The goblins' appearance shattered my respect for life and spirit of philanthropy in one clean blow.
Yellowish teeth, a twisted face, a long hooked nose, and yellowish drool.
It was the kind of look that could extinguish even a millennium of love.
And the facial features that only awkwardly mimicked a human's made it all the more revolting.
Like something imitating humanity without actually being human.
To put it bluntly, it was as repulsive as a giant centipede or earwig.
'And their personalities seem to match their looks.'
I peeked out again to check on the goblins.
Squeak! Squeak, squeak!
"Kikikik!"
The three goblins were huddled in the corner, toying with a rat.
They jabbed at its body with twigs, just enough to keep it from dying outright.
It almost looked like kids messing around with bugs.
The difference was how they relished it, even as the rat writhed in agony and soaked itself in blood.
"Kiheek! Kiheek!"
"Kekekeke!"
In this world, smiling so innocently while prodding a dying rat.
It was the kind of grin that could haunt your nightmares.
As the rat's reactions grew feeble, the goblins seemed to lose interest and stabbed it dead.
Then they started rummaging around, as if hunting for a new plaything.
'I get why novels have heroes slaughtering monsters on sight without a second thought.'
No one could feel sympathy for creatures like that—not even me.
Tormenting and killing living beings purely for amusement, with no instinct involved.
That line of thinking drew my eyes to the wooden clubs scattered nearby.
A consideration before fighting the goblins—pick up a weapon, perhaps?
Sorry, but that might suit a warrior. For me, it was utterly unnecessary.
"Magic Missile."
Thud!
"Keeeek!"
The spell shot from my fingertip and nailed one goblin.
It struck right at the temple, sending the creature crashing down with a scream.
"Kerruk!? Kehehek!"
"Kiii!"
The remaining two spotted me as their comrade fell and split their mouths in wide grins.
Maybe it was my imagination, but they looked thrilled—like they'd found a new toy to replace the rat.
Irritation surged through me as I shouted again.
"Magic Missile!"
Thump!
"Kiiiik!"
Another one took a direct hit to the chest and went down.
The last charged straight at me without even glancing at its fallen buddy.
It was quick on its feet, but I'd kept plenty of distance—no issue at all.
The thing never even got close before my spell sent it tumbling backward.
"Combat really is all about distance."
Stay safe yourself while raining threats on the enemy.
That's the true essence of playing a mage.
Someone might whine that it's cowardly, but the dead only have loser's regrets to offer.
"Keuruk...!"
"Hm? Still alive?"
I turned at the death rattle to find two goblins twitching.
Looking closer, both were hanging on—except the one I'd headshot.
I finished them off cleanly with one more shot each.
In the process, I got a solid read on Magic Missile's power.
'Roughly the impact of swinging a baseball bat with everything you've got.'
A headshot kills, but a gut or chest hit might let them survive if they're lucky.
Arm or leg? Just a break.
Against monsters tougher than humans, it probably wouldn't do much.
But I already knew the fix for that.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Tutorial Quest
A dry voice delivered the most beautiful news right in my ear.
I opened my Status Window, and sure enough, there was a new "Undistributed Points" entry.
Without hesitation, I dumped the point into my Magic Power stat, bringing it to 11.
After all, every spell's power scaled directly with Magic Power.
'This'll boost the damage a bit, but it's no real fix.'
No matter how much I pump Magic Power, I can't overcome the spell's inherent limits.
The true solution was learning higher-level magic.
And conveniently, someone who could teach me was right nearby.
[Who are you? It's dangerous here—the goblins have nested in these ruins. You'd best escape quickly. ...What? You handled them with magic? Astonishing. To take them down with mere basic magic. You've got real potential. Why not learn magic from me?]
These were the job instructor NPCs who showed up after your first fight.
A grizzled veteran for warriors, a wise sage for mages.
In the game, you could learn skill mechanics and unlock advanced skills from them.
It should've been just a bit farther ahead, after finishing the battle.
