The Nice Mice, the sign above the inn read, unlike the adventurer’s guild the building was tiny and looked as if it would collapse with just a strong wind. The tavern inside was barren and dirty, a single lonely table with two chairs sat in center of the room. Someone whistled at Ludo from further in the room. He looked up to see the bartender calling for him at the other side of the room.
“What do you want!?” She croaked. Her wrinkled, drowsy and unwelcoming face fitted well with the whole aesthetic of the place.
“Do you have a room?” Ludo sighed, already tired from searching for an affordable inn for much of the day.
“You’re in luck. We’ve got a few rooms upstairs.” The bartender said. “It’ll cost you though. Around a hundred and fifty bronze coins for two nights.”
Ludo paid the bartender with his last silver coin for six nights. He took all of his belongings upstairs and was greeted by an equally somber room. Dark, unkept and with moss growing in a corner, this was what he had to call home for the time being. He threw himself in the bed, though it felt more like a rock and began weighing his options. He had to reach rank F as soon as possible or else he would be stuck in this bitter place for a long time.
“You know you can get yourself killed with that way of thinking.” Ben added. “You’re young still, you can take your time.”
“I’d rather die than spent more than a few nights here.” Ludo muttered.
“I can’t stop you from doing that, but for the sake of both our existence its best you reconsider. Look you have a roof, thats about to cave in, and a room, that smells like wet cloth. Yet it still is a room.”
“Whatever.” Ludo sighed, rolling around in the bed until he could find sleep.
A few hours and a sore back later, Ludo had entered the adventurer’s tavern again, he zoomed pass all the shenanigans happening all around him until he reached the quest-board. Rummaging through rank F and D quests he found and took a couple of rank G quests he could do in the next few days. Claus had told him he could sell anything the monsters dropped as loot in the there as well. Knowing this, he entered the forest while he checked all the quests he had taken with him again.
Two were of the quests were the usual slime culling, another a gemstone collection quest and an escort quest. All four gave him a grand total of three hundred bronze coins, just enough to not starve. He did his best to imitate how Emmer had tracked the slimes but he just didn’t get how he had done it. Defeated, he relegated himself to Ben’s advices and his own intuition, to his surprise neither of these failed him as he stumbled upon the usual green balls consuming everything in their path. Ludo made quick work out of all the slimes, each one disappearing with a loud bang, leaving behind their loot and a cloud of dust.
While he picked up the drops, Ludo heard a raspy voice coming from a place not so far away from where he was, the raspy voices seemed to get closer to him. Climbing a tree, Ludo hid amongst the leaves and branches and not a few seconds later some strange creatures with orange skin, eyes completely bright blue and pointy ears emerged from the foliage.
They were small but were armed to the teeth, clad in tiny armor and carrying multiple spears and axes fit for their use and razor sharp teeth. it was a sight that would terrify anyone, except adventurers like Ludo. He observed them as they passed by, speaking in a language foreign to him, Ludo inspected one of them.
KOBOLD
HUMANOID
LEVEL 2
THREAT: LOW
While inspecting them, he noticed an exclamation mark at the top of his vision, he opted to ignore it for now while he followed the kobolds. The kobolds walked further into the forest, croaking with each other, after a short while the kobolds hissed and croaked some more and laughed between themselves before separating. Ludo was still hiding behind a tree when Ben screamed.
“DUCK, LUDO! DUCK!”
Ludo followed Ben’s warning and just a second later an arrow hit the tree where his head had rested. He turned around to see a kobold with a bow. Ludo unsheathed Emmer’s sword and ran towards that kobold, only to be stopped by two other kobolds. Ludo swung Emmer’s sword at them and bits of their swords and themselves went flying by. Glass Guardian had cut through the two like butter.
Ludo stood there, watching his own well done carnage when an arrow breezed by his head, snapping him out of his trance.
“What are you doing zoning out!” He heard Ben’s yell.
“Sorry it’s just that this sword is way too strong!”
Two other kobolds went to attack him and the two of them were cut down quickly after, the party of five kobolds had been reduced to one. The bow wielding one was unable to move and was trembling in fear. Ludo took one step forward and the kobold dropped his bow and began running. Before he could escape, Ludo crouched and jumped forwards, the sudden speed caught him off guard and he crashed into the kobold, both falling down a hill. Ludo felt his left leg ache a lot as he tried to stand up, the kobold also survived, he glared at Ludo with a gash running above his left eye with blood continuously spilling out of it and ran away.
