Derium Plains, Daggerfall.

00:23 a.m. 18th Banem 1092.

Crackle! Boom!

While the monsters army in Kirkcour Woods trembled under the lightning tribulation wrought by the vengeful daeben, disaster encroached upon a small goblin tribe across the continent beneath the cover of a rare thunderstorm.

Crackle! Boom!

Within one of the run-down buildings in the dilapidated village, Bok comforted a litter of scared goblin newborns who wept in fear as the heavens rumbled and roared. The young goblin looked at the pouring rain with unease and trepidation. He had intended on fleeing the village immediately after Rudega left, but the thunderstorm had forced him to halt that plan. The little goblins could not travel in such a heavy storm, besides the pursuers would most likely have taken a break to hide from the thunderstorm.

"Don't cry little ones, it's just a little lightning," Bok comfortingly said as he squatted over the children and patted their heads. "It'll pass after a short while." The goblin could understand why the babies were so scared as this was probably the first thunderstorm they had ever experienced.

'It'll also be the last for most of them.' Bok's gaze lowered as he thought of the most likely outcome for these scared babies. Goblins were not recognized as humes and as such did not receive any protection from the civilized nations. Adventurers often hunted their kind either for sport or for 'righteous causes.'

This all started who knows how long ago...

Apparently, some desperate goblins somewhere had taken it upon themselves to rob and kill humes for food and resources. These crimes, coupled with the goblins' high birth rate and short maturity period led to a common fear among humes that one day, the savage creatures would proliferate across the continent like locusts and destroy everything they touch.

The humes, in response, labeled the entire goblin race as savage monsters that should be cut down on sight to preserve the natural order. This order led to the near extinction of the goblin race as they were hunted down to the fringes of the continent. These savage executions eventually caused the desperate goblins to resort to cruel and sinister methods to ensure their survival. The entire race devolved into madness over several generations of constant persecution and retaliation, which ultimately resulted in the current reality where goblins either hid at the edge of the world or committed the worst of atrocities on hume settlements both as retaliation and to gain resources and strength to survive.

Bok snorted, rage burning in his eyes as he thought of the stupidity and futility of the entire situation. The humes persecuted the goblins out of fear. The goblins retaliated out of desperation to survive. The humes, angered by the goblins' atrocities, oppressed them even harder. Unfortunately, all this did was push the goblins to the end of their ropes, and their subsequent atrocities were even worse. Be it the humes or the goblins, both sides had created a tail-eating serpent that would never end.

Bok, although born with intelligence that was light years beyond the average goblin, knew he could not do anything to change the current state of affairs. As such, once he became the chief, he took his tribe to Daggerfall where those abandoned by the continent came to hide. While there, he planned to start a small community and see if it was possible to teach regular goblins to be self-sufficient, if only through hunting.

Bok looked up at the goblin mothers who sat by the litters with reluctant pouts. He sighed as he realized this was something the goblins needed to work on. The complete lack of empathy between these mothers and their children was a severe weakness which also impacted how many of these babies would live past their first year on this continent. However, this kind of thing could not be forced. Bok decided he would do some further research into how to fix this particular trait. For now, though, the tribe needed to keep working on becoming self-sufficient.

Crrackle! Boom!

"Aaaah!" "Aaah!" "Aaah!"

Bok's eyebrows shot up as the babies resumed their crying after another peal of lightning. However, what shocked the goblin was the fear and terror in the mothers' eyes as they looked at something behind him.

Bok's spine ran cold as he slowly turned around.

Crackle!

'No, it can't be!' Bok trembled as the lightning briefly illuminated a massive, dark silhouette at the doorway. The silhouette towered over the door, revealing a bulky, muscular frame that brought a terrifying existence to the goblin's mind.

The silhouette ducked, then stepped past the door into the building. Sure enough, Bok's heart plummeted as he looked into a pair of dark grey eyes belonging to a member of the strongest race in all of Daggerfall, an orc.

Bok instantly regretted his decision to stay. He should have fled the village with the tribe immediately after the dwarf left with his orc friends.

"Skraaa!" One of the female goblins let out a sharp war cry as she took out a shiv hidden under her garment and rushed at the orc.

Bok's heart leaped to his throat as he saw the look of contempt and disdain flash in the orc's eyes. "Stop!" The goblin cried as he turned and tackled the goblette to the ground. "Urgh!" Bok grunted as he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He, however, ignored the pain and screamed at the desperately flailing goblette, "Stop! Orc Strong! Can't beat! You anger, All die!"

Reason seemed to replace fear as the goblette stopped flailing and let out a series of guttural sounds as she looked into Bok's eyes. Bok responded in the goblin's native tongue then looked at the other goblettes in the building and reassured them.

Bok, after making sure the goblette would no longer take any drastic actions, released her and stood up. He winced as he looked at the shiv buried in his abdomen, and stifled a groan as he yanked it out. The bloodied knife clattered to the floor as he looked up at the orc with a powerful gaze. "Bok thank orc for mercy."

The orc did not seem to take Bok's words heart as he only grunted and said, "Everyone, outside. Now."

Bok's heart shook, and he attempted to bargain. "Me, tribe chief. I answer questions. Leave rest alone?"

Unfortunately, the stone-faced orc was having none of it. "Everyone outside. Don't make me repeat myself."

Bok kept a hand over his injury and spoke in the goblin tongue to the goblettes. Heeding his words, the goblettes obediently placed the goblin babies into baskets and followed the orc into the streets.

