What this meant was simple: every time I interacted with the system, to everyone else it looked like I was holding conversations with empty space. Muttering, grinning, sometimes even laughing at nothing.
I must’ve looked completely insane.
My goblins had probably noticed too. Zarah, especially. I could already imagine the look she’d given me—sharp, suspicious, like she was trying to decide whether her chief had finally lost it.
Before I could sink too deep into that thought, Ariel’s voice brushed through my head again. She didn’t sound particularly interested in the first question; instead, she moved on without missing a beat.
"Also, what did you do to your body? You look... different."
"I evolved." I grinned, spreading my arms a little, letting the word hang in the air. "Do I look good?"
Her molten eyes blinked once, then she rolled them dramatically.
"Not bad. You now look half-decent for a goblin."
I narrowed my gaze, lips twitching.
The way she said it, with that smug little lilt in her tone, made my fingers itch.
Maybe it was time to teach her a small lesson.
Part of me wanted to show her just how "half-decent" I could be by letting loose of one of these new shiny SSS skills.
But...I couldn’t help but hesitate. Out of fear.
I was sure I could take her in a fight. That wasn’t the problem.
She wasn’t what scared me.
Even with all my shiny new SSS skills, the Matriarch nine-tailed fox was on another level entirely. If she decided I’d crossed a line, I doubted I’d last more than a few seconds.
Dealing with her would always be a nightmare—class upgrade or not.
And then there was the bond.
That cursed tether between me and Ariel.
If I died, she died. If she died, I died.
A situation that could only be described as troublesome... multiplied by ten.
This, right here, was the exact reason I’d hesitated about the Beastbound Sovereign path. Sure, its conditions might not have been this extreme, but there still would’ve been conditions. Bargains. Risks. Strings attached to every bond I formed.
And I didn’t think I had it in me to juggle that much dependency.
So I’d chosen the alternative. The lone path. Dimensional Sovereign.
I let out a long sigh, rubbing the back of my neck as the weight of it all settled in.
If I couldn’t get rid of her, then the only option left was simple.
I was going to have to accept her.
However, before anything else, I needed to make one thing very clear.
"Ariel," she corrected instantly, her tone smug.
I let out a slow sigh, rolling my eyes before forcing myself to say it again. "Ariel."
"Yes, goblin," she replied, lips curling into a wry smile.
I clicked my teeth, irritation simmering. Something about the way she said goblin rubbed me the wrong way.
Only my enemies had called me that, and every single one of them was dead now.
For her to say it, though? For her to keep repeating it with that smug little grin?
It didn’t sit right. She wasn’t an enemy anymore. She was tethered to me, bound by this cursed link, which made her an ally whether I liked it or not.
Which meant she needed to start treating me like one.
But I couldn’t have her call me Eli either. Never. The thought of her saying my name like that felt... off. Wrong somehow. Too close, too personal.
If she was going to call me anything, it had to be something else. Something that didn’t make me feel like I was being mocked, and didn’t sound strange rolling off her tongue either.
That sounded complicated.
Well, for now, I’d just have to make do with being called "goblin."
There were bigger things to deal with.
I refocused and continued with what I’d meant to say in the first place.
"If you’re going to stay here, then you’re going to abide by some rules."
Her ears twitched, and she tilted her head, molten eyes narrowing slightly. "Rules...?" she echoed, her tone laced with genuine confusion. "What is that?"
I stared at her for a long moment, my glare sharpening.
At first, I thought she was being sarcastic, just mocking me in that bratty way of hers. But no—the look on her face told me otherwise. She genuinely had no idea.
So I spelled it out, slow and deliberate. "Instructions. Boundaries. Things that decide what’s allowed and what isn’t."
Her expression shifted almost immediately.
She blinked once, then gave me a flat look.
"Oh. I know what a rule is, and it sounds troublesome," she added casually, her tails flicking lazily behind her.
My teeth ground together with an audible click.
Okay, so she was a rebel. No surprise there. Nobody in their right mind expected this to be easy.
Ariel’s tails flicked as she spoke again, her tone smug and unyielding.
"If anyone should be dishing out rules, it should be me. After all, I am your master."
"Master my foot!" I snapped, leaning forward. "Listen, fox—"
"Ariel," she cut in sharply, her voice rising into a yell.
Geez. Sensitive much?
"Ariel," I corrected through clenched teeth, "just because your mother is powerful doesn’t mean I’m going to do whatever you want. I didn’t ask for this bond—your mother forced it on me. And let’s be clear: it’s more of a disadvantage for me than it is for you. So it’s only fair you listen to me."
She went quiet at that, her ears twitching as she studied me. For a moment, I thought I’d actually gotten through to her.
Then she muttered, low at first, before speaking more clearly.
"I see what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to build this... clan of yours into something notable." Her molten eyes hardened, sharp as blades. "A pathetic goal. Let me advise you, goblin. Quit while you can. You can never amount to anything with the goblins you have. You can never achieve the dream you desire."
Okay...she went totally off topic.