章 8: Harsh Reality, Part 1
No problems in life. Oh, how wonderful this dream was. However, reality had a completely different plan for Erik.
Pain. Lots and lots of pain. That's what he felt when he woke up. Sore back, a painful neck, and a headache were what woke him up. The sun just rose from behind the mountains and with the first rays of light, the village woke up. Animals and people started producing sounds that irritated the ears.
Unwillingly he got up from the smelly, uncomfortable bed and stretched his body. He took a few big breaths of air and slowly remembered the events from the previous day. His already ugly expression became even uglier while he murmured a few curses. He almost wanted to stay in this room instead of going out and interacting with other people.
In his normal daily life he usually just drank a cup of coffee in the morning and ate his first meal at lunchtime, because he didn't feel hungry earlier. Today was different. His stomach was already rumbling as it was aggressively asking for food. Erik cursed again while complaining to himself about this unpleasant situation.
He left the room and went down to the bar. At the tables were a few sleepy men drinking beer, trying to wake up. The bartender was a middle-aged woman, probably the wife of the old man from last night.
Erik returned the key and asked for breakfast. He got a bowl of porridge and a mug of beer. He sat at the table and stared at the food. Immediately he wanted to curse at the bartender for such a low-quality meal.
The porridge was bland with many unground grains and the beer had a weird smell and tasted like muddy water. If it was a few days ago and someone would try to give him this to eat, he would probably throw the bowl in his face.
Well, not really, but the sentiment was there.
However now, he didn't really have much of a choice. He was out of money, so he couldn't buy any other food anyway. He also didn't plan on staying in this village even a second more than necessary.
From what Grim told him, he needed about a day to reach the next closest city. He needed the energy, that's why he somehow managed to force the food down his throat a washed it down with the muddy water.
Soon after he felt like puking so he quickly left the Inn and stepped outside to get some fresh air. Somehow he managed to keep his stomach from expelling the food he had just eaten.
Erik took a few breaths of air to calm his mind and then observed his surroundings.
The village was filthy and it looked like the houses were never repaired since the day they were built. But even worse than the smell of decay that was present everywhere, were the eyes of the people. A bunch of adult males were staring at him with unkind and suspicious gazes like he was the worst criminal in the world.
The unpleasant feeling gave him even more reasons to leave this godforsaken place as soon as possible. He pulled his head between his shoulders and stuffed his hands deep inside his pockets.
That's when he remembered he collected two Ether crystals a day before. When he tried to sense the Mana inside, he discovered that it was barely noticeable. It was such a big difference from the black crystal.
Erik sighed. It was too bad that the black crystal broke after he got transported here. It could have been of great assistance in his magic spells. Now he only had these two puny crystals. It felt like going from a fully loaded machinegun to a butter knife.
In the shade of the buildings, it was quite cold. And if there was one thing Erik hated the most, it was feeling cold. He looked around and soon he found a building that was in a bit better shape than the rest. On the sign on the wall, it was written: 'Bloodhorn General Store'.
He sighed at the name and slowly entered.
Stepping inside, Erik felt like he entered a hoarder's home. There was so much stuff in there. On the walls were animal pelts and antlers, leather and cloth clothes, below them, were glass jars and wooden boxes filled with different herbs, powders, and animal parts.
On the floor were different rugs and wooden shields. In the corner, there was a barrel in which were different weapons and tools like axes, swords, and spears… Dried meat and different metal and wooden hunting traps were hanging from the ceiling.
It was a mess and the smell coming from all the decaying organic matter didn't make the environment any more bearable.
In the middle of the shop was a wooden counter with an old man sitting behind it, counting some kind of dried fruit and writing in his book. When he heard Erik coming in he lifted his head and stared at him.
Erik walked to the counter and placed the two crystals on it. "I want to sell these," he said with a stony expression on his face. The old man raised a braw looking at Erik, then he took a look at the crystals before him and took one without saying anything.
He held it in his hand closing his eyes like he was feeling something. After a while, he opened his eyes back up and lightly snorted, "Earth stone, Poor quality. I can give you three silver coins for each."
Erik pretended to think about the deal and then said, "I need a leather shirt and a backpa- Cough, I mean a pouch."
The old man slowly took the stuff from the wall while keeping one eye on Erik. He placed the stuff on the counter and said, "Two silver coins. Anything else?"
"Hmm, let me think. I need a weapon," said Erik.
