Not even one.

Kunfayo stood perched against his bamboo cane, his old stature bend towards the earth. Mourning.

A champion died and not a single one of them came. Not even that whore! After all the girl was her champion. She deserved the presence of the god she served! In the olden days, this would never happen! All of them always came whenever a hero died, to bestow the highest honor!

Steady footsteps clicked against the glassified ground. Only one person could walk in those heels.

“How did she die?”

“LIKE A HERO.”

“Did anyone else paid respect?”

“NO.”

Kunfayo’s cane creaked under his grasp. For an entire eternity hidden between the heartbeats, they remained silent.

“I AM NEEDED ELSWERE.”

She left yet he remained.

What have this world become? Not even gods uphold their own laws. Unthinkable.

“Excuse me, can you tell me if there’s a town anywhere near by?”

Covered in black, slimy ooze and dripping blood, a mortal man asked him a question.

“Umm, hello?”

The human waved his hand in front of him.

“You’re asking me?”

“Umm, yes?”

Kunfayo looked left and right yet found no one. The stranger indeed addressed him. But how could a mortal see him? Especially this one. This exact example of what humanity had to offer, sported a face of a village idiot and half burned attire. Well, quite handsome, village idiot. Besides that, he dragged two women behind him, pulling each by their leg and each appeared as bloodied and burned as the strange man dragging them.

Peculiar sight.

Intrigued by this mortal aberration, the god browsed through the man’s status screen.

Joe. Just Joe. No house name, no second name, no deity name. Nothing. That did not happen that often. Especially for someone with less than a year of life in this world. So, a summoned hero? The traveler status sure graced the man’s ability list but, the deity nudged the status screen, the hero status did not change. It read, “Hero – most likely not. I think.”

How un usual. Ding-Ding never had doubts about anything. Her soul purpose required that yet in case of this man, nothing seemed certain.

Touched by death? Death sight? Oh. So even she fiddled with this one.

The god once again studied the man, this time his eyes judged Joe like an artisan apprising a precious jewel.

“Most peculiar…”

***

Joe stood and waited as the odd hermit stared at him, giggling and mumbling to himself. He shouldn’t have asked him in the first place. Attracting the attention of old, creepy people occupied one of the top spots on his never do list but since his magic went out of commission, ding ding got angry with him for no reason and the stars hid beneath a thick layer of cloudy blanket, he had no other means to find a way out of this crater. Preferably before it gets flooded with water coming from the nearby mountains. If there were any mountains left after the explosion. That reminded him, he’ll have to thank that meddling tentacle for, yet again, saving his butt. Also, he made a note in his ledger, he should enquire about that black slimy, tentacle gunk they were covered with. It had exceptionally potent, healing properties.

“There is a town… near by…”

The mumbling geezer snapped back into reality.

“…but it will cost you.”

Joe cringed. Should he take that bait? Without a better option, he asked.

“How much?”

*DING!*

You have unlocked hidden condition for a unique quest! Quest name: Starving Village. Quest objective: The starving village been plagued by exceptionally bed weather for the past few years resulting in ever decreasing crops and continuous beast attacks over the past couple of months. This brought terrible famine upon the village and resulted in many deaths. Currently the village holds 117 occupants. Help the people of the starving village and ensure their survival. Failure condition: Death of a single villager. Failure Result: Branded a “Failed hero”, “Fraud” and ”Oathbreaker”. Fame -999 999 999, You will be stripped of all your possessions and banished to wander the death plains for all eternity. Quest rewards: Transport to the nearest village. Additional rewards based on your performance. Grace of Kunfayo. Do you accept the request?? Yes YES

“So that’s how death row inmates feel like…”

Joe let out a sigh and pushed the button.

*Ding!*

Quest accepted!

“Wise choice Traveller!”

The creepy gramps grinned at him, his face no longer resembling a human face.

“Wise choice indeed.”

He jabbed his cane into Joes chest.

***

Oh Lord, you have given this unworthy servant another day while many others died this night. Praised be your mercy.

Loirra opened her eyes and calmly rose from her meager mat, the only sign somebody still lived in her cell, and begun brushing her thinning fur. A priestess should never look like an ungroomed carpet. Suffice to say, she hardly looked like anything but a bunch of this straws held together by an oversized habit. When she received it, a hand me down like everything else in her life, it almost fit her. Now her bony figure had plenty of additional space to spare inside it. Truth to be told, the thing would hold two of her and still be spacious enough. She wore it just so others could not see the skin strung over her ribs and jutting out hips. If she’ll live long enough, one of those days she might even be able to surround her waist with her fingers.

She checked.

If she sucked in whatever left of her stomach, her index fingers could brush against each other.

Eat! You cannot live on a prayer alone! Head priestess always told her. And Loirra ate, every few other days. Most of her allotted temple meal she gave out in the village until one day when nothing else left to give.

She gulped down a mug of water, her breakfast, and after tying her habit ever so slightly tighter around her waist, she went to the temple.

Long ago the temple would’ve been bustling with life at this hour, with priestess and monks going on about their rituals and ceremonies. She hasn’t done a proper ceremony for over a month and at this point she may never do but at the very least, all her remaining strength she put into serving her people. At times of need, a helping hand and ready ear meant more than the most exquisite ceremony.

Others often accused her of being disrespectful towards the god she served and despised her yet, deep down inside, she had a gut feeling her god shared her believes. Pray by doing not by mumbling. Show faith by example not by laud, empty speech.

That’s the way she lived.

“Lord you have given me a new day and I know you would never leave me without strength to carry through what will be required of me. I shall work with my full heart.”

She clasped her hands and bowed before the main altar.

And then the world exploded with thunders and roars of thousands of beasts as a pillar of lighting descended from the cloudless sky and vaporizing the temple roof, smashed into the main altar, shattering it into pieces.

Petrified, Loirra stood and stares as a male voice from underneath the ruble cursed and spew blasphemy at gods, at his luck and the world in general.

On the spot where the lightning struck, three people were piled atop each other. The cursing human with his head poking between the tights of a demi with a human woman resting atop the two.

A large wooden beam fell of and crashed behind her, silencing the cursing human. When she looked away from the beam and back at this strange man, their eyes met.

“Is this the starving village?”

He asked. Whatever strength Loirra had, it evaporated in that single moment.