“Where might you be goin’ in such a rush?” Acheron’s dad said, popping up seemingly out of nowhere and causing Acheron to jump. His dad, Henry Cadell was a sturdy looking man with a strong upper body and tanned skin from years spent out in the sun on their farm.

“You can’t do that to a person”, Acheron complained to Henry “You nearly scared me half to death.”

Acheron had been getting dressed inside of the barn next to their small hovel so as to avoid waking his mother and father, but his efforts had proved futile. Acheron had even gotten up an hour earlier than usual so as not to wake them up, which could be seen by his breath steaming in the chilly morning air.

“Sometimes, I swear you must have the [Enhanced Senses] skill”, Acheron muttered to himself.

“I’m going to head out to the Patterson’s today”, Acheron said to his father as he put on his tunic, “I know they’re struggling, what with old Herbert having hurt his leg.”

Henry snorted, “He’s not that old, he’s younger than me, besides they’ve got plenty of help, they don’t need you, why don’t you help me out with moving some of last year’s hay out for the sheep to eat?”

“I’m gonna’ offer them help anyway, I’m sure they won’t turn an extra hand down, especially not one as capable as me.”

His dad scoffed at Acheron’s boast, although it wasn’t untrue, the number of skills he had that improved his ability to work on a farm was higher than that of the average person’s number of skills.

“That’s real generous of you, I’m sure that the fact Maia will be over there didn’t even pass your mind, with you being so kind. You just make sure you don’t stay out there too late; you know how your mother gets when you come in late”.

Acheron nodded, “I won’t stay too late, don’t you worry.”

“And none of this business about trying to get fighting skills either”, His dad added after a second, “you’re a farmer not a soldier, boy. If I get the slightest idea you might be doin’ it, I’ll tell your mother.”

Acheron nodded, knowing full well that if his father ever found out how much effort he had truly put into that endeavour he would be in serious trouble.

Waving goodbye to his father, Acheron started down the dirt track that would eventually lead to the village at a jog. This was part of his morning routine running to the village to purchase anything for his mother, although he was doing it much earlier than usual. Acheron’s hope was that he might be able to get the [Sprinting] skill if he kept at it long enough.

The track was roughly eight kilometres, with the track winding around hills and particularly dense patches of forest or brush. He didn’t mind the walk as it provided a quiet time in his otherwise non-stop day of manual labour.

Lush crops and thick forest passed by Acheron as he walked, the sheer number of evergreen trees making it difficult to tell that winter had already arrived.

Acheron took the time to appreciate their little stretch of land. It was on quite fertile ground in an area that had a high average rainfall, while farmers were never rich, those around where Acheron lived were certainly the closest. The water of the sea was only a kilometre to the east, with the rising sun causing it to sparkle as the water was tossed about by the slight breeze.

Many years ago, when there had been a surplus of grain, Acheron’s grandad had bought a small patch of land in the Arcon district close to Oldara, which was the village he was now walking to.

Having a knack to predict the markets that few could match, Acheron’s grandad had quickly increased his fortune and acquired more land along the coast, adjacent to what he had already bought. This meant that the property his father worked, and that Acheron would one day work, was the fourth largest owned by a single person in the whole Orcon district.

As Acheron got closer to the village he began to see more and more friendly faces, all of whom stopped to talk to Acheron. There was Richard Langley the mill owner who Acheron’s father regularly drank at the tavern with, Crispin the town’s blacksmith, Mother Agatha the headmistress of their school and Adam sawyer one of the carpenters whose shop was in the main markets.

In a village as large as theirs, few people knew everybody with Acheron hardly knowing most of the people that greeted him each day, however they all knew his father.

Henry Cadell was well-known throughout the village for his honesty and generosity, one couldn’t find a more upstanding man nor one that was happier to help others. He had a gruff outward appearance, with a thick chest and arms and a permanent scowl caused by squinting too much but was in reality even kinder than a knight in one of the stories that Mother Agatha would tell.

Acheron finally reached the wall of the village after about half an hour of jogging. The walls were made of tree logs bound together by rope stood up in a vertical position, they were a reminder of the price of having such fertile land. Occasionally bearkin raiders would cross the sea and arrive on their coast.

