I slowly woke up, flinching as I felt a splitting headache hit me like a truck.
I opened my eyes adjusting them to my somewhat dark surroundings finding myself on a fur carpet inside some sort of make-shift tent.
My body was covered in a light fur blanket that made me feel comfortable.
I could still smell the fresh dew of grass and trees from the forest.
Something cold fell onto my chest making me jump and flinch from the pain that came from my left side.
On my chest was a semi-wet towel, I felt my head to see it was also wet.
I suppose the towel was on my head.
Feeling my head more I realized it was wrapped up in bandages which left me surprised.
How did I have on bandages???
What surprised me, even more, was that when I lifted up my shirt, my abdominal region was also wrapped in bandages.
W-what is-?!
The opening from the tent opened letting light fill inside the somewhat dark tent-making me squint my eyes at the sudden bright light and intruder.
It was a dark-skinned woman who looked to be in her 20's, she had long black hair that complimented her soft skin and high cheekbones.
She had a demeanor that demanded respect but her dark brown eyes seemed distant and unbothered.
She had light silver armor that made her seem like a warrior.
As soon as she saw me staring she walked over to me, sat a bowl filled with water down, and left only saying, "Be right back" in a light soft British tone that caught me off guard.
I didn't even notice she had a bowl of water with her, but my main focus wasn't on that.
I tried yelling after her to wait so I could understand what was going on, but my voice was too hoarse plus my headache and left side stopped me from getting up too quickly.
At that, I decided to put a bit of trust that she'll come back.
After I calmed down my nerves I was able to focus on what I could hear from outside.
I could hear people talking, and it sounded like a pretty large group of people at that.
I couldn't catch what any of them were saying since they were talking at once.
But one word I heard definitely stuck out to me, golem.
I couldn't tell who said it, but all the memories of what happened between me and that golem came back and hit me like a yacht.
The golem, magic powers, nearly dying.
All of it came back to me leaving me stunned with my thoughts.
Before I could start on a confused rant, the tent once again opened and instead of the woman that I was expecting to see, it was a burly looking man that looked to be in his late 40's with ginger hair and brown eyes.
He had a prominent scar that started from the bottom of his lip down to his collar bone and was dressed in a leather jacket with a cotton shirt and some cotton pants with leather boots.
After he followed the woman I saw before, as stoic as ever.
When seeing me the burly man speaks up.
"I see your awake, that's good," he says a bit surprised with a light friendly smile.
Since my voice was a bit hoarse still, I just nodded my head.
"I see, how're you feeling?", he says trying to make conversation.
Again, I nodded my head in a gesture of 'okay'.
"Good, are you hungry? Thirsty?" He looked at me awaiting my answer.
"U-um, where am I? And where's the golem?" I said, my voice a bit hoarse.
The conversation was getting nowhere and I was getting annoyed, it seemed like we were skipping around the elephant in the room.
He seemed a bit taken aback by my answer, but covered it up with a small smile. I guess he was expecting me to be mute.
He let out a deep chuckle but answered me nonetheless.
"Well first before we get into that, let's get introductions out of the way, is that alright?" He asks looking towards me.
I nodded my head, seeing no reason to object. It was a question that was nagging me in the back of my mind.
"Then we'll go first, my name is Loquis, I am the guild master in Azuria. And this ray of sunshine here is Freya, the second in command of the Azurian Knights," he says pointing to Freya with a smug smile.
She only rolls her eyes, very distant with the conversation.
But I was left in only confusion.
Guild master? Azurian Knights? W-what?
"What do you mean by 'Guild Master' and 'Azurian Knights'?" I ask with a look of confusion on my face.
The man that introduced himself as Loquis looked surprised and the woman known as Freya only raised an eyebrow.
"I suppose you are still recovering, I guess some things slipped your mind?" He says to me, leaving me in even more confusion.
"Okay, then where are we? The last place I remember being was in some forest area I think." I say racking my brain.
"And you still are, don't worry. We're on the outskirts of the Grove Forest, we found you in a clearing deep in the middle of the forest where high-class monsters are located." He says trying to calm me down.
"What about that huge rock creature?" I ask a little on edge.
"The golem you mean? It was dead when we found it, then we found you among the rubble. So we cleaned up the area and moved back to the outskirts of the forest to treat you. You were in bad condition, a cracked rib, and your head was bleeding." He explains to me.
So....I did it. I killed that thing. I survived.
