《I am too old for this shit》 I. I am Willbur Longsword was sitting on the fire and feeling rather grumpy. After his last heroic quest he abandoned his old comrades. Not that they were old in the actual sense of the word, they were just some people he happened to know for a bit longer. He saved some region from abysmal terror with them. Or maybe it was two or three regions and a village. He found that he didn¡¯t care anymore. And that was exactly the reason he was sitting alone at the fire. He himself was old in the literal sense of the word. At least if it came to heroes. When he had started his journey he was around 13 or maybe 16 years old. It was pointless to remember, but when he started he also had comrades. It was a shame they were all dead now and he was the only one left. All of them died in one heroic missions or another, most of them made their last breath in his arms and he already avenged all of them that could be avenged. The new comrades he had were never people he actually grew attached to. When members of his team had been exchanged the first several times, he had wholeheartedly welcomed them to their little hero-group. He was the leader after all. The problem was that it kept happening. Again and again and again. When everybody in his group had been replaced the second time he didn¡¯t even really wanted to know their tragic backstories anymore. When the last member of even that group hat died he stopped remembering their names after they died. That of course made them expandable if you believed in karmic foreboding and that made them die even faster and he cared even less. At some point he had realized it was a vicious cycle but by then he had stopped to care. In the late part of his career he had at some point found out he had gained another new nickname. >Death sentence.< But it didn¡¯t matter, there were always young ones, who hoped to be the fated protagonist themselves and learn a thing or two from him. Some of them even survived. He was fairly sure that even if someone put his bad attitude and lack of enthusiasm against him he would have still saved a lot more people than most average heroes. There was even some kind of legend building around him. So why had he left his group in the middle of the night without as much as saying goodbye? Because he was tired of it all. Hadn¡¯t he done his part? Wasn¡¯t it enough? He had given his whole life to the people. He had saved so many lives from demonlords, necromancers, crazy bureaucrats and even giant rat infestations that he sometimes though this whole country had to be devoid of life if not for him. He had served the king, bathed in the glory of being a war hero. He had looted and given back countless artefacts of immeasurable worth. He had broken out of mind control and possession and found imposters in his team, he had made hard decisions and had saved that one life instead of the village when given an impossible choice. And afterwards more often than not he had still saved the village. He had gotten golden keys to cities, he had reigned for short times as a lord or sometimes just as a warlord when there was no formal legitimation. He had done so much shit that he just couldn¡¯t count it anymore. But he wanted out. And he knew it was futile. He had tried to hide. He had told his team that they needed to hide from an evil mastermind and just bunkered down for weeks in the most boring location he could find. After 3 weeks one of his group members turned out to be an ancient vampire that had joined their group for fun and it had never been a problem because they all had bathed in blood almost every day anyway. During the fight every living soul in that beautiful boring village was extinguished. He had never found the heart to risk the life of normal people in another beautiful boring village again. He had tried to just solve everything. That were the times when he reigned and tried to stop all arising problems before they actually became some. At some point the workload became too much and he had to delegate to trusted officers. Naturally some of them formed some kind of religious conspiracy, with a fancy name and red robes and tried to kill him in his sleep. He had not given up after that but after the conspiracy it was a plot to get the second-born son of the king to his rightful but honestly not so rightful throne. It was really a whole lot of work to kill everybody involved and STILL be on speaking terms to the king but he managed. After that though, a plague broke out, that indiscriminately made people lose their mind in the specific way that they tried to kill everybody who gave them an order. It was a bloodbath. He lost half his court during that event and god knows how many civilians. At that point he secretly ordered one of his last true friends to count the people that died during his reign and compared it to the 20 years before his reign. He still came out on top even though it had been less than a year. That was the moment he knew his attempt was doomed.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. He tried leaving and telling people he wanted to stop. It were amicable moments of long forgotten empathy when his group told him that he really had earned it and said goodbye. One blissfully boring month later the last survivor of his group fell through his door, bleeding on the floor and pursued by an army of bloodthirsty demi-humans that wanted to kill every existing hero. So he took his sword and killed all of them and when they were all dead his helpers and supports had turned to a battle-hardened group of¡­ heroes. Who of course helped him with his next quest that had started right afterwards. He had cried that night for two long hours and everybody had not asked questions and just took it for granted that it was for the fallen and slain. After that he just went with the flow. If fate so willed that he had a never-ending line of quests that needed to be solved so be