The sound of fire crackling could be heard as a well-made campfire casts the shadows of an older man and a young boy onto the walls of the cave.

The young lad’s name was Morgan, the brown haired youth had a square strong looking face that consisted of: thick eyebrows, round eyes, a grecian nose, and medium sized lips. Morgan was almost thin enough to be called skinny but had enough muscles to not be called weak.

The older man was called Gilles, he had a rounder face with downturned eyes, a button nose, thick lips, and a full face of ashen gray facial hair that was almost messy. His body was burly and scarred, tempered by uncountable battles. His face also scarred by old wounds and his thick hands with deep calluses, indicating a lifetime of swordsmanship. However, his most noticeable feature right now is the heavy bags under his eyes indicating restlessness for the past few days. This gave him more of look of a weary vibe as opposed to his usual strong and righteous one.

Morgan and Gilles are currently traversing through the Forgotten Forest, a massive forest that is not yet fully explored. The reason for the forest’s enigma is two fold: one few are willing and two none are capable. The forest housed too many savage beasts and monsters more powerful than the strongest group of men. The danger of the forest is mostly self-contained with the exception of the transition from fall to winter. During such times weak to mid tier beasts and monsters will turn more aggressive as they seek for food to last through the harsh winter months. The annual period of aggression was eventually named the Hunger Month and became so problematic fortifications were erected to prevent monsters and beasts from roaming eastward, near civilization.

Morgan and Gilles sat close together while Morgan played with a stick and occasionally poking at the campfire.

Morgan interchanging glances between Gilles figure and a wrapped object beside Gilles. Looks of question, confusion, and fatigue showed on Morgan's youthful countenance.

“I know you’re tired and the journey's been tough. But I can’t bare to leave you alone yet.” Gilles said calmly and wearily with a caring look then holding out a hand to pat Morgan's head.

Morgan scoot out of reach avoiding Gilles hand and spoke quietly “Not young.”

“To me you will always be a boy, no matter how old you are.” Gilles said with a slight smile.

Morgan simply grunted in response.

“Nothing to bury, except the rag you call a cloak.” Morgan spoke again softly.

Gilles lightly chuckled and then turned serious.

“And this.” The words was spoken sharp and quick as Gilles held up a wrapped object. The look of disbelief spread across Morgan.

“Widower soon.” Morgan said sarcastically as he grinned and pointed at Gilles.

The seriousness on Gilles’s face lifted and shrugged slightly before explaining. “This isn’t actually something I want to hold on to. It’s more like a Widow Spider rather than a lover.” Gilles sighed.

The mere thought of Widow Spider terrified Morgan. Morgan accidentally encounter one when he was foraging for food. Morgan will never forget the black-luster and bloodied sharp fangs of the giant Widow Spider as it feasted on it’s mate. Morgan slowly backed away and ran to Gilles, but it was too late. The Widow Spider had already marked Morgan for its next meal. Morgan and Gilles had to do extremely unpleasant things to mask their scent and move with haste to escape the Widow’s hunting ground.

Gilles didn’t want to come deep out of  the woods especially with Morgan, but the lack of choices and Morgan being of age to become a squire. Gilles had to finish his journey that he put on pause.

Morgan and Gilles sat at the campfire bantering a little more before Gilles feel himself no longer able to ward off fatigue.

Gilles’s looked seriously at Morgan and said with a chilling tone “Never touch this”before unrolling a blanket of cloth on the ground and covering himself with his cloak to sleep.

It wasn’t long before the sound of snoring escaped from Gilles mouth and echoed in the cave. Morgan put some more dried branches into the campfire and fished out a book from his own carry-sack. Morgan read in silence for a while before an idea struck Morgan’s mind.

Morgan suddenly had an urge to reveal the secret of the wrapped object. It wasn’t surprising as over the years Morgan’s curiosity of the wrapped object grew. He guessed it to be a small staff or sword for it had the shape but he was never too sure. Now with the knowledge that the object will soon be buried he had to find out what it was to sate his curiosity. There will be no more opportunity after tonight to inspect the object in father’s hands.

Usually his father slept lightly. But the past few days completely exhausted his father and now he was snoring with the object in his embrace.

Lovers indeed Morgan thought while smiling to himself.

Morgan then carefully and quiet snuck the object slowly out of his father’s embrace. His caution however proved to be unnecessary as Gilles was completely unresponsive and continued snoring.

