07 – RUSCKAN VILLAGE – REFORMING

David ran out of the guild building, which from outside was nothing more than a ran down shack, and made his way towards what he guessed was the main gate of the city. By his estimation, the place had two gates at the opposite sides of the wall, along the one main road, but he was having no issues finding the right one because of all the noise coming from afar. The sirens, the people running away towards the perceived safety of distance, and the ominous presence of something at the far edge of the village all pointed him towards one direction.

Rusckan was not a big place. It was merely a village protected by a modest stone wall all around it, and consisting of no more than a hundred buildings. David had already guessed it from what he had seen inside the guild, but seeing it with his own eyes was different.

It was one thing to see such a village in a video game, and another to actually be in one. It was stereotypical and predictable, but the level of detail made it quite real to him. The smell was overbearing. The village reeked of waste and filth.

The poverty of the place made him realize just how different this world was compared to his own. The people all had the distant look of someone who had gone through much more trauma than they should have, and the dirty rags they wore spoke much about how they had been living between one emergency and the other.

The houses were made of misshapen stone bricks and mud, with hay roofs and little more than holes for windows. There were wooden blinders on some of the windows, broken and splintered, but many houses did not have them at all. Looking inside revealed that many of the houses were abandoned rather than inhabited. There were still many people on the main street, which was actually only a dirt road without any kind of paving, and they were all running in the direction of the guild.

There must have been less than five hundred people in total in this village when it was at its prime, and now probably only half as many people were still living here. As he approached the defense wall, David noticed that it was damaged in many places, where the stone bricks had fallen down and were little more than piles of rubble. Other rubble had been amassed next to the broken sections in a makeshift palisade in hopes to keep out whatever it was that threatened the village at the time.

The main gate was completely destroyed, and laid on the side of the road in pieces. It was the only thing made of metal that he had seen so far, but it was dented and rusted, making it almost impossible to even repair properly. At least, in case of an invasion, the wall would serve as a way to force all the enemies to come from the gate instead of besieging the city from all sides.

“Hunter!” A young man called from behind.

David stopped for a moment and turned around, seeing the young blond man who was panting and catching his breath. He recognized the young man, and wondered why he came here to him.

“Yeah? You were at the guild, right? Is everything okay there?”

“Yes… yes.” He said, straining his lungs after the run. David watched him in puzzlement, because he didn’t feel that he had run that fast or that much. Perhaps it was because of the conditions these people were living in, sapped of all their strength at all times and unable to replenish it.

“Why did you come, then? You don’t seem much of a fighter.”

The young man seemed offended.

“I came… to help you against the monster. Do you at least know what you’re up against?”

“Uh, no?” David said. It was not much of an issue, with the respawn and all. He would learn about the monster and then kill it, respawning one or two times but hopefully not many more. The pain was still bearable, but soon it would increase to completely foreign levels.

“Then why did you take up and leave like that!” The young man asked, or rather stated. “Okay, okay, hear me out. It’s cloudy and the sun’s not out, so even if the monster is a troll, you’ll have to be very careful. The master said to fight it in the battlefield right out of the gate, where you’ll have lots of space to move around and dodge its attacks.”

“A troll?” David asked. How could they know it without seeing it? Perhaps it was the same system as the sirens, able to determine the threat and kind of monster as it approached.

“Yeah. It’s just the one, fortunately. They are big and very strong, but they are also dumb and quite slow. If you can dodge its attacks, maybe you’ll get lucky and the sun will come out before you die.”

David looked at the man, unsure about what to say in reply. He was aware of the fact that nobody had seen him fight, but it seemed that they were not willing to count on him to defeat the threat alone. It didn’t matter in the end, because he was not here to gain fame or recognition, but to hunt some monsters. And to get stronger, because he knew that if he completed the mission with a good grade, then he would get some nice rewards for it.

He stepped out of the city and into the open plains that surrounded it in all directions. The tall green grass was swaying in the wind, and the overcast sky melted with the far away fog without a horizon. The thick banks of cloudy air looked ominous and unnatural, obscuring the lands beyond. A far away thunder rumbled and reverberated, while the heavy steps of the monsters were like the strikes of a large hammer against the earth.

Following the source of the rhythmic sound of steps, David finally spotted the creature.

There it was, big tall and green. It was a humanoid figure, five meters tall and with a blade in each hand. They were crudely made, but were held by large and muscular arms that did not care about the blunt edges of the weapons at all.