it, maybe fate would lead him to the right path where he could finally retire. But that had lasted years and now he was just sick of it. He couldn¡¯t stomach all the happy jabbering of people he commanded when he knew that most of them would be dead within the year. So he just left. A loud howl put him out of his thoughts, but he just adjusted his hand a little bit so that it lay on his trusted Hellfire. Ironically Hellfire was a one-handed sword that had lasted him longer than every long-sword he ever possessed and made his name famous. With Hellfire he had just half the power he had with a Zweih?nder but that seemed better than searching for a new sword every month. He knew his moment of calm wouldn¡¯t last forever. Fate would find a way to involve him again. He could cry and struggle and protest, but it would still happen. A second howl, this one much nearer than the first emerged from the woods. Willbur stood up and went in that direction. Maybe he could sleep if he settled the problem early on. It didn¡¯t take long for him to arrive at a small clearing, where a pack of wolves seemed surprised by his arrival. They likely weren¡¯t used to their prey coming willingly to them. Of course it were no normal wolves, normal wolves were sensible beast and would never dare to attack him even with a strong pack. It was some kind of mutation, that made their fur all black and all of them had some kind of festering tumours everywhere on their body. The eyes weren¡¯t red though, so it likely weren¡¯t undead. That meant maybe he could get some sleep tonight without having to kill some upstarting necromancer beforehand. Willbur strolled forward, his sword in hand, but not taking any kind of stance. The mutant-wolves growled and some of them took a step back. Willbur liked to think that they were actually afraid of him, but he knew that was not the case, simply because these beasts were not capable of fear. But they made it so that they were standing around him in a half-circle. Willbur stopped and fixated the largest one, most likely the pack-leader with his eyes. ¡°Come on you got me surrounded. I¡¯m easy prey. Let¡¯s get it over with.¡± He taunted. As if they could understand him two of the eight wolves dashed forward. The pack-leader from the front and one of them where he could barely see him to his left side behind him. Willbur took a causal left step back, ducked and made a lightning fast slash down at the wolf that had attacked him from behind. The beast had too much momentum to stop and crashed in his sword. The pack leader had jumped on the last meter, but because of Willburs low stance it couldn¡¯t reach him anymore and flew right over him. Willbur had sliced the head of the first beast clean in two and in one fluent motion used his momentum to rotate around his axis and hold his sword up. The belly of the pack-leader was sliced open wide and not only was half his intestines coming out when he landed, he had also started to burn. The beast with the sliced head also started burning, both a sideeffect of his Hellfire sword. The other wolves didn¡¯t hesitate anymore and started attacking him all at once, but Willbur has already moved out of the semi-circle, so the beast got in each other¡¯s way when they charged at him. Willbur decapitated two beast with quick slashes and another wolf that had been striped by his slashes catched fire and started burning bright with a fierce ¡°WOOSH.¡± ¡°Now that¡¯s a howling I like better.¡± Willbur laughed as he stuck his blade in the fourth enemy. Just like that only two mutant-wolves were left. The circled around him but Willbur had lost interest. He took out two knifes and threw them in quick succession. Before they had landed in the eyes of the remaining enemies Willbur hat already charged at one of them and killed it with a mighty swing. The last mutant-wolf lay on the ground dying with a knife in its eye and tried to crawl away. Willbur walked after it lazily and cut up his spine just above the head. Eight dead burning mutant-wolf carcasses were distributed at the clearing and Willbur sighed deeply. Just when he wanted to go back to his makeshift bonfire he was once again disturbed. ¡°That¡­ was¡­ AWESOME!!!¡± II. 2 Willbur turned around his head, a little startled that he hadn¡¯t realized he had been watched. Out of the bushes came a youthful little child. He had an enthusiastic flair about him and Willbur immediately reassessed his first impression. It was a child, yes, but he was around 14 years old and therefore more of a teen than a child. Additionally he had bright red hair, and a prominent scar directly under his eyes and crossing his nose in a horizontal line. He had idiotically bright and complicated clothing that wouldn¡¯t last in the woods for 2 days without a load of branches tangled up in it and on his right side was a one-handed sword that glimmered red. To top it all he had gloves, the left hand one where all of the fingers were cut off so you could see his nails and in the same general reddish colours as the rest of his outfit. His right hand was fully covered in a pitch-black-leather glove. Practically everything about the young boy screamed hero in the making and Willbur groaned internally. Fate hadn¡¯t even given him ONE damn day. ¡°And you might be?¡± he sighted turning fully around to become acquainted with his doom in form of this young boy. ¡°Pleased to meet you, my name is Core! I got lost somehow in these woods and heard you fighting and rushed to help you, but obviously you didn¡¯t need any help!¡± the boy practically screamed. He was too loud. He had a bright grin, which made Wilbur want to laugh along with him and smash his teeth in at the same time. He just scowled at the boy while desperately thinking if there was any way to get rid of this little pest. Just then the stomach of the boy growled loudly and Core grinned embarrassed. ¡°You don¡¯t happen to have any food?