That tomorrow came and went in a breeze as Ludo and Althea trained for their long journey ahead, hunting slimes and any other minor monsters that had survived the onslaught of other adventurers.

At first Althea continued to be frightened but as the days went by her boldness increased, her attacks became nimbler and the minor quests were completed faster.

Ludo knew it probably wasn’t enough to take out the giant between the two of them, but he couldn’t imagine what would happen to her if she returned to Walter empty handed, so after four days of training, the two of them exited Balessia and stepped forward into the wilderness, towards the Empty River.

As they took their first step into the fickle wilderness, Ludo’s mind race and heart pounded like a drum. The prospects of taking on a giant removed from him any need of sleep, thirst or hunger. Althea, however, was the complete opposite of him as she halted on her midway through the forest.

“Don’t worry, nothing will happen.” Ludo said in an attempt to reassure her.

“Have you fought a giant before!?” Althea asked.

“No, but I’ve fought a giant, undead monster before. Can’t be that different.”

Althea mumbled something and looked back at the path back to Balessia. Ludo thought fast to get Althea out of her cold feet. He walked up to her and took out his spare sword, the one thing that seemed to blow all her fears away. Althea grabbed the sword but Ludo did not let go.

“Someone I know always says to keep your sword ready and you will be fine.” Ludo said, remembering a line Emmer had said back on his painful training week coming to Balessia.

Althea nodded in response and gripped the sword with all her might. Happy with the outcome, Ludo let go of the sword.

“Before we head in, we need to form a party.”

Ludo stretched his hand, Althea looked at his hand for a few seconds and sighed.

“Before we do this. Why do you want to help me with this? We didn’t even know each other.”

Ludo turned away from Althea and thought for a moment for the best answer for her question and all of his thoughts came back to the same event.

“Because, if I have the ability to do good for someone, then its my burden to do so, regardless of how insignificant the reward is.”

Althea chuckled at Ludo’s response and faced away from him extending her hand without seeing him. Ludo smiled and grabbed her hand and a message appeared in his vision.

ALTHEA HAS JOINED YOUR PARTY

Ludo also checked his status and saw that he had gained the leadership skill as well. Finally, he made sure to check on Althea with his magical eyes.

ALTHEA TEPHNA (AGE 18)

LOBID - FEMALE

LEVEL 6

STRENGTH: 7

STAMINA: 5

MANA: 0

SPEED: 6

DEFENSE: 2

INTELLIGENCE: 1

SKILLS: ONE-HANDED LEVEL 2, ATHLETICS LEVEL 2, SCOUTING LEVEL 2,

TITLES: ADVENTURER (RANK G)

All the previous training had paid off as she had gained a level. It still didn’t even their odds against the giant but any bit of help was welcomed. But even as things seem bright, there was something that had been nagging Ludo in the back of his mind ever since he handed Althea that sword. It was the sword of Liam, perhaps the person he most hated despite the fact he couldn’t remember over a decade with his life. He had taken his sword despite Jana’s warning as a sort of trophy or proof of victory against somehow that meant him harm. He had done the same with Bergmann’s axe that killed Ben.

Chasing those thoughts away, Althea and him journeyed further into the forest and soon they were surrounded by nothing but tall grass, trees and rocks. The two talked, laughed, and hunted monsters. Ludo in particular, kept practicing his archery, hunting down two hares in the process.

“Dinner for tonight.” Ludo explained to Althea while he stashed away the game watched him store them in his bag.

After unsuspectingly wandering into a swampland filled with large man-hunting flying insects, treacherous ground and sudden sinkholes, which almost made Althea lose her left boot. The two arrived on drier, high land and began to layout their camp while the afternoon sun shined brightly above them. Ludo also used this time to grab leaves, roots, bark and flowers. All necessary to practice potion making, something that Auria had forbade him and also for seasoning.

Once everything was settled Ludo lit a fire and prepared the animal, skipping much of the gory bits thanks to Althea, who surprisingly was quite skilled in preparing animals.

“My father has… or rather had, a chicken coop. I helped him raise the chicks when I was younger and now I help my mother prepare the chickens when we had big celebrations.” Althea explained as they watched the hare meat cook over the fire.

“You said you had it, what happened to it?”

“The chickens were the first thing my father gave away to pay Walter and then we had to sell the coop.” Althea frowned.

Ludo beat himself mentally for asking this and to avoid the awkwardness, he checked on the meat. Thankfully for him, the meat was done and he prepared it for him and Althea, adding some extra seasoning that he had taken from Auria’s home.

