Gemstone Goblins (LitRPG)

Neighbours 2

"Relax. There are no hard feelings between us. I can clearly see you've distanced yourself from them." The goblin leader spoke calmly.

"How do you know?" Clara's eyebrow was raised. What the goblin said was true, but she wanted to know how he found out.

"Well. What kind of bandit would be the leader of a shabby place like this?"

Clara snorted in frustration. "Alright, tell me what you want, goblin," she spoke that final word with venom.

"I wish to discreetly open a trading partnership between my tribe of Amber Skins, and your hamlet of Woodwick." He declared.

She was taken aback. A trade negotiation? With goblins? The words of those priests were true, the world had indeed gone mad.

"Why would I ever trade with the likes of you." She sneered.

"You have things I want, we have things you want. It is that simple. There is no need for vitriol between us." He said dramatically. "After all, we are all living beings simply trying to survive the harsh winter."

There was silence, she gazed upon with a completely neutral face. "Speaks like a noble too," she mocked to herself.

The goblin's gaze became sharper. "Look at your town, it's crumbling into pieces. Your people are so hungry they can't fix their houses. There are no animals, and no crops to feed them. And most importantly, you have no money," he explained.

Her brow furrowed, he was right. But what could be done about it? The baron had enforced high taxes upon all of them and forced farmers to grow special crops for alchemy, none of which were edible.

"Now, there are things I want. I want mortar, I want seeds, I want to learn how to make iron, I want food for the goats. But you know what I do have? It's money."

He took out a small sack and opened it up, revealing a large number of silver coins. Clara's mouth drooled a bit at the sight of the money. The goblin was correct, money could solve all their problems. Her posture had relaxed a bit, but her gaze remained sharp. If she killed this rich goblin right now, she could take all that money for herself, but she probably wouldn't survive the others. "Might as well go along with this lunacy," she sighed to herself.

"You want to make iron? So you can go out and attack innocent people?" She admonished him.

"That's rich coming from a bandit." He grinned. "If it makes you feel better, we can sign a non-aggression pact between us."

She couldn't think of any counterarguments. She had joined the bandit group as a way to rebel against the baron, who only cared for his own luxury and left his people to starve. At first, it started as attacking noble caravans, but it slowly devolved into attacking normal people.

"Right, but we don't even have mortar. And as for everything else, do you think I would be selling out my people for a couple of silvers?" She crossed her arms and stood proudly.

"I do have several propositions for you. Firstly, I will hire your entire village to mine limestone for us with our current funds. You will deliver the limestone here and will receive more pay. For further deals, we will offer our own services, such as repairing old buildings, and building 2 walls, one of stone and one of wood."

The offer was very tempting, but the goblin's horrid visage did not inspire confidence. "All of this sounds good, but how can I trust you?"

He laughed. "We have no pen or paper to write a contract, nor do we have a judge to oversee us. How should I trust you to not run away with our money...? All we can do is act in good faith."

They stood in silence, staring at each other. The cold wind nipped at their faces. "All right. You better not double-cross us," She said.

It smirked. "Same goes for you."

[Interface]

You entered a verbal non-aggression pact with the Amber Skin Goblins

You entered a verbal trade agreement with the Amber Skin Goblins

"It would be inappropriate for a human to refer to me as 'Holy Chief', so you may call me by my name. Gild Domov."

She took a moment to analyse the name, after all, what kind of goblin had a last name? "I am Clara Morganfield," she replied coldly.

Gild threw the sack of coins towards her, which she caught with one hand. He snapped his fingers and the other goblins pushed towards a crate filled with iron ore. "Consider this as a sign of future products we'll be able to trade. Considering our current agreement goes well."

A lifeline had been thrown at her, which she gladly accepted. Who cared what the churches said? They were half-mad themselves.

"I will be back within 3 weeks. The product better is ready by then," he threatened. The goblins turned their backs and Gild slowly rode away with his tribe back to their goblin camp.

Clara stood at the edge of town staring at their shrinking bodies until they disappeared completely into the forest.

The sickly pale man crawled out from behind a building. "Mayor, so what now?"

She took some coins from the purse and threw them at him. "What now? Gather everyone and get mining! We have money to make!" She smiled broadly. Clara laughed to herself, to think a stinking goblin would be more generous than a human baron.