A week has passed since my first excursion into the forest to fight some goblins. It is now the day that I have my first rematch with Viktor. I wonder how It will go? I get up out of my bed and grab my sword, then I walk down the stairs and go to the dining area to eat breakfast. After breakfast I head to do my daily chores, take care of the plants and the animals.
After my chores I practice the combat that I have experienced. Practice has become a very important part of my daily routine. I practice combat at least 1 hour a day, imagining the different combat experiences I have had as I do. I try not to work so hard to the extent I would pass out in the morning, as I have work to do daily. Instead of completely wearing myself out in the morning I also practice before bed as it helps me sleep in a more comfortable way.
I also hunt in the woods daily in my free time, look for weaker monsters instead of avoiding them, then smite them with my sword. I would say that my ability to track has greatly improved compared to my basic ability previously, now I know the telltale signs of what monsters are around, at least in this area. I make sure to be careful as I am but a child and unable to face something as strong as a troll; which is both forceful and has the ability to heal.
I call my exploration and killing of monsters hunting as I track them and fight them. It is rather fun but I don't take anything from the bodies; unless it's a slime which is extremely sweet and helps to improve the digestion system. Along with their tastiness they are also very delicate and the texture they have is delectable. While they may be common and weak, if you are sleeping in a slime field then you might end up dead, as they can drown you as you sleep, but that's about all they can do.
Whenever I go out on my hunts I try to make it back before it gets dark as it is dangerous after nightfall with the packs of wolves that travel around these woodlands. Along with monsters becoming more active during the night, and my sight being dulled, It could be detrimental.
There is a strange thing about my usual adventures, I usually end up improving quite a bit everyday, somehow. I don't quite understand how I end up improving this fast, I thought I would be going at half of this rate in my gain of experience, maybe I have a natural talent for hunting monsters, or maybe I'm just a fast learner. Either way it is a strange occurrence to almost lose against two goblinoids one day, then be able to take out those two again easily the next.
Today is going to be quite the busy day for me, even after my chore, as I have my agreement to uphold with Viktor, the fancily clothed young man who made me become interested in this kind of lifestyle. Today is the day that we agreed to meet up for our next duel with our wooden swords. I wonder how much he improved, as he mentioned something about him having a teacher.
Unlike me that just practiced by going into the woods and fighting weaker monsters, he probably got to learn about different sword styles or something amazing like that. It has been a week after all, a lot of time to learn something new.
Either way I think it is time that I head to town as I took today as a rest day other than my morning workout and chores. It is noon and if you have a choice of being late or being early, It is always best to choose being early so as to not disrespect the other person or people you are meeting with. Especially if you are meeting with someone you respect.
I grab my sword and stretch as I am going to have to walk a bit to even get to the city, around a quarter of an hour. I put my mildly damaged and scratched up wooden sword on my belt and begin my way out of my room when I see a fellow orphan by the name of Lu. She has white hair and brown eyes, older than me and a little taller than me.
"Hey, we need you to go get some more bread from the bakery." She says holding out a seemingly empty pouch of coins. "You are always going into the woods either way aren't you? Why not get some bread while you're at it?" She smiles, handing me the pouch and patting me on my back.
"Alright. Sounds like a wonderful idea to me!" I say with eagerness as I already had plans to go to town, now nobody from the orphanage needs to worry about where I go and why I'm gone for so long.
" Have a safe trip!" Lu then says as she walks away from the door and allows me out.
"I will!" I shout as if I were already outside the excitement bubbling over, I am overjoyed about my second fight that will be happening today.
I rush through the narrow halls that make up the dorms, through the huge main hallway that connects all of the different parts of the building together, and then through the large front doors. I almost trip as I hop down the few steps that you take to get from the ground to the front door as I run across the courtyard and through the front gate, onto the road.
I stop running as I don't want to exhaust all of my energy before the fight between me and Viktor, then it would be far too one sided, even more than it was before. The road is quite wide and open even though it only leads to an orphanage, although I suppose it would need to be able to support carriages so it makes a bit of sense.
After a few minutes pass I see the main road. It's about twice as wide as the orphanage's road, of course it would be, it is headed for the city. Thankfully my feet don't hurt as I have heard of the stone roads in the mountains, compared to these dirt roads they probably hurt to walk on, I couldn't imagine going barefoot on cold stone for this long of a walk. There would also be the chance of a loose stone that might stab you in your foot or make you trip and fall.
Another bit of time passes as I approach the city's gates, Around ten times the size of the orphanage's front gates, which is meant for carriages to be able to enter. I step through them and look around the town, bustling as ever, the streets crowded a little more than usual but today is just one of those busy days, as the ones crowding the streets aren't couples, well not all of them. Most are just parties of adventurers that usually come to this town as a vacation, as it is almost always like a festival.
I see so many people with amazing equipment, and then there is me, a child with a scratched up wooden sword and a cloak, along with the normal hakama but no shirt. I feel like I am nothing to some of these people, I probably look like a thief or beggar. It would normally be easy to get lost in crowds like these but luckily for me, I have been through this town quite a few times and know my way to the bakery that supplies us with our breads.
I head there and have the same exchange as usual, get a nice sized basket, pay then leave while saying thank you for serving us. I noticed that some of the products the Baker makes to put on display have been sold, Leaving me feeling overjoyed with him also getting plenty of business out of the adventurers that fill the city. Wait a minute… Think about the tavern's income! So many people are going to need a place to stay and the best spot to do so at is a tavern.
