1 Prologue - The day everyone gained Growth-Rates
Opening his eyes and slowly sitting up from his bed, Jack looked at the screen that had magically appeared in front of him. It reminded him highly of an RPG Stat Page.
Name: Jack Clancy
Age: 19
Growth Rate: Goblin (Warrior)
Evolution Progress: 0%
STR: 14
AGI: 10
VIT: 14
DEX: 11
WIS: 9
INT: 10
He remembered what had just happened and he understood what each thing he was looking at meant and turned away from the screen making it disappear. Instead, he now peered into a mirror next to him. His blond hair was now green, his blue eyes now yellow.
He was originally around 179cm tall but now he was around 186cm and had packed on much more muscle.
Jack walked over to the mirror and brought a hand up to his lips before bringing them back and showing his slightly elongated canines.
Letting out a sigh, Jack slowly backed away, taking his hands out of his mouth, before willing the 'screen' to appear in front of his face again.
He thought about how this had all started an hour ago when a screen appeared in front of him. 'Blah blah blah Humans haven't evolved enough blah blah blah I will help you by gifting you with Growth-Rates or special abilities and putting Monsters on the Earth along with making the living the Dead blah blah blah' Jack chuckled as he joked about whatever supreme being was ripping off novels he'd read.
He guessed that most people who read novels probably jumped with joy when they saw the screen appear, even more probably screamed in joy when they saw they'd be getting abilities and whatever Growth-Rates were.
Of course, Jack knew what they meant now, he wasn't an idiot. They were obviously related to stats and how they improved. And he guessed they improved through killing monsters like anything else in a Fantasy-type Apocalypse.
He looked toward his own Growth-Rate with a hand on his chin.
"Goblin, huh?" Jack thought for a while before laughing, "If I've learned anything from novels, or even Anime like Goblin Slayer, it's that Goblins can be more dangerous than anything if they have a Human's intelligence to push them!"
He let out another laugh as he continued to himself, "Most people would collapse in despair if they had a Goblins growth rate, but me? I get excited! I always knew I was a bit odd..." Jack stopped laughing before looking at the screen again.
"And there's an evolution bar...So, I won't be a Goblin for long...And if I were a betting boy--!" before Jack could finish a screech entered his ears as he looked over at the door to his room.
"Cheeky supreme being spawning monsters in my house...Well, only one way to fix that, right?" Jack walked over to his bed before picking up a metal baseball bat.
He walked up to his door before peeking through the cracked door. His heart was speeding up now and he couldn't help but feel a weird sort of crazed excitement.
What he saw instantly made him crack a big smile.
Two little green men were looking around the hallway that led downstairs from his room. They each held pointed sticks and had similar elongated canines like Jack, he instantly felt a familiarity with the creatures which confirmed what they were: Goblins.
They looked weak and thin like they hadn't eaten anything in weeks and their sickly green skin looked like it hadn't been washed in even longer. But their yellow eyes looked about with a devious light, putting whoever saw them on edge.
His smile not leaving his face, Jack slowly opened his door before sneaking toward the pair that were now walking into his parent's room.
He waited for them to fully enter the room before he quickly caught up to them. He peeked into the room and saw one of them looking under the bed and another looking through the wardrobe, grasping clothes before smelling them and letting out weird chuckles.
"Yikes, Mom's not gonna be happy..." Jack whispered under his breath before a pang of worry assaulted his heart. But he quickly pushed it down before entering the room.
He crept over to the Goblin looking under the bed and brought his foot up and curbed stomped the thing into the ground.
*CRACK!*
"Arghhhhh! Spetik! Spetik!" a screech and some unintelligible speaking came after a loud crack and squelch as Jack fully planted his boot into the Goblin's back.
He looked at my foot in wonder, the result of the stomp being much better than he had expected. Jack thought back to his stats and remembered he had 15 points in strength. If 10 is the average for Humans like it usually is, wasn't he over half as strong as before? In rough comparisons at least. But if he was, it would explain why there was green blood flowing out of the Goblins mouth in a small fountain.
"Kutok!" the Goblin that had been smelling Jack's mothers' clothes spun around and had charged over to Jack and its voice had alerted him enough that he backed away.
In a case of horrible bad luck, the Goblin planted it's pointed stick into the incapacitated Goblin's hand resulting in another screech.
While the 'spear' was stuck in the other Goblin's hand and the unhurt Goblin was trying to pry it's weapon free, Jack took the chance and rushed at the Goblin, the metal bat held in a crushing grip.
"Batter up!" Jack grounded himself and pulled back the metal bat before letting his momentum and strength do the rest of the work as he swung at the Goblin's head.
*CRACK! SQUELCH!*
A tremendous cracking sound resounded around the bedroom before the squelching sound of a cracked open head hitting the ground wetly sounded out, signaling the end of the Goblin's life.
By now the Goblin Jack had first hit was also dead and Jack looked down at what he'd done.
Green blood and pieces of brain matter and skull were on his bat and also scattered around the room. All of which Jack found slightly disturbing.
Something which he found more disturbing was his lack of disgust at killing another humanoid being. On the contrary, it was the crazed excitement he felt while killing and then the apathy after doing it.
Feeling slightly sickened with himself and his newfound personality traits, Jack sat down and opened the status to take his mind off of things.
Name: Jack Clancy
Age: 19
Growth Rate: Goblin (Warrior)
Evolution Progress: 20%
Strength: 16
Agility: 10
Vitality: 16
Dexterity: 13
Wisdom: 9
Intelligence: 10
His evolution progress going up by so much was to be expected. He did have one of the weakest races as his Growth-Rate, so it would take much less killing to Evolve.
Jack, however, was surprised at his growth-rate. He seemed to gain 1+ stat in Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity each 10% he gained toward his evolution. This could be seen as both bad and a good thing.
Bad because he wouldn't be able to gain many stats while he was in his first 'Evolution' but good because he could both rush toward his first Evolution while gaining stat points easily by killing Goblins.
His yellow eyes flashed and he slowly stood up. He strained his ears and heard some rustling downstairs. A smile once again dawned his face and he exited the room and walked downstairs. He had Goblins to kill.
