As he walked home, the many buildings of Heriin passing him by, Aryn went over his performance during his first mission in his head.
'A couple of minor mistakes, but nothing too detrimental.' He concluded.
All in all, it was a job well done. He could've chosen some safer options, but nobody is perfect. With his inexperience, this was an acceptable outcome.
'If I choose the safe option every time, life would get boring anyway.'
Living past death may have had adverse affects on the way he thought about his new life. Aryn was actually aware of this, but he didn't see it as a problem.
'I played my life as Gavin safe. All it earned me was the right to die a nobody. Even if my second life is cut short too, I wont let myself be forgotten so easily.'
As Gavin, the only people that would remember him were his family. He didn't even have any friends outside of work. When his family eventually died too, there would be absolutely nothing left to show his mark on the world.
To him, that was much more scary than death or pain.
His steps grew steadier as he mulled over his goals, his eyes wandering the sparsely populated street around him. He saw a builder working on a house, a woman buying groceries with her two kids by her side, and many others doing everyday tasks.
For the first time since being reborn on Tellar, he actually looked around himself without allowing the rose-tinted glasses of his rebirth blind him.
Hidden just out of sight in the small, dark alleyways of Heriin, there was another side to Tellar. Figures huddled together in dirty, ripped up blankets, shivering in the chill August air.
A few of these figures weren't shivering anymore. How long would they sit there before anyone noticed?
Aryn drifted from his usual path home, taking a walk through the less civil parts of town. Out here, away from the attention of the average citizen, the more looked down on aspects of life took place.
As Aryn walked, the road became less maintained. His shoes became damp due to the poor drainage, a foul smell filled the air, and the people he saw looked at him like prey.
The never-ending wonder shining in his eyes shifted, not dimming, but changing. Aryn felt like he had been looking at the world through a thick fog until now. The dream he had been living for the past ten years was a lie.
'Not a lie...' This was indeed a world that he would've considered a dream as Gavin. 'A half-truth, then.' But it was also now his reality, and would suffer from what reality entailed.
He looked to his right as he walked, spotting a man cornering another man in an alley. At first he thought the smaller of the two would get robbed. That thought changed when the larger man began undoing his belt.
Aryn paused his steps. It took a moment for him to process what he was seeing before he started on his way toward the alley.
***
Smaller Man POV
He froze as he realized the other man's intentions. He was a full foot smaller than him, and he had no weapon on him. He wouldn't win this fight.
"Wait! Stop! What are you doing!?" He tried talking his way out of the situation he found himself in, but the larger man just grinned and continued undoing his belt as he walked closer.
He walked backwards away from the larger man as he reflected on the choices that brought him here. It wasn't a complex matter, he had just drank too much and woke up here in this alley. It was only a minute after that he found himself in this situation.
For such a simple mistake, he would suffer a fate worse than death. Perhaps he would also face death soon after. That was the best way to avoid trouble from any guards after all; leave no witnesses. No one would look further into the matter.
At the grim realization, the smaller man froze in terror and tried to run. But turning your back to the enemy is never a good move. He was tackled immediately and pushed to the ground.
With his arms now caught under him, his situation was truly hopeless. He couldn't even fight back as the larger man grabbed at his pants. He tried rolling over, he tried blindly kicking behind himself, anything he could.
"Hahaha! Why fight? I- *Coughcough* Huek?! Uah! *Gurgle*"
The larger man fell off him to the side, giving him the opportunity to scurry away and look back. As he did, he realized why the larger man had been cut off before he could finish whatever monologue he was about to give.
His throat was slit from ear to ear, unfolding in the visage of a disgusting red flower. The blood was bubbling and gurgling out as the larger man struggled to breath, grasping at the air around his neck.
The smaller man shivered and looked around his surroundings. For a moment, he thought he saw a shimmer of light — the glint of metal perhaps — near the entrance of the alleyway from the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look there was nothing.
***
Aryn POV
*splatter*
Aryn held his new dagger firmly and whipped it down in a slash to rid it of the larger man's blood, leaving it spotless before sheathing it.
At the sight of what was going to happen, he had walked up to the entrance of the alleyway and peeked around the corner to use telekinesis on the dagger and manipulate it through the air.
