Gob 2
The day after Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo and Song Seogyeong arrived in Jeju for their vacation, Dohyeon assigned Soran and the elephant carriage to the couple's itinerary and shut himself up in the warehouse.
If Lim Seonwoo hadn't been a man of such ample means, Dohyeon would have hung his own card around Gob 1's neck and made the little guy the answer to every expense under the sun — but doing that to the heir of a mid-sized company felt like a step too far, so he restrained himself.
He had holed up in the warehouse from morning onward for the sake of training his minions. Now that Gob 1 had set the precedent of a summon raised without occupying Domination, it only stood to reason to aim for a Gob 2 and a Gob 3. Even if they wouldn't count for much against a troll right away, that would change once ten or twenty of them stacked up — even a troll could hardly ignore that. And in ordinary times they would provide the labor unique to summons that have hands, which made their utility outstanding. If luck struck and a goblin with a class like Gob 1's was born, why, that would simply be icing on the cake.
"Iro. Bring me one of your friends."
Click-click!
Gob 1 snapped into brisk motion and carried over the pile of goblin bones lying at his side.
The reason Dohyeon had begun calling Gob 1 "Iro" was an incident from that very morning. The fellow's devotion to his master ran so deep that when Dohyeon had walked a little longer than usual the day before, showing him around the ranch, Iro had kept pouring healing power into his legs without pause until he woke the next morning. Moved by the sheer depth of that devotion, Dohyeon had traveled the road from "Gob 1" to "No. 1" and finally to "Iro" — and so Gob 1 became Iro.
It went without saying that Iro, granted a name instead of a product number, was moved, and moved yet again, to the point of shedding tears(?). Sparks from the soul flame pooled in his eye sockets had trickled down his cheekbones like beads of jade. Dohyeon had been rather startled to discover that a skeleton could cry...
Seated comfortably in his chair, the bones of one goblin delivered into his hands, Dohyeon decided to settle a matter of policy before putting Jade Bone Crafting to use.
"Iro. You're about to have a little brother. What should I do if he doesn't swear his loyalty the way you did?"
Click-click! Click-click-click!
Iro's answer was the answer of a zealot.
"What? You're saying I should keep making them and working them until my Domination stat fills up, and once the stat runs short, burn their souls and use them as tools — or else craft them into bodies that can't so much as twitch and abandon them for untold eons?"
To be fair, this was precisely what Dohyeon had perpetrated upon countless monsters himself — but hearing it spoken aloud in another's voice sent a faint chill down his spine.
Through Soul Combustion, the skill gained at Level 15, Dohyeon had become able to sense souls — and he could feel the soul within the goblin bones on the workbench, along with the souls in the bones nearby, swaying like candle flames before the wind.
Maybe scaring them like this actually works...?
Fear had played its part with Iro as well. Threat delivered, Dohyeon wasted no time, pouring mana into the goblin bones on the workbench and refining them into jade bone.
Click.
He set the box of jade bone down on the floor. He placed it there quite deliberately: raised as a skeleton, the goblin might well end up taller than the eye level of a seated Dohyeon. The oath of loyalty had not yet been received, and until it was, he could hardly afford to put away authority and fear.
Raise Jade Bone
The mana flowing from Dohyeon's hand passed into the haphazardly piled jade bone.
Clack-clack...
First the skull — its shape not so very different from a human's — rose into the air, and beneath it the vertebrae fell into line one after another. The ring-shaped first vertebra that would join to the base of the skull, the second vertebra that would slot into the first, the third, the fourth...
Next came the arms. Outside the ribs joined to the spine, two shoulder blades attached themselves; the collarbones fastened to the front of the chest and linked to the shoulder blades, and the heads of the upper arm bones seated themselves against their outer edges.
After that, the pelvis and the thigh bones. The remaining limb bones, and the tiny bones of the hands and feet, found their places on their own.
