The final sound Elias ever heard was the screech of tires and the sickening crunch of metal. In his twenty-one years on Earth, he'd been a mediocre student, a decent amateur gamer, and a devoted older brother. He had been, in short, profoundly normal. His death, however, felt less like an end and more like a violent, abrupt transfer.
His consciousness was a swirling vortex of pain, regret, and utter blackness. Then, a voice, vast and resonant, like stone scraping stone, echoed through the void:
"Soul 734-Alpha, designated 'Elias Vance.' Your life-thread has been severed prematurely. As per Protocol 99-Omega, you shall be assigned to a new world: Aerthos. You are granted a unique, high-risk, high-reward vessel. May your existence be… entertaining."
The voice faded, replaced by the damp, earthy smell of moss and the sound of frantic, high-pitched squeaking.
Elias tried to open his eyes, but they were already open, tiny and black, blinking rapidly against the gloom. He was lying in a wet, narrow cavity, surrounded by the rough, pink-skinned bodies of what looked like oversized, newborn rats.
He tried to scream, but the sound that escaped him was a high-pitched, "Greeb!"
Panic seized him. He struggled to sit up, his limbs short, disproportionately long-fingered, and covered in smooth, olive-green skin. He looked at his hands his new hands and then, frantically, he rubbed the back of his head. He felt two small, pointed ears.
I'm a… a goblin? The realization hit him with the force of a battering ram. He, Elias Vance, was now one of the weakest, most reviled monsters in any fantasy world.
"No, no, no, this is a joke!" he tried to shout. "I was supposed to be a hero! A wizard! Not a… a greeb!"
A tiny, scrawny figure, scarcely larger than a squirrel and also green, scuttled toward him, chattering excitedly in the grating, guttural language Elias somehow instinctively understood. This was his mother.
A sudden, sharp sting pulsed behind his eyes. It wasn't pain, but a rush of data, like a computer boot-up sequence initiating deep in his mind.
A translucent blue window, like a magical projection, flickered into existence before him.
STATUS
Attribute value
Name: Grib (Goblin designation)
Race: Goblin (Newborn)
Level: 1 (0/100 EXP)
Title: Reincarnated Apex
HP: 10/10
MP: 5/5
STR: 2
DEX: 3
CON: 2
INT: 10 (Anomaly)
WIS: 10 (Anomaly)
Unique Skill: APEX CONSUMPTION (S-Rank)
You are the ultimate biological predator. To Level Up, you must consume the flesh and organs of creatures you have personally slain.
Every creature consumed has a chance to grant you one of its innate skills or unique biological attributes.
Consumption is required for all experience gains.
Elias or Grib, as the system called him stared at the screen. Ten points in Intelligence and Wisdom were the only signs of his human mind, an impossible anomaly for a newborn goblin. But the rest… two points of strength, two points of constitution. He was weaker than a housecat.
And I have to eat things I kill to get stronger? I have to cannibalize the world's creatures? The thought made his stomach churn with very human revulsion. But then he looked at his goblin mother, whose eyes held only simple, animalistic hunger, and the tiny, terrified mewls of his siblings.
This was no video game. This was Aerthos, a world of powerful races: Elves of the ancient forests, Mermaids of the sapphire seas, proud Humans in their stone kingdoms, terrifying Demons from the Underworld, and the majestic Dragons of the peaks.
And he, a Level 1 goblin, was their meat.
Survival, he thought, trumps disgust.