Chapter One: A New Beginning

Nothing quite like waking up with an intense full-body ache. I was still in the same sitting position, the bark of the tree I was leaning against biting into my back, and it felt like I’d spend an entire night in the position. When I finally managed to look around with bleary, crusty eyes, I realized that was likely an understatement. A layer of snow coated the ground, and the biting cold only made my aches more intense. It didn’t help that the morning sun reflected off the white blanket and made my headache return with a vengeance. My conversation with the goddess had taken place towards the end of summer, which meant I’d spent at least a few months asleep. I should have asked her exactly how long she planned to put me down for, but I’d had other things on the brain. Things like saving the souls of all the people I’d failed to protect.

“Well, let’s get this over with.” My breath fogged when I spoke. I hadn’t exactly been laden with winter gear, so I had to hope I could find somewhere to get some warm clothes relatively soon.

First things first, time to see what I was working with. I pulled up my information window and groaned aloud. “Well, at least I’m not level one I suppose,” I mused.

Level five. My deal with the goddess had cost me over a hundred levels. If she actually held up her end, that would be a small price to pay. Levels can be regained, lost lives couldn’t. Not normally, at least. That meant I’d have to be careful, though. I didn’t have the padded stats of three classes and dozens of skills to allow for my more reckless style of fighting. Speaking of…

My first reaction was to wince. The numbers were very sad compared to what I’d once had, but then I did some quick mental math. Average starting stats totaled at 120, which meant I had a whopping 70 points that had come seemingly from nowhere, not counting the four I would have gained from levels three and five. I’d already decided to at least give Allura the benefit of the doubt, and it looked like she was keen to prove herself. I’d take what I could get, I supposed. That beefy resilience would give me all kinds of resistance to magical damage and effects, such as the one that tried its best to annihilate me every time I drew my cursed blade.

Speaking of my eternal burden, I didn’t see it nearby. I didn’t panic, though, since Allura had clearly stated the blade was important. I had an idea of where it might be, so I checked on my three skills. One was the core skill granted by my class.

The second was exactly what I expected, and I was glad Allura had picked this one for me to keep. It would come in handy, especially when it came to dealing with the damn blade. The third made me curse. It was one skill I would have rather been without.

I had many reasons to hate my class, and this was one of them. It seemed designed to turn me into some kind of predator in the dark, and many of the skills I’d seen and taken made it hard to feel like one of the good guys no matter how hard I tried. It’s like the system knew I was only doing good to spite the evil bastard who’d created me.

Not a bad spread to start with, though I could have used another offensive ability in the place of [Predator’s Pursuit] One issue I immediately noticed, though, is that my storage had been considerably larger before. Hell, I could have hauled around an entire carriage for shits and giggles. I’d spent too much of my life with absolutely nothing to my name, which meant I’d developed some slight hoarding tendencies. I hoped all my gear wasn’t gone, but I could worry about that later. Best to take stock of what I did have.

The first thing I drew out was the blade. It was just as menacing as ever, and it felt heavier than it had before. The burden of significantly reduced stats, I supposed. I leaned it against a tree and went to fishing for whatever else I could find. A few minutes later I knelt among a few dozen shitty rations, a not insignificant pouch of coin, two full waterskins, a thick black winter cloak that went down nearly to my knees with a fur-lined hood to match (Allura, you’re growing on me more and more by the minute), a single change of standard traveling clothes, and a single roll of parchment in a watertight tube. No armor, which meant I was stuck with the simple traveler’s clothes I wore.

I knew what the parchment was, so I stowed it immediately. It would come in handy in the future, but considering I was in the middle of bum fuck nowhere right now, it was little more than kindling. I threw on the coat, tore into a ration, and stowed the coin as well. I hefted the sword, but I ended up stowing that as well. In my current state, I could probably wield it for about ten seconds. Best to keep it out of sight where its magic couldn’t call to anything nasty while I was distracted.

“Couldn’t bother to give me a real sword, huh?” I asked the air. I wondered if she was paying attention to me at all or if she’d decided to leave me to my own devices. Now that our conversation was over and done with all I could think about was the litany of questions I wish I’d asked. Oh well. No sense crying over it. At the very least I could move forward feeling like her influence over me wasn’t too strong.

I briefly wondered if she’d done that on purpose. The more instruction she’d given me, the more likely I would have been to tell her to go fuck herself. Giving me a vague goal and letting me do things my way was probably the best tactic she could have used. Maybe she did know a little about me after all.

