Dangling from Mog’s moist fist, the little snake focused on the goblin boss. She was surprisingly spry, and efficiently made her way down the bone ladder. Before she knew it, the tattooed woman was standing right before them.

  The crowd had, for the most part, yielded to the stern demands and icy stare of the goblin boss and dispersed. A few lurkers stood a short distance away, suddenly very interested in a rock laying on the ground. They periodically glanced toward Mog and the little snake, their ears twitching and turning as the goblin boss spoke.

  “Why is this snek like me, Mog?” She was around a head shorter than him, yet presence towered over him. The snake attempted to cower into Mog’s fist, withering under the female goblin’s stare, yet she just dangled there.

  Mog, to the little snake’s surprise, visibly relaxed now that he was talking to the boss. He exhaled, letting out the long breath. He wiped his forehead, smearing the orangish brown mixture of sweat and blood across his face.

  “Snek made sand book outside.” Mog replied. His tone was respectful, and no longer held the tense edge it had carried since he initially picked her up.

  “A sand book? Hmph.” She said, gazing down at the snake, “Let me see snek, and then we can heal Mog.”

  “Mog not hurt bad.” He grunted, then held up his clenched fist so that the snake was eye level with the boss. The goblin woman’s eyes slowly began to change color as the snake gazed into them. Clouds of wispy white smoke ballooned outward from the center of her pupil, until each eye was covered in a hazy glowing fog.

  The snake felt an unknown presence balloon in her mind, establishing a foothold and pressing inward. Panic rose inside her as all of her instincts screamed at her to flee, to escape from this being before her. Her limp body writhed in Mog’s grip as she mentally pushed back against the invading presence. With seeming ease, the presence slapped her feeble defense aside and began peeling back the layers of her mind.

  She could feel it digging for information, exposing her memories and reading her innermost thoughts. The moments crawled by, and the snake’s world tunneled to the goblin woman’s milk white eyes and the foreign presence dominating her mind.

  When she felt completely rung out, the presence finally retreated. The goblin woman smiled.

  “Good job Mog.” She said, taking the little snake from his hand. “Sleep hungry snek.”

  The snake felt a brief flash of power, and noticed the goblin woman’s tattoos glowing faintly as darkness overwhelmed her.

  ***

  She awoke inside a dark circular container. It felt similar to stone, but was shaped too perfectly to be something natural. The top of the container, directly above her, was completely blocked by a wooden lid. The faint smell of overcooked meat resonated from within her iron cage, and she could make out bits of crispy dried liquid and smeared streaks of fat and grease along its solid walls.

  With a brief surge of effort, she pushed her worries to the back of her mind and focused on the small rat that was laying directly next to her. Lunging, she bit into the carcass. It was already dead, so she swallowed it whole.

  The little snake pulled up the ‘starving’ status condition that had been plaguing her for days. To her satisfaction, the attribute penalties gradually lessened as she digested her meal before disappearing completely.

  She had survived.

  I got lucky, the little snake thought as she looked around at the walls of her makeshift prison. Maybe. She was able to deduce that she was currently trapped in some device that the goblins used to prepare their meals.

  The goblin boss had utilized abilities that were far beyond the grasp of the little snake, but she didn’t seem cruel like Deeb. Thinking about it, the boss probably wouldn’t have put her to sleep if she hadn’t been planning on biting her. She had been at the end of her rope, which she probably saw when she was intruding in her mind.

  Her thoughts drifted to a notification she had received shortly after killing Deeb, and she quickly pulled up her status menu to verify.

  There it was - an evolution point. That was new, and she didn’t have a clue what it meant. She turned her attention inward at the warm energy held inside her system, and prodded it for information. A blue screen opened up in front of her eyes.

  She opened up the Evolutionary Map, and a new screen appeared in front of her eyes. There were three options: ‘Current Evolutionary Line (Serpentine)’, ‘Alternate Evolutionary Lines’, and ‘Mutations’. She could only open the first option, as the other two were listed as unavailable.

