If you're lonely and you know it clap your hands, if you're lonely and you know it clap your hands, if you're lonely and you know it and you don't really wanna show it if you're lonely and you know it clap your-,

Oh! Uh, hi there! I'm still-, well, I'm still wandering in the cave, that's for sure! Not much has happened, not much to see. It's... really just a big cave. Tunnels going here and there and all. Sometimes I find beds of that blue mos covered in moss eatin' larvae, but whenever they see me they scramble away. Maybe they can smell the blood on me?...

I'm not going hungry, at least. The memory of eating has begun to haunt me. Moss? Yeah I can understand eating that. L-, larvae?... Um, no. I'm fine without, thank you.

Every five minutes or so my light will go out, but the level of Light keeps rising, so in a few more levels I think it will even out with my unknown Mana regeneration.

Sometimes, when I run into a steep rise or a wall I have to use Flight to scale it, but otherwise, it's really kind of tedious. Boring, even.

That is, until I hear a sound. After so long of having the only sound be that of my tippy-tapping feet, the sound was as obvious as a siren. Well, it was more of a scratching sound than a siren, but still. My antennae perked up.

Wh-, what was that-? Was that... a sound?? A thing a person a monster????

Without a shred of doubt, fear or hesitance, I rush at the sound, my tail shining just a single shade brighter than before. With everything I had experienced so far in this god damned cave, I really shouldn't have expected anything friendly, or even non-hostile for that reason.

Hell, in my sheer excitement to find something, someone, I even started flying, since my flight is now faster than my normal walking by far. So, in other words, I was a (presumably) small worm-like creature, flying at high speeds with a light at the end of my tail.

I flew fast, turning corner after corner, slowly gaining both speed and height, momentum and excitement building, that odd scratching growing clearer and louder and nearer until, finally...

"Gnikk?"

Splat!

"GNGHIij!!!"

Ow... Fuck, what happened...? I feel like I ran into a wall... But... not that I feel it, it's more like a squishy wall... but in that leathery kind of way? And it's pretty bumpy, what is thi-,

And then I noticed the eyes staring down at me. Big, yellow, wild and frantic and terrified, surrounded by green flesh lighted up only by the light of my tail. I was sitting on a face. A large, ugly face.

GAH FUCK

With that rallying war-cry of mine, I threw myself from that big disgusting face, catching my body mid-fall by taking to flight. The moment I did so, a large something whizzes past my face, and the very next second, that very object finds itself lodged into the face of the creature I just escaped.

"GNNARGGH!!" the creature cries, falling over as it cradles its face, the object it used to bash its own face in, namely a large wooden club, letters to the floor. Indeed, this creature is entirely green, and quite naked, too, not that it has any reproductive organs to show off. With a gangly, stubby build and a humanoid four-limbed body, I can't help buy doubt my eyes.

What the fuck is this shit?... I know my light-bulb thingy is blue and makes blue light, but even so, are my eyes fucking with me? Is that guy green?... Okay, okay, let's think here. He's got a severe case of the uglies, really short, looks somewhat malnourished, totally naked and has so far not said a single word iI could understand.

Theory numero uno: I was sent back in time, and this is a cave man, just ugly and green.

Theory number twei: this is still a fantasy world and this guy is just some weird sort of monster that I've never seen, which wouldn't be weird since, well, I don't exactly live in the big city or anything, all I know about these kinds of things is what Chuck told me.

Theory number tre: alien

Hm. Hmmmm.

Slowly, gently, I fly down and touch the ground. If this green man guy stops writhing, I might be able to, well, communicate with him. His first reaction to seeing me might have been to try and splatter me all across his face for some reason, but if a fly flew if my face like I did, I would've done the exact same thing. I mean, come on.

"Ggugugugugggg..." the creature grumbled before sitting back up, his big, crooked nose dripping with purple blood. Huh, wonder how that works. He(?) rubbed his face before turning to look at me. Considering I was the only source of light in the cavity we were in, I was hardly hard to see. Huh, maybe being a luminous bastard in a completely black environment might not be the best idea...

