Laid on the ground, I sat up holding my aching head.  Around me, all sounds were muted. People were running in panic, tents were on  fire. Someone was beside me. He shook me saying something that I couldn't grasp. 

I shook my head trying to clear the cobwebs surrounding my thoughts. The pain flared up and I let out a groan. The boy helped me to get up. Little by little, the sound became clearer. Shouts of fright and cries of war melded together in a cacophony of death that left me confused. A priest was cut in half leaving behind a gurgle of blood as he stared in shock at his executioner.

“What … happened?” I asked in a small voice as I took in what unfolded around me.

“You don't remember? The camp is under attack.”I shook my head in denial. I regretted my action, the pain flared up again. 

The boy dragged me away while I was distracted. I still didn't understand my surroundings. It was like the thoughts refused to stick to my mind.  

Before long, the sounds of fights drew away. The night wrapped around us. The further we went, the more the calm darkness denied what unfolded at the camp. 

“What happened?” I asked in a stronger voice but I felt adrift and frustrated with myself. 

The boy sat me on a log and left me behind. I didn't know for how long but when he came back he had a flask of water with him. He held it as he made me drink.

“Are you okay?” he asked concerned.

“Yeah... I think.” I held my head. The pain was milder than before but it still made me groggy.

I jumped as I heard a branch crack. My eyes roamed our surroundings. It was difficult with the haze of pain I felt but I focused at the glowing eyes that approached us. I tried to get up to put up a fight. I wobbled on my feet. The boy supported me before I fell.

“Don't worry, they're friends.”

I stared at him, eyes wide in astonishment. The owners of those glowing eyes came into sight. They were more beast than men. Their fur was matted with blood. Their fangs gleamed under the waning moonlight. 

“What?”

“They're friends.” he said again. Before I could say anything more, I fell to the ground unconscious.

The next time I awoke,  I was on one of the beast men's shoulder. He was running. Shouts rang from the direction we left. I raised my head where it rested in the wolf man's back.

I watched arrows plant themselves on the ground where a few seconds earlier, my captors' feet were. The archers didn't care that an acolyte like myself could be touched. They attacked my captors with the intent to kill them no matter the collateral damage.  

My head still hurt but I concentrated. As soon as I saw the pursuers, I cast spells.

“Earth spikes!” 

From the ground, spikes rose and pierced their feet. Their length were uneven. Some were small, others were big. Their only similarity was their sharpness. A small pained smile appeared on my face as their cries of pain rang in the otherwise silent night. 

When my mana ran out, darkness pulled me into its embrace once again.

This time, I didn't know how long I stayed unconscious but when I opened my eyes again, daylight streamed through a wooden door. I gingerly got up from the bed I laid on and went outside.

I was in the middle of a makeshift camp. A large number of people moved with purpose doing whatever they needed to do. It was a melting pot of ethnicity. There were humans, beast men, elves and even some dwarves.

I stood at the door of the only building this place had. It was conspicuous as hell. Before I was able to move away, someone saw me and shouted.

“He's awake!”

All activity stopped as they stared at me. The boy I remembered from before ran to me and took my hands.

“You're awake.”

“Who are you?”

“Don't you remember me? I'm James Sanford.”

“James... Sanford?” The name rang a bell but I just couldn't place it.

“We're friends.”

“Okay, stop! Can't you at least make a better lie? I don't have friends.”

“Celia!” He shouted. A woman detached herself from the gawkers and pushed us into the one room building. 

“Oh! Cesaria lift the fog in this man's mind.” A purple light came out of her hand and shot at my eyes. I fell backward as images of what happened came back to me.

****

I had been healing the injured for what felt like weeks. At the beginning, they only gave me people with small injuries to heal. It was rather fast and easy but the number of faith points I gained was small.

However, after I took a few days, they started  to give all the acolytes the heavily wounded to heal. The skill I gained from becoming an acolyte wasn't efficient enough to help. 

“Excuse-me? But we're not strong enough to heal them. Why don't the priests do it?” I asked the priest supervising us. The priests had a higher skill level than the acolytes so they could easily rehabilitate them without us.

“How are you supposed to gain faith if we do everything in your stead?”

