Chapter 35

"Travelers seeking entrance. Twenty-five!" Toyle was the one to shout, and he said the number of us coming as well.

"Open the gates," Someone from inside the ramparts said, and the wooden doors opened outwards towards us. With the doors open, the wagons moved forward once more.

It took a few minutes, but we steered the wagons to the side and unloaded all the people. A few other wagons were inside the ramparts and stood to the side like ours did.

"We were lucky to not encounter any beasts on the trip," Arnold said, walking up to me. "Here, 100 credits for your time." Arnold reached out his hand, and I took it. He then transferred 100 credits to me. I don't really know what to do now, so I'll visit this holy sword they keep talking about.

"So, what's so special about the sword?" I ask someone who sat, basking in the warmth of the fire.

"Legend has it," The man spoke, not opening his eyes. "Saint Nordas forged the sword himself from the blood of ten thousand demons." Wow, that sounds seriously hardcore. It'd be cool if I could forge such a sword one day, but I haven't even seen a demon yet.

"That's cool," I say to him.

"I know, right?" He says, and we both enjoy the fire, though I can't feel it. After some time of just standing, I decide to ask him another question.

"So, is it always like this, or is something special happening?"

"It's always this amazing," He says. Alright, fruitloop.

I start to walk away from the fire and approach the entrance to the shrine. I think I'll make my own shrine later, something with pizza on it. As I approach the exit, I see one of the people from the party I didn't talk to.

"So how long will you all stay up here?" I ask the man leaning against the wagon.

"We'll stay for four days and then head back." He says, not very interested. I can tell that he's probably done this before.

I leave the shine, somewhat disappointed. It's either the 37th day or very close to being so. I thought the shrine would be some cool location with circus performers or something, but there was nothing like that. Just a bunch of people gathered to stand around a fire in the middle of the mountains.

I decide to cut through the mountains to get back home, but as I saw something with my x-ray vision, ahead. I normally only look out for monsters, but this time, I saw a person fighting one of the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds, and they were winning. With Hawk-Eye, I was able to zoom in on the action, and I could see a beautiful woman, ripe for the kissing prank, fighting the hound with a sword in each hand.

Her blades moved quickly and alternated between being used to push the hound away and slashing at its unprotected underside. The display of swordsmanship was certainly something I was incapable of, though I did not know if Swordfighting Skill would make me as good as her.

As the battle came to a close, the hound tried to pounce her with all of its effort but the warrior impaled the underside with both her swords. I wonder if I should say something, or just wait until they pass.

"Come out, whoever you are," She said, looking in my direction. I know she did see me, because I was currently hiding on the other side of a large rock, impossible to be seen from her direction. "Any wild beast would smell you from a mile away." Hey, that hurt. Then again, I can't remember the last bath I had...

"Hello," I said, turning off my extra visions, except night vision, and walking out from behind the rock. "That was an impressive fight." I should be polite. I know exactly where I want this conversation to go, somewhere that I can challenge her and end it with 'I get a really quick kiss.' It works 100% of the time.

"You, are you a native around here?" She asks me. I'm not really from this world, but I've been here over a month.