Kai had a problem. He was looking up at a hard, round fruit that hung from branches hundreds of meters above where he stood. Though his spear couldn’t reach the fruits, he didn’t need it to strike them down. Standing at the base of the tree Kai instead called out to various birds with images of a trade in mind. Most of the birds didn’t have the mental faculties necessary to understand what he was trying to convey.

But, of course, the crows understood.

They flew to the fruits and used their beaks to snap the fruit from the tree. The fruits fell to the ground, but the hard exterior prevented any animal from getting at the soft, sweet insides. That’s where Kai came in. For every two fruits the crows cut down, Kai would use his stone club to crack one open and give it to the crows. Before long Kai had a whole bundle of fruits even after giving half of the harvest to the crows. In the end, he had to chase off the crows while broadcasting mental images that he wasn’t going to crack anymore fruits open.

The fruits weren’t the problem. The problem were the two small, humanoid creatures that were staring at him in rapt awe from behind a bush. Both wore simple wooden masks with red paint smeared in lines over the surface. Sharp, bone white spikes protruded from their elbows and in a row along their back. Their skin was a deep black, like charcoal, while their eyes were a stark, shining silver. Their hands and feet curved into sharp pointed claws and along their arms they had red markings that curled up towards their shoulders.

To be honest, they looked like goblins.

Their thought process was also hard to follow. Kai reached out to them with Empathic Link but found himself left with more questions than answers. They were scouts and they were the ones who had etched the skull carvings Kai had found before. Images of an ominous monster shrouded in darkness were a constant worry in their minds. Wherever the goblins found evidence of the monster, it was their job to carve the skull as a warning to members of the tribe that the “Facestealer” was near.

However, that was a worry that was now in the back of their minds as they couldn’t believe they were seeing a real life “tree person”. They thought it was weird that Kai didn’t have any branches growing out of him like the Elder said “tree people” had. But, Kai had to be a “tree person” because he could command the animals of the forest. Only the “tree people” could do that. Unless...

The two goblins then descended into whispered squabbling as they both argued as to whether or not Kai was the “Facestealer” or a “tree person”. Meanwhile Kai cracked open two fruits and with both in hand he walked towards the goblins while making sure his spear trailed innocently behind him.

“Hey there, do you want some fruit? I’ve got plenty so no need to feel reserved,” Kai said while conveying the message though Empathic Link.

This turned out to be a mistake as the goblins looked on with horror as they realized they understood what Kai said. There was no doubt then. He was the Facestealer!

Kai readied his spear but instead of choosing to fight, the goblins ran away in a full sprint. Their minds were in disarray and complete fear. Both imagined their faces being torn off as they vanished into the thick forest foliage.

“Well, that was enlightening,” Kai said while taking a bite out of the purple fleshed fruit. “They’re not human but they are sentient and can speak. Might be worthwhile to talk to them. I’ll have to think of some way to convince them I’m not this ‘Facestealer’ though.”

Yet, more importantly it was worrying that there was some creature prowling the forest that could inspire such fear into the goblins. From the stream Kai had walked a few kilometers further into the forest while dragging his travois behind him. The trees were growing taller with every step Kai took and the forest floor was becoming more dense. While the area around the stream was what one could expect of a forest back on Earth, the farther Kai walked the more it became a wild jungle.

Plants tangled and weaved together in a giant tapestry of green that was abuzz with activity. Multi-colored birds sailed the canopies while dragonflies the size of Kai’s hand sped past in pursuit of clouds of gnats. The air was hot, humid and clouds of mist enveloped the area. The croaking of frogs and echoed whoops mingled together with chirrups, trills and birdsong to create an endless thrum of animal life.

Back at the stream Kai was in a temperate climate with deciduous trees being dominant. Yet, in walking a few kilometers it felt like Kai was in the tropics. The contrast made no sense. Worse than that, the thick foliage made it easy to ambush a lumbering Kai dragging a wooden pallet behind him that more often than not got stuck on plants and overgrown roots.

Kai looked at his travois. There wasn’t anything on it he couldn’t just scavenge for besides the smoked fish and the honey he was using to dress his chest wound. If there was a predator out there then Kai had to travel light and be prepared to run at a moment's notice.

Kai took off his shirt. It was his last remaining article of modern clothing left besides his boxers. For pants he was already wearing a leaf skirt and he could always fashion a shirt out of branches and leaves later anyway. Kai tied his shirt into a bindle at the end of his black spear. He then shoved the smoked fish, uncracked fruits and the rest of the beehive into the bindle and slung the spear over his shoulder. Kai also took his stone club from the travois. It was best not to rely on one weapon, no matter how indestructible it was.

