[p=center]The Winged Knight[/p]

[p=center]Volume 1 - Chapter 5 - One Journey Ends, Another Begins[/p]

I once again found myself inside the slightly burned down town of Nantgarth.

The first thing I did was open my friends list and see if Eiden was online, he was.

-"Eiden, it's me Aurelius. Are you ready to head for the cave?"

-"Jesus that scared the crap out of me." He said in a flustered voice that made me smile.

-"Haha, now you know how I felt when you suddenly whispered me out of nowhere. Feels a bit freaky to have someones voice just enter your head doesn't it?" I said with considerable amusement.

-"So true. I was inside the inn waiting for you and when you whispered me I yelped and jumped up from the chair making everyone in the inn turn and stare at me. Very embarrassing."

I laughed out loud in the middle of the village, making people stare at me. Turning myself into exactly the kind of spectacle Eiden did.

Karma's a bitch, huh. I thought a little embarrassed.

I saw Eiden coming out of a larger building I assume was the inn. I walked over to him. We were still in a party, so I didn't need to invite him again.

"Do you have everything we need for our trip to the cave?"

"Yes, the villagers were all very kind and let us have some spices and vegetables. And the elder gave me the map he had, so we at least know what mountain to search. Otherwise we'd be here for months, the Ulta Mountains are ridiculously large."

"Well then, let's be off." I told him with a smile and we walked northwards through the village.

Before we left, we decided to have the local blacksmith repair all of our armor and weapons. He was more than willing to do it for free since it was for their saviors.

As we finally exited the village we realized that just like last time, there was no road.

I groaned and asked Eiden: "Are we really going to walk through thick forests for weeks?"

He looked at me and grimaced. "According to this map, our walk should take about two weeks since the forest is even thicker here."

I sighed as we started walking into the forest.

[p=center]***[/p]

This forest was different from the previous one.

In the other forest with the goblins, there were almost no animals since they'd been scared away. This forest however, was populated by tons of wild animals who thrived with the absence of man.

We'd only been walking for a day when we encountered our first one.

"Stop." Eiden whispered sharply as we were walking together. I stopped and we both crouched down, to better hide our bodies from whatever it was that he'd seen.

Both of us stayed completely silent, and I was just about to ask Eiden why we stopped when a bear walked out of the shrubbery.

It was gigantic. Easily over 2,5m(8'2) tall, and had to weigh at least 400kg(881lbs). When it saw us it stopped for a second, then let out a huge roar and charged at me.

I barely had time pull my shield over my shoulders while I drew my sword. Eiden backed away, trying to position himself so he could fire Frost Bolts at it.

When the bear arrived I hadn't had the time to make an attack, so I dodged and his jaws clamped shut on the position I was in just 2 seconds ago.

I brought up my shield, and loosed a vertical slash onto his body. He roared in pain and tried to hit me with his huge paw, my back was against a tree and I didn't have the time to dodge. So I brought up my shield to stop its paw, it held. Barely.

The shield cried out in protest and I staggered from the weight behind the blow, but somehow managed to divert the paw onto the ground while I took a step to the right and aimed a thrust straight for it's neck. My thrust dug deep just as a Frost Bolt crashed into his back. And he staggered from the combined attacks.

I pulled out my sword and did two fast slashes on the side of his body as he cried out in pain just as another Frost Bolt arrived and the bear scattered into light.

You have leveled up

"He was pretty tough. Eiden did you also level up? He has to have been pretty high level..." I said as I picked up the black bear pelt he dropped, while leaving the meat for Eiden.

"Yeah he was, I also gained a level but I have no idea what level he was." He told me walking over and picking up the left behind bear meat.

"If this is the first animal we encountered after only a day, how dangerous will the mountain be?" I asked Eiden with an excited tone.

I want to fight even stronger monsters. I was becoming quite the battle-maniac since my time with Kat & Matt.

"I don't know, but it'll surely be fun." He answered me with a grin.

I guess I'm not the only one. I thought with a hidden smile.

I decided to put my 5 points in Strength before we continued deeper into the forest.

[p=center]***[/p]

Two weeks later we hadn't even come half way.

The forest was even thicker than we thought, and bears and dire wolves kept attacking us all of the time. And now our tent was too low leveled to keep us hidden from the animals, so one of us had to keep night watch.

We leveled up a lot, I managed to reach level 48.

While we were very happy about the levels and amount of pelts gained, the forest was beginning to wear us down. Walking and fighting for 10 hours a day, and then having to keep night watch was incredibly tiring.

