Though I was being a good sport about it that fight showed me exactly how weak I currently am physically. I’ve completely forgotten how to fight and used only basic normal techniques. They were still perfectly executed but if I had been in top form I could have beaten Brul, the receptionist, to the ground. The fact that he had an injured leg and was obviously distressed by my imbuing made it even worse.

After the fight we reintroduced ourselves to each other and I learned that he lost he used to be a top B rank adventurer but after losing his leg to some kind of monster with a high affinity to darkness he had to retire. That was the reason he panicked when he saw my own element. Basically I was just lucky. Not only was I weaker physically but I had also forgotten how to use most of my abilities effectively in a fight.

Brul himself is a nice guy. He’s lively and friendly to those who earn it. Those who don’t are gonna wish they had. After a friendly conversation I asked him some different things. I learned that the town I was in was named Acton. The other I wasn’t so happy to hear.

“The military mobilizing? Haven’t heard of that happening rece- Oh! Are you talkin’ ‘bout that weird time five years ago where half the military burned down a village?” (Brul)

“Five years ago?” (Kenos)

“I think that’s about how long it was. I have no idea what the king was thinking but then again when have I ever?”

Shit. It’s been five years. Five years I’ve spent in the void going insane. I can only hope that somehow by the will of some more merciful god than Zahrah Kate managed to escape.

“So kid. You seemed to not be unfamiliar to swordsmanship and you can use mana well if you can imbue your weapon. Why didn’t you imbue your body as well?” (Brul)

I knew that was coming.

“I’ve had a sort of defect from birth. My body can’t be imbued with mana. It just doesn’t affect it.” (Kenos)

 “Hoh. Why didn’t you become a mage instead then? If you can control mana well enough to imbue your weapon then you surely had talent in that department.” (Brul)

Shaking my head I continued to lie to the closest thing to a friend I’ve made in this world without even a hint of it showing on my face. Maybe in some other alternate timeline I became an actor with a few Oscars to my name.

“Maybe I do but I need connections or money to become a good mage. For swordsmanship I just need to practice. Same goes for imbuing.” (Kenos)

“HAH! So what then? You mean that you learned those by yourself without a teacher? Heh. Kid I wish I could believe you’re joking but you seem completely serious. Let me tell you what that isn’t easy to do at all let alone without a teacher.” (Brul)

“Sure it isn’t but spells can’t be learned without someone to teach you no?” (Kenos)

He finally seemed to get what I meant. Just simple slashing and combat can be learned through practice and experience but for magic normally without any knowledge of it it is impossible to progress and from what I understood from when I asked about a library earlier books in this world are expensive. Magic books… probably even more so.

“Maybe I could teach you some better techniques with a sword then?” (Brul)

I shook my head again.

“I do have other techniques but I seem to be a little too inexperienced to use them in real combat.” (Kenos)

“Then let me help you with that. How about it? Want another go?” (Brul)

“Why do you wanna help me out so much anyway?” (Kenos)

At this point I even started to get a bit suspicious. I liked the guy but he seemed to want to help me a bit too much. He quieted down a bit.

“Kid… you know you may be smiling right now but your eyes aren’t. I’ve seen eyes like yours before but it was different. Old veteran soldiers that have experienced more than a single war, adventurers that have seen the darker side of the world. Some gave up and others succumbed to madness but all of them changed. Your eyes are filled with madness just like theirs but yours is different. Because even the madness is being suppressed by that strong unmovable will I see above it. I haven’t seen a will like that ever before. Not in even the strongest warriors I’ve met. Would you trust me if I just say I want that will to survive?” (Brul)

… That was unexpected. I probably looked visibly surprised while he said it and not many people can shake my poker face. The guy saw right through me. *Sigh*. There goes my award-winning actor theory. I looked down and contemplated. It’s been five years. The chances for Kate to still be in the castle unharmed are… minimal… if not non-existent. And I need to get stronger.

“I’ll… Take you up on that offer. But first I would like to take a quest. Something related to combat.” (Kenos)

“There’s actually a good one on the quest board over there. Goblin extermination. Critters are weak but have good teamwork and use weapons. Should be good practice.” (Brul)

I went and picked up the quest from the wall. It was exactly C ranked.

“Yeah this seems good. How do I register for this?” (Kenos)

“Normally you just walk up and show it to the receptionist. I’ll register you for it later. You should leave tomorrow. If you want I can recommend you a good inn.”

“I’m good thanks I’ll leave immediately.” (Kenos)

He seemed a bit surprised by my statement.

“You sure? It’s dangerous to travel alone at night. Or do you have a party?” (Brul)

“No I travel alone. And I’m well aware that it’s dangerous. I just don’t feel like waiting for tomorrow.” (Kenos)

“… Hey Kenos you wanna marry my daughter?” (Brul)

Excuse me?

“Excuse me?” (Kenos)

“Hahaha! I mean she wouldn’t find a better man anyway so why not right?” (Brul)

“I will most politely refuse.” (Kenos)

“Why? You think my daughter’s not good enough for ya?” (Brul)

“How would I know? I haven’t even seen her.” (Kenos)

After explaining that I have no interest in someone I haven’t even met once he just laughed before moving on from the topic. I got directions from him on where I have to go and left immediately like I said I would. As I left the building I heard a loud laughter coming from behind me.

