Chapter 83: Bonfire of Mu
Arthur opened his status quietly while the Mu Tribe began celebrating.
The notification was already there.
[Goblin King Evolution — Requirement Updated]
[First Great Tribe United: 1 / 3]
Arthur smiled. "One down," he said, to himself.
Vedas glanced at him. "What?"
"Nothing," Arthur said.
Sun, watching from nearby: "And there it goes again."
Mithra tilted her head at the notification Arthur had just closed. "I’ve learned not to ask," she said.
...
The tribe celebrated the way people do after surviving something big, before the adrenaline has fully worn off: loud and completely committed. What the village didn’t have was much food, since everything they’d been carrying had scattered during the retreat and most of it never made it back.
Arthur clapped once. "Let’s fix that first," he said.
Everyone split up. Arthur and Vedas headed toward the western section of the forest, Mithra and Melo took the south, Athena and Athy moved to the upper canopy edge where Athy’s eyesight gave them an advantage, Sun and Kong found the approaches where the terrain favored an ambush.
The Stone Bears in the forest’s mid-level denning area were slower than the Thorn Wolves and much bigger, good for feeding a village, but needing a different approach.
As they got close, the bears paused, then roared and charged, each one as big as a small house.
Arthur rushed the nearest one. Instead of meeting its strength head-on, he darted to the side and slammed his spear against its foreleg. The massive beast stumbled as its weight shifted.
"Now!"
Vedas was already moving. His spear flashed through the opening Arthur had created, piercing beneath the bear’s thick hide. Mana burst through the wound, and the giant beast crashed to the ground.
A second bear swung a huge paw at Arthur. He ducked under it and drove his shoulder into its leg, forcing it to turn.
Vedas circled behind without slowing. One clean thrust found the gap beneath its neck.
The Stone Bear let out one final growl and collapsed beside the first.
The hunt continued.
Iron Boars burst from the undergrowth, relying on speed instead of size.
Arthur stepped aside as the first boar charged past, striking its flank with the butt of his spear. The impact turned it just enough. Vedas met it head-on, his spear punching clean through its chest.
The second boar barely reacted before Arthur swept its legs out from under it, letting Vedas finish it with another precise strike.
Then came the Wind Tigers. Fast. Silent. One disappeared into the trees and reappeared behind Arthur. He spun, searching for its next move.
Another shadow flashed across the clearing. Before Arthur could call out, Vedas had already read it. He stepped forward instead of back, spear shooting upward. The Wind Tiger leaped straight into the thrust.
Arthur blinked. "You saw through that?"
Vedas pulled his spear free slowly. "The leaves moved."
Arthur looked at the trees, only now noticing the leaves still drifting where the tiger had vanished. He laughed. "That’s awesome."
Vedas scratched his cheek. "I learned from watching you."
Arthur smiled. "Then keep watching."
The beast dissolved into light.
A familiar notification appeared.
[Level Up!]
[Goblin Commander]
[Level 16 → 17]
Arthur broke into a grin. "There it is."
Vedas smiled, resting the spear on his shoulder. "Getting stronger."
...
Carrying food back through the forest, Arthur checked the Cornwall Tribe’s recent developments casually, like reading correspondence during a walk.
The numbers first: Gruk at Level 17, ten Goblin Hunters at Level 18, the Dire Wolves at Level 12, Suri at Level 14. Fifteen Sworn Followers, thirty-four Loyal Followers. Population still growing.
The news: six Goblins had designed and deployed spike trap arrays around the settlement’s perimeter. Seven Orcs eliminated in the last two days. Gruk had led nine hunters to destroy an Orc settlement by rolling boulders down a hillside into it.
Arthur laughed.
Sun appeared beside him on the path. "How’s the tribe doing?" he said.
"They rolled boulders onto an Orc settlement," Arthur said.
Sun considered this. "Good," he said. "I wish they were here to help carry dinner."
"We’d need a significantly larger bonfire," Arthur said.
Sun looked at him. "How many imaginary Goblins are there now?"
"Around a hundred and twenty," Arthur said.
Sun whistled. "With those numbers," he said, "we could probably conquer this entire Realm."
"Probably," Arthur agreed.
Mithra, walking slightly behind them. "I want to be Minister of Food."
Athena, not looking up from her notebook. "I refuse to participate."