“All is going well.” Ludo said calmly after taking a bite out of his dinner. He looked at Althea as she took a bit out of the meat. “How is it?”

“It’s delicious! When did you learn to do this?” Althea asked as she took another bite out of it.

“Auria taught me a while ago, she said I should know hot to cook to impress—” Ludo paused for a moment. “—anyone.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Consider me impressed then.”

The two continued to enjoy their dinner in blissful company of each other by the campfire as the serene, silver moon observed them from above.

The second day arrived and Ludo and Althea were already on the move towards the empty river. They had stopped momentarily to catch their breath and drink, in the meantime Ludo grabbed more herbs from the ground when he saw Althea standing still at the top of a tree stump. She seemed fixated on something hidden deep in the forest ahead of them. As Ludo got close, he saw that she was squinting and having trouble seeing whatever had caught her attention but the ears at the top of her head told a different story as they moved wildly and independently from each other. She suddenly bolted back to him, sticking close to his back and frightfully observing the forest ahead.

“Something’s coming!” She squeaked and Ludo heard the faint noise of leaves being crushed and trees being pushed away.

“Your sword.” Ludo exclaimed.

The two drew their swords and waited for whatever had scared Althea to emerge from beyond the bushes and trees. Ludo wasn’t sure what to expect, most dangerous monsters were kept at bay by the increase in adventurers and the giant couldn’t be this close to Balessia. As the last rows of trees were pushed aside, the creature that had frightened Althea finally revealed itself. They didn’t have to wait long as a large snake like creature, around the size of a horse met Ludo face to face, the monster’s head resembled a snake except for an extra comb at the top of its head, the rest of its body was that of a lizard and had four rooster legs to walk. Ludo had never seen a monster such as this and didn’t hesitate to analyze it with his eyes.

MINOR BASILISK

BEASTLY

LEVEL 9

THREAT: MEDIUM

The basilisk hissed and lunched at Ludo who jumped out of the way. He turned back to face the Basilisk and his heart sank. Althea was not moving, frozen in fear, all she could muster was to put her sword between herself and the basilisk and all of it was Ludo’s fault as they had gone from hunting small, inoffensive monsters to this.

Noticing Althea’s panic, the Basilisk now saw her as prey and was about to bite down on her head when Ludo tackled the monster away from her. Ludo was quick to get on his feet and to his horror the Basilisk was going back towards Althea. Thinking quickly Ludo ran up to the monster and yelled, punched and attacked the basilisk with his sword, attempting to catch its attention.

In desperation, Ludo stabbed the Basilisk and teal blood began to flood out from the wound and a blistering pain shot through Ludo’s arm forcing him to back away. He looked at his arms and saw that his sleeves and vambraces had been burnt through.

“Althea, its blood is acidic!” Ludo yelled while blocking the Basilisk’s talons with his sword. Althea had not moved from her place, still gripped by fear. Ludo dodged the intense attempts of the basilisk to maul him and hid behind a tree. He knew he couldn’t stay there forever as that meant that Althea would be in danger.

Ludo emerged from behind the tree and jumped, aiming his sword at the basilisk’s eyes, slashing at its face and falling back fisrt on the ground while evading the Basilisk’s blood. There was no time to rest. Ignoring the pain, he got up and ran towards Althea, practically pushing her and himself into some bushes and away from the Basilisk.

Althea was trembling and refused to take her eyes away from the Basilisk. It took many attempts for Ludo to get her out of this panicked state.

“Althea listen to me!” Ludo grabbed her face and forced her to look away from the Basilisk, who roamed the area hunting for them both.

“I can’t harm it with my sword! And I cannot kill it alone” Ludo dodged one of the rooster legs which embedded its talons unto the tree trunk. “I need your help!?”

“How can I-”

“I know you can do it!” Ludo took out his bow and placed an orange tipped arrow on the string. “Are you ready?”

Althea took deep breaths and closed her eyes. Ludo kept a keen eye on the the Basilisk as it attacked a tree out of frustration, ripping some of its roots from the ground. Behind him, Althea mumbled something and walked up to Ludo and as he looked at her, Ludo saw that a great amount of fear had left her eyes.

“I’m ready!”

Ludo and Althea ran out of their hiding place. Althea distracted the Basilisk as Ludo got withing a proper position to use his bow. Once he got enough distance, he pulled the string and shot the corrosive, orange tipped arrows at the Basilisk. Despite penetrating its thick scales and burning some, the Basilisk did not flinch nor cry out in pain, it didn’t react at all.

