"Today's the day! Mom I'll finally take the first step to becoming a knight!"
"Once I become a hunter, the girls would start liking me back!"
"I'll get a strong class and become famous!"
A festive mood wrapped throughout the stone bricked streets of a well conditioned village. Houses built by wooden logs in the form of lodges loomed over the rowdy crowd of men, women, and children filling the streets. Their faces beamed with sunny smiles coupled with hopeful eyes, some felt nervous, some seemed to be lost in a faraway dream and others laughed excitedly. It was a special day in Cain Village, a day that would only come once every ten years serving as both the bridge to the dreams of children and expectations of adults.
Contrary to the other Villager's cheerful state, what was happening in the heart of the settlement was a stress filled ordeal. Men ran amok, dismantling stalls established on a spacious stone plaza, grumbles and complaints never ceased to leave their mouths, their brows furrowed into hateful gazes and their muscles flexed strongly. All of these men wore regular leather armor composing of boots, helmets, bracers and chest plates that hung close to their skin, the outlines of abs proudly exposed themselves.
After dismantling the stalls, more guardsmen flowed into the stone plaza, their small bodies in comparison to the large, monstrous carcasses multiple times bigger than a human mounted on large carts painted a picture of ants bringing back food to their nest. The monsters varied, some sported furs or feathers, while others had a suit of scales but all shared one common trait.
All of these monsters were dead. Their fresh, bleeding wounds emanated a fishy smell, further worsening the mood of the people present.
"Goddamn... I swear the smell gets more horrible every ten years."
"That's to be expected. We keep making babies after all and more children keeps on wanting to become heroes or knights."
"Heroes?"
The guardsmen all laughed, a silly melancholic smile spread out from their lips as they sighed with pity. Weren't they the same as the children of today? When one was a child, who didn't dream of attaining superpowers or going on a magical, life changing adventure? The smiles of the guardsmen stiffened a second later, seriousness painted itself onto their faces once more.
ROAR!
"Ah, fuck..." A guardsman accompanied by four others pulling one of the wagons cursed. The five of them immediately jumped back and drew their weapons. Swords and spears pointed at the cart stacked with monster carcasses.
From the corpses rose a grey furred bear. A long slash run down its face, its claws were both broken and bleeding. Some patches of fur were even missing, leaving flesh and muscles exposed to the air.
"Who fucking half killed a Rock Ursa? Thanks for the trouble asshole!" One of his brown eyes twitching, The guardsman who cursed started lashing out in verbal insults, a man standing besides him scowled and spat on the ground.
"I did! Is it my fault I was strong and lucky enough to kill one? Deal with it Rupert!"
Rupert was taken aback. His short brown hair and facial hair complemented the rage growing inside him, making him look more angry.
"Lucky? You bastard you didn't even fully kill it!" Gritting his teeth, the guardsman who had a reputation for cussing glared at his companion. In his anger he nearly dropped his spear and rushed to his ally but he managed to keep it cool and shake his head.
"I'm going to punch your face in later."
The guardsmen started congregating around a four meter tall muscular bear. As fearless and incensed the bear was, it was futile. There were too many guardsmen for it to even be able to injure at least one.
"This is going to be a mess..." Rupert gnashed his teeth.
Growling, the rock ursa charged at the guardsmen encircling it, its eyes were tainted by the color of crimson after waking up in pain. Rupert and his squad were the first to be targeted as they were the closest.
It swung an arm and caused the guardsmen to retreat. The bipedal four meters tall bear may be injured but it has enough power to crush a human in one swipe.
Guardsmen holding spears clenched their arms and threw their weapons like javelins. The iron tips made brief contact with the rock ursa's gray hide, digging only a feet into its flesh.
GROARGH! Roaring in pain, the ursa became more motivated to fight back. Its steps cracked the stone pavement lightly. Gray fur standing straight, one, defeaning bestial howl shook the center of the village.
The guardsmen grunted and staggered covering their ears. The ursa was proving to be much more difficult than expected despite the toll on its body.
Frustrated, Rupert glared at his cohort again.
"Don you retarded piece of shit! How the fuck dis you even wound this thing?!?!!"
"Less talking more stabbing!"
"We wouldn't be in this situation if you didn't bring it home!"
"Don't bring a rock ursa home? Are you nuts? This is an opportunity! The stronger the offering the better the classes remember?"
"This is why we go for quantity not quality you buffoon!The village is just a small settlement! We are not a town yet!"
"If we get stronger children then the village would grow faster!"