Sun pointed at both of them. "We already have a functioning government," he said. "That just happened."
Arthur nodded. "We’re actually quite organized," he said.
He then kept reading and saw another report.
[Settlement Development]
[New Training Method Recorded.]
Arthur blinked. "Hm?"
He opened it.
[Hunter Gruk observed Arthur’s previous battles.]
[New Technique Learned.]
[Pack Rotation Formation.]
Arthur stopped walking. "...He copied that?"
Sun looked over. "What?"
Arthur smiled. "Nothing bad." He closed the report. "Gruk keeps figuring things out on his own."
Sun laughed. "I almost feel sorry for whoever attacks your terrifying tribe next."
...
Back at the settlement, Arthur moved toward the cooking fire and tried to make himself useful.
Mithra materialized beside him.
"No," she said.
Arthur looked at her. "I can cook," he said.
"I know," Mithra said. "That’s exactly the problem."
Sun set his portion of food down. "I would trust Mithra with my life in this specific context," he said, with the weight of someone who’d eaten Arthur’s cooking before.
Arthur sighed. "Nobody believes in me," he said.
Athena, passing by with her notebook: "Correct," she said.
...
Mithra cooked with the efficiency of someone taught by a person who treated cooking as a serious skill rather than a chore. Golden flames from good wood. Monster meat prepared with techniques that brought out what it had to offer instead of fighting it. Wild herbs from the forest’s edge she’d identified and collected on the way back. Crystal mushrooms from the underground section she’d noticed were edible. Forest berries one of the Goblin children added to the pile, proud to contribute.
Elder Raku had been watching for a while when he finally said, "You are very skilled."
Mithra smiled. "My father taught me," she said.
Arthur looked up from his job of keeping the fire steady. "Principal Steven cooks?" he said.
"Very well," Mithra said.
Sun set something down and turned fully to her. "Why," he said, "does the strongest Beast Tamer I’ve personally encountered also cook?"
Mithra stirred something. "He says explorers who rely on someone else to feed them aren’t actually independent," she said. "They’ve just traded one kind of vulnerability for another."
Arthur was quiet a moment. "I respect that deeply," he said.
...
The night settled in and the bonfire grew large, the way bonfires get when an entire settlement builds it together and everyone has a reason to want it to last.
The food was good. The Goblin children ate with the specific happiness of children who’d been frightened and were now safe and had been given something warm, a happiness hard to describe but instantly recognizable.
Someone brought out instruments Arthur couldn’t name. The music was old the way music gets old when it’s passed down rather than invented, learned from someone who’d learned it from someone else.
The Mu Tribe sang.
Several Goblin children started dancing around the bonfire. Their movements were clumsy. Completely out of rhythm. Nobody cared. The older Goblins laughed and clapped along.
One goblin woman grabbed Arthur’s sleeve. "Come!"
Arthur blinked. "Me?"
She nodded enthusiastically.
Arthur looked toward Mithra. "Help?"
Mithra smiled. "You’re on your own."
Arthur sighed and joined in. Within seconds he was just as out of rhythm as the children. The whole village burst into laughter, and the goblin woman he danced with grinned at him.
Arthur had barely caught his breath when one of the younger Goblins ran over. The little Goblin held out something with both hands.
It was a tiny wooden carving. A spear crossed with a hammer. The carving was rough. One side was slightly crooked. The lines weren’t perfectly straight.
Arthur accepted it carefully. "For me?"
The child nodded proudly. "So you don’t forget us."
Arthur looked at the carving for a long moment before smiling. "I don’t think I could even if I tried." He carefully tucked it inside his bag. "I’ll treasure it."
The child grinned and ran back toward the bonfire.
After a bit he sat back down, listening to the singing. He didn’t understand the words. He understood what they were doing.
Athena wrote beside him. The elder watched her a moment.
"You’re writing down the songs," he said.
Athena didn’t stop writing. "Someone should," she said.
...
At some point Arthur and Vedas drifted from the main fire and found a section of wall to sit against, where the light reached them without the full noise of the celebration.
Vedas spoke first. "Thank you," he said.
Arthur looked at him. "For what specifically?"
"For helping my people."
Arthur leaned back against the wall. "They’re our people now," he said.
Vedas went still. Not the stillness of someone who’d stopped reacting, but of someone holding something carefully after receiving it.
After a moment he said, "Do you think I can actually become a Goblin King?"
