First steps

I couldn't see anything around except some trees I'm the distance and what looked like a single mountain peak at the edge of the horizon but what truly caught my eye was the plants all of the plants were a vibrant green however there were some that were an assortment of colors from lake water blue to firey red and everything in-between. The view was breathtaking but I was kind of distracted who would have thought my longest time friend would betray me like that and then I had to ask myself how am I alive now I clearly felt the blade entering my heart. I checked myself for wounds but I couldn't find any though I immediately realized that this was not my body this body was pale and skeleton thin my body was a tanned athletic with a couple pounds of fat. I realized that something was wrong quickly and then it hit me I'd been either sent to a new body by my jerk friend or I'd been Iseki'd into a new world but managed to skip the whole childhood process which I wouldn't complain about though I did wish I could have been sent to a healthier body.

I looked around for something to eat and maybe make some clothes out of and eventually found a few berries which I used the food testing method on to ensure that I didn't poison myself so quickly but they were edible and I quickly devoured a few handfuls before feeling my stomach filled to the brim and unable to eat any more. My hunger taken care of temporarily I began weaving grass into sheets and making ropes which is a long slow process if your wondering braiding ropes is a hobby of mine and the grass here would make decent rope not the best but decent enough for clothes assuming that it doesn't make me have some kind of reaction. My clothing made I headed out towards the forest as that was the most likely place to find resources of any kind especially in a survival situation and that's exactly what this was.

I reached the forest just before dusk fully enveloped the world sadly I couldn't see much so I found a relatively comfortable spot and lay down to sleep. I awoke suddenly and realized that I'd woken up to the sound of an owl hooting in the dark in a tree nearby though I was glad I'd lain the grass mats over myself to camouflage my presence as I then spotted a trio of short squat humanoid looking beings that were trudging through the area and to me it was clear that they had night vision of some kind and were used to the dark. As I lay there quietly watching these beings they brought to mind goblins and that was concerning as in lore goblins are tricky and are usually the bad guys killing indiscriminately those not strong enough to fight and right now I definitely was not strong enough for a fight my body was far too frail for combat yet.

As the goblins moved off in the distance I carefully looked around and spotted another goblin though this one was far closer and seemed to be sniffing could he have caught my scent and be tracking me that thought terrified me. As the goblin closed on my position I decided that I'd have to fight so I carefully picked up the thickest branch available and crawled behind the tree slowly. I waited until the goblin was close and had his back turned then I proceeded to beat the living daylights out of it with the branch well I tried and my first strike certainly put the goblin on the ground but my branch broke on the back of his head luckily he was disoriented enough that I managed to grab its weapon and while still a club it worked better than the branch.

The goblin died quickly under my tender application of club to brains and then I looted its belongings which amounted to a satchel made from woven hair seemingly a woven hair loincloth and a rusty dagger and the club and looking in the satchel it was half filled with mushrooms an interesting find. After looting the goblin quickly I decided to beat feet taking only the dagger and leaving everything else but considering the situation I changed my mind and found a spot to ambush from and prepared myself. As I was watching 3 goblins came out and inspected the corpse and I figured that it was my chance so sneaking forward I plunged my dagger into the goblin that was. on the edge and took his weapon a chipped rusty short sword.

I'd taken the goblin down clean and quick and utterly silent and the other two didn't hear me so I carefully approached and planned my attack on the spot then executed it as fast as my body could go my first strike plunged the dagger into the back of the first goblins neck and then I passed him and directly attacked the other goblin with the short sword. My attack went off without issue and the first goblin crumpled with the dagger in its neck while the second took a bit longer my slash ripped open its belly but it wasn't done yet and managed to grab my left wrist but I'm right handed so I stabbed it in the chest right before it tried to call out and all that it managed was a wet gurgling noise before it expired.

