Webcomic / Just a Goblin

You have a new quest, adventurer!

"Those that hunt us call themselves... adventurers. I wonder... will we continue this cycle? Just pointlessly killing each other... forever?"

— Nog on the relationship between adventurers and goblins

For centuries, goblins like Nog have been hunted by strange people called "adventurers". Despite having more advanced technology, finer clothes, and skill at using magic, adventurers slaughter Nog's people for their body parts and clothes every single day. Baffled by this practice, he captures an adventurer to interrogate them and learn all he can to better understand the cultural divide between adventurers and goblins.

But his plans go awry when he and his friend Gubble accidentally kill this adventurer with a pitfall trap. While trying to retrieve the adventurer's body, a wisp-like creature named Pip leaves the corpse to fuse with Nog. Pip informs Nog that he is now a "player" with the ability to level up and learn new skills through "the System", an interface invisible to everyone else. Although startled and confused by this turn of events, Nog sees this as a prime opportunity to go undercover as an adventurer and learn why they hate goblins so much. And, with a little luck, he'll learn if peace is possible between their peoples.

Just a Goblin is a webcomic written by Brandon Chen and JKSManga with art by Inuupen. It follows Nog in his attempts to understand what drives adventurers to hunt his kind by becoming an adventurer himself. Serialization began on September 14th, 2022 and it can be read for free online on Webtoon and through the Webtoon app.

The first season ended in October of 2023, with the second season set to come in early 2024.

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Just a Goblin contains examples of:

• Accidental Murder: Nog tries to intimidate Hugo into talking about why adventurers hunt goblins so much by threatening to drop Hugo into a pitfall full of jagged spikes. Unfortunately, Gubble takes this as a go-ahead to cut the snare suspending Hugo over the trap, killing Hugo in the process.
• The Ace: Tyros is the strongest adventurer of the Red Ravens Guild. He's strong, brave, good-looking and popular enough to be the first person people turn to when they need help. In addition to wielding a Cool Sword that can shoot fire, Tyros is a skilled swordsman who quickly adapts to enemy tactics and can bat Nog and Gubble around without getting remotely serious.
• Aerith and Bob: Names like Tyros, Goliath, Nog, and Gubble aren't out of place next to Lora, Marcus, Edward, and Aria. Interestingly, Nog and Gubble have no trouble passing themselves off as gnomes while using their real names.
• An Arm and a Leg: Goblin body parts are valuable enough crafting ingredients that there are regular quest postings asking for them. After escaping the adventurers after his life, Nog returns home to Rektoros to see a goblin hobbling home with a cane after losing a leg.
• Apologetic Attacker: Nog does not want to fight or kill the Guardian of Linwood Forest, as it had been fending off adventurers and other invaders for centuries. But he decides to prioritize his life over the Forest Guardian's when it refuses to stop trying to kill him, thanking it for the forest all this time as he lands the killing blow.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The Forest Guardian's turtle-like shell makes it difficult to make a frontal attack, but Nog's size allows him to slide under it and slice its softer underbelly. After Gubble stuns it with a punch, Nog is then able to stab it in the neck to kill it.
• Bag of Spilling: According to Pip, the System resets when he enters a new host, meaning that Nog's stats are his own with no carryover from the previous host after Nog and Gubble accidentally kill Hugo.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Nog is tempted to let the Forest Guardian kill Goliath's party to avenge all the goblins that Goliath has killed. But Nog's fond memories of Tyros and the other Red Ravens convince him to lure the Guardian away and save the lives of the other adventurers.
• Big Damn Heroes: Nog is about to be eviscerated by the Forest Guardian when Gubble appears out of nowhere to punch it in the face, creating an opening for Nog to fatally stab the Forest Guardian and end the fight.
• Black-and-White Morality: Tyros firmly believes that people are good and monsters are bad. One of his goals as an adventurer is to kill every single monster so that people don't have to live in fear of them. Tyros nosedives into Black-and-White Insanity after Goliath's death at Nog's hands. Tyros sees nothing wrong with murdering Gubble, who saved Tyros' life and is entirely innocent of the crime, solely because she's a monster and can't wrap his head around why his friends object to it at all.
• Both Sides Have a Point: While fighting against Nog, Tyros points out that him releasing the monsters into the town endangered civilians and destroyed families who have nothing to do with their fight. Nog doesn't deny that he thought they would have fled into the forest rather than stick around, but they shouldn't have been keeping them imprisoned in the first place.
