After a hearty dinner of badly cooked meat, the three of us tried to get a few hours of sleep. I tossed and turned for a while.

I was tired, or as tired as I got after barely a day in this world, but I just couldn’t switch off. I was excited and nervous in equal amounts about arriving at the island.

The quest: The Goblin King Coronation was a silver ranked one. I hardly knew what that meant but considering my disastrous sparring session with my silver ranked mentor, it was certain to be a challenge.

I’d spent hours upon hours training my body and working on my bow skills. I’d even managed to level up my Bow skill and upgrade my marksmanship skill from Novice to Apprentice Bowman. Still, as I looked over my stats, I wasn’t sure it would be enough.

Status Sheet:

Name: Kaleb Akabane

Race: Outworlder

Class: Apex Predator (unique)

Adventurer Rank: Temp

Level: 9

Map Pieces 2/10,000

HP: 106/101 (106)

Stamina: 139/139

Strength: 89

Agility: 39

Perception: 35

Vitality: 51 (56)

Intelligence: 16

Personal Skills: Speak English Damnit!, Eat Anything

Class Skills (Passive) Skills: Bow (lvl 6), Apprentice Bowman, Dagger (lvl 4), Acid Dhampir Dagger, Acid Arrows, Environmental Hazzard

Blessing: Blessing of Wealth

Familiars: Panda (Daemon)

Admission: Pentagram [Right hand (Morningstar Hotel and Spa)]

Likely due to the guilt she felt over nearly killing me, Sally had given me free potions all day which meant I would be starting fresh on arrival.

I was oddly excited. The training had been hard but also kind of rewarding. I’d never really worked for anything back on earth.

Not because I lacked ambition, but because the world was a boring place to me. I loved my wife and had a great time with her and my friends and family. But work? No thanks, it was just a paycheck.

Eventually my brain ran out of things to think about and I managed to drift into a mostly peaceful sleep.

I woke up a few hours later to Sally’s ham fist rapping on the door. It was finally time to disembark.

I hopped out of bed, full of adrenaline for the day ahead and walked out onto the deck of the ship.

We had already landed. Sally must have seen to that whilst I slept. She was stood at the bow of the ship, staring at the island ahead. Her long, silver hair billowed in the wind like a superhero’s cape.

I joined her, leaning against the ship as I too, looked out over the island.

We had landed on an idyllic looking beach. A tropical paradise, seemingly untouched by man. From the shore I could see out into a dense jungle, thankfully not a palm tree one this time.

In the distance I could just about make out a huge mountain, possibly a volcano. Something told me that would be our destination.

After a few moments of serenity as Sally and I stared off at the island. We were brought back to earth by Panda’s grumbling.

“I feel awful. Barely slept a wink last night.” He moaned as he softly padded his way towards us.

“We both know that’s not true. I could hear your snoring through the wall.” I replied.

It wasn’t a lie. He’d been sawing logs all night. How a cute little teddy bear could make a noise that unholy, I would never know.

“Listen up.” Sally said loudly, turning towards us with a steely look in her eyes. “This place is known as the Forbidden Isle.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“It’s home to countless squabbling goblin tribes. They’re usually so busy fighting petty turf wars that they don’t bother us, but that’s about to change.

“Like the quest said, it’s almost time for the goblin king coronation, an event that comes around once or twice a century. The last one happened before I was born so we only know what we know from the archives.

“The adventurers who have dealt with this in the past are either dead or so powerful they no longer give a shit. So it’s up to us.

“We’re going to fight our way through the jungle to reach our objective, that huge mountain in the distance.” She pointed towards the silhouette of the mountain. It was huge, nearly reaching the clouds themselves.

“This isn’t an easy task, even for me, so you need to be careful. Current marching orders and tactics are as follows.

“We engage only on my say so. I’ll take the front with Kaleb bringing up the rear as archery support. Panda you… do whatever the fuck it is you do.

“Preliminary reports from our scouts back in Havar suggest that the enemy levels should be quite low this close to shore, goblins don’t like water and their wars are usually over the land around the mountain.

“If I think you can handle it Kaleb, I’ll let you try to get some solo experience. Either way you stand to gain some serious levels here. So listen to me and I’ll get you home safely and with a heap of experience to boot.

“Any questions?”

I was so shocked by her sudden change in demeanour I stood dumbstruck for longer than was socially acceptable. It was as if she’d transformed from a boorish battle junkie to a five-star general at the drop of a hat.

I guess being silver rank was more about just power.

Eventually I shook my head. I was pretty sure she’d covered everything, more than I’d expected at least.

