Jaune exited the tent, leaving the dead hob behind. His eyes roamed around the small campsite and his eyes landed on a stone axe, it was made of a thick branch with a rock roughly shaped into an axe blade.
Jaune picked it up and gave it a few test swings, a small smile appeared on his lips, revealing sharp teeth, he walked back to the campfire as casually as possible.
Tonk had is back to Jaune and was looking over the things he had in his pouch. Bonk looked up at his approach and gave him a quick grin, which quickly turned into a frown of confusion, Bonk was about to say something when Jaune interrupted him by splitting Tonks head in half with an axe.
"WHAT THE FU- OOF" Bonk wasn't able to finish his sentence before Tonks corpse collided with him.
After Jaune had thrown Tonk, as well as the axe that was still stuck in the remains of his head, He walked over to Bonk as he scrambled to his feet.
"What the HELL ARE YOU DOING ZONK!, Wait, Donk?"
Jaune jumped forward and threw a punch but Bonk backpedaled and drew his shortsword.
"This'll teach you, ya backstabbing the bastard." Bonk slashed at Jaune who lifted his right arm and blocked the slash, the sword sunk an inch into Jaunes forearm and a thin trickle of blood ran down his arm but it barely hurt for Jaune.
He reached forward and grabbed Bonk's long nose then twisted causing the goblin to scream in pain and let go of his sword, Jaune lifted his foot and kicked the goblin in the knee listening to the vicious crunch of Bonk's leg breaking. Jaune dropped the goblin to the floor then pulled the sword out of his arm then stabbed it into Bonk's head killing him. After his kill, he released the breath he had been holding.
Thank fuck for the strong limbs skill
He had no idea how much the skill actually strengthened his limbs, he half expected the sword to go straight through his arm. Jaune lifted up his arm and inspected the injury, although it was an inch deep the amount of blood that came from the wound was only a small trickle since the skin on his arms had become an odd mix of stone and leather.
The energy from the two dead goblins finished siphoning into Jaune, his energy pool was around 60% filled, he pulled the sword out of Bonk and the axe from Tonk's head and continued through the dungeon.
After walking through the tunnel for about 100 meters he started feeling a very strange feeling, the feeling didn't stop and nothing happened for the next 50 meters but when the tunnel started widening till it was 8 meters across and 6 meters tall, the strange feeling grew until finally, something happened.
Jaune heard something from behind him and he jumped forward shifting into his rat form, he spun around saw Conk standing there, holding two daggers
Conk pointed his daggers at him and growled.
"I knew you were no goblin, I could smell it on you shapeshifter"
Conk was different, instead of the greyish-green skin he had before, he now had dark grey skin close to black, his eyes went from beady and black to a deep, burning crimson.
Jaune squeaked at the goblin and ran forwards horn first, Conk just smirked and leaped onto the wall, He hooked onto it with his claws and stayed in place until Jaune had passed him, Conk jumped from the wall planning on planting his daggers in Jaunes rodent skull. Of course, Jaune didn't just sit there and let that happen, he rolled to the side and shifted into his moth form, he flew upwards and landed on the wall 5 and a half meters up.
"Becoming a bug won't save you, but it is a fitting form." Conk crowed as he grabbed onto the wall and started climbing.
Once Conk had climbed 3 meters Jaune shifted into his hobgoblin form and dropped Conk, looked up at the sounds of bones cracking into place but wasn't quick enough to dodge the half moth half goblin abomination. Conk collided with the ground with a thud, followed by a complete hobgoblin who landed on him causing multiple cracks to be heard as Conk's ribs broke.
Jaune rolled off of Conk and stood up, he watched as Conk struggled to stand before Jaune pushed him back to the ground and placed his knees on the goblins broken ribs. Conk's screams were then cut off when Jaunes fist collided into his jaw, Conk tried to fight back and scored countless cuts across Jaunes chest with his claws but it was just delaying the inevitable, eventually, Jaune had bashed through Conk's skull and put him out of his misery.
New Form: Dark-Dwelling Goblin acquired
Besides the new form, Jaune felt something burst in him signifying a level up.
Jaune Blackwell Dark-Dwelling Goblin
Rank D
Energy: 6%
Strength: 14.7 (21 x 0.7) + 3 Endurance: 21 (21 x 1) Mana: 7 (7 x 1) Dexterity: 28.8 (18 x 1.6) + 2 Resistance: 9.5 (19 x 0.5) Magic: 0 (6 x 0) Agility: 37.8 (21 x 1.8) + 5
Skill List
Morph S
Superior Sense E *
-Boost all senses
Goblin Language E *
Colour shifter D *
- can change the colouration of the body to camouflage
-costs nothing
Stalkers Vision C*
- actively stalking will cause a vague fear in the one you are stalking, this could alert them.
