[20] How to evolve your goblin
“Fuck” Jade cursed for the umpteenth time.
It had been a week since she was tamed, and in all honesty, a part of her would have hesitated to accept if she knew the training hell she’d be in. But she was glad regardless.
“Just one more,” Amber said, looking down at her.
“You said that four fucking times!”
“It’s good to train till failure, and this is the last time I promise you can do this.” Amber encouraged her.
With a grunt, Jade pushed up from the ground, and with Amber’s help removing the weights off her back, she collapsed, huffing in sweat.
“You did well; you can take a healing bath now; I already prepared it.” Amber smiled.
“Uah, thank you so much!” Jade regained her energy after removing her clothes. She jumped in the tub, mixed with water and healing potions.
A pleased gasp left her as she felt the bath doing its magic to heal her body. She looked at her reflection in the water, seeing how much she’d changed just a week ago.
Firstly, she never went to sleep starving, and that alone made Martyn look more like a hero in her eyes. Secondly, having proper food to eat and nutrition allowed her to grow slightly; she no longer looked frail, and thanks to adequate food, training, and the healing baths, she easily packed on meat and muscle.
She was no longer bald, sporting a short length of hair. Hygiene wasn’t a new concept to her, and she quickly adjusted to it. She no longer smelled; her yellow teeth were now white, and her long nails were cut and smooth.
Amber sat beside the tub as Jade rested in the warm bath.
“So how was it in the mines?” Amber asked
Jade hummed, “We were originally from the forest, but the chieftain had ambitions and goals; he killed our previous chieftain with his dark magic and had us use the old mine; it was everyone for themselves, even if it was under his leadership.
I became the smith for the tribe, luckily too, as it made me valuable. He also made me one of his concubines.”
Amber nodded in silence. “That doesn’t sound like the worst that could’ve happened.”
Jade shrugged. “In some ways, I had to stay useful; otherwise, I’d be replaced. But that’s all in the past, and besides, this life is much better. I was expecting to die right then and there, but when I saw the request, I felt as if a god had answered my prayers. The chieftain wasn’t happy; he called me every name in the book, but I didn’t care.
These past few weeks were better than my time in the tribe. But I have a question about Master. I know I should call him Martyn, but I still feel a little uncomfortable with it. But what is he expecting from me?”
“If you’re thinking you’re just a concubine to him or just a blacksmith, then you’re not,” Amber said between chuckles.
She smiled and told Jade a summary of her time with him, including how Martyn listened and cared for her and how he was harsh when she acted recklessly a few times.
She became more detailed on the conflicts they faced inside and outside the dungeon and how that experience bonded them. He cared about her own goals, even if they were simple ones, and their brush with the assassins made her realise how much they meant to one another. When she was done, she smiled at Jade.
“You hold the same importance in his eyes as I do; though I’ve been with him longer, yes, it doesn’t make your importance any less. And you don’t have to worry about being replaced.”
Goblins had no notion of love, so when Jade heard everything, she was at a loss for words. But knowing she’d never be replaced put her at ease. Yes, she expected a better life from now on but wasn’t sure for how long it would last.
“Master is amazing. I mean from everything; even when you made a mistake, when I made a mistake, I got beaten, so I learned to never fuck up. From everything you said, he sounds great.”
“And you’ll get to see it with your own eyes.” Amber nodded.
Jade hummed resolutely, seeing her status appear, displaying her increase in abilities.
“I think I’m ready to evolve.” Jade jumped up, splashing water everywhere.
“Don’t be too excited,” Amber said, throwing a towel at her face.
Jade giggled, stepping out of the healing bathtub and cleaning herself. She put on the leather dress she had made for herself.
“Do you think Master will be okay fucking me after I evolve? I’ll get bigger and stronger too, less goblin-like and more human-like, and my tits will finally grow.”
Amber giggled. “I think he’d be happy with you now if you didn’t have jagged teeth; he’s more worried you’ll accidentally, well, you know.”
Jade shrugged off part of her understanding of Martyn’s worry, and she too found it funny enough to giggle with Amber.
“What’s so funny?” Martyn asked, arriving at the barn.
