-Galdwin Arvo POV, 1 hour after the crash-

“Bam, Bam, Bam!”

“Aw shit, man, it’s barely fucking morning! Wait a minute!”

Fuck. Which bastard was so free to knock on my door? No one needed a sell-sword before the fucking sunrise, especially a Tier 2 one like me. Even if it was an emergency, the guards at the town gates or the lords army should be able to take care of it.

Shit. Could it be her mother? No, she knew she was with me, and had no reason to come at such a time. Sally, who was startled away from my arms, was looking at me with her sleepy eyes. I gave her a quick kiss to wake her up, which I immediately regretted, as the smell and taste of her wild acts of the night prior was still lingering in her mouth.

“You better get dressed love; it’s almost morning anyway, or you can wait in the bed for a quickie if you want to.”

I told her while stealing a small feel of her subtle butt cheeks. The bastard at the door couldn’t even wait a minute for me to get dressed, as the bangs at the door continued, even louder now.

“The fuck do you want?! Oh, it’s you, master Henry! Sorry for that. What brings you to my humble dwelling? I was going to come for my sword in the noon, is it done already?”

I had kinda expected it to be the apprentice of that crazy Alchemist, asking to gather this or that plant, but to think it would be Henry. Master smith Henry was the best smith in this town of Vitor, perhaps the best in the entire Naevius County. He was also a Tier 3 warrior, making him the strongest in the town too, alongside the Viscount’s bodyguard. Two days ago I had trusted him with repairs of my late father’s sword.

“It is done indeed, son, but forget that, can you feel it? Since you can use the sword, you should be able to feel it.”- He said as he passed me my 130 cm long, zorikanium tipped sword.

“Feel what exactly?”

“Concentrate on the magic. You should feel it down south. Also, wear something, will ya? I have been banging for 5 minutes yet you come out with yer cock swingin’.”

As a Tier 0 mage, it was normally quite hard for me to feel any magic. However, as soon as I closed my eyes, and concentrated to feel the ambient magic, I opened them in surprise. Something was burning in my magic sense, as if someone had lit a beacon on a moonless night.

“You can indeed feel it, can’t you? An hour ago a skystone crashed down south. If you can find and bring it to me, let alone a sword, I will make yer an entire suit out of adamantium alloy.”

Adamantium might be the most common magic metal of them all, but enough to make an entire suit would cost as much as a village, at least a platinum coin!

“What in oblivion is that skystone to be this valuable? It’s my first time hearing about it.”

Before he could enlighten me, a fully dressed Sally slipped past us. She definitely wasn’t the shy kind, at least in the bed.

“Really kiddo? You are having a fling with my niece now? I would have a word with your father if he was still around. You better treat her right. Now, where were we? Right, the skystone. When the star fragments fall to the planet, heat and pressure of the flight burns away the mundane materials, melting magic minerals to a natural alloy. Also the mana it picks up on the way down sticks around for some time, not dissipating for couple of days. In the right hands, it’s more valuable than you can imagine, while ignorant would mistake it for another rock. If you are to retrieve it for me, you have to act fast. While we are the closest town to it, stronger mages can feel it further away. Shit, this town alone has almost 10 Tier 1 mages.”

Here goes my plans for the week. I could sense the approximate distance to the rock, it was around 80km to the south-west. It would take me 2 days to reach it, and another 2 or 3 to drag it back. If it was small enough for me to drag it back in the first place. This is going to suck.

. . . . .

First leg of the journey was simple enough. It cost me 2 silvers to rent a lame horse for a week. With it, I reached the southernmost village in 3 hours, cutting the journey blly a third. Another 5 coppers per day to leave it with the only inn at the village. Another handful of coppers went to a random fisherman to ferry me across the river. While travelling through the edges of the Green Forest would be dangerous, I would rather fight couple of goblins and orcs rather than try to traverse the marshes south of the village. Trolls and direwolf packs never came close to the river bank, so it shouldn’t be a problem for me. Yet, other side of the river was full of bogs, noxious air and Ogres. Bastards were Tier 4 as an adult, so fucking me over would be easy as pie for them.

I was ambushed by goblins a few times, even one time when I camped for the night, but the zorikanium tip of the sword penetrated their skulls like hot knife through butter. They were the usual hunting groups, each with 5-10 members. One of the parties even had a Tier 2 fucker, now that took some work. Extracting the cores of the normal goblins took more time than killing them. While they sold for only 30 coppers each, free money was free money. Real gem was the Tier 2 Goblin Warrior core, worth 15 silvers.

Swimming through the river after passing the marshes was the most unpleasant experience of the trip yet. I was definitely going to learn the hot air spell when I reach the next tier as a mage. Flight would have been perfect for this, but it was a Tier 4 spell; impossibly far for me. Walking like a wet dog was not for the best feeling. Water also made the sword rusty, armor musky and my hair yucky, making all 3 need a nice oiling.

I was close to the skystone after passing the river. I could feel it only 10 or so km away. A short jog in the early autumn wind shrank the distance to null. This side of the river had very little wildlife as there was simply not enough food for the aggressive monsters. Some deer and rabbits were a given. A few wolves and goblin packs if you were unlucky. Definitely no orcs, trolls or wyverns.

When I saw the ‘thing’ on the hill, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

“What in Oblivion..?”

The thing glowing in my magic sense was no skystone. I had seen nothing like this… It was a 70 meter long, 15 meters tall amalgamation of metal and glass. It was vaguely house shaped, if you didn’t count the red dots and bright light attached to it. Also the front part of it was smashed onto itself, as if a troll had punched it in.

When I was trying to make sense of what I had gotten myself onto, I saw something on top the construct move. Then, I froze. I had to. My danger sense, which all Tier 2 warriors had was warning me that someone powerful was watching me. It took seconds for my undershirt to get wet by cold sweat. However, I could feel no malice, only caution. It was then I fucked up. I tried to move to a more distant hill, to get away from this mess. Halfway through my senses started warning me like crazy, as if I would be dead if I moved even one more muscle. I hadn’t felt like this when I had fought with my father, who was a Tier 4 warrior and Tier 1 mage, nor when I was almost killed by that troll half a year ago.

Shit, did I step on a dragon’s nest..?

After a few minutes which felt like an eternity, side of the construct opened up like a draw bridge. I could spot no chains nor could feel any magic, yet it lowered gently until it touched the ground.

From inside came a male, armed with a weird magic crossbow at his hands. He was wearing some kind of armor, which wasn’t metallic yet looked impossible to penetrate. Even though I could feel he was not even Tier 1 warrior, he felt strong. At least he was an elf, someone who I could maybe reason with. His eyes locked onto mine, and I couldn’t help but talk while sweating.

“Sir respected Mage, I would like to sincerely apologies for d-disturbing you.”

I could see confusion in his eyes. Not displeasure nor curiosity, but confusion, as if he couldn’t understand me. The crossbow in his hand lowered, as his eyes got cloudy in thought. Either the fuckker was not a good warrior, or I was too weak for him to accept me as a possible danger. I was hoping for the first one. Even through my danger sense was screaming at me, I decided to charge at him. If I managed to hold him hostage, whoever his master, teacher, friend or family was might trade with me. A life for life. Life of this mage for mine.

Even before I managed halve the distance between us, danger sense got turned off right after peaking. I had never felt it, but I knew what it meant. I had heard it from my father. It meant that whatever was going to happen was out of my hands. That danger it was screaming about was here.

Last thing I could remember was flying through air, before hitting my head.