Jave was a decent adventurer. Others might have seen him as great, or even mediocre, but to himself, he was decent. He would call himself great the day he slays a dragon. Why? because of a small dream. Also because no great adventurer would be starving and struggling with a sprite.

"Stupid sprite." He muttered.

The temperature rised by a few degrees, making Jave even more miserable. The only reason the sprite was still alive was because he was using it to cook the meat. It had been raining cats and dogs for the last few hours, so he had to go and find a sprite to cook his dinner. Also to warm himself, but the sprite went out of it's way to do just that.

The smell of cooked meat was beginning to rise. Jave's stomach rumbled. He took the tiny sprite delicately and placed it in a pouch he had made for it with the pelt of the bear he had killed and was currently cooking. He then took the cooked meat and began chowing it down.

An hour later, Jave was full, and had no status effects barring [Exhausted] and [Sleepy]. Both of those could easily be solved by sleeping, but he knew better than to sleep in a forest without scouting the area and setting up a few wards first.

So he did just that. He found two [lvl 5 panthers] and a [lvl 7 Fireweave spider]. The other monsters were of no importance. There were more stronger monsters in the forest, but none of them were in the vicinity, so he had nothing to worry about.

The wards were simple, something every adventurer with mana learnt early on. The reason Jave had not used them in Laurenhall was because they would be of no use there. The wards he put were [Repel monster] and [Alarm].

Then he took a [Bone knife] he had made from the bear, and used it to cut down some stalks. He then used some vine to tie the stalks together into a makeshift tent frame. He then collected some broad leaves and used it as a replacement for the canvas. Then he used the same leaves to make a bed. After he was done, he just collapsed.

However, he did not go to sleep just yet. His mind was still too active for that. He contemplated how everyone would react to the blue screens. And whether to reveal himself as the one to unlock it. But... he thought not. It would probably be better to mask his escape from laurenhall with the help of the blue screens. That way, it would make his story more believable.

And so, he began weaving a fake adventure, of how the decent adventurer Jave Snowborn, found himself in the land of madness, how he struggled against insanity and illusions, of all the monsters he had supposedly faced, and how he finally destroyed the artifact at the center of it all, not wanting it after all that happened. And how the blue screens gave him clues to figure out what was real and what was not.

He chuckled realising the effect it would have on Drygg when he got back. His chuckle slowly faded away though, replaced by anger. He had not forgotten who had gotten into the land of madness in the first place. He knew there was a very real chance of him dying in there. The fact he had been able to make it out was a miracle. There was no other way to describe it.

Slowly though, he started drifting away, the exhaustion finally catching up with him and lulling him into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When he woke up, he felt fully refreshed. He got up and yawned. The mist of the morning had yet to clear. He would not head out until it did, for that would be suicide.

He stretched, his joints popping, and his muscles coming awake. He then dug a hole and did his morning buisness, cleaning up with a leaf.

He took a few strips of meat and began to eat them, when suddenly, he froze.

Right ahead of him was an owl, half his size, with dirtied and ruffled brown and white feathers, and pearl white eyes. Those eyes were staring at him hungrily. Slowly, he tore a piece of meat, and threw it as far as he could. The owl flew after it.

He sighed, relieved. He had no intentions of fighting right now. The fight with the bear was more than enough for him. The ugly gash across his chest proved that.

An hour later, the mist had cleared, and the sun had lit up the forest enough for hm to set out. But before he could, the owl flew back, sitting on a branch a few feet away, and was again staring at him.

Jave frowned. He didn't want to give away the meat that had taken him a lot of effort and a large wound on his chest to get so easily. But on the other hand, he didn't want to fight. So the question was, which did he want more, the food, or to avoid a fight?

He decided it was the latter, as he was in no shape to fight, and he could always find another source of food. Besides, he should be able to reach the city in two day's worth of travelling, one if he used the spell he had learnt in laurenhall. The one that lats him be unaffected by gravity, as he had learnt, not the one that can fry ants. The latter, for some reason, didn't qualify as a spell by the [System]. Why, he had no idea.

