Chương 6: Chapter 5: A Little Bit of Experimentation

Gideon re-read everything again, then stared at the Spell list, feeling quite unimpressed.

"Rock flicking. Rock scraping. Rock tapping. And last but not least, the all-powerful dirt scooting," he said.

"Truly, I am become terror, shaker of pebbles." He closed his eyes and took a breath, forcing the irritation down. He took nine more slow breaths before opening his eyes again. Once the initial frustration faded, he made himself think instead of sulk. All four Spells were Tier 1. Level 1. That had to mean something. If the System bothered calling them Tier 1, then there was probably a Tier 2. Maybe more. And if they had levels, then that probably meant they could improve.

He didn't know whether that happened through use, training, experience, or some other half-hidden rule the System hadn't bothered explaining, but the implication was still there. These Spells might become useful eventually. Unfortunately for him, eventually didn't help him much right now. Right now, he was alone, small, weak, and standing in a cave with no idea what waited outside.

Right now, the only real offensive option the System had given him was throwing a rock slightly harder than normal, which wasn't exactly the world-shaking power fantasy he would've preferred. Pebble Toss was still the best of the list by far. A pebble to the eye could do real damage. A rock to the head might buy a second, and a second could be the difference between running and dying. That mattered. It wasn't impressive, but it was something. Stone Chip was less immediately useful, though not worthless.

If it worked the way the description implied, he could use it to make sharp flakes from stone. Scrapers. Crude cutting edges. Maybe even little caltrops if he had time to sit around preparing them like the world's most pathetic goblin craftsman. Useful, eventually. Maybe even important. Stone Tap sounded almost insulting at first. A tapping noise from stone. Great. Terrifying. Predators everywhere would surely tremble before his ability to annoy a wall. Still, a sound on command could be bait. Misdirection.

A way to pull attention away from where he actually was, assuming anything out there was stupid enough to chase a noise. The rest of it, though, the cracks, hollows, and weak points, was harder to judge. It sounded useful in the abstract. If he were trying to break through a wall, explore a cave system, or figure out where stone was weakest, then maybe it'd matter. Grain Shift had the same problem. Shifting loose dirt or the grain of stone might be useful under the right circumstances.

He could imagine covering tracks, disturbing a scent trail, loosening soil for a trap, maybe even weakening stone if he ever had a reason to spend time carefully working at it. It was the sort of Spell that sounded clever once he had shelter, time, tools, and a plan. At the moment, he had none of those things. So yes, maybe the Spells had potential.

Maybe Tier 2 would turn Pebble Toss into something lethal, Stone Chip into real shaping, Stone Tap into some kind of crude sonar, and Grain Shift into actual terrain control. Maybe one day he'd look back and laugh at himself for dismissing them. But that day wasn't today. Today, he had weak utility magic, one attack that could be optimistically described as mediocre, and the growing suspicion that the System had handed him a survival kit made almost entirely of maybes.

He let his thoughts settle, then forced himself to focus. He needed to work with what he had, not what he hoped for. His gaze slid to Miscast again. Miscast: Your Spells sometimes seem to be cast incorrectly. Spells cost slightly more Mana to cast."' Slightly'," he muttered.

"That smells like bullshit already." He sighed and rolled his shoulders once. Complaining wouldn't give him the data and numbers he needed. Testing would. He decided that he didn't want to drain his Mana to zero on his first day in a new world. He had no idea what "depleted" felt like, no idea if it would leave him shaky, sick, or useless. So he planned it out the only way he knew how. Start with the cheap Spells first. The five-cost ones. See what "slightly more" actually meant, and how consistent it was.

If the penalty was a percentage, he would see it immediately. If it was random, he would see that too. Once he had the math, he could decide how and when it was safe to test the ten-cost Spells. He crouched near the wall where the stone was rough and flaking, then picked a spot at chest height." Stone Chip," he said, because his brain wanted magic to work like a game. Nothing happened.

"Right," he muttered.

