"Ah!" I screamed, as my sword sliced through the bare chest of a goblin. A summary of how I got here is that warrior named Leo had someone prepare my gear, and along with it came this sword and several other items that'll help me get on for at least 5 days. A quick summary of my escape frim the castle, is that Leo told the guards that I was a trespasser and I needed to be escorted out. So much for a grand escape. But it was effective nonetheless.
From there on, I began walking around the town known as Castille. It's streets were bustling with all kinds of things all at the same time. Soldiers doing roundly patrols passed by some jubilant merchants or another random passerby. Children of ragged appearance playing a game of dice on a leather mat on the sides of the streets, or what I thought was dice, but rather upon closer inspection it was a knucklebones game set. Truly, another world's medieval setting was a wonderous sight for me, as a die-hard fantasy novel reader and gamer. Who had nothing better to do in his free-time.
However, after several hours of sight-seeing and several interactions with the people. I soon discovered that there is an Adventurer's guild setup nearby, as expected of a RPG Fantasy world, I signed up to become an adventurer without any issues. There I discovered, with the guilds issued magical system, that my stats were little to none, which would help quite nicely to hide my persona as a recently summoned hero. Which got me the rank of Copper V, or in some games I've played, an F-ranker.
As the guild's newest recruit, or Copper V in this scenario, It was customary to complete three objectives by the end of the week. One is a Subjugation quest, the next is a Gather quest, and the last is supposed to be done after the first two, which is an Escort quest. Although the quest's minimum rank is Bronze or above.
I then asked for the closest inn and found out that there was on right across the street. There I rented out a room-for-one for approximately 4 evenings. Then I took off to do my quests once the time reached high noon.
As they instructed to me, Once confirmation of my last quest is given, I can proceed to take any quests of my level in order to reach a higher rank. I gathered the goblin ears and picked up my basket of Mage flowers, and walked back to the city, once i reached the guild, I was greeted by eye-shots from everyone. Well, a guy holding a necklace of bloody goblin ears, still jingling from a few earrings, in his right hand, and basket of glittering mage flowers in the other was definitely something you wouldn't see here everyday, even in a world with a RPG-like setting.
The guild receptionist was shaking a bit from where I was standing, but after placing both items on the counter she said "A-ah! you've completed the quests already? In one day?" she whispered through my ears, that apparently there had been no one else in this guild that has managed to even finish the first two customary quests before, and in such a short span of time.
"He must've cheesed it..."
That would explain the eye-shots from everyone inside the room. "w-Would you like to proceed with your third assignment?" she asked, I nodded in response. She then pointed towards a group just near the desk "Since an escort quest is above your current ranking, they'll be the Bronze rankers that will assess your mission, they will also tell us details of what you've done throughout the entirety of the quest..." She said as she quickly turned and walked towards her desk, then she began writing something on a yellowish, wrinkly sheet of paper.
I walked towards the party that would be my escort quest inspectors. There are five members, one being a 30-year old man who wore Full-metal plate and has a steel longsword leaning against the table, resting still next to his left-side. The other four were matching pairs of their ages and opposing genders. Two teenagers, one both and other girl, both wore light clothing, they must either be rangers or scouts, because the girl has an unstrung bow slung behind her and the boy has a sword strapped to his belt, that was placed neatly on the table. The other two are complete polar opposites, both looked significantly much older than the first three, there rested an elderly man, with what I assumed to be either his walking stick or his staff resting right next to him as well, and then there is the beautiful woman, with a stick resembling a wand sitting afront her fairly revealing chest.
"Oh my? look who we have as our rookie~" She gave me a sweet look, I Ignored it "Pretty rare for someone to actually finish all the first two quests alone, much less actually finishing it within a span of an entire afternoon" The boy said "You shouldn't solo quests, you might get yourself hurt, and I heard you had to take a goblin subjugation quest at that!" the girl added "Well, however he has done it, let us all be glad he made it all in one piece..." the middle-aged man said.
"Well, since we weren't expecting you to be done so soon, I should inform you now that we proceed with the escort on Friday..." He continued "Be sure to be there on time, we will leave with or without you, even if you did finish these quests. And then, we will mark you as failing, and You'll have to all three once more..."
I nod in silence, they then proceed talking about something. I didn't bother to find out what they were even talking about. I spent the rest of my free day looking around, seeing if there is anything to catch my interest, I took a stroll around the outskirts of the city.
Everything looked so beautiful, so beautiful that my stomach started to lurch, and whenever it did, it meant that there was something wrong. A beautiful city in war? that indeed is a question that needed answering, but now isn't the time nor place to actually ask these kind of questions.
It was already evening the moment I arrived back inside the city. But then i forgot to return to the guild for my rewards, so I headed back there first, but then i was caught.
"Oh? look at what we've got here!" a very ugly looking man came strutting forward, he was followed by several other men that were holding clubs, one of them, holding a sword "Wait? aren't you that Rookie who finished the customary quests in like half the morning?" he said, I nod "Well, If you can certainly finish quests that fast..." He held a dagger in front of my face, his breath reeked of alcohol "Then you must have a very nice amount on ya?" 'Great, the classic "I met up with a bunch of hoodlums" adventure hook' I thought, but then I thought of something that could scare them off...
"Stealing from fellow thieves eh?" I said "Thieves? Ha! you must have some sort bounty at least, Hey Mark! ain't the bounty for thieves at least be a 100 silver?" 'Mark...' My body suddenly reacted on it's own, and grabbed his arm...
"Hey! what do you-" My gaze was getting foggy, everything before me went red, and the red just kept getting darker, crackling shots of red lightning surged through my head at the thought of that name, I've always wanted to know what it had meant. But the world went silent, and it's grip on me grew cold. But then, then I came back from that red dream. In front of me was a shriveled body, nothing more but black skin covered the surviving lifeless boney remains, being shone upon by a neighbouring torchlight, like the light of heaven appearing to claim the poor soul's body, but I highly doubt he's going up there. The gang that followed the man before must've fled, and there is no way they'd tell on me. Because if they were a street gang, they might also get themselves in trouble...
"This kind of power..." I clenched my fists "...It's my only warmth..."