He took a piece of jerky, leaned back, and threw it. The owl once again flew after it.

He took this as his chance to leave. He rolled his shoulders, and sprinted forwards, and activated his spell. He deactivated it after a minute to avoid collison with a tree. The he use the same tree as spring board to go further and faster.

He continued doing this for six hours straight, stopping only when he started to feel hungry. He laned on a tree, and took a small break to let his legs rest, and to eat the remaining jerky he had. After around forty five minutes, he was completely refreshed, and so he set out once again.

After another six hours, he had finally caught sight of his destination. He landed on a tree, and walked the rest of the distance. The two guards standing by the portculis tensed when they saw him, their grips on their weapons tightening, no doubt because of how he looked.

"Halt! State your name and your buiness here!" One of the guards yelled.

Jave smiled, a rare sight in the past few days.

"I'm Jave Snowborn, and I'm an adventurer who's come back home."

The guards' eyes widened, their weapons lowered, if only by an inch or so.

"Handover your status plate." the guard to the right said.

He nodded, and slowly took off the chain necklace around his neck, and handed the small metal disk on it to them.

The same guard took the status plate, his eyes widening slightly as he checked it for any sign of forgery and finding none. The guard nodded to him, and gave him his status plate, stepping aside. As Jave entered the city, he could hear the guards whisper;

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"Is it really him?"

A pause, most likely the other guard nodding.

"Damn, I thought he was dead."

"So did I, and the rest of the city, jackass."

"Hey! I swear..."

Jave too far waya by that point to hear the rest of that sentence. Still, that earlier statment left him with a bitter feeling. He had no doubt as to who to blame for him being viewed as dead.

As people saw him, they stopped to stare and whisper.

"Wait a second... I swear I've seen that man before..."

"Yeah... me too.."

"Huh? What are you two- oh my god, it's Jave Snowborn!"

"What? I thought he was dead!"

"It seems not."

And more repititions of the same thing in diffrent voices he had heard as walked to the Adventurers guild. He was happily ignoring the whispers when a boy ran up to him.

"Are you really Jave Snowborn, sir?" The boy asked, dying with curiosity.

Jave nodded, not really wanting to talk.

And after that more questions came, from all directions, until he heard a single voice cut through the crowd, silencing them.

"What is all this ruckus? CLear the way or else I shall have your heads on a pike mounted on the city walls."

The crowd quickly dispersed, leaving Jave a good view of- Damen's mother?

Just as his eyes were widening, so were hers.

"Jave? Oh my, dear, I thought you were dead, so did my son, and it looks like there was a very good chance of that happening."

Jave looked down, at his ruined armor and his exposed chest, and scratched his head, giving her an awkward smile.

"You have no idea, mam."

"Oh please, call me aunt, none of that mam nonsense, you're close enough to Damen for that."

"Yes Aunt."

"Good. Now let's get you cleaned up, and sent to a healer. God only knows you need one."

"Yes Aunt."

"Alright, then follow me."

She turned around, and briskly walked away, not giving a chance for him to reply. Shrugging, he followed her. They arrived at a mansion, that was a lot more bigger than it was the last time he had seen it.

"You obviously have questions, and I'll answer them. But after we get you fixed up."

"If I may ask, where is Damen and Norbert, Aunt?"

"Oh, they're at Salt harbor, looking for some fish, that they needed for some... thing. I don't remember what it was for."

***

(Meanwhile, In Salt harbor)

"Okay, Athena, we've got the fish, now can you make the potion?" Damen asked.

Athena nodded.

"After this, we should be able to find him."

She took the green fish, and began butchering it. She cut off pieces of it, and put them into a cauldron, adding other bits of monster and herbs and monster pieces to it. She took a ladle, and stirred the liquid. It changed colours from blue to purple, then to green, and finally to yellow.

She gestured to Norbert. He gave her a yellow eyeball twice the normal size. She put it in the cauldron. It dissolved in seconds.

Everyone tensed, knowing that this was the moment, the moment where they finally figure out whether Jave was still alive, and if he was, a glimpse into his location.

