The city of Bara was actually not a city at all. It was a medium-sized village, with no more than 100 residents, dedicated to farming and general livestock. The land surrounding it was filled with small hills and plains. A small river flowed by the side of the city.
The buildings were mostly made of wood and none had more than 3 floors except for the house of its prefect, a stone tower in the center of the city, with 5 floors.
The city was surrounded by a palisade and a moat. As I would discover later, it's defenses were mostly organized against bandits and monsters. Its development were due to the natural growth of its inhabitants. The place had nothing of remarkable in economic, geographic or political terms.
Walking through it's main gate, I caught a glimpse of the weapons and armor of the guards. Mostly weared leather armor, a few were clad in what appeared to be bronze or copper. Almost every soldier had an iron spear in hand, some carried iron longswords, and readily available throught the walls were bows and arrows.
I and Elisa walked around with black robes, me making Elisa hide its witch hat outside of the city, so as to not attract unwanted attention.
"The ritual to summon you was described in an ancient book." Said Elisa. "My parents tried many times to understand and perform it, but were never able to."
She explained to me as we walked around the city.
"They were caught in their research by some of the strongest adventurers I've ever seen, and killed on the spot for praticing witchcraft."
In this world, magic is permitted as long as it is regulated by law and by the many associations of magic spread around the world. Those that indulge in prohibited practices, like necromancy and the sort, were called witches.
"They were trying to summon you to kill the mad baron that rules over this land." Said she. "He is a most unsuited ruler, given to all kinds of sins, known for being arbitrary and practising torture with those unlucky enough to attract his gaze."
We stopped by a nearby tavern, and sat in a table to rest for a while.
"To punish him for these things, my parents indulged in magic and tried to summon a creature like you, thinking it would give a worthy end to such malicious man."
Summoning an evil overlord to kill such a villain doesn't seem to me like the right option. They must have been pretty angry to do so.
"So, all I ask is that you kill this fiend and avenge my parents. I will help you in this task as much as I can."
She looked at me with pleading eyes. It was a strange task for someone supposed to be evil, although I was starting to believe that she did the wrong ritual and summoned me instead. One thing, however, was odd.
As I opened my status screen, the red words in bold stood out in it.
[Race: Half-elf Vampire]
Why? All the others stats were normal, an inconvenience, as to be some sort of OP Witch-king would be much easier than the level one adventurer I was. Thankfully, being an half-elf vampire gave me acess to all sorts of skills, a somewhat big list that I plan to put to good use.
Elisa didn't appear to notice my low level. She was a level 20 black mage, a pretty strong one, said she, as she was born with some kind of natural talent for it. The level and status of everybody was unknown, until you got the information from the person himself, or fought them in a battle, and many other ways.
"I want to get used to this world before we make any moves" I said. "How much money do you have?"
She showed a small purse, filled with coins.
"It is not much." She said. "It can only pay for a few nights in this inn."
"Then we need to more. That is our first objective."
"You will help me then?"
"Yes", but not only for your own good.
The adventurer's guild was the place for us to find good and useful work. We picked up a small job of killing some monsters in the nearby forest, one of the easiest ones, and less rewarding.
The wolfs in the area were a nuisance to the farmers in the region. Elisa seemed dissapointed, as she expected a harder mission, given her level.
After completing the necessary paperwork, we headed for the weapons store. It was incredibly diverse, but almost all of weapons were swords and spears of some sort, none of them in the price range that Elisa could cover.
Being a mage, Elisa was vulnerable in battle if not covered by someone capable of fixing the enemy in place, a tank character. Although I didn't want to be such a character, giving the current condition, there is no other way. The most efficient option is to be the frontline soldier.
"I want this."
I pointed out for the old shopowner.
"This? Are you sure? This is just an old halberdier."
The old man looked puzzled, as I picked up the rusty weapon from the back of the store. Elisa also looked the same way.
"This we can cover, right?"
"Yes, you can. But I do not see much use for it."
As we walked away from the store, I was attacked by the complaints of Elisa.
"It was best for me to complete the mission alone first, then make sufficient money to buy you a decent weapon instead of this."
"Mind it not. I wouldn't let you go alone in the woods in the first place, this is better than nothing."
