Theo tried to open his eyes, but his sight are blurry. Blood is constantly dripping from his face. His hands are trying to reach something imaginary, something that doesn't exist, hope.

  'I... can't breathe'

  He screamed inside as a monster bites his neck. It's kind of weird, as the monster biting him is just a head attached to a spine without a body, yet it's wiggling and crawling like a worm.

  Theo grabbed a nearby stone and bashed it to the head until it put a crater in its face. It opens its skull and destroys its brain, finally killing it. But it's not the end.

  Theo immediately stood up and the light from the unknown revealed several bodiless heads crawling toward him and chanting the same thing over and over. His right leg is wounded from deep bites.

  "Goblin, goblin, goblin, goblin, goblin..."

  However, the goblins chasing Theo were no match for his speed. He could easily defeat them, but the real problem was the creature lurking in the shadows - a monster that relentlessly pursued him.

  The creature resembled a rat, but it was the size of a human, with elongated limbs and four sharp cws on each. Its bck, spiky fur gave it the appearance of a wolf. Known as Rake, the monster was a nocturnal predator.

  Rake moved at incredible speed, catching Theo off guard. Despite his attempt to defend himself, the monster swiftly bit his arm. Because goblins were naturally small, Theo was light enough for Rake to easily drag and carry him like a toy.

  "Just die already!"

  Theo smashes the stone to the head of the beast but it doesn't faze. It continue chewing his arm off so that he could feel the clicking sound of his bones. Then the monster starts to intensify the sensation by waving him off ground.

  His arm is slowly tearing away by how much force and speed the Rake is wagging him. The monster accidentally hurled Theo away to a nearby cliff, the goblin falls to a twenty-meter-deep pit, and his body rolls inflicting several cuts and bruises all over.

  He nded on the ground and a loud sound of 'Thump!' vibrates the ground. He felt his right arm dislocated.

  Unfortunately, the pit was crawling with monsters, although not as many as the upper grounds. In Theo's case, he was surrounded by three goblins who were staring at him intently.

  Although they were of simir origin, there was something different about them. Their faces were grotesquely unproportioned. One goblin had three mouths, another had seven eyes scattered across its body, and the third had no face at all.

  "Goblin, goblin, goblin, goblin, goblin..."

  They kept chanting. When Theo heard this, a creepy sensation walks through his spine.

  'I am really going to die...'

  Theo conceded defeat in his own mind.

  To the creatures, it appeared as though they were staring at a lifeless body, riddled with wounds. But Theo knew better. He could tell by the way they chanted that they knew he was still alive. When a body was dead, the goblins would refer to it as a "corpse" and identify the species when it was alive. These were simple patterns that Theo had learned over the days he had encountered them.

  Suddenly, one of the goblins drew a dull sword and pointed it menacingly at Theo. But in a split second, Theo dodged the attack, disarmed the goblin, and swiftly killed it. Although his body was not as strong as it used to be, due to his reincarnation as a goblin, Theo's experience and skills as an adventurer remained unchanged.

  'I am not done, I am going to escape this pce no matter what'

  Staring at the remaining monsters he needed to kill, Theo muttered to himself before fixing his dislocated arm, which made a satisfying clicking sound.

  After defeating the creatures, Theo colpsed onto a nearby stone and felt pain coursing through his body. It was as if the pain was killing him from the inside out. However, Theo knew he would eventually get used to it, as it happened every time he fought.

  As he gazed at the decapitated corpses of the goblins, Theo wondered how much longer he would remain trapped in this hell hole. He couldn't remember how long he had been there, facing different creatures with simir behaviour each time.

  The creatures that wanted him dead could speak and chant, and they had another head inside their mouth that resembled a distorted, overweight human. Just the thought of their appearance made Theo shiver. No matter how many times he fought against them, he could never get used to their faces.

  He let out a sigh and began butchering the corpses of the goblins with his sword.

  Upon inspecting one of the bodies, he realized that the arms were still fresh and could be eaten. Food was scarce in this pce, and he was forced to eat whatever he had killed, even if it meant resorting to cannibalism. He had no other option, as every living creature and pnt seemed to be infected with sickness. Some creatures were filled with a yellowish gel that smelled like pus and was crawling with maggots.

  Fresh corpses are rare, and even the freshly killed ones are already rotten inside. Without a source of fire, he is destined to eat this thing raw. He starts tearing the tissues and muscles with his teeth, chewing the skin as hard as he could until nothing is left but bones. Sometimes, he accidentally eats live worms in the process, but it doesn't matter as long as he can fill his belly. After finishing, he brushes his hands on his clothes to clean the excess blood.

  Despite his full stomach, he still can't find the exit out of this pce and keeps discovering new areas. He hopes that someday, he'll finally see the sky.

  Today is his lucky day as he found a small hole in the wall. He identified it as a temporary home, created by a Wormer, a type of worm as big as an elephant's trunk. He pns to make it his new base and enters the hole, killing the giant worm inside and pushing it away from his new home.

  Unfortunately, the worm he killed was already infected. When he plunged his sword into its skin, yellow pus immediately flooded his floor, rendering the worm inedible.

  Despite the difficulty of learning magic, Theo believes that it's necessary to improve his chances of survival. He knows that he has been getting toyed with by the creatures in this pce and it's pitiful to watch. He also remembers his former master, Niel, and the thought of her makes Theo want to puke. But he puts those thoughts aside and focuses on his training.

  Closing his eyes and clearing his mind, Theo begins to practice magic from the very fundamentals. He starts by trying to feel the 'flow of mana'.

  'Take a deep breath and focus on my body... feel the energy coursing through my veins... imagine it as a bright light... then use that light to draw the sigils... and, umm... let me see... make the visualization more vivid, as if it's real... feel the symbols glowing and burning intensely... and then...'

  He attempted to invoke a skill called [Fireball], which was the very first spell that he learned from his master. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make the sigils vivid enough to manifest into reality. Every time he attempted it, memories of Niel would flood his mind and distract him.

  As he was trying to focus, he suddenly felt a spark in his hands. Sensing the potential danger, he immediately cancelled his invocation.

  'A 'spark'? I could still remember how to use magic but... this body can't handle the 'flow'. At this rate, using any kind of magic will make my blood vessels burst'.

  He gave up for today and starts stuffing stones at the entrance of the hole to prevent intruders and then sleep.

  The next day, he set out to explore the area once again. He encountered a grotesque creature, with coiled flesh that looked like stones and stactites. At first, he thought it was a snake, but as he drew closer, he realized it was the neck of a hideous woman. The skin on her face had melted away, giving her a skull-like appearance. Theo hesitated but then decided to attack. He sliced through the neck, expecting it to be fatal, but instead, it only made her more mobile as she was freed from the rocks.

  Later on, he came across a magnificent creature, a Shroom Felty, a flying wyvern that glowed with blue luminescence. It lived in a nest filled with glowing blue mushrooms. Despite its beauty, Theo knew it was infected and he had to keep his distance.

  The passing of days blurs into one another, as the never-ending darkness of the underground begins to take its toll on Theo. The glowing stones offer a constant source of light, but without any variation, he's lost all sense of time. As a goblin, he can see in the dark, but it only adds to the monotony.

  His days follow the same pattern: hunt, nearly die, eat corpses, and search for a pce to sleep. It's a vicious cycle that's slowly driving him insane, though he's keenly aware of the changes in his mental state.

  One moment, he's calmly searching for food, and the next, he's smming his head against the cold, rough wall. He mutters to himself, the sound of his own voice...

  "Rock, rock..."

  [Location: Unknown]

  [Sanity: 70%]