As the heroes were heading to Godoza Village, Alex was in the back half of the hero procession with his head tilted towards the ground. He grit his teeth in frustration at the way he was treated, clearly despised by the other heroes.
While not paying attention, he stumbled into the back of Edward Parker, a Strategist who frequently chatted with Jake, the bone fide hero and leader of their parade of justice.
"Watch it," Jake said with a distasteful expression as he turn his head to see who walked into him.
"S-sorry."
Alex deliberately walked slower as everyone began filing into the village. Once they were all inside, he was at the back of the party and simply stopped outside the gate.
'You all think I'm useless!' He cried out in his heart in pain. 'You look down on me, scorn me, judge me, and talk about me behind my back. I hope you all die in there!'
Biting his lip and clenching his fists, he turned away from the town and silently snuck off, his presence not even noted as being gone which only hurt him further.
He felt a grievous pain deep within his chest as he headed into the woods nearby where all the trees had yellowing leaves and looked sickly. The woods themselves were eerily silent, as if there was no life left within its canopy.
The volcanic ash was still in the air so without the healing from the heroes with that skill, he wet a cloth with a detoxifying agent and tied it around his mouth and nose.
Sticks and dead leaves crunched under his boots with every step, breaking the silence in the air. Sometimes, it even sounded like it came from elsewhere, causing Alex to jump and turn around while drawing his sword.
No matter how many times it happened though, there was never anything other than more dying trees. The AWOL hero was constantly in a state with his nerves taut, causing himself to quickly become mentally exhausted.
Unaware to him, a two meter long, lizard-like monster gazed at him from high on the trunk of a tree. Its skin shifted color to blend in with the tree as it silently gazed at the hero with its yellow slit pupils.
If followed his movements with its eyes only, a predator waiting to strike. One it sensed the prime opportunity, it leapt off the tree and at the hero.
Alex didn't even hear anything this time, he just felt the entire world spin as an enormous force hit his back.
His armor had saved his life as the monsters claws caused spark to fly everywhere, which would have torn him to shreds if he weren't protected. The monster was unperturbed that its ambush didn't kill the target and immediately snapped its maw full of razor-sharp fangs at Alex.
The training that had been ingrained into him since he was summoned suddenly took over his mind and he rolled away from the monster and avoided the teeth by a hair's breadth.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Apraisal!"
⠀
[
Mawlean <Lv. ??>
]
⠀
Alex cursed and hurled an acid potion at the monster from his belt while drawing his sword.
The vial smashed on the monster and its scales sizzled, but it wasn't to the degree that there was any significant damage. The monster itself didn't even seem to register the attack as it pursued the young hero.
"Die! Die! Die!"
More vials flew at the monster and he also swung his sword. Unfortunately, its scales proved to be more than sufficient to resist the damage as it began to force him into a corner.
No matter what Alex did, he was incapable of dealing any significant damage to the monster. He was running out of offensive vials too, his belt getting lighter the longer he fought.
"Damn it! This can't be how it all ends!"
Alex regretted everything, but more than anything, he regretted his own weakness. The monster hissed and lunged forward again, this time its claws striking true and carving down Alex's faces from his brow to chin and tearing out one of his eyeballs in the process.
"ARGHHHH!!" Alex cried from the burning pain assaulting his face, his vision now only half what it was moments ago.
He was desperate, bleeding, and expecting death. With all reason and hope thrown aside, he lunged at the monster and threw a handful of corrosive potions into is mouth and stabbed it straight in the eye with his sword.
The monster clawed back cutting his arm and finally piercing his chest armor. It didn't get any further though, as Alex's reckless final attack had proven successful and the monster finally died.
⠀
[
Mawlean <Lv. 12> killed!
+ 284 exp
]
⠀
[
Experience threshold met. Level Up!
Lv. 2 -> Lv. 3
⠀
Accumulated skill experience bonus:
Appraisal <Lv. 4> -> <Lv. 5>
Compounding <Lv. 7> -> <Lv. 8>
Throwing <Lv. 4> -> <Lv. 5>
⠀
All Stats(Excluding Luck): +1
Class bonus: Int +2, Mnd +2, Vit +1Mana: 128 -> 191
⠀
+ New Title: Child of Mana
]
⠀
[
Species: Human (Otherworld Traveller)
Name: Alex Brown
Class: Compounder
Age: 16
⠀
Mana: 170/170
Exp: 127/309
Level: 3
⠀
Str: 7
Dex: 7
End: 7
Vit: 12
Int: 16
Mnd: 16
Lck: 10
⠀
Skills:
Appraisal <Lv. 5>
Compounding <Lv. 8>
• 2-Item Mix – 5 mana/min
• 3-Item Mix – 7 mana/min
• Separation – 30 mana
• 5-Item Mix – 11 mana/min
Throwing <Lv. 5>
⠀
Titles:
Otherworld Hero, Otherworld Traveller
]
⠀
Alex ignored the monster corpse and dragged his wounded body away from the area with on hand holding the injured side of his face.
He was incredibly lucky at this time that he didn't meet any more monsters as he escaped the area. His body was truly at the brink and he had lost a lot of blood though. He saw a farmhouse within walking distance and forced himself to go there.
He barely stepped before the front door and knocked before he lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground.
~~~~~
⠀
Alex woke up with the sounds of birds chirping outside and while still feeling groggy. His vision was darkness on one side, fuzzy on the other.
"Oh, you're awake?" I wizened old man with a long beard bent over him from above. "It's best you don't move for now, you're in pretty bad shape"
There was another person in the room, a woman with a twittering voice who shared words with the man, but Alex had already passed out again before he could understand what they were saying.
