Beady yellow eyes trace my every step. I continue forward cautious, but unafraid. I knew full well that passing through this dark forest alone would mean encountering monsters. I even knew what kind of monsters they would be. All the little eyes glaring at me undoubtedly belong to goblins. I just had no idea that they’d be this numerous.

Goblins aren’t particularly dangerous, especially not for a mage like me. Yet given their numbers, I don’t want to fight them, and for their own sake I hope that they don’t plan on fighting me either. I could actually kill them all despite their numbers. That’s because for the past six years, I’ve scarcely done anything other than battle monsters. I’ve battled armbears, boar-rams, spitting seahorses, and even gigantic molten slugs. Since I’m constantly in combat, my fighting skills far exceed that of the average mage. In fact, I even spent the greater part of last year mastering martial arts. Learning to fight hand-to-hand was necessary to erase my obvious weakness as a pure mage. Everyone knows that people who rely solely on magic have weak bodies. The slightest blow to the chin could knock out even the greatest of classically trained mages. That’s why I trained night and day to forge my body into steel. I cannot afford to have any weaknesses. Not if I’m going to reach my goal.

I gaze over my shoulder. The beady goblin eyes continue to follow me. I know from experience that if I make myself seem large, loud, and imposing, small monsters are less likely to attack me. So to keep the goblins at bay, I make a big display of tapping my staff against the ground with every step. My staff easily makes a loud thud since six years ago it was turned into stone by the petrification curse.

I tap away with it steadily and then take another peek behind me. To my great surprise, the goblins continue to trail me despite the noise that I make with my staff. Finally, tired of the little yellow eyes following me, I make my stand. No sooner than the moment that I stop walking, the little miscreants trickle out of the forest. My stomach churns a little as I watch them amass in a large group of twelve or so. Even though goblins are small and weak, they have one characteristic that makes them a real potential threat – goblins are tool users. Now I find myself face to face with an army of tiny goblins wielding bows, slings, and knives. I still feel confident that I can handle them, but seeing multiple weapons pointed at me kind of drops my confidence down a bit. To avoid the fight, I try to scare them off by wildly swinging my arms through the air and shouting loudly. The goblins don’t buy it. They place arrows on the bowstrings and stones in the slings. Their readiness to attack leaves me no choice.

Before they fire a single arrow, I cast the Comet spell. Their small yellow eyes grow big in fright at the sight of a large fireball powering towards them. Swiftly, they dodge like deer and scatter to the wind. I immediately kick myself for using the Comet spell yet again. “Don’t you know any other spells?” I ask myself.

The Comet spell is the one that I unconsciously default to whenever I’m in danger. At this point it’s starting to become a bit of a crutch. I do actually know other spells. Lots of other spells in fact. It’s just that I’ve been able to cast Comet ever since I was eight years old despite it being a grandmaster-level spell. It’s one of the main reasons that I grew so arrogant and ruined my life six years ago. Every time that I cast it, I relive a small piece of my past. But at the very least, the goblins are gone now. So I continue my journey. Within four hours time, I reach the edge of the forest without any further goblin incidents.

Coming out of the forest, I enter into a grassy flatland and see a small village to my right. The village is surrounded by a wooden fence formed with beams that are shaped to a point at the top. It’s common for small, poor villages to use this fence design to keep monsters out. I surmise that this must be Belle-Forrest. I had heard about it while talking to some sailors back in Cammy Port. I make a habit of visiting as many new towns as possible. I figure I’ll never find a cure for the petrification curse backtracking to places where I’ve already been.

Making my way to the village, I get distracted before I pass through the gates. Enclosed in square fences just in front of the entrance gate, are two small fields of mana plants. Mana plants are a cash crop that botanists fashion into mana potions to sell to mages. They’re always white in the center while the tips of the leaves are various colors. The colors of the leaves tell you the quality of the plant. Said quality is determined in part by the natural magic density of the soil they grow in and in part by the skill of the botanist growing the plants.

I kneel over the plants to examine them more closely. During my travels I’ve learned a few things about mana plants. The leaves of these plants are a dark blue color, which indicates that they are high-grade plants even though the soil that they are planted in has a low natural magic density. I know that I’m in a low magic density environment because of the puny monsters in the area. If there were a greater natural magic density here, then there’d be far worse things than goblins lurking around. So if these plants are as good as they look, then I can accredit their quality to the one who grew them.

Carefully, I clip a small leaf off of a plant and chew on it. The leaf has a mild minty taste to it. That tells me that the plants are not only good, but also ripe and ready to be made into mana potions.

