Reborn as a Goblin Patch with the Blessing of [Naming]? What?

[Krak-Quinn]

I couldn't move, my body felt numb and I wasn't sure if it could even physically move anymore. I remembered very clearly what had happened.

As I was reading a novel on my way home from school, I heard screams.

I was jolted to attention and tried to find the reason behind the screams, and I saw people pointing at the sky with horrified expressions, some even falling to their knees in terror.

When I saw what had caused all of this, I understood.

The clear blue sky was now stark white, the sun had been eclipsed by a gigantic glowing eye that peered down to earth.

An eyeball that was made up of a pure white selcra in the shape of a ten pointed star that stretched for thousands of miles, an iris containing countless nebulas within and a swirling pupil that resembled a black hole.

Naturally, I should have screamed too, but I couldn't, because down to my very being I knew instinctively that I was one of those being watched.

Adrenaline flooded my system, fight or flight, I was supposed to decide, but how could I do either one? The truth of how small my existence truly was had just crashed down on me and my body froze.

I've heard that in a fight or flight situation, there's actually a third option, freeze. I don't think I had ever quite understood that response, in fact I may have mocked it before.

What kind of person would just choose to remain passive in a life threatening scenario?

A person who realized the futility of any action.

I froze, as something otherworldly peered down at me, I froze.

My heartbeat, which had reached a new personal record for beats per second, had gone completely still.

My brain, currently forcing my glands to flood my systems with enough adrenaline to overdose on, ceased to function.

The final thing I saw before my body realized it had already died, was a beautiful meteor shower that rained upon my surroundings.

That's that.

All I remember before I found myself unable to move, see, or even hear. So I had to question myself about what happened.

Did I have a brain aneurysm and hallucinate?

Was I hit by a truck and had a nightmare?

There were a lot of things that could've happened to me, but at least I'm alive.

Unfortunately, it seems like I'm in a coma.

I could think, but that's about it. I couldn't feel my body, no pain, no heat, no breathing, no heartbeat, nothing.

If I tried to trace along my nerves, all I could picture was a ball with small ribbons at the bottom.

If I waited, I could feel something happen in those ribbons, occasionally they give me the feeling of quenching an endless thirst.

The idea that they were IV drips crossed my mind, and I was relieved that my body wasn't completely numb, that one day I'll be back to living a normal life.

And then time passed.

I don't know how many units of time passed, and although I couldn't fall asleep I could daydream long enough to forget time even existed.

There was only one reason I had stubbornly held onto my sanity, as the unknown amount of time passed, I started to get more feeling in my body.

At first I noticed that I was warmly covered, but when I started to feel more, I realized I was actually cramped.

And it only got more intense from there, soon (or was it?) I had the dreaded feeling that I was being squished.

Then something like a bone broke, or at least that's what I compared it to.

The ball that was my body felt more stimuli and there was a hole. Through the hole, I felt real warmth.

Reflexively, I blindly reached out, and I felt like I was getting closer so I kept reaching.

Reach the warmth, was the single through that directed my entire being.

Ah.

I did it.

Warmth like I never knew filled my body.

If I had to describe it, it would probably be like having every nerve in your entire body experience pleasure at once, like you finally achieved exactly what you were born to do.

I could sense something like an arm with only two fingers.

Hmm?

Something just brushed against my 'arm', a gentle force was pushing and pulling it.

Wind?

No, no, no, I was in a hospital, so it was probably a nurse making sure that my arm didn't atrophy.

Well, I can already feel my arm, so any day now I'll feel everything again.

And then more time passed.

What was the point of living in a half dead state? My question plagued me, and I couldn't answer. I don't know how long it's been, but I felt like it was years.

And in all that time, nothing had changed.

That's not entirely true though, I realized that I could force myself to feel more of the ball that was me, but when I did that I felt thirsty and hungry.

Apparently the warmth I was feeling was probably my food, not that I know how they fed me, and sometimes the nurses don't replace the IV drips, so I go thirsty more often than not.

Before I could ponder my existence again, I forced myself to feel more of my body. When I felt what I described as an arm, I had been mistaken, as of now I had no clue as to what it was.

The two things I had thought to be fingers had grown into large discs, and there were upwards of thirteen of them.

On the other hand, I was sure that the ribbons were my blood vessels, so it would make sense to feel more of those, and so I forced myself to the limit towards feeling even more of them.

It was odd, although I was just regaining my sense of awareness on my own body, sometimes it felt like I was deciding where the ribbons went, maybe I was subconsciously guiding them?

There was an indescribable sensation throughout my entire being as ribbon reached something that can only be described as buzzing.

A pulse from the buzzing shot up the ribbon and replenished my satiety, in an instant my hunger and thirst were gone.

Another pulse and I felt stuffed.

Another pulse and I wanted to vomit.

Another pulse and I felt like I was choking.

Another pulse and I felt like I was being crushed from all directions.

Another pulse and I exploded outwards.

The thing I had mistakenly thought of as an arm was no longer alone, 47 similar appendages had appeared, and each one was ten times longer than the first one. Along those arms were an average of 7 so-called fingers.

And I could also feel large bulbs growing along my 'arms', I could feel them swelling slowly as they absorbed my energy.

The things I called ribbons, and was confident that they were my blood vessels, had enlarged and from their forms smaller ribbons grew out.

363 major ribbons, and each of those had an average of 500 smaller ribbons, but some fused together as they crossed paths, and each of those also had an average of 200 even smaller ribbons.

The small ball that I had claimed to be my body had been consumed by the mass of arms and ribbons, but surprisingly I no longer felt cramped, now I felt free.

Even with my newfound sense of freedom, I couldn't understand anything.

Wasn't I in a coma? If so then what is all this, my assumption that it was my body was clearly wrong, but then what am I?

Arms with fingers that felt warmth and a cool breeze, and that warmth was somehow feeding me.

Ribbons that split apart as they grow, and somehow quenched my thirst.

What was the small cramped body I had felt?

The answer I had came to wasn't believable to me, but when I forced my 'arms' to reach up as a single entity and pictured my body from an outside perspective.

A thick arm that reached up for warmth, and a network of ribbons that dug down for water.

What the fuck? Why was I a plant?

No seriously, why was I a plant?

Okay, let's think about this.

Am I a plant?

I would say so.

Why?

That's what I want to know!

Seriously, why am I a plant?

No, wait, let's really think about this, otherwise I'll just be repeating myself for the rest of my life as a plant.

If I'm a plant, then it would be logical to assume I died, if so then does that mean the big eye thing was real?

I had claimed it to be a hallucination or nightmare because my reality had no room for something that crazy, but if I was a plant, then was that real?

First, I have to know what it was that I saw, a giant eye, yes, but whose eye was it?

I don't recall anything mythological being that matched the appearance, and really this is getting me nowhere fast.

Now that that's done, and I'm on the verge of settling back into hell, let's address the fact that I'm a plant.

How?

No idea.

I'm a plant.

I don't know how or why, but I'm a plant now.

I'm sure I saw something unnatural and somehow became a plant.

So did my corpse turn into the seed of a plant?

Did my soul wander from my body and enter a plant seed?

And this is really pointless. You know what? Let's just put all this aside for now.

Let's do plant things.

*bzzt*

*bzzt*

*bzzt*​

Something that I wanted to say was sound entered my thoughts. It reminded me of static.

*bz-lo? Hello? Can you understand me? Hello? Hello?*​

Are those words? They felt like them but I was getting nauseous just by 'hearing' them, but yeah I could understand.

*zz-eat! Just great! I finally got through, okay listen up! Ahem! Our sincere apologies, it is with great regret that we have contacted you, due to an unfortunate accident of which no one is to blame for, your life on earth has ended, however by the grace of the Gods, you've been given a new life in a parallel world, please make the most of it!*​

So I did die.

Wait, was that whole eye thing an accident by the gods? It sure sounds like it. And what do you mean parallel world?

*The accident which took your life is confidential, and you are not authorized to be informed of it. And parallel world means another world parallel to your own, of course it's also a completely different world filled with magic and monsters.*​

Different world? Wait, it's an isekai? So, I've been isekai'd as a plant, what the heck?

*zzzzzt…Pardon?*​

Eh? I was just asking why I'm a plant.

*zzzzt…so I didn't mishear, please hold.*​

What was that about? It almost feels like they didn't know I was a plant.

*zt-F COURSE IT'S YOUR FAULT! THIS IS WHY I HATE NEPOTISM! IT'S BRATS LIKE YOU THAT-zzt*​

A chill ran down my roots at the sudden influx of directives.

The fact was that I've violated three taboos that I've never heard of:

As a result of overhearing a private conversation between beings I should have no business with, my brain was fried, or it would've been if I had one.

