Goblins

Below the treant was lush green grass. Glistening dew drops slid across its leaves shining like little pearls. The nourishment from the rich mana environment and fertile soil made them bloom with tiny colourful flowers. It was a treat to the eyes. But monsters didn't care about the beautiful scenery.

"Thuk. thuk. Thuk…" Foots trampled over the flower crushing them into a paste.

It was goblins, A monster known for its small and human-like physique. The pack of ugly goblins were travelling towards a herd of deers trying to surround it. Their eyes glistened with intelligence while crouching down to camouflage themselves.

Their green skin and small physique was an added advantage on the grassy plains. They blended in with the surroundings perfectly. After making a semi-circular attack formation downwind. They waited patiently as if for some kind of signal.

The actions of the leading goblin showed experience and delicate control of the situation just like a hunter. Although they only had wooden spears and stone tools as weapons, they really knew how to maximize the effectiveness of their weapon.

"Haaaaaaa."Suddenly, A loud scream broke out from upwind.

Goblins with large stone axes were running towards the deers while screaming their lungs out. The cry sounded more desperation than excitement. From the six large goblins who were running, two of them even fell down.

Even then, the miserable goblins achieved their mission of spooking the herd. The startled deers jumped high dogging the incoming goblins. It was a simple feat for them. Goblins could never outrun them. But, some of the frightened deers scattered into the prairie just like the goblins expected they would.

Waiting for them behind bushes and shrubs were goblins led by the goblin chief. The semicircular formation prevented the deers from scattering, it also acted as a trap that focused the deers into a region.

The rags wearing goblins of different ages and sizes began closing in with their spears raised high.

This was a struggle for survival.

The winner gets to survive while the loser dies.

The deers which were funnelled in finally reached the chief goblin. It was slightly larger than a normal goblin wearing leather armour and holding a stone-tipped spear. His muscles tensed up before releasing, lunging into the herd of incoming deers. His body was covered by a red hue, a sign of mana use.

He thrust the spear towards the largest deer that he could find, aiming precisely at the underbelly and the heart. His tribe needed food to survive so he couldn't make a mistake now.

Although goblins were much slower than deer at full speed. The goblin chief growled before agilely moving to stab a deer and pulling out the spear in a single motion. There was no delay between his motions. So, he stabbed again towards another deer. Just like that, he managed to kill three deers before the rest escaped from the formation.

The hunt was successful.

His tribe will be able to survive for a couple of more days with this food. But as the saying goes, there were no clear winners or losers in the game of life. Among the twenty goblins who participated in the hunt. One died and two were heavily injured.

This was a big blow to their strength.

The corpse of their dead companion was burned and the injured was taken on a stretcher, towards their village.

Remaining goblins, even the chief carried the deer meat towards the village. Three deers caught by the goblin chief and two caught by the remaining goblin would be able to feed the tribe for a week at the minimum. In emergencies, it could feed them for two or three weeks at the most.

After all, goblins were smaller compared to the deers which were five times their body weight.

Seeing the scene playing out before me, made me wonder what I was doing here. The action done by the goblins were similar to humans. They had intelligence and emotion and the ability to empathize just like humans do.

And just a couple of minutes ago. I was ready to kill them to collect energy. Was there something wrong with my brain?

I have become so disconnected from my past self that I was employing any method I can to become stronger.

Did the system turn me into a retard?

I always felt that killing things and collecting energy was the right way to move forward. But now, I was seriously reconsidering my life choices.

I was the same guy who was from a world where puppy videos and cat videos outranked a presidential election in priority. And now, the system is ever so slightly nudging me to be a mass murderer. I cannot lose myself and be swayed by the system. Ultimately I am the one that bears all the weight of my action. And I wouldn't be able to kill and collect energy to become stronger with a good conscience.

Some may call me a pacifist, or a nutjob. Having a great opportunity to be strong, but choosing not to take it is kind of idiotic.

