-Galdwin Arvo-

Galdwin, who was having a nice dream in his comfortable bed, was rudely woken up.

*Bam**Bam**Bam*

Someone was banging on the entrance of his 2 bedroom home as if they had a grudge against its hinges.

“Which fucking ba-“

His words got stuck in his throat as he caught a glimpse of the beauty lying on top of him, who was drowsily trying to open her eyes.

‘Oh fuck, it’s her mother!’

Galdwin didn’t think that anyone would be so bored to seek him out at this time of the day. A quick glance at the open shutters of the room confirmed that only the first rays of the rising sun were visible.

He tried to get up, but Sally, who had collapsed on top of him after their nightly exercises, was clinging to him like a pup to its mother’s teats.

*Bam**Bam**Bam*

“Open up!”

The voice that Galdwin heard definitely didn’t belong to Sally’s mother. It couldn’t be her father either, as he had not returned from the war, just like his own father had not.

Glancing down, he saw that Sally’s eyes were closed, but it was clear to him that the lazy girl was pretending to be asleep now. Galdwin was sure that even the neighbors had to be awoken by now, let alone her. So he gave a gentle pinch to her peeking nipple, earning himself a small squeal and a bite on his chest.

“Come on love, I have to see what the fuck is going on before the night watch comes screaming.”

Pushing her aside, Galdwin rose to his feet to get dressed. As he was searching for his pants in the dark, his ears rose in confusion. People sought him out- a sword for hire, only when there was a problem somewhere, often violent or tedious. But this was the first time that someone had come to his door this early.

After finding and wearing his pants, he took the spare knife he had from the top of the dresser and made his way towards the door of the house- the door that was about to be demolished.

Galdwin hid the knife behind his back and kicked the door open after undoing the latch.

“The FUCK do you want basta- Oh, Master Henry! It’s so nice to see you this early!”

Galdwin swallowed his words with a polite smile. He was not a hesitant person by any definition of imagination, but there were 3 people in this town that one couldn’t anger without getting shunned. First was the young Baron, lord of the city. Another was the Madam Larysa, who was the sole alchemist in the town. Last was the giant of an elf standing in front of him, Master Henry, who was the best smith not only of the town, but the entire southern half of the county. He quickly stuffed the knife he was hiding into his belt on his back, making sure that Henry didn’t see it.

The smith was holding a sword in his hands- the sword that had once belonged to Galdwin’s father, which he had commissioned Master Henry to repair.

Seeing him eyeing the sword, Henry impatiently passed it to him.

“Here ya go, son. It’s done. But forget that, can you feel it?”

Galdwin drew the 125 centimeter long sword to ravel in its bright red zirconium tip and the buffed steel body. It had cost a fortune for his father to buy it, and had cost him another big chunk of his cache to have it repaired. Only after sheathing the sword did he turn back to Master Henry with confusion in his face.

“Feel? Feel what exactly?”

Galdwin had no idea what the smith was talking about, which caused his guest’s face to scrounge up.

“Yer not a proper mage..? No wonder you managed to get the tip chipped. Fine, gimme your hand.”

Feeling a little peeved, Galdwin extended his hand. He was talented enough to reach the peak of Tier 2 as a Warrior before 30, but his Mage training had fallen behind as a result. He needed to get the help of a Tier 2 or above Mage to advance to a proper Mage from his Tier 0, and this was where he was stuck on. Only way to get that help was to either join the military or pay a sizeable sum of gold, which he was trying to gather as a sellsword.

After Mater Henry grasped his hand and shared what he was feeling, Galdwin’s head snapped to south, only to find the walls of his house blocking his view.

‘Is this… mana?’

With Henry’s help, Galdwin could feel the mana in the air, like how one could feel the rays of the sun heating one’s body, but there was something down south that demanded his attention. It shined like a lone star in the dark sky. Seeing the puzzlement in Galdwin’s face, Henry spoke again.

“Aye, son. It’s a skystone that fell from the sky. My teacher ‘nce told me that they gather mana as they fall. The mana will start to fade away in couple hours, so no low level mage in the town will be able to feel it soon ‘nough. But that’s not the part yer should care about.”

Master Henry separated his hand from Galwin, breaking the magic that allowed him to feel the mana. The young man blinked a couple of times as he tried to disperse the sudden vertigo that hit him.

