Rune Samuv snapped to attention at the sound of the class bell. He had been daydreaming of what kind of games would come out in the future and when the dive technology would be created for video games. He was bored after he had to sit through an entire lecture during the last block. The class that was currently starting was geometry and he had no faith that it would be any fun at all.

Similarly to his current situation, some of his other classmates were bored. In the back of the room, shrouded behind a curtain of students, they decided to either play on their phones or take pictures to post on their multiple social media accounts that Rune didn’t use.

In fact, he didn’t use any type of social media for he thought it wasn’t healthy for teens to be thinking almost solely on taking pictures of themselves and others and posting for everyone to see. He saw no point in it.

Instead, he had spent most of his time in his classes daydreaming of different scenarios, like what would happen if he was robbed or what defensive maneuvers he could perform in the event of a knife fight. He did this to pass the time in half his classes which none of his friends were in.

He was not a lonely high schooler, but he was indeed a quiet and pessimistic child whose only hopes were pinned to the idea that he had a high probability of getting into a good college. He was an A student who excelled in everything except physical activities like sports, to be specific, all sports that require moving the body.

In no way was he weak, but he was just bored and didn’t like to try hard except in combat. In fact, he liked training on the practice dummies at his home and he kept racks of weaponry in his room. He excelled most in dual wielding and long reaching weaponry.

But, at least to him, if something didn’t involve swinging a sword or murdering something in a video game, then he found that it was no fun for him and he would try to move as little as possible to complete that task. At least manga and anime was exciting, definitely more so than sports.

He felt disdain at the mere thought of something that would likely give him bodily injuries. Nonetheless, he still liked fighting.

During classes he would constantly space out when he wasn’t listening to his teachers and would ignore his loud classmates who were conversing around him. He didn’t feel left out, but was bored as he always felt. He started to stare out the windows with the light shining through.

The sun was especially bright today and the clouds seemed to part just for it. It felt awful to some of the kids who liked to play video games. They liked air conditioned rooms and none of the teachers could understand why they would rather shoot someone in a game than step one foot outside the house.

The classroom was on the second story and the windows were closed, but Rune felt like he could see everything from his seat and peered down at the people walking below. He wasn’t gazing too intently, but he did happen to noticed a group of people who looked extremely suspicious. They hung out underneath one of the trees and were laughing with each other while displaying evil grins on their faces.

One of them, leaning against a tree in the middle of the group, was tossing a black sphere up and down in the air. He chuckled along with his other lackeys as they thought of things that delinquents usually thought of.

Rune looked away and looked at the road. He would definitely try not to be like those who were a menace to society or were looked down on by society. He was just a bored, tired student trying to get a decent job where he could relax for the most part.

He still had a while to consider his career path, but he knew that he had to at least choose a general field to study in soon enough. While he liked manga and anime a lot, he didn’t want to write or draw it, he wanted to read it. While he did like weapons, not many people had the opportunity to make them. The options he looked into were quite limited.

He looked at the clock and saw that there was still thirty minutes left and he had already finished his work. He scanned the room, looking with just his eyes and not turning his head, and saw his friend who was anxiously trying to finish the large pile of homework that the teacher had given out several minutes before.

Maybe I should help him out with some of his-

Rune’s thinking was disturbed when he heard a sound that was like a baseball flying through the air with air rushing in behind it. He turned to look out the window and saw a black ball-like object that was a bit smaller than a baseball. There was a small lever-like object on it which flew off right before it smashed through a window. Then two more came through the other windows.

Rune knew exactly what the ball-like objects were, but he was surprised because he thought that people couldn’t easily get their hands on the fragmentation grenades. Then he thought back to when he was looking outside the window.

At first, he felt a tiny bit disappointed. It was only natural to feel disappointed or scared when you see a frag grenade breaking through a window, ready to explode. He saw three people fall out of their seats and the teacher had a surprised look on her face. A small group of the class tried to run, but, by then, it was too late.

Rune could only say a small phrase or word before he was sent off to his death and he decided to go with “F**k”. Then the grenades exploded and he felt heat all over his body and he felt sharp objects embed themselves inside of him. He knew that he was dead, but the question now was what will happen after death?

