It was a quiet day in the forest; you could only hear the sounds of birds chirping and the slight rustling of leaves. There stood a group of goblins, five of them celebrating a successful hunt. They had hunted down six horned rabbits, so they would get more to eat when they brought it to the base. Recently, news that another goblin tribe had been decimated was spreading across goblin communities.
The tribe had just gotten a hobgoblin leader, it could've done so well if it wasn't attacked. Because of this, other goblin tribes have been fortifying themselves more. Fewer platoons of goblins were sent out than normal, but they were composed of the more skilled members of the tribe. They were expected to bring back the same amount of food as before because of their skill level.
Recently, adventurers were stumbling across these skilled goblins, and had died. The adventurers that ran across them were all copper and bronze ranked adventurers, newbies. Goblins were neither smart nor intelligent, but these goblins were wise and experienced hunters. The goblin platoon that just caught six horned rabbits stumbled across a rising newbie in the adventurer world.
A man in a dark robe, wrapped in bandages, and wearing a creepy white mask strode through the forest, dead set on the goblins' location. The five of them prepared for battle, but then the strange man disappeared from sight. Not only that, the goblins' instincts forced them to look away; they found it suddenly hard to focus on something. A goblin screamed to the rest of the party's left.
The goblin that screamed collapsed, revealing that it had been decapitated. Another goblin yelled out, this time in the middle of the group. When its body hit the ground, it was also missing its head. Goblin after goblin cried out in pain, as they all collapsed with their heads gone. The heads that were missing began raining down as the last goblin backed away in fear.
It tripped and landed on its ass, and shuffled away from the corpses of its party. It then felt its back hit something, something furry. It turned its head in fear, and was met with a being of pure dark and death. It knew at this moment, it was already dead. The moment they even got close to it, they were all already dead. Tears and mucus streamed down the goblin's face before having its head sliced cleanly from its body.
The man, Eodum, began cleaning the aftermath of its horror movie-esque slaughter. The rat had gotten the [Disassemble] skill to help its job. The guild would pay more for already disassembled products. Eodum cleanly removed skin from muscle, and muscle from skeleton. Organs were also removed, they would buy those as well. Eodum drained the blood from all the bodies; the methods used in killing the goblins meant there was only enough for three bottles.
Eodum then began looking across the floor. It had already changed back into its rat form as it was easier to fight in this form. It was also better for its other quest, gathering pesed grass. This grass had the property of increasing the speed of the consumer. Eodum has to collect one kilogram of pesed grass, but luckily it was quite the common herb.
While collecting the pesed grass, Eodum heard roaring and hissing deeper into the forest. Eodum remembered the roaring from when it and its companion escaped the forest. What was it, and why did it sound like it was getting closer? Didn't matter, if it would be trouble, Eodum could just leave town. All it had to do was survive, that's it.
Eodum finally found it collected enough pesed grass, and pivoted to head out the forest. With that, Eodum began to walk out the forest. It eventually made it out and went towards the city gate; he was let in and made his way to do his daily routine. The roaring and hissing in the forest continued behind him. All adventurers had heard this, and some have reported it. It quickly became an issue for all beings close to the forest.
*****
'Damn them, damn those fucking humans!' The thoughts of a certain beast in the forest of monsters, Kraude. This beast had a long snake-like body, with dark green scales, and rocky protrusions coming from its flesh. It has huge eyes with yellow irises and slits for pupils. It slithered and weaved through the peninsula of the forest. Usually, it would spend its time deeper in, but it was different this time.
This snake was the basilisk Ksilisab, and it was enraged by the death of its spawn. Its child had recently died, and from what it saw, it was killed by humans. There were corpses of petrified humans and its mangled body left at the site. Ksilisab was making its way through the forest while thinking, 'And damn all these other fucking creatures as well! They come here, and kill the monsters of this forest and deplete it of its resources!'
At the moment, Ksilisab was slithering to the nearest civilization of enlightened beings. It was going towards Nomed, a city of demons and monsters. Ksilisab was going to destroy all the cities, empires, and kingdoms around. It was going to get its revenge. Monsters had been killed on its path towards the city, disturbing the local wildlife and ecosystem.
Ksilisab slithered its way through the forest, it would take a while, but eventually it would make it. Though, night seemed to be coming, for now it'd rest. It's not like the cities were going anywhere. Ksilisab came to a halt and began to curl up and coil. It tried to go to sleep, but it was difficult with the recent trauma of its lost child. Sure, it wasn't there for its childhood, but it was still its child. It could still feel rage at the loss of its life.
Ksilisab eventually dozed off. After it woke up, it began to slither and weave its way to the edge of the forest. The trees rustled as a basilisk the size of many buses came slithering past the tree line. Ksilisab's eyes focused on the city that stood before it, Nomed. Its target, its first kill. It was time for revenge. Time to kill.
*****
Eodum began to stir, the sun had risen and it was time to get up. Time to repeat the everyday routine.