Chương 5: Chapter 4: Wait, What am I?!?!

He came back to himself with a gasp. Cold stone pressed against his back. The air smelled faintly damp, like old rock and dust. For a moment he just lay there, disoriented, staring up at a jagged ceiling of dark stone instead of fluorescent panels and stained tiles. Right. The explosion. The white room where he had met the Adjudicator. The System. It all came rushing back to him. He shifted, trying to sit up, and his eyes caught his own legs. They were green. Not 'vein under skin' green. Not 'weird lighting' green.

Flat, obvious, and unquestionably green, stretched over too-bony shins and feet that were a little too long, ending in claw-like nails. His heart lurched. He planted a hand to push himself up, and froze. His hand was green too. The same moss-like shade. He had smooth skin, except where it was faintly rough at the knuckles. Gideon looked at his long fingers ending in blackened nails that looked more like small claws than anything human. He shot to his feet so quickly he nearly toppled over.

His center of gravity was wrong, much lower and lighter than he expected, and he had to pinwheel his arms for a moment to keep from falling. His toes scraped against stone.

"Okay. Okay. Don't panic yet. This is fine," he lied to himself. The 'clothes' situation didn't help. He was wearing something that looked like someone had taken a sack, cut holes for his arms and head, then cinched it at the waist with a thin rope. It hung to mid-thigh, barely. He didn't even want to think about the lack of underwear. He swallowed and ran his hands slowly along the sides of his head. Long, pointed ears brushed his fingertips, extending out and back from his skull. His jaw locked.

He lifted a hand to his mouth without thinking, rubbing his thumb along his teeth. Except they weren't his teeth. His mouth felt wider, and his jaw a fraction looser, like it was built to open just a bit farther than he was used to. When his tongue slid over his molars, it found sharp points where flat edges used to be. Not a full mouth of fangs, but close enough that it felt wrong, like his own bite could hurt him if he wasn't careful.

"No. No no no. Come on, man. No fuckin way." But every detail added up. Green skin. Short stature. Pointed ears. He didn't need a mirror to know.

"I'm a freakin goblin," he whispered. The word tasted like ash on his lips. Of all the races on that list he had scrolled through, the System had rolled him into the tutorial mob. The XP pinata. The thing adventurer parties wiped out by the dozen at level one. Cannon fodder. He stared at his hands again, chest tight.

"The System really screwed me. Random my shiny green ass. Couldn't give me elf, or dragonkin, or anything remotely useful, no. That'd be too easy. Had to be a goddamn goblin." He forced himself to stop spiraling. Panic wouldn't change his species.

He took a long breath. Then another. Then five more for good measure.

"Okay. Okay. Goblin. Fine. That's the hand I've been dealt. Work the hand. Work the hand." Another breath. Then another. Finally he just screamed. When he eventually managed to calm himself down somewhat, he took a moment to look around. He was in a cave. Not a big one, though. It was maybe thirty or forty feet across, with a low ceiling and uneven floor. The rock around him was rough and mottled, flecked with dull mineral streaks that caught the dim light.

There were no torches, no obvious light source, but the space wasn't completely dark either. A muted glow seeped in from the entrance. He turned toward it, and moved slowly and carefully toward the cave mouth. Outside, through the opening, he saw a forest stretching out below him all the way to the horizon, and further beyond. An endless sea of trees. Gideon swallowed. Civilization was a far away place.

The forest immediately below him was dense and wild, the kind of place that had never heard of property lines or hiking trails. The trees were tall and thick with leaves, their trunks twisting with age. And hanging in front of the cave mouth… was a shimmer. At first, he thought it was just a heat haze. But, the air wasn't hot enough for that, and the shimmer didn't wave and ripple like it should.

It was a thin, translucent veil of pale blue, like someone had stretched glass across the entrance and forgotten to solidify it. He squinted at it.

"It's… a barrier, maybe?" he muttered to himself.

"This must be a safe zone." Of course there'd be one. It made sense. Any halfway decent MMO would give a fresh character a spawn area where they couldn't get immediately eaten. He exhaled slowly.

"Okay. That's something in my favor, at least." His balance still felt off, his limbs just a touch too light. He decided to deal with that first. He took another cautious step forward. His foot slid slightly on a smooth patch of stone, and he had to catch himself on the wall.

