In the heart of a mountain slept a village a few hundred strong, guarded by winding tunnels further reinforced with the darkness plaguing such hollow passages. Only those who came from that village know the right path.
Successfully navigating through that labyrinth will then unfurl a secret, a secret upon discovery would lead to public unrest and nightmares.
A secret village of goblins and amazons.
Among the population was a goblin four feet in size. Dressed in a slightly see through colored outfit seemingly weaved from plant fivers then stacked twice. Transforming into a breezy sleeveless shirt and long pants. Leather boots fitted the goblin’s feet.
Compared to the other goblins wearing animal furs, he looked far more sophisticated than usual. All the while earning puzzled looks and nods of approval from the others. Some more informed citizens would cast a glance at the large pillar at the center of the very village.
A large, thick pillar connected with the earth and the heavens of the hollow Blackrock mountain’s interior. On it were twelve horizontal lines that spun around the pillar. Right now nine of those lines glowed a hue of yellow.
That goblin earning attention was naturally Grant.
Grant’s verdant pupils took in the world which races other than the goblins sprawled all over the place and the barbaric amazons would find outlandish. Uncomfortable could be used to describe the area.
Yellowish-red crystals jutted out from the black rock present everywhere. These crystals generated heat and light to the inhabitants of a goblin-amazon village named Ortus. Stone houses littered the large cavern that spanned over ten miles.
Stalactites met with stalagmites, forming gigantic pillars supporting the cave ceiling from collapse.
Among that village situated in the heart of the mountain were goblins and amazon women. One was a lustful, barbaric race full of males. And the other composed of women so proud they wouldn’t even let a man touch them.
Then again those were just stereotypes. Stereotypes Grant had assumed by his previous life’s knowledge and fictional sources.
Reality was much more different.
Through the streets walked goblins and tanned skinned women. Some holding hands despite the former having ill-favored appearances when compared to the latter’s lovely appearances.
Most would find the scene puzzling.
Goblins are monsters, vile ugly tiny nightmares only knowing of lust and violence. Catching one’s attention would result in defilement or a brutal death in appeasement of their sadistic desires.
In way, it was true. An undeniable fact staining all of goblin kind as there existed this voice which would whisper temptations into their minds. Breeding and impregnating anyone that was a woman was their gospel.
Sometimes fate makes strange decisions.
Grant shrugged, this was the way the village had been. “Swans paired with toads. I’m not complaining.” For every goblin was an amazon, since their races all could only be of one gender, a strange occurrence had transpired. The first born between the two races would always be a male goblin, and the second born a female amazon, and so on and so forth.
Grant walked through the morning streets of Ortus village, young and old goblins passed him. Smallest stood at two and a half feet tall while the tallest were four feet in height. Grant had already reached four feet after living for one year in this place. Receiving proper nourishment via meat and the magical crops grown by farmers.
“I’m not even going to question it.” He shrugged, eyes darting towards the ceiling wherein orange, softly glowing crystals grew. Providing both heat and comfort to those grace by it’s sunshine.
Thack! Thack! Thwack!
And then he finally heard it, the cries of rage. The sounds of sticks violently striking against each other echoed throughout the streets of Ortus. Grant found the source of such fierce undulations. A group of small two feet tall goblins having spindly limbs were having the fiercest of spars. Branches slashed through the air like blades, and sharpened long sticks pierced forwards.
Blood and chunks of flesh were scraped off, staining the stone floor a hue of darker, ugly crimson.
“I’ll rip you apart!”
“I’m going to tear your face in two!”
“Fuck off!”
Staring at the small group of children probably only a few months old, Grant couldn’t help but pinch the bridge of his nose. “Young goblins and their lack of discipline.” The man pitied the kids.
Thud… Thud.. Thud!
From afar it came, a set of powerful strides shaking the very earth underneath and Grant smelled an aroma. A strange scent that lit his heart ablaze as if he just wanted to do nothing more than prostate before the odor’s source. To willingly serve them to the best of his capabilities.
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It was the scent of power, the scent of oppression as if a superior being came.
