26 Chapter 26: Hungry Goblin (1/2)

When I had arrived at the Goblin Cave Entrance I stopped to take in the view.

Forgetting my hunger to admire the scene of a setting sun slowly being swallowed behind the seemingly endless expanse of trees within the Dark Forest.

The light of the sun was still warm but I could feel a small breeze kick in.

It felt refreshing and triggered a flashback.

About the time my family and Iwent to the beach to celebrate Julie's birthday party.

I remember the warmth of the sun on my skin as the sun set behind a similar expanse of trees beyond the horizon while a similar breeze swept across the beach.

I closed my eyes and smiled to better remember the happy memory.

However my feelings of peace and homesickness were disrupted by a low growl coming from my stomach.

The ache of hunger tarnished the memory by instead focusing only on all the good food I ate that day instead of the fun I had with my family.

Jack: (”Hot dogs, Burgers, Barbecue Steak, Soda, Juice, Cupcakes, Pinata Candy, Ice Cream ChocolateCake.”)

Drool dripped from my mouth as I recalled the wonderful smells and taste of each delicious delight creating an almost hypnotic like craving for the yummy food.

Driven by my hunger and not wanting to waste anymore time.

I started my routine baseball warm-ups to limber up...

Although I was getting through them just fine I still tried my best to act like nothing was different from when my body wasn't a hulking mass of flesh and muscle.

It hadn't been long since I became a roided out freak but I was trying my best to get use to it.

This body still felt unnatural and strange to me when Icompared it to my smaller human and earlier goblin physiques.

I didn't get tired from my routine or even break a sweat but I was less nimble as the flesh around my body weighed me down.

Whenever I clenched my fist or anchored my legs I could feel the power behind every muscle at work.

Hell I had muscles in places I didn't even know could have muscles in.

My skin although thicker than before looked thin as if it was just barely able to hold in the bulging muscles in my body.

The endless feeling of energy and strength felt surreal I never really got tired naturally unless I was being healed or using magic.

With any luckthis hunt will help me feel more at home with mybody after a good hunt or two.

Finishing my warm-ups I left for the direction of the nearest Fire Fox Territory…

As I made my way through the Dark Forest there wasn't really much to do.

I felt bored and hungry despite the beautiful starry sky above me and the creepy forest that surrounded me.

On foot the journey would take some odd forty minutes during the day.

But at night I had to be extra careful of my surroundings as to not encounter the dangers lurking about in the dead of night.

So the journey would naturally take longer and with nothing to pass the time with I distracted myself with the forest around me.

The forest looked like any other with its natural beauty during the day but it was at night that the forest truly earned its name.

A drastic shift in setting would occur where the tall trees would block out the light of the moon creating a pitch black darkness in patches of large areas throughout the Dark Forest..

Where only the nocturnal creatures would be free to roam and rule over as they pleased.

It was legitimately a creepy forest at nightbut I wasn't scarred, how could I be.

After all when I compared the spooky forest to the Dark Room my dad kept me in for god knows how long.

There was no contest and unlike the Dark Room I could actually defend myself now with this large body of mine and a weapon by my side.

Jack touched the golden dagger he kept tucked at his waist, it may have been small but the weapon brought a sense of security he did not have in the Dark Room with his father…

It was in these patches of darkness in the forest where treeswould have distorted human faces on them during the night.

The goblins called them the Living Tree's or Face Tree and although I couldn't confirm if they could actually talk with their mouths.

Going through Gyrom's encounters with the strange beings they were carnivores and hostile to any living creature that crossed their paths.

The Living Tree's could use their branches like tentacles to restrain or rip apart enemies before throwing them into their mouths and eating them.

Luckily they were only active at night and during the day the living trees would simply turn back into ordinary trees making them harmless and easily killed.

However the Living Tree's were indistinguishable from the rest of the tree's in the Dark Forest during the day.

So it was hard to keep track of them or know which one was a Face Tree and which one was an ordinary tree.