"Right. New body. Different physics. Great." He tried again, slower this time. Step. Then another step. His legs responded, but there was a strange looseness to them, like he was wearing someone else's proportions. His arms felt lighter than they should, his steps quieter than they had any right to be. After a few minutes of pacing around the cave, moving forward, backward, and side to side, he started to feel it click, just a little. His center of mass was lower now.

His body wanted to move in quicker, sharper movements, like he was darting around instead of striding. He continued to experiment. He crouched. His knees folded easily, the position comfortable in a way it'd never been in his old body. From the crouch, he hopped sideways. The landing was clumsy, but less so than before. His toes gripped the rock better than shoes ever had.

"Okay," he said under his breath.

"What do I know about goblins? Nothing for sure." Gideon thought back to everything about goblins from Earth. Goblins in the books and games he'd read or played had relied on their quick movement to escape threats. It seemed to be the same here. At least that made some sense to him right now. Next he tried a short sprint from one cave wall to the other. The first attempt nearly ended with his face in the rock, but he twisted at the last second, shoulder-checking the stone instead.

"Ow, goddammit." The second attempt was smoother. By the third, he could feel his body aligning with the motion, each step lighter, more sure. He bounced on the balls of his feet, testing his balance "I can work with this," he decided.

"I got the shit end of the stick, but it's workable." He paused before grumbling quieter, "Has to be." Something on the ground near where he'd woken eventually caught his eye. He walked over and picked up the small leather bag, his fingers fumbling slightly on the knot, and opened it. Inside he found a few items: a waterskin, a handful of dried meat strips, and a plain sharp looking dagger in a cracked leather sheath.

"Starter kit," he muttered.

"Thanks, System. Very generous." He even managed to tell himself he didn't sound sarcastic.

"Better than nothing, at least." He shrugged to himself as he tied the waterskin to his rope belt, tucked the meat back into the bag, and slid the dagger through the rope with the hilt within easy reach. It looked like standard low-level gear. There was no ornamentation, no telltale enchantment glow, just steel and leather. The weight felt decent in his hand, but unfamiliar. Later. He'd test it later.

First things first. He had other things to check on. He sank down cross-legged near the cave wall, angled so he could see both the entrance and the interior.

"Alright," he said quietly.

"Let's see how bad my situation really is." He searched for a moment for a way to call up the System screen he had seen in that white void. He eventually noticed a small slightly pulsing notification in the corner of his vision. He focused on it, willing it to open. A screen appeared in front of his eyes, crisp and clean. [Congratulations! You have been randomly assigned the Race: Goblin.] Gideon stared at that line for a long second.

"Congratulations," he repeated flatly.

"Yeah. Thanks so much. I sure am feeling very celebrated right now." He pushed down his frustration and kept reading. Goblin Racial Bonus: Goblin Agility Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Goblin Agility: +2 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, –1 Strength Unique Perk Assigned: Miscast Miscast: Your Spells sometimes seem to be cast incorrectly. Spells cost slightly more Mana to cast. [Please assign your Stat Points.] [Currently available Stat Points: 7] [Proceed to Stat Allocation] The last line was blinking slightly, so he mentally selected it. He waited for a moment for the screen to shift. Name: Gideon Race: Goblin Level: 1 Resource Pools: Health: 10/10 | Stamina: 10/10 (+1/10 mins) | Mana: 10/10 (+2/10 mins) Stats: Strength: 0 | Constitution: 1 | Dexterity: 3 | Intelligence: 1 | Wisdom: 2 Points Available: 7 He grimaced. Seeing it in plain numbers hurt.

"Strength zero. Constitution one. Awesome," he muttered.

"Literal gremlin with the strength and durability to match. I'll die if a stiff breeze looks at me the wrong way." He decided that Strength was a lost cause in the long run, but that it would probably still be useful to put a few points into it at the lower levels. He wasn't going to be overpowering anyone anytime soon in this body. But for now, he needed to not die from one bad hit and not collapse after jogging ten steps. He eyed the resource pools. Health ten was a joke. Stamina ten wasn't much better.

Mana at ten was… not great, but interesting perhaps? The presence of Mana as a resource and the description of his Miscast Perk told him he would likely be able to cast some Spells. He found himself getting excited at the prospect of real life magical abilities, but forced it down quickly. It would only be good if his Spells didn't suck.

"Relax Gideon," he told himself.

