This was Willy’s great chance. He had spent his high school years as a complete nobody. He’d always been ignored by his own peers and teachers alike, being treated as little more than part of the scenery. He had graduated with no social life whatsoever. He hadn’t made any meaningful friendships and he regretted this. But now that he had gotten a scholarship to enroll in Stonewood University, he’d use this opportunity to start anew! He was going to change. He was going to be a much better version of himself. He’d be open and sociable. He even started bleaching his dark hair blond to make his change in attitude more apparent.
All those years of being a wallflower were about to end!
Willy stood in front of the doors of Stonewood U. A whole universe of opportunities and new knowledge were ahead of him. He had never felt this confident in his life. He just had to open the door and he’ll be on his way to start Orientation Day.
There was just one problem... He was so eager to start he had arrived too early! The big doors were still closed and there weren’t many people around except for some guy raking leaves.
Willy figured that he’d wander around the campus to kill some time. Stonewood University was very vast and consisted of multiple buildings and gardens so big it looked like a university hidden deep in a dense forest... Most probably because it was. Most people didn’t even know this magical campus existed. Willy arrived in front of a very tall building. Stonewood Male Dormitory... That’s where he’d live for the next year!
Willy took out a piece of paper from his pocket. There were a few numbers scribbled on it. His room number was on floor 17. Willy looked up at the tall building. He tried counting how many floors there were. For some reason, he couldn’t count beyond 12 floors, even though he was sure there had to be at least 17. Weird. It wasn’t that there weren’t enough floors. Instead, it was like some perception filter didn’t want him to look at what was between floors 12 and 14.
“You must be the courier. Took you long enough.” A deep voice said behind Willy. “It’s me, Red. Don’t turn around, I’ll pick up the merchandise myself.”
“Uh... What?” Willy stood still. A red hand came from behind and took hold of the piece of paper Willy was holding. “H-hey!”
Willy turned around and gasped. The person behind him was... very short and ugly. Actually, it was a red goblin! All clad up in the official Stonewood varsity jacket and cap. It was the first time Willy had seen a race as exotic as this one, so he was quite at a loss for words. Stonewood was home to all sorts of creatures, he’d have to get used to this.
The red goblin who had nicknamed himself ‘Red’ took a look at the piece of paper he had snatched and got really pissed. “HEY! This isn’t the cursing charm I paid for! It’s just random human scribbles!” The goblin took a long cold glare at Willy. “Fuck, you’re not the courier. All you humans look the same to me! All so tall, pale and long!”
Willy was a bit nervous dealing with this stranger. Apparently the goblin had mistaken him for someone else. And Willy’s intuition told him that this goblin was up to something illegal.
Willy could’ve apologized and promised the goblin that he wouldn’t tell anyone... but... That’s what the ‘old’ Willy would have done! The ‘new’ Willy would be much more daring! Time to grab this goblin by the balls...!
“Oh, illegal charm trafficking, uh?” Willy said nonchalantly as he looked at his nails. “It would be a very serious crime if the Headmaster were to find out...”
The young goblin hid his face below his cap and put its big red claws inside the pockets of his varsity jacket. “...Yeah, I could get expelled. Or worse.” The short creature admitted shamefully.
Willy grinned. “Then you’ll have to do something for me if you don’t want me to tell everyone...” The ‘new’ Willy said with confidence. This was perfect, the school year hadn’t yet started and he was already going to blackmail someone to be his personal slave.
The goblin looked up at Willy’s eyes. “Yeah, you’re right, I’ll have to do something for you... For example... THIS!” The goblin’s claw took out a genuine cursed charm from the pocket of his varsity jacket as he chanted something in an ancient goblin language.
Willy cried in surprise. He tried to escape but the goblin had been so quick he barely managed to take a single step back. A flash of red light came out from the goblin’s charm and enveloped Willy’s whole body. The curse contained within the small charm had been unleashed on him. Willy could feel his whole body being touched by the curse, he felt himself floating as the curse affected everything single pore of his body, the evil magic even sliding down into below his clothes to engulf the human completely.
Suddenly the entire spectacle of lightworks faded and the goblin gave a few steps forward to admire the result. He looked at what remained of Willy with evil contempt and bursted out laughing. “Enjoy your new life, sucker! Bwahahaha, what a wallflower of a loser, trying to blackmail me like that! So pathetic.” The goblin spat out a big ball of smelly goblin saliva on the ground as a farewell.