When negotiating with goblins, the first thing was to ensure they saw you coming.
But I was a girl.
I would arrive at the camp in chains if they saw me coming. I knew that, and my wish to punish the goblins grew even more!
They would serve as compost piles if they weren't with me, fighting the good fight against the fairies.
I heard a scream from my spot by the wall—a female scream.
One million good deeds.
One curse.
Was I ready to negotiate with goblins? Could I have stooped so low?
I touched my staff to the earth. It was a simple spell—one every witch had to learn during her first year of training.
"Sink Ultra!" I yelled.
The walls sank into the muddy ground. The houses and battlements fell to the side.
A single group of goblins was in the middle of what looked like a shrine.
A woman's severed head rolled on the ground, her ghost weeping, in chains, as the goblins were cutting her up into pieces.
I saw red!
"Fireball!" The woman was dead already. The goblins needed to die! To hell with correction centers! To hell with doing good deeds!
I was a witch. A cursed one with access to necromantic mana! It was my duty to clean the world of its waste!
The shrine exploded.
But the fight was not over!
The goblin shamans had put a barrier just in time.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Fine then!" I didn't care if the entire forest caught fire. I didn't care who was going to die and who was going to survive!
"Curse of Destruction, level 90!"
The lightning fell from the sky. Hitting the barrier. Evaporating everything but me in the area. There wasn't even a flame!
I looked at the crater where the goblins had been. My feet were shaking. A curse always took a lot of the caster.
But what could I have done? I was a witch, not a battle mage. My strength lay in opening fire first, asking questions later.
There were three mana stones in the crater. All green. I smiled. Good, that would fetch me a reasonable price.
There was a woman in white.
I blinked at her. I don't understand what I should do to help her.
She nodded.
I nodded.
The ghost made her last journey without so much as saying a word.
There was nothing left to loot. After a couple of hours of sifting through the ashes, I understood that there was nothing left but them.
But would I stoop so low, I asked myself, as to give necromancers the ashes of creatures who could feel pain.
I snorted.
Those were no good creatures. Those were goblins! One had to deal with them with an iron fist!
The emperor did everything to integrate them. He gave them money, just for breathing. He paid them more than we just for having children. They were being given free education, whereas we had to pay our way!
I was sick of it all! I was cursed anyway. What did it matter if I killed a couple of goblins?
I let the ashes fly inside a bag and then filled another. I knew that I would need to come back here more than once, but the Ultra traces were still fresh.
I knew that no animal or mob would come to this camp.
With my loot, I made my way back to the village. Knowing that I would do something good! Something to make the world a brighter place!
Little did I know, these creatures had gotten wind of what I wanted to do to them. Forming unions. Trying to band together to survive.
They couldn't handle a cursed witch who had lived as long as I had. A coalition of monsters was not something I could handle alone.
But life was a challenge.
And I was ready to face it!
0000
"Five gold coins," the merchant offered, as I laid the five bags full of ashes on the counter.
"These are goblin ashes," I haggled right back. If he wanted to pretend, I didn't have good enough goods, I would hex him, darn it!
"Ashes are ashes," he countered.
"I can take my business somewhere else!" That was the typical walkaway. Not many people could do it, but those who could ended up saving a lot.
"Where? We are in Griffith," the man had a valid point. As the saying goes, one could throw a shoe in Griffith, and it would reach the local newspaper.
"I can travel to the next village!" Which was currently under a sleeping curse. I hoped that Hugo, the merchant, hadn't read the newspaper yet.
"Look, Millie," Hugo began, pointing at the ashes. "These are just goblin ashes. It was brave of you to go and collect them, but that doesn't mean you will get rich from them. Did you rob a cemetery, or something?"
I bowed my head.
Let him think that. I didn't want to go to jail.
"Oh, Millie. Okay, here, ten gold coins. " It was still a robbery, but I had to protect my identity! No one could know that I had enough power to use more than one Ultra attack per day!
"Thank you, Hugo!" I took my money and left as fast as I could.
I was at the house again—the correction center. With only ten gold coins, I needed to ensure I would have enough to eat before I fixed it up.
But some cleaning spray would not put too big of a dent into my budget!
With that in mind, I made my way to the shop. Only to see my three gnome roommates before the shop, as the shopkeeper was brandishing her broom at them.
"We don't sell on credit! Much less cigars!" she yelled, pushing the little humanoids out.
"But…!"
"Miss, I will cover their expenses," I said, a soft smile on my lips.
Ready to enslave them. For I had no time to tend to the house by myself. The least they could do was clean up after their poker nights.
The gnomes looked at me with narrowed eyes.
But I was sure that they didn't so much as feel it when I used this good deed to tie them to me.