Kevin set off from the mountains on his own, with his father's help. Despite what she had said about letting him go, Agara could be a bit overprotective, and neither Kevin nor Parga believed that she would truly not meddle. As a result, Kevin had accepted one of the few minor enchanted rings that Parga had bothered to keep over the many years.

After being so powerful and living so long, ancient dragons, much less leaders like his Kevin’s parents, could acquire so many relics that unless an item was powerful enough to have made history or been featured in history in some way, they generally didn't bother keeping track of them. It was true that dragons often accumulated treasure, but magical items dumped on the floor under a pile of gold might as well be lost unless a dragon had a few years to go through their hoard again. However, this ring had been useful many times, even for a dragon as powerful as Parga.

The function of the ring was simple: it merely disrupted tracking spells and abilities for a few weeks until it would need to recharge again over about a year. While active, it also made any divinations or other search-style magic fuzzy.

Of course, Kevin would be setting out on foot, and if Agara really wanted to, she could probably fly in the skies above and attempt spotting him, but he didn't think she'd go quite that far. She was emotional and loving, not impulsive or stupid.

Using the ring was also a good way to prevent any near-future mishaps with his mother finding an excuse to visit him. However, his father had also insisted that he wear a medallion of dragonkind, symbolizing that he had the full support of the dragons on Arnel, this continent. The medallion proved his qualifications as a diplomat, was uniquely keyed to him, and could also be used as proof of nobility.

Kevin hadn't wanted to take it because it somewhat defeated his intention of seeing the world on his own if he had an enchanted object that could instantly be used to lord over others with status. But Parga had correctly pointed out that he would eventually need proof of his status as a diplomat. If he were to rely on paperwork, others might claim it was forged. Or if it got lost, the amulet would be an excellent backup. But if so, why not just take the amulet? On that note, Kevin had had to agree.

Now, he was walking through the wilderness at the base of the mountains.

Parga had flown him there on his massive back while his mother was gone, and although it felt a bit sneaky, and maybe even cheating a bit to fly on his father’s back, even just down the mountain, the situation probably did warrant it. Kevin truly regretted not being able to say goodbye properly to his mother, he also knew it was for the best.

He was wearing serviceable cargo pants, expertly made calfskin boots courtesy of Dwarven craftsmen, a tunic, a belt, a dagger—the usual dagger he wore—and a long sword. The long sword was on his back, under his pack, which would normally be a position impossible to draw from. However, he'd rigged up an ingenious sheath a couple of years ago that allowed him to draw the sword sideways after lifting it up a bit. This provided the perfect solution for conveniently carrying a weapon out of the way that would be appropriate for his size but also still let him deal with larger threats.

It was also a weapon he was an expert with.

In his first life on Earth, he'd been half Chamorro. And although he'd practiced martial arts, he hadn't really done much with edged weapons past the required bayonet training in U.S. Army basic training. But in his second life, he'd become a master of melee weapons. This past experience and his continued weapon training gave him options now.

He was at least ten miles away from the foot of the Dragon Mountains now, and he figured that this was as good a time as any to test his polymorph skills. He loosened his belt.

Kevin was not a dragon, which meant that he could not maintain his polymorph ability indefinitely–given enough food and energy–like his parents could. Of course, if they held a polymorphed form too long, they would have to eat almost non-stop just to keep the power for its continued use. Kevin didn't need to do that, not least of which because his size and stomach were so much smaller. But he also couldn't change into anything too large or too small. In fact, he only ever really used five forms total. The first was his original goblin form. The second was a large fish, something like a pike. This form had been fun to play with at first, but he didn't dare use it in the ocean. After all, there was always a bigger fish.

His third form he could take was that of a chipmunk. While this form had its uses, it could be dangerous too. The last two forms he could take were his appearance in his two previous lives where he’d been human.

When he practiced the sword and his other martial skills in the mountains, he switched between all three of his bipedal forms, and that was also why he’d settled on carrying a long sword. His forms were different sizes.

As a goblin, he was short and slight. His form on Earth had been about average height, but fit. As a knight, in his second life, he’d been tall, fair-haired, and muscular. In fact, he'd been one of the greatest knights in the land and considered relatively handsome.

Since he was not a dragon, Kevin could polymorph, but he couldn’t change or generate clothing–the best he could do was make it disappear. Three different sizes of bipedal bodies that all need clothing and equipment might normally be a problem, but he’d planned for that.

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The unicorn hair sewn into his cargo pants allowed it to expand to fit his larger sizes. Same with his boots. His other garments didn't expand and contract the same as his boots and pants did, but he decided long ago that the former were the most important articles of clothing that he wore. Luckily, his tunic was barely large enough to cover his larger frame.

After he’d changed to his blond human form, he tightened down his beltthen drew the long sword from his back. In his hand now, it was more like an arming sword with a long handle.

Then he willed himself to change into his first form, his body when he'd been on Earth, born on Guam. On earth, his father had been half black, half white. Kevin’s appearance had been sort of racially ambiguous, and at average height, he hadn’t stood out. But his training in the military had given him the body of a professional athlete, at least for a while.

Both of his polymorphed human forms seemed to be stuck right around the age of twenty-five. His dragon parents had explained it had something to do with self-image. As he improved his polymorph ability, one day he should be able to alter the ages of his two human forms as well.