The bearkin were a powerful species that were usually 7 feet tall and were a mixture of human and bear, making them both fearsome sights and even more fearsome foes. They weren’t peaceful and would often attack any people on sight, pillaging food from buildings before burning them down.

Fortunately, they rarely attacked fortified places such as a village with a wall which was why there was a constant lookout for any boats. Should a boat be seen all the villagers were called back into the village, with people being dispatched to warn the people further away. It meant allowing the bearkin to burn down their houses and steal their food, but it was better than being killed by them. Many times, the duke who governed the Orcon district had appealed to the king to set up garrisons along the coast but each time he had been denied.

Their attacks had gotten sparser recently going from one every few months to only a couple a year, and with one having happened only a couple moths ago, it was unlikely they would attack again for a while.

After passing through the gate Acheron was finally into the village proper. The streets were already alive with the hubbub of people going about their business, few people having the luxury to sleep in when there was work to be done. Acheron was no different and immediately set out to collect the items he knew his mother would want.

First Acheron headed to the bakers shop and picked up a loaf of fresh bread for only 2 iron talents after a bit of haggling. After that Acheron made his way to Wendy Gresham’s stall at the market, she was the wife of a local fruit grower and could often be found selling their produce at the markets.

“How’s young Matilda doing?” Wendy asked, when Acheron approached her stall.

“Mum was fine last I checked, although I think she still might be a bit mad at me for eating her blackberry jam.” Acheron said, rubbing the sore point on his head where his mother’s wooden spoon had hit him the previous night.

“So, she should be! You mister Acheron Cadell are as bad as a child, you really need to marry a good woman who will knock some sense into you. Y’know, I know someone who might just be perfect for you.”

Acheron rolled his eyes at Mrs. Gresham’s 1000th attempt to pair him with her daughter, “She’s too young for me, I’ve told you that hundreds of times, now may I please get the usual order?”

Wendy tsked at Acheron’s refusal but began filling the basket he had with apples and a couple eggs.

After finishing at the market, Acheron made a couple more stops for flour, milk, butter, and meat before he started heading home once again, this time at a slower pace so as to not damage the goods he was carrying. Acheron had once tried to run home carrying a basket of food, when he had gotten home, and his mum had discovered the state of the food he had been made to regret his actions for the next week.

Arriving home, Acheron began unloading the food into their pantry, as he was finishing his dad came over to hear about the price.

“How much did you get this week’s ingredients for?”

“The total was 2 bronze and four iron talents”, Acheron told his dad.

“Isn’t that 2 iron more than last week?”

“Yeah, Richard had a fire burn a large portion of his reserves, so he’s been forced to increase the price of flour.”

Henry nodded at what Acheron had said and slapped him on the back, “Thanks for doing that, you know how much your mother and I appreciate it. Now you go head out to the Patterson’s and maybe pick some flowers for Maia, yeah?”

Acheron shrugged, feeling his face heat up, making his way out of their house, he set out at a run towards where the Patterson’s house was. It was almost on the complete other side of the town, although not as far as theirs was, meaning that it was a fair distance.

…………

After 25 minutes, Acheron arrived puffing and sweating at the front door of the Patterson’s house, trying to tidy himself up a bit, he waited before knocking.

It didn’t take long for someone to answer the door, it was Herbert whose right leg was currently tied to a long and straight piece of wood making it difficult for him to move around and work his fields.

When he saw Acheron, he gave a toothy grin that revealed his three missing teeth, “Ah, good morning mister Cadell, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Good morning, sir, I heard about your injury and thought I would offer my help while your leg is healing, I’d also like to talk to Maia if that’s alright.” Acheron said, losing much of his bluster and bravado that he usually had.

“I would really appreciate your help, thank you”, Herbert said in a tone that made it seem like he had said this more than once, “unfortunately Maia isn’t available right now, but maybe if you come back at the end of the day, she’ll be here to talk to you.”

Acheron ground his teeth at the man’s discrete method of telling Acheron that he would have to work a day before he could talk to Maia. Taking deep breathes Acheron shrugged before nodding, “How can I help then?”

