In a quiet night, over the wooden houses on the edge of the capital of Grimspire Empire, a cold wind moved through the bustling streets of the capital. In the very dark night, figures slipped across rooftops, fast and silent, moving with the flow of the wind, easily blending with the dark, like ghosts under the moonlight.
Leading the group was a man dressed in black. His long hair was tied back in a ponytail, and his face was hidden behind a silver mask. At his side, a katana with a red and black pattern rested quietly.
Ronin Aster, the silver-grade assassin of the Phantom Legend—an assassin group feared for their kills all over the world—felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, but his calm eyes showed the years of experience he had in assassination.
Up ahead, under a river bridge, the prince of the Grimspire Empire was waiting. He stood with four guards cloaked in black, their auras distant and cold. The prince looked calm, waiting for someone in the dark night, at a serene place, far from the prying eyes.
Ronin gave the signal. "Be ready," he whispered, making hand signs for his subordinates upon locking the target.
His eyes landed on the prince and his four guards. "What is this nagging feeling inside me?" he muttered, but he pushed the feeling away with the thought that the mission had to proceed.
As they began surrounding the target, the prince turned and looked straight at Ronin's location. "I've been waiting for you," he said. "You took your time."
Ronin's heart skipped a beat, looking at the hue of the prince's eyes, gleaming with strange power. A question rose in Ronin's heart: How did the prince know he was here? His body tensed, but since he was exposed, he had to dispose of the prince as soon as possible.
With that in his head, he rushed to attack, but before he could move, he heard his comrades' screams.
"Who!"
"Ahhh!!!"
Ronin froze, realizing that this was a trap, a well-planned trap. However, just as he was contemplating whether to escape or finish his task, the guards took off their black cloaks—Seeing their faces, Ronin spoke, "You are!"
His eyes widened in shock as he saw the elders from the Legacy School, or as he could say, the Golden-level assassins of Phantom Legend, the very people who had trained Ronin.
"Why?" Ronin asked, feeling a deep emotion, yet the elders remained silent, but the prince spoke in calm demeanor. "Your sacrifice will only hasten our plan."
The elders attacked at the prince's signal. Ronin fought hard and even managed to injure one of the elders, who felt like lifeless monsters rather than the elders he once knew, but he was soon outnumbered and badly hurt.
As his life slipped away, he was confused and furious about the betrayal. Darkness claimed him, realizing that the chapter of Ronin Aster had ended once and forever.
...
Inside the dense forest, far from the towering walls of the Grimspire Empire, a dark cave stretched deep beneath the earth. The air was cool but raw, filled with the earthy scent of damp stone and moss.
In the dimness, a pair of large eyes blinked open, wide and confused. The baby's skin was a muted green, smooth and completely hairless. Stretching his tiny limbs, he took in his strange surroundings.
"Where am I?" the small goblin thought, his mind hazy and unsettled.
Above him was the jagged ceiling of the cave, cold hard stone looming above. The smell was unpleasant—a mix of damp earth and something faintly metallic—but oddly, it didn't turn him away. Somehow, it felt like this was where he was meant to be.
This was Ronin, reborn as a goblin, looking curiously at the stone ceiling in a dark cave. "I can see clearly but there is no light here?"
"Why am I here?"
As the confusion took over him, he heard a crunching sound to his right. Turning his head, while he was still struggling to move his body, Ronin saw tiny baby goblins munching on bugs crawling all over the damp cave.
In front of his eyes was a baby goblin, leisurely eating the bugs like they were candy. This made Ronin want to throw up but then his hunger took over.
"What is happening?" He turned his gaze to see that more than a dozen newborn goblin kids were busy eating their meal—the squirming white worms.
Ronin should have felt like throwing up, but instead, his hunger took over his mind. He somehow managed to sit, only to realize that he felt tiny, too tiny—just like a baby goblin.
It dawned on him that he wasn't Ronin Aster anymore. Instinctively, his hands moved toward his face, and seeing his tiny green hands only confirmed his thoughts.
"Am I a goblin now? A goblin of all?" This was an eye-opener, but the shock didn't last long as his hunger only grew with time.
He felt something crawl over his feet, tiny hands moved, picking the white larvae that wiggled in his hands.
"I have to eat this!" He muttered, but before his mind could think further, his instincts brought his hands closer to his mouth.
"Delicious..." Taking just one bite, his eyes brighten. Ronin munched the worm in his mouth and gulped.
Just as he was savoring the taste, something flickered in the dark cave. In front of his eyes was a screen, with a message that only he could see.
Ronin's hand trembled as he picked up a tiny wriggling bug from the damp ground. Without hesitation, he brought it close and swallowed it whole.
A glowing screen appeared before his eyes:
SACRIFICE REGISTERED: WORM (LARVAE)
SKILL ACQUIRED: CRAWL
the voice continued, and Ronin flexed his tiny legs, surprised to feel movement where before there had been nothing. Almost immediately, a small bar appeared overlaid in his vision.
EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 2% [100%]
Confused, Ronin blinked and looked down at his tiny body. Tentatively, he started to crawl, moving clumsily from one spot to another. The other newborn goblins stared, their wide eyes filled with amazement, tries to mimic him, crawling from their place but failed imitation attempts.
One by one, Ronin devoured the larvae wriggling across the cave floor. With each swallow, the evolution bar slowly filled—1% for the first few bugs, then dropping gradually to 0.75%.
Since bugs were all that the cave held, and all were of the same type, Ronin's skill gains plateaued. He realized how the sacrificial system works. Means to acquire a new skill, he has to sacrifice something other than the worms.
His eyes wandered all over the cave, a dark thought crossed his mind—a thought of cannibalism, about sacrificing fellow goblins—but he quickly shook his head, rationality taking over the monstrous thoughts.
"I'm not a monster. How can I even think of this." He let go of dark idea, of eating the other Goblin, which might be possible as a goblin, however he isn't just any goblin, but a human soul inside a Goblin shell.
Hours passed. Ronin crawled over damp moss, shuffled on the cold stone floor, and even managed to cling and scuttle along the cave ceiling. A tiny baby goblin crawl like a bug all over the cave while his brethren could only crawl few inches at this moment.
He paused to check the evolution bar again. Around thirty eight sacrificed bugs, yet progress slowed to 0.20%, making the total progress to and the cave had run out of food.
Fatigue crept into Ronin's tiny limbs. A faint system message blinked gently in his vision:
MANA DEPLETION DEDUCTED
Despite the weakness, his goblin body shrugged off the effect, feeling only the urge to close his eyes. Ronin succumbed to the darkness, drifting into his first sleep as a monster—a goblin.
This night was the beginning of a new life. A life that would change everything he thought he knew...