You still seem to not understand the situation. In this world, you can't expect everyone to simply help you. Most ask for something in return. Others are only slightly generous. But to secure your own livelihood, you better be able to depend on yourself. Or is it too difficult to do that…?


After a long trip back, with most everyone rather awkward about their new ally, Goblin Slayer and his crew return to the guild hall. Many recognize them as they pass through town, with the exception of Mimic Knight. Everyone felt the stares of townsfolk on them, but only Goblin Slayer paid it little mind. It was rather easy for him given that he was never the social butterfly to begin with, and he'd become almost as hardened as a soldier. Despite anything that has brought comfort from his companions, the archer, the shaman, the priest or even the very kind hearted priestess, pain will always be constant for him. Though he has shown some improvement and more openness as of late, and perhaps more people around him will help better his dark attitude.

"So this is what you call a guild hall?" Mimic Knight asks as the group enters through the front doors. "It's very clean compared to what I thought humans were like."

"Well, you were stuck in a cave surrounded by nasty green monsters. Don't think you'd understand anything about other races besides them and your own." The dwarf told them, feeling weird about it. "Though I'm sure your ancestor knew about dwarves…"

"Yeah, I think this… Mimic Knight would benefit from seeing more of the world. You can start here by not acting as grumpy as Goblin Slayer did before, and talking with Guild Girl up front." The elf said with sarcastic words of encouragement.

"How will speaking with her help anything?" Mimic Knight asks her, twisting their head in a weird way that grosses out some of the people in the hall, including within the party.

"I think… what our elven friend means is that it would be good for you to develop social skills with new people. So at least you can communicate better with us if not others." The Lizardman tells them with slightly discomfort at the state of Mimic Knight's head.

Finally noticing the discomfort of the room, Mimic Knight turns their head back to the way it was before. As their head gets back into place, they see Goblin Slayer talking with the girl up front and collecting a bag that held the all too familiar clanking noises of gold coins. After seeing this, the tall colony construct goes towards the front to speak with the young woman up front.

"Oh… hi there. Are you looking to register?" Guild girl asks them.

"Yes. I hear that I should talk with others to be better with people." Mimic Knight says as they try to put on a human-like smile with their sharp teeth.

"O-okay. I just n-need a moment to handle…" she tells the mimic as she gets nervous.

People around the guild hall notice the girl at the front counter feeling nervous with this newcomer. Some even reaching for their weapons. This made Goblin Slayer, Elf Archer and Priestess look around to make sure if anyone tried something.

"Does my appearance distress you? Let me change that." Mimic Knight says as they notice the young woman's obvious fear.

"What? Oh… oh no. You're…" Guild Girl says looking even more nervous with the mimic's teeth moving around.

"Nope. I'm not. Now let me try to change." Mimic Knight tells her before going around the counter to look at the girl's outfit and appearance.

"What are you…?" Guild Girl asks with more nervousness.

"Easy, young lady. I'm just in need of a model to base my new appearance on." The mimic tells her.

The colony of little amorphous creatures starts to change. Teeth, eyes and pseudopods move around on the humanoid's shape to mimic a new look. Many in the hall actually started to draw their weapons at the sight of this, getting ready to attack. Seeing this, the slayer, elf and young priestess try to stand in the way of this angry crowd. The shaman and priest try to help out as well, allowing for the creature to manifest itself into a strange new form. Its flesh is made into a fowl mimicry of the girl, be it featuring a strange assortment of eyes, a spiky dress skirt, and even a tail.

"I cannot yet replicate the way human flesh looks, but I can at least assume a form less intimidating to you two legged creatures." The mimic construct said.

In this new form, the creature only stands maybe around five feet off the ground. Able to have straight eye contact with Guild Girl.

"Well… are you ready to register then?" The girl asks the mimic, still having a nervous expression on her face.

"Yes." The colony replies before running back to the front of the counter.

Everyone in the guild hall starts to calm down a little, except for one who keeps his dagger in hand. Readying himself to jump at the creature.

"Okay… well let's see here." Guild Girl says as she goes through her books to make sure she has the proper papers.

After registering, Mimic Knight then follows the three younger members of the group out of the guild hall. The four of them notice Goblin Slayer as he goes back to the farm, with Priestess deciding to run up to him to tell him goodbye. As she returns to the fold, the biggest of Mimic Knight's eyes stares at the young Light worshiper.

"You have some strange feelings, you humanoids." The mimic tells the young girl.

"What do you mean?" Priestess asks, seeming a little confused at the statement.

"The smell coming from you seems familiar in one of two ways. And I can't tell if it's because you see him as a brotherly figure, someone you wanna rub flesh…" Mimic Knight says as they look at the young girl who appears to be getting rather red.

