At first, Oscar faced some difficulties in adjusting his body weight as he crawled the upward slope on all fours.
Cautious of where he holds and stabs his spikey toes, he gives his utmost in avoiding loose surfaces. Still dreaded the time when he had almost died twice after losing his footing or sometimes grabbing a wrong surface, not solid enough to hold his weight, dropping down while battering and thrashing against the surface constantly in a downward slope. Oscar finally felt lucky for being a goblin rather than a human as the goblins are known for their tenacity, even though how skinny they look.
'Bet I would make a great punching bag huh'
He marvels at being able to survive twice, even after ramming and pummeling against those rock-hard stones again and again.
Rubbing the back of his head, he grumbles 'But damn that hurts!'
Oscar was fortunate enough that the tunnel is too narrow for a free fall and has many turns and large stones obstructing his fall.
'It's good now that I can use my legs as much as my hands, or this would be too tiring'
"Hop!"
Facing the dead end, he leaps from one side to the other. Securing his right hand into the gaps, he stabs both his legs consecutively with the left hand fixing itself in another indentation before walking on the steep wall like a spiderman.
Grip Lv2 > Lv3
You have gained the skill "Climb Lv1"
'Finally!' Taking a break, he settled on a solid stone, connecting both walls.
Some new instincts were added to his mind, and he learned how many mistakes he had made before, then his muscles started twitching as he felt the great relaxing massage from the upgraded skill.
'sigh~ at this rate, I might get addicted to this massage' closing his eyes, he almost fell asleep but it didn't last long enough to let him.
'Let's continue…' with a thought, he continued the climb.
----------------------------------------
"Ghaa!"
'Why!
Why this passage has to be this long!
Ahh! I'm getting bored of this'
With a deep growl, he grumbles, while seeing some glowing particles slowly swirling around in the air and landing softly on some recesses or indentations in the surfaces like a snowfall, giving the cavern a magical look.
Oscar spread his stubby palm wide apart and saw the magically glowing snowflakes passing right through his hands, he felt amazed yet bewildered at the same time.
'Woah!' His eyes sparkled with a newfound interest. Swinging his arms around, Oscar saw the particles getting affected by the wind blown by his hands, but he couldn't touch nor felt them.
'Ah! What's this?'
With one forceful pull, he breaks out a strange crystal glowing in the same indescribable colorful light swirling in the air. Even though it was translucent, he could still see some particles entrapped inside of it.
'Is this... Mana?' He makes a guess based the heories that seem more or less correct to him.
Glancing at his status, he sighed with a helpless shrug 'With magic power being zero, it would be strange if I could even feel it… right'
Still feeling more fascinated than frustrated, Oscar kept trying to catch some of the particles with his tiny claws.
"Urgh!"
With a focused mind, he grasped his fists on some particles only to see them pass through his hands yet again…
'Fuk! This... This is damn frustrating!'
Stomping his legs, he grumbles before deciding to resume his climbing and get the hell outta this place. But not before holding the magical stone in his mouth, taken out as a memento.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
'Hmm should I eat it?' Amused. thinking of getting strange powers after eating the magical stone but he quickly discarded it
'What if my stomach fails instead of this stone... That would be a... Stoney death?'
With a shake, he thought 'Better to die from a monster than a stone'
And as he continued his travel, he was met with more and more of these crystals and less amount of magical snowfall.
No longer than a minute later, he was met with a diversion in the passage, leading in two different directions. At leftwards, he could see the magical stone's path continuing. While on right, he was met with the source of the air flowing in this underpass.
'Hmm... That must be the exit and that... Must be a path to treasure?' Oscar wasn't sure of what it was, but his goblin senses were ringing to the left, the path to the treasure.
He felt like following that path but first 'Let's get dressed' he was still moving butt naked, and Oscar isn't an exhibitionist!
He must first cover his hanging dong scraping against the cold stone surface, making him feel strangely chilly down there.
Quickly, He picks up his pace. And not longer than a moment later, he came out of a rabbit burrow from the ground with the opening well hidden by some enormous stones and gravel.
"Hop!"
Taking a deep breath, he felt light-headed from finally getting out of the closed space/tunnel after so long.
