A Black Market LitRPG

Moving Forward: The symbol can be combined with others.

[] A female goblin wailed in its own language as it cowered on the ground, the flames erupting all around here as the trees were burnt down all around here. The sounds of fighting and fellow goblin tribe members’ screams of pain echoed all around her, causing her to tremble slightly, clutching and protecting a goblin baby with her life.

The gallop of a horse could be heard, with its rider covered in steel, the distinctive yellow grin of a goblin appearing in her vision while the tip of a spear pointed right at her.

[] The female goblin pleaded. []

[]

[]

Just as the rider nocked back his spear, the baby’s eyes suddenly flew wide open, glowing a bright yellow with demonic flames spurting out from it.

A strong barrier suddenly appeared around the mother, deflecting the spear and knocking the rider off the horse. [] The rider wore a face of pure exaggerated horror as it watched the yellow aura swirling around the baby goblin surge to an even greater height.

The baby goblin began to rapidly grow up, turning into a full-size hobgoblin in three seconds, cracking its huge fist and walking menacingly towards the rider.

[] The rider screamed at the top of his lungs, pulling out a backup knife and jabbing it right at the yellow aura hobgoblin. The knife barely penetrated more than a millimetre into the yellow aura, the storm knocking the knife away as it twirled into the sky with a twinkle.

[] The hobgoblin flicked the tip of its nose as it got into a fighting posture. []

The hobgoblin roared as he threw a flurry of punches, smacking the rider into an unrecognisable pulp in just five seconds before finishing the combo with a kick that sent the rider flying into the sky. Just as the hobgoblin did a victory pose, it began to shrink again back to a baby form, ooo-ing and gaga-ing at the mother.

The female goblin gasped, scampering over to the baby hobgoblin. [].

The baby hobgoblin couldn’t reply, but it looked in the direction of the audience and winked, ending the scene.

[st: That Time I Went Forward in Time to be my great-granddaughter’s baby while retaining all of my powerups and skills as well was my intellect and my ladykiller moves.>]

The lights in the underground theatre began to turn back on as the screen showing the film dimmed, with the goblin audience practically screaming and cheering for the trailer.

As the audience bickered and discussed the trailer, two humans were silently watching the audience reaction, with a girl holding a clipboard and jotting down details. “Hey, you! Make sure they pay for the trailer! One rakel for each member, even kids!” The girl screamed at a goblin worker, who nodded quickly.

She continued writing down on the clipboard. “Reaction: S+, Controversy: S+. This film will surely be one of the best we’ve made for the goblins.”

The man standing next to her cleared his throat. “Uh… Merissa, I don’t understand why-“

“It’s Ms. Merissa to you, fucker.”

“Ms. Merissa, why are we making films for the goblins? Shouldn’t we be making films for Raktor?”

“We already are, but the goblins need to be appeased for a few moments to make our position here better secured. We need to present ourself as a clear force for good, else they would continuously try to rebel.”

“Did they not try to rebel just a week ago?”

“Only the newer slaves. The better of a class system we build, the easier it is for us to have them turn on each other while we hold the reigns overall.” Merissa tapped her clipboard. “Have you not learnt anything over the past few months you’ve been here, Feldon? How the hell were you hired as a company manager of all positions?”

“Uh… I looked good?”

“You’re lucky you do, otherwise I would have thrown you into the training arena for the rest of your life.”

The arctech radio on Merissa’s belt buzzed, crackling to life. [Ms. Merissa, the boss is here.]

At the entrance to the goblin mine, there was an honor guard procession to receive Kyle and Sasha, who walked in accompanied by a meek-looking human who was carrying what seemed to be prospecting equipment.

“Mister Kyle, you promised me that I would be safe here!” The meek person whispered urgently to Kyle as he nearly flinched from the snarl of a goblin warrior who stood at attention along the side.

“You are. This will be your home for the next year or so. Once you’re finished with the prospecting for minerals, consider your debts to the Seven Snakes cleared.” Kyle replied.

The meek person nodded, sighing internally to himself. If I just had won that last poker hand, maybe I would not be out here today…

The group was met by Merissa and Feldon, who bowed to Kyle. “Everything okay?”

“Yes sir. We have prepared everything in advanced.”

“Mister Raksha.”

The prospector jolted to attention as they began to enter the mining tunnels. “Yes, Mister Kyle!”

“I need an answer by today or so. I’ve heard you are one of the best in town. I’m on a very tight schedule. Any delay would be… detrimental to our working relationship.”

“Prospecting a brand new mine from scratch is hardly an easy task, especially when there’s barely any infrastructure left to support it…”

“Merissa.” Kyle called out, with Merissa immediately moving over to him. “Explain what you have prepared for him.”

“Yes, sir. Mr. Raksha, the following information and support has been prepared for you:

1. Prospecting surveys from the previous mine owners
2. A team of elder goblins who have lived in the mine for decades.

They will assist you in your search for any minerals.”

