Sunbeams are passing through the spaces between white clouds covering the sky. Birds chirp to the new day, the warmth from the chaos left, and the usual cold took its place. I opened my eyes. I slept on a little stack of rugs while waiting for the bird to finish its job. It was a good sleep.

 

That giant bird ended its feast, then left the town. Thankfully, it never discovered my hiding place, and I managed to rest for a while. After sleeping on the ground for half a month, these rugs felt like heaven to me. I would be stupid to leave them here for no one to claim.

 

I get pushed myself up from the ground. With a daze of carefree sleep, I stumbled for a second but found my balance when I used a wall to support myself. I did something I never did before in this world. I removed most of my armor and put my sword on the other side of the room. I wonder how long it has been since I last slept this carefree. Even back then, when my house was on 7/24 protection, I still slept with a pistol inside next to my bed.

 

"Huh, no matter how careful I was, I still got killed in the end, didn't I? I suppose it is on the fate to die and survive, considering I fought in a war so brutal that even the hell itself would approve it more than a decade but managed to survive as a whole." I pushed my back to stretch it. A cracking noise came, which is good. It eases the pain a bit.

 

With nothing left to do, I wore my armor, grabbed my sword, and exited the hut. "And look at this piece of shit! Burnt buildings, molten flesh, ash spreading all over the place, and that giant poop that massive bird left as a present." 

 

Now looking outside, I am glad the main hut didn't burn, and I managed to survive the whole thing, but shit, my headaches, and so does my back. I lost control last night and attacked my enemies like there was no tomorrow. At least I am happy that I didn't try anything stupid by attacking that bird, but what was that? I know the whole place was burning down, so it was bright as daytime, but seeing that things shadow as a cloud and waiting for rain on an already cloudy night, do I lose my senses this much when it comes to do or die?

 

Well, at least no one saw that. Oh, how embarrassing it would be if I had done something similar in front of my team. We would have a good laugh. "But my team was in the past, so the soldier named Wolf! I am Erwin, and I must take whatever I could carry and leave this place before a horde of goblins decides to build their town back."

 

A screen appeared in front of me.

 

[Congrulations! You successfully terminated your first target. The user gained several rewards as a result of the action.

 

-Minor improvement on user's physical capabilities.

 

-Minor improvement on the user's amount of mana.

 

-Minor improvement on the user's cold resistance.

 

-New passive ability gained: 

 

The skin of the Lich: The user will be harmed more by the magic that affects the life force positively while denying most of the ones that will affect it negatively.

 

-New ability gained:

 

Shamans affinity: The user's connection with the Magicka slightly improved.

 

New ability gained:

 

Ice Shot: Using a small amount of mana, the user can fire a piece of ice towards their target of choice.]

 

"Alert! Curse of the Lich is getting stronger. The user may experience certain things in unexpected times." And Voice added this cheerful sentence right after all that good news. Quite the party maker, aren't we?

 

"Looks pretty good, well, except for the last part, but look at these." I squeezed my biceps. They were a little larger than before. "There seems to be an improvement on here and here." But jokes aside, I want to learn how this thing works. I mean whole Voice and screens, with proper use, I can capitalize more on what they offer.

 

Killing things with lots of energy(?), improves my strength. That ability I have is one thing I understand how it works, but what I don't is who gave me this and why. Stealing the power of your dead enemies is good, but there should be a reason for me to be in this world.

 

I hope I will learn it one day. But leave it as it is for now. I have a long day of work in front of me.

 

I moved towards an overturned wooden wheelbarrow. It is too large for a goblin, but not for a hobgoblin. The woodwork looks too advanced for these primal creaturs to copy, so I say this got stolen from somewhere. Well, long as it works.

 

I fixed the wheelbarrow by turning it up, then moved it to the hut's entrance. My lips are a little dry, and I think they have a well in this town. Probably, that stone structure I slammed upon was the well. 

 

What a weird thing that I didn't notice that back in the fight. "Weird my ass, I mixed the morning and night. I wouldn't be surprised if I missed the presence of the god itself in that fight." I took a look around, and yes. A round structure roughly built with stone, mud, and straws.

 

Hopefully, underground reserves have fresh and clean. I missed being able to drink water without boiling and filtering it several times. I moved to the well, grabbed the corner, and leaned towards its inside.

 

"No, not drinking from here." The thing has several goblin corpses inside, probably ones who tried to avoid getting burned by jumping into the water. No force in the world will make me drink that water with enough diseases to kill me twice in one glass.