That I'm in the presence of an enraged being who operates above me and I'm not prostrating should have snapped my spine.

The fact that I've learned about the existence of something without their permission, my heart should've exploded.

However, I had no brain, spine nor heart, but my very soul was being shaken.

Time was worthless, everything I was feeling made seconds stretch for eternity.

*bzzt- Our sincerest apologies, it is with great regret that we have contacted you, due to an unfortunate accident of which no one is to blame for, your life on a parallel world isn't as previously promised, but it is by the grace of the Gods that you are now a plant, instead of being dead, so please make the most of it!*​

Wait! Why am I a plant!? Did someone really fuck up over there!?

Ah.

The fact that raised my (non-existent) voice at a being who exists beyond my comprehension, my stomach acid should've eaten through my flesh.

I wanted to tremble or at least shiver in fear, but as I was I couldn't even apologize.

My soul finally calmed down a few hours later, and I noticed something else I could sense, a small box.

[The Gods have bestowed their grace upon you.]

[Gained Special Ability: Status.]

[Gained Special Blessing: Naming.]

[Name: (Unnamed) - Age: 42 Days - Race: Flora Goblin Patch - Class: (Unavailable)]

[Level: 3 - Experience: 2/300]

[HP: 30/30 - SP: 40/40 - MP: 20/20]

[STR: 2 - END: 3 - AGI: 1 - DEX: 1 - MGI: 2]

[ATK: 0.1 - DEF: 0.1 - SPD: 0.1]

[Skills: Leaf Generation LV1 - Photosynthesis LV1 - Pod Generation LV1 - Root Generation LV1 - Soil Absorption LV1 - Stem Generation LV1]​

Was this my isekai status? Not much else it could be.

Oh, it's only been 42 days.

I am a plant, there's no doubt.

Now what?

Isekai adventures are supposed to be everything a young boy desires. They could have cool powers, get pretty girls and become a hero.

How was I supposed to get powers, girls and fame like this?

There's another matter I need to address. I did get something else from the Gods, the [Naming] Blessing.

From what I read on its description, naming someone in this world required a large amount of Mana for it to be imprinted onto a person, but since I have this Privilege, I can do it for free.

I racked my memories for an appropriate name, and in the end I decided to name myself after the most powerful plant I could recall, the world tree of Norse mythology.

[Name Registered: Yggdrasil.]

[Race has evolved into Sacred Flora Goblin Patch.]

[Gained Skill: Soul Absorption LV1.]​

Cool, but more importantly…

Flora Goblin Patch? What was that about?

Since I was confused by my race, I read the details of my Status.

As the name of my [Pod Generation] Skill implied, I could make pods, and inside of those I could create Nature Goblins. As I was researching, I tried testing out the Skill by focusing on the largest bulb along my stems, then suddenly.

[Transfer Consciousness?]​

Oh… Oh! I can become a Goblin!

Although I can't say I've ever cared about Goblins, I was now overjoyed at the prospect of being one. Anything was better than a plant, honestly.

I couldn't restrain myself from going through with it immediately. I had suffered for 42 endless days, I wanted to move, to feel, to see, to hear, I wanted a body.

I felt my mind going blank, and only now realized I was impatient.

If I became a Goblin, then what? What would I do? I'd be dropped in the middle of somewhere unfamiliar as a weak mob.

Level up? That meant fighting and killing, in other words it meant taking risks.

I should've stayed as a plant, and cultivate a better environment for my Goblin self to survive in.

It was too late for second thoughts now…

 

[Krak-Quinn]

I felt like I was falling endlessly, my only saving grace was the fact that I couldn't focus, that my mind was unable to form thoughts.

Then everything clicked.

A wave of awareness flooded through my body.

I was curled up in a confined space, and a warmth was being pumped into my stomach from a tube.

The walls of the space around me couldn't take the strain of my body anymore, and the sharp points of my body jutted out. The walls fell apart into a mushy substance and I was completely free.

As I was thrown off balance and fell back without anything holding me, the tube that had been feeding me was snapped off.

The world was blindingly bright, a white light that burnt black spots into my vision.

The world was deafeningly loud, a cacophony of minute sounds that converged into an unintelligible roar.

"Gwahk!"

A voice resonated with my skull, it originated from my mouth and my bones echoed the sound into my eardrums.

Everything was disorienting. I hadn't yet even comprehended my physical body layout, and then I was thrown into chaos.

I did my best to calm down, and to let my sense's accumulate, before getting to my feet and examining my new body.

Looking down, I noticed my vision got blurry at my ankles, my eyesight wasn't that great. I could barely make out the brown of bark and the green of leaves as individual trees in this forest I found myself in.

My body was definitely Goblin shaped: small, scrawny and slightly disproportionate, nothing I didn't expect, but it was still odd to experience.

However, I could also see how my body differed from a normal Goblin. My skin was a lighter shade of green than expected, and its texture fell more in line with a fruit or vegetable skin, and not a particularly thick one.

My fingers ended in claws, but they weren't white, they were a translucent yellow, and I would wager my teeth were the same color.

On the topic of my mouth, I didn't have lips and I didn't have gums either, so it probably didn't look grotesque. My jaw was a single layer of hardened material sharply broken into two sections of razor sharp fangs.

Wow, this is really happening. I had expected everything beforehand to have been a dream, or something like that, but now I was a living, breathing Goblin.

The standard thing to do is to check my Status. I didn't plan on doing it right after being born, but for some reason my memory of previously checking it was hazy.

[Name: (Unnamed) - Age: 30 Days - Race: Sacred Flora Goblin - Class: (None)]

[Level: 1 - Experience: 0/100]

[HP: 10/10 - SP: 20/20 - MP: 10/10]

[STR: 1 - END: 1 - AGI: 1 - DEX: 1 - MGI: 1]

[ATK: 1 - DEF: 1 - SPD: 1]

[Skills: Leaf Generation LV1 - Photosynthesis LV1 - Root Generation LV1 - Seed Generation - Soil Absorption LV1 - Soul Absorption LV1 - Stem Generation LV1]​

30 days…? I could've sworn it had been 40-something days the last time I checked, so either I was mistaken, or somehow traveled back in time, or something else was happening.

Unnamed? I definitely remember registering Yggdrasil, and the addition of Sacred to my race served as evidenced to back up that event.

Level 1? I'm pretty sure I had been a bit higher than that.

Slowly, my brain arrived at a conclusion: I was reborn.

Yes, obviously, but what I mean is that my Status was reset since I was born into a different body.

A plant didn't have a brain, or at least I never noticed one, so I must've been thinking using my soul or something, but a forming Goblin fetus did have a brain.

And I had been unable to use it to its full power until I was fully matured, so technically I had been alive for 30 more days, I just hadn't realized the flow of time.

Which was probably for the best, I probably couldn't handle 30 more days of being immobile. I might've struggled around too much, accidentally dislodging the feeding tube.

I had rushed into this mess, and it wasn't impossible that I could've accidentally killed myself during the fetus stage.

Now I was a Level 1 Goblin, though I wasn't the standard mob, I did have some unfamiliar Skills for a normal Goblin. As a Flora Goblin, I inherited the Skills of the plant that created me, though I think Pod got replaced with Seed.

[Leaf, Stem, and Root Generation] worked as advertised, I could generate those three things across my body, they didn't do much alone.

But when I used them together with [Photosynthesis and Soil Absorption], I could regain HP and SP at a quicker rate when under sunlight or rooted into good soil.

I did have to hurt myself, I pressed a claw into my arm until it pierced my skin, to test my healing speed, it wasn't that great. My flesh wasn't meat like, again it reminded me of a fruit or vegetable, it was close to a mango.

Also, each use of my Skills ate up my MP at expensive rates. I had to wait for it to recharge, in the meantime I investigated my birthplace.

A wild sea of tall stems and wide leaves were unnaturally growing in the middle of a calm forest, it reminded me of a pumpkin patch.

As I waited, I used my time to decipher the jumbled up sounds.

There was the whooshing of branches being swayed by the heavy breeze, some wooden rattling noises, and even some whistling.

I could tell that it wasn't a person whistling, because the sound was constant and it only fluctuated with the strength of the wind.

If I focused really hard, I thought I could also pick up the sound of a babbling brook, but the sound of the rushing water was too faint to be sure.

Among the animal noises, I picked up the sound of five different avian cries, three different types of rodents chirping, and a distant howl that was met with a growl.

Even though my eyesight was below average, my hearing was above par.

When I had more MP, I tried to test out [Seed Generation and Soul Absorption], but I didn't get any results, so I gave up after a few tries.