His vision went black and he felt like he was floating. This sensation continued for a long time before he felt a tugging sensation and a feeling like he was being shoved inside a coffin or a box. The next moment, he was blinded by a light and he could see trees and a river. He saw a large waterfall and rocks and fish swimming through the current.

The trees seemed unusual to the ones that he had seen before, but he wasn’t able to properly look at it. He tried to squint to get the light out of his eyes, but couldn’t.

He tried to speak, but he found that he couldn’t and he gave up trying immediately. Instead, he looked down to find that he had no lower body. He tried lifting an arm, but he couldn’t feel anything from where his arms used to be. He could only think of two possibilities: One, that he was a spirit whose soul was bodiless or, two, he was wearing a vr headset.

He ignored the latter and focused on the former. It would be better to prepare to be in a dangerous situation than not doing anything and thinking that the situation was fine. He tried to move and found that he could move in any direction that he looked at, but only if he thought of occupying that space.

However, the moment he started to move, he heard a voice that sounded male and monotone.

“You all must be wondering what you are and where you are. Allow me to explain. You 21 people, 20 students and 1 teacher, have died to a group of delinquents who have deemed it fun to blow the hell out of a classroom while people were in it. Kelemvor will personally hand out their punishments when they die.”

The voice paused to let that sink in. They were actually dead. And it was all because of a group of delinquents who wanted to play with grenades.

“As for you all, it seems that many of you noticed that you now lack a physical body, but do not fear. I have given you each an ability to survive in this new world. The special skills and magics you have received are based on your personality and what skill would help you thrive. This world is one of fantasy and magic, it is called Arborea.And I, Lathander, was given the responsibility of looking after your souls after Kelemvor and some other gods from your original world, Earth, decided to push you into this world. We gods are bored after all.”

It seemed that Lathander paused to let that sink into their minds and then continued after a moment. He only paused to see if any of them freaked out, which, unknowing to Rune, three people did while the rest were in shock. However, due to the fact that they couldn’t speak, they all yelled in their minds. The gods heard their inner cries and, most of them, smirked at how fun it was for them.

They hadn’t had any other worlders for about thirty years. Even then, the last one that came died in his first day of transferring. He was quickly killed by a simple Goblin that smashed in his head with a rock. How sad it was when their amusement ended so suddenly.

This time, the gods decided that it was high time they summoned another group of people from other worlds. They saw that some other gods had and they asked Odin and God for some souls. In return, they gave them some more miracles for them to use.

“You can all move in the direction you are looking at and you can possess monsters and non-living objects by going into them. After you go into them, you can check your status by tapping in the strange square icon in the bottom right corner of your vision. Next to that is an information icon that lists what each of you are and knowledge of skills and a journal of all the things you have been told or read along your journey.

For fun, I’ve given you each a map icon in the bottom left corner to see where each of you are and the landscape, but nothing more. Although, you might find that some parts are blurry and you can’t scroll all around. You are just going to have to deal with that. I hope that your lives become interesting after this moment. Good luck.”

He stopped talking and Rune started to move. He wanted to find a suitable vessel to go inside and also to quickly find out who is what. He also desperately wanted to get started as soon as he knew that this was another world. In fact, he had tried to move while Lathander was talking, but it seemed like he couldn’t, as if a force held him in place.

However, the second, no, the beat right after Lathander stopped speaking, he started to rush. He wanted to hurry as he saw nothing of use or value nearby.

He floated past trees and looked around. No doubt someone already found a body to inhabit. He saw a strange wolf with white spikes sticking out of its spine and it had pure red eyes. He tried to go into it, but he was repelled and he kept moving.

He saw several Goblins and regular wolves, but they all seemed weak. Too weak for his purposes. He wanted to obtain a body that could withstand heavy attacks as well as deal them out. He wanted something that could fight well, but could still dodge devastating blows.

After a minute of searching, he saw a sliver of something shiny and grey in the ground. He went to it and saw that it was a hand. To be more precise, it was a gauntlet. It seemed that it was connected to an entire suit of armor.

Without even the slightest hint of hesitation, he went inside of it. He floated through the gauntlet and right into the middle of it.

Suddenly, it felt as if his vision narrowed and he felt heavy. He slowly got up, dirt sliding off his metal vessel. His legs were shaking as he struggled to move in this heavy body of his. He moved over to a tree trunk and leaned next to it.

