Shadowborn

Chapter One: A New Beginning

Chapter One: A New Beginning

Nothing quite like waking up with an intense full-body ache. I was still in the same sitting position, the bark of the tree I was leaning against biting into my back, and it felt like I’d spend an entire night in the position. When I finally managed to look around with bleary, crusty eyes, I realized that was likely an understatement. A layer of snow coated the ground, and the biting cold only made my aches more intense. It didn’t help that the morning sun reflected off the white blanket and made my headache return with a vengeance. My conversation with the goddess had taken place towards the end of summer, which meant I’d spent at least a few months asleep. I should have asked her exactly how long she planned to put me down for, but I’d had other things on the brain. Things like saving the souls of all the people I’d failed to protect.

“Well, let’s get this over with.” My breath fogged when I spoke. I hadn’t exactly been laden with winter gear, so I had to hope I could find somewhere to get some warm clothes relatively soon.

First things first, time to see what I was working with. I pulled up my information window and groaned aloud. “Well, at least I’m not level one I suppose,” I mused.

Zaren Nocht

Race: Human

Primary Class: Shadowborn - 5

Secondary Class: None

Tertiary Class: None

Level five. My deal with the goddess had cost me over a hundred levels. If she actually held up her end, that would be a small price to pay. Levels can be regained, lost lives couldn’t. Not normally, at least. That meant I’d have to be careful, though. I didn’t have the padded stats of three classes and dozens of skills to allow for my more reckless style of fighting. Speaking of...

Strength [15]Arcane [0]Vitality [20]Focus [9]Dexterity [15]Divine [0]Fortitude [15]Resilience [70]Agility [10]Primal [20]Endurance [10]Will [10]

My first reaction was to wince. The numbers were very sad compared to what I’d once had, but then I did some quick mental math. Average starting stats totaled at 120, which meant I had a whopping 70 points that had come seemingly from nowhere, not counting the four I would have gained from levels three and five. I’d already decided to at least give Allura the benefit of the doubt, and it looked like she was keen to prove herself. I’d take what I could get, I supposed. That beefy resilience would give me all kinds of resistance to magical damage and effects, such as the one that tried its best to annihilate me every time I drew my cursed blade.

Speaking of my eternal burden, I didn’t see it nearby. I didn’t panic, though, since Allura had clearly stated the blade was important. I had an idea of where it might be, so I checked on my three skills. One was the core skill granted by my class.

Lesser Shadow Manipulation (a) - The shadows have always been your ally, now they are your servant. Can expend mana to attack or defend. Attacks do minor damage and defense cannot block magical blows. Damage dealt or reduced is determined by Primal stat.

The second was exactly what I expected, and I was glad Allura had picked this one for me to keep. It would come in handy, especially when it came to dealing with the damn blade. The third made me curse. It was one skill I would have rather been without.

Hidden Pockets (p) - All you own is what can be carried. Gain access to a pocket dimension that can be used to store items. Suppresses magic effects. Current dimensions: 5x5x5 foot cube.Predator's Pursuit (p) - All creatures fear the dark. Those that don’t, should. You can sense fear. The stronger the fear, the further you can sense it from. You gain additional agility based on the strength of the fear when you are moving towards its source.

I had many reasons to hate my class, and this was one of them. It seemed designed to turn me into some kind of predator in the dark, and many of the skills I’d seen and taken made it hard to feel like one of the good guys no matter how hard I tried. It’s like the system knew I was only doing good to spite the evil bastard who’d created me.

Not a bad spread to start with, though I could have used another offensive ability in the place of [Predator’s Pursuit] One issue I immediately noticed, though, is that my storage had been considerably larger before. Hell, I could have hauled around an entire carriage for shits and giggles. I’d spent too much of my life with absolutely nothing to my name, which meant I’d developed some slight hoarding tendencies. I hoped all my gear wasn’t gone, but I could worry about that later. Best to take stock of what I did have.

The first thing I drew out was the blade. It was just as menacing as ever, and it felt heavier than it had before. The burden of significantly reduced stats, I supposed. I leaned it against a tree and went to fishing for whatever else I could find. A few minutes later I knelt among a few dozen shitty rations, a not insignificant pouch of coin, two full waterskins, a thick black winter cloak that went down nearly to my knees with a fur-lined hood to match (Allura, you’re growing on me more and more by the minute), a single change of standard traveling clothes, and a single roll of parchment in a watertight tube. No armor, which meant I was stuck with the simple traveler’s clothes I wore.

I knew what the parchment was, so I stowed it immediately. It would come in handy in the future, but considering I was in the middle of bum fuck nowhere right now, it was little more than kindling. I threw on the coat, tore into a ration, and stowed the coin as well. I hefted the sword, but I ended up stowing that as well. In my current state, I could probably wield it for about ten seconds. Best to keep it out of sight where its magic couldn’t call to anything nasty while I was distracted.

“Couldn’t bother to give me a real sword, huh?” I asked the air. I wondered if she was paying attention to me at all or if she’d decided to leave me to my own devices. Now that our conversation was over and done with all I could think about was the litany of questions I wish I’d asked. Oh well. No sense crying over it. At the very least I could move forward feeling like her influence over me wasn’t too strong.

