Dressed up in the wear of an adventurer, a bit tattered, a youth whose appearance resembled that of a kid at the age of sixteen walked down the street. His hair, thick and black, was nicely trimmed and settled quite well without blocking his vision. You could say it resembled something like a bob cut. The one who cut his hair definitely wasn't thinking of gender when they started their occupation. Regardless though, the young man, whose age is a measly nineteen in truth didn't care much about his appearance as he walked along.
On his chest, a very visible tag could be seen. The youth was an adventurer, judging from the copper color of the tag, it was either that he was a new member of the adventurers guild or a worthless one. Since the people in general, the ones that had been passed on the street didn't recognize him, it was determined that the youth was new, though no one really cared. Adventurers are numerous in Kryonite anyway.
The adventurer didn't mind the people that he had passed by, he would even smile at them if their eyes met. The reason why many of the citizens of Kryonite were able to take notice of the adventurer was due to the way he walked, it was not normal. Actually, his face was also immensely pale as well. This young man was walking like a dead man.
If you had to take into account and analyse the tears on his clothes, it showed results of battle and a recent one at that. Coupled with his exhausted appearance, you could say it was a tough battle.
"Hey, you..."
The young man simply did not respond to the words. He may not be paying attention to his surroundings other than the view in front of his eyes.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Heading towards the Adventurers guild, the youth with a copper tag finally heard the sweet sound of a woman's voice. He stopped, intending to give his greetings and walk away. Not realizing that the sweet voice was coming from a silver ranked adventurer
He turned to face the source of the sweet sound. Stunned, the one before him was a beautiful lady. He had not seen any girl like this at all, more importantly, he had never seen a person with red colored hair.
"Finally you turned around." Said the redheaded woman. It wasn't hard for her to catch up. The copper ranked adventurer was moving very slowly after all.
"What's you name?" She asked, raising a hand up. In her hand held a sheet of paper. Carefully, she looked at the paper and the young adventurer. After a few short looks she confirmed one thing. From her analysis, she found what she'd been looking for.
"Huh!"
The young man didn't get it at first. As the girl with red hair approached him, he turned to look at the opposite direction. No one was standing in line with him or behind him. "Is she talking to me?" He thought.
"Miguel."
Subconsciously a name got spoken, still confused, the copper tagged youth didn't know what to do. A pretty girl was actually speaking to him.
"Did you just get back from an quest, you look tired? Call me Trina, everyone does." Trina said, her eyes sizing up the the adventurer.
Trina noticed a rusted bracelet covered his right wrist and the connected hand held a sack in it. From afar people may not have noticed the importance of the sack but now that Trina was close enough to observe it, she could understand.
The sack, under close analysis, can be seen to have a few red spots appearing on it. Gradually those red spots will create a big red stain. Trina could only guess what object was inside. "Something dead is inside the sack."
"Why are you wearing a rusted bracelet?" The silver ranked adventurer asked. She did not care about such a worn out piece of metal but she had to ask, otherwise, Miguel may become suspicious as to why she was staring at the sack. On top of that, the sketch of Shaun's target matches the man in front of her. She did not want to be the cause that results in Shaun's quest to fail.
"Play it cool, Trina, play it cool." She kept repeating the words in her mind.
"This, hehe, I found it after beating some bandits." Miguel touched the rusted bracelet with his free hand, he seemed to be proud of it.
*****
Several hours ago.
A short distance away from Kryonite, a place that is generally only visited by people who want to reminisce those who have passed on, Kryonite cemetery. Miguel had finished his quota of cleaning up here in the graveyard. As a new adventurer, taking on small jobs given by the guild was the norm.
Coming from the rural villages around the Kryonite town, money is a must for trading goods. For the civilians that lived around Kryonite, registering in the mercenary or adventurers guild is the way of life. By raising one's rank in the guilds meant that one's families could live leisurely.
Miguel had the very same thoughts, to become an adventurer and raise his rank so that his family could live nicely from his earnings. Unfortunately, the pay reward for beginners wasn't so good. Of all the quests that could be done, cleaning the cemetery seemed to be the most profitable.
All he had to do was pull out the weeds, cut the grass, tidy the tombstones and kill off the scavenger beasts so as to stop them from digging out the graves as well as stop them from taking dumps all over the place.
"Hu... hu....hu...." Seeing that night was approaching, Miguel determined that he had done more than his quota. He, who was very tired wanted to retire to the little hut that was built in the vicinity. He had already been here for four days since he had started.
"Doing all this work would've been easy." Miguel thought as he packed up his tools and readying himself to take rest. "If only someone told me that this place isn't small at all, I wouldn't have taken this job. This place looks like its even expanding."