The area I was in didn’t resemble the area where we’d talked. Until I was certain, best to assume she’d dropped me somewhere else entirely. She could reset my class and give me free stats, so relocating my ass was hardly outside the realm of possibility.

I picked a direction and struck out at random. I needed to get my bearings, and that wasn’t exactly easy to do in a thickly wooded area. I needed high ground and landmarks. If I could stumble my way to a settlement, even better. Especially since I could use some of this coin to buy myself a blade that didn’t do its best to obliterate my poor abused soul every time I drew it.

Unfortunately, I had never been a lucky man. I walked for a few hours before my scalp prickled. Allura could take away my skills, but she couldn’t take my instincts. I dropped into a fighting stance just before the first wolf came into view.

It wasn’t big enough to be a dire wolf, but it was plenty large enough to properly wreck my shit if I wasn’t careful. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was something very wrong with the beast. One of its eyes was a standard yellow, but the other was a sickly green. Webs of matted, black fur spread across the beast’s side like veins, and I could feel the faint pressure of magic coming from the creature.

“And just what the fuck are you?” I asked it. Thankfully, it didn't respond. Then two more wolves crept out of the bushes on either side of me. An ambush. Honestly, I was embarrassed that I’d walked right into it. I really had to get used to my weaker self before it got me killed.

Normal wolves were one thing. A display of power and they’d run off in search of easier prey. Something in my gut told me that these weren’t normal wolves. I raised my arms and let some of my shadows trail upwards in thin tendrils. “Go on, doggie. Find someone else to munch on.”

The wolf was unimpressed. Its hackles raised and it bared its teeth. Its companions began to stalk closer to me. Looks like I was about to get in some experience already. I just had to hope that whatever magic was affecting the beasts didn’t juice them up too much.

“Fuck it.” I drew the cursed blade from my shadow pocket with one hand and unclasped my cloak with the other, letting it fall to the ground. The wolf lunged, and I swung the blade, scabbard and all. I hit the wolf in the body with all my strength and managed to knock it away. I felt the impact in my wrists and shoulders, but the blow did its job and sent the wolf sprawling.

Without undoing the clasp, I couldn’t access the blade’s cursed magic. On the other hand, it couldn’t unravel my soul either. That didn’t mean I couldn’t swing it around like a big ass club, though.

The next wolf tried to sink its teeth into me, but got a mouth full of metal scabbard instead. The third one tried to get behind me, but I lashed out with my shadows and landed a cut to its snout and another on its shoulder. Rather than red, its blood was a green several shades darker than its eye. Where it dripped in the snow, it sizzled.

That was bad, and so was the sensation I got when I used my skills. I could feel the effect on my mana, which made me curse. I’d spent so long with a hefty mana pool I hadn’t even though to check how much I was working with now.

I threw the wolf in front of me to the ground and slammed the blade down, taking its jaw with me. I lashed out again with shadows, aiming for the beast’s neck. This time with piercing attacks. I felt bone crack when I twisted the sword and rolled away just before another of the wolves could jump me.

One wolf limped away, bleeding profusely from the deep wounds in its neck, its jaw hanging at an angle. That left two for now. This time, I was the one to initiate. I lunged and managed to slam my blade into one wolf’s head, but the other leapt on me from behind. I used my shadows for defense even as the wolf bit into my shoulder. I immediately knew I’d made a mistake when I felt the bite of magic tear into my flesh, but the wolf’s attack put me in an ample position.

I used my shadows to stab the inside of the wolf’s snout even as it jerked its head to try and rip my shoulder off. It burned through most of my mana, but I stabbed the roof of its mouth and its throat enough that it finally let go. It reeled back, but not before I hit its shoulder with the scabbard. I felt bones crunch and the beast howled. It faltered, and I used the gap to rain blow after blow until it stopped moving.

I’d fought beasts much larger than the last wolf, so it was only a matter of time before I was able to dispatch it now that I didn’t have to worry about it flanking me. I only needed to attack it twice with my shadows before I could step forward and finish the thing off. After that, ignoring the searing pain that raced through my veins, I tracked the only wolf left by the heavy trail of blood it was leaving behind. It glared at me with that creepy green eye, rasping through the wounds in its throat. I put it out of its misery quickly.

[Level up!]

