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When it had been formed it had been a spot to see one of the most beautiful scenes in the forest, but that was well in its past as the cliff-side was now just an eroded piece of rock covered in natural rubbish. Below the cliff-side to the left was the goblin village, which meant that this cliff used to be a popular spot for young goblins to play in, at least before the eroded-away cliff began to give away under their weight, ending up with bloody splatter decorating the cold rock 50m down. And yet currently lying on its chest on the very cliff-side was a reptilian type monster, uncaring of its dangers.

The reptilian monster was 1.7m tall and had brown, scaled skin all across its body. Plastered atop the scales was a soft cloth armour, which had no other practical use other than defence against the elements .The reptile had a humanoid figure and armour-like-scales at its major joints though, compensating for the uselessness of the cloth armour. Lying next to this reptile was a piece of thick grainy paper, atop it many letters in a weird language. The reptile had already been at this position for the whole day and the paper was nearly full: full of information about the very goblins below the cliff.

Seeing the paper almost full, the reptile decided that was enough for the day as it placed the paper into a leather bag around its waist before it set off, away from the goblin village. For the first few minutes it ran at a jogging pace, clearly trying to conserve it energy before it began sprinting at all its speed. The sprint rode the reptile past a large clearing and about 1km further before the reptilian once again slowed down to a jog. It was about an hour later when what filled the Reptilian’s vision was no longer the countless greens of the forest but rather a muddy village.

No one paid any attention to the reptilian scout as it walked in, although this made perfect sense considering within that very hour many scouts had come back. The scout walked past the mud huts arranged in a simple design, as it imagined the stories it had heard as a child. The stories of the towns filled with massive stones homes and paved pathways. Furthermore the towns had had many areas for leisure and just as many for study. It sounded almost dreamlike considering how far of a cry the village he was walking through right now was.

At the centre of the village was a big dome like building, made out of tough wood instead of mud. The scout homed in to its target, as it walked through the wooden doors of the building. Emanating a rancid odour made it the opposite of the ideal building but it mattered not as the scout walked onwards, soon finding himself in front of another wooden door albeit smaller.

The scout walked inwards to find himself surrounded by stacks of thick pages filled with writing covering every possible surface in the room. In the middle of the smallish room was a similar reptilian albeit smaller, who was furiously writing up something. Finding the piece of paper from today, the scout handed it over to the scribe who only looked up then. Seeing the title of the page, the scribe immediately placed it upon another stack of paper, each of them containing little information individually but all combining together with half the other stacks in the room to make up a surplus of information about the goblins. The remaining stacks were the same, the only difference being that they all contained information on the trolls instead…

Goblins

What had been before a largely barren village due to the low amount of goblins was now a thriving one with green mass everywhere you looked. The houses before built with mud and plants were now built out of pure wood, showing the prosperity of the village which was only furthered by the boisterous market near the centre.

It had been 3 years since the change in leadership, from the old village chieftain to Withil. A long three years at that though, since nothing had stayed the same. The old chieftain himself was no longer here to enjoy the sight; he had died mysteriously a little after publicly talking against Withil…

But on the other hand the village had prospered for as far as the eye could see, with new houses popping up, extending the boundary of the village, every day. The population had risen all the way up to 500 goblins within the 3 years, which was excellent considering the death rate in the great forest.

What was even greater was the fact that 200 of those 500 goblins were variants, to be more specific goblin warriors. A monster was original at whatever tier they started at, and so for goblins it would be at low tier 1. Therefore they would become a variant if they broke past that boundary. This meant that evolved goblins were high variants, and the village currently had around 200 variants: all versed in the brutality of battle.

The current village held no resemblance to the old one, the difference being like night and day!

Goblins-Krakov POV

It felt like the sun was baking the ground underneath my feet as I hoped from place to place, in a hurry to get to morning classes. Morning classes were made up of warming up and some sparring, it was nothing too difficult even though the bruises I was coming home with each day was only increasing. It was the afternoon classes I really hated! I had heard in the past before I was born that there had only been morning classes which used to be very different to the ones we had now, but now we had afternoon classes on top which were the terror of any sane goblin. That of course was just me, since all the others were insane!