• Breaking the Fellowship: The First Season Finale ends with the Red Ravens breaking up, as Tyros can't tolerate them standing in his way, Nog has effectively caused enough damage to the city that they can't sanction a monster of his strength, and the others can't one-sidedly accept what they've done in the past.
• Bungling Inventor: Downplayed. Many of Nog's inventions fail to work at first, with his many, many failed prototypes contributing to his poor reputation in Rektoros by his much more combat-inclined brethren. However, these failures eventually teach him how to build things right. His Grappling-Hook Gun that failed in the first episode is later fixed and improved by the time Nog is fleeing the Forest Guardian.
• Calling Me a Logarithm: Nog and Gubble are confused when Lora calls them "noobs" (though Gubble misheard her and thought she called them "boobs"). Both of them are relieved when this is explained to them, as Nog assumed that his cover as a gnome had been blown.
• Category Traitor: Nog becomes The Exile for "playing adventurer" and killing the Guardian of Linwood Forest in self-defense after luring it over to attack Goliath and save another goblin. Given his actions and the title of Episode 15, "Betrayer of the Forest" it's all but said that Nog is considered a traitor for his actions.
• Challenge Seeker: Tyros wears a huge grin when Nog manages to surprise him with an attempted Speed Blitz and prepares to get serious before being stopped. Later on, he's willing to fight a nigh-unwinnable battle against the Lord of Eadeclease Mountains because of his desire to fight more than small fry and become the strongest adventurer.
• Childhood Friend: Nog and Gubble grew up together and are extremely close. Both of them are relieved when the other returns home alive after an adventurer attack and Gubble helps Nog with his quest to understand why adventurers hunt them. Even after he's exiled from Rektoros, she continues to follow him because she swore they'd never be separated again.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: It's clear that Aria is head-over-heels for Tyros and acts as a Leeroy Jenkins while trying to impress him. Tyros is usually slightly miffed by her antics before going in to help her without any indication that he's romantically attracted to her. The artist of the story lampshades this by calling Tyros a hunk in the author's notes.
• Crazy-Prepared: Gnomes have a reputation for being extremely prepared and well-equipped for excursions like adventuring. So Lora is confused when "gnome" adventurers like Nog and Gubble haven't packed nearly as much as she thought they would.
• Critical Existence Failure: If Nog's HP hits zero, he dies, which Pip only tells Nog while he's being attacked by a horde of slimes. Otherwise, he could theoretically keep fighting so long as he has at least 1 HP.
  Nog: Hey Pip, what happens if my HP hits zero?
  Pip: What do you think? You die obviously.
  Nog: What?! I thought I would just pass out or something! That's scary!
• Cute Little Fangs: Goblins have pronounced canines on the bottom of their mouths. They're especially prominent when younger goblins like Nog smile, adding to his cuteness factor. These same teeth are useful crafting ingredients, hence why adventurers pluck the teeth out of the goblins they kill.
• Cycle of Revenge: Goliath forced Nog to kill him since he hated Goblins due to a grudge because they took everything from him when he tried to help an injured one in the past and refused to let Nog go in peace. Tyros specifically targeted Gubble because Nog killed Goliath, his friend, in order to make him feel the pain of losing someone close to him. Nog then decides to goes after him.
• Damager, Healer, Tank: Aria, Lora, and Edward are a swordswoman, healer/alchemist, and an armored tank respectively. Aria's Leeroy Jenkins tendency means that Lora is often preoccupied with healing her, while Edward is so overwhelmed by the horde of slimes they're fighting that he flees to get help instead of continuing to tank. If not for Nog and Gubble's intervention, Aria and Lora likely would have died.
• David vs. Goliath: Nog, then a Level 3 adventurer, goes up against the Guardian of Linwood Forest, a Level 15 elite monster, in Episodes 14 and 15. Although he's outclassed in a contest of strength, he's able to outmanuever the Forest Guardian with his Grappling-Hook Gun, knowledge of the forest, and use of Acceleration. He then manages to Attack Its Weak Point with his dagger to injure it, but is nearly killed when the Guardian manages to land some crushing blows on him. That's when Gubble shows up to rescue him by stunning the Guardian with a well-placed sucker punch, creating an opening for Nog to stab it in the neck to finally kill it. Due to the difference in overall strength, Nog gains three levels for this feat and for completing the quest involving the Guardian.