I briefly wondered if she’d done that on purpose. The more instruction she’d given me, the more likely I would have been to tell her to go fuck herself. Giving me a vague goal and letting me do things my way was probably the best tactic she could have used. Maybe she did know a little about me after all.

The area I was in didn’t resemble the area where we’d talked. Until I was certain, best to assume she’d dropped me somewhere else entirely. She could reset my class and give me free stats, so relocating my ass was hardly outside the realm of possibility.

I picked a direction and struck out at random. I needed to get my bearings, and that wasn’t exactly easy to do in a thickly wooded area. I needed high ground and landmarks. If I could stumble my way to a settlement, even better. Especially since I could use some of this coin to buy myself a blade that didn’t do its best to obliterate my poor abused soul every time I drew it.

Unfortunately, I had never been a lucky man. I walked for a few hours before my scalp prickled. Allura could take away my skills, but she couldn’t take my instincts. I dropped into a fighting stance just before the first wolf came into view.

It wasn’t big enough to be a dire wolf, but it was plenty large enough to properly wreck my shit if I wasn’t careful. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was something very wrong with the beast. One of its eyes was a standard yellow, but the other was a sickly green. Webs of matted, black fur spread across the beast’s side like veins, and I could feel the faint pressure of magic coming from the creature.

“And just what the fuck are you?” I asked it. Thankfully, it didn't respond. Then two more wolves crept out of the bushes on either side of me. An ambush. Honestly, I was embarrassed that I’d walked right into it. I really had to get used to my weaker self before it got me killed.

Normal wolves were one thing. A display of power and they’d run off in search of easier prey. Something in my gut told me that these weren’t normal wolves. I raised my arms and let some of my shadows trail upwards in thin tendrils. “Go on, doggie. Find someone else to munch on.”

The wolf was unimpressed. Its hackles raised and it bared its teeth. Its companions began to stalk closer to me. Looks like I was about to get in some experience already. I just had to hope that whatever magic was affecting the beasts didn’t juice them up too much.

“Fuck it.” I drew the cursed blade from my shadow pocket with one hand and unclasped my cloak with the other, letting it fall to the ground. The wolf lunged, and I swung the blade, scabbard and all. I hit the wolf in the body with all my strength and managed to knock it away. I felt the impact in my wrists and shoulders, but the blow did its job and sent the wolf sprawling.

Without undoing the clasp, I couldn’t access the blade’s cursed magic. On the other hand, it couldn’t unravel my soul either. That didn’t mean I couldn’t swing it around like a big ass club, though.

The next wolf tried to sink its teeth into me, but got a mouth full of metal scabbard instead. The third one tried to get behind me, but I lashed out with my shadows and landed a cut to its snout and another on its shoulder. Rather than red, its blood was a green several shades darker than its eye. Where it dripped in the snow, it sizzled.

That was bad, and so was the sensation I got when I used my skills. I could feel the effect on my mana, which made me curse. I’d spent so long with a hefty mana pool I hadn’t even though to check how much I was working with now.

I threw the wolf in front of me to the ground and slammed the blade down, taking its jaw with me. I lashed out again with shadows, aiming for the beast’s neck. This time with piercing attacks. I felt bone crack when I twisted the sword and rolled away just before another of the wolves could jump me.

One wolf limped away, bleeding profusely from the deep wounds in its neck, its jaw hanging at an angle. That left two for now. This time, I was the one to initiate. I lunged and managed to slam my blade into one wolf’s head, but the other leapt on me from behind. I used my shadows for defense even as the wolf bit into my shoulder. I immediately knew I’d made a mistake when I felt the bite of magic tear into my flesh, but the wolf’s attack put me in an ample position.

I used my shadows to stab the inside of the wolf’s snout even as it jerked its head to try and rip my shoulder off. It burned through most of my mana, but I stabbed the roof of its mouth and its throat enough that it finally let go. It reeled back, but not before I hit its shoulder with the scabbard. I felt bones crunch and the beast howled. It faltered, and I used the gap to rain blow after blow until it stopped moving.

I’d fought beasts much larger than the last wolf, so it was only a matter of time before I was able to dispatch it now that I didn’t have to worry about it flanking me. I only needed to attack it twice with my shadows before I could step forward and finish the thing off. After that, ignoring the searing pain that raced through my veins, I tracked the only wolf left by the heavy trail of blood it was leaving behind. It glared at me with that creepy green eye, rasping through the wounds in its throat. I put it out of its misery quickly.

Shadow Stitching (a) - Destruction is not the only role of a shadow. Expend mana to manipulate your shadows and stitch a wound closed, staunching any bleeding. Injuries affected by this ability heal faster

After dismissing the shadows I’d been using as camouflage, I approached from the area that had the least amount of cover with my arms spread out to the sides. It didn’t take long for the man on watch to spot me. “Hold!” he shouted. His companions scrambled to their feet, and I was impressed to see that neither of them looked towards me. Their eyes searched the trees, no doubt looking for any sign of ambush.