I looted the bodies quickly and found myself the proud owner of 2 daggers rusty but still fairly sharp a rusty chipped short sword that probably won't survive another fight and a club but the best part is that the last goblin I'd killed had a book yup a book a picture book but a book none the less and it was on mushrooms of all things what little text I saw I couldn't read but it was still useful as a guide on what mushrooms were edible and which were poisonus. Looking through the book I realized that the goblins were as illiterate as I was and had conveniently added some skull and crossed bones crudely to the poisonus ones in what could only be blood albeit green blood but blood none the less. After looting the goblins I had a dilemma what do I do with my growing hoard of weapons well I had a solution for that I made some experimental woven grass sheaths and a rope belt to hold them the club I just made a carry rope and tied it to the club and placed it over my shoulder.

Armed and ready I prepared to go back into the goblin infested forest but first I'd need to sleep so I made myself a little hole and passed out. As beds go a hole in the dirt is probably the least comfortable but I really had no choices I'd have to make myself my own little place sooner than later. As dawn broke I got to work my first project was to check the mushrooms I had and determine which were edible and which weren't and after much comparing I found a few larger ones that were and devoured them as my breakfast before I had to take care of the morning rituals. After my morning rituals of taking care of business I desperately need some behind wipe and so used copius amounts of grass and dirt to clean myself then I got started on my plans for the day.

Planning out how to deal with the goblins took a few hours but eventually I began digging a number of holes spaced approximately a pace apart and lined with some sharpened sticks I'd quickly fashioned then I quickly went over the entire area with the stinkiest things I could find in this case a wild onion and I simply smeared it on trees and stomped a few into the dirt everywhere this was to prevent the goblins from tracking by scent and then I collected the heads of the goblins I'd slain previously all 4 of them ended up gracing some quickly fashioned spikes marking the edge of the area I was claiming and directly behind those heads lay my prepared trap field. My preparations as complete as possible I then cut the bones out of the goblin corpses and turned them into tools and began crafting my camp.

By the time night fell I'd built a woven wood fence about as tall as the goblins around about a tenth of the area inside my defenses before I snuck out and again camouflaged myself and waited patiently for the goblins to return I figured they would be rather irate when they found my claimed area and I was not wrong in the least. For the entire night I heard goblins thrashing through the area and more than a few fell victim to my spike pits a couple even got snared by the snare traps I'd left out and then I crept in to dish out some damage of my own after the goblins had whittled their numbers down for me. That night alone my traps had accounted for 6 goblins and I sneakily killed 4 more while two passed out from being hung upside down in my snare traps which I finished off quickly.

My skull totems grew in number and my traps also grew in number and variety I even cleaned out my old traps and reset them placing the mutilated bodies under the totems and placing hand drawn skull and crossed bones on every tree around my claimed area and I drew them in goblin blood I figured that if the goblins didn't leave me alone now it was their own fault for disturbing me. Sweaty covered in grime and goblin guts I looked for a place to wash my smelly self and spotted a small stream which I quickly jumped into washing away all the dirt and grime and feeling human again. I resumed work on my camp until dusk and then I fled to the field to rest fear adrenaline and stress can only carry you so far and I passed out as soon as my face hit the dirt luckily I'd eaten the edible mushrooms or I'd have woken up hungry.

I awoke from my deep well deserved rest to find my new camp trashed but also 15 goblins had gotten slaughtered in my traps clearly they took offense at my presence in the forest so I made even more traps and a bow made from goblin sinews and the most flexible yet strong wood I could find and I managed to create a bow strong enough to put one of my makeshift arrows an inch into solid wood at 100 paces if it hit my arrows weren't exactly great honestly. I cleaned out my traps and reset them and added yet more goblin bodies under my warding totems then in a stroke of genius I started skinning the goblins and using ancient methods to tan the hides and stretch them and assuming the goblins left my tanning operation going I'd have some rather disturbing leather to work with in a week or so meanwhile I began work on a new project a cooking pot large enough to fit a goblin or two.

I struggled to find tasty things to eat but I was managing for the most part I'd found some wild potatoes and onions among other things and had kept my diet atleast somewhat healthy kind of though finding anything meat wise was a challenge I did manage a rabbit after I'd crafted my bow and that night I had a proper feast roasted rabbit and potatoes a fine dinner indeed granted I had only onions to season anything with and some wild mint I'd found but certainly not anything else. I worked diligently to craft my cauldron from stone and I'd finished the outside with nightly goblin raids luckily they avoided my tanning operation like it was a pit of vipers though they wouldn't like what I did with that poor quality leather and goblin skin leather is absolutely trash for making leather from but I had a plan.