• Deal with the Devil: Tyros actually forces a deal with the Phoenix within his legendary sword, where he'll gain the Blessing of the Phoenix in exchange for condemning his soul to burn from its fire. He does it without a moment's hesitation.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In a tragic example, Gubble gets mortally wounded by Tyros and dies in Nog's arms.
• Diverging Evolutionary Phases: Nog is given the opportunity to evolve into a more powerful species of goblin after reaching a certain level. He's given the choice between becoming an enormous hobgoblin, a magical winged fay goblin, or the ghost-like onare goblin. He ultimately chooses the latter, gaining the ability to detach and reattach his arms at will, perfect night vision, and strange, dark powers.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: When Nog jolts awake after narrowly surviving his fight with the Forest Guardian, Gubble is so startled that she punches him for startling her. This leaves two large welts on Nog's head and knocks him out instantly.
• Downer Ending: The First Season Finale. Nog's idealism is shattered and he is sent to the Infinity Prison in order to fund the repair of the town, the Red Ravens break up because they can't side with Tyros after everything and defended Nog, and Tyros is unable to get revenge even after offering his soul to be burned for power.
• Dumb Muscle: Gubble is often spacey and air-headed, believing that Nog had taught her a hand signal to execute Hugo despite Nog doing nothing of the sort. But she's brave and six times stronger than him at the start of the story.
• Explosive Breeder: Goblins make up for constantly being hunted by breeding extremely quickly. Gubble can't remember which of her brothers died recently because she has three hundred of them to keep track of. Rektoros as a whole is heavily populated despite losing goblins every day to adventurers with dozens upon dozens of huts protected by wooden palisades.
• Exposition Fairy: Pip exists to explain aspects of the player system to Nog (and thus the reader), especially since the RPG Mechanics 'Verse features are otherwise invisible and unusable to everyone else. He seems compelled to answer all of Nog's questions completely and truthfully, but not without snarking at Nog's expense.
• Eye of Newt: Basic healing potions are made from dire wolf fangs and green funlop leaves. Kuara the potion maker says that attack-boosting potions can be made from goblin blood, tinderweed, sapphire dragonfly wings, and saberlion eyes.
• Fantastic Drug: Gubble is skeptical when Nog insists that he's being haunted by the ghost of the adventurer they killed because only "players" can see Pip and the System. She wonders if Nog snorted too much sweet shroom powder to act like this, implying its use as a goblin recreational drug.
• Fantastic Racism: Adventurers view goblins as nothing more than another monster to hunt despite goblins being clearly sapient and capable of conversation, technology, and societal structures. After being hunted by adventurers for centuries, most goblins view adventurers as naught more than murderous barbarians and consider the idea of trying to make peace with them a bad joke at best.
• Fragile Speedster: Nog's first skill, Acceleration, lets him double and later triple his speed for a limited amount of time. This lets him run in and out of a fight more quickly than most of the newbie adventurers at Mulros Town can track. But his Geek Physique means that his strength and stamina stats are low. Tyros nearly knocks Nog out in a single hit while only getting a little serious and Nog has to invest attribute points into strength to be able to quickly kill a number of dire wolves.
• From Bad to Worse: When Tyros invites Nog and Gubble onto a C-Rank quest to take down a monster known as Gummo the Great Boar, Nog is a little scared because of how much more challenging and dangerous it is. Even still, he decides he needs to push himself and agrees to join Tyros's party. But when they finally find Gummo, they discover that it has already been eaten by an even more powerful monster, the Lord of the Eadeclease Mountains, a Level 27 elite monster twice as strong as the Forest Guardian.
• Geek Physique: Nog is a Bungling Inventor and a short, wiry goblin in contrast to some of the older, more muscular and war-like goblins in Rektoros. His strength stat is initially a paltry 2 to reflect this.
• Girly Bruiser: Gubble is very effeminate in contrast to the much more aggressively masculine goblins surrounding her. Despite this, she's extremely strong relative to her size, splattering slimes with a single hit when Nog needs to hit their weak points to kill them.
• Glowing Eyes: Nog's eyes are surrounded by a blue, flaming aura when he's using his skills.