“Bah, if the survey did not state that there was any iron ore here, what is the point in hiring me here?”

“The survey also did not state that arcite ore was present here – however, I have found a vein of arcite ore, albeit a small one. This has led me to put the veracity of the survey done into question. That’s why you are here.”

“Arcite ore? Here?” Raksha was shocked. “If you monetise it, you could –“ He stopped himself before he continued, noticing Kyle’s clearly irritated face. Fuck, he’s the leader of the Seven Snakes; what the hell am I doing talking back to him?

They continued to walk down the tunnels, with Raksha obviously surprised at the increased level of infrastructure. None of the arctech lights were flickering, with utility pipes clearly running along the length of the tunnel, providing flowing water and air ventilation into the area. A few air ducts could be seen as well as he passed a tunnel-in-progress that was clearly leading in the direction of Raktor, with goblins hauling out rubble from the consistent digging. Looks like to have been in progress for a few months, judging from the equipment in place.

It was already a big surprise to him that a human would be in charge of such a large goblin operation. Goblins were notoriously hard to govern and could easily start a rebellion due to their sheer numbers. He had heard of previous attempts by the Yual Dominion to subjugate this area but had always lost or suffered too many losses against the major goblin tribes.

Raksha began to scan the tunnels, taking note of the various formations of rocks layered into the tunnels, with it changing as they went deeper and deeper.

Kyle brought Raksha to the main administrative office, which has been expanded greatly. It was now a three-level cavern, with each floor having multiple clerks, both human and goblins working hard to manage the logistics of the entire den.

With the absorption of the second tribe to boost their worker numbers, the number of goblins living in the den right now was more than six hundred, nearing the size of a big town.

Since Kyle wanted total control over the entire operation, Merissa had no choice but to hire clerks to assist her, even splintering some of them off into separate ministries to cover different tasks.

As Feldon showed Raksha where all the old survey documents were collected as well as introduced him to the team of elder goblins, Kyle walked around with Merissa and Sasha, observing the work of the clerks. “You’ve done a very good job of teaching the goblins how to read and write.”

“Thank you, sir. It is but my duty.” Merissa bowed.

“Any results with the agricultural test?”

“Yes sir. Due to the Culdao Peaks being a volcanic formation in the past, the soil around the entire forest area is arable and can be used to grow certain crops.”

“What’s the forecast?”

“Well, we currently do not have enough land area to sustain the goblin population. Even if we focused on crops that can grow within three to six months, we would need to expand all the way to the main town. Which would obviously reveal us to the general human populace.” Merissa pointed to a map of the area hung on a wall.

“As such, we need to expand sideways along the perimeter of the mountain. The closer we hug to the mountains, it will be easier to hide, but it limits our farming space as well, not to mention the entire area is nearly like a valley between hills. The other tribes are also controlling that territory.”

“So it’s either hydroponics or terrace farming, got it.”

“Hydro-what?”

Kyle considered his options. Both of them would require an insane amount of water – the small rivers nearby would hardly be enough. He looked at the map, noticing a unique formation between three mountains that formed a triangle. “Have we ever scouted here before?”

“No sir, but I can ask one of the elder goblins if he knows anything about it.”

Merissa quickly asked one of the elder goblins that were listening to Raksha’s orders. “Sir, he says it’s a frozen lake.”

“So a glacier…” The size of the glacier was quite large, potentially enough to sustain his operations for decades to come. He will need to find a way to tap into that water source and potentially divert it down towards both the goblin den as well as the steel factory.

“But he also says that there is a major goblin tribe there that controls access into the area. Apparently, this tribe used to pay a quarterly tribute to that tribe until we took it over.”

“It’s already been more than three months since we took over, but I have yet to see any goblin delegation requesting for tribute.”

“Oh, Sasha killed all of them while you were gone.”

Sasha had a proud smile on her face, nodding to herself in self-recognition. Kyle was not surprised, himself probably doing the same. Why in the world would I pay them tribute?

“Mr. Kyle.” Raksha scurried over, holding a few documents in his hands. “I have yet to survey the area personally, but I find that most of this document is accurate and precise. The formation of arcite ore might not be well known, but iron ore is very well documented.”

“Get to the point. Is there iron ore or not?”

“No sir. There is a very very low chance of iron ore here. Most of the iron here would be trapped in forms that would be exceptionally hard to extract. None of the oxides that we normally use would be found here, as there was a clear lack of oxygen and water here before the mine was opened.”

“So what’s the solution?”

“I… I don’t have any. I think this mine is done for. You might find other things like coal, but you won’t find much iron ore here.”

Kyle looked back at the map, pondering as he looked at the marked locations of the other major goblin tribes. I can’t farm properly if I don’t expand inwards; I can’t get water in bulk if I don’t expand towards the mountains. And now I have no iron ore in this den.

“Sasha. Gather all the warriors. It’s time to centralise this area.”