Inspecting his status, Kryzen thought about which stats he should raise first. The Self-Inspection window said that the curse could be dispelled if he had 30 or more intelligence. So, he decided to raise the intelligence stat first.

He didn’t want to hear the stupid voice shouting in his head every time he used the system. Even though he could resist it, it was still very troublesome and made him feel sick, knowing he was being controlled by someone else.

If the stat really did raise his intelligence then maybe it would help him in future decisions.

‘What if the mage who cast the curse detects it though? Wouldn’t I be found out?’

Kryzen paused upon thinking that but then he remembered that the curse was low-level curse and plus it wasn’t like there was an active link between him and the mage who cast it…maybe.

‘Let’s not overthink this, the creepy voice needs to go and I’ll get out of this shithole before anyone notices anything wrong.’

Looking at his status, Kryzen didn’t see any arrow marks for increasing his stats so he called out to the system,

“System I want to increase my stats.”

The status window transformed and a plus sign appeared next to the stats along with the number of his points below it.

…

Attributes

Strength: 5 [+]

Dexterity: 7 [+]

Physique: 10 [+]

Perception: 5 [+]

Intelligence: 25 [+]

Energy: 3

Points: 660000

…

‘Hmm simple enough.’

Just as Kryzen was about to add a point to Intelligence a new window popped up in front of him.

…

Notice:

Once a stat has been upgraded the changes made cannot be reverted i.e. changes made are permanent.

…

Reading the notice Kryzen became a little cautious. He reminded himself that this wasn’t a game but real life. There was no save option which he could use to start all over again if he made a mistake.

He would have to be careful when increasing his stats. Increasing his intelligence was his first priority since it would help in dispelling the curse. After upgrading intelligence to 30 he would then take some time and think about how he would proceed further.

Kryzen then used the plus sign to increase his intelligence stat. Upon adding one point to intelligence his Total points immediately decreased by thousand. He paused for a second and proceeded to add points till his intelligence stat reached 30.

He felt as if a mysterious shackle was removed and his mind felt clearer. Oddly enough he didn’t feel smarter or anything but it probably needs a lot of stat points to notice any real change.

Now he should probably check if the curse was dispelled. According to the system 30 intelligence and above automatically dispelled the curse. Kryzen exited the windows and called them back and this time there was no voice or pressure on him.

‘It worked. That’s good, now back to the status screen.’

Looking at his status, Kryzen became confused and a little overwhelmed. He couldn’t undo any changes and this put him under quite the pressure. Decision making was never his strong suit but there was no better time to bring positive changes to himself the in a new life.

Looking at his current status excluding his Intelligence which was quite high the other stats were more normal. His physique and dexterity were higher then the rest which went along the lines of gremlins being faster and tougher.

His strength and perception were on the low and his charm wasn’t worth mentioning considering he as an ugly little gremlin.

The energy stat was interesting as he couldn’t increase it and he guessed it was similar to mana in games though he couldn’t be sure.

Kryzen figured that there was no point in increasing his intelligence any more as there were little chances, he would gain access to any magic during his stay in the mines. The most useful stats were the physical stats such as strength, dexterity and physique.

For starters Kryzen decided to raise all his physical stats to a round ten. When he started with strength, he was surprised to find that the amount of points deducted for each increase as only a meagre hundred points.

This was the same for dexterity as well it only took a hundred points for each stat point. Unlike with intelligence, the changes made by the physical stats were noticeable immediately.

A warm current flowed through his body empowering him. Flexing his arms, Kryzen was in awe at the feeling of power. It wasn’t much but it was still an improvement. Growing excited he decided to bring his strength, dexterity and physique to 30 making them equal to intelligence.

When increasing the stats this time, Kryzen noted that cost this time was 1000 points. He surmised that as his stats become higher the points required to upgrade them also increased.

‘You would think they teach important stuff like this at school.’

Kryzen sighed realizing that such knowledge is probably taught but since he was prisoner/miner gremlin he was never graced with basics.

After all the enhancements to his stats were made Kryzen took a look at his points. He had 594200 points left. Kryzen decided against further upgrading his stats. All the points he had now were the result of more then 3 years of hard work of his predecessor.

He only gained 500 points a day fulfilling his mining quota which would be nowhere near enough in the future if the points needed to increase a single stat increased. Right now, his current stats were more then enough for him to mine and meet his daily quota without tiring himself.

He could spend his free time coming up with a plan to get out of the mines. The memories couldn’t provide him with enough information so he decided to get up and go explore the mines.

Maybe he could find a secret passage out of here if he was lucky. He just had to be careful not to tread into the territories of the other species especially those nasty goblins. The guards were undead who care much as long as he didn’t do anything too suspicious.

Kryzen went out of the Gremlin’s dwelling and passed the undead guards who paid no attention. Instead of going to the usual mining tunnels this time he made a turn and walked towards the ‘junction’ point in the mines.

The junction was a big area where the tunnels connected to from each species dwelling. Normally no gremlin would dare come here as it was too risky because if they were caught by the goblins death and misery is what would await them.

The gremlins were safe so long as they stuck to their territory as the guards would deter the other species but the junction was where their protection or deterrence stopped.

The undead could care less about the deaths in the junction. If anything, it was an easy way to reduce the population of a certain species in case it was becoming too crowded.

As long as Kryzen was a little stealthy then he wouldn’t attract the attention of any of the monsters and he could explore to his heart’s content. This was made easier by his increased stats.

