Chapter 2: Goblin
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 2: Goblin
“Kee-reuk… Hey… Open your eyes…”
“Hey? You okay? Kee-reuk…”
At the sound of the voices, my eyes shot open. I stared up at the sky.
“Water…”
The voice that came from my lips sounded more or less normal. No, more importantly…
I’m not dead? Was it all a dream?… Where’s Choi Seulgi? Where is she?
I lifted my head slightly, and a flood of scenery entered my vision. Someone must have heard me, because I felt the sensation of cold water being splashed on my face.
But before I even registered the water on my skin, I felt the cold liquid slide down my throat. A refreshing coolness spread from my mouth throughout my entire body, as if it were waking every single cell within me.
It was only natural that I shot up in an instant.
“Kee-reuk!”
As I bolted upright, a green-faced goblin shrieked in surprise and fell backward. The monster was holding a gourd filled with water. Without a second thought, I lunged at the monster, snatched the gourd, and began to drink greedily. I had no idea why a goblin was trying to wake me, but strangely, it didn't feel threatening. Perhaps it was because I had read a hint of concern in its eyes.
Normally, I would have been startled enough to swing my sword or run for my life. But maybe because I had collapsed from running endlessly, my body was screaming at me to drink, ignoring all else.
Strength flooded into my hands, which should have been powerless. I lifted the gourd I’d stolen from the monster and shoved it toward my throat.
Water. Water…
It was clean water, the first I’d had in a very, very long time. The sound of my own gulping had never sounded so satisfying. It might sound funny, but it felt like a clogged drain finally clearing. I was so frantic that I didn't even have the presence of mind to care about the water spilling down the sides of my mouth.
Once the urgent fire in my throat was quenched, I lowered the gourd for a moment. In the little water that remained, my face was faintly reflected. A green-faced goblin. It was unmistakably the face of a goblin.
“Ugh… Aaargh!”
Only then did I understand the source of the unease I’d felt earlier. Startled, I frantically looked around, taking in the various sights before me.
The setting was a dense, overgrown forest. It was definitely the same ‘forest’ where I had spent the ‘Tutorial.’ As I looked around with astonished eyes, an old-looking goblin spoke to me. It was a language I shouldn't have been able to understand, yet it was clearly being translated in my head.
“Where… is this…”
“Kee-reuk… Looks like you’re finally awake… Tsk… Kids these days have no manners.”
“…”
“Do you not remember how you ended up here?”
“…”
“I don’t know why, but it seems we’ve all been dropped in some strange place… Kee-reuk… That voice that suddenly echoed in my ears… Do you really not remember? I’m sure… I thought I heard a voice say, ‘This is the Tutorial…’”
Before I opened my eyes again, I was definitely ‘human.’ I slowly raised a hand, and sure enough, a green hand greeted me. A very small hand. Have I really become a goblin? I wondered. The goblins’ ‘language,’ which I should not have been able to hear, was now pounding clearly in my ears.
“Kee-reuk… Can’t you hear me?”
“I… I think I heard it too. But as for how I got here… I’m not… sure.”
Looking around, I could feel the other goblins, besides the old one, staring at me. Even with my past experience, dealing with this many goblins was definitely impossible. No, in the first place, as a fifth-rate summoner, my limit was about three goblins.
First, I needed to grasp the situation and figure out what was going on. I once again sank slowly into thought.
Having understood that I knew nothing, the old goblin slowly moved away. I once again began to slowly examine my arms and legs. I was only just realizing it, but even when I stood up straight, my line of sight was much lower than before.
My hands had sharp claws, and my feet had toenails that could not be considered human. I opened my mouth and felt my teeth; they were definitely sharp fangs.
I didn't know exactly what had happened, but one thing was certain: I had turned into a ‘monster.’ And a low-level one at that, near the very bottom of the continent’s food chain. A goblin.
The scenery around me was almost certainly the place where the ‘Tutorial’ I had experienced once before had taken place. I definitely remembered participating in the Tutorial as a human in this very place decades ago.
As I stood still for a while, looking around, the female goblin who had been holding the gourd earlier spoke to me.
“Kee-reuk… For such a handsome face, you’re pretty shameless.”
“…?”
I had no way of knowing what part of me she found handsome, but she was definitely looking at me as she spoke.
“I even brought you water, and not a single word of thanks…”
As a former human, I couldn't tell what kind of expression the goblin was making, but she seemed to be glaring at me. Come to think of it, I also wondered how I knew the gender of this goblin, who looked no different from me.
It wasn't certain, but it seemed my very species had changed. Still, I couldn't just ignore the creature glaring at me, so I spoke to the goblin again.
“Sorry…”
“As long as you know… Kee-reuk.”
“Anyway, where are you from?”
“I… I don’t really remember.”
“Well… I guess that doesn’t matter. Anyway, you look fine. How about it? Want to mate with me?”
Of course not. What I saw before me was a green monster. I wasn't impotent, but there was no way I could feel that kind of emotion.
“Not right now.”
At my words, the female goblin’s face instantly turned vicious. It seemed I had said something extremely rude. From my perspective, however, her proposition itself was rude.
“Fine… Kee-reuk.”
Just as the goblin left and I was about to try and make sense of the situation again, a voice pierced my ears. Thanks to it, I was able to become a little more certain about my circumstances.
