Chapter 31: Goblin Commander
The light faded, and the examination grounds quieted into the specific silence that followed a teleportation, the brief pause between arrival and recognition.
Roland had been about to look away when he stopped.
Something felt wrong.
It wasn’t a threat but the sensation that something big was going to happen. Then the last traces of teleportation light vanished.
Silence filled the examination grounds.
A figure stood beside Arthur.
The crowd had not registered it yet. They were still looking at Leon, still processing the dragon, still absorbing the information from the last several minutes of the examination closing. So the few seconds before anyone else saw what Roland was seeing were his alone, and he used them to look.
A tall goblin with silver-black armor that covered his entire body. A spear held in their hand while a shield in their other one. Golden eyes that moved across the assembled crowd without hurry, cataloguing rather than reacting.
Then a student near the front of the crowd turned from Leon and saw it and said. "What is that?"
The crowd turned.
The silence lasted approximately one breath.
Another student blinked. "Wait."
A third pointed. "Is that a Goblin?"
The crowd immediately exploded.
"No way!"
"That’s not a Goblin!"
"It’s wearing armor!"
"Goblins don’t HAVE armor."
"What happened to it!?"
The students who had never seen Vedas before immediately lost their minds. But they weren’t the only ones reacting. Several students who had witnessed the battle near the crater suddenly froze.
Their expressions changed.
One rubbed his eyes. Another leaned forward.
"No." His voice shook. "No, that’s not right."
The student beside him frowned. "What?"
The noise hit Roland from every direction at once. But he looked to see another of the Instructors dropping his clipboard. Someone in the back of the crowd stood on something to see better and knocked into the person beside them.
Another one of them said quietly to the person beside her. "No wonder."
The other one just nodded. "You see it too?"
Another student pointed. "The armor."
The armor was different.
The spear was different.
Even the way Vedas carried himself felt different.
Another student swallowed. "...Who did they rob to get that?"
A third slowly spoke. "It feels like it was made for it."
Silence.
Then his eyes widened. "Unless... It changed again."
The words spread through the crowd.
Again?
What did he mean again?
Roland’s eyes narrowed on Vedas, and his mana swept over the beast.
Goblin.
...No.
Goblin Warrior.
...Still wrong.
The mana was too refined.
Too powerful.
Roland’s heart skipped.
Impossible.
Whatever stood beside Arthur was unlike any Goblin Warrior he had ever seen. He looked again, and nothing changed. For the first time in twenty years... Professor Roland Hayes wasn’t sure what beast he was looking at.
The representatives nearby had noticed his reaction.
One of them stepped closer.
"Professor Hayes?"
Roland didn’t answer.
Because he couldn’t. His mind was trying to solve an impossible puzzle.
Then another voice spoke.
"Looks like I lost."
Silence fell.
Everyone turned to see it was Leon Draken who had spoken. He was standing nearby with his Golden Dragon beside him. The crowd instinctively parted. Even now, the evolved Golden Dragon was enough to draw everyone’s attention.
Arthur blinks. "Huh?"
Leon smiled before looking at Vedas.
Mephistopheles looked toward Vedas. Then lowered its head once. Like acknowledging an opponent.
Leon looked toward Arthur. "My Dragon evolved once... But your Goblin evolved twice."
The world stopped.
For a moment, nobody reacted. Nobody breathed. Nobody moved.
Then the entire examination ground exploded.
"TWICE IN ONE DAY?!"
"THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE."
"LEON SAID IT HIMSELF."
"HE WAS RIGHT THERE, LEON JUST SAID—"
"NOT EVEN THE GRANDMASTERS HAVE—"
"IN ONE DAY?!"
A Pathfinder representative had sat down on a bench without appearing to decide to. He was looking at his own notes with the expression of someone whose notes had stopped being useful.
A student with a direwolf had both hands on the top of his head and was simply blankly staring at the ground.
Someone knocked over a display stand in the rush to get a better view. The exam students who had been inside watched the crowd.
"No wonder," one of them said, to nobody.
"Twice," another confirmed, like they were checking a fact they had already known.
"Twice," the first one agreed. As if the crowd catching up was pleasant but not surprising.
The word spread like wildfire.
Roland felt his head spinning as Leon evolving his Golden Dragon was already impossible. He wasn’t joking when he told Cassian that no one had done this before. Not even Grandmaster Beast Tamers could accomplish something like that on the first day.
But Leon was Leon.
The greatest genius the Draken Family had produced since its founder.
An SS-Rank Talent.
A Golden Dragon.
If anyone could perform a miracle... Perhaps it was him. Roland had managed to rationalize it, and that was barely. He even believed the Draken Family might have given Leon some tips and a strategy to make it easier.
But then Arthur appeared.
A commoner.
An F-Rank.
A Goblin.
And somehow... He had done something even Leon hadn’t.
Roland stared at Arthur. For the first time in twenty years. He genuinely had no explanation. His entire understanding of Beast Tamers was beginning to crack.
