Chapter 18 | Mr. Goblin

Theo crossed the crowd to the other end of the street. His mana sense kept probing against this strange signature, but no matter how hard he pushed, his sense wouldn’t expand beyond a certain point to reach the goblin. The same hadn’t happened with the mage woman. Though admittedly, he hadn’t tried probing her. She didn’t emanate a signature after all.

So she is hiding her signature? But this goblin isn’t…

Fortunately, the goblin’s mana flared and bled into the atmosphere in small batches, going past the invisible blocker and entering Theo’s mana sense range.

For Theo, having a sentient mana signature nearby was a first. It was like listening to a new language for the first ever time. Leila was different. It was having eyes and looking at the sun up close. Her signature was too big to really make sense of other than ‘hot’ and ‘I think my eyes are melting’. But this was different. Theo could formulate a much more detailed description.

His mana was calm. It was gentle, easy to touch like slime. The amount that flared would increase occasionally, especially when he started cursing the stall owner.

Theo managed to wriggle himself out of the crowd and approached the commotion. The stall was one with adventurer equipment. Backpacks, capes, knives, vials, the whole deal. The goblin held a small knife, holding it up as he kept shouting.

“This garbage is what you call a carving knife? This is daylight robbery! Who would give you half a gold for this shit?” The goblin slapped the stall. The owner was a middle-aged man with stubble, watching the goblin with calm eyes, his arms crossed.

Finally, after another minute of screaming at the wall of a man, the goblin sneered and held his hand up. The mana around him wavered, causing Theo to take a step back. Many people around him took the same action. You didn’t need to be a mage to feel someone disturbing the flow of energies in the air, after all.

He’s going to blast the man for such a simple thing? Theo couldn’t help but be baffled. Sure, he expected a world of fantasy to be sort of lawless. Just not this much.

But he quickly realized the goblin was much more annoying than he was hot-headed. The spell he used wasn’t lethal. It technically didn’t do any damage either. It was just a light blast. No different than a flashlight. The goblin didn’t even leave it at that. He kept recasting and dismissing the spell, again and again.

The stall owner squinted and raised his hands to cover his eyes. The goblin didn’t relent. He stopped trying to reason and started repeatedly asking for discounts.

The owner finally gave way and growled.

“Okay, okay! Stop!” he shouted. The goblin dimmed the lightball, but kept flashing it. “Twenty silver coins. Take it and leave or I will put a bounty on your head for a gold coin.”

The goblin shivered in place, looking around. Many adventurers’ ears perked up. In a narrow area with many people close by, the mage goblin would be dead before he even knew what happened. According to what Satou had said, at least.

The goblin skipped away from the stall after buying what he had previously called a carving knife. Theo approached the stall owner with a frown and asked:

“Are you okay, sir?”

The man was busy rubbing his eyes, as if trying to wash away the temporary blindness from the lights. When he heard his voice, the man looked around with a scowl before finally settling his gaze on Theo.

“You are not getting a discount.”

“What?”

Theo raised a brow.

“No, no, I’m not trying to,” he explained. “I was just curious about the commotion. Who was that guy? Are all mages that obnoxious?”

The man clicked his tongue, shaking his head.

“Right? That’s what I’m asking too. That guy is infamous around here. Every month, he comes along for some reason. Makes a lot of commotion, something like this, then leaves. Even though we tell the guards, they do not seem to care.”

“They don’t care? About that goblin specifically, or in general?”

The man got up and started fiddling with his displayed items, correcting some tilted or out-of-place ones.

“That guy specifically. He is called Cheas.”

“I see. Thank you for telling me,” Theo said. He could feel the man getting ready to kick him out. ‘Don’t busy the stall if you are not going to buy, huh?’ he thought as he walked away. He could swear that he had heard the same phrase being uttered ten times since he entered the street.

So not only did the adventurers have an obsession with inns, they really liked window shopping. Theo sighed and turned a corner. He decided to go back to the inn as he really didn’t feel like he had anything else to do.

But as soon as he did, his senses picked up on an awkward rustle. It wasn’t quite that of a person walking, but someone kneeling. Faintly labored breathing, and most importantly, a shiver in his mana sense.

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Before he could react, Theo found himself completely blinded. He tried stepping back, but he felt a wall where there was supposed to be none. An awkward wave of energy washed over, disorienting him and causing his mind palace to groan. Then came a gust of wind, pushing him aside.

“Help-” Theo was about to shout when a hand was clasped over his mouth. He felt cold steel touch his neck, a faint, stinging pain echoing where it touched.

“Shut up and answer my questions if you want to live,” a high-pitched voice spoke next to his ear. This was obviously the goblin called Cheas, and he was trying his damndest to try and make his voice sound more ominous.

Theo nodded along. Although this was supposed to be a terrifying experience, someone he could reason with felt much less scary than the entities of the tower.

“Good. Now tell me. Why were you following me?” the goblin said. He then slowly lifted his hand from Theo’s mouth.

“I wasn’t following you!” Theo said with a low but anxious voice. It seemed the goblin had taken him for someone with malicious intentions.

“Then why did you ask that guy about me, if not to gather information?”

“I just got curious because I saw you cast that spell,” Theo explained himself.

“That was a simple lightball, what’s so interesting about it? Don’t lie to me,” the goblin continued. The press of the blade against his throat increased as Theo finally felt his vision returning. “We goblins can smell lies.”

“I swear! I was just browsing the stalls until I heard the commotion. There was this mage lady running a stall; you can ask her if you want!”

“Ah, that lass?” The blade inched away from Theo’s throat. “Tch. She didn’t give me a discount for the ring. Who sells that garbage for two gold?”