Ryo blinked twice, clearing his eyes. A blue glittery Goblin? Surely not, right? He crouched down, lifting up its arm to inspect it. The Goblin remained still, as if it hadn't been given any instincts. Ryo observed it from multiple angles, making sure that he wasn't going insane, but it was true. A glittery blue Goblin stood before him.
'If it's a twenty percent chance to get a glittery Goblin, and a further three percent chance for it to be blue…' Ryo calculated in his head, his eyes buzzing with excitement. 'That's six thousandths of a percent. A statistical anomaly.'
Ryo took a small step back, trying to process this. His impatience had actually resulted in a great outcome. He looked over at the skeleton, still sitting in that same chair. "Did this ever happen to you?" Ryo asked him.
"I actually managed to summon a black goblin with the same type of skin back when I ran this place. Shame the poor thing was killed before it could evolve, it would've been a great boon to you." The skeleton explained. "It was murdered quite early after I summoned it, as some of my fellow Demons raided this place. They were hotshots trying to prove themselves, and my little Goblin was collateral damage."
"That sucks…" Ryo admitted, looking at the blue Goblin that stood before him. "Are these guys immediately strong, or do I have to help train them up in order to give them some power?" Ryo asked, hoping to glean some knowledge from the previous owner.
"They're pretty strong as they are, but if you fight them, they get stronger. Goblins get stronger and evolve through 'winning' fights, even if they don't kill anything. However, it's practically impossible to tell based on appearance how strong they are." The skeleton told him.
Ryo looked at the Goblins, still impressed with his bronze Goblin, but this blue one was a new development. Almost instinctually, without having to speak, the Goblins started following him. Like a duck with their chicks. Ryo walked up the helical staircase that led back to the library, deciding not to teleport this time, just in case the Goblins got confused.
Ryo tried to give them more complex commands via just his mind, but it was clear that they couldn't understand him like that. As they reached the top of the staircase, Ryo decided to test their knowledge. "Blue Goblin, please stand in front of me."
The blue glittery Goblin made its way in front of him while the others stayed behind. This told Ryo that Monsters could understand things like colours and commands naturally, at least when they were summoned in the dungeon. Ryo decided to test the blue Goblin once again.
"Please go grab me a book about Monsters. The most detailed one you can find." Ryo instructed it, and the Goblin vanished from his sight. It had moved at a speed comparable to the bronze Goblin, and who knew how long that had been around for? Well, Aragoth, but you get the point.
Around ten seconds later, as Ryo began walking towards the front of the library, the blue Goblin appeared in front of him again, holding a book titled "Monster Madness: Everything A Budding Demon Should Know Before Dungeoning!". Ryo looked at it, smiling. "You're going to be so useful, even outside of combat." He said, picking the book up out of the Goblin's hands while giving their head a quick pat.
'Goblins: Varied-size monsters, possessing a variety of skin colours which mean nothing unless they possess glittery skin, which has a tiered system. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Red, Blue, Black. They are mal-aligned and attack everything except demons indiscriminately.'
'They're about 0.8m tall, generally quite bony, not much meat/fat on their body as they live purely for survival at that stage of life. They create makeshift weapons such as sharpened sticks or sometimes even sharp rocks on the end of a stick to imitate a hammer. They have a disfigured face, with a long-ish nose and beady eyes that appear to flicker around rapidly, scanning for prey or predators.'
"I see, I see." Ryo noted, quickly reading the next paragraph.
'They can possess mutations such as Manabound, Hypertrophy and Rockskin, amongst others. They may also have evolved forms, going from Hobgoblins, to Orpheni, to Trambles. A Glittery Black Tramble is an extinction-level event.'
"I didn't know about those last two evolutions. Hobgoblins were definitely a threat, but if Trambles are so powerful, how haven't they taken over the world yet?" Ryo asked himself, prompting Inquisax to appear behind him, as if his only purpose was to give exposition.
"They all get killed off early. Too much of a threat to Demonkind, so if a glittery Hobgoblin of any colour is found, they're taken care of immediately." Inquisax told him. "Think about how strong that blue Goblin is right now. Imagine that multiplied a hundredfold, then another, and another for good measure. That's its power as a Tramble. Even if they were a regular Goblin, they'd be insane as a Tramble. So, they're killed."
Ryo looked at the blue Goblin standing in front of him. Its head almost seemed empty, as if it was awaiting a new command. Ryo looked at Inquisax, tilting his head slightly towards the group of Goblins. "Watch this." He told Inquisax, facing the four other Goblins.
"Please start cleaning the dust off the bookshelves around this place. I trust you guys to help each other reach some of the higher spaces." He told them, watching as the bronze Goblin sprinted off, leaving the three regular Goblins in the dust, literally. Those three decided to do something more methodical.
They jumped onto each other's backs, using their combined height to reach the top of some of the bookshelves. "So, the stronger ones are more like solo workers, and the weaker ones work much better in groups." Ryo noted, looking down at the entry for Goblins, noticing nothing about those behaviours.
