As Diablo awoke the next day he felt strangely groggy. He was used to getting up early and having the occasional late night, but it was never anything like this. He felt like his head was on fire. With a shake of his head, he got up, grabbed his bag, and headed towards the door. In the room with him were three others, people whose houses were not livable right now.
Once he had quietly snuck down some stairs and out the door, the young man began headed towards Rosewood. It was two days away, without a village to stop in. The mayor of the village had begged him to stay an extra day, but Diablo had refused. But he knew that if he stayed the faces of the children, the people that lost loved ones, and those that looked at him with respect would convince him to stay for a lot longer then just a day.
"I'm sorry." He said to the village, the lost people, the grieving loved ones and those that simply couldn't go on. "I'll come back one day. A day when I am stronger enough to save everyone." He promised as he kept walking, leaving the village behind for fields and farm animals. But soon they fell away too, leaving only long stretches of plains and a few hills in the distance, that only had more plains on the other side.
With heavy feet, Diablo set out on his adventure once more, towards Rosewood and his new life.
After roughly forty minutes, he heard a yelling. It was loud, shattering the tranquility that was growing as the sun slowly peeked over the distant hills. "DIABLO! GET BACK HERE YOU BARSTAD!"
Almost tripping over his own feet, he turned around to see who was calling him. It was Rowan, the very large Blacksmith who had fought alongside him against the strangely easy [Elite Kobold].
Once the Blacksmith had gotten closer, Diablo began talking to him. "Rowan? What are you doing?"
Rowan just looked at the shorter man as if he was stupid. "What am I doing? What the hell do you think you are doing!?" He demanded.
"... Going?" Was Diablo's reply, rather confused as to what had gotten into the Blacksmith.
"You can't go! We still need you. Our village may not be that small, but we don't have any leaders in it. Not anymore. We only have the mayor, but he is a bureaucrat, not a leader. We need you to help repair and rebuild. We need your help." Rowan told Diablo, becoming more and more animated as he spoke.
The pleading look in the Blacksmith's eyes almost convinced Diablo to stay. Almost. It was, in fact, the last thing that Rowan said that convinced him he had to go. Pulling out the ten quests he was given, he began reading them off one by one.
"A [Giant Boar] is terrorizing the town of Rosewood. A group of [Slimes] have moved into a village three days away from there. The next village over is afraid a [Werewolf] may be lurking around, and I have to figure out of it is indeed a [Werewolf] or just a large wolf. I've got to collect a rare plant sometime on my travels to give to an old lady so she can save her granddaughter. There is more too. I'm not a leader, I just acted in the moment. I'm just some Adventurer who happened to pass by while on the job. Not some great leader who can save you all. I wouldn't even know where to start."
Diablo shook his head and pulled out his lockbox. With a heavy hand, he pulled out all four of his gold and thirty silver. Most of his earnings, and handed them over to Rowan. "Take these and use them to rebuild your village. Consider them recompense that I couldn't do more."
With that, he turned around and started back on his way. Rowan meanwhile just stood there, staring at his back. Although the Blacksmith would deny it until the end of his days, he had tears flowing down his cheeks. The money that he had been given was roughly ten years of profit, after taxes, for the rural Blacksmith. Ore cost more out of the city, and his prices were lower than city blacksmiths.
With a yell, he called out to the Adventurer. "We will pay you back, ya hear! Next time you come this way, I'll- no, the entire village will throw you the biggest feast you have ever seen! We will put those stuck-up nobles to shame, ya hear!"
Rowan couldn't help himself. He felt like he had just let the biggest opportunity of his life slip through his hands like sand. But he knew he could never convince the young man to stay. He was someone that helped all people, not just those right in front of him. Convincing him to stay would have forced him to go against his own nature, and that would only lead to problems in the long run.
Diablo meanwhile felt like he was abandoning the people he had helped. He knew there were people that needed him in that village, yet he was turning his back on them to continue chasing his dream, even if he was forced into it a little earlier then he would have liked.
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The two days it took to reach Rosewood by foot felt like months to the young adventurer. Every step he wondered if he should have stayed behind. Wondered if he could have done more. Wondered if he could have managed to save everyone if he was just a little bit stronger, faster, better.