[ The Tutorial will now commence. Humans will be summoned at random locations. The safety zone will be deactivated. ]
[ The goal of the Tutorial is to survive for 100 days. ]
[ Character has been activated. ]
[ Quest window has been activated. ]
[ Quest - First Battle: You have been dragged to a strange place without reason. It may be bewildering, but survival comes first. Kill the summoned humans. (0/10) ]
“Kee-reuk… Kee-reuk… Kee-reuk…”
“What was that just now… Kee-reuk…”
The area instantly began to buzz with murmurs. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had heard the voice.
So monsters went through the same process as us.
That was the most I could infer from the current situation—no, it was almost certain. Except for the fact that humans and goblins had swapped places, the quest was identical to the one I had received during my past Tutorial. The sudden voice had thrown the area into chaos, but soon, the entire goblin group tensed up at a presence felt from the surrounding forest.
“Humans! It’s humans!!!”
“Kee-reuk… Kee-reuk… Kee-reuk!!”
Just then, a shout erupted from somewhere. On the scale of the entire continent, goblins were certainly a weak species. But that was by the [Continent’s] standards. A human who had just been summoned here and thrown into the Tutorial was fundamentally no match for a goblin.
In terms of physical abilities like strength and agility, humans actually had the upper hand. But that wasn't the problem. Humans just summoned from Earth instinctively felt fear toward things that were alien to them. Even if their physical abilities were slightly enhanced by the system’s adjustments, it was far from enough to overcome that fear.
“Kill them!!! Kill them all!!!!”
The old goblin I had seen earlier raised a crude staff and began to shout in a loud voice. In response to his cry, the goblins who appeared to be from the same tribe started running toward the source of the human presence. Even the other goblins, caught up in the atmosphere, began to run.
I watched them for a moment, lost in thought, before I too began to head toward where the humans were, just like the other goblins.
There was no time to think. I was in the Tutorial Forest. Survival came first. There was a chance I had been absurdly resurrected as a monster, but I couldn't live like a fucking idiot again. If the Tutorial for humans and goblins was really that similar, then completing the quest was an absolute must.
I felt no reluctance. In my past life, I had killed fellow humans countless times just to survive.
As soon as I pushed through the woods, I saw a group of humans. A few held shields and swords provided for the Tutorial, but they were rusty iron swords with chipped blades and wooden shields that looked like they would shatter at any moment—things that could hardly be called weapons. Some were even bare-handed.
“What… the hell is this… Dammit… Dammit!!!”
“Aaaaaaah!!! Help me. Please, help me.”
“It’s a monster. Shit…”
“The men should be stepping forward!”
“Hey, you! You go fight. You have a sword and shield, don’t you?”
Even in this body, I can understand human speech. As expected, they were in a state of panic. Goblins holding daggers descended upon the flustered humans. I too watched for an opening and charged in. We had the advantage, it was true, but I had no intention of dying to a stray blade.
Besides, the quest required a total of 10 kills. It wasn't a number I could reach just by blindly rushing in.
“Kill them! Kill the humans!”
One goblin charged forward, leaped into the air, and plunged its dagger into the neck of an unknown human. I thought it would be a difficult sight to watch, but surprisingly, I felt nothing.
I had expected it, but it seemed my way of thinking had also changed a little. As soon as the man with the sword and shield fell, what little formation they had collapsed in an instant. People who couldn't overcome their fear started to run. It would have been better for their survival to stay together as a group. Those who broke away from the pack like that were almost one hundred percent certain to die in this forest.
I approached the corpses of the goblins who had been killed by stray swords, picked up their daggers, and began to throw them at the humans. There was no point wasting time on the front line. The most I could face at once was one opponent.
The daggers felt a little awkward because of my different hand size, but they flew true, embedding themselves squarely in the foreheads of the humans.
There was no need to cross swords when my physical abilities were poor. Simply throwing daggers from the back was enough to turn the tide of battle.
“Uwaaaaah!!!”
“Watch out for the daggers!!”
“Aaaaaargh!!!”
“Run!! Run!!!!!”
I started by targeting the ones who were holding their ground, and one by one, they fell, affecting the humans around them and causing them to crumble. It was a short time, but by the time I thought I had taken down about eight humans on my own, most of them were rolling on the ground.
Some goblin groups, thinking the fight was over, went to chase the humans who had fled. I could even see some eating humans alive.
I knew for certain. The battle was over.
“Food. It’s food! Kee-reuk… Kee-reuk!!”
The goblins began to devour the humans with glee. I was about to turn my head away when a fragrant scent wafted over. I found myself staring at the goblins happily surrounding the human corpses.
I’m hungry. Fuck…
The smell of truly delicious meat kept making my nostrils flare. It was raw, un-cooked human flesh. It should have been disgusting, but watching the others eat with such relish, I felt my own gorge rise, not with revulsion, but with something else.
Then I happened to see one of the faces. A man lay there with a dagger in his neck, his large eyes wide open as if in disbelief at his own empty death.
I stared at him, drool trickling from my mouth. Suddenly, I realized his face was incredibly familiar.
It was faint, but I couldn't help but remember. Because the person lying here now was a comrade who had gone through the Tutorial with me decades ago, a summoner who, upon entering the continent, would come to be known as the ‘Swordsman of Twilight.’
What the hell is going on…
No matter how I looked, it was definitely the Swordsman of Twilight I knew. I couldn't help but feel that things had taken a very, very strange turn.