"Data first." He dropped one point into Constitution, and watched as his Health immediately ticked up. Health: 20/20"Good. Looks like ten Health per point of Constitution. And still no regen listed," he muttered.

"So I have to assume that it's natural recovery only. Need to test that." He pulled the dagger from his belt, took a breath, and before he could second guess himself, dragged the edge lightly across the outside of his forearm. He gasped as a thin line of blood welled up. His Health dipped. Health: 19/20 He watched the wound and the number. A few short minutes crawled by, and the cut slowly closed; the last trace of the thin red line on his arm vanished. Health: 20/20"Slow regen on small wounds.

Big ones probably don't auto-fix. Good to know." He put a second point into Constitution. Health: 30/30"Thirty. That's better. Still squishy, but less 'die to a breeze' squishy." Next was Strength. He pushed one point in. Nothing visible changed on the screen before him.

"Figures," he muttered. He thought about it for a moment.

"Ten is likely the bare minimum. I probably have to get my Strength to two before something changes. Let's try again." He put another point into Strength and saw his Stamina value shift before his eyes. Stamina: 20/20 (+2/10 mins) He nodded.

"So. Strength feeds Stamina, as well as its regeneration. Constitution feeds Health. Cool cool cool. It all makes sense so far." Gideon found that the logic of this world calmed him down somewhat. Three points left. He tapped his chin thoughtfully and looked at his Intelligence at one, and Wisdom at two, then compared it to his Mana and Mana Regen. Mana: 10/10 (+2/10 mins)"If I follow the pattern, then Intelligence likely affects the total Mana, and Wisdom affects Mana Regen. Let's test it and confirm."

He tapped Intelligence once. Mana: 20/20 (+2/10 mins) He nodded to himself and placed the final two points into Intelligence. More Mana would likely be more useful than slightly better regeneration. Mana: 40/40 (+2/10 mins)"Yep. Intelligence for the pool, and Wisdom for the regen." As he placed the last point he had available, the screen floating before him recalibrated and arranged itself cleanly.

[Status] Name: Gideon Race: Goblin Level: 1 Resource Pools: Health: 30/30 | Stamina: 20/20 (+2/10 mins) | Mana: 40/40 (+2/10 mins) Stats: Strength: 2 | Constitution: 3 | Dexterity: 3 | Intelligence: 4 | Wisdom: 2 Skills: Quick Feet (Level 1) Climbing (Level 1) Stealth (Level 1) Dagger Proficiency (Level 1) Identify (Level 1) Mana Manipulation (Passive) Earth Affinity (Passive) Perks: Goblin Agility [Racial]: (+2 DEX, +1 WIS, -1 STR) Miscast Spells: Pebble Toss [Tier 1 – Level 1 – 0%] Stone Chip [Tier 1 – Level 1 – 0%] Stone Tap [Tier 1 – Level 1 – 0%] Grain Shift [Tier 1 – Level 1 – 0%] He looked over everything twice, then focused on his Skills, mentally expanding each Skill entry, and reading them carefully.

Quick Feet (Level 1): You may expend Stamina to temporarily increase your speed. Maximum speed scales with Dexterity. Climbing (Level 1): You may expend Stamina to temporarily make climbing easier and faster. Maximum speed scales with Strength. Stealth (Level 1): You are naturally quieter and harder to notice. Scales with Dexterity and level. Dagger Proficiency (Level 1): You fight effectively with light blades, increasing accuracy and damage.

Identify (Level 1): You can inspect other creatures, seeing basic information such as Health, Mana, and Stamina. Only works on creatures two or fewer levels above you. Mana Manipulation (Passive): You have the ability to manipulate Mana to cast spells. Earth Affinity (Passive): You have an affinity with the element of Earth. He moved on to the Spell descriptions next, doing the same thing as before. Pebble Toss: Launch a small rock at high speed toward a target. Range: 50 feet. Cost: 10 Mana.

Stone Chip: Splinter a small flake of rock from a nearby surface. Range: Touch. Cost: 5 Mana. Stone Tap: Create a faint tapping sound from nearby stone, revealing cracks, hollows, and weak points. Range: 20 feet. Cost: 5 Mana. Grain Shift: Shift loose earth or the grain of stone, moving a small amount of material or weakening solid surfaces. Range: 20 feet. Cost: 10 Mana. Gideon grinned to himself.

"Just like a game," he said to himself.

"This could just be okay after all."