We were currently walking through the dense forest.

"Eiden, do you think maybe we should try sleeping in a tree or something? I really don't want to continue doing what we've been doing..." I told him a bit desperately.

He looked thoughtful before answering.

"We could try. Let's find a large tree for tonight, climb it and have one of us stand night watch as normal. Someone needs to keep watch at least until we have an animal come close to the tree, to see if it will try to climb it or somehow shake us down." He said seriously.

Thank you Eiden! And I'm not looking forward trying to sleep in a tree, but nothing can be worse than having to stand watch the entire night. I thought with no small amount of relief.

"Sounds like a plan." I told him.

And so for the rest of the way towards the mountain we slept in trees. It was very uncomfortable, but the animals left us alone up there so we could sleep or log out safely. And after doing it for over two weeks we'd gotten used to it.

[p=center]***[/p]

After over four weeks of walking through the forest, we'd finally arrived at Mount Taylak where the local legend said Otrix's cave was.

The last two weeks of walking had yielded even higher leveled animals, and I'd now reached level 54. And since fighting higher leveled opponents and taking several very heavy blows from bears, my Endurance and Fighting Spirit had both increased by 20. I'd been alternating between using spear and sword, and since then my Spear Mastery had reached Intermediate Level 4, my Sword Mastery had reached Intermediate Level 5 and so had my Flowing Water Style.

We exited the forest abruptly, we weren't really prepared for it.

What greeted us was a huge, looming mountain. It had some sizable patches of forest on it, but it was mostly bare. Its tip was covered with snow and ice, and the whole mountain looked very forbidding.

"This feels like an appropriately menacing place to find a hidden cave of a master mage, right?"

"Yes, it feels very... ominous." Eiden's serious tone was cancelled out by the savage grin on his face.

Haha, we're both looking forward to this adventure.

"What's that?" I said pointing towards something moving towards us from the distance. It was growing bigger and bigger as it came closer, my wariness was beginning to rise quickly so I decided to equip my spear.

Eiden also made himself ready for combat.

It kept growing larger and larger, and I suddenly realized what it was.

It's a goddamned giant! Though it's not as large as I thought they were... I thought a bit puzzled through the sheer excitement at the prospect of fighting a giant.

Little did I know I was about to experience one of the most exhausting things of my life.

As the giant came closer I saw it was about 3m(9'8) tall, had grayish skin, just a few gray hairs on its head and it had giant hands and feet. It carried a huge tree trunk as a weapon, I took my stance and readied myself for the upcoming battle.

The giant charged me and brought down the trunk in a vertical smash, I dodged to the right and was about to thrust my spear at his thigh, when I staggered from the sheer force of the trunk hitting the ground.

Crap! My shield can at most stand one or two of those hits! I thought as I recovered my balance and tried to move around the giant while he brought back the trunk from the ground. Where I noticed it had left a considerable mark.

I aimed my spear at the backside of his leg and released a thrust, he groaned in response but otherwise seemed relatively unperturbed. A Frost Bolt crashed into his side which distracted him for a moment, I decided to use the chance and ran behind him where I thrust the spear straight through his Achilles tendon.

This time the giant reacted. He screamed out his pain and anger as he went down on his left knee, trying to avoid putting pressure on the now severed tendon.

I circled him towards his back and used all the strength I could muster and drove the spear straight through its back so it protruded from his chest. And just as my spear pierced him, Eiden's Frost Bolt crashed into his face.

The giant scattered into thousands of pieces of light.

I turned towards Eiden and grinned at him, he started to smile but then it just died out. I frowned and noticed he was staring behind me, I turned to look at what he was staring at.

What I saw, was another giant running towards us.

We fought it, and managed to kill it.

And then another giant came. And before the next one was even dead, another one had already arrived. But instead of attacking us, it simply watched. And when the other giant died, then it attacked. And when it died, another giant was waiting to take its place.

And another one after that.

And another one.

[p=center]***[/p]

We'd been fighting giants for hours now.

The only reason I could still fight, was because of my class trait. The Swan Knight regenerates stamina after every graceful move/dodge/attack. This focused me like never before, I started trying to move gracefully whenever I had to re position myself. My body's inherent grace, combined with high Charisma stat and intense focus made my every move/dodge/attack graceful.

This resulted in my stamina almost never dropping, since I regenerated more all the time. The problem was that even if my stamina kept being refilled, my mind was still extremely exhausted. And so was Eiden.