Herbert’s toothy grin grew even wider, “If you could start weeding this paddock here where I’ve planted barley, I would be very grateful.” He said too politely.

Acheron turned and stomped off towards the paddock in an attempt to stop himself from throwing a fist at the man. He was doubtlessly using the desire to talk to his daughter to get free labour from most of the young men in the village. Knowing him, Acheron wouldn’t even be surprised if the old man reneged on his promise, likely claiming that he hadn’t specifically promised anything.

Inwardly seething, Acheron began walking between the rows of developing barley plants. Whenever he found a weed, he would grab it near the base and give it a wiggle to make sure that it would come up before he would yank it out with his powerful arms.

Again, and again Acheron pulled out weeds, the clouds that had covered the sky in the morning slowly dispersed as the sun rose higher into the sky, meanwhile Acheron continued weeding.

Acheron worked methodically and efficiently, weeding two rows at a time, constantly on the lookout for any plants that didn’t belong in the crop.

Acheron was sweating heavily, it wasn’t a hot day, but the constant physical effort combined with a clear sky meant that he quickly found his body getting hot. He had been helping his father on their farm ever since he was strong enough to pull weeds from the ground but that didn’t mean he didn’t tire or sweat.

Finally, midday came, providing Acheron with a chance to cooldown and stretch his stiff muscles. Finding the shade of a tree at the edge of the paddock, he sat down with his back to the trunk and took out a sandwich wrapped in a paper covering. Inside were two pieces of fresh and buttered bread with dried meat in the middle, it wasn’t much but after hours of hard work it was like heaven.

“Do you mind if I join you?” came a voice to Acheron’s right, he looked up to see another young man about his own age, standing there. By the dirt and sweat covering him, Acheron guessed that he had also been asked to do some weeding for old man Herbert.

“Sure” he said, not really minding if he had company, the man sat down next to him leaning his back against the trunk of the tree like Acheron.

“My name’s John, you’re Henry Cadell’s son, right?” John said.

Acheron, having a mouth full of food just nodded his head.

“Did you come out here to see Maia too?” John asked, with Acheron nodding his assent, “I did, but that bloody crook is trying to wring everything out of me beforehand, do you think he’ll even let us talk to her at the end of the day?”

Having finished his mouthful Acheron replied, “Hard to say, he’s not exactly known for keeping his word, but angering most young men in the village just for a bit of free labour probably isn’t worth it. He’ll probably do something to at least partially satisfy everyone.”

The pair sat in silence, before John turned to Acheron again, “How many of the basic farming skills do you have? I’ve only got planting and weeding, and that took me forever. Most of the others our age are the same as me, though I’ve heard that Robert has three.”

A smile stretched across Acheron’s face, “I’ve got all four, I’ve had ‘em all since last winter when I got nurturing.” This was a point of pride for Acheron, normally it would take people a fair few years to get all four of the basic farming skills but he had done it in less than half the time most people took.

“You’re lying!” John said, laughing at what he thought to be Acheron making a joke.

“No, I’m dead serious.” Acheron said, not smiling.

“Wait really? How did you do it?”

“I dunno, I just kept working at getting the skills and things came pretty easily for me.”

The four basic farming skills were [Basic Nurturing], [Basic Planting], [Basic Harvesting], and [Basic Weeding]. They each provided a passive boost to that area of farming, for example [Basic Weeding] helped Acheron to find weeds and made it slightly easier to pull them out. The skills started at iron rank when someone first got them, this meant they provided a barely noticeable difference. However, it was possible for people to upgrade skills beyond iron, most farmers in their district even had at least one bronze rank farming skill.

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The two men kept chatting until Acheron had rested enough to return to his work pulling up the weeds in the paddock.

Waving goodbye to John, Acheron walked back into the barley crop.

Hours passed as Acheron relentlessly pulled more and more weeds from the ground becoming more and more focussed on his task, all else fading into the background.

“Damn you, you stupid plant!”, Acheron growled as the stem of the weed broke, leaving the roots still buried in the soil. Not giving up, he continued digging down into the soil, his fingernails were broken from constantly hitting rocks and other hard matter, but he didn’t stop as he finally pried the weed’s roots from the soil.

