I woke up, my body practically jumping in the air. I was breathing heavily, gasping for air as if I were drowning. My vision was still hazy but it didn’t stop me from noticing the somewhat viridescent scenery around me.
As my vision returned, I saw more and more. Tall trees, thick trunks. Probably deciduous. It looked similar to the forests back at home, but with one clear difference. The trees weren’t all green. There were trees with sharp metallic blue leaves. I saw a couple of trees with a crimson red growth, purple splendor and vibrant oranges. THe strangest one by far was the tree with some translucent pale yellow leaves. I plucked one from a nearby branch and inspected it. It was definitely semipermeable to light. This… is odd. While inspecting it, I looked through and saw a deep, almost black red… on me.
I looked at the rest of my body. My clothes had a large hole in it, as if I were stabbed, and they were soaked in blood. Probably my own. I looked back and I saw a large pool of blood, probably from where I woke up. Huh.
God reincarnated me in a dead body. That’s… interesting. I stuff the leaf into my pocket.
I was now curious. This was clearly not my body, I felt taller, a lot younger. My muscles were untrained and my body responded so slowly to my mind. That bothered me. I had spent years perfecting my body. It took me almost ten years to develop a technique that would develop my internal power and mental strength. All that work, gone.
I sat down immediately and started to meditate. I needed to start training my body again, it was often the only thing that kept me alive from the immense amount of assassination attempts I had faced in the past. I closed my eyes and let that around me go, I felt the world’s energy rush into me…
…!
This world… it has so much energy… its so abundant. I could feel it all around me. In the grass I sat upon, in the trees, even in the leaf I plucked from the branch. Normally, the energy would have dispersed back into the world, but here… there was so much energy outside that the energy inside the leaf had nowhere else to go, nowhere else to rush too.
I grinned. This was simply incredible. I could feel my strength rising rapidly, a few more days of this and I might even surpass my past self… incredible. Simply incredible.
I let myself go and focused on the meditation. Now was the time to train.
---
- Several hours later -
---
I opened my eyes once again, feeling the world energy flow through my veins freely, entering and exiting. I had mastered control over this new abundant source of energy. I was right, no matter how much energy I took, more just kept flowing in. In my old world, sources of energy like this were as rare as black suns and extremely coveted. I had slaughtered millions just to get ahold on one of these.
Now… hahaha! I was an inventor, dreamer, scientist and a philosopher. I believed if someone had enough energy, they could sustain their body indefinitely, not needing to eat, sleep or even age. I had struggled to develop a technique to do that, and I worked even harder to gather the energy required in order to test it. Even if it was for one meal, I didn’t need to eat because of the energy, but it quickly wore on my stores.
But this world… this damn amazing world! My body, despite it probably being almost fourteen hours since I’ve been here… I feel no hunger, no thirst.
Maybe it’s possible to remove the need for breath as well? Sounds stupid because controlling your breathing is vital for training but… it might be useful in some situations. Very… specific… situations....
ANYWAY
I get back up, my body feeling fresh and my muscles teeming with my newfound energy. Time to test it out. I turn to a nearby tree and force a palm into it. My hand moving faster than expected. I figured the tree would just topple, but instead, it just made an imprint.
Huh. That’s disappointing, and confusing… why did that happen? I should have way more than enough energy to destroy ten trees in a row…
Oh right. It’s not just me that has an abundance of energy anymore. I close my eyes again and look for the energy around me. Just as I thought, the tree was also full of energy, probably even more than I was. Well, that was to expected, when any living creature grows in an environment with this much energy, it’s only natural that they would absorb it over time.
I wish I was born here rather than that desolate place. Whatever.
I stretch and look into the distance. Forest in all directions. Hmm. This body, it was stabbed and killed. That means humans. I would like to know more about this world, the best way to do that is to find more humans. Now… where would they be…
I looked around the forest again. Seeing absolutely no hints as to where civilization could be, I started to walk in a around direction that felt good. I’m sure I’ll find some humans.
---
Several other hours later
---
Night’s fallen. I still haven’t found any humans and I’m growing bored. The rainbow forest disappeared pretty much, the trees around here have no vibrant colours and they look like the ones back from my world. Great. The abundance of energy was gone to. While still much more than my original home, the energy around here didn’t even compare to the area in the rainbow forest. I could still probably sustain myself on only energy though.
I might need food if I get into fights however.