An halbedier, an heavy and hard to learn weapon. A polearm with an axe, a spear point and a hook mixed together, used in the early modern period against strongly armored oponents, mainly knights in full plate armor. Not the best for monster hunting but... I have the feeling it will be useful latter.
Before going into the woods, we stopped near the tree line, where the river met with the forest. I washed the weapon and, with nearby stones, tried my best to remove the rust that was in it. Although it didn't do much, It cleaned it up a little. This halbedier was heavier than most because it's handle pole was made of iron too, instead of wood.
The morning was almost over, and the sun was up high in the sky. After an hour of walking, we met our first opponent. It was not an wolf, but a giant lizard.
Without delay, Elisa dealt a killing blow to the creature, casting a fireball on it.
"See? This is no problem for me. It shouldn't be for you, too."
Our next enemy was a small wolf pack of 3 wolves. This time around, Elisa had some difficulty, her first wave of fireballs missing its target.
"Tsc! Just hold them for a moment!" She said.
I position myself between the wolves and Elisa. Not being familiar with the weapon, I struggle to get a good handle of it, looking for a comfortable and secure stance to hold the weapon, for now resting it in my right shoulder, while I grip its handle with both my hands.
It is a perfect stance for a right cut, and thats exactly what I do when one of them charges against me. Despite the weight throwing me off balance, the wolf also didn't calculated its movement right. The axe of my halbedier hits it's body, but without cutting the hide, only bruising the wolf. Being left to rust, it's cutting edge is long gone.
Some kind of alert sound echoes through my mind. There was a change in my status screen. My class changed to warrior and in my skills tab, a section for halbedier use appeared, but without much information.
The fight didn't take longer. The wolves, trying to defeat the weakest party member, attacked me without success while Elisa finished them off one by one when given the chance.
"With this, we can already complete the quest." Said Elisa.
The monsters, after being defeated, dropped a small crystal to the ground.
"No, let's go futher into the woods."
"Are you sure? We could encounter something nastier than wolves."
"That's no problem. Lets move on."
This time, the wolf pack was bigger, made of 4 wolves and a silver one who appeared to be the leader of the pack, bigger and stronger than the rest. With a bark from the silver one, the pack surrounded us both, and me and Elisa stood back to back so as to not leave any openings.
"Hear me, you will cast the Fire Ball spell as fast as you can on the lesser ones you see, ok? The moment you do it, I will attack then retreat to your side. Make sure to stay back to back with me."
She nodded, and did as ordered.
The distraction made her secure for a moment, allowing me to charge against the silver one. The attack was not fast enough, as he saw it coming, and the weight of the weapon made me lose balance again. That's when one of the lesser wolves attacked, but this was just as planned.
As he charge directly to me, I made a stumbling move, as to appear vulnerable. A right cut, easily dodged, but such an animal doesn't know the properties of an halbedier. Now with the right momentum and unexpected resolution, I hooked the wolf with upper move, brought him near to be smashed by my feet, while a quick change in stance made me able to deliver another blow, a piercing hit with the tip of the weapon to the wolf's head.
I quickly retreated to Elisa's side.
"What was that move? You sure know a lot about such a weapon."
"This was the first day I ever touched an halbedier." I said. " Yet I've already read about them in a book."
The pack surrounded us again, this time being much more cautious.
With a loud bark, one of the wolves charged Elisa, prompting her to cast a fireball. However, this was a fake attack, as the wolf soon retreated and, using the opportunity given, all of the others attacked, even the silver one.
This caught me by surprise, which made me use another experiment I wanted to try. Moments before they reached us, I activated one of my race skills, concealment, which made me invisible.
Confused, the silver wolf stopped, while the other ones continued their attack. Being invisible, I counter charged both of them, dealing killing blows with ease. Elisa managed to kill the wolf who did the bait attack with a barrage of fireballs, making the silver one the last.
I charged at him, not giving him time to think. He managed to dodge the first blow, but got caught by the hook attack that followed, and it's killing blow.
By the end of the battle, I was level 3, and my "special" movement, the right cut followed by the hook, became a skill in the halbedier tab.
"Now I feel satisfied."
"By killing this silver wolf, we are certainly going to get a bonus for this quest."
As the sun started to fall and the night to rise, we both returned to the tavern after completing the quest.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review