Three days.

It has been three days since I died as a human.

Three days since I became this disgusting small creature with grey skin and stubby legs. I even had a huge potbelly protruding out. I am still very curious how it didn’t break this body’s balance. As an infant imp, I am below two feet in height. Unexpectedly my hands were longer than my legs, therefore even with an uneven body proportion, somehow I can walk just after the second day of my reincarnation.

It took me some time to accept the fact that I died and am now in a monster’s body. Don’t be confused, I wasn’t this calm when I woke up. Not only my vision consists of red and yellow, my metabolism and everything about me was weird. Even my d*ck was weird, in the shape of a rounded thing. When I couldn’t handle the change and started to scream in fright, the voice came out of my voice box was but a high-pitched sound that wasn’t remotely sound. I nearly broke down mentally if not for the set of characters that perpetually stayed on the corner of my vision.

From day one of my reincarnation as an imp, those characters remained the same. Immutable and unchanging. It took me some time and I am still adjusting to this new body and everything that comes with it. The race was known as Imp often found in dungeons and marshy areas where magic concentration was high, of course, this knowledge was from all the games and novels I have read throughout my life. Known to be the second weakest among all the creatures, only stronger to slimes. That’s all I know about an Imp. In addition, these creatures excel in deception and illusions.

As for the floating characters, I finally understood the secret behind the courage of those twelve people. It was because of this very thing that somehow didn’t appear before me when I was a human. Often in novels, the mc would have one of these when they travel through the world, then using it they would rise to the prominence. Until a few minutes ago I considered that bullsh*t. Now, I have to admit, those writers had a point. The status screen displayed was oddly readable despite the red and yellow vision background. It was pretty simple with nothing too outlandish… save, for one thing, I didn’t see Level mentioned in there.

There was my name, race, HP and MP(their low numbers nearly made me cry, to be honest) and then skills. Yet I didn’t see my level or an EXP bar. In its place was a new thing, Evolution Points whose usage I don’t know. There was no help button to ask about it either. after pondering for half a day, I finally gave up on thinking more about it. There were bigger concerns before me than wasting my time on something I had no idea of.

The table was something like this:-

Name Alex Race(?) Infant Imp HP 20/20 MP 5/5 Attributes STR 1 AGI 0.4 INT 2 WIS 1 Evolution Points(?) 0/50 Skills Infrared Vision Lv 0 Cast Illusion Lv 0

As for those question marks, I tried to touch them thinking that it was “Help” button… well, how do you expect me to touch something that only appears in my vision and intangible?

…

After the initial shock dying out, I finally calmed down and assessed my own situation once more. Unlike before, I was no longer a human. I am now a monster in the words of people of this world, something that would be shot down the moment someone spots him. People outside would rather put an arrow in my eye rather than talk with me, hence I completely abandoned the idea of ever going out… at least for now.

However, this came with another problem altogether. A dungeon was a place where even monsters compete among each other for survival and weak would often become the prey of strong. I am just a mere infant Imp, alone and forgotten perhaps. I was, or more like this Imp was born in a hole in one of the corners of this dungeon. Since the day, I came to being inside this creature’s body; I have yet to see its “parents”. Perhaps they were dead or they might have abandoned this body’s owner… I don’t know yet.

I also found the growth rate of these monsters were extremely fast. Its only three days and I am already able to walk freely without needing the support of the wall. Precisely it was on the second day that I was able to stand and walk. After learning to walk, I didn’t dare to come out instantly. Memories of that thing were still fresh in my mind, I was afraid to encounter it again when I am in such dire straits. Towards the end of the third day however, I couldn’t sit still inside the hole anymore. Despite being a monster now, I am still, in the end, a living being. All living beings need food and so am I, despite being a mere Imp.

I felt hungry. The incorrigible famine nearly drove me insane. Now that I think about it, I haven’t eaten anything since the day I was summoned to this world. Intentionally, I cursed the parents of this Imp for their carelessness. Who leaves their baby unattained? There has to be a limit of skimping on responsibilities!

Therefore, after being forced to a corner by the hunger, I finally made up my mind to come out of the hole that was my home. Exercising enough caution, I peeked out of the opening like a squirrel, examining my surroundings. It may be because of my Infrared Vision skill, but I was able to see everything in the dark, although everything was in red and yellow, like seeing through a tinted glass. To me who was a human before, this was a little uncomfortable and hard to adjust in just three days. Nevertheless, if I want to survive in this new body, I have to adjust to everything that came with it.

