10 A dream, or not a dream?
"Reports tell that more and more anomalies appear throught the world, their proprties is still unknown..."
Norn woke up in his room as usual.
"Huh?.."
As he opened his eyes he saw TV that was on, it broadcasted LIVE footage of something strange.
It was a giant bluish vortex that seemingly tore reality apart.
Many people is strange costumes were around it...
Norn got up and...
Norn couldn't get up. He struggled to even breathe.
When he tried to move his body it didn't listen to him, as if he was paralyzed.
"What the fuck is going on!?"
He was scared.
"Was it all a dream!?"
He couldn't hold his voice and screamed:
"GET ME BACK TO FUCKING COMA YOU PIECES OF SHIT"
No sound came from his mouth. The only sound in the room was the TV:
"... Several squads across the world already entered vortexes, none came back but as they will you will know first..."
"FUCK YOU! FUCK THIS WORLD!"
He couldn't understand what was going on.
It definitely wasn't a dream. It was too real to be one!
Why did it happen to him!? He was... He was actually somewhat happy being there!
It was his dream to be reincarnated like that!
Even as a damn goblin, so why!?
A machine near him beeped faster and faster.
Norn understood that it was his heartbeat.
As he was about to try to kill himself once again he heard someone running...
Door was almost blown away as someone entered.
It was his mother.
"Norn, Norn!"
She cried out his name as she was running closer to him.
She didn't do much, simply pressed a few buttons as Norn felt something in his left hand...
It was some sort of a medical thing as after a few seconds he calmed down.
"Sweetie, can you hear me?"
She was lookig straight in Norn's eyes.
He couldn't even move, how would he answer?
He simply looked up and down several times, as if he was nodding his head.
"Thank god you are with me sweetie! I missed you so much..."
She almost cried as she was speaking, barely holding it in...
Norn, however?
"FUCK YOU AND FUCK THIS FUCKING WORLD OF SHIT, FUCKING KILL ME ALREADY!"
He was as angry as could be. He was taken out of most beautiful dream he could ever imagine, how what?!
He has to be a fucking vegetable for his whole life!?
He was clearly crippled, he couldn't move, and she's telling him that she's happy!?
Did she not think about Norn at all!?
"Dumb cunt always thinks about herself, happy, yeah, now that pops is dead who are you going to leech off huh?"
He wasn't buying it at all. He knew perfectly well who his mother was.
Yeah, she pretended to be good, but as soon as father's company bankrupted?
"Uh-huh looks like i accidentally cheated on you... four times... oopsie..."
Dumb fucking cunt.
"Oh, meet Jamal, he's my fried, right, Jamal?"
She said as she introduced a tall guy who clearly wasn't just a friend.
"Oh, i took another loan, i couldn't wait to buy a new car, my old one is not cool anymore..."
FUCK. YOU.
Norn had nothing but hatred for this woman.
He wont be surprised if he got news that his father died because she hired a killer.
How come she's fucking unharmed when both of them are practically dead?
Was that a coincidence? Like hell it is!
Norn might be somewhat stupid, but he wasn't a complete idiot.
This woman didn't look like someone who got hurt!
Well, maybe a lot of time passed, but who cares? Even if that was the case he had more than enough reasons to hate her for what she has done.
...
After some time Norn finally calmed down.
This awful woman was here all the time, babbling about god knows what.
Norn didn't listen. He tried to come up with a plan to kill himself for good.
Even if all of that was a dream... So fucking what!?
He doesn't want to be a vegetable for the rest of his life!
It was miserable even before that, now he cant even express himself on the internet!
"...M-monsters came from one of the portals, we... we have footage! Put it on!!"
Norn's attention suddenly fixed on the TV.
He saw... Goblins? They... They were real!
They looked just like one's he saw in the cave!
They weren't the same, but generally...
"Wait a second..."
Norn tried to feel mana around him...
"It... It really is here!?"
He could feel it! It was a thing! Mana is a fucking thing in his world!?
What... What if it is here even before!?
What if he only needed a method to feel it!?
Whatever it was, Norn was insanely happy!
It meant that not all is lost!
He still has a chance to fix everything!
If only he learned that spell for Erika earlier...
Whatever! There's still a chance without that, what if he could move using mana!?
After trying it, however, Norn was met wtih a problem...
The amount of mana he could use was far less that in his dream...
He will have many things to test out after his mother left the place.
For now, however? He watched the TV:
"... Many dead, even more injured. I repeat, DO NOT COME CLOSE TO VORTEXES! REPORT THEM TO AUTHORITIES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!..."
It was chaos. Norn couldn't switch the channel, but just one was enough.
It looked like one of those novels came to life.
Portals opened all around the world, there were even some giatn ones, as the news said.
It would've been great if Norn was a normal human now, but...
"Wait, portals?"
"Open status window!"
Name: Norn
Age: 23
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Titles:
Achievements:
Skills: [I want to speak!], [Training Expert]
Stats:
ATK: 1
DEFALL: 0
AGILITY: 2
STRENGTH: 1
ENDURANCE: 2
INTELLIGENCE: 7
MAGIC: 1
WILL: 35
SOUL: CANNOT BE READ
FATE: 1
LUCK: 0
OVERALL POWER LEVEL: 0
"What the fuck are those?"
He couldn't think of anything else to say.
Those stats were horrible!
His soul was still the same, will was higher as well as intelligence, but?..
Why was everything else so fucking low?
Luck was at 0!
Well... It's not that surprising after he thought about it, he's a fucking vegetable after all...
The most painful part was his magic stat. It was just 1.
Norn thought that it was the reason behind his inability to gather more mana.
It's just what it was.
However, since the system was present and his skill were still there...
He had a chance. Yeah, those skills were far from being insane, but so what?