Kryzen’s big ears twitched as he heard a scream of a gremlin in the distance. He disregarded being stealthy and rushed towards the area where the scream came from, it was close to where the gremlins tunnels meet the junction.

Arriving there he saw a few gremlins standing around with scared expressions while looking forward. He walked past them and saw a pair of goblins beating up a gremlin.

Kryzen grew alarmed as he realized it was the same gremlin that he met earlier today. It was the small gremlin that worried he died and brought aid when he transmigrated. Kryzen didn’t know what happened and how the poor gremlin came to such a state but he couldn’t tolerate it any longer.

He felt a deep anger arising within him seeing a fellow gremlin being attacked. Looking around he could see the same anger in the other gremlins but it was dominated by a more prevalent emotion, fear.

The goblins were stronger and bigger than the gremlins and they could do nothing when faced against them. At least that was the case for the average gremlin but not him. With his high stats he was confident he could take on the two goblins.

Just to be sure though he decided to sneak up behind them in order to launch a sneak attack. The two goblins were too focussed on beating up the smaller gremlin that they didn’t notice his approach.

As he was lurking towards them, Kryzen took in their appearances. The goblins looked like the traditional goblins in most video games and fantasy stories. Green, ugly, small and truly very ugly. Kryzen bet their charm stats were in the negative.

The goblins were only beating up the small gremlin with the intention to inflict pain and not to kill him…yet.

With their focus on their victim Kryzen approached the smaller one of the goblins and lunged at his neck and used his claws to attack its defenceless neck. To his surprise his claws met little resistance and he easily ripped out the throat of the goblin.

Green blood splashed on his face as Kryzen pushed away the body and looked at the other goblin. It was surprised at the sudden attack but then it let out a shout and recklessly charged towards Kryzen.

Feeling the blood on his face Kryzen, instead of being scared he felt a searing anger instead, bloodlust filled him as he waited for the remaining goblin to him. The goblin took a wild swing at him but Kryzen stood still and simply grabbed its arm.

The goblin looked shocked that a gremlin of all things stopped its fists but it didn’t last long enough as Kryzen lifted it up and slammed it on the ground. He then let out a growl as he pounced on it and proceeded to rip its head of with his claws.

Blood splashed everywhere as he took it a step further and mauled the dead body of the goblin while shouting angrily at the top of his lungs. After a while he calmed down and took deep breaths.

Kryzen looked at the mangled body before him but he didn’t feel fear nor disgust. He looked up as he heard noises coming from a distant tunnel. The noises must have attracted a group of goblins.

Looking around he saw the few gremlins staring at him in awe and then he turned and stared at the half-conscious gremlin lying on the floor. Kryzen shouted at the gremlins,

“What are you looking at? Take him and go back to the tunnels.”

The gremlins came out of their stupor and hurriedly followed his commands and took the small gremlin and carried him back to the gremlin dwelling. Kryzen looked towards the goblin tunnels and saw a group of goblins coming out.

They spotted him and ran towards the site of the battle but stopped some distance away looking at Kryzen and the bodies of the goblins. There were five goblins and from his earlier confrontation he guessed that the average goblins had around 15 to 20 points in their physical stats.

With his stat advantage he could easily suppress them in a one on one battle but against an entire group Kryzen didn’t think he would fair well. Still he wouldn’t back away from a fight, especially against goblins who attacked his people.

Looking at the approaching goblins, the bloodlust and rage crawled back into him as he took the head of a dead goblin, holding it up and roaring at the goblins.

The goblins stepped backed in fear as the visage of a gremlin covered in the blood of their kin while holding its head was too much for them. Their instincts kicked in though as the fear slowly turned into anger.

It was one puny gremlin against a group of them. How could they back away from a easy victory? As both partied were readying themselves to attack, they paused hearing loud footsteps and the clanking of metal.

Kryzen ears twitched as he recognized that familiar sound of bone grinding against metal.

‘The Guards!’

From his memories he knew all too well the consequences of upsetting the guards. Usually they would ignore most of the scuffles in the junction but this time he might have made too much noise, bringing their attention to the fight.

Throwing the head away, he ignored the goblins and made a mad dash to the gremlin dwellings. While running away he caught the sight of a distant dog shaped silhouette.

‘Kobolds?’

Ignoring the discovery he made his way through the tunnels

On his way he met the group of gremlins carrying the smaller gremlin. He scurried over to them and grabbed the smaller gremlin hauling it over his shoulder and shouted towards the others,

“Quick, follow me. The guards are angry.”

The word guard coming out of his mouth alone was enough to increase the speed of the gremlins and soon they arrived near the dwelling. They slowed down after reaching the guard post and strode into the dwelling.

The undead didn’t mind them or their unconscious companion or the fact that one of them was covered in blood, which Kryzen was glad for as he went to deeper into the dwelling and set the gremlin down.

Luckily the small gremlin was still breathing and with a little bit of food will probably make a quick recovery. He then took a look at the gremlins that were there during the fight. Their hunched backs straightened after feeling his stare as they nervously looked at him.

He didn’t blame them for their cowardice as gremlins were naturally that much weaker than goblins. Their fear of goblins was inherent and was rooted deeply into their minds after generations of being on the losing side.

That’s not what bothered him, it was the fact that most gremlins knew not to wander of into the junction. It was asking to be killed. Why would they do so in spite of the warnings of the older gremlins?

Asking around he found out that these gremlins were baited by the smell of food. The food that was given by the guards was the bear minimum needed to survive so the thought of extra food attracted these gremlins.

Listening to them, Kryzen sighed as he thought to himself,

‘When did the goblins become so smart?’