With a shake of his head, he put those memories behind him. They were on their own now, he had a job to do. His first real one. He couldn't afford to mess it up.
It was late, but he went to the mayor's house. The only two-story building other than the inn/tavern. With a heavy knock, he waited for someone to open the door. Soon it was answered by a gruff old man who clearly hadn't slept well in the last few days.
"Who 're you?" The man asked, looking Diablo up and down like he was some sort of cattle being sold on the Sunday market.
"My name is Diablo. I am the Adventurer who answered your request for help about the [Giant Boar]." He answered. Although his voice sounded confident, the truth was he was shaking in his boots. He was suddenly afraid he was going to be denied and told he wasn't good enough for the quest. He still didn't even have armor yet.
"Eh. Suppose ya 'venter'en lot always looked weird to me. Come in come in. Ya lett'en the draft in." With those words, the elder turned around and went back inside.
The inside of the house was very simple. A fire roared in the fireplace, and an older plump woman was off in a side room cooking dinner. Stairs lead up to an open balcony style second floor with a large double bed on it. There was very little privacy in this house, but when it was just a man and his wife, they didn't really need any.
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The old man sat at his dinner table and gestured for Diablo to take a seat across from him. "Take it ya heard 'bout our little 'problem'?" Diablo only nodded at the man. "Good. At least ya got ya head screwed on. The beastie has been eating our winter crops like a pig fucks while in heat. Since it's winter crop harvest'en season, I'd say it's either a female with babies or a male getting ready to fight for mating rights." Since we 'ave yet to find a nest, I'd say it's a male. Comes 'ery sunset, so ya arrived at the right time. An hour or two and it'll show up. If ya kill it, I'll 'ave me wife 'ere cook up a few slices for ya dinner. Sounds fair? Ya still get ya silver, so don't worry."
Diablo nodded along. The man spoke rather fast and a lot all at once. So he had to concentrate on what he was saying to make sure he didn't miss anything. "That sounds fair." He said as he stood up. "Do you know what fields it attacks?"
"Yes. It always attacks the northern fields. Seems to like the beans we grow there." The mayor told him without getting up from his seat. "Good luck to ya kid."
With a small, extremely awkward bow to his elder, he left the house and headed towards the northern fields. It took roughly an hour to reach the outskirts of the fields. Although once there, evidence of the attacks was very obvious. Roughly three fields had been completely torn appart, with another eight in various levels of dismay.
Walking over to a nearby lean-to, used by those working the outer fields to get out of the sun for a while on the hotter days, the young adventurer began to wait. There were no trees around, only plains and fields, so the [Monster] should she be easy to spot coming.
It only took twenty minutes of waiting for the first signs of the [Giant Boar] to show. The longer grasses of the plains began to part, and as they got shorter the [Giant Boar] began to get revealed. It was roughly eight feet in size. Had two large tusks coming from its mouth that curved towards it. Along its spine is a dark brown hair, giving it some added protection, as the hair was said to become harder and longer as it grew older. This one's hair was barely out from its spine, and wasn't very thick, meaning it was rather young, even if it had reached full size.
The [Monster] was essentially just a giant wild boar with some extra hard hair on its spine, in appearance anyway. The thing that separated [Monsters] from beasts was the fact that [Monsters] could be spawned from [Areas Of Chaos] as well as being born the normal way. They could also use a unique form of magic, often called [Primal Magic]. Some kinds [Monsters] were more likely to be able to use it than others, but they all had the potential.
Diablo stood up, spear in his right hand, and began to get closer to the [Monster]. The [Monster] in question was currently sniffing around the ravaged fields, looking for any signs of food growing again. Once he was in range, the young adventurer stopped and held out his left hand, ready to cast magic.
With a short incantation, he cast [Fireball] right at the head of the [Monster]. It seemed to feel the danger coming, and looked up right as it got hit in the face with the spell. This caused it to take a few steps back in shock, but it quickly recovered and charged at the young Adventurer. With another few [Fireball]'s too slow it down, Diablo readied his spear to thrust it directly into the heart of the [Giant Boar]. His fire spells were not that effective as the hair on the beast was slightly flame resistant.