Bok's eyes twitched. Dozens of orcs patrolled the streets, pulling goblins out of houses onto the street. With almost psychic-like accuracy, the goblins were weeded out of their hiding places and corralled at the center of a street. Bok obediently gathered with the rest of his tribe and faced the orcs with trembling in his heart.

Eventually, after all the goblins had been found, an orc larger than the rest walked in front of the goblins and coldly beckoned, "Who's the chief?" If Durst were there, he would have recognized the orc to be Renark Ragelock.

"I am," Bok fearfully said as he stepped forward.

Renark looked at the goblin. "You speak the common tongue?"

"Little," Bok replied with a shaky nod. It was not wise for a goblin to reveal themselves as intelligent. It often led to them being murdered to 'prevent a goblin uprising.'

"Good." Renark snorted. "I won't harm you as long as you answer my questions truthfully."

"Y-Yes. Thank you!" Bok gratefully said as he fell to his knees and bowed to the orc. "Answer all questions. Only truth. No lie!" Bok promised.

"Did a dwarf and two orcs pass by here?" Renark asked and closely monitored the goblin for any signs of deceit.

"Yes!" Bok instantly answered. He did not dare lie for fear of the consequences if he were caught. "They go to house. Enter tunnel," he said as he pointed at the 'mayor's duplex.'

"Smart choice," Renark gruffly praised. "Lead the way."

Bok led Renark and a few of his subordinates into the building's basement and pointed at the broken hammer image on the wall. "Dwarf do something. Wall open."

Renark frowned as he studied the image for a few moments, then said, "Dwarven enchanted lock. It'll take too long to force this open." He looked at one of his subordinates and ordered, "Bring the dwarf."

The subordinate nodded and ran up the stairs. Moments later, he returned with a discheveled, scared dwarf in hand.

Renark regarded the scared Uthman with a sneer. "Little dwarf, if you wish to continue living, I suggest you tell me something useful about this tunnel."

Uthman eyes twitched as he stared at the hammer imprint in disbelief. Things must have really gone to shit if whoever the orcs were pursuing had chosen to use this passage. The poor dwarf had been kept captive by Renark ever since they left Oerbora, and as a result, had no idea what had transpired during the meeting. But judging from their current location, it could not have been anything good. Uthman looked at Renark with equal parts rage and fear and shouted, "What did you do!? Where's Farvulia-sama!?"

Renark snorted, and his eyes burned with rage as he tightly gripped his ax. He glared at the dwarf, voice trembling as he struggled to control the rising rage and said, "Your clansman, the Thonurs betrayed us. They set a trap for Durst and slaughtered several orcs. Luckily, they did not account for us and we were able to surround and rout them before they could deal even more damage. But they severely injured and took Farvulia hostage as they escaped. We've tracked them to this location. Talk dwarf, we must get revenge for our people or else we'll take it out on every dwarf in Daggerfall."

Uthman trembled under Renark's intense gaze. He could feel the orc's righteous anger and knew he would get burned if he did not give the orc what he wanted. Although he had been skeptical at first, Uthman did believe that the Thonurs could betray the orcs and Farvulia. If Renark had suggested that Farvulia did something underhanded during the meeting Uthman would not have believed him, but the orc's current story was quite plausible.

There was also the matter of the final threat. Indeed, if Renark did not get his hand on the Thonurs, and was able to prove that the attacks were solely perpetrated by the Thonur household, this could lead to a nation-wide war.

Uthman did not want that kind of responsibility on his head. The dwarf looked at Renark and honestly said, "These tunnel was built by the Farvulia household for the worst-case scenario where the dwarfs had to flee the country. This one travels underneath the Wazir river to Serisis."

Renark's eyes narrowed. "I'm guessing this is not the only one of its kind. Where are the others?"

Uthman remained tight-lipped.

Renark snorted. This was a matter of life-and-death for the dwarven race. There was no way Uthman would so readily give up that information. Renark shifted his focus to more important issues. "Do you know how to open the door?"

Uthman approached the door and just like Rudega before him, began to run his fingers along the diagram, injecting mana into several node points. Unfortunately, he stopped after roughty ten seconds with a grim expression. "The last person to access this changed the code after he entered. It'll take forever to crack if I'm working blind. But if someone saw them alter the code, I can use that as reference."

Bok shivered as Renark looked at him and rapidly shook his head. "Goblin memory not good. No remember." This was a known trait among goblins, and why they were doomed to limited civilization growth despite their sentience. They had short-term memories and barely remembered anything past a few moments ago. The only memories they retained over long periods of time were their instinctual memories, those required to survive, their language, and finally lessons that were repeatedly hammered into their heads over a long period.

Even Bok, with all his intelligence, needed to write down most of his ideas on the ground or stone to remind himself after his short-term memory kicked in. Only after repeatedly enforcing the idea in his head would it then permanently stick. He had only seen Rudega use the inscription once, following which he did not practice it or anything. It had long since been wiped out from his memory.

Renark's gaze flashed. "But you saw what he did, didn't you?"

Bok tentatively nodded.

Renark nodded then took out a rink from a waist pouch. He inserted his mana into the device and connected to the only rink linked to it.

"Well, well, Renark, I did not expect to receive your call so soon," a sultry voice called out from the sphere.

"We have a problem," Renark flatly stated, ignoring the woman's tone. "I know you're close. Come, we need your help to catch Durst."

"Alright, We'll be there in five minutes," the voice sweetly replied in a sing-song voice then cut the call.

"Five minutes huh," Renark muttered with a dark expression as he pocketed the rink. "Yet I never noticed them..." The orc's eyes narrowed. This was the consequence of making a deal with the devil. He now had to look over his shoulder at every turn.

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