There was no resistance as the dagger slashed the larger man's neck open in a flash before returning to his side. It was easy, pathetically so.
'I thought it would be harder to kill someone...' There was a faint shake to his hands as he turned away from the alley to continue walking. Although not entirely unaffected by the deed, Aryn wasn't so overcome by emotion that he would puke or anything.
Believing he had seen and done enough for today, Aryn adjusted his course to head straight home. The light of wonder in his eyes now entirely different from before. If he had to put a name to what he was feeling...
"Disgust." The light grew brighter as he walked, those within earshot of him giving him a weird look at the sight of him speaking to himself.
'It's disgusting that such people are marring my dream world. Everything would be perfect without them.' He clenched his fists.
How could he enjoy the freedom and wonder this world made him feel if he knew that fundamentally, it was just as flawed as Earth? That the people that filled it were the same? What if people like that became powerful with the use of mana?
He didn't have an answer, so he just kept walking.
***
Coming to a stop in front of the door to the manor, Aryn checked himself over to make sure he didn't have any blood on him from earlier.
Seeing himself covered in dust an dirt but no blood, he opened the door and loudly called out, "I'm home!" before walking in.
"We're in the family room!" He followed the shout up the stairs and made his way there.
Inside, his parents were both sitting on a couch next to each other. His dad was reading a book while his mom was putting a puzzle together on the coffee table. They both looked over at him as he walked in.
"Well, how did it go?" Maros asked as he looked to the new addition of a dagger on his son's waist before also noticing the bag. The compass wasn't visible as it was still in his pocket.
"Great! I found the lost item easily enough. But it was together along with these." He placed the dagger, the bag, and the compass onto the table next to his mother's puzzle. Looking at it, Aryn guessed it would be a horse when she put it all together.
"Interesting..." Maros put his book down and started inspecting the items starting with the dagger.
"Can you figure out how they're enchanted?" He asked his dad.
Maros took a moment to look over each item carefully, unsheathing the dagger, holding the compass, and taking a look inside the bag. Then he set them all back down on the table.
"The dagger has an enchantment that causes wounds inflicted by it to not clot. It's a fairly common enchantment for a dagger, but this one was done quite well. The craftsmanship is nothing to scoff at either. Good find!"
Maros pointed to the bag, "This bag is full of pills of some kind. I don't have a clue as to what effect they have, so don't touch them if you haven't already. they could be poison for all we know."
Maros paused for a moment then scratched his head with a slightly embarrassed expression, "As for the compass... I honestly have no idea what it does or how to use it."
At this point he perked up a bit, happy to be of at least some use, "The rune on the bottom means 'Point' though. The rune itself does nothing, but I can tell it has something to do with the enchantment's effect."
Aryn sat down on the other side of the coffee table and thought for a moment. The dagger could certainly be of use, but he had planned on using only his hands for melee combat. It wouldn't hurt to have though, so he decided to keep it rather than sell it.
The bag of pills could either be useless or the best of the things he had gained today. He would have to get someone who knows what they are talking about to look them over and tell him their effects.
The compass was currently nothing more than a keepsake until he figured out what it does and how to use it. He would make sure to fiddle with it in his free time.
"There isn't anyone in town that would be able to identify the pills, so just keep them safe somewhere for now." Maros spoke again, thinking something similar.
Taken aback, Aryn asked, "Isn't there an apothecary in Heriin?"
It was his mother that answered as she continued putting her puzzle together, "Pills like that can only be made with alchemy. An apothecary can still use ingredients that have mana, but they won't be able to keep any of the extraordinary effects that come with it."
This was news to him.
"Oh... What exactly is an alchemist then?" Aryn wondered if he could become an alchemist and make his own pills with extraordinary effects.
"An alchemist is simply the next step after being an apothecary. It's anyone that can keep the special effects of some herbs active even in pill form." His mother looked up and explained plainly.
When she finished speaking, Maros added on, "Usually that involves becoming a Mage, but there are a few ordinary people that have managed to become alchemists too, though I'm not sure how."
By this point, the sun was nearing the horizon, so Aryn picked up his new items and took them to his room before joining his parents in the dining room to wait for Dunn to finish making dinner.
Once dinner was finished, he would return to his training routine. He was improving every day and didn't want his progress to slow down.