“What is your name?”
My name, hmmm... I haven’t really thought about that yet should I go by my name from my first life or should I treat my new life as a new start. Should I go through my second life as Samuel the refinery worker who died holding the family he couldn’t save, or should I leave sadness, self-doubt and regret to focus on the present, I mean my quest here is to save people, so they don’t die like my family. I should mark this change in objective with a change of self. I will leave behind my feeling of powerlessness of changing the past in exchange for the feeling of hope to change the future for the better.
“I don’t have one anymore” I answered confidently and with hope for the future
“How do you lose your name?” asked Eliz with a skeptical look
“Making a mistake so irreversible, that you are forced to leave that part behind you” I said with a more human tone than I normally speak in.
This answer seemed to cause great pain and understanding in all members of the group of challengers, which made me think about what had happened to them to make them feel to sympathetic to this statement.
“What does it mean to be a Challenger?” I asked to break the silence that had fallen due to my last answer.
“It is a title given to those that challenge the many dangers this world contains,” said Eliz with a grim looking face
“The people who engage in this profession have all been convicted to death with as their only way to stay alive fighting monsters that might... no, will kill you eventually” Aldor continued with a disturbingly neutral look on his face
“We are the ones governments send to deal with threats to dangerous for (normal) people,” said vigil
“It is our punishment for the sins from our past, to die in combat against an unstopping horde of Nomeds or to die by the blade of an executioner” finished Grog
If this is true than these people are just criminals that are sentenced to death with nothing but fighting that keeps them alive another day. Maybe I should join them in their fight, I mean it is my goal to kill these Nomeds and keep people save so they share an objective with me, and at least from this small conversation they seem to have regrets like me as well.
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“After careful thought I have decided to join you!” I answered with determination in my voice
“Did you even listen to what new just said?” asked Aldor with an annoyed look
“My current motives line up with yours in the fact that I want to fight the Nomeds with my goal being the protection of all sentient life.” I answered with conviction
“Anyone against this” asked Vigil
“nay” said the other three one after another
“I guess we have a new member.” said Grog while smiling a bit
“I look forward to working with you all” I said as we walked toward the gate of the city where the soldiers and their leader were now standing, and when they tried to stop us all that was said was,
“It has joined the Challengers.”
After which they stepped aside and let us through the gate.
The city was called “Azure tower”, it was a smaller city with a tall bleu tower at its center, this tower was this region’s Challenger center, this is where Challengers go to find the dangerous areas and it's also where they bring proof of their hunt and if they don’t bring anything then this is also where they’re executed. Because this city is a Challenger center it has a large population of Challengers which is why there is a large business around the housing and supplying of these warriors. The large number of Challengers also gives this city a low-rating on-danger levels, there are 12 levels of danger that reflect the frequency and power of the Nomeds in the area, in this system 0.5 is a (save) city and 6 is a place of large Nomeds that come in large numbers.
Currently we’re in a city with a rating of 1, so this is a place of relative peace which is where the richer population lives, and from the stories I've heard from my party members are the level 6 cities like a living hell, where crime and decease run rampant, the stories make it sound a lot like my old world which is not a good sign.
After I was done asking them questions it was already night, so we rented some rooms at an inn where I came across a problem as my weight hadn’t changed just because I shrank to a more normal size, my weight actually stayed the same which caused a lot of problems because all that weight divided over the reduced area of my no shrunken feet was enough to shatter stone which is why I had to use shield everywhere I walked to not destroy roads and collapse bridges and now that I was on the second floor of a building I had to strengthen the entire structure under me as well as the soil underneath the building with *Shield* so it wouldn’t crumble or just sink down into the ground.
But after that I could for the first time in this world comfortably lie down in my bed and....... well crap, I forgot I can’t sleep, and even if I shutdown I won’t feel more refreshed than I do now, I guess I will just think up new weapons I could add to myself and wait for dawn to come.