Two days later
"Slice"
A sword sliced through a piece of wood like it was butter with a cut so clean that it looked like it had been ground down to smoothen its surface. Roan smiled and stared at the blade in his hand which was glowing darkly. It was the sword gifted to him by Seth but it was just a scrap of metal now after he broke it in his fight with the thugs and now he had used death Ether on it which seemed to corrode anything it came in contact with. The glow faded after Roan put the sword on a small table. He had been experimenting with his newly gained abilities inside his house for the last two days. Sharpening his sword with death ether was just one of the many abilities he learnt about. He had used it before on the Gorges and the thugs. Just like the ability to slow his perception of time which gave him more time to think and act. It was a useful ability to have but it was exhausting, too exhausting to maintain it for even five seconds so Roan hadn't tried it a lot. Activating it was thankfully almost instinctual. He just had to think about it and it would be activated. it was a very useful ability evident by the fact that he had managed to cut down the short thug leader without even him knowing while using it. A very useful ability.
And last but not least was the resurrection of the dead as his minions. A very powerful ability but the most dangerous.
Roan washed his face and sat in front of a small makeshift table where he had put his sword. Now his workplace, it held the sword and a small mouse with dark skin and not a single strand of hair in its body which kept scurrying around on top of the table but never tried to go outside of it. It was a mouse that he had resurrected from the dead, the first mouse which he had resurrected had disintegrated forcing him to catch another one to kill and resurrect.
Roan couldn't help but feel a sense of power coursing through his veins as he watched the mouse run around as if it were like any other living being. A feeling he kind of liked. With a wave of his hand, he had brought this creature back from the dead.
But he knew all too well that the resurrection of the dead came with a steep price. As he watched the mouse twitch and its body begin to disintegrate, Roan was reminded of the limitations of his abilities. The same dead body could only be resurrected 4 to 5 times before it was lost forever. And the death ether seemed to act as energy for these living corpses to run on. So, whenever it ran out of death ether, they would return to being dead. And resurrect it four more times, it would just disintegrate.
Awakening as a Necromancer had given him powers that he hadn't even thought of before. Being able to slow down time, cutting through people like butter and now the resurrection of the dead. It seemed that Necromancy was something that people should be afraid of.
'Let's see what more it has to offer
His stomach grumbled, bringing him back to reality. Roan hadn't even realized he had skipped breakfast in his eagerness to experiment and learn more about his powers. As he stood up while dusting his hands, he wondered what other secrets lay hidden within the corpses of his not-so-likeable neighbours.
Roan was in the middle of eating his usual hard bread and vegetable gruel when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him.
"Hey Roan, are you inside?" Ruth's voice boomed through the small, rundown shack.
Roan swallowed his mouthful of food and replied, "Yes, come in."
Ruth entered the shack with his usual boisterous energy. "Ah, I just came to check on you. I thought you'd be moping and crying, but no, colour me surprised," he said with a hearty laugh.
Roan raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as Ruth made himself comfortable on the straw mattress.
"Will you be going on a mission today?" Ruth asked, his tone casual.
Roan shook his head. "No, I have something to do in town. Why do you ask?"
Ruth waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, nothing important. I was just curious."
"Ummm...ok...but why are you here?" Roan asked eyebrows raised and a questioning look on his face.
"What do you mean? I can't come here just because I want to...Ah, have it your way. Do you have some spare...bread? you know..stocked somewhere."Ruth said, his tone of voice lowering as he neared the end of his talking.
Roan stared dead in the eyes of Ruth as he let out a long breath filled with annoyance." What? your begging didn't work on those fancy asses? Didn't I already tell you to find some honest work?... Get a job, get paid and live happily. Why can't you just do that?"
"There. Take it."Roan said as he shoved a bread he took out from a small bag from underneath the kitchen table.
Ruth thanked Roan as he walked out of the shack while Roan stared at his back. He shook his head and suddenly smiled. People might see Ruth as just a mad old man who begged on the streets instead of working but Roan had a special place in his heart. Without the help of Ruth in his early childhood, Roan wouldn't have probably survived. But he used to be a different person back then. An adventurer who wouldn't back down but now he was just an old man rambling something to someone that didn't exist.
