“Does the suffering end or does it merely transform?” – Peter Griffin, a Family Guy(Meme)

  Humans like to create scales to judge pain, whether that is to scale the pain of a bug bite, a venom, or discomfort, we scale that pain from a metric of neutral to blinding. To create my own, absorbing a skill crystal hurts, but the effect passes quickly. Trying to forge my bones takes time, but you eventually grow numb. Eating a Senzu bean after your body has been broken, feeling everything being snapped back into pce as your muscles tense, release, snap, and heal over and over again, its maddening...

  But to feel your cells break down and reconstruct themselves… There are no words to describe it.

  These scales and the English lexicon have no words to describe what it feels like when it turns white, when every sensation blends, then stops altogether.

  Not dead, but not alive, trapped in purgatory before your brain activates its safety mechanisms and turns you off before any damage becomes permanent.

  When I finally woke up the next day, I could tell immediately that my body was different. My five senses felt stronger, again. Coupled with a sensation simir to that of the Horse Talismans' effect. An unnatural healthiness that one might never feel in their whole lives.

  Standing up and giving my body a stretch I was more limber and flexible as well.

  Checking my body in the bathroom, there weren't any mutations or anything unusual. I couldn't feel or find any new abilities or extra limbs. However, the process might not be completed in just one night. Becoming a Super Soldier might take more than a few days for everything to sink in. “But at least the worst of it's over.”

  And now I’m left with a question: “How strong was I now?” Grabbing the phone and adding a drop of blood:

  Name: James Dewitt

  Age: 22 years

  Lifeform level: Mortal/Ordinary

  Strength: 6 > 9

  Speed: 5 > 9

  Constitution: 12 > 13

  Primordial Energy: 9

  Primordial Energy Art: Lost Immortal Sutra

  Primordial Energy Skills: Penetrating Pierce R1,

  Primordial Energy Pet: Bloodborn (Mortal),

  I had jumped to the top of the mortal level overnight; all my physical stats had increased. Even my limit-breaking Constitution stat had increased by 1.

  Skipping forward a bit, I started in a gym. With my increased stats I need to gauge the differences and understand my new strength and my new limits. Pying with the dumbbells, I didn’t feel anything until they were 50 pounds, but by that point, they were more unwieldy than heavy. As there weren't any heavier dumbbells here, I moved over to the bench press and lifted the barbell overhead. With over 300 pounds overhead, I swung it around a few times, "Danny would be losing his mind."

  Moving on from the weights, I spent half an hour on a treadmill. No matter how fast I increased the speed, I didn’t seem to tire. After my warm-up was finished, I moved on to the training image where I had thrown all the goblins.

  Passing through the screen, we arrived in another forest. Punching one of the trees to gauge my strength, I released a pained creaking, hitting it a few more times, I could chop down an Oak bare-handed. Adding Ki, I would leave an imprint of a fist on the bark.

  There was an old family legend that Grandpa always told us whenever he came to visit about our great-great-grandfather. Supposedly, he had once fought hand to hand with a grizzly bear. Nobody really believed him, but Dad always said, "It's not that it wasn't possible, just unbelievable". And I had to agree with him. It's not that he couldn't encounter and escape from a bear alive, but fighting one off with his bare hands sounds ridiculous.

  But if I were to encounter one now, it would be a lot less fisticuffs or stabbing it in the neck, praying to survive the event, and more equivalent to dropping the thing because I hit it too hard. If my Bloodborn didn't kill it before it got that far. Regardless, remembering the story did make me wonder what bears have started mutating into?

  After adjusting my strength to the point I didn't destroy the bark on impact, I moved on, searching through the forest.

  When I first set up this pce, it was just an ordinary image of a forest where I threw around a handful of weak, easy, low-level fantasy creatures. Slimes, Horned Rabbits, and of course some Goblins. Pying around with them, I made some of my early discoveries on how this stuff worked, one of the first was that monsters with game origins still drop items on death.

  Then, while researching various types of goblins from different series, I tossed some of them in here too. After discovering the Phoenix Down, I revived some of the ‘real’ goblins and added them as well.

  Since then, through the time I spent in here training, screwing around, and time spent outside speeding up time for those contained in here, the original weak inhabitants were hunted to extinction by the new goblin species. But this requires an expnation of its own.

  While it's understandable concerning the creatures that could be eaten for food, the execution of the deformed goblins, if I had to describe it, the deformed goblins seemed to give the others a severe case of Uncanny Valley. From there, they just followed their instincts. I'm probably up to double digits for how many times I've found one of their desecrated corpses by smell alone.

  Occasionally, I have revived these bodies, but this never ended well. For those that did come back, by the next time I discovered them again, they’d be dead again and in worse shape than the st time. So, I've learned to just let them stay dead.