[Basic Weeding (passive) (Common) – Iron

Has become:

Weeding (passive) (Common) – Bronze]

“Yes!” Acheron yelled into the sky, to improve his [Basic Weeding] skill after such a short time was almost unheard of, his father hadn’t even upgraded all of his basic farming skills to bronze rank.

He had likely just become the most promising bachelor in the whole of their village, possibly even the entire Orcon district. If Acheron could upgrade an iron rank skill to bronze in only a couple of years, then he might even be able to get a silver rank rarity skill. Such a thing would mean that he could possibly move to the capital and work as a farmer for the king where the profit would be much greater.

There was more to skills than just their rank though, there was also rarity and type. Rarity explained how difficult it was to obtain with higher rarity skills typically being more powerful or complex than lower rarity skills. The type explained whether it was always functioning (passive) or required certain input (triggered), with skills that were triggered typically having a higher rarity than passive skills.

Acheron could hardly believe his luck, Herbert would practically beg him to marry Maia. Fantasies swirled through Acheron’s head, but he quickly made himself focus, dreaming of possibilities wasn’t going to help him, he needed to be realistic and keep his feet on the ground.

His achievement was amazing but maybe he should hold off on telling people for now, it would create quite the commotion and might even cause the duke to get involved. At that point Acheron would likely be sent to the capital whether he liked it or not to be trained as a farmer there.

Smiling to himself Acheron opened his status.

[Name: Acheron Cadell

Race: Human

Age: 19

Skills:

Common

Weeding (passive) - Bronze

Basic Planting (passive) - Iron

Basic Nurturing (passive) - Iron

Basic Harvesting (passive) - Iron

Physical Exertion (passive) - Iron

Upper Body Strength (passive) - Iron

Scythe Proficiency (passive) – Iron]

Acheron had worked incredibly hard to get every skill on that list, and he was incredibly proud of it. Most people in their village didn’t even have four or five skills and Acheron had seven.

It was commonly said that it took 10,000 hours of working on something to get a common iron rank skill related to it, but Acheron had never found that to be true for himself. Whether it be because of how hard he worked himself or that he was just special he had always found it easier than that to get skills, especially his farming ones.

To get those skills he had done everything from lifting hundreds of bales of hay for the [Upper Body Strength] skill to watering individual plants for the [Basic Nurturing] skill.

Most of his skills were quite obvious in what they did as they were all passive, but two weren’t as clear. [Physical Exertion] helped him not to grow tired or weary as quickly and the skill Acheron was most proud of, [Scythe Proficiency] made any scythe he wielded sharper and more durable while giving him a slight boost when using one. [Scythe Proficiency] sounded like any tool proficiency skill, but it had one difference to normal tool proficiency skills. You couldn’t actually gain it by just using it as a tool you also had to practice with it as a weapon.

This was what Acheron’s dad had once seen him doing causing him to get angry at Acheron for practicing using the scythe as a weapon. That was one thing about his dad that he didn’t agree with completely, Henry was a pacifist in the full sense of the word, he wouldn’t hurt anything or anyone no matter what. Acheron wasn’t a pacifist but neither did he want to fight, he had actually only wanted scythe proficiency so as to have another skill that would help him on the farm.

As Acheron stared at his status, he heard footsteps running towards him, he looked up to find John running directly for him. Acheron grinned at first, wondering why John had come to find him, until he saw the urgency in his eyes.

“What is it?” Acheron asked worriedly as soon as John was in earshot.

“It’s… huff… the raid horn… huff… someone just blew it!” John said, panic clearly evident on his face.

“What!? Are you sure it wasn’t an accident?” Acheron asked, fear creeping into his own voice.

“I don’t think so, we need to go now!”

Acheron nodded numbly; the raid horn was used to signal when bearkin ships had anchored themselves along the coast close to any villages. It meant that soon bearkin would reach the shore and start pillaging homes, before setting them alight.

Acheron was tempted to just leave but stopped himself, “We need to get Herbert! With his leg he won’t make it otherwise!”

John looked at Acheron sceptically, “You want to risk your life for that old coot? He doesn’t deserve it, let’s just go.”

