"How can you do this to me!?"
Young man cried out as he was dragged towards some kind of an altar.
"It is for the greater good, my son! Be of use once and stop resisting!"
The old man who stood before the altar answered in a calm voice.
"Greater good!? You people want to sacrifice me to this awful monster for nothing!"
His expression was as angry as could be, he felt all of the infairness in the world now.
He wanted to rip apart every person who dragged him there, every person who just stood and watched...
But even more than that he wanted to rip apart himself...
...
A young man suddenly woke up in the middle of the night.
"What the hell is this dream again!?"
His expression was ugly, it seemed that he had enough of such dreams.
"I swear to god, if i get a dream like that even once more i'll stop taking those pills!"
He thought as he looked at a bottle near his bed. "Happy dreams" was written on it.
It was a pill that helped patients to sleep better.
One didn't need to have a prescription for it, as no matter what one would need those.
The reason behind that is unkown, but many people had weird dreams since the change in the world.
It wasn't anything big, some weird lights started appeared here and there, as if some weird fires burned in air.
Many people tried to research them, but none could understand the reason behind such an occurence.
There were many theories, but who cared about some insane old men screaming about the end of the world?
Norn, that is the name of the young man who just stepped out of his bed, was going to the toilet now.
He was trying to be silent as he still lived with his parents as his age of 23.
It's wasn't that big of a deal considering the current economy...
As he was walking towards it he stumbled on something and was about to start cursing, but stopped himself in time.
"I hate this house, every time i walk i step on random trash"
He wasn't particularly happy about it, as it wasn't the first time it happned.
It wasn't unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night, and every time he walked around the house item placement would change.
Sometimes he was wondering if he's going insane because of it.
As he got closer to the bathroom he turned on the light inside and entered the room.
He then used the bathroom, as usual.
But, as he was about to get up, he saw a monster in the mirror.
It wasn't behind him or somewhere close to him... It was he who was the monster...
He woke up again, in his bed. First thing he did was checking if he peed in it...
To his surprise - he didn't.
"What the hell is going on today?"
It was his first time, however, as he was about to start thinking about it...
Several loud bangs ringed from somewhere in his house.
A woman screamed right afterwards. Norn didn't know what has happened, he went there to check it.
As he ran in to see what was going on he was a man lying in a pile of blood. It was his father.
On the opposite side of him was a man in a ski mask, he had a pistol in his hand.
Without thinking even for a second Norn ran towards the man.
It wasn't because he loved his father and wanted to take revenge for him, he simply wanted something exciting to happen in his life.
As he made several fast steps towards the armed man the latter pointed the gun at him.
Norn tried to dodge by wigling from side to side as he ran closer...
Sadly, he wasn't in a movie, he wasn't a hero, he wasn't even trained.
As such, a bullet hit his stomach pretty soon.
It was really painful. Norn persevered and continued going towards his target.
He was just a few steps away as another shot rang.
Norn didn't even want to know where it landed, he tried to continue walking, but in the next moment he found himself on the floor.
His eyes were still open, however he couldn't see.
As he tried to get up his vision blackened.
The last thought of his was...
"Finally"
...
In an unknown cave somewhere deep in an uninhabited land.
Several goblins stood beside a female. She was a humanoid, but was so dirty that one wouldn't be able to tell her race right away.
She screamed on top of her lungs.
Soon enough a small green something came out of her.
That something screamed as soon as it emerged.
One of the goblins, who seemed old, got closer to it.
He didn't take it in his hands. He put his head closer to it and started examining it.
It's unknown whether or not he actually knew what he was doing, but since he was the oldest here he neede to pretend that he did.
After some time he announced:
"Krankrthu Karn Kru Rkan" which meant "It's a goblin, he's alive"
Other goblins immediately started cheering like it was the best day of their lives.
Some time later they took the little goblin and placed him on top of some dried leaves and grass.
One could think that it was an improvised bed from the first glance. However, that wasn't the case.
It was just a pile of dry plants.
The little goblin never stopped screaming as he was lying there.
None of the older goblins that were in same cave cared about it.
All of them had their own things to do.
Some did strange things to seemingly dead females, some tried to fight.
Others, that were older, just observed the whole situation in the cave as they looked around.
None of them had a thought of approaching the little goblin.
After some time he finally stopped screaming. He wasn't dead, he was just sleeping.
When morning came some more goblins came to the cave.
One of them looked bigger and stronger than other goblins, he got closer to the little goblin.
"Krun Khar Nra Gor" which meant "Whose goblin is it"
Other goblins, who were seemignly afraid of the bigger one, immediately got closer and to him.
They were silent, none of them dared to speak.
"Gor Krun Ngarr Grak" which meant "It is of the elf"
Bigger goblin then started examining the goblin child.
He wasn't gentle, which made the little one scream even harder.
However, instead of changing his way the bigger goblin simply hit the child.
It started screaming even louder after that.
His solution was the same.
It lasted for several rounds, and after the child goblin lost consciousness it stopped.
The bigger goblin simply threw him back on the drier plants afterwards and went to females.
Those that currently occupied them didn't dare to stay in his way and immediately retreated after they saw him.
...
Several hours later the child goblin woke up...
