But first I had to find a pond, so I could at least wipe all these damned stained clothes and armors and-
[Pond located. Southeast- 772 M]
"M?"
And wait, it could locate stuff for me?
It did not answer, no.
But I took a step and almost every three steps, the number reduced by 1.
Basically, I had to go like 2300 steps or something?
I'd studied a fair bit of algebra at the royal court but never thought I'd need to use that…
The armor and the sword were kind of heavy so I got out of the armor, but kept the sword.
A dagger and a sword in a world full of monsters.
Huh!
What a joke!
It was still morning and as this place heated up more and more, the rotting smell of flesh also spread more and more.
Spilled blood rotted rather fast, and so did organs.
The smell was anything but pleasant.
Which meant- walk!
Walk!
Walk away from it all!
Sigh…
Anyway-
Sure, enough after half an hour or so of walking through all this, I'd found the pond.
A small pond.
A small pond in the middle of nowhere- with no monsters or fish in sight.
Crystal clear water despite being out in the open with no visible sources of water pouring in or out.
Roughly nine steps or rather Three M wide.
Something about the water seemed fishy- and it wasn't the fish.
But I didn't care, I needed to clean this body and all the blood anyway.
I didn't dive in, too risky.
Rather, I just used my pouch and started to clean myself.
I did have blood everywhere, but all the wounds were fully healed.
And now that I thought a bit more rationally and calmly there were numbers around the field of my vision.
Basically-
Lv-1
HP- 34/45
MP- 2/9
EXP- 00/100
I had no idea what they meant so I asked the air, or whatever was answering me.
Apparently, it had a name and wanted me to call it, Ronde, a weird name.
"You can call me Bren then," I kept washing my face and started stealing glances at my washed face in the water. 'Well, aren't you handsome!'
Weirdly my face had changed quite a bit.
Even at the age of 19 I didn't really grow much facial hair and was often called baby-faced behind my back.
But- oddly I had facial hair now, and I actually looked handsome for once. My brown hair was larger than usual as well. Maybe not cutting it over the course of the last four weeks, was a good idea?
Cause it sure looked good.
A bit messy- but good.
My body was slightly bigger and I was definitely better looking, actually, I might have been more handsome than even Juerd- the Second prince!
Okay, that was a stretch, but oh well.
[!!!]
My vision for a second went red, or rather the color red flashed.
[Presence of danger detected!]
The water started bubbling.
Yeah, I had a bad feeling about that.
I slowly moved back, creating enough distance and drawing my sword.
If I'd really gotten powerful, then a Sahagin probably wasn't going to pose a threat.
How I knew it'd be a Sahagin?
Classes of course!
I had to extensively study all this crap about monsters and whatnot back at the castle.
Those damn professors were the real monsters though!
Sleeping with the maids, rubbing it in, always hitting me on the nose on the pretext of educating me.
Monsters!
I planned on executing them all once I became king but with me and father defeated the kingdom kind of fell so- oh well.
And as a matter of fact, the thing inside the pond did rise up and come out.
A full-fledged Blue Sahagin. Face like a snake, back like a turtle, walking on its scaled legs- a monster.
Typically, they're purple in color meaning this one was a rare breed.
Meaning, I was screwed.
"I guess running was better-"
A blue Sahagin. The carapace behind it, gave it a great defense, while the wooden spear in its hand meant I was kind of going to be skewered next…
Well, I certainly didn't want that- so I kept a close eye on my surrounding.
That thing was a water-based monster, meaning it couldn't run fast on land. So I had the advantage.
But it could throw the spear- so I couldn't act rash.
Oddly I was calm despite acting like I wasn't. I wasn't sweating and my heart wasn't racing.
I was definitely calm.
[Quest- Defeat the Sahagin Chief!]
Okay, I was calm no more.
'That thing's a chief!' mouth agape, I readied my sword.
Yeah, that thing was about to batter the hell out of me. Sahagin chiefs weren't just rare, they were considered ten times more powerful than typical ones. And I'd never actually fought a monster-
The training drills weren't going to cover up my lack of experience… running away really was the better option.
But-
But if I ran from something like this, then wasn't revenge just wishful thinking?
[Suggested skill- curse]
"Curse? Do I just say tha-"
An aura of darkness covered my left arm and started to gather into a ball.
Just saying the name of the skill was good enough-
Kind of freaked, I tried to throw it away, and threw it past the Sahagin straight into the water.
[Missed!]
'UNNECESSARY INFORMATION!' I staggered back.