Chapter 2 - A life among theives

Fading in and out of conciseness, Alan was waking up. He opened his eyes only to see a green, ugly old man. 'Whoa! Who's this green creep?' The old man picked up Alan and cradled him in his arms. 'Hey I'm not some of baby what are you doing?!' Alan struggled to move his arms to push himself away. He lifted his right arm went to push the old man. But he couldn't move, it was like his body wasn't his own. Suddenly the arms started moving and Alan's mouth started speaking.

"Gii" A noise came out. But Alan was confused. He hadn't made a sound. It was like something else did but it came out of his mouth. Looking at the old green dude he was smiling as he placed Alan down to the ground. With no control over his body, Alan's arms tried to grab the old man. That's when he saw it. His arms, they were a light green shade. Similar to what the green old man's hands looked like.

"Gii gwerk Iac" The old man spoke. It sounded like some chant. If it was another language, Alan for sure couldn't understand it. The old man then walked away and Alan feel his body grow weak. Alan watched the old man leave the room as he slowly faded into an unconscious state.

Then next time Alan woke up, he felt like all of the weakness that absorbed him before had just disappeared. But he still wasn't able to get up. Using his head, he thought that he may be disabled or restricted by something. Suddenly his body got up and started walking around. His height was short, probably as big as a child. For some reason every command that Alan's brain tried putting into moving his body just didn't work like it should have. It was like his body was on autopilot.

His body started to leave the room he was in. It seemed he was in some sort of cave system. When his body left the room he was in there was just more rock, from the ceilings to the floor. Alan's body moved onwards down the path to his right. Continuing for a couple of seconds, he had come across a large room with light peering in from the outside. There was slayer equipment laying all over the floor. But that wasn't what caught Alan's eye. It was the large amount of goblins, walking all over the place laying different pieces of equipment down.

'Where the hell am I?!' Alan screamed with his thoughts. But no one could hear or answer him. Although no one could hear his thoughts. Words started to come out of his mouth. "Gwerk gii Iac!" well they weren't exactly words or at-least ones he could understand. That shout had brought the attention to the other goblins that he was standing right with them. Looking at him they all started to chant in unison.

"Gii Iac!" "Gii Iac!" "Gii Iac!"

Alan was stiff. It wasn't like he could move his body anyways. So Alan decided to just watch what would happen. But after chanting for a couple of seconds the goblins stopped and went on with what they were doing. It was like his appearance with them went unquestioned. Looking for something reflective to check his appearance. In the corner of his eye, Alan spotted a silver shield. It seemed his body's host noticed it as well as it walked over to it. Alan had considered the idea that something horrible would happen if he signed the contract. But he didn't have enough time to consider his choices. He needed to save his brother from the dangers of the tower. Even at any cost Alan would still choose yes. But this just seems a bit too extreme. Alan was now a goblin. A short, scrawny, green, ugly goblin. The Administrator had tricked him and Alan was furious. But there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say. The only thing he could think of was his brother.

Finn was probably alone and scared. He can't exactly fend for himself. Alan needed to find him as fast as possible. He promised his father that he would look after Finn never leaving his side while he grew into an adult. The tower took away the only family Finn had left. While Alan was having negative thoughts about the tower, his body's host was looking into shield checking himself out. Flexing and posing it seemed this goblin was quite full of himself. Alan just ignored what the dumb goblin was doing and tried to open his status window.

All slayers obtained one when they entered the tower. It was the best way to show a slayer's growth while they climb the tower. He had learned all of this from his father's stories. Alan's father was terrible at telling a normal bedtime stories. So Alan's father had the great idea to tell his son all about his bloody adventures in the tower. It worked for Alan as he learned more and more about the horrors of the tower.

It scared Alan as a child making his distrust for the tower and slayers grow as he got older. Instead of his father, after his brother was born, Alan would tell normal bedtime stories to Finn. He didn't want Finn growing up with the same fears he had. Alan didn't hate or despise his father for telling him those bloody bedtime stories. He learned a lot about the horrors of the tower thanks to his father. He also learned a lot a general information. For example, a slayer's status shows their name, stats, soul level, Job, and skills. There was also titles that a slayer could earn but Alan's father had never earned any so Alan didn't have much information on them. To open his status Alan only had to say it in his head . Saying 'status' and two windows appeared in front of Alan.

