‘Since the loincloth I have been wearing literally has been ripped off during my evolution, I'll have to walk around in my birthday suit until I can kill something with a hide and turn that into clothing. Hopefully, my pride as a male Goblin can survive until I find something.
‘For now, I’ll just take the nearly foot-long fangs from the giant saber ostrich and go back to the camp. These will come in handy in making a new spear since that other one broke.
‘Actually, now that I think about it, if Jaba hadn’t already shown me how to make a spear, I’d really be struggling now. Well, I am still kind of struggling since I would need to make a spear fit for my new body instead of those little ones from before.
‘But then again, I should be thankful that these fangs are straight rather than curved. Glass half full Rick, glass half full.
‘Moving on, the meat is also a little ruined since I didn’t have time to butcher the damn bird. Even my pouch that had meat in there was destroyed. Whatever. Back to the lake I go.’
Once Rick got back to the lake, he made the trek back around to the south side of the lake where he started from and plopped down onto the forest floor in all of his naked green glory.
‘It’s only day two of my solo adventure yet so much has already happened. I killed some rabbits and evolved, then fought a mini saber ostrich and then a large saber ostrich, then I spoke to some dream invader who is supposedly a god or at least one of them? Then I evolved again… Now here I am naked and afra- Well, mostly just naked and alone sitting next to a lake. ‘
[You are not alone.]
‘Shit! That's right! I have you now. Scared me a bit though…might still take some getting used to.’
[That is understandable. I recommend getting some sleep, since it appears finding clothes and shelter is not happening right at this moment.
[Just for your awareness, I will not sleep while you sleep, and I’m able to sense your surroundings at the same level you're capable of.]
‘Damn. I kinda wasn’t thinking of the whole keeping watch thing when I left on the journey. I need to do a better of job of planning things like this in future… Especially in a world I still don’t know much about.
‘Okay, so you can keep watch while I sleep is what you’re leading to right, Velora?’
[Yes...]
‘Is that sarcasm I sense? I just needed to make sure I understood you!’
[It was your imagination.]
‘Whatever you say… Anway, I’ll take you up on that offer and get some shuteye. Talk to you in the morning.’
[Understood.]
…
‘Alright, it's a brand-new day to bring glory to gang green! But first things first, food and some type of clothing! Let me mosey on over to the lake, sip some water, then I’ll go on the hunt for rabbits using the saber fangs as daggers.
‘Killing the little horned bastards should be far easier at Tier Two, I think.’
[Yes, it will be far easier.]
‘Ahh! Dammit! I forgot again. Sorry about that Velora. I guess getting used to knowing there's a new permanent resident in my head is a little hard.’
[No offense taken.]
‘Great. Now onwards to the rabbits!
‘It only took a few minutes to find my first rabbit, but I suddenly had a revelation upon seeing it. With my newfound height and the trajectory that the rabbits usually jump at, won't it be aiming for my exposed Royal Goblin jewels?! This fight might be more serious than I planned for.
‘Okay, I’m super focused now… I stepped a little closer to the rabbit before it turned around at me, shrieked hysterically and then… RUNS! What the hell?! It actually took off running! I’m not that scary looking, you rude rabbit!!’
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[To a creature as weak as that rabbit, you are an apex predator and quite literally its worst nightmare. Its reaction is justified.]
‘Fine I suppose that makes sense, but now I can’t or don’t need to use the great Jaba rabbit hunting strategy anymore. What a sad day in Goblin history.
‘After wandering around in the forest for a bit, I found another rabbit, although this time I simply crouched and creeped as closely as possible before throwing one of the saber fangs at the rabbit. It was a perfect headshot. You’d think I was a knife thrower in my past life or something. I’m kinda good at this throwing stuff.
‘So, I then simply went around for about 30 minutes or so, killing rabbits until my kill count reached eight, to both have meat and have enough hide to make a small loincloth. It was only after skinning and butchering the rabbits to the best of my ability for maybe a few hours and laying out the hides next to the lake where no trees stood to block the sun did I finally take a break.
