Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The Ghost Rending Divine Sword Art.r

Hobbu Gogo recognised it with but a glance.r

The ability to move like a ghost and sever matter with a smooth, elegant swish that was gorgeously... ghostly, was everything she had seen Hobbu Bobbu refined over the span of his life.r

Before she knew it, the giant goblin had both her hands severed into small cubes of flesh and bone by a fence of Mortal Ruin that appeared only for a brief moment.r

The pain from this, she barely felt.r

It was overwhelmed by a sense of heavy grief and sorrow at what her ancient mind could already put together.r

Hobbu Bobbu had been defeated.r

The fact that this enemy suddenly had his technique, to her who understand the intricacy behind Classes and their power, meant that at the very least, he had bested to a degree where it was impossible to recover from.r

The giant goblin's eyes turned vacant as she slumped to the ground listlessly.r

Skullius did not follow up with any other attacks.r

He did not feel the fervour that had been in Hobbu Bobbu.r

Hobbu Gogo did not seem like she could muster enough strength to put up more of a fight.r

In fact, Skullius knew she couldn't. He had seen everything about her from Hobbu Bobbu's memory and had used it to his advantage. Her deep connection with Hobbu Bobbu was very important to her.r

Skullius knew how to open the stacked runes around the large manor and knew all the defences erected within it. As a result, he had been prepared for whatever Hobbu Gogo could churn out and had exploited the fact that Hobbu Gogo was deaf from the left ear â€" the result of a tragic accident to the left side of her head that caused a sporadic twitch. She had a delayed reaction to everything that came from that side.r

'She seems intelligent enough to realise what has happened,' Skullius thought as he watched the giant, immobile goblin stare blankly at the ground.r

In her head, a sequence of hundreds of memories were running like a tape.r

Skullius stepped forward, flashing over to Hobbu Gogo's shoulder where he placed his hand and activated [Immoral Authority].r

A surge of darkness penetrated the goblin's body, invading and breaking through her defences which weren't all that strong right now. If she were in her right state of mind, she would have put up quite a fight but Skullius felt no extraordinary resistance.r

The goblin had her fair share of evil that was transformed by [Immoral Authority] into darkness but just like one would expect, it didn't matter much now.r

Hobbu Gogo was 1,442 years old.r

She had an eidetic memory, which meant that everything she saw and experienced since the day she was born was etched into her brain!r

She was born special with an outrageous amount of mana that sustained this world and in addition to this, she was one of the few Shamans in this world, beings that understood nature and the elements to an unfathomable degree. The fact that as a Shaman, the 'ghost' of her predecessor hung over and aided her, helped her grow rapidly. She developed a sense of responsibility in the process that eclipsed that of her peers, becoming dead set on bringing their race up in power, for longevity's sake.r

Hobbu Gogo's primary focus was in the use of natural elements, like plants, soils and gems to create edifying potions for her race. This was what she deep dived all her mental strength into for the longest time.r

Thus as she began the hundreds of years of trial and error while using large amounts of the resources, something that the other goblins disapproved of, she was met with resistance.r

If there was no result for 123 years, why continue to waste away the product of their nigh barren lands? Wasn't it better to be satisfied with this? With living as a free community that barely had anything to have conflict over?r

Hobbu Gogo's answer was a no.r

She wasn't satisfied.r

In fact, when the other goblins tried to stop her, she used powers unbeknownst to her peers to slaughter them, leaving herself as the only high level goblin. With no opposition, she used the abundant time and ingredients to continue her research which succeeded 233 years later.r

This success and her growth in strength caused a bubble of massive power to erupt from the world, recognising her hardwork with rewards. Her already enormous mana resources grew as did her powers which were refined, no longer only limited to the mundane understanding of basic nature but the generation of Mundane Grovel Runes!r

To aid with her agenda, Hobbu Gogo found a large cauldron stuck deep within the earth by the directions from her evolved class soon after.r

The Hundred Foils Edifying Cauldron.r

It was a Pseudo-Mythical treasure that Hobbu Gogo found to have formed roughly 400 years ago, as if anticipating her birth and growth!r

