What is a hero? Is it someone who has an extraordinary amount of fame? Is it someone with some special power that all others lack? Or is it actually someone who reaches out to help another no matter the cost to themselves?

Of course to me, the only answer was number three. And it was the only option that was impossible to achieve inside this game. You were rewarded for all the quests the system assigned you.You could never help someone for the sake of helping them.

All the players in this area of the city had received a small quest from the guards at the same time earlier. It wasn’t that big of a quest, only an F difficulty.

The quest was to locate a ghoul in the city.

You didn’t have to kill it, nor did you have to fight it. All one had to do was tell the guards where it was. Of course, all the low level players jumped at the chance. You could hear them discussing it all day at the restaurant.

It was a simple and easy quest that required no skills. There was even a rumor that one would earn points with the kingdom if you succeeded. They didn’t act to stop a monster, they acted because of their own greed.

I was one of the few people who didn’t care for such a quest. After all, if I was even remotely close to a monster I might have to see that. I joined Royal Road to get over my fear of that. But I was still working my way up to it. Sure it may have been three months already, but slow and steady wins the race right?

I walked down one of the alleyways having just finishing my cooking quest for the day. I had been wasting my time at a restaurant doing miscellaneous jobs and preparing meals since I got here. I had hoped that the occasional accident would slowly increase my affinity with that.

Sadly on all the days I’ve worked there nothing had ever happened. The only thing the job had managed to do was keep me on edge and give me cooking practice. The head chef even praised that ever since I joined the injury count has all but disappeared.

A chill ran down my back. Sometimes you feel you are at a crossroads. That something you are doing is going to affect your life beyond what you can control. You can’t fight it, you can’t escape. You just have to hope that when that feeling comes you made the right choice.

I think I managed to make a great one.

[p=center]You are the second person to discover the ghoul[/p]

[p=center]The guard has already been notified[/p]

[p=center]Help the guard defeat the ghoul for an extra reward[/p]

What the system called a ghoul, was a woman whose age might not have even reached thirty. She would have been entirely human, if not for the fact of the corpse beneath her feet, and the blood seeping from her mouth. At the sight of her my blood ran cold, and my pulse slowed.

In this game she was a monster.

In this game she was something that needed to be slain.

A guard stood next to her with his sword raised.

Ghouls are monsters that feast on human flesh. They are enemies to human kind, and no right minded person in the kingdom would let one live. If a single ghoul managed to live, murders would happen frequently as the ghoul struggled to survive. Or at least, that’s what the guardsman had told us when the quest had appeared.

I would have been judgmental like the rest of the players, I would have watched as the guard dropped his blade. If not for two reasons beyond my control: One, More of that would appear; Two, the ghoul was crying.

She did not run.

She did not fight.

And yet, she continued to cry.

And then I noticed, a detail so easily disregarded in that situation. A detail so important I would most likely retch if the blade dropped. The wound on the corpse was a narrow slit carved downward across its chest.

The ghoul, no the woman, was unarmed and unable to cause out such a wound. The guardsman however did have such a bladed weapon..

Help the guard defeat the ghoul for extra reward

If I had time I would have spat out in annoyance, but instead I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I was a mere level 6, and out of those levels none were gained from combat. At minimum, a guards level was 30. No one would think this was a bright idea. Even I, the person taking the action felt a little foolish.

And Yet, I rammed my shoulder into the guard, sending him reeling into the wall.

Who in their right mind decides to save a monster?

My foot landed in a puddle fresh warm liquid. The mere sound of liquid squelching underneath my feet was almost enough to cause me to faint. The thought of the blood beneath my feet caused my limbs to feel sluggish and weak. If I was not in a position where I could be killed with one swipe of a sword, I would have already fainted.

[p=center]Hemophobia + 5[/p]

The guardsman shook himself off as he stood up from the wall. “What are you doing you fool? In case you can’t see, that thing is a ghoul. Back away so I can slay her.”

“I uhh…” I paused, then swallowed. “do plan to get in the way it seems.”

“She killed that man. If you don’t let me do my job she’ll kill again.”

But if he kills her, more blood will be spilled. You don’t want that do you?

I stared back at the guardsman. He had a large iron sword and wore leather armor. He stood at least a few inches taller than me, and he was definitely more muscular. I had no doubt he could silence me with a single swipe of that sword. But my body wouldn’t allow me to run even if I wanted too.

That man is a murderer, if you leave him alone more blood will be spilled

“Like I would let a murderer get away with killing an innocent girl.”

“That thing is a monster!” He screamed.

“Maybe, but she isn’t the only one.” He noticed my gaze crossing his blood covered blade.

The guardsman went silent, and his scowl thickened for a fragment of a second. He smiled as if to cover it up, “Its from when I struck the ghoul.”

Are you going to treat her as an injured woman ready to die?

I pointed at the woman and answered the voice, “She’s not injured yet.”

This was not something that I could mistake, not anymore.

If you abandon her she soon will be. Her blood would continue to dye this street in that color you love so much. It will be as if roses covered the land. You would like that, wouldn’t you?

The guard drew up his blade towards the sky. The tip shone with a scarlet tinge as the sun bounced off it.

Dodge you fool!

He swung his sword downwards, faster than my eyes could process. But, my body had already started to reel backwards dodging the blade by a narrow margin. It slammed near my feet, causing a small spray of red to land on my leather pants. I fought the urge to tear it off.

Only those that cause the injury in the first place are evil. Spilling blood is a crime that only those with wicked hearts could pull off.

“Stay still you little bugger.” The guardsman called out as he continued to swing at me. I continued to move around avoiding the blows.