Two men forgot about the rampaging grey furred bear wrecking havoc on the plaza. The other guardsmen scrunched up their faces and struggled to contain the beast while two of their accomplices became dead weight.
The other guardsmen looked at each other with wry smiles seeing two of their kin quarelling. All of them separated and blocked the streets leading outside of the village center. The ursa had to be killed in the plaza.
Don was right, they all agreed with him as growing the village was what they all strived for but at this instance Rupert held more sway.
Everyone started sending hateful glares at Don who grimaced at that sight.
ROAR! The ursa roared again.
Don and Rupert stopped their quarrel. Their ears hurt so much from the roar after forgetting to cover them. A painful ringing tune caused the two to fall out of reality, stunned.
It was enough time for the ursa to focus on them and close in the distance. It raised a paw to swing at its targets.
Rupert and Don braced themselves and crossed their arms, hoping for a miracle to survive.
Sliiick!
Blood splattered across the ground.
The ursa never got to slam down its paw.
An arm and a head fell to the ground. Strings cut through the air humming a sweet little tune.
The guardsmen watched with wide eyes.
The ursa had been killed so easily.
It was there that they noticed a small little boy watching them as he munched on an apple. He sat at the roof of a street stall that hasn't been closed yet. Treating the sheet of cloth as a makeshift hammock.
His eyes and hair were the color of gray. A pale white skin tone likened him to an anemic person. Standing at four feet three inches tall, the small child watched the ursa's body falling to the ground.
His hand was extended. From it stretched out five, thin glistening blue strings.
Rupert, Don, and the guardsmen were about to praise the child for his strength but his appearance made them lose that notion.
Grey hair. A pale countenance supported with a cold, apathetic gaze as if the world can die but he wouldn't be even bothered.
"Fuck... Its him." Rupert hissed. His grip onto his spear grew taught.
"This is how he looks like? The rumors didn't really lie. He's really dangerous too. Its just a shame really..." Don shook his head at the boy with pity.
There was a certain saying circulating around Cain Village.
If you go to the witch's forest you would only meet the devil. But if you present the head of the witch's grandson to Lord Aubrey, then she would be even willing to go as far as to marry you as repayment.
Many had tried. And all of them died.
That child with a target painted on his back was now inside the village.
"Its the witch's grandson!"
"Kill him! If you kill him then Lord Aubrey would be yours!"
Cheers erupted from the guardsmen at the sight of Dominic. Some prepared to attack him.
While the smarter ones watched with ugly expressions.
Three guardsmen holding spears ran at Dominic. Dominic bit onto his apple and sighed.
"I expected this. But why am I disappointed?" He shrugged. "It doesn't matter."
He waved his hand and blue strings sliced through the air. Seizing the guardsmen.
Agh! A second later and three newly dismembered bodies littered the ground.
"You can't even kill a bear. Yet you want to kill me." Dominic shook his head.
He stared at the Guardsmen as if they were nothing and laid onto his back. His eyes stared into the skies.
'Its been three years now...'
'But why...'
Dominic closed his eyes.
'Why hasn't anything happened yet?'
He asked himself as he thought back to the events of his early new life.
After the incident with the demon breaking into the house and his discovery of the fate palace. After he asked Antionette the method on how to kill that monster.
Everything was too calm.
It was too peaceful that Dominic felt uneasy.
The demons had magically disappeared.
Shaking his head, Dominic opted to relax for now. Uncaring even if the guardsmen were looking at him and thinking of ways on how to kill him.
'I'll think about that later. For now, I'll awaken a secondary class.'
Something was coming. And he needed to get all the strength that he could get.
-----
A blonde haired child arose from his sleep. His blue crystal clear eyes looked at his arms as his whole body shivered.
Frantically looking around, the familiar sight of his bedroom greeted him. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes.
"Ray... Are you awake." Ray flinched at the sound of that sweet and melodious sultry voice.
The door opened and a woman wearing a simple cloth tunic entered the room. Curly white hair fell down up to her waist, the hair in front of her ears spiralled down up to her bountiful chest threatening to burst through the clothing. Long, slender creamy legs in tandem with her smooth satin skin could send shivers down any man's soul. Sharp green eyes seemingly able to pierce through anything stared down at the boy who was looking at her like a shivering puppy lost in a storm.
"Is everything alright?" The woman smiled faintly with worry.
The golden haired boy shook his head. His lips curled up slightly at the edges.
'I'm back...' Ray felt happy.