"Like we said. Or what she said. Let's get you to a butcher to take a look at the kind if meat you can try aside from goblin corpses…" Rookie Warrior suggests as he tries to steer the conversation into another direction.

Even Rookie Cleric seemed a little red from the mimic's words as she and the young warrior led the other two towards the local butcher.


With the rest of his party out of the picture, the slayer would find himself going to two separate destinations. First at a lumberjack mill by a nearby river, and back on the farm sometime later. His old friend already had spotted him from one of the windows of the house. This young Cowgirl would then run out and give him a hug.

"Glad to see you're okay." She tells him as she moves her head back to look at the slayer's helmet.

"Yeah. I'm good." He tells her as he then takes his helmet off. "Glad to see you are too."

"You're actually taking your helmet off." Cowgirl says as she lets go of him, blushing a little.

"Mainly because you and Priestess have constantly suggested, or rather commanded me to keep it off." He says with a slight smirk on his face.

"See. I think a lot of people might like it more if you show them your face a little." She tells him with a smirk of her own. "By the way, were you able to talk with the lumberjacks?"

"Yes. I told them I would have enough payment soon. And we'll be getting supplies to fortify the farm." Goblin slayer tells him as he slowly drops the smirk.

"That's good. But why are you so keen on turning this place into a fortress? I thought that killing the Goblin Lord would be enough to stop them from coming back." She asks as she holds her arm a little nervously.

"That threat, the guild and I dealt with. But just like I feared that attack coming, I fear that something bigger is coming." He says as he looks to the sunset.

"Well… I'll follow you no matter what you choose to do. I trust your judgement." Cowgirl tells him before standing next to him.

She slowly grabbed his arm to hold onto him. They look each other in the eyes before looking towards the sky together. However, they notice after a few moments smiling that smoke is starting to cover their view. A layer of gray covers the sky, coming from an area in the distance. Over the hills, the two humans see that the smoke all comes from one area. Seeing this, flashbacks come to the slayer's mind. A burning village, screams and smoke. He can only imagine what could be happening in the distance as he grinds his teeth.

As they watch on, the town stares up in disbelief. Seeing this development, some feel a sense of fear. Others pay no mind to it, expecting their guild warriors to cover this threat. Those who occupy spots in Goblin Slayer's team stare in a mixture of nervousness and irritation. The Lizardman dropped his cheese, with the Mimic dropping their chunk of pig flesh.

"Not…." The priestess said in fear.

"...again." Elf said as she grinded her teeth.

While most of the group was in different areas of town, they all knew that they needed to meet up with the slayer fast. The priestess led the rookies and the mimic towards the farm as the elf, dwarf and lizardman met up at the edge of town. Regardless if anyone else was in town to stop this threat, the group all knew that this was something they could not ignore. As they traveled over, the smoke cloud seemed to only grow bigger. Covering the sunset as it began to grow dark with the night. Once at their destination, Goblin Slayer was easy to notice as he talked with Cowgirl and received yet another hug from her. This seemed to get a slight reaction from Priestess that only Mimic Knight was able to notice from an eye on the back of their torso.

"Hm… we wonder… envy?" The mimic whispered to themself.

"What was that, Chest… I mean, Mimic Knight?" The dwarf asked as they heard the whispered rambling.

"You humanoids confuse me too much. Not sure if we will ever be a good talker amongst you." The mimic replies.

"Now. Now. Don't give up on your speech. It's good to learn how to interact with others. For now though, we must stay focused, friends." Lizardman Priest says as the group approaches Goblin Slayer.

"And here I thought I might have to do this on my own. I guess she was right." The slayer says before putting his helmet back on. "Just needed to wait a moment for you all to provide help."

"Well of course. It looks like more insanity is coming, and we know that's up your alley. None of us would miss out, right?" Elf Archer says as she looks around everyone.

"I surely wouldn't." The dwarf says as he chugs a little bit of his beverage.

"This will prove to be a great feat for all of us to partake in." The lizardman added.

"I'll… go wherever you need…" the priestess says with a little hesitation in her voice.

"We've only known you all for a short time, but we already like your way of adventuring." Mimic Knight added quickly, as if to draw attention away from Priestess' words.

The two rookies looked at each other with hesitation for a moment, but then smirked and nodded at the crowd.

"Good. Let's move out fast." The slayer told everyone before he started walking out.

His group followed along, headed for the area where the smoke was coming from. Seeing them all leave, Cowgirl waved them goodbye. Some of the group waves back as she stared with a nervous smile, fearing what could become of the man she's spent so much time getting close to. Now, she could only pray that they will meet again soon.


