59 New friends?

Wood-shattering thuds resound through the forest every few minutes whenever Omni overstretches itself, jumping before looking or unable to turn in time. The larger trees are left with dents while the smaller trees are pushed over, snapping completely. Omni found the experience exhilarating despite the occasional flub, at least compared to being stuck in the dungeon.

After enlarging the claws on its paws and reshaping them to resemble climbing hooks, it began to climb the trees and try to jump from tree to tree, branch to branch. The first time the golem falls, it gets an unwelcome flashback to what started all of this but quickly pushes that out of its mind. Things are different now, and it has more freedom than ever before, free to change its body, to go wherever it wants, free to 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥-? *𝑻𝒉𝒖𝒅*

The second fall was particularly high, causing much of the delicately shaped stone to snap off, shaking Omni from its train of thought. The golem gathers up the wayward stone and pulls them back into its body before climbing back up.

It considers its body for a moment before adding more mass to its tail and adding a grappling hook-like claw to the end to assist in swinging on branches and catching itself. The new addition helps a lot after getting used to it, lowering the rate of falls quite a bit.

Omni continues moving through the massive forest like a bat out of hell, mapping a good chunk of it. Making such rapid movements by controlling stone seemed to affect its core positively. Feeling the changes, the golem is reminded that it hasn't checked on its status in a while and calls up the window without slowing down.

[ Name: Ad Omne Argentum

Race: Canine?

Vitality: 800

Energy: 1050

Core: Lapis Crystal, Sacred Silver, Re҉sili𝓔nt Soul

Durability: 250/∞

Skills: Adv. Earth Magic - Adv. Water Magic - Adv. Lightning Magic - Gravity Magic - Advanced Identify - Energy Manipulation - Energy Vision - Flee - Harmonize - Hazard Storage - Lock Picking - Vacuum ]

'𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘮𝘱, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘒𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦. 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦, 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘭?'

Omni's focus was drawn towards the... glitch? Smudge? These things shouldn't have errors, should they? But reality quickly broke the golem's focus as it jumped from a branch and landed on nothing. With the status window out of the way, Omni saw what happened; it ran out of trees to jump to, finding itself in a large clearing and falling.

Bracing itself so it wouldn't break apart, Omni landed with a resounding thud, leaving a small crater in the grass and dirt. Unfurling itself and looking around, it was indeed in a large clearing—a hill in the center with a large burrow at the base laid in the middle. A person was sleeping on a worn chair in front, a guard presumably, who was now wide awake with the earth-shaking bang making it jump out of its chair.

'𝘐𝘵'𝘴... 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘯? 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭?'

Omni pondered the strange creature; it wore nothing but a brown loincloth and a necklace with some small animal bones on it, wielded a shabby-looking spear, and appeared to be quite scared of the wolf(?) monster in front of it.

"Gi! Gigigi!" It shouts in a high voice before pulling a horn from somewhere and blowing on it, presumably alerting whatever was inside the hill.

Omni couldn't detect any magical energy coming from the guard's spear, so it waited with curiosity to see what would happen. The wolf golem sat down and watched while a large number of the little green men came out from the hill; the structure seemed to be pretty significant given how many came out. If it were an average person or even a low-level adventurer, most would be afraid of seeing such a large number of goblins, but to Omni, who didn't know what they were, it thought they were somewhat cute.

The older goblins stood ahead of the younger ones, brandishing shabby spears and swords in a defensive formation. After nearly a minute of standing off, another goblin came out from the hill, this one older than the rest with wrinkled skin and matted white hair. The old goblin chittered at the group, and the original goblin replied.

Omni was confused and unsure if repeating 'Gi!' repeatedly could even count as a language, but they seemed to be conversing despite the simplicity. The old goblin glanced between the wolf golem and the young guard before nodding in understanding, then walked past the defensive line towards Omni. Some goblins protested, but the elder shushed them and strode forward without fear.

The elder stood in front of Omni, easily dwarfed by its sizeable canine form, and began making random noises. Or at least that is what it sounded like to Omni, and after tilting its head in confusion, the elder almost took a step back before reassuring itself.

The old goblin mouthed out some words without making noise before asking, "Foe? Friend?"

Its pronunciation was a little weird, but it was enough for Omni to understand. "Not foe," the golem replied; it was a little worried the elder wouldn't like the answer, but he seemed ecstatic and chittered at the rest of the goblins excitedly, who lowered their weapons immediately.

Omni took the time to look at the clearing in-depth; thick thorny vines covered the tree line from the ground up until relatively high up, preventing entry. The golem couldn't tell if it had gone through the vines or was just higher than they reached when it fell from the trees.

Its attention was drawn back to the goblins after a few younger goblins who had begun to climb on its back drew blood after being poked by the sharp stone fur. Instead of being worried, both young and old goblins laughed it off while the elder knelt beside the injured and emitted a soft green pulse from his hand. After the elder wiped away the trickles of blood Omni could see the tiny holes were gone.

'𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤? 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘒𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬... 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦? 𝘌𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳.'

The uncanny jubilation of the goblins is interrupted by the growling stomachs of several goblins; looking at them closer, Omni realized they were rather skinny. Were they having trouble with food?

The elder goblin prostrated himself in front of the wolf golem, "Hunt?" It asked in a pleading tone.

Omni shrugged; it didn't have anything to lose by helping these little green men, Valentina might even praise it for building rapport instead of blind violence. It nodded and stood up to its full height with a good feeling in its chest. Glancing back at the hill burrow, Omni realized it could also benefit from this, "Ores," it stated, "I'll trade meat for any ores or metal you can provide."

The goblin elder looked confused for a bit, clearly mulling over what Omni said, not understanding for a moment. Once realization crosses his face, the elder nods excitedly and chitters to the rest of the goblins who return to the burrow.

With a trade presumably secured Omni turns around and begins scaling the thorny vines, they weren't magical in nature so they had no chance of even scratching the golem's shell, and with a clear goal in mind, Omni bounds back into the trees with vigor.