Carrying his tools in a sack, Miguel started towards the the shelter. Moving along, from the corner of his eye he could distinguish the flicker of light at the distant end of the graveyard.
The sun already touched the western horizon and the darkness of night began shadowing the land. If the sun was still a bit higher, perhaps Miguel wouldn't have noticed the flicker of light.
"What's that?" Miguel stopped in his tracks. He turned his head to see the light that caught his eye.
"There was no light in that direction when I cleaned that section." He remembered, it was cleaned two days prior.
Not every grave in the cemetery was just a tombstone. There were some actual structures build for deceased nobles around the site. Now a light shone right at the place of such a structure.
Miguel silently put down his tools, any noise could alert danger to his presence. It was common knowledge even if you wasn't an adventurer, "If you haven't been discovered then don't do anything that would cause you to be uncovered." Miguel remembered the common phrase known by every resident in and around Kryonite. This phrase saved many lives when hoards of danger beasts left the Crypt forest.
Unsheathing his sword that was carried amongst his tools. A staple weapon that an adventurer will always keep on his person. Miguel headed for the light.
"Doh... sto... it hur... ahh..."
"Cry.. fo... me.. bi..."
As Miguel approached, he could hear distorted sounds, The closer he got, the more it became clear. He wondered, "Did some debauchee come here to have fun."
"Should I leave?" Miguel contemplated, however, he did not stop. He came closer and close to the brightened part of the cemetery. Truthfully, he just wanted to see how sex was done.
Moments later, Miguel came close enough to see what's going on. He wasn't close enough to be seen. Not many tombstones was close to the building where the camp is which resulted in his cover being secure. Hiding behind a larger tombstone everything became visible to his eyes.
The scene before him was more brutal than pleasurable. Miguel could make out that a female body was flat on the ground. A hand pressed her face in the dirt while a barbarian of a man mounted her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please stop!"
Those were the words that lady struggled to say as the male silhouette kept thrusting his hips non stop.
This was certainly an unexpected scenario.
"B-Brother, I'm almost done."
"I'm coming, it feels good to have a woman after such a long time."
It wasn't just the two copulating, there was another man who was undressing himself. Was he going to have his fun next?
"I have to put a stop to this." Miguel thought, he saw one man too absorbed in pleasure and the other busy taking off his clothes. This was the perfect timing to sneak up on them and attack.
Miguel crept to the man that was mounting the lady, he held his sword with both his hands. His intention was clear, Miguel was getting ready to swing his sword. He wanted to decapitate the man.
SHUA!
The sword that was drawn back, launched forward in a complete swing,
PUCHI!!!
A direct hit. The sword got him in the throat perfectly, unfortunately Miguel wasn't strong enough to take his head completely off.
Pulling his sword back, blood gushed out. Miguel dared not help the woman right away. There was still one more person to take care of.
SHUASHUASHUA!
Clank!!
Miguel barely managed to deflect the incoming object. Something like an axe had been flung his way, spinning. If he had not reacted in time, his head would've been split. Fortunately, the flying axe was deflected in the nick of time. It was not stopped, though. Miguel had been wounded, the axe ripped through his leather armor and cut his shoulder.
"Bastard, you killed my brother!"
Miguel retreated, he could only tolerate the pain at his shoulder. He thought he had timed it right. Kill one then sneak up to the other brother, kill him while he undressed. Still, Miguel had been noticed.
Another axe was thrown to Miguel, again he deflected it. This time he managed to escape a serious injury but he wasn't out of danger. The rapist's accomplice was hot on his tail.
CLINK CLANK CLUNK CLONK!
Miguel fought off his enemy as he retreated. He used the tombstones to create obstacles between him and his chaser. He zigged and zagged in order to create some distance. It worked, only a little though. The adventurer still received wounds but he was fast enough to escape the assailant's grasp.
"What do I do?" Miguel desperately thought as he dodged the blade of his attacker.
"That's right."
Miguel saw another light in the cemetery, different from the fire that lit the camp of these bad men. The light he saw was moonlight reflected in a pond.
This copper ranked adventurer started leading the chase towards to pond. If it had been another person, staying and using the tombstones as a medium to survive was a better option than heading to the open field by the pond where he could be easily caught. But not for Miguel
He still had a secret, he was a blessed child. A child marked with the blessing of the Aqua Goddess, Minerva the Goddess of fertility.
*****
"So that's how is."
Trina said. She had just heard the story from Miguel. Of course, Miguel didn't tell her everything, especially about the mark of Minerva. That was his secret. He hadn't spoken about the girl that was enjoyed by the scoundrels either.