Its face was huge and deformed, with teeth poking out of its closed mouth, while large nostrils sniffed the air. Eyes without intelligence or reason scanned the battlefield and locked gaze on David, and the beast immediately roared as soon as it saw him. The sound was loud, but it was nothing compared to the roar of the beast he killed in the Silverscale forest.

“You have to do better if you want to impress me.” David said, his mocking tone hiding the tingle of fear running down his spine.

The tingle turned into pleasure as his muscles tensed and readied themselves for a fight. In his mind, he was already weaving a magical spell with his new understanding of the fire mana, while he kept staring at the monster in the distance. They were looking at each other, each daring the other to move first, but at the same time not doing anything themselves.

A grin crept on David’s face.

“Firebolt.” He said in a low tone, before a large sphere of white fire appeared above his head. It was spinning and crackling, brimming with power and heat. The smoke coming from it rose in the air, and was brought away by the currents and the winds. The troll looked at the ball of fire with interest, but not with fear. It didn’t move at all.

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“Go.”

The ball of heat sped up towards the troll, who began to mindlessly charge at David. It seemed to ignore the magic coming at it, and instead chose to run straight for the man who casted it. The ball of flames collided with it at incredible speed, exploding outwards and at the same time inwards, following the instructions written inside the spell itself. It began burrowing in the troll’s flesh, burning and tearing it apart with its explosive force.

The troll roared again, in pain and anger as it fell down and backwards, its momentum destroyed by the force of the spell. David was panting heavily, as the spell took a huge toll on him, but he was ready for the next step. He took this opportunity to lunge at the fallen monster, his mana spent but his spirit still on fire. The troll had hit the ground hard, and was unlikely to recover before it was too late.

He jumped up, and tried to make use of the opening to finish his opponent with one swift move. As he was in the air, he summoned the obsidian knife and gripped it tightly, going for the throat of the beast on the ground.

Just the last meter before hitting it, he noticed with horror that the beast was rolling to the side. This was not supposed to happen, and yet it was happening. David had miscalculated just how resilient the thing was, and now he had committed to a strike he could not bail out from. At least, he had no idea how to bail out from this jump, considering that barely a few weeks ago he was only a dull and boring person from Earth.

He was under no illusion that a few reincarnations spent in pain while hunting a beast in a forest had made him into a fearsome hunter. He knew that he was still weak. That he lacked the necessary tools to be a real hunter. But he would get them. And he would kill while he was at it.

The troll was going for one of the blades that it had dropped when it fell, and David could see the wound on its chest closing at a rapid pace instead of being fatal like he had thought. The beast gripped the stone sword on its left side, to the right of where David was going to land, and swung it in the air.

A fatal mistake, one that costed David’s life, had brought him to this point here and now. At least, he would learn from it, and be better next time.

He felt the rough edge of the sharpened stone of the blade cut through his tissues, cleaving his body in half with the immense strength of the troll. The muscles tore apart, the bones were crushed, and his body was not cut or split, but rather completely annihilated in its middle section.

A shower of guts and entrails was the last thing he saw, while the sharp pain of his gruesome death gave him another hit directly into the brain. Then, it ceased, and the white room was all that he could see.

Reincarnating in 3, 2, 1…

17° Reincarnation.

>Body upgraded to: Standard human (E-grade mana).

>Choose target location. Current mission; Silverscale forest.

He thought about it for a moment. He could go back and keep fighting, or go to the forest and train. He could use some training, especially when it came to close quarters combat. Or maybe train his magic, so that it would be more powerful and versatile, especially now that he had earth magic as well. What just happened was more than enough to see just how much he was lacking in technique, strategy and planning ability.

There was no way to tell what would happen to the village while he was away. It could get destroyed or worse, while he was wasting time to learn to fight better.

And, of course, it would not be as fun.

“Current mission.”

>Confirmed.

>Mission is respawn type. Complete objective to unlock new area.

Process complete. You were terrible out there, do better. Namaste, and good luck!

Bodgan looked at the battlefield from the top of the wall. The new guy was very confident about his capabilities, grinning all the time and looking like some of the other heroes who were only heroes in order to satisfy their sadistic tendencies.