The two said nothing about changing topics. “I think she’s ready to evolve,” Amber said.
“Did your stats increase?”
“Yep!” Jade said proudly, “Psyche and strength are up there, and the other stats are good too.”
Amber smiled, and Martyn nodded, checking her status. "Well, now’s the best time; with winter rolling in, we’ll need to be back in the city,” Martyn said as he pulled out the hobgoblin monster stone.
Jade’s eyes lit up as he tossed it over to her, who caught it with glee. Without any hesitation, she ate the crystal and saw her status light up. The evolution of goblins was rather simple. All they needed was the core of a monster greater than them.
Jade huffed, focusing on her status and evolution option; she only had one, as all goblins evolved into hobgoblins, and then evolutions branched out from there.
“This evolution is going to take me three hours. I think you’ll like how I turn out,” Jade smirked, choosing to evolve.
In a flash of light, she yawned, her mana seeping out of her body. Martyn held her as the mana covered her body, wrapping her in a cocoon.
“Three hours, huh? We’ve got time; wanna laze about?” Martyn said, placing Jade’s cocoon down gently.
Amber yawned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Martyn dragged out a folding chair from the barn and laid down. Amber smiled and plopped her body on top of his.
“There’s enough room here for the both of us,” Martyn said.
“I’m well aware, but this is my favourite spot.” Amber snuggled up to him.
He said nothing but chuckled as the two of them basked in the sunlight.
“What do you think of Jade?”
“She’s a great addition; thanks to her and your skill in sharing our senses, our mana’s increased quite well. She’s got a bit of a foul mouth, but then again, goblins aren’t known for their gentle nature. I like her; it’s like having a best friend, but I know very well what you have in store for us.”
Amber pinched him, and Martyn giggled, pinching her back.
"Oh, and what might that be?”
“Mn something indecent and dirty, and I’m sure it will have us exhausted.”
“Hm, I was thinking something else, but I like where your heads at.” Martyn smiled, squeezing her sides and making her giggle.
“Of course you do, but I don’t think the bed will hold on any longer.” Amber grinned.
“Is that a promise?” Martyn asked.
She rolled her eyes, resting her head on him, and Martyn gently rubbed her back in thought.
“We might have to consider moving out; we’ve got the money; all we need is the rank.”
Amber nodded with her eyes closed. “Why do we need to become C-ranked before we can buy property?”
Martyn groaned, hugging Amber. “Why the hard questions?” He huffed as Amber hid her laugh.
“I’m not too sure, it might be the nobles, some old rules; all I’ve heard when I was briefed was for credibility. If a young upstart E or D-rank adventurer buys a property, chances are that their death would bring a loss of taxes and other things.
It’s hard to know if an adventurer has died in a dungeon, and because of how long it takes to confirm, they included ranks, as C ranks have a lower mortality rate than those below. I don’t remember everything from the briefing; I’m sure we can read about it, but it’s a boring topic.”
Amber nodded content, her tail swishing around slowly above them, blocking the sun’s light for a moment with each swing. Martyn smirked, doing the same with his tail.
The two enjoyed each other’s warmth as Jade was undergoing her evolution, pulling out a timer from the inventory Martyn set for a few moments before Jade’s evolution was complete. Just in case they took a nap.
“Ah, I need to tell you that Kobolds don’t do well in the cold. It tires us easily; we sleep longer and are less active,” Amber said.
“Alright, we can fix that with Jade or Jorn if she can’t apply a heating enchantment to your equipment.”
“Mn, okay,” She yawned, wrapping her arms around Matryn, even going as far as coiling her tail around his feet.
Amber snored, lightly falling asleep under the sun. Martyn smiled, pulling out a blanket from his inventory with his magic floating it above, covering them in the cool shade.
While Amber napped, Martyn stayed wide awake, his mind wandering elsewhere.
‘They still haven’t found the last assassin, though if we ran into him now, we’d beat him with no problems but still.’ He looked down at Amber, everything from the fight surfacing in his mind. He coiled his tail around her instinctively.
‘I need to learn spatial rend soon.’ He thought.
With a mental command, he pulled out the space magic book from his inventory, floating it above him to read without disturbing Amber.
