"I think your potion worked."
He was staring at his bosom. His loosely fitting clothes were now fighting for their lives trying to hold the monstrosity back but...
*Rip
...they were severely outmatched.
Pieces of flesh were breaking through. Embarrassed could not be enough to describe what they were going through. Their faces were flushed but not as much as Ash's was.
"AAAAAHHH!!! DON'T LOOOOK DON'T LOOOOOKKKKK!!!"
Maruna got into action. She ripped off three white flags and threw it over them.
"T... Thank you."
Maruna's nose was bleeding.
She quickly noticed it and wiped off the blood.
"I... I'm sorry."
Ash sighed.
"I shouldn't have used wildcards."
"You used wildcards?"
"Well at first I didn't want to..."
"But...?"
"...Hah..."
"..."
"...You know V...?"
"..."
Park had already realized it.
"...yeah..."
"...well, he happened or is it she I don't even know."
"Uh... excuse me? We would all want to hear about this wonderful V guy but you're keeping the king waiting."
"Oh, right! we had that."
"You called them converters..."
"...hmm..."
"...interesting."
The guard cut in.
"Mi'i Ka'ngi..."
"Are they ready?"
Maruna slid a pin in place to secure the flapping white flags in place.
"This should hold you for a while but don't worry, immediately after the conference we'll go to the tailor."
"But for now..."
She pushed the three out of the room.
"We, goo..."
"..."
"Welcome my dear brothers to my humble abode. I'm dearly sorry for making you wait."
"Where is it?"
Ash was actively combing through the rags that had survived clearly searching for something.
"There was a bit of an issue with my dear representatives you see. I hope you can forgive me."
"What's up?"
Park whispered to him.
"No! No! No! No! No! Why! Why! Why! Why!"
"Ash...?"
"..."
Park held his arm.
"Ash!"
"What?!"
His eyes pulled Ash to where he was looking.
He quickly drew the white cover over the exposed region.
"Anybody saw?"
Park could hear the advisor's heartbeat spike.
"..."
"...none."
"I'd rather you see it for yourselves."
"You'll tell me later. We're up."
"May I introduce Yara, Alanna and Tessnia."
"Using the names of the three..."
The three beyond beautiful figures stepped into the limelight.
The room fell silent.
"..."
"Maybe he was actually onto something."
They awkwardly waved at the audience. Despite from a few who had evidently shown lustful eyes the rest looked at them as if they were deities of some sort.
{Due to the Converter Potion attention has started accumulating]
The goblin folk murmured amongst themselves.
{The accumulating attention is being simultaneously changed into Charm stats]
"Hmm...?"
{Your Charm stat is slowly rising]
"Oh...?"
"That's new."
"Why am I continually being drawn in more by the middle one?"
Park saw the digits change with every new compliment that the batch received.
But then...
"Mi'i Ka'ngi!"
The door flew open.
Rumpara was clearly disgusted by this intrusion.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS INSOLENCE?!?! DO YOU CLEARLY NOT SEE THAT THIS IS NOT A PLACE FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU?!?!"
"Please Rumpara, be easy, let's hear what the young man has to say."
"Thank you, my King."
Rumpara murmured expletives under his breath.
One of the guards beside the king tightly clenched his spear but with two headshakes his whitened knuckles went loose.
"So, what do you have for us?"
"The two mad men at the market are gone..."
"Unbelievable."
The guard continued.
"...but the manner in which they vanished was hardly in any sense normal."
The king was drawn in to the guard's report.
He questioned him further.
"How so?"
"Doomed."
"There he goes again..."
Ash was looking worried, but it looks like he wasn't alone this time around.
"You too?"
"What's happen..."
"They disappeared into white holes."
"..."
"..."
"...Ah."
"Guess they went home then..."
One of the representatives spoke up.
"...but didn't the red-haired one say that their world was destroyed..."
More joined in the conversation.
"...Roika'l K'erangi...uh...Apocalypse?"
(...What did he call it...uh...Apocalypse?)
