The next day things were going along much as normal. Me and the goblin woman prepared food for everyone. Then once that was done and everyone had eaten their own skewers the scout as usual approached me.

“Fuck now.” He stated with obvious expectation.

“No.” I replied before he could even drop his loincloth.

He blinked at me, somewhat confused by the change. I couldn’t help but notice that the five other male goblins who participated were still finishing up their own meals while watching with interest. I swear it was like they ate staggered so they could each have a turn with me perfectly on time. Maybe they were… as odd as that sounded for them.

“No… fuck?” Scout was a bit dejected, almost a bit angry?

“No. I’ve decided that I don’t want to do that anymore.” I stated clearly.

Scout seemed to be considering something. He nodded but it wasn’t really the nod of firm acceptance, it was more like he was nodding that he would take my actions and words under advisement… Where I got that impression I had no idea.

I glanced back at the others who looked uncertain, as though they weren't sure if it went for them as well. I decided to change that, “That goes for everyone. I’m done with it.” I stated unable to keep my annoyance with the dungeon’s approach from tainting my words.

They all looked a little like dogs that had been yelled at. Looking at them now honestly made me feel a bit like the villain in this situation. I shook my head a little to clear that from my mind, that was dumb!

Scout glanced back at me after all of this. He cleared his throat and raised a fist producing a bit of grunt, or a growl that gathered everyone’s eyes on him. “You cook good. You with cave. You woman. You think good. Accept as tribe.” Each statement was followed by a pause, a statement of fact he wanted well known. Yet, it was terribly obtuse as far as I was concerned. Still, odd as it was I got the impression he was trying to compliment me.

“As tribe?” I asked, having an idea, but not wanting to confuse his words with my own interpretation. I couldn’t help but glance at the others who were all almost glued to the scout as though he was making a grand proclamation. Of course, for as much as I knew, he was. There had been a bit of ceremony to that hadn’t there…

He nodded, “We capture, you ours. You tribe, not ours.” He nodded.

I glanced at the woman goblin and she just smiled back at me as though this was a great and wonderful event. Her overtly sharp teeth couldn’t help but make even happy smiles feel a bit unnerving at times, though I was getting more used to them.

“Thanks?” I offered back for a moment. As long as they accepted it I was fine. Though I decided rather than pressing the scout or the men for information, I’d ask the woman, and maybe the dungeon, I didn’t want to give them the wrong impression after all of this.

The scout nodded again, this time firm and decisive. He even gave me a small bow of his head which I felt was strange. Then he left.

I was standing there looking at the other five, who went back to eating their meal. As I stood there feeling a bit confused one even looked up at me and waved his little goblin hand at me. I just waved back and turned to go speak with the woman in their group.

After a discussion with both the woman goblin and the dungeon, things started to click into place.

As it turned out goblins very much had thought of me as their property. They had captured me. Or at least they had captured who this body had once belonged. That I could only discuss with the dungeon as the goblins seemed confused if I even hinted at it. It became clear however that because of this the five original goblins had considered me something along the lines of “spoils of war.” My words, not theirs.

What really took more work to understand over the next two days was the shift in status I felt with the goblins. The five that had been demanding and crass with me stopped. The scout was part of that group, though since he was obviously different in stature I usually kept them separate in my head. Rather than them just treating me better they almost began to treat me reverently. Like my words were quite important to them.

I began to notice more subtlety between me and the goblin woman they actually treated quite well. It seemed odd to me to think this so late into my interactions with them, but maybe they actually considered women to be leaders or important figures? Maybe I was overselling it a bit, or confusing it with their own hierarchy.

By the end of the second day since the scout's proclamation, I was starting to firm up my understanding of things. The thing I understood best was that because a chunk of the goblins treated me one way, and the others didn’t I was something of an outlier.

Some of them wanted to treat me as part of the group, others considered me little more than a toy they had stolen. But because of the scout's announcement that changed. The men all began to treat me a lot like they treated the goblin woman, maybe even a bit better. Perhaps this was because she treated me better?

The goblins very much had a strong follow-and-follower mentality in their group. They liked to follow the strong, be that physical or mental. This seemed to apply in many ways, like with their scout who was the strongest of their group, I’d watched him prove himself in scrapes with the others.

Perhaps because I was smarter than them, and I spoke more like the dungeon that had elevated my own position in a way that I hadn’t noticed because of the other conflicting elements?