"The most curious part in that is how the golem died." He says to me with a curious tone.
"You were the only person we found in the immediate vicinity, so we believed that you might have some information regarding the destruction of that golem," Loquis says.
"Well? Do you know anything?" And this time it was Freya who spoke up, pointing this question towards me.
I was a little taken aback by that question. What was I supposed to say?
'Yeah I took that golem out using powers I didn't know I had.' No
They would put me in a mental institution for that.
When faced with only my silence Loquis stated that I didn't need to answer that at the moment and we moved onto easier questions. Freya was obviously not happy but then again I couldn't tell, she had a sour look on ever since I met her. Guess that's just her resting b*tch face.
Some time passed and to summarize it, Loquis explained what they were doing in the forest. Basically, Loquis' guild got a request from a noble who was having trouble getting materials from this forest because that giant golem was blocking the path that led to the materials. The nobles' servants weren't able to get close without that thing attacking. So Loquis got the request to take out the golem, but because it was an S-class monster and raid boss, Loquis assembled a raiding party to take it out. They were prepared to stay a week to defeat the creature but when they finally arrived you can imagine their surprise to find the golem was already defeated.
When he explained this to me, it sounded like something out of a fantasy video game, but I kept nodding my head to make it seem like I understood what he was talking about.
"And once we got here to set up camp, we got to work on healing you. But what was weird was that none of the HP potions we gave you worked. They weren't low grade either, so they should've worked." He says while his eyebrows were furrowed as he was in deep thought.
HP potions? This is getting weirder.
"We even got some adventurers who specialized in light magic to heal you, but none of their spells worked. We were at a loss when that occurred." He explains.
Light magic??? What in the worl-
"But luckily, Freya was able to step in and nurse you back to health. She has experience in nursing which was a relief." He says in a more upbeat tone, pointing to Freya.
My head was spinning from the amount of information I was given. But this woman, Freya, saved me.
"Thank you for healing me, Ms. Freya," I say with a light smile while looking at her. Her only reply being a grunt.
Okay....kind of a b*tch, but I'll play nice.
"Well, if I was unconscious how long was I out for?" I ask preparing for the worst.
"Three days." He replies instantly. Guess he didn't want to leave me in suspense.
Three days? That's crazy, was I really out for that long? It only felt like a couple of hours.
"You're a weird, but lucky, kid," Loquis says while laughing a bit, trying to lighten the mood.
I made a light smile going along with it, but really I was entirely confused at what he told me about magic, HP potions, knight, monsters, and a raid boss???
My headache came back and made me grunt at the pain.
Haaahh, what am I going to do?
"We also tried assessing you to see if your health had gone up after treating you. But no matter how hard or who tried, we weren't able to assess you." He explains a little confused.
Assess?
*A S S E S S I N G*
Crap not again, STOP!
*A S S E S S I N G S T O P P E D*
My eyes went wide hearing that voice again.
Loquis and Freya's eyes both widen as if they were startled by something, then they looked to me.
"Did you try assessing us?" Loquis asks a bit taken aback.
"I-I'm sorry, I don't know how to stop it. Every time I say that word it just does it's own thing, it even happened when I ran into that golem when it was sleeping" I tried to explain.
Freya had a cold look on her face while Loquis looked deep in thought.
"I won't do it again, sorry" I say apologetically.
Loquis looked at me and chuckled.
"It's fine, just surprised us. You were really close to assessing us, you have a strong will huh?" he asks while chuckling.
"What do you mean by 'strong will'?" I ask unintentionally. Ugh, now I'm going to look stupid.
"It takes a strong will to resist someone assessing you, and if someone resists you it takes even more will to assess them to see their system. You fought back against our resist to your assess like it was nothing." He says surprised while he looks astonished.
Freya still had an annoyed look on her face. I guess she doesn't like me very much. That's fine I guess.
"...Hey, you mentioned system? What's th-" I was about to ask Loquis what a system is but like before a white screen popped in front of me, scaring me. Loquis and Freya both looked at me as I read what was in front of me.
---------------------------------------------------------------
NAME :
LVL : 4 9
HP : 3 0 / 4 5
MP : N O N E
SP : 1 0 0 / 1 0 0
DEF : 7
RESIST: N O N E
STRGTH : 4 0
ATTK : (PHYS) 1 4 / (MG) N O N E
INT: 1 0 0
ATT: N O N E
SKP: 5 9
SKILLS: Hex [Lvl 1], Hex Beam [Lvl 3], Magic Negation [Lvl a%?]