  She opened ‘Current Evolutionary Line’, and saw what looked like an upside down tree, with numerous branches running downwards and expanding in three directions. At the very top of the branching tree, was a picture of the little snake with the words ‘Tiny Poisonous Snake’ underneath it.

  There were three branches that ran down and away from her picture, each led to a shadowy caricature. They were labeled ‘Constrictor Snake’, ‘Large Poisonous Snake’, and ‘Flying Snake’. The first two cost two evolution points, while the last cost three.

  She continued investigating, prodding her system for more information wherever she could. She felt her heart race at the idea of becoming a stronger and more powerful creature. If she could somehow survive her current situation, then she could maybe become strong enough to where nothing this humiliating would ever happen to her again.

  Apparently, in addition to evolution points, she would need to build up her attributes to the base level of the creature she wanted to evolve into. She wasn’t even close. If she wanted to evolve into a constrictor snake or a large poisonous snake, she would need to get her strength to ten or fifteen. Assuming she continued to get one attribute point per level up, she would need to hunt a lot more to be able to achieve that.

  Surprisingly, to evolve into a flying snake, she would only need to level up five more times. Her system didn’t verify if this evolution could actually fly, but she thought she could make out small wings on the side of the shadowed out figure. She would, however, need an additional evolution point if she wanted to go in that direction.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  So far she had accomplished two Feats of Power: the first by raising her Intelligence to ten times its starting value, and the second by convincing Mog to fight on her side against Deeb. They both felt like flukes when she thought about it. Her intelligence had started at one, and she raised it to ten. That was quite literally the minimum amount of attribute points she would need to achieve that Feat of Power.

  The little snake had no idea how writing in the sand had convinced Mog to join her side, as she had serious doubts that he could read. She rested her head on her little coiled body, using the digesting lump as a pillow, trying to recover as much as she could for whatever would happen next.

  ***

  “Is the little snek feeling better?” The calm voice of the goblin boss came from a slight distance away, rousing the snake from her resting daydreams. She drew completely still, and poised herself to strike if she needed to.

  “Kor wont hurt little snek.” The goblin woman went on. “Sorry for keeping snek in cook pot.”

  They waited in awkward silence.

  “Kor is also sorry for looking in snek mind. Kor had to check if Mog was right, and he was. Little snek is very smart.” Kor paused, letting her words hang in the air for a moment before continuing.

  “Kor will make deal with snek. Kor will keep snek safe, and snek will teach Kor words.” Kor said, then sighed. “Kor saw snek kill Deeb. Kor doesn’t care. Deeb was a sneaky gob, always tricking and taking from others.”

  The little snake let the silence stretch on as she considered the goblin’s proposal. Could she teach her how to read? A pang of fury scorched through her little body as she imagined sharing the gift her system had given her.

  Yet…

  Kor was powerful. She was the leader of the goblins, and had abilities that the little snake had never seen before. She also currently had her trapped in a cooking pot. The little snake didn’t have a lot of options.

  She let out a low and short hiss.

  Kor approached, her light footsteps sending slight vibrations through the floor. A dim and warm light shone into the pot as the lid lifted off, but was then blocked by Kor’s head peering in.

  “Can Kor pick up little snek?” she asked, and the snake nodded slowly.

  Kor reached into the pot with both hands, and gently lifted the little snake up. It was tempted to bite the goblin, but the snake restrained herself. The possibility of making a powerful ally outweighed the potential levels she would earn, if she even succeeded, so she tentatively wound her body around the goblin’s wrist and looked up at Kor.

  Her white hair was still wild and untamed, and her wispy mustache looked slightly twirled on each end. She smiled down at the little snake, and the wrinkles on the goblin’s face multiplied. The smile was warm, and even though it revealed the goblin woman’s sharp and pointy teeth, the snake felt her apprehension lessen ever so slightly.

