It was morning, and Kelric had slept well. He stared at his breakfast blankly while listening to the rain battering the window. It was cold outside, but not nearly as cold as his food. The soup and bread he ordered seemed to have gone bad a few days ago. He could use his newly acquired elemental sword to warm the food up, but that would look awkward, so he didn’t do that. He couldn’t use the sword’s element even if he tried to. He looked outside and drank some soup.

Many thoughts about where to go to look for materials crossed his mind.

Just looking around the forest was too dangerous, and the chance of finding something there was low. So he discarded that idea.

The mountains could have been good to go to if he wanted to mine some materials himself, but they were too far away, and Kelric hated mining. The mountains weren’t a viable option.

The caves were an instant nope, as that’s the place where monsters usually roam.

The only options left were the big cities. Six names instantly popped into his head: Inavo, Vertily, Milton, Kinko, Klwy, and Elentra. He immediately scrapped Elentra from the list. The first reason was that Elentra was the furthest away, the trip there took nearly a month in a carriage. The second reason would be that it was the Holy City, so there wouldn’t be much to find.

The second one he scrapped was Klwy. Klwy is a city that mainly handles food, which wasn’t what he was looking for. But the chances of him going there were high as it laid en route to three of the other big cities.

The next to get scrapped would be Kinko. Kinko handles mostly gold, as it found itself on top of a desert filled to the brim with it. The gold there was expensive, that was one of the downsides of Kinko. The other one was that Kelric just didn’t like the desert.

Three cities remained.

Since Inavo and Vertily found themself close to each other it was basically a 2v1 with an unfair advantage towards the former.

The last city to get scrapped would be Milton, the city of steel. Milton had the biggest military force in the world, which means there would also be a lot of blacksmiths there. But he wasn’t looking for any finished products, except if he wanted to cheat in the next competition, he was looking for materials.

Whether he wanted to go to Inavo or Vertily would be a decision for later. He looked at his food once more and finished it, paid Sheil for the food, and went upstairs.

He tried to enter his room by pushing open the door but forgot there was none. He nearly fell face-first into the ground. Almost dying from embarrassment he looked around his room and grabbed his backpack from under his bed. Afterward, he grabbed some bread and a flask from the table and put them in his backpack. He opened the drawer of his table and grabbed his pendant and wallet. He looked around once more to make sure he didn’t forget anything.

Once outside he realised the rain hadn’t stopped yet. He wanted to go back inside, but that would result in a weird interaction with Sheil. Instead, he rushed over to his smithery. He swung the door open, unsurprised that no one was there. He threw his backpack onto a table and closed the door.

Phew

He rested for a moment. Afterward, he started looking for his Elemental sword.

“Why did I ask Ragnel to put away my sword?” He said annoyed to himself. “There’s no way I’m finding it now.” He sighed and looked for it anyway. He looked near the table.

Nothing.

The Shelves

Nothing, except for the smashed rock that fell from the sky.

The forge.

Nothing.

“Ragnel wouldn’t be that stupid to lay it at his smithery. Right?”

He grabbed his backpack, and when he walked towards the door he saw it: the sword. It was stabbed into the floor right next to the door. He looked at it, took a deep breath, grabbed it, and went outside. It had stopped raining. The sun happily poked through the clouds. Kelric wouldn’t have to go to Ragnel’s place as he already knew he was leaving. He walked over to the northern gate, where the route towards Inavo and Vertily was, while carefully avoiding puddles. Before exiting through the gate he took a quick stop at the church to say a prayer. After the prayer, he mentally prepared himself before going to the gate.

“... he actually made one” Kelric couldn’t hear the first half of the sentence.

“He did, but the commander did laugh at him”

“Hey, Ragnel. I didn’t expect you to be here gossiping about me.” Kelric said as he approached the gate.

“Huh? Oh, I wasn’t gossiping, I was just telling him about yesterday. That's all. I would never gossip.” Ragnel said as a response to the unexpected situation.

“Well, I guess that’s not important. But do you know what is important right now?” Ragnel wanted to answer the question but didn’t get the time to.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“You should be fixing my door right now! Remember?”

Ragnel absolutely ignored it and opened the gate for Kelric.

“Have a nice trip, sir.” Ragnel said with an awkward smile while the other guard was watching. Kelric looked at Ragnel. Ragnel tried to widen his smile a bit more but only made it even more uncomfortable.

Kelric laughed and exited the gate.

This would be his last laugh for a while, if only he had savored this moment.

The path toward the cities was calm. Kelric had been walking for a few hours already. He decided to take a break and sat against the trunk of a tree. He pulled his bread out of his backpack and started eating it. He took his time while eating to finalize his decision of what city to go to. The two left were Inavo and Vertily. The former specializes in rare ores while the latter in common ores. Now that he thought about it once more it wasn’t a difficult decision. He would have to go to Vertily because the ores in Inavo were way out of his budget. He also wanted to go past Klwy for a night's sleep and to restock on food. Now that the thinking was over and his bread was all eaten, he was ready to walk again.

After walking for another hour and aimlessly looking around, something caught his eye. It was a special-looking flower. The flower was light blue like the sky, and glowing like the North Star on a cloudless night. Kelric couldn’t take his eyes off it and wandered from the main path to take a closer look at it. He walked forward for a bit and it seemed to get further away. He walked forwards again and saw it go even further again.

