"Tired as always, that's just third shift for ya." Alan muttered to himself as he entered his house from a 10-hour shift. Alan being perpetually dead thanks to his wonderful third shift job always left him tired and with dark circles under his eyes. Despite being 22 and being moderately handsome, with brown eyes, black hair, and nearly pearly white teeth being 5'6" and always being dead didn't help him much with the ladies or his job. Customers weren't always the nicest beings out there, but a gas station job wasn't where you met the best people, especially at 2 am. "At least I got an extra 2 hours of overtime," Alan said with a joyless smile. He ate his breakfast sandwich that he borrowed from his workplace because why spend money when you can get it for free. It was cold by the time he got home mainly because he didn't like consuming food in his car, a car from 2008 but it mostly works so no complaints from Alan. He ate his cold breakfast sandwich too lazy to wait even 30 seconds to heat it up in the microwave, tasting the greasy sausage and possibly expired eggs. At least the cheese alloy known as American cheese masked some of the taste. "Horrible as always but it means I spend slightly less money on groceries." He said to no one but himself as he lived by himself since he was 19. Living in a tiny and old apartment wasn't the best but a mattress on the ground, a pc and food was all Alan needed. Once he finished his sustenance for the morning he changed, brushed his teeth and layed in bed. "Maybe I'll dream of having a nice car with a V8 in it, maybe a dream of being taller and rich." Alan chuckled to himself as his eyelids slowly but surely closed as he fell asleep. Sleep is most always nice but the dreams can be the best part or the absolute worst but those are called nightmares, not dreams, dreams are nice, wonderful, and can give you feelings of euphoria or nostalgia. You can also get weird dreams that have absolutely sense, like a break dancing rat telling you the world is doomed but we ignore those. Alan woke up at 2 pm, normal for him late for any normal person. "No fancy dreams this time it seems." Alan said tiredly as he woke up from his slumber. He stood up from his mattress on the floor and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He took his clothes off turned on the shower and waited until it was warm enough to enter. Once he was done he changed his clothes and went into the kitchen to make himself his lunch or dinner, He didn't care which one it was at this point. He opened the fridge, "Let's see, I ain't got shit." He closes the fridge and thinks about getting some fast food but changes his mind and opens the fridge once more. "Well lets see I have some green beans and some ground beef, guess I can sauté them.". Once he finished cooking his luxurious meal he ate some and put some in his lunch box for work. It was 3 pm when he was done with his shower and cooking so he decided to get on his pc and play some Alpha Heroes BR. Like all battle royale games sometimes you just get teammates who are........ let's just say not the best. "SHOOT THEM!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?! STOP FUCKING LOOTING GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!". Alan shouted into his cheap $25 microphone. Seems like Alan is having such a pleasurable experience with his team. 6 pm the clock on his pc read, he played for 3 entire hours with such wonderful teammates. Afterwards, he got off Alpha Heroes BR and did some breathing exercises to calm himself down. That was enough for Alan to calm his rage and prepare himself for a little nap before having to go to work at 9:30 pm. "Maybe I'll dream of getting better fucking teammates next time." Alan thought to himself as he set his alarm. *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* "10 more minutes.". The alarm did not care. *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*......*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*......*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* "I'M AWAKE, I'm awake, jeez did I always set it to be this annoying.". He turned off the alarm and was preparing to get ready for work. Changing his normal clothes to his work uniform (a button up collared shirt and some black pants), once he was done with that he double-checked his lunch box, put on some shoes, grabbed his keys, and walked out the door. "Another night of work, how wonderful, I dream of the day I don't have to work there anymore.". Alan turned around to lock the door, double-checked to see if it was really locked and once he was sure he turned back around and......" What.........da.......FUCK?!".