Kai then ditched his travois and started walking in the direction the goblins had fled. An image of himself flashed through his mind as being at best a shirtless, hobo wild man with a black spear slung over his shoulder that he was using as a bindle to carry his hobo gear. He let the thought pass, but reminded Aux that he was as much in this boat as Kai was.

Some time passed as Kai followed signs of the goblin’s passing. Broken branches, ripped leaves, shallow footprints left in the mud. Eventually the trail led to a massive tree where claw marks climbed up the side all the way to the top. Kai could sense the two goblins cowering on a branch high above, looking down at him with held breaths. Dusk had begun to fall over the forest, yet Kai did not call out to them. Instead, he waited while pretending to figure out how to get up the tree. The element of surprise had been lost, but the thing stalking him didn’t know that quite yet.

It was stronger than him. That much was obvious from a glance.

If it wanted to, it could reach out and pluck him from life like a fruit from a tree. It’s mind was deep and unfathomable but on the very surface were all kinds of emotions laid bare to see. Jealousy, envy, rage, fear, happiness, sorrow, its mind was a whirling vortex of beings and it shifted identities and personalities like a layer of paper thin skin.

Even now it was determining the best way to approach Kai, wondering what skin form it could take to make him lower his guard. Yes, the child form it had acquired those many years ago, the humans were weak to that form. They never questioned why there was a child walking up to them in the middle of a forest and even if they did it would be too late once-

“Why not take on a form of dragon? That way, when I rip out your heart and eat it I can add some more magical bullshit to my list of wonders.”

The creature hesitated. Something was wrong. Though there was the form of a child standing right in front of him Kai did not face it. Instead he sent his spear whirling into the puppet before facing the real body of the creature hidden in wait beneath the ground.

“Hm, but I think I’d prefer the form you have right now. You look kinda like a lobster and it's been a long time since I’ve had seafood.”

Kai was bluffing. He had to be. There was no way that a human could overpower it even with the black spear that floated at its side. He was playing games then, trying to spook it away from its meal. Well, two could play at that game.

“You would eat one who has eaten many stronger than you?” the creature asked, not bothering to mask its true voice which was like the buzzing of insects. “You are weak and know this so you seek to scare me from my meal. You will be the one eaten, prey.”

Kai shrugged his shoulders and smiled. He then walked up to the tree and leaned against it with his arms behind his head.

“Go ahead and try then. Just know, I like my lobster with butter.”

The creature burst out of the ground, a goliath of multiple grasping claws, hooks and blades that towered over Kai in the shape of a chitin covered S. But that wasn’t all, there were also swords, hammers, axes, shields, armor and all manner of implements that hung from its appendages. It was both a formidable monster and a walking armory all in one. The creature was right to assume that there was no way for Kai to be able to overpower it. Even the black spear would be nothing more than a toothpick the creature could use to pick the remains of Kai’s flesh from its mouth. One swipe of a claw or blade or an axe and Kai would be cut in half.

But it had eyes and was above ground. That was all Kai needed to know.

Instead of running away, Kai charged forwards into the creature. The creature did not expect this and swung an elongated claw towards Kai too late. Kai dived into a slide while grabbing hold of the black spear and telling it to shoot forwards. The force of the spear combined with Kai’s momentum allowed him to slip beneath the creature’s guard and get behind its back. There Kai jumped onto the creature and began to climb towards its head.

The creature tried to shake Kai off, swinging its body side to side, crashing its back into trees and lashing out with the various weapons it had at its disposal. Yet, whenever the creature was about to hit Kai against a solid object, Kai would jump off the creature and hang off of the floating black spear before jumping onto its back again. He repeated this until he was at the head of the creature where he then took out the black spike and shoved it into the creature’s eye socket. With that, Kai jumped off the creature and waited.

It took five minutes.

For five minutes the black spike carved a path through the creature’s brain while it thrashed on the ground. It cut at trees, dug into the dirt, swung it weapons through the air and clawed at its own head in a futile attempt to extract the black spike. By the time it was dead, Kai was looking out at yet another path of destruction through the forest. The body lay in a bed of ravaged leaves, blood and churned flesh oozing from its eyes. Kai took no chances and forced the black spear into the gaping chink in its armored head. The creature jerked to life for a moment before falling back down limp.

“Man, I’m slowly devolving into a murder hobo,” Kai muttered. “Actually, no, scratch that I am a murder hobo.”