He'd run out of mana a long time ago, and had to sit behind me while I protected him so he could use a skill called 'Meditation' to boost his mana regen. But the giants didn't seem interested in him, they mostly ignored him as long as he wasn't fighting. So now, he only joined the battle around every third of fourth giant. That meant I was fighting one on one most of the time.

A huge group of giants had gathered around us now. I had no idea how many they were, but at least in the dozens if not hundreds. They were standing in a half circle facing us, sometimes cheering and other times just watching silently. I was too occupied with fighting so I couldn't really take a good look at them, but I'd noticed one thing immediately.

Most of them were bigger than the ones I fought.

By that I don't mean the difference in height all races have between individuals, no this was more like the difference between adult and child.

After killing another giant, I finally exploded at the gathered group.

"Why aren't you all attacking?!" I shouted at them in frustration. The giant that was about to attack me stopped and turned around to look at a huge giant I hadn't noticed before.

This was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. If I'd just kept my mouth shut they'd keep coming one by one, now I don't know what'll happen...

I took this opportunity to quickly invest all the points I'd gotten from leveling up in strength, charm and vitality.

The giant had gray long hair and looked much older. He was also at least 4,5m(14'7) tall and his arms and legs were as thick as tree trunks. He stepped forward and answered me in a booming voice.

"We are sending forth our young so that they can prove themselves!" I was dumbfounded by the giant's answer.

They're using me to cull out the weak ones. I realized numbly.

"You must realize by now, that none of them are a match for me?" I asked him curiously, almost conversationally. As if I'd just asked what he thought about the weather lately.

The old giant looked at me with hard eyes, and for a moment I thought he was about to attack me.

But then he started laughing. And when he did, so did the rest of the gathered giants. Their laugh was so loud I had to block my ears, but I swore I felt the earth tremble from their combined voices.

"Haha, human you are funny!" He said with an infectious grin that almost made me forget that they'd been trying to kill us for hours now.

"How about this, bring forth your strongest warrior. And if I can defeat him, you will allow us free passage to the mountain." I told him with a fierce smile.

"And if you lose? You will only die, and we would gain nothing we wouldn't have gained by ignoring your request."

This one seems a lot smarter than the giants I've heard about... are they a special sub-race? I thought a bit irritated that he'd easily seen through my proposal.

"Are you saying that your mightiest warrior is afraid to face me?" I asked him with a fearless grin.

I don't really like to provoke them but we can't continue fighting like this until they're all dead, I'll collapse of mental exhaustion long before that.

The giants all became quiet and stared at me with murder in their eyes.

Don't all charge me at once, please?

"I am the strongest warrior in our tribe, the ones you have fought were mere babies. Do you think you can defeat me?" The old giant said with a scornful laugh that made my temper flare.

"I will win." I said in a firm tone as I put back my spear and drew my sword instead.

The old giant's attitude changed immediately, like he couldn't believe I would dare challenge him. He turned towards the crowd and roared: "Get me my club!"

"Eiden, don't interfere. If you do they'll all probably attack." I told him without taking my eyes away from the giant.

Now one of the giants walked through the crowd with a huge tree trunk that had a giant stone tied with rope on the top. The old giant took it easily from the other giant who was struggling with it.

One hit with that and I'm most likely dead, or at least under 50% health...

"Are you ready to meet your death, human?"

"Yes, but if I kill you will your tribe keep your promise?" I asked nonchalantly.

Better to have him angry than calm and collected.

His eyes flashed angrily and he gritted his teeth before answering.

"They will keep it, should I fall." The other giants didn't look happy about what he said, but it seemed his words were law in the tribe.

I readied myself as the death match began.

I charged him immediately, his club flashed downwards at an incredible speed. I managed to dodge it by a few centimeters and let loose a slash at his leg. My sword dug deep, but I was forced to pull it back out quickly as he released one of his arms that were gripping the club and tried to smash me.

My shield came up instantly and his fist crashed into it, sending me flying a couple of meters from the force of his blow.

You have lost 400 Health

I got up groggily, my head ringing from the shield being pushed into my face. When my head had cleared enough to know what I was doing, he was almost upon me again.

His leg was bleeding, but that didn't seem to impede him in any way. His club came crashing down at me, and I managed to deflect it slightly. My shield cracked a little, but held as I was diverting the blow, not stopping it. I slashed him with everything I had at the same place my previous cut had landed.

This time he yelled out in pain, and I dodged to the right as his fist barely missed me. I was standing at his right side, next to the left leg I'd slashed twice before. I used three quick and strong attacks all aimed at the same wound.

