The goblins are learning. The female and one of the males even have some armor. I should probably name them at some point. I keep training my mana skills and experimenting. I have taken goblins to rabbits, and now we have two rabbits back in the cave. In the last few days, we killed some smaller animals but nothing bigger. I let others have some kills in the name of the training, so I didn’t level much.

You have killed 3 1st tier monsters. You have earned 50 Experience Points.

Your Weak Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 3.

Mana Infusion had been refusing to level up, but now that I've made some progress in it, I’m finally leveling it up. I want the main version without the adjective weak, but it’s still eluding me. I’m getting closer, though. I still have no idea how to attack with mana. Another Mana Sense perk could help me with that, but I think it’s fine for now. In the worst case, I will be able to pick another Mana Sense perk at skill level 20. I would love to get a perk for Mana Manipulation, which is already level 9, but I have had no luck getting any substantial experience.

A few more days pass, and I notice something. The female’s stomach is bulging. I don’t think it’s from overfeeding. Am I going to be a father? I feel faint for a few seconds, then laugh. I’m no longer a human. Goblins treat children differently. There are no fathers or mothers. Children are practically a communal possession. I will just need to teach them the same things I teach the rest of my group. Ultimately, I should look at this from an RTS game perspective. I’m going to have more goblins, but that also means more mouths to feed. Our food reserves are getting scarce already.

I taught goblins to scavenge and eat worms and some plants, which helps, but we still have a deficit of food. I'm reluctant to touch some mushrooms and plants; I have too few goblins to lose them in experimentation. On the other hand, getting food is going to become more problematic with more goblins. We will need to hunt more actively. It’s dangerous, but inevitable. We should probably scout more land too. I only know about our immediate surroundings. I am afraid of finding humans, or more accurately, of them finding us.

The next day, we find a deer in one of our traps. I claim the kill. I'm mostly letting the rest of them kill prey so they can become more loyal. Ultimately, I mostly care for my own progress and the female goblin, since she seems to be a source of more goblins, so I want her to stay alive. I want to have sex as well.

You have killed 1 1st tier monster. You have earned 60 Experience Points.

You have advanced to level 6!

Your Weak Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 4.

Your Marksmanship skill has advanced to level 3.

I decide to wait for new goblins before doing any expeditions. Fewer and fewer monsters fall into my traps, so I decide to change their positions. In the last few days, goblins have created spears, shields, and even bows for themselves. They also have some armor, but only a piece here and there. The female goblin refuses to use a spear, though. She created an ax for herself and keeps using it. I helped her so the ax wouldn't crumble from the first hit. I decided to name her Axi. Not very creative, but whatever.

After another week, it’s time for the birth. I earned a bit more experience from traps, as the change of placement was correct.

You have killed 5 1st tier monsters. You have earned 135 Experience Points.

Your Weak Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 5.

Your Mana Sense skill has advanced to level 12.

Your Trap Making skill has advanced to level 7.

Your Iron Stomach trait has advanced to level 7.

Back in the cave, Axi is lying on her back, visibly afraid. I'm guessing it’s her first time giving birth, so she doesn’t really understand what’s going on. She may have never observed birth. I hold her hand and pat her to reassure her. Soon, green monsters pop out of her vagina. I prepared some food for them, though our reserves are nearly gone. After the first baby, Axi gets more relaxed, and five more come out next. Goblin children are smaller than human babies, so Axi doesn't have typical problems of women. The birth is not complicated and easy.

There are fewer goblins than a human girl bore back then, when I still had my old tribe, but I guess human females are just bigger, making them better for breeding goblins.

I check the newborns' genders, but they are all males. Did the system really lie? Axi is clearly a female goblin. Unless the system lies again, goblins shouldn't be able to procreate with other monsters, so she shouldn't be a shapeshifter or something like that. If she is not a monster, she would need to be of an enlightened race. That's very unprobable. She has a libido and can procreate, so she is at least an adolescent. Could some enlightened race still be this undeveloped intellectually as adolescents? I find it hard to believe. It's way more likely that Axi is simply a goblin. She behaves as such all the time.

What does that mean that the system is wrong?

Axi bears the placenta and recovers after a few hours, which is way faster than a human woman.

The next day, we prepare for our first expedition. I wanted Axi to stay with the children, but she is adamant about fighting with us. Honestly, she has way more value for the tribe as a fertile female than as a fighter. Actually, if she were to die, our tribe would be screwed. We would need to find another female, most likely a human one. That's not good.

I don’t care that much for the tribe, though, as I just want to use it for my own gains. In a way, taking Axi and helping her evolve should keep her safe in the long run. For now, I mostly care about increasing my own power. Getting more perks and spells and evolving is my priority.

We go west. Bunnies are to the north, which is the best-scouted direction. Humans went to the east, so I'd rather not go there. We walk slowly, looking around for danger. There’s just the forest. Nothing really changes. I don’t want to go too far, but I also want to explore a bit. We move north and then west and south a bit, trying to cover more land. We find more animals, most of them theoretically harmless herbivores. I already learned my lesson with rabbits. We don’t hunt them because they are small and agile, and I don’t want to lose stamina for a chase. Not in unexplored territory.