Mogan then carefully put the object on the ground and started unravelling the beige linen cloth. The proccess was slow and done gently because the caution Gilles had showed it made Morgan presumed it to be potentially fragile. As the object revealed itself Morgan was only half-surprised.

The object was a short sword, one that gave an ominous feeling. It was sheathed in a surprisingly simple leather and wood scabbard, but the hilt was extremely elegant. The grip was made with a type of wood Morgan never seen before. The wood was dark black and lustrous and had patterns of red weaved throughout. The cross-guard was dark black with fire patterns etched across. And lastly the pommel, it was the most impressive part of the hilt. The pommel was shaped like the face of an angry devil. The devil’s face was well made, it looked like it would move at anytime.

Morgan had a sudden urge to draw the short sword. As his hands lightly touched the sword hilt. His body was overcome with shock and pain, he felt his body was burned by hellfire: a fire hotter than any other. He felt his flesh melting and tried to scream, but no sound came from his throat. For what felt like an eternity he felt his body scorched and melted. It wasn’t until his body lost balance that his hand finally separated from the sword. His body convulsed and he finally screamed and roared in pain as his body fell and seized on the cold hard ground.

The commotion awoke Gilles and he quickly rushed to Morgan and put the boys seizing body into his embrace. Gilles chanted words in a cryptic language then a green light enveloped Morgan’s body and then the boys conscious faded.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The event caused Gilles to be flooded with guilt. He blamed himself for letting down his guard. Gilles could only stroke the boy's hair gently as he waited for the boy to wake.

It took one whole day until Morgan awoken. Morgan rubbed his eyes and stared at the empty cave and the lit campfire, unable to recall the past event with the sword. He suffered a headache from oversleeping and his mind was foggy. In this confusion and disarray Morgan could only rub his eyes as he lifted his upper body.

A short while later Gilles returned to the cave and immediately upon seeing the awoken boy he rushed over and embraced Morgan.

“Do you remember anything?” Gilles whispered softly in a tone of deep sadness and affection.

“No.” Morgan replied briefly.

“How are you feeling?” Gilles asked as he held Morgan’s cheeks and inspected Morgan up and down like a worried mother.

“Fine.”

Gilles wanted to inquire and check Morgan condition more, but he had to put on a tough father appearance in front of Morgan. After contemplating for awhile and affirming Morgan’s condition he was finally relieved. “Alright looks like you're well enough to have the first watch.” Gilles gave his best effort to look cool and uncaring then went to his sleeping blanket to sleep.

Morgan was pondering what happened to himself for Gilles to have such a worried expression. Fortunately for Morgan no matter how much he tried, he could not remember what happened beyond sitting near the campfire with Gilles earlier.

Unbeknown to the father and son an ancient consciousness had transferred into Morgan.

Few days later in another part of the forest

“Halt, found more tracks” said Roland who had a hawk like face as he put up his hand to indicate the party behind him to stop. Roland swiftly examined the tracks. “It seem like they are going north-west.”.

“Are you sure the people we are tracking hold the artifact?” said Bron with a questioning look.

Roland simply stared at Bron. Who was a bald burly knight in full silver plated armour with a tanned commoners face that was best described as brute looking and almost orc-ish facial features.

“You should lower your helmet visor Bron.” Roland stated coldly.

“Why? It’s kind of stuffy.” Bron confusedly asked.

“I can’t concentrate if I have to look at your orc-ish stupid face. Every time you speak you ask the most stupid questions. Why are you even on this squad?” Roland said while grumbling. Roland however knew the answer all too well. The dispatch order to retrieve the artifact came too suddenly. A fluctuation of “evil” power was sensed by the high priestess in the Forgotten Forest and since most high ranking paladins were out dealing with the barbarians invasion near the east only few dispatchable paladins remained.

Roland of course wasn’t a paladin, a paladin wouldn’t know how to navigate these woods much less be able to track anything. Perhaps a skilled or experience one might be capable but the group of misfits he was stuck with are all third-rate at best. Roland prided himself in being an explorer, he had explored almost everywhere in the known world, He had the Goddess’s Blessing of Clarity which allowed him to see absolutely everything in a certain radius if he activated the ability. But each usage is absolutely exhausting and forcibly extending the range could even make him pass out. However due to the critical urgency of the task he had to use this ability numerous times, almost enough for him to have suffered an aneurysm. Sadly the ability is only the secondary source of his current headache. Bron of course was the primary source.

