A Flesh Golem's Ascension

by John Domus Cruo

  I broke off the hug and stood up in a hurry, accidentally slapping her in the face with my now full-sized twins.

  The female goblin placed a hand to her face as she inhaled deeply, her eyes went feral. She reached forward at a speed that increased perception of time couldn't even track and pulled down my pants.

  The twins sprung out at full mast, but this time she dodged backwards, barely avoiding a second hit.

  I must have given her the IPT ability, as well.

  Her eyes immediately began glowing. She wiped drool from her mouth, and it looked like she was ready to pounce.

  I quickly leaped back, skillfully pulling up my pants in mid air. When I landed I quickly threw out a hand.

  "Stop, stop! I already have two mates. I won't do anything with anyone else without their say so." I said feebly, my resolve fading by the second.

  The old man stepped between us and spoke. "You just marked her, expressing your desire to mate."

  "I just what!?" I asked in confusion.

  "You made her smell your seed,” he replied.

  I looked down at my pants. Oh, yeah, I hadn’t really washed these at all, and I have been having sex regularly then just putting them back on. There are no laundromats around here, what am I expected to do?

  This does kind of explain some of Lina's behaviors, though.

  He cleared his throat and continued in a refined diplomatic tone."You're clearly aroused. I really don't think any misunderstanding is possible here."

  I looked down. The twins were threatening to burst the seams of my pants. I really didn't have the willpower to resist her. Besides, Leera had been heavily hinting that I should have more mates.

  He lowered his hands and moved away. The goblin female was still breathing heavily as she moved her hand to her crotch.

  "Okay, this is about to be very not kid-friendly." I pointed her to one of the empty tents and continued speaking. "Go and wait in there, and I'll be there soon." She moved towards the tent, moving her hips seductively as she walked.

  Did Mors do that, or was she already inclined to do so? Ah, well, I guess body language is part of the English as well.

  "Damnit, Mors, too sexy on that one."

  I heard her cute laugh. "Would Master prefer it if she was still ugly?"

  She had a point there, but unfortunately I would probably still be okay with it.

  I heard a wolf whistle and turned to see Bob and the kids, as well as one extremely surprised elf woman.

  "So, you do have two of them?" she asked with her eyes glued to my crotch. "Both satyr?"

  I ignored her and walked to the tent. I wasn't going to get anything else accomplished in this condition.

  Chapter 27: Preparations — John

  I lay by my goblin mate as we caught our breath. She snuggled into my right arm, burying her face in my armpit and inhaling deeply.

  "I love your scent,” she said while slowly exhaling.

  Right. Goblin customs are different.

  She turned herself to the side and gave me a cute smile. Her eyes glowed softly in the light from the open flap.

  Wait, why is that open?

  My head shot down quickly to look, only to catch a brief glimpse of blonde hair as the flap closed.

  I have a pretty good idea of who that was. It's probably better if I don't mention it, though; she was likely just curious.

  I cradled my goblin mate close.

  "So, my name is John, and what do I call you?"

  "John,” she said as her mouth curled into a smile. "John is a strong name." She spoke seductively with a strange accent as she ran her hand up and down my chest. "Gobs don't have names. We use sounds to tell each other apart. In Goblin my name is — " She made a very brief, cute chirping sound like some of the chirps and yelps that I occasionally heard when goblins speak.

  "Why don't you name me something in your beautiful language?" she asked as her predatory smile returned.

  Oh god, why! Why? Okay, think; this girl is pure modified goblin. Like goblin the next generation. Goblin, next. Linex... No, that's a damned operating system. How about just Nex.

  "I will name you Nex." I said while feigning confidence.

  "Oh, I like it!" she said as she leaned up, giving me a nice view.

  She climbed on top of me and we kissed again for a few moments as I enjoyed the feeling of her soft body on mine. I ran my fingers up and down her back, softly caressing her for a few minutes.

  I dressed and we exited the tent.

  I looked down at her as if to confirm what I felt in the tent. Standing just slightly under four feet tall, she was the very definition of voluptuous. It made me want to ravish her again, and the fact that she took both the twins at once spoke volumes about the attraction she had for me.

  I knew that for goblins reproduction was one of the highest priorities. It was basically the keystone of their survival. They just produced so many offspring that it exceeded the number of them that were slain — at least if my fantasy knowledge was to be believed.

  I needed to get her dressed again so I would stop thinking about her curves and get back to work. I still had two soldiers to make.

  As I dug through the bodies to find a shirt and belt for her, I decided to ask her about how goblin society viewed relationships and what a mate meant to her.

  She spoke to me in a flirty tone about this and that for a while then started to inform me more about how her culture works.

  Apparently, goblins are a sort of patriarchal tribal society. An especially strong male was expected to have many mates, as they would provide stronger offspring. A particularly strong female was something of a treasure and would be obligated to accept only the strongest mate and refuse all others.

  Goblins didn't have any racial biases to mating and were able to reproduce with pretty much any other organic sentient and a few non-sentients, creating several different clans with different abilities.