Acheron shook his head, “You go, I’m gonna go get him.”

John just shook his head, “It’s your grave.”

Like that, Acheron was once again alone, though his thoughts were far drearier. He dearly hoped that someone had gone to warn his parents, because they wouldn’t know the horn had been blow otherwise and he was too far away for him to get them.

Urgently he made his way back to the house and started banging on the door.

“I told you, she ain’t here right now!”, Acheron heard Herbert yell, “get lost!”

“I’m not here to see Maia!” Acheron yelled “The raid horn was blown; you need to go now!”

The door was open the next second and Herbert peered at him suspiciously, “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“You don’t” Acheron replied tersely “You can choose not to believe me, but it’s your funeral when the bearkin pillage your house.”

Herbert grunted, but reluctantly started hobbling his way towards the path that led to the village, “You’re moving way too slow like that”, Acheron said “The gates will close before you get there!”

“You got any better ideas kid?” Herbert snarled, “Because I’m all ears!”

“Great!” Acheron said as he scooped Herbert up like a child, “I’m carrying you.”

Herbert fought the undignified method of travel, but reluctantly allowed Acheron to carry him all the way back to the village. Although he didn’t go quietly, he made a point to constantly complain about how the jarring movement of Acheron running was causing him leg to hurt even worse.

It took him a while, having to carry Herbert, but eventually they arrived at the village wall, fortunately they hadn’t yet closed the gate allowing them to get into the safety of the village wall.

Inside most of the people had already gathered, causing the streets to be quite crowded and there to be a lot of noise.

Putting Herbert down, Acheron waded into the crowd of people, looking for his parents or any familiar faces. There were many people so it would be difficult to find his parents, but he wanted to try because he didn’t want to worry them with the thought that he was trapped outside.

Acheron saw Alaric Payne the physician that travelled between the four towns in the Orcon district and decided to head towards him. It took a lot of gently budging people out of the way and apologies, but he eventually reached the physician.

“Have you seen my parents?”, Acheron yelled over the noise of the crowd of people.

“Ah! Acheron lad, it’s a pleasure to see you! Sorry, but I haven’t seen your parents, are they well?”

With Alaric not knowing where his parents were, Acheron moved on, not even sparing the time to reply to his question. He came across more and more people, asking each and every one if they had seen or knew the whereabouts of his parents, none of them knew. Panic was rose in his chest for every second that he didn’t know whether his parents were safe or not.

Acheron wasn’t religious but at that moment he started praying that any of the six sovereigns would intervene and protect his parents.

Hearing from a shop owner that the person to spot the ship had been Cassian Rolfe, a local fisherman Acheron began searching for him as well. It was much easier to find Cassian and after only 5 minutes he was standing before the man.

Cassian had sandy coloured hair, that was cut short by someone who definitely didn’t have experience cutting hair, he was slightly shorter than Acheron and was worryingly thin.

“Where did you see the bearkin ship anchor?” Acheron asked the fisherman hurriedly.

“Woah now, hold on a second! It’s polite to introduce yourself first when you meet someone for the first time, my name’s Cassian and-”

“There’s no time!” Acheron growled, grabbing the collar of Cassian’s shirt, and pulling him close to look into Acheron’s eyes, “Where did you see that ship anchor?”

Cassian paled slightly but managed to stammer out an answer, ‘w-well. I-I was w-way down s-south, m-maybe f-five kil-kilometres south.’

Acheron released Cassian’s shirt as his world seemed to fall away, Cassian was saying something, but he wasn’t listening.

The ship had anchored five kilometres south of the village, and his house was six kilometres south from the village. By this point Acheron had searched everywhere within the village walls and the chance that he had missed his parents was unlikely, that could only mean that…

“Out of my way!” Acheron yelled as he began shoving his way towards the village gate, people gave him annoyed and angry stares, but he didn’t care. He quickly reached the gate where one of the militia men stopped him.

The man was actually a farmer who had some training in using a sword to help defend the village when there was a raid occurring. He had no armour but wore a scabbard with a sword on his left hip.

“What’s so urgent you need to push through all those people to get here?” the man asked Acheron, in a scolding tone.

