I'd been through a lot, in this life.
At the age of ten- I lost my mother.
At the time there went a rumor, stating my mother was killed by some slow-acting poison.
The royal doctors never confirmed it though, after all, if it really was the case then wouldn't that make the fourth queen a murderer?
The fourth queen was always kind to me and honestly, I never thought she'd be like that.
I never thought she'd murder my mother, or rather, I didn't want to believe she would-
Until- until I saw her that day.
I saw her, sneaking out of the king's bedroom, straight into the bed of Eldrick- the first prince, but that wasn't all...
And that's when I knew-
The world- wasn't a bed of roses.
But it wasn't until much later did I realize, everyone hated me.
Unlike my brothers, I didn't have wealth, or the charms.
So- to everyone around me, I was a failure.
Even to my love- the girl who I was in love for 14 long years- chose my brother over me. Of course, she did. I was a failure after all!
Father never believed so, which was why he entrusted me with one-third of the whole forces of our nation. And yet- 'I failed him…'
No, I failed the whole nation.
And the nation, failed me.
But that was in the past.
Prince Brendalor Von Dorkanil was dead.
And all his failure- all his worthlessness died with him.
I had no room for those-
'Might have to think of a new name though…'
Apparently, the road was quite long, and I was bored.
So, thinking about the past and weird things weren't that weird- yet.
Sigh.
Why couldn't the god also give me superhuman powers or maybe the power of flight?
'Rondo, Can I fly?'
[No*]
Speechless.
"Drag…" I still spoke anyway.
And also kept on walking.
The road ahead was long and treacherous but- but it had to end- eventually.
Probably.
***
Night fell down and I set up camp, or rather, just gathered some stones, woods, and sat down, staring at the sky.
I didn't really feel that tired. I didn't feel hungry either.
I'd been walking all day.
Monsters just avoided me, too much meat around.
And though I walked I still didn't feel tired.
My stomach didn't rumble- and it sufficed to say, maybe I didn't need food anymore?
'Maybe?'
I still roasted the Sahagin meat anyway.
Lighting the fire with rocks was actually harder than crossing this damn wasteland!
The Sahagin meat wasn't that bad though.
Actually, it was better than I thought.
Just plain roasted meat without any condiments yet- pretty good…
Just thinking about how good this'd have been if I just had some cooking skills and spices… mmghhg!
Oh well.
I had some time to enjoy the food while doing some things- namely-
'This menu thing isn't working though.'
I could open a menu by saying or thinking the word 'menu.' And it had some options to it. But I couldn't press on any of them.
Everything was locked.
The menu thing moved as I moved my head- became solid when I focused on to it and awfully transparent when I looked at something else.
'Can I at least get an explanation on the skills and-'
I'd never seen or heard about something like this.
In the past, one of my teachers said something about how gods chose their apostles and all that- but I never paid attention. And though I didn't pay attention, I still could say for sure, none of them ever mentioned anything about systems and stuff.
[Completing the tutorial would grant user 'Journal']
I guess that was a no… for now.
'And I haven't completed that quest either…' I'd actually kind of forgotten about the whole quest thing.
I still had some time before midnight.
But so far, I hadn't seen any round wolves.
They all had probably just gone in the direction of the massacre, for the free food.
Oh well-
***
After resting for a few minutes, I again set out.
It was night but the twin moons and the stars were shining brightly and I could see well enough.
As I thought- I didn't feel sleepy either.
No yawning!
So maybe this was a bit superhuman I guess?
Some bats were fluttering around in the trees… there wasn't anything around but-
But it did make me feel a bit more cautious.
Growl!
My ears picked something up,
A low growl, in the distance.
'This can't be a coincidence, right?'
I had my doubts but I slowly moved forward-
The land was just flat- and barren, so it didn't take me too long to find the source.
Four wolves were targeting a white lion cub behind a large black tree.
The cub was alone.
Three of the wolves were round wolves. Lucky me.
The fourth one though- was a twin-tailed round wolf.
Very unlucky me…
Sigh.
[Suggested skill: curse!]
'Shouldn't I have other skills too?'
I didn't get a response.
Anyway, I unsheathed my sword, held the spear in the other hand, and slowly but carefully moved forward.
The lion cub was small, the size of a large cat and it was desperately trying to intimidate the wolves.
Unfortunately, they weren't being intimidated.
But- they were definitely distracted.
Which meant- 'Curse!'
Nothing happened.
Darkness didn't flow. 'YOU mean I have to-'
Sigh… "CURSE!" -Say it out loud.
A ball flew- a ball of darkness, crashing into the twin-tailed large wolf.
In a split second all their attention was on me now.
"Curse! Curse! Cu-" My throat clogged up.
It was almost as though-
Blood.
Cough!
I coughed up blood.
[Mana Limit reached!]
Apparently, my MP, or whatever it was, was kind of 0, and 0 wasn't good. It kept flashing red whenever I tried to use the skill- so- yeah- not good.
Chest burning, vision going dark-
"Huh?" Breathless, I stared as the wolves slowly surrounded me.
They were also in a bad state- and all of them were coughing just like me, if not worse- but they were definitely aiming to kill me. Or better yet, eat me.
'Not if I can help it.' Grinning, I took my stance.
A jump-
I sliced!
Straight through a wolf, but another one took the advantage and clawed my back-
Argh!
Leaving the armor behind was probably not the best idea.
But-
Horizontal slash!
It jumped back, a complete miss.
[Exp gained- 200]
[Suggested skill: Revenge blast!]
I was annoyed.
Really-
I was again bleeding to my death and this damn thing was making fun of me, while singing.
[Just your imagination…]
'Unnecessary information!' And now it was trying to cover for itself? What! Sigh- "Revenge blast!" But I wasn't going down that easy!
SWOOSH!
This time my spear glowed and as I threw it at the wolf from a distance, the spear just flew through the air, making a hole in the wolf's head- leaving the others behind.
Apparently, MP wasn't necessary for this skill…