The girl descended the mountain in the full light of day about halfway down the mountain she detoured to test her new sword and skills against a bear she’d found along the way. She dodged its swipes like a certain old man once dodged her blade and with a joyful smile she realized she didn’t even need her sword to win this fight.

With her bear hands she crushed the bear’s windpipe and ripped off its fur. She set herself a small fire with her new sword and began roasting the bear meat while drying out the bear hide. She’d learned basic survival skills from the man as well.

At first, she thought it a bit redundant with the skills she already had but soon learned that he knew far more than she did and just listened. These memories she recalled fondly as she roasted the horrid smelling bear meat.

At the base of the mountain, she was seen by a hunter who was just about to enter a forest, what he saw terrified him. A lone naked girl paler than death, covered in blood, a bear pelt slung over the oversized backpack she wore, a strange weapon in her hand and a leg of bear meat in the other as her teeth tore through it, as though it were a light snack on her way.

She didn’t notice his gaze and simply continued on in the direction of her home not even stopping at the village near the base of the mountain to resupply. The hunter ran back home and reported what he saw.

The eyes of those he told grew wide and a consensus was sent out among the people of the town. “A new hero has emerged from the mountain.” The merchants began spreading the news the second they heard it.

“Have you heard? A lone girl descended the mountain with a strange weapon eating a bear and heading right towards the front lines.”

“She was just as pale as the legends said. She looked as though the sun hadn’t touched her in years.”

Screamed the hunter who saw her as the rumours spread. On her journey, she met with a group of bandits that looked upon her with a familiar gaze. The eyes of lust-filled men filled her heart with nostalgia as she cut them down like they were vines in her way.

The bandits that escaped spread the story of a lone woman with a loud roaring weapon that annihilated anyone that tried to touch her, with a red trailing line following her blade as she swung it and fire roared from it when it stopped moving to burn away the bodies behind her, like they were no more than trash on the floor. That sneak attacks didn’t work on her and everyone they sent after her, died.

She became curious as to why most of the men she met along the way shared the look of her master but thought nothing of it telling herself, “I’ve been training for years to receive stares such as these.” And continued on.

The trek that took her a few months the first time she embarked on it was over in a week and she smiled at her growth when she arrived back home. She saw many soldiers roaming the streets and surmised that the front lines had already been pushed back this far.

As she was about to be approached by a drunken soldier another with a familiar cylindrical weapon slung over his shoulder stopped him. When he saw her particular mode of dress. He immediately bowed down to the girl in apology for the behavior his drunken friend was about to show her.

The entire town grew dead silent when they saw who was bowing to who. A lone naked pale girl covered in dirt and blood holding a weapon none of them had seen before stood in confusion while a highly decorated military commander bowed low with his head at her feet.

The drunken man seemed to sober at the action and when he looked at her again, he seemed to realize what he was about to do, and he bowed too. Everyone in town took the hint to avert their eyes and either bowed or went back inside.

“It is an honour to greet the second hero of our generation!”

As he spoke, she swung her sword. The action surprised those nearby but to their surprise she deflected an arrow aimed at the bowing man’s back. In a moment she lightly tossed her sword up in the air grabbed a stone and threw it into the horizon shortly thereafter catching her sword and charging out to the roar of her blade.

About a minute after she returned with the head of a sniper and a bound and gagged enemy scout. As she dropped them both at the feet of the bowing military commander she began speaking.

“So, what do I need to do to get these filthy creatures off my lawn.”

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As she spoke, she drove her bare heel into the abdomen of the bound-up scout. Its knife eared face staring back at her dyed red with fury.

“Mia?”

An elderly man emerged from his home and asked the girl.

“Father I’ve returned.”

She simply smiled and looked back at him. She stepped on the angry elf as she walked over to him, and he led her into their old home. She set down her things and her mother helped her clean herself off.

She emerged from the humble bathroom in her towel and relaxed for a moment before her parents noticed she still wasn’t wearing clothes.

“Now Mia, we don’t know what happened up on that mountain but even the heroes of old started wearing clothes while back in human society.”

“T-that’s right. Please get dressed before you go out again.”

Her mother added. The girl in question took a look at herself for the first time in days and her face was tinged red for a second.

“Oh… I forgot.”

She quickly rushed back into her room and got dressed in some of her old clothes and emerged back into the open street with nothing but the clothes on her back and the sword in her hand.

Her old clothes were hanging loosely over her toned trained body, but she didn’t seem to care at the moment. Her hair still wet glistened in the light of the day as she strode out to meet the man who greeted her when she arrived. His eyes were captivated by the beauty of the girl that wasn’t readily apparent with her hair and body covered in dirt and blood. Seeing the direction of his eyes she began staring at him appraisingly before her eyes settled on the familiar weapon.

“Do you even know how to use that thing, old man?”

“W-wha- Oh this?”

He held out the gun he had.

“N-no I’m sad to say the previous hero never told anyone how to use this artefact. I was hoping you might know.”

He held it out to her, and she took it in one hand inspecting it all over, curiously looking at all the moving parts, the design of the gun and the movement of the trigger setting off the hammer into the empty chamber.

“I don’t know.”

She shrugged indifferently. He looked at her in astonishment.

“Perhaps I would have known had I chosen a similar artefact, but I chose something I felt I could master quickly because I didn’t want to emerge from the mountain to see my home in ruins.”

Her explanation upset him but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he just stifled his disappointment and asked her if she’d like to join their fight. She nodded; her five years of uncut hair hung low almost down to her ankles.

Since she was going to be known as the new hero after the last one died so suddenly she was going to have her measurements taken to get some armour commissioned for her from the capital and she would be able to modify it as she saw fit. The man decided to open up a dialogue as they walked.

“So… you trained with the old hermit who lives at the top of the mountain? What was it like?”

“It was a constant mental and physical struggle to overcome myself.”

“Did he tell you to descend the mountain naked like all the heroes who’d come before you?”

“No, I honestly was just so happy to have gotten his approval that I forgot to put my clothes on when I left.”

“W-were you training naked?”

“It would take too long to explain. Suffice it to say he has much knowledge we don’t, and many magics we’ve long forgotten.”

“But why do heroes always descend the mountain naked?”

“I once wanted to ask the same question, but I came to the answer on my own.”

“So… what is it?”

“Of all the offerings the nations offer to him for training up heroes every century not a single person thought to give him clothes.”

Her reply shocked and confused him but then he came to a misguided conclusion that she refused to correct because the truth wasn’t something she completely understood.

“So, your clothes got torn up during training and you had to come down the mountain naked?”

She didn’t answer but he nodded to himself finding it a satisfactory explanation. After introducing herself officially as the new hero to the rest of the military she headed to the nearest tailor to have herself some under-armour made on the military’s dime.

She specified the exact dimensions of the clothes she wanted and how she wanted them as the tailor’s wife measured her. He took notes as to her specifications and wrote down the numbers as his wife called them out, the two worked quickly to sketch out a rough design of what she described. When she saw it, she changed a couple of details in the drawing and handed it back.

The more rugged design the Tailor had drawn up was changed to a frillier cuter design with the same base design. She smiled gently at the couple, and they nodded in approval. Once the measuring and designing were done the military officer had a pigeon carry the information to the capital along with a brief report on what to do with it.