Chapter 9: Respawn

Chapter 9: Respawn

『Congratulations! You have completed the mission: Cannibalism』

Stucky displayed the message. It gave me the rewards for completing the mission.

『All the tasks have been completed.』

『12 Stat Points have been added.』

『Stat Points(s): 20』 ↑12

Then Stucky showed me the second set of rewards.

『Since all the missions have been completed, you will receive the rewards:』

『+5 stat points have been added.』

『Stat Points(s): 25』 ↑5

Cool.

『You can learn the following skill: Hunger Lv.1』 『requires no MP』

『—> By learning this skill, a new 'Hunger' stat will be added. +1 points will be added every minute. Note: May increase faster upon exertion and intense activity.』

『—> You can convert these points into temporary stat points and boost other stats for 10 seconds. Note: It cannot be used for constitution, intelligence, dexterity, and perception.』

『—> The skill has the following effects if used on the target:

1. Ravenous Frenzy: Targets will feel an uncontrollable hunger, causing them to weaken as their bodies consume their own reserves; intelligence stat decreases by 0.5 per second.

2. Family Betrayal: Targets under the effect of Hunger are driven to attack and consume even their closest allies or family members in their desperation once their Hunger stat crosses their limit and intelligence stat reaches 0.

3. Cannibalism: The targets' minds are affected, making them hallucinate that their comrades are edible and irresistible. Only after intelligence stat has reached 0』

『Learn』/『Discard』

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Stucky showed me something unbelievable.

I couldn't understand why it asked me if I could discard it… was it because this was the last skill I could learn before leveling up?

Either way, it was not something I would discard… not even in my dreams.

I clicked on 'learn'.

『Notice! You have learned the skill Hunger Lv.1』

『New stat Hunger has been added.』

『Hunger: 0/50』

Something changed in me.

I didn't feel hungry almost instantly. I mean, who wouldn't be full after eating so much?

However, I did feel something change deep down… a very small change.

I brushed it off and looked at the next set of things that Stucky said.

『You will be rewarded with an item.』

『Please choose one of the following rewards:』

And then, another Stucky appeared right before the first Stucky, this time with three big boxes and… some pictures.

『Item 1: Healing Potion (500 ml)』

『—> Restores 1 HP per ml.』

『Item 2: Mana Potion (500ml)』

『—> Restores 1 MP per ml.』

『Item 3: Antidote Candy Box (5pcs)』

『—> Each candy detoxifies against 10 different types of poison.』

『—> On successful detoxification, you will be resistant to the poison.』

『—> If unsuccessful, the candy will at least slow down the spread of the poison.』

I couldn't take my eyes off the items displayed. They were fascinating.

Surely, they would come in handy in many situations… those which I couldn't even imagine.

However, what Stucky showed next became another source of annoyance.

『Note: You can choose only one of the given items. The items you don't select may or may not appear in the future.』

If only I could get all of them…

Life wasn't all that easy.

I sighed and simply looked at the items once again before clicking on — Mana Potion (500ml).

The reason was simple.

I was in a cave and was constantly being attacked by humans.

Poisonous plants in the cave?

Poisonous monsters?

Poisonous liquids?

There were none of these.

Sure, the humans could enter and bring something similar to a poison to kill me… But that would just mean I die and then come back.

As for HP, that too would come back once I died.

That was the same for MP too, but the specific reason why I chose item 2 was because if I wanted to offer a fight… a good fight, then I'd require a lot of MP.

The skills I had… except Devour and Hunger… uh, only fire bolt… cost me MP.

It would take a long time before I could get a lot of them so if I really would try to fight, then this mana potion would come in handy… or at least, that's what I was thinking.

Satisfied with my choices, I looked at the Second Stucky that had appeared. There were a lot of boxes and at the moment, many things were stored in different boxes.

One had the flesh-eating worms while another had the burnt rope,

The third had the mana potion… a weird shaped, somewhat round at the bottom, bottle with blue liquid inside it.

I gave a brief nod, confirming everything before hovering back to the stats.

I wanted to get strong after all and I had gotten some extra stats.

Stucky showed me my profile, as if reading my mind and I was excited to add some points to strength… but just then, I heard a gasp and a cry.

I turned to the left almost instantly, noticing not the humans but my kin.

"Ah? They came back!", I said it out loud, not too loud but enough that my own ears heard it.

It was the first time I was seeing them appear… but… it wasn't pleasant.

The gasp and cry…

Among them was a Goblina, Gobia, crying and screaming out loud while looking left and right.

"Gaka!", she screamed.

"My son Gaka! Where is he!?", she stood up, turning left and right again and again, confused.

In the usual reset and respawn, she would still be having her baby in her arms, playing.

But right now, he was missing…

Missing?

I was startled.

Cold sweat beads formed on my forehead as I noticed a few other goblins missing.

Seventy-three… that's how many goblins should have been there including me.

But as I scanned left and right, almost counting inwardly at an unknown fast speed, maybe due to perception that I could sense almost instantly that I realized…

'Sixty-one… and I am… sixty-two.'

Eleven goblins were missing.

I turned around… slowly and just barely… and stared at the bodies that lay on the ground.

All the bodies had vanished. Yes, all… except those whose body parts I had eaten…

Gobro.

Hikoro.

Taiba.

Gibba.

Glokri.

Ottopo.

Gabro.

Tobor.

Trek.

Ganno.

And… Gaka, whose brain I had eaten…

Their bodies still remained on the ground, the same way I had left them.

My lower jaw trembled.

Weren't they supposed to come back to life?

I couldn't understand… I couldn't understand a single thing as the background noises just started to get louder.

"Where is Gabro?", asked his parents to those nearby.

"You promised to marry me… where are you, Hikoro!"

I stayed quiet… staring at the dead bodies as I didn't dare to turn behind and look at their faces…

I stayed quiet…

I stayed quiet… until chaos broke out.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Gobia screamed, spotting her baby.

"…"

I killed all of them.

"…"