“Ho, there!” I tried to sound non threatening, but I’d spent my entire life trying to accomplish the opposite so it wasn’t as effective as I’d have liked. “I mean no harm, I’d just like to talk. I’m alone and unarmed.” Other than an evil cursed sword, of course, but it was stowed out of sight.

The man’s eyes narrowed, and the armored woman put herself between me and her injured friend. It was the third man that spoke. “I find it hard to believe you’re all alone out here, friend.” His tone suggested I was anything but. He walked so that he was closer to me than the other two. His hand was on the hilt of his blade, but he hadn’t drawn it yet. Up close I could see that he was older, maybe in his late forties or early fifties, and bore himself with an ease that spoke to his experience. He’d be more than dangerous if things got ugly.

I made sure to keep my hands well in sight, raising them to push my cloak back so he could get a good look and see that I didn’t have any weapons on my belt. That didn’t mean I was harmless, of course. I could easily have a class that didn’t use weapons or some way to store them out of sight (which I did on both counts), so he still regarded me with the same level of suspicion.

“Believe it or not, it’s the truth,” I said with a shrug.

“If that’s the case,” the thin man said, “then you’d best be on your way.”

Well, it wasn’t attack on sight. I could work with this. “If that’s what you want, then I’ll move along. I just saw your fire and thought I’d offer a hand.”

The woman tensed, but the man who was the clear leader didn’t react. “Not sure what you might be offering, nor what you’d want in return.”

“I assume your friend is injured?” None of them answered. “I have a skill that might be able to help her. As for what I want, a bowl of that stew and some directions would be more than enough for me.”

The thin man put an arrow on his string. “Pretty sure I already told you to piss off—”

“Hang on Al,” the grizzled man said. Then, to me, “what kind of skill? No offense, but you hardly seem a priest.”

“No. I’m afraid I don’t have healing magics in the normal sense,” I admitted. “But I can close wounds if she’s hurt. It’ll keep her from bleeding out until you can get her back to safety.”

“Pierce,” the woman hissed, “Lana's in bad shape. She might not make it as is.”

Pierce grumbled. “Al, toss him a knife.”

Al did so without verbal complaint, though his expression was as far from cuddly as one got. He threw it a little harder than necessary, but I managed to snag it out of the air anyways. Pierce raised a brow at me, and I knew he understood the message. I meant no harm, but I wasn’t harmless. “I’m not in the habit of trusting strangers,” he said, “so I’ll have to ask you to prove that skill of yours.”

Not unsurprising, but I still wished I wasn’t having to use up my mana. I drew the blade across the back of my hand, then activated [Shadow Stitching]. Threads of darkness worked their way through my flesh and pulled it shut. A cut like this would be healed by the end of the day.

Al took a step back, but Pierce just nodded. “Yen, grab our guest a bowl. Al, keep an eye on him. You, what’s your name?”

I hadn’t been paying much attention when I left the capital, and there was every chance my name had become at least a little widely known. “Ren,” I told him. Not a lie and common enough to not arouse suspicion.

He stepped aside and allowed me to approach the injured woman while Yen went to grab the bowl. Al stayed close behind me, which gave me a chance to hand him back his dagger. He snatched it with a sneer. Who pissed in this guy’s porridge?

I was acutely aware of Pierce and Al looming over me while I kneeled down next to Lana. She wore a padded robe that wouldn’t be much good against anything overly dangerous, so I figured she was either the group’s healer or some kind of mage. Moving slowly as to not antagonize my new friends, I peeled back the bloody bandages on Lana's side.

What I saw made me wince. Something long and sharp had sliced right through her, and normal stitches hadn’t seemed to help much. The cut was too neat to have been made by claws. “A trap?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

Pierce grunted in affirmative. “Got nicked trying to save a kid I figured might be our new fifth.” His eyes flitted to one of the still-packed bags. “Guess I figured wrong. Can you help?”

Luckily for him, I could. My [Shadow Stitching] was better than normal stitches in that it could go much deeper to seal the wound shut. “As long as she’s not poisoned and she hasn’t got any severe infections, she should be alright.” I put a hand over the wound. “You’ll still want to get her to a real healer, though.”

She reacted to my touch, but her face was covered in a sheen of sweat. She mumbled incoherently while her eyes searched the sky unseeing. “If you can hear me, then you’ll want to brace yourself. This is going to hurt.”

Pierce kneeled down by her head and pulled a leather bit out. He slipped it in her mouth, then held her shoulders down. He was no stranger to this sort of thing. I put one hand on her hip to try and keep her lower half as still as I could manage, then activated my skill.

The cut was deep enough it took double the mana, but I could tell immediately that it had worked. Mainly because she immediately started screaming into the bit and trying to shove us off. The process lasted less than ten seconds, and she’d passed out by the end.

“Well?” Yen asked.

I sat back and Pierce handed me a towel to wipe the blood from the hand that had touched the cut. “Like I said, she should be fine. My skill stops the bleeding, and it’ll help it heal faster. That doesn’t mean she’s completely out of the woods though, no pun intended.”

Yen’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank you.” She handed me a still-steaming bowl, which I took gratefully.

Pierce stood. “Come. Might as well take a seat. I guess we owe you some directions, too.”