After an eternity in which he had been unable to so much as wiggle a finger, the goblin at last regained his freedom. It was a freedom granted only in limited measure, and then only beneath a cruel and terrifying necromancer — but compared to before, when no stimulus and no movement of any kind had been permitted, it was paradise.
Ding!
The soul of "Undesignated" has pledged complete loyalty to its summoner and may be raised without consuming any Domination stats.
"It worked..."
Dohyeon smiled, pleased.
"Now, a name."
To name the newly raised goblin skeleton, he studied the goblin prostrate on the floor. If the fellow had been born with a special talent like Iro's, Dohyeon would never have assigned him a number in the first place — a fitting name would have been given from the very start.
Rattle-rattle...
No glimmer of talent, no spark of inspiration, revealed itself in the goblin skeleton trembling all over between joy and terror. The reason Iro could wield the power of healing and purification was, in truth, simply that Dohyeon had crafted him a Cranial Organ suited to the task. Without inspiration for crafting striking, no special ability could be granted.
Slightly disappointed, Dohyeon bestowed a name upon the new skeleton.
"You are Gob 2. Gob 1 may be vacant at the moment, but..."
Dohyeon said, gazing at Iro, who stood there in reverence.
"Gob 1 is permanently retired."
Whether from being moved or not, the shoulders beneath Iro's priestly vestments trembled faintly.
Still seated, Dohyeon lifted his chin and issued his command.
"Gob 2. Welcome, now that you have become my minion. You will never regret the loyalty you have sworn. And in that spirit, I bestow upon you my first command..."
Before the majesty-laden voice of his sovereign, Gob 2 did not dare so much as raise his head; he pressed himself flat against the ground.
"Go clean up the poop."
Tak-tak?
Dohyeon did feel a touch of pity — a worker showing up to shovel animal dung even on a Saturday.
"What are you doing? Go clean the poop."
Click-click!
Scattering tears like beads of jade, Gob 2 kicked off out of the warehouse. And sure enough, the sight of him running was incomparably more frantic than Iro's reverent stride — knees splayed outward, waddling headlong...
Precisely goblin average.
"I'll have to give that one an ordinary heart. The kind Goldie uses would be wasted on him."
Dohyeon had Iro fetch over a pile of orc shaman bones.
"Still, he ought to at least be able to use aura — that's the only way he'll be any help at all when we hunt trolls."
Recalling the goblin heart he had glimpsed in passing while running Jade Bone Crafting on the goblin corpse, Dohyeon crafted a Cranial Organ.
Having scrubbed every last dropping from the animals of Hyung's Ranch, Gob 2 flung both arms into the air and let out a whoop of triumph.
Click-click-click-click-click!
His master had bestowed a heart upon him, same as the other minions! Master didn't hate him after all!
Smack!
"Hey. Gob 2. What are you doing, flailing around like that? Hold still."
Even with a stinging smack to the head, Gob 2's joy would not settle.
Rrrring-rrrring... Rrrring-rrrring...
Watching Gob 2's antics with less than approval, Dohyeon turned his head toward the sound of a ringing smartphone. Iro drew it from the bag and held it out to him.
"See? If only you were as composed as Iro."
Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo
"Hm? I thought you two said you were heading out for mara-tang or udon today... Is something up?"
Click.
Dohyeon raised the smartphone to his ear.
"Yes, Assistant Manager. Is something the matter?"
"Ah— Dohyeon. Um... how do I put this. It's nothing serious, but we've had a bit of an accident. You don't happen to have car insurance or anything like that, do you?"
At Lim Seonwoo asking whether the elephant-drawn carriage carried insurance, Dohyeon burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! No insurance, no. Pfft— You and Sister-in-law aren't hurt anywhere, are you?"
"No, no, it wasn't bad enough for anyone to get hurt — and even if it had been, we're sturdy enough that it wouldn't have mattered. Anyway, the other driver is being pretty aggressive, so I gave him a call. I can tell what he's after, so I'll just press a bit of money into his hand and be done with it."
"Ah— hold on just a moment, please."
