◈ Chapter 128:

Opal wandered aimlessly through the shelves, mumbling random words as every so often she glanced down at several sheets of paper filled with even more words. She rested the hands that held the pieces of paper on top of her exposed pregnancy, easily done considering her size now.

 

The Goblin had grown a lot since she had evolved, her belly going from a gently arcing curve to looking like a human at seven months, and now even more. She was sure she had even put on size since she had woken up that morning, her belly gradually growing larger and larger throughout the day until at midday her belly button had finally given up the fight against the immense pressure building within and had popped outward, turning from an innie to an outie.

 

She suspected her growth might even be accelerating. 

 

That was… unusual, even for a Gobbo. The others clearly thought it completely normal from their lack of comment, Gobbos were supposed to have really fast pregnancies right? Right? Well, they did, just not as freaking fast as this! Her current rate of growth was several times faster than any Gobbo she had ever seen or ever heard of! But Rain or Lyra couldn't have known that was the case, they just didn't know.

 

She was also starting to get the impression she hadn't in fact been pregnant since the dungeon, that had started afterwards, in the Ranker’s mansion perhaps, it would explain why her explosive growth hadn't really shown before, it was only a relatively recent development, concerningly recent as it implied just how quickly all of this was happening.

 

Opal pondered how large she would get. If worst came to worst she could always lean on her awesome and very convenient shadow teleportation, so really there wasn't a limit, and there was nothing to worry about. Mostly.

 

Her lips formed words from the pages as she tried to keep her mind off the subject. There were a lot of words, nearly a thousand. Rain had told her to practice with them. Although she wasn't really sure why that was needed because she had already memorised every single word she had been given. But when she told him that was the case he didn't seem to believe her and said she was just trying to get out of learning.

 

She really had memorised them of course, every last one, she found it easy, sucking up the knowledge like a thirsty sponge. True it was incredibly un-Gobbo-like and well outside of her comfort zone, just like washing and hygiene, but just like with washing and hygiene she was beginning to change, adapt, what was once unnatural was becoming natural.

 

Only now she had to double-memorise them? Urgh. That was even more un-Gobbo-like! But that was apparently a thing people learning to read did according to Rain, practising over and over until they got it down perfectly, so she plodded onward, double-memorising the words, for some reason. 

 

She let out a yawn and rubbed her cheek, the mumbled flow of repeated words petering off.

 

She paused as a flash of scale caught her eye and pulled her attention away from the pages. It was Red, the useless leg chopping Kobold. He was sitting at a desk reading a book in the reading space she had crossed into.

 

She paused as she considered this. Had the Kobold been secretly learning to read too? Had he beaten her to the punch and was able to read before her? That would sting. He was a Kobold after all, and Kobolds and Gobbo’s usually didn't get on very well, competing for resources, food, territory in the dungeon, just competing in general.

 

“What are you reading?” she said, approaching, pretending to be as casual and as uninterested as possible.

 

The Kobold ignored her and kept reading.

 

She peered over his shoulder. The large book looked very complex and she found she didn't recognise a single word on its pages. Was he already that far ahead of her? That wouldn't do, it must be a trick somehow!

 

“Hey? Are you listening to me?”

 

Annoyed, she placed a hand on the Kobold’s shoulder and they jerked back in surprise, the chair scraping across the floor as they stood and turned and-

 

Opal blinked as she looked into an unfamiliar face. It was a Kobold, with red scales, but this one was quite clearly female, and surprisingly curvy.

 

“Ah, sorry, can I help you?” said the startled Kobold.

 

Opal eyed her suspiciously, suddenly on the back foot. “No… You’re not who I thought you were, you looked like another Kobold I know.”

 

The Kobold tilted her head. “I’m not them, so…” Her eyes wandered down from Opal’s face to her pregnancy.

 

“Ooh! Your master allowed you to become preggers! Wow! If I did that I’d get put out to pasture. Well, that is if it wasn't my master’s, not that the old sack of wrinkly dust could get it up in the first place!”

