CH 5

I made an unexpected discovery, I found a river.

I found a watering hole.

That’s good.

Except, there are natives ahead.

They were goblins, child-like creature that barks and swarm and did lots of harm.

(So these guys are the source of the smell)

I knew they reek, but I didn’t know it’s this bad. It might be because of my heightened senses, but the smell makes my nose turn.

When I saw the goblins in the flesh for the first time, I was struck by their filthiness, and how much they are different from fantasy. It is rather common in porn videos where women are attacked by men dressed as goblin, but in this situation, it’s no longer realistic.

Some people may like it but there should be a limit.

In addition, with the development of weapons and armor around each country, their threat level was gradually decreased and, in the Empire, their limited in cases where crops are destroyed and it was limited on the countryside. Also, there is no way a woman would wander around the dangerous place where she would run into a monster. It is more realistic to encounter a dangerous situation while walking alone in the depth of the night. However, if they are led by a higher species like an ogre or an intelligent magical beast, that’s a different story.

Even back then, in some country, a carriage that is being transported was attacked by goblins led by a n ogre and the female passenger was terribly hurt.

They’re a little too smart to be ignored.

I gently removed my luggage and with a light-hearted attitude, greet them with [Hello, Please die]. In a matter of minutes, fifteen goblins were reduce to mere lump of flesh. In the first place they about half of a forward-leaning me. With their height of only 120cm the physical disparity and violence is enough to settle the matter.

I was so large that I had to hold back on beating them as they make those “Popping sounds” when hit them with my fist. I have high resistance against gore so I don’t really mind it. I even tried to used my tail against one of goblin and it was thrown up to a height of the tree, It fell on it’s head and broke it’s neck, resulting to an instant death. I’m still getting used on having a tail, but I’m excited to see what I can do with this.

Now that I got the water source under control without any trouble, I took a dip but it’s not very deep, about a knee deep even on the deepest part. The water is very clear that I can see the fishes at the bottom. I’m pretty surprised to find such clean river inside the Empire and the smell of it is not strange, It seems that this river isn’t “Heavily polluted”.

I’m not particularly thirsty, so I just washed by body and my bloody knuckles and take a few sip.

(There’s nothing wrong with the smell or taste and the water looks so clean)

All I can hope for is that I didn’t get hungry, for I don’t know what will happen to my body if I did get hungry. If I can drink this, water would be less of my worries, leaving me worrying for food. I looked at the dead bodies of the goblins that are around the river and pondered what to with them. I suddenly wondered “Are goblin meat edible” But goblin stinks so there’s really no need to eat them even more so now that my sense are better. I wouldn’t eat it even in an emergency and I can’t think of any use for it to the point that I ask myself what would I do with it.

I threw one of the corpses into the river and observed for a while, I found out that the fishes are biting on it, so I guess I won’t have problems on disposing it. But I don’t want to cause a water pollution.

(I can use this a fishing bait)

Unfortunately, I don’t have a hook, Line or even a rod. It looks like their good for as scattering bait.

I can’t leave the disposal of these corpses to the river, so I threw half of them into the distance. I’m pretty sure that wild beast and insect would take care of it.

Then I tore a piece of goblin into small pieces and threw it into the river then set mi eyes unto the fishes that gathered. With my hand formed like I was about to pierce something. I aimed and thrust it against the fishes, but with no success. After some trial and error, I found that it’s best to keep my palm open and scoop them out of the river. I felt little sad that I was becoming more like a wild animal, but still humans are animal. Therefore, it’s not something to be ashamed of. If I don’t do this, I wouldn’t be able to do it.

It’s not just the environment, even my body is changing. I want to praise myself for not losing it.

I moved my luggage to a place where there’s no scent from the goblins and make my camp for the day. I want to use a roofed structure as my base but as it is, my best hope would be a cave. I don’t even want to go near to what looks like a goblin dwelling that is made of wood and leaves because of the foul smell and there’s no way that my large body can enter it.

[I wish there’s a safe place to take shelter somewhere, ] I thought, but there’s no way that there would be any structure that would be in a decent condition after 200 years, so I wonder If I should consider making one myself. Although, even if I can get the building materials, where am I going to get the tools?

(I never played a survival game from scratch, didn’t I?)