Ludo looked down at his leg and saw a bit of his bone sticking out of his now red painted trousers, he panicked and began yelling for help. It took many wasted minutes of Ben trying to calm him down from within his mind to finally snap Ludo out of his own panic, he opened his inventory and took out one of the healing potions that Auria had given him a few days before, drinking it without giving it a second thought. The taste almost made him puke but in a matter of seconds he saw the bone rearrange itself back and the wound close, the only evidence that anything had happened were only his torn and blood soaked pants.
Many hours and a new set of pants later. Ludo returned to the guild to claim his quests’ rewards only to find a small ruckus going on on the quest-board. He managed to peek at what was the cause of the uproar and saw that a rank E quest had been posted at triple the price that it would usually be. Ludo pushed his way through the burgeoning crowd and managed to read the contents of the quest.
CLEAR A KOBOLD PARTY
SOUTHEASTERN FOREST (LAST KNOWN LOCATION)
RANK E
REWARD: 4 SILVER COINS!!!
Ludo gasped upon seeing the reward, such a reward would be a huge boost for his own welfare. If only he could take it…
“Hey kid, bugger off.” An adventurer shoved Ludo away. Quickly realizing that the large group of adventurers were betting on who would take the quest. Ludo inspected many of them, most of them were rank E but some where Rank F and in a party with other adventurers, Ludo didn’t quite get what it meant with ‘in a party with’ but he couldn’t pay attention to that as one of the adventurers roared and picked another by the neck shirt. He accused him of cheating and smacked him in the face, others adventurers chimed in to help their comrade.
The place descended into an all out brawl between the adventurers, bottles and potions flew everywhere, some adventurers drew their weapons. In the middle of the chaos, Ludo snuck closer to the quest board and snatched the quest. Avoiding two large axes thrown at his general direction and almost being run over by a gigantic beast-men joining into the fray. The entire building seemed like it would collapse when large red sparks exploded all around the room, momentarily freezing everyone.
Bohdan stood at the center of the room with Claus beside him holding a wooden stick. Only now did Ludo realize how massive Bohdan was, his head almost scrapping the roof of the tavern. With a red face and puffed nose, Bohdan walked up to the thick of the fight, where many adventurers backed away from him and apologized once they saw Bohdan. Those unfortunate enough to still not notice him were grabbed by him by the neck and lifted up.
“Enough!” He bellowed. “If anyone wants to fight more, then they are more than invited to step forward and try to hit me!”
The room fell quiet. Many adventurers mumbled and cursed but didn’t dare to challenge Bohdan. Bohdan dropped the two adventurers and they desperately gasped for air. In the midsts of all the confusion. Ludo had grabbed the quest paper and ran outside, hearing the tavern erupt in uproar once they noticed the quest had disappeared. Ludo ran as far away as his feet would take him, hiding behind a house far away from the guild. Using a nearby torch as a light source he read the information for a second time, his hands shaking slightly. The first steps towards gaining wealth was right on his hands.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Are you sure about this? This is a rank E quest while you’re only rank G.” Ben said again many hours later as Ludo trekked through the forest in search of the Kobold party. This was the first time he had ventured so deeply into the forest, the ground all around him had turned hostile against him. Volatile rocks that splintered or caused him to slip every time he dared step on them, strategically placed roots to hinder him and all sorts of monsters ran wild through the forest. Even with all the issues, Ludo persevered, mostly because of his love for money rather than adventuring.
“I already told you twice, I’m doing this.” Ludo grunted. “And anyways, I already killed four of those monsters.”
“And you let one of them get away and almost lost your leg in the process.”
“Shut up, Ben.”
Ludo expected to find a kobold scouting force by pure chance just like he had done before but this time luck was not on his side, he rummaged the forest in search of the kobolds but it wouldn’t be until late in the afternoon when his luck would come back. He heard a faint hissing sound, coherent enough to be made by an intelligent creature but primal enough for it to not be human. Ludo followed the noise, arriving almost face to face with a scouting force of the kobolds. Their orange skin and bright eyes looked as unnatural to Ludo as they did a day before.
The kobolds were speaking in whistles, growls and hisses, a language he couldn’t understand. Based on their movements however, Ludo could infer it was something important as the kobolds shook, yelled and flung their arms around. They began walking the opposite direction from Ludo not to many minutes after, he followed them closely, making sure to not commit the same mistakes as yesterday. His caution paid off as a village worth of tents manifested not so far away.
Ludo hid behind a tree, peeking at the kobold camp. He searched for options to clear it, ignoring every protest that Ben threw his way. He let his arm rest on Glass Guardian, determined to rush to the camp and slash at any kobold coming his way.