Anyway, the infrared vision provided me with an excellent vision in darkness. Therefore, even though I don’t know the place, I could still make out everything around me. Outside the hole were nothing but high rising walls made of some kind of yellow light-emitting material. From my memories, the dungeon walls made from a kind of dark polished rocks. Yet from the eyes of an Imp, I can see them as yellow shining rocks.

Was there a connection?

I didn’t care at that time. My mind was gradually becoming clouded from extreme hunger as frantic thoughts invaded my head. No, not exactly thoughts… to be more precise it’s better to be called ‘intentions’. The wild nature of the Imp was taking hold of my logical mind the longer I was hungry. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before I lose complete control over my cognitive control.

It was a huge problem, which scared me a lot. Without a logical mind making logical decisions, my body would be like any other monster in the dungeon, feral and driven by primal urges. Death would be eminent before long.

…

“Ki!!?”

After walking, or to be more precise stumbling, with my stubby legs, I found myself in a long and wide hallway passage. Like the previous room, the walls here all shined bright yellow in my eyes. I could make our faint red structures in walls that resembled a lamp, probably lamps that lightened the hallway. The area around the lamp was extremely bright, I have to blink my eyes a few times to adjust to the brightness.

While exploring the hallway, I heard a weird shriek and encountered my first-ever opponent in this new world.

It was a green, short creature… well obviously taller than me who was even shorter than a human infant, baldhead, and long hooked nose. Its ears were also long extending all the way above its baldhead. It had no eyebrows and blue pupil-less eyes. Fully naked and stood at the height of a two years old kid. There was a long white stick strapped to its back. Even if I am as dumb as a brick, I could tell that thing was a blow dart pipe, a weapon common for goblins.

The thing had also spotted me when I spotted it and thus screeched at me warningly. After that, it slowly reached for the tube behind its back and aimed at me. Its intention was clear as the day. I am its prey while it was the hunter; it was as simple as that.

Cursing “fuck” in my mind several times in an instant, I tried to back away. However, the stubby legs and an infant like body structure was too much for such a complex maneuver.

Frozen!

-1 HP

As the message appeared on my field of vision, I felt a stinging sensation on my backside and fell down to the floor like a plaque. My whole body was stiff, even moving my eyes were impossible.

-1 HP

Another message popped in my eyes. The poison dart must be in effect, which was draining my HP since I didn’t have any actual defense towards the poison in the first place. I felt flurried and frantic. The fear was intense when I couldn’t move a single body part.

“Ki! Ki!” the goblin screeched once again and came closer to me. It kicked me and turned around then looked at my face with what I could interpret as mockery… or am I thinking too much? Suddenly I felt a searing pain on my head, the cause of that was the damn goblin who beat me with the white pole.

-3 HP

The damn thing didn’t stop there, it continued to beat my head, the same spot, again and again, increasing my damage rate with ever hit. I felt despair creeping up. I already had a low HP to begin with. The numbing poison had already shaved up 3 HP and now this damn thing was beating me with the pole, taking away 3 HPs every hit. At this rate, I will die in the next few minutes or seconds.

As I raced my mind to find for a solution, unaware of the fact that for some reason my mind was extremely calm even though I am in searing pain, my sight fell upon on the skills list. Aside from the infrared vision, there was another, Cast Illusion. The problem was how to use it.

Seeing my rapidly falling HP, I didn’t have any more time to consider and screamed in my mind “cast illusion”

-2 MP

Target is now trapped in an illusion for the next two minutes.

The pain stopped with the goblin stuck in a weird pose, with the pole extremely close to my head. Looking at my HP, I saw only 4 points left of my initial twenty. I secretly sighed in relief. Closed by a hair’s breadth. I rested in that pose for a second or few before wiggling out under the goblin’s stick.

Looking at the stuck thing, I tried to run away but an idea struck to me all of a sudden. My strength was 1, I don’t know how many hits it would take to kill that thing, but I have two minutes. I can at the very least try. Hence, I pulled out the white pole from its hand and started to beat the damn thing.

-2

Damage values rapidly floated above the goblin as a long red bar appeared in my field of vision. Looking at it, I understood, it was the opponent’s health bar. This goblin had an HP of 40, double than mine.

With that in mind, I started to beat it with reckless abandon, almost going in a frenzy. Not knowing how much trouble it would bring me in the near future, I only cared about killing my would-be killer.

It was the instinct of wild, the rule of the dungeon.