Despite all the name-calling. I now can consider myself true to myself by doing what I want instead of what the system wants. Besides, Just existing was giving me enough energy. So, why should I walk on a morally grey line? So, I randomly allocated my remaining system points.

'Status' I called out to the system.

[STATUS]

System- Level: 1

Human: Advanced(Evolving)

Strength:288

Dexterity:144

Mind: 288

Energy:[180]

System-Points: 0

Comment: Alive and healthy.

Ability

• Energy assimilation: Can digest all forms of energy.

• Active Energy Sense: Sense the energy around the host.

• Heatwave: Controlled release of energy as heat.

The progress I had was tremendous. All my stats were in three digits and I could be called a beginner level D-rank. But my power was better than them. And the major difference between a normal D-rank and me is the instantaneous energy output.

If the object that I am attacking is within my range. I can fully use up my energy in one shot to make a destructive heatwave that can paralyze the enemy or even kill it. But most other D-ranks can only use the energy through their muscles in strength application or by coating mana across weapons to make it stronger.

These methods were inefficient when considering the one-hit-kill potential of my ability.

Although I am a pretty chill dude for an Alan. I never said that I would stay put and let other things kill me. So, I knew the importance of these abilities.

If someone or something is trying to kill me, I will use the system ability to the maximum effect.

Some great guy once said. Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. And that was exactly my plan for the future.

I will prefer not to fight, but if there comes a time when I need to use my strength. I would do so discretely.

Now, In a dungeon, possibly larger than the moon in surface area. I am the intruder, the external factor that came to disrupt and conquer the area.

A true colonizer and I hated that.

Justifying action through propaganda and scare tactics may have worked on people of this world. But the earth from where I come from taught me a lot in 30 years of life there. And the most important of it was that you can't trust anyone.

Seeing a goblin show empathy shook me this much. From what I hear, the world has a lot more creatures that are as intelligent as humans or more. But they were all classified as monsters. Why was that so? Why was the information so skewed towards all other animals are a threat to humans while glossing over the fact that we are the actual threat?

Governments and their propaganda.

I will make sure that brainwashing and domesticating me wouldn't work again. Last time I died as a slave to a system that was made to benefit the rich. Now I have to navigate through the social system of this world while trying to be independent of the actual system that possessed me.

So, I have to make my own decision in the future.

—----------

Walking along the edges of the plain. I was always ready to climb a tree to escape or hide in the bushes nearby. I didn't want to be caught right in the open. And the thought about returning back to the base safely never crossed my mind.

So, For food, I used the digital encyclopedia to identify fruits that are edible and animals that can be easily caught.

Other than dangerous beasts, many small animals and critters could be used as food in this dungeon. After all, it was a complete ecosystem of thriving flora and fauna.

And just as I was feeling some craving for protein. A protein came jumping towards me in excitement.

It was a large plump rabbit. Due to me being hidden behind the trees, It couldn't see me. So, it jumped around eating plants near it in glee.

And this was my first hunt. So, I was very careful. I didn't want to startle the rabbit and make it flee. My stats were completely different from before. So, I had enough confidence in striking it with a fire arrow. Like the last time, I used it to fry a brain.

The increased mind stats helped me a lot. Now, I could move my energy in a radius of 20 meters to attack any object. And now, I only have to sneak into a twenty-meter range. Before the rabbit even notices anything, it would have died.

'Ha ha ha.'

"Thuk"

Just as I was visualizing the tantalizing piece of grilled meat. A nut fell on my head shocking me to the core.

Rabbit is a rodent?

Do they eat meat?

Those were the questions ringing inside my mind.

Before I could even respond. The rabbit the size of a fully grown German shepherd jumped at me. A jet of air propelled the rabbit like a missile towards me.

I raised my arm and smashed at its head in a chopping motion.

[Ding… 100 units of energy collected.]

The sweet, sweet sound of the system notification woke me up from my stupor.

'The rabbit is dead! I am strong?'