• Grappling-Hook Gun: One of Nog's first-shown inventions is a wooden gun capable of firing a grappling hook. Unfortunately, it explodes instead of functioning as intended. But he later manages to get it functional, letting him swing through the threes of Linwood Forest while escaping the Forest Guardian.
• Hammerspace: Nog's game interface comes with an inventory in which he can freely put in and remove items, letting him lug them around without any weight or appearance on his person.
• Hate Sink: While Nog is horrified by how humans treat goblins as nothing more than wild game, Goliath is the first adventurer in the story who actively revels in hunting goblins. He calls them "just so filthy, ugly, and stupid" that making them scream is just fun for him. Small wonder that Nog decides to sicc the Forest Guardian on Goliath, even though Nog ultimately is unable to let the Guardian kill Goliath's party.
• Healing Hands: Lora is able to treat Aria's broken rib with healing magic, hodling her hands over the wound while treating Aria. This takes a considerable amount of time, requiring Nog and Gubble to hold the horde of slimes who injured Aria off after Edward flees to get help.
• Healing Potion: Potions capable of quickly healing wounds are a staple in the setting. Lora, an alchemist, gives Nog and Gubble a bag full of them as thanks for helping her and Aria. Nog discovers that he can make them himself via the System so long as he has the materials.
• Hellhole Prison: The First Season Finale has Nog sent to a prison for the strongest monsters. The Legendary Goblin Warlord, Grom, is there as well.
• Heroes Prefer Swords:
  • Nog would much rather use a longsword or even a BFS, but his strength rating is too low for him to use them effectively, forcing him to pick up a dagger as his primary weapon instead.
  • Tyros, a C-Rank Adventurer and The Ace of the Red Ravens Guild, wields a golden longsword named Radiant, a Grade C weapon with almost five times the attack power of Nog's basic dagger and special attributes to boot.
• Hold the Line: As thanks for saving Lora and Aria, Nog and Gubble are given an expedited adventurer's exam to join the Red Ravens. All they have to do is remain standing against Tyros, the Red Ravens' strongest adventurer, for one minute in a one-on-one duel. Given his vastly superior strength, experience, and equipment, this proves a daunting task for the goblins.
• Holographic Terminal: The System is represented by a series of holographic, intangible text boxes that work like a touch screen. Nog can use this interface to store and remove items from his Hammerspace inventory, allocate attribute points, use skills, and analyze other people and things.
• Hot Witch: Kuara the potion maker is dressed in a large witch's hat and a Sexy Slit Dress with an Impossibly-Low Neckline. She stirs her potions in a bubbling cauldron and works out of a dimly lit shop.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes:
  • Humans have been hunting the goblins of Linwood Forest for centuries. While RPG logic labels goblins as low-level Mooks designed to introduce a plucky hero to a fantasy world, Nog sees families grieving their maimed and killed siblings, parents, and children. To the goblins, adventurers are barbarians who attack from the brush unprovoked, forcing the goblins to flee for their lives to survive. Fights that would normally be a footnote in an adventurer's journey are life-changing for the goblins.
  • Nog and Gubble go undercover as adventurers in an attempt to understand why adventurers are so insistent on hunting goblins. Nog marvels at Mulros Town's advanced technology, plentiful food, and enormous buildings relative to his goblin village of Rektoros. But that wonder is soon accompanied by horror when he learns that adventurers sell goblin body parts and linens to make these amazing conveniences. He also struggles to grasp how some adventurers can take such glee is killing other intelligent beings for sport.
• Imagine Spot: While trying to imagine what adventurers are doing with goblin ears, Nog envisions adventurers eating goblin ears like snacks and wearing them as necklaces. He later imagines himself in shining plate armor and wielding a BFS due to his disappointment over being too weak to wield anything more heavy than a dagger.
• Ineffectual Death Threats: Nog tries to threaten Pip with a knife to get him to explain what's going on. Pip helpfully informs him that he cannot die or be injured just as Nog's knife goes right through him.
• Informed Deformity: Goliath describes goblins as being so filthy and ugly that watching them scream in pain brings him joy. But the majority of younger goblins are drawn with features no less cute or normal than the human and elven adventurers. If it weren't for Nog's and Gubble's skin tone and Cute Little Fangs, there would be no reason to believe that they look that different from the people around them.
• Inner Thoughts, Outsider Puzzlement: Pip and the System are completely imperceptible to everyone other than Nog. So anytime Nog is speaking to Pip he looks like he's Talking to Themself. He also pushes buttons where there are none to anyone else and cheers about the progress he's had in leveling up to the confusion of everyone else.
