Tutorial Rewrite 41 (Patreon)

The next day, early in the morning, the army sets out again. This is only after breakfast, which I spent eating with the priest.

I didn’t sleep all night, but in a sense, I did nothing but sleep. My brain feels weird inside. I don’t think I had a single thought all night, but I also did nothing but think. About nothing. About everything. Inside the cage, I couldn’t see the stars, but I could feel the night. Everything was so silent. But not completely. In the middle of the night, amidst that great big silence, you could hear a bunch of young guys laugh and snicker amongst themselves, coming from a little tent. And then one of the commanders, dressed in nothing but a nightgown with a matching cap, marched inside and shouted at them. But a few hours later, they were right back to it.

And I just have that information, and I don’t know what to do with it.

The priest didn’t use chain on me when he gave me a sandwich and something in a bowl that had the same texture as hummus. When he left, I heard someone call him Simel. I’ve heard people call him that before. I think, from now on, I’ll call him that, too.

I look up at Simel. Simel looks back at me.

Without anything else to do, without anything else to say, I point at him with my right index, and before he can make a show of his confusion, I point it at myself. The arch of his brows goes up. After swallowing what was in his mouth, he opens it to ask something before remembering that it doesn’t matter. So, instead, he points his index finger at me.

<Chain.>

After a minute or so, the effect wears off. I take a bite of my sandwich to prove it. Then, I repeat the pointing thing, but with my right thumb instead.

By this point, he has caught onto the game, and he quickly follows along.

<Crush.>

A weight falls on my shoulders, pressing me into the floorboards, though not hard enough to break any of my bones or the floorboards beneath. Just enough to be a real bother if I wanted to move around. It lasts a bit longer than Chain though, so I guess that’s the main difference. Still, it gave me a nice tolerance.

<You have learned:

Pressure Tolerance Lv.1>

<You have learned:

Pressure Tolerance Lv.2>

Excited to check out the next finger, I point my middle finger at him, only realising once I was already flipping him the bird that it wasn’t the nicest gesture to make. Hastily, I hide it. But he didn’t seem to mind, so maybe that isn’t an aspect of goblin culture? They probably have something, it just isn’t the bird, specifically.

Simel, smiling slightly, flips me off.

<Call.>

Huh. For some reason, I really want to approach Simel. Like, physically. I almost get to my feet before realising that, 1, I shouldn’t be getting closer to him, and 2, I don’t have any feet. Once that understanding settles into my brain, the spell lifts.

<You have learned:

Divinity Tolerance Lv.3>

Now this is what I call effective training.

As the whole army starts marching and Simel takes his place in the small cage, we continue the game. In the end, I’m able to recall all ten of his available spells.

Right thumb, Crush.

Right index finger, Chain.

Right middle finger, Call.

Right ring finger, Curse.

Right little finger, Cure.

Left thumb, Cover.

Left index finger, Catch.

Left middle finger, Cold.

Left ring finger, Char.

Left little finger, Crackle.

Weirdly enough, all of the spells start with a c. Then again, in the goblin language, they might all be different, and it just translates like this by sheer coincidence. Who knows?

Once I knew all of them, the game shifted a bit. He’d use one of them, and I’d try to guess which one it was by the way it felt and then show it by using the proper finger. If I got it wrong, he’d use it again until I got it.

If it made me feel like my body was filled with icicles, it was probably left middle finger. If it made my brain fill up with static and make my legs spasm, it was probably left little finger. If it felt like a soft blanket of air befell me, it was probably left thumb. And if it felt like nothing at all, it was probably left index finger.

From what I can guess, catch does exactly what it sounds like. It locates you. And unlike the others, it doesn’t show up as a pop-up message, so I can’t even cheat if I want to. But it still raises my divinity, and, weirdly enough, my stealth skills.

All and all, not only did I learn countless new tolerances, I also got a few to the resistance rank. Considering how willing Simel was to play the little game, I’m pretty sure he gained something from it as well.

Once evening arrived again, the army stopped once more and set up camp. The dinner was some sort of soup that, for once, contained meat. It was alright, but I kind of preferred the more vegetable-focused ones. The bread was as good as ever, though. And then night fell.

And for some reason, I feel more relaxed than I have in a long time. Sure, I’m chained and feetless, but this isn’t all that bad. It could be worse, you know. They give me food, and I’m not really asking for much else. Food, and… company.

Company. That’s… a bit new.

I have no idea what to think. I’m confused and unsure, but somehow, it doesn’t feel bad.

And I guess, right now, that’s what’s important.

Within what feels like only minutes, dawn arrives. I eat breakfast with Simel, and when we set out, instead of going into his little cage, he stays in the big one, beside me, sitting on the floor. We continue our game. After a while, my tolerances get so high I don’t take any damage anymore, but it still hurts, and through that pain I can tell exactly which one it is. If I wanted to, I could have won every time, but I don’t. On purpose, sometimes several times in a row, I let myself lose, if only because then I get to hear his laughter. If that’s the cost of getting zapped several times in a row, then so be it.