The giant yelled out in agony as the last attack severed his leg. He was about to fall down, and I quickly exulted at my victory.

But I was too naive.

The old giant wasn't the leader of his tribe for nothing. He used his club to temporarily support his severed leg, and tried to turn towards me so he could throw himself on me.

I saw what he was trying to do, but he was simply too big for me to dodge him. As he threw himself towards me, I stood calmly watching as the giant was almost upon me.

When he was nearly on top of me, I took a quick step backwards so I was right under his thick neck and threw my shield to the side as I gripped the sword two-handed and pushed all the strength my body could manage into a vicious cut that decapitated the old giant.

Before his body could crush me, he shattered into light.

You have leveled up

I saw some loot appearing and quickly took it almost before it could even be seen, in case the giants were about to charge me.

I turned towards them wildly, ready for anything. But they all simply stared in shock. I decided to use the moment instead of letting them just react to their leaders death.

"Well? Are you going to defile your leaders memory and break his promise? Or will you keep it, and we can fight on our way back." I said in a grim tone.

He only ever promised us free passage to the mountain, and if I don't give them something they'll simply overwhelm and kill us now.

A few of them flinched at my words, and a giant stepped forward.

"We will keep the promise made by leader, but on your way back we will hunt you down and tear your limbs apart, slowly." The giant said in a malicious growl that sounded like an oath, and turned to leave.

As he left all the others followed him, but some looked like they were on the edge of exploding. So I just stood there calmly, trying not to make any threatening move.

When they were too far out to hear us I finally started to laugh relieved, Eiden joined me.

"That was too close." Eiden said when we'd calmed down some.

"No kidding, and I don't think our trip home will be fun either." I said seriously looking at the backs of the giants.

"And what did the boss drop? I saw you snatch something up when you thought we might get killed." He said with a wry smile.

He's right! I thought excitedly and opened my inventory, I saw something that looked like a shield and took it out.

[p=center]Aernhardt's Great Coffin Shield[/p]

Durability: 97/105

Defense: 45

Aernhardt was a knight famous for his great coffin shield and the way he fought with it.

He had the shield specifically made for high durability so he could smash things with it, his fighting style was to use the shield as aggressively as possible.

Restrictions: Level 65, Strength 180, Vitality 110.

Equip: Raises Strength by 25, Raises Vitality 15.

Jackpot! Just 5 levels more and I can use it. I thought happily.

"A new shield Eiden! A very good one, and just 5 levels more until I can use it." I told him excited, which he responded to with a smile.

I decided to put my five points from leveling into Strength.

"Now then, let's start searching for the cave shall we?" Eiden asked me with a smile. I responded with a firm nod and so we started to search the mountain.

[p=center]***[/p]

After two days of looking around the mountain and killing bears and wolves, we finally found the entrance to the cave.

*TING

[p=center]DUNGEON: You are the first players to discover Master Otrix's Hidden Cave.[/p]

[p=left]Reward: Fame +100.

Every day for one week, double EXP and double item drops. The rarest items will drop from killing the first monster of each type. Subsequent kills will drop common items.[/p]

"Great, now we know we found the right place." I sighed in relief as I didn't feel like running around the mountain anymore.

"Yes, this is definitely the place. Aurelius, before we start I bought two Health Potions for this, so you take one." He said with a smile as he handed me the Health Potion.

It was a pretty potent one, it would heal 1500 Health over 30 Seconds.

This has to have been expensive...

"Are you sure about giving one to me? They look very expensive." I told him with an unsure expression, but he simply smiled and nodded firmly.

"Alright, thank you Eiden." I told him with a smile and we started walking into the cave.

"And Aurelius, if I'm right about this cave the enemies will most likely be ice elementals or some water wlemental, though I'm not sure how likely that is since they love water... anyway what I'm trying to say is, that I'll be pretty much useless as damage here. But, I have something that can really help you. I have the Frost Ward spell which guards against Water Magic, so I'll use it on you so you'll take a lot less damage." He said in a relieved voice, obviously glad he isn't completely useless here.

I gave him a nod and smile as we started moving into the cave.

We came upon the first enemy just a few minutes later.

It was exactly as Eiden had predicted, an Ice Elemental in humanoid form was walking around. He looked exactly like a human, except his face had no features and he was completely made out of ice.

Eiden cast Frost Ward on me as I drew my sword and charged.

When the elemental heard the sound, he turned towards me and fired an Ice Lance straight at me. I wasn't prepared for the speed of the spell, and it hit me squarely in the chest.

