Chapter 5 - Fame and Troubles

Evan's POV,

Evan the Marked One is baffled by a mysterious black knight with a strange weapon at first. Believing he is just another adventure. Evan decided to turn the knight into his bodyguard after turning the knight's corpse into an undead. But who could have guessed that this black knight killed his 4 followers and destroyed half of his undead army all by himself?

Evan planned to massacre the people of Greenhill and grow his undead army bigger. Usually, this is impossible because it requires a large amount of magic and mages to maintain control of the undead.

This all changed when his new mysterious patrons gave bountiful power. He doesn't know this new patron or their ambition but if he can wield powerful magic, he doesn't care what price he must pay. After the fourth necromancer died by the black knight's attack, Evan unleashes all his power on the black knight and set him on fire. With the black knight dead and half of the undead destroyed, Evan approaches his dead followers, but the moment he turns his back, a burning black knight jumps out from the fire and grab Evras's neck.

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It was surprising how there wasn't any discomfort from the fire, Space Marine's power armor was designed to withstand any element attack with a certain limit. After realizing he wasn't hurt or turned to ash, William jumped out of the fire and grabbed a hooded figure in the neck to prevent him from casting, the reason for keeping the hooded figure alive is because he needs information.

"Who are you and why did you attack the camp?" Before William could get his answer, he saw a medallion a hooded man was wearing, it had an 8-pointed star necklace covered in blood. The moment William saw the medallion, he felt rage, a complete unstoppable rage that he never felt before in his life. Without hearing an answer from Evan, William crushed his neck and snatched the medallion as William dropped the body. Instantly William heard a cold voice around him.

"Ah, Astartes, we didn't expect you in this world? I see you have our marker, put it on and we will give you all you dėsɨrė."

Then he heard other voices,

"I can grant you the power enough to achieve honor and glory," Said the angry voice.

"I can grant you eternal life," Said the sickly voice.

"I can give you what you dėsɨrė most and bring your fantasy to life," Said a ŀustful voice.

"Don't you want to know how you got here? I can give you the answer you are searching for." said the first voice, the menacing voice.

Hearing four voices in his head, William saw a vision of his dėsɨrė and everything that can be achieved. A glorious battle in which no one can match his strength, living an everlasting life to witness empire rise and fall, a room filled with food, golds and women waving at him.

Without realizing, William tried to wear the necklace, but suddenly something unexpected happened. "NO!" Another entity's voice with rage and vengeance can be heard from William's head then crushed the necklace into pieces. The voices of four beings disappeared, the marker was destroyed and a mysterious entity also disappeared, William standalone trying to understand what just happened.

As far as William can understand, he is in the world of fantasy of sword and magic, but not this is not the Warhammer Fantasy world. There are two reasons why he was certain, first was the voices he heard, he is 100% certain that it was a voice of four chaos gods and one of the voice was likely Tzeentch who ask William why he was in 'this world' as if Tzeentch didn't expect to meet Adeptus Astartes at all.

The second reason is that he is in the body of Space Marine that he created for the D&D campaign before coming to this world. With these two reasons, William is certain that everything that happened to him wasn't done by chaos gods but by someone else.

'For now, I have to find how I got here and how to go back home'. With a new purpose, William starts looting the five dead bodies of necromancers, four only had herbs, and few silver coins (total of 80), the leader on the other hand have 45 gold coins, a magic book, a magic ring and 4 health potions.

William was disappointed because the reward for fighting undead hordes wasn't much at all, so he decided to check the undead for loot and he wasn't disappointed as he now collected his rewards.

[One ammo ċhėst (Contains 200 pistol ammo, 15 frag grenade, and 300 rifle ammo), one flamer with 5 canisters, and a power sword.]

After William finished his looting and collecting his rewards, he decided to put all the damaged weapons and armor in his inventory for repairs as they were overdue from proper maintenance.

The next day, a large group of adventurer including Sam's party arrived at the camp, William was in his spare clothes, cooking his breakfast. At first, the group of adventurers didn't know who William was until they saw his guild card for his identification. Sam and others were relieved as William was in one piece but surprised how he managed to slay an army of undead without a single scratch or turn to undead by the necromancers.

Without his power armor, William looked like a tall adventurer but big and with his power sword in hand, no one challenged him regarding fighting the undead army and necromancers. With undead remains taken care of, most of the adventurers return to Greenhill while the guild posts a few groups to watch over the camp so that workers can return to work.

The story of William's deed spread all to the neighboring villages faster than the wind as the adventurer's guild reported the incident to the headquarter in the capital. This became the most popular news in the kingdom and thanks to this, many nobles took a great interest in giant black knight and how to take advantage.

Meanwhile, William and Sam's party receive a hero's welcome when they return to Greenhill. It takes about 8 hours to complete equipment repair, so William decided to take this opportunity to relax and enjoy the festival. By early afternoon, everyone was eating, drinking or dancing in the town square, Sam and his party can be seen among those people, while William is in his chair enjoying his food and drinks as young ladies bring it to him.

For William the drinking ale and beer were great but unfortunately, he couldn't get drunk or even feel the buzz from the alcohol. It was one thing that William regretted being a Space Marine. Due to the Space Marine's gene seeds implant, it prevents him from poison, including alcohol. If he wanted, he could beat anyone in the drinking contest even if the opponent is a dwarf.

Three people approach William's table, it was Greenhill noble, guild master, and merchant's guild president. The noble with expansive cloth starts the conversation, "Hello young man, I'm Baron Sternagel and I would like to officially welcome you to Greenhill".

"Thank you, this is a lively town" William respond and finish an ale in one go,

"I'm Caulifield, Greenhill's guild master" a middle-aged man around his late 30's intruded himself, and finally an old man with glasses said

"I'm Leonhart, a president of the merchant guild here in this town".

The conversation with all three was usual praise, William's history and his armor. Baron offered William a position of officer in his military, while president Leonhart offered a prestigious job position within his business. But it was a guild master's offer that got William's attention, an opportunity to rank up twice if he can complete one job as a test.

It was a never-ending conversation so William decided to end it, "I will think about your offers and give you my answer in a few days" With that conversation ended and William continue his free meals and drinks.

The next day, William went for an early morning walk to get some fresh air as he thought about three offers. Baron and the president of the merchant's guild wasn't the right choice for him as it will ground him in this town. The guild master's offer is interesting because William can get a higher rank if he passes the test, which he can move to another town after the test.

In the end, William decided to accept the guild master's offer but also earn favor from the other two without accepting their offer. By the time William realizes he ends up in the adventurer's guild, "I guess I'll give them my answer tonight" and headed toward the Inn that he was staying.

The inn where William is staying is called [First Barrel]. It is a decent place since it comes with breakfast and a first-floor bed can hold his weight. The owners are decent people and they welcomed William before he earned his fame, so he decided to stay a little longer and help with small chores such as wood chopping.

After breakfast William went to the back yard and started chopping wood to make firewood, it was a simple job but it gave the opportunity for him to test his strength and to see if he can rip firewood like Captain America. When William finished his shore, a group of people approached him.

"Are you the adventurer who defeated the army of the undead in the lumberjack camp?"

When William turned around and saw 5 knights in dark armor standing in front of him.

"Yes, I'm William, how can I help you?"

One of the knights steps forward, "In the name of his majesty and the Order of Black Flames, we are here to confiscate your armor and weapons. For civilians to possess this equipment is against the law" Knight said with a demanding tone as William tried to understand his situation.

"You are joking right?"