Wizard: I am a goblin

Chapter 229: Smooth Talk

"Hey, where did the 'Prophet' go?"

Belle looked left and right, but couldn't see the monkey anywhere. She scratched her chin and sighed.

"Looks like he's gone. The professor is still as unfathomable as ever."

Gebu's feelings were complicated, and he didn't respond.

After the monkey left, Belle seemed much more relaxed. She began to focus on filling in the gaps in her notes and clarifying the steps of the ritual. Then, the witch tied her loose hair into a ponytail at the back of her head, took off her hooded robe and spread it on the ground, and then took out the spellcasting materials she was carrying one by one from a dimensional bag, categorizing them and arranging them in the order of their use.

The girl was surprisingly quick and efficient, finishing everything in less than ten minutes.

Belle wiped the sweat from her brow and let out a sigh of relief. She looked up, intending to call out to the goblin, but suddenly realized that Goblin hadn't spoken for quite some time.

Seeing Geb's serious and slightly gloomy expression, the witch Belle paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and walked up to the goblin wizard.

"I'm sorry, Gebu. I know this might not be the outcome you wanted. But if we work together, we can definitely complete the ritual and get out of here."

The girl's expression was so resolute and sincere that Gebu couldn't bear to look at her.

"After I finish all this, I can advance to the third ring, graduate, and then go back to my hometown to become a magician—hey, you probably think I don't have any grand ambitions, right? Hahaha. I remember when we first met, I was bragging that I wanted to be the Great Wizard of the Kingdom."

"Yes, that's for sure," Gebu replied casually.

"I didn't tell my parents I left the academy because I was afraid they'd worry—but it's okay, we'll definitely succeed. Are you going to the academy? Once we get out, I'll do everything I can to help you cross Shanhaiguan. I know an underground river used by smugglers that leads directly to the waterway to Silverwater City. We can use the teleportation array there to go directly to the magic academy. I still have one more teleportation array permit left, which can take up to five people with me."

Geb suddenly interrupted the girl.

"Let's focus on the task at hand, Belle. Nobody knows what will happen next."

"Oh." Belle's smile froze for a moment, then quickly brightened. "You're right, we need to get past this hurdle first!"

Geb couldn't bear to look at his witch companion. Compared to their last meeting, the girl seemed to have experienced many setbacks and trials, yet she still maintained an optimistic spirit.

Even if it's an act, Gebu really can't bring himself to dislike this girl.

Perhaps there are other ways to save her life while completing the Golden Mask's mission?

With this in mind, Gebu rallied his spirits.

This place is controlled by Altom's powerful mental energy; without completing the Golden Mask ritual, it will be difficult to escape.

The old giant's body contains the key to unlock the prison of the Old Gods—a priceless bargaining chip. Even if he had fallen out with the Golden Mask, this alone could be used to exchange for the resources needed to advance through the rings from other factions.

This golden-masked man is so ruthless and heartless that he can betray even his own student. It's only a matter of time before Gebu is abandoned after he loses his value to him. Gebu has no reason to be loyal to him.

Regardless, the ritual had to be performed. And the first step of the ritual was to rip the heart, flowing with lava blood, from the giant's chest.

Easier said than done ——————

"Do you think the old giant would willingly offer his heart to us?"

Geb said in a low voice, more of a question to himself than to Belle.

Belle hesitated, then thought for a moment and whispered, "It's not necessarily true—he's lived so alone underground for thousands of years, his life a living hell. If it were me, I might think: 'Why not just end it all?'"

"Judging from the giant's mental state, it's possible. However, we must remember that giants are impervious to blades and spears, and also have magic resistance. Don't be fooled by its weakened state; if we truly enrage it, the two of us might not be a match for it."

After Geb finished speaking, the two of them simultaneously sized each other up. A small goblin and a human girl not yet twenty years old, the two of them, standing on their shoulders, were no taller than the giant's knees.

"If only the female swordswoman were here," Geb suddenly thought. Two second-ring wizards, utterly powerless, were completely helpless against an enemy with magic resistance.

However, does magic resistance mean resistance to destructive magic, or resistance to all magic?

Giants age and die, which means they also have weaknesses — wait a minute.

Suddenly remembering something, Gebu quickly turned around to wipe his ring, took out the Book of Sand, and began to peruse it.

