Last year I decided to be a soldier! I gave up after only one week of training… The year before that I wanted to be a researcher! I was bored as hell during the learning parts.

The year before that I wanted to be a blacksmith! I burned down the whole house while making my first item…

It seems that I am not really suitable for these kinds of jobs. This year I decided that I will do nothing but enjoy life. I failed at that too. I died not long after I came to this decision.

My life is a compilation of fails. I failed in school even though I know the subjects and I learnt almost always, even though it was boring. I failed in keeping a girlfriend, mostly because she thought that I was bad luck for her.

I mean…why? What did I do for my life to be such a failure? I can't even do one thing correctly.

After my death I was happy. I was actually really delighted to hear that my life would end. I guess I failed at that as well because I was reincarnated. I gained the body of a rat. So now, with the intelligence of a human and the body of a rat I will live my life hoping that I don't have bad luck anymore!

I didn't really know much about the world I was reincarnated in. I knew that I was in a forest and that the weather was a bit cold. Snow was falling during the night but it melted during the day. I didn’t meet any other living beings on my first day though. I saw a few bugs though, they looked weird, and there was a bug with cyan eyes and a single horn on its head.

I didn’t approach any of them though. I continued to explore the forest. When night fell I decided to find a shelter from the cold weather and snow.

There’s one thing I didn’t tell you though. Even though I know I’m a rat I still don’t know how I look like. The reason I know I’m a rat is because I just have the felling I’m a rat. You get me?

I guess not…

After half an hour of me searching for a shelter I found a really quiet place in a hollow tree. I decided to gather a few leaves that were on the ground and place them in the tree. And so the first night in this new body passed slowly.

I honestly hoped that nothing bad would happen, I was so wrong though. In the middle of the night I felt that the ground started shaking, I looked outside while still hiding myself if it was some kind of predator.

What I saw was a small green humanoid creature and a deer like creature with crystal-like horns and white fur. It was so beautiful! The green humanoid creature on the other side looked like an ugly fat otaku had a child with a troll, and it smelled as well.

*screech* *screech*

The green creature started screeching and jumped at the white deer like creature! I didn’t want to watch the scene so I closed my eyes.

I was waiting for the battle to be over. I waited…and waited. Half an hour must’ve passed until I decided to look at the white deer and green creature. But when I looked at the scene I was shocked! The green creature was lying on the floor dead, there was a hole in its abdomen area and the deer creature was nowhere to be seen. That wasn’t the only thing that shocked me though.

The thing that shocked me the most was the screen that was shining brightly in my field of view. The screen was light blue in color with words on it.

[Lesser Goblin slain. Gained 120 xp] [You leveled up!] [You leveled up!]

As I guessed. This is truly a weird world. I am still shocked though. What's a goblin? I know what levels are but I wasn't really a gamer in my past life. I was fascinated by weird things so I didn't bother myself with normal things like games.

Levels? I wonder how do I see them?

[Name - Undefined] [Level 3] [Race – Lesser Rat]­

As soon as I thought about it another screen appeared in front of me. I looked at it and it only made me more confused. What is a Lesser Rat? What are these screens? How do levels work?

If this is a game world shouldn’t there be a tutorial of some kind? Also skills! I read in some online guides that most games have skills!

­[Do you wish to start the tutorial? Y/N?]

AHA! I knew it! There’s a tutorial! One more thing. How does it know what I’m thinking about?

[Do you wish to start the tutorial? Y/N?]

The screen is still there? Ah yes. I need to choose. Yes of course!

*silent screech*

I tried to say yes. I remembered I am a rat. I failed once again. But it seems that the blue screen still understood me. It said : [Tutorial is starting. Time remaining 1:00]

I have one minute to prepare. What should I prepare for? I have no idea. So I’ll just wait that one minute. As the countdown came up to zero slowly…3..2…1…0

[Tutorial Starting] [Tutorial for “Rat Race” stage 1 begins] [T1 quest initiated, [Learn how to use the system]]

A whole shit load of screens just appeared in front of me. What the hell?

*To use the system status screen think or say status. Be wary that this only works for demons and not for humans or devils.*

I heard a voice! And it was in English! How does it know English? Aren’t I in a foreign world?

Let’s not think about that now though. Let’s finish the tutorial first. Status? Ah,right that screen with my name,level and race! I just need to think about it.

[Name - Undefined] [Level 3] [Race – Lesser Rat]­

It appeared once again! This is so awesome man!

