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Chapter 3
Chapter 3 – Awakening (3)The carriage was just that—a typical wooden carriage that you might imagine being led by a horse… save for one feature: the fact that it was horseless.
After sitting down inside, the man, Bernard, ducked through to the front of the carriage and rested his hands on a little pedestal with a crystal on top—where a steering wheel might usually go.
The crystal lit up, and the carriage hovered up into the air smoothly before taking off at a moderate jogging pace.
I sat on a bench on one side of the carriage, and the woman sat across from me.
There was an awkward silence for a moment as the woman eyed me.
Dressed in thick mage robes that covered most of her body, the woman spoke somewhat sheepishly.
“I-I’m sorry about hitting you with that spell… are you ok?”
I looked down at the drenched remnants of my clothes, still dripping water onto the wooden floor of the carriage.
Plip, Plip.
‘I’m not too sure…’
“Yeah, I’m ok. I would have been stranded if not for you guys.”
“Stranded? You didn’t come out here with a mana scooter or anything?
“No…”
Bernard glanced at me over his shoulder.
“Do you know anything about that fire?”
‘Yeah… I probably shouldn’t admit that I was the one who caused it…’
“No. One moment I was scouting out monster hideouts; the next, a fire was on top of me.”
I used the excuse of being a scout.
It was hard to disprove, and scouts regularly trekked through the lesser-known paths of the forest in
The last two goblins reinforced their spear ally.
The sword, dagger, and spear approached me at the same time.
Unarmed as I was, I had no way to physically block three attacks at the same time.
It wasn’t like I was made of liquid either; I couldn’t imagine a way in which to parry all three attacks as I had the first two.
Swish, swish, swish.
I focused on the deadliest attack first; the spear aimed at my torso.
Succeeding in batting away the spear again, I followed up with a light kick against the sword blade at nearly the same time, sending the weapon up into the air.
I grabbed the last strike, the dagger aimed at my thigh, with my hand.
‘I’m not going to let all of that go to waste. Not my legs, not ever again.’
With determination burning in my eyes, I was fully prepared to lose a few fingers as a sacrifice to protect my leg.
I felt the burning sensation through my body like a fire was blazing through my insides. Pain shot through my arm as I enclosed my hand around the dagger and manifested in a crude stone gauntlet around my hand.
* * *
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* * *
Bernard finished off the last goblin on his side, sweat just starting to bead on his brow.
He turned around to see Aizen catch a goblin’s dagger with his bare hand.
Scratch that, he seemed to have equipped some sort of gauntlet while fighting the goblins.
‘Wow… That’s a scout for you, crazy hand-eye coordination.’
He had heard that scouts specialized in forest traversal and dexterous movements before, but it was his first time witnessing it in person.
‘His offensive skills are kind of lacking, though…’
Seeing that all four goblins were still in the fight against Aizen, Bernard made a move to help. But before he could…
“AAAARRRGGHH!”
Aizen leaped at the goblins like a beast.
Jumping onto the first one—the one whose dagger he had grabbed—the man released the dagger and brought his elbows down on the creature’s head.
CRUNCH!
At the last moment before impact, Bernard saw the gauntlet deform and flash down Aizen’s arm, shooting out in a spike that embedded itself into the goblin’s head from his elbow.
‘Is he an Elementalist of some sort?’
The goblin with the sword swung at his back.
Like a beast possessed, Aizen somehow predicted the thing’s swing and ducked under it, his head close to the remains of the goblin he had just killed.
The sword passed over, and he grabbed onto the spear goblin’s weapon next, redirecting it from his opposite side with a ferocious grab and plunging it into the sword goblin’s chest.
The other sword goblin swung down his blade; it skipped off of his forearm as the stone fragments weaved around his body to form a protective plating.
Aizen’s leg shot out, catching the goblin on the chin.
CRACK!
The goblin took the hit and went flipping backward before lying limp on the ground.
The final goblin, the one now without a spear, turned to run.
Before it could get very far, Aizen leaped at it and brought his hand down in an overhead strike, caving the back of its skull in.
Like that, they found themselves surrounded by goblin corpses.
‘…Nevermind.’
Aizen took a few deep breaths before his eyes glazed over and he fell limp to the dirt.
***
I awoke to the muffled sound of people conversing outside of the carriage.
DING!
[[Quest Complete!
Kill the goblins blocking your path!
+500XP Received!]]
[[Current XP: 575/1000]]
[[Level Up!]]
[[You have reached level 1 of the Fighter class.
You have gained the ‘Strike’ ability]]
[[Strike
Spend mana to empower a blow, increasing the strength and speed of the blow twofold.]]
I had leveled up…
Finally, I was level 1.
The screen faded as I acknowledged my rewards.
It looked like the goblins had given me 25 XP each, judging by the fact that I was 75 XP over the quest reward.
I saw the woman, the mage, looking at me closely.
“How are you feeling? You fainted after the attack…”
A pang of fear went through me and I clenched my hand.
I curled all of my fingers and still felt sensation throughout my hand.
I didn’t even feel pain.
Hadn’t I grabbed onto a dagger with my bare hands?
The woman noticed the movement and placed a hand on his own.
“You’re not hurt anywhere, if that’s what you’re wondering… How are you feeling?”
Her touch slid off of my hand and I let out a breath of relief.
“What’s going on? How long was I out for?”
“Mmm.”
She put a finger up to her mouth in thought. I couldn’t help but feel that she looked kind of cute, even in the circumstances. With her hood down, her freckled face and dark red hair were in full view.
“Six hours? We’re at the gates of Karfana now.”
I sat up, a dizzying feeling spreading throughout my body.
I wasn’t fully prepared to be back yet.
{{Quest Complete!
Reach safety with the friendly travelers!
Reward: 300 XP}}
{{Current XP: 300/1000}}
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