Chapter 2

Qi was a wonderful thing. Even if it had it's downsides.

The rest of the the spirit water he had left called out to him, but he suppressed his desire.

He thought about storing the gourd back into the system inventory.

Nothing happened.

The gourd stayed in his hand.

He tried everything but he he couldn't place the gourd back into the inventory.

What should I do now?

It's annoying that I can't put items back into storage.

I don't have the power to manipulate the system, I can only work with what i've gotten.

I want to be a chooser and not a begger.

That would be satisfying for him.

Divine called himself to order and thought earnestly about what to do with the rest of the spirit water now.

In the end he decided to drink most of it and absorb the energy as well as he could.

He wanted to save more spirit water, but he was concerned that it would either be robbed or he would lose the gourd.

What would await him in this magical world? What would he encounter first?

The propability was high, that it would only be goblins, but goblins were already concerning enough.

And goblins didn't even stand very high on the food chain.

He drank almost everything that was left in one big gulp.

It felt amazing. He felt amazing.

This stuff is highly addictive.

He rode the feeling out and just enjoyed it.

The effects of the pill made him feel really comfortable in his new body.

Power was running through him and settling in his being.

An old rope held the dirty rags that he wore like a belt. He adjusted it carefully and tucked his gourd in.

Suddenly he heard light steps of multiple feet in the tunnel, coming closer.

Just standing here could be a little suspicious so he decided to start walking in the direction of the tribe, where the steps came from.

Time to face the music.

He met five goblins. They were pretty ugly.

Not hideous, but definitely ugly.

Bulbous and cloudy eyes, sharp and long noses and coarse mud green skin.

All were only skin and bones dressed in dirty rags.

Some owned more dirty rags than others and the leader had obviously the nicest and most rags warming his body.

The goblin in the lead had a rusty knife in his hand. The others only had sticks and stones.

He didn't recognize a single goblin from Snarky's memories.

Not surprising since heavy fluctuations in goblin populations were a constant.

There were many births and many deaths in goblin communities.

The leader showed his teeth.

Goblins' teeth weren't their worst attribute.

They were sharp and strong and gave off the feeling of a predator.

The showing of goblin teeth was an expression to establish dominance.

He responded in kind. Without thinking about it, he showed his new teeth and took a hopefully imposing posture.

A fight for dominance began.

The goblins that followed his opponent got excited.

They got to see a fight. The spectating goblins squealed and grunted eagerly.

They were like kids in the school yard.

Who won didn't really matter to them.

The leader took a step forward. "Me Barktooth. Go hunt. You follow!", said Barktooth in Gobble.

One of the other goblins murmured something like "Barky".

Barky didn't like that and pointed his rusty knife at the offender, who shrunk back immediatly.

Barky nodded satisfied and faced him again.

He either had to submit or stand against Barky.

He couldn't begin his new life with groveling before a lowly goblin.

He took a step forward. "Me S..." He almost said Snarky.

But Snarky was the name of a dead goblin. He wanted something better.

"...Divine." The newly named goblin used the English word, because he didn't know if there even was a word in Gobble for divine.

It shouldn't be a problem to pronounce even for a stupid goblin.

"Go hunt. You follow." Divine didn't know what else to answer and took another step forward.

Barky hesitated a moment. Then Barky hurried to attack.

For Divine the attacker moved very slow. That felt empowering and gave him confidence.

It was easy for Divine to dodge the clumsy thrust with a single step to the side at the right moment.

With precision and surety Divine grabbed onto the hand holding the rusty knife and used Barky's momentum to throw him to the ground.

Taking Barky's knife after that was as easy as taking a toy from a baby.

The goblins stared at him stunned.

That felt great. He hadn't been in a fight for a long time.

Divine's blood was pumping cheerily through his body.

"Go hunt. You follow." Divine repeated and shot the goblins a sharp look .

They complied. Even Barky gathered himself up and followed along.

Divine led them out of the cave into the twilight.

A cold winter day was coming to an end and soon the night would come.

The cave's entrance was at the foot of a mountain.

No, not a mountain. It was great mountain range.

Not far away began a dark forest. Some trees were still green and some had lost their leaves, painting a beautifully haunting picture.

The clear winter air was invigorating. The bad stench of these goblins was finally out of Divine's sharp nose.

With much enthusiasm and without much of a plan Divine led the five goblins into the spooky forest.