After the lunch break, when Simel returns, he brings a small bag of wooden tablets with him. He spreads them out on the floor between us, and then the game begins. I have no idea what the game is. He tries to teach me, but I genuinely can’t understand it. One side of the tablets has a picture, the other has a number of dots between one and seven, and somehow you’re supposed to stack the tablets atop each other to make towers. I have no idea what rules govern it, but he laughs whenever I accidentally make a tower topple, so it’s okay.

In the evening, the army stops once more to set up camp, but somehow, the atmosphere is different from before. There’s excitement in the air, alongside a strange sense of melancholy. Simel doesn’t say anything, but for some reason, he seems blue. I wish I could ask about it.

We eat dinner, and evening turns to night.

In the middle of the night, Simel shows up at my cage. Even though I have literally never said a word to him, he hushes me. I feel indignant. You hushing me made more sound than I have ever made in this cage. I would call this ironic, but it’s something else, too. Not sure what, though.

While I’m trying my best not to make a mean face, he sneaks inside. He’s holding something between his hands. Going by the way he keeps glancing around like a robber who just snatched a blood diamond, it could either be a very small frog or crack cocaine. I’m leaning towards the former, but Simel doesn’t feel like the kind of guy to go and catch a frog, much less that he would actually come to me about it. I raise a single brow at him. He hushes me again, even though I’m pretty sure facial expressions are mostly soundless. Then again, goblins have really big ears, so they might be able to hear that, but… I really hope not.

He sneaks closer to me, thrusting his closed hands in front of my face. Alright, alright, I see that you’ve got something. Just show me what it is.

He meets my eyes, and then he glances around a bit again, just one more check to ensure no one’s around, and then he finally opens his hands.

…What even is that?

It’s like a tiny red crystal ball. Well, it’s actually two of them, but that doesn’t change the matter here. It’s a tiny glass marble. Sure, it’s pretty, but what do you expect me to do with it?

He gives me a large grin, as though he actually thinks I know what this is. I’ve said this before, but I really don’t know.

Not listening to my internal thoughts, he picks one of the red marbles from his hands and holds it up to my face. Y-, you better not be asking me to eat that piece of shaped glass, because even if I would probably survive, it’s still not exactly something I make a habit of—

Once again not listening to my very rational thoughts, he literally shoves the red ball inside my mouth. I’m not kidding. Who even does that? Just shoving balls into people’s mouths is…

Hang on.

Mm. Mmmm. Mmmmmm!

Hey, this ain’t so bad! It’s like… It’s like candy, but not quite as sweet, and… I really can’t describe the flavour, but it is certainly sweet. It isn’t fruity, but it tastes like how I would imagine rubies might taste if they were edible. It’s really good. Where did he get this?

Noticing my enjoyment, Simel gives a chuckle before popping the other one.

For a few minutes, we just sit in the darkness, slurping candies and enjoying each other’s company. Mm. Yum. It’s good.

The darkness outside has fallen completely. As is my standard nightly tradition as of three days ago, I scootch as close as I can get to the bars in order to catch the slightest glimpse of the stars outside. I still can’t believe how beautiful they are. Not very cool of me to say, but they really are. There are just so many of them. Like a swarm of frozen fireflies. It’s nice.

I can feel Simel watching me. I glance back at him, and the expression on his face is just so melancholic that it makes me freeze, no spell needed. He looks down at the floorboards. A lot of them are covered in my blood. He frowns at it. For some reason, I don’t like how sad he looks. There’s no need to feel sad here, is there?

I don’t really have time to think more than that before he approaches me. His face is set in a grim, deeply serious expression. And while I stare at him, almost dumbly so, he pulls out a bundle of keys. My eyes burn onto them, and then I lift my gaze up to his face.

When I look back down at his hands, he begins making a series of gestures. First at me, and my chains, and then outside. And then, he makes a movement, going back in. He’s not setting me free or anything, he’s just taking me out for some fresh air. I see.

…But why?

I wish I could ask him, because I certainly can’t refuse him, since he’s already undone all of the chains except for the ones linking my hands together. He takes a soft hold of my chains. Slowly, cautiously, he moves for the door and I follow after, more out of confusion than anything. As we emerge into the night, he points his left thumb at the both of us, and I can feel an invisible cover fall over us, making us partially invisible.

We move away from the tents. And once we’re out in the middle of the field, the cover spell leaves us. A western wind rushes across the field, rustling through the nearby trees and combing through my short hair. I look up. The stars really are a sight to behold. Endless, eternal stars. There are so many of them that you’d think the darkness was the exception, not the light. I wonder what these stars are named. Can you even have constellations, when there are as many as this, or do you deal in clusters instead?

I take a deep, measured breath of the night air. It’s nice. It’s very nice.

For a few minutes, I just look up at the sky, and then when I’ve had my sip of the great glittery ocean in the sky, we go back to my cage and he chains me again. Only once I’m once again in chains do I realise how easy it would have been for me to escape.

But the thought goes no further. I don’t need to escape. It’s easier to get to the king by staying here, so there’s no reason for anything drastic.

It was much more enjoyable to just watch the stars, anyways.