With it, her experiments saw true success and after concocting the first ever vial of Enlightening Ill, Hobbu Gogo asked for a volunteer among her kin to consume it.r

For this, she did not take a violent approach as if it worked, she could earn the respect and reverence of her kin without having to be dictatorial.r

Sadly, no volunteer was found.r

All the goblins saw Hobbu Gogo as a being who constantly tasted failure for many years. How could they entrust themselves to this with confidence?r

What if they died... and for nothing at that?r

This specific spell of trepidation and anxiety was what kept all the goblins away.r

All... except for Hobbu Bobbu.r

The lone goblin stepped up with a clear glint in his eyes. r

It wasn't that he trusted Hobbu Gogo. It was the fact that he saw opportunity. If he grew strong from this, it would be enough to change his life.r

His kin were weak.r

Though he hadn't seen a glimpse of other creatures in the world, he was certain that goblins were weak. Only Hobbu Gogo was at a high level.r

And this wasn't satisfactory.r

If there was chance that this would change, he would take, rather than letting fear keep him from growing.r

The goblin stood firmly under the pleased glow of Hobbu Gogo's sight and was rewarded with a surge in strength that till this day remained unmatched.r

'I guess this love went both ways,' Skullius thought while observing all this.r

Hobbu Gogo viewed Hobbu Bobbu as someone who saw the vision as much as she did and thus she embraced him, giving him more attention that the other goblins just for his rightly placed mind-set.r

She nurtured him personally.r

She grew him intimately.r

'No wonder she's so crestfallen.'r

Soon, the bajillion memories sifted through Skullius' mind wholly, giving him a splitting headache that made him grunt and plop down.r

He gnashed his teeth, his body twitching and twisting once again as the insurmountable amount of memories he received tried to convince his flesh that they belonged.r

It was torture.r

This was worse than when he dived into Hobbu Bobbu!r

The rewards were equally as grand though.r

[You have acquired the memories of 'Hobbu Gogo']r

[A part of 'Hobbu Gogo' now lives within you permanently as a shard of darkness]r

[Due to the wide disparity between the target and user, recalculation and modification of gains is mandatory]r

[...]r

[Recalculation and modification complete]r

[Due to the user not having the class 'Epic Variety Shaman', lesser versions of extracted skills will be given]r

Of course, this was to be expected.r

Skullius couldn't wait to see what he got.r

[You have acquired 'Lesser Gravel Rune Mastery']r

[You have acquired 'Advanced Potion Making']r

[You have acquired 'Rune Assimilation']r

'Oh...' Skullius expressed wonder.r

This was incredible!r

He already expected it but it was good to confirm that he now truly had the ability to use these simple runes!r

This had been his biggest desire ever since he had seen the runes over the wall to the first city he and Red Rage had breached!r

Having something like this gave him a wide variety of options to work with in combat.r

"I hope I have enough time to refine all this into my style of combat. Until I meet with Replicus, this might just be the last major set of gains I get," Skullius said to himself as he waited for his body to adjust to everything he had just absorbed.r

He took a deep breath after it was done.r

Hobbu Gogo looked lifeless as expected but Skullius wasn't ready to kill her just yet.r

He walked over to the giant cauldron and touched its surface.r

It was bound to Hobbu Gogo so he couldn't bind it without killing her. For now, he chose to leave it be.r

After this, Skullius checked around, sensing the shelves upon shelves of plants and other ingredients as well as potions that Hobbu Gogo owned.r

He had been right about collecting them before, though this stash far eclipsed what he had found outside the city.r

What a haul!r

Skullius wanted to grab all these but he thought of a better idea.r

He grabbed Hobbu Gogo's body and the two turned into an elongated mass of darkness and black ribbons that sped through the open doors to land within the streets of the goblin capital after passing the stacked rune barrier.r

The goblins were still ensnared by the spell from the Medial Whisperer of Charms which he had used earlier, swimming in dreams all along. This truly was a testament to the staff's power as the duration of its effect could last up to half an hour, though with variations existing because of power differences.r

As he stood among the crowds with the armless body of Hobbu Gogo at his side, Skullius raised his hand high.r

"First, let's clean up," he said before snapping his fingers.r

"BREAK."r