He could communicate in all languages, that's a good thing, training expert was another great one!
If he ever becomes normal again he can train his body to the apex!
If he ever becomes normal, that is...
Anyway, it was better than nothing...
...
After some more time his mother finally left.
Norn didn't know what to do with his life since... well, he couldn't do anything at all!
What is there to do if you cant move!?
Train magic, of course!
As such, he began his training. It was awful.
Yeha, he could still confure a small flame, he had to do it before his face since his palms were pointed downwards...
He did want to start a fire, but he needed to check if it's what he thinks he is.
After some thinking he came to a theory that he might wander between the worlds, and when he falls asleep next time he will be a goblin again.
It wouldn't be too big of a surrpise now that the world is filled with fucking portals.
As such, he decided to wait for one day. It was never too late to kill himself.
And if it was true? Well, he could use this time for training! Even if he was a vegetable he could still think or train mana, which was a good thing, since he basically wouldn't even sleep.
Of course, such a lifestyle was tiring... But he could sit and play his favourite MMOs for days without stopping! Who cares if he has to do some 10-14 hour shifts to train magic!?
It was all the same, but this time, he would train his most important character... Himself!
...
After some time Norn got bored with watching just one channel. It wasn't the news now, it was some stupid drama for housewifes.
He couldn't move and all, so he decided to think of a way to switch the channel.
It wasn't something important, but he thought of it as a way to train himself!
Was it not it? He has a problem he never encountered before, as such he would train by trying to do so!
However, it was easier said than done. First of all - he didn't know where the remote was.
Second - How the fuck should he use it?
Were there any types of spells that can do that?
Well, since there's a way to conjure fire just by imagining it... Why wont there be a way to apply some force?
Maybe making an ethereal hand like in those cultivation novels would do?
He already had a good picture of such a hand, it did something, so why not conjure it with mana?
Of course, as Norn already knew... It was easier said than done.
He couldn't detect the remote no matter what he did. He tried to "feel" things all around him, but it was just his imagination.
He couldn't really see what was beyond his life of his, and since he couldn't even move his head?...
"Right!"
What if he tried to move his head!?
Maybe the remote is somewhere close to him so he can press the button afterwards!?
As such, he began trying to do just that. It was painful experience as his spell simply hit him, but couldn't move.
It was just pain and nothing else!
His head didn't move for even a degree!
Norn, however, didn't give up. He continued doing it. It's not like he had anything better to do...
[Magic: +1]
"Oh, that's a pleasant surprise i see!"
His magic stats became higher!
It meant that training was an option! Magic could be trained by practicing it!
It was great news for him! Even if he was a damn vegetable... He could be an Archmage Vegetable later on!
This title would be so awesome, he already imagined how he would fly around on the bed and shoot down random monsters with magic...
It was so stylish!
After some time he calmed down. It wasn't time for him to act like that, since his time was precious.
Even Norn understood that, nothing was more important than training in a situation where the world is in danger!
How else would he be able to climb on top!?
By sheer luck? His luck was 0!
As such, he tried to cast the spell again...
"What the fuck!?"
He cried out in his mind, as his spell pierced his skin! He couldn't feel it too well, but he did feel that something was flowing out of his head!
He almost killed himself!
What a joke that was!
"Fucking magic is so complicated..."
He was somewhat disappointed. Not in magic but in himself.
It was entirely his fault. More than that, it could bring him problems. How would a wound appear on his head?
After changing the spell a little the tried again, this time on his hand...
It didn't pierce it, but he could feel it at all.
It was a given, he couldn't feel his body.
When he tried it on his head, however... It felt like someone hit him lightly, but nothing his head didn't move.
"Wait.. What the fuck am i doing? I need to push, not to hit!"
Took him long enough.
After changing his spell once more, nothing really changed. He still felt a hit with no pushing force whatsoever.
Norn wasn't too sad because of it, he understood that it was just a problem of experience.
He was a human of a world without magic, how could he succeed in it without prior experience?
It was just bullshit, nothing more.
As such, he decided to persevere and continue training. It wasn't a thing he didn't know how to do.
Perseverance was, in fact, one of his good characteristics!
That boar, for example. If he was a whimp how could he take bring it to the cave?
He would've dropped it halfway, because it was "too hard"!
It was indeed hard, but so fucking what!? If he didn't do it he wouldn't eat!
As such, if he didn't train his magic he would have to watch a fucking show for housewifes!
Several characters in it already told each other how much they love that person and this person, but in the next scene they said that they hate him!
What the fuck is this!? Who wrote that shit?!
Who in their sane mind would watch that!?
If he forgot about the incident earlier he would've thougth that he was a vegetable because he watched too much of that bullshit show!
Thankfuly, after some time the news were on again.
There was nothing eye-opening, but some interesting details were present.
First one was about monsters, it turned out that after dying their bodies emitted strange thing, scientists didn't name it yet.
Norn understood it, as it was obvious that it was mana. What else could it be? Their fucking stomach gases or something?
Second was... Not that great, an expeditions came back from one of the portals, they said that the world on the other side was just a barren desert.
That meant that this dungeon setting didn't connect just the two worlds. It was a good and a bad thing.
It was a good one since, well, more lands to explore!
The bad one was exactly that, you didn't know if there was a demi-god sleeping on the other side of it or not.
As such, going in was risky as hell, but as the reported said some people already entered some vortexes...
Norn wished that he was one of them!
What if there were some unique items or something like that on the other end!?
In worst case scenario he would just die, which wasn't that big of a deal to him...
After mentally exhausting himself Norn finally fell asleep.
He didn't succeed in turning his head or finding the remote, as such, he feel asleep under that fucking melodrama...
He wished he never woke up ever again... not in this world, at least.
