POV Rick
‘It was time to start my little adventure to get stronger. With Jaba evolving way over me, and with just how useless I was against the wounded wolf, this feeling of being a weak little Goblin is eating me up inside.
‘I absolutely needed to get stronger, and I need to get stronger now.
‘Who knows when another threat on the same level as that wolf will come again? What if that wolf wasn’t on the verge of dying? What if another wolf like that shows up at our doorstep the exact same time the mystery stone beasts come?
‘Am I just fated to die? To die without even having the power to fight back even a little bit?
‘No.
‘I refuse to live that way. I refuse to die a dog’s death in this new life of mine. I’ve always dreamt of reincarnating into a world of fantasy, where I could live a life of glory and triumph, and I’ve been given that opportunity now, so it's about time I seize it.
‘Even though I’m only a lowly Goblin, even asking myself ‘Why a Goblin?’ many times, the path to becoming stronger has been properly laid out in front of me.
‘No excuses will be tolerated from here on out. One way or another, I will strive to be the best Goblin I can be and ensure that my newfound comrades will never have to run away in the face of any enemy again. Be it stone beasts, or an enormous wolf, we will never cower, regardless of who or what comes our way.
‘Alright…with my inner motivational monologue out of the way it’s time to get going this morning.
‘With dried rabbit meat in a small sack tied around my waist, and a typical crude spear tipped with a Horned Rabbit’s horn, I set off into the woods with conviction and drive.
‘Okay, first things first. I gotta go check on that wolf corpse. It's only been a day since we left the scene so it probably shouldn’t have decayed significantly yet, but I need to be quick because there is a strong chance that it could get snatched away by some other beasts around here.
‘Either way, I need to check just to make sure, maybe if it’s still there, I can salvage some stuff.
‘I’m really hoping it is so that I can take its pelt and make a coat or something, cause all I have on me is this loincloth.
‘And although I’ve fully embraced the Goblin way of life, the human in me still misses having clothes. In fact, I miss a lot of things. A few friends, video games… my mom’s cooking…
Sigh
‘Stay focused Rick… gotta stay focused…
‘…Now with the place we fought the wolf being at the edge of range that Jaba usually hunts, it’s about a half mile into the forest from the Tribe, so it took me about fifteen-ish minutes to walk here.
‘The only reason I knew I arrived, was the fact that I can still see stains of blood from where the wolf died, and when I looked around the area, I could even see some green blood stains from where I’m assuming Jaba fell unconscious.
‘The problem here though. Was that the carcass was missing.
‘Dammit.
‘Well, that’s disappointing. No fancy wolf coat for me yet, I guess.
‘Alright, from here on out is uncharted territory, so let's proceed carefully. If I was still a human, my first step would be to find a water source, but since I’ve been here, I’ve realized Goblins don’t need to drink water.
‘I guess we get all the nutrients we need from just eating meat. Which is weird, but that’s life now.
‘Though It would be nice to have something to wash the meat down with. Who doesn’t like a nice refreshing drink while eating? I know I for sure do!
‘So, with that being said, let’s see if I can find a lake, or a river or something and if not, I at least need to find somewhere to call home for the time being while I’m out here. Maybe I’ll even find a different spot for gang green to call home, so we don’t have to deal with the stone beasts.
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‘It wasn’t until having walked roughly another two miles, I think placing me about two and a half miles away from the Tribe, that I finally found something good. Well, I actually do not know how far I walked, but that's what I think it was.
‘I also didn’t actually reach the thing I found, but I could see it in the distance.
‘It looked like water?
‘It took another…I don’t know how many miles of walking, before I finally reached the water.
‘Hours. It literally took me hours to find it, a big ass lake.
‘Trees surrounded it on all sides, and it had crystal clear water. While the water was crystal clear, it was only clear up to a certain level since I couldn’t see the bottom.