ROLES: [Survivor]
---------------------------------------------------------------
On the screen before me listed things that I didn't really understand. But one thing was weird.
It didn't say my name where it was supposed to be listed.
So even this system thing doesn't know who I am. Great.
When seeing me look at my profile, Loquis spoke up.
"I suppose you're looking at your system?" He asks. I look up at him a bit startled.
"Oh....uh, yeah I think so," I say looking over my profile once more.
"Well, I assume you have a name?" Loquis asks me, his question caught me off guard.
My name? I don't remember a name, h*ll this screen can't even tell me my own name. All it says is just 'N O N A M E'.
And I don't want to take too long or else they'll think I have amnesia.
"I-I, um," I say stuttering over my words. Loquis and Freya both look at each other confused.
Crap, they know somethings up! Ok f*ck it! Come up with something, anything!
I look down on the screen and look for something to call myself, and the only thing I can look at is 'N O N A M E'. No name???
"Noname, my name is Noname," I say with confidence, hoping to sell it.
[ AUTHOR NOTE: The way you pronounce it--> [ NO - NAW - MAY ] he just pronounced it differently than saying 'no-name']
*N A M E A Q U I R E D : N O N A M E*
Guess that's my new name now.
They both look at me for a bit but seem to accept it as my name before Freya goes back to her own world and Loquis continues to talk with me.
"Well then, nice to meet you Noname, do you mind if we assess you?" Loquis asks me.
"Um, sure, I guess," I say hesitantly while shrugging. I don't really know if I should object since I barely know what's going on.
Then all of a sudden I felt a coldness wash over me like someone dumped ice over me my body felt dense, making me tense. It felt like someone was watching me.
As quick as it came it stopped and it felt like I could breathe again.
I looked to Loquis to find him...out of breath? Even Freya seemed a bit disheveled.
"What's wrong?" I ask confused and worried.
"Haha, I was expecting this" Loquis says as they both compose themselves once more.
"What?" I ask dumbfounded.
"We aren't able to assess you because you resisted us so easily," He says smiling.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to-" I start but was cut off by Freya surprisingly.
"Stop apologizing, just relax when we assess you. Tone down your will" She says calmly looking at me.
"....Okay, I'll try?" I reply to her unsure.
Once they got my answer the cold dense feeling came back greater than before. I tensed but remembered what Freya said, to relax my will.
I followed what she told me and relaxed as best as I could, and after a couple of seconds a white screen popped up in front of Loquis and Freya.
They both looked visibly exhausted from that. Was it really that hard to assess me?
*A S S E S S I N G*
STOP!
*A S S E S S I N G S T O P P E D*
Ugh. I gotta control that.
Once they composed themselves they looked at my profile for a short while. They both had a look of confusion but it was quickly covered up with a poker face, remembering that I was in the room.
After some time of tense silence, the screen disappears.
"Is there something wrong?" I ask curious to their faces earlier.
As always Freya goes back to being silent and Loquis has a frown on his face with a look of thought. After a short while, Loquis asks me a question.
"Were you the one who defeated the golem?" He asks curiously.
At that, I tensed. What was I supposed to say?
'Yeah, I defeated the golem with superpowers I never knew I had'. No that's stupid. They would send me to a mental institution.
Should I play dumb? No, they would see through that lie immediately. I should probably come clean, somewhat.
"Yeahhhhh?" I say, but it sounded like more of a question.
Loquis looked unconvinced and Freya was still stoic now looking away from me.
I feel naked right now.
"Well, was there anyone else with you? Parents, friend, anyone?" Loquis asks changing the subject.
"No, not that I know of. I was completely alone." I say with certainty.
"Hmm." He says and goes into deep thought. This entire conversation has a lot of tense moments, I would scream if I could but my voice is still a bit gone.
"Well, let's not worry about that for now. Okay?" He says clearing up the mood.
Why am I still here? Shouldn't they have called an ambulance or something?
"Hey, is there a police officer around or maybe a hospital?" I ask a bit uncomfortable.
But instead of a reply, I was met with a looks of confusion like I was speaking another language.
"What is a police officer?" Loquis asks intrigued but more confused.
Did this man just seriously ask me what a police officer is??? Do I really have to explain this to him?
"You know a person who has a lot of authority. Someone who upholds the law and protects citizens." I explain to them. I never thought I'd have to explain something like this to someone. Am I sure they don't have amnesia???