“Alright you idiots, I think we are at most a day behind them now and even being able to pick up the trails of them in the first place was already a bloody miracle. Let’s move.” Roland roared at the rest of his four man squad.

Roland has no idea why the high priestess would only send the four of them. Especially sending him with dumb, dumber, and dumbest. He couldn’t wait to get the task over with but he had to be careful since they were retrieving a cursed artifact that could destroy the known world. Just thinking that confuses Roland more as to why such an important task only required him and the three goblin brains. Upon thinking further Roland suddenly scoffed, and thought this might just be His Majesty’s revenge. Roland did remember being unruly recently at a royal banquet, stealing some of His Majesty’s wine, and pickpocketing the prime minister for some quick coin. However, aren’t those just the usual routine? Couldn’t have caused His Majesty to send me to this goddess-forsaken place.

After a few more hours of tracking Roland finally commanded “Let’s set up camp, it doesn’t seem like we’ll catch em today and I really don’t want to pass out confirming whether or not we can.” Roland quickly sat down on the sat on the ground and waited for camp to be set up.

“Alright Don you go find some firewood, I’ll start prepping the rabbit, and Gon you can set up the tents.” Bron commanded his brothers.

Roland’s headache quickly got worse as he heard the names of the three goblin brains. Roland wonders how these brothers’ father came up with these names and even more how all three of these imbeciles became paladins. Sure, strength is great for paladins but there has to be a bare minimum in intelligence right? After looking at the extremely similar figures of the three blockheads he closed his eyes and used a used a tiny-fraction of the blessing ability again.

The ability was only used quickly to scan if there were any other humanoids near by, like a quick pulse of sonar he scanned within one hundred meters.

The quick pulse scan was a variety Roland managed to come up with. It wasn’t very taxing on the brain but useless at tracking people not in the immediate area. Roland’s headache worsen anyways due to the accumulated fatigue. Roland could only sigh to himself knowing that was the last use Clarity today before his head imploded.

A while passed after eating and Roland quickly went to rest in one of the tents dumbo-3 set up. Roland promised to himself he would find them tomorrow, retrieve the artifact, and teleport out of here before he actually develops an aneurysm.

The lake of the Forgotten Forest was beautiful, it gave a serene feeling and the water was extremely clear and transparent. It was easy to spot fish near the surface and one could feel the harmonious atmosphere around the lake. Where the beauty of nature and wildlife could take one’s breath away.

The Forgotten Forest Lake had mysteries to it. One being despite the clarity of the water you could not see the bottom of the lake and the other being the abnormality of serenity surround it. Normally it wouldn’t be strange for predators to prey for food near water sources, but no animals would quarrel near the lake, vicious beast and monsters would not approach it either. A strange phenomena of the lake that some speculate is a Blessing of the Goddess.

However, Morgan and Gilles weren’t here to enjoy the serenity. They came here to dispose of the the polar opposite of serenity. The wrapped short sword that Gilles had held was the embodiment of chaos, it is believed to contain tremendous power.

The archives states a seal was created at the end of the Age of Gods. [When Hades fell and the Goddess rose. Sufferings lifted and new beginnings descended. Fires died and a seal was born.] Scholars believe that the seal the passage referred to was a cursed sword, the very one in Gilles hands.

“Bury?” Morgan looked very confused as he stared at the lake.

Gilles contemplated for a moment before saying “Did you bring a shovel?”.

Morgan only looked at Gilles blankly.

Gilles seeing the blank expression could only express an awkward cough. Truthfully Gilles’s plan was to bury the sword at a secret location that few knew about located deeper in the forest. But due to his son’s mishap the Temple must have felt the abnormal energy fluctuation from when Morgan touched the sword and sent a retrieval squad. Thus he decided to ‘leave’ the sword in the domain of an old friend.

The old friend was a fairy that resided in the lake and acted as its guardian. The fairy is able to conceal herself and the mysterious nature of the lake rather well. What more is one additional cursed sword to conceal?

Gilles quickly took a throwing position holding the wrapped sword and then threw it as hard as he could towards the lake. The sword soared in the sky before landing in the middle of the lake and sunk deep into the water.

Thankfully the fairy must be sleeping because there was no angry appearance followed by scolding for Gilles dumping trash in her domain once again.

Just as Gilles was finally feeling relieved after getting rid of the short sword. Gilles detected some people approaching at fast speed.