With the creature slain, Kai looked at the various arms and armor that were strewn across the battlefield. In all there were around thirty articles of equipment ranging from the familiar swords and shields, to more exotic hook blades and chakrams. Kai couldn’t help but internally sigh. He had just gotten done with ditching one batch of useless gear, did now he need to gather this equipment into another pile of useless gear trailing behind him? The correct answer was a resounding no, but in his heart the answer was already decided.

It was just as Kai was starting to construct another travois that the goblins came down from the tree while shouting out victory cries. They went up to Kai and said something to the effect of, “Warrior! Warrior! You killed Facestealer! Ancestors proud!”, though it was hard to tell past all their excitement.

“Well, I’m glad someone’s happy about Mr. Lobster’s death. And here I was worried that he was a pillar of the community.”

The goblins didn’t seem to understand Kai’s sarcasm and shook their masked heads.

“No, no! Facestealer bad! You powerful Warrior! You do good!” the goblins exclaimed as they patted Kai on the side.

Kai’s face became serious and this time he shook his head.

“No, don’t say that,” Kai said. “I got lucky and Mr. Lobster got complacent. He let himself get baited by my goading and came out of the ground. If he didn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to kill him. He gave up his strategic advantage and paid the price for it. But just because it worked this time doesn’t mean it’ll work the second time. You have to keep an open mind and look for multiple ways to-”

Kai stopped his rant short as he realized that the goblins were looking up at him with no end of admiration.

“Warrior… Real Warrior!” the goblins said, awe dripping from their voices. They exchanged a glance and started whispering amongst themselves, though Kai could easily hear them since he was using Empathic Link to understand them anyway.

“Let's bring the Warrior to the village. We can get him to help the Elder make a new Warrior to protect us. That way we won’t have to be scared of Facestealer ever again!”

“But how can we convince a powerful Warrior like him to help us?”

“We have shiny things, the outlanders like shiny things. That’s why they come here, to get shiny things to bring their Elders back home.”

“But look at how many shiny things the Warrior got from the Facestealer. Not only that but he has the animals bring him food! He has everything he could want.”

“Maybe. But for the village we have to convince him. If we don’t then-”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Kai began. “But why do you guys talk to me in clipped sentences when you’re fully capable of talking normally?”

The goblins looked at each other before asking, “You-you can understand us?”

The question threw Kai off guard, “How else are we having this conversation, then?”

The goblins simply pointed to the markings on their arms.

“We are Scouts. The Ancestors’ knowledge guides us so we can talk to other people without knowing their language. But this is the first time we've ever heard an outlander speak Ximati. Only the Facestealer has done that and everyone knows he is like the red-tailed bird, he only repeats what he has heard others say.”

“I see,” Kai said. “So to you it sounds like I'm speaking your language. Well, anyway, you don’t have to try hard to convince me to come to your village. I think there is something you can help me with, after all.”

The goblin’s eyes lit up and they began to spin circles around him.

“Thank you, thank you, Warrior!” One of the goblins motioned his arm. “Come, the village is this way. Today is a joyous day and there will be a feast for you!”

The goblins started to run off but Kai called out to them.

“Hey, wait! Take some of these weapons. It’s a waste just for them to be left lying around.”

The goblins hesitated, uncertainty filling their silver eyes.

“But, these are your treasures. You killed the Facestealer. It would bring our Ancestors dishonor to take them.”

“Well, I don’t need these weapons since I’ve got my black spear. Besides, you want me to train some of you, right? You’ll need weapons and it’ll be convenient for me if you have your own. Think of it as a teacher’s gift.”

While not fully convinced the goblins still helped Kai collect the equipment onto a makeshift travois. By the time they were done, night had already fallen. The goblin village would have to wait until the next day. Without any knowledge of the surrounding area, Kai just decided to set up camp right beside the Facestealer’s corpse. Taking a chunk of its meat, Kai roasted and shared it with his new goblin friends. Oddly enough, the meat did taste like lobster.

Before bed Kai took a look at his status screen. There was nothing there he didn’t expect, but that didn’t make him feel any better, either.

Name: Kai Walker

Health: 45/54

Mana: 115/115

Class: Empath

Abilities: Empathic Link, Prayers for the Fallen

Skills: Survivalist (lvl.3), Trap Maker (lvl.2), Poisoner (lvl.1), Black Spear Wielder (lvl.2)

Magic: None

Collected Memories: House Leandros

Status:

Strength: 4

Agility: 4

Dexterity: 4

Endurance: 9

Intelligence: 4

Wisdom: 4

Charisma: 6

Ravenous points: 45

Debuffs:

Ravenous (lvl.3)