Olivia’s PoV

Screaming as I wake up, I clutch my head and sit up. Breathing heavily, I look around, terrified. I’m in a room, naked on a bed…it was a dream, the same dream I’ve had every night since that day. Holding my knees to my chest, I continued sobbing. I didn’t want to leave this bed, I’m terrified of being outside. If I leave I might be betrayed and hurt again, I just wanted to see my parents again.

The door to the room opens and looking up with lingering fear, I saw an old granny at the door, giving me a soft smile. Martha walked over, sat down next to me and simply hugged me as I cried. Every night since I ended up in Gency I’ve had the same nightmare over and over. The scene of those of my own kind ambushing Alisha and I, the faces of my parents crying and the scenes of when I first had been dropped into Crater Hell. I had failed to get decent sleep ever since I ended up here and as a result I had become lethargic and exhausted everyday.

After I stop crying, Martha simply brushes my hair. “I have breakfast ready, dear. Get dressed, you’ve got a big day today.” Nodding weakly to her as she left the room, I got up and slowly got dressed. I was leaving Gency today and heading to a big city called Vale. According to what the Guild said, it was the best place to get stronger and earn more money. It also could search for information, maybe just maybe Alisha might be alive…but I knew the truth.

I had led her to her death. One of the first people, along with Sally, Gray and Elizabeth, that I could call a friend. They were the first to never judge me because I happened to be a Deviant, yet I had led two of them to their deaths. The elves wouldn’t help Elizabeth, they would kill her and toss her out. Alisha and Alice, that pet raven of hers had been teleported as well, but the likelihood of them dying is high, too high.

Trembling as I bite my lip, I try not to cry. Every morning started like this, always on the verge of breaking down, terrified to even leave the room, in fear that I’ll end up betrayed once again. In fact, it had taken me several months to even gain the courage to leave Gency, I had tried to find a party but at each interval I had become terrified and ran. I needed to do this, I needed to try and get back to my parents, even if it will take me twenty years.

Picking up my bow, I tried to calm myself as I put it on my back along with my quiver. Flashes of my nightmare still lingered as I looked around the room once more. It would be the last time I would see it. Moving from the room, I went to the dining room and sat down with Martha. As usual, I didn’t eat much since I had no appetite.

Giving Martha a tight smile, I remembered how I first arrived in Gency. The random teleport had brought me directly into this small town, slightly above the ground. I had crashed into Martha’s stalls, causing a commotion. After the guards questioned me and found that I had been telling the truth of the random teleportation, they had provided me with an identity chain, unlike the identity plates other cities used, and Martha had been kind enough to allow me a room.

She had never asked for anything back and had only ever been there for me. I had tried to give her money from the few requests I had barely done for the Guild and she had declined it all, telling me to save so that I may go to Vale. I had told Martha everything after a few weeks of staying with her, since I had woken up screaming every night and woken her up as well. She never once asked me why, only ever comforted me.

“Be sure to eat more dear. You need your energy, it’s a long trip to Vale.” Smiling warmly at me, Martha pushed more food onto my plate. Martha was one of those that never levelled, only ever staying at level 1. Previously she’d lived in Vale, but came to Gency to live a quieter life. I had asked her many times why she looked after me, but she never did give me an answer, only ever giving me a smile.

After I finished as much as I could eat, I got up as I gave Martha a small smile. “T-thank you…for everything…”

“Oh dear, don’t worry. If you ever find yourself in Gency, my room is always open to you.” As she says this, she hands me an envelope.

“When you arrive at the Guild in Vale, give that to an attendant and ask them to pass it to an adventurer named Elise. She's a Silver Grade, or at least once was, and told me if I ever needed help to find her in Vale. She said she wanted to repay a favour to me for treating her wounds, and was quite insistent on it. I’ve asked her to find you a room in Vale and to look after you until you’re used to city life.”

Panicking a bit, I tried to hand her the letter back. “N-no, you’ve done t-too much for me, I can’t take s-such a favour!”

Smiling, Martha shook her head. “Dear, I will likely never return to Vale, and that young girl is probably some powerful mage by now, she has no need to come here. It’s the least I can do, perhaps you’ll get an opportunity from her as well. It’s the least I can do dear, don’t reject it. I’ve also packed you some snacks and seasoning, just put a bit on monster meat so it isn’t bland and tasteless.” She handed me a pouch, and with tears welling up, I accepted them. I could never repay the kindness that Martha had shown me in these last few months.

Walking out of her little house along with Martha, she gave me a final hug. “You’re always welcome here dear. My door will always be opened to you. I will pray to the Seven that you find your parents and friends, just take care dear.”

