Green's point of view

Me and Brick are sparring. We're not fighting Nami today and I want to get as much practice in to finally beat her. That smug bitch keeps beating us all into the ground and not a single one of us has beaten her yet. That two weeks we spent in that fucking tree is going to sneak up on her next time we spar.

Brick swings his fist wide at my head. Completely telegraphing his attack, as if he wanted me to dodge it. I punch him in his gut before yelling at him.

“FUCKING TRY! How am I supposed to get better if you don't take this training seriously!?”

Brick only rubs his gut with his hand, not saying anything like normal. This man is beyond useless.

“Fine, we're done sparring until you grow a dick.”

I kick him between his legs. What a weakling. He's so damn strong but can't fight seriously against living enemies. He has guardian class leveled very high too, almost in its second rank up but he refuses to use it. Because. “We need to respect our traditions” Look where that got us. It got almost our entire tribe wiped out. If the elders had tried to teach methods to learn faster, maybe 90% of our fucking tribe would still be around.

I angrily punch the wall… I need to find an opponent that isn't afraid of fighting me fairly… Who though? No one is strong, strong enough to fight evenly with me besides the few generals training against Nami… Fighting her is like fighting the wind, I can't land a single damn attack on her because she can read me. Even yelling only flusters her enough for her attacks to become less accurate. If she could get over that, none of us would stand a chance against her. And that pisses me off.

I see one of those demon tribe. I've been told to hold my tongue against them from both Kite and Brick. That doesn't mean I can't beat the shit out of them.

“Hey you! Go a few rounds with me.”

“Ahh! Umm… I was going to go start my shift in the clinic… I'll ask someone else to cover my shift.”

He rushes passed me towards the clinic. He better not be stalling for time… Now that I think about it… Why would a healer want to learn unarmed fighting? His entire job description is to hang back and make sure he stays out of the fight. He comes rushing back to me.

“A-Alright! Where are we training at?”

We head outside to spar. The air inside the cave starts to get to humid if you spar inside. Smells tend to linger as well. So we take it outside to one of the training areas. Entering a sparring circle we both take our stances. Once again I'm not sure why this healer wants to learn because he is a terrible fighter.

After slamming him on the ground about 50 times, I start to get bored. My curiosity has gotten the best of me.

“Hey… Why does someone so freaking weak want to get stronger at fighting?”

“… The stronger I am the less chances I have at dying… If I die all the men I could have saved die as well.”

“...What's your name?”

“M-Methodis.”

“Well then M-Methodis. Every day after training. We're going to continue practice, just us two in secret. I'll beat you into shape then you can help me get stronger. I have one rule though. If you hold back against me I will break you. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes!”

Swift's point of view

My brothers have gotten the day off of training. Most of the lizard men still live in our village. So days off, we head home through the portals. I've went through Kite's books at the fortress and pulled out a few I thought I would enjoy. My three brothers are all sparring outside, making a huge fuss. All three have gotten so much stronger from their training, maybe Kite should offer a regimen for us casters to follow.

Since we've joined his army, our village has improved leaps and bounds. A giant net blocks off the crescent shaped beach from the ocean. Sealing in many delicious fish that were far more difficult to catch than his method of doing it. I'll have to do more research on all his creations to see if there isn't any way to improve them. I hear Tough like steel yell over towards me.

“WATCH OUT!”

Boom! My hut explodes, what is he doing!? I go to look outside and his shield and billowing blue smoke from firing the launcher portion Kite built in. If we didn't strengthen our houses with wood from the forest near the main fortress it would have been exploded into splinters of straw with me inside. Tough like steel has the launcher half hidden behind his back. As if I don't know who just blew the front portion of my house away.

“Watch what you're doing you imbecile! What were you even firing at?”

He points to a rock conveniently located between us.

“Can you aim at a target that isn't in line with my house please.”

“Come on Swift like water. All you do is stay in your room and read. Come out and train with me.”

“What will training do? My intelligence is what I use. What good would having big muscles do for casting healing spells?”

Strong like bull yells towards me next. Also encouraging me.

“Come on! When was the last time we trained together? It'll be like the old days where it was just us... Five... I guess it will never be like the old days anymore...”

He unintentionally just made himself sad. With our brother killed because of the unsanctioned duel none of us have been the same... Fast like wind also chimes in.

“Please! We need to spend time with you every once in awhile. You might disappear soon brother... It isn't like we're trying to peak on the girls showering or something. And I promise not to leave you behind like normal if we do that again.”

“Fine! We should all train. You know what good training would be for us to do? Fixing my house!”

Shikki's point of view

Master has given us the day off. All the kobolds have returned home to celebrate our day of the dead. Where we pass over our dead and the village chief eats a portion of them so they continue to exist in this world. I would have liked for master to do it but he is busy. We also pushed it back which is normally sacrilege, master hadn't given us any days off until today.

Some of the people who tried to come back even though we all agreed to stay on the ships until master had given us days off are being punished still. Kobolds skin gets very dry if they remain in the sun. So we have the deserters on drying racks as punishment… Master would probably disapprove of our methods to make sure no one grows to complacent for his cause.

“Bring your dead forwards! The ritual will begin!”

Only 6 deaths. Compared to 2 months ago before master came, we're down below half the normal amount. Inside a safe village with walls our numbers have started increasing instead of staying even through casualties. I eat a piece of each of the 6 dead… Normally this fills me up but with the lack of deaths I'm still a bit peckish. One of my men come rushing over right after the ceremony.

“Chief! Chief! Someone was trying to steal our beer!”

“Who would be so foolish!?”

“It is an outsider!”

“Good! I was still a bit hungry. Now we'll be able to feast on this criminal as well.”