The surrounding still looks the same where he was spawned first, still underground while having poor lightning from the magical ceiling veins running throughout the passage, but the caverns here were much smaller looking and the ceiling too is more reachable compared to those hallway-like caverns.
Hiding his shiny magical stone somewhere he thinks safe and secure, he thought 'Now where can I find some weak monsters...'
Oscar was now in a dilemma, how to hunt a monster without getting killed first, 'I hope not all the monsters are as strong as that damned snake...'
He hadn't even met any other monsters other than the nightmare, who murdered his entire tribe in the cold blood just yesterday. And no, he isn't planning to take revenge.
'Hmm how do goblins even fight?' Scratching his bald head, he burns some of brain cells.
'That thief, I mean chief-looking hobgoblin tried to fight that giant snake head-on, so he died...' With a nod, he concluded 'If you don't wanna die then don't fight… Not at least head-on like that idiot'
Making up his mind, Oscar starts scaling the curvy vertical wall and soon reached the ceiling.
'This much would do for now, at least not everyone can easily spot me if they're coming from either side of the cavern'
His stealth strategy was based on the habit most humans and non-humans alike follow- Rarely looking above, while walking forward.
The surface was uneven with some places for him to hide his tiny body easily if he wants it, though the stalactites here were much shorter but still enough for his body to keep hidden if he squeezed himself… just a little bit.
'Urgh! It's hard to keep looking upside down...'
He felt like throwing up, but he stays still for his mind to settle and adjust before exploring the dungeon, upside down.
After traveling for hours in that burrow, his proficiency in climbing with both hands and legs has almost reached the expert level. And to prove that point, a notification soon popped up.
Climb Lv1>L2
'Looks like climbing/walking upside down is more effective for this skill' he mused while feeling his limbs becoming more glued to the surface than before, and he felt less nauseous from walking upside down as the skills upgrade doing its work.
'If not for my status still saying 'The adjark goblin' I might have mistaken myself for being a monkey'
He didn't have to travel far when he saw the first monster or prey... And fortunately looking weak, at least in size.
'A squirrel?'
A small creature with short black furs and two tails can be seen skittering around some small mushrooms, hard grown on a decayed disfigured skull-looking stone as fast as the wind. Before biting with its rodent front teeth, and pulling out one of them with force much greater than its own size.
Oscar slowly crept through the ceiling, trying to keep his body as close to the ceiling as possible, while making sure his green body was hidden well enough as he grasps and releases his grip with as little sound as possible.
Even though, Oscar himself has never hunted an animal in his entire life, he did watch countless times how a predator hunts on nat geo television.
'Hold it... Hold it'
keeping his mind alert, ears standing straight, muscles taunt and ready for action, Oscar's eyes were fixed on the squirrel's movements while he breathed slowly.
The squirrel secured as many mushrooms in its tiny mouth to carry before checking its surroundings for other monsters. And as expected, it failed to see the above. The black squirrel dashed away to its safe house albeit a little slow, courtesy of its greed to catch more mushrooms than its body weight.
'Just don't miss it...' Encouraging himself, Oscar waited for his chance.
Just when the black squirrel passed under his location, Oscar flashed a wide smile showcasing his monstrous teeth 'Now!'
"Scriiiiiii!!!"
The squirrel gives a frantic squeal as a red sticky rope zapped away, likely faster than the lightning, wrapping the black greedy squirrel in its grasp before pulling it up to the ceiling, and straight inside a monstrous mouth opened wide in waiting.
*Zap!*
Oscar was stunned still in his position with the same smile as before. It happened too fast and abruptly that he even failed to discern when his supposed prey was snatched right before his eyes. Moving his head stiffly, and saw the culprit who had just stolen his prey right from his teeth.
"Burp!"
"Ghaaa!" Oscar shouted in frustration.
A large brown lizard, almost twice his size with a frog-like mouth burped while sticking upside down at the ceiling on all fours and a tail, seemingly blending well with its surroundings than a goblin.
Within a blink, Its red eyes slowly move, and stare back at him…
'Shit*!' Cursing. Oscar dashed straight at that creature while growling in a frenzy, already knowing running was useless against that zapping tongue.
"Bang!"