Knowing that there is a skilled botanist in the town gives me some hope. A good botanist will not only deal in mana potions, but also in medicinal cures and remedies. If I’m lucky, then the botanist in this town will know of a cure for the petrification curse. Yet quickly I pinch myself hard to keep from becoming too optimistic. In the past six years, my every lead towards finding the necessary cure has ended in disappointment. Nevertheless, I don’t give up. Or rather, I can’t give up. Finding the cure is the purpose of my existence.

I stroll into town and look around. The houses in the village are all composed of wood, have one floor, two front windows, and a chimney. Basic houses for a basic village I figure. The only real difference between the houses is the color of their paint. I’ve seen lots of these little villages built on the fringes of modern civilization. Here you won’t find any people of so-called “high society,” but you will find humble, simple people who are generally of good will albeit often not well-educated.

As I venture further into the town, I start to get the feeling that something is amiss. I see two kids playing with some sticks, a cat wandering around, a dog sitting on a porch, and a young girl walking somewhere by herself. I’d expect a small village to be more densely occupied. But I don’t know. Maybe there’s a town meeting or something. Jogging lightly I quickly catch up to the girl that I saw. “Excuse me. I just came into town and I have a few questions.”

The girl stops walking. She turns around and looks at me and both of our eyes light up in surprise. Obviously she’s surprised because I’m a stranger wandering into a town in the middle of nowhere. But what surprised me were her big gleaming brown eyes. Not just her eyes but also the shade of her skin. I’ve never seen someone like her before. She has long, straight, dark brown hair, aforementioned puppy dog brown eyes, and light brownish skin that’s not quite brown nor peach colored like the skin of most of the people from Âme Kingdom. Her strange beauty leaves me at a sudden loss for words. Yet almost immediately she snaps me out of my unintentionally rude stare.

“Wow!” she says. “I mean, hello. I’m Katherine. Are you a mage?”

“Me? Yeah, I am.”

“Do you know Life Magic?”

“Yeah. But I just came into town and...”

Suddenly, she grabs me by my coat sleeve. Then she continues her walk to wherever she’s going while pulling me along with her. “Come with me,” she orders.

I have no idea what’s going on. But the girl doesn’t even give me a chance to refuse, so I guess I’m going with her. As we walk I get to see more of the town. My first impression holds true. There’s practically nobody around. Given the eerie emptiness of the village, I’m surprised that there aren’t a bunch of tumbleweeds blowing about on the dusty, barren dirt.

Before long we stop at a beat up house on the edge of town. The wood of the house is rotten, its windows are dirty, and some of the tiles on the roof are missing. Belle-Forest is by no means a rich town, but whoever lives in this house is poor even by small village standards. Katherine knocks on the door. Then pressing her ear against it, she waits quietly for an answer. When she doesn’t receive an answer, she slowly opens the door and invites herself in. “Wait here,” she tells me.

“Okay,” I agree.

I still don’t know what’s going on. Yet I find myself strangely compelled to do whatever this pushy village girl tells me. It must be the eyes. Yeah Soul, she definitely got you with her eyes. Snap out of it man. Or maybe she used some sort of Illusion Magic spell on me. I’ve heard that there’s an all-female class of mages called the “Temptress” class. Supposedly, they can hypnotize men. Just to be safe, I reach into my inventory bag with all of my medical supplies. There’s got to be a magic remedy in here somewhere. As I fumble through my bag, Katherine emerges out of the worn down house.

“I’m sorry. What was your name?” she asks.

“Traveler,” I answer.

“Right, ‘Traveler.’ Listen TRAVELER, there’s a woman inside this house who is really sick. We’ve tried lots of different medicines, but nothing makes her better.”

“Why doesn’t she just see a doctor?”

“We don’t have a doctor in this village. The nearest doctors are in Magali. But she’s too sick to go there, and we don’t have the money to bring a doctor here.”

Now it all makes sense to me. As soon as she found out that I know Life Magic, she eagerly dragged me here before I could refuse. I bet she’s hoping that now that I’m already at the sick lady’s door I won’t refuse to see her. Well lucky for her she’s right. Although really, she could have told me the truth from the beginning and I still would have come. There’s no point in mastering healing magic and then not using it to help the sick or injured.

I take a step closer to the door. Katherine puts a hand on my shoulder to stop me. “She’s been sick for a long time. Just so you know, the house is messy. And it smells.”

I lower Katherine’s hand and enter the house without hesitation. Right away a putrid scent assaults my nose. It’s like a mixture of vomit, body odor, dust, and rotting food. All around the house in every direction is clutter. There are old newspapers, dirty clothes, quilts, kitchen tools, and unclean dishes. On the far side of the room, there is a bed pressed against the wall. Lying on the bed is a half-awake, older woman with gray hair and pruned skin. Stepping over various knickknacks, I make my way to the woman and kneel by her bedside.