• In the Hood: Nog and Gubble hide their goblin ears and skin tone by wearing heavy coats with hoods and gloves along with a mask to cover their faces. Given that all of this gear used to belong to actual adventurers, the disguise works aside from Nog and Gubble not acting the part of "gnomes" well due to living in Linwood Forest all their lives.
• Item Crafting: Normally things like potions need to be made through a process, as a potion-maker is shown stirring a bubbling pot in which she presumably creates her wares. But Nog is able to produce potions instantly by combining the materials via his player interface so long as he has the recipe. He can recreate his own inventions as well as cook food with this process too.
• It's Personal: The fight between Tyros and Nog devolves into this because they both killed one another's best friend.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Nog is an inventor at heart who tries to create various gadgets to help him and his brethren survive the forest and escape adventurers out to hunt them. But he's belittled by his burlier (and often dumber) fellows for hoping that it's at all possible to make peace with adventurers and for suggesting any tactics other than a Zerg Rush.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Aria throws herself into the middle of a pack of dire wolves to try to impress Tyros. But after taking a few out she's quickly surrounded and has to be rescued by Tyros, Nog, Gubble, and Lora.
  Tyros: [annoyed] Don't run in alone. Why do you think we have a party here?
• Literal Disarming: Upon becoming an Onare Goblin, Nog becomes capable of amputating his arm at will and still controlling it.
• Literally Shattered Lives: One depiction of the conflict between goblins and adventurers shows a goblin getting frozen by magic before being shattered to pieces by another adventurer with a flaming sword.
• Magical Barefooter: Lora is initially one. After the two-month time skip, she gains an outfit with shoes.
• Magic Potion: Aside from Healing Potions, Kuara the potion-maker explains that other potions like attack-boosting Status Buff potions exist.
• The Millstone: Nog purposefully messes up Goliath's attempts to capture and kill goblins after getting himself into Goliath's party, excusing himself as The Ditz and a clumsy noob.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: The Guardian of Linwood Forest is a tarasque-like beast with the body and head of a lion, the legs and underbelly of a bear, the shell of a tortoise, a thick, spiked tail and a jewel embedded in its forehead. It's a "C-Rank" monster capable of killing most adventurers in Mulros Town and the forest's protector and deterrent.
• Mooks: Goblins are considered some of the weakest monsters in Linwood Forest. But their body parts and linens are valuable for crafting commodities sold in Mulros Town, so adventurers hunt them regularly to get paid. Nog's exposition features adventurers killing goblins in droves.
• Ms. Fanservice: Kuara, the owner of a potion shop, is introduced with her rear to the viewer in one panel and her sizable breasts in the center of the next panel. Her Sexy Slit Dress also has an Impossibly-Low Neckline to show off her shoulders and cleavage while also providing Leg Focus.
• Oh, My Gods!: Nog swears by "Gremlins" in many cases where one would say Oh, Crap! or "Holy crap!" (i.e. Gremlins... Holy Gremlins!). This is in contrast to the adventurers who use more familiar swear phrases. He also says, "What in Ragoth" in place of "What in God's name", in which Ragoth is a deity worshiped by the goblins.
• Playing with Fire: Tyros has the ability to light his sword on fire and sending it forth as a firestorm powerful enough to instantly incinerate a horde of slimes with ease. Another, unnamed adventurer tries to kill Nog with a flurry of fireballs that Nog narrowly escapes with Accelerate.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Nog and Gubble wear blue and pink shirts respectively, marking them as a boy and a girl. This extends to their adventurer's outfits, as Nog and Gubble wear similar hooded coats that are the same color as their usual goblin linens.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Gubble is about the same size as Nog, who is half the height of human adventurers like Tyros. Yet she's able to shatter stone tile with nothing more than a pair of oversized gauntlets to protect her hands.
• Power at a Price: Tyros gains the ability to tap into the power of the monster sealed within his sword at the cost of his soul burning from the flames.
• Power Fist: Gubble fights with a pair of enormous gauntlets from the village's hoard of fallen adventurers' things. She's able to shatter stone tiles with a single punch while wearing them.