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Name: Alan Hutton

Soul Level - 0

Job - None

Strength - 5

Agility - 7

Vitality - 3

Intelligence - 5

Skills - None

Synchronization rate - 1%

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Name: Iac

Race - Goblin

Rank - F

Level - 0

Attributes - None

HP - 25

General traits - Stealth +1, Thievery +2

Race traits - Night vision +1, Smell for money +3, Goblin common language +4

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'What's all of this?!' Alan was bewildered. If he had control over his body he most likely would had fallen over. His father had never told him about a slayer having two status windows. But here it was in front of his face. It looked like one of the windows was his and the other was the host that he was attached to. Looking more closely at the details, there was a couple of things to note. More specifically, this was the first time in history a person had seen a monster's status. But firstly, Alan wanted to look more at his own status. Everything was the same as what his dad had told him, until the part about synchronization rate came up.

Alan was unaware of what this was. 'Is it a side effect of the contract?' Alan considered what the synchronization rate could mean and came up with multiple ideas. It wasn't like he was able to test anything when he didn't have control of his body. So all he could do is theorize and consider what the percentage meant. For now without enough information to go on he started looking at the status of the goblin he inhabited.

First thing he noticed was it's name. Iac, a word that was said in a lot of the sentences he heard quite recently. 'So whenever the other goblins mention Iac they must be talking about this goblin's body I'm inhibiting'. Alan realized before when they chanted it must've been some sort of ritual for newcomer goblins to chant their names. The goblin language was strange. Alan was able to understand some of the things that the goblins were saying but for some reason whenever "Gii" was said it was undecipherable. Looking at the full list of Iac's status it looked somewhat similar to a slayer's status. There was a level for the goblins as there were for slayers. But there also is an HP number unlike slayers. Same with the general and race traits which seems to make up for the lack of skills and defined stats. A job could be considered similar to a monsters rank. Alan's father had told him of the wonderful variety of jobs in the tower. But the variety also came with certain jobs being rarer and less explained. His father was only a common archer unlike those in S-rank that own incredibly unique jobs that allow them to surpass others.

The National Slayers Association had created a system that defined a monster's ranking as well. The goblin race of monsters was as weak as children, making them F-rank. But on the other hand, if you fought a group of goblins they would jump to D-rank due to their difficulty in numbers. It was considered extremely dangerous for beginners when there was this many goblins thieving off of slayers. With the group of goblins around him he would have considered them to be C-rank threat. Alan was wondering why no one would have sent a team from the upper tower to exterminate these goblins. The amount could easily lay waste to a small city. Most goblins attack beginner groups and thrive off of the gear they get from stealing off them and eating their flesh. Alan had the terrifying thought of Finn being attacked by a group like this. Being ripped apart limb by limb as he screamed in pain. Alan couldn't bear with that thought. He needed to find some way to gain control over this body and fast, before his brother gets into any danger.

But he didn't get the chance to think of an idea before Iac grabbed a dagger and oversized gloves and started walking away from this equipment room. Iac went deeper and deeper into the cave the walls started to get more mossy and he could see some flowers blooming through the cracks in the stone. It was strange it was like nature thrived the deeper he went into the cave. After walking for more than 10 minutes he reached a large opening. Iac's eyes went wide as he stared into the vast room. Alan was amazed as well, it looked like there was light crystals that stuck out of the wall and brightened up this large room. On the other end of the room was a large tree root and a throne carved into it. Iac walked over to the makeshift throne and bowed on his knees before the one sitting upon that very throne.

It was a taller and bulkier goblin that wore a crown carved from wood. Alan could tell right away that it was a hobgoblin king. They were extremely rare on lower levels of the tower and in portals as gate bosses. The rank of a hobgoblin king was B. It was extremely strong, not in individual capabilities but when leading a group of goblins. Alongside the goblin king was two orcs wearing the armor of slayers. It seemed they've had their fair share of battles too. Looking at the orcs they had huge scars across their bodies and from the looks of it didn't have any intention of hiding them. Orcs were a C rank threat level so this group of goblins must have made quite the advancement in terms of soldiers. Although Alan was unsure of how groups of goblins were able to team up with orcs, it does look like their fully loyal to the goblin king. Then the goblin king started to speak to Iac.

"Gii gick gowl?" (Gii what is your name?)

"Gii Iac" (Gii Iac)

Alan was confused. For some reason he was able to understand what the goblin was saying. It was like their words were being completely understood without him knowing a single one. It might have had something to do with Alan looking at Iac's status. Suddenly the orc on the left of the goblin king walked forward. Towering over Iac he looked down at him. The orc then put his hand out towards Iac. He was holding some sort of flat stone and showed it off.

"Gwerk gneek gak" (Put you hand on the stone tablet) The goblin king pointed towards to orc. Iac walked forward and put his hand down onto the rock. The status of both Iac and Alan appeared in front of everyone. The goblin king squinted his eyes trying to understand why there were two screens appearing. He then suspiciously looked down to Iac who didn't understand what was going on.

"Gii tak gwerk?" (What are you?)