The goblins danced and celebrated in front of me as I sat upon a crudely carved rock throne, gnashing my teeth in frustration. These goblins were all so skinny, eating merely boiled scraps with berries and leaves, and yet I signed up for this.

My expectations had been shattered. I had seen Yantago, I knew he was a weird-looking fellow, but I would have never guessed that someone with a body like a jewel would be the god of these ugly, yellow creatures. And the fact he was wearing a loincloth was a dead giveaway that these goblins were primitive beings. Being a king! Of course, such a thing would be too good to be true. To think that after a lifetime of careful corporate and political manoeuvring, I had become a naive and gullible old man.

If I could have fled this place I would have, but these creatures were my best chance of survival, a single weak individual was always far more vulnerable than a whole pack of them. I sunk my head into the palm of my hand. I had to deal with these savages to survive. My mood soured as I looked at the wild crowd. I had signed up for this, and now it was my responsibility to see this tribe to the end.

"I was promised to be a king. I will become one no matter what!" I roared in my mind.

An old goblin wearing tattered wolf pelts like a robe approached me. “My chief.” He kneeled. “I am Voglo, Shaman of this tribe, and advisor to the previous chieftain.”

I raised my eyebrow. “What happened to the previous chieftain?” I asked.

“He was killed in a raid by the Bloody Bones tribe,” he said solemnly.

I was slightly perturbed by the name of the enemy. “How many goblins do they have?”

He paused to think. “I’m not sure, but they number in the hundreds.”

I gestured to the crowd. “And us?”

“We are 42… 20 women and 22 men… No children.” He looked towards the crowd with grief.

I rubbed the temples of my skull. This was not good, in fact, it was absolutely terrible. An enemy force many times bigger than us? As an act of desperation, I mentally summoned the interface.

Interface Domain Due to your chieftain status, you can access this screen. Here, you can view your holdings, your population and other things which will be unlocked as your tribe grows in power. Holdings Small Cave Population 42 Military Squads None

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

How reassuring, it was not even a normal cave, but a small one. I squeezed the armrest of my poorly carved stone throne in frustration. I had not the slightest idea from where to even start. I was currently level 1, I could not go outside and start hunting and killing things. These goblins were nearly naked, only wearing loincloths and rags, nor did they have armour or weapons.

“Voglo, tell me what are you capable of,” I turned to the seemingly only capable individual in the tribe.

“Great Champion, I am merely level 9. I have an affinity for Nature Magic, I can cast [Entwining Vines], [Thorny Javelin], [Preach], [Ritual], [Shamanic Concoctions], [Gem Appraisal] and [Herbalism].”

Alright, this goblin could fight a bit, and can make potions I assumed? That was not bad at all. My frown relaxed slightly.

“Tell me Volgo, you are level 9, which means you have no class, right? Does anyone here have a class? Do they have any useful skills? Any warriors? Artisans? Anything?” I desperately crossed my fingers.

Voglo looked upon my gesture in confusion and copied it. “Well my Chief, I admittedly do not have the [Shaman] class yet, but I have the most qualifications for being this tribe's Shaman." He stroked his beard pridefully, before returning to his slightly melancholic demeanour.

"We are a motley crew, most of our warriors died in combat. We have 3 goblins aiming to be [Clubmen], but their skills are at [Novice] level. We also have 6 hunters, 3 of which have [Initiate] skills and 1 has one that is [Budding]. The rest do not have specialities. No one has a class yet, I am unsure of everyone's levels but I suppose the average level of our tribe would be 3 or 4,” he explained.

I sucked in the air through my teeth and then blew it out in an attempt to futilely dissipate my frustration. Barely half of our people had any fighting capacity. The rest couldn't do anything. I needed to kick these layabouts into high gear.

“Right then, tell me about our surroundings? Are we in a safe area? Where are our enemies?” I attacked the shaman with a barrage of questions.

“We fled far from our goblin rivals, we are nearly 3 weeks away from them. We are in a forest that is close to human territory, merchants often pass through a nearby valley, we have also found human tracks nearby recently. And there is the occasional beast and monster. In terms of available resources, there is a nearby brook filled with fish, and the forest provides a bounty of things to gather and hunt.”

In other words, we were surrounded. We might have been able to outsmart a bear, but a human? A definite no. I certainly couldn't escape either. Luckily, it seemed as if we wouldn't starve right away.

“Can anyone here use magic?” I asked with a shred of hope in my voice.

The shaman shook his head. “Magic is a gift, none of these goblins was born with it. It is very rare in goblins to have magic, it is much more common in humans. But these goblins still have their gem slots unused, if we can find some gems, we could strengthen our forces.”

I did note that these goblins had fairly juvenile features, although Voglo said there were no children, I assumed these were like teenagers. I died old and I had no patience for the youth.

As I swept my gaze across this group, I noted one goblin standing in the corner, and I saw a faint dribble going down the wall.

My rage swelled and my vision turned red. “Sapphire Spear!” I cried out. Instantly, a blue crystalline sphere manifested. And without a second thought, I chucked it at the urinating goblin. This magic came intuitively to me, I did not even have to think about what I wanted to do.

I didn’t try to aim so I missed wildly, but it was enough for that insolent goblin to scramble to the ground and run out the hall, screaming wildly. A hush fell in the room, as the blue spear faded away into nothing, leaving a deep hole in the cave floor.

“Enough! Are you planning on defecating in your own beds too?! You bloody beasts!” I yelled into the crowd. Some goblins hobbled up together and quivered together.

I quickly calmed down and stared at the group. I didn’t know what to do with them, and I was slightly embarrassed by my tantrum. “Everyone is dismissed. I need to discuss further with Voglo.”

Slowly the goblins left the room and went into some other part of the cave, Voglo remained next to me. He was quiet and had a neutral face. He didn’t react at all to my outburst.