You have lost 500 Health

I grunted in pain and kept running towards him, before he had time to send another spell I slashed off the arm he had out pointing at me. He didn't seem like he could feel pain, since instantly after loosing his left arm without even a second he made his right into a fist and sent it towards my face.

I dodged to the left using a spinning move and used the momentum to deliver a horizontal slash that cut straight through his chest severing him in half before exploding into light.

Due to continuous actions you have created a new Skill

Swan Whirl: Beginner Level 1 (0%)

[p=left]A graceful whirl that ends in a powerful slash, and somehow reminds people who sees it of a swan.

It uses the momentum of a spin to build force for a cut, can be used both as a normal attack and as a way to dodge an enemy before cutting them.[/p]

Sweet! I was beginning to wonder why The Swan Knight didn't get any skills to start with. I didn't really think about it in the beginning, but based on what I've heard from Eiden when you get your class you also get at least one skill. Is The Swan Knight supposed to create them by himself? And if so, isn't that kind of unreasonable? Though I have created two skills now... Swan Song and Swan Whirl. I thought intensely.

I looted the Ice Elemental, it dropped some kind of ice crystal that looked expensive. I handed it over to Eiden, since he's the one that uses ice it's better to just let him have it.

He looked at me with huge eyes.

"Are you sure about this? I mean I think I could use it for a class quest or something later on, but this is really expensive..." He said in an uncomfortable tone.

"Yeah, take it. It's only money. I value friendship a lot more." I told him in a serious voice. He seemed to tear up at my words but managed to nod and wipe his eyes with the sleeves of his robe.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"By the way, do you think it's possible to cast Frost Ward on only my shield?" I asked him trying to change the subject while I started bandaging my wounds.

"I... think so. Usually I just aim it on your body and the whole body gets protected, but if I use it on the shield instead... yes it might work and I see where you're going with this. It would probably concentrate the spell more as it covers a lesser surface. But still, if you get hit by an Ice Lance without the Frost Ward it'll probably do twice the damage it did last time. But on the other hand, if you can block it with the shield it should negate most of the spell's damage, and the shield wouldn't take a lot of durability loss either."

"Let's try it out." I said and raised my shield for him to cast Frost Ward on, he did and we continued deeper into the cave.

[p=center]***[/p]

Two hours later we'd gone a lot deeper into the cave.

I had reached level 65 now and could finally equip Aernhardt's Great Coffin Shield.

The first tests with a Frost Warded shield had been a bit shaky. But after several trials and errors, I finally managed to 'see' the Ice Lance fast enough to move the shield to the right spot and block in time. From there I only got better at it, and I could now smash the Ice Lance aside instead of just taking its momentum head on.

We'd just killed another ice elemental, and I noticed that the cave was starting to become wider.

"Do you think we're almost there Eiden? It's starting to become wider and we've encountered more ice elementals in the last hour than we had before..." I told him a bit excited that we might finally reach the end.

"Probably, but the elementals have been getting stronger and stronger, and there should be some kind of boss. It won't be easy." He told me seriously.

He's right, there should be at least one boss in this cave.

We started walking again, a bit more warily now. No ice elementals were in sight, but the cave kept getting wider and wider until finally we entered a huge room, and everything was covered in ice. The walls were gleaming with ice and the roof had several huge ice-taps hanging from the ceiling.

Eiden gasped and I turned to look at him with a questioning expression.

"I just received a buff when we entered the cave. It's called 'The Affinity' and increases Water Affinity by 30% indefinitely inside this room, or 6 hours outside of it. Be careful, that means the boss here is most likely very strong." He told me in a worried voice.

"Then this time use Frost Ward on my body instead, since we don't know whether the boss will be a melee or caster. If the spell is on my body it provides the best all-round protection." I told him seriously. He nodded and prepared the spell.

We started slowly walking into the room, fortunately the floor wasn't completely covered in ice so we could still walk decently.

After walking 50m inside the room we heard a sound.

At first it sounded innocent, like a small crack. Then it started growing at an alarming rate, and we looked up towards the sound.

What we saw shocked us, five huge ice-taps were moving towards each other and starting to combine. I realized quickly that this has to be the boss, so I drew my sword and move out from under the ice-taps.

After 30 seconds of combining themselves, the now clump of ice fell from the ceiling. Just as it was about to hit the floor, it grew legs and used them to dampen the fall.

It kept growing limbs and reshaping itself, until finally a 7m(22'2) tall ice golem stood in front of us.

This is bad...