• Rank Inflation: Items, adventurers, monsters, and quests seem to be rated on a level system. The most basic items like Nog's dagger are an F-Rank. Meanwhile, adventurers and monsters as strong as Tyros are given a C-Rank. Tyros' sword, Radiant, is also a C-Rank item and is nearly five times more damaging than Nog's dagger.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Guild Master. When Nog goes on a rampage, he directs him towards Tyros rather than let him randomly attack everyone else. And when Nog falls unconscious and the other Red Ravens defend him, he stops Tyros from trying to finish him off.
• Revenge by Proxy: One of Tyro's reasons for murdering Gubble is to get revenge on Nog for murdering Goliath in self-defense. Since the primary target of Tyro's rage wasn't present, he settled for hurting someone close to said target.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Nog, goes on a rampage after Gubble dies in an attempt to get rid of Tyros. And at this point he's easily strong enough that everyone in his way ends up unconscious in very short order, only spared from death because he's aiming for one person in particular.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The setting seems to run on the logic of an MMORPG, with HP, stat points, skills, and magic. However, only Nog (and any other potential players who exist) are able to directly see and interact with these RPG elements.
• Schmuck Bait:
  • Gubble comes up with the idea of luring an adventurer into one of Nog's traps with a doll wearing some of their linens, reasoning that adventurers are always collecting these linens. Nog is skeptical, but Hugo wanders right into the Heavens Snatcher because of a daily quest for goblin linens.
  • Goblins love hoarding treasure and are drawn to sweet things. Goliath and his party purposefully place these out to draw unwary goblins out of hiding and kill them.
• Servile Snarker: Pip is obligated to answer all of Nog's questions about the System, but often feels the need to mock Nog when he asks about things that would be common sense to the readers who've likely played a lot of video games. He flatly says that Nog will die if his HP hits zero, ribs Nog for having such a low strength stat that Stat Grinding is a viable option for him, and employs Brutal Honesty in his explanations.
  Nog: You're starting to get an attitude, you know.
• Shout-Out: The cover art of Episode 6 is very clearly a reference to a similar picture from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Not-so coincidentally, Nog and Gubble fight a horde of blue slimes that are nearly identical in appearance to Rimuru's slime body in the same episode. The artist even asks the reader if they get the reference in the author's notes.
• Stat Grinding: Aside from investing attribute points, Nog can increase some of his stats simply by doing things like working out to increase his strength. This has diminishing returns based on how high Nog's stats currently are.
• Stat-O-Vision: The Analyze skill allows Nog to view the stats and properties of himself, other people, and items he encounters. However, it needs to be leveled up like any other skill and it will show an error message if it hasn't been leveled up enough while trying to view a more powerful person or item. It also acts like Aura Vision, letting him pick out Gubble amidst as a crowd of other goblins from the aura she's giving off. After leveling it up once, Nog learns that he can use it for looking for hidden things like covered tracks.
• Stealing the Credit: Goliath takes the credit for killing the Guardian of Linwood Forest after Gubble takes Nog back to Rektoros to recover, slicing off the Guardian's tail to take it back to Mulros Town as "proof" of his feat. Nog has no interest in proving otherwise, claiming that he simply outran it. Tyros is skeptical but says he looks forward to seeing Goliath's skills on their next quest together.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Tyros has all the makings of one as a brave, kind, and powerful adventurer with flaming red hair and a unique golden sword along with devastating Playing with Fire powers. His strength makes him the talk of the Red Ravens and the first one Edward runs to when he, Lora, and Aria are being overwhelmed.
• Stress Vomit: After discovering that some adventurers kill goblins purely for sport, Nog flees to vomit in an alleyway. He does it again when he learns that all monsters like him are treated as nothing more than potential sources of ingredients for human conveniences.
• Sudden Game Interface: Pip enters Nog's body following Hugo's death, resulting in "the System" appearing before Nog as a Holographic Terminal. Unlike many examples of this trope, Nog is a goblin from a fantasy world with no context on what it is or how to operate it. He relies heavily on Pip to explain the workings of the System to him and doesn't register it as a "game interface" at all. With it, he's able to gain new powers, invest attribute points he's earned to boost his abilities, access a Hammerspace inventory, and view the attributes of others via Stat-O-Vision.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Nog and Gubble are mistaken for gnomes thanks to a thorough disguise that covers their skin, faces, and ears. When Lora and Aria call them such, Nog and Gubble just role with it and call themselves gnome adventurers to blend in.
