"Damn, did I really reincarnate as a lowly goblin??" Greg screamed.

  But before he could think more on the subject, he heard something rustling in the distance. He immediately regretted making so much noise and started to back away, but it was too late because an armored centipede walked out of the darkness.

  Its width was about the size of a dog and its length was longer than a modern car. After seeing that, Greg immediately picked up his pace and ran towards any random direction he saw fit.

  The overgrown centipede followed and easily managed to catch up. Greg looked behind and saw the centipede charging up for an attack with its iron pincers and quickly jumped out of the way.

  The centipede crashed into the wall and then came back to its senses and again started chasing the little goblin.

  The same pattern of attack followed for a while and Greg was somehow able to evade them all by jumping again and again or just by changing his direction suddenly or moving in zigzag patterns.

  But the situation worsened when the ruckus the two of them were causing attracted more of such creatures, and they were all similar in size and they all started chasing Greg for a quick meal.

  By the time Greg was about to run out of stamina, he had more than a dozen centipedes running after him.

  "Am I going to die again? Just like that?" Greg said, not wanting to give up, and when everything looked hopeless he saw something he could use.

  Just a little distance away from him, there was a network of small caves he could hide in. The caves were small enough to let him through but not enough to let the armored centipedes pass.

  He picked the cave that was closest to the ground because he was in no position to climb up and reach the higher ones and jumped inside. The body of the first centipede that was just behind him crashed into the entrance, but the opening didn't collapse and they were unable to crawl inside.

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  Greg continued to move away from them even on the inside of the small cave, but there were stones everywhere on the ground so his speed was not that much.

  But not even a few seconds later, Greg ran into a big problem. It turns out the cave was not that long and after a quick bend it came to a sudden dead end.

  Greg didn't know what else to do and when he looked back towards the entrance the centipedes were still there and were not ready to give up.

  He tried to wait them out and see if they would lose interest after some time, and that strategy failed spectacularly when one of the centipedes started using its front legs to try to widen the entrance. And the process was very slow, but from the looks of it, he was making steady progress.

  Greg searched the cave for anything he could use as a weapon and maybe protect himself as a last resort, but there was nothing in here—nothing except the oval stones that were scattered on the ground.

  With a dark look, he picked up one of these stones and crawled slowly towards the entrance, and when he was a safe distance away where he could reach the centipede and they couldn't, he started hitting their heads.

  But armored centipedes were tough creatures and their skulls had a lot of bone, so even after tens of strikes, nothing really happened to the digger. It just continued its work like he was not even bothered by whatever Greg was doing.

  Still, Greg didn't give up. He didn't want to die again, he didn't want to go through such an experience, and this time he wanted to live his life freely without any work or commitments holding him down, and maybe he can with this goblin body of his.

  Also, Greg was never a quitter, so he religiously rammed the centipede's head and the count soon reached hundreds of times, then thousands of times, and when he was too exhausted to count or see and his body was just going through the motions on instinct, a small change happened.

  The impenetrable body of the armored centipede somehow cracked, and with another hit, a huge chunk of the carapace protecting its head broke apart.

  Greg immediately rushed in with his sharp claws and penetrated the ugly creature's brain. He moved his hands in all different directions and the centipede was not even able to back away and started spasming awkwardly.

  Greg also didn't know what he was doing and it was more like his goblin body had taken control after he was too exhausted to think. And the whole thing stopped when Greg touched something small and ball-shaped in the centipede's head and pulled it out.

  It was an End Core that every creature in this world possessed, but he didn't know that. And the next moment, Greg instinctively ate the core and crushed it with his teeth and swallowed any leftover bits and pieces.

  After that, Greg's body started to glow a little and he lost consciousness, and because of gravity, rolled towards the back of the cave.

  On the outside, when the first centipede's body fell and it died, the other centipedes became furious and another quickly took its place and started widening the small opening to get revenge for its fallen brethren.

  But by this time, Greg was too exhausted to care and not conscious enough to respond. He just lay there on the ground as his body went through some small physical changes.