“Thank you.” Speaking softly, I hugged Martha back weakly. I start walking down the road, turning back to see a smiling Martha, waving me off.

I arrived at the gates out of Gency, the meeting point that we had arranged beforehand. Three had arrived already, and looking at them they were fellow Bronze Grades, just like me. I had barely levelled in my time here, I even nearly failed the test to become an adventurer, only passing because the assessor had taken some pity on me. Looking at my Status, it had barely changed from when I had left Crater Hell.

Status

Olivia, the Aspiring Hero

Race: Dawnlight Elf Level: 21 Experience: 10,500/110,000 Class:  Beginner Elven Archer Class Level: 1 Class Exp:  0/50,000

Occupations:

Adventurer Grade: Bronze Rank: F

The three, two boys and a girl, turned and gave me a nod before returning to their conversation. I avoided connecting with anyone, except for Martha, out of fear of dragging them into my misfortune. I didn’t want anyone to be hurt anymore because of me. Because of that, others didn’t bother with me and I was treated as an outcast.

After several minutes of waiting, the one who will lead our group arrived, a Silver Grade named Frank. He had a big grin on his face as he approached the other three, never bothering to glance my way at all.

“Good news! I discovered a fast route to Vale, we’ll be there in about three months instead of six or seven.”

“Oh, as expected of the genius of Gency!” The other three start praising him without pause. It made my stomach turn at how they acted. In Gency existed a lack of strong adventurers, most choosing to go to Vale over staying in such a small town. This caused those with any potential to grow an ego, with some deciding to stay in Gency or return here after struggling in Vale, and instead loaf around pretending they’re worth something.

“We’ll be cutting through some canyon to get there faster. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you all if anything goes wrong!” Crossing his arms, he smiled with an overflowing confidence but my stomach turned again. Some canyon? Matha had told me about a canyon between us and Vale, and told me to never set foot there as it was filled with danger.

“Amazing Frank! Even the likes of the Canyon of Ruth’s Rest isn’t a problem for you then?” The three laughed excitedly while I felt worried. I had heard that the canyon could shift, becoming less dangerous than usual but was still very dangerous. Frank looked at me along with the other three and I could see some annoyance in their eyes.

“Ah, I forgot you were here. Well, a healer will help us, just don’t slow us down.” With some annoyance in his voice, Frank turned to the rest and told them of the path we were to take. It had very little to no danger to our party, and since he was level 36 he could easily deal with any threats. And with everything organised, we left Gency, and turning my head one last time, I bid farewell to Martha.

***

After about a month, we arrived before a large canyon. We had barely rested, seemingly rushing here though thankfully we had little to no problems. I hadn’t slept much at all, in fear of waking up screaming, annoying the others more. Over the last month they had become increasingly devout to Frank who handled any threats easily, and perhaps because I didn’t join them in their worship they had slowly found me to be a nuisance. It hadn’t reached any type of physical or verbal abuse, but I could tell they would have left me behind if it wasn’t for my healing.

That’s right, the only reason they had brought me along was to save coins on healing potions, as they were rather expensive due to supply only coming from a single dungeon near Gency. It had been the only thing they demanded of me during this trip, and I knew once we reached Vale I would be abandoned…I’ve overheard them planning it before but I didn’t mind, I already expected it.

Finding it hard to focus, I simply looked over the edge of the canyon, my elven eyes unable to focus clearly. I could hear the sounds of monsters roaring as well as a river.

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“Are you sure about this, Frank? It’s a long way down, I don’t think the elf can handle it.”

“Hmph, we’ll drag her down there if we must. We need her healing, it's her way of being thankful that I’m taking her to Vale.”

I had become numb to the way they spoke in front of me, like I wasn’t here. Trying to blink the tiredness from my eyes, I knew I had become weak. I’ve barely eaten during this trip, my appetite only getting worse the longer we travelled. I had lost weight that I shouldn’t have, in addition to my lack of rest it had become harder to do more than just walk and heal.

“There it is! Come on, the stairs that lead down are over here. A quick few day walk and we’ll be on the other side, we’ll just avoid any monsters and we’ll be fine.”

Trembling in fear a bit, I gulp it down. I had over the course of this trip, wanted to turn and run back to Gency, back to Martha. I felt terrified, I had lost my confidence long ago and all I wanted to do was stay inside that room where it was safe. I had to do this, I had to try and get back to my parents, this was the only way forward.

Forcing my fatigued body to follow behind the three, we began descending into the canyon with Frank taking the lead. Gripping my bow and bag, I tried my best to smother the creeping fear building in me. We arrived at the bottom of the canyon and looking around, it felt dangerous. A light forest surrounded us, the smell of damp soil could be smelt throughout the place. I should’ve felt at home in this forest, yet I felt nothing but fear.

