Chapter 12

A New Start

Ryu Yasahiro ran! Through the vacant pathway, he ran. It was early morning and there were none to witness the boy who ran with a flushed and teary face. His breath got rougher with every passing minute and yet he ran. He ran as if there was no tomorrow as if the world had crumbled down.

Ever since the Draklake village disappeared in front of his eyes, the young man had been haunted by the memories of the place and his three masters. Every time he tried to hop on to the capsule he felt a fear in his heart like it was chained. Whenever he closed his eyes the faces of Borin, Amber and Serin would seep into his eyes. Their disappearance reminded him of his father’s death, which too happened in front of him. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he got angry and sometimes he became emotionless.

His brain knew that those were not real men, but his heart had formed strong bonds with them. They had spent days together, like master and disciple, had often eaten together, laughed together, cried together. And before he could even tell how much he cherished them, they disappeared. Ryu was now silently weeping in a park, his eyes shut, his heart broken. Ryu slipped into sleep without even him knowing.

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Ryu woke up due to the sudden pat on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he saw an old man staring at him intently. The tears that dried up left a mark on his face, which made the old man concerned. Wiping his tears off, Ryu smiled at the old man. The boy got up and bowed to the old man as apologized, “Joesonghamnida”(Korean for sorry) and walked past the old man.

‘No! No! No! This is no time to be depressed! Now is the time to fulfil the wishes of the three’, Ryu felt a strange feeling grow inside his distressed heart. A desire broke out of that feeling, a desire to become what the three wanted him to be. Ryu felt peace spread throughout his body as this desire sprout in his mind. The tears stopped and instead a smile broke out on his now calm face. And so once again ran, not to overcome the sadness but to set out on a new journey fuelled by emotions of the past

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Shiv returned to the same spot that he logged out from. A day before a huge gate stood there but now there was not even a spec of that massive gate. Shiv smiled as the memories of the place surged inside him. His masters, the guards, the villagers, the black tower, Orrinshire, the dragon god, the naiads, his mind went through all of those important memories. The boy smiled as he looked at the vast sky and said, ‘Farewell my friends’.

Shiv turned away from the spot and started walking not even looking back for once.

The walk continued for roughly twenty or so minutes when he felt the surroundings distort slightly, he felt as if he was passing through something, something like a layer or barrier.

‘Some kind of barrier? A portal, perhaps? Teleportation?’ he kept walking and walking. And so one hour passed, the land around him felt different, there were trees around him suddenly. Shiv looked around in surprise and only trees surrounded him, it was as if there never was a valley. The forest of trees around him somewhat reminded him of the one in Draklake. Shaking his head sideways Shiv corrected the thought.

‘Maybe I should check out the map to see where I am’

“Map” and a huge panel opened up in front of him. Just as the forums had said there were 11 kingdoms in the continent of Orrinshire and he was now in Bredon, a country ruled by the Bredon Kingdom.

Shiv looked through the map which made him understand his location. He was to the east of the country, in a forest known as the Forest of the Fairy, his position being shown by a small black triangle.

‘Hm! The map does not show much.’ Shiv frowned as he scanned through the map again, ‘Guess, unless I personally visit a village or town nothing will be shown on the map. I should have checked the forums for more info.’

With a sigh, the boy walked forward with an unwavering will. The walk was tiring but Shiv had no other choice and so he continued his journey. Shiv knew that walking through such a dense and unknown forest was a really dangerous thing, but again he had no other choice so he started running, making as less noise as he could. Often he would scale the trees and jump to another or use the wines to swing to another tree. This action later earned him a new quirk.

‘Trrrng’

New quirk unlocked: AcrobaticsAcrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination.

Your actions have unlocked a new quirk

+1 AGI

Your balance has improved

Your evasion has improved

Your flexibility has improved

You are now ambidextrous

Quirks, unlike skills which either consumed mana or had a time limit, were free of restraints. Once a quirk is earned it remains active till the user deletes it or wants to switch it off. What made it different from a passive skill is that quirks where limited to body enhancements. Another difference is that quirks took much more time to unlock. A skill might only take a matter of hours to unlock, while quirks required days in comparison. So in the world of Dragon Lore, a quirk was given great importance as it greatly enhanced multiple features of the user’s body like reaction time, balance etc. Another reason being that quirks were limited in number, while there were millions of skills, only hundreds of quirks could be earned.