I didn't learn much I couldn't already guess, all that I really gained from my experiments was the knowledge that when I was using [Photosynthesis or Soil Absorption], I didn't need to breathe.

I also didn't need to eat or drink either, however, that was just an assumption since I hadn't gotten hungry or thirsty yet. But if that was true, then it erased two of the three necessities for survival.

Those being shelter, food, and water. If I didn't get hungry or thirsty, and could just sustain myself off sunlight and soil, then I just needed to worry about a shelter.

Of course, the God voice had claimed this world had magic and monsters, so a hut made from sticks wouldn't do much to stop the big bad predators from devouring me.

There's only one thing I could rely on to survive, myself. As in, my survival would depend on my ability to defend myself and to fight off any predators.

Hmm, I wasn't sure how to feel about not needing to hunt for prey myself since I didn't need to eat. Oh, but they would probably still give me EXP, so I do have a need to hunt.

I tested out my physical abilities, even though I could see their numerical value, I wanted to understand for myself where and what my limits were.

Unfortunately, I was about as strong and fast as a small child, barely above toddler level. My jaw and claws weren't anything special either, I couldn't break stone and I barely scratched wood.

Fortunately, I still had the mind of a human from the modern era, so I remembered reading about some basic hunting traps.

But…

What am I doing?

The thought came to me after I imagined a future where I remained alive, a Goblin in the forest living day by day fighting off predators.

It probably wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't possess a human's mentality, but I need something to keep me going, a reason to strive for.

Survival is important, but I'm not just lost in the woods, no, I've been reincarnated in a parallel world of magic and monsters.

This was my Isekai adventure. I've thought about it before in passing or as a daydream, about what I would do in another world.

I wanted to become a hero, and not for the best intentions, no, I just wanted cool powers, fame, wealth, and a harem of pretty girls.

It sounded a bit silly now that I was actually in another world, but I don't think I've changed my mind yet. It might be a bit embarrassing if my friends or family learned I wanted a harem, but they were in a different world.

Okay, so I could probably get cool powers by leveling up and evolving. Then once I'm strong enough, I could leave this forest and find a human civilization to gain the other three things.

Hopefully, my evolution will make me more adult and humanoid looking. I would also prefer it to be handsome.

Thinking about my evolution, I realized something. The last time I evolved had been because I named myself with my Blessing, and now after being reborn, I was unnamed again, but I remained evolved.

So, it's highly likely that unless the Gods took away my Blessing, I could name myself for free again and probably evolve once more.

After a minute of breathing and calming down my nerves, so as to not rush into anything without giving it proper thought, I began thinking.

I had previously named myself Yggdrasil, then in return I evolved into a Sacred variant, and gained the [Soul Absorption] Skill.

Sacred made sense, however I couldn't think of a concrete example of the world tree absorbing souls, but I could think of probable symbolic explanations.

What should I name myself now? What did I need?

In truth, I needed just about everything. I was one of the weakest mob monsters, with no specialty to focus on.

Ah! I can't think!

The possibilities are practically endless. I'm not limited to plants, so I can't slim down my choices. The name I choose will give me a loosely related Skill, so I can't even be sure what ability I'll get.

…

Unless…

What if I just named myself after a Skill?

Hmm?

…

It's no good, all I did was increase my options, but how could I just choose one? There's countless Skills I would love to have.

Wait, I don't need to have one Skill, not if I choose one that lets me have more.

Skill Creator?

…

Skill Stealer?

…

Drats, that didn't work.

Maybe Predator? But then wouldn't Great Sage be the better option, however there's no proof it would work the same in this world.

I really want Predator.

[Name Registered: Predator.]​

Wait! Damn! My desire overwhelmed my reason, and in a moment I wasn't wondering what name I should choose, but rather how to convince myself to choose Predator.

I crossed my long fingers and continued reading.

[Gained Skill: Skill Absorption LV1.]​

I almost fainted as I read the words in front of me.

"Gwa! Gwa! Kwa!" I cheered with my new voice, my mouth didn't have lips or stretchy cheeks, but my tongue was flexible enough to make most sounds in my throat.

---

AN: I'm open to recommendation for creatures, their names and their loosely connected skills. I'll probably be using myths and anime for the main characters.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

After celebrating getting [Skill Absorption], I felt even more inclined to rush into the unknown for fresh prey, but I had to be patient; nothing had changed yet.

Just because I had the Skill, that didn't mean a change to my initial combat capabilities. In fact my plan had been to get a Combat Skill from my [Naming] myself, but instead I just got an incentive to hunt.

So I had to calm down, and carefully plan my next move.

Unlike my other Skill descriptions, which were just a sentence describing the name. [Leaf Generation]'s description was: Generate a leaf.

My new Skill had a slightly more extensive explanation.

[Skill Absorption LV1: After killing a sentient creature and eating its corpse, absorb a Skill.]​

It truly didn't offer me any bonuses before I ate something I killed. By the way, I noticed it specified killing and then eating.

I couldn't absorb any Skills from a living creature or a dead one that I didn't kill. I had to be the one responsible for acquiring my prey.

Do traps count? What's the difference between placing a stake into a drop pit versus driving one into a person? Do I just need to play an active role, or is it proximity? I won't be getting any answers without testing it out.

Since I was weak, probably weaker than a well-fed child about the same size, I had to rely on mankind's oldest friends: tools.

During my time on earth, I hadn't studied how to survive in the wilderness, but I did watch a few videos and read about similar situations in novels.

So I was just relying on my memory of passing moments to structure a plan for my survival.

I had to get on my hands and crawl around to search since my eyesight wasn't that great. After hunching over and crouching down a bit, walking around on all fours felt pretty natural to me.

Step one: find a good stone.

There were a couple decently sized stones lying around in the immediate vicinity, but they all had small cracks and were a bit more brittle than I would prefer.

I wasn't an expert and I didn't have experience, but I felt sure of my decision, and most importantly: my subconscious wasn't giving me the feeling of being wrong.

If I was mistaken about my choice, I was sure my subconscious would correct my decision.

I read somewhere humans don't truly forget anything, they just lose the conscious connection to them in their brain, but the subconscious still remembers.

I made sure to leave a trail of an obviously disturbed path in my search, I swept away dead leaves, pebbles and twigs.

Just because I couldn't rely on a shelter to protect me from predators, didn't mean I wanted to confront them yet. And since I had been able to grow undisturbed for 30 days in that spot, I wanted that to remain my base of operations for now.

The sound of rushing water was becoming clearer as I crawled. I didn't need to drink, but water had other uses, so I was glad to know a source of it was nearby.

Ah, found one.

The stone I found was an oddly shaped ball about half the size of my hand, but most importantly, it was completely smooth. Now I just had to find a slightly bigger rock that was roughly as tough.

This time my search didn't take long, just a few steps away from the first stone I found a rock the size of my fist.

Step two: strike the stone.

After striking the stone with the rock at an angle three times, a small and thin fragment splinted off. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only result.

[-2 HP]​

The first two times I hit the stone, I felt the reverberations through my bones, but I didn't pay any mind to it. Then in the third strike, I felt a small snap in my palm.

"Gwa…"

It really stung, the base of my palm was radiating waves of pain up my arm. I carefully placed the stone down and inspected my hand.

My green skin was tinged brown in my palm. I had broken a leg before on earth, so I was familiar with the pain of a broken bone, but this wasn't it.

Either my Goblin body was confusing my senses, or maybe I shouldn't compare ankle and hand bones, or maybe it was something else.

Pushing past my pain, I applied pressure through my hand with my fingers, and I even grimaced and forced a fist. None of my bones or nerves were unresponsive, just struggling with pain.

As I tried to comprehend what my injury was, I recalled the sound I heard and realized what else it had sounded like. It wasn't the snap of a bone, it was closer to the snap of a stick of celery or a leek.

When I had poked a hole in my skin with my claw earlier, I didn't see meat or blood, instead I saw mush that reminded me of a mango.

If I didn't have meat or blood, but I was still a living creature, then I had to have some structure. I didn't have regular nails or normal teeth either.

I was a Flora Goblin first and foremost, I could generate leaves, stems and roots. Clearly, I was some type of sentient plant, so my body shouldn't have confused me.

My body isn't human like, it's monster like. I shouldn't expect a completely logical physiology, and that's not even mentioning the numerical representation of my health.

I didn't have flesh. I didn't have skin tissue, muscle tissue, a fat layer, or even blood vessels. I probably didn't have calcium based bones either.

Presumably, my entire body was plant-like, and that meant beneath my surface layer was my nutrient vessels, a slightly hard yet malleable network that also served as my flesh, nerves, joints and muscles.

