I had a decision to make: I could hang around the jungle and take out the goblins that entered it. I had the advantage in terms of my stealth abilities, but I was still just one guy, and if they really decided to go on a manhunt, I didn’t fancy my chances. I also felt that, with this constant feeling of being under attack or running for my life, I hadn’t really been able to take stock and let the situation sink in. I mean, since I woke up, my missing arm had gradually been reforming, and I was so focused on survival that I barely paid it any attention. By the time I’d caved that high goblin's head in my arm had regrown, and apart from being a little tender, it was as good as new.

  ?

  I looked out at the strange alien castle ruins. It was as though someone had tried to replicate a medieval castle but had no knowledge of shapes with corners. The whole thing was oddly circular, with no straight lines to behold. It was clearly in a bad state and made me wonder. If this whole situation was affecting the whole universe, did that mean that alien species and their stuff were going to be here as well as random shit like planes? And more importantly, if goblins, creatures from our mythology, were now real, did that mean that the same logic would apply to aliens?!

  ?

  My head began to swim as I contemplated the weirdness of the situation the world had been plunged into. I took a deep breath and brought myself back to the task at hand, namely, surviving this hellhole of a jungle. I decided I would check out the ruins. Hopefully, they were abandoned, and I could explore at my leisure. If they were of alien origin, they could hold all sorts of alien tech, like a blaster or, even better, a lightsaber. I grinned like an idiot as I imagined mowing down hordes of goblins using my magic and a laser sword. A man could dream.

  ?

  I hopped down from the tree and corrected my course. I hoped I could make it to the ruins today, but seeing how hard it was to traverse this jungle, I gave myself the task of making it at least halfway by nightfall. Determined and now armed with my first magic spell, I headed off deeper into this new world.

  ?

  My mood quickly worsened as the day went on. The first thing was that my new arm was extremely itchy. Turns out I forgot I was a scaly beast, and regrowing scales was not a fun experience. Secondly, it started raining torrentially. At first, it was a small drizzle, and the cover from the great trees kept me dry, but as time went on, the rain increased, and soon even the great trees couldn’t hold back the deluge as the ground beneath me became a mire of mud and sludge. After the first hour, I could no longer use the ground to traverse and had to switch to my tried-and-true method of sticking to the trees. I was glad I did, as even though it was much slower, the ground beneath me soon became flooded, and a river of muddy water weaved between the strongest trees, ripping up those that couldn’t hold on.

  ?

  I watched in horror as I saw a Prism Hisser struggling as it tried to swim through the fast-moving river below me. The creature's eyes were white with fear. It was flailing about, attempting to hold onto anything it could. I couldn’t help but let a sigh of relief as I saw it manage to grab hold of a tree. That’s when a pale blue lance erupted from the water and skewered the creature. My eyes widened as I saw that the lance was attached to something deep in the water by an ice chain. Where the lance had pierced the creature, ice had spread, fusing the prism's hissing, struggling body to the weapon. The monster never stood a chance as it was violently yanked back into the roiling torrents. I made sure to stay high up in the canopy after that. There was a good chance that other monsters had also fled up here, but I would rather face something I could see than risk getting tangled with whatever was moving under the water.

  ?

  I scrambled as high as I could get and looked out over the jungle. I was shocked by what I was seeing. In just a matter of hours, the whole place had changed. Now there were countless thick waterways crisscrossing the landscape. I could see a herd of huge saurapod-like turtle creatures using the waterways as roads. The huge things must have been 20 meters tall and were completely unaffected by the vicious waters around them; no, they only had eyes for the jungle's greenery. This place was insane! I turned my attention to the goblin encampment. As much as I wished it would have been destroyed. I knew those sneaky gobos had magic on their side. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the wooden palisade was struggling to keep all the water out. The town beyond the palisade had been built on a slope. The few buildings at the bottom nearest the wooden palissade looked to have been badly flooded. I could see the tiny figures of goblins running to and fro, carrying boxes.

  ?