"Seems like it's not verbal." He thought back to his time on Earth, to all the fantasy novels and video games and movies. There, whenever Mana was described, it was as an internal source of energy that had to be circulated through the body. Gideon wasn't a fool. He knew these were fictional works from a world without magic, but he didn't have anything else to go on, and this was better than blindly grasping at straws.

He took another deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused inward, stubbornly repeating the process until he felt it. There was a faint swirling presence behind his navel, pulsing softly. If he hadn't been specifically searching for something like this, he would have never noticed it. This must be the Mana. It felt alive, felt real, felt like a natural part of his body. Gideon shook his head in awe, grinning to himself at the fact that the movies and books from Earth had guided him to this.

He wondered how much of this world and this System operated under similar logic. If it was a lot, he could maybe take advantage of that. He shook his head to break his train of thought, and refocused on the swirling energy within him. He mentally tried to move it, and the first attempt slipped away like water. He kept at it until he could guide a thin stream up through his chest, down his arm, and into his fingertips. Stone Chip, he told himself, and pushed. The first attempt fizzled. The second failed.

He kept trying over and over again, until finally on the eighth try, a flake of stone snapped loose into his palm, coin-sized and sharp. He checked his status immediately as he idly thumbed the sharp edges on the stone in his hand. He had done it. He had cast magic. Real, actual magic. Gideon felt his heart racing as he pulled up his Status page and checked his Mana. Mana: 33/40 (+2/10 mins) He stared at the number for a second, then did the math in his head.

"That cost seven," he said quietly.

"Not five." He took a breath and successfully kept his annoyance on a leash. Seven meant an extra two Mana on a five-cost Spell, which was not nothing. Forty percent higher cost, if his math was right. That seemed excessive, but Gideon couldn't do anything about it right now. Now, it was time for him to test for the Perks' consistency. He moved to the center of the cave and picked a patch of stone floor about ten feet away.

Stone Tap, he thought, and pushed his Mana outward with the mental image of a soft tapping sound coming from the stone in his head. First try, nothing. Second, nothing again. He gritted his teeth and kept going. Perseverance would win the day, and he had nothing better to do at the moment. On the fifth try, a faint tok-tok-tok echoed from the spot he focused on. His ears snapped to it instantly, and he realized he could pinpoint the sound with ridiculous precision.

It was not just better hearing making the sound louder. It was clearer, more directional. Like the world had turned the audio quality way up. His hands went to his ears.

"Guess there are some benefits to being a goblin. Not that better hearing makes up for it…" He checked his Mana again. Mana: 26/40 (+2/10 mins)"Seven again," he said.

"So, the penalty seems consistent at the very least." He thought about it again. A forty percent modifier on his Spell costs was a lot. Like, a truly excessive and unfair amount. But, it would also be exactly the kind of petty cruelty the System seemed to enjoy throwing his way so far. He didn't have proof yet, but he had a working hypothesis, and that was good enough to plan around. He paused before continuing, thinking about his next steps.

He could keep testing immediately and run his pool down into the ground, or he could do the smart thing and wait for his Mana to recover before touching the bigger Spells. He chose smart, and decided to wait for his Mana to regenerate back to 30 before continuing. Gideon quickly did the math in his head. His regen right now was a measly two Mana per ten minutes, which meant one Mana every five. That was twenty minutes of waiting. He looked around at the cave and shrugged. Not like he was planning to leave just yet.

But, he also flatly refused to spend twenty minutes sitting on his ass and staring at the number crawl upward. So, instead, he moved. He paced the cave again, but this time he listened to it the way his new ears demanded. The faint scrape of his nails when he shifted his grip on the dagger. A slow drip somewhere deeper in the cave that he had not noticed earlier. Wind outside moving through leaves in layered waves. Even his own breathing sounded different, as if his mouth and throat were shaped a little wider now.