All in all, I was pretty sure I bruised easily.

Maybe since I didn't have blood vessels, I also didn't have a heart.

I tried feeling for a pulse or beat, but I truly didn't find anything.

So, in exchange for a vital muscle and probably losing the risk of bleeding out, I got a weakness to blunt force trauma in return.

Unfortunately, I wasn't even strong enough to take advantage of my physiology. It wasn't like I had a Type Resistance, Reduction, or Immunity, I just wouldn't bleed. That didn't matter, if I was hit I would die.

The pain I was in had caused my thoughts to veer into the negative side, I wanted it to be gone already. I debated on what Skills to use, since I didn't have a lot of MP, and I chose [Leaf Generation and Photosynthesis].

My bruise only faded slightly before I ran out of juice, and I didn't even heal a single point of HP.

"Grwwwgh…"

I groaned in frustration, my voice sounded pathetic to my own ears. I can't believe I was whining about getting a bruise in my isekai adventure.

My disappointment only fed my whine.

"Cwoo-cwoo."

A harmonious sound reached my ears, and before I realized it, it invaded my brain. The noise drowned out my pain, frustration and disappointment.

And right before my eyes, I saw my bruised brown skin return to its healthy green hue. After a moment passed, I was pain free and completely calm.

I needed another moment to pull myself away from a calm mindset and question what just happened. I looked towards where the sound had originated from, and saw a white blur perched on a branch a few feet away from me.

The snow white blur grew in profile and leaped off the branch, then with a flutter, it flew off.

There was nothing else to it, after healing me it suddenly took off, so I got back to work. I did appreciate it, but I had other things to focus on.

Step three: refine the stone piece.

I picked up the stone fragment, and placed its edge along my rock and scraped it down. I smoothed out the faces and thinned the edges, then I focused on making one end pointy.

When I was done, I had a small stone blade.

It probably couldn't do much, but it was definitely better than my claws. Also, it's not a weapon, it's a tool to help me make more tools.

Step four: find a good stick.

Now that I had a blade, I could smooth out or sharpen wood. And I had just arbitrarily decided to get a blade before a stick, a good quality stick had its own uses.

A stone blade and a thick stick were both essential items that synergized wonderfully together.

Let's see, while I'm searching again, I'll also plan ahead a bit.

I wouldn't be a good hunter: my eyesight was terrible and my nose wasn't particularly good.

I wouldn't be a good fighter: my body was weak and fragile.

Crafting traps is my only option for now, so I'm hoping I don't need to physically deal the final blow. I found a few good thick and hard sticks, then returned back to my base.

Step five: sharpen and smooth out sticks.

Using my small blade, I ran the edge down along the bark and stripped off the outer layer. At this point, I gave up trying to create a step by step guide.

As I was peeling off the thin bark, I collected the shavings, both short and long. Then when I found a soft wood in my pile, I carved out a flat board and a spindle.

A few feet away from the place I hatched from, I cleared out the ground of all debris and created a large circle of bare dry dirt.

Then I went back out and collected more dry wood, this time without limiting myself to long or thick pieces. My long yet weak arms couldn't carry much, so I had to make multiple trips.

Luckily, the forest I was in had no shortage of good quality twigs and sticks, so I created a pile slightly larger than myself. I just needed a few minutes of [Photosynthesis] to let my SP recharge before I was ready to act again.

While resting, I busied my hands by making cordage out of the long pieces of bark shavings I had. It was something I've never done before, so I messed up the first few tries.

Hold. Twist the right strand left until it kinks. Pinch kink and bend. Twist the right strand, then spin both, twist the new right side, then spin both, repeat.

After probably half an hour of repeating myself, I finally got a tight high quality cord. I could feel relief circulating my mind as invisible tension fled my body.

Failure after failure had caused some stress to accumulate, but a single success erased that feeling.

Now that I had my wooden shavings, flat board, spindle, and cordage, I was almost ready. I just needed to make a divot in the flat board, and carve a handle for the cordage.

After a few minutes, I was finally ready.

After making a bundle of flammable foliage and surrounding it in a teepee of sticks and logs, I placed some kindling in front of the open side of the divot and placed my spindle inside.

I looped my cordage around the spindle and pressed down on the end with a small bit of wood, I held down the hearth board with my foot and then pulled back on the handle tied to the cordage.

The spindle spun around and didn't pop out, so I went a bit faster. After a bit, I saw smoke begin to generate, and right before I ran out of SP, I created an ember.

Carefully, I transferred the ember to the kindling that had collected wood dust, and blew gently on it until more smoke started to appear. Quickly and steadily, I moved the kindling into the base of the wooden teepee.

I blew inside a bit stronger, and after a few seconds passed, the foliage inside caught fire.

I breathed a sigh of relief, it had been stressful since I almost exhausted myself, but again my success made me forget about it.

After the wood caught fire, I hurried and grabbed the pieces of wood I had carved earlier, then carefully and slowly tempered them over the flames.

By the time the fire was naturally dying out, I had created enough weapons to be satisfied with my work.

Two spears, four throwing spears, one spear thrower, five clubs, two throwing clubs, ten pins, ten stakes, a dagger, and a handle for my stone blade.

I did have to leave my success a bit to chance in the later half of the fire, because the heat was draining away my SP. I had left the wood close to the fire and took a few steps back, fortunately nothing got burnt.

Unfortunately, my body got tired after a few heavy strikes with the spear and club, so I probably couldn't rely on them in a fight for now.

Throwing on the other hand didn't use up a lot of SP, and it still felt pretty strong.

A light rustling caught my attention. I snapped my head around and stared hard at a bush where the sound came from. I raised a throwing club overhead at the ready.

A small grayish blurry figure hopped out, it was too far away for me to see any details, but I didn't feel anything remotely threatening from it.

So there was no need to be afraid, it was probably a harmless creature. If this was earth, I would've chuckled to myself over getting startled from a small thing like that.

"SQ—"

A loud crack silenced a sudden startled scream.

Oh, sweet!

I didn't miss it!

 

[Krak-Quinn]

My arm was a bit sore from suddenly swinging down with as much strength as I could muster and slinging a heavy wooden club, so I would've had to deal with that without satisfaction if I had missed.

It was definitely a surprise that I didn't miss, since the results from my test earlier hadn't been the best in regards to my aim.

I waited a moment as I watched the now unmoving blur, it had jumped a bit right before my throw landed, then immediately after, it went limp with a crack.

There was no proof it was dead, and it could probably jump at me if I got too close. It just needed a few bites and scratches to take me down, so better safe than sorry.

I grabbed another throwing club and took aim.

The body only budged a bit after being hit straight on again, so it didn't move and more importantly I was able to land another shot.

Maybe I was unexpectedly good at this kind of thing. I never noticed any talent while playing sports, but I can't recall ever having any trouble.

I guess I got used to the weight of a club, and maybe spears were just a bit too unfamiliar for me. I didn't have any experience in pole or javelin throwing, so it's a bit hard to determine the center of balance.

After another minute passed, and the creature didn't stir, I walked up to it with a club and spear.

When I was close enough, I poked it with the spear, then when it didn't twitch, I jabbed the spear downwards and pierced the small thing.

Fresh red spilled out beneath it. I couldn't pull the spear out because it was lodged in the body, so instead I applied pressure and held it down.

After getting a bit closer, I was able to see that it was a grayish-brown furred rabbit with its neck twisted awkwardly around.

In the next moment, the rabbit's face was gone.

Squashed beneath the club I swung down on its skull.

When I pulled back, I noticed I barely crushed one eye and caved in one cheekbone. So I swung down again and again into the brown-furred neck was caked with white shards and a pink goo.

I didn't have a beating heart, so I couldn't be sure of what monster out there also didn't have conventional weaknesses.

Maybe this rabbit creature didn't need its heart too, maybe the blood was a ruse to lure me in. Maybe it had a flexible neck, or maybe its bones didn't have locked joints, or maybe it didn't have bones but hard cartilage instead.

And maybe it didn't need a brain either.

With one hand holding a spear stabbed into the rabbit and attempting to pin it in place, I used my other hand holding a club to smash its entire body into a gooey-mushy mess.

Then I used my club to spread the mess around the ground, flattening it out. I used my spear to carve a grid throughout the mess, and divided the monster into small squares.

Hmm, in the end, it didn't really do anything special…

Status?