“I’m gunna fucking end ya yiou baestards!” Bursting from one of the alleys was a gigantic figure dressed in a mixture of thick animal furs giving him an appearance of a barbarian. Complete with boots, bracers and even two oversized wolf skulls as pauldrons. Standing at Six feet six inches tall, the dark green skinned newcomer’s ripped muscles bulged and he bellowed, shocking the children who soon dropped their sticks, dumbfoundedly speechless they knelt and stared starstruck at the large fellow.
Almost all other goblins were bald, while this large one had brown messy hair.
The newcomer was a hobgoblin, an evolution of the normal goblin.
Grant winced. The gigantic hobgoblin had drawn closer and he stepped back a few feet. The feelings of oppression only grew and he didn’t want to end up kneeling. His body heated up and his hand started twitching.
Soon enough the small goblins as if having amnesia forgot about their initial conflict, abandoning their grudges and stick weapons in favor of a tactical retreat. Young goblins were always a handful to raise and look after, especially when alone.
And that was why there existed a certain place, a place Grant didn’t know he would come back to after abandoning it in his past life.
School.
The goblin arrived before the wooden fences leading to a special location. The black, stony ground of Blackrock mountain underneath his soles decayed into soil. Growing atop that soil was rich, green grass stretching as far as a few hundred meters.
In the middle of that mini grassy plain stood a building formed out of stone bricks. A two-story building 40 meters long and fifteen meters wide, each floor had five rooms complete with windows and through those windows of the first floor could be seen goblins listening to a larger goblin.
The second floor had girls.
Looking back at the large pillar with nine yellow lines glowing out of the twelve made him hiss.
“I’m late as hell.”
He looked around. The estate around the school was deserted as only young goblins above two months of age came here by the force of their mother’s brooms or out of their own wills.
The goblin scurried towards one of the five rooms of the first floor. Peering into the glass window, Grant waited and when the larger goblin exceeding five feet in height left the room, he tapped the window thrice.
One of the sleepy goblins sitting behind a desk near the window woke up while others fell to sleep. He looked around and scrambled onto his feet. Little hands unlocked the windows from within and Grant jumped into the room.
Now that he was inside, the other goblin dressed in the same attire as his hurriedly shut the windows close with a teasing smile. “You’re finally here, you’re one hour late!” At the end of those words were a playful punch then a snicker. “Luckily I gave a wonderful excuse.”
Rolling his eyes, Grant sighed at his accomplice’s antics. “What did you tell them this time, Uno?” The last time this schoolmate of his made an excuse why he was late, he nearly got accused of peeking at the forbidden second floor and punished for it.
Grant gazed at his schoolmate that could be said to be his only friend in this world. Uno was a bubbly little kid always curious and upbeat about everything. When they first attended school, Grant was the only good child while the other goblins were so rambunctious it made the teacher’s palms red.
Red as in he beat the ever living shit out of everyone except Grant by clapping their cheeks.
After that first beating out of hundreds, Grant was always unscathed and unresponsive to other goblins trying to interact with him. Only Uno was persistent enough in wanting to associate with him that they became friends.
Stretching himself awake from drowsiness, Uno uttered. “Nothing special, just told that you were taking a huge fat dump over at the stalls. You’re lucky you just got back, a few minutes later then teacher Marks would’ve caught on about you being missing.” Uno shook his head, golden eyes narrowing at the troublesome goblin named Grant. “You never missed a day, what happened that made you so late?”
“Let’s just say I saw something marvelous and a huge gift fell from the skies.” Grant added.
Uno snorted. “Gift, yeah right.” He was unconvinced.
Cracking a faint smile, the lonely man trapped within a goblin’s body elbowed Uno. “Today is Friday, I’ll show you tomorrow.” He wasn’t worried the slightest about the scale being nabbed from its spot.
‘Only I know of that secret hotspot of mine. And no other creature really climbs up Blackrock mountain except for stone ibexes. And they’re really rare.’ Grant was that confident.