“My parents are out there; I need you to open the gate so I can get to them!” Acheron declared.

The militia man took a bit gentler tone after what Acheron said but shook his head sadly, “we aren’t opening this gate until it has been confirmed that the ship has departed, it too much of a risk. You’ll just have to wait like the rest of us, pray to Siyana while you’re waiting, if they are worthy then she will intervene and save them.”

Siyana was the one of the six sovereigns which the humans on Eralia, the continent that Acheron was on, worshipped. Siyana was the sovereign of protection and was known for protecting those who were worthy, in their darkest hour. This was something that had always bothered Acheron about the sovereigns, there seemed to be no clear pattern on whether somebody was worthy or not. The sovereigns claimed to be benevolent, but Acheron hadn’t seen them do anything to help his people ever, even during the five years of drought that occurred when he was a child.

“Siyana isn't worthy of being protected!” Acheron spat back to the militia man. The man stepped back eyes wide, fear was clearly evident in his face for good reason. While the sovereigns only helped those who were worthy, they had no compunction punishing a whole village for the transgressions of one.

“If you won’t let me, go through the gate then I’ll just go over the wall” Acheron muttered as he started heading towards the wall-walk that was at the top of the wall.

He got to the stairs that led to the wall-walk when another militia man stopped him, “I’m sorry but you can’t go up there, you need to stop and just wait for the bearkin to leave.”

“I’m not going to let my parents die”, Acheron growled as he tried to push past the guard, unfortunately the guard also had the iron rank skill [Upper Body Strength] and managed to slow Acheron down until other men rushed over and pinned Acheron down.

“Acheron!” he heard Richard the mill owner yell, “I know your parents are probably out there, but don’t think you’re the only one who wants to go out there to save them. None of us want them to die but you just have to accept that there’s nothing you can do about it. If you go out there, you’ll just get yourself killed lad.”

Acheron wasn’t listening, if these people really cared about saving his parents, they would head out with him to find them and wouldn’t stop until they were back safe. Instead, they were stopping Acheron from getting to his parents before the bearkin did.

Acheron felt hot anger building in his stomach and he strained to free himself from the men pinning him down. It was futile, there were far too many of them with most of them also having the [Upper Body Strength] skill.

Nevertheless, Acheron struggled, his fierce anger bubbling within him, demanding a release. The pile of men shifted slightly as he bucked and squirmed, doing anything he could to get out.

The hot anger that had started in his stomach was spreading to the rest of his body, it seethed within him energising his body and giving him strength he didn’t know he had. Once again, the pile of bodies shifted even more, as his attempts to escape grew even more fierce.

Acheron was frantic to escape, saving his parents was the most important thing, it was more important than spending the rest of his life on the farm, marrying Maia or even just being alive, if he had to die to save his parents then it would be a worthy trade.

Minutes passed as Acheron became even more desperate to escape, yet the pile of bodies on top of him prevented him. He felt like time was passing to quickly, allowing the worst to happen while he was still trapped beneath the guards.

Acheron fought against the restraints that kept him from saving his parents, but he would not let them hold him down, nothing would stop him from saving his parents.

With a final roar, Acheron managed to push himself up, pushing off the people who had been pinning him down.

[New skill acquired

Berserker Rage (triggered) (Uncommon) – Iron]

Acheron paid not attention to the screen that had appeared, instead he began running up the stairs three at a time. A man tried to stop him, but his grapple no longer felt like a weight that would slow him down, he easily pulled the man away as he ran up the stairs.

Upon reaching the wall-walk, Acheron ran to the edge and looked down, the drop was quite large, almost four metres and yet he threw himself over it with no hesitation.

He hit the ground hard, rolling to spread out the impact, his knees hurt badly from the drop, but he ignored them. Standing up he began sprinting at a speed he previously could not have reached, towards where his house was.

Thoughts of the horrible things that could have happened filled his mind, he tried to push them out of his, but they wouldn’t budge, rather they seemed to multiply filling Acheron with hopelessness.

The scenery passed by quickly and yet in Acheron’s mind it seemed to stretch on forever, providing even more time for the bearkin to see their house and pillage it. He could only hope that they saw them coming and managed to hide away from the house.