‘Spatial rend, I have an insight into the spell from when I absorbed the skill core,’ Martyn thought to himself.
Normally, the spell he’s trying to learn is advanced for space mages, on a similar level to teleportation.
Spatial rend allows one to tear literal space; it brings the sharpest cut that could not be defended by normal means, sharper than any swordsaint slash—a perfect cut. It could even create a vacuum with enough practice to absorb attacks.
The most Martyn could do was cause fissures in space to appear in front of him; they only lasted a second or two, but he made more progress than other recorded space mages in a month. All thanks to his mental sub-skill, making the process easier with every practice. But he made no progress beyond that.
‘No wonder space mages are wanted in the army,’ Martyn sighed, embracing Amber in comfort.
He mentally flipped through the pages with his “magic hand,” coming across a spell he found interesting.
‘Gravity volume?’ He read the spell mentally, and slowly his emerald eyes glistened with excitement.
'Alright, for next time, then.’ Martyn smiled, putting the book back in his inventory.
He relaxed, his body loosening. Martyn took a nap before doing so, made a mana barrier, and fed it enough mana for it to stay up so the blanket could remain on it and not fall, providing them with shade.
As time passed, Jade’s evolution was coming closer and closer to an end, and close enough, her consciousness woke up.
‘It’s almost time,’ she thought, slowly feeling her evolved body.
‘I hope master will fuck me now that I’ve evolved.’
Like that, they blissfully napped for the remaining minutes they could before the alarm woke them up. The sun was no longer rising and was now resting above their heads.
“Is it time?” Amber asked, rubbing her eyes and crawling off Martyn.
Martyn yawned a yes as they turned to face the cocoon. The light dimmed, and soon enough, bursting out, was a beautiful hobgoblin.
Jade wobbled, adjusting to her new height and form. Amber and Martyn took her in from head to toe. First, her hair was no longer short and had instead been down to her shoulders; her face was a smooth green; and so were her eyes.
She had a small, cute nose, and her teeth were now aligned and straight. Her face flushed slightly from Martyn’s intense gaze.
Going down, her body had grown and matured; the leather dress clung to her tightly, showing her curvature; her chest was on the same level as Amber's, if not slightly perkier from visual appearance; and she had grown to slightly below Amber’s height. She looked amazing.
“You look great.” Martyn smiled.
Amber nodded too. “You do," she said, her mind wandering elsewhere.
"So, can we fuck now?” Jade walked up with an excited giggle; Martyn could feel it through the bond. She leaned up on her toes, and Martyn pulled her up for a deep kiss. Jade was a bit wild, hopping and wrapping her legs around him, her perky breasts pushing on him.
It would’ve been great to continue and let this situation evolve, but Martyn pulled back, leaving a flustered Jade.
“Let’s first get back to the city.” He chuckled.
Jade pouted in protest but understood. Amber giggled, grabbing the goblin girl by the shoulders. “Think about it this way; when we get back, he’ll only have time for us. The both of us~”
Martyn raised a brow, a thrill rose through him at the image of the two of them. All hot and sweaty beneath him, quivering and begging for his seed.
"Ahem, alright, the both of you should do some practising or something; I’m taking a nap. A caravan’s passing through here and heading to our city soon; we’ll take that and leave in an hour. I really should learn teleportation, even portal making, so we can always get back home.” Martyn said before shooing the girls away.
Finally, alone, he sat back on the folding chair with a content smile. He made the right choice, offering Jade the bond. He was content with the way he acquired Jade, and even though the smile on his face tugged slightly, something in him stirred as if disgusted. He was content ignoring that feeling.
Regardless, he shut his eyes, enjoying the sun, before two shadows loomed over him, and two warm bodies sat next to him, curling up into his body.
Jade and Amber sighed, choosing to rest with him instead of training or some other activity, and decided to join Martyn in resting under the sun before they had to leave.
“Mn, you were right, Amber; this is the most comfortable seat ever.” Jade cooed, resting her head on his shoulder.
Amber giggled, leaning up to kiss Martyn. He simply smiled, wrapping his arms around them and giving both a gentle squeeze at the hips. This peace was all he wanted and would strive for.