Healing injured people was the easiest way to gain faith for the weak acolyte. In my head, I understood what he meant but my heart told me that they shouldn't let the patients suffer because of this.

We couldn't heal them in one go so we had to heal them in waves. It was like an assembly line work. We went from one patient to another using our skill after the previous acolyte in front of us did it. 

It took five hours to heal six heavily injured people. In that time, two others died. 

“Those people could have survived if you had helped them.” I complained to the supervisor.

“If you're not happy with how things work, you can leave the order of Althasia.”

“Althasia is the Goddess of Life. Shouldn't we cherish the life she gives to her children?”

“You're still an acolyte, you don't know anything. Althasia is the Goddess of Life and Death. She welcomed the dead in her warm embrace.” He told me smugly.

“That still doesn't mean you can let people die when you can save them.”

“They will be happier in the arms of our Goddess.”

My words didn't reach him. I tried some more to make him see reason but it was useless.

I felt depressed, I still had a long way to go before I could heal my pets and the priest's attitude made me feel bad.  A hand landed on my shoulder. I looked at its owner. It was a young man the same age as me. He was also an acolyte.

“Courage! We'll be better in no time.” His words of comfort made me smile.

“Thanks. I'm Everheart Dreamweaver.” 

“James Sanford.” He shook my hand. 

“So what pushed you to become an acolyte?” I asked out of the blue. 

“I wasn't strong enough to be a warrior, nor good enough to be a scholar. The only choice I had was either become an acolyte or a bandit.”

“Huh?” I didn't expect that answer.

“I'm an orphan. I was raised in an orphanage.” Seeing my uncomprehending face, he explained, “To have a job, you have to apprentice under someone who has the job. As an orphan only warriors, scholars and priests will accept me as an apprentice. If I don't choose to be a priest, the only choice left is to become a bandit. ”

“Ah! I didn't know.”

“You don't know much do you?” 

“I'm a traveler. I haven't been in this world for long.”

“You're a traveler? You don't look like one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Travelers are gorgeous and they're strong. They wouldn't be caught dead being an acolyte.” I winced as his words cut deep into me. “Sorry.”

“No, it's true. I'm not like the others.” I recognized the truth.

We talked with each other as we waited in line to get food. I learned a lot of things I didn't bother to look up before 

logging in. It brought me a whole new understanding to the situation in this world.

“So why did you want to be a priest?” He asked me in turn.

“To save my pets. They contracted a disease and I need to gain faith to heal them. But at the pace things are going, it'll take years for me to gain 10 000 faith points.”

“Why 10 000 faith?”

“It's the skill I received from Goddess Althasia when I came in this world.”

“Oh! I heard about it. All travelers are granted a wish when they first come into the world.”

“Yes and mine needs 10 000 faith to work.”

“If someday you can have that much faith, you'll be as strong as a god.”

“What do you mean?”

“No one explained faith to you?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I can gain faith by doing something for a god.”

“Yes and by having followers.” 

“I never heard of that.”

“A god's power depends on the number of followers they have. The more the stronger. What few people know is that everything works under the same parameters. The more followers you have, the more your faith increase.” My mouth hung opened at what he said. “That's why when an acolyte graduates into a priest, he is sent back from the front lines. He will go preach into a town and gain followers to spread the name of Althasia.”

“Wait! How come Althasia can still gain followers? I thought that whoever didn't venerate her was a demon. So can demons be converted?”

“You got something wrong. The followers of the others gods are the Unfaithful. Among them, there are some who can be saved if they come to Althasia. But there are those who can't be saved.”

It was our turn to get our food. It was a gooey stuff. James seeing my looked of disdain reassured me.

“The food is good despite the way it looks like.” I was dubious but I gave it a try. It was truly better than what its appearance suggested.

After eating, I bid goodbye to my new friend and walked around the camp. Night fell and the camp became silent. I didn't need to sleep so I turned into my true form and left the camp behind.

The camp was on a grassy plain. I made my way to a forest we passed by when we came here.  

The forest was wrapped in an ominous fog. Shivers sneaked down my back at the silence enveloping this place. I walked deeper into the forest. I followed a path that was invaded by plants.

Two demons armed with spears came into view. Their skin was red and they had horns on their head. I rushed at them and stabbed them with the katana I gained from playing Zombie Apocalypse. I made easy work of them as I took them by surprise. I didn't even stop and continued up the mountain.