¡± he asked with the third best puppy eyes Willbur had ever seen. He sighted. There was no getting away from fate with this boy, he knew the signs when he saw them. Wordlessly he just turned around and went back to his little encampment. He didn¡¯t even look if the boy would follow him, and just as he expected when he sat down at his fire not even a minute had passed before the boy sat down beside him. Willbur passed him something of the grilled boar he had made earlier and Core started digging in immediately like a starved beast. ¡°Sow phats wour wame?¡± he asked mouth still full chewing. ¡°I¡¯m Willbur Longsword.¡± He simply answered. ¡°Nice to meet you Mr. Longsword!¡± the boy cheered after gulping down enough food in one bite to make people just watching him want to puke. Still that was a little different than what Willbur had expected. Normally when he said his name he heard exaggerated gasps, disbelieving snorts or just awestruck silence. The boy however didn¡¯t seem to know him what in itself seemed like a small wonder. In fact Willbur actually didn¡¯t really buy it. ¡°You have no idea who I am?¡± he asked curiously. Maybe he was some kind of child-assassin that wanted to lower his guard or a were-rabbit that had a village-quest to kill a famous hero. ¡°No, should I? Are you famous?¡± Core asked naively while gobbling up the rest of his meal. Willbur smirked. ¡°Well you could say that.¡± He just replied and continued poking around in the fire with an old stick. ¡°You sure should be!¡± the boy sagely replied. ¡°That was out of this world. I¡¯ve never seen anyone fight like that! And that sword is something else too! How can it stand your fire ability without burning to dust too?¡± Willbur laughed. ¡°Boy the fire is not my ability. It¡¯s just a feature of this sword. Its unique and named too.¡± Now the boy indeed seemed awestruck. Kind of funny considering the only reason Willbur still kept Hellfire around was that fate didn¡¯t seem too motivated to steal it from him in some kind of epic questgiving way. It was a good sword but far from the legendary two-handed masterpieces he wielded in his prime. But Core had just essentially confirmed what Willbur had known the moment he had come out of the bushes. ¡°So you are hero too boy? Fresh new ability? Fire related I guess?¡± Core spluttered the water he just drank all over himself. ¡°How do you know that?!¡± he blurted out and Willbur had to forcefully keep himself from rolling his eyes. ¡°Because I have an ability too. I happen to be a hero too, you just seem too dense to have noticed that.¡± Willbur replied. Core now suddenly seemed enthusiastically animated. ¡°Wow so you are, like, my senior!¡± he exclaimed. Willbur raised his brows. It was seldom that someone assumed so naturally to be the chosen hero of destiny. Normally people would try to crawl up his ass by this point just to get a tiny little piece of wisdom or life-saving advice.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! He just looked back into the fire and tried not to think too hard about the fact that this young boy would soon be dead, crushed by Willburs overwhelming weight of fate to add a tiny little piece to his legend. The boy of course knew nothing of that. He just continued blabbering about where he came from and that he¡¯d be the greatest hero there ever was and so on. Without even properly listening Willbur learned that the boy currently was on his way to a neighbouring village to become a properly licenced hero and stuff and that he was searching for someone. This was actually the only time when he shut up for a brief period. Some kind of shitty dark past Willbur figured. He didn¡¯t even care enough to ask. After the boy had talked even more and finally got the message that Willbur wanted to sleep now, he even thanked Willbur for not asking about his dark past and told him that he seemed grumpy at first but surely was a good person at heart. Willbur wished he could still belief that too.
The next morning the boy was already awake and training with his sword. Of course he was. Judging by the way he sweated profoundly it wasn¡¯t a short time since he¡¯d been awake either. He swung his sword like a madmen, like his life depended on it. Well actually he was probably right, so that might be indeed a good idea. However Willbur spotted several beginner mistakes just by watching for some seconds. If this boy should last by his side for even a week he needed to do something about that. Otherwise there would probably be an even more annoying teammate soon. ¡°Your footing is all messed up. Put your dominant foot on the ground. If you are fighting humans put it slightly back, so you can strike forward and confuse the enemy about your intentions. Also don¡¯t just strike from up to down, do a stabbing motion. Most people can¡¯t do shit against stabbing and if you use that fire ability of yours, they will probably start panicking if they start burning, even if its just a shallow wound. If you fight against armoured enemies attack the legs. They are usually slow.¡± Willbur commented. Core glanced in his direction and smiled thankfully. He then started to try to integrate Willburs comments in his training. Quick learner it seemed. At least he wouldn¡¯t have any fight for dominance in his new group. At least not with that guy there would probably be some more people around soon. Willbur started packing his stuff together and chose a direction at random and started walking. Core soon followed. ¡°Where are we going?¡± he asked breathing still a bit heavy from his workout. ¡°I have no idea.¡± Willbur replied. ¡°Well if you don¡¯t mind, I have to go to Lumia city. It¡¯s in that direction anyway. You can tag along.¡± He proposed. Willbur just snorted. As if he¡¯d tag along with him. The boy had it all backwards. On the other hand he refused to change his direction simply out of spite and it was another little nudge of fate that his next quest would probably be related to this boy. They walked in silence, Core humming an upbeat tune to himself and already annoying Willbur. After some time it seemed Core wanted to do conversation again. ¡°So what is your ability? Is it strong?