Jonathan awoke with a start and for a few moments wished he hadn’t. Everything hurt, though after some thought, he could power through some of it if he had to. He looked around and found himself in a tent on a ‘bed’ made out of folded pieces of cloth layered over each other. Besides the pain all over his body and how dry his mouth felt, he felt well rested. He inspected himself and found that the wounds he had from the fight were largely covered with cloth acting as bandages. He tried peeling the bandage on his leg up to peek underneath and saw that his wounds were treated with the same plant mixture Hlaza used after they fought the wolves. As his mind processed this, he got a series of notifications.

[You have killed: 7 viridi goblins, 1 hobgoblin. You have assisted in the death of 1 goblin king.]

[Hlaza’s loyalty has increased.]

[You have gained 50 000 experience points.]

[You have reached Level 32.]

[You have earned 6 stat points.]

Name:

Race:

Gender:

Title(s):

Class:

Level:

Traits:

Jonathan Sipho Mthembu

Otherworld Human

Male

-

Formerly Enslaved Human

32

[Racial] Tenacity [Character] Monster in Mans’ Clothing

Attributes:

Strength:

Attack:

Defense:

Agility:

Magical Power:

Magical Mending:

Magical Defense:

Luck:

68

68

55

92

0

0

5

50

Skill Points:

6

Skills and Magic:

Skills:

Magic:

[Quick Learner][Calm Mind][Attention to Detail][Pain Tolerance Lv.3][Will to Live][Paranoia][Temperance][Appraisal][Desperation][Starved][Mantra of Madness][Lead] [Luck of the Draw] [Cardiovascular Conditioning Lv.2] [Tomfoolery] [Rudimentary Crafting Lv.1]

-none-

Abnormal Status Condition(s)

Former Slave

Gods’ Displeasure

Crippling Madness

Your physical scars mark you forever. Your likeability towards the Octavian Empire and its allies decrease. All allies of the Empire will attack on sight.

Due to your status as an otherworldly human, you have earned the being in charge of Arda’s displeasure. You have no ability to use magic as a result and your luck decreases.

Continued use of [Mantra of Madness] will take control of your body from your mind, until you are left unable to control your body.

The increase in level wasn’t too crazy but the jump indicated to Jonathan that he was still weaker than the goblin king. Why he thought himself capable of fighting it in the first place, he didn’t know but he shuddered to think about how the fight would have turned out if he and Hlaza hadn’t received that insane boost from the fight with the wolves. What had caused him to charge into goblin territory anyway when he had the chance to run away anyway? In hindsight it should have been obvious that the goblin king was as strong as he was. The crimson wolf was the owner of the valley of the wolves and she was strong enough that the fight against her only ended up won purely because of luck. Logic should have then dictated that the goblin king who had territory of his own would have a comparable strength level. So why?

Maybe the effects of the [Usurper] quest? Doubtful but possible. The more likely cause for his overconfidence was the jump in levels from 17 to 30 making him feel like he was more powerful than he was.

Great, he thought. Something else to watch out for.

He slowly picked himself up off of the ground and winced as he put pressure on his foot. He wasn’t going to be going anywhere fast or soon. Carefully shifting his weight onto the other leg, he considered his stats. The increase in all of his physical stats was nice but a part of him was disappointed with the fact that his agility was no longer divisible by his defence. Whatever, he would cope. His defence had jumped up by an astounding 10 stat points while his strength had increased by a respectable 5 instead. Only his agility increased by what he considered a normal amount. Why had his defence increased so much? Was it because of the beating he sustained? He filed that under ‘possible but needs further investigation’. Could it be because of the nature of the monster he fought, being that the goblin king was a being with a monstrous amount of defence. He filed that underneath ‘equally possible but in need of further investigation’.

If the first was true, he had found a possible a way to meta-game the stats. If one had a healer on hand for example, one could simply take a beating, heal and then increase their level by fighting monsters. The beating would then give said person an increase in stats far above the average. This was especially useful because the stats given per level generally were very few if one considered the effort put into levelling up. Briefly, Jonathan wondered if this method could be thought of as similar to how saiyans got stronger in dragon ball.

If the second was true, meta-gaming was less likely but was possible nonetheless. In this method, one could simply fight lots of weak monsters that were strong in a given stat, say agility for example and then level up. Upon level; up, the agility should be increased much farther than what would be normal. This second method would take longer to pull off for obvious reasons but was worthwhile nonetheless. In fact, it reminded Jonathan greatly of the effort value system in Pokémon games.

Still it was possible that stat increases were measured in a way that was more esoteric and had nothing to do with any of the methods he outlined above. Even then, the effort of testing if the way stats where allocated upon level up would be well worth the effort. Jonathan absentmindedly allocated all six of his stat points into agility bringing it up to 98. It hadn’t failed him yet, and so it was unlikely to fail him any time soon.

