System: King Of Monsters - Chapter 9
A while ago, when they had continued exploring the forest, Marcus and his group of lizard followers caught a distinguishable scent of something in the air. Marcus, thinking that it could be a chance to find another prey, then started leading his group towards the scent’s origin.
The more Marcus and his group followed the trace, the more the scent becomes stronger and stronger. Pungent smell that could beat his body odor when he used to sacrifice his bath for his college projects. And sourness that could beat his classmate’s year of unshaved armpits.
The horrors of an enhanced sense of smell.
But Marcus doesn’t mind them much. What’s a bad smell for a chance of getting potential points? With his current body, he had even done something unsanitary that he doesn’t want to talk about.
As for what it was. He could only say that sometimes, in life, there are just some things that you couldn’t control no matter what… Things that you could only name as, calls of nature.
He had already thrown away his shame together with the majority of his common sense.
Marcus had already accepted that his life wouldn’t return to the way it was before. And right now, he should do what he has to do. There was a proverb that says ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’.
After following the trace for a bit of time, it had then led Marcus and his group into the high-angled upward slope that they could see in front.
Under the large roots of a tree found on the slope, Marcus saw the opening of a natural cave. The strong smell seems to be coming from inside it.
Cave. If Marcus were to decide where he would like his base to be, then the cave would be one of the best ones.
But it wasn’t the thing he wanted the most. Since Marcus’s current top pick for a base is an abandoned castle and the like.
Some would say that he was reaching for the moon, but Marcus was just the kind of person who wouldn’t hold anything back when asked to make a wish. If he were the main character of a story, then he would certainly ask the author to give him the most disgusting kind of plot armors without caring for the backlash the author would receive.
Looking at the cave, Marcus felt some kind of nostalgia. Seeing such a cave in a forest, it made him remember about the old RPG that he played long ago.
‘There wouldn’t be undead here won’t they?’
Considering that he is currently a lizard, seeing the undead race wouldn’t surprise him anymore. Marcus just thought about what kind of countermeasures he had if such creatures would show up. Since undead are known to be just bones and dead meat all along. And even if somehow, he managed to defeat such undead, can he even eat their rotten flesh?
As Marcus was pondering about certain situations, he suddenly felt his followers become alerted. Trying to find out what’s wrong, Marcus could hear some kind of activity inside the cave.
“Gigi!” “Gugugu…” “Guragura!”
!?
‘Those voices! Are there people here?!
Startled, Marcus’s alertness shot up to the maximum. Against such a possibility, Marcus then immediately ordered the group, “We! Hide!”
Scrambling for some big stones and roots, Marcus then hid together with his followers.
If those voices really came from human beings, then Marcus and the group should stay alert and cautious. Marcus knows how dangerous humans can be since he used to be one himself. And right now, he isn’t so naive as to think that the humans in this world would be very welcoming to him just due to the unknown fact that he used to be one in his past life.
‘Are they this world’s humans?’
Still, from the way they talk. It doesn’t seem like they are using an advanced language. With his past world’s foreign languages as a base, Marcus could tell that even if he couldn’t understand Chinese and Japanese before, such languages still followed some kind of advanced grammar system.
The language being used by the cave’s inhabitants, on the other hand, sounded like just a bunch of gibberish. Like old ladies trying to baby talk.
It sounded like caveman language…
And considering that what’s in front of Marcus right now, is in fact a cave. And connecting it to the other fact that his current body is even resembling the dinosaurs… The gears on Marcus’s mind began to work faster than usual, finally arriving on some kind of theory.
‘Am I in the prehistoric age?!’
But as Marcus shouted such conspiracy in his mind, he could then hear the footsteps of the supposed caveman, slowly coming out of their cave.
‘But… the donkey earlier…’
Confused, Marcus then stopped trying to guess further and then decided to just find out everything by himself. With a serious expression, he then began waiting for the people inside to show themselves.
Ancestors or whatnot, he just needed to see them for himself. He could already hear their footsteps becoming closer and closer.
And then, they appeared!
4 figures showed up, but it wasn’t the ape-like people that he had predicted at first.
Wearing a bunch of dirty rags and holding wooden clubs as weapons, what appeared are a bunch of ugly green-skinned humanoids!
“Gugigi” “Gagu!” “Gagaga!”
And from Marcus’s memory, there was only one kind of creature that resembles such kind of description.
It was the famous grunt-type fictional creatures in his world.
Goblins!
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[Stage Completion] 21.7%
[Stage:] 1
[Name:] N/A
———-
Remarks:
Gugaguga, goblin.
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Wooden clubs and a few clothes. They are creatures that could be said to be more above in intellect compared to Marcus’s race. And right now, Marcus wanted to find out about their other specific statistics.
Their strength, speed, and coordination… But how could he find out about them?
Seeing the first bunch of creatures with a semblance of the human intellect, Marcus is right now very curious. How many potential points could he gain if they killed them?
Due to their recent continuous success, Marcus’s confidence could be said to be more than usual. He believes that if he were together with his followers then they could be considered as a capable group.
Still, he won’t just go ahead and attack them face to face immediately. Currently, the group of goblins doesn’t realize that they are being watched. And for Marcus to throw away that advantage would be far too reckless of him.
Goblins. Seeing their awkward stature and their body traits, Marcus could see that their skin lacked defensive capabilities. They don’t have a thick hide and don’t have any scales to protect themselves. If he were to use his sharp jaws, he could imagine himself biting off a huge chunk of their flesh at once.
Currently, the only armor these goblins have could be said to be the dirty rags they are wearing. Looking at the rags, it was obvious that they seem to treat that part as very important. So, it must be of course protecting their most vulnerable part.
If Marcus wants to deal the most damage in one attack, then he should attack that part. Still, even though Marcus had become a monster and had mostly accepted his fate to live like one, he still doesn’t have enough mental fortitude to use his jaws on those thing’s genitals.
Right now, the most he could concede himself doing is probably just use his claws to rip their balls off.
Marcus then shifted his sight on his followers. Marcus could feel a very strong kind of emotion in their eyes. And in fact, right now, Marcus too are also feeling them right now.
Marcus returned his gaze towards the Goblins, as he then tried to immerse himself in the feeling. Drool formed in his mouth and his body heating up in excitement.
There exist in front, a creature that could pose a certain danger towards their lives. But the idea of Marcus and his follower’s claws and jaws ripping through their enemy’s flesh, and drowning in their blood seems to excite him.
It was the innate battle instinct and thirst for blood that his current inhuman body has.
Marcus looked at the goblins with desire, as he then decided in his mind,
‘We will slay them!’