Within the crowd of goblins, a pair of eyes met Stark's. It slowly walked up to a feeble-looking creature at the corner of the cave. A pair of yellow eyes met another set of similarly colored eyes. Its nose twitched before turning around leaving the area.
Stark exhaled in relief but felt his throat dry seeing another goblin walk up. It met his eyes, twitched its nose, and walked off. He blinked. He raised a pale veiny arm up and smelled under his pits. He did not smell bad. At least for a goblin, he shouldn't. Why did they just walk off? The same scenario kept happening over and over. His fear molded into confusion under the series of identical and odd events.
The goblin who had visited him first came back. In its arms was a thing dripping blood. All the goblins' focus was directed to the flesh drool uncontrollably dripping out of their mouths but turned to look at Stark and quieted down. It placed the flesh into a pair of pale arms.
Stark looked down at the gift and eyed the goblin in even more bewilderment. It made some noise which he instinctively thought told him to eat it. He picked the gift up with his hands. A rabbit-like creature, covered in mossy fur. He opened his mouth, took a bite, and looked at the goblin. The corner of its mouth curled up, showing an array of rotten yellow teeth.
A strange thought entered his mind and he said, "Cute." He smiled back at the goblin. Another goblin came bearing a gift. Then another and another. A pile of meat, leaves, berries, and twigs were all piled up in front of him.
He stood up, towering over the 3 feet tall goblins by afoot. They all moved away from him looking up at him, eyes containing what might be awe. Does size matter in goblin society?
Stark saw multiple entrances leading deeper underground. He went in the opposite direction. Light peeked out from the distance and he joyfully ran to it. Outside was a familiar but slightly different environment. The sounds of ruffling leaves and chirping birds surrounded him. Above was a clear blue sky, where flocks of unfamiliar birds drifted in the warm breeze. Unlike the dungeon with one look, he was able to find over a dozen distinct species of plants bearing fruits of varying colors. A broken world had another name, a dead world, but this did not at all seem to be the truth. Stark could feel the vitality of mana densely flowing around, nourishing all the creatures that called this place their home. Maybe this place was not as bad as he had thought.
He made a quick scan of the surroundings. Carefully, he walked up to a nearby tree, gripped the trunk and slowly made his way up reaching out to grab a pearly blue fruit. Saliva trickled out of the corner of his mouth as he sunk his yellow teeth into the tender flesh of the fruit. He instantly began to shove his tongue back into his mouth, trying to lather it with saliva. No wonder there were so many of these fruits. They were meant to trick idiots like him into eating it. His long tongue danced sporadically in the air until he convinced himself that the taste of the cursed fruit was gone.
Stark had walked around shoving everything he could find into his mouth. A rock? Eat it. A suspicious blue worm? Cover it with a leaf and swallow. A new world with a lot of new species, maybe one of them will cause some interesting side effects. He was a little worried about being a goblin but people can turn into slimes and turn back into humans, so why couldn't he? At least that is what he has been telling himself.
Night fell and unfortunately, he did not gain anything miraculous other than a full stomach. He found some large leaves and stacked them in an open space in the cave. The cold air blew past his feet, making him curl up, trying to get every part of himself under the protection of the leaf.
The sun arrived and he felt the movement of the goblins. He picked a group and followed them from the affair. Using the nearby trees as cover. They carried a bowl-shaped leaf and walked to a stream flowing down from the mountain tops. Numerous goblins stood quietly in line waiting to fill their bowl and have a drink. Despite their animalistic grunts, there was a clear sense of organization, like children waiting in line for food from the cafeteria. Stark sighed, they really were somewhat cute.
Within the ambiance of the surroundings, a melodias hum echoed through the thickets of the forest. As though in a trance the goblins dropped their leaves and began walking down the river. Streams from the nearby mountain ranges gathered making a river that could be crossed in a step-wide river widened to where one would have to swim to get across. From the distance, there was another river merging into a lake.
Stark squinted his eyes, not believing what he was seeing. Within the clear turquoise, a black creature swayed its body atop the skeleton of a giant horned turtle. Orange-colored dorsal fins traveled down the center of its humanoid upper body down to a serpentine tail. It had a repulsive scowl with a row of teeth that made goblins look like they used toothpaste. The entrancing hum came from the creature. A goblin mermaid?
He looked around, it was not just goblins. Hundreds of other creatures that had a vague resemblance to the other world's wildlife gathered around the lake in a trance. A bird with 2 heads flapped its transparent wings. With each flap its water droplets gathered around it, reflecting the light around it. Rainbows weaved through the droplets, making a glorious sphere of rainbow. Snap! In an instant, the creature that put diamonds to shame disappeared. The black carefully chewed. With a wave of its finger, a ball of water floated from the lake which it carefully sipped with its meal.
Another monster, this time it was a rabbit. It hopped into the air and kicked again. The air rippled with a brilliant orange. It leaped again forming another ripple. The white rabbit jumped around, while the black mermaid watched. It squinted its eyes in dissatisfaction and gestured at another rabbit. Soon the area was lit in a display of a dozen rabbits dancing in the air, unhindered by gravity each forming a ripple of their own unique color. Then the same tragedy. Snap! All 12 of them were gone. The creature, carefully chewed, took a little longer this time.
One after another, the mermaid monster made each one of the creatures put on a show before rewarding them with a trip to its stomach. Stark softly stepped back but felt the pure white spheres on the creature on him. There were no irises but his body could feel the pressure on him. The monster seemed to smile, looking amused.
Stark turned into a sprint. He took rapid breaths through his gritted teeth. That thing was looking down on him. He stopped to take a breath. From the corner of his eyes, he saw movement. He brought the hand to his face. He uncrumpled the animal, it was a spider. His eyes opened in surprise.
Stark Nelson 12, Class: None
Species: Human?
Strength: 16 Vitality: 13
Mind: 45 Sense: 12
Agility: 17
Mana: 900
Was his stats always like this? He smiled to himself. No wonder, he had checked too early last time. For a dungeon core that had E-rank monsters, he should have improved at least this much considering this. He must not have noticed either because he was malnourished or it was because he had checked before his transformation was complete. Stark had a smile mimicking the black mermaid. That look wanting to toy with its food when looking at him. He had never seen that expression on someone's face before but he knew one thing. It really made him want to kill it. Maybe if Stark had seen Kwan's face after he left he would feel the same way about him.
Stark looked around the forest. There were just so many things for him to eat. He would feel guilty if he killed it only for the core, but he really wanted to kill it. The image of the goblins giving him food came to his mind. Stark thrust his hand. The splattered corpse of a lizard was in his hand. He took out its mana crystal and swallowed it.
[You have gained, Bark Lizard Bark Grip: The bark lizard's feet pads can grip onto wood well, your feet have gained some of that grip]
A smile appeared on Stark's goblin face. He hummed to himself while he looked to find a goblin friend to give his gift.