Kousuke had come to the Fourteenth Floor with Floria for the first time in a while.
Kousuke himself hadn’t visited this floor in a long time, as Sol would occasionally report on the goblins’ activities.
The reason Kousuke had come to this floor this time was because Floria had become interested when Kousuke casually mentioned the goblins.
Floria knew the goblins as having established a “wannabe” culture.
However, Kousuke’s story revealed they were far from that level, which made her want to see it for herself.
Upon arriving on the Fourteenth Floor, Sol came out to greet them.
His response was astonishingly fast, as if he had sensed their arrival at an unknown time.
He hadn’t contacted them beforehand, yet he was there with the speed of someone who knew they were coming.
“You’re quite fast. Did you set up some lookouts?”
Kousuke asked, curious, and Sol shook his head from side to side.
“No. It was just a feeling.”
“A feeling?”
Kousuke wondered if Sol, a Heavenly Child, had some unique skill, but he didn’t possess any such skills.
When Kousuke asked again out of curiosity, Sol made a gesture as if he were thinking for a moment.
However, he soon shook his head and wore an apologetic expression.
“I am truly sorry. It’s a feeling I cannot put into words. I simply sensed that Kousuke-sama had arrived…”
“I see.”
Kousuke nodded as he said that, but Floria, who had been listening to their conversation, laughed upon seeing this.
Kousuke, noticing her, turned to Floria.
“What is it?”
“Oh, nothing. I just thought you were both overthinking it.”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
At Floria’s words, Kousuke and Sol tilted their heads at the same time.
Floria, finding their reaction amusing, laughed for a while before giving her explanation.
“Aren’t goblins, by nature, sensitive to the presence of people and such? Sol, having evolved from them, wouldn’t possibly misread Kousuke’s presence.
Besides, he has Kousuke’s blessing. It wouldn’t be strange if he had powers similar to Peach’s.”
“Ah, I see.”
Kousuke nodded at Floria’s plausible explanation.
Now that he thought about it, it didn’t seem that strange anymore.
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Upon arriving at the goblin village, Floria was amazed by the changes.
When she had visited before, they had just barely learned agriculture, and the settlement was more like a civilization with the barest of additions. Now, it had drastically transformed.
Kousuke, who had heard about it from Sol, was equally surprised to witness it firsthand.
The houses, which had previously been barely better than makeshift huts, were now built with a certain logic, appearing similar in structure.
This alone indicated they were now an organized group.
While Kousuke might not have been as quick to grasp it, Floria, as a queen of a country, could infer such things easily.
After all, the houses before them were primarily constructed from wood.
It would have been an arduous task for a single goblin to transport each piece of lumber.
It was clear from this alone that more than two workers were involved in their construction.
Furthermore, these wooden houses were not merely simple square buildings; they incorporated various clever designs.
According to Sol, they were built using the first structure, created with the tower’s functions, as a base.
Of course, they seemed to have been simplified so that goblins could build them, but the level of development was more than sufficient.
Kousuke and Floria, guided by Sol, observed the goblin village with great admiration.
In terms of civilization, they still seemed to be in the early stages, having just learned agriculture and with civilization just beginning to emerge.
However, this was not what Kousuke and Floria were focusing on.
Taking the buildings as an example, while they were indeed based on existing structures, they incorporated unique goblin innovations in various places.
There were things that Kousuke and Floria, as humans, wouldn’t necessarily need, but which were important to the goblins.
And these differences influenced their civilization.
While they marveled at the various goblin-specific innovations, what most captured Kousuke and Floria’s interest was when they visited the farms.
As Kousuke watched the goblins and ogre-humans working, he noticed something.
“Hmm? Is that… a slime?”
He noticed several slimes among the vegetables growing in the fields.
“Hmm? Ah, yes. What are the lookouts doing?”
Floria, alerted by Kousuke’s observation, drew her sword and moved to attack the slimes, but Sol stopped her.
“Please wait.”
“Hmm? Why do you stop me?”
For Floria, slimes were monsters to be hunted, not to be left alone.
However, as Kousuke surveyed the surrounding fields, he noticed something.
“…Huh? Oh, there are more over there… By any chance, are the goblins using slimes for farming?”
“Wh-what!?”
At Kousuke’s remark, Floria exclaimed in surprise, and Sol’s face showed admiration.
“You noticed? As expected.”
“No. It just felt that way.”
Kousuke waved his hand, saying that.
However, neither Floria nor Sol took his words at face value.
Kousuke’s (the Avatar’s) “feeling” had already become a sense that was almost equivalent to fact.
It was probably a case of “only the person themselves is unaware.”
Whether he noticed their reactions or not, Kousuke was observing the slimes with interest.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t the goblins, but the more advanced species like the ogre-humans who were using the slimes.
From Kousuke’s perspective, they seemed to be expertly guiding the slimes.
The slimes moved around as if they were ducks released into a rice paddy.
“I see. If you use slimes well, they eat other insects and weeds instead of vegetables, right?”
“Yes. That is correct.”
Sol nodded at Kousuke’s words.
The first thing the goblins did was teach the slimes what they shouldn’t eat.
After all, slimes would digest anything if left to their own devices.
This was precisely why they were targeted for extermination as monsters.
Floria, who knew this all too well, tilted her head.
“But can slimes, which are not familiars, distinguish between things?”
“We struggled initially, but then one of our companions gained the ability to communicate with slimes, and that person taught them,” Sol replied.
“What!?”
Floria exclaimed in surprise at Sol’s casually delivered words.
It was considered difficult to use slimes, which lacked even simple thinking, according to their will.
Naturally, communication was considered impossible. That was the common sense of the human world.
“Of course, the communication is only about very simple matters. I do not have such an ability myself.”
“My word.”
With an expression of mingled admiration and disbelief, Floria looked around at the goblins and ogre-humans working on the farm.
From what they observed, the slimes did not attack the goblins or ogre-humans.
On the contrary, as if they knew they were protected from other threats, they seemed to obediently assist with the farm work.
Floria could only let out a groan at the strangely wondrous sight.
It was a developing goblin village.
By the way, Kousuke also communicated with Kou and the others, but communicating with slimes is difficult.
As mentioned in the text, their thoughts are too simple, so their feelings are not conveyed well.（However, this changes after he becomes the Avatar）
