He woke up in a corner of the guildhall, underneath him a small pile of straw poking through his clothes. The, by now, familiar metallic scent of blood filled the air together with the sound of moans and cries from other injured, lying on similar temporary beds scattered across the room.

The blood, he already smelled before, decorated the pavement, together with guts and other parts Bao could not recognize. No matter where he looked, he only stared into discouraged, sad and tired faces, who were either busy healing or busy dying. To make matters worse, on the other end of the hall lied around two dozens of rowed up corpses, covered with a simple piece of white cloth that slowly but surely turned into a dark red.

A shiver ran through his body, as a wave of pain started to spread like wildfire from the wound on his waist. He groaned. Something, or rather someone moved on his lap, awakened by the sound of his voice.

"Who... who the hell are you?" Asked Bao, surprised by the unknown visitor.

The weight on his lap disappeared when a young girl, about his avatar's age, lifted her head to stare into his face with half-opened eyes. Her chestnut brown hair pointed in all directions, resembling a crown of thorns. A red mark on her cheek showed that she had slept for quite a while in that position. She squinted her eyes in order to focus Bao's face and the moment she recognized his face, her eyes spread wide open.

"Oh, you are finally awake!" A bright smile, across both cheeks, showed on her face while she desperately tried to smooth her hair by pressing them down with her hands, without success.

"Again, just who are you?"

"Don't you remember?" Her yellowish eyes, resembling the wide hot deserts, stared into his' but no answer came. "I... I'm the person you liberated from the ties before losing consciousness."

"How... how should I? I mean as you just said I was about to lose my..." -suddenly it struck him like a lightning- "What about Morell and Nathan are they alive?! What happened to them? And what is with everyone else in the village? Just what in the world happened?"

"Calm down," -she grabbed his hand, which rested on the side- "they are all doing fine, the Holy Maiden personally took care of them after removing the poison from you."

"Elincia huh..."

"And regarding what happened... well the city was attacked by a stampede and is currently surrounded by monsters. We were lucky to escape in time inside the city walls, others weren't as fortunate," she turned and looked towards the pile of corpses. "We don't know what caused it and neither do we know where they come from. It's... it's just pure chaos." Her grip around his hand became tighter and her shoulders slumped down, the happy smile turned into a sad one.

"So we are cut off from the rest of the kingdom? How could that happen isn't this the capital where the king resides?"

"That doesn't mean that there are no Dungeons nearby from which monsters could create a stampede. For now, all we can do is hope that our defences hold until either reinforcement come or the monsters grow tired of feasting over the dead in front of our walls." Elincia's voice sounded behind him.

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"Eli..." Bao couldn't finish his sentence that a slap hit his cheek, echoing throughout the hall.

"You promised that you would be more cautious in the future and the next thing I see is you turning blue with two holes, one in the shoulder and the other in the waist." She puffed out air. "Do you know how difficult it was to extract all that poison! You nearly died on me two times!"

"I did it to..."

"I know, I know this girl already told me the whole story, that doesn't mean though that I can't lecture you for what you did and for breaking your promise."

"Right..."

"S... sorry if I interrupt the both of you but... but in what relationship are the two of you exactly?" The girl stuttered.

"Hmmm, good question... I would say maybe something like a big sister?" Elincia thought again for a brief moment. "No, maybe more like a worried parent who is looking after his growing child."

"Why do you ask?" Bao ignored Elincia's comment.

"I... I just wanted... wanted to kn..." The girl blushed and ran away with her hands in front of her face.

"What in the world was that now?"

He looked at the giggling Elf in front of him.

"Who knows? You'll find out eventually. Now I'll leave you alone, I have more work to do, besides there is someone else that wanted to talk to you."

The holy maiden walked away and the mother who stormed the guild stepped towards him, her child, alive, in her arms and a man, probably her husband beside her.

"Thank you for saving my child, and my husband." Both made a deep bow. "Our family will forever be in debt to you."

"But... but his heart... it ... it"

"The Medicus that arrived immediately after you had left said that if it weren't for your intervention the child couldn't have been saved anymore, so thank you." They too walked away without further words.

Bao, still overwhelmed but what had happened in the time he was unconscious, used the moment of peace to assign his stat points. Like it was originally planned they obviously went all into strength.

David Level 6 -> 8 HP 20/20 -> 20/40 MP 0/0 Strength 4 -> 8 Perception 2 Endurance 2 Charisma 6 Intelligence 3 Agility 2 Luck 2 Skills World Traveller Level 1 Scuffle    Level 1 -> 2 Backstab     Level 1 -> 2 Gathering Level 1 Sneaking Level 1 Swordsmanship Level 1 Titles Acquaintance Of The Holy Maiden Soulwalker Farmers Saviour