  “Mog said you made a sand book.” Kor said conversationally as she carefully picked her way across the floor of the hut. The little snake looked around and was astonished by the sheer amount of things the goblin woman had.

  There were piles and piles of random trinkets, rocks, shiny disks, and other bits and bobs the snake didn’t recognize. Some of the piles even reached up and brushed against the ceiling. Almost the entire floor was covered, and Kor had to jump to and from various flat surfaces that breached the surface of the ocean of junk.

  There were so many places the little snake could hide and she was fairly certain that if she wanted to disappear, it would not be an issue. She tucked that idea away for later as Kor swung from a rope connected to the ceiling over a pile of rusty daggers and ratty armor, before landing with her feet on a small ladder that led up to a small and cramped loft.

  The loft contained a hammock that stretched out parallel with the wall, hanging over yet another pile of nick-nacks. There was a shelf that had a lumpy wax protrusion with a small flame jutting out of the top, a large book, and a closed jar that was filled with dense purple and cloudy liquid. A lump of wrinkled flesh briefly peek out, but the cloudy liquid soon obscured whatever the little snake had seen.

  There was also a small wooden table underneath the shelf that held a small plate filled with sand. Kor set the little snake down next to the plate before dipping her face down close.

  “Can you show me?” Kor asked in a low voice.

  The little snake let out a hiss and held up the injured tip of her tail. It was still raw and painful from being crushed by the rock Mog had rolled at her, but she started shifting the sand and writing the same character anyway. When she finished, she looked at the goblin woman who was staring intently at what she had written, then she blinked and reached up to the shelf above them.

  She hefted the large book off the shelf and pulled it into her lap, opened it, and turned it towards the little snake.

  “Can you read this?” Kor asked.

  The snake glanced at the book, then back up to the goblin woman, who was intently staring at her. She turned back to the book.

  “... yet the defining characteristic of the domains chosen by the tower is their inability to be breached. Various hunters have attempted to leave the pre-ordained area, yet none have reported any success in the endeavor. So what truly lies outside of the generated terrain? Is there a larger world that cannot be accessed?”

  She looked back up at the goblin woman and nodded. Kor grinned.

  “Kor has hope now.” The goblin woman said as her shoulders dipped. “Kor found this on the dead body of her daughter. Tor was a shamanka like Kor - powerful. She moved here to be mate to a different boss.”

  She took a deep breath before continuing.

  “Mog found book and Tor’s body. All gobs from the other tribe were dead. Kor moved her tribe here to find out what happened.”

  She explained to the little snake that besides the book and the bodies of the goblins, there was no other evidence as to what had happened. She still didn’t know who or what killed Tor, and she couldn’t read the book that potentially held the answers she was seeking.

  Kor wanted the little snake - or Snek, as Kor had officially named her when she found out she didn’t have a name - to teach her how to read the book. In exchange, she would be kept safe and fed while her wounds healed.

  “Kor can also help Snek be stronger.” She finished, and Snek turned her head to the side curiously. “Kor saw how Snek got power when she killed Deeb. Kor has some ideas.”

  As Kor finished talking, she tapped her finger to the side of her head in consideration, but didn’t continue.

  Snek agreed to Kor’s deal, and began the process of healing and teaching her how to read. It was slow going at first. She would sit on Kor’s shoulder as they flipped through the book looking for words that Kor wanted to learn. When they eventually found it, Snek would point it out and Kor would practice writing the word.

  It was inefficient, but that was fixed as the days passed and the little snake healed. Eventually, she was able to scratch words that Kor wanted to learn into the sand without pain. When Kor was busy, the little snake explored the hut and carved out a space for herself. There were many random and seemingly useless trinkets in the piles of trash that Kor kept in her house. Snek found some interesting yet useless things among the ocean of junk, but her favorite finds were always the rats. She hunted them with glee and a persistent desire for growth.

