'Fresh blood?'
Looking down I had stepped in a red puddle of fresh blood but there was not a corpse near it, instead there was a trail of blood that seemed to stop behind a collapsed concrete pillar.
I was quite tempted to just leave and not investigate it, after all I had seen enough already but the blood here was quite fresh, at most a day old. So, against my better judgement, I followed the blood trail and looked behind the collapsed pillar.
There was a young man leaning against the pillar with blood covering his entire body. He had deep gashes on his chest, back and arms and had clearly lost a lot of blood and most prominently, his left arm had been severed as it lay to his side and in his right arm, he weakly held a glass bottle. It was stupid to investigate, it was just another hero who had been fatally injured and passed away after crawling some distance.
I reached out to grab the glass bottle he held in his right arm when I noticed something odd. The gash on his chest was still bleeding and his chest was still slightly moving.
'He's still breathing.'
To confirm I checked his pulse and while it was quite weak, it was still there. He was quite resilient, but he would still be dead in a few hours. Unless the glass bottle he held was what I thought it was.
Taking the glass bottle and inspecting it, there was a bright blue liquid inside and the container was quite warm. The bottle matched the novels description of a high-level potion, capable of bringing someone back from the brink of death. The hero must have tried to use it but with his arms in that state, he most likely attempted to support himself with the pillar and drink it but passed out before he could.
The potion would sell for a lot of money and would help me survive in this world for some time.
'...'
I opened the bottle and poured the potion down the young hero's throat. I considered leaving him to die but I wasn't that cruel, even if it would benefit me to sell the potion, I didn't want to cause the death of a young hero because of my greed. If I did that, I would be no better than Derek.
The hero's wounds began to heal at an alarming rate, the gashes closed, and color began to come back to his body. Even his severed hand began twitching and when I held it close to his arm, it reconnected. A series of cracks and pops came from his body which I think were his broken bone being repaired. After a few minutes the process stopped, and the hero had a stronger pulse than before.
He was most likely still unconscious due to the extreme blood loss but with the healing factor of an awakened and the potion he would wake up soon just in a much more weakened state.
After resting beside him for a few minutes I slung his arm around my shoulder and began to carry him. I wanted to take him further from the battlefield to somewhere he could recover. He was heavy especially with his armor but I was able to carry him without much problem.
After half an hour of carrying him with me, I laid him down on a slab of marble away from the battlefield and decided to take a break. Away from the stench of blood and those gruesome scenes, I felt slightly relaxed. Reaching into my bag I found some cloth I had torn out of the curtains of the guild building and applied some water on it, using it as a towel to clean my face and remove the grime and vomit. After that I decided to have some food after all I hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday.
I sat on the floor with a lunchbox and some water bottles but then I saw the arm of the hero twitch.
He was going to wake up soon and would most likely be in a confused mental state.
'What if he attacks me?'
I knew he was a hero as he didn't have the alterations of a corrupt awakened such as horns or leathery skin and had regular blood instead of black but just because he was not a corrupt awakened didn't mean he was a good or trustworthy person. He was clearly very strong but he was weak right now and if he tried anything I had my dagger.
I unsheathed my dagger and approached the young man as he let out a slight groan and opened his eyes, trying to get up.
"Don't move." I said in synkarian
The man immediately tensed up and attempted to throw his hands up in a sign of surrender before squirming in pain.
"Ah fuck that hurts!"
He said as he began to flail around the marble slab, pressing the dagger closer to his throat I once again said.
"Stop moving."
"Alright, Alright calm down man I'm trying! If you would just give me some time before pointing a knife at my throat."
He stiffened up lying completely still and continued speaking.
"Is this better? Can you PLEASE remove the knife away from my throat now? I almost died once already you know."
I brought the dagger slightly away from his throat.
He sighed and said "Really? You got some trust issues man."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"See, there you go that's how most people start a conversation."
I brought the knife closer to his throat.
"Alright, damn I'm sorry! I'm Adam Kane, nice to meet you, angry knife man. "
"Kane?"
"Ah, I see you've heard of me. Yep I'm pretty famous, no big deal."
"Shut up."
"Okie."
Kane, that was the last name of one of the main heroines of the story, the warrior type damage dealer for the main characters party.
'Emma Kane'
Her whole story revolves around losing herself in the quest for avenging her brother's death and slaughters countless corrupted in anger, never actually finding the one who killed her brother. She also kills countless innocents as she doesn't care about collateral damage.
Great, one day being in this world and I have already changed a major character event. I'm not disappointed though, the story is bound to change as if I let it continue unchanged, the world is doomed anyway.
"Hello? World to angry knife guy? If you're going to space out, could you at least stop pressing a knife to my throat as you do so."
"Hero ID."
"What?"
"Show me your Hero ID, so I can confirm your identity."
"Oh, alright I need to use my space ring for that."
I nodded saying "Don't try anything."
He sighed and tapped a glossy metallic ring on his right-hand ring finger. Then a card appeared in his hand which he offered to me.
"Here ya go."
The card had his photo, along with details such as his name, age, rank and guild association. The details lined up and even though his face and hair were covered in blood and grime, I could tell it was still him.
In the novel, Emma described him as being quite the selfless person and an example of what every hero should strive to be. He also didn't look like he wanted to harm me, or even could in his state. So, I removed the dagger away from his throat but didn't sheathe it. I still didn't trust him personally.
"Finally! Took you a while, holding somebody who almost died at knifepoint isn't a very nice thing to do you know."
I nodded and said, "I'm sorry."
"Ah no problem, lots of people have threatened to stab me, including my sister."
"Oh, by the way-" he pointed at my lunchbox and spoke.
"Could I have some of that?"