He lay against the wall, his small, wiry chest heaving. The adrenaline from the kill was fading, replaced by a cold, penetrating ache and a profound, gnawing hunger. It was a physical demand, more intense than any craving he'd ever felt as a human. His new goblin stomach gurgled, a wet, demanding sound in the oppressive silence.
Focus. He forced the hunger down. You have a new skill. Use it.
He crawled back to the corpse of the [Rot-Skin Goblin]. The body was already beginning to smell worse, a sickly-sweet odor of decay accelerating. He reached out a trembling, clawed hand.
'Scavenge.'
[Activating Skill: Scavenge (Lvl 1). Target: [Rot-Skin Goblin (Corpse)].]
[Perception Check (8) vs. Target Difficulty (5)... Success!]
Unlike the clean, menu-based looting he'd read about, the skill was distressingly tactile. He felt a sudden, intuitive knowledge guide his hands. He knew where to rip, what to pull.
His fingers, suddenly more deft, tore at the creature's tattered rag. He found a small, sharp-edged rock hidden in a fold. He plunged his claws into the goblin's chest cavity, the feeling of popping ribs and tearing sinew sending a wave of nausea through his human-wired mind. His goblin instincts, however, were... unbothered.
His fingers closed around something hard. He pulled it out. It was a small, dull, greyish stone, pulsing with a faint, sickly energy.
[Scavenge Complete. You have obtained the following:]
[Diseased Rag (Junk)] x 1
[Cracked Goblin Tooth (Junk)] x 1
[Tainted Goblin Meat (Poor)] x 2
[Core Fragment (Tainted)] x 1
His eyes, now slightly more accustomed to the gloom, fixed on the items displayed in the blue window. Most of it was, as the skill implied, junk. But the last two items sparked his interest.
[Tainted Goblin Meat]. His stomach clenched painfully. It was food. But 'Tainted'?
He crawled over to the first body—the one that had been dead when he awoke. It was colder, stiffer.
'Scavenge.'
[Activating Skill: Scavenge (Lvl 1). Target: [Goblin (Corpse)].]
[Perception Check (8) vs. Target Difficulty (4)... Success!]
[You have obtained the following:]
[Tattered Loincloth (Junk)] x 1
[Goblin Meat (Poor)] x 3
[Broken Bone Shard (Junk)] x 2
This one had no 'Core Fragment' and its meat wasn't 'Tainted'. It seemed the [Rot-Skin Goblin] was an anomaly.
He looked at the two piles of... items. The hunger was now a physical pain. He knew, with primal certainty, that if he didn't eat, his 6 points of Stamina would start to drop.
He picked up a piece of the [Goblin Meat (Poor)]. It was dark, stringy, and slick with cold blood. The smell was rank. As a human, he would have retched. As a goblin, his mouth... watered.
This was the first true test. He closed his eyes, shut down his human disgust, and bit down.
The texture was horrific. It was tough, chewy, and tasted like iron and mildew. But as he forced it down his throat, a System notification appeared.
[You have consumed [Goblin Meat (Poor)].]
[Stamina +0.1. Vitality minutely restored.]
[Your body is adapting to its new environment.]
He ate all three pieces, his movements becoming more frantic, less human. It was disgusting, but it was survival. The gnawing pain in his stomach subsided to a dull ache.
He was alive. He was fed. Now, he needed information.
He stood up, his Level 2 body feeling marginally stronger. He had 3 Mana points. The fight had cost him 1.5. He'd need to wait for it to regenerate. He focused on his new items.
'Appraisal' on the [Core Fragment (Tainted)].
[System: Mana Cost: 1. Target acquired.]
[Core Fragment (Tainted) (Material)]
Rank: F-rank
Description: A small, crystallized fragment of energy from a 1st Evolution monster. This fragment has been corrupted by Cave Rot.
Use: Can be consumed for a small, rapid boost of EXP (Risk: Disease) or used in primitive crafting.
EXP. The word was a siren's call. But the risk was obvious. He was already in a diseased den. He pocketed the fragment in the [Tattered Loincloth] he'd scavenged, tying it around his waist as a makeshift belt. He was a Scavenger. He didn't throw anything away.
Now, the environment.
He was in a small, roughly circular cave. It was a dead end, the only opening a low, narrow tunnel that he had been "born" at the back of. The air was moving, a faint, foul draft coming from that tunnel. It meant this wasn't a sealed room. It meant... things could get in. And he could get out.
The [Cowardice] passive flared, making his knees feel weak. He suppressed it. His 12 Intelligence was his weapon. A weapon had to be wielded.
Light. I need light.
