In a goblin tribe that resembled a garbage dump, several hundred goblins, all ugly and about half the size of an average human, formed a circle. Their greedy eyes were locked on a wild boar they had just captured, and they gulped hungrily as they stared at it.
Their hunger made them eager to leap forward and tear into the boar, but the towering figure of the boar's protector, the tribe's leader, held them back. The goblin leader was far taller than the others, standing at nearly the height of a human. For goblins under a meter tall, he was a giant. Not only was he tall, but he was also unusually fat, with a round belly bulging full of fat, a classic case of someone suffering from all three high conditions: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol.
"Burp!"
The goblin leader, hunched over the boar, devoured it hungrily. When only half of the boar remained, he let out a loud burp and staggered toward the only building in the tribe, a thatched hut.
He collapsed onto it, and within moments, the sounds of loud snoring filled the air, like the whistle signaling the end of lunch at a cafeteria. Without the leader's presence, the goblins could no longer hold back. They rushed forward, tearing at the half-eaten boar in a frenzy.
In no time, the boar was completely devoured, leaving only a skeletal frame. The goblins, now satisfied, scattered around, finding places to lie down and sleep, adopting an "eat and rest" mindset, content with their fleeting feast.
When all the goblins had fallen asleep, goblin infants crawled out from various corners, greedily licking the pig's blood mixed with mud.
"This won't do. I need to find another way out!"
One of the goblin infants, watching his fellow goblins gnaw at the dirt, thought to himself.
This goblin's name was Lysander Hawke, a human from Blue Star. A week ago, he had died of a heart attack after a late-night gaming session of Mount & Blade, just before he could unite the continent in the game. He had then transmigrated to this new world and became a goblin in a fantasy setting.
Upon realizing he had turned into a goblin, Lysander Hawke was distraught, especially when he discovered that the adult goblins had casually abandoned him, their infant, by the roadside, like garbage. This crushed his spirit even more.
In this unknown, primitive forest, he felt helpless. Even if he were an adult goblin, he didn't have much hope of surviving.
Just as he was about to give up and start over, the game Mount & Blade, which had been the cause of his death, turned into a system that accompanied him to this new world. It granted him three attribute points at the very start.
Lysander Hawke sat up in shock, immediately allocating all three points into
his vitality attribute.
In Mount & Blade 2, vitality not only increased the effectiveness of using one-handed swords, two-handed swords, and polearms, but it also literally increased one's "vitality," which helped him survive the harshest early days as a goblin infant.
For a long time after that, Lysander Hawke lay low in the weeds, barely surviving by eating grass. He observed the adult goblins from a distance and noticed that while they sometimes brought in prey, no one ever shared any with him, the pitiful infant goblin.
Moreover, there were no female goblins in the tribe, which piqued Lysander Hawke's curiosity. Without females, where did he come from?
Then, one day, he saw an adult goblin returning from a hunt, bringing back a female animal. This sight deeply shocked the young Lysander Hawke.
What shocked him even more was that one day, when the hunting party failed to catch any prey, they turned on each other and started eating one of their own! The helpless goblin infants were the first to be devoured!
This made Lysander Hawke realize that goblins were heartless creatures with no sense of kinship, and he was now more certain than ever that he would only be able to rely on himself.
Now, fourteen days had passed since Lysander Hawke arrived in this new world. He had survived by eating roadside weeds, and he discovered that goblins had an incredibly short growth cycle. In just fourteen days, he was about to become an adult goblin, at least gaining the ability to stand and walk.
Lysander Hawke stared at the wild boar's skeletal remains, deep in thought. He lowered his head and began searching the ground. After a short while, he picked up a stone.
He walked over to the boar's skeleton, aimed at its tusks, and started hammering away. Before long, he had obtained four wild boar tusks.
"If I sharpen these with a stone, these four tusks should be enough to make four daggers. And if I can find the right branches, I could even make a long spear!"
Chirp chirp!
As he was thinking, a loud rumble came from his stomach, followed by a sharp pang of hunger.
"Damn it! I'm starving!"
Lysander Hawke clutched his stomach, his face contorted in pain. Goblins grow quickly, but their consumption of food is just as rapid. For him, living on grass alone made his hunger even worse.
"I need to eat some grass, then make weapons. After that, I'll go hunting if I can," he thought, forcing himself to think clearly despite his hunger. He quickly made a plan before heading out to find some grass to eat.
Before he left, he glanced one last time at the boar's bones. It had been picked clean—nothing but a skeletal frame remained. However, when his
eyes landed on the intact pig's leg bone, his mind suddenly sparked with an idea.
Bone marrow! There's marrow inside!
Lysander Hawke grabbed the stone and began striking the pig's leg bone. Before long, the joint was shattered, and the leg bone fell free. He dragged it away into the forest.
None of the adult goblins paid attention to what he was doing. These creatures only cared about eating and then sleeping, completely uninterested in bones they couldn't eat. However, a few goblin infants, still hungry and unable to sleep, had been eyeing him.
Driven by hunger, the goblin infants had learned to scrounge for food. They didn't dare to take from the adults, but they could easily target Lysander Hawke, a fellow infant.
