We Light Dwellers have fought the forces of Dark Almighty for millennia, thinking of them as our sworn enemies and destined to fall to our rightful power. But this is pure hypocrisy. Long ago, long before the term Light Dweller was even born, we could only hide and pray for salvation, to no avail, while fearing for our souls to be devoured by the Dark Sovereign. But when he disappeared, we forgot, we forgot our fear of the dark. But the time will come my children, when he will return, he will return and remind us how much we really fear the dark. He will return, and then we will once again tremble in fear, and nothing of us will be left.

Adrus Sanctum, first pope of the Church of the Holy Light, moments before giving his last breath. First book of the History of Holy Light

Andrew just arrived at Greyleaf village, where the goblins were already praying to their true savior, Murgin.Thinking that he should not disturb them, he decided to take a good look at the village. It had a round perimeter and it was surrounded by small wooden walls with only one gate.The houses were small and rotund, like huts, all made of wood and for the roofs they used grey leaves.

"Loyal to their name, i see"

In the middle of the village there was a bigger house, made of stone. This one looked more like a medieval house. It had two windows, one on the front and one on the rear, but they had only small wooden doors to close them.

"I suppose that glass must be a rare material"

The roof was made of what seemed to be clay and it even had a door that the other houses lacked

"This must be Golind's house"

While he was admiring the goblin's architecture the supposed owner of the house called him.

"Lord Andrew, we just finished our prayers. I know this is not enough to be forgiven for our mistake, but i hope your master is pleased"

Andrew made a wry smile

"Oh, i'm sure he's very pleased"

He could already imagine Murgin reaction if he discovered of the goblins error, which he probably already did, and Andrew could only laugh smirk thinking about it.

"That's what you get, you bastard" he thought.

"My lord, i think now it's time to talk about the adventurer situation. Please follow me to my house"

"Yes, of course"

Andrew entered the stone house with Golind and noticed that it only had a double bed, a table with chairs, some shelves containing food and a wardrobe.

"I don't have much to offer, but please sit down Lord Andrew"

He sit down at the table with Golind, and on the table there were some fruits in a bowl, a map of a forest, most certainly the one they are in, and some small statues representing goblins and humans, like those you see in war movies when they're planning a strategy. Now Andrew could analyze Golind, which he couldn't do before since he was too worried about what was happening. He was as tall as the other goblins, but his face was more humanoid with eyes not unlike those of a human ,a small round nose and little,short ears. If it wasn't for hid middle-aged face and his green skin, he could be mistaken for human child. He had short, spiky black hair and a little goatee. He was wearing a red vest and crown of green leaves, that looked like one of those head wears you would see at the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro. Last, but not least, he was wielding a wooden cane that turned to a spiral towards the tip. While Andrew began thinking if he was some kind of mage Golind began speaking

"My lord, as you can see, this is the map of the forest we live in, Greyleaf, it's called such because of a particular species of trees with grey leaves, which can protect us from evil spirits and disasters, for this reason we use it to build our roofs"

Andrew interrupted him

"Wait, your house has a clay roof, doesn't it? Do you not need protection?"

"It is not needed, for every leader of this village is given a special elixir of leaves to make him immune from evil and misfortune. It's very hard to make since you have to use particular methods, that's way only the leader can drink it"

"Ah, i see"

"But those damn adventurers use the leaves to strengthen themselves, taking as many as possible without any respect for nature. We only take them once a year to change the roofs, but they just pick up every single one they find. We tried to stop them but they're far too strong and organized for us"

"Where's their base located?"

"Right here my lord"

Golind pointed at the north-west of the map,at least he thought it was north-west, after all he doesn't know if this world has the same cardinal points as Earth. On the point there was a drawing of city with Gorwyn written under it.

"This is the city of Gorwyn, just outside the forest. It wasn't a problem, they never attacked us, but 3 months ago the Adventurers Guild established itself there. Since then adventures have been attacking us to get the leaves"

So there were adventures in this world,who probably were monsters' greatest enemies. Andrew would probably enter a fight with them in the future, not just adventurers, but the guild itself. He wondered if it had a leader, and if yes, how strong he was. But this didn't matter now, he just wanted to know the enemy forces,

"So, how many adventurers are there,more or less?"

"The few scouts that managed to sneak in the city say that there's at least 150 adventurers. More precisely there's 50 warriors, 30 archers, 40 mages, 10 assassins and 20 clerics."

"Wow, they did a good job"

It wasn't really surprising, after all goblins are small and agile, at least some of them wouldn't have problem getting into a small city.

"Still, how many goblins are able to fight right now?"