Actually, after defeating the bastard at the pond, Miguel returned to check on the girl but when he got there, she had disappeared. Not only that, some of the things that was acquired by the crooks had disappeared along with her.
Miguel looked over the things that remained. Regardless of whether the things had value or not. He made some profit, just like the rusted bracelet and other such jewellery.
The rusted bracelet only stood out because embedded in it was a black crystal like jewel. At first he didn't think much of it but somehow realized that it was valuable and over time it had become covered by the residue of rust. Miguel wanted to get the bracelet appraised, so he kept it on him.
Both Trina and Miguel made it to the adventurers guild.
"So Miguel, care to party with me? I'm a sliver ranked adventurer. I have a pretty good quest in the Crypt forest."
Trina asked, now that Shaun's target was found all she had to do was bring him to a special place in the Crypt forest like Shaun and Trevor planned.
"Why not? But I can't do it today." Miguel replied, all he could think about right now was get some rest. He really needed a good snooze. "Tomorrow may be possible. If it's okay with you."
"That's great!"
Trina felt overjoyed although she didn't show it on her face much.
She left Miguel to his business after discussing a meeting point then headed back to the opposite of town. She wanted to go straight to the mercenary guild and brag about her success in front of her brother and impress Shaun....
The very next day, Miguel made his way to the meeting place. Right by Crypt forest, he saw the redheaded Trina already waiting for him.
After exchanging greetings, they, together ventured into the woods. There was a particular part of the forest that they where aiming to reach. It was place that not many danger beasts would dare go. For some reason that area gave off a negative aura.
It took quite some time for both Miguel and Trina to reach. Along the way they did find some danger beasts, fortunately, the beasts they had come across were the mild ones. The one's that could be avoided, they avoided and the ones that had to be taken care off was easily done in by Trina with little to no support from Miguel. Eventually they reached their destination.
"What is this place?"
Miguel was tempted to ask. As a new adventurer, he was very curious about the the new experiences he was getting.
"This is the forbidden ravine."
"We not going in there, are we?" Asked Miguel unsure of the quest.
"What we doing involves the ravine." Replied Trina. She took out a miniature leather sack with a cap on it. Adventurers would use this to keep water inside. Opening the cap, she glanced at the ravine and then at Miguel before she brought the opening of the water sack to her lips.
Gulp!
Trina swallowed some of the water. She turned away from Miguel and walked a little further along the ravine, peering into the ravine as if she was looking for something. The ravine itself only lead to darkness.
"You want some water, here?" Trina turned back, offering the water sack with utmost sincerity.
"I, eh."
"Take it."
The leather sack was pushed against Miguel's chest. He accepted it, there was no other option now. Trina turned away from him again, crouching at the edge of the ravine.
"I guess I should have this." Miguel contemplated, he brought the opening of the water bag to his lips and drank.
All of a sudden he could taste a sweet flavor that invaded his mouth. It didn't seem to come from the water itself.
"Could this be the flavor of Trina's lips?" Miguel thought it over, he even went to take another sip. This sweet taste is really good.
"I guess this is an indirect kiss."
Another attempt was made to sip the sweetness again but this time Miguel found that he was struggling to move. His body, all of a sudden became weak and he fell to the ground.
"What's going on? This can't be the effect of and indirect kiss, can it? No this has to be something else."
Although Miguel's body seemed to be under some sort of poisoning, his mind happened to be clear as day. He tried to call Trina but to no avail.
"Good work, Trina. I knew you could do it."
"We can now live happily."
Miguel couldn't move, he could see, feel, hear and smell. He didn't miss the words that he just heard. Who are these guys? He didn't know. Were they accomplices of the bandits that he killed before?
Miguel started to feel hands on his body, those hands were trying to pick him up. He couldn't see the faces of the men, he only knew there was more than one from his current angle. This body of his was lifted off the ground and the ravine was getting closer and closer.
"DON'T DROP ME! DON'T DROP ME! I STILL HAVE A MOTHER AND SISTER TO TAKE OF... I DON WANNA DIE....."
Miguel tried his hardest to speak but could only scream in his mind. There was nothing he could do as his body got tossed over the edge.
Falling, disappearing into the bottomless pit.
SMASH!
CRACK!
BANG!
....PLOP!
The body of the copper ranked adventurer smacked against the rocks that protruded from the sides of the cliff wall as it disappeared into the darkness of the pit. Eventually the fall was broken by an unknown body of water at the very bottom.
The lifeless body of the adventurer sank to the floor never to be discovered, however, no one will know of its unique transformation at death.
A violet light shone in the depths of the water, a tiny light which came from the little jewel of a rusted bracelet. Not only did it light up in violet color but the lifeless eyes of Miguel shone in violet light as well before darkening again.