Chương 1: The Monster Forest

In a goblin tribe that resembled a literal landfill, hundreds of hideously ugly creatures, barely half the height of a human, huddled in a circle. Greed flashed in their eyes as they stared at a freshly caught wild boar, their throats bobbing as they swallowed gulps of starving saliva. Hunger made them want to pounce and tear immediately, but the towering silhouette feeding beside the carcass kept them from advancing a single inch. That tall figure was the Chief of this goblin tribe.

The Goblin Chief stood nearly as tall as an average human. To the other goblins, who were less than a meter tall, he was a titan. He wasn't just tall; he was morbidly obese, his protruding belly filled with thick grease—a prime candidate for "Three Highs" (hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia) had he been human. Burp! The Goblin Chief tore and gnawed at the boar like a maniac.

Once only half the boar remained, he let out a loud belch and wobbled toward the only structure in the settlement: a dilapidated thatch hut. He collapsed instantly, and his snoring rang out like a mess-hall whistle. Without the Chief's suppression, the other goblins could no longer restrain themselves. They rushed forward, frantically tearing at the remaining half of the boar. In a short while, the half-boar was gone, leaving only a skeletal frame on the ground.

The goblins, now full, scattered and lay down wherever they could find a spot to sleep, displaying the "live for today" mindset of their kind. Once all the adult goblins were asleep, the goblin pups crawled out from various corners, greedily licking the pig blood mixed with the mud.

"This won't do. I need a damn exit strategy!" One goblin pup thought to himself as he watched his biological brothers groveling on the ground, gnawing at blood-soaked sand. This goblin was Li Qinwu, a man from Blue Star. A week ago, he had been pulling an all-nighter playing Mount & Blade. He died of sudden cardiac arrest just as he was about to unify the continent and was reincarnated into this different world as a Western fantasy monster: a goblin. Upon discovering he had become a goblin, Li Qinwu was in denial.

His despair deepened when he realized the adult goblins treated him like trash, casually abandoning him in the roadside weeds as a pup. In this unknown primordial forest, even a human adult wouldn't be sure of survival, let alone a goblin pup. Just as Li Qinwu was about to give up and wait for "death and a reroll," the Mount & Blade system that caused his death arrived with him in this new world. At the start, it gave him three attribute points. Li Qinwu sat up abruptly.

Without a second thought, he dumped all three points into the Vigor attribute. In Mount & Blade II, the Vigor attribute increases the damage of one-handed, two-handed, and polearm weapons. It also lived up to its literal meaning by increasing his "Vitality," allowing him to survive the toughest stage of his infancy. For a long time afterward, Li Qinwu lived hiding in the weeds. To survive, he ate grass like a madman, somehow managing to stay alive on a diet of vegetation.

He observed carefully and noticed that while the adult goblins in the tribe caught prey from time to time, no one ever offered a single bite to a "pitiful" goblin pup like him. Furthermore, there were no female goblins in the tribe. Li Qinwu wondered: if there were no female goblins, where did he come from? Then, he saw the hunting parties return with abducted females of other species. This sight delivered a massive shock to Li Qinwu's young soul.

But what shocked him even more was when, one day, the hunting party returned empty-handed and turned to cannibalism! The goblin pups, having no ability to resist, were the first to be eaten. This taught Li Qinwu that goblins were monsters devoid of familial love, hardening his resolve to rely only on himself. It had now been 14 days since Li Qinwu arrived in this world. For 14 days, he survived by eating roadside weeds.

He discovered that the goblin growth cycle was extremely short; in just 14 days, he was nearly an adult, or at least he had gained the ability to stand and walk. Li Qinwu stared at the boar skeleton in deep thought. He looked around for something on the ground and soon picked up a stone. He walked to the skeleton, aimed at the boar's tusks, and began hammering. Shortly after, he obtained four wild boar tusks.

"If I grind these with a stone, these four tusks can become four daggers. If I find suitable branches, I could even make spears!" Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Gurgle gurgle! In the middle of his thoughts, his stomach let out a violent roar, followed by a bone-deep hunger.

"Shit! I'm so damn hungry!" Li Qinwu clutched his stomach, his face contorted in pain. Goblins grew fast, but their food consumption was equally massive. Since he usually only had grass to eat, the hunger hit him even harder.

"I need to go eat some grass, then make weapons once I'm full. After that, I'll head out to see if I can hunt!" Despite the hunger, Li Qinwu forced his brain to work. He quickly planned his actions and prepared to look for grass. Before leaving, he glanced at the boar skeleton again. It had been gnawed clean, without a shred of meat left. However, when his gaze landed on the intact femur, his eyes suddenly lit up. Marrow! There was marrow inside! Li Qinwu went up with his stone and hammered at the femur.

After a while, the joint shattered and the leg bone detached. He dragged the femur and ran toward the forest. No adult goblins cared about what Li Qinwu was doing. These monsters slept as soon as they were full; they wouldn't waste a shred of attention on a "useless" bone. However, several goblin pups, unable to sleep due to hunger, had been watching Li Qinwu the whole time. Their desire for food had taught them to be opportunistic.