‘Ambidextrous eh. This is going to be fun’

Shiv continued his tree jumping and swinging only stopping for hunting food and resting to regain stamina. Half a day passed since he acquired his first quirk and he was yet to come across a person until he heard,

“Human girl.. we get… King happy” said a grumpy voice.

“Me… human… girl want…too” another similar voice replied

“Come… we go...human village..take girl” followed by a loud laugh.

Shiv heard footstep which kept moving away from him. Shiv slowly got out of the bushes. He stared at the direction where the voices of the footstep had disappeared to. He then scanned the location he was standing at and came across a hole big enough for a giant to enter in to.

‘Must be some kind of monster nest! For now, I should follow those two’

“Kaze” activating his skill Shiv jumped from tree to tree. It did not take him too long to see two purple creatures walking with clubs in their hands. ‘Must be some sort of goblin variant’

Normally goblins were always depicted as green. In the forum too that Shiv had looked into had said the goblins were green and their king which was twice the size had a much darker shade of green. Silently Shiv followed the two monsters who were half his height. They had round bellies which resembled that of a fat man. Their ears were slightly pointy and their face was oval with two canines protruding out of their mouth. The two ugly goblins marched, talking gibberish, laughing and drooling over the idea of getting a human girl.

After a few minutes, the goblins stopped. The two were pointing at something while they talked. Shiv gazed at the direction they were pointing and saw something that resembled a village, but it could no longer be called as one. The village was in ruins, there were no walls, half of the houses were in ruins, while the remaining half seemed deserted. In total, the village was seemed like, all the life had withered away from it a long time ago.

‘Why are they searching for women in a deserted village?’ Shiv was deep in thoughts when,

“Kyyyyyaaaaa, leave me you monster” a scream resounded in Shiv’s ears. Hearing the scream Shiv jumped down the tree and rushed to the spot only to find a young girl being dragged out from one of the deserted houses, the purple goblins laughing all the time. Shiv did not bother hiding his bloodlust as he rushed towards the goblins. The startled goblins who noticed the movement took a step back and sneered.

“Grrr… puny human…die” saying so they too rushed towards Shiv.

The first goblin swayed its club at Shiv’s head with all its might, growling in anger. Shiv evaded the oncoming attack by rolling on to the ground closing in on the goblin. The dagger in his right hand was already speeding towards the goblin’s wide open stomach. Shiv’s rolling to the front, the speed of his thrust and finally the momentum of the goblin, all acted as a catalyst in increasing the damage dealt by the small dagger. The goblin shuddered and groaned miserably as it fell on to the ground due to pain.

Seeing his buddy down the second goblin too rushed forward swinging the club towards Shiv’s hips. Shiv blocked it with his sheathed Black Dragon and parried the attack. Then stepping to his left with Kaze, he then used the dagger to his left to pierce its right eye. The second goblin too dropped, but by then the first one had got up. With its health no more than 30 percent of the original, Shiv was confident he could take it down in one hit. The wound to its stomach had weakened it greatly as it staggered heavily.

Judging the distance between him and the weakened prey, Shiv brought out his bow. The sheathing of the dagger, adjusting the sword to a comfortable position and equipping the bow on his back were all achieved in a matter of seconds. The three action were completed so fast that left an afterimage in the girl’s view causing her to gasp in astonishment. Drawing the bow Shiv aimed it at the goblins chest. Shiv did not want to talk any chances aiming at the monster’s head and so he aimed at the much larger chest area.

‘Shoom! Shoom! Shoom’ off went three arrows at lightning speed, all of which struck the target blowing holes in the goblin’s ugly body. Shiv did not waste any time at all as he dropped the bow and ran towards the second goblin, not even trying to equip any weapons. He then jumped on to the back of the goblin which was trying to get up. Using his left hand, he gouged out of the goblins left eye, rendering it completely blind. Blood flowed out profusely from both its empty eye sockets. The unbearable pain and loss of blood made the monster unable to stand, with unimaginable pain it fell on its knees, then it slumped to the ground, lifeless.

Shiv leapt away from the dead goblins back gasping for breath. He just looted any money that the goblins dropped and then turned to the girl who was still crying.

Shiv approached her slowly so as to not startle her. His body which was covered with blue goblin blood made him look like a monster and so he moved slowly and carefully.

“Are you ok lady?” Shiv asked wiping away the blood from his face.

The girl was too terrified to answer. She nodded weakly as she sobbed. Tears rolled out of her eyes nonstop making her face look dirty. Her cheeks and nose were red, her lips trembled in fear. The clothes she was wearing had tears in some places. Mud covered most parts of her, there were even some wounds on her which caused her to bleed lightly.

