Jave began to feel depressed. He already knew was going to die… but still, that didn’t make him feel any better. He then decided that thinking about it would do him no good, and so he got out of his tent and began disassembling it. Once he was done with that, he finished his morning work and set out to search for the sprite again.

‘Search’ would be calling it a bit too much, however, as all he was doing was wandering around in hopes of running into it. That was all he could do, seeing as how there were no clues to discern its location. If he was honest to himself, he didn’t really expect to find it, and the only reason he was out on this search was because it gave him something to do.

He then ran into a White Tine Boar, which barreled straight towards him as soon it realized there was an intruder in its territory. Just as it was about to hit him, Jave sidestepped it and gave it a punch which had a little more ‘oomph’ from his gauntlet’s enchantments.

His armor was one of his most prized possessions, as every single piece of it had enchantments on it. Needless to say, it was very expensive and therefore took him a lot of time before he could save up enough money to buy it.

Right now, Jave was very glad of that decision as the boar crashed into a nearby tree, shaking off the show on its leaves.

The Silver Tine Boars were known for their natural armor, which, as its name suggested, was silver. And not just any silver, but pure silver. As they grew in age, their armor would begin to gain natural magic enchantments, like strengthening, heat radiance, and other properties. Their hides were very valuable if one knew who to sell it to. Even their meat was valuable, due to their deliciousness and nutrition. Also, the more old they were, the more valuable they were, due to magical enhancements. Their tusks were made of silver too, and could be used in crafting fine swords with a proper smithy.

However, for all their uses, there were disadvantages too. Silver Tine boars were very hard to find, even in forests whose danger level was that of mid rank. They were mostly found in upper ranking forests, but due to all the much more valuable monsters that lurked there, they were usually ignored. Lastly, and most important, was that they were resilient, especially when it came to fighting. For every three mid ranked adventurers who fought them, one wouldn’t survive. That gave Jave a two in three chances of surviving.

So he was very glad for the edge his armor gave him. In fact, parts of it were made form Silver Tine Boars themselves.

He unsheathed his sword, and poised himself, ready to attack.

The Boar lifted itself of the ground, and growled. Slowly, the snow on it turned to steam. The Boar’s armor was glowing a slight orange, and it’s tusks were glowing white.

He didn’t know what temperature it had to be to glow white, but he didn’t want to find out.

Abruptly, it charged at him again. Jave, simply sidestepped the attack once more, and thrust his sword into it. It only penetrated a few inches, before the sword was yanked from his hand as the boar’s momentum pulled it forward. The boar growled, and landed a few meters away. The sword landed a few feet to its right.

Shit, he thought, describing the situation in exactly one word.

The boar turned around and looked at him, its eyes now crimson.

Bloodlust, he realized.

And then, without warning, the boar charged again, this time leaping at him. Jave barely had a few seconds to roll out of the way, putting him further away from his sword. However, he didn’t have time to think about it, as the boar was charging at him- again.

Having no time to dodge this time, as the boar was too close and closing in fast, he closed his eyes, and concentrated. His five senses slipped away, and was replaced by an entirely different sense, that let him have an instinctual awareness of his surroundings, the mechanics of reality shown to him, but up to him to understand and manipulate. However, he had no time for the latter, due to the monster that was only a few feet from him. He pulled the beast’s heat and kinectic energy into his fist, where he left it as potential energy. He then dashed forward, and punched it in the skull, releasing all the energy he’d stole- ironically- from the boar. The boar’s head split and the brain inside turned to jelly, visible through the large crack in its head.

What it would look like from an outsider’s perspective, however, would be that the boar suddenly stopped in midair, the glow in its hide fading, Jave’s hand becoming too bright to look at, a white flash and sonic boom, and then Jave standing over the boar’s corpse.

And then Jave fell unconscious, falling onto the boar’s corpse. When he would wake up, he would find that the corpse had disappeared, and his sword nowhere to be found.

***

He had no idea whether he had just fainted from hunger and exhaustion and the fight with the boar was a dream or whether the whole thing was real. On one hand, the boar’s corpse was nowhere to be found, on the other hand, his sword was nowhere to be found either.

The sword not being where it was could be explained off by being picked up by a Khjung, metal loving creatures that lived underground, but the boar? He had no idea how to explain that.

However, if the entire thing was an illusion or a dream, then that could explain why there was no boar, and he could have lost the sword to Khjung in his sleep.

He was confused as to what to do. He could still be in an illusion, and if he was, he had no idea how to break it. But if he was in the real world, and he acted as if everything was an illusion, then that could lead to very bad things happening.

Was this how everyone else went mad?

He had no idea. And that scared him. He now realized why madness was so horrifying. It wasn’t because it turned you into a monster, no, because it makes you doubt yourself to the point of not being able to trust anything nor anyone. Maybe the monster you see could be a sweet little girl, or the sweet little girl could be a monster. But you have to strike, not knowing whether what you killed was a girl or a monster, only that the latter could kill you if given chance, and you can’t risk not attacking because of the former.

And you’ll never know, whether you killed a little girl or a monster. But the chance of it being the little girls eats away at your heart for the rest of your life.

Jave now knew what hell meant.

He felt depressed. He was going to end his life. He had to. He couldn’t risk going mad. He’d rather die than go mad. Because that would be a fate worse than death.

So tears flowed down his cheeks, and froze. He had so many things he wanted to do. He hadn’t even gotten rid of that damned sprite.

On the bright side, maybe he could finally find out if there was life after death. A small part of him was even hoping for it. But another part of him knew, that it’d probably just be oblivion after death.

Now was not the time for those thoughts though. If he was going to die, then he would not die feeling sad. And, he still had to carve that message to get revenge for him.

Now that he thought about it though…. Carving would take time, time he wasn’t sure he had.

After a minute of thinking, he decided that he would use a few pieces of parchment and empty out that bottle of wine in his bag, to use the bottle for preservation.

And so he took out his quill and parchment, and wrote-

This is a message to message from myself Jave, to speak out things that I wish I was able to convey myself.

First I would like to say, I did not intend to come here, but was tricked. I was tricked by Drygg Kyras, son of nobleman Althian Kyras. The reasons were so petty that I feel that they do not deserve to take up valuable ink and parchment. But if whoever’s reading in a time where Drygg still lives, then I ask you avenge me.

If my friends Norbert Hardstone and Damen Enchime are still alive and well, then I ask you to tell them to kick Drygg's ass on my behalf.

And, for whoever it might matter to, I want to say, that I had a dream. A dream of a life of adventure, and fulfilment. It made the last three years of my life the best three years of my life.

Now though, I won’t be able to live out the rest of my dream. So, I’m telling you, to savor the rest of your life, and dare to dream. Do all the things I could not.

From,

Jave Snowborn,

An adventurer whose adventure is about to end.

***

End of chapter 3