Deep underground, two distinct footsteps reverberated off the cold stone floor. The pungent odour and the faint screaming in the distance helped create an eerie façade. With each footstep, the figures moved on as the wailings of an unfortunate soul became ever more pronounced. Yet despite the foreboding atmosphere, the two continued unfazed. One held a face that held no emotion and the other seethed with a burring inner rage.

“This better be a fucking joke, John! Otherwise, I am going to cut someone’s balls and feed it to them,” shouted a rather rotund man, breath ragged from a mixture of walking and shouting.

John kept his brisk pace, undisturbed by the spittle flying at his face. “You know I don’t joke, Julius,” his words were as expressive as his face.

All the other man could do was shout curses in reply as they approached a sturdy wooden door, its long years of service visible. It was clear that the source of the commotion emanated behind it but suddenly stopped. Five sausage-like fingers wrapped around the handle. With an aggressive yank, one fuelled by anger, the door swung open.

The sight that lay before them was an ungodly apotheosis of evil. A vast plethora of tools lay bare on the walls. Ones meant to extract information in a most unpleasant manner. In the corner stood a maiden of iron and spikes. A forever etched grin on her face, joyously awaiting its next victim. Many a damnable soul held in her cruel embrace.

As the pair entered, a couple of guards nodded to their presence. John nodded back in kind before a pair of bloodshot eyes glared at them from a chubby face. The guards stood back to attention. Julius wasn’t a man you wanted to make angry. They knew that all too well. But it is mighty entertaining to watch, one thought as they both showed toothless grins at the show about to play before them.

“Explain to me what the fuck is going on!” Julius shouted at a man dressed in rags and bindings. He was one of the many poor souls enslaved on their travels in the Qyurin Empire.

The man paled at his presents as he struggled to talk, “I-I sincerely apologise master, I don’t know what happened. I’ve never seen this before.”

Julius waddled to the man, grabbing him by the throat before throwing him to the ground. “Get. To. The. Point,” Julius said, his anger replaced with an eerie calm.

“Yes, yes. You see her wounds refuse to close and blood keeps flowing. I have tried my healing magic and even used the potion you gave me. Nothing is working. I just finished casting a lesser pain nullification spell on her.” The man was sweating profusely as he tried to explain. Julius just stared at him as one would an insect. With a sigh, he began to move. Each and every step methodical and drawn out. The tension in the room grew to at an alarming rate before Julius stopped at one of the walls. He hovered his hand over a vast collection of knives. Picking one he fancied he made his way back to the centre of the room.

There in the middle laid a woman strapped to a wooden table. She looked to be at death's door. All she could muster was faint, shallow breaths. Blond hair, dirty from years without bathing, covered her once youthful face. Two glazed eyes could be seen, showing no signs of the person that once was. Only a single teardrop trickled down her face. Slithering over to her, Julius placed a hand on her bloated stomach before raising the dagger he held. The slave quickly got up and grabbed his arm, “What are you-“ Before he could finish a fist struck his face, causing him to stumble back onto the floor. His attention again on the woman, a single fluid motion pierced her abdomen.

She struggled to scream, her vocal cords worn from many hours of use, a final blood-curdling scream escaped the woman’s throat. Her stomach was slit down the middle. Cradling his bloody nose, the slave could only look up in horror as the guards chuckled behind him. Fishing around in the open cavity, Julius pulled out a humanoid creature. With pointy ears and sickly green skin, a goblin was born that day.

Well, Julius thought, but the creature was awfully placid for his kind. They would come out writhing and lashing out. Sure, there were some a bit milder in manner, but never to this extent. It just didn’t seem to move at all. He dropped the apparently still birthed goblin back into the open cavity, His attention back to the horrified man on the floor. Picking him up with his bloodied hand, he leant in and whispered into his ear. “Do you know what I hate more than filthy vermin like you?” Visibly trembling, all the man could do was vigorously shake his head. “Fucking vermin that can’t do their fucking job!” Julius shouted, thrusting the dagger not once, nor twice, but several times into the man’s stomach. As the slave tumbled, his life force continually draining from his body, Julius stood over him.

Kicking the man multiple times in his stomach, Julius spoke again, “Come on, don’t just bleed out. heal yourself.” With this, a faint golden veil enveloped the dying man. His wounds began to close as new life seeped back into him. Stomping on his head, Julius glared at him, “Well isn’t that fucking strange, looks like to me you stopped the bleeding.” After a couple of moments, a smirk crossed his face along with a sinister glint in his eyes. “Do you remember what I said would happen if you fucked with me?” The pitiful man only looked up in confusion unsure what was going on. It then dawned on him. Without a moment's hesitation, he prostrated himself rubbing his head vigorously on the floor.

“Please I beg you. Spare her, she is the only thing I have left,” desperation in every uttered word. Signalling with his hand a guard took the pleading man away, tears and snot staining his face. It wasn’t long before his cries were just a faint echo.

“Don’t you think you went a bit overboard?” John asked Julius, face showing that he didn’t particularly care about the man’s fate.

“Overboard?! Are you joking! If that sniffling runt thinks he can do whatever he wants, he’s wrong. Besides, even if I wanted to take it back it’s too late. I already had my way with her. Just a shame she didn’t last long,” He said with a lecherous grin on his face. He sighed as he turned back to John. “Hopefully with this my string of ‘bad luck’ will subside.” Julius pointed to the newly made corpse, “Not only did that bitch get out of her bindings and kill my best goblin, but the rest also keep fucking up matches. Fucking healer probably had a hand in that too.”

“I am sure things will get better.”

Julius put a hand on one of John's shoulders, “That better be the case otherwise things may take a turn for the worse. Besides, I’m a good guy, right? Surely Goddess Medias's smile shines upon me?”