I crossed path with three other groups that I beat up just as easily. I found the entrance of a cave at the foot of a mountain. Two red skins demons stood guards in front of it.  Remembering Maron's words, I decided to fight them in human form.

I turned into a human and cracked a branch from a nearby tree. One of the guards came to investigate the noise. I hid behind a bush and waited. As he passed alongside me, I jumped from my hiding spot. His neck was like butter under the sharpness of my katana. I got ready to dash out to the other guard when a pitiful groan sounded behind me. 

The guard I just decapitated was still moving. He was blowing air through his mouth in hope of moving his head on his own while the rest of his body shook like he was having a seizure. Between two puffs of breath, he cried  for the other to come and to kill the intruder. 

I should have been worried but his cries weren't strong enough to reach the other guard. Shaking off my fascination, I pierced his heart with my katana. He still didn't die. I, then proceeding by stomping on his head. I was the one who received damages as it was harder than metal. I tried magic next, it didn't work either. Fed up with it, I stuck his head in a tree trunk. I cut his limbs and hid them in different bushes. After all that, he still wasn't dead.

Exhausted, I sat down and thought about what I should do. If the others were like him, it would be hard to beat them. All of a sudden, I remembered the other demons I killed on my way. I ran back and sure enough, they weren't there anymore. 

They must have gone back to their camp and rang the alarm. 

I needed more information.

You've logged out of Althasia.

“I want information on the demons in Althasia.” It was the first time that I used this feature of the StaViCon. Usually, I used my computer even though it was an antique.

Information gathering...

All information have been gathered.

3579 documents found. Do you want to narrow down the search?

“Yes. Red skinned demon in Althasia.”

No document found.

“Wait! What?” It was impossible. “Horned demon in Althasia.”

No document found.

“List of demons in Althasia.”

378 documents found.

I read the first document of the list. In Althasia, every races apart from humans were considered as demons. Some were edible others weren't but as long as you were not human, you were a demon. There was no information whatsoever about demons that looked like demons. In Althasia, Elves, Dwarves and Beast men were called demon and as of now they were the only other races known. 

 It could only meant one thing: I discovered a new race without meaning to. 

I smiled happy that I did something like an adventurer for once but it faded rapidly when I remembered that I still didn't know how to kill them.

I logged back in Althasia. The forest was filled with demons searching for their lost comrade. I turned into my true form and retrieved the guard's body parts. I planned to experiment on him different ways to kill. The first ray of the sun peaked through the trees.  With no more time, I stuffed him into my inventory and went back to camp.

The rest of day was spent healing over and over the same people, chatting with James and thinking about ways to kill the red horned demon. 

When night fell again, the first cry of death resounded in the camp. I ran to see what happened. The red horned demons were there. Ten of them advanced in a line tearing up everything that stood in their way. 

Knowing how hard it was to kill them, I fled in the other direction. I wasn't the only one with the same idea. I was slow in my human form. Too slow, if the priest who pushed me out of the way was to be believed. I fell down. I put my hands above my heads as more and more people rushed by me. When their number trickled down, I rose up but a second push on my back brought me down again. A huge pain blossomed on my head and I lost consciousness.

****

I woke up with a start. I was back on the bed in the shack. James was next to me.

“Do you remember now?”

“Yeah. A bunch of red horned demon attacked the camp but how did we end up with those people?” I made a vague gesture toward the outside. 

“They're my friends. When they saw the red demons came out of the forest and go in the direction of the camp, they came to save us.”

“So how many people survived.”

“I don't know when they saw the beast men a few warriors and archers pursued us ignoring the red demons but they died.  I don't think anyone else survived. It was quite a miracle that my friends came in time. Those demons are extremely dangerous.”

“You say that like you know them.”

“I've just heard about them. Two days ago was the first time, I saw one.”

“Two days ago?”

“Yes, you slept for two days.”

I chose to ignore that and to go back to talking about the red demons. 

“Can you tell me everything you know about the red demons?”

“Sorry I don't know much. I know that they've live in this forest for centuries and that people don't go inside the forest... ever.” 

My eyes widen in realization. Oh please! Don't tell me it's my fault they came out!

Previous/ Next