Weak. That was I could think when the Ogre threw me roughly out of his cave. Weak was all I could think when Eye comes up to me and sniffed my body. Weak was something I couldn’t be. Over and over and over again I let myself become too confident, I was drunk on my power.

I was no longer in the Pits. I could no longer fight others on even ground. I was weak, like a Troll whelp. Weak like Eye. I lay on the ground, paralysed by shame and a body broken over days of non-stop movement. Pride. A word that I heard the Shamans speak, that was what had overcome me. Pride, I thought I would be able to take on the world, instead, the world chewed me and spat me out.

Squiggles roll across my vision, [Insights gained into Vice {Pride} => 1/10] I let loose a sigh. I need an advantage and I feel like these squiggles are the way how, if only I could understand them.

[Spend Perk Point on {System Understanding}?]

I wave the squiggles away, but more come--[You have confirmed your selection. Initiating in 3...2...1… host will be made unconscious for the duration of the initiation.]

Blackness overtakes me and I hear Eye whimper.

……

I wake to the sight of my blood. Goblins. Somehow they had managed to pierce my hide and were sucking my blood. Eye was nowhere to be seen, I could only see the Ogre. Laughing. There were goblins behind him, filling up the cave and he was throwing them at me.

I smash the goblins off me, breaking bones and scaring them off. Just one look from the Ogre though and they charge back towards me.

How far I had fallen. I was once great but it was obvious that when I changed worlds my power was taken. Just like the punishments the Shamans deal to traitors. To those Trolls that would run from the Pits and tell the Ogres where we were.

I bat more goblins away and then, taking a look at the Ogre who caused me so much pain, I run into the darkness. I run away from goblins and run away from an Ogre. I… could see where I went wrong. The Ogre taught me that much. I was like the goblins, the bottom of the food chain. The whelp instead of the warrior.

I would forge myself into a warrior though, kill the whelp that I had become and turn into something greater.

Turn into something powerful. The way to do that though… I needed a safe place, a haven, and I needed to find Eye. I could no longer survive just by myself on my own power. I couldn’t survive by myself. I wasn’t strong enough.

What I could do though is surround myself with cannon fodder. The Ogre had thrown goblins at me, creatures that obeyed his every whim, creatures that ran into certain death. I would need to carve out my own territory, and the way to do that would be through Goblins. Goblins and then the Ogre, and then the Batlings above. I had played with ideas of control before but now… now…. I would enact them. I look for a trail to follow, a trail that I would use to find Eye.

[Skill discovered {Tracking}... Inborn skills found… Combining Tracking, Trapping, Hunting, and three other skills into {Survival}]

I stand stunned, what...what...what is this? Then it strikes me.

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The squiggles.

The squiggles are words now.

I bent them to my will, and they revealed themselves to me. It seems that this confirmed my decision to enslave the goblins and find Eye, the squiggles themselves arranged themselves for me. They understood the change I had undergone and recognised my greatness.

I ask the words to show me my greatness and they reveal themselves, reveal themselves to me.

Level: 12            Race: Hex Touched Pit Troll

Class: N/A               Status Effects: None

Statistics:

[Hidden]

Strength: [100]

Constitution: [128]

Agility: 22]

Intellect*:[17]

Charisma*: [6]

Points Available: 0

*Affected by Evolved Meridians [Hidden]

*Charisma when with humans equals -10

[Hidden]

[Statistics Close]

Traits:

Soul Hunger: You hunger for souls. You feed off of them. You cannot go without them. In return they empower you.

Stone Hide: At this point the only thing that can hurt you are maces and enchanted weapons. (Evolved form of Leather Hide)

Sun Resistant: You can resist the rays of the evil sun. You can no longer see in complete darkness. (Renders Creature of the Night void.)

Troll Savant: You can understand spoken words and formulate some of your own! You can understand advanced concepts with difficulty and may even be able to learn to read and write. (Negates Most of Stupid Racial Trait.)

Remorseless: You don’t give a damn.

Racial Traits:

Soul Blooded: No matter how injured Hex Touched Trolls will always heal… So long as they have souls. Should they have souls they can heal in a matter of seconds, be the wounds minor or major.

Claws, Teeth, Hex Touch: Trolls have savage claws meant to rend, and jaws meant to tear, Hex touched Trolls have the ability to channel their savagery and rip the soul from a person.

Hex Touched: Gains the ability to learn Hex only abilities.

Hex Presence: People sense your aura and feel dread.

Cannibals: Trolls eat their own kind. Be they a whelp, a Warlord, or a Brute, all go down the stomach. (+10 to constitution, resistant to poison, mental barriers removed.)

Leather Hide: All Trolls need a good, thick, tough hide. Otherwise, they die.

Tasting the Lash: Be they a whelp, a Brute, or a Warlord, all have been whipped since the day they were born. When a Troll is whipped and told to do something, they find it very hard to resist.

Huge, Muscular, and Tough: Enhanced Strength & Endurance Meridians are automatically unlocked, Trolls are on average 8ft tall, and weigh in surplus of 700 pounds, there can never be a cap on their strength or constitution stats.

[Status End]

I understand now. I can see what I am. The Hex have touched me and changed my race, they would pay, all of them would pay. First, though, I would start with the goblins.

I find a trail, probably Eye from the look of the tracks. I look into the darkness and notice that I could see better now, a lot better than I usually could.

[Skill Unlocked: Darkvision- The ability to see in darkness.]

Interesting. It seemed that the squiggles told me my skills. I already knew my skills though. It seems useless to me, what is useful is being able to see my power. To see my might.

I follow the trail, weaving through the boulders that dot the barren wasteland of the place that I was now in. A good place, it reminds me of the Pits. Reminds of a different place.

I turn around another boulder and find Eye gorging itself on a goblin. I growl, getting Its attention.

Eye looks up and growls back. I see that the wounds that had dotted its body are healed and I realise that another battle for dominance is about to take place. There is no way that Eye could be fully healed so I still have the advantage.

Eye also looks like an ambush predator, kind of like the goblins. Always trying to surprise me. Always trying to attack our weak spots.

They always died in the end. Except that this time I would have to be more careful.

I couldn’t be the only one that had tamed the squiggles, while Eye is stupid it doesn’t mean that the squiggles hadn’t been helping It.

I growl and get down low, preparing for the inevitable jump that Eye would do. Sure enough, It jumps, but is jumps faster this time and I can hear something, an echo, [Charged Jump.]

Eye rockets toward me faster than I first thought possible but my earlier preparation makes so that I can still dodge and launch a powerful fist into Its underbelly.

Eye whimpers but lands and turns around only to be met by my spinning kick. I can tell that these injuries, while usually not able to do that much to the creature, have a much more powerful effect than usual.

[Troll Martial Arts level up x1]

Eye is thrown off balance and I go in for another punch, Eye spins out of reach and slams me in the gut.

I go flying but land on my feet, something was different. I wasn’t usually this agile. In the Pits that hit would have thrown me to the ground.

It seems the squiggles help in more ways than one. Eye sprints into the darkness.

The question now is whether Eye will continue the fight or if It has gone to lick its wounds. Either way, I needed to find a goblin village. I think back to where I saw the goblins carrying that fish.

It was time to carve myself a place.