The goblins kept coming every night and for every goblin that came I earned some kind of weapon mostly clubs but a few daggers a pristine broad sword and even a few books all picture books but one of which peaked my interest it showed something strange maybe some kind of spell casting but it was definitely odd. The odd book intrigued me so every day I'd try to mimic the actions in the book and try to cast the spell which looked to be some kind of acid based spell of some kind granted I never cast anything. During my days I would work on my hut adding more to it by night I'd sleep a few hours wake up to the goblin attack slay the survivors then go back to sleep for a few more hours.

By the time a month had passed my hut was nearly finished my crude tools were a hindrance but by this point I'd crafted a roof and a fireplace and had most of the woven walls completed I even added a second layer to the roof the first being woven branches the second was woven grass mats and I planned to do even more for the walls though so far they were woven wood panels. Three months after I'd gotten here I'd built a life for myself had a completed hut and was now working on crafting a smelting pile I intended to melt down all of the extra weapons the goblins had essentially brought me and maybe make something useful like a metal axe or shovel. The fourth month I completed my smelting pile and started in on my forge my giant cauldron had been completed and was sitting silently next to my house like impending goblin doom.

In my little area I had killed something like a thousand goblins my warding totems were starting to look like corpse walls and my pits were becoming liberally painted in goblin blood and honestly the stink was starting to get bad from all of the goblin corpses. On a random note the forest was practically glowing with vitality around my area as the goblins liberally watered and fertilized the area with their dead. The goblin leather I placed in my giant cauldron along with enough fresh lignin (the inner bark of a tree) to finish the tanning process of boiled leather and then I boiled it throughly for a day the smell wafting out was horrendous but in the end I'd made cured boiled leather and then I used that to craft woven leather armor honestly it still gave me the creeps making goblins into armor but when they are the most plentiful source of material and other options aren't available you have to make do the best you can.

The latest thing I added around my camp were the death whistles when a breeze came through they would make a sound that even I knowing what the sound was still had my hair standing on end and that night the goblins came and turned right back around hearing that noise they ran like the hounds of hell wee upon them. I finally had an uninterrupted night of sleep and there were no goblins to clean out of pits the next day perfect for me as I used the extra time to work on my hut finally finishing it and adding a layer of river stones to the outside to ward off well really nothing but I figured it wouldn't hurt. My forge was complete my only remaining project was making charcoal and I had some but I'd need quite a bit for the smelter and even more for the forge so I got to work making a charcoal pit basically a dirt mound with a ton of wood inside and a stone lid that would keep most of the smoke inside.

Making charcoal took a few days and while that was cooking i searched for lime stone and finding some I proceeded to break several improvised hammers to break it down into small chunks because it was needed for the smelting process and then I loaded up my smelter and started it going. Processing the ore in the smelter took most of a day and then I let it sit for another day to cool off meanwhile I processed some more charcoal and prepared everything I'd need for my forge including several sets of hammers and a few improvised drills.

After my smelting pile was done and cooled I broke it down and dragged put a huge pile of iron and some slag then I started up my forge and while that heated up I knocked the slag off of my iron then I started heating it up first deciding on what size hammer I wanted and using the remaining iron to forge a proper anvil to forge on. It took a few days to get the hammers head forged and just as long to get the anvil properly forged and I had enough to make a proper chisel before I ran out of iron then came the other end of my project fitting the hammers head with a proper handle and then testing it out. After forging my tools and getting everything ready I took the last bits of iron and melted them down with the few weapons I'd saved from the goblins for myself minus the broadsword and began forging a bastard sword the perfect size for me a double edged and fairly stout I used every trick I knew to ensure it was flexible and strong and then using a carefully selected stone I polished the blade down to a proper battle edge too sharp and the edge wouldn't survive battle too dull and it became a club I managed to get a perfect edge on it then using goblin leather which I'd boiled I fashioned a simple scabbard for it along with a belt.