Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Goblin Prototype (Part 2)
Three days later.
In a courtyard house in Shilai Town.
A red-eyed female elf lay bored under a tree, sunbathing. A farmer’s wife walked past the street in front of the courtyard, spat at the door, and cursed, “Forest trash.”
A young man with red hair walked over from the other side of the street, leading an old pack horse and carrying a bulging backpack on his back. He approached the courtyard door and knocked.
“Come in, the door’s not locked,” said Litis.
Laiwu pushed open the door and asked awkwardly, “Hello, are you—”
“I am.”
Litis looked Laiwu up and down.
What Jima said was true; he was indeed full of youthful energy—his face was dotted with acne scars, and a few pimples were still visible. He seemed very shy, appearing to have perfectly normal limbs but somehow they looked a little short.
Litis thought of the boys back in her hometown, each one shyer than the last. She chuckled and jumped down from the tree, her skirt billowing up, revealing her smooth thighs.
Laiwu froze, his face turning red, and felt a pang of guilt about being “unfaithful” to Jima, immediately turning away.
It had been a long time since he had seen a man like the boys from his hometown.
Litis laughed and clapped her hands, saying, “I heard you mastered avant-garde human sculpture techniques?”
“Y-yes.”
“Perfect, I happen to have a lovely smelly model to test your skills. Is that all right?”
Laiwu turned back to look her in the eye and said, “No problem!”
“Then follow me.”
Litis led Laiwu toward the house. The house was not small, made of logs, and the windows were small.
Laiwu followed closely behind her, and Litis opened the door, revealing a dimly lit interior. She said, “Go in.”
Litis’s gaze swept over Laiwu intently; he felt both excited and a bit scared, sensing that there was something off about her stare. As he crossed the threshold, Litis suddenly said:
“You’re still a virgin.”
“Uh, yes, why do you ask?”
Under Laiwu’s somewhat fearful gaze, Litis licked her lips like a carnivore and said, “It’s nothing.”
Litis shut the door behind her and led Laiwu deeper inside.
“Let me introduce myself. I’m Litis, an artist far from home, wandering.”
“I’m Laiwu,” Laiwu said. “I’m a young man venturing out, away from my beloved.”
“You sound like you have a story.”
Laiwu dreamed, “My beloved is the most beautiful girl in White City, who is semi-confined in a sanctuary. Once I achieve greatness, I will go back to take her away and elope to get married.”
Litis chuckled and said, “Then you must have hit the jackpot; working for me can be quite lucrative. The work in this field exceeds people’s imagination. Are you ready?”
With that, Litis placed her hand on the wooden door.
Laiwu nodded.
Litis pushed the door open, and they walked inside, where a faint unpleasant odor lingered, reminiscent of livestock.
Laiwu followed the scent, directing his gaze toward its source — an indoor pigpen — as many people lived in the same quarters as livestock.
In the pigpen, there was a green creature curled up, wrapped in ragged linen, with a rusty chain around its neck.
Laiwu approached and asked, “Is that a green pig?”
“Indeed, it’s my model, a gift from a brave young knight,” Litis said as she picked up a stick beside the pigpen and jabbed at the “green creature,” exclaiming, “Wake up, Your Majesty!”
The goblin queen tumbled over, emitting a pitiful gurgling sound, opened its pale red eyes, quickly stood up, and raised its ugly face. It had a long nose, and its face was filled with wrinkles laden with black filth. Grinning widely, it displayed a smile that appeared like a sinister grin to ordinary people, revealing a few broken yellow teeth beneath its lips.
Laiwu caught a whiff of the stench and took a step back in disgust, while the goblin queen grinned even wider, plucking a flea from its hair and biting it.
Litis suddenly struck its head with the stick, and the goblin queen kicked out with its legs, spinning halfway around before crashing to the ground.
“Ugly thing, put on your crown!” Litis laughed.
The goblin queen hurriedly dug out a crown woven from vines, embedded with human finger bones and metal fragments, from the filthy straw beneath it and placed it on its head.
Laiwu noticed the bone had bite marks.
Litis struck it again and shouted, “Stand up straight!”
Laiwu had many questions; pointing at the crown on the goblin’s head, he asked, “What is that?”
“Of course, it’s a crown.”
“Why does it wear a crown?”
“A queen must wear a crown.”
“Is it the goblin queen?”
“Of course not,” Litis said, “She is actually a queen of high elves who was cursed and degraded to a goblin. Don’t you know goblins are distant relatives of elves?”
Laiwu’s eyes widened, struggling to connect this foul, ugly creature before him with the beautiful, graceful elves from legends.
“Really… really?”
“Are you scared?”
“I think it’s such a pity. Is there really no way to lift the curse?”
“Of course there is, but the world is not lacking in elf queens, and there is only one elf queen cursed into a goblin.”
Laiwu intended to refuse; in his mind, the elf queen was the most elegant and beautiful elf. But thinking of Jima waiting in White City for him to come back and “marry” her, he gritted his teeth and said:
“I’ll do it, but I can’t burden my family.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”
Laiwu promptly asked, “Have the elves forgotten her?”
