Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

The wind was blowing calmly. The green grass rocked soothingly at the whim of the wind and the orcs that stood watch at Sanctuary couldn't help but yawn. Things were really boring.

There was currently no enemies, there was no internal strife, there was nothing interesting! Nothing interesting to do on the job anyway. Lots of orcs were picking up hobbies as a means of making money.

The orc coins were the latest fad and at least for a short while, the enthusiasm of the orcs to invent and recreate wouldn't be fading.

It was just that this mattered little to an orc on wall guard duty. The inner wall could see interesting things, but the outer wall was just a risk. The previous orcs on the position had been killed, for example.

Thinking of this, the orc couldn't help but form a deep frown. The handling was just too poor! If those on the outer wall would be risking their lives for nothing but to be ignored, then… they were better off not being on the outer walls to begin with!

"There should be goblins in this damn position" It was standard to use goblins for this task. It was actually kind of ridiculous that they were placed up there at the moment when there were goblins capable of performing the job in Sanctuary.

"Pfft, goblins? Here? Hahahaha!" Another guard orc said laughing amused.

"What's funny?" The complaining orc asked with a hint of anger.

"W- Wait- HAAAA!" The orc had a hard time controlling their laughter, but they did get it eventually.

"I was just imagining their terrified expressions when they couldn't see the bottom of the wall" The laughing orc said with a smirk to which the complaining orc responded with a snort. They hid the smile that threatened to prop up on their face.

The exchange of these orcs seemed light-hearted from a distance with the laughing and smiling, but it was anything but innocent. The conversation highlighted a problem that could grow into future dissatisfaction.

This was an issue Ed wanted to fix through battle, and Sharog naturally also knew of the issue. With Ed's sudden departure, he left behind a mess, as was usual. The timings of his faints always made things hard for Sharog.

Sharog being unofficially the manager of Sanctuary had to fix this issue or at least attempt to in his absence. For this, she had no choice but to seek help. She had tried to ask multiple different orcs.

"Hm? Just bring them to the forge! How can they not respect a good craftsgoblin?" Shel said to Sharog when prompted for a solution. The radiance with which she suggested this made Sharog consider this as an answer, but there was still much asking to be done.

"What? The goblins? Just have them run some businesses" Sharog even asked her student Gurln.

"Why businesses?" Sharog figured that having the goblins become heavily involved with Sanctuary culture could help. The only problem was that most had…somewhat lacking arithmetic skills.

"Everyone loves money" Gurln's answer caused Sharog's eye to twitch. Indeed, if the goblins had plenty of money, they would quickly make drinking buddies.

"Help the goblins… having them work some jobs should do the trick" Asking Dakgu yielded such an answer. The young orc was currently helping out in the boar farm at the behest of his friend.

"For money?" Sharog asked him.

"Oh… I… was thinking they'd get appreciation but… I guess that does help" Dakgu said scratching his chin awkwardly.

The questioning of all members of the Sanctuary council was yielding results on the surface, but ultimately they all pointed towards the new orc coins.

The blacksmithing would make them money, inventing a business would make them money, and running the orchard or helping at the boar farm would also make the goblins money.

The goblins needed to be the face that came up when the orcs thought of a professional worker! This was why Sharog gathered the goblins and planned to find them jobs yet…

There was just a lot of squeaking and squealing. The goblins couldn't even speak their language! Sharog's plan to involve them in business was destroyed by the language barrier.

That just left odd jobs, but whether the goblins would understand what to do was still up for debate. It was at this moment that Sharog caught sight of a shiny goblin.

They were sitting atop some debris looking up at the sky, they seemed pensive. The brown tinted goblin was of course Pipsqueak. He shone under the rays of the early noon sun.

Sharog was not sure what compelled her to approach the goblin, but she did.

"Are you still a goblin?" She muttered to herself, inspecting the brown mob from a safe distance.

Pipsqueak only shot her a casual glance. This glance held traces of irritation, however, which Sharog willfully failed to catch.

This caused the goblin to squeal and squeak out angrily. Why was this orc woman still watching him!?!

But Sharog simply grabbed her staff and bonked the goblin on the head. Pipsqueak was stunned shut.

"Huh… I guess it is a goblin" Sharog said to herself audibly enough for Pipsqueak's brown face to turn red from anger. Did her staff have goblin detecting powers?! What did bonking him on the head have to do with being a goblin!?

The incessant yapping of Pipsqueak only heightened at this point. Sharog was just about ready to leave when she noticed the brown goblin had started to follow her from a safe distance.

"What do you want?" She asked with narrowed eyes, but the goblin did not respond. Pipsqueak's angry face was all that answered her.

Sharog's walk back to the main area of Sanctuary happened while being accompanied by the observative eyes of Pipsqueak  Even after returning to the plaza and the Sanctuary hall, Pipsqueak was still following.

"You-" Sharog was now feeling irritated having finally figured out what was up with the goblin.

"How petty!" It was trying to make her uncomfortable as either a means of revenge or to prove a point. Regardless of the reason, Sharog's eyes shone.

"Can you understand me?" She asked the goblin who stopped staring intently to provide a small nod.

Sharog couldn't help but became awed, the goblin understood her! This said a lot about the intelligence of the creature. Particularly, it commented on its ability to analyze patterns, and remembering them.

The spoken language, the mother tongue, was always nothing more than stringing together a series of different sounds to create words and sentences. These were of course tied together by rules decided upon by the speakers of the language.

Analyzing the patterns would be what words are being used and under what context. Remembering all of this would require recognizing these patterns thanks to the previous subconscious analysis.

The goblin might not be able to pronounce any words, but it had the skill to understand others, which sufficed.

"Ed did an excellent job with you, huh" Sharog complimented.

Pipsqueak hated Ed though, its expression was that of anger once more.

"Could you help me out with something?" Sharog saw that it became angry and decided to bring it back to reality.

But Sharog miscalculated, Pipsqueak hated Sharog just as much as Ed. The goblin just hated orcs.

"Could you teach your goblin friends to understand me?" Sharog's request was a simple one. If they could overcome the language barrier from at least one direction, they were stepping towards the future.

The problem of integrating the goblins also solved itself if the weird goblin facilitated all of them entering jobs. The only issue was Pipsqueak's answer had to be positive. Giving the little guy's fits of anger, the odds were slim.

"I don't know why you are angry but I'll tell you this" Sharog decided he needed some convincing.

"If you want to beat someone up, you need strength" The current Pipsqueak was not a weakling but he wasn't strong enough to beat Sharog for example.

"Here in Sanctuary, if you want strength, you buy it" Sharog's words entered Pipsqueak's ears and sounded rather sweet.

"I'll pay you to teach them" Sharog was handling Sanctuary's funds so she could afford to pay a wage or salary for one goblin. Plus, it was all to give back to the community and lessen discrimination by providing an education. If there was anything that needed government spending, this was it.

At this point, Pipsqueak's forehead was forming beads of sweat that glistened there as he thought deeply. The answer had to be a yes but… Pipsqueak really didn't have the patience to teach.

The goblin was also being alienated by the group of goblins, so teaching them would even more patience.

But after a short while, a simple nod still came to be. Pipsqueak's intelligence which was manufactured by intelligence related skills was fearsome if it could allow one to get the gist of another language.

The similarities between goblins and orcs were not great enough for both of their languages to sound too similar. Pipsqueak had a powerful brain at their disposal. He would have to exercise this brain to teach the goblins.

"Great, I'll, I'll have to get this started then!" Sharog said with a smile.. The Sanctuary council needed to hear of this great idea.