"What?" Jake thought, dumbfounded at this interruption to his thoughts.

Welcome to Aetherforge, Voyager. To begin, please select a name.

The text appeared directly in front of Jake's face, blurring his central vision around it. He stared at the text in bewilderment, trying to look around it and praying it disappeared. This unasked-for interruption almost cleared his mind of his new form. Jake looked at the text again, a comprehending thought happening in his head. This was like the first screen of a video game.

"Jake," he said in a questioning tone. "My name is Jake."

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Name: Jake

Race: Goblin

Alignment: Voyager

Class: Unspecified

Category: Zero

Level: Zero

Attributes:

Strength: 4

Dexterity: 3

Constitution: 3

Intelligence:7

Wisdom: 5

Charisma: 5

Racial Abilities: Unavailable, power level inadequate.

Class Powers: Unavailable, no class selected.

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Jake's eyes widened in surprise. This unusual place he found himself seemed to be just like a video game. There was so much to comprehend as the voice spoke and words rolled down in his field of view. There was the unfortunate confirmation that his race was goblin. He tried to put that fact out of his mind for the time being and focus on the pertinent things from the text in front of his face. "Almost a character sheet," Jake thought with a chuckle. His alignment was Voyager, whatever that meant. He postulated that it pertained to how he arrived in this forest and became a goblin. "Unspecified class," he said to himself. He wondered why that was. "Class description?" he tentatively asked the world around him.

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Class

A categorical title shaped by a user's journey and evolution. Common classes include warrior, stealth, mage, and healer. Class powers will be revealed as class progression is made. Classes are determined by progression of skills and will become available when a threshold is met. Class rarity level: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Scarce, Unique.

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"Okay," Jake thought. He mulled over the information he was provided, surprised that the system had responded to the prompting. It made sense that he did not have an assigned class. He had just arrived in this place, this new world. He hoped that he would be able to obtain a class soon as it seemed that there were benefits, such as the class powers mentioned later in the text.

His current category and level were both zero. Jake guessed this was because he had just gotten there, and no progress had been made. He found himself slightly disappointed that he wasn't even level one, but he didn't know anything about this world, and guessed he couldn't be too upset. He continued looking down towards his attributes.

For the most part, his statistics seemed like what would be expected from a low-level goblin. He was surprised to see his intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores at five or higher. Weren't goblins supposed to be weak and unintelligent monsters, just easy kills for new adventurers? While his physical attributes were weak, his mental attributes seemed strong. A seven in intelligence seemed very high for his level, at least based on the premise that attributes were on a one to ten range. He speculated about his impossible situation, thinking about his intelligence score. Could it be due to his life as a human? A seven seemed more accurate for your average human. He reminded himself that this was all conjecture on his part, but maybe he kept his previous human baseline level for mental statistics, even though his physical attributes dropped to the level of the goblin he was now.

The next section on his character sheet, as he now liked to think of it, was racial abilities. Once again, there were currently none. This time, there was a stipulation of power level inadequate. Jake imagined this was due to the fact that his category and class were at zero.

Jake wondered what other abilities this interface was capable of. The text slowly faded from the center of his view. He was once again gazing out over the beautiful blue pond in front of him. He noticed two small bars in the periphery of his vision, previously unseen due to the obtrusive text taking up most of his visual field. The upper bar was a light blue while the lower bar was a bright lime green. He focused on the bars and somehow inherently knew what they were for, as if he had known all along. The blue bar was mana and the green bar was health.

"Mana?" he asked himself. "Does this mean I can use magic?"

Jake hoped for another response from the system, but all he heard was the breeze rustling through the deep woods around him. He pondered the interface, shocked at how similar it was to a video game.

"Inventory?" he asked, hoping for a response from the system this time.

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Inventory

Clothes: Goblin Starter Set

Weapons: Crude Steel Knife

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"Knife? What knife?"

As the thought played out in Jake's head, a small knife appeared in his hand. He looked down at it, surprised. It was a simple construction, the small steel blade inserted into the wooden handle, with light brown twine wrapped around the handle to act as a grip. He ran his olive-green thumb down the edge of the blade, drawing a prick of dark black blood. The blade was sharper than it looked. Jake thought about returning the blade to his inventory and it disappeared.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"That seems useful," he thought. "I wonder if there is a limit on storage space?"

Jake turned his attention to the clothes in his inventory, hoping the goblin starter set would be better than the clothes he arrived wearing. Maybe it would provide shoes. He thought about the starter set and suddenly found himself naked as the day he was born.

"What the hell?" he yelled out in shock.

He quickly pictured the clothes he had arrived in, and they reappeared. It seemed that these clothes were the starter set his inventory mentioned. He felt embarrassed at the outburst, even knowing there was no one there to see. "Other than this interface," he thought to himself with a small laugh.

Jake could not think of any other prompts he might be able to use to gain a response from the interface. He instead turned his attention to his surroundings. The sun had risen high into the sky over the time he had been exploring the facets of the interface he could interact with. He inspected the pond, realizing it stemmed from a small spring slightly uphill. He had clean drinking water. This seemed as good a spot as any to camp out until he had a better grasp of the strange world he found himself in. The pine straw underfoot would make for a comfortable enough place to sleep for now.

As he had a source of fresh water, he now needed to find food and shelter. He again thought back to camping trips with his father. His father was a successful business lawyer, so Jake and his family had always been comfortable growing up. The one time this was not the case was while camping. Jake’s father insisted that they take only the bare necessities and live off the land as much as possible. Jake had never loved these times, but there was a sense of accomplishment when catching dinner or starting a fire by hand.