"He was talking about it nonstop down to the tiniest details...Heh. If that's where the hole took them..."
The guards struck their spears down twice silencing the lively chatter.
"Khm."
"Thank you, young man. You may take your leave."
The young soldier bowed and left the room.
"..."
"If I may, my king..."
"Speak."
"Something about what the guard said struck me as odd..."
"The holes?"
"Indeed, my king."
"And something else..."
The gruff-toned goblin closely inspected the rock and to the shock of everyone in the same room pulled out a similar piece. A spitting image down to the finest details.
"...that wasn't my first time seeing that rock."
"What is it then?"
"Slow claps my king, Slow claps."
The King was playing his part perfectly.
"It looks like this guy can break the realm's rules and artificially open up a path, but such should be deemed impossible."
"You all know what happened to the great mage."
"Popped like an Alfina."
"Yes, brother. Thank you... for the... vivid description."
"The pleasure's all mine."
"Soooo..."
"Oh, right!"
"This is only just a thought..."
He looked around the room.
"...and it seems you already..."
"Just say it."
"You're ruining..."
"Hah, Fine."
"What if there are humans amongst us? They could be even in this room at the moment."
"So, what do you have in mind?"
"If they find us, we're doomed. We can't fight a whole city."
"You see, recently my brother and I were bestowed a gift..."
Rumpara continued.
"...we can see beyond what is normal."
"But it has one fucking problem..."
"...not...necessarily..."
Rumpara raised an eyebrow.
"...moving on..."
"What's the problem with...this gift?"
"It... needs two people in order to activate it."
"So, it was bestowed in halves?"
"Correct."
"..."
"Ok continue."
"We're going to carry out a screening process, very quick and painless."
"Sadly."
"Anyway, I'll get one arm and you'll give my idiot brother your other arm and see the magic happen."
The two brothers linked their arms. A minute amount of energy leaked out. The king noticed...
But he wasn't...
{Familiar energy detected]
{Corrupted energy has been identified]
{A familiar skill wavelength similar to Interrupt has been detected]
"Those guys are here?"
"Get ready everyone..."
The two brothers looked up.
The king nodded in agreement.
"As you wish."
"Let's begin then."
"..."
"T'raka Rek'an A'lkanai!!"
(We're out! We're finally out!!)
The two escaped goblins were jumping in joy. The instructor who was supposed to be guarding the gate left behind a poorly written note stuck on the box with a piece of gum. It read,
"I'll be back soon."
"Sehirkal pogoka toma?"
(Did a pig write this?)
They peeked into the box and pulled a dull misshapen rock.
"It....Looks...F... Familiar."
They dropped it back in and started looking around.
"W... Where...A... Are We?"
"A goblin with a human tongue?"
They spun around only to be met by a yellow mist. They immediately dropped.
Their vision became hazy as the mist was in its final takeover.
"S... Sleepy."
"He said something interesting would happen..."
"Hah..."
"All those years and he's still got that oddness to him."
There was a great flapping then silence.
"Huh!?!"
The instructor stumbled into view. Everything was in disarray.
"Did a fucking twister hit when I left?!?!"
"..."
"What's this?"
There was a small pouch beside the wreckage.
"For the table and chair, Sorry."
He read the note out loud.
The small pouch was opened slightly.
"Hmm..."
"Since I actually have nothing else to do..."
A clump of metal rose.
He took a huge chunk of wood and placed it on top of the metal construct.
"All that clanging will not be good for me..."
He poured out the Pouch's contents.
"Let's begin."
"1, 2, 3..."
"..."
"It looks the whole lot of you are clean."
Rumpara mockingly gasped.
"..."
"Now the only people left are..."
The whole audience looked up.
Ash was almost breaking.
"Hey."
{Interrupt has been used]
"Huh...?"
Ash felt a wave wash over him.
"Why am I suddenly feeling calm...?"
"It will all be well."
"How?"
"I'll only tell you this, believe in those wildcards."
"Will it actually work like you said?"
...
I said might...
"I'll take it."