Apart from the faraway places of the planet, where nothing ever happened, every orc and goblin were constantly fighting each other. They were raised in war, and that was all they knew. They fought for glory, they fought for their races, they fought for territory, or they fought for the sake of fighting. Did it even matter? They were simply born to fight, to destroy not to construct; that was the way they had always been. Until Kobos appeared.

Ever since he was a little goblin, there were already signs that he was different from the others. When he was five, he could already build a simple structure that could fly on its own, made from paper, wood sticks, and glue. He caused an uproar in his relatively peaceful village when they spotted the flying object in the sky, believing they were under attack by a new weapon of war. Only to find a little boy running with a line in his hand and laughing towards the flying object that seemed under his control.

Nobody approved the little boy’s shenanigans; a boy should be fighting with the others his age or hunting along with his parents, instead of wasting time doing whatever that was. Usually, after some violent scolding from his parents, Kobos tried to get along with the other kids, but communication was simply too difficult. Actually, there wasn’t any communication; they usually fought each other or fought other things together, and that was it. That was how all goblin fraternity begins; that was how things were supposed to be; at least that was what his father told him.

Still, even finding it a waste of time, when he could be looking for materials for his next invention, Kobos went along with the others and fought. The problem was that due to his lack of exercise, he was weaker than them, and due to him almost always avoiding a fight, he had no experience. That meant that whenever he was hanging around with them, he was taking a beating. Taking a beating was something he became pretty good at, until he grew tired of it.

His inventiveness had always been his strongest point; it was stupid to give up on this because the other goblins found it a waste of time. Instead, he would prove them wrong, he would prove that a goblin can do more than bash a club around. He was ten when he made his first weapon of war; it was simple, really: a grenade that exploded with dozens of little rocks. He didn’t want to kill them after all; he just give them a good scare. Its effectiveness was proven when the group of ten boys came back to the village after a trip to the woods. Eight were seriously injured, and two had light injuries. From this day onwards, Kobos’ fame in the village changed drastically from the weakest goblin to a scary monster that everyone respected it.

His reputation wasn’t undeserved. Normally, fights between goblins were decided on who was the strongest, or if it was a group fight, who had the higher numbers. That was the way it had always been. Maybe if a goblin was really talented, he could take down two, three would already be a feat to brag about for ages. But the story of one goblin defeating a group of ten was something simply unheard of. And his name and tale spread far and wide, managing to reach even a small settlement of orcs, who decided to check upon this story.

The arrival of the orcs brought chaos to the village. All eyes turned to Kobos, who was responsible for it all. But his arrogance had reached new heights after the whole incident. When he saw the orcs that had come for him, he did what his parents always told him, he fought. And he did so with his recently made inventions, an improved version of the ones he had used against his colleagues.

The corpses that were left after the bombs dropped were nothing but mangled limbs, unrecognizable to anyone, even their long-standing enemies: the goblins. Kobos had thrown all of his bombs in a frenzy when he spotted the orcs coming towards the village walls. Their effectiveness was undisputable; it could be seen all over the nightmarish field.

But when Kobos saw all the mangled bodies and the destruction they had caused, he didn’t feel happy; he didn’t feel accomplished. Instead, he felt sick. For the first time in his life, he questioned if that was the right thing to do. Everyone always told him that the orcs were the enemies, they were to be killed on sight. And that’s exactly what he did. But there was something about the way they couldn’t show the slightest resistance in front of his new creation that made him feel that he had made a terrible mistake. That was not the same as his silly stunt against his bullies; no, that was something else entirely.

His entire village seemed to think the same, as his fame spread even wider than before. A feast was held for him, and his parents were incredibly proud. Their son had single-handedly killed more orcs than a whole squad could, and with only the effort of shaking his hands. The entire time the feast was held, however, Kobos felt a weight pressing down on his chest. Were orcs really so different from goblins? Apart from their appearance and size, it didn’t really seem to be much of a difference between them, being both stupid and bellicose, he realized that now, but why didn’t he notice this before? So no, he couldn’t get rid of the guilt he felt and that only worsened when the king of the goblins, Stralb himself, came to see him.

That was, without a doubt, the smartest goblin Kobos had ever interacted with. But all the enjoyment of talking with someone with an equivalent intellect was taken away when he heard what he had to say. His invention would change the war in favor of the goblins; they could finally wipe out all the orcs with it. And he wanted Kobos to keep producing more of them, and other things too—everything he could think of. All the goblinpower, money and materials required would be given to him, he would be second to none other than the king himself.

Kobos thought about it for a day; that was the deadline the King had given him. He knew just how rich Stralb was; he owned half the planet, with the other half being owned by the orcs. And a part of him was extremely excited at the prospect of being able to create everything he wanted. But the suffering from the deaths he had caused had made him mature pretty quickly in the short amount of time it took for the king to reach him. So he knew that what Stralb really wanted wasn’t one of his kites or his mechanic dolls; no, all his efforts would be put into creating things that could be used in wars. Weapons of mass destruction, killing machines that would exterminate the orcs once and for all.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Not wanting to bear any more weight for the death of others, he decided to refuse. But the goblin king wasn’t someone accustomed to taking no for an answer. His expression turned sour the moment he heard Kobos’ response. He ordered his servants to bring both his parents over. First, he killed his dad right in front of him, then he made his threat. If Kobos didn’t comply, he would kill his mother and then proceed to kill his entire village before putting an end to his existence.