"WHY THE HELL AM I STILL ALIVE!?"
It was Norn. He was now just a little goblin, he felt awful.
Not because he was in pain or because he was hungry.
He felt awful because he didn't want to be reincarnated as a goblin.
It's not like he didn't wish to be reincarnated, but he had to reincarnate in a royal family to be happy!
Or as a noble, at least. Why was he a goblin?..
Thus, his screaming earlier was a planned provocation towards the bigger goblin.
Norn wanted the goblin to kill him.
It didn't work out, maybe the goblin couldn't kill him or he thought that he did.
Norn, however, wasn't happy with the outcome.
He didn't want to be a goblin! Why would he suffer such a life again!?
He was no different from a goblin in his previous life, but now he was a real one!
After some thinking he decided to continue being an annoying piece of a goblin and scream ever louder.
Maybe he will be too annoying for others to ignore him? Maybe they will throw him away just so he would stop screaming?
It was, however, just wishful thinking from Norn's side. He was nothing more than a pathetic green thing, whether in this or in his previous life.
The only difference was his skin color.
After an unknown period of time Norn could finally walk.
First thing he did after discovering his new ability was simple as could be.
He walked. Towards the exit from the cave, he was hoping that he would stumble upon something that would kill him.
However, as he was about exit the cave one of the older goblins hit him and drag him back to the cave.
The hit wasn't hard, he simply wanted to teach him a lesson.
"Kran Kro Gok Ka" which meant "Not leave home"
He continued talking after that...
Norn, however, didn't understand a single thing that goblin said.
To him it was just a crude attempt to produce sounds from an old man.
It wasn't unusual for older people to be senile, but that goblin looked middle-aged at best.
As such, Norn thought that he actually said something, and wondered why he wasn't given some sort of a system along with his reincarnation.
In the next moment...
[Skill: [I want to speak!] added.]
"...you understand or not!?"
He actually understood the goblin as if he was speaking his native language!
That shocked Norn, but he didn't show even a bit of it on his face.
As he was about to think of a way to summon his status window or its alternative he was hit on the head by the older goblin...
"Listen, you dont go outside the cave! Say you understand!"
The old goblin was harsh, but he did that to save Norn, it was necessary.
"I understand"
Norn said in his own language, hoping that it will get translated and he doesn't get hit for nothing.
"Good! Now go wait until grow!"
The old goblin pointed at the pile that Norn was left at.
"Give food"
Norn, however, requested food from the goblin. He was hit once more.
"After grow you find food for you!"
He screamed even louder and hit him several more times.
Norn didn't think too much about it and simply ran back to his pile of plants.
After some time he said in his mind:
"Status open" Yet nothing happened.
"Status window" Once again...
"Open profile"...
"Summon Status window"...
...
"Open status window"
Name: Norn (Self-proclaimed)
Age: 0
Sex: Male
Race: Half-Goblin (5/6) Half-Elf (1/6)
Titles:
Achievements:
Skills: [I want to speak!]
Stats:
ATK: 1
DEFALL: 0
AGILITY: 1
STRENGTH: 1
ENDURANCE: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 0
MAGIC: 2
WILL: 15
SOUL: CANNOT BE READ
FATE: 0
LUCK: 9
OVERALL POWER LEVEL: 2
It finally happened. Norn saw a beautiful bluish window right before him.
It had a lot of information about him, his current stats, age, race...
It even had an "Evolution" tab above, but he couldn't access it for some reason.
Norn wasn't really happy with it.
Even if he didn't know what this world was about, he could understand that those stats were trash.
Complete and utter trash. He didn't even have a special title or a skill that would allow him to rise above the rest...
He felt bad because he was sure that this life wont be any different from his previous one.
He will be a pathetic little goblin that will beg others to feed him from time to time, and even if he succeeded in something that achievement of his will be taken by others.
Thus, he decided to wait until he grew up and find trouble as soon as possible, to end his pain.
However, after some thinking he decided to wait it out.
Maybe the system will give him something later? After all he just got his translation skill, maybe the others were delayed as well?
He still had hope deep in his mind. Whatever this reincarnation is... Maybe here he could find happiness?
It didn't matter for him if he was a goblin or a human, if he was unhappy... how does that matter?
...
Next morning came. Norn wake up and immediately noticed that something was wrong.
He was clearly bigger than before!
He opened his status window to check if something changed and...
It sure did! His strength and agility were now at 2!
It was a big deal, since it literally doubled it one night!
What if... It'll happen every night!?
He will be the strongest! Maybe it was his cheat!?
However, he understood that it was just wishful thinking from his side.
He simply grew a little, it's obvious that his stats increased because of that.
As he looked around he didn't see any goblins but the old ones, he didn't care about it as much, but still decided to ask...
"Where are others?"
He said as he got closer to one of the old goblins, he was hitting a rock with his stick.
"They hunt human for female!"
He looked at Norn with a maddened grin as he said it
Norn wanted to grin too, maybe in this life he will have better luck with women?..
He didn't feel that it was wrong doing something like that, he wasn't that good of a person even in previous life, what about now?
He was a goblin now, why would he thinking about human morals and norms?
Goblins are goblins, humans are humans.
Norn is Norn.