When night was fully realized, it almost seemed pitch black. Aside from the glow of the green moon, there was hardly any light for those without the use of torches or night vision. The group knew that they would need to set up camp soon as they tread through forested area. It takes some time as most of them stay put, while both the elf and mimic go out to spot a safe area to camp out at.

They spot something of interest though. What looks like a bunch of sideways oval shaped pockets in the steep stone side of a tall hill. They also appear to lead up to a wooden door.

"Strange. It's getting late, but we might be able to check this out and see if it's abandoned. I don't want to get our exhausted crew into any trouble." The elf suggested.

"True. We could stay watch as you check on this area. Though make sure to look for any signs of recent goblin activity." The mimic replies as they look left and right.

Elf Archer nods in agreement before she goes to climb up. It's easy enough to use they oval pockets as steps on a ladder. Especially with there being a pocket in the stone where the door is to allow footing before it. However, upon seeing the door, she realizes that it's heavily locked. The elf leans her head against the door to let a little defeatism get to her before hearing a slight ringing noise from the other side of the door. This surprises the elf, with her backing away in slight fear as she hears a latch being moved and open up a small peep hole. Through this, Elf Archer's eyes lock with that of another elven woman.

"Can I help you?" The woman says in a somewhat nice tone.

"Sorry. I thought this place was abandoned… I'll just leave." The archer suggests as she gets ready to head back down.

"Did you need a place to stay for the night?" The woman inside the door asked.

"Well…" Elf Archer said hesitantly.


After a few conversations, along with back and forth traveling, the group would all end up inside of this woman's humble abode. Despite the look of the doorway, it was quite spacious inside for everyone. The woman seemed to be slightly younger than the elf who was part of the party, but there were a lot of things different about her. This elf wore what appeared to be a dress with leather armor layered over certain parts of it. Yet she did not appear to be the fighting type at all.

"I hope you all accept my invitation to stay the night here. I want to make sure you all feel safe here." The elven woman told the group as she sat in a position to face everyone.

"Thanks for this, but are you sure this is okay?" Priestess asks.

"Of course. Although… I hope you all don't mind me asking a favor of you all in return." The woman replied.

Both Goblin Slayer and Mimic Knight stared sternly at her when she said that.

"What kind of favor?" The slayer asked.

"My husband and our children have gone for a few days. I'm afraid that they may have gotten lost. I have a little gold if it encourages you to help in finding them." The woman tells him.

"Hm. We might be able to. But forget the gold. I'd like you to tell me what you know about the smoke in the distance." The slayer suggests.

"Oh… well I haven't left out the front door since about five winters ago. But my husband suspected witches." She tells him.

"Witches? I wonder if…" the Lizardman said before looking to the rest of the party.

"You don't think…?" The dwarf responded with a questioning look.

"That woman from the cave." Rookie Warrior stated as looked to his new team with a look of despair.

"Either way, it's best that we sleep on this." Mimic Knight suggests.

"Yeah. We found a spot to rest. It's better that we take advantage of this and talk about our next move tomorrow morning." Elf Archer said.

The group nods at one another in agreement as they all sleep on various furniture throughout the women's home. With everyone appearing to be comfortable, she then goes to rest herself. With fall, everyone seemed to test rather well for being inside a complete stranger's home. As everyone sleeps, they can hear voices in their sleep.

What sounds like a woman saying "The end is nigh." repeats over and over. Images of death and destruction follow this repeated phrase, along with images of a group of warriors. One appearing to be a brute with a long sword, a second featuring a strange dress on their figure, a third in a cloak and surrounded by magic, with the fourth being an individual in armor. These images stain the minds of this group. Leading to a rude awakening as they hear an explosion from outside the door of the home.

Everyone is quick to notice this, and quickly grab their equipment to ready themselves for battle. The elven woman with a leather protected dress goes to a corner of the room to stay out of everyone's way. Goblin Slayer runs to the door before looking back at everyone, making sure they are ready. As they nod in approval, the Slayer quickly opens the door. Bearing witness to a cloud of smoke passing over with explosives being detonated around the forest. It would seem that the group will now face an even worse threat than before.


Author Notes:

Here we are. Took too long to make, but here is chapter two. Gonna try to put out more chapters at a reasonable rate. This time around, I wanna test certain aspects of these characters. Like their mental stability with more deadly goblins, and having a gruesome but supportive teammate.

God, I'm awful. But in all realness, hope you guys liked this chapter. Glad I was recommended to make the crazy mimics supportive. I hope to provide a little more next time around. Maybe even a slight… change. Until the next one, y'all enjoy.

See you later…