No need to go slow. It's only a monster

When the goblin came too again, a rumble came from its belly as it felt a strange new sensation. This caught the attention of the mage who said, "Interesting. So you do need to eat. Something about the dungeon must sustain you and the other monsters." As understanding and pain filled its head again the monster realized what was missing. It did not have an all consuming desire to defend the dungeon anymore. The goblin wondered why this was, why was it away from the dungeon, why did it now have all these thoughts and feelings.

With the caged creature clearly perplexed the man asked, "What are you thinking? If you cooperate with me I'll go grab you something to eat." The goblin wanted to quell the new found feeling of hunger. But despite understanding what was being said it did not know how to speak the language. With the knowledge of how communicating and language works in general it tried to convey what it thought with random noises. The mage nodded and said, "So something about the dungeon works as a form of mind control or something. And now you are free... in a sense." The goblin did not like this concept of mind control and despite its present situation enjoyed being free. Everything was new, weird and interesting to the monster. Things were strange, but it did not desire to return to the dungeon.

Meanwhile the mage had left to grab some food while the goblin considered its new situation. With a plate of food in hand the man sat down by the cage. "I have no idea what you would eat or like. So I just got a bit of everything." He pointed to sections of the plate saying what was fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. The goblin's mouth watered as it took in the sight and smell of the food. The thing had quite literally never seen or smelled anything like what was before it. As the mage picked up an apple he said, "Now besides some food, is there anything that you desire?" The goblin was uncertain how to respond. With more gibberish it conveyed, "I don't know. Until now I only desired to defend the dungeon. Although if I wasn't in control, I never really desired anything."

The mage took a bite of the apple and then held it out for the monster. The goblin took it and looked to the man chewing his bite of apple before similarly taking a bite. It smiled with delight and continued to chomp away at the apple. Quietly, the man said, "You are a most curious creature. Seeming to have decent enough intellect, as a beast would not be able to communicate even with the help of this pendant." He continued speaking a bit louder, "With how much of an oddity you are, I don't think I can assume anything." With a swipe of his hand in the air a holographic screen appeared. "All intelligent races are capable of conjuring forth their own menu. It shows a rough estimate of one's physical and magical strength, agility, and resilience. Plus much more, but those are the basics. Assuming you can summon such yourself at all, you need only to will it."

All the talking was getting to be a painful headache again for the goblin. After a moment of silence the monster looked at the man's menu and to it the screen was unintelligible. The pendant helped it understand speech and to be understood, but did nothing for writing. Although the goblin had no reason to distrust the man and in fact such a concept was still foreign to it. So it merely tried imitating him and indeed caused its own menu to appear. Although it looked different in a few ways. Notably all of the writing was replaced with images representative of the words. Such as a buff looking goblin carrying a battle axe replaced physical strength, a goblin equipped with a bow and dagger mid run for physical agility, and so on. A mix of amusement and surprise filled the mage. He laughed and said, "It is like a child's that has not learned how to read. I should have expected as much. But I would be lying if I didn't say I was hoping for something different. Nevertheless it is very interesting that even a monster has its own menu."

With so many new ideas and thoughts going through the goblin's mind, it wanted its own answers to questions that it had. Desires started to be formulated and build. The monster was now more free than it was in the dungeon, but knew that within its tiny confines it was not truly free. To truly be free was its current goal. Yet it lacked the knowledge of how to get out. Or for that matter how it even ended up in the cage to begin with.