¡± he asked. Willbur just shrugged. ¡°I guess. Haven¡¯t used it in the last 6 years.¡± That was true. However the reason was rather that he just didn¡¯t really need it anymore. Most enemies weren¡¯t a challenge anyway and it was a long time ago that he had to give his all to beat someone. In fact his ability was extraordinary strong. But why should he tell the boy when he would likely be dead before he ever saw it in action. ¡°Mine is super strong. I called it heart of fire! I can set aflame everything I want, I just have to touch it.¡± He bragged. Willbur glanced at Cores hands again. So that was the reason his lefthand gloves had their fingers cut off. That meant his right hand with the full on glove was probably an even stronger variant of the fire attack, but also one Core wasn¡¯t confident in controlling yet. So he had a lot of potential. Of course he had a lot of potential. Maybe he would be one of those guys he would actually feel a little bit sad about when they ultimately died. Maybe the boy would even survive and start his own quest before he was swallowed by Willburs fate. Like it or not, he better got used to the cheery boy. ¡°So the reddish gleam on your sword is your ability and not a feature of your sword?¡± he asked. ¡°Haha no. This is just a sword the smith gifted me after I annoyed him forever. It¡¯s awesome, but nothing magic or unique like yours.¡± Willbur nodded. The problem was, if he got a companion with this much potential, shit was going to get rough. He better switch to a two-handed as soon as he could get his hands on one. Also it was painfully obvious how good of a match his sword was with the boys ability. ¡°Lets swap.¡± He simply ordered and held his Hellfire to the boy. He didn¡¯t need the fire ability of the sword to win his fights till they reached town and the boy had to learn to get used to the new sword. The sooner he started, the more likely he would survive their first serious encounter. ¡°Woah you for real? That sword must be like super expensive!¡± Core shouted out. ¡°Its not a gift. I loan it to you. I want it back at some point.¡± Willbur said. >When you¡¯re dead.< he added internally. Core grinned really wide. ¡°You¡¯re a real softie at heart eh? Thanks!¡± He took Hellfire and gave Willbur his old sword. Willbur inspected it for any hidden features. It really was a normal sword; however it was of master class quality. He didn¡¯t know what kind of smith gave an item like that away, but he sure hadn¡¯t disliked Core. Willbur also felt that it was a rather old sword. Maybe an inheritance and the smith had no sons? He liked it. It was just what it was supposed to be, a simple but exquisite instrument for getting the job done. Core already fumbled with Hellfire and exclaimed an exited shout when he produced a little jet of flame upwards that scorched his eyebrows. ¡°You have to synchronize your ability with that sword. Your fire ability will enhance its natural abilities, so you need to be a little more careful with it.¡± Willbur advised. A second jet of flame scorched the boys nostrils and he coughed violently. Willbur just sighted. This was going to be a long little trip. III. Old They had walked for half a day, when they heard some voices in the distance. Of course there was a chance it were only some tradesman that held an everyday conversation but Willbur knew better. He changed course without saying anything and Core followed. ¡°Did you hear anything suspicious?¡± he wondered. It wasn¡¯t long before they arrived at a street that could barely be called a street but wasn¡¯t a path anymore. On it there were five guys and a woman. The five guys seemed normal enough, just the rough kind of men that felt at home in the woods just minding their own business and mugging people. There wasn¡¯t anything special about them, two of them were armed with swords, the biggest one had a rather threatening morning star and the smallest one was doing the talking. The last one stood a bit further in the background and also was the only one who had realized they weren¡¯t alone anymore, but didn¡¯t raise the alarm to his comrades so far. The woman on the other hand was anything but normal. Everything about her made one think of rich spoiled brat that had run away from home. She had excellent quality boots, but they were really muddy, worn and poorly maintained. She had no actual weapons, just a wooden staff of a wanderer. She had white bright clothes, which would probably count as a weapon of blinding people with brilliant reflecting and stupidity if the expensive dress wouldn¡¯t have also been covered mostly in mud and dirt. Her face seemed sweet, but she was rather young, maybe 17, probably younger. Also she had beautiful long blonde hair that somehow wasn¡¯t all dirt covered, but instead gave a notion of how blindingly radiant she must have been before reality of living in the woods for some days had catched up. She was shaking immensely but not crying. In short, if it wouldn¡¯t be so obvious that she was their third party member Willbur would just get the fuck away and hope that she wouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to get killed. But if he did that he would antagonize Core and also just delay the inevitable. She would show up at their campsite sooner or later, a bit shaken and roughed up and join their team anyway. The small mugger was talking in a calm but threatening voice and Willbur could just hear the last sentence of what he had said. ¡°¡­ really don¡¯t want any trouble. Just give us everything you got of value and you can go. We won¡¯t kill you and we won¡¯t even tie or beat you up. But we will if we have to. And we have to if you don¡¯t cooperate.