Litis laughed, patting Laiwu’s back hard, saying, “Because I lied to you; this is a pure-bred female goblin.”
Laiwu felt relieved and asked, “So, where do you want to sculpt it? The mouth, or the ears?”
“Down there.” Litis pointed to her inner thigh, “Right here.”
“Here?” Laiwu’s eyes widened, his heart racing, exclaimed, “You want to sculpt there?”
“What’s wrong? Can’t do it?”
Laiwu thought avant-garde sculptors truly have different thinking than ordinary people, he said, “No, no, I can do it.”
“Get your tools ready,” Litis said, “I’ll get this creature tied up.”
Litis tossed a bundle of rope to the goblin queen, urging, “Tie yourself up.”
The goblin could understand; it picked itself up awkwardly.
Litis quickly noticed it was trying to do a simple knot, and she struck it hard, causing its bones to crack in protest. The goblin queen whined, using all four limbs to tie its hands tightly, biting the end of the rope and tying it firmly.
“All done, come on and help, boy.”
“I’m already an adult.”
“Then come here, virgin.”
Laiwu felt teased, walking over to help Litis remove the chains, during which Litis brushed his backside. Laiwu quickly glanced back, seeing Litis’s expression unchanged, thinking it must have been his imagination.
They both pulled the goblin queen out; despite having been taught correctly by Litis, it still had many bruises from her stick. However, binding this goblin securely was no easy task.
Laiwu mentioned he had never tried to create a mold of a live organism, but he believed it would certainly be uncomfortable.
So, they tightly bound the goblin as much as possible. Litis had prepared a wooden frame to stretch the skin, propping the goblin queen upside down in it. Its limbs were tightly bound, the ropes digging into its skin.
Suspended in the wooden frame, the goblin looked like an inverted human figure, its feet tied to the ends of the frame. Laiwu did not want to mess up on his first attempt, so he forcefully spread the goblin queen’s legs apart, to which she let out a strange cry, trying to clamp her legs down.
Litis brought over more rope, tying its knees together, and in the end, the goblin queen appeared like an inverted “prisoner.”
Her lower half was completely exposed to the air, emitting an indescribable foul odor. Laiwu felt nauseated, as the smell resembled a corner of a wall soaked in dozens of urine puddles, mixed with the vomit of drunken people from three days ago.
He held back the urge to vomit and glanced at the goblin queen’s sparsely haired legs, resembling a festering, oozing wound.
Litis had already put on a bird mask and jabbed a stick at the goblin queen. A trickle of yellow liquid flowed down her abdomen under the influence of gravity, soaking the ragged clothing worn by the goblin queen.
Laiwu turned his head and let out a dry heaving sound.
“You only have one chance,” said Litis, wearing the bird mask. “Don’t disappoint me.”
“This is very difficult.”
“You can just turn and leave.”
“I’ll give it a try.”
Laiwu turned back and walked to the only table in the room; he had prepared bottles and jars, and there was a stove beside the table.
Laiwu skillfully started a fire, boiling a waxy substance in the dark crucible. After adding some materials and stirring for a while, a pungent smell filled the air. He poured the steaming semi-solid material onto a plate, put on an old deer skin glove, and carried the plate to stand in front of the goblin queen.
The goblin queen struggled hard, frightened enough that snot dripped from her long nose.
“I need help; I have to pour it in while it’s hot; it may struggle fiercely.”
Litis stepped forward and said, “I’m strong; just pour.”
Laiwu grabbed a handful of the steaming semi-solid.
The goblin queen twisted her body, pleading, “Kind person, good heart! Have mercy!”
Laiwu quickly dumped the semi-solid onto her; the goblin queen let out a piercing shriek, shaking the very roof, and Laiwu’s eardrums felt as if they were cut by a small knife.
The goblin’s cries of pain were often more effective than their combat power. Dwarves have used goblins as projectiles in catapults, deploying goblin screams to demoralize their enemies.
Litis covered her long ears, poking the goblin queen’s throat with the stick while also catching the plate that slipped from Laiwu’s hands.
Laiwu grabbed another handful of semi-solid, pouring it onto her, pressing down hard.
The poor goblin queen howled for nearly twenty minutes, biting off eight of her own teeth before the semi-solid finally solidified. Laiwu yanked hard, pulling out a lump that was uneven, covered in dozens of black hairs, and soaked in a foul liquid.
“Oh my God, light of dawn above.” Laiwu held back his nausea and turned back to prepare the mold.
Before long, the mold for the goblin queen was done.
Laiwu sighed in relief, feeling as if he had returned from hell. He cleaned up the remains of the slime and poured them into the mold, saying, “All done; it should be ready by nightfall.”
“Can the mold be reused?”
“Of course, but the more you use it, the coarser the end product becomes.”
Upon hearing this, Litis glanced at the goblin queen, who was shivering nervously.