Panda raised his hand like a school child.

“What happens when we reach the mountain?”

“We do some recon, assess and devise a strategy.” Sally replied confidently.

“So in other words, you have no idea.”

Sally ignored him and jumped off the side of the ship. Not wanting to risk breaking my legs, I climbed down the rigging on the side and joined her on the beach.

Without a word she marched off into the jungle and I stuck close behind her.

There weren’t any trails as such, just a lot of foliage and tree cover. I hadn’t actually seen a goblin in this world, but if they were what I thought they were then they’d have a natural camouflage amidst all the greenery.

It didn’t take long before I got my first glimpse.

Sally put her hand in the air and I stopped, Panda bumped into the back of my leg.

She crouched down and beckoned me towards her with two fingers. She was in a bush and as I moved to join her the branches scratched at my skin.

She pointed two fingers to her eyes and then towards a small clearing in front of us.

A small green fellow in tattered brown rags was stood there. It was facing away from us and picking berries. Its head was bulbous with cauliflower ears like it had spent years in a boxing ring.

Its body was misshapen and out of proportion. The skin was hanging off in places, but tight around the joints and its bare feet were massively oversized with long, brown toenails.

I focused on it and a notification popped up.

You have discovered a new monster:

Goblin Gatherer

Goblins are one of the most well-known monsters in the known universe. It’s probably because they fuck like bunnies and spread like the clap.

Seriously, these guys are some of the stupidest and ugliest guys you’ll ever meet.

The Goblin Gatherer is one of the lowest in their convoluted hierarchy.

They do what it says on the tin, they gather. Fruits, discarded trash, dumpster babies. You name it, they’ll take it.

Don’t get too complacent though. All goblins are dangerous in their own right. They’re like a Viking horde minus the sex appeal.

I didn’t feel like the notification was overly helpful, but it did tell me one thing. This goblin was likely to be my best chance at a solo fight.

“Do you wanna take this one?” Sally whispered directly into my ear. It made me tingle a little bit.

I nodded to her and she gestured with an empty palm towards it.

I already knew what I wanted to do. Despite being low on the food chain, it was probably a higher level than me which meant I had a slim chance of one shotting it.

With that in mind, I summoned my bow and nocked an arrow. After all the training I’d done with the disks, a stationary and significantly larger target should be child’s play.

I aimed my shot and fired.

The arrow soared out of the bush and met its target with ease, embedding itself into the goblin’s left leg.

With a childlike yelp, it dropped to the floor. I stood and exited the bush, already nocking the next arrow to hopefully go for the kill shot.

I walked forward confidently and saw the goblin’s leg was bubbling. Its skin looked like the contents of a witch’s cauldron as it bubbled and popped, spraying blood and pus everywhere.

It smelled revolting, like burning vomit roasting on an open fire. I had to resist the urge to gag as I aimed my next shot at its face.

The goblin looked at me with fearful eyes and opened its mouth in a silent scream. Then, after less than a second, an ear shattering scream.

It was so loud birds flew out of nearby trees and my eardrums felt like they were going to burst.

I fired my shot quickly and its head lolled back unnaturally.

I’d killed it! A monster from a silver rank quest and I’d eliminated it solo.

You have defeated:

Goblin Gatherer (lvl 17)

Bonus experience awarded due to level disparity.

Level 17? That was quite high. It almost felt too easy, not that I was complaining. The notifications rolled in and my level jumped a fair few times.

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 10

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 11

…

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 14

Five levels from a single kill? That was brilliant. My stats must have skyrocketed, I’d need to decide where to put my free points later.

These were the first levels I’d gotten since I’d chosen my class and I immediately noticed something different. It seemed I no longer got +5 to HP and Stamina, my classes stat upgrades had replaced that function.

Not that I was disappointed, it was a worthwhile trade off as I gained a lot more per level now than I had before.

I was, however, a little disappointed I hadn’t gotten another skill. I was hoping I’d get one at level ten, but apparently not. I knew this wasn’t a video game, but I’d hoped there would be some semblance of order to the acquisition of skills.

I felt Sally’s hand on my shoulder as I congratulated myself.

“Good job Gonads, now get back in that bush. I’ll take it from here, you cover me.” She said hurriedly.

I was a little unsure what she thought was about to happen. Then I heard the horn blast sound through the forest.

I looked in the direction of the sound as a spear wielding goblin jumped out of the shrubbery.

He lifted his spear in the air and screamed.

I heard rustling as goblins came out of all the bushes around the clearing.

So much for going back to my bush.

We were surrounded.