Frank begins moving forward with a confident stride, while the others follow behind, leaving me to take up the rear as usual. Normally a party would have me in the centre, as to protect the one who could heal them, but they had long forgotten about me. We ran into a pack of wolves quickly, however they were only level 32. As Frank engaged them, I noticed their behaviour was strange.

They seemed desperate. As if they had been running from something, desperate to get past us, yet the others hadn’t noticed, simply only cheering Frank on. I wanted to say something, but just as Frank finished the last wolf, it was too late. From behind the wolves, which had been to the right of our path, a loud stomping could be heard.

“Ah, another one once to face me.” Frank faces the direction of the stomping and the three behind him laughed.

“Go get em Frank!”

The source of the stomping slowly came into view from in between the trees. A large black furred bear stomped its heavy legs and looked at us, angry and a hunger in its eyes. As I try to check its level, I’m hit with backlash as I feel my nose start bleeding.

Level ??? ???

Health: ???/???

It was at least 30 levels higher than me! Seeing the others, including Frank, suffer from forms of backlash, I knew we had come across something dangerous. The bear was covered in wounds that were slowly healing, but it only increased its anger. Frank and the others trembled in fear before turning and running. I quickly follow them as the bear chases us slowly, its stomping reaching our ears.

We kept ahead of it, its injuries must’ve slowed it slightly, but it kept behind us. I knew with the sounds it was letting off it would attract more monsters, and thankfully Frank seemed to realise this too as we came across a cave.

“Get in!” As he yells this and runs into the cave ahead of everyone, I fumbled with my bag, pulling two pouches off. Piercing a hole in one, I threw it into the distance, away from us and the bear I could hear getting closer. As it flew off, a trial of dust came from it. I tip the other pouch, a powder comes out as I spread it in front of the cave and enter myself.

It was a small, damp cave. Frank was huddled against the wall while the three others stood near him, trembling slightly. We all remained quiet as we heard the bear stomped past. It passed just outside the cave, before roaring and stomping away, following the path of the thrown pouch. I was glad I had prepared those pouches, a bag of scent remover and a pouch of dust that let off a distinct human smell.

As we waited, seconds turned into minutes that turned into hours. After about three hours, Frank seemed to regain his confidence.

“Seems we just got unlucky! A mutated beast just happened to find us, thankfully thanks to my quick thinking we’re safe!” As if on queue, the other three began praising him, but at the same time loud roars of monsters sounded out, reverberating throughout the cave, silencing them all.

“P-perhaps we should wait a bit longer, right Frank?” Hearing the boy speak, Frank looked at him.

“Do you doubt me?”

“N-no! I just thought it would be best to have lunch now, haha.” Nervously laughing, the boy added some praise on top of his comment. Frank nods.

“Good idea!”

***

Hours turned into days as we stayed in this cave. Thankfully nothing had come, mainly since I had at times spread monster repelling powder at the mouth of the cave. The other four never once acknowledged me doing this, and had at this point pretty much ignored my presence. Several times we had attempted to leave, only to see more high level monsters not far from the cave, including the bear, forcing us to stay here.

Days turned into weeks, and soon a month passed since we had hid in this cave. We had run out of food, at least according to the others. I knew though, they had plenty of rations left and had left me with very little. They demanded the snacks I had from Martha and they had distributed them amongst themselves, leaving me with very little.

At first, they had tried to be sneaky about it, hiding the fact they were eating rations. But now they seemingly had no care and openly ate while not offering me any. I had become weaker, no longer feeling hunger. At first the water I had would help, but I had ran out of water yesterday, and without a crumb my energy was at an all time low.

“Alright, listen up.” Speaking quietly, Frank spoke just loud enough so I could hear him. “We’re going to go at night and this time we’re going to make a break for it. It should be a full moon tonight meaning we’ll have light. I’ve figured out where we need to run towards and we only need to run for a few days and we should be able to make it.”

“What a fantastic idea, Frank! It’s quieter at night so there will be less monsters!” Ass kissers. I held disdain towards those three, always kissing Frank’s arse. It became obvious why as well, they held hope that Frank would make it big in Vale and they could benefit from being in his shadow. I knew this plan of moving at night was dangerous, it became silent not because there were less monsters, but because the predators of night came out!

I wanted to speak out, but knew if I did they would simply ignore me. At this point, I could only follow them and pray that we made it out alive. I wasn’t strong, and after two months of little sleep, high tensions and now hunger and thirst, I simply wanted to escape and reach Vale. I didn’t want to die without seeing my parents again. I wanted to find Sally and Gray too, and apologise to them for getting Alisha, Alice and Elizabeth killed. I would accept death by their hands.

