Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 3 – Awakening (3)

The carriage was just that—a typical wooden carriage that you might imagine being led by a horse… save for one feature: the fact that it was horseless.

After sitting down inside, the man, Bernard, ducked through to the front of the carriage and rested his hands on a little pedestal with a crystal on top—where a steering wheel might usually go.

The crystal lit up, and the carriage hovered up into the air smoothly before taking off at a moderate jogging pace.

I sat on a bench on one side of the carriage, and the woman sat across from me.

There was an awkward silence for a moment as the woman eyed me.

Dressed in thick mage robes that covered most of her body, the woman spoke somewhat sheepishly.

“I-I’m sorry about hitting you with that spell… are you ok?”

I looked down at the drenched remnants of my clothes, still dripping water onto the wooden floor of the carriage.

Plip, Plip.

‘I’m not too sure…’

“Yeah, I’m ok. I would have been stranded if not for you guys.”

“Stranded? You didn’t come out here with a mana scooter or anything?

“No…”

Bernard glanced at me over his shoulder.

“Do you know anything about that fire?”

‘Yeah… I probably shouldn’t admit that I was the one who caused it…’

“No. One moment I was scouting out monster hideouts; the next, a fire was on top of me.”

I used the excuse of being a scout.

It was hard to disprove, and scouts regularly trekked through the lesser-known paths of the forest in search of rare dungeons or monsters to report back on. It wouldn’t be too suspicious if a scout had managed to get that far on foot rather than with a mana scooter.

“Did you find anything interesting out there?”

The woman asked.

“No… At least, nothing that we don’t already know of.”

‘I should change the topic before they dig too far…’

“What did you say your name was again?”

“Oh! My name’s Velle!”

“What were you guys doing out here?”

The woman, Velle, perked up at the question, seemingly eager to explain.

“We’re on an expedition to the outer lands!”

I took another look at them.

No matter how I viewed it, the outer lands would eat them alive.

From what I had heard, only those at level 10 and above really had any chance there, and even that was lowballing it.

“What levels are you guys?”

Velle gestured towards herself as she spoke.

“I’m level 5, Bernard is 6.”

‘These two think they can take on the outer lands alone?’

They were at quite a high level compared to most Awakeners I had seen out there in the outskirts, but it wasn’t anything particularly remarkable.

Bernard tilted his head to speak over his shoulder before he spoke up.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, but we aren’t going on a monster-hunting expedition. You see, we’re trying to help people find those who have been trapped in the dungeons.”

It seemed like a nice idea on the surface, but I was all too aware of how daunting the reality of it was.

“What level are you?”

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Velle continued speaking, directing the question at me.

My mind blanked. Telling them I was level 0 wouldn’t exactly work.

“Five…”

It wouldn’t make much sense for a scout to be going solo before level five, as that would also be a death sentence.

“We’re going to be stopping in Karfana before going farther. I’m guessing that’s where you’re from?”

It was an easy enough conclusion to come to. Karfana was an outskirt city that was a fair distance away from other points of civilization. It would have been nearly impossible for a level 5 scout to be from any other city without a better means of transportation.

I nodded.

“Yeah, I appreciate the ride.”

“Of cour—”

The carriage came to an abrupt halt and the girl and I nearly fell over.

“We’ve got a bit of a problem ahead…”

Bernard spoke up from the driver’s position.

I peered out from behind Bernard’s shoulder and saw a group of ragged goblins ahead of us.

It couldn’t even be called a tribe, I only saw regular goblins, no signs of a chieftain or shaman.

They were likely a group that had escaped from the fire in the forest and been split from the rest of their tribe.

That was a good thing. A goblin chieftain usually took a couple of level 5s to take down.

Considering there were about eight goblins on the road ahead, and the mage likely hadn’t recovered all of her mana yet…

Our chances would have been slim with a chieftain present.

“You wanna help me out with this one?”

Bernard whispered to me over his shoulder.

As if to emphasize the point, a System message appeared.

Ding!

[[New Quest

Kill the goblins blocking your path!

Reward: 500 XP]]

“I’ll take the left side, you take the right. You’re a combat class, yeah?”

I let a small frown escape.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said I was a level 5…’

My experience with combat extended to a few amateur boxing lessons back from before the Merge. I had practiced with the cane, imagining using it to kill some lowly creature to level up, countless times, but that “practice” only extended to swinging it at some shadows.

I didn’t have much experience with my life on the line.

The man took my silence as an affirmative.

The goblins cautiously approached the carriage, spears and ramshackle swords held at the ready.

I wished that we could have just plowed through them, but I understood that mana carriages had delicate underparts that could be easily damaged by even a light kick, let alone a goblin’s full attack.

I would have suggested going around, but System quests were excellent sources of experience.

Goblins weren’t very high-level creatures anyway. I figured I could at least hold a few off while Bernard cleared them out.

Bernard hopped out of the front of the carriage, and I followed closely behind.

The goblins rushed us as soon as we set foot on the ground.

Bernard drew his sword and easily parried the goblin’s blows, smashing his way through them with his feet and gigantic sword, breaking their flimsy shields with ability-empowered kicks and strikes, sending goblins flying with each blow.

The attacks that did manage to hit him mostly glanced off, unable to find much purchase through his chain armor and ability-enhanced toughness.

I, on the other hand, struggled a bit more.

The goblins charged at me in a similar manner.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t see their attacks coming or that I was too slow, but rather that I was struck by indecision.

Instead of meeting their charge, I backed away.