"So it wasn’t my imagination."
Roland turned. Cassian Valemont was standing several feet away, looking at Arthur with the expression of someone whose suspicion had been confirmed at a scale larger than expected.
"What?" Roland said.
Cassian looked at him. "That’s why I was asking. Earlier."
Roland froze.
The earlier conversation replayed inside his head.
How do beasts evolve? Has anyone evolved a beast on the first day? Not even the Grandmasters?
His stomach dropped.
Cassian hadn’t been asking theoretical questions. He had been asking because he had seen it.
The representatives were already moving.
Noble recruiters.
Family representatives.
"We need Arthur."
"No! We need Arthur first."
"No! I saw him first."
"You absolutely did not."
Everyone wanted to know what happened.
Everyone wanted Arthur.
The crowd became louder.
...
Students began piecing things together.
"The Goblin from the crater!"
"The one that fought Leon!"
"The one everyone kept talking about!"
Another student swallowed. "...Then the rumors were true."
His friend immediately looked at him. "What rumors?"
The student hesitated. "...Arthur beat Leon."
The area around them froze.
"What?"
"That’s impossible."
Several students immediately nodded.
"There’s no way."
But another student pointed toward Leon. "...then explain him."
Nobody could.
Because if it was true, Leon would have been denied back in the exam.
Another student swallowed. "If Arthur can do that..."
He looked toward Leon. Then toward Arthur. "...what kind of monster is he?"
Nobody answered. Because suddenly nobody was sure Leon was the scariest person in their generation anymore.
...
The representatives had located Arthur and were moving toward him. Noble family recruiters. Other Academy scouts. The crowd around Arthur was growing with urgency that emerged when multiple well-funded parties identified the same valuable target in the same moment.
"Arthur Cronwall ."
One recruiter immediately repeated the name.
Another nodded.
"Remember it."
A third representative was already pulling out a communication crystal.
"We need to report this immediately."
The first two turned toward him.
Neither disagreed.
...
Arthur looked around at the growing crowd. "...Why are they all coming over here?"
Nobody answered.
Roland watched the students instead.
Every conversation somehow circled back to Arthur.
"Hey now... While this is shocking. Let’s not forget there is a somewhat reasonable answer." One instructor suddenly pointed toward Vedas. "The Goblin most likely sensed its evolution was clear and did it."
Several people immediately nodded. After all, a Goblin evolution requirement should be too high, and maybe this one was a bit special.
Vedas shook his head. "No."
Silence.
Then he pointed toward Arthur. "My Beast Tamer does."
The crowd froze.
Vedas continued. "I only followed the path he showed me."
The silence somehow became even heavier. And then the crowd erupted even harder as many stared even harder at Arthur.
Arthur looked around. Then leaned slightly toward Athena. "Is this normal?"
Athena stared at him. "No."
Mithra immediately nodded. "Not even slightly. But it might not be all bad."
Arthur frowned. "Really?"
"Yeah, you will become famous." Mithra burst out laughing.
...
The crowd was still processing when Roland walked towards Arthur Cronwall. Twenty years of classroom presence cleared the path. People moved without being asked, and the noise level dropped.
The exam students in the back settled.
One of them said, barely audible, to the person beside them. "Here it comes."
The person beside them nodded without taking their eyes off Arthur.
The representatives had stopped moving forward. The instructors had stopped arguing. Even Leon was watching now, turned slightly toward the conversation, and Leon rarely watched anyone.
Roland looked at the goblin standing beside Arthur and then at his nonchalant look.
"Arthur Cronwall," Roland said. "How did you do it?"
Complete silence.
"Did what?"
"Evolve your beast. That... That Goblin shouldn’t have been able to reach this point."
Arthur blinked before glancing around. He saw how the entire square had become quiet. Representatives leaned forward. Students held their breath, and even Leon watched.
Arthur thought about it. Genuinely thought about it and then tilted his head. "Was it supposed to be difficult?"
Nobody moved.
Roland processed this sentence. "What?"
Arthur considered. "I mean, it wasn’t particularly hard. Any reasonably attentive person could have done the same thing." He paused. "It would be genuinely embarrassing if I’d failed to evolve him."
The examination grounds did not explode this time. It collapsed. A representative nearby produced a sound that was not a word. One of the Pathfinder instructors pressed both hands against his forehead. Another instructor sat down and another looked ready to cry. One instructor quietly questioned his career choices.
Roland blankly stared with a lifeless gaze. Leon’s smile grew as he leaned on Mephistopheles. Cassian slowly closed his eyes. Athena immediately covered her face, and Mithra started laughing again. Melo yawned as it continued resting on Vedas shoulder while Athy covered her face. Even Vedas was looking away.
Arthur looked around. Everyone looked traumatized. He leaned toward Mithra. "...Did I accidentally say something rude again?"
Mithra looked at him. "...Again?"
Arthur scratched his cheek. "...It keeps happening."
Nobody knew how to answer that.
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