Chapter 17: Your hero is here
"How did your talk with the village head go?" Sharla asked Bryce after coming out from her room, kitted out in her long robes, with light armor pieces sticking close to her curves beneath it and hair gathered into a ponytail, exuding a ready-to-fight aura.
Bryce casually replied after yawning, "Nothing special. I thought I would have at least an hour talk with him about Arnold and his buddy and how the loss of their eyes hurts the village, but he turned out to be a pretty chill guy, and he knew that making me an enemy would only hurt the village more."
"So you know you did hurt the village, at least you have some conscience! I, for one, thought it was all Gengo and his lovely heart guiding you." Having said that, Sharla opened a shelf, took out some snacks, and passed them to Gengo, whose tongue lolled out, saliva dripping onto the floor.
She scratched his head, ignoring the liquid staining the floor, and kept kindly smiling at him.
"Because I do have a conscience," Bryce stressed out 'do' with a deep voice, "I will hunt as many trolls as possible, turn them into edible meat, and provide a lot of it to the village. Winter won't be a problem."
"Good boy," said Sharla to Gengo, as though she purposely ignored Bryce, teasing him.
Bryce didn't let her go, though, he stood up, arrived behind Sharla, and pulled her ponytail, mimicking the sweet tone she reserved for Gengo, "Good girl, good girl!" He ruffled her hair, too.
"Ah, come on!" Sharla yelped, extended her hands to her hair, then snatched her ponytail back, fixing it, "Not my hair, just as we are about to go outside!" Exasperated, she went to the mirror, leaving both of them alone.
Gengo questioned his owner's actions, but as Bryce just chuckled, he realized that it was their usual bickering. He munched on his snacks while waiting for the healer to come back.
At last, it was time to go outside.
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Bryce, Sharla, and Gengo had finally left the village.
Some hunters standing atop the walls gazed at them with mixed feelings, mainly worried about Sharla, whose healing skills solved many issues in their village. She hadn't turned around at all, so hunters inferred she was feeling safe with Bryce by his side, and then, recalling his battle with Arnold and his archer buddy, the hunters were forced to accept it.
They didn't like how Bryce had no equipment, though. Of course, he had a backpack with essential stuff such as food and other necessities, just like Sharla and Gengo(the dog had items in his inventory, so no one knew that except Bryce and Sharla), but what about armor, at least some gloves?
How come he didn't loan some stuff? Their hunting duo looked so imbalanced because of it. Perhaps, it was because of their village head, but even the hunters found it odd.
Was there a reason? Sharla shared the thoughts of the hunters, so she asked Bryce, and his reply left her stunned.
"Gengo doesn't have any armor." He said.
"But he's not fighting, is he?"
"He will carry a lot of meat, he needs armor, too."
"There has to be a different reason. Maybe ego has gotten into you." Sharla replied as though she was confident that there was more to it.
Bryce shrugged and kept moving forward. As a player, he had a cheat, the minimap, and he had his own path he had gone through before marked here, and even more, as he had a whole map unlocked with a clear path toward the Freedom Metropolis from the village that he's spent more than a week now.
Many colorful dots dotted that minimap, which was game-like information prepared by the mercenary guilds for escaping heroes. Green dots revealed valuable natural ingredients required for many purposes, for instance, alchemy. Red dots warned Bryce about possible enemies, in his case, the cave trolls, many of the same dots guided Bryce to the caves, which were nests of those monsters. He also saw cities and dungeons marked.
But for now, green and red dots were of utmost priority.
"We will do it slowly and smartly," Bryce said after reading green dots, he learned about Stasia Flowers, which, rubbed on a wound, would spread a strong anesthesia effect; he marked those dots with a different color, for he liked that effect, then continued, "One troll, two trolls, three trolls, and in this way we will slowly test ourselves against them."
Gengo barked.
Sharla nodded without saying a word; it was not time for any joke or remarks, and she was glad that Bryce wanted to slowly up their hunt, finding their limits in a sane way. She couldn't help but take a peek at his face and smile with faint red patches on her cheeks.
But her smile didn't last even a few red dots.
Yes, all of them were empty, for trolls moved, and there was a gathering in the demon lord's castle, but when Bryce found a troll sitting with its gnarly back pressed against a tree-
"Inferior creature, a mistake of the world!"
Sharla's face became drained of color, and her trembling eyes followed the mass of flesh and its billowing fury standing up, glowering in their direction! She couldn't believe her eyes and ears, just because Bryce managed to easily anger such an existence!
"You can't be serious, Bryce! So easily and why?!" Sharla moaned.
But as Bryce smirked, unsheathed his sword, and put it diagonally before his chest, he whispered words only audible to him, "Excalibur."
In an instant, his plain-looking silver sword burst out with golden ribbons, those uncurled into dazzling streaks, the whole clearing lit up in bright and vivid colors, and Sharla's body heated up in the blink of an eye, her mana stirred, and her eyes trained on Bryce, who stood with the most beautiful sword she had ever seen.
He turned around, his eyes now blue and starry, which seemed to pierce through Sharla in a lady-killing way, "Your hero is here, pretty girl."
Gengo growled! Enough of your cool moment, he thought.
Hearing her doggy friend, Sharla snapped and babbled out, "Go and fight already!"
She cast her supportive skills to not think about Bryce and his cheeky smile, only to get surprised more as her skills came out akin instantly, her light so golden as though Excalibur filled her with its profound mana!
"We really might be able to easily hunt the trolls," Sharla whispered in a daze.
Gengo heard her right, and his heart calmed down thoroughly.