Seems the wolves were a little out of my weight class. I shook my head even as I sunk down with my back to the nearest tree. Not so long ago, I would have been able to use my shadows to snap the necks of all three wolves without breaking a sweat. This was going to be a huge pain.

[Blight neutralized]

Blight, huh? That’s a new one. Must’ve been whatever that corruption was. Still, thanks to my insane resilience, it looked like I wasn’t going to die to poison at least. I waited a few minutes to make sure the wolves hadn’t left any friends behind in the trees, but it seemed I was alone. First things first, I needed to see just how poorly I’d done. I pulled up my current status.

Health: [79/200]

Mana: [2/90]

“Fuck me!” I’d cut that much closer than I’d have liked. If anything else decided to take a chunk out of me, then I was screwed. Even now I was pretty sure luck had played a heavy role in my survival just then. Judging by the smoking holes in the snow and the burning on my back and shoulder I was pretty certain the wolves’ blood was acidic. I’d be willing to bet some coin that stabbing them with a non-magical weapon would lead to very bad things.

With that out of the way, it was time to level. Like all even numbered levels, six meant I got a new skill. I just had to hope I had some decent options this early in my journey. I won’t be much use to Allura as a corpse, so I had to consider my current weaknesses. I initiated the level and looked at my options.

Two of them were the standard starting skills available by default. [Shadow Sense] would boost everything but my eyesight in the dark. It was helpful when it came to moving around at night, but it was limited by how bright it was. I’d take it eventually, but for now I needed something more immediately useful. [Cursed Existence] could help against the wolves, but I had no way of knowing if I faced a curse or a simple poison. I’d learned the hard way that the two were different. I was leaning towards curse, but if I was wrong then I’d wasted a level.

The third skill available was one I didn’t think I’d get until later, but I’d gladly take it now. So I did.

As long as I didn’t get jumped by anything else before I regained some mana, I’d be set. That meant not loitering around the dead bodies, so I got to my feet. My shoulder was still pretty torn up, so I poured as much water as I dared over it. After, I rubbed some snow into it. The cold helped with the pain, and hopefully it would keep it from getting infected until I could get my hands on something a little more substantial.

I continued on my way for a good while until I heard the sound of running water. I followed it to a stream which flowed past rapidly enough to be relatively clean but slow enough that I could go into it. It wasn’t my first time in the wilderness, so I spent some time hunting enough wood to get a fire going before taking a dip in the frigid water. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, so I figured this was as good a spot as any to hole up. The river would protect one side and the trees made a nice little alcove I could spend the night in.

Around when I was building the fire my mana finally regained enough to use [Shadow Stitching]. Just as I remembered, it was a distinctly painful experience. The shadows became thread-thin and wove in and out of my flesh before pulling the cuts closed, but I was too thankful it counted the bite as one injury for the sake of my mana to complain.

Once I had the fire going, I stripped down to take a dip and wash the blood and grime from the battle off. That’s when I got my next big surprise of the day. I’d hardly been small, but it seemed Allura had seen fit to ensure her champion was well endowed. I was as big soft now as I’d been hard before. A part of me wanted to see just how improved my new equipment was, but between the cold, the pain, and the day I’d had so far I figured I’d hold off on that particular experiment.

I scoffed. “Not a sex goddess. Could’ve fooled me.”

One painfully chilly rinse later I was satisfied my injuries weren’t going to kill me overnight. I wrapped myself in the cloak, slammed down another ration, and curled up with my back against a tree a ways away from the flames. I was exhausted enough that the most I could do was silently question why Allura hadn’t seen fit to give me a fucking bedroll before I drifted off.

# # #

It was the smell of smoke that woke me initially. At first I berated my unconscious brain for being an idiot, but as I got my bearings I realized that the wind was blowing the smoke from my sad little campfire away from where I sat shivering in the dark. If that wasn’t enough to wake me up, there was something else I could smell on the wind. Meat. Cooking meat. I hadn’t eaten anything but rations since I’d left the capital. I hadn’t had it in me to go hunting, so I’d just lived off what I had on hand. The smell that assaulted me now had my mouth watering and my stomach grumbling rebelliously.

Health: [132/200]

Mana: [53/90]

Not quite ideal, but it’d do. At least to take a look. Anything smart enough to cook meat was smart enough to answer at least some of the questions I had. As long as they weren’t hostile, of course. If they were, well I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.