His goblin eyes were better than a human's, but it was still 'dim light' at best. He began to systematically scan the walls, his new 8-point Perception at work. The walls were just... rock.
'Appraisal.'
[Damp Cave Wall (Common)]
Description: Stone. Wet. Covered in [Cave Slime (Inedible)].*
Useless. He scanned the floor. Piles of... he didn't want to know. Refuse. Bones. Filth.
'Appraisal.'
[Puddle of Stagnant Water (Hazard)]
Description: Unfit for consumption. High probability of inducing [Cave Rot (Disease)].*
He made a mental note: Do not drink the water.
He continued his search, meticulous, driven by the analytical mind of a reader who knew the rules of these worlds. There is always a starting resource.
In a dark, damp corner, almost hidden behind a jutting rock, he saw it. A tiny, faint pinprick of pale blue light. It wasn't a reflection. It was alive.
He crept closer. It was a mushroom. A small, rubbery-looking fungus, the size of his thumb, glowing with a soft, ethereal luminescence.
'Appraisal.'
[System: Mana Cost: 1. Target acquired. Current Mana: 1/3]
[Glow-Cap Shroom (Lesser) (Utility)]
Rank: F-rank
Description: A common bioluminescent fungus found in deep, damp caves. It emits a constant, dim light.
Use 1 (Edible): Can be consumed. Provides no nutritional value, but is not poisonous.
Use 2 (Material): If crushed into a paste, the glowing enzymes act as a [Mild Antiseptic].
He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. This was it. This was treasure.
It wasn't a sword. It wasn't a powerful spell. It was light and medicine. For a [Field Scavenger], this was a gold mine.
He carefully harvested the [Glow-Cap Shroom]. The moment his claws touched it, the System chimed.
[Due to your Class [Field Scavenger], your skill [Scavenge] has gained passive EXP from harvesting a useful material.]
[Skill: [Scavenge (Lvl 1)] -> 5% EXP]
So, his class didn't just take things. It learned from gathering.
He looked back at the darkness of the den. It was no longer a lightless void. It was a resource node. He spent the next ten minutes scouring every inch of the small cave. He found four more [Glow-Cap Shrooms].
He carried them to the back of the cave, to the small, slightly raised alcove where he had awakened. He crushed one, rubbing the cool, glowing paste on the small cuts he'd gotten from the fight. It stung, but it was a clean sting. He placed the other three around the alcove.
The small space was instantly transformed. It was no longer a pitch-black nightmare. It was a tiny, defensible hovel, bathed in a dim, watery blue light. It was his.
He sat down, his back against the stone, and finally allowed himself to take stock.
Okay. He was a goblin. He was Level 2. He was F-rank, the absolute "Warrior Level" bottom of the food chain. He had a dual-progression System that was, so far, proving to be incredibly stingy but logical. His [Field Scavenger] class was already paying dividends, leveraging his Intelligence and Perception.
He had a base. He had a (disgusting) food source. He had light and a mild antiseptic.
He was still wearing a [Diseased Rag]. He still only had 4 Strength. His only weapon was [Junk Tossing] and whatever trash he could find. His [Cowardice] passive was a constant, itchy debuff on his mind.
And he could hear them.
Now that the adrenaline was gone, his 8-Point Perception was picking up new sounds from the tunnel. The wet skittering he'd heard before. And... a faint, distant snarl. The guttural click-clack of goblin-speech, but not a language he could understand.
He was in a nest. Or a den. A goblin colony.
He was just one of many. And the one he'd killed... the [Rot-Skin Goblin]... it implied disease. Sickness. Desperation.
This isn't a stable, happy goblin tribe, he realized, a cold dread seeping into him. This is a dying one.
That made it so much more dangerous.
He looked at his Status screen, his mind, the mind of a Cameroonian bookworm, already formulating a plan.
[STATUS]
Name: (Unnamed)
Race: Goblin (Lesser)
Level: 2 (8/20 EXP)
Class: Field Scavenger (F-Rank) (Lvl 1 -> 8% EXP)
Title: [None]
[ATTRIBUTES]
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Stamina: 6
Intelligence: 12
Perception: 8
Mana: 3 (Regenerating... 1.5/3)
[MONSTER EVOLUTION]
Stage: 1st Evolution (Standard Monster)
Next Evolution (2nd): 0.2%
Innate Ability (Race): [Cowardice (Passive)]
He needed to get stronger. Level 2 was nothing. He needed to understand this [Monster Evolution] path and how it worked. He needed better junk for [Junk Tossing].
And to do that, he would have to leave his tiny, glowing blue alcove. He would have to venture into the darkness, into the nest of his own, miserable kind.