[Name: Predator - Age: 30 Days - Race: Sacred Flora Goblin - Class: (None)]

[Level: 1 - EXP: 22/100]

[HP: 10/10 - SP: 9/20 - MP: 2/10]

[STR: 1 - END: 1 - AGI: 1 - DEX: 1 - MGI: 1]

[ATK: 3 (1) - DEF: 1 - SPD: 1]

[Skills: Leaf Generation LV1 - Photosynthesis LV1 - Root Generation LV1 - Seed Generation - Skill Absorption LV1 - Soil Absorption LV1 - Soul Absorption LV1 - Stem Generation LV1]​

I did have more EXP, so it was probably dead now.

Which meant I killed it.

I dropped my weapons and knelt down, then I shoveled the gooey-mush down my throat. I ate about half of it before something appeared.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Skill Absorption Results and Skill Selection!]

[Absorbed: Newborn Hollow Horned Hare!]

[Select 1 Skill, it will be reset to LV1 and acquired.]

[Skill Selection: Camouflage Fur - Danger Detection - Dash - Hollow Bones - Hop - Intuitive Digging - Intuitive Stealth - Leap - Magic Talent - Night Vision - Run - Scent Mapping - Super Sharp Claws - Super Sharp Horn - Super Sharp Teeth - Teeth Regeneration]​

Fuck yeah!

I needed a moment to eliminate the options that would be worthless for me. I didn't have fur, and it's special bones must've been why it was so fragile.

The only Skills I didn't think were situational or unhelpful were [Danger Detection and Magic Talent], but it was hard to choose between those two.

Hmm, I don't have a lot of MP right now, so it probably wouldn't help me in the short term, so let's go with [Danger Detection].

I felt something warm permeate through my body, starting from my gut and working its way up to my brain. The I felt dizzy and stumbled in place.

And then I was met with a surprise.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Soul Absorption Results and Blessing Selection!]

[Absorbed: Newborn Hollow Horned Hare!]

[Select 1 Blessing.]

[Fortuna's Blessings:

Vigorous Body: Recovery rate x2.

Talented Body: EXP x 2.

Virtile Body: 99.99% chance of successfully impregnating a compatible living egg.] ​

Oh! Thank you gods for this bountiful meal!

I wasn't planning on being a father anytime soon, so the last one was crossed off, but the other two were about even in my desire for them.

I'm assuming the recovery rate thing would apply to HP, SP, and MP, in which case it would be a welcomed gift.

On the other hand, double EXP is hard to pass up, I could level up twice as fast, or for comparison, in half the time.

Haa… it was a hard choice, but my immediate concern is survival, and I don't yet know the benefits of leveling up. Yggdrasil hadn't been level 1, and I don't think anything changed.

Immediately after I selected [Vigorous Body], I was met with another surprise.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Curses!]

[Stolen: Fortuna's Blessings!]

[Fuck you, you little piece of shit! Who the fuck do you think you are to steal my Blessing!? Go rot in ditch you fucking cock-sucking cunt!]

[Fortuna's Curses:

Untalented Body: -50% EXP

Infertile Body: 00.01% chance of successfully impregnating a compatible living egg.]​

Oh…

Sorry? I didn't realize…

Unfortunately, I didn't receive an acknowledgment of my apology, and I don't think the Curses went away either.

I was pretty bummed out, but on the bright side, I do think I made the right choice in retrospect. If I had chosen the other one, I would've had to deal with my recovery taking twice as long.

And I still don't know what leveling up does, so I'm not sure if it matters yet.

Also, I'm not sure how to feel about the effects of the last Curse. Like I stated, I wasn't planning to have kids soon, so it didn't matter, but now I feel a bit miffed that I will struggle with it now.

On the other hand, if I did have a kid, they'll be a certified miracle, and that sounds cool.

I deliberately didn't think too much about how Fortuna had a dirty mouth, I didn't need to draw in any more divine ire.

I'm a bit worried though, but since I didn't have any foundations for my worries yet, I'll just ignore them for now.

After scooping up the leftover remains of the Hollow Horned Hare, I deposited it near the base of my old body.

"Gwa, kwa, kwag."

I muttered a prayer over the mushed corpse.

Uh, I hope you find new life, you were taken far too soon.

I didn't know what else to do, so I backed away and focused my attention back to what I was doing before being interrupted.

That was a fine test for my throwing clubs and a spear, nothing cracked or broke.

Now, it was time to move on.

As I stood with my hands full, debating on what to take with me, I realized I was nude. I had been running around stark naked without noticing.

Not much I could do about it at the moment though. I mean I could waste MP by making and maintaining a leaf skirt, but I didn't see the need.

My genitalia wasn't particularly loose, and it wasn't more vulnerable than the rest of my body currently was. I also didn't feel any human shame at my monstrous body.

Hmm, I wonder why I have male reproductive bits when I'm a plant monster. And oh boy, I just realized a possible way to activate [Seed Generation], but let's ignore that for now, it's really not important.

In the end, I decided on taking a normal club, a throwing club, and a spear. I also had my stone blade and wooden handle, right now I was searching for a tree with a sticky sap.

I was going tree to tree while cutting into bark, I was also marking each tree with a rising tally mark so as to not get lost.

My latest mark was halted by a thick sap that stopped my blade. I sat down, and picked up a rock, then I chipped out some grooves and a portion of the stone blade that would insert into the handle.

I used the sap to coat it before jamming it in, then I used some cordage that I made when I was taking a break from the heat, to wrap around the grooves, fastening the blade in place while tightening the handle.

The stone blade was pretty short, only about three inches, but it did its job as a starter tool, it wasn't a combat dagger. In the future, I'd make a hunting knife, but for now I have my other weapons.

Now that I could reasonably handle myself against foes of similar builds, I can venture to where I heard rushing water. The solid smooth stones should be on the side of flowing water.

Then I can also find a good head for an axe, I didn't need it as a weapon but rather for further crafting needs. I could also probably find some clay down there.

I had avoided it previously because a source of water served as a prime gathering location for every creature that got thirsty.

I retraced my steps, using my tally marks, and eventually arrived back at my base. Though it did appear rather barren, just an overgrown plant and dirt circle filled with ash in the middle of a forest.

At the very least I needed a perimeter, and some snares or pit traps. Unfortunately, I didn't have the strength to dig deep enough holes at the moment, and I didn't want to bother with tedious work.

So I just left my place barren for now. If I find some clay, I'll come back and weave a basket from sticks, then collect the clay and make pottery. If I make jars for carrying water, I can bring some back and then make some mud bricks.

Then I would concern myself with building a hut or something, but I'm pretty small right now, so I could make do with a shed. But wait, I'm a plant monster, I'm fine with sunlight and rain water, a shelter wouldn't do me any good.

Still, it would look good, so I'll deal with it when the time comes, for now I have to go find some good rocks.

I didn't want to weave a basket at the moment, so I had to keep my hands free for rocks. I left behind everything else besides a throwing club as I walked towards the sound of rushing water.

I heard multiple rustling sounds and critters scampering about on my way there, I had my arm ready, but nothing jumped out at me.

And I arrived at a creek with a side bed full of smooth stones.

"Cwoo-cwoo."

I heard a sound nearby, but I didn't feel anything.

"Cwoo-cwoo."

I heard it again, and managed to pinpoint its origin.

"Cwoo-cwoo."

I was closer now. If this creature had healed me with its voice, and it was using this voice again while I didn't feel anything, I would wager it was healing something else.

Which meant something was injured, and two—

"Cwoo-cwoo."

And three instances of the healing voice weren't enough, it must be seriously injured, maybe even on the verge of death.

I crept closer, and spotted a blurry brown and white small figure covered in blood. I also saw the back of a white colored bird perched on a branch and shining slightly.

Hmm.

"Cw-ahwkk—"

The white bird creature was interrupted by my sudden throw, and it fell down after being struck. And as I ran forward, the blurry figure on the ground leaped upright and then split into four copies before heading off in different directions.

There wasn't a need for diversion tactics, I hadn't even been able to keep track of a single one with my eyes as they fled.

"C-cw-cc—"

The white bird spasmed and flopped.

I continued forth and grabbed my throwing club before using it like a regular club, I bashed away at the bird until it went limp. Then I kept going at it until my EXP went up.

After I gained 50 EXP, I snatched the dead bird off the ground, its body flopped limply and I swallowed it whole.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Skill Absorption Results and Skill Selection!]

[Absorbed: Paean, Divine Prince Caladrius!]

[Select 1 Skill, it will be reset to LV1 and acquired.]

[Skill Selection: Accelerated Metabolism - Aerial Adaptation - Atmospheric Adaptation - Aura Perception - Cure Poison - Divinity - Exorcism - Holy Magic - Holy Protection - Light Magic - Regeneration - Royalty - Telescopic Vision - Ultraviolet Perception - Wind Magic - Wound Bearing]​

After ignoring bird-based and magic-focused Skills, the only ones left were [Divinity, Regeneration and Royalty]. By the way, the last Skill in the selection allowed the user to take on wounds from others, I didn't under its purpose for a minute.