Looking at his mother—the only one who seemed to slightly understand him—he couldn’t do it. He accepted the deal the King offered, but this time as a slave; he had lost the privilege of his freedom when he refused the Stralb’s proposal. He would work for him and do everything he told until the day he died.

Thirteen years later, Kobos had done everything he could do to create things that weren’t completely related to war, and at times, he was happy. He had discovered this trick right at the start when they asked him to create things that could aid them in war. He was capable of doing anything with Stralb’s unlimited funds and working force. The minute he had an idea, there would be hundreds of goblins working to bring it to fruition. Combining the mind of a genius with the power of a monarch, he was able to invent the electricity, motor car, steamships, and his last creation had been an airplane.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t completely avoid the occasional mass murder weapons, and soon the orcs went completely extinct, ending the eternal war they had always been in. The guilt of exterminating an entire race weighted on Kobos’ shoulders more than anything and he could barely walk straight now, the only silver lining being that his job was about over.

But that only lasted a few months. Throughout the last decade, the goblin society had gone through major changes, due to Kobos’ inventions. The previous world, made almost entirely of warriors, had changed drastically, and now almost half the population worked in factories, farms, and other jobs, leaving their swords and clubs collecting dust, forgotten. There was simply no need for these many warriors anymore, seeing as a couple of bombs could do the work of hundreds. Not too unpredictably, dissatisfaction started to arise from many of the unwilling new working class, and they found their voiced in a new leader. Vresull was his name.

With his speeches all over the world, his followers grew by the day, and nothing Stralb did was capable of stopping the emerging wave from the millions that formed Vresull’s army. They wanted to regain their glory and to fulfill their purpose as goblins; they wanted to fight!

Vresull not only had a glib tongue, but he was also extremely proficient in the art of fighting and tactics of war. Kobos might have been a genius inventor, but no one was as good at war as this goblin. Using Kobos’ weapons, it took him only two years to dethrone the already very famous king who was responsible for wiping out the orcs from the planet. And as a logical next step, he went to the man that was actually responsible for the feat.

It turns out Vresull was a great fan of Kobos’ work and much preferred to wage war with his new equipment than with the old club. He blamed the new changes in society not on him, but on the former king who had been beheaded. So instead of killing him, as Kobos expected and was already resigned to, he promised him that he could go back to his village, and that no one would molest him there.

Kobos was ecstatic hearing this, as one might expect; his fifteen years of enslavement had finally come to an end. He had spent most of his life as a slave and was more than ready to enjoy his freedom and regain his dignity, along the right to walk with his head held high.

After two months on his old village, however, some goblins that worked for the king came to get him. When he arrived at the castle, Vresull told him that there were people after his throne and that he needed to keep Kobos safe in case the enemies tried to capture him and use his inventions to take his throne. Even if Kobos was little unhappy about it, he accepted it. It made sense to keep him—the most dangerous man on the planet—by his side, after all. He didn’t exactly like this king, but compared to the previous one, this seemed like a way more reasonable goblin. That is until the threats began.

As time passed, Vresull became more and more paranoid. There was always someone after his throne, someone planning to betray him, and so he began killing his men one by one. Kobos eventually figured it out that instead of being under protection, he was a prisoner of the king once again. His captor wanted him to make a potent weapon; he was smart enough to realize Kobos hadn’t been doing his all for the previous king. So he demanded that he produced a bomb that could wipe out half the planet, so that all his opponents knew he wasn’t to be provoked.

Hearing Kobos vehement refusal, Vresull went on to destroy Kobos’ entire village, burning it all to ashes. Everyone he ever knew growing up, except for his mother—who he kept as prisoner—was gone. He then said that if he didn’t do as ordered, he would kill her.

It seemed cruel and ironic that his futile attempt in his childhood, to show his colleagues that he wasn’t weak, brought him to this point. He had long ago proved the superiority of his inventions over the simple power of one or even many, but he felt no joy from it. Instead, he felt resentment.

He thought about all the things he could have created if others hadn’t kidnaped his brain for their own selfish reasons; all the killings that had been made had him behind them. If that was fated to happen over and over again, why not jump right to the end and go out with a bang?

That was exactly what he did; after months of hard work, his most powerful creation had been set on a timer. Five minutes from now, the entire planet would…

*Congratulations! Your world has been selected as eligible to participate in the Second Chance Program.*

*Due to the imminent annihilation of the sentient beings from Gonia, the System is offering you the possibility of integration into the wider multiverse and a participation in the Second Chance program.*

*Participation is optional and has to be decided within four minutes. If you decide to accept the Second Chance program, be aware that danger and adventure await you. In case you decide to refuse, you will be left on this planet and die shortly after. Choose wisely*

After the initial shock passed, Kobos quickly collected his thoughts. Perhaps if he could start over in another world, things wouldn’t end up like this; if he had actual power, then maybe… Kobos accepted the prompt and was transported somewhere far away.

The first thing he noticed was that he was standing in a ravine, and right after the system notifications and floods of information appeared. His quick mind worked fast trying to understand everything that was going on. However, nothing could prepare for the notification that came a few minutes later and made his mind freeze.

Achievement Unlocked: Destroyer of worlds

You have proven yourself to be one of the feared destroyers of worlds, ensuring that nothing will stand in your way on your path to greatness.

+15 all stats +20% all stats.