Nightly slowly crept in and after waiting for an hour Frank gave the signal to leave. Getting up weakly, I followed the other four out of the cave as we stuck to the shadows and moved slowly. I had thought we were planning to run, but it seemed Frank wanted to try staying in the shadows, but it wouldn’t work. And after an hour of slowly creeping through the forest, we heard a roar behind us, clearly directed at us.

Turning my head, I saw the bear, the very same one that hunted us a month ago, looking at us in anger. I knew it recognised us by that look.

“Run!” Shouting too loudly, Frank and the others took off without giving me a second glance. I moved quickly as well, keeping pace with the other four as the roaring of monsters sounded out all around us. I knew this was our end, there was no way we could last a few days running from these monsters.

A strange sound entered my ears. From far ahead of us, the roars of monsters seemed different, instead of being roars of excitement or anger they were roars of…pain? Were the monsters hunting each other? But it’s usually quiet at night time, why would monsters hunt each other now.

Turning my head, I saw the bear slowly catching us now. We had at least thirty or fourty metres on it, but it was slowly gaining. Turning my head, I saw Frank had glanced back as well before looking forward. A few seconds later, he tsked and turned to me.

“I told you not to slow us down.” Without warning, Frank threw out a punch, connecting with my jaw. I felt my jaw break, along with a few of my back teeth becoming dislodged as I hit the floor, hard.

Ah. It happened again. Once again, I had been betrayed. I landed on my side, facing the bear. I knew I had become a distraction, they had hoped the bear would go for me, leaving them a way to escape, and seeing the bear look at me, I knew their plan had worked. I didn’t move, and it wasn’t because I couldn’t but because I didn’t want to. What was the point of living if all that happened was me being betrayed as those I trusted were led to their deaths because of me.

I gave up at that point. I was afraid of death, afraid of never seeing my parents again, but I knew my death would be for the betterment of everyone. As I watched, the bear came closer, twenty metres then fifteen. It lets out a raging roar as it reaches ten metres, but at that moment, someone appeared in front of the bear.

A large, bulky man raises a mighty shield in front of himself and the bear slams into it, seemingly not knowing this man would appear. The bear let out a loud, angry roar as it stared at the man with hatred in its eyes.

“NOW!” The man roars, swinging his shield, slamming it into the bear's head. A shadow passed over me, and a figure appeared next to the man before stepping in front of him. My heart skipped a beat. The figure…that figure reminded me of her. That white tail, short white hair and fox ears, reminded me of one of my only friends. Tears welled up as my mind reminded me that I had let that friend die. It was fitting that someone who resembled her would appear now.

I watched as the woman laid into the bear with her fists. At first, her strikes had been weak and I had thought she would die as the bear clawed at her as well. But she moved so beautifully, dodging its attacks with so little movement and that was when I saw it. Her blows had become stronger, faster and deadlier. I could see wounds appearing all over the bear, and before I knew it she struck out, caving its head in, killing the monster. It had been less than five seconds.

The man turns towards the sounds of more roaring as the woman turns to look in another direction and I saw her side profile. My heart fluttered as my mind went blank. I must’ve been seeing a hallucination moments before my death, this couldn’t be real…she looked like an older Alisha.

Feeling a pair of hands wrap around my shoulders and behind my knees, I felt myself picking up and looking at the face I saw a blue haired girl looking at me with curiosity.

“Are you perhaps Madam Olivia?”

Weakly nodding, the blue haired girl gave me a small smile. Without a word, she put a weird cube into my mouth while handing me a bottle of water. Eating the cube, I suddenly felt something I hadn’t in months. My stomach slowly became full as energy slowly released into my body. The blue haired girl handed me a pill.

“This will give you more energy, Madam Olivia. Take it.” Doing as she said without question, in fear she would get angry if I didn’t, I took the pill and swallowed it with some water, choking slightly as my throat hadn’t been used for a day.

“Xeno! We have to move, they’re surrounding us! Something strong is headed this way!” I heard the yell of another person. “I’ve got these four safe, they’re in the Darkness cocoon, but it won’t last against an assault of this level!”

“Got it!” The pill took effect, but instead of making me full of energy, I felt tiredness overcome me. Had I been poisoned? Had I once again been betrayed? My mind wondered as I resisted the sleepiness, and before it could take over, I heard the man speak once again.

“Alright, let's retreat, we have the adventurers. Alisha, use it.”

As a massive magic circle lit up above us and dozens of beams of silver striked down, my mind could only process one word from that sentence as my mind drifted into a deep sleep…

Alisha?