I yawned exaggeratedly, opened my eyes and pushed my way out of the large cluster of goblins I was sleeping in. It was my first day since leaving the white room. The majority of the brood I belonged to had been transported into a larger cave room with hundreds of other goblins. Having come straight out of the white room, we were confused with our surroundings but were quickly assimilated into the larger group. Several goblins walked over to explain our situation to us. Most of it were things I already knew from reading the evolution screen but there was new information mixed in here and there. The gist of it was;
No free rides | If goblins wanted to eat they had to find their own food. We were told to hunt in groups, but not to make groups within our brood. Our best chance of survival was to join groups of goblins who have been around for a while as they were stronger and they knew where not to hunt. I wasn’t sure if those were places we weren’t allowed to hunt, or places we shouldn’t hunt if we planned on surviving.
Don’t get injured | Goblins too injured to go hunting would starve. If things even looked slightly dangerous you were to run away. No one was looking out for our survival, so we didn’t have to look out for anyone else’s. It was better to run away and be hungry today rather than to be too injured to hunt tomorrow.
If you find anything of value, turn it in | Goblins caught hiding valuables are punished by having a hand cut off. Spare food counted as valuables, any extra food brought home wasn’t yours anymore.
We were rewarded with prestige | Goblins are given an amount of prestige equal in value to whatever they turn in. Prestige was traded in for mainly food or equipment. It can be used for organizational purposes as well, such as formally forming a group called a ‘Pride’ and buying rights for said group. The goblins explaining didn’t expand further, probably believing we’d be dead long before any of that information was useful.
It gets cold at night, sleep in groups to keep warm | That one was self explanatory.
I had a lot of questions such as where to turn in valuables or how did we go about joining hunting groups but I was too tired to ask them. The evolution must have drained a lot out of me because I struggled to keep awake during the whole explanation. After they finished talking I immediately found a group of goblins and fell asleep. I wasn’t sure how long I slept for but I was well rested when I woke up.
With the fatigue finally drained from my body I was ready to officially begin my new life. The first item on the agenda was to find a group. I must have woken up early because most of the goblins were still asleep. The ones awake were gathered in groups no more than twelve. I watched a few goblins get up a join groups and they seemed to join the closest one with less than twelve members.
Following their lead I walked up to a group of eight goblins. The only two talking in the group didn’t say anything to me and the rest didn’t even seem to realize I was there. I noticed the night before goblins have a very strange way of speaking. They use their whole body to communicate, refer to themselves in the third person and were overall very animated. Goblinese didn’t have many words so it sounded very fragmented when spoken.
“Lets get fruit from High Trees.” The first goblin said, raising his hands above his head to gesture what he meant by ‘High Trees’. “Mash not eat fruit from High Trees in months.”
The other goblin shook his head and smacked his own chest lightly. “Hogs been there last week. Full of black wolves. We go to Quiver Swamp, lots of food before we too close.”
The first goblin, Mash, shook his head in disagreement. “No food for us there. No one hang around Quiver swamp, too dangerous.”
Hogs smirked smugly as if he knew something Mash didn’t. “Not now. Colony of crawlers come. We can pick off a few for food.”
Mash eyes opened wide while he nodded his head. “Ok, we go.” Mash and hogs wasted no time and headed for the room exit. It didn’t take long for them to decide where they were going to hunt. They only had to choose a relatively safe place with enough food.
Two new goblins joined the group during Mash and Gob’s conversation. One of them belonged to the same brood I did. Since all goblins looked pretty much the same I wasn’t able to discern from his characteristics but from his smell. Goblins that have lived together tend to smell similar to one another.
The goblin from my den and I slowed down as we reached the cave room’s exit. Previous trauma from our old den gave us pause but we pushed through it. The smell lingering outside our original den preventing us from leaving was outside this room as well but it wasn’t nearly as offensive to our nose as it was before. The hallways were still as dark as ever but this time around I could actually see. Something that wasn’t mentioned in the evolution screen was how well I could see in the dark.
After walking through a few corridors we reached the cave exit. Having lived my whole life inside a cave I felt my excitement build as we neared the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I had no idea what to expect during today’s hunt but I was eager despite how dangerous it seemed.
