There were 65 of us in total, most of us would die, 5 or 6 would remain at maximum, but one would think we got all remaining 60 stones than that's a pure dream, these mana stones would occasionally be collected by adult goblins, we could only get as many as we killed, which was not unfair, but these guys were much craftier than I expected, they could just fuck around and get 60 mana stones every week, that's broken, and where does it all go? To chief of course, and that's not all, I bet we are not the only batch, there should be other newcomers too

Clever, very clever and that was not all, I would get amazed by them over and over

But for now my turn has come, I stood in front of weaponry, contemplating what to choose, I am not used to my new body yet, I never fought with weapons either, but I can't just go against blades with bare fists, after some thinking I chose a wooden shield and short sword

I blanked out for a second, monstrous cheers filled my ears, I looked around, if I did not move I would die, death, knowing it's close was a weird feeling, but I was not scared, because I was confident

The enemy chose a dagger, he held it awkwardly and he made a first move, using my blanked out state, I came back to my senses at right time and jumped, dodging his dagger which were about to cut my feet, that was a weird move, attacking feet? He's surely an amateur, I jumped and bashed my shield to his face, he staggered and screamed in pain, I cut his neck while he was confused, green blood sprouted and dyed my body

This was the first time I killed something, all I felt was excitement and anticipation for another battle, I wanted to know the extent of my prowess

Other goblins were cheering, I cut his skull open, brain matter spilled out, his gruesome corpse was not as scary as I thought it would be, my humane nature was suppressed by monstrous one, was it because I saw blood? I felt it was normal thing to do, I cut his skull open and took out light blue transparent stone, I cleared it with my own hands and green blood of the goblin was swept, it had a size of a fingernail, I put it in my loincloth and prepared for another fight

The crowd was cheering, I really wanted to fight many times but reasoning told me to stay low profile, I do not want bigger guys picking on me just because they saw me as a threat, and again I have a little information about how things work here

My next opponent held half foot long axe, he wanted to smash my wooden shield but was awfully slow, I landed a clean hit to his vital - neck yet again and he died, rolling on the ground upside down

The second win

And here comes the last one

The last one held two daggers in his hands and was visibly shaken by my performance, I felt fear from his eyes, I got annoyed, fear? So even they know fear? Is this not a bad thing? Maybe I will feel fear at some point too, and I wanted to be invincible emotional-wise. Disgrace, he is a disgrace to all goblins, goblins do not feel fear, I do not feel fear!

I rushed towards him while protecting my chest and head with shield when dagger was thrown towards me, wooden shield almost cracked, this bastard...

I raged when another dagger came flying to my direction, it pierced my shoulder and I wailed in pain, god it was painful, I was angrier as I could get, first he showed fear and destroyed my image of fearless warrior, reminding me that they could also be cowards, then he used such despicable means to wound me

Kill him!

Crowd roared and I dropped my shield, taking out dagger from my left shoulder, green blood oozed out, ignoring the pain I went after him

He ran, he was faster than I was but... he could not flee

Evil grin was displayed on my face as I slowly approached him like a god of death

Once he tried to flee he was thrown back and was lying on ground shaking in fear, I grabbed his skull and dragged him towards the center of arena and then

* Slash, slash, slash...

I repeatedly slashed with his own dagger at his hands until I tore off his own hand with my own, he wailed and screamed in pain, thrashed but it was useless, I beat him with his own severed hand, then I stomped his head, with cracking sound his skull caved in

I won, I am alive

This is nothing

I dissected his corpse and took out the third bloody mana stone, this is where I stop, not to mention my wound, I do not want to get much attention yet

I went back and watched other fights calmly along with others

I heard sound of footsteps and saw a goblin with couple of strands of hair on his bald head walking towards me, he showed me red vial and said

- Low grade healing potion, two mana stones, but since you are new I can give it to you for one

I hesitated, the wound was really painful but I did not want to spend these yet, I denied with heavy heart, despite that he cackled and said

- I watched you fight, and since I like you I can give you advice or two, of course in exchange you just have to remember me in the future

I was silent for a while and then nodded

- Come on, follow me, it's not really necessary to watch it anymore

...