  I chuckled to myself, hoping that those who were camping in the blooming jet had drowned. I turned away from the palisade; I needed to move on. I made my way across the treetops, marveling at the strange critters that swam beneath me. I saw a whole pack of man-sized otter-like critters wielding curved blades made from a glowing blue metal that reminded me of the ice lance. They had cornered a huge bus-sized lizard that spewed huge globs of acidic bile. I was tempted to stop to see if I could get some cores, but when one large member of these otter folk drew his blade, I knew this was not a fight I could win. As soon as it left its sheath, I was hit by the scent of ozone. The pressure dropped, it felt as though a storm would erupt any minute, and I guess it kinda did. One second, he was standing there; the next, lightning flashed, and the lizard had been beheaded. In the otter's other hand was the lizard's core. I stared for a moment in shock. This system shit was so unfair. Literally everything was so much more deadly than I! Well, unless I gave in to my rage skill, but that didn’t count. I left the scene with a new fire in my gut. I was going to get stronger, and that meant I needed more cores!

  ?

  As I made my way through the canopy and I neared the ruin, the ground became a bit drier, and by drier, I meant instead of a raging river, it was a mire. I kept traveling through the canopy, but soon began to see creatures stuck in the mud below. The first one I saw was a creature that might have once been beautiful. It had three long tails covered in iridescent scales and a fox-like body as big as a lion. It might have once been an intimidating creature, but seeing it stuck in the mud panting as it trudged through the sludge and breathing out small jets of flame, I felt some pity. However, this was an opportunity I would not miss.

  ?

  “Sorry, little dude,” I said as I leapt down on the creature's back. Before it could muster whatever strength it had left, I wrapped my tail around his neck and jumped back into the canopy. The force of my jump led to a quick snap, and that majestic creature collapsed. I felt a twinge of guilt, but when life gives you lemons and all that. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could pull the creature out of the mud by its tail, and I began the brutal task of extracting the monster's core.

  ?

  You have gained a Greater Draco-fox core. Consume? [Y/N]

  ?

  I selected 'yes,' and the core dissolved. I tried my best not to revel in the warm sensation. This style of getting cores didn’t feel right. But I knew that in life, you do what you need to survive. That's why, when I came across a herd of shovel-nosed pig-mole-looking things making their way through the mud in the direction I was headed, I used my tried-and-tested tactic of snagging them up one after another with my tail. It was scary how easy it was, especially with my stealth skill. The mud was a good anchor, and once I’d slipped my tail around their neck, the force of me pulling them into the tree tops was enough to end their lives.

  ?

  By the time I got to the site of ruins, I had thinned that herd of thirty-something individuals by twelve. Most were the elder members who were slow and at the back, but I took any opportunity I could. Whenever any of them came too close to a low-hanging branch, I snagged them. I had just gotten my twelfth when I noticed I had arrived. Around me, the remains of ancient walls made from weirdly rounded bricks dotted the landscape. I was staring at the strange images carved into the moss-covered walls. Strange reliefs of what I could only describe as lizard people or snake people. It could have been any creature, though, with how old and weathered it all was. One thing that was not ambiguous was what they were riding on. These lizard peeps had dinosaurs! Now, one of my favourite things in the universe is dinosaurs, and I kinda had an obsession. So seeing these people riding on triceratops and parasaurolophus, I began the dangerous act of hoping. I was hoping that I would find some T. rex egg and bond to it all Jurassic World style, then I could rule this jungle with my rex mount.

  ?

  My thoughts were quickly interrupted. The herd began to bellow in panic as they neared the colossal structure. They fell over each other, collapsing into the mud, then started to run back towards me. I lay flat on my branch, trusting in my skill. For a second, I thought they’d discovered my little assassinations. But no—they ran straight under my tree, panic in their eyes. I looked at the huge, strange castle-like structure. That’s when I felt it: a molasses-like aura of pure terror trying to swallow me whole. It took all I had not to turn around and run. Still, I was certain a place with an aura like that was bound to be hiding something good. You wouldn’t try to scare people away unless you had something to protect. Something like a dinosaur cloning facility. I know that was wishful thinking, but a man can hope!

  ?

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