Acheron’s body felt oddly sore and tired despite his [Physical Exertion] skill and his high stamina. He wondered if it was a side effect of the skill that he had realised he had gotten, regardless it didn’t matter, Acheron wouldn’t let something as small as pain stop him from reaching his parents.

Finally, as Acheron rounded a hill, he saw something that made his heart clench, further down the track out of his sight but also right where his house would be, was a pillar of smoke. He stumbled and almost stopped, not wanting to see what had happened to his parents.

Forcing himself to keep moving, Acheron continued down the last part of the track, what he found was their house and barn ablaze, lighting up the surroundings which were getting darker as the sun set. From the look of it they had been burning for quite some time, possibly before Acheron had even tried to get out of the village.

There was however something that made his whole world shake, two sharpened pikes had been lodged in the ground, one on either side of the path that led from the track Acheron was on to their house. Atop each pike was a roundish object, one had material draping from it while the other didn’t, they were quite different but looked almost the same as when he had last seen them.

Ignoring the fact that their bodies were missing of course.

The two objects were both heads, more specifically human heads. Acheron had no doubt who those heads belonged to and forced himself to approach them.

As he got closer, he saw his mothers long blond hair, now streaked with dirt and mud. Every step that Acheron took closer to the pikes felt harder and harder, to the point that when he was almost before them his mind refused to take another step.

Both his mum and dad’s expressions were that of fear, and pain, their lifeless eyes staring fearfully at something that was no longer there.

The world around Acheron blurred, and all he could see were their faces, twisted in expressions of pain and horror.

Acheron couldn’t believe what he was seeing and yet it was real, there had been no help from the sovereigns, no knight in shining armour coming to save them, there had only been death and misery.

Acheron trembled as tears freely flowed down his face, he couldn’t remember the last time he had cried and knew that some people would think less of him for doing it, but he didn’t care. Those people didn’t matter, the only two that did were now dead before him.

Memories of their laughter, their warmth, and their love flashed through Acheron’s mind, it felt like a mockery of his gruesome reality. Unable to hold himself up any longer, Acheron fell to his knees, the ground feeling far harsher and more unyielding than ever before.

Tears streamed down his face as he reached out with a trembling hand, wishing that touching them could somehow bring them back. The coldness of death was all that he felt as he brushed a strand of hair from his mother’s cheek.

The air hung heavy with silence, the crackling fire from the barn too distant to be heard from where Acheron was. There was no answers or solace to be found in the silence, only pain.

Acheron knew that his life would never be the same, nothing could undo the pain he felt at that moment, it would forever burn within him forcing sorrow and misery on him wherever he went.

Acheron knew he couldn’t escape the pain, but there was something else he could do, he could make those responsible for it, learn what it felt like firsthand. The pain inside of him would fuel an inferno within him, a burning desire for justice and vengeance.

Acheron didn’t know if the bearkin had left or not, but he knew that he would pursue them no matter what, even if it meant crossing the endless straight and finding them on whatever land they called home. No matter what, they would not escape the vengeance that burned inside of Acheron.

Once again Acheron felt rage beginning to stir within him, slowly he got up, not heading towards where the bearkin ship should be, but towards a tree near their house.

The tree had a large hollow that Acheron had begun hiding their scythe within, it allowed him to get it without it being as obvious when he wanted to practice with it. Now, it meant that the scythe hadn’t been in the barn when it was set alight.

Picking up the scythe and feeling its familiar handle steeled Acheron’s nerves, with his scythe in hand he would bring retribution upon the people who had killed his parents. Acheron understood that the scythe wasn’t exactly made for fighting people, but he also understood that his [Scythe Proficiency] skill would help it to be at least better.

Moving as quickly as he could without accidentally cutting his own limbs off, he made his way towards the beach at an angle. It was a pretty short trip and he saw the ship well before he reached it.

The ship was anchored about 100 metres from the beach, with a small rowing boat being used to go back and forth between the ship and the beach. The ship had a single sail and looked like it could be manned with as few as 8 or 9 people but could easily hold double that without it being cramped.

