Becoming a Man Again

Waking up naked is not so bad a situation to be in.

Now, waking up naked in the dungeon, i.e. no armor or weapons, is a bad situation to be in.

Waking up with crushing fatigue is ironic and annoying.

Waking up covered in wounds is less than optimal.

Waking up covered in burns in roughly equivalent.

Waking up right in front of a boss monster is pretty hecking scary and dangerous, but it does wake you up with a quickness.

Waking up with all of these being the case is one of the worst situations to be in.

The adrenaline did help me avoid the fireball, so… that's nice.

The adrenaline also helped me to think and avoid fireballs at the same time.

My choices were now fight or flight. Fight would almost certainly result in my death as I was debilitated by my injuries and fatigue. I was also way out of my depth fighting the first boss with base stats. Flight would only likely result in my death. I just had to run about two hundred feet and I could make it out of the boss room and I'm pretty sure the shaman will not chase me. There's a slim chance I can avoid all the other goblins as well. So, that's what I'm going with.

I turned and ran for my life. Thanking the gods that the shaman's boss room was the only one that did not close the doors behind you and that the goblin shaman can only fire a bolt every ten seconds. Which means I only had to dodge one to two bolts.

By the time I reached the door I had one extra burn on my back. Turns out I'm not fast or skilled enough yet to dodge a fire bolt.

Luckily, I was right about the shaman not chasing me out of the room. Now on to my next challenge get through five floors of hostile territory full of goblins and potentially hostile adventurers looking for easy pickings.

I proceeded to spend the next several hours sticking to every shadow, jumping at every noise, and running from every fight. They were not my most glorious moments, but I survived.

I then got to walk down the busy streets covered in only blood, wounds, and my hands. As I suspected was going to happen no one offered to help, the place and the times wouldn't allow it.

The worst part of walking back was thinking about how worried Hestia must be.

By the time I got back to the church it was the dead of the night, I hoped that Hestia would be asleep so that I could just wash up real quick and go to bed. It was an awful day as I'm sure you can understand. However, I should have known that it was impossible for Hestia to have gone to bed.

"Oh my god, what happened to you?!?!" (Hestia)

"The dungeon. I don't really want to talk about it." (Nemo)

"Well, too bad. We are going to talk about it! What happened!?!?! " (Hestia)

"I learned more about my magic." (Nemo)

"How could that magic have caused such damage." (Hestia)

"Turns out consuming too much magic crystals is a bad thing. Who knew?" (Nemo)

"You are never using that magic again." (Hestia)

"I must, not only is it vital to my survival and development. I feel like it is a part of me." (Nemo)

"I have lived long enough to tell that I won't be able to change your mind. Just be careful. If not for your sake, for mine. You are the only family I have" (Hestia)

"I will. Today was a disaster, I followed by instinct thinking it would never lead me wrong. I did not realize that my instinct comes from my inner beast and thus does not think like a man. The beast only saw the potential growth in my fighting style and not how going into my first fight without training could have ended very poorly. The beast also saw the potential increase in the power of my goblin form not the danger. Both those mistakes could have very well taken my life. I can't say I will never get this injured or even more injured again, but I can tell you I will never make this mistake again." (Nemo)

"Thank you. That at least puts me semi at ease. Now wash up and lay on the bed, you are going to need your falna updated to help you recover from your injuries." (Hestia)

"Thank you for your understanding. I'll go wash up. Be right back." (Nemo)

"Oh, and Hestia, you are the only family I have as well." (Nemo)