 

The Kobold came uncomfortably close and her palms touched gently against Opal’s belly then stroked across its surface, the Kobold pressing her flat midriff up against her.

 

“Is three a lot for a Goblin? I thought you lot had larger births, but wait, you aren't really a Goblin are you? Some kind of Hob, what did you evolve into? Got a name? What's with the horn?”

 

Opal’s brow furrowed as the excitable Kobold darted behind and wrapped her arms around her back, embracing her belly from behind. It was a distressingly intimate thing for a complete stranger to do. Opal was a Gobbo so she was very used to having zero personal space in a cramped tribe. But still. She frowned.

 

“I don’t know what kind of evolution I am, something special though, something really strong and awesome and… wait… what did you say? What do you mean three?!?”

 

“Three kids. Oh, didn’t you know? Huh, it's obvious to anyone with a bit of experience in midwifery. I’ve helped see to a few births in my time let me tell you.

 

“I… How can- I don't know if I can believe you...”

 

“It’s totally true! Trust me!”

 

The Kobold squeezed her for a moment before letting go and swinging back around her front.

 

“That horn though, I don't know how you got that.”

 

She looked up at the horn, hand on chin, tilting her head side to side as if trying to make sense of it.

 

“I have no idea what that is, it looks magic, powerful.”

 

“It is magic, and extremely powerful.

 

“Ooh! How did you evolve? What was your trigger?”

 

Ah, Opal understood now, the Kobold was one of those, an evolution chaser. One of those monsters who obsessed over the search for a trigger that would make them evolve, make them stronger.

 

“I nearly died.”

 

“Oh?” the Kobold seemed surprised by this, “Is that all? I haven't seen anything like it before and Goblins almost die in this city all day every day.”

 

“Well, there was something else, and that is probably why it is made of a certain... stuff.”

 

“Yes? Wait, don't tell me, it's the same source as your pregnancy? That’s a thing that can happen after mating, I’ve seen that a bunch!”

 

“...Yes?”

 

The Kobold cooed at this and bounced on the spot excitedly.

 

“I knew it, I knew it, that's how you got the horn! That’s how you get the juices! Quickly, tell me what positions you did it in, how many times you needed to do it, for how long, how many teaspoons of his-”

 

A skeletal rat appeared on the writing desk, scampered across its surface, and then abruptly booted the book the Kobold had been reading onto the floor with a bang and a flap of paper. It waved its arms in the air trying to get Opal’s attention, pointing toward the entrance.

 

“Hey, focus!” said the Kobold, seemingly not noticing the rat as she continued to practically fondle Opal.

 

“Uh- it’s…” said Opal, mentally set off balance. There was something about this Kobold that was really throwing her off. Slaves… did not behave like this in her mind, but then if she was allowed to do as she wanted in the library maybe she was a special slave? One that belonged to an eccentric leveler who let her do as she willed?

 

A noise drew her attention to the door, something was coming, a lot of somethings, making a lot of alarming noise. She turned back to warn the Kobold but found that the Kobold was no longer there. Had she fled into the nearby shelves to hide?

 

Scratchy noises drew her attention back, and she turned to see a wave of skeletal rats pour through the entrance, and then a flustered skeleton, its black cloak billowing around its body as it strode. 

 

“Quickly now, my rats sense her approach!”

 

Rain appeared behind him ducking down to squeeze through the door, a skittery Lyra bringing up the rear.

 

“What is it? What's wrong? Who’s approaching?” said Opal

 

“I may have made a small mistake,” replied Vash, passing her by.

 

“You got seen! Your rats got seen!” shouted Lyra.

 

“Yes, well, scouting a library of this absurd a size includes inherent risks, naturally.”

 

Light spilled from the door behind them, a lot of light, a shocking amount of light. 

 

“What is that? What is coming?!” said Opal in alarm as the entrance behind them began to glow like the sun itself was coming down the corridor.

 

“My rats tell me that it is the Librarian. They are… transformed, a Class of some kind, a strong one.”