“Dirt, stone and impurities burn ‘way when the skystones fall, only leavin’ metals, both mundane and magical.”

Galdwin who had finally managed to come back to himself opened his mouth to ask a question, but Henry continued before he could.

“Since I can feel it all the way from here, it should be a big ‘ne. If yer can get it, I will forge yer a nice sword from ‘ats inside. If there is ‘nough, I can forge a magic sword too. How ‘bout it? What do you say?”

Galdwin hardly had to think it through before he decided to accept. If he could get whatever it was to the smith, he would get himself a magic sword which cost hundreds upon hundreds of gold coins. If not, he would still get in the good books of one of the best smith around.

“How do I find it? I know it’s in south, but I can’t search all of it! Especially if it fell far into the marshes or the Grand Forest.”

Ears of Master Henry fell. Galdwin guessed that the smith hadn’t thought of that. It took the smith couple second to answer.

“Aye, don’t worry ‘bout searching it. Yer should be able to feel it if you get close to it. Just ‘ollow the river south. If yer can’t get it, then we were not fated with it. Nothin’ we can do.”

After answering more of the sellsword’s questions, Henry left after Galdwin agreed to head as soon as he could, so the young man entered his house pack up.

‘I have to wait couple hours to get the rations, don’t I?’

Entertaining this line of thought, Galdwin walked into his bedroom, to seek the sexy elf sleeping in his bed. He still had time for another round. Or two.

. . .

After he packed up, Galdwin fixed his sheathed sword to his belt and left the house, leaving behind a girl even more tired and sleepy than before.

‘I hope Sally doesn’t forget to lock the door…’

He quickly made his way to the small shop near the farmers market, where they sold rations and equipment for travelers. He had the full gear he had gotten years ago, so only thing he needed to buy was the rations. After some haggling, he paid 55 coppers, a bit more than half a silver coin for 7 days worth of hard bread and dried meat before he walked off to the town gates.

Before exiting the city, he paid another 7 and a half silver to rent a horse- 6 of which he could take back if he returned the horse. The true cost of renting the horse was 15 coppers a day.

‘This has gone up too.’

Things were not looking good. After the Empire fell, the Naevius County and the neighboring Emer County were in a state of war. Games of the nobility used to be irrelevant to the everyday folks, but the recent grain levy put on the Barony were increasing the prices, forcing the people to suffer. He had heard from the traveling traders that the situation was not much better outside the Barony either.

Galdwin, with his measly strength couldn’t do anything about it, so he tried to not to think about it too much. Instead, he gave a sigh at the situation in front of him, as he gazed upon the horses which he could pick from. Gone were the hardy horses with pristine fur and scales. Instead, all the horses here were old or sickly. Owner of the horses chimed in after seeing his expression, claiming that he was forced to sell the good ones to the Count’s men to ‘help’ the war effort.

Galdwin couldn’t help but sigh again, as he exited the town after nodding towards the familiar guards. It would take one some time to enter a town, but exiting was always easy.

It took him 2 short hours to reach his destination, the village that lay where the Trihorn River met with the smaller river which marked the start of the marshes to the south.

The village was a small one with only 20 or so families living in it, but it still had a proper dirt wall around it, most likely to stop goblins or the random creature that crawled out of the marshes. Galdwin was stopped at the gate by the lone guard of the village, but he was let through when he showed the guardsmen his pass for the town he had came from. Had he not been from the town which the village paid taxes to, or one of the other villages that were connected to the same town, the guardsman could have asked for a small fee to allow him to enter.

After spending half an hour talking and haggling with the villagers, he was able to convince one of them to take care of his horse for 4 coppers a day, paid in advance of course.

‘This fucking horse cost me so much…’

No matter how angry he was for spending his money like this, it had to be done. His town was the closest one to the skystone, but there were other towns not too far away. Not to mention that Henry wasn’t the only one that could feel the stone, nor was he the only sellsword that would dare go after it. All the expenses would be worth 10 times over if he managed to get the stone.

Galdwin was forced to open his purse once again soon enough, this time to pay 3 coppers for a fisherman of the village to ferry him across the Trihorn river- to the shore where the Grand Forest lay.

