Book 1: Chapter 6

Book 1: Chapter 6

“Ah, he’s up,” said Galan.

Brin squinted into the light. It was well into the morning, and the sun was bright. He was laying on a bedroll, and someone had placed a blanket over him at some point.

“Told you,” said Hogg. “Nary’s the growing boy who can sleep through the sound of sizzling bacon.”

He was right. From the campfire came the most wonderful aroma in the world. He burst out of bed, and Lurilan handed him a plate with sliced bread, fried with the grease, and two fat slices of bacon, still sizzling from the pan.

He ate so quickly he burned his tongue, but he didn’t care. This was the life.

The others chuckled at him, but couldn’t hide the fact that they enjoyed the breakfast at least as much as he did.

“You know, I was wondering,” said Brin. “I was wondering... well, it sounded like when you got the Quest, you all just dropped everything and came straight away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you did, but...”

“But little boys get eaten by scary monsters every day, and no one comes to save them. So why did we bother for you? Is that what you’re getting at?” Hogg said. Galan and Lumina frowned at him, but Brin nodded.

“Frankly,” said Lumina, “we were honored to be asked. Quests from the System aren’t at all common.”

“Even for you?” asked Brin.Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.

Lumina giggled. “Is this what my reputation has become? Yes. Even for me. This is my first time.”

“Let me put it this way,” said Hogg. “I was an adventurer for twenty-five years before I retired. A good one, too. And this is my first one. Which leads to something we were going to ask. Why you? Why did the System choose to save you?”

He didn’t want to say it was because he was an Otherworlder. That would just lead to more questions, and there was no reason for them to believe him in the first place. And besides, for all he knew, his Otherworlder status wasn’t even the deciding factor.

“I got a notification saying the goddess Solia had taken notice of me, and that my experience was confiscated, but it wasn’t because I was in trouble. It was right after I killed a few of the undead soldiers.”

“After you did what?” Hogg asked. The black-clad man seemed disinterested, half-turned away, but [Know What’s Real] told Brin that was a lie. The man wasn’t really even there at all; the entire figure was an illusion, even the sound of his voice.

Brin carefully turned his head to the side, to look at Lumina. He carefully didn’t look back behind himself, but out of the corner of his eye he saw nothing there. That was an illusion as well; someone was standing directly behind him. So [Know What’s Real] could tell him if something invisible was there, as long as he was looking for it.

That seemed academic, now. More important was figuring out what he’d done to set Hogg off. From the looks of things, none of the others could tell that Hogg was using illusions. He needed to play this carefully.

Lumina wrinkled her brow in concern. “What’s wrong?”

The ghostly figure retreated, quickly stepped around the campfire, and merged with Hogg again.

“Nothing,” said Brin. “It’s gone now. I just had a strange feeling there for a second. Like someone was holding a knife to my throat.”

Hogg became an illusion again.

Brin broke out in a cold sweat. “I can explain!”

“Brin. I think I speak for everyone present when I say that we only have your best interest at heart,” Galan said carefully. “Why don’t you tell us how you killed those soldiers?”

Lurilan nodded. “On that end, I have a question for Brin. While you watched and waited, night after night, did you ever see any undead soldiers that were different? Smaller or larger perhaps? Anything that could be called their leader?”

Brin didn’t have to think long. “There may have been something like that. Five days ago, the undead suddenly got really smart. They went from wandering around aimlessly to marching in ranks. They searched the town that night, really searched it, house by house, cellar by cellar. They almost found me. The next night, they were stupid again.”

Lurilan, normally reserved, began to pace in excitement. “Only five days ago? Then–”

“Wait. Should we not take our charge to safety first?” said Galan.

“If we do that, we might lose our chance to find the one who started all this,” said Lurilan.

Brin asked, “How do you know the leader isn’t with all the ones you killed?”

Lurilan shook his head. “I’ve been looking over my kill notifications, and I saw nothing to suggest that any of the undead I killed were capable of casting illusions. Neither do I believe any necromancers were among them.”

“He’s right,” said Hogg. “We would’ve had a harder fight if the army were being directed. The leader is elsewhere. Question is, do you think you can find him?”

“I wouldn’t bring it up if I couldn’t. A trail only five days old? That’s positively fresh tracks compared to the sort of quarry I normally hunt. I feel like this must be why I am here. Why else would the System send for me, who is so far beneath the rest of you in level?” said Lurilan.

This was a revelation to Brin. He hadn’t really thought about how the Heroes compared to each other. They all seemed absurdly powerful to him.

“Our quest is to rescue this boy and bring him to safety,” said Galan.

“And where is that? Shall we take this boy to a new village, only to see it destroyed in three years or five, by the very same mastermind?”

“Gods forbid,” said Galan.

“What if one of us takes him away, then the other three of us track down the mastermind?” asked Lumina.

All eyes turned to Hogg, who shook his head. “That would have to be me, right? You couldn’t spare Galan or Lumina, not when for all we know the mastermind has a second army terrorizing some other poor village. Besides, where would I take him? The safest place within a hundred miles is right here with the four of us.”

The four of them waited, seeming deep in thought. What were they waiting for? Oh. Him. They wanted his permission.

A large part of Brin wanted to leave this town, to leave this whole country, to never see another undead again in his whole life.

A larger part of him, though, wanted revenge. Not just for the dead villagers and this boy’s dead family, though that was certainly part of it. More than that though, he wanted payback for himself. For all those cold nights. The terrible, lonely nights shivering in the dark. The hungry, coldly ambitious side of him wanted to see the one responsible dead.

It helped that this was also the right thing to do. He shouldn’t force the Heroes to leave a necromancer running loose just to prioritize his own safety.

“I want to come. I want to see the mastermind dead. It was hard, hiding from those undead soldiers every night. It was scary. I don’t think I’ll ever sleep peacefully again, not until I know they’ve been stopped. Please.”

“Hear, hear!” said Lurilan.

Lumina rubbed her eyes. “Oh, very well. But our first priority must remain. We protect the boy at all costs. If this foe really does have a second army roving the countryside, we will retreat immediately and come back with an army of our own. How long do you think it will take you to pick up the trail?”

“I anticipated this question, during my patrol last night. The trail leads to the North.”