¡± Core who was just by his side likely had also heard the last few words and tensed up. He already had his sword drawn and Willbur felt a bit sad that these everyday muggers would be slain by his fate even though they seemed of the decent kind. Before Core could do anything stupid Willbur made a last effort to settle this without anyone dying. ¡°Oy! Bad day for you guys I guess. Leave her alone.¡± He shouted. Now he got the attention of everyone, not only of the one guy standing back a little. The small one went from surprised to shocked to angry to calm again in mere seconds and faced Willbur. ¡°Oh how nice. There seem to be a lot of fools in these woods today. My nice sir, you seem like a sensible person. And a strong one too. I see you could probably kill us all with your sidekick, but then this lady will die and all of this would be pointless.¡± The small guy started to negotiate with him. It was really rare that someone with that kind of intelligence turned into a mugger, but then again he seemed to be the leader of a band of five thugs, even though he was the smallest one of them. ¡°I propose you just give us that highly decorated sword of your companion and we free this lady from her superfluous knickknack like we were just about to do and nobody has to die.¡± The leader seemed self-confident, but his left eyelid had started twitching as soon as he had seen Hellfire in Cores hand. ¡°I have different proposition. You fuck off and I don¡¯t kill y¡¯all. I don¡¯t care about the >lady<, if you want to kill her do it fast.¡± Willbur laughed back. If they really did it maybe he next got one of the quiet female companions that longed for him in secret and assumed their love a one-sided tragedy. Which of course was right but at some point she would still assume that Willbur loved her back anyway. At that moment though the expected carnage started to unfold. The young woman screamed in a high-pitched voice and a ball of brilliant light shot out of her staff in the back of the thug-leader and imploded. The poor guy didn¡¯t even have time to scream as the ball carved in his flesh and made a head-sized clean hole in form of perfect sphere in his back. The big thug screamed something and swung his Morningstar at the woman but Core had already moved and sliced up his legs with a quick motion. The legs started burning violently and the guy collapsed to his knees screaming. Willbur had already used the moment of confusion to storm forward and slice the head of the nearest sword holder clean off. The other one cursed and faced him, but Willbur was more concerned about the fifth one. As expected he was of the odd kind and had drawn several throwing shuriken of which 3 were now ready in each of his hands. Willbur made a quick assertion and faced the other sword-guy first. Core would be finished with the big guy any moment and had a big advantage in form of being a lot closer to the odd one than him. Also the second sword guy was in the line of sight of the odd one so Wilbur probably wasn¡¯t going to get a shuriken in his face. Willbur took an overly open stance with the sword held high above his head and as expected the guy immediately rushed forward to take advantage of this opening. Willbur however just kicked up some dirt in his face and took a step to the side. The sword guy stumbled and a moment later his head was split in two. Core had closed the distance a little bit to the shuriken thrower, but that one was dashing backwards at a mad speed and throwing his weapons at Core at the same time. Core had turned up the heat of Hellfire to the most he could bear so the shuriken just bounced off of him. Willbur didn¡¯t know if it was due to the intense heat or some other bullshit reasons but Core seemed to be confident in handling this alone so he just watched. Core also seemed to have come to a decision and suddenly the flaming inferno around his sword disappeared. Several shuriken buried itself in Cores forearms and shoulders he had put up in front of him to protect his face, but at the same time Cores feet were on fire and he dashed forward in an impressive leap. He landed directly in front of the mugger who made a sound like ¡°Tsk.¡± And drew a knife. But it was a losing battle now and at the end Core had him pinned down defenceless. The guy waited for his death, but Core hesitated and finally sheathed his sword.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°You lost, but it was a formidable fight. Get lost.¡± He told the guy. Willbur face palmed. This was going to be one big pain in the ass. Now it was probably granted that his guy was the secret officer of the damned army or some shit. This was going to cost them months of questing and also now Core was probably the only one ever being capable of killing that guy. The thug didn¡¯t pause and raced in the woods. A moment later he was gone and it was just the three of them left. Willbur was going to where Core was standing and looking after the disappeared criminal. ¡°You goddamn idiot. What were you thinking? Now you got several wounds, in joints on top of that. How do you think you are supposed to swing a sword the next months?¡± he scolded. Core just grinned a bit embarrassed. ¡°I¡¯m tough, I heal fast. I just need a night of sleep, that¡¯s it.¡± He defended himself half-hearted. ¡°Bullshit. You got a goddamn shuriken right there right in your shoulder. The moment I pull it out the blood will start squirting out and you could die. We have to somehow get you to a healer now in this condition.¡± Willbur continued. Letting the boy heal the wound naturally was a non-starter. A festering wound for weeks or month normally was bad enough, but with continuous fighting it was almost certain death. ¡°M-maybe I can help?¡± the woman interjected his rant. Willbur looked at her and he understood instantly. ¡°Ah. All right. Go for it.¡± He acknowledged the proposal. ¡°J-just like that?¡± the woman stuttered in disbelief. ¡°He seems like a big bad guy, but he is actually a pretty nice and awesome old hero you know?