Will that thing have any effect on it?

While Geb was busy looking up words in the dictionary, Belle was racking her brains trying to figure out how to fight the giant, like how she could slide tackle him and rip him open.

"What a joke!" Belle grumbled after a long pause. "Fighting a giant head-on is less likely than persuading him to end his own life!"

Geb finally found what he was looking for. He closed the book, hid it back in his ring, and a barely perceptible goblin smile appeared on his lips.

"Yes, we're going to defeat them with words!"

"Right? That's impossible. You can't just kill someone with a few words—?"

Upon hearing Geb's declaration, the witch was taken aback and stammered for a while before continuing, "You, you're serious? What do you mean? This isn't something you can say out loud. You can't just go up to him and ask, 'Giant, do you want to die?'"

"Good idea."

"ha?"

Without saying a word, before Belle could react, Geb teleported in front of the giant and kicked his big toe to attract the giant's attention.

"Ugh————"

The old giant raised his eyelids and stared blankly at the little man.

The goblin, hands on his hips, opened his mouth and asked, "Giant, do you want to die?"

Belle's jaw dropped.

You actually asked?!

A dumbfounded witch, a confident goblin, and an old giant pressing down like Mount Tai.

Upon hearing Gob's words, a puff of white breath mixed with dandruff blew out of the giant's dry nostrils, causing the goblin's hair to fly up.

"—You dare challenge the dignity of a giant's orphan! Though I am but withered bones in a cave, I am far from abandoning the last spark of the giant race! You will pay the price for your contempt, Magnubie's servant!"

The giant's pupils were instantly stained red by a burst of intense heat, and dark red light swelled in the shriveled veins all over his body, like magma flowing from a crack in a rock.

"We absolutely wouldn't dare, we didn't mean that!! Gebu, you need to apologize right now!"

Belle cried out urgently, rushing towards Geb. The giant raised his enormous, millstone-sized fist above his head, ready to smash it down towards the goblin!

"Ah, it seems you don't want to die—forget what I just said, Giant Brother. Oblivis."

A miraculous thing happened: the goblin had barely finished speaking when the giant's raised fist, about to strike, suddenly stopped. The anger in its eyes momentarily lost its focus, replaced by confusion and bewilderment. It seemed to have forgotten what it had raised its hand to do, and why it was so angry.

"Your triceps are indeed magnificent, thank you for showing them to me," Geb said casually.

The giant touched his arm in confusion. Just then, Belle flew out from behind and tackled Geb to the ground.

"Don't kill the goblin! Oh no!"

"Hmm!"

The goblin and the human witch were tangled together on the ground. The girl's ponytail came loose and smeared all over Geb's face—oops! His face was covered in hair!

Hair with a faint citrus scent.

Gebshi couldn't see anything either. His face was so itchy that he scratched wildly. Suddenly, the girl screamed and kicked the goblin away.

"Gadfly!" the girl blurted out, blushing with embarrassment.

"I'm a bedbug! What are you doing!"

The two of them simultaneously felt themselves enveloped by a huge shadow. When they looked up and saw the giant's puzzled face, they were so frightened that they quickly got up.

"What just happened?!" Belle texted Geb.

"Eloquent Tongue - a second-level spell that makes the target forget what I just said."

"Huh? I've never heard of this witchcraft."

"That's not important, don't undermine me. Let me find out what this giant is all about."

Hearing Geb's words, Belle shut her mouth and hid behind him. Geb cleared his throat and asked the giant, "Your people are all dead, only you survive. Don't you feel guilty?"

"—Guilt?" the giant asked, puzzled.

"You're a coward who's afraid of death," Geb said, pointing at the giant's nose.

"You!" Fire immediately blazed in the giant's eyes. Seeing its sensitive reaction, Geb quickly added, "I understand, you've hit a nerve. You do indeed think you're a coward—Oblivis."

The giant's eyes glazed over again, as if he had forgotten something, and tried to recall it but couldn't remember what it was.

"How do you think your people will view you? Will they think you betrayed them by remaining alone in the world, or will they be grateful that some of their people survived and continue the legacy of the giants?"

"—What's the point? They're already dead—the blood of giants, the blood of gods, will eventually die with me—I don't want to talk about these things, go away, don't disturb my mourning any longer—"

"Wait, I haven't finished asking—let me rephrase my question, Oblivis." The goblin changed the subject, directly hitting the giant's sore spot.

