A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse 38 Dramatic Introductions

I closed my eyes and allowed my vision to be overwhelmed by the powerful and living map that I kept locked away in my brain. It responded to me by springing into view, boldly showing me a pristine view of the encampment just a few meters out of ear-shot.

The goblin encampment was a circular area in the middle of a group of trees. It consisted of a number of tiny tents, centered around a thin hole in the ground with a large number of goblins living in the cave that hole allowed entry into and out of. I wasn't focused on holistic statistics about the encampment though, I was looking for something more specific.

Mentally, I dashed into the encampment on the not-so-mini-map and began to look for specific individuals. I was determined to find and a.s.semble the goblins I had already connected and interacted with. It was important that I do this right, and frankly, I had time. The goblins weren't prepared to attack the deer and even if they did I'd just reanimate the things.

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The composition of the encampment was fascinating. Only some of it was centered in this area, either around or just outside of a hole that my earlier, unupgraded tremorsense wasn't able to truly and meaningfully flesh out. Now that I could see the hole and was focused on encampment I allowed my mind to explore it.

I could have instantly tracked down my goblin companions, but I wanted to practice my powers. This moment was a low-risk moment for me to manually use my abilities and learn to navigate them expertly without relying on automated a.s.sistance. I wanted to be as self-sufficient when it came to divinity as I could be. And doing it this way would allow me to learn more, something I valued.

The entrance into the earth was thin. It was barely a sliver in the crust of the island I was on, only partially visible from where I was. Looking at it from the outside, if I had been limited to my physical eyes, I would have struggled to understand what I was looking at as it was in the ground and wasn't a cave. Thankfully, mortal limitations didn't apply to me.

Using my enhanced tremorsense, looking into the hole was a breeze. There was a thin ladder that clung to the side of the hole's lip, allowing goblins to safely descent what would otherwise be a sheer drop a few meters high. The ladder's loose, rope-tied connection to the earth at the top of the hole, and at the bottom of the hole was what gave it away physically.

Inside the hole itself, at the bottom of the thing, laired a number of goblins. Some of them were visible to me as sleeping outlines, their bodies laying on the floor motionlessly. They weren't the goblins I was looking for.

The interior of the hole was divided. It extended deep into the planet's eerie underground and so had room for many different areas. Some of those areas were chambers where goblins slept. Others were where goblins practiced for battle. Some were for waste-excrement. And others were for storing and preparing food. The latter two were often uncomfortably close.

And so I begun my manhunt. The tunnel I was mentally exploring was connected to the rest of the strange world beneath the world that existed underneath the island's surface, but goblins didn't inhabit this place that thoroughly and only a few chambers were inhabited by goblins.

It took me a few moments of searching to track down Mawby, Hagitha, Mianthus, and Troik. Those were the goblins who I had interacted with, even vaguely, in the past. Each of them happened to be located in different parts of the hole.

Troik was in another of the ma.s.s sleeping chambers. Mianthus and Hagitha were in separate training chambers. Mawby was in a chamber that served food to the goblins and also, at least according to what she was doing at the moment, served as a nursing area to heal injured or sick goblins.

When I found them I got to practice creating mind links, which as it turned out was easy to do. I just needed to envision forming a bridge that tied my mind and the mind of another creature. Once that was done I'd send them mental messages. Each of them got to hear a variation of the same message.

"Come outside." I whispered into in their minds. In each of their cases, I used Cosecha's voice to disguise that "Althos" was here. I wanted the goblins to see me as a powerful spirit who used its powers to bring them a gift. I put urgency and power in my voice, to ensure they came out quick.

All of them, but especially Mawby and Troik began a mad dash from the chambers they were in to the ladder that led out of the hole. With this I smiled and refocused on my physical surroundings.

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At the moment a decent number of goblins were located in the encampment and with each pa.s.sing second, more of them looked to the trio of stags who boldly approached them. The goblins weren't brave though and so they did nothing to stop or repel the deer.

The trio of deer consisted of two zombified deer and the single skeletal deer. The skeletal creature was at the front, its intelligence-filled eye sockets watching and waiting for one of the goblins to try and attack either of its allies. It was an unnecessary but appreciated move on the thing's part and I made a mental note to thank it later.

The goblins, seemingly being quite skittish creatures, were paralyzed with indecision and fear. They all silently studied the trio of shambling corpses, and many backed away from where they were standing, but none of them approached the creatures.

I chuckled as I watched this display. I allowed it to occur for a few more seconds, before stepping forward to show myself to the goblins.

I took a few steps and moved close enough to the goblins that the tiny creatures could see me. And that caused them to actually begin to panic.

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The moment I stepped into view, displaying my odd form, the community of pint-sized pipsqueaks visibly reacted to me. Panicked voices filled the air around us and began to shout commands at each other, including ones that contradicted each other. As I watched this an annoyed frown formed on my face.

The panic occurred and even intensified for a few seconds since I was approaching and hadn't been deterred by the frightened reactions my appearance was causing. The intensification of the panic probably had to do with the fact that I wasn't scared to approach the tiny and cowardly creatures.

The encampment was a mess, even before my creatures and I showed up. The place existed, was clearly visible, and had inhabitants, but there was little to no organization of the tents, weapons, waste, and other detritus were strewn carelessly about, and few of the goblins had any sort of preparedness to address my companions and me.

The stags were able to calmly walk into the encampment, aided by my sudden appearance causing any goblins who may have otherwise had time to react to be further frightened and unable to form a coherent strategy that may have repelled us.

I took a few long steps, listening with annoyance as the goblins clashed and were unable to prevent me from entering their encampment. It was clear that they had no meaningful defensive strategy and no tools with which to repel invaders.

That was precisely when the first goblin to exit the chamber, the little goblin named Hagitha, poked her red-skinned head out of the hole. She had a cute face, with large green eyes, a hawkish nose, prominent cheekbones, and shockingly pretty electric yellow hair. She was clinging to the ladder leading out of the hole and hurling herself upwards at a truly shocking speed, which caused her to be too distracted to gain a real awareness of the fearful atmosphere of the encampment.

The encampment was in chaos while Hagitha threw herself upwards so that she may meet the bizarre creature who fed her a magical fruit once. As the woman was clearing the final rungs of the ladder, a pair of goblins actually managed to draw their bows and aim them at me. I could feel a wave of mental hostility coming from my undead servants and wors.h.i.+pers aimed at the goblins bold enough to raise a weapon in my direction.

I chuckled, noting that if nothing else the goblins were capable of mustering up the courage to defend themselves eventually. And then I willed the earth to lash out at the goblins who had taken arms against me by compelling the soil at the feet of the two goblins to soften to the point that the goblins began to sink into it.

The two goblins who were quick enough on their feet to attempt to threaten me were shocked and scared as they felt the gra.s.s they were standing on top of sink into the earth underneath them, an instant before their feet sank into the earth that was supposed to be beneath them.

It was enough to knock them off-balance, so when they sank for a single second I willed the earth to resolidify with their feet stuck in it, preventing them from aiming at my followers and me, without actually harming them.

This was when Hagitha successfully finished hurling herself out of the mouth of the hole around which the encampment was situated, and took stock of the situation in front of her. And she summarized the whole situation somewhat eloquently.

A look of bewilderment etched itself onto her face as she uttered a single, expressive word. "s.h.i.+t."