“Will you please listen to me!” Ben bellowed, making Ludo’s ears ring.
“What is it!?” Ludo hissed.
“You shouldn’t go in guns blazing or you’re going to get killed before you can even attack.”
“What do you mean by guns bla— Ok fine!”
Following Ben’s advice, Ludo opened his status page and inventory, searching for any possible things he could use at his advantage when something caught his eye.
POINTS AVAILABLE: 4
“Four points!?” Ludo repeated, quickly realizing what the system meant by that. He was level five now.
“See I told you!” Ben said.
Ludo shut Ben up as he studied the rest of himself.
SKILLS: ONE-HANDED LEVEL 2, RIDING LEVEL 1, STEALTH LEVEL 1
TITLES: ADVENTURER (RANK G)
Things had changed since the last time he had checked it. Making a point to check it more often in the future, he began to question were to place his four other points. Following Ben’s advice, half of them went to intelligence, while the other two went to speed. He closed his inventory first, confirming he still had two healing potions and his armor was still in good condition but when he went to close his stats page something interesting happened.
NO SKILLS ACTIVE: PROCEED?
“Wait, does this mean I had to activate my skills for them to work?” Ludo blurted out.
“I think that’s the case…” Ben was barely able to contain a laugh.
Face palming as hard as he could. Ludo activated all the skills he had. Learning in the process that he could only have five active at once. With everything set, he unsheathed Glass Guardian and approached the kobold’s camp, scouting it further.
Archers and javelin throwers, it would be suicide for his past self to rush in without a plan. Lucky for him, he felt a surge of power coming within him that he had never felt before. He was confident he would win.
“Someone older but not so wiser than me did warn that overconfidence was a slow killer…” Ben sighed. “You better remember that.”
Ludo shrugged off Ben’s weird advice and readied his sword, aiming at an unsuspecting kobold archer. He lifted one feet off the ground and the next thing he remembered was a huge pain at the back of his head and being upside down with the kobold stuck to Glass Guardian like skewered meat before exploding in a cloud of dust.
He got back to his feet, wondering what had happened. He ran again, this time he could see a bit better, he was going fast, so fast that he missed a kobold completely, tackling the kobold and himself into yet another tree with the kobold. The monster tried to return to his comrades, but Ludo stabbed him with Glass Guardian before he could get away.
“I see. I’m faster… somehow.” Ludo panted, preparing himself to run again, once he did, he activated his magical eyes, the world moved at normal speed even though he did not. With this he set out to clear the camp, slashing at any kobold unfortunate enough to be on his way. His magical eyes didn’t work for long, making him lose track of everything around him followed by a burning sensation on his foot. Losing his balance, he fell and rolled, crashing into a weapons rack.
Ben was screaming something in his mind, his left boot was on fire, the kobolds were screeching, hissing and coming his way and he felt heavy and tired. Ludo forced himself to his feet, stomping at the fire on his boot to try and put it out while preparing for the kobold assault, except it never came. The kobolds were busy trying to put out the fire as well, Ludo’s blunder had thrown embers and firewood everywhere around the camp, turning the tent village into a hellish scene. Ludo ripped his still burning boot out of his feet. In the midst of the chaos, he checked the requirements of the quest again to see them unfulfilled.
“Guess I have to fight them all.” He sighed.
Ludo made sure not to run at the kobolds in fear of ending wrapped in a fiery tent. He encountered the first couple of kobolds, their weak swords and gauntly bodies offered little resistance against Glass Guardian, using the fire as a screen, he attacked isolated groups of kobolds until their numbers whittled down enough for him to attack the larger central tent.
Approaching with caution, Ludo readied Glass Guardian for anything. The fire raged all around him, running wild on the portable homes of the kobolds. The grand tent, proud and luxurious, it stood at the center of what was the kobold camp, unharmed by the hungry flames around it. Ludo walked nearer the entrance, expecting well earned rewards when a warning shout from Ben alerted him of the dangers behind him as an arrow flew by, missing him by mere inches.
The last remaining kobolds made themselves known to Ludo, armed to the bones with devastating weaponry, their eyes glowed with rage as they hissed a bone shilling tone. Ludo’s heart pounded in such a sonorous way that he feared the kobolds might also be able to hear it. He raised Glass Guardian against them, his hands trembling slightly. The kobolds laughed as they made way for something. Ludo saw a kobold slightly taller than the rest move to the front, wearing a human skull as a crown, various rings and bracelets made of gold and gemstone and clad in armor. Ludo quickly inspected the kobold.