THUMP!

Eventually, my back thumped into the carriage, and I had nowhere left to retreat to.

As the first goblin’s spear approached, cheesy martial arts flicks flashed through my head, and I attempted the first thing that came to mind…

I batted at the spear with the back of my hand, hoping to push it out of the way before the point could reach me.

Normally, such a feat would have been nearly impossible for all but the most well-practiced or speed-focused Adventurers to pull off.

I, however, performed the move flawlessly. The spear’s shaft slid off the back of my hand exactly as I had imagined.

Not expecting to get even that far, I froze for another moment as the lead goblin regained its balance, and the next one came running up, swinging a rusty shortsword at my legs.

Again, I reacted on instinct. As I could see the blow coming, I imagined lifting my leg and stomping on the blade of the weapon. My body moved just the way I envisioned it.

The goblin’s blade stopped under my boot, and the goblin went tumbling past, its grip on the weapon lost to a sudden halt in momentum.

By that time, Bernard had already finished clearing out three of the four goblins on his side.

The last two goblins reinforced their spear ally.

The sword, dagger, and spear approached me at the same time.

Unarmed as I was, I had no way to physically block three attacks at the same time.

It wasn’t like I was made of liquid either; I couldn’t imagine a way in which to parry all three attacks as I had the first two.

Swish, swish, swish.

I focused on the deadliest attack first; the spear aimed at my torso.

Succeeding in batting away the spear again, I followed up with a light kick against the sword blade at nearly the same time, sending the weapon up into the air.

I grabbed the last strike, the dagger aimed at my thigh, with my hand.

‘I’m not going to let all of that go to waste. Not my legs, not ever again.’

With determination burning in my eyes, I was fully prepared to lose a few fingers as a sacrifice to protect my leg.

I felt the burning sensation through my body like a fire was blazing through my insides. Pain shot through my arm as I enclosed my hand around the dagger and manifested in a crude stone gauntlet around my hand.

* * *

Reaper Scans

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* * *

Bernard finished off the last goblin on his side, sweat just starting to bead on his brow.

He turned around to see Aizen catch a goblin’s dagger with his bare hand.

Scratch that, he seemed to have equipped some sort of gauntlet while fighting the goblins.

‘Wow… That’s a scout for you, crazy hand-eye coordination.’

He had heard that scouts specialized in forest traversal and dexterous movements before, but it was his first time witnessing it in person.

‘His offensive skills are kind of lacking, though…’

Seeing that all four goblins were still in the fight against Aizen, Bernard made a move to help. But before he could…

“AAAARRRGGHH!”

Aizen leaped at the goblins like a beast.

Jumping onto the first one—the one whose dagger he had grabbed—the man released the dagger and brought his elbows down on the creature’s head.

CRUNCH!

At the last moment before impact, Bernard saw the gauntlet deform and flash down Aizen’s arm, shooting out in a spike that embedded itself into the goblin’s head from his elbow.

‘Is he an Elementalist of some sort?’

The goblin with the sword swung at his back.

Like a beast possessed, Aizen somehow predicted the thing’s swing and ducked under it, his head close to the remains of the goblin he had just killed.

The sword passed over, and he grabbed onto the spear goblin’s weapon next, redirecting it from his opposite side with a ferocious grab and plunging it into the sword goblin’s chest.

The other sword goblin swung down his blade; it skipped off of his forearm as the stone fragments weaved around his body to form a protective plating.

Aizen’s leg shot out, catching the goblin on the chin.

CRACK!

The goblin took the hit and went flipping backward before lying limp on the ground.

The final goblin, the one now without a spear, turned to run.

Before it could get very far, Aizen leaped at it and brought his hand down in an overhead strike, caving the back of its skull in.

Like that, they found themselves surrounded by goblin corpses.

‘…Nevermind.’

Aizen took a few deep breaths before his eyes glazed over and he fell limp to the dirt.

***

I awoke to the muffled sound of people conversing outside of the carriage.

DING!

[[Quest Complete!

Kill the goblins blocking your path!

+500XP Received!]]

[[Current XP: 575/1000]]

[[Level Up!]]

[[You have reached level 1 of the Fighter class.

You have gained the ‘Strike’ ability]]

[[Strike

Spend mana to empower a blow, increasing the strength and speed of the blow twofold.]]

I had leveled up…

Finally, I was level 1.

The screen faded as I acknowledged my rewards.

It looked like the goblins had given me 25 XP each, judging by the fact that I was 75 XP over the quest reward.

I saw the woman, the mage, looking at me closely.

“How are you feeling? You fainted after the attack…”

A pang of fear went through me and I clenched my hand.

I curled all of my fingers and still felt sensation throughout my hand.

I didn’t even feel pain.

Hadn’t I grabbed onto a dagger with my bare hands?

The woman noticed the movement and placed a hand on his own.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, if that’s what you’re wondering… How are you feeling?”

Her touch slid off of my hand and I let out a breath of relief.

“What’s going on? How long was I out for?”

“Mmm.”

She put a finger up to her mouth in thought. I couldn’t help but feel that she looked kind of cute, even in the circumstances. With her hood down, her freckled face and dark red hair were in full view.

“Six hours? We’re at the gates of Karfana now.”

I sat up, a dizzying feeling spreading throughout my body.

I wasn’t fully prepared to be back yet.

{{Quest Complete!

Reach safety with the friendly travelers!

Reward: 300 XP}}

{{Current XP: 300/1000}}

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