Gently, I place my hand on her head. She groans in agony in response. Right away I remove my hand lest I suffer third degree burns. “What’s her name Katherine?”

“Hilda.”

Hilda is a bit squirmy, but I do my best to hold eye contact with her. “Hilda, I have some things to help you, but I need you to understand something. This mess is unacceptable Hilda. You see, there are these things called germs. They’re small and you can’t see them, but they’re what make you sick. Germs grow in dirty places like this. You have to clean up your house and especially make sure that there’s no rotting or spoiled food around. If you don’t clean up your house, then you’ll never get better. Do you understand?”

“Awaugh,” she groans with what I think was an attempt to nod.

Good enough. I search around in my medical supplies again. Then I pull out two superior-grade life potions costing 10,000 âmes each. They’re worth quite a bit of money, but I can afford to make the sacrifice. Rising from my kneeling position, I place my hands over Hilda. Next I close my eyes and focus my mana energy. Then I cast the Miracle Heal spell followed by the Regenerate spell. The first spell is used to immediately heal severe wounds or sickness whereas the second spell has a more gradual, long lasting effect. Nevertheless, given Hilda’s degree of illness, it will take more than one or two spells to make her well. That’s why I’m leaving her the potions.

“Okay then Hilda,” I begin. “I’ve cast some healing spells. Within the next hour or so, you should feel better. But you won’t be entirely well just yet. You’ll need to continue getting lots of rest and drinking lots of liquids. Also, I’m leaving you two potions. You’re to drink half of one potion tomorrow morning and then the rest of it tomorrow night. Then you’ll do the same thing the next day with the other potion. After that, you’ll clean up this mess and get better okay?”

She nods in understanding. “What is your name young man?”

“Traveler.”

“No, what is your name?”

“Traveler.”

She looks at Katherine in confusion. “No what is your name?” she asks a third time.

I draw in a deep breath and exhale slowly. She asked for it.

“My name is Souladonis.”

“Sodummis?”

“Just remember Soul. It’s easier.”

Politely, I bow to Hilda and then exit the house. Katherine trails behind me. I notice that she has a concerned look on her face. Maybe I did something wrong? It’s not unusual for me to screw things up. “What’s wrong?” I ask her self-consciously.

“Those potions that you gave her were expensive. We can’t pay you.”

“Oh,” I say relieved. “Don’t worry about the potions. That’s what they’re for anyway.”

I leisurely walk back towards the center of town. There’s still nobody around. Well, other than Katherine, who is still following me for some reason. “Hey,” she says.

I stop to hear what she has to say. “You’re a really good person Souladonis.”

The irony of her comment overwhelms me. I squeeze my stomach muscles but fail to prevent myself from laughing in her face. Katherine’s mouth contorts into a confused frown. Clearly she didn’t get the joke. “What?” she asks unknowingly.

“You’re too quick to jump to conclusions. You don’t know me.”

“No, but I know that you’re a kind person who likes to help people.”

I cross my arms unconvinced. “For all that you know Katherine, I could be a death mage.”

“You’re not a death mage,” she says with conviction.

“Oh yeah? How do you know?”

“Because death mages can’t use Life Magic.”

I smack myself in the head. Okay Soul, she got you on that one. I quickly walk away from her in an attempt to escape. Yet as I feared, she goes out of her way to keep up with me.

“Like I said, you’re a good person.”

Now her presumptiveness is beginning to annoy me. I stop walking again. But this time I lean my face towards her accusingly. “Oh yeah? What if I did something that was so terrible that no amount of good deeds could ever make up for it? Would I still be a good person?”

“Yes.”

I raise my left eyebrow at her confidence. “How do you figure?”

Katherine mimics my lean. Our faces are now only a few inches apart. “Because what you did in the past only defines who you were. What you do in the present defines who you are now.”

My back shoots up straight. I never would have expected such a thoughtful answer from a common village girl. Pondering her words, I turn from Katherine and walk away slowly. Truth be told, I’d like to believe what she said, but I just don’t think that it’s that simple. As I walk away, Katherine catches up to me once more.

Curious, she asks, “So what exactly did you do that was so bad?”

I refuse to answer that. Instead, I ask her a completely unrelated question. “When I arrived at the village, I saw mana plants. I’m assuming that means that there is a botanist in town. Do you know where I can find him?”

Katherine smiles brightly. “At my house!”

My head tilts in reluctant surprise. “You mean you?”

Katherine laughs and lightly slaps me on the shoulder. “No, silly. Not me. My mother.”

“Oh.” That makes sense. Katherine moves ahead of me and then beckons for me to follow her. Suddenly, I somehow find myself once more obeying the whims of this pushy village girl. “Soul,” I say to myself. “You’ve got to stop looking into her brown eyes before she takes you for all that you’re worth.”