- the more fear they feel the more empowered your ambush attack will be
- only works on one person at a time
- attack boost is canceled if discovered by the target
- Uses Mana
Species List Human B Horned Hunter Rat E Moth Un-Ranked Cavern Goblin E Cavern Hobgoblin D Dark-Dwelling Goblin D
The Dark-Dwelling goblin is a very powerful stealth type monster. The Stalkers Vision skill explains the strange feeling Jaune had before, luckily he had been through a lot of grueling training by his father in hopes of bringing him up in the ranks, sadly that didn't end well and just led to Jaune and his father falling out, but now maybe that would change.
Jaune looked over himself, his skin had become charcoal black instead of Conk's dark grey, He was still bald and all the other goblin features. The claws on his hands and feet had become longer and were serrated allowing them to bleed enemies and climb smooth surfaces. He picked up the two daggers, Bonks shortsword and the pouch of loot while vowing to either buy, steal or beg one of his siblings for a spatial ring so he wouldn't have to drop all his stuff every time he shifted.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
After he stuffed all the gear he had onto his belt, Jaune drove his claws into the walls of the tunnel and climbed, with his agility, dexterity, and claws he could scale the wall with ease, he was even able to climb unto the roof and hang upside down. Jaune dropped down and continued walking through the tunnel. It had continued to grow wider until it was 10m across as well as 10m high. Finally, he had entered a chamber. He was standing on an overhang and to his sides were two ramps that lead down and into a small village full of goblins. From Jaunes rough count, there were around 32 goblins but only half were actual combatants. The rest were either children or workers. Unlike the goblin guards, Jaune had encountered before, there was an even mix of female and male goblins between both the combatants and non-combatants.
The village was predominately mud shacks, most of which had no roofs. Around the edges of the village were multiple pens, in which giant rats were kept, the rats were surrounded by goblins either feeding them or cleaning the pen, a few were led away towards an open space where the rats were killed and efficiently skinned, gutted and butchered. In the center was a large bonfire where rats were being roasted.
A small distance from the fire was a group of goblins standing beside a throne. To the right was a female hobgoblin, draped in rat fur armour and holding a large axe with a jagged stone head. Next to her was a much taller hobgoblin holding an actual, well-made spear, wearing nothing but a small loincloth. To the left of the throne was a hunched over goblin with cyan crystals running down its spine as well from its shoulders, chest, forearms, and head, the crystals on its head were less like horns and more like weird hair, it also held a stone staff with a spikey looking fire crystal embedded on its head. On the throne itself was a regular goblin. the only difference it had from all the other regular goblins was the countless scars that littered its body, this and the ease at which it sat on its throne demonstrated how powerful this seemingly ordinary goblin was. It wore a pair of leather pants and on its face was a skeletal canine mask. This mask practically screamed magical item at Jaune, from the runic scratchings to how it made the goblin's eyes appear as orbs of blue fire, there was no doubt this mask was the reason behind this ordinary goblins strength.
Jaune weighed his options, there were 16 goblins that could fight, 4 of them were the goblin chief and his entourage. 2 more goblins with crystals embedded in them, very few crystals when compared to the shaman, could be seen transporting sacks into a hut located near the edge of the village, there were 2 more hobs bossing around a team of 4 goblins each at the entrance of the village.
Jaune changed his skin into a rough grey to match the stone walls, his first order of business would be getting rid of the 2 shaman apprentices since they were pretty far off all the other goblins and their magic could cause some serious problems for Jaune.
Plus I really want a magic form.
With his plan decided Jaune dug his claws into the wall and scurried up it a few meters, the ramps down to the village had torches burning so if he had tried to go down that way he would've been spotted. Instead, he climbed up the wall of the cave to avoid the torches light, he continued hugging the walls until he reached the mud brick walls that divided the cavern in half, it was more like 1/4 of empty space after you go down the ramp, then 3/4s of ramshackle village. The walls weren't very impressive either, at 2.5 meters tall.
Jaune climbed up the walls and dropped down on the other side, the other side was empty since most of the goblins had their huts or tents nearer to the center so Jaune was unimpeded as he walked along the edge until he finally reached the shaman's hut.
One of the apprentices was outside, rummaging through a pile of sacks. He didn't notice Jaune until the latter's serrated claws were burrowed in the goblin's neck. Jaune pulled and a chunk of the goblin's throat was torn out.
New Form: Arcane Goblin
Jaune was about to shift into his new form but was interrupted by a shocked squeal. Turning around he saw that the other Arcane Goblin had left the hut, this one was female. Jaune had only seen the females at a distance and just assumed they were female since they had hair and coverings over their chests. Up close he could get a better look at them, the females still had the same sharp goblin features but had a smaller nose and larger eyes as well as the more obvious differences like small breasts, wider hips and a head of dark, chin-length hair instead of being bald like the males.