At the beach, opposite the ship a small rowing boat was being loaded with supplies, by four bearkin. This wasn’t Acheron’s first time seeing them, yet it still made him gape, they were all at least seven feet tall, covered in fur with thick muscly limbs.

All of them wore what looked to be leather chest and leg armour with each of the bearkin wielding different weapons, though they were all undoubtedly heavy.

Seeing the bearkin had his blood pumping and he was ready to charge at them heedless of the consequence, he managed to stop himself though so that he could use surprise to take one out quickly.

Acheron moved around into a position where he would have to cover as little beach as possible to get there. All of the bearkin had their backs turned to him, likely not expecting anybody to be able to pose a threat to them.

Finally, Acheron let himself charge; his vision was red as he moved towards the bearkin who were focussing on loading the boat with supplies that Acheron had likely bought this morning.

Finally, when he was only a couple metres away, one of the bearkin heard his feet on the sand and turned to face him, he however, didn’t react in time to defend himself from the scythe that was swinging for his neck.

Misjudging the distance, the tip of Acheron’s scythe went straight through the middle of the bearkin’s neck. Rather than Acheron beheading the bearkin, his scythe was now halfway embedded in the neck of the very heavy bearkin.

The bearkin seemed to try to say something but it only came out as a gargle, Acheron tried to pull his scythe free, but it was stuck.

While the first bearkin hadn’t had the time to react the others did, meaning that when Acheron looked up from the dying bearkin he saw three other bearkin all holding weapons at the ready.

The closest bearkin raised his zweihander high over his head, intending to split Acheron from head to toe.

Hurriedly, Acheron jumped to the side to avoid the blow, however it came down far faster than he would have thought possible, catching him just below the hip as he humped to the side. Both of his legs were severed from the power of the swing and Acheron screamed out in pain.

The pain seemed to pull him from his frenzied state, clearing his mind of part of the anger contained within. Acheron was still furious at the bearkin and was happy to die if it meant taking them with him, for this reason he tried to throw himself at the bearkin who had just cut his legs off.

Before Acheron had moved an inch however, a great hammer came down, slamming into Acheron’s head, breaking bone, and scattering brain matter across the beach.

Immediately Acheron lost control of every muscle and his vision began darkening however, it suddenly stopped and returned to normal, he still couldn’t move but had all of his senses.

This meant that he could hear as the bearkin began talking in gruff voices, that made him think of grunting more than words. They were however, speaking in the common tongue which confused him, from what he knew they had a different language where they came from and didn’t normally speak the common tongue.

Regardless of the reason, Acheron could understand them as they spoke to one another.

“Damnit! Draz, see what you can do about Azu, don’t waste our supplies though, if it’s a lost cause then just leave him. Zeek, you can help me finish loading the boat.”

Acheron was conscious enough to understand that Azu must be the one who he had stabbed with his scythe, he had no clue why they would think there was even a chance he survived and really hoped he would die.

“What was with that peasant?”, came the voice of the bearkin who what Acheron presumed to be the leader had ordered to continue loading the boat. “He shouldn’t have had the force to stab Azu even with the iron rank [Upper Body Strength]. And why would he even throw himself at us, he would have known that it was a death sentence, so what kind of idiot does that?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Replied the leader, “All that matters is that we have one less soldier for Arzil, we better hope he doesn’t decide they need a couple more people, because otherwise he might just send us to ninethorn. Just remember, only a couple more raids and the confederation should be at the tipping point, then there’ll be the big finale”.

Acheron didn’t understand what the bearkin was talking about, although it didn’t sound good, his mind whirred as he tried to piece together what they were saying. Were they talking about a big finale for raiding the coastal villages? That would be bad, what if they sent enough ships to break into the villages and kill everyone there? That would be a catastrophe!

Acheron tried to move his body, but he still couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t even move his eyes. He didn’t understand how he was alive after what had happened to him, even if the great hammer hadn’t hit him, Acheron should have bled out by now.

As he wondered a screen appeared in his vision.

[Reincarnation protocol X has been initiated due to a Nexus catalyst link]

[Transporting (Acheron Cadell) to Administrator nucleus #797836]

‘What!?’