• Talking to Themself: Since Pip and the player interface are imperceptible to everyone but Nog, everyone thinks he's talking to himself when he and Pip are having a conversation.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Nog is left to face the Guardian of Linwood Forest alone, he asks Pip if he has a chance of winning. Pip flatly tells him that Nog has probably forfeited his life by picking this fight. Nog replies that it's a shame,
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Despite not showcasing any prior experience with throwing weapons, Nog manages to toss some daggers he kept in his inventory into the sides of the Forest Guardian.
• To Be a Master: Tyros's goal is to become the strongest adventurer alive. This makes him a Challenge Seeker eager to test himself against tougher and tougher monsters rather than sticking to weaker monsters like goblins and dire wolves to make a profit. This desire is so strong that he's willing to fight a nigh-suicidal battle against the Lord of Eadeclease Mountains above Nog's objections.
• Too Dumb to Live: Gubble successfully lures Hugo into Nog's trap by leaving a doll dressed in goblin linens. Hugo is too busy staring at his daily quest objectives to check his vicinity and make sure it's safe, resulting in his capture. He's quickly Bound and Gagged and suspended over Spikes of Doom. Despite his precarious situation, he decides to double down on his Fantastic Racism rather than cooperate, resulting in Nog making a death threat that Gubble mistakes for an actual execution order. Had Hugo not been so full of himself, he would have lived.
• Torso with a View: One of the goblins killed in the adventurer attack in the first episode is a larger goblin who has a large hole in his chest, presumably from being run through with a spear.
• Treasure Room: The goblins of Rektoros have a cave in which they hoard treasure looted from the bodies of fallen adventurers. Nog and Gubble swipe some gear from this hoard in order to disguise themselves as adventurers.
• Undignified Death: After being suspended over a spiked pit, Hugo refuses to believe that mere goblins could understand anything about being an adventurer. That's when Gubble misintreprets a death threat from Nog as a go ahead to drop Hugo into the pit. Hugo spends his last moments realizing that he's going to die to the "simple-minded" goblins he looked down upon. There's a single panel of him crying Tears of Fear as he drops helplessly into the pit.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Goblins are treated no better than wild game to hunt for supplies and sport by adventurers. Hugo says there's no way a "simple-minded goblin" would understand the adventurer profession. Even kind adventurers like Tyros, Lora, and Aria think nothing about killing goblins as part of their job, while others like Goliath take sadistic pleasure in doing so even though the goblins are clearly sapient enough to hold conversations and dialogue. After visiting a potion shop, Nog realizes that all monsters are treated as nothing more than potential ingredients to be made into clothes, medicine, food, or other commodities.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Nog leaves the safety of his village to find a way for adventurers and goblins can live in peace even though they've been fighting and killing each other for centuries. He's horrified when to learn that goblin body parts and linens are used to make commodities as part of Mulros Town's economy. He also struggles to comprehend how some adventurers kill goblins solely because they enjoy it. Despite this, he continues to cling to his dream of making peace between adventurers and goblins possible.
• You Can't Go Home Again: The goblin elder of Nog's village banishes Nog from Rektoros for "playing adventurer" and trying to find a way for adventurers to goblins to live in peace, endangering his own kind in the process.
• You Didn't Ask: Nog complains that Pip could have told him that he could use Analyze to find hidden monster tracks before his party split up to look for Gummo the Great Boar. While we don't see Pip's side of the conversation as the perspective flips to Gubble's in the next panel, Nog's frustration and need to take a deep breath implies that this was Pip's response.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Nog and Gubble accidentally kill Hugo when Gubble takes a death threat Nog makes as a go ahead to cut the snare keeping Hugo suspended over a spike pit. When Nog descends into the pit to retrieve Hugo's corpse, Pip emerges and enters Nog, making Nog a new "player" with access to the System.
• Zerg Rush:
  • The only tactics the goblins use against adventurers is to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. While most younger, smaller goblins are small-pickings for an adventurer, they can still try to bite fingers off while the bigger, stronger goblins punch adventurers in the face. This is aided by how quickly goblins reproduce, as Gubble has more than three hundred brothers and can't even remember which ones died recently.
  • The slimes encountered in Episode 5 and 6 wouldn't be too much of a threat on their own, but they overwhelm Aria, Lora, and Edward with sheer numbers, battering them with tackling attacks hard enough to break ribs from every direction.

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