Chapter 3 - Memories and The Goblin Village

After walking for the greater part of a day, Kazimir saw a small mountain rising out from the horizon, a flat cliff face could be seen from this direction. There were bigger mountains further in the distance, but they couldn't be made out from where he was.

The closer they got to the small mountain, the more details could be seen. It was just barely over 1000 ft (304 meters) tall, had trees covering the top, and rock outcroppings that could be seen from in between the trees.

The small goblin let out an excited cheer, and his walking speed increased as he saw that its home was getting closer.

Obie wasn't the biggest or the smallest in his village, he wasn't the fastest or the strongest, but he was the smartest. His uncle, the village's elder, saw his potential and taught him the Common tongue that the different races used to communicate with each other. This was a privilege most goblins didn't get. The language was unexpectedly useful today: not only did it let him keep his life in front of this powerful human, it also let him convince the human to bring food back to his village.

Obie was thinking about how happy and maybe even jealous the others from the village will be when they see him come back with so much meat, he would take this opportunity to show off. Just because he was the elder's nephew didn't mean he was very popular, but this could be his chance to change his image.

Obie was already putting the two dead goblins at the back of his mind. They weren't important. His village was starving, goblins were dying, and his uncle was still worried about there being too many goblins to support. Reducing their problems by two useless mouths on top of him bringing food would actually be a good thing.

Obie's thoughts was racing through all kinds of scenarios, which gave Kazimir the chance to think about his own matters.

Even though he wasn't conscious of it, Kazimir has been on high alert ever since he woke up in this world. Killing a few creatures and gaining weapons has regained his confidence in his skills, and not having any unpleasant surprises over the last few hours finally allowed his tensed up mind to relax, and his alertness to ease.

Kazimir was recalling his lessons: his training and the knowledge that was drilled into him over his life. Long before he even started thinking about coming back to this world, his grandfather took on the role of both parent and trainer to prepare Kazimir for any possible problems that this world might present.

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At first, his grandfather was a common man whose life was busy but lonely. He had been an owner of a small but popular Chinese restaurant. After Kaz came to be under his care, he learned what his grandson might face in the future.

Out of love and concern, he had Kazimir undergo extensive martial arts training, took him to the best private tutors, and dragged him on trips around the world to the most extreme locations so that the young Kaz could learn how to survive in any environment.

Kazimir's grandfather had told him when he became a teenager that all of the hard training, all the tough love, and all of the near-death experiences were because he didn't know what trials Kazimir would face in the future so he prepared Kazimir for everything. The only thing his grandfather was sure of, is that Kaz would have to go to a Fantasy world, one of swords and magic, one that shared similarities with Fantasy stories. So to prepare him further, the two of them spent much of the free time that they had by consuming more fantasy knowledge - books, light novels, video games, comics, and even tabletop RPGs.

At first Kazimir enjoyed these activities. It helped him relieve the fatigue accumulated from the exhaustive training he endured, but soon he realized that the non-stop consumption of Fantasy knowledge was becoming an exertion on his mind when his body was too tired to take any more!

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Kazimir stored his memories at the back of his mind, and started organizing his thoughts. His greatest hope worked out - the Status screen which his late mother talked about worked. He still didn't know if magic powers existed in this world, or how powerful the strongest beings of the world were. He did know that not everyone could use the Status command. A question occurred to him.

"Hey Obie, what level are you?"

Obie was pulled out of his excitement and replied, "V-What ddo yoo meen, by level?" (What do you mean by level?)

"I mean, can you tell how strong you are by checking and saying the word 'status'?"

"Ss-, Status?" Obie frowned at hearing this unexpected word. He knew it's meaning from the Common words he'd learned, but he wasn't sure what the word had to do with the word 'level' and didn't understand what Kazimir was asking.

Obie pondered it quickly and replied, "Ay-I don't knoe. V-what do yoo meen?" (I don't know. What do you mean?)

Kazimir shook his head, "Never mind, just wanted to see if you knew about it. Forget I said anything." Kazimir was now sure that his ability to check his 'status' must be a rare ability. He even suspected that his status was his personal special 'system' that he received for being a transmigrator, but he would have to confirm this down the road.

Even though he had a rare ability, he still felt unsatisfied with it. His system didn't show his health, didn't show how much experience he needed to level up, or his age. His status didn't announce the level-ups, or give him any friendly hints or alerts.

He tried calling out Map, Inventory, Menu, and a dozen other commands like in a video game, but the only thing that worked was [Status].

Kazimir was upset with the fact that his unique ability might just be this $#@%%& half-baked status system that was lacking some of the most crucial parts. If this was a video game, he would return it for a refund because of how poorly it was designed. He let out a heavy breath in resignation - this wasn't a video game, this was another world.

Feeling that his thoughts were more organized and that he had let go of a lot of stress, Kazimir lifted his head up with renewed vigor and focused on the way they were walking.

His next task is to find out about the geography, politics, and the organization of power in this worlds. Kazimir looked at the funny little figure struggling under a Kobolds weight, and wondered if the goblin village would be of any use to him.

The goblin seemed to actually be getting comfortable around Kazimir, which was unexpected. The goblin was essentially a hostage that had his friends killed in front of him by Kazimir, but he was still making friendly small talk and chattering without end as if they were the best of friends. Kazimir was curious about him, in every fantasy story he read, goblins were usually cowardly, cruel, and back-stabbing creatures that would be terrified in this kind of situation. He felt some bad intentions from Obie at first, but after killing the Kobolds, Kaz could feel that the goblin had a change of attitude.

Kazimir came up with another idea, so he looked at the goblin and mumbled "Status... Scan... Analyze..." Nothing happened, he guessed that he couldn't look at another creature's status screen, just his own.

When Obie notified Kazimir that they were getting close, the sun was already setting, painting the horizon a dull orange color.

One staying silent, and the other talking about random things he saw, Kazimir and Obie walked out of the dense forest and into a small open clearing by the foot of the mountain. Obie excitedly ran out towards his village, making noises to greet the goblins he saw. Kazimir followed him and looked around, curious as to what a goblin village would look like.

Kazimir was awestruck. He saw an amazing sight.

'To think that the goblins' building and constructions were at such a level! And as for their clothes...' Well, there were none to speak of... Instead of huts or even lean-tos, Kazimir didn't even see a single sound structure, just some uneven logs piled up in a cone so full of gaps that wind, dust, rain, animals, people, or really anything could pass through. Moreover, some of the goblins were simply lying in the open, on the ground as they slept. The conditions were miserable!

Then Kazimir noticed the goblins themselves, they looked to be in awful order. Only a few had some ragged loincloths, most were completely naked with a wretched appearance. Their bodies were so skinny that Kazimir was reminded of the starving children he used to see on TV.

At this point Obie's ragged clothes and the rest of his goblin group's makeshift weapons seemed like regal attire when compared to what the goblins in this village were wearing... or not wearing. Kazimir's hopes for a useful cooperation were instantly dashed, he now doubted that even the 'elder' would have any useful information for him.

The only indication that this place was anything like a village, is that there were several of those piles of wood logs, and that there was a significant number of goblins all together in this place.

Obie pointed towards the cliff face, at the bottom of which was a small cave. "Come! My uhkle, libes ser." (Come! My uncle lives there.)

"Haa~ Lead on." With a heavy heart, Kaz walked forward to meet the goblin elder.