  From this revelation I was able to guess where several other races came from. I guessed that a goblin-human pairing would make a hobgoblin, a goblin-gnome would yield a gremlin, a goblin-lizardman would yield a kobold, and so on.

  I wondered what a goblin-me pairing would create. Would my children have Fleshcrafting? There has never been a living undead before — meaning there had been no flesh golems that were able to reproduce.

  All goblinoids matured quickly. Pure goblins were walking a day after birth and hunting small game a month after that. The goblin language was infinitely simple, and they picked it up quickly.

  Average goblin pregnancies lasted for three months; goblin females were constantly ovulating on almost a weekly basis.

  From what she was telling me, the oldest goblin she had heard of was around thirty years old. Her father, who looked quite elderly in his original form, was only in his twenties.

  Once a goblin could hunt and scavenge, they were left to their own devices to survive. They were also expected to bring back some of their food to the village for expectant mothers.

  The children were raised almost communally after they could walk, but families still stayed together in the same dwellings and shared food until the children could hunt.

  They had almost no sense of modesty and were expected to mate publicly, both so the male could show his dominance and to serve as a method of sex ed.

  The dark side of goblin society was quite substantial, as well. Every now and then, a party formed of single male goblins would go out hunting to capture viable females for reproduction, keeping them captive for mating until the females died or were unable to bear children. They had no qualms about eating other sentients. They were also cannibalistic, eating their own dead to sustain food stores.

  Her village in particular had problems with famine. They had hunted all local game and had to travel farther and farther to find food.

  I asked her about fishing, farming plants, and domesticating animals, and she just looked at me with a puzzled expression.

  I wondered then h
ow hard would it be to take over her village and teach them how to be more self-sustaining.

  I would provide the goblins with security and guidance while providing a safer place for my mates and my children. My children may even mate with the goblins, making something new entirely.

  As I let these thoughts linger in the back of my mind, I set about converting the two unworthy Garanthi sympathizers into mana.

  Mana 10,179/10,179

  I converted the memories of the worthy Garanti sympathizer and the general into mana.

  Mana 10,221/10,221

  I let them keep their skills, though I checked them anyway.

  Garanthi Sympathizer skills:

  Blacksmithing: level 1

  Spearsman: level 1

  Axeman: level 2

  Shieldwork: level 4

  Swordsman: level 5

  Military tactics: level 6

  Garanthi General skills:

  Spearsman: level 2

  Shieldwork: level 5

  Axeman: level 7

  Military tactics: level 8

  Neither of them had magic.

  I thought for a long while about how to create their bodies. Should I make them agile flyers? No, their skill sets would probably go to waste, and if I've learned one thing here, it's not to underestimate archers. They both had impressive weapon skills, so I wanted to keep them in a human-like form. Ogres, maybe. No, I was sure this world already had those. If I had some large bulls perhaps minotaurs. Sure, I could create minotaurs out of what was here, but it just didn't seem quite right.

  There were two of them, and I was already headed down the path of giant humanoids. A thought occurred to me. I remembered that I once heard a story about two Oni, one red and one blue. I don't think this world has those, at least not the versions I was about to create.

  I gathered ten of the strongest-looking bodies together. I stripped them and set them in two piles of five.

  This was going to be a lot of work, and if I didn't want to burn the rest of my daylight on it, I had better ask Mors for a hand.

  "Mors, we're about to make two Oni. Use what you can from my memory."

  "Yes, Master."

  I felt my body start moving on its own. I pulled and ripped parts apart and fused them back together as I added more. I packed the muscle in the places it needed to go and reinforced it. I combined bones and heavily condensed them. Mors had to go to the parts pile a few times to get more limbs as a result.

  She made their faces great and terrible. They had heavy brow ridges. Long sharp chins and angular features. The red one had a long shock of white hair that seemed to burst from his head. The blue one was completely bald.

  I added large fangs that angled out slightly and started modifying their lips to give them their trademark grimace. I enlarged their jaws and made their mouths large.

  I gave the red one two curved, medium horns on the side of his forehead and the blue one a massive cone-like horn jutting out from the top of his forehead. I made the red one's horns black and the blue one's horn white.

  Their heart sizes were almost as large as Bobs, so their mana regen would be around ten.

  An idea had been festering in the back of my mind for quite a while. Why don't I create armor?

  I had full control of their bodies, and it seemed feasible as long as I understood what I was doing well enough. I felt like I could accomplish it.

  I thought about how calluses formed on the bottom of your feet and how the skin created them.

  I reinforced and thickened their skin several times, making sure to leave their joints free. It gave their skin a sort of plated look, almost like armor.

  I decided to test it out before infusing their souls. I shot my bone spike into one of their legs. It went through, but I could feel a strong resistance. I then picked up a nearby sword and preformed a medium-powered chop. It cut the skin but didn't make it to anything vital; they probably wouldn't even bleed from a wound like this.