“I'm pretty sure we both know that’s not the case.”

“It just doesn’t make any sense though. How the fuck did he cause so much-“ before Julius could finish, the remaining guard coughed to get his attention. Julius paid in kind with a murderous glare.

Flinching at the bloodlust being directed at him, the guard chose his words carefully, “Milord, the goblin be stirring about there.”

With a smirk on his face, he turned to look at the goblin fumbling around amongst the blood and gore. “At least today isn’t a complete fuckup,” he whispered to himself as he motioned the guard to get the small carrier cage that sat in the corner of the room. It wasn’t long until the goblin whelp was taken away.

 <||> <||><||>

Getting reborn wasn’t nearly as fun as I thought it would be, didn’t quite know what I was expecting. My first experience was being enveloped in an unfamiliar warmth. A muffled rhythmic beating of a heart playing in the background. It was faint, and the warmth was slowly dissipating. Things change abruptly as light poured from an unknown source and something wrapped around my leg. I was suddenly pulled out, where I found myself dangling in the air. Unfortunately, my first sight was of a fat man with bulging veins. He just stared at me, and I back, before he let me go full-back into the bloody mess. I lay there a moment trying to orientate myself in this new environment. I don’t know why it took me so long to process the fact I was currently laying in a woman’s open stomach. But it did. When it sunk in though, I freaked out. Badly. I kind of flopped around in a state of senseless panic, further enhanced by my lack of mobility. I was glad I was taken out quickly.

The place I found myself in after that wasn’t much better. I don’t know how long it was since I was first born, but I rarely got to see light. Not that I minded it too much. After being placed in that cage, I was moved to some kind of storage place for goblins. Young ones from the few I manage to see. If I had to guess from the orchestral of screeching and nonsensical wining, I would say that there are at least ten other goblins with me currently. As you could imagine, I haven’t been able to get much sleep. Especially since the dickhead next to me kept poking me every time I tried. He learned quickly not to though. I am pretty sure it was after I grabbed his finger and bent it. I don’t know why I still have my memory, but I kind of wished I didn’t. I am simply bored out of my mind, keeping myself busy by counting and recounting the number of bricks this room is made of. The only half-interesting thing that happen was whenever the guards came. They would either grab one or two goblins or give us ‘food’. On rare occasions, the ones taken would come back. My only highlight was when a guard came and seemingly couldn’t figure out why one of the goblins had a hand with a bent finger.

After a long time of staring at the wall something happened. I was excited at first, it seemed like I gained a new ability. All I had to do was look at something and transparent UI would pop up. Using it on a stone wall elicited [Stone Wall] to appear next to it. Iron bars got [Iron Bars] and the door got [Sturdy Door], which was at least something. But each and every time I cast it, a head-splitting throbbing ensued. Apparently, the measly knowledge was too much for my goblin brain to handle. I could even cast it on myself. When done, a familiar UI window appeared revealing my status.

As you might have garnered from skimming through, I am currently poisoned. This has been a perpetual thing. Stomach cramps, nausea and sudden loss of vision are just a few symptoms I have been experiencing. Which is not surprising when looking at the partially rotten chunks of meat they served. The ‘food’ I mentioned before. The only silver lining is the severity of the symptoms died down a while ago. This made the ordeal slightly more bearable. At this point, I am heavily regretting my life choice. All I wanted was to be a dwarf, is that so much-

A noise snapped me from my internal monologue. The muffled sounds of crackling keys and the screeching metal could be heard. Is it that time already?  As the door opened, light flooded the darkroom eagerly filling up any space. And to my dismay that included my little cage. Shuffling over to me, a familiar face stopped and looked. A perturbed expression was all he could muster. He did this an awful lot, almost every time he came in here. The other guards were similar, just a little bit less creepy about it. But today was different as, instead of moving on, he reached to pull out my cage. It seems today that I am the only one going out. I know I should be a little bit more concerned about where I am going. Even the fact that the goblins rarely come back. But at this point though, anything is better than being in that room. That’s why I merrily went with the guard in my cage, without kicking up a fuss. It was almost a pleasant walk if it wasn’t for the occasional scream or muffled crying.

We stopped what I assumed was a guard post. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to understand their language. All I heard from the exchange from the guards was gibberish. I have been trying to learn bits and pieces, but I rarely hear people talk. The only reason why I could make out words such as ‘hi’ or ‘goblin’ was thanks to the guy holding me. He would try to talk to me when he went to the feed us, hence why I called him a creep. I mean, who talks to a goblin? It wasn’t long till we were on the move again, this time going up a flight of stairs. With every step, we took, the stench of shit and piss lessened. A new smell replaced it, fresh air.

That wasn’t the only new sensation that my new body experienced with my ascension to the upper world. The dungeon leads to a new section. A mansion of sorts. As we walked by, there was a large amount of exorbitant looking furniture in the many rooms we passed. Every nook and cranny was full to the brim with lush finery. Even the curtains were dyed purple. None of the maids working seemed to pay any mind to the shifty-looking man.

After what seemed to be an obnoxiously long walk, we finally came upon a doorway that easily blended in with its surroundings. Exiting through, we entered the outdoors and for the first time in this life, the sun’s rays caressed my skin. Going down the marble steps that went to the front, I looked at the looming mansion we just exited. It was massive and looked to cost a fortune to make. It was strange that such a nice looking place sat atop a shit whole.

The guard approached a carriage that match the ascetics of the place we just left. There next to it stood a coachman. As we got closer, a few brief words were exchanged before the coachman took me to the luggage compartment. Once again, I was greeted by the horrid conglomerate of sound. It seems that other goblins were coming along too. Strange that I couldn’t hear them from the outside. It wasn’t long until the carriage came in motion. Slowly but surely, it made its way over the unevenly paved road, violently jolting at regular intervals.