“The thing is… He is very strong. He injured 6 kobolds who tried to stop him before the blue mages master Kite had taught could subdue him with spider silk.”

“...If he is so strong perhaps we wont kill him...”

That is something I didn't think I would ever say. I'm an elder, I never had said anything even close to that before I met master. Now anything strong could become an ally to our master. We approach him. He looks as strong as my disciple said he was. Under a mountain of spider silk is what appears to be a bugbear. I can't speak any goblin… Maybe he is smart enough to understand common? I barely know any myself. Only learning for the sake of speaking master's language.

“Ca-n youuu spea-k co-mmon.”

“Yea… What is up with your village? I've never seen kobolds with such a refined living area.”

“S-slow down. C-can't spe-ak… Good.”

“I know a little kobold. How did your village get so big?”

“That would be my masters doing. He is a very powerful dragon.”

“A dragon you say!? I haven't heard any reports of a dragon sighting in the area. Where is your dragon right now?”

“He is busy fighting a war.”

“Are you serious? How far away is this war?”

“No more speaking. You ask too many questions. We'll let master decide what to do with you.”

Gobber's point of view

“No honey. Don't throw your poop at daddy.”

My giggling child holds her dirty cloth diaper in her hands, ready to throw it at me if I attempt to move or do anything. Or just randomly at me.

“Please put the diaper down so I can ch-.”

Wham!… Right in the face.

“Hahaha! Daddy is covered in poop!”

I pull the diaper off my face before grabbing her while she screams like I'm hurting her. I need to go check on the other 5 while Hilda takes a quick nap. We have to sleep in shifts because all the children sleep at different times. All the children look identical. So I'm not sure if it was Goblynn, Gobbly, Gobbish, Gobda, Gobit, or Hilda junior that just covered me in poop…

I have my work cut out corralling my children. I'm tired… I've been tired since they've been born. The 1-2 hours of sleep I get every night isn't enough… I guess they'll calm down in another year… Only… One more year of this… YAY! Kline enters the room. THANK YOU!

“Hey Kline. You couldn't have timed this better.”

“Ah I see your a busy as usual… You've got something on your face.”

I grab a cloth and wipe my face as my kids go crazy because uncle Kline is here. They begin chanting one of the few words they know in common.

“STORY! STORY! STORY! STORY!”

Although they are only a few months old. It seems they learn far quicker than an average goblin. Which is far beyond the normal learning speed of any other creature. They've already mastered the goblin language and have started working towards common. Kline is well versed in many languages because of his time as a spy, thankfully goblin is one.

“Okay kids. I've got a brand new story to tell you about the hero.”

They all start to cheer then quickly calm down, taking seats in front of him. Knowing he won't tell the story unless they stay quite.

“Alright. From the story last time, the hero was on a ship. This time the hero is fighting a giant monster! The monster is so big! Bigger than anything you've ever seen! The monster had giant teeth!”

As he says this, he puts both his hands in front of his face to mimic the sight of teeth. The children both laugh and scream from being slightly scared.

“The monster had lots of arms and legs too! The legs, so big that they could crush a person where they stand! How do you think the hero beat the monster?”

All of the girls scream. “How!?”

“He turned into a dragon! Flying through the air like whoosh! Whoosh!”

Moving his arm like he was the dragon flying through the air.

“He dive bombed the monster. Crashing right into it! Wham!”

Slamming his hand down onto his other hand as he said wham. All of the girls giggled and gasped as he continued the story.

“He turned back into a human. Pushing open the giant monsters mouth open with his bare hands!”

He acts like he is forcing open the mouth with both his hands.

“Do you know what he did next?”

All the girls saying. “No!”

“He farted right in the monsters mouth. The fart smelled so bad the monster instinctively threw up all the heroes men it had eaten.”

All the girls laughed loudly at the story for a few seconds before quieting down to here the rest.

“Now with the men a safe distance away the hero could finally fight the monster with all his might. He turned back into a dragon flying high up into the air!”

He got up and walked to a lit torch he brought into the room. I was wondering what it was for. He also had a jug of alcohol with him.

“He took in a deep breath then a second later. Spit out a giant flame!”

He took in a swig of the alcohol spitting it across the lit torch causing a big flame to shoot out of his mouth.

The girls screamed in excitement by his story. It wasn't finished yet though.

“What do you think the hero did after he beat the enemy?”

All of the girls shouted. “What!?”

“He cut the monster into pieces and gave it to his troops to eat.”

He was still standing near the things he brought. Grabbing a tray with a lid over it. Pulling the lid off the reveal some of the same monster he was talking about in his story.

“And now we get to eat that monster.”

All the children shout. “YAY!”

The quietly eat as Kline whispers to me.

“I can handle them for an hour if you want to take a break.”

Kline is a true lifesaver.

Kora's point of view

We've been digging around one spot recently. It is under the impression that there is a very valuable material above. I was all excited by the idea for the first few days. As it has dragged on I slowly get more and more bored with not finding anything. This dwarf boy better be right about what Kite said or he's going to have to find a new job. He yells out.

"We're getting close! I can feel it, we'll get at it by the end of today."

I think he is just lying to cover his failure up as we break through. A huge chunk of dirt falls from the ceiling, getting in a few of the workers eyes. I wait for the dust to settle then look up. There it is! In excite I see a bright red, almost glowing chunk sticking out! I start to get so excited I'm almost shaking.

"We found it! We found it! Little dwarf I can't believe your ability! You're my right hand man from now on! What is your name?"

"Ahh it's Obly. I don't have a last name yet, you need to prove yourself in a certain way or be associated with an item."

"Well Obly, we'll get you a last name yet if you keep up your work as my foreman's assistant."