He wasn’t used to his currant body as it was severely different than his original one and was made out of metal. He suddenly felt the need to crack his neck and knuckles, but knew that he couldn’t. Then he slowly moved his arms up to his status icon.

Rune Samuv: Level 1 Class: none

Endurance: 10 Mobility: 10 Strength: 10

Magic: 50 mp

Magic Gain Per Second: 5 mp/s

Skills:

SSS -Lv 5 [Absorb]: Can take in non-living objects and use their properties.

B -Lv 2 [Frozen Touch]: An effect from the armor allows user to freeze what is grabbed.

Magic:

none

Titles:

none

Rune looked over his stats and noticed that he didn’t seem to have Dex, Con, Int, Wis, or Cha, but instead had Endurance, Mobility, and Strength. He had to level up quickly if he didn’t want to die quickly. Then he saw a 3D model next to the stats and looked at it.

He saw that the armor had no openings to see inside of it and it looked much different than European medieval armor. The fingers were sharp and were thin, but the same length as a human’s hand. His feet were pointed and not round. He had pauldrons on his shoulders had two spikes protruding from the left one and the right one had three. He had a waist guard that looked like two small shields placed on his waist that were composed of three pieces. His chestplate was protruding outward towards the top. He seemed to have loose guards on his elbows and knees. His helmet had four horns extending from it, two on each side, with one pair looking like ram horns and the other was a pair of horns curving backwards. It had only two spaces for his eyes which shone a brightly burning orange. In between all his armor was chain mail and he saw what the armor was made of. It was made of Cold Steel and it gave off a creepy, scary aura around it.

Turning away from the 3D model of what was likely himself, he looked in the journal and saw what his classmates and teacher had become:

-Ari became a Roc

-Brian became a Demonic Bear

-Brittany became a Dryad

-Ed became a Earth Elemental

-Erryn became a Banshee

-Gerald became a Hellhound

-Ian became an Basilisk

-Jared became a Draegloth

-Kelly became a Lamia

-Lisbeth became a Fenrir

-Monty became a Death Kiss

-Neil became a Cyclops

-Orion became a Displacer Beast

-Rick became a Pit Fiend

-Riley became a Couatl

-Rune became Cursed Armor

-Stacy became a Fallen Angel

-Stella became a Succubus

-Tio became a Gorgon

-Tyler became a Bone Devil

-Will became a Goristo

His friend in the class, Tyler the Bone Devil, and the teacher, Erryn, became a Banshee. He looked on the map and saw that he could zoom in and out with it. When he zoomed out, he could see green dots and names next to the dots. It seemed that Brittany, Ian, Lisbeth, and Riley were near him.

The map showed Rune that there were five continents and they were separated by large bodies of water. He saw that everyone was on the same continent he was on, but only four other were in the same large forest.

It seems that Brian, Gerald, Rick, Stella, Tyler, and Will were in a desert-like area with several volcanoes surrounding it. In the mountains, Ari, Ed, Jared, Kelly, Neil, and Tio were there, but only Kelly and Tio were together. Lastly, there was a dark territory on the continent where Erryn, Monty, Orion, and Stacy were, but they all seemed to be spread out from each other.

He started to walk through the forest sluggishly as he was not accustomed to feeling this much weight on his legs. As he kept walking, he felt more and more confident about his moving and he decided to run. Then he stopped.

In front of him was a green skinned small figure with a club. It had a pouch and a loincloth and was facing the other direction. It looked left and right and then sat down.

Rune approached it and knew, from the skin color and the lack of good weaponry, that this creature was likely a Goblin which he read about a lot in light novels and his Dungeon and Dragons books which contradicted each other. The only similarity was that they were both weak and idiotic creatures.

Also, from what he had read from his books, he knew that Goblins were but a minor threat to humanity, but were huge pests that plagued the lands. He moved his arms up slowly and carefully approached it.

He had to make sure his arms would hit his legs or body at all and that the material linking all his body parts stayed silent.

Careful not to step on anything that would give his position away, he stealthily sneaked up to it and his hands closed in on its neck. He absolutely was not afraid of killing it and would likely have zero guilt for doing so. After all, he believed in two major sayings: one, kill or be killed, and two, an eye for an eye.

Also, the idea that Goblins were a species that stole resources and reproduced using kidnapped women made him think that it would be better to dispose of a pest before they caused any more problems.