He could have gone south through marshes too, but that place was too dangerous for him. He had broken the tip of his sword last time when one of the trolls living there had decided to hop the river that served as the border. Trolls were a Tier 3 creature, and their skin was hard to cut through. The leather armor he was wearing had come from that very same troll. Other than the trolls, a lot of dangerous monsters called the marshes home, some of them even poisonous. There were even rumors that an ogre lived there. A freaking Tier 4 monster that was said to be able to challenge a Tier 5 one. True, the Great Forest had even stronger monsters, but they all lived in the depths of forest. He would be fine as long as he stuck to shore. Also, marshes had another trick that the Great Forest didn’t have- it was hard to breathe in the marshes. Tier 2 elves like him would be fine for couple of hours, but a normal Tier 1 elf would fall sick and die within minutes. Galdwin had heard that many mages had tried to find the cause and eliminate it throughout the years, but none had been successful.

Throwing out the useless thoughts, Galdwin started to follow the river shore down south, a hand always on his swords pommel, ready to draw it in a moment’s notice.

The first few hours of his journey passed peacefully, but Galdwin managed to spot movement in front of his path soon enough. Crouching  to not alert the creatures ahead, he slowly inched his way towards them to see what he was dealing with.

‘5 goblins. One of them is Tier 2.’

Most of the goblins frolicking near the river were short and scrawny not unlike the little orphans not uncommon in the towns, but the last one was not only taller than the rest, it was also packed with more muscles. It was still only half as tall as him, but it was still much stronger than its lesser brethren.

Galdwin’s eyes darted around as he searched for something that could give him an advantage in the coming fight, but he could find nothing. The river hugged his right, and Galdwin didn’t even consider the forest to his left. Goblins were absolute nightmares in uneven and complex terrains. There was nothing that would give him a height advantage either. Left with no other option, Galdwin calculated how the fight would go as best as he could.

‘Here goes nothing.’

Galdwin pushed his sword down into the soft dirt in front of him, and kneeled to pick up a decent sized river stone with his left hand. He took out a throwing knife from the bandolier around his chest and gave a loud whistle to attract the goblins. It would not have been possible to ambush them anyways, as the place they had chosen to waste time was the river shore which had no obstacles or hiding spots.

First to spot him was the Tier 2 goblin, who gave out a large roar, notifying others to Galdwin’s presence. This worked in Galdwin’s favor. He had been afraid that he would have to deal with all 5 of them at the time, but the roar that the Tier 2 goblin had given on its hind legs slowed it down considerably. Seeing this, Galdwin dropped the stone in his hand to the ground, as he had been planning to chuck it at the big one to separate it from the group. Instead, he flicked his right arm, releasing the knife in his hand just in time for it to fly and hit the leading goblin in the head, killing it instantly. He managed to kill another goblin the same way before the other 2 came too close for comfort, with the Tier 2 right behind them. Galdwin yanked the sword off the ground and braced himself. When the first of the ugly bastards came in range, he backhanded it with his steel buckler. Goblins were light and weak, so this hit was enough to throw it far away. Galdwin used his sword to cut the neck of the last of the weaker goblins when it reached him. Tier 2 was just a few meters away from him, but Galdwin still afforded a second to steal a glance at the goblin that he had hit with shield.

‘Doesn’t look like he is getting up anytime soon’

Satiating last of his worries, Galdwin focused on the creature in front of him, but he couldn’t help but smirk. The saying ‘only thing more common than goblins in the forests are the rats in the cities’ existed for a reason. Goblins were a menace in the forests, as they would ambush their prey from treetops with superior numbers.

‘But in open ground? Heh!’

A goblin in the same Tier was no problem for Galdwin to deal with in such a favorable terrain. He simply took a pose taught to him by his father and fed mana to his weapon. Zirconium tip of his sword began to glow a dull orange, indicating that it was ready for combat. Galdwin didn’t really need to use increased penetration given by the zirconium against a soft, agility based monster like a goblin, but it never hurt to be safe just in case he hit a bone. An unnecessary worry, as it turned out to be at the end.

Just as the goblin came close, Galdwin, who had been leaning back flexed his spine, kicked the ground with his legs and thrust forward with the sword on his right hand. His lunge closed the last 4 meters between them in an instant, resulting in his sword slipping between the ribs of the goblin, puncturing its heart and killing it instantly.