¡± Core added. ¡°He was also the one who instantly knew that something was wrong. I could just barely make out some voices and he already had rushed to your side to help full speed.¡± He continued his tale. Well that was one way of seeing how this had unfolded. ¡°Anyway, if he says you can be trusted, you certainly can!¡± he said and grinned his annoyingly wide smirk. ¡°All right. Here we go.¡± The woman nodded and touched Cores wounds. The boy really had guts when he didn¡¯t even flinch when the white orb of light came out again. This time there wasn¡¯t a hole that ripped someone open though, instead all of Cores wounds started healing so fast you could watch how they ejected the shurikens by themselves. The woman had her eyes closed tightly and some sweat could be seen at her forehead. When she was finished she opened her eyes and was still touching Core. Her face became red like a fountain of blood and she almost jumped half a step back. Core didn¡¯t even seem to realize. ¡°Wow its like its new! That¡¯s amazing!¡± he marvelled. The woman looked away in another direction; probably in the hope Core wouldn¡¯t realize how much she had blushed. Ah young love. So that was how this was going to play out. He had already wondered why the fuck he should be interested in a 17-year old. Normally the woman he got as teammates were at least in some primal part of his brain to his taste. ¡°It- it¡¯s the first time that I am trusted like this. And now its from two people at once.¡± The girl wondered. Well she was right about Core, but that was because he was an idiot. Willbur simply knew what a healing ability looked like. And he also knew of the dark side of the healing arts. If you could fix flesh and blood and veins by touching you could also twist and rend and even annihilate like she had done. Also a female beautiful healer as a team member was a classic. But there was no reason to let her know all that so Willbur just grunted and turned around. They would still need some time to rest. Core wasn¡¯t wounded anymore, but he had surely strained himself hard to win this fight. The other two followed him and kept blabbering. Willbur chose a clearing nearby and on the first possible opportunity he excused himself and told the two lovebirds he had to take a shit. He went back to the small street, where the dead bodies still rotted in the dirt. First he went to the big guy whose legs had been burned off to charred stumps by Cores ability combined with Hellfires properties. Naturally Core had forgotten to finish him off. He squatted down to him and patted him on the back with his open palm violently. ¡°You can stop playing dead now. I know you¡¯re still alive.¡± He told the now 20 centimetre smaller giant. A fearful groan could be heard from under the guy¡¯s head and he slowly turned around. He had puke and snot and tears all over his face and in his wild beard. Willbur really didn¡¯t like these clean ups, but what he thought earlier for the guy that Core hat let gotten away was also correct for this scaled down giant. Maybe he wasn¡¯t some rich kid, but he could have an influential cousin who took the counter-ambush personal, or maybe he had some demi-human blood and someone would start a war because of that. It just wasn¡¯t worth the risk. ¡°Look its nothing personal.¡± Willbur explained to the poor guy. ¡°If you have any kind of last wish I¡¯ll honestly do my best to fulfil it. I¡¯m not a monster.¡± The big guy nodded had had stopped whimpering, even if he still cried silently. ¡°Please bury us properly. I don¡¯t want to be turned in an undead or eaten by predators.¡± He told Willbur. Willbur nodded and then with a quick slash it was over. Afterward he dragged the dead bodies in the woods and made a little hole for them where he unceremonical threw them in and buried them. ¡°Rest in peace. It wasn¡¯t your fault, you just were in the way. Wrong time, wrong place, it could happen to any of us.¡± He spoke to the silent grave of the 4 dead men. Then he went back to the encampment he had chosen. He was ridiculed by Core that he¡¯d taken so long to take a shit, and the women, who¡¯s name was Emilie, blushed again but she also rebuked Core he should have a little respect for his elders. Willbur didn¡¯t reply anything; he wasn¡¯t really in the mood after this senseless bloodbath. Core just laughed his ass off but he stopped eventually. They chatted a little among themselves and wow what a surprise, Emelie had to go to Lumia city too. So they were a party of three now. Still Emelie wasn¡¯t as dense as Core, so Willbur had to up his game a little or he¡¯d be mistrusted. And mistrust meant conspiracies and conspiracies meant more dead team members and civilians. But something else bothered Willbur. Something that seemed to be just on the tip of his tongue but couldn''t be quite graspe. And it wasn''t the issue with trust or conspiracies. Core seemed to trust him completly and he was more important than Emelie. ¡°You know Emelie, he really does seem scary, but he¡¯s a good guy. He even helped me with my sword training without wanting anything for it. He feels like a trusted master the moment you meet him and I think he just doesn¡¯t like to talk.