With those thoughts in mind he swiftly moved his hands towards its neck and turned its head 180 degrees. A loud, audible snap could be heard as its eyes rolled up into its head and it collapsed.

It had a slight spasm for a few moments due to him not snapping its neck as easily and fluidly as he could have. Its grip tightened on the club, and then it let it go.

Rune could see that it was leaking drool from its mouth with some bones sticking out from its neck.

Easy pickings. I hope that I can kill other Goblins as easily as I did this one, but it's obvious that I need to be careful of other things. In the Dungeon and Dragons book, Goblins are only ¼ challenge. They are extremely weak.

He looked down at the deceased Goblin while thinking this and felt absolutely zero remorse for killing the green skinned fiend. Then he grabbed its pouch and opened it without any feelings of guilt from looting a dead body.

To be honest, he trained himself to feel no remorse in killing because, if you hesitate to kill, you would likely die due to the opponent killing you instead. You had to finish something off, and make sure it was finished, before you could feel anything, which Rune did not.

He found a copper coin, some strange pieces of meat, and a nugget of some iron. This brought him an idea. He concentrated on absorbing the iron nugget, but did not prevail. Then he decided to put it in his hollow body.

He took off his helmet and noticed that he could now see in all directions, except below, and that the orange glow in the helmet was still there. It seemed that his soul was a part of every inch of this Cold Steel armor. Then he plopped the iron nugget into the opening of the suit that was created when he removed his head.

He put his head under his arm and checked his status. He had gained the skill [Harden] as a passive skill. Then he took out the strange meat/jerky thing and the coin out of the pouch and, again, plopped it into the suit. He gained [Storage Small] as an active skill.

He used [Storage Small] and dropped the coin and meat into it and donned his head. Then he moved forward, stepping over the ugly corpse. He moved over tree roots and small streams of water until he saw smoke in the sky.

He looked around, beyond the trees and brush, before taking a quick pause to look at the surrounding area from a bird’s eye view.

He checked his map and saw that none of the others were there, but Lisbeth seemed to be in the same direction as the smoke. He trudged on to find his classmate and was practically running there.

He wanted to meet up with a classmate because they might have a useful ability or could be one of his adventuring partners. As soon as he neared the smoke, he started walking slowly and saw a campfire.

He carefully pushed a branch out of his way and looked at the clearing. It was already night as it seemed that he was sent to Arborea around late noon.

There were twelve Goblins there and they were all surrounding something on the ground. They did not seem to notice Rune as he neared them and was behind them. His dark armor blending into the shadows created by the night. Then he struck.

He stuck his hand into the head of the nearest one, his matter flooding out of the now open hole in his head, and, at the same time, Rune squeezed the head of another.

Using his fingers that seemed to be the sharpest part of his body, he slashed at three of the goblins’ throats. Blood guzzled down as they choked on their own blood that was entering their lungs. He swung his claw-like hands towards the ground, like someone would a sword to remove the blood and flesh.

The seven remaining Goblins appeared in front of him with six of them holding wooden clubs and, what would likely be the leader, holding a dull sword. They tried to rush him, but he was far faster than them and he beheaded three of the club holding Goblins. It didn’t take long for their three heads to fall as they were moving.

What had happened was that they ran at Rune and were stopped when he attacked. The heads kept going and moving while the bodies stopped in place. Then, once all three head fell to the ground, the bodies followed suit.

Then he took a Goblin by the head and smashed him against another, ending their lives in the exact same moment. Brain matter spewed forth and mingled with one another as they fell into a mushy pile on the ground, the leaves being soaked in blood.

With a single ax kick, he mashed the last goblin with a club into the ground, ending its pitiful life. His foot easily went and hit it and kept going until it was just a puddle of nasty, smelly, red goop.

Then he wheeled around to face the Goblin holding the dull sword. He was most obviously their leader as he had a small leather chest piece on, but still had a loincloth. The Goblin boss lunged at Rune in vain.

Due to his advanced amount of experience dodging attacks, Rune dodged him and, when the Goblin lunged at the spot he used to be at, Rune grabbed its head and turned it to looked at his eyes.

At this point, he used the skill that came from the armor, [Frozen Touch], and froze its head before throwing it at a tree, ending its life. Then he turned towards the thing the group was crowding.