Galdwin took a few deep breaths to calm his beating heart. The fight had been quick and easy, but it still had gotten him worked up. A moment’s carelessness was all it took for one to die. Galdwin flicked his sword to remove as much of the blood as he could and wiped it on a goblin before he got to work. Confirming that all of the goblins had died, recovering his thrown knives and lastly, extracting the cores took twice as much time as killing them in the first place.

All beasts that had reached Tier 1 or above had a core, with no exceptions. Why or how Galdwin didn’t know, but he very intimately knew that they could be used for increasing one’s tier with enough of them and time. And that they were expensive. A Tier one core could be sold for anywhere from 10 to 15 coppers, about what an average man made in a day. The Tier 2 one on his hand were worth much more, at least 3 silvers or 300 coppers, but Galdwin had no intention of selling it. He was very close to the peak of Tier 2. He had also reserved the Tier 3 core of the Troll that he had killed with help last month, so only thing that stopped him from advancing to become one of the youngest Tier 3 warriors the town had seen in decades was time. He couldn’t help but smirk as he gazed upon the new core he had just gotten.

‘Just a few more months.’

Done with his work, Galdwin quickly left the area. There wasn’t much he could do about the corpses, so left them there. Other beasts of the Great Forest would eat them by the time he would return, but he wanted to leave here as soon as possible. Last thing he needed was getting into a scuffle with an orc or a goblin shaman lured by the scent of the blood.

Rest of the day and the next day passed peacefully, with the exception of when Galdwin had stopped for the night to camp. Even then, it was just a small group of Tier 1 goblins. It was more rare to come across a Tier 2 goblin at the outskirts than not. Usually, one could see goblins out of their forest only at winter, when the trees fell asleep, forcing the goblins to go out in search of food.

‘It’s close.’

The sun was about to hide for the second time since he started his journey by the time Galdwin managed to feel the mana emitted by the skystone once again. What he was feeling this time wasn’t as intense as the last time as he didn’t have the senses of an official mage to assist him.

‘It’s on the Summer plains…’

 Galdwin’s ears couldn’t help but sag a little. He knew it was foolish, but he was hoping that the skystone would just appear in front of him like it was nobody’s business. Granted, it would have been impossible for him to retrieve it if it had fallen deep into the Grand Forest, he still didn’t like the fact that he would have to cross the river to reach the plains. Fixing his resolve, Galdwin marched ahead until he went past the smaller river that joined the Trihorn river on the other bank, which marked the ending point of the toxic marshes.

After walking for another hundred meters, Galdwin stopped to strip his clothes, sighing constantly. He hated getting wet on a good day, but now, getting forced to swim when he had his equipment on him was especially bad.

After packing his purse and clothes into his bag and hoisting it, he jumped into the cold river and began swimming to the other bank with the help of the light emitted by the Gentle First- brightest of the 3 moons.

Galdwin’s bag felt twice as heavy by the time he made it to the solid ground, and from the amount of water that streamed out of it when he lifted it above of river, it had indeed become much heavier.

‘Fuck! The seal failed!’

This bag had been one of his best purchases so far in his life. It was sturdy and large enough to carry all that he needed to do his job and still have some space left over. But the reason he had liked the bag was because it was made out the leather of a Tier 2 beast, and had a good seal, making it waterproof.

‘Fuck this shit.’

Galdwin turned the bag upside down to empty it, to see the damage done to what was inside. Thankfully, the rations were still okay, as they had been individually packed in a thin layer of waxed cloth. But his clothes, blanket and the shoes were saturated with water. His sword, backup knife, throwing knives and the skinning knife had also come in contact with water, but they would be fine as long as he oiled and cared for them after he returned. Worst was the kindling and the firestarter he had carried- they were beyond salvage now. Galdwin could only sigh for the hundredths time today.

Overall, it was not a big problem. His clothes would soon dry, his rations were all in one piece, and he could use his magic to lit fires.

While Galdwin- a Tier 0 mage, couldn’t cast spells enough to hurt anything bigger than a fly, he could do simple tricks if he concentrated for some time. Heating up a dry piece of wood enough to make it catch fire would take couple minutes, but it was still doable for him.

Galdwin had originally wanted to light a fire and dry himself, but he was forced to change his plans.

‘The damned rock is close, but the mana is starting to fade. Shit.’

Galdwin put his clothes and armor back on while sporting curled ears, and started to pack his bag. It was only early autumn, so his clothes would dry soon enough in the mild wind. No, what made the elf’s ear tips curl was not annoyance but puzzlement.