¡± Core soothed her. Emelie nodded and seemed content with that explanation, but Willbur almost had to sit down right there and right at that moment. The realization struck him like a lightning bolt and he felt the world spinning. Everything clicked together the moment Core had called him his master. All the little signs he had ignored and overlooked since he met Core, all the words he hadn¡¯t said out of apathy or boredom or bitterness. His thoughts raced to every interaction he¡¯ve had had with Core, about exactly all the parts of his internal monologue that had been visible for Core all this time. And it all fit. Even the figh just now was just another proof. Core had taken out all the really dangerous guys, Willbur had just cut down the goons. It was a certain picture that had slowly and without him realizing been painted about him, and it was a picture he knew all too well. He fulfilled all the stereotypes of the grumpy old master with a heart of gold that guided the hero and showed him the ropes on the first part of his adventurous journey. The boy indeed had it right from the beginning. Willbur was tangled up in the fate of Core, not the other way around. Willbur wasn¡¯t the protagonist hero anymore. IV. 4 Willbur couldn¡¯t sleep that night. Too manifold and strong were the implications of what he had discovered by luck. He wasn¡¯t the hero of this little group. Core was. And that changed everything. It meant he had to be really careful not to die. In fact, his first impulse was to leave then and there, get the fuck away as far as he could from Core. But then again not every hero was a metaphorical meatgrinder for all their comrades. Counterpoint: If he was assigned the teacher of someone, then that meant there were going to be some serious hard quests. Or maybe he was thinking too far, and he was just literally too old to be the hero? His thoughts were going in circles the whole night and when the sun came up, he didn¡¯t even need to act like he was an old grumpy senior hero, he felt like it too. But when they all started to walk in the general direction of Lumia city, while Core and Emelie did their bonding thing by Core telling Emelie how great he was and Emelie telling Core how much of an idiot he was while still fawning over him every minute, a plan started to form on Willburs mind. Maybe this wasn¡¯t his last mission where he would inevitably have some gruesome educating death to show Core the right path. Fate was an intimidating strong player, but it could not literally force his decisions. If he refused to die a heroic death for the sake of Core, then nobody could make him do it. If fate really had the opinion, he could be a sacrifice for this little boys understanding of the world or to teach him a lesson about friendship or rainbows or the power of love, than he would just refuse and Core could go die to Baron Evilsiniters schemes . And that meant that fate wouldn¡¯t put the food down and let him die just yet. He had to care on some level about what happened to Core for that to work and he didn¡¯t. So there had to be another angle and that angle meant he now finally had a chance. A possibility to escape all this madness. He just needed to fit like a lost part of a puzzle in fates big plan for it to work. While they walked to Lumia city everybody paying close attention to Willbur would have been able to see some changes in him. His eyes had started to shine again. His back still hurt from the night, but he was walking straight up and more energetic by the minute. At some point there could even be seen an eery smile slowly creeping on Willburs face. It was a scary expression and almost everybody would understand that something was wrong if he or she so much as took a glance. But neither Core nor Emelie had watched him the whole time, so this unique chance to maybe stop how everything unfolded from that moment on disappeared into nothingness without anybody even noticing. And then suddenly everything about Willbur that could be seen from the outside had changed yet again. He was now walking with a slight limp and his posture had changed back to the pessimistic hopeless kind it had been before. But on the inside, he was full of optimism now. He had a purpose. He knew exactly what he wanted to do next and it had been years since he had that kind of feeling. He had missed it. He had even longed for it and now finally fate had given him a chance. And that meant there was a role to play, and by god he would play it like the world class hero he was. It wasn¡¯t going to be easy or simple but it never had been in his life so he was confident he could pull it off. He was going to play the long game. There was a possibility to retire without having to die. But for that he needed to craft a certain picture of himself to Core and it had to be perfect, so his endgame worked out too. He first needed to warm up to Core, but slowly so that everybody though it had been a natural development. He also needed to teach that little shit a lot of the stuff he knew about fighting and some basic life lessons too. Technically it had to be everything he knew, but he could go around that if he just downplayed how capable he actually was. This was going to be tricky, because fate would tempt him to save the day again and again, but if he just waited patiently and incapable, Core would pull out a wonder out of his young ass and do it himself every single time. And then he needed to appear jealous of Core and start hating him. That also had to be a slow development, but also kind of obvious. At some point it would come to and inevitable showdown, where he would fight just a little better than what he was supposed to be able to do. Core would then defeat him and save his heart by beating the crap out of him. Maybe he would lose an arm or an eye for it, but he would survive. When that had happened, and he had been brough back to the righteous path and redeemed from his little but still inexcusable sins for the team at that time, (they would do shit much worse later on, no doubt) then he finally needed to get the fuck away as fast and as completely as he could from Core. It had to be like he just disappeared in thin air over night. At this point Core would surely have been tangled up in his next quest already and as soon as fate or Core remembered that he could still be used as cannon fodder, last card saving the day and tragically dying, or just as an hostage for some evil scheming prick, he would be somewhere else. He would call in some favours on the way and let heal his impossible to heal wounds, change his appearance till he wasn¡¯t recognizable