I continue walking before I hear a rustle in the bushes. I quickly raise my fists in the direction of the noise.
Out walks out a group of three horrible looking green gnomes. They had big noses, horrible disgusting growths on their face akin to warts, pointed ears and very short stature. The way they walked was broken, their tiny legs seemingly struggling to keep up their massive heads, and their skinny bodies only barely holding up the crudely made weapons in their hands.
I hope this body didn’t die to one of these things.
They looked at me and grinned. Barking and yapping. I stood my ground. They looked at each other and started to talk. I recognize the language but it sounds almost… broken.
Goblin #1: “The human stay? He no run? Stupid yemar cub. We kill yes?”
Goblin #2: “We kill, yes we kill, but first we play. He look stupid.”
The gnomes started to chuckle and laugh. Cub? Stupid? These f**kers. I could sense the amount of energy they had within them. It was comparable to the leaf I plucked from that tree. These things think they can insult me when I’m right here? They have another thing coming...
???: “Hey, morons! I’m up here, idiots. I look stupid to you huh? You wanna fight then?”
They turned their eyes and looked at me in surprise. Their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. They quickly looked back to each other. Ignoring me?! I was going to take it easy on the mass murder but these… things… They are REALLY getting on my nerves
Goblin #3: “HE SPOKE! Stupid yemar cub spoke! He speak biggish tongue! What we do? Could yemar cub be biggish disguise?”
They looked at me and shook their heads.
Goblin #2: “No, just stupid yemar cub. He stupid. Look at face. Too stupid to be smart bigger.”
Goblin #1: “So what we do? We kill human with biggish tongue? Ooh, what a bad bad. If only chief were here. He know what smart biggers do.”
Chief? They have a leader? I wonder… if I kill their leader…
???: “Oi. Green things. Take me to your chief. If you idiots don’t know what to do, then take me to him. He’ll know what to do. Right?”
They looked at each other and smiled.
Goblin #3: “Bigger would have never thought that! Stupid yemar not stupid? Maybe actually smart bigger disguised. Hehe, we get reward from Chief for bringing back yemar with biggish tongue even if you not smart bigger.”
HAHAHA. Are they really taking me to their leader? How stupid are they, putting their own leader in danger? This is hilarious.
The small green things let down their guard and I was able to get a better look at them. Apart from their awful faces, they had primitive, almost neolithic clothing. They weren’t at the level of cavemen, but all they had were simple cloth coverings, and pointed stone spears. Had they not developed metal working yet? Their are very underdeveloped. Maybe they weren’t given enough time to learn?
They had animal hide satchels by their side. They rummaged around in them before pulling out some crude rope. Crude but efficient. I could tell from even a distance. It would be trouble breaking out of those.
They waddled over to me and tied by hands together. I let them do so. They aren’t complete morons but they’re pretty lacking. Once they felt I was properly secured, they lead me away from the direction they came from. It looks like they were a scouting squad.
We walked a good distance down the path, often meeting up with other goblin squads, all of them surprised of my presence. They joined the original group of three and walked with us, keeping their spears pointed at me. I guess their on their guard because I didn’t speak to them.
Eventually, we came across a large cliff with a cave opening right in the middle. The trees around the area were cleared out, and there were many goblins walking in and out, carrying prey in and carcasses out.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
They often bumped into each other and dropped the food on the floor, open wounds and blood touching the ground. It didn’t look like they minded and brought the corpse in anyway. Hmm, even primitive humans knew that the ground was dirty and causes disease. Do they have a resistance to it?
We entered the cave, and there I was truly surprised. Light. They had managed to light up their cave. When I looked for the source, I could see no lamp or torch but rather, yellow-tinted, white crystals that jutted out the walls of the cave in various places. Fascinating.
Inside, a large room was obviously dug out, the stone somewhat smooth and filled with other, smaller holes, probably the dwellings for the creatures. The center of the room was just a pile of flesh, a disgusting, rotting smell came from it. I could see maggots, goblins and some strange, one-eyed lizards swarming the pile, all of them eating voraciously and as quickly as they could.
I scrunched up my nose in disgust. This was pretty horrible, even for me.
Past the mass of rot was a large, stone throne, right at the back of the cave. There, I saw what was obviously their leader.