*It seems that you don’t have a set name. Would you wish to name yourself?

The voice asked me a question. A name? Why the hell not! I will need one in the future anyways. Let me see. Ah! I have the best name!

[Name: NotAFailure] [Level 3] [Race – Lesser Rat]

Hehe…what do you think? An awesome name for an awesome person…rat.

[Name set.]

*To see your skill screen please think about it.

The voice gives another order! I shall follow it! Skills,skills,skills!

Active skills available - [Sharp Fangs Lv.1]

Passive skills available - [Cold Resistance Lv.1] [Wind Resistance Lv.1] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Night Vision Lv.1]

Toggle skills available - //

Oooh! I have so many skills! I must be a rare species! Lesser Rats are the rulers of this world! So…what does each skill do?

*To see information about each skill think about the skill you want to know.

Enhanced Regeneration!

[Enhanced Regeneration – a skill that all lesser and higher ranked demons have. Due to their innate physiques.]

So… it’s not a special skill? Boring.

Next is…Sharp Fangs!

[Sharp Fangs Lv.1 – A unique skill that only demons with fangs can use. It is a low ranked skill with good offensive power. It makes your fangs sharper and harder for 2 seconds. 0/100]

I don’t need to see the other skills. I already know that I will be disappointed. What’s next oh great Voice in my head.

*To gain skills you need to either evolve into a stronger species by special methods or leveling up or you can train and obtain certain skills with certain actions. Take note that some unique skills can’t be gotten by just training.

How do I evolve though?

*Evolution is initiated when the item, being or something else achieves level 20. Take note that this is the worst methods to evolve because the next evolution is only a stronger version of your current race. There’s some exceptions though if you have a unique skill or did a special deed.

So I either kill and level up or do something special? I wonder if there’s another way to level up instead of killing oh great Voice?

*You can level up by leveling up some of your skills as well.

I feel that this voice is a living being talking to me. Alright. Let’s see…I only have an offensive skill that I can level up right now. Also it’s getting a bit cold. Is there more to this quest?

[T1 quest finished.] [Quest reward: 1 skill point.]

The quest is finished! That means there’s no more of the Voice! I will miss you Voice in my head. What’s a skill point though?

[T2 quest initiated, [Reach level 2!]]

[T2 quest finished] [Quest Reward: Skill [Rat Demon Sense]]

A new tutorial quest! And I already finished it! Let’s go to sleep though. I will be frozen to death if I stay here. Also how did I kill the Lesser Goblin? Didn’t that white deer kill it? There’s a hole in its abdomen area, it must’ve been that deer!

Let’s go to sleep. I’ll continue the tutorial tomorrow.

And so the first night passed without worries. But as soon as I woke up in the morning I found out that I am starving. I really wanted to eat something but since I couldn’t find anything during my morning search for food I decided on a last resort and started eating the corpse of the Lesser Goblin.

It tasted disgusting. I puked 4 times while I was eating. While I was eating I heard a voice in my head.

[Skill gained - [Poison Resistance Lv.1]]

A skill! And a dangerous one. I ate poisonous flesh? Won’t I die? I wanted to make myself puke but I couldn’t. I then calmed down and noticed that I have the resistance skill now. Doesn’t that mean that I can eat this freely? I am really bad at noticing stuff.

Didn’t I get another skill as well yesterday?

Let’s see...Skills!

Active skills available - [Sharp Fangs Lv.1] [Rat Demon Sense Lv.1]

Passive skills available - [Cold Resistance Lv.1] [Wind Resistance Lv.1] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Night Vision Lv.1] [Poison Resistance Lv.1]

Toggle skills available - //

Rat Demon Sense…I want to guess what it is. Since it is a an active skill I will guess it’s something like a tracking skill? What use do I have for that? Please don’t be a tracking skill.

[Rat Demons Sense Lv.1 – Rat demons are one of the lesser kinds of demons if they are alone, there are races of rat demons that like to be alone, all of those races have this skill. The skill allows you to find corpses, items, and other living beings. 1 skill point needed to level up the skill.]

Let’s level it up! I don’t care I want to see what it does.

[Are you sure you want to level up [Rat Demon Sense]?]

Yes I am sure!

[Rat Demons Sense leveled up to Level 2.] [Rat Demon Sense allows you now to find low leveled demonic crystals and demons with low leveled demonic crystals as well.]