He drew and re-sheathed the dagger until it stopped feeling like he was doing it with someone else's hands. Then he practiced doing it while walking, while turning, while crouching, until the motions smoothed out and his breathing steadied. He also tested his body in quick bursts. Sprint starts, and controlled stops. A few silent steps, exaggerating the roll of his feet to see how quiet he could really get.

He held a crouch for a while and realized, with a grim little laugh, that it was far more natural for him than standing still. By the time his Mana ticked back up to thirty, he was beginning to feel less like a person wearing a goblin suit and more like he belonged in this new body of his. Mana: 30/40 (+2/10 mins)"Alright," he said softly.

"Time to test one of the ten-cost spells." Pebble Toss was the obvious choice. It had range, and it would give him a clear target to judge power and control. Grain Shift was more subtle, but he could test that after. He picked up a small pebble and rolled it between his fingers, then faced the far wall. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it." Pebble Toss," he said automatically. Nothing happened.

"Still not verbal," he muttered, annoyed at himself for forgetting so quickly more than anything. He was glad there was nobody around to see. He closed his eyes, found the Mana in his core again, slowly pushed it up through his arm, and focused on the spell description. Launch a rock at a high speed at a target. The first attempt fizzled. The second failed. The third did nothing. On the sixth, his hand buzzed, and the pebble shot forward and cracked against the far wall.

Gideon let out a whoop of joy at the success. That was far better than he had imagined. A thin, nearly translucent wisp of smoke curled from his fingertips. He shook his hand and it quickly dissipated. His skin tingled slightly, veins aching as if the Mana had scraped its way through channels that did not quite fit yet. He checked his Status. Mana: 17/40 (+2/10 mins)"Thirteen," he said.

"So, that's it. Thirty percent, not forty. I'll have to wait and see if it's truly consistent though." He groaned slightly, glaring up toward the sky, where he imagined the System watching him and laughing at his frustration. This sucked. Why should his Spells cost more than what was listed on his Status page? He took a deep breath again. That was quickly becoming a habit.

"I suppose I should be thankful it's fucking me out of a consistent amount of Mana?," he mused to himself.

"If it was a random extra cost each time I'd be so much more pissed than I am right now. I can at least plan around this, as shitty as it is." He sat back on his heels and let out another slow, steadying breath. He could test the last ten-cost spell now, drain himself nearly to zero, and find out what depletion felt like. He shuddered at the thought, deciding that was not something he wanted to feel. He doubted it would be particularly pleasant. He looked at his Mana regen again and did the math.

Sixty-five minutes if he wanted to get back to thirty Mana before testing the last Spell on his list. Gideon wasn't going to spend that long doing nothing. He'd use the downtime the same way he did the last time. Efficiently and with a purpose in mind. Testing. Training. Adapting to his new, shitty reality. He opened his Status page once more, and read through his Skills. Now was as good a time as any to begin testing them out. After a moment of thought, he decided to practice with his dagger some more first.

Gideon stood, rolled his shoulders, and stretched his arms high above his head. Then he took a breath, drew the dagger again and committed to it. He moved to the center of the cave, set his feet, and started practicing. Grips, angles, short thrusts, diagonal cuts. His form was somewhat clumsy at first, but not nearly as bad as he thought he'd be. He figured it was probably the Dagger Proficiency Skill at work. Still, he was using too much shoulder and not enough wrist.

But the weapon felt comfortable in a hand that wanted to dart and flick. His thoughts drifted back to the fantasy camps he had attended with Max as a kid, and how most of the instruction he had been given had been with staffs and spears. Long weapons with reach. Weapons that punished you for stepping in too close. He had liked those, and had taken to them naturally. A dagger was pretty much the polar opposite of that. It was up close and personal, and lived inside the danger a spear kept at bay.

He exhaled and rebuked his past self for not pushing through adversity and at least learning the basics of bladework. He began moving again, slowly, and forced himself to adapt the drills he knew anyway, because it was the only foundation he had. Footwork came first. Stances were second. He shortened his steps, and tightened the angles. His body's natural instinct for quick, darting movements actually helped him with this.