Hmm, I already had Sacred in my race, so I didn't need [Divinity]. Ah, it's hard, I really want [Regeneration], but I can already heal with my own Skills, I should focus on those first.

So, that leaves [Royalty], I could get some EXP from people who swear fealty to me. I selected it to offset the Curse I got, and if I build a large kingdom, I could level up extremely fast in the future.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Soul Absorption Results and Blessing Selection!]

[Absorbed: Paean, Divine Prince Caladrius!]

[Select 1 Blessing.]

[Asklepian's Blessings:

Immortality: After death, be revived within your bloodline.

Divine Retribution: After death, your killer will be hunted until their death.]​

Oh boy…

Fuck.

Oh fuck.

I wanted [Immortality], I really wanted it, but I can't imagine it being inverted into any sort of Curse and I would need to have an offspring, which isn't likely.

However, for [Divine Retribution], I can't easily picture what that would be like as a Curse.

Hmm?

Wait.

I read it again just to be sure, then I heard something.

The flutter of wings.

I looked over slowly toward the source, and saw something hanging upside down on a branch.

A dark large vulture-like bird with a crooked beak, grayish white wings, long hooked claws, and black eyes locked on me.

"Dewch."

A single cry that sounded human-like, and everything with a shadow was frozen in its spot, including me.

I couldn't blink, and yet without my notice, the bird-like monster suddenly appeared right before my face.

Talons grabbed my gut, and ripped open my stomach.

Green, white, purple, and yellow, my insides were spilling out.

[-666 HP]​

Ah…

…

Everything was fading…

…

…

I don't want to die…

…

…

…

 

[Krak-Quinn]

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Curse!]

[Stolen: Asklepian's Blessing!]

[I'll meet you in the afterlife, be prepared for eternal suffering.]

[Asklepian's Curse:

Divine Punishment: After killing, you will be hunted until your death.]​

Before I even realized it, I was suddenly plunged into a sightless world, and I felt my body as a mess of roots, stems and leaves.

I was a plant again.

And since I acquired a Curse, I assumed my final plea of not wanting to die had caused me to select [Immortality]. However, it shouldn't have done anything, as I didn't have any descendants.

Or maybe I was under the wrong impression. The description had been 'revived within your bloodline', and I just assumed it wouldn't make sense for anything other than a fetus.

My understanding of the Blessing was probably more in line with a [Reincarnation] type, as I thought it would allow the user to keep their memories and be reborn.

In fact, it had said revive, not reborn. So maybe it's more like [Memory Transferal].

All in all, I still didn't understand how I was alive right now.

I was definitely in my old body, the first one that I had found myself in.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Yggdrasil's Soul Absorption Results and Blessing Selection!]

[Absorbed: Predator, Sacred Flora Goblin!]

[Error: Cannot absorb your own Soul!]

[Please select 2 Skills instead, they will be reset to LV1 and acquired.]

[Skill Selection: Danger Detection - Leaf Generation - Photosynthesis - Root Generation - Royalty - Seed Generation - Skill Absorption - Soil Absorption - Soul Absorption - Stem Generation]​

Ah…

What?

I understood that this plant body also had [Soul Absorption], but I had to eat a corpse for my Goblin body to active that Skill.

So how did my soul get absorbed? Or how was my plant body able to try and absorb my soul?

Questions, Questions, and no answers, I definitely needed a [Great Sage] like Skill.

The only Skills this body didn't already have were limited to four, and I could select two, so I was pretty happy.

[Danger Detection] hadn't helped me at all. It probably wasn't a passive Skill, which explains why I had been able to kill that hare so suddenly.

And [Seed Generation] was given to me after I was born, so there would be no point in selecting it.

That left both [Royalty] and also [Skill Absorption] as the only two Skills that were any good, I gladly selected them.

[Name: Yggdrasil - Age: 72 Days - Race: Sacred Flora Goblin Patch - Class: (Unavailable)]

[Level: 3 - EXP: 35/300]

[HP: 30/30 - SP: 40/40 - MP: 20/20]

[STR: 2 - END: 3 - AGI: 1 - DEX: 1 - MGI: 2]

[ATK: 0.1 - DEF: 0.1 - SPD: 0.1]

[Skills: Leaf Generation LV1 - Photosynthesis LV1 - Pod Generation LV1 - Root Generation LV1 - Royalty LV1 - Skill Absorption LV1 - Soil Absorption LV1 - Soul Absorption LV1 - Stem Generation LV1]​

I'm pretty sure I had been surprised that my life had only been 42 days when I first checked my Status, and then I was a 30 day old Goblin.

It hadn't even been a day since I suddenly died, again, or for the first time in this world.

Well, at least it wasn't a waste. Prior to being a Goblin, I had just rushed into it without a second thought until it was too late.

But now that I had experienced the world through a body with senses, my sanity had been restored a bit. I could do this whole sense deprivation thing again.

And this time I'll cultivate a better environment so I cou…

What did that even mean? How would I cultivate anything?

The only thing different from my Goblin self was an inability to move.

I really don't know anything.

I just accepted my reality as a plant, then became a Goblin and died.

The Gods didn't explain anything to me either…

I tested my Skills in this body. I hadn't done so previously, and just skipped into being Goblin, then I tested myself.

[Root, Stem, and Leaf, Generation] didn't cost as much MP to create or maintain, and I had a bit of control of their growth and slight movement.

[Photosynthesis and Soil Absorption] were both activated passively, but I could spend MP to speed it up.

[Pod Generation] was the last one I could activate, I had only used it once before and then it was replaced with [Seed Generation]. And the one use had been cut short from my consciousness since I was being reborn inside the Pod.

[Transfer Consciousness?]​

After generating a pod, I was given the option again, but this time I declined.

Hmm, consciousness? Not soul?

I guess people still don't understand what constitutes a consciousness, so maybe souls are a component along with memories.

Ah!

Fuck!

I felt nauseous as I became aware of a lifeform being created within my pod.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying Pod Contents!]

Name: (Unnamed) - Age: 0 Days - Race: Sacred Flora Goblin Seedling - Class: (None)]

[Level: 0 - EXP: 0/30]

[HP: 0.01/0.01 - SP: 0.02/0.02 - MP: 0.01/0.01]

[STR: 0.01 - END: 0.01 - AGI: 0.01 - DEX: 0.01 - MGI: 0.01]

[ATK: 0 - DEF: 0 - SPD: 0]​

I felt an even deeper sensation that bypassed my physical form and my mental state, a metaphorical electrifying barbed stake was shot through my soul.

I could feel the barbs grow and twist, then they started leeching straight from my essence. Even though it was miniscule, I felt my Skills shrinking.

My newer ones almost vanished before I forced them away from the hungry barbs. I didn't know how I did so, but I somehow managed.

I could feel everything that was my body, so I knew the barbed stake was leading straight through into the bulb, the pod, and ending at the Goblin's stomach.

Skills, it seemed, weren't created from nothing.

I also noticed my EXP go down as the Goblin's went up. I probably couldn't handle the slow torture, so I made a risky move.

It was Level 0, and needed 30 EXP to level up. I had awoken on my thirtieth day at Level 1. I couldn't be sure of the passage of time, but I felt like it would only manage to steal 1 EXP from me a day.

With just this much understanding and a few leaps in logic, I (somehow) forced 29 EXP down into the Goblin.

I felt my pod swell as the cells inside squirmed and bursted, then expanded into a fully formed creature.

After the activity settled down, I felt the pod burst and the end of the 'umbilical cord' snap off.

Ouch, okay, that was painful and I don't want to do that again.

I could faintly sense the newborn Goblin as it crawled around. I decided to keep a note of it, however I had more important matters to attend to.

I had lost 30 EXP to create a Goblin, and I think some Skill experience too. I wasn't sure how I gained EXP as a plant.

Maybe it's passive? Or a benefit of both [Photosynthesis and Soil Absorption].

If one defines leveling up as growing, and experience as merely a symbolic representation, then as I grow I should gain experience naturally as a byproduct.

Of course I had no basis for my assumption, but I had nothing else to assume.

Haa… I really need a system assistant to answer my questions.

I decided to test out my hypothesis by sitting around and doing nothing.

As I grew slowly, I didn't notice any immediate increase to my EXP.

To stave off boredom, I tried rearranging my roots and stems.

For my stems, I just made them go in a straight line away from my center point, so they didn't cross over each other. I also bit some room between them so the large leaves weren't overlapping.

With nothing better to do, I did try and see how much I could alter my stems and leaves. I could only make them thicker by using more MP.