When Alan turned around there should have been a driveway with an old car sitting in it. A little pathway to the backyard and some fences should be in front of him instead what greeted him a forest. He turned back around to his house but that too had mysteriously disappeared. More forest where his apartment should be. He was about to have a panic attack but he did his breathing exercises and calmed himself enough to assess the situation or try to. "Alright maybe this is just a dream, maybe I'm stilling napping and the alarm hasn't gone off yet, wait no it did go off then what is happening? Lucid dreaming maybe?". He continued mumbling thinking of a billion excuses but the best he could come up with was that he was dreaming despite it looking and smelling awfully too real to him. The dense forest had a nice floral scent and had an earthy undertone to it. "Well if this is a dream then it doesn't hurt to explore I guess." He mumbled as he started walking forwards towards anywhere. Despite being a little anxious about the situation he walked and explored because if this was a lucid dream why not take advantage of it and explore your fantasies. Alan walked and walked and walked and walked some more, look there was a lot of walking, okay? "For a lucid dream I haven't been able to do jack all but walk and talk to myself, no flying, no magic, no sexy babes, nothing. Maybe I should have pinched myself earlier to see if it was real, might as well now." *pinch* "Ok well I felt that, and it did kind of hurt so like is this real? Is this not a dream, no that makes no sense I can't just have been magically teleported to a different world. This has to be a dream." Alan said to himself in a doubting tone. "This can't possi-" his thoughts were cut off when he heard a noise. He silenced himself and listened as carefully as he could. There was a figure, a small humanoid form with..."Green skin? Pointy ears too? What the hell is that? That looks like.. like a goblin?!" He couldn't believe it, a goblin, a literal goblin in front of him! Luckily for Alan, it seemed preoccupied with its meal which seemed to be a dead deer with crystal-like antlers. He stayed still not sure what to do, he had no weapons or form of armor besides the clothes he currently wore which provided nothing against claws and sharp teeth which it seemed the goblin had both of. So like any sane person would do they would back off slowing and try not to make a sound so thats what Alan did..... oh he's charging in. "Holy shit a goblin!! Do I get experience if I kill you? Fuck it we ball!!". Under the presumption that this was still a dream and forgetting about the pinch earlier, he ran up to the wretched-looking thing and punched it as hard as he could. That apparently wasn't enough as all it did was piss it off and it wanted a piece or chunk of Alan. It turned around quickly and lunged at Alan, it clawed at him drawing blood, it bit him hard, it was then Alan realized that this pain was far to realistic, it felt too real. He had an epiphany just then, this wasn't a dream, this was absolutely not a dream and he could very well die right then and there, to a goblin of all things. With that figured out Alan tried his best to get the green monster off of him but it wasn't working so he jammed his thumps into the goblin's eye and that was just enough for it to stagger backwards. Alan turned and ran in the other direction hoping to get some distance between them, it seemed like hours but he ran back probably passing his original spot where he appeared. He stopped and looked back to see nothing behind him, he was safe for now it seemed. "Maybe charging in wasn't the best idea, just maybe." He was tired from all the running and blood loss. Adrenaline was one heck drug but could only do so much, soon it ran out and the darkness was soon taking him. He took off whatever was left of his shirt and made horrible makeshift bandages and once he was done with that he tried his best to climb a tree for some high ground and safety. The darkness soon took hold of him and Alan closed his tired eyes and his exhausted body rested with it.

