Goblins were a weak race. Gulu Gulu had more than thirty siblings, but fewer than ten survived to adulthood.
At one meter tall, Gulu Gulu was big and strong for a goblin. He had once fought a two-meter-long Death Worm alone and won, earning considerable prestige in the tribe.
Then, one day, he challenged the tribal chief.
The chief stood only 0.8 meters tall. Gulu Gulu was undoubtedly younger and stronger.
And yet Gulu Gulu lost.
Strength alone did not decide victory. There were other kinds of power in this world, such as experience and wisdom.
Having lost his challenge, Gulu Gulu was naturally driven into the dangerous wilderness.
To survive, Gulu Gulu gathered other exiled goblins, and together they scraped out a living in the wild.
By chance, Gulu Gulu discovered an underground river. He followed it upstream for a long way and found a tunnel leading to the surface.
The surface was hardly safe. Tigers, leopards, bears, wolves, venomous snakes, birds of prey... all were natural enemies of goblins. For supernatural creatures, goblins were pitifully weak.
But food was far more plentiful on the surface than underground, so the struggle to survive was much less severe.
Then a human found them. He told them that if they agreed to obey some of his orders, he could make them stronger.
A hundred times stronger.
Gulu Gulu asked, "Is the process dangerous?"
The human answered, "Yes."
Gulu Gulu thought it over. "If it's dangerous, then start the modifications with his underlings..."
The modifications took years. The scrawny, one-meter-tall Gulu Gulu became a three-meter-tall monster with bulging muscles.
Goblins.
A race that bullied the weak and feared the strong. They had little notion of honesty or loyalty, either.
Once Gulu Gulu realized he was stronger than the human, he tried to