'God, I love this place.' Ryo said to himself, teleporting to the front desk of the library. He looked down at the spellbook, which he had left there, still open on the pages about Monster Sight and Linked Communication.
[Observation Magic Canopy Spell / Parent Spell]
'Monster Sight'
'Monster Sight: The utilisation of Observation Magic in order to extend your sight into that of a nearby Monster.'
'This spell is the basis for all magic that involves Observation. The caster, while using this spell, forgoes their own vision in favour of that of the chosen Monster, willing or unwilling. Whatever it sees, you see, but not the other way around. Pair this with Linked Communication to utilise its effects to the maximum.'
'To perform Monster Sight, you must first identify a Monster that you wish to transport your sight into. Pour mana into your eyes, imagining an invisible beam connecting you and that Monster. Then, you must imagine your vision overlapping with theirs. Even if it's not an accurate representation of what their sight will be like, it's enough for the mental image.'
Ryo yelled out to the blue Goblin, who, from all the way across the library, sped down to him. It stood in front of him, standing at attention like a military member. Ryo couldn't help but find it amusing that a Monster was actually listening to him.
Mana flooded into Ryo's eyes, an invisible beam of energy connecting him and the Goblin through the use of sight. Ryo's vision faded to black, and he soon began to see himself, albeit with an unnatural yellow tint that he was unfamiliar with. The Goblin looked left and right, and Ryo's vision followed, but it was disorienting, rightfully so.
"Stand beside me for a minute, blue Goblin." Ryo instructed, and Ryo watched as his vision waddled over to him, at a much shorter height than he was used to. It was like living in someone else's body, which he kind of was. He lowered the book down to the Goblin's eyeline, just so he could read it.
[Communication Magic Canopy Spell / Parent Spell]
'Linked Communication'
'Linked Communication: The utilisation of Communication Magic in order to converse with a Linked target.'
'This spell is the basis for all magic that involves Communication. The caster, while using this spell, transmits their own voice into the mind of the Linked target. This allows for both communication with a friendly ally or to relay commands over long distances. You must already be Linked with someone though, through sight, hearing, or another sense.'
'To perform Linked Communication, you must be already Linked, as stated earlier. Then, utilising the same imaginary beam as is common throughout all Observation spells, channel mana from your mouth into it. Speak a command, a phrase, anything, and all Linked people will hear what you say.
Ryo poured mana from his mouth into the imaginary beam that he had made before, instructing the Goblin to run to the far end of the library and cover its ears with its hands. Ryo watched everything blur as he did so, causing him to stumble backwards into his throne, unable to perceive the speed the Goblin was moving at.
It stood at the end of the library, awaiting an instruction that, unless yelled, it wouldn't be able to hear. Ryo took a deep breath, and whispered a command. "Come back here with a book about cooking Monster eggs."
His vision blurred with the speed of the Goblin, only stopping for a quick second to check a few different books to Ryo's right, where Aragoth was reading. Did he ever sleep?
The blue Goblin appeared in front of him, holding the same book that Ryo had noticed Aragoth reading earlier. He had only seen a picture of an egg with fire underneath it on the cover, but he could now read the title. "How to perfectly fry Monster eggs in one hundred delicious ways!"
'Okay, so it's clear that both of those spells were designed to work together, as the Linked Communication spell is dependent on the Monster Sight spell.' Ryo noted mentally, turning off both spells. 'Wait a damn second. Why can Goblins move so fast without creating shockwaves? I've punched hard enough to make small ones, so why do Goblins just vanish?' Ryo asked himself, genuinely confused, but, eventually, just deciding not to question it as his sight returned to its original position.
"God, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing myself while looking through a Monster's vision." Ryo commented, pinching his eyes together as he readjusted. "Okay, so I have those down now, so what do I do?" He asked himself, looking around. The Goblins were cleaning, besides the blue one. Aragoth was reading, Inquisax was doing God knows what, and he was left to his own devices.
"Blue Goblin, please go help clean up the dust on the top of the bookshelves with the others." Ryo informed them, realising what he should do as the Goblin sped off. "I should give them names!"
Ryo sat down on his throne, quickly thinking up names for each Goblin. 'The blue one should be called Azure. It just seems right. The bronze one… I think… Brian just seems right. It sped off as fast as it could, so Brian suits. Next is the trio… I'm just going to name them after colours. The yellow one is Amber, the purple one is Shade, and the green one is Moss. Simple enough to understand, and I don't have to spend hours thinking.'
Ryo, satisfied with their new names, decided to just inform them the next time he talked with them. He took a glance at the open spellbook, tempted to learn more spells, but he decided otherwise. It was time he got some more people in here to loan books, but how should he do it? So far, nobody from the pub in Quebesk had made their way there.
Then, a brilliant idea struck him.
He could bring people there manually if they decided they wanted to go.