Slilb was a refined goblin, patient and gracious, at least according to himself. To everyone else however Slilb was a ruthless and deceitful but cunning snake.

  Slilb was feeling pleased with himself. Today he had managed to obtain a new skeleton to add to his private collection.

  Slilb had two collections the official one that Chief Omba allowed him to have and his secret collection.

  His secret collection was far larger than the official one everyone knew of. While some would say his collection was macabre he considered it an art form.

  Slilb had collected his newest find after Scruffles Chief Omba's Direwolf mongrel had killed its supposed handler. Slilb had secretly collected his mangled remains before the mongrel gnaw on them.

  Slilb knew only idiots didn't know that the position of handler was the same as the position of soon to be dead. Slilb heard that there would soon be a replacement appointed. He'd pity the fool who got the job if it wasn't such a good source of finds for his collection.

  Slilb soon went to work on his new find. His proficiency in the process was a matter of pride for Slilb.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  First he dunked the body in a tank of acid, the acid sourced from slimes, for 2 minutes.

  No more, no less. More and the bones themselves would be harmed. Less and leftover meat would be left on the bones.

  Next Slilb brought the acid bleached bones to dry on the rack. After this was the most important part in Slilb's mind.

  Imbedding the heart crystal and feeding it with Aether until it starts up a feedback loop. This last step would preserve, strengthen and activate the bones.

  There was just something beautiful to the process in the eyes of Slilb. The only caveat was that once you started on the infusion of Aether you could stop until finished or else the heart crystal would be damaged.

  Slilb was about 1/4 of the way through the infusion process when he felt that something was wrong. The connection he shared with his private collection told him it had been damaged.

  Had Chief Omba discovered his plan!?

  Had he sent someone to destroy his collection?

  Slilb was conflicted. He wanted to just rush there to protect his collection but he couldn't just leave in the middle of a infusion or all his work would be wasted.

  Slilb anxiously probed the connection to find out what happened. It seemed two had been destroyed and a third had been severely damaged. Whoever the attacker had been they were already gone by the time he to a look through his collections eyes.

  He knew it was a who because there was evidence of fire damage to his collection. Reassured that the rest of his collection was safe he concluded that an hour difference would not make a difference and rushing would not change the outcome.

  He would be patient and finish his project first. Then Slilb swore under his breath that those who damaged his collection would be joining it real soon.