Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I died—kinda. The moment my consciousness flew away from me, this white room just appeared out of nowhere. It was like I was being reincarnated or transmigrated through the power of some god! It was amazing knowing that I would be able to live again, but then again, dying is not pleasant.

What happened was kind of fuzzy, but I do remember being bestowed a gift or something. A hand— I’m guessing it was a god’s hand, touched my forehead and then a tingling sensation resonated throughout my entire body. I think he did something to me, but I’m not sure what. And next...that led to me being stuck in a predicament. I was in an unknown land, not a single human, building… anything from Earth was within 100 miles. I had guessed I was reincarnated in a new world, who wouldn’t? If you’ve ever read light novels, or manga and anime, you’d be lying if you never thought about reincarnating into another world with special powers and acting as the protagonist.

I awoke here after my consciousness faded away once again, and I had a rude comment to make on what occured after. It had certainly not been a good experience regaining consciousness and opening my eyes. It was a horrible one in fact.

A bunch of bugs crawled over me as if I was a dead tree, and worst of all—a weird creature was sitting on top of me! My body is still shuddering from the disgusting feeling from back then. When I had looked at it, it had rough, green skin, and a… very ugly face. It was very hard to maintain eye contact.

I had automatically pinned the term ‘Goblin’ onto this creature. It resembled one greatly, I wouldn't have thought it was that weird at all anyways! It’s a different world after all. To continue from where I left off, this goblin was sitting on top of me with a club in hand and it hadn’t noticed me yet. If I had moved slightly, it would have noticed so I stayed still for as long as I could. BUT, there was this itch, like a really itchy itch on my back. I had felt as if I’d go crazy if I didn’t scratch it, so hoping that the goblin wouldn’t notice, I moved my hand towards my back.

That was the worst decision I could have made back there. The goblin, as if instructed to do so, started beating me up with it’s club until I was bleeding from some areas on my body that I had not thought possible before. And that’s how I died again to a petty goblin. I didn’t have time to scream, complain, none of that.

Nada. Not a single second for an inner monologue about how unfair this world was.

I’m pretty well built. I got a few muscles here and there, I stand at 5’11” and I got a pretty decent face as well! But that goes to show that this world is messed up. In all those stories that I had read when I was a teen that included fantasy type stuff, goblins were the definition of weak. Even a kid could kill one if given a giant, metal stick. My death to the petty goblin was just unlucky. Nothing more, nothing less.

So then, I expected to be born in another world anew, but that didn’t happen. I’m still stuck in this damn world! The only, even a tiny bit of interesting events that had transpired was that I had received a notification, saying that I ‘stole’ a skill from the being that killed me. It looked a little like this,

[Requirement: has been met. One skill has been randomly selected from the target and copied.]

I was pretty confused when I saw this. What skill, what target? And a requirement of death? What kind of BS is that?

[Skill: has been acquired.]

What the heck is slash? How do I use it? And, aren’t I supposed to regain my body about now? (I had been still in the process of reincarnating) Those were a lot of the questions that were in my head.  

As if the heavens listened to my wish, my body had been returned to me and I was back where I started. Lying under the goblin, while it watched over me. That is my present situation, and I have to say—it’s not a very good one. Stuck with that goblin’s dirty butt sitting on me? No way. Never.

What am I supposed to do? If I just sit and wait, I don’t think the goblin’s going to attack, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything for me either. Another option would be to test out that skill I acquired, but what if it only leaves a scratch on the monster? Then I’d totally be screwed. That’s when my mind started working overtime thinking of a solution.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Uhhh, there’s really no other options. I could try to die again to acquire another skill from the target, but who likes dying? Guess I have no choice except to try out slash, but how would I even activate it? If it’s like those anime and mangas I’ve read, it goes along the lines of…

“Slash!” I shouted out at the top of my lungs as I swung my arm in a chopping motion towards the general direction of the goblin.

Unexpectedly, the skill activated and I got to see firsthand—the results. My arm movement had been a poor attempt at imitating a sword’s attack, but a beam of energy came from my fingertips and aimed straight for the goblin. I had moved a lot from activating , so the goblin was already aware of my presence. BUT! It didn’t have time to evade my sharp, blade of colourless energy so it ended up receiving a strike in the neck.

