When he appeared again it wasn’t in the forest but instead down in the cube shaped room he spent the last hours playing around with magic. His eyes drifted to the small opening that served as his slide before. “Wait…how do I get back up…?” He hoped for some divine guidance but there was only silence. “Fucking great…” he sighed and succumbed to his fate.
Meanwhile in a different part of the same tutorial James and Marie followed the three rough looking men through the forest. They couldn’t even feel their legs anymore from walking and running through the night. Something they noticed was the amount of stamina they had, their strength in general was a lot more than someone would expect from a teenager, they suspected the system but there was no way to say for sure.
During their escape from the goblin hunting team they thought about Ethan, how they left him lying in the dirt. James felt terrible because of it and didn’t manage to accept that he was responsible, even if only partially for someone's death. Marie on the other hand just kept going like nothing happened, she was more concerned with dirt hitting her pink dress or that her wand could be scratched or break during their escape. It was a side of her he didn’t know in his former life.
While they managed to escape the three men looked at them a few times before they approached each other and put their heads together, whispering about something. James knew something was about to happen but the fear of being left alone or running away was consuming him. Living a sheltered life didn’t prepare him for the normal world, this new magical one was so terrifying it scared him almost to death.
When the night came they sat down at the roots of one of the trees and stayed silent. No one wanted to talk about their escape from the goblins or their next step. They were all still level 1, nothing they could hunt presented themselves. So they just waited for the night to end.
James watched the moon slowly move over the horizon, everything looked so real, so familiar like this world was created from his memories. He looked at Marie and saw her frown, annoyed when she noticed that one of her nails had broken off. The crush he had on her a while ago vanished when the whole world was turned upside down. He smiled, such thoughts occupied his mind during something that could be called an apocalypse.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the rough bark of the tree, maybe he could get some sleep in during the night…
Something woke him from his uneasy sleep. How much time he spent there, lying against the tree James didn’t know, but the rustling of leaves made him nearly jump, not because of the sound but rather because there was a sound there at all. Since their start in the tutorial there was no animal, no other humans or even wind that could make such a loud noise.
James slowly closed his fingers around the hilt of his blade, he scanned his surroundings. Looked for movement or another indicator that something living was there. But there was only…silence, a kind of silence that feels unnatural. A cold shiver ran down his spine. Then he saw it, a knife thrown from some trees to his right, the blade spinning through the air, even rusty like it was the moonshine still reflected from it, making it shimmer.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Opening his mouth to a scream but no sound came out when he tried to warn the others. The blade hit one of the prisoners into the forehead, everything happened in silence. James jumped up and hit Marie on the shoulder to wake her up, she wanted to say something but her voice was also gone. He didn’t wait and jumped from the root to the two prisoners, shaking them awake. Before they could hit him or worse he jumped back and tried to gesture with hands and feet what was going on, pointing into the forest.
That was the moment the goblins jumped from the shadows, running at them with their rusty daggers, cracked clubs and spears that looked more like badly carved sticks. Still the goblins outnumbered them ten to five, and who knew how many of them waited in the shadows. James pulled his sword and jumped in front of Marie, determined to protect her. Crossing blades with the first goblin he managed to defend himself but without proper technique he would soon be overpowered by their numbers. Through sheer luck he managed to hit one goblin on the hip but nothing else.
The two prisoners had an easier time, their lives filled with violence they started to hack and slash the green monstrosities with their crude weapons. They even started to laugh at some point, drunk from the lust of battle. But James knew they couldn’t keep this up, in the few precious seconds he wasn’t attacked he spotted more goblins and even some wolves lurking behind the trees. But he just needed to keep trying.
At some point, he didn’t know how long he was already fighting; he noticed the lack of magic from their side. Marie wasn’t casting anything, when he turned around to look at her a delicate boot kicked him in the chest and made him stumble back, the roots to his feet made him fall on to the ground. The last thing he saw was the club wielding goblin hitting his forehead.
During his fall Marie already jumped from the roots and jogged into the forest, she wouldn’t die today even if she needed some sacrifices on her way. She was, after all, a magical girl and the protagonist of this story. Smiling like a little kid she skipped through the sickly looking woods and hummed a little tune, the magic had vanished when she was far enough away.
Even with her plan she couldn’t plan for everything, so when the wolf rider found her he didn’t hesitate and threw his spear at her, while he tried to hit her back the spear was to unbalance and instead pierce her thigh and made her fall to the ground screaming in pain.
The goblin screamed in triumph, the wolf under him howled. His shout quickly pulled the other guards to his location and they approached the girl. The goblin jumped from his wolf and approached the human, feeling unkillable because of his impressive feat. He laughed with his raspy voice and searched the human for something valuable. When he finally noticed that she was a woman he screamed in delight, he managed to catch a woman for the tribe.
When Ethan finally crawled from the dirt shaft he looked like a zombie rising from his grave, his body covered in mud, the clothes dirty and damaged. But he managed to crawl his back up. A smile crept on to his face and he stumbled his way to the small creek. His thoughts returned to what Ouroboros told him about the creek and magic. He washed his hands and face before sitting down, exploring the growth he experienced, due to his new level and the small breakthrough he had during their fight. He could now summon five ice spikes before the pain returned. Satisfied he looked at the egg and turned it between his fingers. It was a simple egg, white with a blue streak on its hard shell. He wanted to put it away but then it began to shake, the first crack forming on its exterior.