KOBOLD CHIEFTAIN
HUMANOID
LEVEL 6
THREAT: HIGH
“Hey, you beat his stooges a few minutes ago, you can kill this one pretty fast as well.” Ben said, sensing Ludo’s fear rising in the back of his mind.
Weren’t you against doing this quest since the very beginning!?
“Yeah, but that was because I had absolutely zero expectations for you to survive, now I actually do.”
Ludo ignored Ben’s comment and in the very next second another arrow came flying by. He lunged forward at an incredible speed, aiming at the archers when he was hit square in the face by the chieftain’s sword. Blurred vision and ringing ears, Ludo was sent flying into the away from the squadron, crashing into the ground. He felt a warm liquid go down his forehead, he touched it lightly and looked at his hand, now covered in blood.
He-he hit me!?
Ludo couldn’t believe it, the combat resumed with the chieftain’s deafening howl and group of kobolds running at him with their small swords and axes. This time they were able to match him in battle. Their swords didn’t break and they could take a few hits.
“It’s like the chieftain is boosting them.” Ben said.
“You think I didn’t notice that already!?” Ludo blocked an attack with his sword, another with his bare foot and moved his head to the side as an arrow whistled by and a javelin almost hit his shoulder.
“Then you already know what to do!” Ben exclaimed.
Ludo chuckled, jumping above the kobolds and barely landing on his feet. Now that the way was free, Ludo ran towards the chieftain, only to be halted by a storm of arrows. Gritting his teeth, he had to think another way, the kobolds with swords attacked him once more.
“Left, right, dodge!” Ben kept screaming commands inside his brain while Ludo did his best to survive.
The battle raged on, some kobolds had landed a few cuts to Ludo’s arms while he had killed three of them. The fire kept going, creating large infernal walls around them, making it hard to move or breathe. The chieftain stepped forward, raising his own sword and entering the melee. He moved faster than any of the other kobolds, keeping Ludo distracted enough for an arrow to land on his thigh.
Ludo screamed and could feel his consciousness leave him by the second, only the kobold threat and Ben’s commands kept him awake. He raised Glass Guardian to meet an attack by the chieftain, the sword blocked but the force from the strike was enough to send him flying, crashing into a burning tree. The survivng kobolds hissed and laughed and ran towards him oblivious to the dangers of the tree until it was too late, a large branch collapsed, falling on most of the kobolds, killing them instantly. The chieftain was able to jump out of the way. Isolated from what remained of his comrades, it was now just the two of them.
The fire spread further, surrounding the two. The chieftain grinned at Ludo’s poor state, but he was not going to surrender without a fight. Ludo pulled the arrow from his leg and drank his second healing potion, working overtime to make him feel better, he could sense the pain on his leg and the sting on his forehead ebb away. Now that there was no one between him and the chieftain their proper fight began, quickly becoming the most dangerous dance Ludo had been yet. The chieftain’s white sword clashed against the Glass Guardian sending both of their wielders back a few steps. They seemed evenly matched and even Ben feared Ludo wouldn’t win, but he didn’t listen to that voice in his head, he pushed on as the chieftain landed hits on his arms and shoulders, cutting the skin open.
Ludo backed away gasping for air and the chieftain did the same. “How can I beat him!?” Ludo asked himself.
“You do remember what Emmer thought you about sword fighting, right?” Ben said.
He was right, up until now he had been wielding Emmer’s sword in a clumsy way, doing long swings and using it more like a club rather than a sword. Remembering the bits Emmer thought him on his way to Balessia, he readied in a stance, earning a cackle from the chieftain. The two rushed at each other a second time, this time Ludo blocked the chieftain’s sword and with a single move the upper half of its body flew away from the rest. The chieftain hissed and groaned, exploding in a cloud of dust a mere seconds later. Ludo had won.
“I must say” Ben began. “You burned everything around you and got enough wounds to show off for the rest of your life—“
Exhausted, Ludo had no interest in hearing what Ben had to say, throwing Glass Guardian to the side, he collapsed on the ground, panting and gasping, his chest rising sporadically, breathing in the sweet night air that broke through the smoke. A light rain had begun falling, putting out the fire in a short few minutes.
After regaining his strengths, he took out the quest paper, which was slightly burnt now, and saw that the objectives had been fulfilled. He began laughing, his road to not living on the gutter was well on its way now. He only needed to grab the loot from the kobolds and whatever trinkets survived in the now charred camp.