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Alan awoke to being in pain and hunger. He reached for his lunch box "Ah fuck, I must have dropped it when I charged into the goblin, great thinking me.". His wounds had stopped bleeding and had somewhat scabbed over but any rough movement would immediately open them once more. "If this is a dream then this dream sucks and if it's somehow my new reality it too also sucks." He disliked this very much, he just wanted to go back to his shoddy apartment and sleep but he couldn't. Footsteps, multiple footsteps were coming Alan's way and he didn't like that. There it was, a group of goblins walking in his direction and soon they would be upon him. Alan stilled hoping they wouldn't notice him but with all that blood splattered on the forest floor it was impossible for the goblins not to smell him, they could almost taste him. They circled around the area hoping to find their prey, the scent of blood stopped there so they searched no further than necessary and soon they looked up. They spotted Alan in the tree and Alan paled, praying to whatever higher being might hear him but lucky for him goblins are shit climbers, well these ones anyway. There was a standoff, Alan in the trees and the goblins on the ground, Alan having been already wounded did not want to try and throw hands again so he tried his best to climb a little higher but he couldn't as his stockpile of adrenaline had ran out the previous hit and run so he stayed there on the lowest branch, just high enough to be safe but low enough to still potentially be in danger. The goblins were relentless in their efforts to consume Alan. They climbed and fell they tried again and failed, they jumped and couldn't reach so they devised a plan, lean against the tree, and climbed atop each other to make a tower. Two goblins weren't enough so they tried three, three weren't enough so they did four, close, they did five goblins, even closer. Alan was shitting bricks now at this point, tears threatened to come out, his prayers seemingly going unanswered. "Please stop" Alan begged but the goblins did not care and if they did they didn't show it. Seven goblins, so very close, they could almost lick him, and then the eighth started ascending the tower higher and higher it climbed and soon it would be upon poor Alan. The eighth goblin reached the branch Alan was on, "Kick it, punch it, do something!!!!" Alan shouted in his head but his body was paralyzed with the fear of imminent death to obey his command. As soon as it was on the same branch as Alan it lunged at him, it didn't have a good balance on the branch so its lunge was more towards Alan's side but it was enough to grab Alan and they both fell towards the goblin-infested forest floor. Alan was somehow able to twist around in the air making the goblin go underneath him to hopefully break his fall. It worked, Alan was able to successfully negate most of the fall damage with the goblin's body as a cushion. He yelled in joy and then despair as he temporarily forgot about the others. He got to his feet as fast as possible and ran, his wounds reopened, blood seeping out of them. His makeshift bandages didn't help much at this point. He ran and then the group of goblins ran after him, he didn't get very far. He was wounded, outnumbered, and far too exhausted. No gamer rage would help him now. "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Alan let out a blood-curdling scream as tears rolled off his face. "I'm going to die here, I thought it was just bad dream, yeah... yeah it's just a nightmare, dreams are nice, I'll wake up and It'll... It'll be time to go to work. I'll wake up in my bed right?". Alan thought to himself as the goblins were now upon him. His eyes closed refusing to accept this nightmare as reality and then the goblins pounced at him. Alan waited, for the inevitable, and then he heard blood squelching, but he felt no pain. He opened his eyes and there was a person, they seemed to be 7 feet tall had muscles that made bodybuilders jealous. He was crushing all the goblins with his bare hands, they attacked him but they couldn't even leave a scratch. Soon the group became smaller and smaller, once it was just a few left they tried to run but he simply caught them and crushed them too. Alan was flabbergasted, who was this, and what just happened? "You all good sir? You seem to be in dire need of healing potions, I unfortunately have not brought any but I can take you to the city. We'll go to the healers and they'll fix you right up.". The mad said in the most Scottish accent Alan had ever heard."Those pesky goblins did quite a number on you, luckily I was nearby when I heard someone screaming, which I assume was you good sir no offense, and came here as fast as I could, They might only be knee high, well waist high for you, not to offend your height, but they are almost always in a group." The 7-foot Scottish man said. Alan still processing that he wasn't dead just looked confused and said "So this isn't a nightmare?". "Afraid not good sir, seems very real too me.". The Scottish man replied. "Oh, my apologies good sir, I have yet to introduce myself. I am Orrmur, but please call me Orr." Orrmur or Orr stuck his hand out for a handshake. "I'm Alan, and thank you for saving my life, I thought I was a goner. I'm so tired and everything hurts." Alan shook Orr's hand and as they let go of each others hand. Alan realized that he lost too much blood and was about to faint. "Don't worry good sir, you're in safe hands, I'll take you to the healers you have my word." "Thank you Orr, thank you so mu-" Alan slurred before the darkness took him, Orr caught him before he hit the ground. "You did good lad." Orr said softly as he carried Alan towards the city.