I thought the energy I formed would stop there, but it did not slow down one but! It cleanly sliced the monster's head right off it’s body, leaving the head to tumble onto the muddy, dirty ground. I didn’t know a skill could kill someone in one hit! It certainly hadn’t been possible back on Earth. Then, as if it intended to disrupt my happiness, another notification caught my attention.

[5 MP used. 5 Remaining.]

MP? This world sure knows it's gaming terms...but if it’s similar to Earth, that means I just used up 50% of my energy on a offensive skill. It’s pretty fascinating how I can kill people by only exerting effort! I leaped in joy at this turn of events, but then ANOTHER notification appeared in front of my face.

DING!

[Level UP!: Lvl 1 -> Lvl 2 | MP storage has been increased by 5.]

I think this means I level up by killing monsters, and each level up increases the amount of MP I have. Guess I have more energy to kill monsters with now. This is really confusing, but if I reference this with the otaku side of me, it’s actually pretty straightforward. The time it takes for the MP to fill back up is a cause for concern though. I decide to just time myself. The important question is, will I have to stick to this one skill forever? And wouldn’t it be pretty weak if I fought against stronger monsters? What do I do about that?

I was directing all of these questions at thin air like a crazy man. What else was I supposed to do? It’s not like there was a person to talk to anywhere close by, and it sure wasn’t a physical being that sent these notifications to me. I’m pretty sure at least...I’m 75% sure. I don’t know if it was the 75% chance or something else that spurred it into action, but I received an answer soon enough.

[All skills will increase power wise according to the power level of the user.]

Ah, so the damage that does now, compared to later on, will be different. Only it’ll seem the same to me because I would’ve powered up. It was a little confusing, but an example always helps with explaining things! So for example, let’s say my power level is 50 and does 10 damage. Once my power level rises to 100, slash would do 20 damage. It still does around 20% damage! All those classmates in middle school that said I couldn’t explain things—I just explained something perfectly, so I feel pretty proud of myself.

That reminds me, ever since reading that once light novel, I’ve always wanted to try something that wasn’t possible on Earth. Shall I try to take over the world with this power? Even just one kingdom will be enough for me. Guess I found my first goal in this world! But before that, I need to be strong enough so I’ll need to increase my battle strength first. Dying might be the only way to easily gain skills, but I’ll try to find other ways as well.

Well then, I should get going to search for civilization. What kind of game world would this be if they didn’t have kingdoms filled with adventurers, commoners, and even nobility and royalty? I can’t wait to find out! I skipped joyfully in a random direction, because I didn’t know where I was and there weren’t any clues either. There’s a great saying that said “If you can’t find a way, don’t!” (I made it up though. XD) It’s best to go in a random direction and not waste one’s precious mental health on the hard-to-make decision of choosing a direction. As I skipped along though, one of my feet stepped onto thin air.

AHHHHH!

I screamed as I fell down a trap hole that was intended for catching wild animals for food. How did I know you might ask. The answer is… there’s always delicious food at the bottom! If there’s food at the bottom, its a booby trap which isn’t a bad thing. As I lay on the moist, dirt ground at the bottom of the deep hole, I ate lots of delicious fruits! My hunger had been totally sated—

Or not.

Growl!

My stomach just spoke.... Moving on, this could be what you called a sticky situation. And that would be because of the fruit juices splattered all over my hands and legs when I had landed on them. Also, I just gathered a vital piece of information. A trap set for animals means that they’re humans nearby. Who else could have thought about digging holes to catch food other than humans? Other intelligent lifeforms? That’s not possible because they’re too smart to actually agree on digging holes to hunt for food.

The thing is that I could be waiting for a long time down here, and I could catch a cold or something. I AM only wearing a t-shirt and shorts right now. Night is going to arrive soon, so I gotta get out of this hole quick. Wait, how was I supposed to get out of here?

There aren’t any footholds, ladders, or tall objects to climb. Oh wait, I’m dumb. This is a trap meant to catch animals, so there’s probably no way for the trapped animal to get out and escape. That only leaves me one option...

Shouting for help.