Greg woke up with the sunrise. His body was a little stiff from sleeping on a branch and a bed made of leaves, but his mind felt refreshed.

  Later, he went down close to the waterfall and washed his face to get rid of any lingering grogginess. But again he was surprised when his appearance changed a little.

  He had not grown this time or gained more muscle mass, but strange straw-like curly hair had grown from his head.

  "Maybe this was because I ate that spider core?" He tried to laugh. Well, at least he was not bald anymore at the young age of... whatever this goblin's age was.

  Next, he wanted to travel close to the river extending from the waterfall towards the fire he had seen last night. But walking near water in a deep forest didn't seem like a good idea.

  He might get attacked, so he climbed back up the tree and started jumping between the branches. And because of his sticky palms and feet, the task became muscle memory after a while.

  The distance also shortened, and he was not running blind but following the trail of smoke that he could see in the distance the same way he had seen the fire yesterday.

  He also saw that the forest was overrun by strange new monsters, and one of them looked like a boar with deer antlers. Another one he commonly saw were those giant lizards that were running on two feet and looked like a skinny version of a dinosaur.

  Both of these new monsters traveled in groups of four to seven, so Greg decided to keep his distance and not try fighting them just to check what their End Cores might unlock for him.

  There was a time and place for things like these, and he instinctively knew he would get an opportunity in the future.

  Finally, Greg came to a clearing, and just when he was about to circle around it because he didn't want to leave his high ground, he saw something in the far corner.

  He immediately stopped and saw two more goblins with green skin and short bodies surrounded by three black wolf-like creatures.

  One of the goblins was male and the other looked female, and they were wearing rough-made ragged clothes but looked more like Greg's smaller form.

  The female goblin was hurt and was holding her hand, which was bleeding green blood, and the male goblin was protecting her with a stick he was holding out.

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  Three black wolves with big maws and sharp pointed tusks were playing with them and circled around the two little goblins, taking their time.

  "Should I help them?" Greg thought. He could confirm a few things if he did. Like if they spoke the same language or if that smoking place was their home or something.

  Just then, one of the wolves attacked the male goblin and swatted him away like a fly with a single move. Greg decided to intervene and quickly ran up the branches to get on top of the scene.

  The first wolf attacked again and the female goblin screamed because she was also thrown on the opposite side. The three wolves split up and first one went for the female goblin and two went for the male goblin.

  Suddenly, Greg's figure landed on top of the first wolf that was close to the female and with his glowing fist dealt a severe blow to its bare head. The wolf immediately lost consciousness.

  The commotion attracted the attention of the other two wolves, and as soon as they turned, they saw the figure of glowing goblin closing in on them.

  Greg was able to land another fist on the second wolf's body, but the third one managed to steady himself and jump away. But it didn't counterattack him immediately.

  It saw that one of its companions was down and one was gravely injured and barely managed to stand up. The leader wolf gave one good look to Greg and ran towards the forest.

  The injured wolf also followed after him, and now there was only Greg, the two goblins, and the unconscious first wolf in the vicinity.

  "Well, that was scary," Greg said, turning to the male goblin. He offered his hand and helped him stand up.

  The male looked grateful and also looked suspicious of him, but he soon ran towards the female goblin to help her out. When the two were more stable mentally and physically, they stared back at Greg.

  "Are you really a goblin?" It was the female goblin that said. She was still holding her injured arm, probably to stop the bleeding.

  "Yes," Greg nodded. Then he made his way back to the unconscious wolf and used his sharp nails on its neck to quickly send him off.

  "So, what are you doing here alone?" Greg said, getting up.

  He also felt relieved and somewhat happy because he could understand them and vice versa, or things might have become really troublesome.

  "Our village got attacked last night and we had to flee." The two goblins looked suspicious but still decided to answer him.

  And why wouldn't they be suspicious? Greg was taller, more muscular, and showed a strange green power, but he had still helped them.

  "Is your village towards that direction?" Greg asked, pointing towards the smoke.

  "Yes." The male goblin nodded before adding, "I'm Bog and she is Eka."

  "And I'm Greg."

  "You're not from here, are you Greg?" Eka, the female goblin, asked. "Where is your village?"

  "I don't have one," Greg thought up something random and said. "I used to live far from this place with only my parents."

  "Something happened to them?" Bog asked.

  "Yes, they died a few years back," Greg replied, pretending to be sad. His real parents were alive and well in a remote part of a village, and Greg just worked and lived alone in a city.

  Heck, they might not know he had died because the news might not have reached them. So there was some real sadness behind what he said.

  "I'm sorry about that," the female goblin said, still holding her injured arm.

  Greg nodded and analyzed them both. And they were not like goblins in games or anime; they had real personalities and probably lived elaborate lives here like humans.

  After thinking for some time, Bog asked, "Do you want to come with us?"

  "Me?" Greg raised an eyebrow. "Come where?"

  "Well, we were going back to our village to check the aftermath of the attack," Bog explained. "And we'd like to thank you for saving our lives."

  Greg didn't tell them that even if they didn't invite him, he was going to the place. But now that he knew it was a village, and that it was a goblin village too, he didn’t see any reason to refuse.

  "Sure. Show me the way," he said with a quick smile.