We explore more until a shadow jumps from a bush. It jumps for one of my goblins, which is fast enough to brace his shield. The goblin falls back. A big lynx is sitting on him and trying to eat him. The rest of the goblins freeze, not knowing what to do. I jump forward and stab the big cat. I hit its leg. The lynx claws in my direction to keep me at a distance, but the rest of the goblins finally snap out of it.

They attack the lynx with spears. Axi wants to use her ax, but it’s too short, and she wisely tries to attack from the lynx’s back. The cat is getting wounded, and given the failure of the initial ambush, it tries to retreat. "Not so fast!" I move forward and use the chance, once again stabbing it in the leg. The lynx becomes lame and has trouble running. Axi jumps forward and hits the cat in the head. Her ax is more blunt than sharp, so actual damage is minimal, but the cat is stunned. I move closer, which is dangerous, but I hope that the rest of the tribe will rescue me in the worst-case scenario.

I aim for the throat and hit it. Again! The rest of the goblins join me.

You have killed 1 1st tier monster. You have earned 180 Experience Points.

Your Weak Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 6.

Your Mana Manipulation skill has advanced to level 10.

Your Spear Fighting skill has advanced to level 6.

Your Sneaking skill has advanced to level 7.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Your Iron Stomach trait has advanced to level 8.

More levels, but I’m not sure how it is calculated in a group fight. The lynx was actually a first-tier monster. It wasn’t super strong, but stronger than most first-tiers I have met before. No wonder it gave so many Experience Points.

I can now choose a perk for Mana Manipulation, but let’s get home first. We check on the fallen goblin, and he has only scratches and bruises. The shield protected him from the worst and would have to be replaced. We drag the corpse to the cave. We eat it whole. Goblin children are hungry as always, so there are no leftovers.

I open the perk menu. The first few perks give more stats, just like previously. I skip them for now.

Mana Burst

Make ambient mana chaotic in your immediate surroundings and dispel continuous magic effects.

Mana River

Become significantly better at controlling large quantities of mana, at the cost of precision.

Mana Weave

Become significantly better at precise control, at the cost of volume control.

Mana Shield

Create a shield from mana, blocking or weakening incoming magical attacks.

Mana Dance

Become better at controlling mana by dancing and gesticulating.

Mana Flow I

Become slightly better at controlling mana.

Mana Dance is interesting, but magic is currently a side profession for me. I kill using a spear. Until I have some damaging spells, Mana Dance is unpractical. Mana Shield and Mana Burst look like spells but are simple enough to not warrant their own skills. Can I do them manually? Most likely. Mana Weave and Mana River are not my cup of tea. I don’t understand magic enough to block some ways for myself. I can’t pick these options.

Should I pick general Mana Flow I? This seems to be the best option for me… Wait. What’s my current goal? My short-term goal for magic is to figure out destructive spells. While Mana Flow would probably help me with that, I believe Mana Burst would help me more. The description mentions chaotic mana, and while it’s not destructive mana, I bet it would help. Sure, maybe it won’t, but in the worst-case scenario, I can get rid of the Mana Manipulation skill and start leveling it again.

I pick the Mana Burst perk. Some knowledge enters my brain—no, my soul. I test it out. Mana in the surroundings indeed becomes chaotic and wild for a while. It’s not like a switch or a button. It’s more like a muscle memory I suddenly gained. I don’t understand this, but I can do this.

I use the perk more while paying attention to what actually happens. I notice that I’m getting tired quickly. I’m simply getting tired of mental work. I suspect that this is related to the Will stat, and increasing it would give me more mental endurance. This is not explicitly told by the system, but the system gives me enough clues. Anyway, Mana Burst is still something I have to do myself; it's just that I can do it by following this muscle memory-like knowledge.

I notice something, though. I use Mana Burst one more time and confirm my findings. Some of the mana changed. I smile. Finally, a lead. I go to sleep for now. I'm tired.

The next day, we go to explore again. I want to explore the west direction more. I don’t train in the morning. Mana Burst perk doesn’t just deplete some bar, it exhausts me mentally. I need to be alert and have a sharp mind to survive in the forest, so there is no training.

We take a bit of a different path this time. After an hour, we find a stream. Walking alongside it, we find beavers. They look harmless, but I’m afraid they have some strong champions. I order everyone to climb up trees. After that, we shot arrows at beavers. We hit them one or two times, but they retreat to their den on the river, the beaver dam. We won’t be able to kill any beavers this way. I decide we should stay a bit longer to probe beavers further, but with no counterattack, it’s probably time to go for the melee.

We climb down and enter the stream. The water is cold, and I’m glad I have shoes, as there are stones in the water. There is an entrance to the nest, so I push one of the goblins inside. Obviously, I'm not going to risk myself. He shouts and backs away. I take a look, and he has scratches all over his body, some of them deep. I take a look inside the nest. It’s a choke point. They are waiting inside. I shake my head. Maybe we could smoke them out… They can dive underwater, though. I don’t think we can hunt them down unless we take the time to dismantle the nest. Even then, they may escape.

