The taste of earth in the mouth, unpleasant, muddy, the gritty feeling between clenched teeth caused by clumps of soil that had gotten inside. Disgusting in many ways.
However, for Krystian, the individual in question, this was not the dominant sensation in his mind. It was pain—stretching throughout his entire body, as if moments earlier he had been in a massive brawl with many people, and the injuries he had sustained were far more serious than they might appear at first glance.
"...What the fuck..."
These words were more hissed through clenched teeth than fully shouted. And although Krystian's mind registered something strange about the depth and tone of the voice that escaped his mouth, the pain covering his body did not allow him to dwell on that irregularity for long.
Krystian lay face-down in the dirt for a while longer, aching. He was disoriented. Aside from the pain, the last thing he remembered was working on the roof during renovations with his father. And then... nothing.
Despite the pain, he tried to analyze the situation—why was he lying on the ground? He did not feel grass beneath him, only soil. And if he remembered correctly, there was a lawn surrounding his house. Aside from the stone pathway leading from the front door to the gate, paved with cobblestones, there was no bare dirt. Could the fall have been so powerful? Unlikely.
Then came another sound, adding to his confusion—he heard many voices, odd ones. He hurt too much to make out exact words, but surprisingly, the voices in the background seemed to struggle with forming complete sentences. Strange.
Sounds of blows, the crackling of fire... and moans... the sounds of sex. Loud and clear. Because of that, he stood up despite the pain, not even glancing at his hands but turning his eyes immediately toward the lewd noises. What he saw shocked him, leaving him staring in disbelief for a moment.
In front of Krystian stood a tent, made of the skins of small creatures, crudely stitched together with what looked like dried brownish vines. The sun was setting, so little light reached the inside of the tent, yet just enough for Krystian to make out the back of a peculiar green-skinned humanoid... and a pair of more shapely green legs, most likely belonging to a female Goblin, dangling on either side of the male Goblin's hips.
Krystian couldn't comprehend how he had ended up in such a situation—why a pair of Goblins were copulating, and why he himself, injured and broken, had just moments before been lying on the ground outside the tent where this bizarre scene was taking place.
The pain slowly began to subside. Still dazed, Krystian instinctively wanted to rub his temples and think rationally about what had happened. But then he looked at his hands, and that froze him—not literally, but figuratively.
He stared blankly at his hands. His light-green hands. Very thin, like those of a thirteen-year-old boy. He could see bruises, but not the usual dark purple with bluish tones. Instead, they were dark gray blotches with a faint greenish tint.
"Fuck... I'm a Goblin."
Krystian looked over his body, feeling both disgusted and intrigued. His body was gaunt, teetering on the edge between sickly and just very thin.
He looked around for something reflective, anything that might show him his face. Having nothing nearby, he began touching his own features. Long, strange ears—typical of Goblins depicted in much of the pop culture of his world. They seemed about twice the size of human ears and, of course, were pointed.
His mouth, surprisingly, was proportionate to his head, aside from two tusks jutting out between his lips, even when his mouth was closed, and rows of sharp teeth that were strikingly different from a human's. Yet rather than frightening him, this gave him a strange sense of relief.
His nose was slightly pointed, and the overall shape of his skull gave him a somewhat wild look. Of course, judging by touch alone didn't give him the full picture of how he looked, but Krystian felt somewhat reassured. Apparently, Goblins in this world did not resemble the revolting monsters from the worst nightmares, but were at least somewhat acceptable to the eye—even the eye of someone who had once been human.
"Big..."
Krystian was wearing only a loincloth, a light brown piece of fabric, seemingly stitched from the hides of small animals. The stitching technique was very similar to that used in the tents—including the one where the two Goblins were having sex.
Krystian peeked under the loincloth, mainly to check if he was still male. Even though moments earlier he had looked at the legs of the female Goblin, and his own appeared more masculine, his familiarity with many fantasy pop culture universes made him want to confirm it for himself.
"Goblins have big... Never mind... interesting..."
For now, Krystian decided to ignore the subject of genitals, which seemed oddly large for such a frail body. Instead, he focused on the tracks in the dirt around him. He saw bloodstains, footprints, clear signs that a fight had taken place. Between two Goblins. Judging by the condition of his own body and the scene inside the tent beside him...
"Looks like the previous owner of this body lost a fight over a mate... or something like that. I'd better get out of here..."
From the perspective of the other Goblins in the tribe, it looked as though Krystian—after regaining consciousness—had simply stared for a long time at the rival mating with a female before his eyes. Then, after breaking down while looking over his own body, the defeated one withdrew from the village's central area. For Goblins, such situations were an everyday occurrence, part of a culture where strength and ability determined position and status in the tribal hierarchy.
Krystian, however, saw it differently. He now examined the village carefully. Its central point was a large bonfire. Around the fire stood many small and larger tents. The smaller ones, like the one he had stood before moments earlier, reminded him of the teepees used by Native Americans in the West, but made from the hides of small animals. Luckily, the colors of the hides were fairly consistent, so it didn't look like a patchwork of many different furs. From this alone, Krystian speculated that Goblins, as a weak race, could only hunt small animals.
There were also larger tents. These reminded him somewhat of small circus tents—much smaller, but with large entrances. Each was big enough to fit, depending on size, up to four cars inside.
Yet from just a glance, Krystian could see there were only three of these larger tents. One was most likely a storage tent, judging by the meat hung on racks visible through the entrance.
