I made my way down from my tree and towards the corpse of the weird beast. I knew it was dead, but I couldn’t help but imagine those grasping tentacles bursting from its remains and dissolving me alive. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, I told myself as I made my way over to the beast's remains. The good thing about it being split in two was that its core wasn’t too hard to find; there was a deep, dark purple gem about as big as my head. How the hell was I supposed to swallow this thing?! Thankfully, the system had an answer.

  You have obtained a Void Mauler Core. Would you like to consume [Y/N]?

  I chose yes and watched as the huge core dissolved into pink light and was absorbed into me. I didn’t feel much different, but there was this feeling of satisfaction as it absorbed. I could feel that at any time, I could bring up the option to turn it into EP. I was certain it would be worth a lot of EP, but I had a feeling it would make whatever ability I got next amazing. It would be a shame to waste it. I left the corpse and began my search for all the other goblin bodies. My search wasn’t as fruitful as I thought it would be, as most of the goblins were nothing but puddles, cores included. Some of the other goblins I couldn’t find. I reckon they may have been tossed into the trees by the void mauler. I did find eight in total, and extracting their cores, while gruesome, was surprisingly easy. I had to tell myself that I was cutting up a bit of meat, not the corpse of a sentient being.

  It took me a good while before I discovered a high goblin mage. To my surprise, I found that he was still alive —barely, but alive nonetheless. He was on the floor with his legs missing, crawling towards his staff. He noticed me and started barking out something in their strange language. I really wish the system would let me understand what they were saying. I walked up to him warily. He might not have his staff, but he could still fire those things from his hand. Still, I decided it would be best not to let him get hold of the staff, having seen what he was capable of. I picked up the pace, getting to his staff first. I picked it up and he started shouting at me more aggressively, his face contorted in rage. He started to raise his hand, the centre of his palm opening up as a spike began to make its way out. Not quite sure what to do, I improvised and slammed the staff down on his head with all the force I could muster. There was a sickening crunch as his head burst like an overripe tomato.

  The way his head so easily crumpled made my stomach lurch. Unfortunately, the staff snapped in half from the impact. I was really surprised when the mage was using it. He was defending against attacks from a void mauler, but I swung it, and it snapped. I tossed the broken staff away and began the gruesome task of digging out the monster core. It didn’t take long to pull the core out, but that's when I noticed something else. Beside his core was a small black glass-like sphere. I picked it up and it was hot to the touch, almost unbearably so. I tried focusing on it, willing the system to give me more information.

  Congratulations! You have discovered an unrefined mana sphere. Would you like to absorb the mana within? [Y/N]

  I was waiting for the system to provide more information, but it didn’t seem to. I knew from video games that mana normally meant magic, and seeing that the world now ran off videogame logic, I reckoned this was what that high goblin used to power his spells. From what I’d seen, magic was a huge equaliser. I was pretty certain that those high goblins were not actually stronger than me. But with magic items and spells, I’d seen what they were capable of, and it was terrifying. I needed that level of power to exact my revenge on the spear-wielding bastard who had left me for dead. I selected yes and immediately regretted it.

  I thought I knew pain, but this, this was true pain. My very soul burned as this strange foreign energy flowed through my veins. I collapsed to the floor, writhing in agony. It was as though someone was pouring molten magma through every cell of my body. I needed to do something, or this was going to rip me apart. I tried to focus on the energy, tried to slow its ravaging course. At first, the pain made it almost impossible to grasp, but through sheer stubbornness and determination, I managed to get a hold of the energy. It was like trying to hold onto an electric eel, only that electricity was magma being poured into my nervous system. Still, I managed to slow it down. Second by second, I managed to grasp this energy, pulling it towards my core. Instinct guided me after I had forced all that chaotic energy around my core.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Initially, I tried to make it into a black sphere like that I’d seen in the high goblin, but that wasn’t working out for me. The energy didn’t want to stay contained; it wanted to erupt. That’s when I had an idea. I gathered as much of the energy as I could, shaping it into a larger sphere now with a volcano dominating the centre. Every time the energy erupted, it would wash down over the dome and be sucked back up into the volcano's base. It was one never-ending cycle of controlled chaos. The pain began to recede as the volcanic sphere within me began to pull all the remaining energy from within my body.

  As all the energy was absorbed into the volcano, my body felt better than before. My body felt lighter, and I had gained a new, deeper understanding of the world around me. The jungle felt more alive now; it felt like it had been hiding a secret from me, and only now was I a part of it. I noticed more: the colours were more vivid, and I saw small details about the plants and critters around me. The jungle was full of life I hadn’t noticed before, but there were plenty of small animals and strange birds all around. I marvelled at my newfound enhanced senses.

  That’s when I noticed there were notifications in the corner of my vision. I willed them up in front of me as I leapt away from the high goblin's corpse and back into the relative safety of the canopy.

  Congratulations! You have met the conditions to unlock the Magic Subsystem.

  You now have a mana nexus. This is the first step in the study of magic.

  Mana Nexus- level 1

  Mana pool 10/10

  Mana regeneration: two mana per second (2MPS)

  The system will offer you one free spell after which new spells can only be gained from spellbooks or in-depth study of magic.

  Free Spell:-

  Bestial Empowerment

  While active, you can channel mana through your body, causing you to grow claws and enhanced physical stats. This costs three mana per second (3MPS)

  I grinned as I sat in another exploding pinecone tree. The free spell was great, but more importantly, I could learn magic! I didn’t know how I was going to get a spellbook or where to even start with studying magic, but it was a step in the right direction. This was the start of me getting my feet back under me.

  I started making my way across the canopy. I decided to put some distance between me and the bodies and stay in the treetops, which offered good cover, especially when combined with my refractive scales. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I felt I needed to find some base. Somewhere relatively safe that I could hunt from and grow my power.

  I made my way through the canopy, climbing to the top of a huge tree with bright orange leaves with purple striations. It was oddly the most normal tree I’d climbed in this forest; most of the others I had to make my way through either produced tons of acid, had some trap feature or were carnivorous. I was glad that the process that created my mana nexus had sharpened my sense of what had once been a daunting place and was now my playground. I got really cocky with it and started pushing my body parkouring my way up that huge tree, until I looked out over the forest, and my heart dropped.

  In the distance in front of me was a huge towering mountain, and beyond it was the glistening blue of the ocean. When I looked behind me, I saw the beach where I had woken up. It was so far away I couldn’t believe how far I’d come. I noticed two things —one of which made my heart drop. The first was the ruins of a huge castle-like structure, something definitely not from Earth, judging by its weird architecture. But the second thing I saw was much more concerning. In the opposite direction to the castle ruins was a small town surrounded by a huge wooden palisade. With my improved eyesight, I saw that the town was crawling with goblins, hundreds of goblins with the occasional High goblin walking amongst them. This was going to be a lot harder than I realised.