See…it was worth it. Though… I still don’t know what demonic crystals are.

Let’s use the skill. I just need to think about it and it will activate! I think so…

[Rat Demon Sense]!

…

….

What? Nothing happened? Is there a delay or something?

A few minutes passed while I waited for the skill to activate. Just as I was about to give up I felt my head starting to hurt and I noticed that a small black cloud of mist was floating above the head of the Lesser Goblin.

As soon as my head stopped hurting I started to break into the skull of the goblin. I thought it would be easy but it wasn’t. I needed to use [Sharp Fangs] thrice until I broke through the skull.

Due to that , [Sharp Fangs] managed to get experience points, now it is at 3/100. Only 97 more uses to go for it to level up!

When I looked into the head of the gob I saw a small 1 cm3 crystal . It was still somewhat normal sized to me though. Since I was small as well.

I didn’t know what to do with the crystal but I was feeling hungry as soon as I saw it so I decided to eat it. I didn’t hold back, I ate it straight away.

As soon as I ate it the all so familiar light blue screen appeared in my field of view bringing me good news.

[Lesser Goblin Lvl.4 Demonic Crystal eaten.] [Lesser Rat has gained [Essence of Goblin] Do you wish to absorb it? Y/N? ]

I have no idea what [Essence of Goblin] is and at this point I am too afraid to ask…

Yes I will absorb it! I don’t care what it is anyway I’m a rat what is the worst that could happen? I will become a goblin? Haha no way!

Absorb it!

[Absorption process beginning… Insufficient energy. Minimum level needed is 5. Saving the essence for later. ]

…Well…this is a disappointment. What now? I just need to level up right? Let’s kill some demons then!

A week has passed since then. I managed to kill another few lesser demons. One of them was a Lesser Goblin while the other one was a Fluffy Eared Cat. I wonder who names these demons.

The Lesser Goblin that I killed couldn’t catch me at all. Mostly because I have higher intelligence than him and I can plan out traps. As for the Fluffy Eared Cat, I killed it by accident, as I was gathering leaves I made a small patch of mud behind me unnoticed and the Cat started running towards me, she slipped on the mud and its head was pierced by a sharp stone that was near my hollow tree home. I also discovered how the first goblin died,even thought it had a hole in its body it didn't die that way. I found out that the neck of the goblin was weirdly turned around, like it slipped on something, I still don't know how or why I got the experience for that.

I don’t know how to describe this other than. I failed at gathering leaves but I managed to kill a level 6 demon!

I reached level 5 just like that. The Lesser Goblin also left me a nice Demonic Crystal but it didn’t have the [Essence of Goblin] that the other one had. The Fluffy Eared Cat didn’t have a Demonic Crystal though. What a waste.

I ate the crystal and waited.

A few minutes after eating the crystal a light blue familiar screen appeared in my field of view. It said:

[Absorption of [Essence of Goblin] initiated. Minimum energy requirement achieved. Absorption starting. Time left until fully absorbed : 30:00 ]

A whole 30 minutes.

I waited.

[Pick a skill : [Goblin Language] [Water affinity] [Goblin Demon Sense] ]

A skill! So this is what the essence does! It doesn’t change my bloodline or anything. Good,good. Very good!

Can I get a detailed explanation of these skills though?

[Goblin Language – Understand the language of the ancient race of goblins.Leveling up the skill allows you to understand more complex sentances]

[Water affinity – [Passive Skill] – Allows you to use water as a element and comprehend the laws of water. Law of Absolute Zero is given if you pick the skill. ]

[Goblin Demon Sense - [Active Skin] – Goblins are beings that live in tribes. They used to be descendants of elves but the devolved into feral beings that only know how to hunt. With this skill you will be able to call the spirit of a dead goblin near you in your help. This skill can’t be leveled up.]

I … what is with these skills!? These skills are so good! I want them all! Well..the language skill is a bit weird. Goblins are an ancient race? They come from elves? What the hell!?

I will pick…

Status screen

[Name:NotAFailure] [Level 5] [Race - Lesser Rat]

Skills

Active skills: [Sharp Fangs 5/100] [Rat Demon Sense Lv.2]

Passive skills:[Cold Resistance Lv.1] [Wind Resistance Lv.1] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Night Vision Lv.1] [Poison Resistance Lv.2]

Toggle skills: None

Guys...I really like my naming sense. I mean NotAFailure and Fluffy Eared Cat. This is a heavenly gift guys!