The Goblin Theater: first scene; Goblin law

After finishing their business in this small village, the adult goblins massacred all the survivors without the slightest mercy. Then they set fire to the village before fleeing with the horses and other animals they found there. They led us all into a huge cave, divided into several different caverns. All the children were taken to the same huge cave.

In this grey place, with large rocks scattered all over the place, the law of survival and survival of the fittest still reigned supreme. An adult goblin recently dropped by to show the babies how to carve stone and turn it into a weapon. Since then, that's all they've been worried about, to avoid killing each other. No, rather, it's all we have to worry about as this is now my new life.

While some were still breaking stones on the rocks, others were already sharpening their stones. Of these, I was the only one who managed better than the others.

It's impossible to create a good blade with these pebbles, but it's better to be equipped in a place like this. If there's one thing my birth taught me, it's that there's no such thing as friendship or love in this community. The strongest is right and that's that. So I take every chance I can get.

Goblin barbery is second to none. Even the children, in the middle of their work, attack each other. One goblin, jealous of his neighbour, got up and hit him over the head with his badly carved stone, stealing his own.

Another goblin, unable to break a stone, attacked another goblin who succeeded in doing so, resulting in a brawl in which the attacker was killed by the real owner of the stone.

Two others, having achieved a certain level of perfection in their actions, got up to engage in a duel, one of whom ended up stabbing the other, leaving him in agony, before stealing his knife and celebrating his victory by pissing on the loser. This amused the adults who passed by to pick up pebbles.

All over the room, this kind of situation was repeated as I did my best not to attract attention.

- WoQ, are you there?

"What can I do for you?

- Aren't you supposed to be making my life better? So tell me how I can get out of this hell.

"I don't understand the question. You're not in hell. That I can assure you."

- Don't be a pain in the arse, you know what I'm talking about. If I stay here, I'll be killed for sure.

"Are you asking me to find you a better place than this?"

- And fast...please.

"Request analysis in progress...complete.For a baby scarlet goblin, there's no safer place than his cave. If he goes outside, he'll be killed by the countless dangerous creatures on the prowl or, at worst, he'll come across adventurers. To leave the cave is to sign his death warrant."

- What, am I going to be in this hellhole for a long time?

"Was that a question directed at me?"

- Your guess is as good as mine. Do you see anyone else here?

"Good night!

- Hey no wait. I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean what I said. Please forgive me. I won't do it again.

"Next time, I'll abandon you forever you little goblin."

- Yes you are right O great wise one WoQ.

"A word of advice, stay in the pack and try to make a place for yourself. For goblins, the strongest is always right, so become the strongest of the race if you want to live in peace. And strength and violence are always well rewarded, so show your fangs or your brothers will kill you. I've said enough. I'm tired so farewell. Who knows, maybe next time I'll find you dead, because you're as spineless as you are, I'm not betting on you."

- That wasn't very nice either.

Let me sum up my situation. I died unjustly in my world where I lived in peace and harmony. I was forcibly reincarnated in another world on pain of being thrown into hell. I was reincarnated as a goblin, the worst possible reincarnation. I'm struggling to come to terms with my condition and my social worker is a lazy pig with an unprecedented level of selfishness. Fuck my new life.

While I was thinking this in this hellish environment, one of my fellow creatures came up to me, looking at my beautiful creation and comparing it to his own.

It didn't take him long to provoke me to take my property but I tried to ignore him until he kicked me, knocking me to the ground.

I got up and we were face to face. He was growling, trying to intimidate me, so I put on a blasé face so as not to give him reason to jump on my neck.

However, I could see that it wasn't working, so after resisting a little, I threw the gun at him. An act that shocked everyone else to the point where they all stopped and looked at me strangely. I said to myself

- Blimey, I've made a mistake. I'd forgotten that it's survival of the fittest here. Such an act must be seen by them as a sign of weakness.

Looking at the vicious looks on the others' faces, I quickly realised that I'd just signed my death warrant or that everyone had just found themselves a whipping boy. I had to do something about it, so I started walking towards the other guy.

He was delighted with what I'd done and was already celebrating his victory by laughing out loud. I got very close to him before getting down on one knee. Another shocking sign for everyone, especially my enemy, who was staring at me in surprise when I picked up my knife from his feet and stabbed it into his arm with an upward gesture.

He jumped back, screaming and pissing blood, so I withdrew my knife and jumped on him, stabbing him in the shoulder three times and knocking him onto his back. I was about to stab him in the chest again when a huge club smashed into the ground near us.

It was a big black club with iron spikes on it. After breaking up our fight, she got up and flew into the arms of another goblin standing on a bridge wearing matching black armour with all his gear.

He then started screaming at everyone. His voice was powerful and a powerful wave of mana swept through the room.

Normally, the noise made by a goblin is similar to that of a beast, but strangely, it made perfect sense to us and we understood exactly what was being said. He was saying

- Stop these futile and pointless wars and get back to work. We've got a war to prepare for. We don't have time to deal with invalid soldiers, so get your weapons ready now if you don't want to be left behind and abandoned by the horde. Get back to work right away!!!!