- Where are we going?

I asked

- You are new and do not know but we have one older goblin who can purify mana stones and increase its quality by 2, for example if your mana stone is from level 1 monster, after his purification it will have same effect as one from level 3 monster

- Does it make difference?

- A little to be honest, but it's better to consume higher quality stones for good foundation, you might have higher chance against your peers this way

- He won't do this for free right?

- Kukuku, of course it's not free, if you pay him one stone he can purify other two for you, how about it?

Come to think of it, god really said something like that, it's more beneficial to consume mana stones from higher level monster, I will go agree for now, it sounds good to me

- Hey, many choose not to do that, right?

- Of course, it's not cheap and many do not have luxury to purify them and think of foundations, they just want to get stronger, but I think you have good potential, it would be waste for you to eat lowest grade mana stones

- I see

And I followed him for about ten minutes, I met a lot of goblins on the way, most were level 2, level 1s were also many, higher level goblins were rare to be seen but it's not like you could not find them

- Goblins rarely hunt alone

He started

- We like to group teams, but you do not have a qualification to group a team yet, once you are level 3 you can hire as many goblins as you can afford, you have to pay them 1 mana stone every month, of course if you hire level 2 goblins they require 2 mana stones per month, they will obey your orders and everything they get from battles will belong to you, except you should always pay them, or they might riot or tell higher ups

Wow, so mana stones really are currency here, their system is also cleverly made

- Say, why does nobody turn against each other and kill their kin for mana stones?

- Heh, things like that happen, but you should not get discovered, if you get suspected you will be killed by chief's guardsman, you can always go off alone and leave the tribe but it's very hard to survive easily, months might pass and you might not hunt a single mana stone, if you stay here you will have chance to earn them, we also have common enemies, we raid small nearby villages, kobolds are our nemesis and we are their nemesis, we always fight, what can you do alone? They will outnumber and kill you

- So that's why...

- Occasionally adventurers come too, they are not really strong since this place is desolate and adventurers from cities would rarely go near here, we loot them, it's so much fun, you know?

- Hmm, you guys kill guys and rape girls right?

I felt it was cruel, I had to know more about them

- Usually we do not rape them at first, we bring them back intact and auction their first time, after some time they get tossed away and can be used by everyone but chief's guardsman are rather fond of tasting girls first, we know that and they offer no less than 10 mana stone for each girl, while it's tempting to have your way with freshly hunted humans, getting stronger is much more tempting, besides there are many captured humans who we can use

Cruel, these bastards are cruel

- What if I offer more mana stones than guardsman? Will I get to have the captured girl for my own?

I was not thinking bad things okay, I just wanted to know if it was possible to save them

- Of course, but they would not like it, nobody has ever done that and probably they would become your enemy, but I think it's possible, however they have Chief's backing and it's impossible to display more mana stones than they can

- I see...

- We are here

He said and knocked on the door, the ancient wooden door opened with creaking sound and goblin hunchback which could not get any uglier opened the door, he was supporting himself with stick

- Come in

He said and we did

- He wants purified stones

Potion seller said, I asked him on the way, seems these potions can not be produced by them but adventurers have them in flocks and they looted quite a lot of them

- Oh, newbie who wants some foundations? It's rare, however I do not do things for charity, 1 mana stone for 2 purified stones deal?

He said and I gave him my three mana stones

His hands let out a blue light and visibly color of mana stones became more blue, I was amazed, how can he do that?

- Can you teach me?

I asked curiously

- Haha, teach you? It can't be taught, it's natural

Ah, what a waste

I took my two purified mana stones and gulped them down

Refreshing feeling burst in my body but I heard yell

- Idiot, you should find a secluded place to properly refine them, ah what a waste

Refine them?

And then my stomach hurt, I had hard time controlling the energy, slowly they subsided, but I felt uncomfortable for a while

- Next time you should properly refine them, now go, I do not have time to spare for likes of you

Before exiting his house I appraised him, he was level 7, his foundations should also be good, but I guess he's too old now

I said goodbye to potion seller and was left alone in this place

Where do I live?

Ah, fuck I am lost, I better ask things around, I hope I do not make enemies