I could also do it for my leaves, but they also had other ways they could be changed, mostly in their shape. From their patterns to their geographical structures.

I managed to make a pitcher, but since I didn't have anything to use it with, it was pretty useless.

For my roots, I focused on forming a grid. Since my old roots were packed underneath pounds of dirt, I couldn't move the. All I could do was change where they were growing.

I could also make more roots that split off the main roots, but there wasn't a point to doing that in an area that had been consumed already.

As I was growing and trying to fill out the soil beneath me, I realized something,

Occasionally, I would meet an obstruction, and then grow around it. At first I had assumed them to be hard rocks, but as I found more and more, I discovered some were long and connected.

Then it clicked, they were the roots of other plants.

The only confusing part to me was their hardness, no matter how much I attempted, they wouldn't budge out of my way. I gave up, and decided to just go deeper than them so they wouldn't get in my way anymore.

My EXP did go up a bit over time, but it wasn't one a day. After a week had gone by, I noticed that it went up by a single point. Now it was at [6/300].

Creating a Goblin just didn't seem worth losing 30 EXP for.

Oh, wait.

The [Untalented Body] Curse I got from stealing the [Vigorous Body] Blessing from a hare, together they meant I could grow twice as fast and gain experience twice as slow.

So technically my development was misaligned.

Still, the Goblin hadn't changed anything about that, all it really meant was that its creation was basically twice as expensive for me.

If I focused, I could sense the Goblin going about their business nearby, though it had slowed down recently. I noticed that it never grew anything on its body and it slept at night.

I wondered if I had rushed its growth, and also that I had prevented it from learning any of my Skills.

As I was keeping tabs on it, the faint presence I felt from it disappeared.

It died.

I didn't gain anything after it died.

Bummer, in the end it had been worthless, a waste of EXP.

After thinking about it a bit, I decided to be reborn again.

It wasn't just because I was bored and impatient, but rather because I believed I would take my Blessings and Curses with me.

If I had to absorb a soul to be able to steal a Blessing from it, it would follow that it was tied to the soul. So, if I was reborn with my soul, then Yggdrasil would earn EXP at a normal rate while I did my own thing.

And though I'm not clear on it, Yggdrasil tried to absorb Predator's soul, but couldn't because it was my soul. The important thing was that it tried, so that meant that my soul had come in from the outside.

Again, I was operating on baseless logic.

But hey, if anyone out there wants to correct me, I dare you to try, in fact I welcome it.

…

Sadly, no being that was able to peek in on my thoughts decided to take up my offer. So, I was probably correct, or horribly wrong.

Either way, since no one stopped me, I went through with my plan.

And this time it was going to be a bit different, because I was going to be born with a sibling.

As I generated the pods, I (somehow) moved [Royalty and Skill Absorption] over to near the first one as the prompt appeared. I didn't want these Skills to be split up and probably broken apart in the process.

After accepting to transfer my consciousness, I felt myself drifting off.

I hope my next life was a bit better, and that I didn't die on the same day I was born.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

This time I didn't bother even trying to process my thoughts, instead I voluntarily entered dream-like trance as I was being reborn

So for me, it was like taking a long nap before being jolted awake.

"Gkaht!"

I was suddenly falling again in the middle of the woods.

The sun was bright and the forest noises were loud.

"Gwuuch!"

But I could clearly hear the sound of another yelp nearby.

After shaking off my disorientation and crawling to my feet, I spotted another Goblin close by.

I was surprised for a brief moment until I remembered that I had decided this. I blinked as the other Goblin stood up and stared at me warily.

Just to be sure, I checked my Status.

Name: (Unnamed) - Age: 30 Days - Race: Sacred Flora Goblin - Class: (None)]

[Level: 1 - EXP: 0/100]

[HP: 10/10 - SP: 20/20 - MP: 10/10]

[STR: 1 - END: 1 - AGI: 1 - DEX: 1 - MGI: 1]

[ATK: 1 - DEF: 1 - SPD: 1]

[Skills: Leaf Generation LV1 - Photosynthesis LV1 - Root Generation LV1 - Royalty LV1 - Seed Generation - Skill Absorption LV1 - Soil Absorption LV1 - Soul Absorption LV1 - Stem Generation LV1]​

I was Unnamed again, and I kept my Skills.

Think. I had a plan before this, but I had spent 30 days sleeping, so my memories were a bit vague.

Oh yeah.

[Name Registered: Great Sage.]

[Gained Skill: Wisdom LV1.]

[Wisdom LV1: Allows the user to access the inner flow of information of this world.

At LV1: The user can access common knowledge shared among sentient beings.]​

Yes!

…Or maybe no?

I mean I had a Skill that might be able to answer my questions, but it was currently limited to common knowledge.

Let's test it out.

Are you like the Skill [Great Sage]?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[Unable to locate the 'Great Sage' Skill in the database!]

[According to your memories, the Skill 'Wisdom' does not match the Skill 'Great Sage', the only similarity is its ability to answer questions.]​

Ah, that's right, in TenSura, that skill had a lot of other functions. But I'm just happy that I won't be in the dark anymore.

Wait, more importantly I have to name that other Goblin before it runs off somewhere and probably dies. Then I have to somehow convince it to follow me.

I spotted it poking around the pile of weapons I had created last time, and I slowly crawled up to it. I noticed a lack of dangling genitalia, so I made my choice.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Naming.]

[Name Registered: Lilith Echidna.]

[Skill Gained: Dominance LV1]​

I had chosen to name her after two monstrous mothers in mythology, so she should be pretty strong. I couldn't see the details of her new Skill, but I could wager a guess.

In the story of Lilith and Adam, she objected to laying underneath Adam, i.e, she refused to submit. She then attempted to place Adam beneath her, in the end she failed and had to run away.

After the fruit debacle, Adam eventually found Lilith again while mad at his wife, and they sired demons together. Or some such.

To be frank, I haven't read the Bible. I haven't actually read the source material for a lot of myths and religions, all my knowledge comes from what has been regurgitated by various media.

Some stories had clear inspirations and shared certain similarities, while others were entirely unique and probably less faithful.

And all I know about Echidna was that she birthed monsters as revenge, but I wasn't sure why, or against who.

As I thought about the name I had selected for the Goblin, Lilith, crawled closer to me.

When she entered arms length, I was able to see the details of her face. She had large purple eyes with a sharp disposition. And seeing her mouth, I was reminded of a Venus fly trap.

Maybe because she had smooth fruit-like skin, but I didn't think she was hideous even with her Goblin-like features.

After sharing eye-contact for a bit, she glared at me with an intensity that buckled my legs. As I fell, I barely caught myself, then I noticed an oppressive weight attempting to make me kneel.

Seconds passed, and the intensity grew, I struggled to even keep my eyes open. Then, the pressure vanished.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Dominance.]

[Lilith Echidna failed to assert her Dominance!]

[Lilith Echidna is forced into Subservience!]​

What? What just happened?

Immediately after I was able to move freely, I stumbled a bit to remain upright. My mind had just been under a ton of stress, and the sudden removal of it made me dizzy.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[The Skill 'Dominance' allows the user to force others into Submittance, however it has a variety of conditions for a successful use. Once the Skill fails, the user is forced into Subservience instead.]

[The State 'Subservience' implants a desire to serve at the whims of the target, to the best of their capabilities.]​

Really?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[Affirmative.]​

Oh, sweet!

Now I don't have to do any verbal convincing. Since I couldn't speak that great, and because we didn't have an established language, I thought I would be like convincing a wild animal to play chess.

I feared I would be reduced to acting out a game of charades.

Instead, because Lilith had attempted to make me submit to her and it backfired, now she was my servant or maybe pet.

I don't really know what to label her. We were monsters, so I think the best label would be minion.

Stand up! Lie down! Roll over!

…

Lilith didn't react at all to my mental commands.

I then tried using my words, but aside from filling the forest with Goblin shouts, nothing happened. I don't think she can even comprehend what I was commanding her to do.

Hmm…

Well, that was a bust. Turns out it's like convincing a cow to make cheese. I don't know what that example was, but it sounds like a reasonably outlandish task, and if a cow was smart enough, it should be able to accomplish it.

As I was thinking about what to do next, my eyes had wandered away from Lilith, and I observed Yggdrasil, the Goblin Patch.

Last time, after hatching, I practically dismissed it as something as important as a bird's egg. Like a 'thanks for letting me be born, and goodbye forever', type deal.

But now, it was more like a respawn point, so I need to make sure it wasn't destroyed or else I might die. Might, because I still wasn't certain I knew what [Immortality] did. Or how my soul was almost absorbed.

