The sun had just started setting for the day. The white-haired boy was currently tailing a particularly interesting prey. Why was the prey interesting? That was for several reasons. It was the fifth day since the arrival of the little tyrant into this new world. Ever since the incident on his first night he had been taking extra precautions to be able to sleep. He would always erase his scent with the juice of the fruit and berries he had been eating the last few days and would hide in particular spots that would be hard to see. As a result he hadn’t had any troubles with it ever since..

Other than this prey none other seemed worth it. Even if he could get meat he had nothing to carry it around with, starting a fire to cook it on would be inconspicuous and would honestly be a pain in the ass to do every time without tools, not to mention the risk of getting another animal’s blood on you in a forest where the night was full of predators. The scent of blood was… harder to wash off than one might think. Compared to that, berries and fruit were readily available all around the whole forest so he didn’t need to carry any around and rather than marking himself for predators they helped him stave them off. Not to mention they were delicious. 'Fruit were definitely the way to go. Yup.’ Thought the tyrant while nodding to himself.

But… here was a prey that could solve all his problems in one go. Because this wasn’t normal prey. No. The green to brown, humanoid creatures were wearing clothes made out of leather and fur. They had big noses, hinting at their above average sense of smell and were only slightly bigger than the boy, who was currently the size of a four-year-old, albeit on the bigger side of one. The creatures were the stereotypical depiction of a goblin.

They were all carrying weapons made out of either stone or bone, with only one exception. The leader who wore more covering clothes and even had a hood covering his head had one simple tool that had many implications for the boy. On his waist hung an iron dagger in a scabbard. The boy had seen him using it for skinning. He had already seen the place the creatures lived in and though he hadn’t seen the inside he was quite sure that they hadn’t the knowledge or tools for creating something out of iron, which in turn meant that someone else crafted the dagger. Someone who was from a more advanced civilization than them.

But these small creatures which were near the bottom of the food chain for predatory species around these parts held too much potential for the young one to ignore. They had clothes, shelter, food and tools. All things the boy needed on some level.

Thus ever since yesterday when he had stumbled onto the cave, they called home during his daily exploration of the forest he had decided to stalk them until he could come up with a following course of action. He had three choices, each coming with their own pros and cons.

Killing all of them and taking everything would be the easiest course of action. He would enjoy a nice, big, well-hidden cave with much space which had proven to be effective at staying hidden from the predators around and was close to the stream of water, which he had been following from day one. Less than an hour’s walk away actually. He would have all their current resources, tools and everything else that remained undamaged after the fight. The cons were he wouldn’t be able to acquire anything MORE. The goblins would be dead. They would no longer produce clothes, no longer hunt and forage for food and no longer create tools. He would be stuck with what he had when he killed them. And more than anything. He didn’t think it was necessary.

Stealing from them was the second choice and as the second choice it was also the second most difficult. Or at least the second most troublesome. Through it he would be able to enjoy a steady supply of resources though he would need to put in some amount of effort to get them. The goblins would continue to produce more and he would be able to continue to leech from them. Tools, clothes, food. All of that would be one trip to the cave away. He doubted the critters would notice they were being stolen from and even if they did he was reasonably confident they would be able to do little to stop him. The cons were he wouldn’t be able to make use of the delicious-looking shelter and he would have to regularly exude some effort to get to the supplies but the biggest problem was he would be stuck around the cave if he wanted to make use of the supplies. And that he didn’t want.

The third option, and the one that would be considered the most annoying to execute, was to take them over and become their new leader. Of course this came with many amazing benefits. He would be able to boss them around, asking for whatever whenever. Clothes? Tools? Food? Everything would be his and he would be able to make use of the shelter as he pleased as well. But… the cons were even more overwhelming than the benefits, making the tyrant want to groan just thinking about it, though he contained the desire, not wanting to risk detection.

Taking the spot of leader of the goblin would be an enticing opportunity but… there was too many annoyances and risks that came with it. First of all, he would once again be stuck around the area of the cave, rather than it being a hideout he could use temporarily while exploring the surrounding area and then abandoning it. In other words – disposable. Then there was the fact communicating would be a complete annoyance. He couldn’t tell what the goblin’s language was at all, neither did he feel like putting the effort into learning it and even if he did feel like it, it would take him at least a month.

The problems kept going. The responsibility he would have of protecting them, the fact the goblins might try and rebel on him and slice his throat in his sleep, the lack of trust he would have in them in general, not to mention the fact that becoming the leader of goblins, who were usually never on good terms with anyone, could potentially mean he could be forfeiting good relations with other civilizations like the one the dagger came from.

Right. Just like he thought that plan was a definite pain. But the benefits couldn’t be ignored for the time being and he could always discard the goblins if he needed to. He thought about what to do all the way back to the cave when something struck him. Why was he thinking so hard about this? All of that was unnecessary. He didn’t need the cave, nor the food. And he didn’t need the goblins either. There was something he was missing. Something fundamental about himself. Something from his old world he had failed to abandon. He didn't like it. A chain existed to be broken.

