Roan woke up to the sound of the chirping birds outside his window as rays of sunlight spilt through the cracks between the roof of his thatched hut. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, feeling the weight of yesterday's events weigh heavy on his heart. The images of Seth and Lela's lifeless bodies flashed before his eyes, making his heart ache with grief. Tears threatened to spill and his eyes stung but Roan fought back those depressing thoughts. Determined to distract himself, Roan left his makeshift bed and grabbed a jug of water.
As he was about to pour the water, he caught his reflection on the water's surface. His eyes were puffed due to all the crying he had done yesterday and his face was dirty. His blonde hair looked like it hadn't been washed for a year now. He poured the water over his head and cleaned his hair with his hands as much as he could. It wasn't much but it would have to do for now. He didn't have soap as it was too expensive. Those kinds of products were only for the rich fellows living in the inner district.
After washing his face and getting dressed, he decided to head straight to the adventurer's guild to collect the reward for killing the boars hoping he would get distracted enough to forget about yesterday's events temporarily. He also planned to visit the library to learn more about the dream that he had yesterday. He had some guesses but they led him to a conclusion that he wished were not true.
He grabbed his sword and Seth's bag which contained the boar's ears and headed outside. As soon as he was outside, the familiar pungent smell slammed into him causing him to scrunch his nose in a futile effort to keep the smell away. He glanced at his neighbouring hut hoping to see Ruth. He wasn't there. He stepped inside Ruth's hut and Roan found him snoring away without a care in the world.
Roan smiled at the sleeping figure of Ruth who was mumbling something in his sleep and stepped outside. He took a deep breath as he tried to not think about his friends.
Ruth was a crazy old man as per the people in the slums, infamous in this part of the slums. But Roan didn't think so and not because Ruth was nice to him or anything but because he was lucid most of the time. The only time Ruth acted crazy was the time when he claimed to be a magus. A fire-breathing and water-squirting magus.
But Roan didn't believe a nick of that because if Ruth was a goddamn magus, he wouldn't be living in this part of town and not certainly in a makeshift cottage which was so rundown that it made the cottage look like a castle.
His head filled with random thoughts, Roan traversed the muddy road which lead to a cobblestone road which then led him to the adventurers guild. He stood in front of a two-storied wooden building with a huge board at the front door which read Adventurer's Guild.
It was a deeply etched part of his memories, now painful memories.
He took a deep breath and shook his head to disperse the thoughts which brought back painful memories and stepped inside the guild which felt like entering some market due to the noise and the crowd. There were all sorts of people doing all sorts of things. Some were sitting on benches, some were standing in line at the reception and some were crowding around the huge mission board. He navigated through the dense crowd of adventurers and managed to get in line at the reception. He had to wait for ten boring minutes before his turn came.
After submitting the bag of ears and the mission receipt which he had thankfully managed to recover from the carnage where he had lost his friends, he was given a small pouch of coins, which contained 20 silver coins. With the 20 silver coins from selling the boar carcasses to the villagers, he was now 40 silver coins richer. But he felt no joy as he exited the building. It felt meaningless.
As he was about to walk away from the building, he saw one of his friends, William, an adventurer just like him walking towards the building. He smiled after spotting Roan and walked straight towards him.
"How are you, Roan?" He greeted him with a smile. He was a handsome and tall guy with blonde hair and blue eyes which all the girls in the town seem to like and William knew it. That's why he could be seen running around with different girls. but that had nothing to do with Roan.
"I'm fine and what about you? I heard you pulled off a silver-ranked mission with your team. Congrats." Roan smiled weakly as he returned the greeting, his enthusiasm not on par with what he wanted to show.
"Ah, thanks." William replied with a wide smile on his face which slowly disappeared after noticing the unusual expression on Roan's face, "Are you fine, Roan? Is there any problem?"
Roan hesitated for a moment, but then he decided to tell him the truth. He told William about the mission with Seth and Lela, and how they had died fighting the monsters. William listened intently and said, "My deepest condolences, my friend" with a sympathetic expression on his face and his hand on roans shoulder.
"if you need any help, you can find me." He added as he stared intently at Roan's face.
"Thank you." Roan choked as his eyes watered. The wound reopened, and Roan couldn't control his tears.
"All will be well. In fact, why don't you join me for some missions? It will work as a distraction. That way you can up your rank too. We need a melee fighter too. So it will be a win-win situation." William asked with a smile to comfort him.
Roan thought for a second but shook his head.
"I need some time to gather myself. Thank you for the offer though," He said as he wiped his tear.
"Ok then but my offer still stands," William said never losing his smile.
Roan returned a strained smile. William was a good guy and most importantly, he was a knight, a person who had broken past human limits. They were much much stronger than an average person and he had seen that with his own eyes when William had lifted a huge stone that an average man wasn't even able to budge. So, going with him on missions would certainly help his adventuring career but he had some problems and they could turn out to be very problematic. So, He just said goodbye to William as he walked away.
William stood at the same spot as he watched Roan walk away. He still had that same amicable smile on his face.
"Why do we need that kid, Will?" A man said who suddenly appeared beside William. He was a tall guy, taller than William and carried a huge sword on his back.
"He is a promising talent. You should see him when he fights. He is fearless plus he has training from Seth who you should be intimately familiar with." William said as he glanced at the man whose expression had suddenly turned dark at the mention of Seth.
"He's dead now." The man spat on the ground and walked away while William laughed as he followed.
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Roan walked towards the library using his memory, his leather boots tapping against the cobbled street of the Outer district. He looked around at the wooden houses and remembered the promise he and his friends had made. They had made it a dream to buy a house in the Outer district. But now it remained as a dream.
The town of Tolaga was divided into three districts: Inner district, Business district and Outer district. The inner district was where the rich and the ruler of this town, Baron Andres Tolaga lived. He was a knight just like William and a mountain of a man according to rumours. The business district was where all the shops and markets could be found. A crowded place almost all the time of the day. While the Outer district was where all common folks of this town lived. The slums were also within the borders of the town and were considered by the people to be in the Outer district.
Roan walked for a couple of minutes and reached the library which was a two-storeyed building made of wood. It was a very simple looking building virtually indistinguishable from the neighbouring buildings. He walked inside where a young man was sitting behind a desk reading a book, probably the librarian.
The man lifted his head and said, "1 silver fee per 2 hours for reading the books and no borrowing or buying." in a very practised manner.
"Expensive." Roan thought with a wry smile but still slid a silver to the man with an ache in his heart. A silver could feed him for a week. Roan fought back the reluctance and walked towards the plethora of books which filled the bookshelf.
He skimmed through the heading of the books thanks to Uncle Ruth for teaching him how to read. It was coming in handy now. Roan searched for a book about magic hoping to get an answer for yesterday's events when he had resurrected dead bodies to fight for him. Roan did have an inkling of what the phenomenon was but he had heard of a very specific rumour in which the church was said to be hunting down people with the particular powers that he had shown yesterday. The church called them the Necromancers, as per the rumours that he had heard around the town so he didn't want to risk being hanged by the church by asking other people about yesterday's events.
"History of Tolaga. Beast encyclopedia of Mervielle. Magus:A book on awakening as one. This one." Roan muttered the names of the books he was skimming through in his search for a book about a magus until he finally found one.
He hurriedly pulled the book out from the bookshelf and laid it on a nearby table. He sat on a chair beside the table, ready to engorge on the knowledge the book would provide.
He flipped the pages, his eyes working tirelessly to read the contents of the book.