𝗛𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘁ō
We arrived at our destination. "Huh, well...this is troubling, the quest doesn't say anything about a dark cave...but hey, at least you made the right choice bringing a shorter weapon!"
Astoria says happily trying to ease my worries.
However, the uneasiness overwhelms me. 'Oh god, I'd really rather not die before the first week even passes besides, if I rather my take own life than let some monster do it for me...' I thought, filled with uneasiness however, I didn't let it show to Astoria.
"Us elves have natural night vision so traversing this cave would be no prob for me but as for you..." Before she could think of a solution to this small predicament, a giant roar, coming from the cave interrupts our thoughts.
"ђย๓คคคคคคคภร!!!!" I froze up but the moment I saw the so-called ogre, I drop into a stance even though I was filled with uneasiness. 'Another language?'
I look beside me and found that Astoria was nowhere to be seen so turned around to find her sitting on a nearby branch not caring about the ogre coming my way.
Looking in front of me again, it seems when I turned away from the ogre for a moment, a second ogre appeared, trying to kill me first.
my face twisted in a manner as if trying to say "Are you kidding me?" but upon realizing my imminent demise, I draw a pair of curved long knives from my hips and then dropped my body slightly trying to imitate a proper stance.
Thankfully, the ogre was still about 12 seconds away from me so I was able to observe some things from them.
The ogre's body was twice my height and had a greyish tone, and the torso was chubby or even fat however its arms had slightly defined muscles.
Thankfully they had no weapon and were a bit sluggish, possibly because they were starving then suddenly an arrow hit one of the ogre's knees making him fall to the ground, and soon was left behind by the other ogre.
I turn my head slightly and nodded, thanking Astoria and although uneasy, I charged at the ogre in the front.
Knowing that the ogre was twice my height, I gripped my long knife in a reverse grip and slashed the ogre's shin while passing by on its right then I hurriedly dashed to the ogre trying to get up, and stabbed its stomach with my right long knife. 'I don't know whether its stomach is there but if there's one thing I know, most creatures with a humanoid figure always have similar anatomy to humans.' I thought to myself as I stab him deeply, twisting it and then pulling it out. And indeed there was as the ogre started bleeding from the stomach, the ogre tried to give chase however, the excessive bleeding caused it to be weak and even more sluggish making the ogre fall to the ground.
I look back at the kneeling ogre and without any hesitation but with a bit of uneasiness to approach it, I grip my long knife into a reverse grip and stabbed the back of its neck. Behind me, the ogre that has collapsed was currently breathing heavily and found no energy to even move so I easily killed him as well by stabbing the back of its neck.
'Looks like my interest in art helped me this time eh?' Not wanting to linger any longer in case of another ogre appeared, I went back to the entrance of the cave. When I looked outside, Astoria was there happily smiling, it seems she was observing me.
Himura gave her a small smile trying to message that his fine. 'This is a new life and I have a new identity, maybe all I needed is a new slate to explore who I truly am and what I truly want.' I thought to myself with a hint of doubt.
'I have no attachment to my former world no, I hated it there and this world may not accept me easily but I want to do my hardest to fit in, no, I have to, I can't just end up the old me again.' I thought to myself, strengthening my hatred for what I have truly become back in my home.
"Noooooooote, you there?" Interrupted by Astoria, I shake my head.
"Well whatever, let's explore the cave!" She said as she walks inside.
'Bad! very bad idea!' I grabbed Astoria's hand trying to stop her from going any further then I shake my head violently and pointed at my eyes. "Huh? But when you were fighting the ogre in that cave, you were fine." I was only able to see fine because I've always been staying in a dim room. 'For all my life, I really hated the sun so I naturally made my room extremely dark and that probably made my eyes adjust to the dark more easily, although because of that, I became sensitive to bright lights.'
"Well whatever, You should just cast liꪻ, so you can at least see in the dark." I tilt my head in confusion.
"Oh right, you can't speak the most common language so I'll assume that you also don't know how to speak in Arcanum?" I nod my head.
"Well don't worry about that I'll cast it for you." She declares and I nod my head again. A small ball of dim light suddenly appeared on her and his shoulder making them able to see in the dark easier and without pause, we journey further to this dark cave.
'Arcanum huh? From what she saying it's probably a common language for most people who can cast magic.' I thought to myself as I walk behind her.
'I'm truly in a fantasy world huh?' Uneasiness takes over my body. 'Will I truly fit in this world? Or am I going to be a failure like last time?' I asked, afraid of what the answer will be.
The cave shakes heavily. Astoria prepares her bow looking troubled. "And they even forget to mention an Ogre general?" In front of them were seven ogres with old armor on their torso, shin, and shoulder.
Luckily, I noticed a clear weakness in their armor. I draw my twin blades again prepared to stall them while Astoria shoots them all, however, Astoria immediately charges at them prepared almost prepared to brawl with them.
Naturally, I gave chase to her, a bit nervous about her idea.
The three ogres in front of her tried to grab her but somehow she disappeared and reappeared behind them then she promptly shot them in the back of the neck and quickly disappeared again.
The ogre general itself had more armored than the ogres in front of him and even had a sword but before I could observe them more, the other three ogres made their presence known and were looking at me as if I was free kill.
I looked at Astoria and the ogre general briefly before bringing my attention to the ogres. 'No wonder they called her the brawler archer, she's not afraid to kill them all head on.' I thought but then I asked myself. 'Will I be able to do that in the future? Probably not.' I said with clear doubt.