Hey wait. Now I could probably get some answers.

Wisdom, how did I survive?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[Yggdrasil possesses the Trait 'Sacred', it enables them to recollect souls born from it.]

[As its soul structure is molded around yours, when you come into contact with it, you regain control.]​

Oh, did [Immortality] do anything?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[Negative.]

[The Blessing 'Immortality' allows the user's consciousness (spiritual id and mental ego) to transfer to a soulless blood-kin after death, at the moment of your death, you did not have any blood-kin aside from Yggdrasil alive.]

[Yggdrasil's Trait would have taken your soul regardless.]​

What are the limits to me being reborn or revived? I need to know this so I don't take advantage of it and end up facing dire consequences in the future.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[A standard human's consciousness can withstand approximately ten reincarnations without issue, afterwards their soul and mind start to break down.]

[As long as you have a living bloodkin and your consciousness is intact, there is no known natural limit to being revived.]​

'A standard' and 'approximately' huh? So it's not exactly ten, but that's about the average. Either way, I should be careful with my life, especially since I have been reborn three times already.

I just need to have blood-kin, oh wait, I also needed them to be soulless.

What's the deal with that?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[This world's soul supply is limited, only about 1 in 20 possess a soul.]

[Contrary to your belief, a soul does not equate a moral compass. It's merely a form of spiritual energy, in this world it allows for the use of magic and a higher capacity for intelligence and imagination.]

[In the simplest terms you can understand. The soulless are comparable to NPCs or Mob characters.]​

Oh, that made sense. At first I couldn't picture what a world filled with soulless people would look like, but the last line cleared it up for me.

It was just a world filled with people going about their business in the background as if they were following a routine script.

So if a person had a soul, they were probably a main character.

Huh? Didn't I absorb two souls already?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[Affirmative.]

['Unnamed', Hollow Horned Hare, and 'Paean', Divine Prince Caladrius, were the two souls you absorbed.]​

Weren't souls supposed to be rare?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[Affirmative.]

[In most societies, it is common for the Soulless to either be killed at birth or raised in 'farms'.]​

Excuse me, what?

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Wisdom.]

[In the simplest terms you can understand. Think of childbirth as rolling a gacha, a soulless baby is simply common trash to those wanting a rare baby with a soul.]

[However, there are those who consider them perfect laborers, i.e, slaves, as they diligently follow orders, and won't ever rebel unless guided to do so.]

[Additionally, it is commonly discussed as to whether to not soulless individuals possess real or artificial emotions, there has yet to be a single agreed upon collective conclusion.]​

I'm starting to wonder about the gods of this world, and not just the beings behind the Blessing's I stole, who were probably divine to some extent. But about the being who create and manage this world.

Apparently, I died in an accident and then was mistakenly reincarnated as a plant.

The accident I died in, as I recall, was a meteor storm after a giant eyeball covered the sky.

A cover up? Was I murdered because I had witnessed that supernatural event?

I definitely wasn't the only person to die, more than a few city blocks had probably been destroyed.

And then I found myself here, in this world, where souls were limited. More people were probably reincarnated too, and they were probably reborn as humans considering I was a mistake.

It all sounds a bit fishy, like maybe it hadn't been an accident but a scam to collect souls for this world somehow. I couldn't be sure of it.

I faintly remember hearing a god shout about hating nepotism, but they also spoke in a professional tone, as if they were speaking on behalf of a company.

A divine corporation? Likely a corrupt one too, since an employee complained about an unfair hiring practice.

I should probably stop here, when I was a plant I didn't have a mouth and yet the god understood me, so the gods could most likely check in on my thoughts.

Thanks for the reincarnation! I really appreciate it! If you're going to punish me for blasphemy, limit it to a Curse please! No smiting!

I tried not to think about my [Soul Absorption] Skill and its ramifications in a world with limited souls.

As I was shaking potentially dangerous thoughts from my head, I noticed something that looked like a small pumpkin nearby.

When I got closer, it became clear to me that Yggdrasil had started producing another Goblin.

Haa, dummy, that's 90 EXP in total for this batch now! How long is that going to take to recuperate? Ahh, why did you do this?

The Goblin melon/egg(?) was about half the size I currently was, and I just hatched, so it would probably be out in a few days time.

Sorry, if you're a boy, but I already had a name planned for the next one.

[Status Ability Interference: Displaying the results of Naming.]

[Name Registered: Eve Eden.]

[Skill Gained: Fruit Generation LV1]​

Even if you're a boy, you wouldn't understand that Eve was the name of the first woman in Eden, the wife of Adam, and that she was tricked into eating a forbidden fruit. In fact you won't even be able to read your own name, it's a bit sad.

Though I do wonder if I'll feel like making clothes out of leaves and covering myself after eating the fruit you'll make.

Now that I exhausted all my distractions, I turned back to Lilith.

She looked a bit dazed, the sharp look from her eyes was gone and her gaze was now soft. She looked a bit like an airhead, or maybe a dog.

Dog?

Well, she was wary of me at first glance, so that implies a decent level of thought. She recognized a potential danger, wanted to preserve her life, and then decided I wasn't a threat after all.

I couldn't be sure of how she arrived at those thoughts, but at least I knew she could think logically.

For the next few minutes, I tried deciphering what consonants and vowels I could speak.

I could do most of the English alphabet quite naturally: A, C, D, E, G, H, I, J, K, L, N, Q, R, S, T, and U.

If I maneuvered my tongue inside my mouth and throat carefully, I could also manage: F, O, V, W, and Y. And if I struggled with my clamp jaw, and used a lot of force, I could barely create: C, S, X, and Z.

And no matter what I did, I couldn't use: B, M, or P. At least not as syllables, I could store up some air and cough in a way that sounds like a B or P. Or I could coil my tongue in my throat and hum an M.

Still, my mouth couldn't quite manage to say the words I knew in a completely legible way.

Hello turned into Hegkklowu.

Since I couldn't use English, and because it wouldn't matter what language I used as Lilith didn't know any, I decided to create my own.

I didn't have the time, resources, nor the desire to create an entire encyclopedia and dictionary for my made-up language. I just needed enough words to use as commands to train a dog-like being.

Follow = Kowu. Leave = Lowe. Stay = Tai. Move = Iat.

Up = Ut. Down = Do. Front = Fot. Back = Tof. Left = Laf. Right = Fal.

Fetch = Fet. Drop = Tef. Rock = Row. Wood = Wor.

For about an hour, I used these new words and my body language to demonstrate my commands.

I also had to guide Lilith while speaking. I would turn her head in the direction I said, and then push and pull on her body where I wanted her to go.

I did my best when creating my language to avoid naturally occurring Goblin exclamations. Things like: 'Gwa', 'ch', 'kt', 'hu', and more, were common unconscious sounds of surprise.

In English they'd be things like: 'Haa', 'guh', 'ah', 'oh', and other simple sounds.

It's not a problem in an established language, but since I had to create my own, I had to be sure not to cause any confusion.

I didn't have any Goblin treats, so I had to make due with mental reinforcement. I wasn't sure how expressive my face without any cheeks was, but I hoped I appeared adequately positive or negative depending on my intentions.

After about an hour straight (or so, I didn't have a timer after all) of training, Lilith was showing promise.

"Iat tof (Move back)."

Lilith took a step backwards.

"(Move left, move left, move right.)"

Lilith took two steps left and then one right.

That's great, but I'm probably going to need to make some words for looking and turning.

…

…

The sunlight had disappeared, and I think I did a pretty good job constructing a basic language. It helped that Lilith learned quickly.

"(Speak, Your Name.)"

I didn't yet need to make words for redundant words like 'say' or 'tell', at this point they'd be needless confusion.

"Lil…litch."

"(No.)"

I frowned and sneered.

"Lili...th."

She said her name in English since I didn't change how her name was pronounced in my Goblin Language.

"(Yes.)"

I smiled, mostly with my eyes since I didn't have lips or cheeks, then I gave her a command followed by a question.

"(Look up. What is there?)"

"(Dark sky… night. Brightest star… sun, gone. Pale star, moon, there… now.)"

She struggled a bit, but her answer was good enough for me.

I didn't yet create separate words for the different types of celestial bodies, I thought that would be pointless for now, so her answer was pretty good for what I've taught her.

Now that I was satisfied with her education, it was time to develop our base of operations.

We're about to have a third Goblin crawling about, and we already have tools and a language.

 

[Aureus]

Are the named Goblins also NPC's?

 

[Krak-Quinn]

Are the named Goblins also NPC's?

Click to shrink...

Displaying the results of Wisdom: Names don't grant souls.

Light spoiler simply because the MC hasn't clarified it himself yet, but yes.