He remembered the small animal trap his father taught him how to make. He knew he could make it but was unsure if he would be able to forage the materials from his surroundings. Jake started by collecting dry branches and scraps of wood from the forest in a small radius around his camp. He made sure not to stray too far as he did not want to get lost. As he picked up a scrap of wood, he noticed that the light-colored bark looked stringy and frayed around the edges.

He had had an idea. He tried peeling the bark away from the edges, but it was brittle and crumbled in his fingers. He looked around for the tree that this scrap had broken off of. A few yards away, he recognized the bark on a tall tree he hadn't noticed before. His small clearing was surrounded by pines, but this tree looked like a large oak, with the light-colored bark he found on the ground and extremely dark leaves, almost black in color.

Jake approached the tree, his knife appearing in his hand as he thought of it. He carefully cut long strips from the tree's bark. He was ecstatic with the results. The fresh bark from the tree had the same stringy texture as what he had found on the ground, but was flexible, supple, and best of all felt strong.

Jake walked back to his clearing with the natural string he found. He used his knife to cut holes in the wood he had foraged and formed a roughly shaped frame of a box. He tied the joints together with the string and surprised himself with the sturdy construction. Jake then used the string to make a mesh, covering the sides of the box, leaving one side clear. Jake then made the trigger mechanism. It was simple. One piece of wood hung down near the end of the cage the animal would walk towards. Another piece of wood was attached to the top of the cage, with a string attached to a swinging door. The animal would walk into the cage, brush past the trigger branch, causing the door to swing shut behind it.

"Or that's how it’s supposed to work," Jake mumbled to himself.

Stepping back, he admired his handiwork. Admittedly, it was not the best-looking trap he had seen, but he was proud, using the resources he had available to him. He then searched the surrounding area for any sign of small animals. He noticed a small patch of leafy green plants, with a strip of purple running down the middle of their leaves. They grew next to the stream bubbling out of exposed rock. He looked closer, seeing some of the leaves were missing and others had small bite marks taken out of them. This was his best shot. He found one plant, slightly apart from the rest. He put down his trap, the plant resting at the back of it past the trigger mechanism. He set up the mechanism and walked back to camp, hoping for a meal that evening.

Jake was not as confident in his skills when it came to building a shelter. The pine straw underfoot was soft, and he would not mind sleeping under the stars. His only worry was rain. After contemplating his options, he decided to make a simple shelter just in case it did rain. Jake went back over to his pile of foraged wood. He picked out the longer pieces and placed them in a semicircle around the widest tree he could find. He started looking for branches with a wide coverage of leaves. His small goblin stature was frustrating, as most of the suitable branches were out of reach. He had to travel further from his camp than he would have liked to find what he needed. Eventually, he returned, with a number of branches that met his needs, some full of pine needles and others branches from the odd-looking oak tree. He laid out the branches over his temporary shelter and was satisfied that they would at least block most of the rain.

The sun was beginning to set, and a cool early evening breeze blew over Jake as he sat near the pond.

"I need a fire," he admonished himself. "How could I forget that?"

Jake had most of the supplies he would need. The pine needles would make for good tinder, to get the fire started. He still had leftover wood from his earlier projects, enough for a fire for the night. He cleared a section of the pine straw from the ground, not wanting the fire to spread and become a forest fire. He found some large rocks near the pond, carried them to the camp, and set them up in a circle to contain the fire. He set up some branches in a pyramid formation and placed a few handfuls of pine needles underneath.

Jake needed a way to start the fire. He remembered his knife, and how his father had used flint and steel to start similar fires. He knew it was unlikely that he’d find flint out here. Chert was a more likely option. His father told him chert was a type of rock that could be used in place of flint if it was unavailable. His dad told him that crystalline rocks, like crystals of quartz, were likely to suffice.

Jake wandered around the pond, looking for a rock that fit the description. Halfway around the pond he spotted it, a white quartz crystal a few feet into the water. He reached into the pond, for once thankful for his disproportionally long arms and pulled the quartz out. He summoned his knife with a thought and after drying the quartz to the best of his ability he struck the rock with the back of his knife. Sparks erupted out over the pond and a wide smile grew on Jake's face.

He made his way back over to the camp. Jake struck the quartz a few times to no avail. On the fourth strike, one of the pine needles smoked briefly and a small ember appeared. He cupped his hands over the ember, not letting the wind snuff it out. He blew gently on the ember, and it glowed bright. After a few more light blows, the ember spread and the pine straw burst into flames. The flames slowly spread to the wood, beautiful as they grew up the side of the logs. Jake sighed deeply. The warmth of the fire was a welcome change to the cold night air.

Jake gazed up at the starry night, content with his days work. His stomach growled, reminding him he hadn't eaten anything since he had arrived. He went to check his trap. It looked like some of the leaves around his trap had been disturbed but nothing had gone inside and triggered the trap. Disappointed, he made his way back to camp. Jake wondered if his construction of the trap just wasn't good.

He wondered if his father would have done better. He missed his family and friends. Was it possible he would never see them again? Even if he did, he was in his new goblin body. They wouldn't recognize him. They would be terrified of the monster standing in front of them. A tear ran down Jake's cheek as these thoughts crossed his mind.

He was exhausted from the long day of work. He went to his haphazardly constructed shelter and laid down, the pine straw ground soft against his back. He found himself wishing for a pillow, but these thoughts drifted away as his body and mind were fatigued. Jake drifted into a dreamless sleep. He was not sure how many hours had passed when his eyes shot open. A chill ran down his spine, followed by a bone chilling hiss and the howl of a wolf, leaving him on edge, not sure of his next move.