Eiden cast Frost Ward on me before I ran towards the golem.

Better to take the initiative...

The golem turned its ice eyes to look at me running towards it and I felt a chill down my spine. It used its fist to try to smash me, I managed to dodge but it was ridiculously fast. I ran up to its leg and used all the power I had and let loose a vicious cut.

The sword dug in a tiny bit into the ice, barely making any damage at all.

Shit.

I pulled out my sword and started to run away from it. It quickly started chasing me and I could barely stay ahead.

The sword could barely make a dent on it, the only idea I have is to try using the spear to thrust at the same place repeatedly... I thought as I ran for my life. I put the sword back in my scabbard, strapped the shield onto my back and pulled out the spear from my inventory.

While I was doing all of that, I had to concentrate and hadn't noticed that the golem was almost upon me. I heard a shout of warning and just when I looked over my shoulder a massive fist of ice crashed into my back.

You have lost 900 Health

I flew through the air and crashed straight into a wall.

You have lost 300 Health

I tried to stand up after my landing, but failed. I tried again slower, and barely managed.

Why hasn't it finished me off yet? I thought puzzled as I tried to look for the golem.

And then I saw why.

Eiden was currently running while firing Frost Bolts wildly. They barely did any damage, but what they did do was irritate the golem immensely. It was now chasing him and I knew that Eiden would be caught any second now, so I had to help him.

I started to half limp half run towards them while holding my spear with both of my hands.

The golem had just cornered Eiden when I came up behind it. I knew the only way I could pierce its hard ice, I needed to thrust at the exact same point multiple times. So I focused like never before in my life, and started thrusting.

One, my spear dug a bit into the backside of its right knee.

Two, my acquaintance the spear managed to pierce deeper into its knee.

Three, my friend the spear pierced violently even deeper into the damaged knee.

Four, my trusted spear was now over halfway through the knee, and the golem was trying to turn around so it could face me.

Five, my beloved spear pierced straight through the knee, and as the leg shattered, so did my spear.

Due to durability reaching 0 Basic Hard Iron Spear has broken.

Due to continuous actions you have created a new Skill

Piercing Swan: Beginner Level 1 (0%)

[p=left]You thrust gracefully aiming for a single point, after successfully hitting the enemy you will release 4 more thrusts at the exact same place.[/p]

This time I didn't celebrate prematurely.

The golem was in the motion of turning when its leg shattered, it crashed down onto the floor harming it further. But the golem couldn't feel pain, and started crawling towards me.

I started to run towards it, and as it reached out its arm trying to grab me I swiftly dodged under it and drew my sword as I ran under its armpit and jumped onto its back and shouted: "Piercing Swan!"

I had aimed the trust at the neck of the golem, I managed to land four of the five thrusts before it used the arms and threw itself onto its back.

I didn't manage to get completely out. My leg was crushed by its massive neck.

You have lost 600 Health

I was now perilously close to death, and decided it was all or nothing as I unleashed another Piercing Swan aimed at the neck that my leg was currently being crushed by.

And then I used Piercing Swan again, and again, and again, and again.

Until finally the neck shattered and the head rolled away from the body before it scattered into light.

You have leveled up

I was still dying though.

My crushed leg was bleeding profusely, and my eyesight was growing progressively darker as the health bar drained.

"Aurelius!" I heard a desperate cry that brought me a little out of my hazed mind. And then I felt something warm lift my head carefully, almost tenderly as a warm liquid started pouring down my throat before I blacked out.

[p=center]***[/p]

I woke up comfortably in some kind of make-shift bed out of pelts.

What the... didn't I die? Shouldn't I be in the Palace? I thought confusedly as I started to sit up.

"Good morning." I heard a familiar voice say to my left, I looked towards it and saw Eiden sitting in an ice chair at an ice table.

"I... survived?" I said stupidly, still a bit out of it after just waking up.

"Yes, it was very close but I managed to pour my Health Potion down your throat." He said in a relieved voice.

"Oh... thank you Eiden. And I'll take out my Potion immediately so you can have it as a replacement." I said starting to bring up the inventory.

"No! The only reason you almost died is that you decided to help me with a quest that I could never have completed alone. So keep it, don't even try to give it to me I'll only refuse." He told me in a stern voice that took me aback.

He's very forceful... I thought a bit amused, remembering the shy guy he used to be.

"What happened with your quest?"

"It's completed." He told me with a smile before continuing.