“What are you waiting for!?” Althea yelled from the other side while climbing a tree to keep away from the Basilisk.

Ludo ran to her aid, using some leftover normal arrows to pester the Basilisk away from Althea. As the Basilisk’s attention shifted, Ludo threw the remaining corrosive arrows at Althea who caught them.

“Time for plan B!” Ludo yelled, crouching to avoid the Basilisk’s talons aimed at his head.

In reality this was a gamble, not that he could tell Althea that. The most he could do now was to evade the Basilisk as he was the fastest between the two until Althea came up with a plan.

Ludo jumped and dodged the Basilisk’s attacks as best he could, but the monster was relentless, making it nigh impossible for him to dodge all attacks. Forcing to retaliate, Ludo turned back and slashed the Basilisk and in return received more blisters on his arms and face.

“Ludo!” Althea yelled. “Look at that tree!” She was pointing at a tree which the basilisk had pulled halfway out of the ground. “Can you get it there!?”

“What are you planning on doing?!” Ludo yelled back, slicing two talons off the Basilisk.

“Trust me!” Althea dropped from her tree and swiftly ran towards the target. Ludo groaned and entered a full sprint towards the slumped tree. The Basilisk was close to him, way to close, he could feel the dirt being thrown asunder land on him by each step of the monster.

Tired, burnt and bruised. He dodged the talons of the Basilisk one more time and reached the slumped tree. Althea was hiding behind.

“Get away!” She screamed and raised the arrows high in the air and stabbed the tree with them.

The arrows exploded in contact and Althea was sent flying beyond Ludo’s vision. The tree buckled and fell towards Ludo and the Basilisk. Ludo was able to jump away in time as the tree fell on the Basilisk’s neck. The Basilisk’s neck broke with a loud crack and the beast did not struggle for long before it died and exploded in a cloud of dust. Leaving behind baubles for Ludo and Althea to take for themselves.

Now that the threat was dead, Ludo looked at Althea to see if she was alright. She wasn’t, her arms were visibly red, bruised and covered in small blisters and her face was cut all over. Ludo grabbed the bandages he had stored and began to cover Althea’s wounded arms, as he did this she flinched anytime the fabric touched her wounds.

“They didn’t hurt before.” Althea said.

“Yeah, it takes a few seconds before you realize what is happening or so Auria says.”

“And what about you?”

“Huh?”

“Look at your arms.”

Ludo looked down and gasped at his sorry state. Althea was right, his arms were burnt and covered in blisters, some of the most affected areas had become swollen and looked like pieces of his skin had been peeled off. To make matters worse, they now begun to sting. .

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Ludo smiled trying to keep himself and Althea calm. Ludo finished bandaging Althea’s arms despite the pain gave her a healing potion. Only then did he began to tend to his own wounds.

While he did this, he couldn’t help but notice that Althea was starring at him intently. Ludo looked back at her and smiled but this seemed to only cause her to burst into tears.

“I’m sorry, you got hurt.” Althea sobbed

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m fine, it was my fault as well, I had never fought a Basilisk before.”

Althea calmed down for a bit, and the two resumed their work in picking whatever the Basilisk had left behind for them, a set of poisonous fangs, emerald scales and its comb. Afterwards, they build their tents and started a campfire.

While Ludo ate his dinner, he was watching over Althea. She was completely dishearten and depressed. Worrying for her, Ludo sat closer to her and unwrapped his bandages from his arms and face.

“Look! The potion finally healed them, they’re good as new!” Ludo got no immediate reaction.

“Its my fault.” Althea whispered just loud enough for Ludo to hear.

“No its—“

“You decided to help me in the beginning, and all I could do was stand there while you needed my help now.” Althea let out a sob.

“Don’t put yourself down. I couldn’t have killed the Basilisk by myself in a million years. You were great back there.”

Althea let out a pitiful smile amidst her tears. Ludo wanted to know how she could help her further, activating his magical eyes and saw that something had changed.

ALTHEA TEPHNA (AGE 19)

Her birthday had been recently and she had to spent it all alone in the middle of the forest with a strange and knee deep in mud and to top it all off she was just about to become monster food hours earlier. Unable to come up with any words to try and cheer her up, Ludo leaned closer to her and hugged her. He expected her to push him away but she didn’t and the two stayed like that for a few blissful minutes.