Instead of wide sweeps, he practiced quick entries and exits, treating the dagger like a point weapon instead of a slashing one. He started by thinking about what he knew about the spear. The instructors at camp had always talked about safe distance, about keeping an enemy where the point could reach them. A dagger didn't give him that comfort. If he wanted to survive with a blade this short, he couldn't rely on length to protect him. He had to make distance himself. So he practiced moving. Step in. Strike.

Step out. Again. Step in. Cut. Step aside. Again. The motions felt wrong at first, too close and too exposed, like every imaginary enemy had already gotten past the weapon before the fight even began. But he kept at it, stabbing, slicing, feinting, and retreating until the rhythm began to settle into his body. It wasn't graceful. It probably wasn't even good. But he felt like he was learning, or becoming more comfortable with the blade at the very least.

He felt Dagger Proficiency nudging at the edges of each motion, correcting the angle of his wrist, the set of his feet, the timing of his retreats. Gideon let it guide him where it could, then repeated the movement until instinct and instruction started to blur together. After a while, a quiet chime echoed in his head. He saw a gently pulsing notification in the bottom right of his vision once again, and focused on it to open it. [Congratulations! Dagger Proficiency has reached Level 2.] He laughed out loud when he read that. His first level in a Skill already? This was getting better and better. Since he was somewhat tired from the physical exertion of practicing with his weapon, he decided to stop for now, and sat down to think some more.

"Strength being at two means I'm not going to be overpowering anyone," he thought aloud.

"So, if I fight, it has to be with sneak attacks, precision hits, and speed. Stealth, then stab, ideally. No fair fights. Fair fights mean death." He grunted out a dry humorless laugh.

"That means I get to use the patented pocket-sand technique with no remorse." The thought made him grin despite his situation. He decided to rest until he was ready for the next Spell test. Eventually, after enough time passed, his Mana had crawled back up to thirty. He nodded to himself.

"Alright. Now for the last spell. If the pattern holds, this will cost thirteen Mana as well." He scraped loose dirt into a small pile and focused on Grain Shift. Move the dirt. Just a few inches. Focus on control. He pictured the dirt lifting, sliding a few inches, then dropping. He cast, failed, cast again, failed again, grinding his teeth as the Mana flow slipped or fizzled in his mental grip.

On the fifth try, the small clump trembled, rose about four inches into the air, drifted two inches sideways, then fell with a sad little puff. He laughed quietly to himself. His hand was slightly moist, so he wiped it on his clothes and checked his Mana. The effort from casting must have made him sweat a little.

"Good lord, that Spell is useless right now. I really hope leveling it up isn't too much of a pain in the ass." Mana: 17/40 (+2/10 mins)"Thirteen again," he said, more tired than angry now.

"That confirms it." He sat, closed all the System windows with a thought, and leaned his head back against the rock wall.

"Miscast is a straight up penalty," he muttered.

"No upside yet. Higher cost per cast, and some other unknown effect from the first line. Thanks, System. Love you too." He flexed his fingers and listened to the cave again, the drip in the distance, the wind outside, his own breathing. This was such a strange place, with so many strange experiences already. Even breathing was strange in this new body, as he was taking quicker, shallower breaths than he was used to. He sighed and rubbed the bridge if his nose with two fingers.

"Alright," he murmured.

"Time for me to make a plan. A real plan. I can't just sit around here forever. I have to leave eventually." He glanced briefly at the cave mouth, where the blue shimmer was still noticeable.

"Eventually. Not now." He set the dagger across his lap and started talking quietly to himself, because hearing it out loud made it real.

"First, the facts. I am a goblin. That means I have a weak baseline. Low natural Strength and Constitution, so unless I find other goblins and they don't immediately stab me on sight, I should probably just avoid fights and hide whenever possible. I have decent Dexterity and Intelligence, moderate Wisdom, with okay Constitution, and passable Strength, thanks to those bonus Stat Points from randomizing my race. I am not a tank. I am a…

skirmisher-slash-caster with expensive, unimpressive Spells and unreliable casting." He laughed once, quiet and bitter.

