Asher could once again feel sunlight cracking through his eyelids, this time though it was barely enough to make him stir, he knew that it was probably only five or six am and decided to roll over and enjoy a few more hours of sleep, that is until a screeching sound erupted from outside, it sounded like the sound came from above Asher. In a panic he rolled off the bed landing on the ground, his bed sheet wrapped all around him. It took Asher a few seconds to finally get into a fighting stance, but once he heard an annoyed sound coming from the rooms next to him, he finally figured out what was going on.
The beast that made that sound must be what this world used as an early morning alarm clock, similar to how earth used chickens, after this realization hit Asher he just blushed and let down his fighting stance, he felt quite stupid, and if it wasn’t for the large amount of adrenaline pumping through his system he would want to get back under the covers and never wake up again. But with a sigh he began getting dressed and slowly got ready for the quest in front of him, he knew that if things like this continued then it was going to be a long day.
It took Asher about fifteen minutes to finish getting ready, during his shopping the day before he had picked up something called “Potion of The Wash”, Asher had assumed that it was similar to shampoo back when he bought it but while he was getting ready he quickly discovered that it was more like an instant wash, anything he used it on instantly became clean. As if the potion itself knew what was clean or unclean. It only took Asher a little bit of the potion to clean everything in just a few seconds, the rest of his time was spent cleaning his clothes.
As soon as Asher was ready, he opened his door ready to face the world, the thing that faced him though was the face of an old lady with droopy skin and a few spots on her face that were either moles or skin cancer, Asher wasn’t sure which. Asher looked down on her with a blank face but inside he was screaming, every part of him wanted to close the door and go back to bed. The woman didn’t let that happen though, before Asher could do anything she quickly stuck her hand out to him.
“If you plan on staying another night then I am going to need payment, or you need to get out,” the old woman said with her outstretched hand. It took Asher a second to comprehend what the old lady was saying and before he could say anything the old lady began waving her fingers back and forth, clearly indicating that she expected him to pay her, her eyes shone with greed and she had a small smile that formed from the corner of her mouth.
“Umm actually I am heading out for a quest in a few minutes, so I won’t be needing the room,” Asher said, hoping the old lady would leave him in peace, letting him finish checking out and or preparing for his quest. He didn’t have much left to prepare but he hadn’t had coffee or anything that would help his mood improve and this woman was pushing all the wrong buttons. But the old woman quickly frowned and pulled her hand back, placing it on her hip with way more sass than Asher was ready to deal with.
“Well then you need to get out of here so I can get the room rented,” the old woman said while grabbing Asher’s hand and pulling him away from the room. Asher was suddenly very glad that he had gotten ready so early or else the old woman may have forced him to pay for another night or for him to leave behind his items. Either way it seemed like this was the old woman's plans for whoever stayed in her inn, whatever the case he would remember this incase he decided to stay here again.
It only took a few minutes for the old woman to lead Asher to the front of the inn and had him return the room key, with little effort and time he had signed out of the inn and had proceeded to walk out the front door. He wasn’t surprised when he heard people shouting and arguing with the lady as he exited, Asher could hear bits and pieces and it sounded like they should be allowed to pack their things before being forced out, the old lady didn’t seem to be having any of that though.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Once Asher was outside, he was assaulted from the same screech that had woken him up in the first palace, his eyes quickly darted to the top of a nearby shingled roof, on top of side roof was what looked like a chicken but had the head that kind of looked like a bull, horns included. The beast creeped Asher out but he figured that if no one was actively trying to kill the ugly thing then it was probably harmless. Asher just sighed and continued on his way, not wanting to get in any trouble before his first quest had begun.
Asher spent the rest of his early morning finding a local Naket stand, which was considerably cheaper than the caffe in the adventurer's guild. After he had finished his Naket and returned the mug, because these people had somehow not figured out what a to-go cup was, Asher began going on his way, pulling out the map he had been given and hoped that the little experience he had with reading a map would serve him now. Asher quickly reached the main gate where the same guard from the first day was sitting along with a new guard that he didn’t recognize, Greg’s replacement he assumed.
The road that Asher was traveling was considerably smoother than he had expected, the road wasn’t paved nor was it made of gravel, instead it was a red dirt road that looked like something out of a western movie. But as Asher walked along it he noticed that nothing was getting kicked up, no dust or particles, why this was Asher had no idea but it wasn’t worth the time or effort to question it. He assumed that the guild used magic or something along the lines to keep the road maintained. It wasn’t until about half an hour into his journey that he heard a faint hissing enter his ears, immediately fear shot through his heart, his mind screaming of danger.
Asher dropped down, lowering his body close to the ground, just in time as well Asher could feel an object whizzing past his head, the air distorting as it went over. Asher quickly doubled over flipping on his right side, turning around to see what looked like a giant snake monster with tiny red dragon wings, the wings, while tiny, seemed to be enough to let the snake fly at unbelievable speed. Asher stared at the beast as it crashed into the road in front of it, causing a tiny crater to form. The beast took little time to fix itself and had quickly turned around to face Asher reading itself for battle.
Asher knew that this thing was faster and probably smarter than the bear and wolf that he fought while in what he was calling the tutorial. The snake began to hiss at him and reared itself back, coiling up and prepared to rocket forward once again. This time Asher was ready, quickly he pulled his dagger from his belt and held it firm waiting for the monster to rocket towards him. With one more hiss the beast disappeared, Asher’s danger sense rang out, he jumped off to the side, but this time moved his dagger to the same location that his body had been.
A yelp could be heard from the beast, Asher couldn’t see anything as his head was with the rest of him as he jumped out of the way, but as he turned to see the beast, he could see that his dagger had managed to cut slightly into the body of the beast causing green blood to pour from its wound. The beast flew back instantly, the wound too shallow to do any fatal damage. The beast once again coiled up, watching Asher’s every move. Asher knew that the beast wanted to finish this battle and he knew that he had just the move.
Since Asher had absorbed the sword core, he could feel something he hadn’t before, like a part of him that wasn’t reachable before was now on the tip of his fingers. Asher knew what this was, the beast coiled itself back once again preparing for a final strike. Asher reached out towards that feeling, the moment that the beast coiled back Asher grabbed that feeling and instantly ghostly daggers appeared at his sides. Asher knew that his control over them wasn’t something that could be considered good, but it should be enough to achieve his next goal.
The snake monster launched itself forward once again, its mouth open and fangs ready to bite anything that got within its reach. Asher knew that he wouldn’t be able to track the beast but that didn’t matter when he knew exactly where the beast was going to be. Asher hastily moved his ghostly daggers into place, most of them not floating at an angle that would cut anything. Then with the little time he had left he raised his real dagger and waited for the end. Before Asher could tell what happened he felt a sharp pain as his body smashed into the ground behind him, a large weight pressing down on top of him. But before he could try to move, to see if the snake monster was dead or alive the system ding echoed through his mind, the blue system box appearing in front of him.
[Killed: Lindworm]
[Reward: +1 Level]
[Ability Proficiency: Bladed Affinity: + 1 Level]
Asher stared at the system box in disbelief, not because the beast was dead but because apparently his ability had levels, he figured that he was going to have to slowly gain insight into the skill. But if the system was going to help him with that then there was no reason for him to say no, not that he was sure that he could. Asher still wondered why the system was helping him and who or what had given it to him, but for now those answers would have to wait; he had a giant snake monster on top of him.