"So you're saying that you were attacked by bandits while on the road? That caused you to run for the forest, but as a result of that you got lost. Somehow you wound up here after about a week of wandering. Is that correct?"

In front of me is a man that could be described as elderly - he has a long white beard, much like the one Gandalf the Grey has, orange eyes and short stubby horns about as long as my thumb. He's also balding.

"That's true. I come from Saria Village, it should be on the other end of this forest." - I replied to him.

The man's name is Sacron, apparently he used to be a knight serving the King.

When he retired he was given leadership of the village as a reward for his many years of service. From what Philip told me he is over 300 years old and has been in charge of the village for the last century.

I doubt I'd be able to mess around in the village with someone like him as its head, not to speak about the village guards that he personally trains. They would probably be capable of snapping my neck with just their thumb and pinkie finger, looking at the guard captain behind me - George, I can't help but shudder a bit.

Sacron takes a light puff from whatever he's smoking and remains silent for a bit.

"Young man, you should know that with the advancement of strength comes advancement of your senses as well. I just so happened to overhear an interesting conversation you had with your friend over here."

He points his chin in Philips direction, who is seated two meters away from me.

- Busted! Crap.

After entering the village we were directly brought to the village heads house that also doubles as his working place where he handles all of the official work.

Me and Philip along with his wife and son were seated in a waiting room of sorts and left alone for a couple of minutes. I took the liberty of asking Philip to help me out, questioning if there are any villages in the forest, other than this one. He did send an odd expression my way but answered anyway, saying there is a place called Saria village on the other end of the forest. I planned this to be my background - some guy from Saria village. The only ones who would suspect me would be, of course, his family. But they would most likely keep silent as a 'thank you' for saving them.

Only I did not expect this old man to overhear us. Very problematic.

I try to think of how I can salvage the situation.

"Listen, " - he speaks up again.

"I will let go of this small transgression, you did save these people after all. It would not look good if I just kicked out their saviour out of here, since news have already started to spread through the village of the event thаt happened outside."

"However, " - He says in a serious tone. The air around me became chilly and I am starting to feel some sort of pressure weighing on my shoulders.

"keep in mind that we will be watching you, if you dare to commit any sort of crime against the people of this village you will be severely punished and then kicked out."

The pressure increased to a point where I'm having 'trouble' breathing and standing upright. Though it is just an act of mine, I could probably push back against it and act like nothing is happening. That would, however, be a bit problematic and put him on guard against me. I'd rather just go with an 'easily scared escaped thief' background since the first one failed.

"Am I clear?"

"Yes, yes of course!" - I reply, trying to put on my best distressed act.

"Good." - he replies. A brillant smile that honestly does not belong on his face reveals itself.

The pressure lifts off of me and I'm able to 'breathe' again.

"George, why don't you give him some money as a reward for helping out? We can't go treating our hero poorly now, can we? It should help him replace these rags he has for clothing as well."

"Of course sir."

"Oh yes, you will be meeting my son, Fernando, after cleaning yourself up. He is the only magician in the village, so you will help him find out the reasons for the agressive behaviour of those wolves."

The smile he has turns slightly odd. I might even describe it as evil. Though knowing better than to ask I turn around to leave the room along with Philip.

---

 

The conversation we had with the villge chief was pretty simple. He asked us some questions about the attack, how many wolves there were, where did the attack happen - things among those lines. He also chewed my balls off a bit about lying to him but you could say I got off fine.

Also the lumber man Philip and his family just left the village heads house without even saying goodbye to me. Looks like they don't trust me anymore, which is kind of odd, considering that I'm the only reason they are alive now. A single lie was enough to get them to distance themselves from me. Oh well, Philip is not as much of a bro as I thought he was. RIP my nigga, was fun while our 'friendship' lasted.

I go shopping to buy some essentials.

First though, I go to the public bathhouse of the village, where I will rinse off the dirt from exploring the forest.

The bathhouse is just a one story building made of wood and stone, it takes quite a lot of space, about as much as 8 normal houses. The size is all right considering the amount of people that come here to bathe every day.

"Hey there, what's up?" - I call out to someone who looks like the man in charge of this place.

"Oh? Hello, welcome to ..." - He turns around to greet me but trails off for a bit after seeing my form.

"Keep in mind that the entrance fee is 3 coppers, if you don't have them get out."

"Chill man, chill. I just got back after tussling with the wildlife outside." 

I fish out a silver from my pocket and show it to him.

"Here, can you let me through now?"

"Sure..." he says and goes somewhere to bring me a towel.

"You put the towel in the big basket before you leave, you won't miss it." He says as he hands me a towel along with 7 copper coins.

"All right. By the way is there a clothing store somewhere in the village? As you can see I desperately need to go there after I'm done here."

"There is. After you leave the bathhouse, go left and continue down the path until you find a sign that says [Delphine's clothing store]."

"Okay, got it. Thanks a lot!" - I say, heading inside.

......................

............

.....

The bath went pretty well, there wasn't anybody to annoy me for being a dirty beggar or something of that sort. In fact it was almost completely empty, most likely because of the time of day. It's high noon right now. Maybe the vilagers just go to the bath after work just before dinner.

After cleaning myself up I leave in the direction of the clothing store.