“Tell me lady, what is your name?”, Shiv sat down a little away from the girl. He kept his weapons on the ground a little away to show that he meant no harm. Shiv asked as politely as he could to the whimpering girl before him.

“Bella” the answer was a whisper.

“Are you alone Bella? Are there others?” Shiv’s asked calmly. He avoided asking about her parents as he did not want her to breakdown again in case they were dead.

“They..they took all the men and women.” She replied as her sobbing intensified a little, “Only children like me were left behind. And now they have started taking small girls like me too.” The girl said as she held her face with her hands, the memories of the past incidents bringing pain to her.

“It’s ok, it’s ok. Nothing will happen to them. I will help you. So relax a little Bella” Shiv tried consoling her.

“There is nothing you can do. There are hundreds of them. I saw them, those monsters. Mom and Dad, they….”, and the girl broke down again.

Shiv frowned helplessly but kept trying to calm the girl down with words, “Bella, I can help you. I can bring them back. Is there anybody else with you?”, he tried changing the focus of the girl.

She nodded her head weakly.

“Ok! Good. For now, let’s move from here. There might be other goblins near. So we will talk once we get to a safe place”

The girl seemed hesitant and so she stared at Shiv for a while. And as if she had made her mind, she wiped her tears and got up slowly. Shiv watched her carefully as he sat motionlessly. The girl the gestured Shiv to follow her. Shiv nodded and followed her silently, while he remained vary of his surroundings.

They entered the ruined village and walked through the pathway. Shiv glanced at the broken down houses and the blood stains on the walls. There was no sign of life at all but it looked like the attack on the village was a recent event. Shiv silently walked, his eyes often glancing at the girl who walked with her head hung down. She wore a red colour dress which was torn here and there. The blond hair which extended till half way her back was untidy. The girl was as tall as his shoulders but had a matured air to her. Shiv wondered how old the girl was and about how many children were left behind.

As question spun around his mind, the girl suddenly stopped before a house which was intact and then knocked thrice on the shabby wooden door.

“It’s me, Bella”, she whispered and knocked thrice again but in quick succession.

‘A password?’, Shiv thought surprised at the action. ‘They are smart to have thought about a password.’

The door the slowly opened up and a girl as old as Bella peeked her head out. She had a relieved expression on her face and her brown eyes seemed glittering. But the expression froze as soon as those round eyes fell on an unfamiliar boy near to Bella.

“It’s ok, Cheryl. This man is my saviour. It’s ok”, Bella spoke with a smile, trying her best to not show her weak side. The girl named Cheryl stared at Shiv once again and then reluctantly opened the door. Bella walked in nervously after she gestured Shiv to come inside the house.

With a quiet nod, the boy followed the girl into the small house. The insides of the house were in a mess with broken furniture and no lighting. But the sun light that escaped in through the windows made the room bright and also let Shiv see what was inside. More than 20 children were holed up in that house. The four rooms in the house were crowded with these children; thirteen boys and nine girls. Shiv glanced at them and came to a conclusion that Bella and Cheryl were the eldest among the children.

He stood silently as he analysed the situation he was in. He clearly understood that the children had hardly eaten anything. They appeared weak, some cried while some had dead eyes. Three of them were laid on the ground, they appeared unconscious. Shiv felt pity towards them and sighed inwards.

He leaned on to the wall with closed eyes. He then started arranging all the information he had gathered to make a picture of all that had transcribed in the village and he could roughly guess what exactly happened.

Shiv opened his eyes and once again glanced at the children with sorrowful eyes.

“Okay, guys! Before I start asking questions, let’s have lunch”, Shiv spoke with a smile as he took out the meat he had hunted while he was in the forest and some bread loaves.

The children who saw the food got excited but they were scared t approach a stranger and so only stare at the food with longing. Understanding their predicament, Shiv smiled wryly.

‘This game is so real life like’, thinking so, he passed the uncooked meat and bread to Bella and Cheryl. The food was hardly enough for five, but the girls knew that this enough was a luxury for them.

“I know this won’t be enough, so I will go hunt some. I won’t go far. We will start cooking the meat once I get back with more, okay?” Shiv asked Bella who nodded immediately. She felt thankful to the kind stranger who not only rescued her from the vile goblins but also agreed to feed her and her friends. Shiv clasped her hands together as she silently thanked the boy who walked out of the house.

