Diablo was frightened. Very much so. What the Guildmaster and Griff had told him was both confusing and terrifying. He wasn't fully sure why people would come after him. All he did was talk to Empress Diana. He wasn't sure how he could be some sort of threat to people with so much money and power that they would travel across entire kingdoms on a whim. Yet apparently he as.

Once he was back inside the Orphanarium, the Caretaker gave him a rather odd look. "Diablo? What are you doing back here? You don't have to move out right away. It can wait until you are finished working." She told him in her motherly tone.

Although it broke his heart, Diablo was unsure how to explain to her that he was leaving, so he decided to tell a white lie. "The Adventurers Guild have a room prepared for me. They told me to grab my stuff and put it in there before I start."

With that lie, the young man quickly made it into the sleeping room before the Caretaker could ask any more questions. Many other boys and girls were fast asleep, while others were quietly shuffling around quietly getting ready to head out. The ones awake gave Diablo some rather strange looks. They were all used to him being out already and working.

Ignoring them, he grabbed a small lockbox from under his bed and pulled out a thin necklace with a heavy key on it. The lockbox was one of the first things Diablo had brought while working. He knew he would end up having a large amount of gold saved up, and though the other orphans and he had a silent pledge to not steal from or tattle on each other, a single gold was too much to pass up, let alone the four gold and thirty-nine silver that Diablo had inside it. He carried the extra copper on him to pay for lunch and other small amenities.

After quickly opening, checking to see if the gold was still in it, and closing it, the young man quickly stashed the lockbox into a small bag of clothes that he had already prepared for when he had to leave. Diablo was rather glad that he always pre-prepared for things.

Putting the key back around his neck, he then put the shoulder strap duffle bag on, letting it sit at his side. Working his way back outside, he quickly called goodbye to the Caretaker before shutting the door. He had left his new spear just outside the door, as he did not want to frighten anyone. The Caretaker likely knew he snuck out every so often, but most likely didn't know he was fighting monsters.

With a light jog, Diablo began heading towards the south gate. Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, the young man read his first quest.

[A [Giant Boar] keeps attacking our crops. It has already injured two three four five of our people. We worry for the children, as no one around is strong enough to slay it. Please come quickly.]

It was signed by the Mayor. It was for a single silver. Rather high for a Clay quest. But with it being so far away, the sliver would barely cover the distance. It was also out of the way from any other nearby-by quests, so no one had taken it with others. But it was the first quest in the ten he was given by the Guildmaster and Griff, so he just went with it.

Once outside the gate, Diablo knew he needed a few things. He needed some kind of armor, but that would have to wait. It could take a few days to get armor, he from what he was told, the young man did not have that time. The next was a horse, but he didn't know how to ride or care for such an animal, so he would be walking. Food was next on the list. Small vendors from the nearby farms often set up just outside the walls so they did not need to pay the fee for trading in the city.

He ended up buying a dozen apples at two copper a piece, a small bag of dried beef at six copper, a large bag of trail mix for twelve copper. He also brought a large brimmed dark blue hat to hide his fire red hair for thirty copper. The vendor had promised that it would hold up in any but the most extreme weather, and since he really didn't want to be noticed, it was brought. He would have just bought a cloak, but people wearing a full-body cloak were the first people stopped, as it was too easy to hide weapons or contraband. Only idiots would hide in something like that.

He had also brought a proper pair of boots. A really good, solid pair for eighty copper. In total, before even starting the long trek, he had spent a total of one silver and fifty-three coppers. That left four gold, thirty-eight silver and thirty-five copper. Still a lot of money, but if he kept spending at this rate he would have nothing left in a year.

With provisions brought, Diablo set out properly. His heart felt heavy because he lied to the woman who had raised him for birth, but it was better than breaking her heart. Gripping tightly on his new spear, the young man started out at a run. Not a full sprint, but faster than he should.

After about twenty minutes he stopped and bent over panting. He was dead tired. Reaching into his bag for a waterskin, he realized that was the one thing he forgot. He didn't bring any water. He could have walked back, but that would have taken forty minutes walking. That would have meant he wasted an entire hour when he could be on the clock.

"I'm an idiot." Diablo mumbled to himself as he stood back up to full hight. He tried to remember what Griff had told him. Over the years of working with the Adventurers Guild, Griff had imparted plenty of knowledge unto the young man.

'Pace ya'self when ya travl'en long distances. But if ya hav' to get somewhere fast by running, ya do so in short bursts. Ten minutes o' jogg'en, ten o' walk'en.'