  When Snek brought up the rat infestation, Kor had mentioned another goblin in the tribe who raised them as pets. He was old, and had hated Kor ever since their daughter died, and somehow used the rats to spy on her. She applauded Snek for each and every rat she hunted down.

  There were initially so many rats, that Snek was able to raise her level three times just from hunting them down. She put the first two attribute points she earned into strength, raising it to five, but tried something different with the other one and instead raised her charisma to six.

  When she did, she immediately noticed a slight improvement in her communication and relationship with Kor. It didn’t take as long for the goblin woman to figure out the snake’s sometimes necessary charades, and Kor began occasionally making jokes. Snek didn’t understand most of the references, but enjoyed the goblin woman’s squeaky laughter that always followed.

  Her greatest gain, however, came in the form of a system message that appeared after her most recent successful hunt. She had been skulking quietly amidst the piles of random junk, and set a simple trap with a dead rat. When its little rat friend came to investigate, she had immediately ended its life with a quick and undetected strike..

  Snek wondered what a ‘minor bonus’ meant in application, and decided to do some testing. She discovered that it was easier to conceal herself among the refuse, but she couldn’t sense more prey in the vicinity. She waited for a while, but still no rats.

  She gave up and made her way back up into Kor’s loft. The goblin woman wasn’t currently in the hut. There had been some kind of disruption outside, and she had left to investigate around an hour or two ago. Snek wound her way up the leg of the table and coiled herself to rest in between the large book and the dish of sand.

  Kor had begun leaving the book on the table instead of the shelf, so that Snek could read through it whenever she desired. It was an interesting read, but little of it made sense. From what she had gathered, it was written by someone who was from another world.

  To the author, the world that Kor, Snek, Mog, and all of the other goblins resided in was inside an enormous tower that appeared on the author’s world. The book primarily held theories on Snek’s world - some of which Kor had confirmed to be true while others were objectively false.

  It mentioned gates opening up and locking down large areas. Hunters (which were people from the other world with special abilities) would go into a gate at each level of this tower and attempt to kill all of the ‘monsters’ (anyone from Snek’s world that was in the locked down area at the time). It didn’t mention why they went into the gates in the first place, though.

  There were small notes written into the margins of the book. Apparently its original owner had been interested in the topic, and had sketched out a map of the interior of the large cavern. Their running theory was that whoever killed Kor’s daughter, Tor, was a person from the other world and likely the original owner of the book.

  The little snake didn’t know what to do with this information, so like many of the other things that seemed to be out of her control, she pushed it down and thought about other things. Right now that happened to be the large sealed jar sitting in front of her on the table. Her eyes were frequently drawn to it. Kor had noticed her interest and immediately started boasting.

  “The powerful bren jar is a relic that is passed down to each new generation of shamanka.” She had said. Her manner of speaking had changed dramatically over the past few weeks. It was becoming less and less choppy. Snek had wondered if it had to do with learning to read or the conversations they routinely had.

  What is a ‘bren’? Snek had written in the sand.

  “A bren is what is in your head. The bigger it is, the smarter you are. I have mine, and the bren jar. That’s why Kor is smarter than the other gobs.” Kor twirled her silver mustache as she said this - a frequent habit.

  While Kor talked, Snek smoothed the sand out and began writing again. Is it alive?

  “Yes.” Kor said, but didn’t explain further. She was fond of the bren jar, and would sometimes hold it when they would read the book together. The little snake would perch herself on the goblin woman’s shoulder, and would follow along as Kor read aloud. The goblin woman would hold the jar in her lap and periodically caress it as they practiced. The little snake always kept an eye on the jar. She would watch for the murky liquid to clear and expose the bren as it bobbed against the glass.

  As she sat there alone and stared at the jar, the liquid was pushed aside and swirled in every direction. This time, however, it wasn’t the folded lump of wrinkly flesh that swam to the surface. This time, the inky purple liquid parted to expose a scaled talon pushing against the glass.