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Shiv didn’t have to go far before he came across a wild boar. In fact, there were three boars and when Shiv checked their status, they were at level 15. Shiv made quick work of the boars and the game system rewarded him with boar meet and some money. Delighted at the catch, Shiv decided to continue hunting a little more. An hour or so passed and Shiv returned to the house with the meat from 6 wild boars.

When he walked inside, a relieved Bella ran up to him with a smile. Shiv smiled back and passed the meat to her and sked her to cook them as fast as possible.

Once the meat was done, it was passed to all the children along with some bread slices. The children ate everything in an instant and asked for seconds which too were finished off in the span of few seconds. They ate merrily, life had returned to their previously dead eyes. Shiv smiled at them warmly as he slowly chewed the tasteless slice of bread but the scene before him made the bread a delicacy.

When they were done with the food, Shiv called Bella and Cheryl out of the house. The two nodded and followed him out and then took him to the nearby house. Shiv sat on a chair while the other two girls sat on the bed. The atmosphere felt heavy and no body spoke until Shiv decided to begin himself.

“Bella, Cheryl! I know that this is hard for you, but I have to know more about what is going on here. If I were to help you bring them back, I need to know everything.”, Shiv spoke carefully with a mild tone. He knew the girls didn’t want to recall the past incidents but he had no other choice. Once again a deep silence embraced the dimly lit room.

The two girls looked at each other, then at Shiv. And it was Cheryl who began to speak.

“Our village was first attacked last week, but the once that attacked where goblins that were green. They were fifty or so of those green goblins, but the village men were able to fend them off somehow. We had no casualties while the goblin number dwindled to half. After a few days, they again attacked us. By the end of the day, the men of the village were able to take down all the goblins. We were overjoyed as we thought that all the goblins were dead and that our village was no longer under threat. And so the village elder organized a festival to celebrate the victory.” Cheryl suddenly stopped, tears rolling down her fair cheeks.

Bella hugged her tight as she patted the crying girl’s head. Taking a deep breath, the girl continued from where Cheryl stopped.

“The night of the festival when the men were all drunk, those vile goblins attacked. They were more than hundred in numbers and were stronger than the normal green goblins. The drunk villagers couldn’t even put up a fight. Some were killed within minutes and so the elder decided to surrender before we lost more lives. They then took all the woman and men with them and left us back. There were actually more of us. Two more girls of my age but they were taken yesterday just like how I was. If not for you, I would have...”, the girl trailed off as her eyes became watery. She clasped Shiv’s hand and sobbed, “Thank you, thank you for saving me”, she whispered between the sobs.

Shiv felt the warmth of the girl’s hand. Somehow the girl reminded him of his little sister. His hands moved to her head as he patted her gently. A few minutes later both the girls calmed down and Shiv continued asking questions. From what he gathered, he understood that there was some kind of offering on the next full moon day which was two weeks later and the violet goblins planned to sacrifice all the villagers at the offering. He also understood that there were five more children, two girls, and three boys. The two girls were caught by the goblins just like Bella. The three older boys then tried to help the two girls but were easily killed by the monsters.

“Do you know how to wield a weapon”, Shiv asked without much hope.

“No, the woman of this village are not taught such things”, the two nodded their head sideways shamefully.

“You don’t have to apologize. All I need to know is, do you wish to help those who got captured?”

“Of course, we do. But with our strength”, Cheryl spoke in a rush but stopped immediately.

“I see. If I agree to rescue them, will you help me to accomplish it?”, Shiv asked as he stared at the two intently. The two girls stared back, surprised. They never expected those words to come from his mouth. Bella wanted to ask for his help, but she couldn’t burden her saviour with any more selfishness and yet her saviour is ready to provide her help.

The two girls smiled at the boy. For them, the boy appeared as a merciful god, and so they nodded their head.

QUEST: BLOOD GOBLIN SLAYERThe little girls, Bella, and Cheryl has agreed to accept your help to rescue their family and friends from the cruel blood goblins. They have also agreed to provide you any kind of assistance to achieve your mission. The blood goblins had kidnapped the villagers and plans to sacrifice them on the next full moon. Stop the sacrifice and rescue the villagers

Days left to attack: 2 Weeks

Difficulty : +E

Requirements: Save Bella, Earn the trust of the children

Rewards

Unknown?????

Failure

The quest will fail

Villagers die

Failure will have no effects

You have accepted the quest

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Guys! some one here who can proofread?