Currently, unlike a real dragon, he could only keep up a polymorph for a few hours, a bit more if he was still or sleeping. He was glad that he would be able to disguise himself if he had to on this trip. Picking up more forms in the future would be extremely fun, but he hadn't had any success with others in the last five years since he mastered this power.

One of the many reasons he'd wanted to explore this world was to grow accustomed to more people and places. The way polymorph worked, it grew exponentially easier to polymorph into other forms if a dragon spent years studying them. It seemed to work the same for Kevin.

He’d had a pet chipmunk at one point, named Oliver.

With a smile, Kevin relaxed his ability and returned to his goblin form, which mostly looked the same as gobins in most pop culture back on Earth. But there were some differences. He was a dream goblin, and an atypical one at that. He didn’t conform to stereotypes in this world or any other.

One change from what he thought a “goblin” was in fantasy stories on earth, was that his his arms were not skinny.

However, unfortunately, the stereotype of goblins often being slow or dull could be true on this world. Goblins were barely above the rank of “monster” in many races eyes, and were lowest on the totem pole for thinking races. However, they were not considered weak, at least not as a group. Goblins were known to be highly acrobatic. Not only that, they had natural thick nails they could use as claws in a pinch, and their sharp teeth were not to be underestimated. All in all, Kevin didn't mind being a goblin at all. He found the new experience interesting.

It was strange to think about, but he had no idea if this was going to be his last life or if he'd be reincarnated again. Even so, if this was his last life, he wouldn't mind. The last twenty years had been excellent, just what he needed to rest his weary soul. And now that he was going to explore this world, he also had real freedom.

Walking in the forest gave him plenty of time to think. He didn’t usually dwell on the topic, but he allowed himself to think about something he’d long suspected, that his parents had done something to give him far longer than the average goblin lifespan. At this point, it was all but confirmed.

He stopped at a stream to top off his water bottles and felt grateful for his hardy goblin physique. Boiling water would never be a necessary chore for him. His immune system was absolutely excellent. Kevin stood and began walking again, making relatively slow progress through the forest since there was no trail. He did have some skill in traversing the wild forest like this, but he was also allowing himself to take it easy. This was the first day of his journey, after all. And if his mother actually did come after him in person, an extra mile or two wouldn’t matter.

There was no point in stressing or hurrying.

The wild part of him, the impatient part, was tempted to turn into a chipmunk and race ahead. If he did that, he was confident that his very un-chipmunk-like endurance would allow him to move much faster. But there were lots of things in this forest that ate chipmunks. And there were lots of monsters that ate the things that ate chipmunks. It was only a matter of time until he ran into something like that, and he'd much rather do so in his natural form, not as a rodent. It could take precious moments to change forms, too.

Maybe he’d experiment traveling while polymorphed later, but not now.

Thinking about his limited polymorph ability, Kevin still didn't completely understand why his clothing didn't change when he polymorphed into a human, but disappeared when he turned into an animal. His parents hadn't known either. For them, they could freely control their polymorph–clothing and all; they could even generate mundane objects like packs and staves out of nothing, it seemed. Kevin wasn't quite so lucky, or nearly as powerful.

He spotted smoke on the horizon, the closest village to the Dragon Mountains, and steered clear of it. There was no point in leaving his parents' cave just to stop at the closest village nearby. He came close, though, because monsters tended to avoid villages unless something had them riled up or they were starving…or if they were completely evil, but those types weren't allowed to live anywhere near the dragon range. They generally showed their true colors eventually and one of the other nearby dragons would terminate them.

Now he could smell some cooking on the wind. Kevin grunted in disappointment and took some travel rations out of his pack. They were nutrient-dense, gifts from dwarves years ago, shelf-stable for at least a decade, and for travel rations, they were pretty good. But compared to whatever was cooking, they came up far short. He grinned as he took another bite, and thought, I've lived multiple lives where I was born poor. This is the first time I came from money or power, and my parents aren't even human. The thought amused him, and he chuckled as he walked.

He only caught glimpses of monsters a few times, but curiously, none of them attacked or even came close. It wasn't until almost the end of the night that he realized they might actually be running away. A mid-sized spiderwolf had its tail between its legs when he caught a glimpse of it at a full sprint. Kevin shrugged. He could think of two possibilities. One was that the monster somehow sensed or could smell that he was the progeny of dragons. The second was just as likely that they could sense the power of his soul. Although Kevin didn't know any magic yet, he did know that he had an abnormally powerful soul. Each of his lives had likely influenced it. His powerful soul was part of how he'd been able to learn dragon life skills in the first place, which used the soul as power instead of mana.

A day of traveling passed without incident.

When it was time to come to a stop, he polymorphed into his chipmunk form and found a handy hollow in a tree to curl up in and sleep. This was about as safe as he was going to get. Snakes weren't usually active at night, and even if they were, he was confident that he could wake and defend himself from a mundane snake.

Monsters in this area didn't climb trees and wouldn't be interested in a chipmunk anyway, at least from a distance. And he was too deep in the hollow for an owl to bother him. Sleeping like this, not thinking or taking any action, his polymorph ability would last longer before he'd need to recharge for a time. This was one of the many abilities his mother knew he had, abilities that had forced her to admit he should be fine on his own.

Kevin fell asleep thinking about how handy it would have been to turn himself into a chipmunk back during his second life, especially when he'd been in exile and even a wanted man at one point. He fell asleep with troubled dreams of the past.