"After the golem died, the quest completed by itself and a door opened at the end of the room. It led here, into this ice study that used to be Master Otrix's. The reward for the quest was a spellbook that taught me 'Blizzard' which was the spell Otrix had been trying to perfect."

"Blizzard summons a huge snowstorm that hurts and slows down enemies, and if they're trapped too long inside it become frozen as well. But Otrix wasn't satisfied with that, he wanted the spell to only affect enemies. And that was what he was trying to perfect, and he succeeded. According to his last diary the blizzard is only cold for your enemies, everyone else will feel nothing from it. It will still be almost completely impossible for them to see inside it, but they won't be harmed." He told me with a huge smile.

"I also received a necklace that used to be Otrix's that increases Water Affinity by 15%! But sadly, I'm too low level to use it. By the way, after the golem died an information message popped up that told me the dungeon would never respawn again. Something about ice elementals has now learned to stay away from here." He said with a grin.

"That's great, I'm really happy for you." I said with a warm smile

"So, when are we leaving?" I asked him. He looked a bit uncomfortable before responding.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to stay here. This Water Affinity buff lasts for 6 hours after leaving the cave, that means I can hunt monsters around the mountain with 30% extra Water Affinity. That'll level my skills a lot faster, and my spells will be a lot stronger so I can level faster as well." He told me with a regretful voice.

Oh... well I need to go back to Jinari now. I have a massive amount of loot to sell, and I want to get the rest of my armor. I should also do a little something to repay Kat for all she's done for me.

"That's alright, I'm going to head back for the capital. And we can still message each other, so we'll meet up again some other day for some more fun." I told him with a smile as I went over to the chair and gave him a goodbye hug.

"Take care of yourself Eiden, and talk with your sister about modifying your capsule so you can visit me in my Palace." I told him a little huskily while still hugging him.

"I w-will." He said in a wavering voice.

"Goodbye." I told him, broke the hug and started the long walk out of the cave.

[p=center]***[/p]

After walking and jogging for an hour I had arrived at the exit of the cave.

I also spent the 5 points I got from leveling up in Strength.

Now I just have to leave this mountain... easier said than done. Those giants are most likely waiting eagerly for me to leave. I thought a bit grimly.

I started walking down from the mountain, but instead of walking the same way we came I tried to go south-east instead of just south.

It worked... for a while.

One giant finally saw me, and then he used a big war-horn he carried with himself to send out a signal.

I ran madly, but was constantly attacked by new giants reaching me.

I killed one, then ran 200m before another one caught up and so the cycle continued.

I became very good at killing giants. These attacks combined with my previous experience had practically made me an expert, the easiest way was to either go for the Achilles tendon or cut the entire leg off. There were other ways, but none as fast or easy.

[p=center]***[/p]

After running and fighting for over a day and a half, I'd finally reached the thick forest that surrounds Taylak Mountain. Why did it take so long? Simply put, there were a lot of giants.

I leveled up twice more from killing all the giants, but I was by no means unharmed.

I was now inside the forest, and it was so dense that it was doubtful whether the giants could keep up inside. I decided to walk another half a day before resting.

When I was finally relatively sure I was safe, I decided to check my stats. "Status Window."

[quart=Character name,Alignment]Aurelius,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]68,Swan Knight[/quart]

Status Window

Title

Wolfsbane

Fame

200

[quart=Health,Mana]2220,100[/quart]

[quart=Strength,Agility]210+25,95+5[/quart]

[quart=Vitality,Charisma]120+25,111+30[/quart]

[quart=Endurance,Fighting Spirit]180+15,145[/quart]

[quart=Wisdom,Intellect]10,10[/quart]

[quart=Luck,Leadership]5,0[/quart]

Attack

47

Defense

77

Magic Resistance

None

[p=left]+30 Charisma

+25 Strength

+25 Vitality

+15 Endurance

+5 Agility

+ The Swan Knight class focuses on Charisma instead of Honor, this makes it much easier to raise the Charisma stat but makes it impossible for the Honor stat to be generated.

+ The Swan Knight regenerates a little stamina every time he makes a graceful move/dodge/attack.

+ Being a Knight class, all your weapon mastery skills level up faster.

+ Riding is easier and faster to master as a Knight.

+ Enables you to equip certain items specialized for the class.[/p]

I've really grown a lot since I left, huh... I thought a bit proud of my progress.

I was just about to lie down next to a little stream I'd found when I noticed something strange.

There were wisps of red in the water.

Blood? I thought confused as I started walking following the river east.

The red was becoming more and more pronounced as I kept walking, and soon it was an alarming amount of it.