 

Ah, but I am not waterless. I opened my bag and pulled out my canteen. It still has enough water to keep me going until I reach my shelter.

 

In one go, I drank all the water inside the canteen, then wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. It is refreshing. Now, back to the hut, I have treasure to loot.

 

                                        *****

 

"Hmmm... I cannot take everything in here. I must pick the most expensive things I can carry in one go. I might come here for more treasure in the future, but my concern is right now." Seeing that humans sometimes travel through this forest, expensive things can be a good bargaining tool for seeking help.

 

I suppose the best thing to do might be to open the chest I missed in my first entry, but who can blame me, it was under the rugs, and I only discovered it when I began picking them to make myself a bed. Shaman hid it from plain sight. I can say that it placed its most valuable items inside.

 

But there is a problem, it has a lock, well. "Brute force than it is." I raised my sword and began hitting the chest's lock with its pommel.

 

After a short symphony of two metal objects colliding with each other. The lock popped open, and booty is mine to grab. I pushed its upper part and. "What a gift," I said while looking at the chest filled with gold. "This is good, these currencies look more valuable than the ones I got back in the cave, but perhaps there is more."

 

I pushed the chest down, and the gold flowed outside. Behind the coins, a different treasure was lying, books.

 

"Books!" I shout with sarcastic happiness. "As if I didn't have a mountain of them back in the shelter!" Still, I am happy with what I got. Call it a hunch, but I think books hold a high value. I say that because what I see till now doesn't exceed the technology level of the middle ages.

 

"Since I get them, why not give these a go." I grabbed the book and started to inspect its cover with my hand. This soft cover feels like the books we had in the family library. Ah, my early childhood days, I can almost cry thinking about them. How quiet and peaceful they were.

I opened a random page and touched its paper. Yes, it was the paper I remember from all the old books inside my family mansions library. Now I only need one thing to help. "Voice, could you translate this paragraph." I touched the page with my finger showing one of the sentences.

 

After some blur, meaningless words disappeared, and something more readable appeared. I cleared my throat and began reading it.

 

"So the gods said. We, the divine ones, shall send our champions to protect you, our dear children. All true believers, don't be scared to lose your life for your fate! We, the gods and goddesses of this world, will protect you no matter what, but this life isn't the end, for the ones loyal enough to die by our names, there is a seat next to us in the heavens. As there is no place like there in this world." A religious book might be just what I need. I don't want to join a cult or a new religion, but it can help me find answers and avoid getting marked as a heretic and killed by an angry mob.

 

I put the book in my bag, then grabbed some gold and jewelry from the ground. I will put the loot over a rug and carry everything outside in one go.

 

I exit the shaman's hut to find something to eat. There must be some food inside, at least I hope so. And I began searching the goblin town, well, at least the parts that haven't got destroyed in yesterday's fire.

 

But after several failed attempts, I sighed and gave up. "Almost everything is either rotten or burned, how these things are still alive with all that trash. But to look bright side of things, I at least found some tools." A shovel, an ax, also lots of building materials, such as ropes and iron nails. I can use all these things to make traps around my cave for better security.

 

I finished searching the last goblin burrow and exited outside, but as I was heading back to the shaman's hut, I heard an annoying noise. I looked around and saw the source. What a surprise! It is a goblin, with a sack on his back, looting the remains. So, this is the bastard who came back for the remainings, I expected more, but less of them is good news for me. "What a good testing board. I wanted to try that ice ability.

 

"Now, Voice, what must I do to use that ice ability," I asked my reliable(!) guideline for some help. "A detailed description would be better."

 

"Focus on your fingers," Voice said. "The mana will pass through your body and gather at the exit point, then stop focussing on activation of the skill."

 

When I followed the orders, I felt weird as something passed through my body and finished its small tour at the end of my fingers. "Now, I must stop focusing, I assume."

 

I opened my eyes and saw a blue glow on the tip of my finger, and shortly after, a piece of ice appeared in the air. It is spinning right in front of my hand, ready to be shot. "How exciting to have such a tool in my pocket."

 

I aimed toward the goblin's chest. That monster is unaware of my existence, almost as if it is working as my practice target. I closed my fingers to give my shot, and Ice piece fired toward the goblin with a high velocity. It pierced through the still unaware goblin's chest. It wasn't strong enough to kill the creature but put it into a situation where it won't be bothered for some time, saying that by looking at the goblin rolling on the ground with an ice piece stuck on his chest and blood flowing from the hole covering its body.

 

I looked at my fingers with excitement. "Now, that I like."