"Man, that sounds pretty fuckin bad when I say it out loud. If this was a video game, I would probably want to restart. But, I can't. Fine." He looked at his hands, at the small blackened claws tipping his fingers.

"Assuming this cave is a safe zone, leaving right now would be suicidal," he decided.

"I have no idea what's out there, no map, no allies, and no gear beyond a starter dagger and some jerky." He glanced at the cave mouth again, where he could see the light shifting as the sun began to set.

"Plus, it's getting dark. Having my first real experience be walking around a big ass forest in the dark is just asking to get killed. So, I'll stay the night here, and leave in the morning. Now, for a plan." He ticked goals off on his fingers, forcing himself to be specific.

"Short term goals. One, fully understand what I can do. That means body, Skills, Spells, and how Miscast actually behaves. I think I have the Mana penalty figured out now, but I still don't know what 'sometimes seem to be cast incorrectly' means. I need to watch for misfires, weird effects, or failures that are not just from inexperience." He paused.

"Goal one is already sorta done." Gideon drummed his fingers on his thin bony knee as he thought.

"Goal two, get basic competency with the dagger in case magic fails me, because apparently it will. Constantly. At least right now. That means footwork, silent movement, and one clean, repeatable strike pattern I can execute under stress. Also… sorta done." He grinned slightly.

"Three, only leave the cave when my resource pools are full and I have at least one working tactic that isn't just 'run around, panic, and promptly die to the first thing that finds me.' I'll leave tomorrow morning, so I at least have light for my first experience outside this cave." He watched the sun for a few moments as it slowly descended behind the endless sea of trees that stretched to the horizon. He paused, then added, quieter, "That's short term stuff more or less sorted. Long term goals?"

He ticked the points off on his fingers, "Find other goblins. There is safety in numbers, if goblin society isn't immediately hostile. Stabilize, and figure out how to survive beyond just roaming the forest and hoping I don't get eaten. Find out if Max is somewhere in this mess, and reunite with him." His chest tightened, and he pushed the thought aside, not because it didn't matter, but because it mattered too much. His Mana ticked up again while he sat there, creeping toward twenty.

"Alright," he said.

"That's long term plans done, for now. Time to get back to it. I should test and learn how to properly use my Skills." He consulted his Status page again.

"That means… Quick Feet, Climbing, and maybe Stealth? Oh, and possibly also Identify. Those seem like the only ones with somewhat active use." He stood, sheathed the dagger, and ran from one end of the cave to the other at normal speed. His feet were still too quiet for him, almost unnervingly quiet, the slap of his skin on stone muted. Then he reset, focused on Quick Feet, and activated it. He couldn't describe it well, but he felt Stamina drain as the world narrowed.

His movements suddenly felt more confident and faster. He reached the far wall noticeably quicker, but a burn licked up his calves and thighs and his breathing went shallow. Stamina: 16/20 (+2/10 mins)"Four points for that burst," he said.

"Not cheap, but usable. That means short sprints only for now." Next, he eyed a rough section of wall and tried to climb it without activating anything. His progress was slow, and he slipped twice, nails scraping stone. He made it almost ten feet up before sliding down, hands stinging. He tried again, this time focusing on the Climbing Skill. Stamina drained out of him, and suddenly the stone seemed to make more sense.

His hands and feet found ridges on their own, and he scrambled upward with ugly, spider-like efficiency. Stamina: 10/20 (+2/10 mins)"Six for that," he muttered.

"So, Quick Feet and Climbing chew through my Stamina fast. That means I only get one or two bursts before I am done, which means I need to make them count." Next, he tried to activate Stealth, but no matter what he tried he could not coax anything resembling an activation out of it. He did notice though that when he was actively thinking about moving quietly, that his feet seemed to naturally land in places that made less sound.