The two sat back on their seats, Uno sighed then his golden eyes lit up in a passionate blaze. “Issues aside, today’s the day man! Its finally happening!” Drunk in fervor, Uno gritted his teeth into a smile and clenched his hand on the side of the wooden desk.
Cha! Cha! Crack!
The desk started cracking, a testament to the goblin’s great strength.
Grant and Uno were both four feet tall, though in Uno’s small body lied dormant a powerful strength.
All of them were built different after all. Every single goblin was the same yet unique at the same time.
Grant shook his head at the poor desk crunched under Uno’s ridiculous grip. Once a goblin had tried to attack Uno a few months after the class fell into another berserk fight once the teacher went away.
Poor lad had a leg snapped in two and two arms dislocated by the end of it.
Seeing that Uno was lost in a fantasy with a silly smile, Grant closed his eyes and ruminated over the oncoming event which would shape his future and the dreams of many. Memories of his earlier months in this world flew by.
“Two months of being an orphaned gob left in an orphanage. Feeding and passively learning about the surroundings then ten months of boring ethics class.” He sighed once more.
The moral compasses of young goblins were so damned crooked it took a lot. A lot of beatings, disciplinary actions and effort on the teacher’s part to shape them into the model goblin citizen. The goblins having graduated out of school were amicable and polite.
“How terrifying.” Grant shivered a little. His eyes trailed over to the window beside his seat and he stared at the dark spots the sunstones couldn’t illuminated. In those dark spots he could faintly see miniscule glowing dots usually in pairs of eight scuttling about.
There was once a tragedy that befell on his sixth month in Ortus village. And in that tragedy the happy peaceful adult goblins had shown their true colors. Unleashing savagery so hellbent on destroying their enemies that it never left his memory.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Grant was broken out of his stupor by loud tapping on a blackboard. A tall hobgoblin having grey hair and drowsy black eyes woke up all the sleeping goblins who grunted and yawned in response.
“Glad I didn’t have to take you to the healer Grant. Anyways, rise and shine boys! I’ve finished checking all of your tests earlier and I’m proud to say that all of you passed!”
“Even me?” Grant pointed at himself. Earning a snort from the teacher, Marks. “Yes also you Grant, even if you didn’t take the exam thanks to whatever your mouth found tasty this morning, you still pass. With flying colors too! Your performance this whole year is a new record, not a single record of delinquency.”
“Everybody, give him a round of applause.”
Grant had a poker face, inside he was scowling. ‘This old man.’ He knew the teacher knew him a lot, and said teacher was going out of his way to make him suffer from all the attention he was getting.
Grant didn’t like attention, he didn’t like being praised too much by others too. A simple nod or one liner was enough for him.
‘I don’t need the class’ applause.’ He felt helpless. As of now, the man wanted nothing more than to jump inside a hole and come back later when others didn’t pay him any attention anymore.
Marks cleared his mouth. “Ten months of ethics class may have been boring but I assure you, its necessary unless you want to get sent to “Him” and repeat another year.” All the goblins suddenly shivered.
Grant frowned, he never knew who that “him” was. He just didn’t bother to know about that person or creature since he was a hundred percent confident in not meeting “him” in the first place.
He’s the top student after all. Even if he wasn’t trying. ‘All I had to do was stay calm and reign in the desire to punch the shit out of everyone else. It’s really that simple.’ He shrugged.
“But now that that’s all over, time to get into business.” Marks straightened his pose and his lax aura became serious. “Its time to decide the future all of you would take.”
“Stare into the air and focus. Call out to it.”
All the goblins went silent. Even the giddy Uno who broke a desk out of excitement went still.
Grant called out in his mind.
‘Status’
And it came, the system that was bound to all living things in this world.
[Grant] (Goblin-Monster) Status: Healthy Lv 1/25 Racial Trait: [A Twisted Gift]
=Attributes=
Str: 0.4
Dex: 1.5
Cons: 0.7
Spirit: 6.8
MI: 0.2
=Abilities=
Passive Skills: [Greater Discipline], [Calm Mind], [Archery Talent (High)], [Leadership]
Active Skills: None
Arts: None
Spells: None
=Root Essence=
0