‘I’m assuming that means it’s really deep. The only thing I could see clearly were fish and there were a lot of them! The most important thing from this discovery was that with fish swimming in the lake, it meant the water was most likely safe to drink… I hope.
‘Alright, after having a few risky sips of the water, it’s time to get this Goblin show on the road. On my way here, the only beasts I found were Horned Rabbits and nothing else. So, I’ll just assume that between the Tribe and here only those beasts were present.
‘Would that mean it was a group of those little rabbits that took the corpse?
‘Huh weird…
‘Can’t do much about that. What about if I circle to the east, west, or north side of the lake? Surely, I’ll find something different…otherwise this forest will be really boring.
‘Anyway, before I do that, I don’t think I need that much more rabbit kills to fill up that Essence counter in my status.
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Essence - 10} Absorb?
{Evo Points - 3 /15}
‘I killed a couple more rabbits with Jaba before the wolf showed up, then a couple this morning, which brings me up to 10 Essence points! When I absorb that I should be at 13 evo points, so now I only need to find and kill four more rabbits to fill the counter!
‘…Now that I think about it maybe I should’ve done this before I left. Eh, whatever! Let’s go kill some rabbits!
‘After walking back and forth in the area I came from until it was almost dark out, I finally completed my rabbit kill quota. I then made my way back to the lake and sat down against a nearby tree.
‘Let's see the fruit of my labor, shall we? Status!’
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Essence - 12} Absorb?
{Evo Points - 3/15}
‘Yes, absorb! Bring on the tingling sensations!
‘This absorbing session took a little longer than the first one…It even began to sting a little…I’m assuming it's because I had more points to absorb? Maybe I should be careful with how much Essence I absorb, anyway my status now looks like this.’
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Essence - 0}
{Evo Points - 15/15} Evolve?
‘And there it is! I think I’m fairly safe here by the lake, but just in case I’ll go hide in a nearby bush. I really should’ve done this back in the cave. Well whatever we move, it's time for the green magic! Evolve baby!’
And just like that Rick was instantly fast asleep, having a sweet dream of a world filled with green wonder, as any proper Goblin would of course. Yet as he slept and drifted away to dreamland, his body went through more than a few changes.
Just not quite like what he expected.
Once the first rays of sunlight signifying the night had passed landed on Rick's face, his eyelids began to slowly flutter as he awoke from the land of dreams.
‘Why am I in a bush? Oh Yeah! I evolved!’
Rick quickly scrambled out of the bush and to his feet though he almost fell a couple times as he was not used to his new body.
‘I feel Bigger, stronger, and faster! this is… This is great! Killing those little rabbits is gonna be easy now! I can feel it in my green bones!! Well, I don’t know if my bones are green, but let's not find out!’
Rick began checking over parts of his body only to find something very odd on his left shoulder.
‘I have tattoos?! I rubbed at them really hard, and they didn’t budge a smidge. Now unless I got attacked by some type of tattoo villain in my sleep this has to be from my evolution, right?
‘But I never noticed Jaba having any tattoos, so why do I have them.
‘And it’s not only the tattoos… How did I only now realize my potbelly is gone and was replaced by abs! Jaba still had his potbelly when he was at this stage, so why are our evolutions so different?
‘…Status’
{Name - Rick}
{Age - 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Tier 1}
{Essence - 0}
{Evo Points - 0/45}
‘That's why! How could I forget?! I’m a Royal Fucking Goblin!! OF COURSE my evolution would be a little different! HAHAHAHAHA!
‘Phew… Okay, now that's out of the way, what's this about Tier 1? Was I simply Tier 0 before? Ah, maybe Jaba’s at Tier 2 now? That's probably right.
‘Also, I see my evo point total reset to zero while the points required went up. I guess that makes sense. That would require a whole bunch of rabbits though. I should really see if I can find stronger beasts so I can gain Essence quicker.
‘I think it’s logical to assume that stronger beasts will give me more Essence.
‘No time to waste, onwards and forwards to the eastside of the lake!’