They didn't dare scheme against the adults, but they dared to cast greedy glances at a fellow pup like Li Qinwu. The goblin pups exchanged looks and followed Li Qinwu into the forest. Li Qinwu didn't know he had "tails" behind him. He only wanted to get away from the tribe to find a place to start a fire and roast the femur. The goblin tribe ate everything raw, and no one knew how to make fire. Li Qinwu was afraid that starting a fire would draw hostility from the adults.

Moreover, if they found out there was marrow to eat inside the bones, he wouldn't get any. Of course, the most important reason was that the femur was too hard for him to smash open. He had only managed to detach it by hammering the joint with great effort. To get the marrow, he had to use fire to make the bone brittle before smashing it. Li Qinwu chewed on roadside grass as he ran to maintain his strength. Just as he was about to collapse from low blood sugar, he reached a small valley.

The wind was currently blowing from the direction of the tribe; starting a fire here would reduce the chance of being discovered. Li Qinwu lay on the ground and rested for a long time. The lack of food combined with intense exercise made him dizzy. He quickly ate several mouthfuls of grass like a maggot until he finally recovered.

"I'm about to eat charcoal-grilled marrow. Hold on, Li Qinwu!" Looking at the femur he had struggled to bring out of the tribe, he swallowed hard. Forcing himself up despite the dizziness, he gathered dry branches and leaves into a pile. Then, he found a wooden stick, a wooden board, and tore some dry fibers from tree bark. He made a small bow using hemp rope he had stolen from the tribe. He was going to use a bow-drill to start a fire!

This was a simple friction fire-starting system he had learned from Bear Grylls. Once the system was complete, a prompt suddenly appeared in his mind. [Smithing Skill +1]"Huh? It increases Smithing?" He opened the Mount & Blade II skill panel with his mind. He saw that his Smithing proficiency had gone from 0 to 1.

"Making a little thing like this increases Smithing?" Li Qinwu scratched his head. In Mount & Blade II, Smithing required the player's character to go to a town's smithy and forge weapons. The higher the Smithing proficiency, the better the weapons one could create. Li Qinwu saw that in his Smithing skill tree, he could eventually unlock skills like "Mithril Smelting" and "Weapon Enchanting." The original game's Smithing didn't have these options. It seemed the system had adapted to this different world.

Li Qinwu's heart suddenly grew hot. Since he could forge, then the core gameplay of Mount & Blade —recruiting soldiers and buying horses—should also be possible! In the game, players could recruit soldiers from villages and towns. If he could figure out how to recruit soldiers in reality, he would have the capital to establish himself in this world!

"Jie jie jie! I swear! From this day on, I'm never eating grass again! I'm going to eat meat every single meal!" Li Qinwu howled, then placed the spark from the bow-drill into the tinder. The fire was quickly lit. Li Qinwu immediately placed the boar femur over the flames. Before long, the bone began to sizzle and smoke, and a charred aroma with a hint of gaminess wafted through the air. Li Qinwu licked his lips frantically.

Ever since he was born from some unknown female creature, the only food he had eaten was wild grass. The scent of charred protein made his stomach throb painfully again; biological instinct almost drove him insane! But his soul was human, after all. He forcibly restrained his urge to eat. It would take a while for the femur to be roasted brittle enough to be pried open. He took out the four boar tusks, intending to process them slightly. Li Qinwu found a stone to grind the four tusks.

He finished this task quickly; since teeth weren't exceptionally hard, they couldn't be ground too sharp, and he was afraid of them snapping if he overdid it. Next, he found a suitable wooden stick, used a tusk to slowly pry a gap in the middle of the tip, wedged a tusk into the gap, and tied it tight with rope. A spear that looked like it would snap at any moment was finished. The moment the spear was completed, the system prompt rang in his head. [You have forged a 'Scrap Spear'. Smithing Skill +1] Li Qinwu weighed the spear and felt it was better than nothing. The main issue was that Smithing proficiency grew too slowly. The first perk required 25 proficiency; at this rate, it would take forever! Shouldering the spear, Li Qinwu went to the fire. By now, the boar femur was nearly ready. He took the bone off the fire, held one end high, took a deep breath, and smashed it hard against a rock.

With a crack, the bone snapped in the middle where it had been burned most, and some marrow spilled out. Li Qinwu's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. He rushed forward and began sucking on the bone. Fat and various nutrients rushed into his stomach, making him so satisfied he almost fainted!

"Ah! I'm a carnivore!" Li Qinwu shouted excitedly. The pain of eating grass for half a month was healed by animal fat at this moment! He quickly sucked one section of the bone dry and was about to grab the other. Right then, his ears caught the sound of a twig snapping. He looked toward the noise and saw eight adolescent goblins closing in on him. Their green eyes shimmered with a hungry light, fixed dead on the boar bone in Li Qinwu's hand.