Judging by my regen, I’d slept about five hours. Naturally, since I was sleeping wrapped in a coat and sitting against a tree, I didn’t get the full bonus that came with a good rest. Half would do until I at least got a bedroll and maybe a companion so I wouldn’t have to spend the night half asleep. I didn’t anticipate the latter happening any time soon, but it was nice to dream. I hadn’t realized how much I missed having others to glower at.

The sky was cloudy still, and the forest seemed to devour even the tiniest sounds I made while I crept through the trees. It was pitch dark, but that was where I felt the most at home. It wasn’t long before I saw the glare of orange peeking out through the trees. An active campfire this early in the morning meant one of a few things.

Worst case scenario was that it was a large group that had enough guards not to have to worry about night ambushes. If they seemed hostile, I’d have to back off and hope I came across someone else. Granted, it was entirely possible that these woods were relatively peaceful and there wasn’t much real danger leaving a fire going. My encounter with the wolves made me think otherwise. On the other side of the coin, the flames could very well keep night predators at bay. Without knowing where I was, I had no real way of knowing. Another reason was that they simply couldn’t or wouldn’t go without the heat of the flames during the night. Perhaps they had young, sick, or wounded with them.

Whatever the case, I needed to get closer to find out. I moved silently and low to the ground. I activated my [Shadow Manipulation] and used it defensively. The dark tendrils that wrapped around my arms and upper torso would make it even harder to spot in the dark, and after a brief check I confirmed that a single use only cost me five mana. I could afford that if it meant avoiding conflict.

Thankfully it wasn’t option number one. I only counted four bodies, and only one was currently on watch. Thanks to the brightness of the fire blinding their one sentry, I was able to get to a nice little spot out of the wind to watch them for a good while. A heavily armored woman was the one peering out into the dark as if she expected an attack at any moment. There was a man that dozed not far off, but his blade was resting right next to his hand. His armor was lighter than the woman’s, but it was well used. It had seen battle. The third man sat next to the fourth, who was a woman lying with a towel across her forehead. Every so often the third man, a smaller guy who wore armor designed for quickness and sat next to a bow, would lean over and check his companion. She was closest to the flame, and I could only assume she was injured.

Walking out of the dark in the middle of the night was the height of stupidity, so I settled down and simply watched. About two hours before dawn the sleeping man stood and went to tap the shoulder of the woman on watch. Without saying a word, she walked over to the one tending to the wounded woman and leaned over. My senses were painfully average, so I couldn’t make out whatever it was that was said, but the man stood and laid in the spot where his companion had been sleeping before. The armored woman took his place next to the injured woman.

I could tell they were not only seasoned, but more than familiar with one another. Once I’d gotten a good feel for each of them, my eyes went searching for the source of the smell that had drawn me in the first place. A metal pot sat next to the fire, just close enough to keep warm, and I could smell the stew inside it. It made my stomach rumble so loudly I was certain it would get me caught, but by the time the sky began to lighten none of them had made any indication that I’d been seen.

It was in that light of early morning I made another discovery. Four adventurers, six packs. Whatever had occurred, it seemed not everyone made it out. I waited until the guard changed again, the smaller man in the light armor taking watch, before I finally made my move.

After dismissing the shadows I’d been using as camouflage, I approached from the area that had the least amount of cover with my arms spread out to the sides. It didn’t take long for the man on watch to spot me. “Hold!” he shouted. His companions scrambled to their feet, and I was impressed to see that neither of them looked towards me. Their eyes searched the trees, no doubt looking for any sign of ambush.

“Ho, there!” I tried to sound non threatening, but I’d spent my entire life trying to accomplish the opposite so it wasn’t as effective as I’d have liked. “I mean no harm, I’d just like to talk. I’m alone and unarmed.” Other than an evil cursed sword, of course, but it was stowed out of sight.

The man’s eyes narrowed, and the armored woman put herself between me and her injured friend. It was the third man that spoke. “I find it hard to believe you’re all alone out here, friend.” His tone suggested I was anything but. He walked so that he was closer to me than the other two. His hand was on the hilt of his blade, but he hadn’t drawn it yet. Up close I could see that he was older, maybe in his late forties or early fifties, and bore himself with an ease that spoke to his experience. He’d be more than dangerous if things got ugly.