The second tent probably belonged to a shaman or sorcerer—hard to say which. But the paintings on the tent and the many decorations made of animal and Goblin skulls strongly suggested that the shaman theory was correct.
The last large tent in the village was most likely the chief's residence. The entrance was covered by a large piece of fabric, but judging by the decorations made of animal bones—which looked quite interesting—and by the two Goblins standing at the entrance, who, like him, wore leather bands, but whose physical strength far exceeded his and who held spears tipped with slightly rusted metal points, Krystian inferred the purpose of this tent.
Most of the Goblins in the village resembled him. Of course, their faces were different, but their gauntness was apparently caused by a shortage of food in the village, not a natural racial trait.
In contrast to the male Goblins, the women in the village looked far more aesthetically pleasing. Their faces could be described as cute—slightly ugly, but cute. Despite their thinness, their body shapes still suggested curves typical of the human tastes from Krystian's previous world. Of course, this was assuming the short stature of all Goblins, the tallest Krystian had seen being only about one meter fifty centimeters.
Krystian decided to leave cultural studies for later. For now, he moved to the edge of the village and leaned against a nearby tree. From here, he had a view of the bonfire and the tent beside which he had woken up moments earlier. Krystian wasn't sure if it had been his tent, but he had no intention of returning there just yet. He decided to observe it for a while; if the tent remained empty for a long period, it would be his. But he wasn't certain if he even wanted to live in it—or if it might be better to build a better one himself.
Krystian was still unsettled by the entire situation: how he had ended up in this body and why. He preferred not to think about it for now, so he looked for something to occupy himself. He looked at himself again, and only one idea came to mind. He needed better armor. He wasn't sure what the nights were like here or whether he would have a place to sleep. Equipping himself with basic gear was the best thing he could do.
He looked again at his loincloth, examining its texture, stitching, and trying to figure out what kind of animal it had been made from. But more than that, he focused on the stitching connecting the pieces of hide. He wanted to understand how it had been made and learn to replicate it himself once he had the materials.
However, as he stared at the stitches, a semi-transparent screen with a faint green tint appeared before his eyes. Krystian knew exactly what it meant and, with excitement, looked at the contents of the semi-transparent green screen.
----
Item Status
Name: Leather Hip Band
Material: Horned Rabbit Skin
Class: Common Item
Category: Protective Clothing (Lower Body)
Item Condition
Lightly worn (signs of wear, leather is abraded in places, but still functional)
Properties:
Provides limited protection against cold and minor abrasions.
Lightweight and does not restrict movement.
----------------
The smile on Goblin Krystian's lips widened considerably—he had a System. It seemed quite simple, although it was a system window that didn't provide any significant information, aside from the material from which the loincloth he was wearing had been made.
Seeing many similar hides—both in the clothing accessories of the tribe members and in the materials used to make the tents—he understood that Horned Rabbits must be the main source of meat and hides for the tribe. This was important information. However, putting that aside for now, Krystian tried to check other functions of the System by saying certain names aloud.
"Gacha, inventory, missions… nothing… status…"
After saying the last word, a new semi-transparent screen appeared before Krystian's eyes, and the previous one containing information about the loincloth disappeared.
-------
Status
Name: Krystian Warcrow
Race: Black Forest Goblin [level 10/level 100] (+5% hiding in darkness)
Bloodline: Goblin ♂ × Human Female ♀
(+2% faster learning of basic skills)
Title: Member of the Goblin Tribe
(+2% acceptance among goblins, -10% respect from other races)
Power Level (MP): 12
Skills
Running (level 3/100):
Hiding (level 4/100): Concealment in shadows and simple surroundings.
Eating raw meat (level 5/100): Natural stomach resistance to unprocessed food.
Evolution(Potential Evolution (upon reaching level 100):
Black Forest Hobgoblin (base, no additional requirements)
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At first, Krystian's smile faded drastically—there were no stat points, no magic points, no health points. Almost nothing to monitor his physical aspects, which could have motivated him to improve more specific traits of himself.
However, the status, despite its apparent simplicity, provided him with quite a lot of information—such as the location he was in: "Black Forest." While this information wasn't useful at the moment, it could become important in the future.
The Bloodline slightly piqued his interest. Visually, he did not differ significantly from the other male Goblins. So, if the male is a Goblin, children born from a female of any race would likely also be Goblins. He speculated that if he were a hybrid of a human and a Goblin, the race field would indicate such. However, the information about the bonus he had due to his biological mother was truly important.
And the fact that, since his mother was human, somewhere in the village there must be human females. Speculating that he had not yet seen any children, there was probably a place where human women were kept and where Goblin children were located—some cave or a separate tent he hadn't noticed.
His only title: "Member of the Goblin Tribe." This also provided meaningful information. Goblins were not liked in this world. Clearly, their nature and approach to many things were not widely accepted. However, this would require more observation, though this clue was significant.
Power Levels, representing the general strength of a being numerically. He had no examples yet, but from observing his own body, he understood that this number would not be high.
His three skills were nothing special; they seemed like abilities he had gained unintentionally, through living in the tribe.
The last aspect, Evolution—he saw only one option: Hobgoblin of the Black Forest. It seemed natural, but Krystian sensed there had to be more to it. He would check that in the future.
For now, Krystian decided to search for materials to create basic tools and weapons. He didn't want to disturb his fellow tribe members, but considering his current state, he wanted at least to secure a place to live and develop.