There weren't much sounds besides some birds and some critters that escaped fast when they noticed the group of goblins.

It was serene.

Divine liked how dutifully the goblins followed, but kept an appropriate distance. These goblin really knew how to be respectful.

Barky got a bad feeling about this hunt and about this impressive goblin in his gut. Barky wouldn't have survived three winters if he didn't always go with his gut.

He especially followed at a distance so Barky wouldn't have to smell the stinkiest goblin he ever met.

One that even beat him into submission. The shame and he wanted to finally establish the name Barktooth.

This Divine or whatever wasn't quite right. The way he moved and fought.

This one had a strange presence about him.

And the stench. A stench that even made Barky's beady eyes tear up when the wind changed unfavorably and blew from Divine in his direction.

How had that goblin even manage to make himself stink worse than every goblin that ever lived?

That told Barky clearest, how extraordinary Divine was.

Maybe it wasn't Barky's gut advising him this time, maybe he was just sick from the stench.

That overpowering stench.

Barky resolved to go with his gut and get away as far as he could.

Barky had to wait for an opportunity, he felt like the powerful stinker would kill him, if he caught him deserting Divine's group.

After that Barky promised himself to sneak Divine. That meant to never led that stange goblin see him again.

Basrky had been sneaking a guard back home in the tribe since last winter.

The way the stinky Divine led them through the forest, so sure of himself and uncaring of its dangers, spoke volumes about his strength in Barky's eyes.

Dinvine trudged through the forest searching for water. He wouldn't mind some food too.

Every nutrition pill he could save right now, he would.

Come on, at least water should be here somewhere. And where there is water there are animals.

Luckily they ran into both at the same time.

A little herd of deer was drinking from a small river.

Only one dangerous looking stag in the herd. The rest were does and fawns.

Divine had to suppress the impulse to run ahead and knife the animals until it rained blood.

He caught himself and swore to keep an eye on the changes that had happened to him.

Studying his new impulses and inclinations was an important task.

This behavior didn't originate from his past human self.

This time he thought about it for a second before acting.

Play it simple and smart. Use the tools that are at your disposal.

Divine shot the five goblins a hard look and barked his orders: "Go hunt!"

When he raised his hand with the knife in their direction, the goblins moved.

They moved with experience through the woods and sneaked up on the herd.

The goblins used the trees and bushes as cover.

Now Divine noticed one of the mistakes he had made on the way.

A group of two goblins sprang at a fawn and bludgeoned it with the stones in their green hands.

Barky's group of three attacked a doe, the smallest and weakest looking one.

Two goblins pierced the neck of the doe with their pointy wooden sticks.

Blood colored the white in the doe's fur red.

Barky just stood behind them and protected their back like a professional.

Barky was active and used great gestures to scare away the rest of the herd.

Completely unnecessary because they had all fled the moment the goblins attacked, but it looked like hard work and showed effort.

Suddenly the big stag appeared from the sea of trees again.

It rushed the pair of goblins who had killed the fawn.

The one goblin hurled the fawn at the stag while the other was already running away.

The stag wasn't deterred and took that goblin on its horn.

One of the stag's horns pierced though the goblin's gut and came out on its back.

Divine shot a look at Barky's side and noticed they had hidden behind the trees and were now watching.

The stag looked around. Splashing goblin blood on the earth and in the small river.

He couldn't find another good target. Frustrated the mighty stag stamped his hooves and shook its head.

The ravaged goblin corpse landed on the ground with a thud.

The stag shot another look around and then disappeared into the trees.

After a minute the goblins still didn't come out of hiding.

Divine went closer.

Meat and part of the pelt of the doe are things I could use.

And I need to wash up. Hopefully I can stand the cold of the river water.

It could already count as lucky that the water isn't frozen.

As he neared the dead doe he could see a red wisp around it's corpse.

When Divine stood next to it he could even feel it.

He felt something in the air, prickling on his skin.

He wanted it and touched the dead body.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

The grin that appeared on Divine's face scared the watching goblins.

Divine tried it with the fawn's and the goblin's corpses and noticed he didn't have to touch it.

The blood qi essence could be collected when Divine held his hand a finger width away from the actual skin of the dead.

That was a relief.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

Nice. It's like I get experience points and don't even need to farm myself.

If I want the doe's pelt to substitute my rags I will have to get my hands dirty.