 

The light grew brighter and particles of light started to fill the air, the particles seemed to pay no attention to anything physical and drifted freely through walls and bookcases, tables and chairs.

 

“So make us invisible sheepy, hide us!”

 

Lyra flinched as one of the particles drifted against her wool and made a loud crack snap! as it popped, electricity rolling up her body causing her to jerk and stumble.

 

“I already did! As soon as one of those things touches me it breaks! And she seems to somehow have our scent, we’ve been all over the place but she just keeps heading in our direction!”

 

“That does seem to be the case. This way then, my rats know the way out.”

 

Vash strode decisively ahead of them, causing Lyra and Rain to glance at each other in surprise then at the newly confident skeletons back.

 

They passed into the next room and then the next, the light following them. Growing brighter still as it started to near. 

 

The air was full of particles now, a snowstorm of light that caused Lyra a great deal of twitching and jerking when they collided with her. If Rain felt the dozens crackle over his fur he didn't show it.

 

Opal spasmed as one touched her shoulder and she fell, her legs giving out. Fortunately Rain was able to catch her in one paw and scooped her to his chest.

 

The light came on faster.

 

“She’s going to find us!” yelped Lyra as she dashed forward.

 

They emerged out into a large bookcase filled room, different from any of the others they had so far entered because this one actually had windows, tall ones.

 

Ahead a swarm of rats had already forced one of the windows wide and were waiting patiently.

 

Rain eyed the window. It was a large window, but that didn't mean much at his size

 

“There’s no way I’m going to fit through that…”

 

Lyra’s wool washed black. “Then get inside quickly!”

 

He slipped into her as Lyra fell against one of the nearby writing desks, her fingernails clawing at its surface as her shorts became damp, biting her lip as she squeezed her eyes shut.

 

“Hurry!” said Vash as he disappeared out the window.

 

“I’m freaking trying!” gasped the sheep girl as the last of Rain disappeared inside. She gathered herself and darted toward the window.

 

Ahead of her Opal sunk into shadow and disappeared from sight, leaving Lyra completely alone, only a storm of lights behind her to keep her company.

 

“H-hey wait for me!”

 

She leaned out the window and looked down. She was on the third floor, far above the alley below, Opal was emerging from a shadow as Vash gently reached the ground on a wave of rat skeletons connecting him to the ivy-covered wall.

 

“...How am I supposed to get down?”

 

Behind her the light became far brighter, and a golden figure drifted into the room.

 

It was the Librarian from the front desk, the purple scaled drake, although no longer quite so purple, her scales glowed with golden light as she hovered suspended in the air. She looked around the room, peering between the long rows of shelves from behind her glasses, her brow furrowed in clear anger.

 

Lyra panicked and climbed on top of the window sill, crouching awkwardly. What was she supposed to do?

 

The Librarian didn't seem to have noticed her through the forest of bookcases yet, but that was soon to change as particles of light drifted toward her. She was going to be found.

A rat promptly grabbed hold of the back seat of her shorts and yanked her off the sill.

 

With a scream she plummeted, arms and legs flailing.

 

A skeletal net caught her, over a hundred rat skeletons merged together to form a bed stretched between the wall and Vash’s hands. She bounced in the net as she landed, her fall arrested, saved.

 

But then she froze in horror as she realised just what it was she was that had saved her. Not all of the rat bones were nice and clean, some of them still had bits of dried fur, or worse, attached to them.

 

She thrashed and the rat bones scattered apart which left her to fall to the cobble on her rear with an oomph!”

 

She looked herself over with dismay.

 

“Di-Did you really have to catch me like this?” 

 

“I assumed it would have been preferable to being caught and interrogated by the Librarian. Speaking of which.” 

 

Vash lifted his head and looked up, more and more light was coming from the window high above. The Librarian was approaching.

 

With tears in the corners of her eyes, a bruised rear, and feeling extremely unclean, Lyra scrambled to her hooves and chased after Vash and Opal as they fled the alley.