"I assume you're referring to me?" Freya asks with a stoic face.
"Ummm, no? I think? Is this some sort of renaissance festival?" I ask jokingly.
But they looked at me like I grew three heads.
Okay, where the h*ll am I?
"Okay actually, nevermind, forget it. Is there a city nearby?" I ask desperately.
Please don't tell me they also don't know what a city is.
But my stress was alleviated since Loquis answered for me. The capital or city they came from is only a day's time away. Some adventurers he came here with left for it a few days ago since the golem was already dead. Loquis stayed so that he could nurse me and have me in better condition to travel.
"Well, I am thankful that you took care of me. But I don't want to be a bother for too long so, if you could just point me in the right direction I'll be on my way-!" I say while trying to get up but was stopped by the pain in my side. I grunted from it almost wanting to cry, but I held it in somewhat trying to fight through it.
Loquis rushed over to help me sit back down.
"I would heavily advise against you moving right now. You cracked a rib remember?" He says while helping me back into a more comfortable position.
"Your HP is still low, if you went out on your own and encountered a monster, you could die." Freya explained to me in a cold tone. That made me erase any thoughts on leaving on my own. She's a bit intimidating.
"Okay, then what now?" I ask, seeing as I can't go anywhere.
"Why don't I get you something to eat? We've been feeding you soup for days because it's the easiest to feed you while you were unconscious. You're probably starving for something better." Loquis says while smiling.
When he said that my stomach grumbled loudly making me blush and Loquis laugh.
He excused himself before whispering something to Freya which made her roll her eyes and went to grab me something to eat, leaving me and Freya alone.
I honestly don't how I feel about her. On one spectrum I like her because she seems like a bada*s who you just instantly respect. But on the other end, I dislike her, mainly because of her stank attitude. So just to play it safe, I didn't say anything to her, mainly so neither of us has to get into it. The awkward silence was killing me but I held out for as long as I could. But she surprised me by asking me a question.
"Where are you from?" She asks while looking at me. She had a piercing gaze that said she's not here to play games. Even a question as simple as 'where are you from' would make someone piss their pants if they were being interrogated by her. Regardless, if I'm going to keep up the 'I don't have amnesia act', I have to lie. Again.
"Oh, I live pretty far from here," I reply not looking at her, but playing with my ankle cuffs, which by the way I still need to know where these came from. I also don't know where I'm actually from, country wise, but I guess I'll have to figure that out as well.
In response, she only grunted ending the conversation, but since she decided to ask a question, why not? I'll go for it as well.
"When do you think we're leaving for this place called the capital?" I asked her. She glanced at me and for a few seconds I thought she wasn't going to answer me, but she did.
"Tomorrow at dawn." She replied ending the conversation once again. But I was in a somewhat better mood so I asked her another question.
"You guys mentioned a place called Azuria? Where is it? Is that the capital?" I ask her. Of course, she looked annoyed, which was not what I was aiming for, but it was nice to see how much I could anger her. For future reference so I don't die.
And the atmosphere resumed in an uncomfortable silence once more, which was not my fault since I was being nice and starting a nice conversation.
When I thought I wouldn't be able to survive the atmosphere any longer, Loquis came back with food that instantly filled the room, making me salivate. I would be more hesitant to take food from strangers, but seeing as they've been feeding me soup for the past 3 days, it wouldn't make sense for them to poison the food or anything.
Loquis set the delicious smelling bowl down in front of me, and when looking closer for inspection they were ramen noodles.
I instantly dug in, not caring that they were looking at me, I was starving.
The taste filled my mouth and the delicious broth added flavor to it making me shed a tear at how good it was.
"Thank you so much!!" I say in between bites. Loquis laughed at my antics.
"It's fine kiddo, make sure you rest up, we'll be leaving tomorrow. I have to go make preparations, if you need anything, just ask Freya." He said before walking out, leaving me and Freya alone once again.
"So....I assume you're like, my caretaker?" I ask her while still eating my noodles. She glanced at me and started to walk out.
"I'll be back in a little while to change your bandages, don't cause trouble." And as quick as she said those words she was gone.
Seriously? 'Don't cause trouble'? I'm 16, not 6.
I decided, for now, the best thing to do was to finish my meal and get a quick scope at the area I was in. It's not that I don't trust them, it's just after seeing what they were wearing, something really weird is going on.