I made sure to keep my hands well in sight, raising them to push my cloak back so he could get a good look and see that I didn’t have any weapons on my belt. That didn’t mean I was harmless, of course. I could easily have a class that didn’t use weapons or some way to store them out of sight (which I did on both counts), so he still regarded me with the same level of suspicion.

“Believe it or not, it’s the truth,” I said with a shrug.

“If that’s the case,” the thin man said, “then you’d best be on your way.”

Well, it wasn’t attack on sight. I could work with this. “If that’s what you want, then I’ll move along. I just saw your fire and thought I’d offer a hand.”

The woman tensed, but the man who was the clear leader didn’t react. “Not sure what you might be offering, nor what you’d want in return.”

“I assume your friend is injured?” None of them answered. “I have a skill that might be able to help her. As for what I want, a bowl of that stew and some directions would be more than enough for me.”

The thin man put an arrow on his string. “Pretty sure I already told you to piss off—”

“Hang on Al,” the grizzled man said. Then, to me, “what kind of skill? No offense, but you hardly seem a priest.”

“No. I’m afraid I don’t have healing magics in the normal sense,” I admitted. “But I can close wounds if she’s hurt. It’ll keep her from bleeding out until you can get her back to safety.”

“Pierce,” the woman hissed, “Lana's in bad shape. She might not make it as is.”

Pierce grumbled. “Al, toss him a knife.”

Al did so without verbal complaint, though his expression was as far from cuddly as one got. He threw it a little harder than necessary, but I managed to snag it out of the air anyways. Pierce raised a brow at me, and I knew he understood the message. I meant no harm, but I wasn’t harmless. “I’m not in the habit of trusting strangers,” he said, “so I’ll have to ask you to prove that skill of yours.”

Not unsurprising, but I still wished I wasn’t having to use up my mana. I drew the blade across the back of my hand, then activated [Shadow Stitching]. Threads of darkness worked their way through my flesh and pulled it shut. A cut like this would be healed by the end of the day.

Al took a step back, but Pierce just nodded. “Yen, grab our guest a bowl. Al, keep an eye on him. You, what’s your name?”

I hadn’t been paying much attention when I left the capital, and there was every chance my name had become at least a little widely known. “Ren,” I told him. Not a lie and common enough to not arouse suspicion.

He stepped aside and allowed me to approach the injured woman while Yen went to grab the bowl. Al stayed close behind me, which gave me a chance to hand him back his dagger. He snatched it with a sneer. Who pissed in this guy’s porridge?

I was acutely aware of Pierce and Al looming over me while I kneeled down next to Lana. She wore a padded robe that wouldn’t be much good against anything overly dangerous, so I figured she was either the group’s healer or some kind of mage. Moving slowly as to not antagonize my new friends, I peeled back the bloody bandages on Lana's side.

What I saw made me wince. Something long and sharp had sliced right through her, and normal stitches hadn’t seemed to help much. The cut was too neat to have been made by claws. “A trap?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

Pierce grunted in affirmative. “Got nicked trying to save a kid I figured might be our new fifth.” His eyes flitted to one of the still-packed bags. “Guess I figured wrong. Can you help?”

Luckily for him, I could. My [Shadow Stitching] was better than normal stitches in that it could go much deeper to seal the wound shut. “As long as she’s not poisoned and she hasn’t got any severe infections, she should be alright.” I put a hand over the wound. “You’ll still want to get her to a real healer, though.”

She reacted to my touch, but her face was covered in a sheen of sweat. She mumbled incoherently while her eyes searched the sky unseeing. “If you can hear me, then you’ll want to brace yourself. This is going to hurt.”

Pierce kneeled down by her head and pulled a leather bit out. He slipped it in her mouth, then held her shoulders down. He was no stranger to this sort of thing. I put one hand on her hip to try and keep her lower half as still as I could manage, then activated my skill.

The cut was deep enough it took double the mana, but I could tell immediately that it had worked. Mainly because she immediately started screaming into the bit and trying to shove us off. The process lasted less than ten seconds, and she’d passed out by the end.

“Well?” Yen asked.

I sat back and Pierce handed me a towel to wipe the blood from the hand that had touched the cut. “Like I said, she should be fine. My skill stops the bleeding, and it’ll help it heal faster. That doesn’t mean she’s completely out of the woods though, no pun intended.”

Yen’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank you.” She handed me a still-steaming bowl, which I took gratefully. Pierce stood. “Come. Might as well take a seat. I guess we owe you some directions, too.”