Athena got a notification.

Level up!

Alchemy has levelled! You are now able to easily make basic potions, have a reduced need for an advanced apparatus for any potion, and have a 10% bonus on all potion's effects.

Alchemy is now level 9!

Then, the air above it shimmered green, getting the trio to release a sigh of relief.

Then air shimmered, slowly morphing to show the image of.... Jave sitting in a bath tub, getting pampered by various maids, with a serene expression on his face.

"Damen... isn't that your bath house?"

Damen, who was wearing a stupified expression, just as the rest of them, blinked, and then squinted his eyes at the image.

"JAAAAAAVE!!!"

***

Jave suddenly jumped, not knowing why, then he blinked and sank back into the tub, closing his eyes and just enjoying the bath. He hadn't had a bath in god knows how long, so it felt like pure bliss. He was also feeling very envious of Damen, who got to enjoy this every day.

An hour later, he was fully dressed, and on his way to the healer. There was a long queue of people, butt Jave skipped the line with the help of Damen's mother leading the way. He ignored all the glares he was getting from the people in queue.

There was a large variety of herbs placed all around, some even glowing. When they reached the healer, she was fixing the broken arm of a child, while reasuring the parents that everthing was going to be fine. Jave watched as the child was led away by the parents, after getting his arm fixed, getting scolded.

The Healer widened her eyes when she saw him.

"My my! I thought you were dead! And to think I almost lost my most regular customer!" The healer said, in mock horror.

Jave chuckled, used to the healer's remarks by now. He had a lot of fights. His Aunt however, wasn't, and was looking at him with a strange expression. The healer noticed her expression, and said;

"This kid right here, used to pay visits to me almost every day, when he got started. The past two years he hasn't been visiting as much though, only about once or twice a week."

Jave groaned. He wasn't a decent adventurer because he was good at it. More because he had made a lot of mistakes and learnt from them.

Damen's mother looked at him in horror.

He shrugged, trying to play it off as nothing to be worried about. Damen's mother wasn't easily deterred though.

'From now on you're going to have an escort with you at all times, it wouldn't do anybody any good if you went and died on me, would it? After all, if it wasn't for you I wouln't have gotten my nobility."

Jave blinked at her once, then twice, and gaped.

"What?" was all he could say.

She chuckled, and dismissed the topic with a wave of her hand.

"First, you have a very large wound on your chest that needs her," She pointed her thumb towards the healer, "attention."

The healer nodded, then pointed to a white bed.

"Lie down, and wait, I'll be back."

He laid down on the bed. It was soft, much better than anything he had been sleepig on for the past few days. So it was lulling to sleep, but he fought against it, struggling to stay consious. He romoved his shirt and touched his wound. The pain jerked him awake. He winced, but did not say anything. Luckily, his aunt was too busy staring at all the diffrent herbs to notice.

The healer came back with a few herbs in a bag, a few bandage rolls, and a bottle of clear distilled alcohol. She winced when she saw his wound.

She examined his wound, staring at it closely, and even sniffing it once, making Jave very uncomfortable. He did his best not to move around, and the effort seemed to pay off, as the healer didn't seem to notice anything. No matter how many times he had been in this very room, he still didn't feel used to her scutiny. It always made him uncomfortable.

She took some leaves, and a flower, put it in a mortar, and grind it into a paste, and gently applied the paste to his wounds. She then, applied the alcohol to the bandages, and wrapped them around his chest. It had taken two hours in total, and Jave was fighting to staw awake.

"You need to rest." The healer said, noticing his sleepy expression.

Jave shook his head. He wanted to sleep in his room, in the adventurers guild. He said the same thing thing to her.

The healer shook her head.

"No. I need to make sure the infection is fully gone, so you need to stay here."

"How long?" Damen's mother asked.

"I'd say... two days, maybe three before it's fully gone. A week to make sure there aren't any parasites or insects in him."

Jave sighed, understanding, but not really happy with the outcome. Still, he should've expecteed it.

He found himself drifting into a deep slumber.

***

End of chapter