  This armor might not be ideal, but it was a lot better than normal skin. I tossed the sword aside and mended the damages.

  I added all of my usual abilities and used Blend to make them complete and genetically homogeneous.

  I gave the red one blue eyes and the blue one red eyes.

  I stopped Fleshcrafting.

  I took a look around. It was around mid-afternoon. My new elven friend was watching me with rapt fascination. I felt like she needed a notepad in one hand, as she seemed to be studying everything I did.

  The goblins seemed to have taken this time to arm themselves. They all had bows and quivers. The mature gentleman had a sword on his waist that nearly scraped the ground as he moved. The kids had one dagger each hanging from their belts. Nex, however, had gone all out. She had a sword strapped to her back and eight daggers hanging from her belt. It almost looked like she was wearing a skirt made of daggers.

  I heard loud crying in the background. I looked out to the far side of camp to see the red-haired child crying and Bob freaking out, unsure of what to do.

  I waved, and she came running to me cradling her arm.

  When she got to me she began firing off unintelligible words between sobs. From what I had gathered, she had accidentally cut herself on one of Bob's horns trying to climb him.

  I used Fleshcrafting and healed her injury. She didn't seem to feel any pain. I wondered again, was it because she was a flesh construct I had made, or was it because she had already been through so much pain?

  Her crying gradually stopped as I mussed her hair. She smiled up at me and ran back to the other young ones to continue playing as Bob shot me a grateful look and mouthed, "Thank you."

  I marveled again at how they were now able to laugh, play, and act like any other girls of their age.

  I will definitely find that bastard.

  I felt my pulling sensation from the goblin village grow strong. It was now more than just letting me know it was there. It was demanding that I follow it.

  I looked back on what I had seen when I arrived. They were packing up camp. Thads had said they were vulnerable because they were moving camps. It had been a night and half a day since then. Just how far away was the goblin village?

  After what had happened here, and what Leera and Lina's child had said before he departed, I knew that it was something dire. I knew that he was reaching out to me. Praying to me.

  "Nex! How far away is your village from here?" I said with urgency.

  She seemed startled by my sudden outburst. She came running over to me. "What's wrong, my love?" she asked in a concerned voice.

  "I think something terrible is happening in your village."

  "It will take me a few moments to get my bearings, but it is to the west of here. Wait here, I will talk to Dad and find a good path to take to avoid trouble,” she answered as she ran off to her father.

  I needed these Oni stat.

  "Mors, teach them English."

  I dragged the general's soul onto the red one and the sympathizer's soul onto the blue one.

  As they opened their eyes, I said, "Welcome to your new lives. You have done terrible things in your old ones, but I saw promise in your souls and will call upon you to make amends by serving me. I also promise you that we will find and kill the one responsible for your original deaths. Swear your allegiance on your honor!"

  They both clumsily sat up and immediately got to one knee. "We swear to serve you on our honor!" they responded with resolve.

  "Look around for what you can salvage for weapons and clothes. We depart in the next hour."

  "Bob!" I yelled.

  Bob gently took the girl off his back and a second later he was in front of me.

  "Yeah, Boss?"

  "Take these girls to their villages. Take Roscia to our cave, then make haste to the goblin village."

  "Sure thing, Boss! By the way, I have no clue where the goblin village is."

  "It's to the west of here and to the north of our cave. Get a move on!"


  Bob was gone in a flash, appearing again by the girls at the far side of camp. He talked to them for a minute and Roscia came running to me.

  "Let me go with you!" she demanded.

  "I have a feeling this will be tough. Though you are stronger than a normal person, you will only get in my way here. Don't worry, I'm not making you go home, instead you will go to my cave with my mates. They will protect you." I said while stroking her hair.

  She made a pouty face but seemed to accept it. She walked with her shoulders slumped back over to Bob.

  "I'm absolutely going with you." I heard a voice say right beside me.

  I turned to see the elven woman.

  "I'll tell you like I told her, this isn't going to be a fun adventure. This will likely be stopping a one-sided slaughter. I can't promise to protect you, but regardless of your wishes I will feel obligated to do so. You will be in the way!"

  In response she moved her hands in front of her and began chanting in an unknown language similar in sound to Forestkin. I saw what can only be described as an icicle the size of a log form above her. She moved her hands forward forcefully as it tore off towards a nearby cropping of trees. I heard the ice explode as it hit, demolishing the trees and sending sharp pieces of ice and wood in all directions.

  She then knelt down by a severed leg and touched it. She closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating. The leg changed shape gradually. The skin and muscle fell off as it became a staff. She focused as strange symbols formed on the bone.

  She examined her work and stood, wiping the sweat from her brow.

  "Do you still think of me as weak?" she said as her bone staff began glowing a pale blue.

  In just this amount of time had she actually learned Fleshcrafting? Sure, it was rough and sloppy with bits of muscle and tendon hanging off, but she actually did it, despite not being a flesh golem. Is it because she is technically a flesh construct? Not to mention that massive icicle she threw. Just what had happened here?