Hartie was busy doing his best to wage out a living from his job at the family owned store he was working at when a freak accident left him dead.
The next thing Hartie knows, he is having a conversation with what he is sure is an artificial intelligence. Or a process, fragment of it. It asks him what species he wants to be but the options offered are not that inviting: Goblin, Human or Lizard. Apparently, his personality and life choices leave those as the only available choices. Where is the elf? The AI tells him that all the species in Mesily are peaceful with each other. Heck, they are even fully integrated. What ever that means.
He decides to stick with being human. He might be adventurous, but he isn't that adventurous.
The welcome of a monster trying to chew through his leg isn't what he expected. But after learning about The Grand Competition, he is ecstatic. All he has to do is beat other people up and he gets rewards if he ranks high enough in the Baronies, Counties, Duchies and so on. He might not be the best, but he sure as hell isn't the worst.
Plus, he has magic to help him. What could possibly go wrong.