Chapter Ten
It was time to start my little adventure to get stronger. With Jaba evolving way over me, and with just how useless I was against the wounded wolf, this feeling of being a weak little Goblin is eating me up inside. I absolutely need to get stronger, and I need to get stronger now. Who knows when another threat on the same level as that wolf will come again? What if that wolf wasn’t on the verge of dying? What if another wolf like that shows up at our doorstep the exact same time the mystery stone monsters come? Am I just fated to die? To die without even having the power to fight back even a little bit ?
No.
I refuse to live that way. I refuse to die a dogs’ death in this new life of mine. I’ve always dreamt of reincarnating into a world of fantasy, where I could live a life of glory and triumph, and I’ve been given that opportunity now so it's about time I seize it. Even though I’m only a lowly Goblin, even asking myself ‘Why a Goblin?’ many times…the path to becoming stronger has been properly laid out in front of me, no excuses will be tolerated from here on out.
One way or another I will strive to be the best Goblin I can be and ensure that my newfound comrades will never have to run away in the face of any enemy again. Be it stone monsters, or an enormous wolf, we will never cower, regardless of whoever or whatever comes our way. Such were my thoughts as I left my home first thing in the morning. With dried rabbit meat in a small sack tied around my waist, and a typical crude spear tipped with the horned rabbits’ horn, I set off into the woods with more conviction and drive than I thought I was capable of having.
Okay, first things first I gotta go check on that wolf corpse, it’s only been a day since we left the scene so it probably shouldn’t have decayed significantly yet, but there is a strong chance that it got snatched away by some other monsters around here. Either way I need to check just to make sure, maybe if it’s still there I can salvage some stuff. Hopefully it’s still there and I can take its pelt and make a coat or something, cause all I have on me is this loincloth.
Although I’ve fully embraced the Goblin way of life, the human in me still misses having clothes. Now with the place we fought the wolf being at the edge of range that Jaba hunts, it’s about a half mile into the forest from the tribe, so it took me about fifteen-ish minutes to walk here. Seeing that the entire wolf carcass was gone, the only reason I knew I arrived, was the fact that I can still see stains of blood from where the wolf died, and if I looked a little bit away, I could even see some green blood stains from where I’m assuming Jaba fell unconscious.
Well that’s a bit disappointing, no fancy wolf coat for me yet I guess. Alright from here on out is uncharted territory so let's proceed carefully. If I was still a human my first step would be to find a water source, but since I’ve been here I’ve realized Goblins don’t need to drink water, it seems we get all the nutrients we need from just eating meat. It would be nice to have something to wash the meat down with though, who doesn’t like a nice refreshing drink while eating? I know I for sure do! So with that being said, let’s see if I can find a lake, or a river or something and if not I at least need to find somewhere to call home for the time being while I’m out here. Maybe even find a different spot for gang green to call home so we don’t have to deal with the stone monsters.
It wasn’t until having walked roughly another two miles I think, placing me about two and a half miles away from the tribe that I finally found something good. Well I actually have no idea how far I walked but that's what I think it was, anyway, what I found was a big ass lake. It was surrounded by trees on all sides, and had crystal clear water, but even though the water was crystal clear, it was only clear up to a certain level since I couldn’t see the bottom. I’m assuming that means it’s really deep? The one thing I could see clearly though, were fishes! And there were a lot of them! The most important thing from this discovery was that with fish swimming in the lake, it meant the water was most likely safe to drink… I hope.
Alright after having a few risky sips of the water, it’s time to get this Goblin show on the road. On my way here the only monsters I found were horned rabbits and nothing else. So I’ll just assume that from here back to the tribe was filled mostly with those rabbits...so would that mean it was a group of those little rabbits that took the corpse? Huh weird...welp can’t do much about that, anyway what about if I circle to the east, west, or north side of the lake, surely I’ll find something different right? But before I do that, I don’t need that much more rabbit kills to fill up that essence counter in my status.
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Essence - 10} Absorb?
{Evo Points - 3 /15}
I killed a couple more rabbits with Jaba before the wolf showed up, then a couple this morning, which brings me up to 10 essence points! And when I absorb that I should be at 13 evo points, so now I only need to find and kill four more rabbits to fill the counter!! Now that I think about it…maybe I should’ve done this before I left? Eh whatever lets go kill some rabbits!
After walking back and forth in the area I came from till it was almost dark out, I finally completed my rabbit kill quota. I then made my way back to the lake and sat against a nearby tree. Let's see the fruit of my labor shall we. Status!
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Essence - 12} Absorb?
{Evo Points - 3/15}
Yes, absorb! Bring on the tingling sensations!!
This absorbing session took a little longer than the first one.. It even began to sting a little..I’m assuming it's because I had more points to absorb? Maybe I should be careful with how much essence I absorb, anyway my status now looks like this.
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Essence - 0}
{Evo Points - 15/15} Evolve?
And there it is! I think I’m fairly safe here by the lake, but just in case I’ll go hide in a nearby bush.. I really should’ve done this back in the cave.. Sigh well it's time for the green magic! Evolve baby!!’
And just like that Rick was instantly fast asleep, having a sweet dream of a world filled with green wonder, as any proper Goblin would of course. Yet as he slept and drifted away to dreamland his body went through more than a few changes.
Not quite like what he expected.
Once the first rays of sunlight signifying the night had passed landed on Rick's face, his eyelids began to slowly flutter as he awoke from the land of dreams.
Hmm…why am I in a bush.. Oh Yeah! I evolved!!
Rick quickly scrambled out of the bush and to his feet though he almost fell a couple times as he was not used to his new body.
I feel.. bigger…stronger...faster...wow this is.. This is great!! Killing those little rabbits is gonna be easy now! I can feel it in my green bones!! Well I don’t know if my bones are green but let's not find out!
Rick began checking over parts of his body only to find something very odd on his left shoulder..
I have tattoos?! I can’t even rub them off! Unless I got attacked by some type of tattoo villain in my sleep this has to be from my evolution right? But I never noticed Jaba having any tattoos! Wait wait wait.. Not only the tattoos, how did I only now realize my potbelly is gone?! Replaced by abs! Jaba still had his potbelly when he was at this stage, so why are our evolutions so different?.. ah .. status...
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Tier 1}
{Essence - 0}
{Evo Points - 0/45}
‘Thats why! How could I forget?! I’m a Royal Fucking Goblin!! OF COURSE my evolution would be a little different! HAHAHAHAHA! Phew.. okay now that that's out of the way..what's this about Tier 1, was I simply tier 0 before? Ah maybe Jaba’s at Tier 2 now? That's probably right. Also I see my evo point total reset to zero while the points required went up. I guess that makes sense? That would require a whole bunch of rabbits though, guess I have no choice but to explore and find stronger monsters if I want to gain essence quicker? Because surely stronger monsters gave more essence. The morning is still young onwards and forwards!! To the eastside of the lake!!