‘It ain’t easy being a Goblin.
‘Moving on, I scraped off all the guts and stuff from the hides and they will probably dry in a couple days. For now, I have some questions for you Velora.’
[Ask away.]
‘Since you're technically a skill, does that mean I can gain more skills?’
[It seems I have a programmed answer that fits this question. It reads ‘Apart from Velora, you will not be receiving any sort of skills for free.
[Though if you work hard enough on one particular action, the world itself may reward your work with the creation of a powerful skill. This is something that is extremely hard to accomplish and it is rare for people below Tier 5 to have a single skill.’ That is the end of the message.]
‘Wow... No free skills, but mama nature can reward the grind, basically? That sounds like I need to train every day. Sounds like a good time… Well, let's see how my status looks right now.’
{Name – Rick}
{Age – 20}
{Race - Royal Goblin}
{Tier – Two}
{Strength – 55}
{Agility – 40}
{Dexterity – 40}
{Intelligence – 18}
{Endurance – 50}
{Essence – 4}
{Evo Points – 0/180}
{Skills}
{Velora}
‘No need to immediately absorb that amount of Essence. So, I’ll just keep walking around in my birthday suit hunting more beasts? Hopefully, I can find more Tier One guys. Which is what I’m assuming that big Ostrich was. Actually, maybe it was even Tier Two? Who knows?
‘Oh, wait, Velora! I have another question. The dream invader person said something about my status card being one way I was helped. So, does that mean no one else has a status card?’
[Yes and no. Every single living thing has a status, but based on the knowledge I was given, only you possess the ability to freely access it without the use of any kind of device.]
‘I wonder how other folks know what skills they have then. Sounds extremely annoying. Well, that should do it. For now, let's eat some of this meat. It's still mostly raw and not dried yet, but hey, it works.
‘Since it's not even midday yet, I can go hunt some more. Hopefully, something with a nice fluffy hide. By the way, Velora, I know you can check my surroundings, so are you able to scan large distances and you know, tell me everything that's around me from beasts to plants and stuff? And speaking of beasts, can you scan them too?’
[I can do both, Though at the moment, the actual effectiveness I can do both at are limited.]
‘At the moment? Does that mean you might be able to do it in the future?’
[Yes, there is a possibility of that happening. My growth is tied hand in hand with yours.]
‘Ah, that makes sense then. Well, hopefully I can give you some crazy-ass powers soon. For now, let's go back to the saber ostrich corpse and see if there are any beasts lurking around.’
[Understood.]
‘Anyway, we’re just about at the corpses now, so let us see if we can use the whole bait plan again. Slowly walking to where I can get a clear view of the corpses, I eventually enter within earshot of what sounds like eating…’
[It seems something has already taken the bait. If you're able to get a sight of it, I’ll be able to scan whatever it is.]
‘Okay, no problem. Instead of continuing forward, I stepped back a little then climbed a nearby tree. Because of my new size and strength, climbing the tall tree only took a few seconds.
‘Now that I’m up here, I can clearly see exactly what’s been eating away at my hard-earned saber ostrich corpse. Is that a wolf? Yeah, it’s definitely a wolf and its dark black coat seems extremely fluffy… Is this plot armor?’
[What is plot armor? But I can scan it now, would you like me to do so?]
‘Ah! Don’t worry about it! Yes, please scan my new fur coa- er, I mean that wolf’
[Understood. Scanning now.]
{Race – Black Wolf}
{Tier – One}
{Strength – 12}
{Agility – 25}
{Dexterity – 18}
{Intelligence – 4}
{Endurance – 20}
‘Hmm well, that actually shows a whole lot I think, what more could you show? It’s shows more than enough for now… I should be able to beat a Tier One wolf that’s barely at my knees with these stats, right?’
[More stored data is required in order to see more things like name, age, natural abilities, and yes, in theory, your current self should be able to easily dispose of the wolf. But as you've never seriously fought with this new body before, I advise you to be cautious.]
‘Understood. Fur coat, here we come!’