He jumped down from the tree he had been hiding in, gaining the hunter group’s attention right as they were about to enter the cave. They raised their spears, long wooden sticks with a sharp piece of flint tied at the end, though he simply walked forward, disregarding them. The leader with the hood and the iron dagger shouted something at him in a language he couldn’t understand, but he kept walking forward. The goblins were frozen in fear. They pointed their spears towards him but did nothing even as the young boy stopped, standing right in front of them, a blank, emotionless expression on his face.

He stood there, unmoving, as if waiting for something. The goblins still frozen in fear stood still for a long time as well, until the leader suddenly shouted thrusting his spear towards the boy. Yet the spear didn’t reach him. Before it pierced the young tyrant, he grabbed the shaft of the spear, stopping its movement entirely. His reaction speed was far beyond what any normal human could have. He lifted it up, prying it out of the goblin’s grasp before smacking him across the face with the back, which the goblin had been holding on to until then. It fell over, unconscious.

The other goblins looked on in bewilderment as the boy threw the spear backwards. He looked at them once more, as if expecting something and they put their spears down, the terror felt at the unknown to them creature, guiding their movements. They were aware of the predators in this forest. They had lost many people to them even during the day in the rare chance that the predators were staying up late or they came in contact with one of the rare ones that wandered during the day. If one of them found their cave they would definitely die. But maybe if they didn’t anger it, maybe if they appeased it, they wouldn’t all be slaughtered. The chances were slim, but they were better than none.

The boy walked forward, not having any way to know what they were thinking, causing them to instinctively step aside. But before entering the cave he gave one last look at the unconscious goblin on the ground and bent down, picking up the iron dagger. The goblins just watched him do so, the fact he didn’t kill their fellow, giving them hope they could yet survive this.

The scaled youth walked into the cave after taking the dagger. Two of the goblins followed him while the three others picked up their fallen comrade and carried him inside. As soon as he entered some of the female goblins screamed while a few more ran up and pointed spears at him again. The boy looked annoyed this time.

One of his escorts quickly said something in their language and one of the goblins pointing the spears at him, being a bit bigger than those around him shouted back at them. His escort then said something else which seemed to shut him up. He reluctantly put his spear aside, followed by the other goblins and said something to the boy. Of course he didn’t understand them in the least so he turned to his escorts and grabbed the clothes he was wearing, made out of the hide of some sort of animal. He looked back at the goblins as he was holding it and the bigger one grunted and turned away waving him over, as if saying to follow.

The boy did so. It didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking that it might be a trap. Neither did he think the goblins couldn’t be a threat if they all banded together against him. But there was something inside him that refused to acknowledge him. Some sort of pride, inserted deeply inside him. For a moment he thought it might have been because of the invader. That thing that tried to change him. But no. This was too strong. Too deep. It felt too big a change for the invader to have caused. No. These were his true feelings. He was prideful. He was forced to ignore that pride of his for the sake of practicality until now in consideration of how much was at stake. But now he was free, he was unleashed. Yes. He took pride in who he was. He was a genius, a tyrant, and someone who gave up everything in order to forcefully push the world in the right direction. He was selfish and unreasonable, forceful and possessive. But in being such he refused to be a petty thief or a mindless murderer, even a ruler to these creatures.

In the end that was who he was. A tyrant. While he saw no reason to kill the goblins they had something he wanted and he would request it. If they didn’t want to give it to him then he would take it by force. He didn’t feel the necessity to kill them but neither did he feel a necessity to reason with them.

The bigger goblin led him through the cave until they reached a chamber full of various items. It was slightly cold inside but he didn’t seem to mind it. It was like his body was registering the cold but wasn’t bothered by it. Taking only a moment to register the new sensation, he stepped inside and looked around.

The place had a selection of tools and clothing. There were a few of the spears he had seen before. A few crude bows, as well as one of high quality, unlike the others, a pile of arrows, which much like the bow were full of crude ones with only a few well-made iron ones, some axes made of wood and stone, clubs and so on. The boy reasoned the bow was taken from the same person they took the dagger from. On the clothes side. There were lots made of hide and some made out of leather. He walked over to them, looking through them before picking out a leather robe that was slightly large for him. He couldn’t wear normal pants after all… the tail sort of got in the way…

He threw the robe on, ignoring the frustrated gaze of the goblin. He didn’t need the tools. He understood that now. They would just get in the way. There were still a few more things that interested him though. First was a large, well-made, black, leather cloak. Much too large for himself or anyone else in the place. He believed it was taken from the same place as the rest of the well-made items here. He thought it could be useful and took it. The second was a leather sack, which the hunters group was carrying two of as well.

He picked one up. There was a leather strap that could conveniently open and close it and the size of it was about half of the boy’s torso. He could carry quite a bit in it. He threw the iron dagger and the cloak inside, threw it over his shoulder and went to leave. He was satisfied with what he had and with the outcome of the situation. He could take a slight bit of what he had and nobody needed to die. It was definitely the best outcome.

Thanks to the iron dagger he also knew there was more to look forward to. The goblins stared at him as he left the cave, wearing the slightly oversized robe, not daring to interrupt him, and gathered outside to see him walk off. They didn’t know exactly what he was. He was unreasonable but not cruel. Selfish but not greedy. His expression didn’t even change during the entire encounter. He was a mystery to them and while the boy himself didn’t exactly know what he was he knew what to call himself. Because as always. He was a Tyrant.