Kane the Goblin

Let me put it this way. I started as a seventeen-year-old boy from Houston, Texas, in the United States of America. My life wasn't the easiest and the best choices that I could make at the time provided a comfortable life for me but ultimately got me killed.

Not that surprising, really. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I died without resentment, and even then, I was given another shot at life. I reincarnated as a student in an International High School located in the New Imperial Republic of Japan. Somehow, I was later summoned to another world along with my classmates during a class trip to Sri Lanka.

It's really complicated and tiring to explain. I barely understood it myself, but the story, in a nutshell, is that I became a Hero in the world of Atoria, a continent in the Cosmic Sea rich with swords, magic, and wonders of various magnitudes.

Life in Atoria was easy on me, as I wasn't an idiot like my classmates. They gave in to the whole hero thing the moment we were summoned and swore allegiance to our summoners. Naturally, our summoners were the Royals. My peers willingly told our summoners about their statuses and job classifications in exchange for preferential treatment.

On the other hand, a slum-raised reincarnate like me knew the value of secrets and deceptions. After a year of training and being kicked out of the Hero Alliance due to the belief that I held a Tier 1 system 'Tracker system,' I joined the Adventure Guild in the kingdom of my summoner's enemy, the Kingdom of the Moon.

I quickly rose in the ranks, but I had no idea that my deception would lead to my ill fate. On a spring day, I had returned from a monster-hunting contract to collect my reward when the Guild Master personally gave me a contract to track a group of villagers kidnapped by goblins.

Let me explain why this is odd. To begin, Goblins kidnap women, and if men are kidnapped, that means these goblins belong to a clan or larger group and not a nomad party. Nomad parties are usually entirely male as males are the dominant sex in the Goblin race.

Clans are large enough to have a balanced male-to-female ratio. But clans are hard to find and rarely last due to infighting. For a clan to last means, they have a terrifying leader. But then again, the world's races slay Goblins and rarely take the time to study them or their culture.

Second, there were no reported deaths or goblin attacks ever recorded in the incident area. So either the clan recently appeared or had been quiet for a long time. Either way, I couldn't refuse because the reward was excellent, and I had to break through to the mid-levels before the Dragon Hunt a year from then. I'll tell you more about that later.

Taking the contract from the Guild Master, I investigated the village and tracked the captives to a small camp of goblins and found that my speculations were completely wrong as the kidnappers weren't a clan but weren't nomads either.

I saw humans dead, dissected and strapped to the middle of magic circles when I arrived. I didn't care what had happened and just preceded to kill to save who I could. But I never expected a high-level shaman who was a soul master.

In this world, Soul Masters are the equivalent of Necromancers. All the same functions but extremely rare as the cultivation of a soul master required a lot of life and death adventures and resources that even a kingdom isn't willing to put out.

I could only assume that this goblin was a natural talent. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by corpse goblins and live ones. I was then overrun and found myself in the middle of a magic circle with the villagers. Unlike them, I didn't cry out or struggle. Having faced death before, I knew such things were useless.

The circle soon shined brightly as my soul was ripped from my body and placed in a low-level goblin. The Soul Master then abandoned his body and took mine. How fucked up, right? Why couldn't I have pretended to be something else? Who knew tracking jobs would lead to body snatching Goblins.

All I wanted was to mislead people to separate myself from my summoners. When I joined the guild, I learned that every summon is registered along with their reported system. Naturally, I was labeled a tracker but had the freedom to choose my own jobs. During this time, I actually avoided tracking contracts. And the first one I decide to take gets me killed. How pathetic. But it wasn't over, not in the slightest.

[Hard System Reset. Vessel Transfer. Body Assimilaitaion….100%... 'God of Adventure System' initiating.

Kane Forrest, welcome back. Your body was snatched by a Goblin Soul Master. Would you like to continue as a level 4 Cave Goblin?]

'Yes.' I replied.

I understood my system thoroughly. No matter what creature I was, I would not be simple as long as I had the system. And this time, as a Goblin, I could be as free and unruly as I pleased. I could grow without a shadow and establish a better foundation than my last vessel.

[Beginner quest… 'Fake Death' Erase all evidence of today's events. Reward: Fresh start and survival]

'Pretty lame rewards. But whatever.' I sighed.

Looking over at the Shaman and the goblins that snatched human bodies, I allowed them to celebrate before clasping my hands together. I had spent years in my original body and cultivated to level 49. To think I wouldn't have a soul mark on my vessel showed goblin idiocy in all its glory.

My hands formed three consecutive hand seals, and my original body exploded, taking the possessed villagers with it. The cave shook, and rocks fell from the ceiling until the exit was sealed off, and I lay in darkness.

Yes, this is a story of a hero trapped in the body of a Cave Goblin trying to fight his way to the top of the world for glory, booze, women, and pet beasts that can topple continents simply because they're cool. My system is called 'God of Adventure,' and I plan to become just that.