He was fading in and out of consciousness, unable to tell if he was awake or asleep.

[Skill – Poison resistance 1 – activated]

[Poison is being nullified]

He could feel the poison running through his veins with each heartbeat. Ever so slowly, the poison seemed to be dissipating. His drowsiness was wearing off and he felt himself coming back in reality. Wearily he realised the skill he just acquired had saved his life.

His whole body hurt, with multiple bruises and lacerations as well as a steadily bleeding puncture wound in his arm. Brun had come over to him and was crouched over him, voicing his concerns.

“Brun come when he hear scream. Want to help. Utho, okay? Arm hurt,” he said, pointing a finger at the hole in his arm.

He was tempted to answer sarcastically that everything was fine and he felt great, but resisted at the last moment. There was always the chance that Brun might take his words seriously. Also, Brun had saved his life so a snarky response was in no way appropriate at this time.

He painfully showed Brun how to rip off a bit of clothing to make a bandage and bind the wound tightly. With Brun’s help they managed to stop the bleeding.

“Brun, thank you for coming back. If you hadn’t…I would have died,” he sighed. The goblin’s body was a major hindrance in combat, unable to fend off even a single spider even while wielding a weapon. “I let everyone down and one of us even got killed.”

“No, Utho amazing!” Brun shook his head in admiration. “No goblin ever fought spider before and won. Utho special, save us and fight back. Utho really amazing.”

The shining in Brun’s eyes made him feel incredibly guilty. He had his skills, battle experience and even a god’s blessing yet he still could not save his comrades. How could he fulfill his mission if he could not even complete this task?

He knew he would have to be stronger. Not only that, he would have to be wiser. And do this fast enough so that he could still be in a position to find his King’s assassin. In order to be able to complete that mission, he knew he would have to snoop around the palace for clues, to talk to the royalty, the staff and guests. For that he would need fame – enough to allow him entry into the palace as an esteemed guest, as status would give him entry into most areas of the palace grounds.

From his knowledge, there were only a few paths he could go down to achieve such fame. He could become a high priest performing miracles, a famous blacksmith making weapons for the king. Hell, even bards could get entry to the main halls during feasts if their songs made it all the way to the king’s ears.

However, none of these met all the requirements he needed: Strength, wisdom, information and attaining these requirements in a timely fashion. This, on top of fame, led him to the final conclusion, that he would need to become that.

A hero.

He was disgusted to even think of having to stoop to the level of a hero. As the captain of the elite knight guard, he had the responsibility to keep peace within the kingdom and to uphold the king’s justice.

But pesky aspiring heroes kept cropping up, doing whatever they pleased under the pretense of fighting for their own justice. While there were some adventurers that did indeed perform great feats of valor, most simply went around murdering left, right and centre. Bandits, animals and monsters – whatever they fancied as their target, they would blindly hack away without considering consequences. Nothing was off-limits.

Whenever a negative impact would come about from their deeds, they would ultimately leave the clean-up to the knights. A big waste of time and effort for the knights and to make matters worse, if innocent people were adversely affected these bastards would actually put blame on the knights. One example was a group of adventurers that hunted down a Mistmasked Lynx (an endangered species mind you) that was preying on some farmers’ livestock. They managed to kill the lynx but this allowed the local flock of Bloodfang Mice to overpopulate and invade the farmers’ fields instead. When confronted with this, they claimed that it was the knight’s fault for allowing the mice to live in that area in the first place.

This friction between the knights and adventurers had been an ongoing pain for him in his previous life. He never allowed the knights to retaliate since they were technically still law abiding citizens but their antics constantly infuriated both his soldiers and himself.

Absurdly, the commoners usually sided with the adventurers. He wasn’t sure why they would trust the word of some dirty adventurer against the esteemed royal knights. It was always the adventurers who would ruin things by their selfish actions and the knights who had to pick up after their mistakes.

All that aside, he had made his decision to become a hero. The best place to become one would of course be the town of adventurers, the most eastern city of the kingdom – Rossa. There, he would be able to join the Guild of Adventurers and rise up through the ranks to the point of being a hero.