"Ten of walking, ten of joggin.," Diablo repeated to himself. He then began walking at a rather slow pace, so he could catch his breath. "Since I ran for twenty, I need to walk twenty. After that, start the tens."

With a dry throat and some good advice, the young man had set out once more, even if he felt like his legs would collapse under him. He did think of knocking on one of the few houses he passed or just calling out to one of the many men passing the other way. But he wanted to keep moving, and wouldn't really know how to start the conversation anyway.

After another half-hour of travel, the woodlands around the capital began to thin out and was instead taken over by the namesake of The Kingdom of the Plains. Farms spread out before the young man as far as the eye could see. The land was relatively flat, with some rolling hills in the distance.

Wherever there were no farms, golden grasses grew. Once upon a time, the golden grasses would have dominated this flatlands, perfect for grazing animals. But now it had transformed into crop farms.

With the beautiful sight before him, Diablo felt his spirits lift for the first time that day. That perhaps things won't be that bad. With a spring in his slightly exhausted step, the young man kept pushing forwards.

Once he reached the first farm, he was pleasantly surprised to find an older gentleman sitting in a rocking chair wave greetings to him. Diablo did wave back, rather awkwardly, but the old man just laughed at him and let him keep going on his way. This seemed to be a rather common thing. Strangers would greet him with nods or little waves was he passed. Kids would point at his weapon and say something about adventures. Kids around his own age seemed to be off in fields working at the winter crops, but he barely noticed their absence.

To Diablo, it was like he had stepped into an entirely different world. Back in the city people generally kept to themselves. There was a heavy air around, literally and metaphorical, as the tanneries and charcoal makers often mixed smells with bakers and snack sellers. But out here there was only the fresh smell of grass, home cooking and the occasional bit of manure.

With a smile growing on his face, the young man passed farm after farm, person after person, and couldn't help but feel more alive than he had in years. 'Perhaps things won't be so bad after all.' He thought to himself.

After another hour and a half, the farms began to fall away and the golden grasses began to rise up. He also came to his first crossroad. There were two paths before him. One leading to the right, one to the left. He couldn't read either of them. They were words longer than he was used too, and when he tried to pronounce them they felt wrong on his tongue.

"K-Kalmoonra? Ma-Matraria?" Diablo was defiantly confused by the names. He understood the name of the village he was meant to go to perfectly fine, he had quietly learned his letters while working for the guild. But these names just left him confused.

After roughly ten minutes of staring, someone spoke to the young man. "Bit lost are ya?"

Diablo turned rather quickly and managed to trip over his own feet in the prosses, almost stabbing himself with his spear. "Careful. Keep the pointy end away from ya."

After getting back up from the dirt, Diablo saw an older man, roughly in his fifties, sitting on a large cart filled to capacity with small sacks, pulled by two horses. "I asked if ya were lost, lad. Ya daft or something?"

"N-no. I-i am lost. Do you know where Rosewood is from here?" Diablo asked, with barely any hope that this man would be able to tell him where to go.

The older man just cocked his head to the side a little and rubbed his chin. "Been a while since I headed out that way. Been near twenty years it has. Ya head though Kalmoonra, down through the village of Greenfield, follow the highway until ya hit the village of Redstone. Once there, take a left on the old road and follow it until ya get to Rosewood."

Diablo just looked at the man with utter confusion on his face. It wasn't that the instructions were hard, but merely that this was a week-long trip and he knew he was going to forget something and get lost. The older man just looked back, already knowing.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

With a sigh, the older man pointed to his carriage and said "Get in. I can take ya to Redstone, but I am heading in a different direction from there."

With a smile on his face, Diablo ran around to the back of the cart, noticed that there was no place to sit and called back out to the old man. "Where do I sit?"

"On top!" The old man called back as the cart began to move forwards, without Diablo on it. With a quick two steps and a jump, he managed to get himself half on the cart before it began to pick up some speed. Eventually, he made it up to the top without spilling any of the sacks, although there was a close call or two along the way.

That is how the pair traveled, with the old man, later introduced as Arthur, driving the car and Diablo sitting atop it. The pair kept going like that, at the end of each day they would come across a small village with an inn, often either an hour or two before dark, or an hour or two after. On the third day, they finally arrived at the city of Kalmoonra.

It was uneventful and they passed through easily. Although Diablo had wanted to stop in and get some armor, Arthur wasn't going to wait for him, so he kept going without any, not wanting to lose his easy ride.

The next day passed easily, but disaster struck on the fifth day of the journey, roughly four hours before dark, almost to the village of Redstone.