I ponder this thought as I walk through the streets not entirely paying attention to where I am going. Whoops. I walked into one of the few couples that probably aren't from around here. One, a male wearing a wizard's cloak holding a large pole with trinket at the top, being rather tall and bulky for just a wizard. The other, a female that is completely built, only wearing what's needed to be worn exposing all of her muscles and scars.
What if they think I'm trying to steal from them? I would surely be unable to make it to the duel between me and Viktor at that point. I would probably be in an alley somewhere beaten up. The first thing I should do is apologize as they definitely noticed I was there.
"I am terribly sorry for walking into you. I didn't mean to, I was simply lost in thought and didn't notice my surroundings." I apologize and bow a little as I am not well versed in etiquette and don't know what else to do.
" Well, It's quite alright!" The bulky wizard shouts in an extremely low pitched and raspy voice as he lets out a laugh, that of a barbarian laughing at a mildly funny joke full heartedly. The woman just stared at me with a look of understanding, unlike that of what you would expect. After the laugh of the man they just walk away and so do I mildly relieved.
It's inspiring how many adventurers there are, just these few on vacation still fill up an entire city. Not all of them are strong looking, some look like they are weaker than me, and I'm still only a child.
Either way, I think I should leave town before I run into a group of adventurers that are less friendly compared to the ones from before. I am kind of curious, why was that wizard so buff? It is normal for a wizard to look like the opposite of a bodybuilder or just a little fit, not rippling muscles that look like they could be from an overworked mule.
I walk out of the walls with the bread in my hand and just sit down under a tree, waiting for my spar partner to arrive.
As soon as it starts to get dark to the point I can see a few stars, I stop waiting for Viktor as it still takes a while to get home and I do not want to be stuck out when more dangerous things start coming out.
I start to walk down the road at a speedier pace, quicker than on my way to town, it seems like I might be a little worried about them thinking I was killed. Although I see a large amount of smoke that seems to be where the orphanage is located, It seems to be more than usual.
As I reach the orphanage gates there is a faint smell of blood and fire. The gates are sealed and it's going to take all of my strength to push them open again, personally I have never seen them shut so worry starts to fill my head. There aren't that many strong monsters around here. The strongest being a troll, which has regenerative power and the strength of 5 men.
I push on the gates with all of my strength, sometimes I'm upset about the size of these stone walls and the solid wood and steel reinforced gates that work as a door for them. It slowly budges as I push on it, slowly opening and showing me the horror that is in front of me, showing me why I could smell blood and fire.
The orphanage. It's on fire, the fire burning with a passion, some of the wood being completely charred and some being non-existent at this point. There is a large creature in front of it that has something in its hand, or rather someone. Lu, it opens its mouth as it crunches down on Lu´s head and slides it off of the spine like it was eating a beef skewer, blood squirting everywhere only exciting the creature more before it rips all of the other limbs off eating them like slowly like it was truly a treat.
Lu wasn't the only one the monster ate, It also ate all of the others that made it out of the orphanage instead of getting trapped in the fire, some were conscious, screams of agony were wailed only exciting the troll further causing it to only take even more time with its targets. I'm surprised all of the adventurers in the town haven't heard the screams of anguish.
I can't move, even if I wanted to. All I could do is sit there and watch as all of the people I've ever known are slaughtered in front of me. I wish I could move, even if I could, what use would it be, I'm just a child. If I wanted to fight back, what would I do? I only have a wooden sword, I don't even have a knife, let alone an actual sword.
What should I do, it hasn't noticed me yet so I could run away; but I can't even move. Maybe I should try? Maybe I should attempt to move into the forest and climb a tree? Maybe I should charge in and attack it regardless of how I feel I would do.
Whatever I could have done before, It finished eating everyone i have ever known so it doesn't matter now. It noticed me, if I had not relieved myself in the woods earlier I would have soiled my pants out of fear. The only option now is to fight.
I take out my wooden sword and prepare for it to come at me, fear helps, as it will probably strengthen my instincts. It charges for me, somehow still hungry it has a slight abrasion on its left leg causing it to limp and a burn on its arm, probably from the fire. Trolls usually take a little bit of time to heal so I should be able to use the wound against it.
As it gets close I jump out of the way of the gates as they break open from the sprinting push it just delivered, thankfully I landed in a bush and I might have a little time to think of how I can deal with this.
Well, I don't need anymore time to think, I will wait for it to leave itself open and then attack the wound on its leg hopefully stunning it, giving me time to run into the forest. Let's try this.
As soon as I see an opening I strike its leg giving away my position and breaking the wooden sword into something that is more of a dagger length and now actually sharp. I didn't do any damage on the initial strike but I did get grazed as it struck down at me with its sharp claws claiming a large chunk out of the back of my hand and arm, thankfully not the one I had the weapon in.
Huh. I feel different. Why is the blood from my wound just now floating around? In the air, like actually just floating in the air. I have heard about stuff like this, magic? Let me try moving it.
I think about moving the blood to the left quickly, as it moves I demand it to turn into the sword and be sharp and sturdy, sure enough it does exactly that, maybe not as sturdy as it could be if I trained it.
I remake my sword with the blood, it may be a little wavy and looks like it will fall apart at any second, but it works. The beast decides to swing again. I roll out of the way just barely making it. After rolling out of the way I swipe at its leg wound again, actually doing damage this time! I cut a large chunk out of the troll's leg. Purple liquid spurts out as its leg crashes in on itself causing it to collapse.
As soon as I get this opening I sprint to the town as fast as I can, my arm mutilated, slowly fading in and out of consciousness, yet still running.