Ah wait, isn’t there one more issue? …I’m a goddamn goblin, how the hell am I supposed to become a hero like this!

Rather than him being a hero, he most likely would be hunted down by a hero in this form. Somehow, he would need to be able to pass off as a human and that was a feat far easier said than done.

Hmm, perhaps I could somehow find a skill that would allow me to blend into human society? Maybe an illusion spell or something like that?

He shook his head, there was no point in worrying about all this now. First he needed to get his party back home safely before taking any actions of his own.

Together with Brun, they rounded up the rest of the goblins. They found the children halfway up a tree, whereupon the little female goblin squealed and launched herself at him.

“You found us! Waaah I was so scared,” she cried, choking out the words through her tears.

“There, there,” he said patting her head, “it’s all going to be alright.”

The female goblin was in a lot of pain but her life was not in danger, the vine already having been removed. Together with Brun, they carried her back to the village.

On the way, they encountered a solitary rabbit. Although he was tired and wanted to simply avoid the monster altogether, they young goblins wanted to prove themselves. After the shame of running away from combat, they decided to put their training to use and restore their pride as goblin warriors. They look at Utho with expectant eyes and he relented.

“Okay, but be careful you hear me,” he ordered.

“Yessir,” they agreed and crept up to the rabbit. They circled around it on either side, surrounding the rabbit.

“YAAAAAH,” they both screamed, jumping out from the bushes at the same time. The rabbit froze, trying to assess the threats coming from both sides. It decided to attack the female goblin and darted at her.

It was too easy for her. She sidestepped its leap and thwacked it in its back with her club with an overhand swing, instantly breaking its spine. She finished off the beast with a forceful *crack* directly between the ears, blood pooling on the pure white fur.

She was exceedingly happy with her success and crowed at the other goblin child who sulked unhappily. Utho couldn’t help but sigh in a combination of relief and exasperation. For such a precocious child, she is have a knack for violence and combat.

Packing the rabbit away, they reached the village without any other issues.

***

“You defeated a spider?” gaped the elder slack jawed, halfway through rebandaging his arm. For some reason he had a distinct sense of deja-vu.

The villagers had greeted them when they entered, tutting at their wounds and ushered the party straight to the great hall. There they were receiving proper treatment for their wounds. Although the children had received no wounds, the adults still ordered them to rest. Now they sat in a corner with their friends, recounting their tales with great enthusiasm.

He had received the worst wounds, with the female’s wounds being relatively shallow. He had a hole clean through his arm but fortunately it had not broken his bones. However, even with a goblins natural regeneration rate, it would take him almost a month to heal completely. It was lucky he was struck in his non-preferred hand or else he would be almost completely incapacitated.

That said, the goblins were awestruck at this news.

“Yes. Utho killed spider. Great hero,” Brun said proudly, thumping him solidly on the back. The fool didn’t know how to hold back.

The elder finished setting the sling for his arm and shook his head.

“Utho, the spider beasts in this forest are among the most fearsome of creatures. Greater than kobolds, serpants and even orcs. They grow to a monstrous size and can devour our kin whole. The fact that you defeated such a beast with your own hands is a true testament to your power. You must be the one to lead us, as our mighty warrior and chief!” the elder proclaimed, his old goblin eyes shining as much as old goblin eyes could.

The rest of the villagers, crammed into the great hall as well gave a great cheer.

“Our leader!”

“Our savior!”

“Our hero!”

He could feel pride swelling up within him. They were cheering him on. But he forcibly suppressed these feelings he was having. The goblins were perfectly happy that there was only one casualty on this venture but he was far from comfortable with their praise.

This accomplishment alone wasn’t worthy of praise given his past achievements. As a knight he’d fought of much more fearsome monsters than this, fought in several wars and completed far more dangerous quests.

“Listen, everyone, listen,” he said, as their enthusiasm slowly calmed down. “I cannot stay here. I have a dangerous mission that I must complete alone. It is of utmost importance and I must not delay on my journey.”

