Looking down he realized he was green, not like grass green but more like the color of a mojito. He saw the scar he got when he was young still in his thigh. But the slingshot in his hand took away his attention, and he brought it a little closer. A screen opened up by it, startling Ashton.
Primitive Slingshot
Quality: Poor
“Woah!” Shocked from the screen popping up. The text seemed to be the same as the text from the black screen from the white room.
The slingshot was made of a seemingly sturdy wood and some elastic vines.
He looked at his other hand, his fingers were longer, his nails sharper. He reached up and touched his face, his facial structure had changed, his face had become more elongated. His ears had become pointier.
He curled his fingers in to make a fist, it felt relatively normal. The shock was when he opened his hand as far as he could, his fingers bent back farther than they should. Then he tried pushing on them to bend them as far as they could, he was able to make his fingers almost flush with the back of his hand.
Looking at his left wrist he had a tattoo of a bow and on his left pec he had another tattoo that seems much more complex. It seemed to be a flat square piece of paper with two more underneath that were slightly lower to show themselves more, but above the top page there was a water droplet falling towards the paper. Not being able to piece it together he moved on.
Ashton looked around and the forest seemed just like any other forest he had seen or been in. He did not have too much experience in the woods but he did have a short stint in Boy Scouts in his younger years.
There was a river nearby and he tried to take a step towards it but his balance was off, the new body made even walking different. He nearly tripped but caught himself. It didn’t take long to acclimate himself to walking in his new skin.
It took a few minutes to get a grasp of his body but it didn’t take long to catch on. He tried walking and once it felt natural he moved on to running. When he hit his top speed he wasn’t ready and stumbled causing him to roll, nearly dislocating his knee. He sat on the ground to catch his breath and once his breath calmed he got up and continued training.
He then started jumping and landing, then moved on his upper body and tried push ups, his body was much lighter than he expected. Which resulted in him either under or over compensating, but it didn’t take long for Ashton to get the hang of it.
He got next to the river and drank some water and looked up and saw a deer on the other side.
The deer had already noticed him but remained still looking at Ashton. He crouched there staring at the deer back at the deer. The deer had fur that was black with spots of gray, but its horns and eyes were a mossy green.
Ashton stood up causing the deer to run away. That’s when it struck from deep within. Hunger. He needed to eat something soon.
He realized he would need to be able to accurately shoot in order to eat tonight. He ruled out catching something due to his limited speed in still acclimating to his new body. He also ruled out foraging; this was a foreign world and there was no way to be certain that any berries or greens would be fine to consume.
So he grabbed a small stone and aimed it at the tree across the river. Before even firing the stone slipped. It took him a few tries to get a handle on how to keep the stone in place but eventually he got a grasp of it.
Then he tried aiming at the tree across the river. The river was about 20 feet wide and the tree was about 10 feet from a bank. But the shot managed to only hit the bank on the other side.
So he switched his attention to a large rock on the bank. So he started shooting at the rock. The first few shots missed, most were going far left of the rock, one shot directly into the river, but the 7th shot finally hit his target. He kept firing until he consistently was able to hit the rock, and while doing this was able to learn how to shoot with much greater force.
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Ashton switched back to shooting at the tree. He shot about 20 times, hitting it a total of 12 times. He caught on that when he controlled his breathing and slowed it down when he was about to take his shot his aim was much more accurate.
Now was time to begin hunting.
The forest was unknown, there were probably some ferocious beasts around. But Ashton knew if he didn’t do anything then he would end up starving to death. Due to the new body there was no way to tell how long he could go without eating.
Ashton slowly snuck through the forest, trying to make as little sound as possible. After about 30 minutes he found what he was looking for, a rabbit. It was peach-colored with blue eyes and was currently looking at something on the ground. Ashton snuck up on it, he was about 10 feet away with a clear shot. He aimed at the head of the rabbit and fired a small stone, but the nervousness of killing something for the first time altered his shot. The shaking of his hands took away some of the aim he worked for the past hour. The stone hit the rabbit. His joy he gained was short lived as when he got closer he realized he had mortally wounded it not killed it. He listened to its final cries and then watched life leave its eyes. He was mentally not prepared for this but the hunger overwhelmed his other senses as he started to remove the skin and eat the meat. It was like what he imagined raw chicken tasted and felt like. The hunger was severe enough until he ate about half the rabbit. That’s when he finally noticed the screen.