Arthur answered immediately. "Yes."
"No hesitation?"
"I’ve never doubted you," Arthur said. "Not once."
Vedas stared into the bonfire. "Thank you." Arthur tilted his head. "For believing in me."
"You said that before."
"It deserves to be said again. I’m really happy you never saw me as just a Goblin."
Arthur looked genuinely confused. "Well, because you aren’t."
Silence fell between them for a moment.
Vedas laughed quietly.
Arthur smiled. "You’re Vedas. My partner, destined to explore every secret realm with me."
Vedas trembled but said nothing.
Nothing more needed saying.
The synchronization moved.
[Synchronization: 57%]
[Synchronization: 58%]
[Synchronization: 59%]
[Synchronization: 60%]
A second notification followed.
[Goblin King Evolution — New Requirement Revealed]
[Reach Level 30]
Arthur looked at it. "We have work to do," he said.
Vedas, who hadn’t seen the notification, somehow understood the tone anyway. "When do we start?" he said.
"Tomorrow," Arthur said. "Tonight belongs to them."
...
Arthur found Elder Raku sitting away from the celebration’s center, watching everything without being in the middle of it.
"I’m sorry we were late," Arthur said, sitting beside him.
Raku looked at him. "For what?"
"The tribe," Arthur said. "People were lost. The Guardian had to hold everything together alone for a long time. We could have found this place sooner."
The Elder was quiet.
"You came," he said. "That’s enough."
Arthur was quiet a moment, then said, "When we were tracking you through the forest, we found a Goblin Hunter at a tree on the eastern approach. He’d taken a defensive position against several Thunder Wolves."
Raku’s hands, resting on his knees, went still.
"He fought until he had nothing left," Arthur said. "There were provisions set beside him, organized for someone to find. He’d done everything right."
"Describe him," Raku said quietly.
Arthur described what he’d seen.
Raku nodded once, eyes closed. "My older brother," he said.
Arthur looked at him.
"He volunteered to cover the retreat," Raku said. "He said he was the fastest." He paused. "He wasn’t."
The bonfire crackled.
"He fought like a Goblin Commander," Arthur said.
Raku’s lips trembled. "He always dreamed of hearing those words." He looked toward the bonfire, where the younger Goblins were laughing. "I’m glad someone finally said them."
Arthur nodded quietly. "He earned them."
The Elder pressed a hand against his face and held it there for a moment.
"Thank you," he said. "For telling me."
A while later, Arthur looked at the settlement around them. "When will you begin rebuilding?" he said.
Raku shook his head slowly. "We won’t."
Arthur looked at him.
"When a Commander completes the Guardian’s trial," Raku said, "the tribe moves with them. Chief Vedas is our future. Where he goes, we go."
Arthur blinked. "You’re all coming? The whole tribe?"
Raku smiled. "Chief Vedas is our future," he said again, like the repetition made it clearer.
Vedas, close enough to hear, turned and looked at Arthur, the expression of someone for whom "they’re our people" had just gotten a lot more literal.
Arthur scratched his cheek. "That’s going to make the next trip interesting," he said.
Raku smiled. "You seem like someone who handles interesting things reasonably well."
Arthur laughed. "I’ve heard that," he said. He looked at the Elder. "The next tribe, the Su Tribe. Where are they?"
Raku pointed toward the eastern forest. "If you follow the old King’s Road markers," he said, "you’ll find them within a few days." He paused. "My granddaughter is already there. She went as a scout before the wolves started following us."
Arthur turned. "Your granddaughter?" he said.
Raku nodded. "Her name is Mara," he said.
Arthur’s eyes widened. "Did she have one blue eye and one green eye?"
Elder Raku turned toward him slowly. "You’ve met Mara?"
Arthur smiled. "Yeah. She was trapped beneath a collapsed watchtower."
Raku froze.
Arthur continued. "We rescued her. But then she said she was going home."
The Elder closed his eyes slowly. A long breath escaped him. "Thank you. She told me about you all before I sent her to the Su Tribe."
Arthur scratched his cheek. "No problem. She’ll probably be surprised to see us again."
Raku laughed. "She definitely will."
Arthur smiled toward the eastern forest. "Guess we’ll be seeing her soon."
Another notification quietly appeared.
[New Evolution Analysis Available.]
Arthur frowned. "...Since when?"
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