He saw their faces fall in unison, shocked by his sudden announcement and realizing that their chosen hero was leaving them. He did feel bad that he was departing so soon but he couldn’t delay. He already spent so long teaching them how to fend for themselves.

“Well young one,” the elder spoke after a moment of silence, “won’t you at least stay to heal your wounds first?”

“I can heal on the road elder, you don’t need to worry for my sake,” Utho assured him. He was confident with his own abilities in avoiding detection from monsters, when he wasn’t distracted by their cuteness of course. Even with a broken arm, his legs were in perfect condition and he had his skills.

Brun, although saddened, seemed to accept his decision. “If Utho must leave, then Utho can leave,” he confirmed solemnly. While he had Brun’s respect before, he was now an idol to Brun after their battle together. He seemed to have gained his complete and utter trust.

Much like the knights I used to command, he thought to himself sadly.

Having made his announcement however, he couldn’t simply leave like this. He needed to give these goblins hope and a way to keep their morale high.

“I know this is a sad time, but we all knew that I would have to leave eventually. That time has come much faster than we expected I guess. I’ve taught you how to defend yourselves. How to fight. Now you must learn to live on your own and make me proud,” he stated. The goblins were nodding, understanding his words but still unhappy.

“In time, when my quest is complete,” he continued, “I will return and I hope you’ll accept me as your chief then.”

Their expressions turned from depressed, to surprised. Then once they grasped the meaning behind his intentions, their expressions turned simply gleeful. They cheered, hugged and sobbed together.

He was surprised that they could be so emotional about such a small matter as one goblin’s presence but he supposed they had had a rough time living before he had arrived.

***

They celebrated that night, roasting the rabbit they had brought back. The goblins sat around the fire chatting and hollering through the night. The children ran amok but their parents didn’t mind as they felt as young and free as the children were. Their warrior wasn’t abandoning them. He was going to be their chief!

Before the hunt he hadn’t thought about what he’d do once he found the assassin. He was purely consumed by his task and gave no thought of the consequences afterwards, of what his life would entail after he achieved his goals. In all honesty, he had made the assumption that he’d reveal his identity as the disgraced knight revived as a goblin and they kingdom would naturally accept him back into their folds.

But he knew humans too well. They feared monsters, just as he had sought to crush them to fulfill his role as a knight. They would never be able to accept that the once strongest knight in the realm was now some kind of small green monster. That was before he was reincarnated as a monster himself.

Although he found the goblins to be a barbaric and uncivilized bunch at the start, after spending time with them, listening to their thoughts and living in their community he found them to be quite endearing. The children were unruly and really not all that cute, but still acted like the way children normally do. The adults were unintelligent but they were reasonable and had their own aspirations.

He felt, given enough education and guidance, they could really live as a proper established race like the elves or dwarves. Maybe even create a town safe from the dangers of mindless beasts and creatures that threatened their lives on a daily basis.

He was jerked out of his deep reverie by a huge plate of rabbit thumped down in front of him by some goblins. They crowded around him once more, watching him with expectant eyes.

He obliged, grabbing the closest leg of rabbit and taking a big bite out of it.

And then yelling as he realised his mouth was filled with cockroaches. Oh no this meat is way too crunchy to be meat.

He was crying with abject terror as ten burly goblins pinned him down on the ground. The cheeky goblin brat knelt down to force feed him wiggling cockroaches from her spoon, held very tenderly so as to not drop even a single antennae.

The others roared gut wrenching laughter as they watched him squirming around with a mouth full of insects, furiously trying to yell in between mouthfuls of insect.

The elder was chortling merrily and even Brun was grinning from ear to ear (that traitor, help me goddamnit).

Only by using his skill [leap] did he manage to break free and stormed around the fire chasing the offending goblins. They scattered, leaving him standing there exasperated with a literal bitter taste in his mouth (I mean when you get past the legs, it’s not actually that bad).

When he calmed down, he allowed himself a little laugh. I suppose that’s a good a send-off as any, those rascals really pulled one on me huh.

He supposed life back here wouldn’t be so bad after he was done with his journey.