A Black Market LitRPG

Kyle gasped as he jolted awake, his eyes darting around the room. He raised his arms gingerly, noticing he was lying in a puddle of vomit, piss and blood combined – a side-effect of his class upgrade.

Two screens hovered in his vision.

Kyle smiled to himself, despite the slop that he was currently covered in. However, as he tried to sit up, he suddenly realised something critical that he needed to test immediately. Disables all engravings in a five-meter radius… does that include my own engravings?

He decided to test it now immediately, despite the cooldown being three days. He ensured he was still wearing his Aero Shoes.

Negation Field!

A warbling visual effect surged from his body as the centre, forming a sort of translucent hemisphere.

Aero Shoes!

The Aero Shoes lit up for a second before petering out as though the flow of arcia energy had been disrupted. Nothing else happened. Kyle frowned immediately, but he still had to test a few more things.

Penchant for Violence!

Instead of feeling the same familiar surge of power rushing through his blood, Kyle winced from a backflow of arcia energy, sent into turmoil by the negation field. The pain erupted from deep within his body as though he had an engraving in there.

Kyle pondered even longer before pulling out his handgun and trying to fire a few shots. His hand was immediately wracked with pain, causing him to drop the handgun uncontrollably.

What does this mean? Kyle questioned himself internally, but he already knew the answer all along: the System has been engraving the skills onto his body or readjusting his internals to generate the skill effect. This also explained why every single class upgrade was so painful and agonising, as though someone was carving away at his flesh.

Kyle had always held the notion that arctech was not a form of magic but rather a special exotic element that simply had magic-like properties. He had seen other exotics have equally amazing properties, but he had never heard of one which could be imbued into the human body like this without rejection.

Nearly every study of the Galactic Era stated that humans could not integrate exotics normally without completely modifying their genetic makeup to adapt. Kyle wondered now if all humans on this planet were of a specific variant, able to ingest and manipulate arcia normally.

But how did the humans get here in the first place? Kyle was certain this was not Earth – Ancient Earth was well alive when he was still a Galactic Era crime lord.

Also, the existence of the A-Class facility directly contradicted Earth’s status as the capital of an S-class human nation. Kyle found it impossible for an A-class facility to sneak into the mountains of Earth, when every inch of Terra soil was guarded with a billion spaceships and satellites.

Kyle could not confidently say he knew exactly what happened in the history of this planet. It could still very well be a virtual reality game, though it seems to be straying even further from that angle.

Time travel was a possibility as well - Kyle was not unaware of time anomalies present in the more chaotic sections of the Milky Way Galaxy. But how did he end up here?

The A-Class facility did not look like an evacuation shelter either but rather as an observation laboratory. Were they studying the natives, which were the goblins?

As Kyle was weighing the different theories he had, Orisa’s holographic image appeared. [Good morning, sir. It has been three days since you were last awake.]

“Three days?” Kyle was astonished. The previous class upgrade took only the better part of a day; he did not expect to be knocked out for so long. Perhaps it was also due to the main class upgrade as well. “Is the stabilisation of the goblins complete?”

[Yes, sir. All goblins are now united under Sahusa and my avatar. My avatar is currently carrying agricultural reforms as ordered.]

Kyle nodded, standing up with the sludge around him sliding off. The facility had no functioning showers left, so Kyle had no choice but to head back to the palace.

As he walked out through the circular chamber and hallway, he noticed that all the bodies and corpses had been removed by Orisa already. Even the skeletons from before were stored deeper in the facility.

The new hobgoblin guards, made up of the loyal knights of Sahusa, were standing guard outside the Oracle Chamber under the orders of the new Goblin Queen. They were told not to look inside, but an overpowering foul stench soon assaulted their senses, nearly causing them to gag.

The guard turned to see Kyle marching out with a blank expression, his body stained with disgusting streaks of vomit and blood.

One guard put his sword up at the ready before the other hobgoblin guard smacked him on the head.

Kyle ignored their bickering, simply stepping past them and heading straight to the king’s room, where Sahusa was relaxing.

Sahusa nearly screamed at the appalling appearance of Kyle before calming himself down. “Servants, quickly! Give this human a bath!”

The servants led Kyle towards a large bath area, where they simply picked up buckets of water and splashed them onto him, warily avoiding the streams of bile streaking along the floor as it snaked towards the drainage.

The facilities here definitely need to be improved. Kyle examined the state of the palace. It was indeed opulent but could be designed to be much more efficient and relaxing. A task for later – let’s see the overall progress.