I walked through town. By the time I had left the guild the sun was starting to set. I sure spent a long time talking with Brul. At some point the other adventurers were whispering about how they had no idea where we fit all the liquor we were downing. Of course I fit it in the infinite void of nothingness I am made of. I have no idea about Brul though. He was probably drunk when he asked me to marry his daughter anyway.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I was walking towards the south gate. I came in through the north one. On the way I saw a few interesting shops and… a library. I went inside the library. Since my clothes looked high quality I didn’t get any shit about entering but as I suspected though there were a few interesting books all the books were expensive. Even the boring seemingly useless ones. A cookbook cost two gold coins for fucks sakes. A GODDAMNED COOKBOOK! I just shook my head dejectedly and left the establishment with empty hands.

Next interesting place I spotted was an enchanters shop but I walked past it. Books were expensive but enchantments even more so. I could probably learn to do it later anyway. I also saw a blacksmith and I went in. I was okay with a simple iron longsword but I could go for something better. I hoped for something durable.

The inside of the blacksmith was as you would expect. There were hammering sounds coming from the back and there was a receptionist at the front who didn’t look like a blacksmith. I guess the receptionist takes customers and the blacksmith… smiths.

Anyway I immediately walked over to the swords. Some I could afford others not. There was a greatsword there but it was too heavy for the current me to use it effectively and I didn’t want something so impractical anyway. I wasn’t planning on becoming a blonde spiky-haired protagonist with a fetish for giant swords… that sounded so wrong.

In the end I bought a second longsword for thirty silver. No, I will not dual-wield them. It’s a reserve in case my other one breaks.

Afterwards I saw a few more interesting shops but I didn’t want to waste any more money and also didn’t honestly need what they had to offer. Like an alchemist. I have no idea what effect potions would have on me. It’s even possible that there would be none at all.

I left through the south gate right as they were thinking of closing it. The sun was almost set but I wasn’t bothered and just walked in the direction Burl gave me to the goblin cave I was supposed to clear out.

All in all it took me around thirty six hours to get to the cave so the sun was now rising as I was looking at the cave with two goblins guarding it from the outside.

The two creatures, both green and around 1.20 meters in height had some crude spears fashioned out of a tree branch with a sharp stone tied on top of it and were wearing nothing but a loincloth.

Sounds about right for a goblin unless they’re part of a bigger clan. I came out of hiding and walked towards them slowly and as they saw me they lifted their spears and screamed while running at me. I guess it was supposed to be a battle cry.

I just easily beheaded them with my sword. I decided that I wouldn’t use magic unless it was an emergency. These guys didn’t have a means to kill me anyway as I was immaterial. Made of energy rather than matter.

As they took their last breaths their bodies turned into a grey smoke and disappeared. Left behind were nothing but their loincloths and spears. Apparently this is what happens to monsters in this world. I wondered why it didn’t happen to the dears but apparently they were animals. Monsters were different. Also though this happened it wasn’t as if all monsters were innately evil. No, they just did what they did to survive. Well, most of them. At least that’s how I understood it after hearing about goblin behavior.

… It still pissed me off though.

Entering the cave it would normally be quite dark but to me it was actually better that way. I could see absolutely normally and if I used void magic in here it would be much stronger. Darkness was definitely my territory. It wasn’t impossible to use void magic in the light but I would have to use my shadow unless I was touching another one. Other elements seemed like they would be more effective under the sun as they aren’t restricted even when they’re imbued with void magic.

I walked forward. Killing wave after wave of goblins with my sword. They were clumsy and their weapons were terrible but the numbers made up for it so it worked as practice. As I fought I really was slowly regaining my battle sense. I started using more and more of my old techniques. Moving more and more fluently evading attack after attack.

A few of killing goblins later I had stopped counting after a hundred but I had killed a few times more after that so I was at maybe five hundred or so. I reached the final place in the cave. This was it. This was the thing that made me not care for them. Made me want to kill them mercilessly.

The smell in the room made me want to kill even more. On the floor there were six bodies of naked women. All of their eyes were empty. They were broken. Far gone. Never to return. I approached them and one by one  and……………………………………………………………………………… I killed.

It was night by the time I came back to Acton so the gate was closed. I just kept out of sight and practiced magic near the gate. My swordsmanship was back so now it was time to improve my magic once more.

When the gate was opened I finally approached again and headed straight for the guild. But when I came the guild was closed. A man called out to me as he was walking by.

“Oh you’re the newbie that joined a few days ago right? The guild’s closed right now. Brul seemed to be having some problems so he told us he would be out for a while yesterday.” (Adventurer)

This didn’t sound very good.

“Why? What happened?” (Kenos)

“I don’t know he didn’t want to talk about it. Never seen him that angry before. If you want I can tell you where he lives but I’m warning you that guy isn’t really in the mood to talk right now.” (Adventurer)

I nodded and he told me where his house was located so I walked there. But when I got there he was gone again so I asked the people from around here but nobody knew where exactly he went. There was only a single man that had accidentally seen him leaving through the north gate last night.

There was something up and I was curious to find out what. Then it hit me. I asked the same man if he was alone when he left and he only confirmed my suspicion.

I still owe him for the information. Whoever hurts him or his family WILL DIE!

I turned in the direction of the north gate and walked forward.