David had slept fitfully.

Maria walked in front of him, they followed the same trail they’d walked before, out of the forest towards town. They hadn’t talked this morning, she’d cooked oats over the fire, making a sort of oatmeal gruel breakfast for the two of them.

It tasted like nothing, or maybe not, she wouldn’t cook something with no flavour, right? It had smelled okay, but David couldn’t really process the taste of it. Killing the rabbit had been different than killing the goblin earlier. Its white fur, its pained eyes… the helplessness of it all. It changed him. It stuck with him, dulling his senses now with the weight of that moment, him taking the life of this trapped thing.

Back on Earth he’d eaten meat and he’d never really paused to think much about where it came from. The goblin was different, a fight not a hunt, combat not execution. More than that the hostility that radiated off it somehow made it easier to fight, let David turn off his brain and trust his body to the sheer adrenaline of the moment. Life here was different, more savage, harder and always dangerous. I was not, am not, prepared for this. David sighed, breathing in and out in an almost meditative way as he walked, the woods seemed to fade away as he followed Maria’s back, moving slowly towards the edge of the forest, lost in his thoughts all the way.

As they exited the tree-line the heat of the sun washed over him. It felt good and refreshing as it warmed his skin. The world opened up before them in it’s untapped glory, rolling hills and mountains extending out into a still fresh wilderness,

“I just can’t get used to this view.” He smiled.

All the light and heat and beauty almost made him forget the small animal slung over Maria’s shoulder, the animal they had trapped and killed and drained of blood.

I could barely do it too, my hands shook the whole time. What kind of hero am I? Next thing you know I won’t be able to break into people’s houses and take all their stuff. I guess games really are different from reality.

David snorted, a half laughter slipping out from him. It felt good, making fun of himself, bathing in the heat and slowly letting go of what had happened earlier. He breathed out, the gloom that had weighed on his chest through the night and morning finally abated, flowing out with his breath as he relaxed. I may never be a great hunter, but I did get that goblin pretty good. I’ll figure out this hero thing yet.

He searched in his chest for the warmth of his magic, feeling the new but somehow familiar feeling surge up into him and fill his muscles with unreal strength. David clenched his fists, feeling the hot force fill his arms and hands before shaking them loose and releasing the magical strength.

“What is a hero anyway? What’s so special about me?”

“There’s a few things I know about heroes for sure.” Maria’s voice came out in a sing-song, a smile transmitted through sound alone, she must be enjoying the sun too,

“They, well you I guess in this case, can borrow strength without storing it. You should also grow stronger more quickly than most people. Anyone who absorbs ambient magic slowly increases the total amount of magic they can use, for borrowing for instance, it affects how much strength they can output at once.” Maria paused, her gaze weighing David, , he nodded back at her and she continued,

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“If you kill a monster, you’ll absorb a big chunk of it’s magic, for you it’ll be almost twice as much as most people. Just a perk of being kidnapped to fight for us.” She winked at him, clearly amused by her joke.

“It’s all complicated, but basically you’re strong and you’ll get stronger fast. So long as you fight.” She finished talking and stopped walking too, waiting while David processed.

“Will I get better at other magic too? Can I even use other magic?” David briefly pictured himself flying, throwing fireballs at enemies below, or summoning meteors.

Dreams he’d had as a kid of magical powers, of being special filled his head. I guess I really am special now, huh. Somehow it’s not as easy or simple as I’d dreamed back then.

“Maybe, who knows? We can test you for the talent later. It’ll take time for you to learn and you’ll have to store the mana for it like everyone else, but I guess in theory your output should still be impressive.” Maria shrugged.

“Thanks for the info and well, thanks for…” David trailed off, gesturing at the animal on her back. “I know I have to learn, just be patient with me.”

“Yeah, of course.” Maria smiled at him, before her eyes seemed to half glaze over, looking through him as if at some distant thing. “The first one was hard for me too. It gets easier.” Even with animals, I’m not sure I want it to, thought David.

The town almost snuck up on him. He’d been lost in thoughts, as he so often was these days. He was excited to defeat a monster again, hopefully next time it wouldn’t be so hectic and he could see what it felt like to grow stronger, see what changes he could notice.

It’s like levelling up. With an advantage like that I wonder why people can’t beat the demons. Unless they level up too? It was a sobering thought. While David was here in town trying his best to deal with one trapped rabbit, demons could be out there levelling up, grinding to higher strength. I wonder if they level from killing monsters or… David shivered. Maria spoke up,

“While you turn in the quests I have some stuff in town I’d like to deal with, Is that alright with you? It’s a small quiet place, you should be pretty safe.” She held out the rabbit and herbs, neatly stored in leather pouches.

“Um, sure.” David’s voice was hesitant as he took the materials, he felt somewhat strange with the idea of being left alone.

He hadn’t had much time without either William or Maria as a quasi chaperone. As she walked away he almost stared at her back, unable to help himself, as she moved through the town. Once she took a corner and left his view he felt panic and excitement bubbling up in his chest in equal measure - I feel like I did the first time my parents let me walk to school alone. He snorted, a slight humorous grin tugging at his lips before he shook his head and headed towards the adventurer’s guild.

The saloon doors swung wide as he strode into the room, fake confidence plastered across his face as he moved through the guild hall. It was less full now, a few people looking at requests as sparsely filled tables had quiet conversations. He went straight to the front desk and began to pull out the two packages of herbs they’d collected.

“Hey Aryn. I’m here to turn in a few quests.” He tried to act casual as the large man looked him over.

“That was fast.” His voice was gruff, more than it had been when Maria was with him, and maybe a little dismissive. “Do you have the rabbit too?”

“Ah, yeah. One sec.” David started to lay the animal out on the counter alongside his other quest objectives. Aryn seemed slightly taken aback, his movements stopped briefly.

“That was very fast then, good.” A very small smile spread under the black mustache beneath his lips, the dismissiveness dropped from his voice even if the gruffness didn’t. “We’ll need someone to test you for the rank up.”

From behind David a cold voice spoke up,

“I’ll do it.” Before he heard it again, whispered into his ear with a cutting edge, “Let’s see what you really are David.”