From there I buy some simple clothing with dark green and dark red color scheme. It comes with a dark green pocket that you can hang on your waist. Don't need boots, since the shoe businesses in the draconic societies are probably as advanced as those in hobbit ones because our feet are almost entirely covered in scales, resembling those of birds.

Leaving the clothing store I head directly to the smith that happens to be on the opposite side of the street.

The village smith is actually a woman called 'Mandora'. She's ripped as hell and about 3 meters in height. From what I have seen walking around the village, unnatural (by human standards) height differences between individuals are very common. Mandora was actually fairly nice to me, I might try and pay her to get her to teach me a bit of smithing somewhere down the line. I've already got a basic grasp on how it works thanks to random very informative YouChube videos.

Oh yeah, I sold the 2 rabbit horns to her as well. They are not as useful as I thought. For weapons you could just use iron, it's better. They can be used as alchemy ingredients but there aren't any alchemists in the village. She can carve nice jewelry out of it though. The horns are nice and white on the inside, reminding you of ivory.

I'm left with about two thirds of my funds - 1 gold coin, 1 silver and 7 coppers. One copper equates to roughly 1 dollar, 1 silver carries the same monetary value as 10 coppers and 1 gold carries that of 10 silvers. So a gold coin is basically a hundred dollar bill. The village chief literally gave me 160 dollars for saving three people.

That's petty man. I wonder if my decisions when talking with the chief changed the quest reward.

I cannot complain too much though. The clothes and weapons cost me almost nothing. The woman from the clothing store told me that their products are made with magic from the nearby city and transported here, hence the low cost of the clothes. Looks like magic helps production a lot. The dagger is easy to make, and the raw material - iron, is cheap. I watched Mandora smith for a bit. She can probably pump out a dagger every 20 minutes or so.

A bath with a full set of clothes + a dagger and belt cost me 43 copper (dollars). Very naiz.

---

 

Done with my shopping, I decide it will be a good idea to go and meet this Fernando guy - the village head's son. I could probably ignore his order but I don't really want to get on his bad side. Besides, Fernando happens to be a magician. The only magician in the village. If I can't get him to teach me magic, I will have to wait till I leave the tutorial area.

I travel around and ask for some directions about where he is. Now that's fine and all, but what disturbs me is the look every single man I ask has. They make an expression like someone has farted in their face every time they hear the name Fernando. Let me tell you, from experience, I know that this is a very bad reaction, you don't get that unless you've done something very, very bad.

That causes me to reconsider my decision, maybe he's some absolute lunatic that will cripple you for life if you so much as get touched by him. Maybe he has killed some people and as a result gotten a bad reputation among the villagers. Or his magic is just creepy, he spawns some sort of unholy creature that freaks people out. Is he a necromancer? I know that there are necromancers in the game from the 15 years of game advertisement.

I stand in place for a couple of minutes thinking it through, deciding what to do. In the end though I continue looking for the guy. The chance to learn magic is just too enticing to me. And I doubt anything too bad will happen to me considering this is just the tutorial area. If he kills me I'll just respawn.

Eventually I find his house.

I can't help but notice - all the buildings around are abandoned. A thick layer of dust can be found on the surfaces with cobwebs decorating the edges. The wood seems old and rotten, it has some vines and other plants creeping through the cracks. Everything points to them being abandoned for a long time, maybe more than 30 years.

"...."

I gulp audibly. Though a bit hesitant I still continue walking forward to the house in the center.

It looks... surprisingly normal, you would not be capable of making the difference between the house in front of me and some other house in the village. The only odd thing about it is its size - maybe bigger than the village chief's house.

Standing right in front of the main entrance I give a knock on the door.

*knock* *knock*

"Yes?" - I can hear an ordinarily sounding voice come from behind the door.

He sounds all right. For now.

"This is Fernando's house right? Your father sent me to help you out with some work."

"Really? Give me a second I'll be right over."

The door in front of me opens, revealing what I presume to be Fernando.

"............"

Something about him... just seems off?

Much like his father he has short stubby horns, though they have a brown color. His hair is a darker shade of brown.

Now, that much is fine yea? What disturbs me is everything else about him.

He's without a top, naked from the waist up. Fairly large earrings can be found on his abnormally big ears. His hair also happens to be longer than normal. It appears to have some magical effect that makes it sway around like the wind is blowing it. He also possesses a finely toned body and is about as tall as me.

HOWEVER

The most disturbing part of him is his eyes. They deep orange in color and resemble the eyes of a predator who is stalking his prey. And those eyes are aimed at.. me.

"Hoooooh, You're quite handsome~"

OooOooooooooooooOOOOOOooOOOoooohhHHHH     FUUUUUuuUUuCKKKK !!?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!1

"CONTROL  PANEL!!"

To Be Continued  (Jojo roundabout plays in the background)

   

 

ART DUMP ( COMES WITH A PICTURE OF FERNANDO ) :

                           Fernando:

   

                           Random character concept : Cilia

   

                     Hell - Spawn rabbit (very lazily done) :

 

CREEPYPASTA                                       

Imagine its the middle of the night.

A bit of rain is falling out of the sky, not enough to make you wet but still unpleasant.

The only light you have is the one emitted by the silent moon peeking through the clouds.

In the middle of the mountains hiking to your hidden bunker to get away from the coronavirus.

You hear a sound of rock breaking, its distant but you can still distinguish it for what it is.

You turn around and see this guy , with red lights in his eyes and an expressionless face practically flying towards you.

What will you do?