Dohyeon, who wanted Lim Seonwoo and Song Seogyeong to leave his home ground of Jeju with nothing but good memories, hurriedly cut him off.
Insurance fraud, if I had to guess...
"I'm on my way right now — give me the address. No, never mind, I'll find you myself. I'll be there in no time. Just hold on a little! Don't give the other driver whatever he asks for! Absolutely do not!"
Click.
Call ended, Dohyeon called for Taesan, who was rubbing his tusks against a tree.
"Taesan! Come here, quick!"
Thud-thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud!
Summoned by his master's urgent call, Taesan came galloping at a speed that left racehorses in the dust.
With his handmade saddle strapped over Taesan's back, Dohyeon bolted straight for where the Seonwoo couple waited. Goldie tore after them at full sprint, Iro rode seated behind Dohyeon, and Gob 2 — with the frantic, goblin-average gait that was his alone — had no trouble keeping pace with Taesan.
Ridiculous as his form was, he was, after all, a Jade Bone Skeleton fitted with an orc shaman's Cranial Organ. Following the lead-rope that connected him to Soran, Dohyeon soon spotted the car and the elephant carriage halted in the middle of the road.
"Hold it right there. What's this thing's name again? Soran? You think I'll just let this slide without making a public stink about it? You ram a parked car and figure a few bucks settles it? Let's take this all the way, then!"
Having climbed out of his taxi and checked the provisional summon registration tag hanging from Soran, the driver was shouting at the top of his lungs, jabbing a finger at Lim Seonwoo and Song Seogyeong.
THUD-THUMP! THUD-THUMP!
"What's going on here?"
At the arrival of Taesan — whose eye level soared far above everyone's, long tusks and all — with Dohyeon astride him, even the blustering taxi driver fell briefly silent.
"Oh, there you are. It's really nothing. Seems I called you for no reason."
The taxi driver began shouting again.
"Hey— you just got yourself caught, pal. This is 'nothing'? A perfectly good car, and an elephant suddenly kicks it! You think human lives are a joke? You're counting on that Special Climbers Act, aren't you? Go on then — let's really do this by the book! My son-in-law is a lawyer, a lawyer! You picked the wrong man to mess with!"
Looking down from Taesan's lofty back, Dohyeon pieced the situation together.
"So — you were parked, sir, and Soran kicked your car. Is that it?"
"That's right! And how do you plan to compensate me?! You Climbers think you can do anything! You Climber bastards all think ordinary people are complete morons!"
Dohyeon gave a hollow little laugh at the taxi driver, livid down to the roots of his hair.
"Did you just laugh? Is this situation funny? Funny? Am I funny? You think taxi drivers are a joke?"
Ignoring the man's fury, Dohyeon asked Soran.
Soran. Did you hit the car?
Soran shook her head from side to side.
Dohyeon had expected as much. Animals remade as skeletons lost much of the instinct they had carried in life. They grew calm by nature, and their patience deepened tremendously. On top of that, he had assigned tuskless Soran with convenience in the city in mind — there was no room for doubt. More trustworthy than any machine was a Jade Bone Skeleton.
Dohyeon grasped the shape of it.
So the taxi reversed into Soran. And with no dashcam in sight — that's exactly why he tried it.
"I see. Sir. Shall we have your rear bumper replaced for you?"
The petty citizen Cha Dohyeon existed no longer. Never mind the repair bill — the price of a brand-new car would have been pocket change.
Jackpot— the taxi driver recited his demands in one long stream.
"You think repairs alone will close this out?! Repairs go without saying — but my neck hurts too, so personal injury treatment on top of that, rental fees while she's off the road, and living expenses for every day I can't run fares! This is no small matter! The Korean medicine hospital says I'll need at least three months of inpatient care!"
Dohyeon had been prepared to toss over the cost of repairs with a hearty "here, take it and get lost—" but the demands pouring in a torrent from the taxi driver's mouth struck him speechless.