"I smell smoke," Arthur told Diablo while smelling the wind. Diablo nodded back, saying he did too. "Shouldn't be burning this far out. Not unless something big happened. A bonfire, or perhaps a house fire. Boy, run ahead and make sure things are ok."

Diablo nodded again, even though Arthur could not see him and jumped down from the cart. He had gotten rather good at getting up and down the cart after the eighth time doing so. He began running, remembering to swap between running and walking. After roughly an hour, about half an hour ahead of the cart, he saw the town ablaze.

With reckless abandon, he decided to run into the town and lend a hand. Once closer, he saw this was no house fire out of control, it was a raid by a band of [Kobolds]. There were two kinds of [Kobolds]. [Dog-Faced Kobolds], who were not very aggressive and tended to forage for food rather than fight. Tribes of them were sometimes even kept around, as their sent kept other monsters at bay.

The other kind were [Lizard Kobolds]. They were much more aggressive and preferred to raid their cousins, [Dog-Faced Kobolds] for food than get it themselves. They were also smarter, stronger, and larger than their cousins. These were the [Kobolds] that were attacking the village.

With the first [Kobold] coming in range, Diablo tightened his grip on his spear and readied the [Skill] [Power Thrust]. With one good strike, the [Soldier's Spear] pierced the neck of the [Monster], but it did not die. It continued to swing it's shortsword around wildly. Quickly the strength in its arms began to wane as it lost blood. With an opportunity to strike, he let go of the spear and cast [FireBolt] right in the face of the [Monster], finishing it off. With it now dead, he could safely remove the spear without damaging the [Durability].

With that fight over, other [Kobolds] began to notice him. Three more began to run for the young man. But he merely stood tall and held out his hand. With a very short incantation, [Fireball] shot from his hand. He continued to cast this spell over and over. Each time it hit, the [Kobolds] would stumble back slightly, giving him time to cast it on the others. After three castings on each, they had all died. But it was a close call. The last one was only half a spears distance from his striking range. If even two had gotten in striking range, he would have only had one hit to kill them both with [Double Shot]

Taking off at a jog, Diablo headed towards the nearest screaming. It was coming from around a corner a short distance away. Once he had turned the corner, he saw five [Kobolds], a very muscular man, and a group of children hiding behind the man. Since he couldn't cast while running, and if they charged him he would not be able to kill them all, he ran in with the spear in hand.

"Attack now!" Diablo called as he activated [Double Shot], then, in a moment of stupidity, decided he needed to lower their numbers quickly, so waited for a moment for him to feel something, then, at a light tug in his hand of the [Skill] activating, used [Power Thrust].

Luckily for all the humans involved, it turned out that was the right time to use two [Skills] at once. The spear seemed to split into a second one, all the while suddenly growing bright red wings. With the power of the two [Skills] being used at the same time, the [Monsters] heads were blown off.

The large man took this opportunity to it's fullest advantage and swung a wicked looking two-handed ax downwards, splitting the skull of a [Kobold] like a piece of firewood. With their numbers cut down over half, the remaining [Kobolds] hesitated for a second, but only a second. They swung their shortswords at the pair with the ferocity only [Monsters] and madmen could have.

Diablo was not prepared for the speed of the [Kobold] and it ended up getting inside his reach. At this moment, he knew he should have listened to Griff more and brought a knife. He couldn't strike at the [Monster] and it was too fast to push away. Not to mention the sharp blade it swung around wildly. Soon the scratches began to pile up, and he could feel himself getting weaker.

Eventually, luck would come back his way. The [Kobold] swung with too much strength, putting itself off balance. This allowed the young man to take a few steps to the side and shove his spear into the armpit of the [Kobold], impaling it on his spear as it poked out the other side. With a hard kick, it slid off, taking one [Durablitly] with it for its trouble.

Looking around for more enemies, he noticed that the large man had already killed his foe. The man then approached Diablo, resting his ax on his shoulder. "Thank you for your help stranger. These kids would have been done for had you not arrived."

Diablo meanwhile just shook his head. "No. We are not done yet." He pointed over to the road he had come from. "An older man named Arthur is coming down that road. Send the children that way. I can't save everyone here by myself. I will need your, and any other men's help."

"I can't just abandon this ki-" The larger man started, his voice starting to get heated But Diablo interrupted him.

"You are not abandoning them. You are saving their parents." With a stare that did not match his [Charaisma], he convinced the other man to join him.

"Alright. The square is this way. If there are survivors, they would try to get there. My name is Rowan. It's a pleasure to fight with you." The larger man, now known as Rowan, said as he began to lead the way to the town square.