‘Henry said that magic metals inside the rock would hold mana for weeks, but the mana is already fading. Could it be that it is big, but made of mostly normal metals? How else could it gather so much mana..?’

Galdwin didn’t knew anything about skystones except what Master Henry had told him, so he ignored the abnormalities, blaming them on his ignorance. One of the things he had learned while working as a sellsword was that the world was big- too big for him to know and understand everything.

Galdwin didn’t waste any more time and began to follow the mana to its source. He could feel that it was only couple of kilometers away, but the hilly terrain made it impossible to see far away. His father had taught him a spell to boost his night vision, but one had to be a proper Mage to cast it, so Galdwin had to take his each step carefully under the light of the Gentle First and her brother, the Lucky Second, who had just started to rise from east.

Galdwin spend a full hour to travel just 3 kilometers, but he was glad that the hike was almost over- he could feel that the source was only a hill or two away. If he could spot the stone, he could finally light a fire and rest for tonight.

But the relief he had expected didn’t come to him when he reached the skirt of a hill where he could see the source of the mana.

“What the fuck is that..?”

Galdwin didn’t even notice that he had spoken out loud from his shock. Henry had told him to expect a big boulder or even fragments of metals, but what he could see with his enlarged eyes was a big, black house built into the hill, near its top. The house itself was the mana source! The 50 or so meter long, 3 story high house had barely visible tiny red light that moved on it, as well as white writings which he couldn’t read as it was dark. What little he could see of the giant writings didn’t match to elven or runic language. Just as he was noting how the first and the third floor were barren of decorations but the second one had some small windows on it, 3 of the red dots suddenly moved and started to point at him. Galdwin’s heart filled with dread in flash due to his danger sense.

Danger sense was an ability all warriors had starting from Tier 2. Calling it ability was not truly correct as it was a sense, the seventh sense. The sense that warned you seconds before your met your doom. Last time the sense had activated was when he had found the Troll eating one of its victims. The sense had told him not to charge recklessly if he didn’t want to die. What the danger sense told one was not always correct, but it had saved him last time, and he was leaning on believing it this time too. It was telling him to stop, not to even breather or blink.

Galdwin felt like he was the happiest elf alive when his danger sense retreated along with 2 of the red light that was pointing at him, allowing him to collapse to one knee. Galdwin’s mind was still buzzing with panic when he heard a sound from the house. His jaw fell open when he saw the giant door that he had at first thought to be part of the wall of the house lower itself like a drawbridge. The gate had no chains or ropes supporting it- clearly magical just like rest of the house.

‘Ha… Haha… Of course, it’s a castle. A Mage’s castle.’

Just as Galdwin managed to get back on his feet, an elf exited from the drawbridge. The man was a little chunky and emitted no mana, clearly neither a Mage nor a Warrior. He was dressed in fine clothing Galdwin had never seen, and he was holding a blunt piece of metal on his hand.

‘Perhaps he is a butler?’

Seeing the man observe him silently, Galdwin spoke first with a small bow, one usually reserved for nobles and people who deserved respect.

“Greeting sire, I hope I am not disturbing the owner of the mansion with my late visit.”

These were the words he had remembered from a story in his childhood. In the story, a thief who had fallen in love with a daughter of a noble had tried to visit her in the dead of the night, only to be caught by the guards of the house. These words were the same ones that the thief had told the noble upon being brought in front of him. These were the only words that came to Galdwin’s mind in this situation, and he hoped that it would work for him as well as it did for the thief.

Alas, the man who Galdwin had assumed to be a butler looked at him with the empty eyes that one would use when looking at ants and bugs.

Seeing that the man had no intention of dignifying him with an answer, Galdwin thought of another plan, this one more dangerous and risky.

‘If I can take him hostage…’

Galdwin could think of no other option. The distance between him and the man was only 30 meters. Even uphill, he could cover that distance in less than 4 second. After taking the butler hostage, he would negotiate with the owner to allow him to leave alive in exchange for his hostage.

But thing didn’t go as Galdwin expected. As soon as he lunged forward while drawing his blade, part of the wall of the house moved to him aim at him like a ballista. At this moment, his danger sense start to wail again- it was not warning him at all, but notifying him that he was about to die.

The last thing Galdwin remembered before losing consciousness was the sensation of flying in the air.