The shopkeeper looked at him grumpily and said, "Forget it. You don't have enough money. A proper weapon costs at least fifty silvers!"
The old man didn't seem too pleased listening to what Erik said. He felt offended hearing that he wanted to buy a weapon for just four silver coins. Iron was not cheap and it required a lot of hard work to make a good weapon.
"Come on old man, you got to have something. Anything, other than a knife." Erik was persistent.
"I said no! And no means no, are you deaf? Take your stuff and leave," old man placed the four coins on the counter and glared at him.
Erik grabbed the leather shirt and backpack and just as he was about to take the money, the old man suddenly moved, "Wait! I maybe got something for you." He bent down under the counter and rummaged through the stuff underneath. He pulled out a dusty bronze shortsword.
"Here you can have this old thing. Take it if you want otherwise, beat it! " The old man was glaring at Erik while saying that. It was easy to see that he didn't like strangers, and his character was absolutely the worst.
Erik looked at the sword. It had a blade about the length of his forearm. It wasn't much longer than his knife. That thing could barely be called a sword. It was in a bad shape, full of cracks on the edge and it was even bent to the side near the handle.
All his money for this absolute piece of junk?!
Erik frowned at the sword, but then he still took it with gritted teeth and cursed under his breath after he left the store. People were still staring at him even as he was leaving the village.
He sped up his pace to leave this place as soon as possible. After a few minutes, after the village disappeared behind the trees he could finally relax.
He noticed that he was standing out a lot. With his long hair, torn shirt, jeans, and sneakers, he stood out like a sore thumb. He was basically just inviting trouble. That's why he bought a leather shirt and a pouch. So he could at least partially disguise himself and wouldn't attract so much attention.
He stopped by the side of the road and took off his shirt. Then he took out his knife and cut off his hair, making it just a few centimeters long. Next, he smeared a bit of dirt and dust on his jeans and sneakers, covering mostly the clean white parts that stood out too much.
Lastly, he put on a leather shirt. It was made of low-quality leather and it even had a few hairs left. It was rough and uncomfortable, but it was better than wearing a torn rag.
He stored his knife and torn shirt in the pouch that he fixed on his right side. He then took a stone and blunted the sword's edge near the handle and hung it on his belt. After that, he continued walking on the road to the west, towards the city of Geldern.
After a few hours of walking, he finally came out of the forest. Sun was shining on the massive grasslands before him. A warm breeze enveloped his body making him feel refreshed.
He stopped with a smile and let the sun warm up his face. But his peaceful moment soon got disrupted by a loud voice from the forest behind him.
"Help! Please help! Someone!"
Erik turned his head and saw a young girl around his age madly running out of the forest. Soon after, three men came chasing after her. One of them had a crossbow and the two behind him had swords. They all had crazy and lustful expressions on their faces. They were clearly enjoying the chase.
The girl was a little faster than them, even more so after they came out of the thick forest. They realized that just running after her won't work. The one with the crossbow stopped, took aim, and fired his weapon.
"Aaagh!" The crossbow bolt pierced deep into the girl's thigh. She screamed in pain and fell to the ground not far from Erik. She quickly tried to get back up when he saw Erik. With tears in her eyes, she screamed with a hoarse voice, "Please, help me! They killed my companions. Please!"
Erik frowned and cursed. It seemed like trouble was finding him constantly.
Without even thinking he ran towards the girl and helped her get up. He then gathered his thoughts and extended his hand to the crossbow guy, that was standing still and loading his next bolt.
"Earth spike! " After his shout, the earth trembled under the villain and a hard earth spike burst out of the ground stabbing him between his legs, crushing his pelvis, and lifting him up. The guy screamed in pain and fell on his back. Erik saw that his first spell wasn't enough to kill him, so he used it again.
Another earth spike burst out of the ground and impaled the crossbow guy through his chest. He coughed, shook in pain, and then finally died with eyes wide open and a face contorted in pain.
The closest thug got engaged after he saw his teammate's brutal death. "I'm going to chop you in a thousand pieced you little shit! Haaaah," he roared while madly swinging his sword above his head. He was quickly sprinting towards them.
Erik grabbed his sword and prepared for the incoming impact.
Back on Earth, he did train swordsmanship for a while. But since it had no actual practical application other than in competitions, he soon dropped it and went to pursue other hobbies.
Never did he think there would actually come a day when his life would depend on this old-fashioned and outdated combat skill.
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