Just as the [Monster] was in range, he activated [Power Thrust], aiming for the heart. He missed by the barest of inches. So instead of the [Monster] quickly losing strength and hitting him with a soft blow, it freaked out at the pain and hit him even harder then it would have before.
After being sent flying into the lean-to he was sitting under before, shattering it completely, Diablo noticed something. The [Giant Boar] had broken three of his ribs. He also noticed that the same [Giant Boar] was now thrashing around wildly trying to get the spear out of its chest. Even though he had missed the heart, it seemed like he had hit a major artery. Meaning that the [Monster] would still die, just a lot slower, and after it had smalled the spear into the ground a dozen times, deducing it's [Durablitly] by a fair amount.
After five minutes of thrashing around, the [Monster] had finally lost enough blood for it to lose its strength. It finally fell to its knees, still alive but unmoving. Slowly Diablo approached it. Grabbing his spear, he twisted it, causing the wound to bleed even faster. The [Giant Boar] gave a jerk at this, but couldn't fight back. Ripping his spear out, the beast seemed to finally give out, dying quietly after a loud fight for its life.
[Ding]
[Congratulations! Due to constant hard work and fighting, you have shown your conviction in the noble pursuit of Constitution.]
[+1 Constitution]
Diablo thought about the prompt in his head with a large tablespoon of cynicism. To him, it seemed like the Gods enjoyed his idiotic plan. Although it was effective, as it would have been a long fight if he had not aimed for the heart head-on, it would have always ended up with him getting hit.
"Guess I'm a comedy show to them" He muttered under his breath as be began to limp back towards the mayor's house. Normally he was not one to badmouth the Gods. The local religion, The Great Sun Dragon, would have his hide if they found out. Not even the Adventurers Guild would be able to stop them, as they were crazy fanatics that controlled more than one country from the shadows.
After just over two hours, long after it turned dark, he finally reached the house. With a knock on the door, he waited for it to open once more. He heard some yelling coming from inside, getting closer to the door rather quickly.
"About time! I thought you were bloody dead! Now get in 'ere!" The mayor opened the door, seeing Diablo holding his ribs and leaning on his spear. "Martha! Boil some water! The kid's hurt!" He yelled back to his wife as he took the place of the spear in supporting the youth.
"Sorry. I missed my mark. But it bled to death." Diablo apologized, not that he really needed to.
"Don't be say'en that boy. Ya did well. Better than any of us could 'ave done. Now sit down and let us have a look at those ribs." The mayor said as he forced the youth into a chair by the fireplace. Martha soon came in and began to fuss all over him, forcing him to take off his shirt so she could look at his ribs.
The old lady with gray hair tsk'ed at him many times. "Three broken ribs and the rest are bruised badly. Just what did you do to manage this!" She demanded of him with a motherly tone.
"It was resistant to my magic, and I'm not strong enough to pierce its hide very deep, so I just my spear as a boar spear and tried to pierce its heart. I missed. It got angry. Threw me into a lean-to." Diablo told the lady as if it wasn't that big of a deal. The elderly pair just stared at him as if he was crazy. It was a real possibility lately though.
"Excuse you?" Martha asked the youth, a look of shock on her face. "You are not getting out of that chair for the next few days, you hear me? The fact you would do something so stupid just because it was easier is utterly ridiculous. Do you have a death wish? Because there are easier ways to do it than by attacking [Monsters]."
Diablo then had to sit through an hour-long lecture on how stupid he was and how lucky he was that none of his ribs had poked into his lungs and caused him to slowly drown in his own blood. After that, she had put a bowl of reheated soup into his lap and told him that he was lucky to be getting anything, then she matched up to her bed and told her husband she was going to sleep.
"That be my wife. She is a strong one, but she always found a moment to care for others. Get some rest lad, we can talk in the morning." With that, the mayor put a few more logs on the fire and went to bed himself, leaving Diablo to eat and sleep in peace. Even if he got very little of sleep due to the pain in his ribs and back. He was glad that Martha couldn't see his back, as he could tell it was actually all one big bruise.
[Soldiers spear]
[Durability 20/60]
Diablo
Level 10
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 6 [+1]
Intelligence: 30
Wisdom: 20
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)]