It came down to me not really understanding the nuance that was taking place. Maybe it was hard for me to accept things because I still trying to deal with the fact that I was living with goblins. It was also possible that my own frustration was tainting my thoughts, considering how they acted. I was also dealing with the situation that I myself had agreed to. There was a lot to accept and deal with in short.

For now, I decided that I had stumbled into a social position and fallen into place within their own social structure. While they didn’t really have names and ranks for such things. I decided that they were treating me akin to something of a “wise woman.” Maybe this would come back to bite me later, but for now, it at least added up in my own head.

This just left me circling back around the dungeon in the end. This whole time it remained mostly quiet besides when I’d asked a question or two. Each time it just went back to “collecting mana.” I felt that was taking far too long, but what did I know about this world? After all, it certainly had been in this world longer, and it had access to vast information that was beyond me. It wasn’t like I didn’t feel more experienced in other ways. In that sense, I felt that our partnership made more sense than not. But if this was going to be a partnership, then something would need to change.

During dinner, while I was handing out barbecued meat to the goblins I decided to press the indecisive dungeon. “It's been two days, have you made a decision yet?” I asked via thought.

“No.”

I couldn't help but be annoyed at its shortness, “I’m going then.”

“Wait…”

“For what? You can either let me use the goblins to help me figure something out. Or I can go alone and probably end up dead.” I offered, trying to ease my tone but failing terribly.

“Dangerous… Why would you insist on such a risk?”

“Because staying here and eating meat every day isn’t living!” I insisted.

“Curious…”

“There’s more to life than just being alive. Maybe that's hard for you to grasp seeing as how you're a cave. But for me, comforts, distractions, games. A proper man! I want more than just small game cooked over a fire.” I continued.

“I understand…” The dungeon replied after a moment.

“Do you? I understand that you're more like a rock than me, I don’t want to sit around for years on end amassing one pelt after another. I want a carpenter, a proper bed, pillows, soft clothes, and a personal chef. I want jewelry, to learn how to use magic, I want to learn about these abilities. Maybe we could have a farm or a blacksmith that can make us pots, pans, and axes. Then at the end of a long day, I can fuck whoever I want! That's what I want, I want it all!” Even though I’d said all of that through my mind, I felt a bit wrung about by it. I had to pause and simply breathe.

“Perhaps I can learn from you. You have a clear ambition, goals, and drive to reach them. I however have so far only desired to survive and grow. I’ve not really given thought to grow in a way that might affect my survival. So far all the dangerous situations I’ve encountered are because of actions I’ve taken that had unforeseen results. Such as recruiting the goblins. I didn’t expect that to have downsides, however only after recruiting them did I realize that they can be tracked, and followed back to me.”

I nodded.

“Each action I take has downsides. I understand that. Even my choice to let you continue to inhabit that body had positives and negatives. I’ve been shocked by how the attitude of the goblins changed once you began cooking. They are more eager to work and explore. We’ve gained more for virtually no extra mana. Yet you push and prod. You refuse to stay or remain. You and I are very much opposites. You're like a storm, and I am as you said, like a rock.”

“I did think we would make good partners for that reason.” I replied.

“That you did.” The dungeon agreed. Then after a moment, it spoke again, “Very well. However, I must press one point. If you go out there beyond my reach you are tempting fate. I’ll be unable to recover your soul should your body die. While this is also true for the goblins, I see little benefit in restoring them to life. You, on the other hand, have definite potential. Potential I am risking by allowing you to undertake your excursion.”

“I understand.” I said taking that to heart, in truth the idea that I could be brought back felt quite alien to me. So it wasn’t as though I was acting recklessly on the presumption that It didn’t matter.

“You can go. But I want you to focus on planning, not finding beds or men.” The dungeon explained.

Maybe I'd said too much... “Planning?” I asked not quite sure what it meant.

“Me and you clearly have an aptitude for seeing beyond the present. It's why the goblins flock to us, why they see us as leaders. I want you to find a plan we can work on together. We need information to do that. Take the scout, and go with him. He's surprisingly well suited for this type of task, and he’ll keep you from killing yourself at the least.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that if just a bit. “Alright. I guess I can agree to that. Will you order him? Or should I explain things?”

“I’ll leave it to you, should there be trouble inform me. Remember to listen to the scout, you may be able to outwit him, or even convince him to do something stupid. But his instincts are good, and you should try and trust them.”

“I’ll do my best!” I said eagerly. I felt a bit better about everything with this change.