Despite how the man acted, Bodgan was not very sure about the fate of this battle. The monster was only a troll, a simple 4E monster, but it seemed like an insurmountable threat. A few months ago, it would have been child’s play to dispatch it. Now? It was a disaster, and with the White Knuckles out of commission for at least a few hours, this Hunter was all that there was between the village and the monster.

The last of the last. A rank E, and the lowest among them. It was too late now, however, to try and change things. And it was not like there were any things to be changed, because there were no other heroes in town at all. The reinforcements the master talked about? They were not actually coming; everybody knew that. Hope was the last thing to die, but it had died in the end nonetheless.

The only reason there were still people here, clawing and kicking in order to buy themselves another day, was because there was no other choice. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.

The Hunter stepped onto the battlefield and studied the troll, looking at it from afar without moving or doing anything. It was a wise tactic, to study one’s opponent, especially in cases like this one. Maybe he knew what he was doing, despite his apparent unpreparedness. He was one with a thirst for battle, and he was still alive, so that had to mean something.

The moment stretched out forever, with the two eyeing one another without acting. Bodgan’s heart was thumping in his chest, as he looked at the proud figure of the Hunter standing in the middle of the grassy field.

He was wearing his battle armor, as the young man had no doubt that the strange looking dark grey cloth was enchanted with all manner of defensive formations. The Hunter was coming from the lands of the rich after all, and he was here just to have some fun. There was no way he’d die, right?

The Hunter brushed some dust off his armor, and for a moment almost looked annoyed when he realized that he had dirtied it. Embarrassed, maybe. It was hard to tell from this far, but he didn’t seem happy at all with his clothing.

Then it appeared. A large ball of fire, so hot and big that even Bodgan could feel it from this far back, appeared on top of the man’s head. Bodgan had never seen such a magic before. He knew that there were people capable of doing great feats with the energies of the world, capable of bending them to their will without the need for intermediaries, tools or long chants.

But this, this was completely out there. It was mind blowing, something that had never been seen before in a village such as this. Perhaps Willam, of the White Knuckles, could have performed such a magic once before collapsing. But the Hunter was not collapsing right now, which meant that he was as strong if not stronger than Willam.

Maybe he had what it took to kill the monster, and save the village. Otherwise the Knuckles would have to act, but the wall would take quite some damage before they could be woken up from their rest, geared up and could come here. The guild master had taken quite some risk, allowing the Hunter to act without any backup.

But seeing this magic gave Bodgan hope.

The ball of fire, after some words of power were said, took off like an arrow from a crossbow. It slammed into the troll’s chest, flinging it back several meters and into the round. A wonderful move, because even if trolls were generally resistant to fire, the monster was now stunned.

Then the Hunter charged at the beast, and jumped in the air. This was odd. Did he not know that the beast would be able to regenerate a blast from a fireball? The master had asked him to give that Hunter a full course about the monster, but he didn’t feel that there was the need to even say such obvious things. Maybe he was wrong, because the man looked like he really believed the monster was ready to be executed.

“What are you doing! Stop!” He yelled, but the man was too far to hear him, and was already mid-jump.

Bodgan closed his eyes long enough, that when he opened them again, he saw the two halves of a body roll on the ground. The yell, the guttural screech of pain only registered quite a few moments later, when his brain processed the even that just happened.

His eyes widened.

The Hunter was dead.

He had to go and warn the guild master!

He was about to run back, when another loud scream of pain made him look at the battlefield again. There was a dark silhouette, next to the cleaved body. It was yelling and screaming in pain, but also laughing maniacally. Its laugh sent a shiver up Bodgan’s spine, because for a moment he knew that whoever it was that was laughing like that, it could not have been a human. No, it was a monster. Something much more sinister and demonic than a troll. He could hear the wild roars of laugher, the screams of pain and the mingling of the two as they came from the dark figure of a man.

A half man half demon, he was sure. Laughing and screaming, screaming and laughing. Sadism and masochism, and the shadow of a man laughing over the two halves of a dead hero.

The troll saw it and tried to attack it, but was repelled by an invisible force field that surrounded the man like a small dome. The man kept laughing and screaming for several seconds, then the shadows enveloping him dispersed and revealed the figure of the Hunter still alive. The dome blinked out of existence around him. He looked at the mangled corpse, his own corpse, and chuckled.

“Alright, fucker. You did it, you killed me. Are you happy?” The man said loudly, and then lunged for the troll again.