A scary tingling sensation surged in my body and I quickly dodged to the left and then dashed back.
The two ogres in front tried to hit me with their clubs but before they can raise them again, I stabbed one of the ogres in its stomach.
Although its stomach was armored, they were an opening in the bottom of the stomach so I assumed that their armor is made to fight someone of their size but I did wonder, how they've managed to get such an armor that fitted them.
The stabbed ogre kneels to the ground trying to stop the bleeding but was also trying to swing at me. I quickly retreated not certain whether to kill it or not because of the two remaining ogres.
However, the two ogres hesitated too for about five seconds before charging at him again. 'Tch, I could have killed that ogre earlier.' I said, berating myself. 'I can't be hesitating now, this is a life or death fight.'
The second ogre tried to hit me with an overhead slash however the cave ceiling prevented the ogre to do that while the third ogre tried to stab Himura with its club.
I quickly stepped back then using the third ogre's club, used it as a stair, and quickly jumped at the second ogre and stabbed its neck, killing him instantly.
The third ogre then raised his club slightly and tried to hit him then I felt a scary tingling sensation again. In response, I quickly used my twin blade to block the attack but I was put into a kneeling position because of the ogre's strength.
'Ah! fuck me this hurts!' Although I was only slightly uncomfortable on the outside, on the inside I was cursing at the ogre.
It felt like my bones almost broke by just receiving the first blow and I definitely did not want to find out if I could take another one as my body felt weak.
I then quickly roll to the side and quickly gets up, however, the ogre was already halfway on preparing for another swing. I felt a scary tingling sensation.
'A side swing!' Without hesitation or fear, I quickly used the walls as leverage and jumped high enough to slash its neck and thankfully it connected.
Although it was shallow, the ogre quickly tried to stab the bleeding out of instinct, and with that opportunity, I stabbed the last ogre in the stomach and left him to bleed out.
Catching my breath quickly, I looked at the first ogre that I stabbed in the stomach.
It had already died from excessive bleeding, I lightly clicked his tongue for hesitating at that moment but my anger quickly dissipates since it was all in the past now. I looked at Astoria and found her sitting atop the body of the ogre general.
When I looked at the ogre's corpse, it seems she already killed the ogre general and was just watching him.
"You dodge a lot you know that?" She commented and I tilt my head in confusion.
"It's nothing, let's go journey further in!" As she says that, Astoria quickly ran ahead of me but quickly stopped when they meet an old bridge.
Without hesitation, Astoria starts walking on further like it was nothing.
Himura tried to stop her but couldn't, I had never tried to argue nor fight with someone before so I became timid when it comes to saying anything whether it is a discussion or conversation.
Just to be safe, I let Astoria cross first in fear that it might collapse in our weight, however, a scary tingling sensation surges in my body again, I would be a fool to not notice these tingling feelings now, but he didn't know why it was happening, but he soon drew a conclusion.
Death. It was the perception of death, I quickly grabbed Astoria's arm of dragged her back to me. "Hey! what are yo-" She tries to complain but then, a massive black substance fell on the bridge, breaking it.
We looked down only to see a black goopy substance slowly dissolving the bodies of ogres. "Well that's neat, we don't have to kill the remaining ogres since those are probably the rest. And we can get a bonus because of the inaccuracy of the quest, so hey silver lining!" Astoria smiles widely and started making her way back. I also nodded and also followed before looking back again.
'The tingling sensation again.' It didn't matter whether he was out or in danger, those black "thing" was dangerous, really dangerous I shuddered in fear but suddenly a wall in front of him.
I was surprised but calmed down after finding out that the sensation was gone. Observing it quickly, it was transparent and looked like it was made out of universes and space.
I looked at Astoria's back, it seems she hasn't noticed it yet so I quickly followed her back to town.
"Puahhhh!! damn, that's good." Astoria was heavily drinking alcohol back in the adventurers guild.
I was carefully looking at the coins I got from the quest. Originally it was supposed to be only 29 silver and 78 copper but due to the inaccuracy of the quest, they were given 2 extra gold coins as compensation.
Astoria quickly used it to treat everyone in the guild and got drunk. as they drink I pocketed my coins in the pouch he received from the merchant branch of the adventurers guild.
"Come on, note drink with me!" I shakes my head, not interested in alcohol but she then pinned me down on the table and tried to force me to drink alcohol.
As the mug gets closer, I made a gesture of giving up and took the mug myself.
"Good, now... let's drink!" Astoria quickly downs a half-full mug of beer while I tried to pretend that I was drinking but instead, I threw it over my shoulder.
Looking back, it seems the same adventurer I meet earlier managed to catch most of the beer and gave me a thumbs up. 'She really is popular huh?'
About an hour later when everyone was either knocked out drunk or already gone home, I found out that the second floor was some sort of inn.
The receptionist from earlier told him that we could use it for about 10 copper each day so after dragging the drunk Astoria to our room, I dropped her on the bed and cover her up with the blanket.
Sadly there was only one bed in this room so I stole a pillow from the bed and sleep on the floor.
I take off my jacket and used it as his blanket.
Before even a minute was already beginning to fall asleep. 'I'm really out of shape huh? I guess I should exercise frequently while also trying to learn this world's language.' I thought to myself.
'Yeah, I...should...do that.' And with my tiredness taking over, I sleep more peacefully than I had ever slept.
Although I was on a dangerous quest earlier, somehow it didn't feel scary, it may be because of Astoria or my nature, I didn't know.
All I knew was that he was having a fine time here more than in my former world.