[p=center]***[/p]

After following the stream for half an hour, I finally found the source.

Laying half inside the water was a horse.

Nay, to call it just a "horse" was too tame... too small.

After I met Marengo, I'd checked up on horses some. This one looked like a Shire horse, it was big. Very big.

She was big I realized now. She had to be around 200cm(6'5) high, and probably weighs around 1100kg(2425lbs). She was completely white except for around her neck where she had something that looked almost like a rope of black.

But what struck me most about her, was the sheer dignity and nobility she exuded. I felt like I wanted to kneel in front of her and swear her my service. Which was ridiculous, since she was a horse.

Excluding that, the thing that stood out most about her was all the wounds she had. She was bleeding an incredible amount.

My god! I thought shaken. What happened to her?! Rage was starting to burn away my shock as I fantasized what I would do if I ever met whoever did this to her.

I'd been standing there staring enough.

I walked towards her and went down on my knees next to her, when I was close enough I saw that she was looking at me with unreadable eyes.

I leaned down closely to her and whispered as softly and as soothingly I could: "I'm here to help you, I don't know who did this to you, girl. But I swear on everything that I hold sacred that I will never harm you."

She just looked me in the eyes, refusing to look away. I didn't know what that meant, but I quickly took out the healing potion Eiden gave me and tried to make her drink it.

When I started moving towards her face she tried to bite me. I managed to pull my arm back, but I had no idea how I was going to make her drink it.

I guess I'll just have do this... I thought as I quickly pushed my right arm forward so she bit deep into it. I felt the dulled pain but ignored it, and forced her head upwards as I poured the contents of the potion between her teeth and my arm, downwards into her throat.

She tried to break free, to move her head away. But I refused to let her, and used my whole body to hold her head in position.

As she was forced to swallow, she gradually calmed down. It seemed the potion had some effect. When the potion was empty, I pulled back my arm and dislodged my arm that was still being bitten. At first she didn't want to let go, but gradually released her bite.

After that I took out my bandages, and started bandaging the remaining wounds. The health potion should have brought her back to full health, but it looked like she had many bleeding wounds.

Wolves? Or bears? There's definitely bite marks all over her body. And one of the wounds is definitely an arrow wound...

Did she escape the wolves? Or are they on their way here right now? She might have managed to harm the one who bit her, but it could be back with more any second now. She's been laying here for at least half an hour so, we should probably move before whatever it is that's hunting her catches up.

She was looking a lot better now, not fully healed but pretty close. Though she still looked completely exhausted.

I moved closer to her head, as she was still laying on the ground.

"Girl? We need to move away from here... I don't know who or what did that to you, but they can't be that far behind since your wounds had to have slowed you down a lot." I told her in a soothing voice.

She looked me in the eyes, they still showed a lot of anger... but there was gratefulness somewhere in there.

"Please?" I asked her in a soft tone. She snorted and tried to stand up, after almost succeeding she couldn't take it and fell down again, and this time it seemed like she was planning on staying.

It looks like she's completely exhausted... but we have to move. I'm sorry for this, girl. I thought a bit regretfully as I prepared to threaten or cajole her into getting up. Whatever it took to save her life.

"You will get up. Now." I told her in a hard, commanding tone I've never used before. Her eyes whipped towards mine and looked disbelieving just as I received a message.

[p=center]You have managed to temporarily tame Faustina.[/p]

[p=left]Due to your high Charisma and Horse Mastery you have managed to temporarily tame Faustina, be warned however. The taming is not permanent, and can be broken either by her growing in power or you either loosing power or getting wounded. Since the taming is only temporary, it is not complete. She will heed your commands, but not willingly.[/p]

I was stunned as I watched her getting up, this time succeeding before I had another message appear.

A new title has been created and forcefully equipped. The title 'the Destined' cannot be unequipped.

Title: the Destined

You have been guided by destiny to this first monumental point in your journey.

[p=left]Title effects when equipped:

+ Unknown and Locked

+ Unknown and Locked

+ Unknown and Locked[/p]

What the hell is going on here? I have no idea what's happening anymore... I manage to temporarily tame her, and then I receive a title that can't be removed called 'the Destined'? And what's with the taming saying that it can be broken 'by her growing in power'?

She was now standing up, looking at me with murderous eyes.

I'm sorry Faustina, I didn't mean to tame you... I just wanted to help you. I thought sorrowfully.

"You have a beautiful name Faustina, please follow me and let's head for Nantgarth together." I told her with a sad smile as I led the way deeper into the forest.

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