Don’s next day was very similar to his first full day in the cave. Now that Don had come to grips with his very short list of useful skills he devoted himself to mastering them. He practiced gob-squeak with Kat and to a lesser extent with Grey. He got the feeling that Grey was watching him but never caught her at it. She stolidly prepared her potions and treated the gobs as they returned. Don was able to tease some words out of her but only ones related to alchemy. His skill in alchemy rose another point shortly after Grey let him prepare a new potion. This one turned into a goopy green sludge. The first few batches he made were emptied into the fire pit. After his skill rose, the next batches came out less chunky and were added to the hanging collection of potions. His DEX also rose a point during the day of grinding and mixing. It looked like making potions was a good way to train that stat.

When the gobs returned Don made sure to watch Grey closely and even poked some of the gobs in the same places she poked. He knew Grey was looking for something but he wasn’t able to tease out what it was yet.

That night Don was able to follow bits and pieces of the gobs conversations in the cave. They mostly boiled down to “My food”, “no take” and “You weak” before the communication devolved into that universal language, violence. Don was now able to tell them apart a bit better. He noticed one gob which had gathered a small gang and asked Kat about him. He used gob-squeak as much as he could.

“Who that?” he asked

“He Gat, gob who find you” Kat said slowly making sure Don could follow.

“Why…” Don paused, not sure how to say what he wanted to in gob-squeak, he switched back to humie “Why does he have other gobs bringing him food? I didn't think gobs would do that.”

Kat repeated Don’s question in gob-squeak, it was a system they worked out on Don’s first night and it was helping a lot based on Don’s skill progression. It slowed down the conversations now but it would definitely pay off.

“Most gobs bring rabbit or plant, Gat bring whole demon. He get lots of status and Tak start serve him. Tak fight for Gat and they strongest now. More gobs serve Gat and he in charge now.” Don looked back and saw that a trio of gobs were standing around Gat looking menacing while Gat lounged and ate his dinner. Gat caught Don’s eye and pushed himself to his feet. As he sauntered over his followers flanked him, staying a step behind their new leader. He bent in close to Don’s face which was roughly on the same level as Gat’s because Don was sitting. Gat gave Don a look up and down, lingering on his bandage before screaming in his face. Spittle, chunks of meat and rancid breath sprayed along with his words.

“You want Gat’s meat?” He waved his half-eaten rabbit-leg in the air “You take from Gat”

At that moment a popup appeared with a ping.

Congratulations! Your goblin language skill has risen from Apprentice 3 to Apprentice 4! You can understand short sentences and basic concepts.

Don smiled at the prompt before dismissing it mentally. It faded to reveal an even more irate Gat. He was not expecting Don to smile at his posturing. He leapt at Don.

“Me show you, dumb demon not take Gat’s food” Don had been bumped and scratched by other gobs accidentally but he had never been attacked directly by one, especially not one as angry as Gat was now. He was fast. Whirling claws raked at Don’s arms which were flung up to protect his face. He expected more pain than there was. The little gob was intimidating and his fast movements were disorienting but the individual attacks were less painful than Grey’s spoon. In a sudden lunge, Don grabbed for gat. He missed the flailing arm he aimed for but he managed to get ahold of a shoulder. He then used his grip as an anchor to clamp his other hand onto the squirming, screeching and scratching gob and lifted him into the air. Don paused there, unsure what to do next when the three lackeys jumped at him. Their claws forced Don back onto defense. He didn’t get badly injured but he didn’t want them to get to his eyes. The four gobs scratched, bit and spat at him. After a minute without any resistance, they left him alone, taking the victory back to their place by the fire. Don sat up, covered in scratches and foul-smelling spittle. Kat was nowhere to be seen but another prompt came up during the scuffle.

Congratulations! Your Punching Bag skill has risen from Apprentice 6 to Apprentice 7. 17% decrease in damage taken from unarmed attacks

That probably had something to do with why the gobs attacks were so ineffective. None of them used weapons so all their attacks counted as unarmed. He unfocused his eyes momentarily to check his health bar. It was impossible to see the bars clearly unless he relaxed his eyes, a trick Kat had taught him. A sizeable chunk of the red bar was missing, black taking its place. He checked his stats to get more information. “Status”

HP: 79/105

So the four gobs only managed to do 26 damage to him. That would be a lot if he had a gob’s starting health pool which Kat confirmed was only around 40. If it wasn’t for his resistance, he would have taken roughly 30 damage. Apparently, those gobs really wanted to put Don in his place. He decided not to mess with them again and crawled over to the alchemy alcove. He learned that Grey told the gourds apart by the smell of their contents. Don pulled them down one by one, sniffing at their open tops until he found one which had the coppery smell of the healing potion. He downed half the gourd’s contents and watched as his health bar slowly refilled and the scratches on his arms zipped shut. His health stopped a little short of full and a few scratches remained on Don’s skin but he decided to let the rest heal overnight and replaced the gourd.

HP would recover on its own but it did so very slowly. A meal and a nights rest would take care of these minor injuries and there was no need to waste the tribes potions. He crawled back to his corner to find Kat waiting for him.

“A lot of help you were” He accused, too angry to try using gob-squeak.

“Not my fight, you challenge Gat, you stupid” Kat didn’t meet Don’s eyes, he rubbed his claws, cleaning them of dirt and revealing their natural shining black coloration. He was speaking in gob-squeak and so Don responded in kind.

“I no challenge, I look” Don argued

“Same thing” Kat said

Don fumed at the injustice. He couldn’t look at another gob without challenging them?

“I look at other gobs, this first challenge”

“Can look at gob, don’t look at gob with food, that challenge”

Don replayed the last days in his head. It was true, whenever the food came out Don was too focused on getting his share until all the food was gone. This was the first time he looked at a gob who was eating.

“Okay, I understand” he admitted. He didn’t like the rule or the struggle over food but he didn’t see any way around it. Being hungry was pretty crappy and rabbit was by far his favorite thing about Arcadia so far. It was worth a little trouble to get some. Don and Kat spent the rest of the night talking and Don earned another point in INT and a skill up in goblin language making their conversation go more smoothly.