He stormed over, ready to murder the being if it was going to attack him. When he looked at it however, it made him stop and think.

What he saw was a little puppy-like creature that was cowering on the ground with its eyes closed. It had silver fur, but its paws were a light red. It opened its eyes and he could see a yellow glow. It was obvious that this was Lisbeth who became a Fenrir, but Rune imagined that she would be more like a ferocious or elegant creature that was large and proud and not some small puppers that was shivering in fear.

Rune tried to speak, but all that came out was a scraping noise that sounded like a metal on metal. Lisbeth started to get more scared and Rune just sighed in his mind. Turning away from her, he started looting the corpses and absorbed several more items which gave him [Sharp] and [Protection] which came from the sword and armor.

Now he had more skills and had even gained a title:

SSS -Lv 5 [Absorb]: Can take in non-living objects and use their properties.

B -Lv 3 [Frozen Touch]: An effect from the armor allows user to freeze what is grabbed.

F -Lv 3 [Harden]: Hardens the owner’s skin or armor.

D -Lv 1 [Protection]: Protects owner from weaker status affects.

F -Lv 1 [Sharp]: Easier to cut things.

A -Lv 2 [Storage Small]: Can carry small items.

Title:

Goblin Slayer: Knows attack patterns of Goblins and knows their strength and weaknesses.

He started to put several torches from the campfire into himself after he saw Lisbeth still cowering. He gained [Light] for a spell and started to cast it. It gave off a dim light that lit up several feet around him.

Soon, he had nothing to do but walk over to Lisbeth. He was much, much taller than her and he crouched down in front of her. He reached out and put his hand on her head. Then he jerked her head up to look at him, however, he didn’t do it with too much force for fear of accidentally beheading her.

He started to write in the dirt in front of her and cast the spell [Light] at the same time. He had written “It’s me, Rune. The quiet kid always staring off in the class. You are Lisbeth, correct?” and she started to read. Then she shakily looked at him and nodded slowly.

Then he stood up and looked into the journal icon. He found that there was a system where he and other classmates could create a party if they both agreed to it. Within the party system rules, he found that they could talk to each other telepathically as well as share the experience in a ratio the party leader sets.

He wrote in the dirt to convey this message to her and she nodded. Then he noticed that there was a name and a species in the top left corner of his vision. Lisbeth: Fenrir. Then he changed the experience ratio from 60:40 to 50:50 and started to talk to her.

She jumped when she heard his voice which sounded much cooler than his original voice. Recalling his memories of her before they died, he thought that she sounded more squeaky and high-pitched than before.

She looked down as she believed she was weak. It was, however, the truth. She was weak enough to be bullied by Goblins who were going to eat her when she was a Fenrir, one of the higher and more powerful forms of regular wolves. Those regular wolves could easily take on Goblins in a one on one fight, and she was supposed to be a superior version of that.

He was asking her a question to see if she would know. Unfortunately, she was a bit too terrified and shocked to answer right away. And when she did...

A small feeling of disappointment appeared in the recesses of his mind. He brushed that feeling off.

Generally for him, he found that he was able to take some feelings and ignore them until they went away. Of course, if it hadn’t gone away, it was usually in the section of his mind right between wanting to kill everything and how he liked to stay neutral in almost all subjects.

When the conversation ended, they both looked for a small structure or cave to be in, but found nothing. In the end, they gave up searching after a few measly minutes, and decided that Lisbeth would sleep next to the campfire and Rune would guard.

She walked over to the fire and flumped onto the ground and started to sleep. Rune sat next to her and looked up at the sky.

I wonder what the gods are thinking… Sending teenagers off without a warning. Well, at least it is better than death and I get to murder many things that cross my path without being convicted...

He could see multiple stars covering the night sky with no recognizable constellations. He saw two moons, one yellow and one blue, and some small birds and other animals flying overhead.

Those small animals and birds seemed to avoid the smoke, but they were actually avoiding Rune for most of them saw him easily kill twelve goblins at the same time. They hadn’t seen him kill the first one due to it happening inside the forest with the canopy covering them.

Everything seemed to go by so quickly from the grenade exploding to now. He sighed in his mind and looked around, checking to see if there were any threats, then opened his map. It seemed that only Stacy was moving and Ian and Ari were next to each other and also Rick was next to Will.