The next time he opened his eyes, his body was feeling much more whole again, and he was unaware of how much time had passed by, but it felt like days.
"How… how long have I been asleep…" Alex woozily said this time while he propped himself up.
The room was completely empty and he felt like an idiot for talking as if someone was there. He forced himself to stand and walked to the door on weak knees.
"Why am I… so weak… Where am I?" He asked, while looking around an empty house.
"You are in my home," The old man whom he had seen the first time he woke up walked out from another room of the house. "You collapsed on my front door, I couldn't just leave you there.""How long have I… been asleep for?"
"Hmm? I gave you a concoction to help keep you asleep for your body to recover. That was about a week ago."
"A week!?"
"You had a nasty poison in your blood, well, what blood you had left."
The old man helped Alex into a dining room where he sat him at the table.
"Lyra, help get this young man a bowl of hot soup to fill his stomach. He needs sustenance."
There was a woman in the room, a beastkin with feathers around her neck and bird like wings attached to her arms. She had auburn hair cropped at her shoulders and wore a gentle smile on her face. There were signs of some wrinkles in the corner of her eyes, indicating that age was beginning to catch up on her, but it did little to detract from her beauty.
"Yes, master."
"Oh, how often have I told you not to call me master, Lyra?"
"Every day, master."
A bowl of hot soup was placed before a silent Alex whom stared down at the food with uncertainty. He was feeling delirious, as if the entire world around him was false and naught but an illusion he was just seeing in his head.
The soup looked and smelled delicious though, and he nervously scooped a mouthful of it into his mouth.
Surely enough, if it looks delicious, and it smells delicious, it is delicious.
He felt warmth spread from the pit of his stomach as the soup entered. Once one mouthful had been eaten, more quickly followed and his spoon was soon hitting on the base of an empty bowl.
"Haha, get the boy some more, Lyra," The elderly man gingerly laughed upon seeing him looking at the empty bowl with plenty of desire but no courage.
"…Can I ask you something?"
Alex nervously glanced at the old man, seeing him sitting the smiling gently at him.
"Of course, what do you seek guidance in."
"Why did you help me?... I certainly don't deserve it..."
Lyra refilled his bowl and also smiled at him before explaining, "Master is someone who has spent his life helping others, myself included. When a bleeding, dying man collapses on his front door no less, it is basically divine revelation to help."
"You are quite faithful towards providence."
"Master was an important member of the Eve Temple for quite some time, after all. I also worked there under him. Having faith is quite important."
"So how did you meet him then?"
"I was originally sold as a slave in the city master served the temple in. He was quite young then, barely an adult."
"Lyra-" The old man only known as "master" raised his voice in protest but was immediately silenced as the bird beastkin woman moved behind him so fast it frightened Alex and sealed his mouth shut.
"Master, it has been so long since I've been able to tell someone of your benevolence, so please let me have this one."
The old man mumbled while Lyra maintained a glorious, broad smile as affection on her face.
"Master had seen me for sale and bought me to save me from a far less than fortunate life which could have awaited me. He brought me into the temple, gave me food, work, knowledge, and the chance to work with the orphans there."
"I fell in love with master whilst we were living together, but he refused it at the time, stating that he couldn't love his slave. The very next day he took me to the slave trader and paid to have me freed, before telling me he could now love me. I was very mad at that time, you see, but I still loved him."
"We shared a long life since, and that is our story."
"I see…"
The old man cleared his throat with a cough to bring attention to himself and stroked his beard in thought.
"The more important question is why you are here, young lad. The only people that remain in these dangerous lands are those who can't or refuse to leave it."
Alex bit his lip and explained his situations, from how he was from another world and summoned through a hero summoning ritual. How he was ostracised by the other heroes, and how he admittedly fled from them.
"So, they did a summoning, huh. It looks like things are far more dire than I ever thought."
"Do you know about it?"
"The ritual? A little bit."
"They said it was impossible to go back. Is that true?"
Alex was deeply hopeful. He had been constantly looked down upon, been outperformed by all the other heroes, and even now had lost an eye.
The old man had used high level magic to erase even the scar, but he couldn't regenerate his eye, leaving him permanently blind in it.
"Well… It's not impossible."
"It's not?!" Alex shot up from his seat, but was overcome by a bout of dizziness from the act and fell back down.
"Young hero, you need to understand. For any magic to reach across the world borders and interact with another, the use of divine power is required. For something such as summoning, which doesn't hold a specific target, fine control isn't required and divine power can be substituted for some extremely expensive materials. But to go the other way around, it is much more delicate. A god or goddess must directly control the ritual."
"Then! Does that mean if the goddess helps, I… no, all of us, can go back home!? Why would the king say we can't go back, then!?"
"Calm down, the king did not lie. Even if they could reverse the summoning ritual to send you back, they would not be able to do so."
"What!? Why!? You just said that it could be done!"
"Calm, calm. It is indeed impossible, because… our goddess would have to descend, which comes at a large cost. She would be weakened to the extent the demon god belonging to the invading demons would be able to seize the advantage. Sending you back would require the sacrifice of this entire kingdom…"
"Is there no way, then?"
"If we can win this war, and allow our goddess to regain her former strength, she would no longer have the hold back the foreign demon god, so it would be possible."
"Former strength? Is she injured?"
"Yes. It is suspected to have been a surprise attack by the demons, but she suffered a grievous wound and was weakened to the extent the foreign demon god decided to act."
Alex was deeply conflicted in his heart. On one hand, he wanted to go home to his family and warm bed, whilst on the other he was afraid.
"What… should I do?"