“I’d rather not get killed by being an immobile target. That doesn’t seem like a good plan for living a healthy life,” I replied to the guard casually, taking another step back. If I had any stats placed in strength I might have been able to win. But I had not bothered to increase any stat but agility. Its not like I needed any strength to do the odd jobs around town.

I spun on my heel as he swung his sword around. Placing all my stats in agility might not have been that bad of a decision, I was fast enough that I did manage to avoid his attacks. My speed must have been only slightly more than his.

Each attack of his brought the blade a little closer to my neck, and me a little closer to my death. A single strike of his would probably kill me at my current HP. I took one more step back and…slid on the blood beneath my feet.

His sword came whistling past where my neck should had been. It pounded against the wall instead, propelling itself from his hands.The guard also ended up losing his footing and sliding in the red liquid.

Maybe it was luck. Maybe one of the gods that governed this game wanted to help me. But the blade landed at my feet. I picked it up, and once again rose to my feet.

In royal road you could not steal a weapon without killing the owner. But in combat there was a small querk to that rule. As long as the weapon remained within a small distance of the owner, anyone could use it.

I picked up the blade, and raised it slowly above my head.

The guard looked at me wide-eyed, fear evident in his expression. An average warrior could slice this mans neck and be done with it. The guard’s expression was that of a rat coming across its natural 4 legged predator.

But I wasn’t an average warrior, I couldn’t swing it down, “Run, and forget you ever saw us.”

“Puhahaha” The guardsman laughed. Why wouldn’t he? I won through a fluke after all. He probably knew how weak I actually was. Even if I swung, I doubted I could even shred a small section of his HP away.

To his laughter I replied with my own. For some odd reason that managed to shut him up. “You do realize I’m a foreigner right? I will come back even if you manage to kill me. I’ll remember your rat-like face and hunt you down for the rest of your life.” I smiled, “Your very short life.”

He nodded. All NPCs knew that players were treated as freedman sent by the goddess of something or other.

“That means that no matter how many times you manage to kill me I’ll keep on coming back. I only need to succeed once to wipe you off this map. So tell me this.” I smiled, “Do you think you want to risk angering such a person?”

The guard shook his head slowly, and stood up. He did not answer, but instead exited the alleyway towards the city exit. He probably went to wash his clothes in a nearby stream.

That didn’t really bother me, with the danger he possessed now gone I had the chance to worry about more pressing things. Like whether or not the ghoul I had just helped would really end up eating me. I peered down at the lady, it seems she had finally managed to turn herself away from the corpse. She was wiping her face with the inside of her sleeve, it was obvious that she had been crying the entire time.

Her black hair slid down her back, it was knotted and ratty. Her clothes were not better off, and had several holes in places I would rather not mention.

The first words the ghoul said to me were, “Thank you..”

That alone was enough for me to know I did not make the wrong decision. A silent pang of pain rang out from somewhere inside me, but I choked it down.

She grabbed me by the hand and started to run. Which in hindsight was probably a good idea, I did just threaten to kill a guard. And I was standing over a dead body. And the lady currently holding my hand was just eating it…

We were only running for a short while. You would be amazed at how many places there are to hide in a city. The alleyways are only the entrances to an entire hidden world. Okay, maybe saying that is going a bit too far, but there are a lot of places to hide.

The ghoul dragged me into one of those places, a hidden cellar nestled between two buildings. A had a vague notion that following a monster that was just eating someone was a bad idea, but I ignored it. I was more concerned about why she was crying.

The cellar had a moldy scent to it, it was slightly damp and cool inside. The room was lit by a single lantern that seemed to be on its last legs..

The ghoul had not a speck of blood visible on her. The fact that she had been standing over a fresh corpse not even five minutes beforehand and still managed to be clean of blood was all but a mystery to me.

“I’m surprised.” She said once the door had been closed behind us. She slowly and carefully refilled the small lantern on the side of the wall, “Most humans tend to attack us first in such a situation. Why did you not do the same?”

I paused, giving myself a moment to answer honestly, “You didn’t kill that man.”

“But I was eating him.”

I faltered… For most people that should have been terrifying. But I was hemophobic, and in a sense that fear overpowered everything else in that situation.

That fear was not something the game could cure me of. It was the reason I had never been able to draw a sword. It was the reason why I was still in my starting city three months in. It was the reason why I could barely stand here.

And, it was the reason I fought here today.

Hemophobia: This stat cannot be increased by giving skill points. It will increase or decrease depending on the actions of the player.

This stat manipulates the user. As the stat increases new skills may be unlocked.

For me, the fact that the ghoul was eating someone didn’t scare me. The fact that more blood would be spilled if the ghoul or the guard was harmed did. It was irrational, but that irrationality was forced upon me by the game. Although I was still somewhat worried that it was my natural thought process.

“I’m not sure how to reply to that.” I finally manage to say.

“I see,” she said nodding. She lowered her gaze looking at the floor, “Ghouls have a hunger that increases the longer they go without eating. We only need to eat once every few months to quench it and we never kill our meals.”

I wasn’t sure why she was telling me this but I kept my mouth shut.

“The guardsman killed the man, and the scent of blood drove me to eat. I hadn’t eaten anything in 3 months, and I was unable to suppress my desire. Being a ghoul, I was forced to eat no matter what was happening around me.”

“Why did you go 3 months without eating anything?”

“I haven’t had the chance since I came to this city. Eating in this city will only serve to make the townspeople hate me. I can’t be killed yet, I need to-” She went silent.

“You need to?” I asked.

“I need to rescue my children.”

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Spoiler : Hello everyone, Tui-nya here.

A quick thank you to everyone that gave this chapter a read-over for me. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have even bothered to post this.

Hopefully I can give you all a ride worth remembering.

End Chapter 1

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