“What the hell?”

He walked backward, it also moved backward. He had never once seen such a phenomenon in his life. He stood in awe for a moment when he realised it was an illusion. He would never reach it even if he walked for an hour. The ground started shaking. He realised it too late, it was a monster's trap. He turned around swiftly to rush back to the main path.

“Huh?” The path wasn’t where he thought it should’ve been. He looked around frantically looking for any trace of the path. A light poked from behind a tree. His eyes widened from excitement. “That must be the path!” He turned toward the light and ran toward it. He stopped halfway. “No. It’s probably the flower” He turned away from the light and ran in the other direction. The shaking of the ground intensified. Kelric lost his balance due to the sudden change. He tried to regain his balance while running but tripped over a branch. He fell shoulder-first into the rough ground. His shoulder scraped over many rocks and branches on the ground. It hurt. The blood from his shoulder seeped through his thin clothes and dripped onto the ground. Kelric checked his arm quickly and got up using his sword.

He looked around to orientate himself, saw the light, and ran in the opposite direction, hoping it was the right move. The shaking intensified even more, when a faint digging sound suddenly came up. Small trees started falling over due to the intense shaking. Kelric ran even more, jumping over and dodging falling trees. The shaking intensified. The sound of digging got way louder. Large trees started derooting. This was bad, really bad. One tree was enough to end his life. After he narrowly dodged a tree, something caught onto his backpack. A large branch had been stabbed through his backpack, but luck was by his side, it didn’t hit him. He hesitated for a moment and dropped his backpack.

His sense of time was nonexistent. It was noon when he first saw the flower, but now it was nearly sunset. He was getting tired.

The main path was nowhere in sight. Suddenly the shaking stopped. Kelric was relieved for a moment, thinking he could rest, but this was just the beginning. The ground in front of him burst open and a large monster walked out of it. A bear-like monster as tall as the trees appeared before Kelric. The monster locked eyes with Kelric and let out a blood-curdling cry. He fell to the ground and looked at it in anguish. He couldn’t move. He stared at the monster as it trampled in Kelric’s direction. Kelric’s legs wouldn’t move, but his arms would. He held up his sword against the monster, ready to stab or slice it. It rushed his way and swung its big claw toward Kelric’s sword. The sword went flying and Kelric’s hand got obliterated. It was a futile attempt to do something against the giant monster. His hand hung at the end of his arm, he was lucky that it was still attached. His eyes widened, horrified at the sight in front of him. He started shaking and breathing irregularly. The monster wouldn’t give him time to think as it swung his claw again. Kelric’s legs worked again.

He pushed himself off the ground, sliding over the rock and wood filled ground. The pain in his back caused all of his muscles to cramp up. That was not all, he slid himself just far enough to hit his head against a tree. He blacked out. He instantly woke up and felt somewhat rejuvenated. He ignored all of the pain and stood up. The monster got a lot closer in the short time he was blacked out. It was ready to swing its claw again when Kelric started running away, he knew he stood no chance fighting it. It narrowly missed Kelric. He saw his sword lying only a few steps further from where he was. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to grab it but went for it anyway. A sharp pain rushed through his leg as many sharp things pierced the sole of his foot. He had lost a shoe a moment prior. He ignored all of the pain and grabbed the sword with his left hand since his right was helplessly hanging from his arm. He ran away, and it seemed he was faster than the monster. He thought he had escaped.

He couldn’t. A second bear-like monster jumped out of the ground in front of him. Now there was one in front of him and behind him. He looked right. Two more monsters jumped out of the ground. He looked left, nothing. The second monster released a terrifying cry, even worse than the first. The second monster was clearly bigger than the rest. Kelric didn’t know what it meant and he didn’t want to know. He rushed towards the only opening on his left. He was desperately running when a surge of heat came from his right. The rays of hope shone brightly, such heat could only be created from one thing: an Elemental weapon.

He looked over to his right, and all the hope he had built up in that one second shattered. It was something worse than he could have ever imagined. He didn’t see someone wielding a fiery sword, instead he saw the monster’s claws exerting blue flames. He was doomed. Such a thing had never happened. There was no way he was going to make it back alive to tell the world. He knew there was no way out. He ran. He ran for his life and dropped his sword to run faster. The seemingly leader monster shot out a fireball. A second thing that had never happened. The only way to make a fireball would be to use a fire elemental arrow, or the bear shot out its claw. The monster still had its claws and there was no way it had an arrow. The trees caught on fire. There was no running away from it so he had to face it. There was no moment for thinking, so he trusted his gut. He thought of something extremely dangerous but knew it was the only way to survive.

He sprinted with full force toward the monsters. The leader shot out another fireball. He narrowly dodged it but burned a part of his left arm in the process. He now found himself in range of the monster's claw. It was a last-ditch effort, he slid between its legs and dodged the attack. His sword layed in front of him again. He couldn’t pick up the sword, instead kicked it to where he wanted it to be. The sword tumbled down the hole the monster had used to get to the surface. This was the plan he had thought of in the heat of the moment, jumping into the hole. The monster turned around, but it was too slow. Kelric was already gone.

He had jumped into the unknown darkness without considering any of the risks.