'Oh, there it is.'
The narrow passage opened into a wider space.
An old man sat there, robed and staff in hand—clearly a mage by anyone's measure.
As I approached, the elderly mage cried out in surprise.
"Hu, astonishing. To take them down with mere basic magic."
"...Pardon?"
"You've got real potential. How about learning magic from m—"
"W-wait just a moment, please."
I waved him off, cutting through the sudden dialogue.
The mage tilted his head, looking utterly baffled.
"What's the matter?"
"Do you even know what I killed?"
"What do you mean? Goblins, of co—"
The mage clamped his mouth shut mid-sentence.
He'd finally caught on.
I'd never once mentioned goblins.
After rolling his eyes around for a moment, the mage let out an exaggerated cough.
"Ahem, ahem! There are only goblins as monsters around here, you see! So I inferred it!"
"Ah, I see."
"Exactly! In any case, taking them down with mere basic magic...!"
"I never said I used magic, though?"
"..."
"..."
A heavy silence settled over the cramped space.
I crossed my arms and quietly waited for the mage's next line.
He sweated bullets, eyes darting every which way.
About a minute later, he managed an awkward smile.
"Could we... start over from the beginning?"
"No."
"..."
"It's already ruined. I know the whole script—let's just skip it."
"...Damn it."
Unlike his sage-like appearance, the mage had a filthy mouth.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"In any case! You seem to have real potential."
"You planning to push through that script?"
"Eh? I don't hear a thing."
This old coot was tougher than he looked.
Script in tatters, and he still wouldn't quit.
"Anyway, come learn magic from me."
"Pardon? Normally you'd ask if I want to learn..."
"Ah, so you don't want to?"
"No, I do. I need to."
I came all this way for that, after all.
At my firm confirmation, the mage let out a sigh of relief and slumped down.
"If only you'd said so sooner—timing's everything, you know."
"I didn't do anything. If anything, you flailed around solo..."
"Ahem! Ahehem!"
Whenever things turned against him, he'd flee into fake coughs.
Truth be told, it was amusing enough that I'd almost said I wasn't interested—just to mess with him.
But if he actually refused to teach, it'd be a headache.
"Then, shall we start right now? The sooner you learn, the better."
"Mind if I ask a few questions first?"
"What is it?"
"Am I stuck here until I learn all the magic?"
From memory, the skill-learning sequence dragged on with endless exposition.
Goblin-clearing took minutes in-game but real time here.
Learning skills would take even longer, no doubt.
So what about food? Or the bathroom?
"Not at all. You could've left anytime from the start."
"Anytime?"
"Do you remember how you got here?"
"Through the Dimensional Gate... Ah."
Right. Just open another Dimensional Gate to leave.
So simple, in hindsight.
Embarrassing how I'd read the "gate closed" message as "go forward."
The choices had been there all along.
"Why ask? Planning to leave now?"
"Not now, but I can't stay here forever."
"Fair enough. If you're tired, head back, rest up, and return. I'll be here straight through for three days."
Reopening the gate links both sides to the last location.
Knowing I could come and go anytime eased my mind.
"That all your questions?"
"No, one more."
"What? Out with it."
"What exactly is the apocalypse?"
A scripted NPC wouldn't field a question like that.
But this was a thinking, reasoning human.
No reason not to ask what that "apocalypse" of his really meant.
Yet the mage just tilted his head, as if the question baffled him.
"What do you mean, what is it? Don't you already know?"
"Pardon?"
"You knew of my existence, didn't you? It's the same thing."
So the apocalypse matched the game's internal lore?
I rummaged through my memories of World Rebuild's setting once more.
'World Rebuild is about raising characters in a world that's already been destroyed... Wait, destroyed world?'
A sudden hypothesis clicked into place.
A destroyed world implied there had once been a thriving one.
But the game never showed any undestroyed world—not once.
World Rebuild was set entirely in the aftermath.
As if to confirm my theory, the mage spoke up.
"In three days, your world will fall."
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