I unconsciously looked back to the ‘cave’ as soon as we got outside. It wasn’t a small cave like I anticipated but a large mountain. The tunnel we exited from was only one of many that had been dug into its side. A huge hole, I guessed it to be as tall as a giraffe, was right in the middle of the mountain. A half dozen entrances three fourths its size surrounded it and dozens of even smaller holes surrounded those entrances. We exited one of the smaller holes.
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A wooden palisade fortified by the occasional watchtower stretched from from one end of the mountain to the other. The wooden barrier prevented any wildlife from strolling into the tunnels. Inside the encampment were dozens of tents and a few training grounds. I looked over to my group and saw they were quite a ways away, standing at an open gate guarded by two goblins. I caught up with my group as they were leaving the encampment.
The two guarding the gate were at least two feet taller than anyone in our group. Their bodies were more bulky and their bottom canine teeth peaked out of their mouth a little. Their appearance matched what I thought Orcs would look like but with softer faces. If I had to guess, they were probably hob-goblins.
Immediately outside of the gate was a dense forest. There were tons of small pathways leading into it but none of them were big enough to be considered roads. Mash and Hogs followed one of the leftmost paths. I wondered how long it would take me before I’d know where each path went and the general outlay of the forest. The last thing I wanted was to get lost and end up in the wrong place.
The large forest was daunting at first but as we traveled tension in my body started to ease. The forest itself looked pretty empty in terms of wildlife. We came across a couple other groups of goblin but that was it. I expected there to be danger at every corner but the forest was pretty tame. Even my den mate who seemed more tense than me eased up a little after a while.
Now that I calmed down a little, I really started to notice how long it took us to move through the forest. We were still following a path but it wasn’t as traveled as the first. Walking around trees, through stream and over bulky roots caused us to travel at a much slower pace than wanted. It wasn’t until the first hour of travel that the scenery started to differ.
A small stream divided the old forest and the new one we entered. The trees were now more spaced from one another and everywhere was thick with shrubbery. The dirt ground was now full with grass but the most apparent difference was the appearance of wildlife. Small green slimes swamped the underside of the trees. They seemed more like a type of fungus than actual creatures. They looked motionless but as we got closer I realized they were slowly crawling around.
Noticing my interest in the slimes, Hogs spoke up. “Slimes asleep. They still move like this but very slowly. When awake they weak alone but together very dangerous.”
I creased my brows and looked back at the slimes. I knew I had a worried expression on my face because Hogs snickered the moment I made it. “No need to worry about slimes. Very good to forest creatures and only outsiders wake them. Even when awake they very calm and only attack threats.”
The other goblin from my den released an audible sigh. It made sense I wasn’t the only one holding my breath. The amount of slimes attached the the bottom of the trees were big enough to creep out anyone who wasn’t familiar with them. I still walked a little lighter than usual, it would take me a while before I got used to them.
It only took ten more minutes of walking before we finally reached our destination. Mash lead everyone to a bush on the outskirts of a clearing in the forest.
EUCLID FOREST 1-1 You have entered Euclid Forest Zone 1, Level 1. This is a monster spawning zone.
Although everything seemed the same I immediately noticed a difference in the atmosphere. As soon as we entered the zone the air stopped moving. The feeling I got was everything seemed very artificial, as if we were in a room with fake trees, grass and other nature.
Mash grunted and continued to lead us forward. The clearing we crossed was the border between the seemingly lifeless forest we exited and what I could only explain as a giant sized backyard garden. Six foot leaves of grass dominated my view and it seemed to continue for miles upon miles.
The rest of the goblins were unfazed by the sight. They didn’t have past memories to contrast this with. The only thing on my mind was if this really was exactly like a giant-sized field of grass, there were sure to be critters lurking around.
We only walked a couple of minutes into the zone before the grass in front of us began to ruffle. Mash and the more veteran goblins immediately took up stance. The goblin from my brood and I looked on in distress as we waited for whatever was behind the grass to come into view.
Two large ants the same size as us came rushing forward. Before ants were nothing but insignificant black or red specks crawling on the ground. I no doubt killed hundreds of them inadvertently by walking around. Now we were on an open playing field, and I didn’t like it.
Their long creepy legs, segmented body, and powerful looking mandibles scared me shitless. And the hair, oh my god the short layer of hair covering their bodies unnerved me the most.
I started to wonder if I could still reincarnate to an elf and lose my memories.