Roan stepped out of his small shack, the sun just beginning to rise over the Tolaga slums. He breathed in the fresh morning air and stretched his limbs, ready for the day ahead.
And today, He had a destination in mind - the blacksmith's shop in the town's business district. He had been an acquaintance of Cecil, the daughter of the blacksmith and the owner of the shop since he had gone there to purchase his first sword with Seth. They were barely acquaintances probably because Cecil was just too cold. She was like that not only to him but to every other customer. But after his numerous visits to the shop, she had acknowledged him as someone she knew and not just any other customer.
As Roan walked through the bustling streets of Tolaga, he was again reminded of his friends. The first few days were hard but the couple of days of isolation had helped his bruised mental state. He wasn't over the death of his friends. But he now had the energy and drive to do things just like before.
Roan shook his head, trying to push the painful memories out of his mind. He couldn't dwell on the past. He needed to focus on the present.
When Roan arrived at the blacksmith's shop, he was greeted by the sight of Cecil standing behind the counter greeting customers. She barely smiled when she saw Roan and greeted him as he entered the shop."Good morning, Roan. What brings you here so early?" she asked with an almost monotone voice. She was always like that. A Rose but with thorns and frozen.
"I need a new sword," Roan replied, approaching the counter."Mine broke during my last mission."
"how did you break a steel sword exactly?" Cecil asked him a question instead which surprised Roan as she wasn't a person to make small talk with customers. She was like a puppet with instructions to only do the bare minimum to run the shop.
"I broke it in a fight with Gorges. Their bones are tough." Roan replied with a smile that he thought was dazzling trying to elicit a response from her that wasn't wooden.
"Oh. Ok," she replied as if unimpressed and gestured for him to follow her. She led him to the section where swords were hung on walls on display. There were also shelves full of swords.
"These are all newly forged by my father. Take a look." Cecil said as she flourished her dainty hands. Her hands were pretty. They weren't like the hands of locals from this town. She wasn't like anyone from the town. She and her father weren't Cerese. They were from a neighbouring kingdom named Arran from what he heard. But wherever she was from, she was beautiful. Blonde hair with red eyes made a combination that Roan couldn't describe with words. Her fair skin and delicate features made her feminine but her personality which was a stark contrast to her physical appearance which made her much more sophisticated as a person.
Roan tore his eyes away from Cecil after realising he had been staring at her. He quickly picked up a sword and examined it as if he was an expert but he didn't have a clue which was a good sword and which wasn't.
The sword that Seth had given him was a steel sword, a little more expensive than an iron sword but trusty. And Roan wanted to get that same kind of sword. His eyes roamed around the huge collection of swords in different colours and different metals. They were all pleasing to the eye and probably were high quality too. But he had to choose one.
His eyes glided past the large array of swords and landed on a black sword which was put on a table between the two shelves. It was the only item on the table. It was gorgeous. Full black, even the hilt, it looked ominous. But Roan felt a connection to it almost as if it was calling him. It was strange as he had never felt like this before.
Roan walked to the table and picked up the blade. It was perfectly balanced evident by the fact that it remained still as he balanced it on his pointer finger. Roan liked it.
"Cecil, how much is this one?" Roan shouted to Cecil who was on the other end of the shop, showing some shovels to a couple of old customers.
She swept a glance and said," Twenty silver." Roan held his breath as soon as he heard the price and wanted to immediately put it back to where it was before. But the calling from the sword held him back.
"Why is it so expensive?" Roan asked and walked towards Cecil who was still talking about something with the old customers.
"Because it has some Ethered iron in it which is a very expensive metal," Cecil replied as she walked towards the counter. She added, "It's not made for someone like you. It's made for the knights. Only they can use it."
"Why?" Roan almost immediately asked as he cast a very interested look towards Cecil who seemed annoyed by the question.
"I don't know." She said as she took some coins from the other customers and put them in a drawer behind the counter." are you going to buy it or not?"
"Ye-yes." Roan hesitated but in the end, decided to buy it. "Here's twenty silver." He slid the coins to Cecil and watched with an aching heart as she threw it in the drawer and then turned back at him as she said," Come back again."
Roan foolishly smiled and walked out of the shop while saying," I will."
'she could have at least smiled.'