Our eyes met. I raised my front-arms in a weak attempt to show solidarity, to surrender, and to show I was no danger.

The creature bolted for his club, and I instantly knew the jig was up. I willingly let my light go out, and while he scrambled for a club he couldn't see, I flew with very little confidence towards the place where I heard his short, quick breaths. I landed on his face, as softly as a woman's touch, right above his eyebrow. Whether he could feel me or not wasn't important, since this would be over soon. Kind of.

Right now, the level of Light is 16. The cost for using it per second is almost zero, but the cost for using it once is 0,1. My total Mana right now should be about 17. I took a breath, and prepared myself.

A normal eye can easily stand deep darkness or bright light, but only if it has grown used to it first. A sudden flash of bright light isn't pleasant, especially if it's too close to the eye.

I stationed the bulb at the end of my tail right in front of his eye, and closed my eyes.

What followed could be summarized as a flashbang, of sorts, except continuous and, well, right in front of his fucking eye. Continuous rapid bursts of bright light. As the level of Light grew, so did the intensity and my ability to control it, and right now, I was going all-out. The entire cavern around us lit up in quick, rapid flashes, and with the blue hue of it, one could have thought the sheriff had pulled up to crash a party.

"GAUUGUGUUHURHUHGGGG" the creature roared in pain. Before it fell over, I flew away, just a little bit, and turned the light on again, but at a very dim level. I'd had my eyes closed, and it still kind of stings! Considering that this creature was clutching its eye, I can only imagine what kind of damage it incurred.

That said, I've never been one for needless torture. If you run a deer over, there's only one thing left to do.

While the creature groaned and growled and whined in agony like a half-dead rabies hound, I approached, my heart hard and stoic. Within seconds, I stand upon its forehead. It won't hurt me, I know it couldn't if it tried. This will be costly in terms of Mana, but I know exactly what to do and how to do it. I'm not sure how this'll work or if its brain has the same general anatomy as a cow, but it'll have to work.

As long as I can destroy the tissue in the brain stem, if it has one of those, this'll be smooth. Now just... stand still...

I place my antennae atop the forehead of the still-writhing creature, and will my last remaining Mana into them, and out into the world. It isn't much, but it will have to do. I then gently guide the ball towards the back of the creature's brain, beneath the cerebellum and occipital lobe, at a random area of the brain stem, if it has one of those, which I kind of hope, and with all the care of a butcher, I put the spell into work.

Heat.

The creature moves no longer.

Green Forest Goblin defeated

You have gained EXP

You have gained a Level

You are now Level (MAX)

Spell (Heat) has gained a Level

You have completed special mission (Lose Humanity)

Due to completing special mission (Lose Humanity) you may now (EVOLVE)

Do you choose to (EVOLVE)?

...Wait, what the fuck-? Okay, uh, nice, exactly the same messages as last time, but-, what the fuCk do you mean by "lose humanity"?? What did I do???? All I did was kill off some green creature, apparently called a "green forest goblin"! I don't see how this is any different compared to killing those 40-something larvae?...

Hum, maybe it's because it was generally like, human-shaped. And therefore I should have pitied it, maybe?

Man this is-,

"Grirf-?"

-Oh fuck I'm lucky I didn't have my light on-,,

From an opening in front of the creature's corpse, yet another creature emerges, carrying a... a torch? Yeah, a flaming torch, warm in colour and swaying as beautifully as a dancing-girl. The creature itself seems... female. Wider hips than shoulders, less muscle over-all, carrying a knife and a belt around its waist instead of a wooden club.

The light of the torch falls upon the creature - goblin - I killed, and her eyes follow. If green could turn pale, this was it. Her face froze up, and without a care to the torch, she fell to her knees, and the torch clatters away. Without a word, other than a low, whining noise, she grasps the corpse and holds it close to her chest. There, she weeps.

Oh.

Oh.