I slid through the sea of green bobbling heads and violent jostling, only to find my place after bumping into too many goblins. Just in time as well as I watched the instructor for the day walk over to the fields.

While he walked over, the crowd around me quietened down very quick as soon as they saw who it was. The Goblin walking over was 1.8m tall and gave clear authority of power and strength. This was because of how the goblin’s muscles were clearly oversized for his body, making him look monstrous although they also helped clearly distinguishing himself as a special high variant. Of course this was Captain Roger, who not only was a high variant but also part of the Karx which only made it more confusing why he was here right now.

The Karx were the most powerful goblins in the village, whether it be in authority or battle strength. The Karx consisted of: Captain Roger, who was stronger than any of the other high variants by miles but in fact the weakest of the Karx; Chieftain Withil, who was perhaps the most authoritive due to his command of the village; Absinthe, who was the only female goblin on the list but also the creepiest one; Demon Damon, who needed no explanation for why he was on the list and Gregal, the strongest goblin.

We started our routine while Captain Roger watched us, his eagle eyes unwilling to let any slip up get away. Although I doubted he would catch many errors at this stage, after all we have only been doing this training for every day for however many years we had been alive for.

In fact we had repeated these actions so many times that they were so ingrained within my mind that I couldn’t help but losing my focus. Instead my mind wandered off onto a day that no one would be able to forget: the day Gregal returned.

I don’t know much about it but I’ve heard he was one of the forefathers of this village, which only makes the day he returned even more important. Apparently the goblins here had migrated from somewhere as a group of 10 which included Gregal and the old chieftain, although only Gregal survived till now. He had been one of the forefathers of the village but for some reason had left for such a long time. It wasn’t till just a year ago that he returned, and what followed his return was a legendary fight with Damon…

And Damon lost…

Perhaps the goblins in the village had just forgotten Gregal’s strength but Damon’s loss caused a major upset in the crowd. I had watched the fight but was barely able to follow any of it, though what I did catch was Gregal’s comment to Damon after the fight:

“Learn to use your mana kid. There are better ways of using it than just by powering up muscles…”

No one saw the fights after that but I had heard Damon eventually beat Gregal. And this had all happened a year ago! I’m sure only the other Karx know up to what stage of strength both Damon and Gregal were at by now!

Nowadays both of them were barely seen in the village. But when they did come back, it would cause a large commotion as they would always come with a tier 3 monster heart! This was how all the high variants in the village had evolved, meaning that they had brought back at least 20 tier-3 monster hearts back in the past year.

At this moment, all I could imagine was myself becoming a high variant and perhaps even entering the Karx. I felt ecstasy blossom inside even as I imagined it.

With morning training finished, I was about to go to afternoon training just as Captain Roger stopped everyone.

“Listen Up you lot, I’ve got some good news for you guys”

…

He paused for effect, clearly taking lessons for public speaking from Withil.

“I have seen all of you work very hard for such a long time now, with some even going the extra mile. Now I won’t act like we don’t reward that, after all you need to work hard to survive here. So I will be choosing the ones who stood out the most as the first people to try the new “training” program made by Absinthe.

I had felt myself elevate for all of it until I fell back to Earth as I heard the word Absinthe. She never meant good news…

I heard the names being called …

“….,…..,…., Krakov,…”

... and I almost felt regret at imagining myself as one of the high variants. Why had such bad luck come my way?

The Trolls

The king ordered and we followed. Blood followed close behind, the blood of weaklings and of our enemies. Before we had been nothing in the system; now we were the tyrants ruling the forest.

The king was truly great, a blessing by a God for sure. He had ensured that we no longer some mediocre race but rather one meant to dominate.

The king had trained his own troops, each of them an elite. They had in turn created law and order for the King while he directed more of his time to greater deeds. No one dared to go against the elites and no one would want to, considering all the weaklings who went against the king were already dead.

In front of us right now was a true monster, the Bloody Tiger. Its stripes were the colour of blood and seeing one meant you would be bleeding to death within the next second. This was no surprise considering this monster was mid-tier 4.

Dragging it by its crushed skull was a greater monster, our King. His appearance after evolution was even more regal than it had been before, the exact image of death as any monster that saw him would be dead within the next second. This was no surprise considering that this monster was the troll king, OUR KING!