Tall. Very tall, taller than me. Green skin and a more humanoid body, toned muscles and proper clothing. By his side was a large club. His eyes were narrow slits and the lower part of his jaw was extended. The law held two extended canines that ended just above the upper lip. His body had many piercings, all of them a shiny bronze-like metal, but more… yellow. By his side were the first humans that I had seen in a while. Two of them, human females, but when I looked into their dead, cold eyes, I could see that they didn’t have much life left. I had seen that look many times before. When my men had their way with the losers.
When I entered the cave, everything stopped. And I mean everything. Nothing moved, not even the maggots with their primitive brains. Perhaps even they sensed the disturbance?
The large creature turned his to me. A confused look on his face.
Then, he spoke.
Ogre: “Idiots! Does this look like a woman to you? There is no chest! Moronic fools! I told you to bring back human woman! Not a fucking child! Kill it! I don’t want to look at it anymore. Then, come up here so I can show everyone what happens to idiots!”
He looked angry and the goblins started to surrounded me, some of them carrying actual weapons like daggers. Though, after seeing the other humans here, I don’t think they made that themselves.
Before they could kill me and drag the three goblins away, the first of them spoke up in a desperate attempt to save his life.
Goblin #1: “Chief no! This not stupid yemar! This smart yemar! Yemar has biggish tongue! Show chief yemar!”
The goblin turned to me. Desperation in his eyes. I was going to speak anyway but whatever.
???: “Hello there, ‘chief’. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The green things all gasped in unison and the large green thing looked really surprised. He left his throne and walked up to me, an intrigued look on his face. He turned to one of the smaller green things beside him.
Ogre: “Call the shaman! This is interesting…”
The ogre then looked at me and spoke again but this time in a language I could not understand. Meanwhile, my attention was on the human women. The whole commotion had taken them out of their blank state and upon seeing me, hope sparked in their eyes, although small, they weren’t dead on the inside anymore.
Poor girls, if I survive, I think you might have a worse life.
Meanwhile, the ogre looked even more confused.
Ogre: “Human, you don’t speak your own language? How come you know goblin tongue. What is this trickery? Are you playing dumb? It didn’t look like it… WHERE IS THE SHAMAN!”
He started to talk to me before rambling on and finally shouting. At that moment, a tribal-looking figure emerged from one of the many holes in the walls. Complete with animal bones, adorned with strangely coloured leaves, a staff and an ominous wooden mask. The thing approached us both.
Shaman: “What do you want you stupid ogre! You know the ancient chants are today! If I do not complete them, bad luck will come upon us!”
Ogre? Is that what they are called? Either way, the big ogre turned to the shaman. “The chants can wait! The human boy can speak goblin tongue. Look.” He turned to me and shouted. “Speak maggot!”
I looked at the shaman. It was the same size as the smaller ogres but I could feel much more power coming from it.
???: “Hello, Shaman. Who’s the leader of the cave, you or the big ogre?”
It looked at me confused, completely ignoring my question.
Shaman: “In the name of Ywsj! He can speak our tongue? That is strange, humans do not have the capability to speak our language. This one is very interesting, give him to me. This one I want.”
Ogre: “No! You’ll kill it. I can use this human to lure more humans out! This one is mine. It can’t even speak their language so it can’t get help from them.”
Getting slightly annoyed, I watched as the two bickered before my patience ran out. I broke the ropes using a little bit of force and tapped the large ogre on the back.
???: “Excuse me but, are you the leader of this cave or is the shaman?”
It turned back to me. Looking like it’s pride was hurt, it shouted at me. “OF COURSE I’M THE LEADER. THIS LAZY BUM JUST SITS INSIDE THE STARROOM AND PRETENDS TO GIVE PROPHECIES. MEANWHILE, I LEAD THESE STUPID INGRATES TO MAKE SURE THEY SURVIVE, OF COURSE I’M THE LEADER!”
Great. “Alright, I challenge you to a duel.”
It looked at me. As did the rest of the cave. Everything fell silent again before the shaman started to burst out laughing.
Shaman: “Look at how weak you’ve become! Even a human child thinks he can beat you! To be honest, I think he can, after all, I’m not the only one sitting inside the cave and eating, hahahaha!”
The ogre looked furious but didn’t lift a finger to the shaman. He instead turned, probably about to yell at me or something, or kill me. The fact that the ropes were no longer around my hands probably hasn’t reached his mind. Before he could do anything though, I started to speak again.