"Regrettably my lord, we only have 76 of them, counting myself, and it takes 3 goblins to defeat an adventurer"

Andrew realized how dire was the situation. It takes 3 goblins to defeat an adventurer and they barely have half of their forces. He knew he would have to use both strategy and his newfound powers to defeat completely the adventures. Even if they managed to do so, the Guild could just call adventures from other cities. If they wanted to win they'd have to destroy Gorwin itself, but that would just cause a military retaliation from Kieris. He should do something that would completely scare off the adventurers or make them lose interest in the forest, he even thought of searching help from some other force of monsters, if there was one, but what Golind said next made him realize they had no time for that.

"Also the adventures are preparing a raid with all of their forces to completely destroy any monster and take control of the forest. It's supposed to happen in 2 weeks"

"I understand Golind. For now i'll go consult with Murgin,then we'll prepare a battle plan"

"Thank you, lord Andrew, thank you really"

Andrew got out of the house and was going to the Altar but Golind shouted at him from the door.

"LORD ANDREW!"

"What is it?"

Suddenly tears fell down from the goblin's eyes

"Please, please protect us. Those adventures....t hey already took the life of my wife and my child, they were just... just getting my favorite berries for my birthday and were unarmed, b-but they... they killed them! They took their ears, their eye,t heir fangs...i almost couldn't recognize them..."

Golind kneeled, putting his hand together like he was praying

"PLEASE MY LORD, AVENGE THEM! AVENGE THEM! PLEASE I BEG YOU! MAKE IT SO THAT NO ONE ELSE OF MY BROTHERS HAS TO FEEL THIS PAIN, PLEASE! PLEASE..... Give us hope for the future"

Andrew realized just how much pain this man has felt. Losing his loved ones, with their bodies barely recognizable. He thought what he would do if the same thing happened to Emma. He would fall into desperation, damning his powerlessness and drowning in his anger. This gob-, no this man has lost too much. The boy made a decision: he not only would slaughter those that harmed this village but destroy the Guild, not just raze every single building to the ground,but cancel every single proof that it even existed. And as such, he completed his vow with a single sentence

"I will protect you, i promise"

Andrew resumed walking to the Altar and heard some words from behind him

"Thank you... thank you, so much.."

After walking for a while, Andrew reached the Altar

"MURGIIIIIIN! COME HERE!"

Suddenly the Altar began speaking

"I'm here boy. What do you want?"

"Murgin ,how do i use the powers you gave me?"

"It'll come to mind the moment you need them, why do you ask?"

"I made a promise, Murgin. I made a promise to protect those people. I know, this is the first time i saw such a situation, but this is the Guild's method, no? Killing monsters for their personal gain, even if they have a family, even if they plead for mercy, using their corpse to get some easy money.

"Yes. This has been the Guild's method since it was founded 543 years ago"

"I will destroy them. The fear of losing your loved ones is something i know very well. I cannot accept someone that slaughters people while treating them as beasts"

"....I gotta say boy, i'm proud of you. Real proud. You know, i watched every second of your discussion with Golind. Never been so proud in my life. Just for that i'll give you two things"

Suddenly from the air appeared a black sword, with a upturned jawless skull at the bottom of the hilt,like it was biting it.

"This sword is called Perditor, it's one the strongest swords i possess. This is the first of my gifts. Now for the second."

The sword Andrew was admiring rushed through the air and stabbed him in the chest.

Instead of pain, Andrew felt power, a power he never had before. After a minute the sword removed itself from his chest and stuck itself to the ground.

"Right now i filled you with a great quantity of mana, which you didn't have before"

"Murgin, why was my head filled with the information of magic only now?"

"Oh, that's because your abilities can't be activated unless you have mana in your body"

"WAIT, THAT MEANS-"

"Yep, till now you were a normal human"

"YOU SENT ME HERE WITHOUT POWERS? I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!"

"If you died so easily then you wouldn't be worthy of the title of Abyss Gazer. Also i had to check your personality"

"My personality?"

"Yes, i knew from your sacrifice that you were brave and kind, but i had to see if you had the determination to protect monsters. And you just showed me you have"

"Now, what do i do?"

"Oh, you'll figure it out by yourself. Now you have power, don't you?"

"Yes, you're right"

"Now go, my child. Remind them,remind those who enjoy and dwell in the light, remind them of a fear they have long forgotten, remind them... to fear the dark"

And so the legend of the Abyss Gazer truly begins.

Hello guys! Back from vacation! It was quite relaxing, i gotta say. And there you have it, a chapter even before what i told you! YAY!