Jonathan stepped out of the tent taking great care not to put too much pressure on his right leg. It was time to find Hlaza, get some food and talk about their future plans.

The sun blared high up in the sky, beating down onto Jonathan’s bare chest. It wasn’t until he left the tent that he noticed that his cloak-slash-poncho was missing and a return to the tent confirmed that it really was missing. His knife was missing too though he never really expected to find it in the first place. The sun being so high up told Jonathan that he was out for at least a day. His hunger suggested much of the same. He couldn’t do much about that right now so he tried to ignore it.

He was still in the middle of the goblin fort. While not really all that surprising, the fact that they had left him alone in the tent was surprising to say the least. He had thought that he would be attacked as soon as he tried to leave the tent but the goblins around the fort seemed all around ambivalent to him save a short goblin in ill-fitting leather armour and a chest plate who followed him as soon as he started to explore. A closer look at the armour revealed a hole that he was sure was the result of a knife on the side of its abdomen. It looked like this goblin had inherited the armour of the second in command, the…hobgoblin? In hindsight, he did look different when compared to the other goblins, the skinny look he had going about him was a stark contrast when compared to how chubby the other goblins were.

The goblin looked surly and its general demeanour made it obvious that it didn’t think much about Jonathan though Jonathan wondered why. In the end though, Jonathan figured that the reason why the goblin was surly didn’t matter much. What did matter though was the fact that it was surly in the first place which made it very possible that it would attack him if something he did set it off. Jonathan sized it up. The day before, a singular goblin wouldn’t be much of a problem when he first arrived but he was injured and had no weapon while the goblin had a knife at its waist. Still, on pure stats alone he had confidence that he would be able to defend himself as long as he saw the attack coming. Jonathan continued to explore, making sure to keep an eye on the goblin.

After about 10 minutes, Jonathan started to hear sounds like barks and grunts coming from an open area in the northern portion of the fort. Figuring that he had an increased chance of finding Hlaza where the noise was, he hobbled in that direction.

Soon he came upon a large green figure wearing a fur surrounded by a group of goblins. They were in the midst of what looked like a fight. Jonathan recognized the green figure to be Hlaza though not without some effort. Hlaza was huge. Where Jonathan used to be taller than Hlaza, Jonathan was sure that Hlaza be taller than him and built like an ox. While he was muscled before, now he was almost comical. He had muscles like a bodybuilder on steroids. An estimation from Jonathan put Hlaza at a height of around a 180 centimetres. Getting closer, Jonathan realized that he wasn’t fighting. He was playing.

These goblins were 5 children using Hlaza like a jungle gym; climbing all over him and swinging off his arms. Hlaza looked overrun. The kids were hellions grabbing at his tusks and pulling at his ears. The barks came from Hlaza trying to get them to calm down. Jonathan surmised that Hlaza could pull them of but was afraid of hurting them. The surly goblin that followed Jonathan walked up towards where Hlaza was and drove the children away with a few short barks before nodding to Hlaza who looked relieved.

The familiarity that the goblins seemed to have with Hlaza both answered and raised questions in Jonathans’ mind. It answered why the goblins left Jonathan alone, that was either because they were afraid of, or were in reverence of Hlaza. Seeing as the children were clearly having fun with him, it was clearly that latter. That raised the question of why they thought of him the way they did.

“Hlaza!”, he called out before hobbling to Hlaza who pulled Jonathan into his arms and gave him a hug, lifting him off of his feet. To Jonathan, the hug felt like a vice though he appreciated the sentiment. After all, Hlaza was clearly the reason he wasn’t killed in his sleep.

“Let me down, please.” He breathlessly worded out. Hlaza huffed and let him down before backing away, the message clear in his body language.

I don’t know my own strength.

Jonathan waved it off before giving Hlaza a pat on the back, slightly afraid of what a second hug would feel like. He gave Hlaza his thanks and just before he was about to ask about what happened since he lost consciousness, he received a few notifications;

[Your subordinate, Hlaza is now [Leader of the Viridi Goblins].]

[Between you and your subordinates, you have fought and defeated two earned the title; [Would be Conqueror].]

[The leaders of the tribes in Viridi are now aware of you and your territories.]

[The leaders of the tribes in Viridi are wary of you and your territories.]

[The [Usurper] quest has been updated. You have reached a milestone. You will be rewarded.]

[You have unlocked a skill in the [Envy] series. You have earned the skill; [Begrudge].]

[Begrudge]

A heart of peace rots the body but envy gives it life. When fighting someone you envy in some way. You will gain a boost in strength dependant on your envy. The more envious you are, the stronger you will be.