A few of the goblin infants exchanged looks and silently followed Lysander Hawke into the forest.
Lysander Hawke didn't realize that he had a trail of followers. Right now, he only cared about getting away from the goblin tribe and finding a spot where he could start a fire and roast the pig's leg bone.
The goblins ate everything raw, and none of them bothered to make fires. Lysander Hawke was worried that if he made a fire, the adult goblins would view him as a threat. Plus, if they found out the bones had marrow, they'd probably try to take it from him.
The main reason, though, was that the pig's leg bone was too tough for him to break open. He had already struggled to remove the leg from the skeleton by smashing the joints. To access the marrow, he would need to cook the bone and then crack it open.
As Lysander Hawke ran, he stopped occasionally to eat some grass, trying to keep his strength up. When he felt close to passing out from low blood sugar, he reached a small valley. The wind was blowing from the direction of the goblin tribe, so starting a fire here would make it less likely for him to be detected.
Lysander Hawke lay down and rested for a while. The lack of food, combined with the physical exertion, made him dizzy. He quickly crawled like a worm and ate several handfuls of grass to regain some strength.
"Soon, I'll get to eat some roasted marrow. Hang in there, Lysander Hawke!"
Looking at the pig's leg bone he had painstakingly carried away from the goblin tribe, he swallowed hard.
He forced himself to stand, despite his dizziness, and gathered some dry twigs and leaves to make a fire pit. Then, he searched for a stick, a piece of wood, and some dry fibers from tree bark.
Using the hemp rope he had stolen from the goblin tribe, he fashioned a small bow. He was going to use a bow drill to start a fire!
This was a simple fire-starting method he had learned from watching Bear Grylls. Once the setup was complete, a notification suddenly popped into his mind.
Forging proficiency +1.
"Huh? My forging proficiency went up?"
He opened the Mount & Blade 2 skill panel in his mind and saw that his forging skill had increased from 0 to 1.
"Making something as simple as this can actually increase my forging proficiency?"
Lysander Hawke scratched his head. In Mount & Blade 2, forging skills are usually developed when the player's character is stationed in a town and then clicks on the blacksmith's shop to forge weapons. The higher the forging proficiency, the better weapons one can make. He saw that his forging skill had unlocked options for advanced skills like refining mithril and weapon enchantment.
In the original Mount & Blade, there was no such skill progression, so it seemed like the system had adapted to the new world.
Lysander Hawke's heart suddenly raced with excitement. If he could forge, then Mount & Blade's feature of recruiting soldiers might also be possible!
In Mount & Blade, players can recruit soldiers in villages and towns. If Lysander Hawke could figure out how to recruit soldiers in this world, he would have the foundation to establish himself here!
"Ke ke ke! I swear! From today on, I'm done with eating grass! I'm gonna eat meat with every meal!"
Lysander Hawke yelled triumphantly, then placed the fire-starting ember into the pile of dry twigs. The fire quickly ignited, and he immediately placed the pig's leg bone over it to roast. In no time, the bone sizzled, releasing a faintly pungent odor.
Lysander Hawke licked his lips in anticipation. Since he had been born from some unknown female creature, the only food he had ever eaten was grass. The aroma of roasted protein was making his stomach churn with hunger. His primal instincts nearly drove him mad with craving.
But he was still human at his core. He forced himself to resist the overwhelming desire to eat. The pig's leg needed more time to roast before it would be crispy enough to break apart. He pulled out the four wild boar tusks and decided to do some work on them while waiting.
Lysander Hawke found a stone and quickly began sharpening the tusks. This task was easy, since tusks weren't particularly hard, so he couldn't make them too sharp, and he was worried about breaking them.
Next, he found a suitable stick on the ground and began carefully carving out a notch in the center of it with the tusks. He then placed the tusks inside the notch and tied them tightly with some rope. After some work, he had crafted a long spear that looked like it could snap at any moment.
The moment the spear was completed, a notification echoed in his mind.
You've forged a broken spear. Forging proficiency +1.
Lysander Hawke weighed the spear in his hand. It wasn't much, but it was something. He was more disappointed by how slow his forging proficiency was progressing. The first skill point required 25 proficiency, so it would take ages to reach that point!
He picked up the spear and walked over to the fire. By now, the pig's leg bone was nearly done roasting.
Lysander Hawke took the leg bone from the fire, gripping one end and raising it high. With a deep breath, he smashed it against a rock.
Crack!
The bone snapped in half at the spot that had been most exposed to the fire, and marrow spilled out.
Lysander Hawke's eyes turned red, and he immediately rushed over, sucking greedily at the marrow. The fat and nutrients flooded his stomach, bringing such intense satisfaction that he almost rolled his eyes in bliss.
"Ah! I'm a carnivore!"
Lysander Hawke shouted in excitement. The pain of eating grass for half a month was finally healed by the animal fat in this moment!
He quickly devoured the marrow from one piece of the leg bone and was about to grab the other half when he heard the sound of branches snapping. He looked up and saw eight half-grown goblins walking toward him. Their green, hungry eyes gleamed as they fixated on the pig's bone in Lysander Hawke's hand.