———————
Creature Defeated: Forest Rabbit - Level 2
Absorption Activated:
Absorbable Skills:
- Keen Hearing - (Awareness 1)
———————
When he saw the list, he was confused. It was strange but some innate knowledge told him what to say, “Absorb Keen Hearing.”
As soon as he did, a gold mist traveled toward him and was directed into the left side of his head. Once the gold mist had fully been absorbed the effect became immediately clear.
Originally the forest seemed fairly quiet, but now it was as if he was listening on a low volume. The sounds were much more precise and clear, he could pinpoint the location of where the sounds came from much better than before. There was a bird singing and now he knew it was around 100ft ahead and 20 feet in the air, probably perched midway in a tree. But yet again something else drew his attention away, this time it was some kind of small animal eating from a bush.
Using his new and improved hearing he was able to find the same kind of rabbit he had just killed. But this time it was not alone, there were two of them. Though Ashton knew he would be able to defeat them both since one of the rabbits had a limp leg, clearly it had been attacked and it never healed properly.
So using what his practice had taught him he prepared a rock in the twines aimed and fired. The nervousness was not gone but had dwindled a bit. So the rock shot true hitting the rabbit directly in the head causing the head to crack open and the rabbit to fall over. The other rabbit started to flee but with its leg it was very slow. Ashton fired the second rock striking the rabbit in the side and embedding it within the rabbit. It stopped moving and he walked up to it and heard its final breath, but it was as if his emotions had been slightly muted as he did not feel anything. The same screen reappeared twice.
———————
Creature Defeated: Forest Rabbit - Level 2
Absorption Activated:
Absorbable Skills:
- Herbivore Knowledge - (Intelligence 1)
———————
———————
Creature Defeated: Forest Rabbit - Level 1
Absorption Activated:
Absorbable Skills:
- Quick Reflexes - (Dexterity 2).
———————
“Absorb Herbivore Knowledge and Quick Reflexes”
Gold mist from both corpses flew to him, the previously injured one’s mist was directed into the middle of his forehead, while the other was directed into his right thigh. Finally getting a good look at the mist being absorbed he realized that a tattoo was slowly fading into view, by the time it was finished the tattoo was a solid black. It was of a foot with wind depicted as if the foot was moving sideways fast.
After absorbing the traits he started to walk over to the bodies but was interrupted by a new screen
———————
Level Criteria Met
- +1 to all stats
- +2 free points
———————
He stood still confused about what the screen meant. This new world of traits, stats, and god knows what else, left him confused on what to do. His entire life he adapted and this he knew would be no different, hell even the system knew it from his main trait having been adaptability, but it was a lot to take in.
The hunger still partially remained, so he decided since the bodies were right in front of him, to fill up. It was odd that now his body was able to consume raw meat without gagging or feeling sick, he did not understand why but he decided to use it. He was able to eat about one rabbit to become full.
Finally satiated, he looked inward to see if he could find any more clues to what he had become. “Who am I? What Am I?” Nothing occurred, but when his mind finally thought of the word “Status” a long screen appeared.
———————
Name: Ashton Hunt
Job: Not obtained yet
Race: Low Goblin
Level: 2
———————
Attributes:
- Strength - 9
- Dexterity - 11
- Constitution - 9
- Speed - 13
- Intelligence - 15
- Awareness - 15
- Fortune - 6
Unspent Points: 2
———————
“I’m a goblin?”
Ashton stood there dazed, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to think.
“Adaptability? Did the system do all of this because I liked to fit in?”
He turned back to his lack of sickness, “Is it because I'm a goblin?”
Ashton started to wonder what all had changed between Earth and this world, since this place had deer and rabbits and from what he saw they behaved like their counterparts but looked different. Hell, he was a Goblin, what other creatures were there in this world? Ashton continued to ponder on this for a bit, still coming to grips about this new world.
But before he could think about it for long, his senses picked up movement nearby in the woods.