"Hmm. Seems like that one is a bit more of a passive Skill after all. I can work with that," he said to himself. Lastly, he tried Identify. He attempted to use it on various rocks to no avail, then on his dagger and dried meats. Nothing happened, and he frowned a bit, before opening his Status and reading the description again. Identify (Level 1): You can inspect other creatures, seeing basic information such as Health, Mana, and Stamina. Only works on creatures two or fewer levels above you.

Gideon actually facepalmed when he finished reading. It specifically mentioned 'creatures' twice in the description. No wonder rocks and items didn't work. He would have to wait until he encountered an actual living being to test it out. He shrugged. Not much he could do about that right now, and he sure as shit wasn't about to wander out of the cave in search of something to use it on. Oh well. Back to the dagger then.

He practiced with the dagger again for a short while until it stopped feeling like he was forcing it and started feeling like it belonged to this smaller, faster body. Time passed. Light continued to shift and seeped away outside. Leaves moved in the breeze. Eventually, tiredness settled into his limbs in a way that felt earned.

"Okay," he said quietly.

"I should rest for a bit. No use wiping myself out." He sat down, focused on his breathing for a few minutes, then stood and walked over to the cave mouth once again. He didn't dare to leave yet, but seeing the world beyond the barrier again felt necessary. He studied the forest that spread out below him. With the sun nearly gone, it looked dark and foreboding. At that very moment, a small rabbit, quick and brown, darted out of the scraggly underbrush along the slope and bounded toward the cave mouth.

He watched as it approached at high speed. It hit the pale-blue shimmer like it had slammed into solid glass, rolling over backward and lay momentarily stunned on the ground. Gideon took the opportunity to focus on Identify as he stared at the animal. [Rabbit - Level 1] Health 10/10 | Stamina 20/20 | Mana 0/0 It squealed and bounced back to its feet before turning and vanishing into the darkness. Gideon stared after it for a moment, then slowly let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"That's good to know," he said to himself as he turned back and went deeper into the cave. He sat and ate another piece of the jerky in his small pouch.

"So," he summarized quietly as he chewed, "I'm a goblin caster whose spells fail a lot and cost thirty percent more Mana than advertised. My Skills are only really useful for escaping rather than fighting, I have no armor, a small knife, and shit stats." He let that sit, then nodded once.

"Which means if I want to survive when I leave the cave, I need to be smart," he said.

"I can't rely on my magic yet. I didn't succeed until my fifth try at best when I was casting earlier. I need to use the Spells as tools and tricks, not as my main damage, at least until I have more Mana and higher Skill and Spell levels." He nibbled on another strip of dried meat, chewing slowly as he watched the barrier shimmer. The forest beyond shifted in the breeze, leaves whispering.

"Step one," he told himself quietly, "build a reliable opener. Maybe I use Pebble Toss to the eye from stealth, then rush in with Quick Feet and the dagger while whatever I'm fighting is staggered." He nodded to himself.

"That's good enough for now. When I leave the cave tomorrow, I need to scout the immediate area and figure out what kind of monsters or people live nearby. My priorities should be to find water, then shelter, then food. That means a stream, maybe a nearby hollow or cave, and then… hunting, most likely." He grimaced at the thought, then checked the leather pouch to count how much meat remained.

"I probably have enough for a couple days. I'll just cross that bridge when I get there." His gaze hardened slightly.

"That settles that, I guess. Tomorrow I begin my new life. And somewhere out there, if the System isn't completely cruel, Max exists too." He finished the meat, washed it down with a sip from the waterskin, and moved deeper into the cave where the stone dipped and the air felt still. He laid himself down with the dagger within reach, one ear angled toward the entrance. As night fell, the blue shimmer continued to glow, casting an eerie blue light across the cave.

Thankfully, Gideon was exhausted, both physically and mentally. He had been sent into this new world, had spent the day acclimating to his new body and the existence of this System, and had worn himself out. Before he knew it, he was asleep.