Kyle got Sahusa to bring him around the valley to observe the projects implemented.

“It’s only been two days since we have reunited the goblins – we are focusing on the terrace farming project as ordered by Orisa.” Sahusa pointed out to a nearby sloped section of the valley, where sectioned terraces were already carved out and planted with seeds.

Kyle noticed Orisa was working alongside the goblin farmers, guiding them directly. Nearly all the male goblins and hobgoblins were smitten, while the female goblins showed clear signs of jealousy and envy.

He noticed that the hobgoblins, being stronger and larger, were able to complete more tasks effectively. Many of them were former rebel soldiers, converted into farmers to solve the famine quickly. He walked with Sahusa along the farming plots, bending over to check the sapling that was already beginning to grow.

The speed of the growth was not as surprising to Kyle as it was to Sahusa. The Galactic Era was full of genetically optimised seeds for maximum growth, with most crops being able to grow to maturity within two weeks or a month at most. With the seed storage under Orisa’s control, it was easy to plant them and simply wait.

In the meantime, Kyle would spend money to buy food from the Culdao Peaks to feed the goblins and tide them over until the first harvest. “What about the tunnelling project?”

“Yes, we are working on clearing a path through the forest to directly connect our territories to Gulak’s goblin den. Your prospector has already identified multiple coal seams here as well as a large iron ore deposit.”

Kyle nodded. The entire purpose of consolidating the goblins was to both have a compliant workforce as well as access to the resources. He glanced across the valley to notice a large mining tunnel with thousands of goblins carrying crudely made pickaxes, rotating in and out to enlarge the mining shaft.

A clear major sand road was carved out through the entire length of the valley, leading out of the walls that guarded the entrance and snaking off towards the direction of Gulak’s goblin den. He could already see a few wheelbarrows being hauled by goblins going to and fro, carting some of the already mined iron ore out of the valley before the transportation network was fully complete. I will have to lay railways to make the entire operation even more efficient.

Sahusa continued explaining the progress of the other projects. “As for the irrigation system, it is a bit of a challenge as there is a lot of manual labour to do over a wide area.”

Kyle watched as one of the weaker, smaller goblins was panting as he used a shovel to dig out the shape of the terrace on the slope while the hobgoblins effortlessly did the work. Previously he never had an issue with Gulak’s goblins because their work was simply harvesting Euria Seeds, which actually required them to be small and nimble. “What’s the percentage of hobgoblins currently?”

“Per-cen…what?”

“For every ten goblins, how many are hobgoblins on average?”

“Uhm, not many. In fact, I think it’s one in a hundred.”

One percent, that’s not good enough. We need to move faster. Kyle re-calculated how much time he had left to implement everything. It’s been about two weeks since he started building the steel factory, as well as subjugating the goblins.

With only a month and a half left, Kyle was on an extremely tight deadline. He also needed to go over to Versia to set up a weapons factory for them as well. He was planning to nail the Raktor’s weapon factory in the next two weeks before heading over to Versia and implementing it quickly.

Luckily for him, Versia’s weapons deal did not have a tight deadline, unlike Baron Cain’s tender, so it was okay if Verisa’s factory came online a bit later after the war.

However, Kyle wanted to complete things as fast as possible before moving on to other ventures. “Round up all the weakest goblins and bring them to the Oracle Chambers for enhancement.” He ordered Sahusa.

Sahusa was taken aback. “Enhancement?! What do you mean?”

“In fact, all the hobgoblins currently should take immediate priority.” Kyle walked over to where Orisa was teaching a group of goblins how to farm and things to look out for. “Orisa, prepare the chambers for enhancement.”

“Yes, sir. You mean flood them with green gas?”

“…. Yes.”

An hour later, a hundred hobgoblins were standing outside the circular chamber in the expansive hallway, murmuring among themselves as they watched the first two dozen hobgoblins, along with King Sahusa, enter with Orisa guiding them.

As the hobgoblins discussed excitedly as to the origins of Orisa over the next few minutes, the pneumatic doors slid open, revealing the same two dozen hobgoblins and King Sahusa. Those waiting outside were taken aback as they clearly saw a marked difference in the bodies of those who entered.

The most prominent change was that of King Sahusa, who had grown to a size nearly as large as Osir, his repressed genes activated by the green gas. It was a stark difference from his previously average height as a normal hobgoblin. Sahusa flexed his hands a bit, noticing the sheer power and strength flowing through his body. He had never felt better in his life.

Punching his fist into the air, he yelled at the top of his lungs.