The Arcane goblin held up her hand and a ball of violet mana started forming. Jaune dashed forward, drawing his 2 daggers, he had to throw himself to the ground to avoid the ball of arcane energy that streak past him, it exploded behind him in a shower of crumbling purple crystals.
Jaune threw one of his daggers at the magical goblin as it prepared another ball of mana, the dagger span through the air and collided hilt first into the goblins face interrupting her spell, if Jaunes father were here he would be reprimanding Jaune for his shoddy knife throwing, luckily he wasn't so Jaune was uninterrupted as he leaped forward and buried his other dagger in the goblins shoulder.
They both rolled across the floor, grappling each other until Jaune got the upper hand and drove his claws between the goblins ribs repeatedly until she stopped moving. Jaune sprawled onto his back, the crystal shards on the body of the goblin had cut into his skin dozens of times but they seemed to hinder her movement more than they sliced Jaune.
Jaune climbed to his feet wincing as the cuts sense needles of pain into him. He bent down and examined the crystals embedded into the goblins, they were F rank neutral mana crystals, they wouldn't sell for much but he would have 14 crystals if he harvested both goblins and each crystal was a bit bigger then average. Once he had finished harvesting the crystals from the goblins he moved into the hut, inside was a veritable treasure trove of magic herbs and items.
Hold up, isn't this supposed to only be D ranked?
Jaune scoured the hut for all loot, he skipped over regular herbs but grabbed up any that had magic.
by the end of Jaune's intense looting, he had, 14 different magical herbs all of which he couldn't identify, 3 coins that looked silver as well as a gold coin, 20 F rank mana crystals of the more basic magic types, 3 D rank mana crystals of the arcane or neutral mana type, a single F rank void mana crystal which was more valuable then all the other mana crystals combined, and finally the best item he had found, a small dagger.
The dagger was special due to the fact the blade had been made out of an earth mana crystal. The wielder could channel a bit of mana into it and extend the blade from its original 6-inch blade to a meter or blow dust in their opponent's eyes, quite useful for a D rank adventurer or maybe even a C rank as a sidearm.
All in all, Jaune estimated he could sell everything for around $180 maybe $260 if he threw in the dagger as well, and that was from just one hut.
Jaune stretched himself and shifted into an arcane goblin.
Jaune Blackwell Arcane Goblin Rank D Energy: 37% Strength: 13.65 (21 x 0.65) + 3 Endurance: 19.95 (21 x 0.95) Mana: 21 (7 x 3) Dexterity: 14.4 (18 x 0.8) + 2 Resistance: 13.3 (19 x 0.7) Magic: (12 x 2) Agility: 18.9 (21 x 0.9) + 5
Skill List
Morph S
Arcane Affinity C *
- Arcane Magic is 50% to cast, costs 25% less and is 25% stronger.
- All other magic types are 25% harder to cast, cost 10% more and are 10% weaker
Goblin Language E *
Minor Night Vision F *
Species List Human B Cavern Hobgoblin D Dark-Dwelling Goblin D Arcane Goblin D Cavern Goblin E Horned Hunter Rat E Moth Un-Ranked
Jaune was pretty satisfied as he now had a way to improve his previously garbage magical stats, in this new form his stats would be around a mid-D-Ranked mage's stats, the Arcane Affinity skill was very useful however. Sure the debuffs from it were annoying but Jaune could shift into another creature and get rid of it if he wanted to use other magic types and Arcane magic was in no way weak.
Arcane magic was the control and use of pure mana, usually, it was the first type of magic anyone learned as they didn't need to convert it into an element, Arcane magic started off quite weak with only magic missile type spells but masters of Arcane magic were exceedingly powerful as well as quite rare as Arcane magic could easily be described as easy to learn hard to master. A high-level Arcane mage could create powerful beams of pure mana as well as constructs out of mana crystals, Arcane magic was unique from other magics as it was the only mana that could be converted to its crystalline form while still being controlled giving it its second name, Crystalline magic.
With his status now closed, Jaune looked over himself, he looked identical to the normal goblins but instead with the same cyan crystals jutting from his skin, he had more on him then the two arcane goblins he killed but less than the proper shaman standing by the goblin chief.
There was one abnormality that did confuse Jaune however, at the center of each crystal was a vicious crimson colour, it was small and quite difficult to spot but Jaune couldn't deny seeing it. The red was too deep to be fire and was more liquid like then fire like. Jaune channeled his mana into a ball in his hands, throughout the ball he could spot small specks of the same crimson red running through the usual light blue, he then tried to separate the two colors but failed as the red was too insubstantial.
This made Jaune very concerned.
He shifted back into a human and summoned another ball of mana, this one much smaller. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw only blue but then he froze, in the center of the ball was a tiny speck of crimson.