Immediately, everyone got back to work on their knife preparation. He then added

- You there with the well-made knife, you'll be the leader of all the other brothers in this place. Now get back to work.

Then I also went back to work to sharpen my weapon.

"Information! You have obtained a group of goblin individuals. The title, group leader is obtained."

"Information! You have obtained the recognition of the tribe commander. You get XP bonuses."

- So it was the tribal leader?! I see. I understand why he wore such armour and exuded such strength.

"Information! You level up after acquiring the title: group leader. Do you accept it?"

- What a question, of course I do.

"Level up: successful. You are now level 1. Congratulations!"

- I suppose I couldn't have hoped for more. Haa at least I've understood something important now, strength is the only thing that's true here.

While I was lost in thought, a great bell rang throughout the cave and drew everyone's attention.

* Looks like our dear hero's life is improving a bit, doesn't it? You must never be a loser on a quest. Taking initiative is the real key to success. And our dear good sham is going to learn this the hard way. Well now, why don't we leave this cave for a while and go back to the little village that was destroyed by the goblins. If we go there then you'll see that the fire has been brought under control and totally extinguished. You'll also see the corpses of the entire population lying in what may be a temple. Their bodies, covered in sheets, were attracting flies from hundreds of feet away because of the stench of the place. Everything was filthy, but that's not what we're interested in. We're more interested in who did it. Leaving the village and venturing into the forest on the trail of the goblins, a small group of five people were tailing a small group of goblins.

* The forest was bathed in the sublime red light of dusk as the seven goblins, armed with dull swords and spears and one or two shabby suits of armour, conversed on the road. At one point, one of them sensed some kind of presence behind him and turned around, but saw nothing, as the brave adventurers had all immediately hidden behind the trees. The goblin resumed his route without further ado when one of the adventurers jumped from the top of a tree and landed right in the middle of the goblins. She then shouted "slice" in a soft, serene voice. Before the goblins knew it, four of them were already losing their heads.

* Immediately, seeing his fellow goblins bleeding and their heads rolling on the ground, another goblin jumped back before taking out his bow to shoot an arrow but the girl avoided his arrow and the goblin, without understanding anything, found himself covered in kunai and pierced all over. At the same time, another goblin attacked the girl with his spear, but she evaded his attack before aiming at the last goblin, who fled. The girl's sword had twisted and pressed against herself and when she shouted "pierce" the sword extended at incredible speed to cut the other fleeing goblin and a tree with him, in two.

* At the same time, the goblin who had attacked the girl with his spear, and whose daughter wasn't even looking, withdrew his spear to prepare another attack when a big guy jumped from a branch to crush him with his huge hammer. A single blow was enough to flatten the goblin.

* The five adventurers finally emerged from the shadows. Among them were a swordswoman with a rapier, a tall man in armour, an old mage, a long-eared spearman and a pretty little assassin dressed as a ninja. Together, they had a conversation that went something like this

- Why did you kill them when we had agreed to follow them to their hideouts? asked the big guy in the armour in a deep, intimidating voice.

- I'm sorry to hear that. But just the sight of them got on my nerves. replied the strong, beautiful girl with her curly hair in a voice filled with rage.

- No sentimentality at work, I thought that was the golden rule not to be broken? It's because of that kind of sentiment that you're putting us all in danger. Are you also going to go straight for the cave if we ever find it, given that you've just killed our informants? The guy in the armour seemed very upset with the young girl.

- Leave her alone, Traferer, I understand her a little. It's not easy to see what we've seen in this little village. You saw for yourself what they did to the women, you can put yourself in her place.replied the old magician

- Everyone knows what goblins do to women. If she can't take it, what the hell is she still doing here? And she calls herself a group leader. You're talking. She's just a daddy's girl and nothing more.

- Guys, I'm really sorry, but I'm not gonna do it again. I just wanted to blow off some steam before I got here. It's okay, Violet. Can you retrace their steps?

- Er...yeah. Goblins aren't very hard to track. They've left plenty of tracks behind. They didn't even bother to hide them. I can act as your guide, Lady Arcadia. replied the sweet little ninja whose whole body was covered except for her big violet eyes.

- Thank you, violet. Good work. Arcadia replied before stroking the girl's head, which made her blush. A strong feeling existed between these two? Who knows.

- Lady... Lady Arcadia...

- Hm?

- I...I too...understand how you feel. So I'll do my best to be as helpful as I can.

- I'm counting on you.

* Arcadia replied with a small smile and a firm face. She then stepped forward before raising her sword towards the mountains to say

- I, Arcadia, third daughter of House Acardia. I swear on the head of my illustrious ancestor that I will not rest until all the villagers of this small village are avenged. I pledge it to this sacred sword.

* And a close-up of the perfect team taking a little badass break on the road to glory. Kyaaa this is all so exciting. I can't wait to tell you what happens next, but alas, that's the end of this beautiful and sublime chapter, although what happens next promises to be even more exciting. How about that? A little spoiler? Are you sure? But that would spoil all the fun. Well, I'm going to give you a little present anyway. Remember that Arcadia will have a significant influence on our hero's destiny. On that note, see you later...