I arrived at Eldi, a particular favourite grocery store of mine, with high-quality goods and cheap prices what could go wrong. This particular establishment stood alone surrounded by a bustling car park with different colours drifting in and out of view, people clearly trying to get groceries since the recent pandemic. Now you might wonder why this wasn’t mentioned before, that was simply due the government's lack of preparation and restriction which meant the days carried on as normal. The virus known as Lovid-21 came out of literally nowhere taking the world by storm. Some point the finger at China, some America since they had cleaning products for it, conspiracy theories literal pulled out of people's arses making you wonder where they come up with it all, but hey this thing killed lots of people. As I left the soft embrace of the Corsa, I was once more reminded of why I loved this country. It was raining, always raining.

“singing in the rain what a glorious feeling I’m hap hap happy again”

I recited a particular favourite song from my much younger days, which perfectly suited the current gloomy mood being shared with my fellow compatriots. Peering through the glossy windows surrounding the building on all but one side, my line of sight lingered on many more male individuals being dragged by their better parts towards what could not be mistaken by their current expression, hell on earth. Imagine standing for hours on end believing the end goal is near only to be whisked away to another wonderland of prices, discussion, and items, which Franky you have no appeal nor care for. But speak of your tired legs and uninterest in these current affairs you would have to spend a further few hours trying to reconcile with your partners expanding all your brain cells and energy just to show you're interested. Alas, these lost souls could only show the pain on their faces afraid of the grim consequences dare they speak.

“And they say it’s a free country, freedom of speech and all”

Moments like these reconfirmed my resolution to remain single, not saying that I have an issue with those states of affairs, just that I don’t have the energy to be dealing with another when it's hard looking after myself.

Entering the facility whilst spreading a round of pleasantries to the men in yellow outside as you would do in this day and age letting my dry humor be heard by the other onlookers waiting for a chance to escape from the bellowing rain outside.

“such beautiful weather and you’re wearing a jacket aren’t you hot”

Yep, as you can imagine the response to my humor was a gruff grin at best, showing their clear disappointment to my statement which they undoubtedly heard from others as well. However, since they got paid for the job they expressed a brief smile swiping their hands in the air in a gesture of goodbye and dismissal of my clearly lackluster joke and continuing to wave through the onslaught of people behind me. This line is taken from many of the novels I loved and enjoyed clearly showed that real life was not as it is made out in stories. In those particular books, the individuals would show companionship slathered with looks of understanding before continuing on with their task. But life isn’t a novel and people frankly don’t care or remember about those passing in the streets, can you blame them with how tough life is.

As I continued with my shopping, pushing a trolley at my front and the clear nonrhythmic repetition of ringing as the battered wheels graced the folds and crease on the flooring, my mind jolted to wake with a sudden high pitch shout, a squeal reminiscent of a pig being slaughtered as a black-haired woman bolted passed me. Flying through the shelves with energy clearly not from one so slender forced me to turn and witness a sight which clearly did not belong in this world.

Standing at an unimpressive 5 foot 5 inches a layer of green interweaving between the stalls of blue, yellow, and green painting an almost picturesque image if one did not look at the hideous face. A green boiled over face with curled teeth and red bloodshot eyes showed that the creature before me clearly was not from this world. I couldn’t particularly hate on this man, hmm it as it was 2020, judging another by race or colour would lead to being slaughtered on the internet. This leads me to believe that the earlier women who drifted past me stepped on this particular mine clearly felt the backlash, though I didn’t think the internet had such an effect. Giving the pudgy thing a once over it reconfirmed my assumption that it could only be a goblin. A bent club grasped in both hands showed the obvious signs of impact from which the earlier women must have ricocheted off. Blood adorned the piece of greyish wood clinging fiercely as it sloped down of one end.

“ Ah sht, the weather, university, shopping and now goblins. It had to be fcking goblins. Not an elf or Valkyrie no, no, no a fcking ugly goblin”

“That’s great finally I can beat the sht out of something”

Now one might think why would I prefer a goblin over an elf or Valkyrie beautiful in their own regards. I assure you this has nothing to do with being a masochist. Well that’s simple, real life is practical, men done salivate over such things, no we manga reading weebs truthfully imagine a world where we can act and demonstrates our intelligence were the main characters in manga and novels fail, with the use of common sense. Clear unadorned common sense, and clearly a creature such as a goblin meant the world had changed.

Truthfully speaking I always exercised and trained to hope for a day such as this, a day where I can show how one would truly fight and conquer such an outlandish world. With these thoughts I came back to the battle before me, three more bulbous shaped creatures stalked through the door and my blood ranged and pumped with a feeling of satisfaction and longing.