"Diablo. Now let's hurry, or there will be a lot more orphans tomorrow." With that, the fight truly began.

Once the pair arrived at the town square, only a few blocks from where they started, they saw how horrid things were looking for the town of Redstone. Small fights had broken out all across the square. Pockets of two or three men and women fighting five to eight [Koblods], with a very large [Elite Kobold] standing in the middle, seemingly laughing at the carnage around him.

"You take the front, I'll support with magic." Diablo ordered as he held his hand out towards the nearest group, a man and a woman fighting seven [Kobolds], and losing quickly. With a quick few [FireBolts], he had agroed five of them, then swapped to [Fireball] to keep them away from the advancing Rowan. Rowan was strong enough that he could kill them in one hit, but doing so left him open to others, so it was up to Diablo to full in those gaps.

Soon, the five were dead, and Diablo was almost out of magic. "I'm out of magic!" He yelled as he approached, stabbing one of the remaining [Kobolds] while the others were also dealt with. Turning to the woman, he started giving out orders. "The children are safe, they are out on the road to Kalmoonra. There should be an old man with them. Protect them." He then turned towards the man. "You are with us. We are going to thin these numbers. The men will join us while the women will go and protect the children."

With his orders told, he set out towards the nearest group that looked likely to fall, repeating the prosses over and over, this time with the spear instead of magic. Slowly but surely, the tide began to turn.

After four more groups had been saved, the [Elite Kobold] noticed the pesky humans ruining his plans and charged. "Rowan, with me. The rest of you keep helping!" Diablo called out as he saw the [Monster] charging at him with a greatsword. He knew if he got hit by that thing, there was no coming back. The only one who would be able to take it was Rowan.

The [Elite Kobold] was half again the size of a normal [Kobold], who was the size of a large child, so he stood only slightly shorter than Diablo himself. But he was clearly much stronger. It has some makeshift armor on, protecting it's head, heart, and knees. It would be hard to kill, but doable.

Rowan took the initial swing on his ax, turning it to the side is a show of skill that clearly showed this wasn't his first time fighting with the ax. With the [Monster] slightly off balance, Diablo drove his spear at its neck, activating the [Skill] [Power Thrust]. Although it stuck, it didn't strike deep, showing how strong this beast was. Luckily, Rowan was quick on the uptake, and used his own [Skill], [Trip] The [Monster] got its food caught in Rowan's ax as he pulled it back, causing the already off-balance [Monster] to trip and fall.

With both of them now stabbing and chopping at the [Elite Kobold], it quickly died. Although it took longer than it should have, as the beast was rather strong. When the pair finally looked up, the fight was already won, with stray [Kobolds] running for the hills. People were cheering, some that had given up where crying. Some were even laughing with sheer relief.

Diablo meanwhile looked over to Rowan and then said in a loud voice "We are not done yet! Your homes are burning, there could be people trapped inside! Your loved ones are still at risk! We need to get to work now!"

With Diablo leading the work, houses were put out, people saved, and families reunited. The work went well into the night, but they didn't let up. At roughly midnight, everyone alive had been saved and the fires all put out. Diablo finally collapsed into a bed, both exhausted physically and mentally.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! Due to constant hard work and fighting, you have shown your power to the noble pursuit of strength.]

[+1 Strength]

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! By fighting the hard fight, you have improved the passive skill Spear Mastery to level 5 6 7!]

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! By fighting the hard fight, you have improved the skill FireBolt to level 7 8!]

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! By fighting the hard fight, you have improved the skill Power Thrust to level 6 7 8 9!]

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! By fighting the hard fight, you have improved the skill Double Shot to level 3!]

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! By fighting the hard fight, you have improved the skill Fireball to level 3 4!]

[Ding!]

[You have leveled up! The gods shall assign you five stat points]

[Ding!]

[You have leveled up! The gods shall assign you five stat points]

[Soldiers spear]

[Durability 59/60]

Diablo

Level 10

Strength: 7 [+1]

Dexterity: 15 [+2]

Constitution: 5 [+1]

Intelligence: 30 [+4]

Wisdom: 20 [+3]

Charisma: 3

Titles

[Fire Duelist]

Skills

[Flame of the beginning (Max)] [Candle's Flame (Lv.3)] [Sneaking (Lv.3)] [FireBolt (Lv.8)] [Spear Mastery (Lv.7)] [Power Thrust (Lv.9)] [Double Shot (Lv.3)] [Fireball (Lv.4)] [Dragon's Heart (Lv.1)]