บท 2: Fallen Warrior
Seeing that it was nighttime, Axel moved towards the Dunbarton Church, which was up ahead upon walking a few stairways from the main plaza. He knew that this was not the same Mabinogi he had known in his MMO days, as he could feel the cold air penetrating into his skin like sharp icicles. Here he was, at the lowest level, a wooden stick, and only a bread in his inventory bag.
He then opened the large twin doors to the Dunbarton Church, and called out,
"Is anyone there?"
At first there was no response, and soon after a shadow appeared in the distance near the organ that was placed near the front of the cathedral. Quiet footsteps tapped in the dark under the candles that flickered in the latter half of the cathedral.
A slender but also curvy young woman in a nun's clothing appeared aways from Axel. Her short pink hair and gentle red eyes seemed to be from another world, and her beauty seemed to glimmer under the dim lights of the candles.
"Welcome to the Dunbarton Church!" she said with a hint of curiosity.
Axel gulped down some saliva and regulated himself once more and asked,
"Can I stay here for the evening? I've come a ways from Tir Chonaill for some business in Dunbarton."
The nun grimaced a bit and then nodded, "Of course, we welcome all lost lambs in search of shelter".
Axel took a sigh of relief, as he had crafted a feasible lie at the last second to not invite any suspicion about his origins. He walked over a few feet near where the nun was and said,
"I don't think I've introduced myself yet. I'm Axel, an adventurer hailing from Tir Chonaill. As you can see a newbie one at that, but I hope to settle in this town long term for work."
"Nice to meet you Axel. I'm Kristell, and I am a priestess at this Dunbarton Church. You can ask me for anything while you're here for the night."
"Thanks a lot. I'll be catching some sleep on this bench until the first morning bell". said Axel as he swooped onto the church bench to his right and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.
"Sweet dreams." whispered Kristell as she walked back into the darkness in the cathedral.
...
The church's copper bell sounded as the sun rose over the horizon. Back in the game Mabinogi, this would signal for 6:00AM in the morning. Axel awoke and slid his legs off the bench. He stretched his arms and yawned loudly.
He thought to himself, "Everything seems to follow the settings in the game so far, except for the fact I had to whip up the false fact about being an adventurer. It seems like besides other dwellers of Erinn, there are also other residents in this world, and being in the Adventurer's Guild is a normal thing here."
Axel walked out the church doors and headed for the main plaza. As he walked near the market board where most players would buy and sell things from, he noticed that the board was covered with papers of requests from residents in Dunbarton. Many other adventurers were browsing over the board in order to pick a job for the day. It was completely different from the game, and he was unsure of what to do next.
Then he looked above to see Eaven in the counter desk. She was a regular dweller of Erinn with long blond hair in Mabinogi that dealt with matters of settling in new players in the game. Axel thought it was a good idea to talk to her, and went up and asked,
"May I register here as a new adventurer?"
"Of course, just complete this registration paper and turn it in afterwards to get your guild card." replied Eaven.
Axel took the registration paper from her along with a quill pen to fill out the necessary information over the counter desk. When he was done, Axel went over and said,
"Here's my registration paper ready."
"Thank you! Please put your hand on the Elemental Orb for it to collect your personal information such as your level and stats." said Eaven.
Axel was dumbfounded. "What the f**k is an Elemental Orb? We definitely didn't have this in the original Mabinogi game."
He slowly put his hand over the colorless white orb the size of a human head and a faint glow turned up in response. Then Eaven pulled out an small iron plate and smiled,
"Congratulations on becoming a new adventurer! You will start at the lowest rank, which is bronze as your current level is only 1 and all your stats are still at the lowest as well."
Axel sighed, and thought, "Figured that would be the case. This is going to be painful hunting monsters in the beginning."
Axel waved goodbye at Eaven and went back to the adventurer's request board. On the board he saw many bronze level requests that were material gathering quests such as,
"Gather 10 base herbs South of Dunbarton. Reward: 100 gold."
Then he saw another bronze level request below the herb gathering one,
"Gather 5 cobwebs droppings from White Spiders outside near the West Dunbarton Gate. Reward: 200 gold."
Axel thought with his current level and garbage low stats, he could only take these two requests, as fighting monsters was an act of suicide at his current stage.
He quickly ripped off the two requests, and he headed towards the West Dunbarton Gate.
At the West Dunbarton Gate, he saw two infantry soldier stationed at each side of the gate, which surprised Axel at first. There were usually no guards in the game Mabinogi, and this showed that this world Axel had stepped into was indeed different from the game that he had once played.
Upon hiking a good 20 minutes outside of Dunbarton, he finally saw the Dunbarton Moongate which was surprisingly not active at the moment. Axel gasped,
"Jesus, it takes 20 minutes to get from the West Gate to the Moongate? If I had a mount, I can fly here in a second or two. Not only that it follows the old system where it only operates during the night?"
The Moongate was a magic warp device created using the leftover mana stone weapons left by the Fomors during the Second Great War of Mag Tuireadh. The ancient wizards through great efforts invented the technology of Moongates to be able to move between any town in the continent of Uladh at any given instance between nightfall and sunrise.
Axel made it a goal to get a mount first thing after securing a weapon for normal hunting purposes. A horse would be sufficient for travel purposes like today.
As he moved a bit more west after passing the Moongate, Axel hid behind the tall grass in the plains. He had spotted a White Spider, which was the size of a normal human. He waited for the White Spider to excrete cobweb droppings.
After waiting for about an hour, the spider started spinning out the cobwebs. One cobwebs, two cobwebs, and more came out the spider's back abdomen. Axel thought to myself, "This is my chance!!" and took baby steps to collect the cobwebs.
As he was delighted with himself while putting the cobwebs in his inventory bag, he suddenly felt something closing in on him and when he looked up to see, it was the White Spider towering over him with four of its legs ready to attack Axel. Unfortunately, Axel could not react to the quick attack speed of the White Spider, and was slain in one hit.
Again, Axel's consciousness floated in the darkness as he wondered, "Did I die again? First a soda can kills me, and now the weakest mob White Spider can one hit KO me like I was a marshmallow."
The next thing he noticed, the surroundings became clear again, and he could see the night sky again. As he looked down, he realized he was back in the main plaza of Dunbarton.
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