  As time passed, the ‘real’ goblins became the most dominant group in the area. The reason for this would be two-fold. The first would be the formation of their 'goblin society'.

  The Tribe, or Goblin Troop, operates in a typical css structure where the leader is above the warriors/hunters, then the craftsmen. The lowest ones on this totem pole, I don’t know what they do (or really want to) other than jitter like chihuahuas, constantly looking over their shoulder. (I am unsure if this was because of me or if it’s their natural behavior. The others don't have this reaction.)

  Despite this given hierarchy, there is one exception: smaller goblins will obey those rger than them without question. The reason for this is quite simple: the rger ones will sh out and win.

  It's likely due to my interactions that such a system formed.

  Originally, 'real' goblins weren't all that strong. While their resurrection did cure them of malnutrition, it didn’t add any muscle to their scrawny bodies. A teenage boy could easily kick them off, like they would a bitey younger sibling. After I started messing with them, the first thing I changed was nutrition. I appeared before them, dropped off a bunch of food, mainly meat and vegetables, then added time outside for them to develop. After a week, they were able to recover from emaciation.

  Despite this, even after recovering from starvation, they had about the same strength as a skinny teenager. With bouts of hysterical strength once adrenaline started pumping.

  With proper food, added time from the outside, and pouring high-css healing potions on their bodies to heal them up after encounters (This is probably the only bath they will ever take willingly). Not only did this heal their wounds, but it also increased their muscle mass in a short time.

  Now, they all stand at ~5ft tall on average with a lean muscur build. Comparing that to the malformed goblins, who were easy to deal with due to their poor reflexes, even while having explosive strength, they cked the bodies to use it. Its no surprise that one side ended up wiped out.

  Since this pce is locked in time, it was a major change when they adapted; their debilitatingly photosensitivity has been mostly cured. Even though they have grown used to it, they still hate bright lights. If you shine a fshlight at them, they will attack with reckless abandon.

  I don't know when it was, but at some point, the 'real' goblins began to accept those from system worlds. But the results were apparent.

  While those taken from a system world (typically) lost all support and became unable to use their skills, becoming far weaker as a result. For the few that didn't lose everything once they were disconnected (I'm still trying to figure that out), they could at least swing a sword better than the others.

  Once the real goblins started interacting with them, at first, they couldn’t win. They couldn’t even compete with goblins with only Level 1 or 2 sword skills. But they started to learn. Every interaction with the system types or whenever I made an appearance, their skills started to grow, bit by bit.

  The early game/easy creatures were the best practice dummies for me to understand what was going on. For them, they became food that hastened their rapid development. (It’s actually kind of scary, if you asked me).

  Checking the tracking device on my phone, “They should be around here…Ahha! Found you!”

  After spotting me, the gaggle of over a dozen goblins remained standoffish. This has long since become the norm; after all, I drop off food occasionally. Unless I engage first, all of them will just give me a side eye. (Which is more than can be said for some of the other inhabitants, I guess they just became the most well-trained about it).

  Drawing the steel sword at my hip, the rgest of the group started barking orders to the others.

  Sporting a towering height (for a goblin) of 5'6 and a nose longer than the rest, Red Cap, as I’ve taken to calling him, became the leader of the 'real' goblins. He was also the very same Home Invader that died to the might of a frying pan after he had come out of my closet over a month ago.

  He's always been taller and stronger than the rest, and from my interactions, he's also somewhat smarter.

  I can't tell if he's some form of mutant or variant, and after becoming the de facto 'king', I gave him a crown, a red beanie with a poof ball on top. The poof ball also contains a tracking chip to monitor their movements, making it easy to find them whenever I go looking for them.

  Following his directions, one of the goblins approached, drawing a steel axe in one hand and a sword in the other.

  I've also noted the difference in behaviors that the goblins have started taking. When I first picked them off, they were surrounded by a menagerie of bone and stone hand tools. Now besides the occasional tool (notably a bark stripper and a poorly made crude axe early on) they have mostly stopped crafting things.

  *Cnk* *Cnk*

  Because I didn't want to have to store my weapons after using them, I threw them where they id, and the goblins ended up picking them up. Maybe it was their attraction to shiny objects that made them pick up these much better metal tools. But once they had them, they never wanted to let go. (I think they see it as me gifting it to them).

  As I finished fighting against the goblin wielding the axe and sword, the next one approached. (That reminds me).

  Another odd thing they've started doing. The birds I released in here to see what would happen were hunted not for food, but for their feathers. These feathers would then be crafted to mimic an arrow's fletching, and a stone arrowhead would be mounted to a crudely crafted bark shaft. They rarely, if ever, shoot these hand-crafted arrows. Otherwise, they liked to fashion these colorful feathers into their greasy bck hair (which grew longer than other goblin species). And to be completely honest, I have no idea what they're doing.