The giant said, "Your people despise you so much, why don't you join them?"

The question caused the giant to fall silent for a moment. Goblin knew this was bad; his silver tongue could only recall what he had said six seconds earlier, and once that time was up, it couldn't be taken back. He hesitated for a moment, then decided not to take back the question—his goblin intuition told him that the giant seemed about to say something important.

"For thousands of years, I have longed to join them—I am not a coward! I do not care how those skeletons judge me with their empty gazes, I am the bravest one—we, like the gods, are imprisoned in this lightless prison. Giving up is the easiest choice, while surviving is the hardest decision: there is no hope, no future, the shadow of the past grows heavier every moment, and the faces of those skeletons have faded from my mind—I have even forgotten my own name, but I am still here, eternally mourning."

"As long as I live, the giants will not be forgotten—Ortom, and his eternal servants, will not be forgotten." A certain ancient sorrow crept into the giant's eyes, and he suddenly appeared incredibly weary, as if a thousand years had suddenly caught up with his slow pace. Yet, the giant's chest heaved weakly but resolutely, lava flowing in his heart, refusing to sleep, refusing to die easily.

"Thank you for telling me this, giant." Geb nodded solemnly to the old giant, then looked at Belle for a moment.

It turned out to be the case.

The giants did not want to die, not because of a desire for life, but because of a kind of ascetic protection of their race.

It may not have known that the lava blood flowing through its veins was the key to unlocking the gates of Altom's prison. This giant was unaware of the immense importance of what it was protecting, yet it continued to do so.

This giant must miss his tribe very much.

Gebu also had some affection for the Broken Tooth tribe, but he wouldn't spend a thousand years mourning for them; even five minutes was too much. Gebu didn't feel any deep kinship with the goblins. On the contrary, if he saw a goblin on the road right now, he would most likely be very wary: the goblins themselves were the ones who betrayed them the most. Only the goblins themselves knew the true nature of the goblin race.

While Geb was still considering his next question, Belle couldn't help but speak up: "Do you miss them? Your family?"

"Family—family?"

The giant repeated the two words several times, and a trace of moisture actually appeared in the corners of his dry eyes.

Belle hesitated for a moment, then mustered her courage and stepped forward, touching the giant's ankle and looking up at the old giant with sincere eyes.

"I miss my family too. They must miss you too."

"But I don't even remember my own name—my family must have forgotten me—how could I have forgotten my own name?"

"Then let's think about it slowly—no rush. We'll remember eventually."

Seeing the giant's fluctuating emotions, Geb wanted to stop Belle's actions, but suddenly sensed a fluctuation of ether in the air—within this etheric spring, the goblin wizard sensed a strong reaction in the etheric plane through a thin barrier. The giant's sorrow seemed to have awakened some mysterious being, sobbing and calling out through the veil, like a ghost.

Are they singing?

The undulating ethereal curtain flickered intermittently, and Gebu couldn't sense what those entities were chanting. But he could vaguely perceive their emotions: sadness, anticipation, and something warm—like a mother calling her child, who was playing in the wheat field, home for dinner under the warm sunset.

There was no resentment, no contempt.

Are these ethereal ghosts the dead giants?

In his treatise on ether, Imint wrote that ether is a fundamental substance constituting magic—it has no emotions and cannot express likes or dislikes. But Gob felt he was wrong: the goblins clearly sensed an emotional inclination within the existence of these etheric planes. Perhaps Imint himself wasn't sensitive enough to perceive this, but Gob could.

The last giant mourns his fallen comrades, who await his arrival in another world.

—Of course, this thought might just be Gebu's self-pity.

But if the afterlife is about reuniting with family, then death itself isn't so scary, is it?

Geb realized something and figured out a way to persuade the giant to give up his heart.

"Belle," Geb said to the witch using telepathy, "could you stay with the giant for a little while?"

The witch didn't answer, but simply turned halfway and nodded gently to Geb. She sat down against the giant's ankle, stroking his dry skin, comforting this creature ten times her size.

Geb moved behind the giant and the witch, found what he thought was the weakest point in the etheric veil by instinct, then poured himself a bottle of calming potion, sat cross-legged—just like he had practiced hundreds of times before, and instantly entered a meditative state.

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