It reminds me of a certain game that was popular in the Empire back then when I was still a human. There’s always people playing the game in any given time, and it was common to wait 10 hours to make reservation. As a student back then, there’s no way that I’ll be able to play it and I didn’t even get information out of it.

Even though it was only a game, I regretted a little bit that I should have played it because I could have learned the basic of survival.

(It’s no used crying over spilled milk, I guess. Tomorrow onward I’ll be exploring the river. Whether this is an east river or a west one would decide our course of action)

If we go up the river, we would eventually reach Canaan Kingdom, But I don’t have a good idea for on the issue of human contact. I know it’s best to prepare on how to deal with them. I’m also aware that there would have been lot’s of changes from 200 years ago. For example, there would be a possibility that they developed weapons that can cut through this body. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’m not an amateur, but I know absolutely nothing when it comes to magic technology. In this case it’s best to avoid the magical country from east and west and just aim for Canaan. Canaan would also be the best place to measure the current level of technology.

The reason for this is that with the Empire is now out of the window, There’s a high chance that Canaan took over the Empire’s technology.

How much weapon they amass would naturally affect my course of action. As long as you know their strength, I would know well how well I could fight. In other word I need to know the information regarding their technology to create counter-measure and increase my survivability.

As for magic, My apologies on that.

I’m afraid that I might be put to sleep and then put on a freak show or be auctioned off. That’s why I don’t want to have any contact from people of the East and West.

(I don’t think it’s a bad idea to avoid anything to do with humans)

As a former human, I don’t want to make such choice. But, if I did get a contact this would be a big problem.

(I can’t speak properly, that’s a big problem)

When I smiled, I realized that the only language I can speak is the “Fleuretus Imperial Language”. Which is the Empires language that probably had died out already. Additionally, even if I could speak, wouldn’t it be difficult for me in this form?

The more I ponder, the more I get stuck in a trap, is that it? The more I think the more I feel like I’m in trouble.

(I’m starting to think that It’s useless to think about it)

Should I just face reality and live my life as a monster?

In that case, what would it be like?

As soon as I try to imagined it, I gave up and said that “I can’t live like that!”

As a former citizen of the Empire, I can’t imagine to live my life secluded away from civilization.

I’m sure that I’ll go insane if this goes on forever.

I can still enjoy this body if it’s for a month… but longer than that, my mind would surely break.

It goes without saying that I have to come to terms with this reality and find “something” before the time limit.

(Is it something to keep living on with this body?..)

Nothing comes to mind. I can’t think of anything, though honestly, I still think this body is very impressive.

(Ah, come to think of it, I haven’t mastered this body yet…)

With times in my hands, I decided to stop thinking and focus on practicing with this body.

The sun is about to set. Incidentally, a group of goblins arrive as it was about to get dark. So I made sure to wipe them out. They’re probably comrades of those goblins that went out to hunt. They’re still holding on to rabbit so I made sure to still it from them.

[It’s a shame the you guys don’t belong anywhere except in the porn magazines and videos.]

When I muttered those words the only voice that came out of my mouth are [gargh- ga-gar] – When will anxiety about my future human encounter disappear?

Its only been two days since I woke up, and I’m already restless to get used to this body. I regained my composure and look up to the darkening sky. I guess that’s it for the day.

I take out a match from my backpack, strike it and lit the goblin dwelling on fire. As I expected it was dry and burned easily. I stabbed the rabbit meat with a stick that I had picked up, cooked the rabbit on it and began to eat the burned part. The meat is the only thing I can taste, and to be honest, It wasn’t tasty. I tried top cook the fish in the same way and it was definitely better than the rabbit, but I still want to have salt on it.

I wasn’t feeling  particularly hungry, but by the time I finished eating as much tasteless meal that I could, the once raggedy goblin dwelling had already been burnt to ashes. There are still some houses left to use as fuel, so it might be a good idea to move around here for a while.

I grabbed my luggage and sat down at some suitable tree and rest my back on it, and then close my eyes.

I didn’t feel sleepy, but I still  need to rest my body.

____________________________________________________________________

Author’s note

About the gaming scene in the Empire.

There are no Game console for home that existed, but instead game center consoles are what existed. There are many of these kind of consoles in which it was connected using underground cables. Competitive games and coop games, as well as internet games are available on those facilities.