‘I should start keeping track of days in my head so today would be day ten’. In the six days before I had done only simple things. I ate, I slept, I watched eggs and I learned paths in the forest. Now I could go for about two hours into the forest and recognize where I am and how to get back home. Mom did stick around now though, only leaving for about three hours every day to get food.

Along with that, I had been eating mostly goblins, finding that they kept attempting to steal my siblings for reasons I can’t think of. But all of them met a bloody end at the tip of my horn. Well back to the current stuff. I had woken up, inspected the eggs and then I went to get a drink from the lake. ‘It has been a while since I checked the system, should see if anything has changed, STATUS’. Quickly the bright status screen appeared before my eyes.

(Name - Glen

Level – 3

Biomass - 36

Skills: Rapid Development lvl (P), Roar lvl 4

Physical Aspects: Small Horn lvl 1, Weak Hide lvl 1 , Weak Scales lvl 1, Claws lvl 1

Mutations: System lvl 1(+) ).

‘Right I had increased my Roar to level four and level to three, wait this is new… why is there a plus sign?’. Being curious I poked the plus sign with my snout. [UPDATE IN PROGRESS. 10%... 30%... 70%... 100%. UPDATE COMPLETEAD]. It had taken just a minute for the update to complete. When it did a new voice spoke inside of my head. Instead of the normal, mechanical tone it was softer. Sounding just a bit more human than before.

[Hello there Glen. You have unlocked the Help Feature, Store Feature and lastly Quests. Also, you may now use biomass to increase your Physical Aspects and Mutation’s strength]. After hearing all of that I remembered all of the nice tropes from system storys.‘MUHAHAHAHAHA I have unlocked all the power in the world!!!. First though QUESTS!!!’. Suddenly another screen popped infront of me, having a couple of quests lined up.

[Main Quests

Protect the eggs until they hatch: time unknown, Reward: Family System, Ten Biomass per egg hatched.

Slaughter The Entire Dragon Goblin Tribe: 13/53 killed, Reward: bonus 2 Biomass per Goblin killed, Bonus 15 for quest completion.

Find The Kobolt Reward: ???]

[Note that Side Quests will not be shown until completion of every Main Quest. Side Quests will still be active though]. All of the info on there was… a little underwhelming. After all, I was already doing two of the three quests. But finding the Kobolt was a strange quest. ‘System give me a description of the Kobolt Quest’. [Find the two Kobolts you scared off seven days ago. No more information will be provided for this quest]. It was strange that the system did not give me more information but I guess it is better than nothing. ‘I should see if anything about my status has changed since I last looked, STATUS’.

(Name: Glen

Level – 3

Biomass - 11

Skills: Rapid Development lvl (P), Roar lvl 4 (+)

Physical Aspects: Small Horn lvl 1 (+), Weak Hide lvl 1 (+) , Weak Scales lvl 1 (+), Claws lvl 1 (+)

Mutations: System lvl 2 )

‘Oh, gods… this is incredible!!! It took 25 biomass to level up the system but worth it! I can finally get stronger without waiting to become an adult. I MUST UPGRADE MY HORN!’. Quickly I moved to tap the + button but I stopped myself before. ‘No no no that is stupid. I should increase the level of my Hide or Scales first. Defense should always come before offense… at least until I have a decent defense’.

Sighing I decided to increase the strength of my scales. While the hide beneath was the very thing I felt that I shouldn’t walk around with easily breakable scales. After pressing the button ten more biomass depleted from my pool. Then after that, NOTHING HAPPENED. Well I didn’t feel anything, but most likely my scales did infact get stronger. The downside was that I couldn’t upgrade anything else. ‘Alright, upgrading takes 10 biomass except for Rapid Development, that will take more’. Now that I had an idea of how to get stronger I decided that it would be good if I went and found more of these dragon tribe goblins.

So I checked on the eggs quickly, nothing was wrong with them. Then I began to wander off into the forest. I went on the main path, I had seen the most goblins when walking this. It was often used by crystal horned deer, so it was easy to walk through.

After just a little bit of walking along the trail, I spotted goblins. There were five this time, each of them were different from the others I had encountered. For starters the goblins were taller and their muscles more visible than the short and weak goblins. The second thing I noticed was their spears. The goblins spears were usually just sharpened sticks or they had none at all. But their spears had a tip made of rock and it looked sharp enough to skewer me. The last thing to note was that there body’s were covered in some sort of boiled hide compared to the normally unclothed or armored goblins.

This was going to be risky compared t the other hunts I have had. Usually, it was one or two goblins, not five. Also they had better weapons and defense. 'I would be better off just going away and leaving them to their own business. But with how many have come after my siblings, it might come back to bite me if I leave them alone. Ok, I am a protagonist, right? so I think that I can be reckless a couple of times. At least until I take too much damage'.

With that, I got ready to go and fight these damn dirty goblins. ‘Deep breath now Glen, take it nice and slow. Relax your muscles, aaaaand POUNCE’. The goblins were just a yard away in the brush. I charged at the closest one, slamming my horn into it’s back and through its hide armor. The others now knew of my presence but I took out on goblin, four more to go. The rest of them were all next to each other so I turned around as fast as possible and slammed into two goblins. The first seemed to have broken its spear and arm, maybe some ribs but the second one I hit was uninjured.

By the time I had done that one of the other two had raised its spear and slammed it down into me. A surge of pain ran through my body as I felt the coldness of the spearhead inside of me. I turned around quickly, snapping off the spear but leaving it inside of me. Then I let out another shout. A level four roar is much stronger than a level two, to say the least. Fear struck the goblins like a knife through butter. The injured one was frozen in place while the others all paused. Smiling I jumped at the frozen goblin, tearing off its jaw with my teeth. This had only made the other goblins fear stronger and I took their hesitation as a chance to attack. Another Goblin lost its throat to my claws.

The last two goblins, the one who stabbed me and the other I hadn’t touched both looked ready to bolt but with my new quest, I couldn’t let them run. I roared again, but it had the opposite effect of what I wanted. The last goblin with a spear stabbed it into me. Shattering another scale and through my back left leg. Unbearable pain shot through me. I damned this body for not letting me cry right now. Gritting my teeth I raised my head and looked at the last two goblins. Then I swung around again, shattering the goblin who stabbed me's head. More pain came through me as I turned around again, continuing to move the spear inside of my leg.

One more goblin. This goblin died easily, tearing off its arm with my teeth. Then I sat down to eat. It was a good meal, but the pain was still horrible. As I finished eating the last goblin, all of the adrenaline had left me and I felt all of the pain. As a human maybe I could have stayed away. But this new body his it’s limit and I fell down.

As my eyes closed, the last this I saw were a pair of bright red eyes, red fur, and a muzzle. ‘The gods hate me… a Kobolt’.