but the most straightforward translation is Red Goblins, which are hobgoblins. Hairy goblins, which are Bugbears. And Small goblins, which are your standard goblins."
"You call standard goblins…scrimps?", Basil surmised, remembering what Burr told him, to which he was given a silent head nod. Tapping his chin, he said under his breath again, "Now I understand.", he quickly cleared his throat and announced to the surrounding crowd, "Speaking of which, I believe it's about time that every goblin here understands something."
"What be that, chiefy?", one of the Bugbears in the crowd asked him,
"Understand change.", he answered, getting a slew of confused voices asking and talking over one another. So to quell their confusion, Basil announced, "And I think the best one to explain this is your previous chieftain."
Motioning to one area, all the goblins dispersed to allow the aforementioned Burr to walk into the center ring alongside his wife and child. Burr looked much better than he did before, and the fairy triplets were still fluttering around him. Once they saw Basil, they flew over and dropped onto any available space on his body in exhaustion. Basil praised them for their hard work, and they thanked him back, sneakily calling him boss.
Even Wander couldn't help but run up and latch onto the man's leg in joy and relief. To which he picked him up in his arms, now possessing five small beings scattered across his still painful body. Once Burr had made it to the center in full view of the stunned crowd, Bruim woke up at the same moment and saw what was going on!
So he vehemently protested from the dirt, "Burr?! You no come back! You exiled!"
"Silence!", Basil yelled, ensuring an uproar wasn't incited. Once things were quiet again, he told the goblins, "As your newest chieftain, I at this moment pronounce that Burr's exile to be undone and welcomed back into the tribe."
"Y-Yous can't do that!", Bruin argued, trying and failing to get off his stomach.
"Isn't the chieftains word law?", Basil questions him with a knowing look, making the crispy Bugbear glare at him. Turning back to the previous chieftain, Basil offered, "Go ahead, Burr, tell them what you think."
So Burr looked at the crowd, and in his natural tongue, he spoke to them. "Brother and sisters! Goblins of all kin! I, Burr, have come to a realization that all must follow for our people to thrive. That being change. We must change and adapt our ancient ways of the old as it has come to only limit and weaken us in the long run. Our ideologies, though grant the best, hurt the weak that could become strong.", he told them, getting a round of different tones of disbelief to pass around. Burr then motions to Basil and Bruim, arguing, "Look upon Basil here. He was once a scrimp of no worth or might. And yet here he stands as a champion that can best any one of us."
Another low muttering made its rounds in the large crowd before Burr continued his speech, telling them, "We cull the weak so our strong may thrive. And yet we put so much on the strong that it can break them, and then, only those who can barely hold on are left behind to suffer and pass on this fate.", he said in a low and disappointed sounding tone, martyred by the weight of many expectations and stress, something that was unanimously agreed upon silently from the crowd. Clenching his hand into a fist, Burr said in a much louder tone, "We must be better! We must be smarter and not just stronger! We must change!"
Many of the goblins agreed, even talking a bit louder amongst one another in discussing this thought. Until one of them called out, "Are we just to abandon our ways? The ways that have helped us through the most horrid points of our history?"
Burr shook his head and assured that goblin, "No. We are not getting rid of them, only changing them. Discovering what works and what doesn't. For the betterment of all."
With his speech finished, the crowd of different goblins all began to raise their arms and cheer! Burr looked around with satisfaction, and Basil came to his side, lightly nudging his ribs, and telling him, "I have no idea what you said, Burr, but I'm sure it was amazing and inspirational."
"Much thanks, man scrunk.", Burr thanked him in the common tongue.
Clearing his voice, Basil announced, "And as for my second and last order as chieftain is for Burr to be reinstated as the chief.", another round of gasps escaped from the crowd, and the goblins began to spew questions until Basil quelled them by arguing, "Before anyone argues, didn't Burr just say that change was needed? And who better than the goblin who discovered this himself."
This got them back on his side, and in a low rumble, they began to agree unanimously.
While this went down, Burr looked at Basil with a mix of shock and gratitude, asking him to be sure, "Really?"
"I told you I would handle everything.", Basil replies with a knowing smile and wink.
Burr smiles back, placing a huge hand on his shoulder while offering, "How can I thank man scrunk?"
"Just rule as a better leader than before, by example for the next generation, and if it's not too much to call upon your strength every now and again, that would be great.", Basil replies with a hopeful expression, to which Burr nods.
At this point, Brumi has recovered enough to stand on his knees and breathe heavily. Burr sees this and approaches the injured Bugbear, looking down on him with a shaded expression, with nothing but his eyes piercing through the proverbial darkness.
Bruim sneered at him and questioned rhetorically, "Burr gonna exile Bruim."
"No.", he replied firmly, causing a look of surprise to spread across the other bugbear's face. Reaching out a hand, Burr offered him, "Wants to give a second chance to be better for others and tribe."
A look of self-doubt, regret, and thought crossed over the Bugbear's face all at once as he looked between Burr and his outreached hand. Gingerly raising his own hand to his, he slowly moved it closer and closer to an expected Burr, only for things to shift drastically. Bruim's face twisted to anger, and he clawed the hand away while standing on his wobbly legs!
"Burr is weak! Burr has always been weak! Bruim is stronger than he! Bruim prove it!", Bruim yelled loudly and angrily into the chieftain's face.
Only for Basil to use his nature magic to cause all the Rough Root, he had hidden on his body to grow at such an accelerated rate that it hooked the beastly goblin to the ground! More gasps followed this sight, and Basil prompted him, "Then how do you explain that? And this!" he exclaimed while pulling out a strange yellow slug creature that oozed an electric yellow substance.
A standard goblin came to the forming puddle, licked it, and suddenly froze up while falling to the ground. More gasps went around the crowd, and the faker was finally found. Even still, Burr offered him his hand again, but Bruim quickly snapped at it while breaking free of the roots.
Once free, he stomped out of the ring and sighted, yelling, "Don't need this! Don't need any of yous! Burim will make new tribe elsewhere and stronger than Burr!"
Once he was entirely gone and everyone else awkwardly dispersed, Burr came up to Basil's side, tapped him, and asked, "Why didn't Brium agree?"
Basil looks at him sadly, places a hand on his shoulder, and tells him, while looking off in the direction the Bugbear stormed off, "Even if you give someone a second chance, they may not accept it. Some people…just can't be helped."