I take the goblins and leave. We scout more land, but we don’t find a good place to prey. We find some predators, but they are too weak to attack us, and they know it. On the other hand, we are too slow to chase them. It’s the same with herbivores; most of them are too fast and just escape. We return to the cave, hungry. To my surprise, though, we find a small bear in the pit.

You have killed 2 1st tier monsters. You have earned 130 Experience Points.

Your Tracking skill has advanced to level 3.

Your Hiding skill has advanced to level 7.

Your Iron Stomach trait has advanced to level 9.

The bear is half-eaten by children. As for the notification, the system thinks I killed two monsters because one of the children is dead. He had fallen on a spike. The rest of the goblins are very happy, though. We won’t fast tonight. We bring out the bear and the dead goblin. Both are going to be eaten.

Goblins are different. We are not humans; we are monsters. Even in the intelligence department, I would say goblins are maybe monkey-level intelligent. Certainly not as intelligent as humans.

Ultimately, I’m just a more intelligent monkey, or, should I say, a goblin. I try to teach them English, but I noticed they learned only a limited amount of words. I’m pretty sure there was a monkey on Earth that humans had taught sign language. That monkey could talk with humans. Goblins are incapable of complex language. I think goblins are more intelligent in different ways, though. For example, goblins are rather intelligent with tools and crafting. Not as much as humans, but probably more than monkeys.

After the meal, I order the rest of the goblins to repair the trap while I train Mana skills. I use the Mana Burst perk and observe. I’m sure there is a different kind of ambient mana inside. There is some kind of transformation taking place, and it’s something I’m already doing myself. Mana Burst is muscle memory, so I just have to isolate specifics and do so individually. I use Mana Burst a few more times, trying to do so as slowly as possible.

After several uses, I’m tired, but I think I get it. It’s… not destructive, but more like the opposite of reinforcing. I figured out the Mana Reinforcement skill some time ago, which helps me make stuff more durable for a time. This is kind of the opposite. With Mana Reinforcement, I use ambient mana to help maintain elemental mana in stuff and therefore strengthen it. The new mana is a kind of insulator. It disrupts mana locally, or more precisely, it slows it down and isolates it.

I have heard a joke on Earth. Someone asked what kind of new chess figure you would design. Someone replied, a bureaucrat. It could move to any place at will, but it cannot capture any other figure. It would just move around and slow down everything. This new mana was kind of just like that.

I take mana from the air and transform it. It’s not that hard now, as I know how to do it. I force it into a ball and toss it into a wall.

You have learned Mana Orb skill!

I smile. Great! Finally! Well… I have to test it on something living. I go to the rabbits’ pen. The females recently gave birth, so there are more rabbits now. It was hard to keep goblins at bay, but we have our own animal husbandry now. I grab one of the rabbits and shot Mana Orb. I observe what happens. Mana goes inside the rabbit and slows down the vitality flow inside. I let it go, but the rabbit is sluggish. This is the opposite of the Mana Infusion skill, I think. I frown. This would mean I have a debuff skill, not a damaging one.

I observe the rabbit, and the insular mana breaks down and completely disappears after around five minutes. I do another test. I shot Mana Orb, and then another.

You have killed 1 1st tier monster. You have earned 10 Experience Points.

Mana blocked the vitality flow, and the rabbit died. I decide to do the ultimate test and shot myself. I check my status.

Name: NA

Age: 0

Race: Goblin

Level:6/10

Strength: 4

Vitality: 5 (6)

Endurance: 3

Dexterity: 8

Intelligence: 23

Will: 17

Affinity: 3

Health:17/19 (20)

Stamina:24/33 (34)

Mana:0/0

Traits

Iron Stomach 9

Combat skills

Spearmanship 6

Sneaking 7

Hiding 7

Marksmanship 3

Tracking 3

Magic Skills

Mana Sense 12 - Inward Perfection

Mana Manipulation 10 – Mana Burst

Weak Mana Infusion 6

Mana Orb 1

Crafting Skills

Wood Working 6

Fortification Construction 3

Trap Making 7

Titles

None

Okay. I get it. It decreased vitality and, therefore, maximum health and stamina. The current amount in pools also decreases, so you can kill something by bringing its maximum Health to zero or lower.

This Mana Orb skill will be immensely useful for me right now, but I can see it’s probably not so great objectively. I use the Mana Burst perk and observe as the debuff is ripped to shreds. My Vitality returns, and so do my pools. I could easily do so manually as well. This attack would be a minor distraction for any magician. I suppose it's good that I have yet to find one.

Should I keep the Mana Burst perk? Honestly, no. I’m a bit apprehensive about re-leveling Mana Manipulation, though. I want to evolve as fast as possible. On the other hand, Mana Burst won’t help me much in the long run. It’s mostly about whether I want to re-level the skill now or later.

I decide to keep the skill for now. I should be able to merge it in the future to create something better, so it doesn’t matter that much. Sure, I would lose more skill levels this way, but it shouldn’t be a big problem.