  *Cnk* *Cnk*

  Goblins...when I first discovered them, I believed these ‘real’ Goblins had intelligence on par with modern apes, closer to early proto-humans discovering fire and early tool crafting. Now, I’m not too sure where I’d pce them.

  They are certainly intelligent. They have figured out tool use and how to light a fire, even using different materials from this forest. But they seem limited to simple concepts. They can learn them, terrifyingly fast in some cases. But the moment that complexity increases by a degree or two, they just cannot comprehend it. (The only one that doesn't seem as limited is currently watching the others while sporting a red poof ball on his head).

  Kicking the next goblin down, after he picked himself up grumbling on his way back to the rest of the troop. One after another, the Warrior css goblins appeared and fought against me, and one by one they were smacked down.

  In the end all of this has left me perplexed by the fat goblin 'kings'. Standing at twice the size of an ordinary goblin, with well over five times the weight. At first, I thought they were some form of puberty, simir to a goril or an orangutan, the young males looking different from the mature alphas. Despite this idea, with more than abundant food and resources, none experienced any form of alteration.

  This leads me to believe they might instead be two separate species. (Or perhaps even three?)

  Since the lesser goblins took their beatings with pride, it was finally time for Red Caps' turn. Drawing his sword, he met me before the rest of the troop, the audience released growls of cheer while they watched.

  However, with my current stats, he isn't much better than one of the skeletons from the game.

  *Cnk*

  (Well, he is faster.)

  *Cnk*

  (And doesn't operate in a pattern. He gets a few points.)

  *Cnk**Cnk**Cnk*

  "Have you been training again?" (Maybe a rank or two higher than the skeletons.)

  As he continued swiping, sshing, and cutting away, I continued to work on my dexterity, guarding against each strike in turn. Slowly I lead him away from the troop and towards the territory of a certain miscreant that lived within these woods.

  Equipped only with a pair of denim jeans and a long sword in my hands, I continued trading blows with a Red Cap in a different forest clearing. It had taken us several minutes to make it over here, but now that we arrived, I knew it would happen soon. He wouldn't leave such a lovely exposed weak point unexploited.

  “Gaaaah!” I cried out as I felt my back being sshed open. In the same breath, the blood that spurted from my open back quickly unched out, a rge blood hand grabbed hold, catching a peculiarly ugly goblin with yellow bug eyes. His arms and legs sticking out of the strange blood with a jelly-like consistency, filing about as he tried in vain to free himself.

  “Finally! Finally, caught your ass, you ugly little fucker!” I said, looking over my shoulder before submerging his limbs and hardening the blood, preventing any further struggle.

  *Cp* “Alright, I think that’s enough sparring for today.” I had worked out most of the differences by now. Besides holding an egg without breaking it, anything else could probably be learned through the experience shared from the game.

  My opponent has also realized the situation, pcing his sword into the ground watching the ugly goblin squirm with a sadistic smile on his face.

  (Right, he hasn’t been just a nuisance for me. These guys had to live with him.) I don’t know how long they’ve been in here in their time, but for me it’s only been a couple weeks since I figured out how to fast forward, for them, maybe a month or two? Since then, the sky has started to turn orange. I wonder how long it will be before a day and night cycle forms? “If extended for a year, would there even be seasons?” I wondered.

  “Things should be quieter around here with him gone,” I noted out loud as a rustling could be heard moving through the thicket rapidly approaching.

  There was one other thing that happened this morning: A rge knee-high purple ‘hand’ skittered towards us out of the shadows. With five rge purple fingers, tipped with a rge sharp cw, about four inches in length. Its locomotion was based on the four side fingers, with the central one being curled underneath its body unless needed. It approached with a terrifying speed!

  Kuramon had evolved into Tsumemon st night.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Skittering across the ground, his long antennae stretched out behind him. Holding items on both sides.

  Arrived before me its rge red eye looked at me with a pure innocence, before one of its long antennae stretched forward presenting me a water bottle and my phone. “AWA!” He cried in the same cute voice he had before.

  “Thanks,” I said, receiving the items.

  Seeing that I had received the water bottle in its left antennae, Tsumemon skittered over to Red Cap, offering the bottle in its right antennae. “AWA!”

  Red Cap took a step back, looking at the strange creature, but as much as his instincts told him to run away from the odd thing, seeing as James had taken the offering, he did the same. Holding out his hand a bottle of red liquid was gently dropped in his grasp.

  Red Cap watched James hold out his arm before an equally strange transparent rectangle appeared before him. Seeing the strange object, the freakish hand quickly skittered through the screen before James followed it, bringing along The Ssher with him.

  Watching him leave, Red Cap didn’t exactly have the mind to comprehend what he was seeing. He just appears and disappears at a whim. At least he left him a bottle of that red healing water, and he took The Ssher with him. A smile pursed his lips.

  *Goblin Speech* "Only hell awaits you."

  END