???: “If I beat you, I take over the cave.”
The ogre was growing more and more angry, he was one second away from killing me but he waited, probably curious about what would happen had I lost.
???: “If you win however, I’ll show you where I found this…” I pulled out the leaf I got from earlier.
Ogre: “A leaf? A LEAF? YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME, THINKING YOU CAN WIN AND GIVE UP THIS MEASLY PRIZE FOR A LEAF. YOU INSOLENT LITTLE HU- YEMAR!”
The ogre’s skin was blood red and his fist went lose but the shaman extended his staff and the ogre stopped. His rage turning to the shaman.
Shaman: “STOP YOU BRUTE! Don’t you realise what that leaf is? Look closer idiot.”
I held up the leaf further and the ogre’s eyes went wide. His anger turning to shock.
Ogre: “Ywsj’s tree… human…how did you find it?”
The smaller ogres looked thoroughly confused on what was happening, but the ogre and shaman were both looking at me expectantly.
???: “Not yet. First you have to beat me in a duel. Then, I’ll show you the tree.” I figured the coloured forest was important, regarding the leaves on the shaman’s headdress. I guess the translucent tree was much more rare.
The shaman turned to the ogre. “Take the bet fool. Yswj truly is smiling upon us today, showing us where her tree is for free. Make sure you do not harm the human boy, if you kill him I will make sure you die the most painful way possible!”
Ogre: “Shut up! I’m not stupid enough to risk the tree. It doesn’t mean I can’t break all his limbs. There’s a price to pay for insulting me. I don’t care, even if the boy was sent by Yswj.”
The shaman sighed before clearing the area of the surrounding smaller ogres, most of which were bored or terrified, not understanding what was happening, but not daring to do anything for fear of them being the target of the rage.
Before long, I was standing face to face with the ogre. The anger had mostly disappeared from his face, replaced with an unusual seriousness I didn’t expect from someone who sat in the same room as a pile of rotting flesh. He had many scars on his body, all of them probably from medieval weapons, swords, arrows. A few burn marks too. The more scars usually means a stronger warrior. Oh, and he had hair. The only creature other than the humans that did.
Is he worth keeping? I guess so. He looks capable, as does the shaman. They are vital to my understanding of this world. Plus he said something about the human language. If I am indeed a human, I think I’ll need that.
I looked at him straight in the eye. I looked to the shaman and nodded. I had said nothing, but the shaman understood.
Shaman: "I will oversee this fight. Combatants, you may begin!”
Alright. Time to end this. I’m curious about this world.
I started to release tremendous amounts of energy, my body was probably glowing. The small green ogres around me started to fly to the edges of the cave, and the human women in the back looked at me with a mixture of hope and fear. Both the ogre and shaman jumped backwards, probably on instinct. Good instincts. It won’t help you though. Not when this world has this much energy.
I ran towards the ogre, to him, it probably looked like I suddenly appeared in front of him.
I jumped and with one quick movement, I grabbed his hair and pulled, bringing him on his knees and kneeling in front of me.
I tugged on his hair and he roared in pain, his arms uselessly flailing, trying to punch, pull, push me away. Really, do anything, but they were simply repelled by the sheer amounts of energy I was forcing outward.
I tugged harder and harder, the strands of his hair ripping and tearing before I finally grabbed his ears, his eyes going wide.
???: “Give up! Your weak! You can’t defeat me!”
I started to tug on his ears this time. His screams filled the room before he finally smacked the ground and started to yell
Ogre: “I give up! I lose! Stop! Shamans top the fight before he rips my ears off!”
It was then when I let go of his ears and stopped the energy flow. The once straight, pointed ears now dropped and slightly elongated. He held his ears in pain. This was the third time the cave stood silently. Everyone just… waiting…
Oh right. I’m in charge now. They were probably waiting for me.
???: “Uh… go do what you usually do or whatever. Oh and, if you want to challenge, you can do so. Though, I don’t know if I’ll hold back like I did this time.”
The small ogres quickly hurried off and started to do whatever they did before. The shaman looked at me and laughed. The fear I felt from him, now mostly gone.
Shaman: “Ha. Of course you would know where the tree was. How could we ever beat a Yswj’yjae? Alright, Yswj’yjae, what would you have of us?”
I looked at the shaman confused. What was a Yswj’yjae? And why was he calling me that.
Wait...
What was my name?