Bringing The Advanced Arsenal To Another World 97 Chapter 97 - Pledge To Protec

Gren couldn't go back to sleep after explaining what happened to the people inside the guild. He didn't think that he killed those people but there was no other explanation that made sense. The ability looked similar to his own and his magic energy was being used. He had killed before but never without making a conscious decision to do so. If this happened because he got angry then what would happen if he got angry at someone he cared about one day?

Gren drank a gla.s.s of wine to calm his nerves. A part of him wanted to drink more and just forget about what happened but he needed to try coming up with an explanation. There were three possibilities that he could think of and all of them put the blame on his shoulders.

The first possibility is that he awakened some sort of latent power. He's supposedly the son of a G.o.ddess so this seemed plausible even if it was a bit unlikely. It didn't seem to fit with his mother's image of being a healing G.o.ddess but someone's apt.i.tude for a specific type of magic didn't seem hereditary. As an example, Aqua was born to water mages but she was better-suited towards earth magic.

The second possibility was that his magic went out of control due to his emotions. This most likely wasn't the case since he never used magic that looked anything like that before. It shouldn't be possible to use magic that you're not familiar with in a tense situation but he couldn't say for certain if that was accurate. Weirder things had happened in the past and magic is still not fully developed in this world.

The third and most likely possibility had to do with the system. It was possible for the system to activate magic for him. It did it all the time whenever he used the pocket dimension. That wasn't technically a spell according to the system but it was close enough. There were the things that Mimi saw when he used the system; a bunch of undead arms appearing didn't seem so strange when he thought about it.

{Do you know what caused the skeleton hands to appear?}

That removed the first possibility. It wasn't an ability if you needed to use a spell.

{Did you activate the magic spell?}

Gren didn't know if he could believe the system but, if true, that just left the second possibility. It was the absolute worst possibility since it meant that he could accidentally harm those that he cared about.

{Did I activate the spell?}

A fourth possibility?

{Do you know who or what activated the spell?}

That answered that it was a person but it had to be someone that hadn't consented to being scanned by him. It wasn't someone from the guild but who else would help him like that? Gren didn't like not knowing who the person was since they could be a potential threat if he accidentally angered them. Just to be sure, Gren checked on his mother's body; she still wasn't revived so Gren didn't think that it was her.

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Gren managed to get some sleep after having a couple more gla.s.ses of wine. Unfortunately, he ended up sleeping at one of the tables in the plaza where his statue was erected so his sleep didn't last long. The goblins pulled on his hair when they saw him and started yelling for food. Seeing the goblins reminded him of something.

"All of you line up or you don't get any food." The goblins were well-behaved if there was a promise of food... at least for a short while. Gren started counting them. Then he counted a second time. "Why are there so many of you?"

He only paid for five but quickly realized that the sixth one was the one that ran into a wall and was thought to be dead by the Genrich Trading Company. "Where did the other three come from? There should only be six of you, not nine." They all started talking at the same time so Gren changed his approach. "Raise your hand if I took your collar off for you." Only five of them raised their hands.

"Okay, you four with your hands down, step to the side." There should have been six goblins that raised their hand. "You, on the far left, where is the last goblin that I removed a collar from?" She looked away instead of answering. "If I don't get an answer then n.o.body gets to eat."

"In the dirt." The goblin that answered looked sad. "She fell." Gren was really hoping that he was wrong but it sounded like they were saying that there was a death.

Before asking them to show him where the other goblin was, Gren marked their foreheads with numbers using some ink. He'd have to create a more permanent solution to tracking which goblins belonged in the guild. "If you remove those numbers then you don't get food. Now, take me to where your friend is in the dirt."

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Gren didn't expect for them to lead him outside of the guild. They were pretty close to the slums when the goblins stopped. There was some loose dirt with some rocks placed around it. Gren carefully moved the dirt and saw the small green body.

He wrapped her up with a blanket and stored her in his pocket dimension. "Let's go back. We'll bury her at home." Their group silently walked back to the guild. It felt like it took a longer time getting back than it did to get there.

In the courtyard, Gren used his magic to dig a hole for her. It didn't feel right to just bury the wrapped up body so he built a small coffin for her. The inside was lined with cloth even though there was no point to it. As he buried the coffin in the dirt, Gren wondered what he should do about the grave.

Regular goblins didn't have names. There were too many of them being born and they usually died within ten years. Goblins matured at a young age and were able to give birth after just four years. Hobgoblins could live to be as old as a human but the regular goblins didn't seem capable of living beyond thirty five years of age.

For now he had an unmarked grave for her with a small altar for leaving offerings. The other goblins were hungry so he brought them down to get some food. Before letting them go in and grab something to eat, Gren made them each bracelets with numbers on them, skipping the number six to represent the goblin they lost.

The new goblins were allowed to stay since they were all female and got Mimi's approval. Gren told them that new goblins had to get a bracelet before they got food and were allowed to stay. After they agreed to the new rule, Gren allowed them to take what they wanted from the pantry. It soon became clear which goblin they had lost... they had plenty of apples but none of the goblins even touched them.

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Gren needed to make one change to the grave that he made. His artistic skills weren't the best but he carved a small apple in the corner of the grave. It was weird. He shouldn't feel sad over the death of a goblin but she was already a part of his group. Even if the goblins were troublemakers, Gren didn't want to see them die. Even if it was just an accident this time, Gren needed to try harder to protect the people of the guild.