anymore. He would finally settle down in some boring uneventful town far far away. And then he was going to never again do anything heroic, or even overly good or bad in his entire lifetime. It was going to be glorious! He had to stop himself from humming the melody of a song from his younger years. That wouldn¡¯t have fitted the image he was supposed to present right now. When they finally arrived in Lumia city the day was already nearing its end. It had been a long and exhausting journey, but by the look of it, it had been a great bonding experience for Core and Emelie. Willbur glanced around a little. If it had been his call he would just head straight to the next bar and just try to drink himself into a coma, well knowing that he wouldn¡¯t ever get drunk enough fast enough to escape the next quest. Why should he search for trouble when he could just have a rare few relaxed hours and trouble would find him anyway? But it was different now. They needed to carefully choose what happened next, expand their survivability and in the best possible case give Willbur a chance to show off his human flaws. So that meant they needed another team member, one that was just the right amount of a disrespectful little shit he could start to feel left out of the youthful group. They had a heavy hitter with Core and a healer and wildcard in Emelie. In this setup he could be considered the brawler, so they needed a flanker next. Thief guild it was. ¡°Lets get to an Inn, I¡¯m tired from the journey.¡± Willbur grumbled. ¡°You lovebirds might shake it off to sleep on the cold hard ground for weeks, but this old guy still needs a bed from time to time.¡± Emelie blushed at the comment and Core laughed benevolent. Fucking little twerps. It was going to be some long months or years, but if he carefully did his best now, the time till he had teached Core ¡°everything he knew¡± would shorten significantly.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. He chose a dark and suspicious alley that practically screamed ambush at him and when Emelie hesitated he just told them it was a shortcut. That was not true of course, it was just the fastest way to get mugged. And getting mugged two times consecutively was boring, even for someone as dim-witted as Core, so SOMETHING would happen. And if something happened in some dark alley where normally thieves and muggers happened to be, and they happened to be in the need of a flanker fot the team, then that something would more often than not mean a new little annoying addition to their team. WIllbur pressed forward and intentionally ignored all the warning signs that clearly signalled they were not supposed to be here. That counted double for Core and Emelie. He fitted in a little with his outfit¡¯s dark colours and rough look, but Core with his bright red colours was like a rainbow parrot with whore makeup in a coalpit. And Emelie stood out even more. She was a beautiful girl, and even mor so it seemed like she also was the only woman in this whole alley. Willbur heard threatening hisses, angry shouts, and at some point, out of the corner of his eyes he even saw a guy with an eyepatch biting off the head of a still living rat, while starring menacing in their direction. It was ridiculous. Willbur had not have this much fun in years! So much evil blood and no one would act because they weren¡¯t supposed to be a challenge just yet. If he had entered this alley alone it would have been a demon-infested nest that felt their territory in danger from his strong aura or maybe he would have stumbled right in the heart of the conspiracy against the¡­ well there sure always was something to conspire against these days. When they almost had crossed the whole alley Willbur almost started feeling fearful too, but just because nothing at all had happened. But then there suddenly wooshed two shadow right above them that made Emelie squeak and Willbur relaxed. That really had taken them long enough. Just in front of his little team appeared the fifth guy that Core had let go earlier at the ambush with the shurikens. Right beside him was another guy that seemed vaguely similar to the other guy, but he wore a dark blue outfit that only at the first glance seemed like it belonged here. It had too much colour for any upstanding thief or assassin. He had black hair that covered one of his eyes and was standing in the background with an Asian-looking sword on his back while the shuriken guy was in the front, looking angry at them. ¡°Now we got you! You might have beaten me, but you won¡¯t be able to do anything when I have teamed up with my brother!¡± he hissed at Core. Willbur sighed. How stupid did you have to be to put the guy with the long-range weapons in the front. And did that other guy wanted to have his throat sliced open in a surprise attack or why did he have his main weapon strapped out of reach on his back? But still. That second guy was their fourth team member no doubt. You had to hand it to Core that he didn¡¯t hesitate. He stormed forward to take out the guy in a fast strike, but the one in the back intercepted with his sword and the swords of the two clanged together in front of the face of the shuriken guy. ¡°My brother might be a piece of shit, but you still won¡¯t kill him.¡± The guy with the sword threatened. Meanwhile Willbur started thinking and held Emelie back so she didn¡¯t ruin everything. ¡°We got this, don¡¯t worry.¡± He reassured her, even though he just now didn¡¯t have a plan. Killing both of them would be painfully easy, but it needed to turn out so Mr Brother would join their team. That meant he had to somehow take care of the shuriken guy without antagonizing Mr Brother or the other two youngsters. So he rushed forward and before the shuriken guy could taunt Core more for having failed to kill him even though he didn¡¯t do anything, he bashed into Cores back, so Core and Mr brother toppled backwards in one human knot. Shuriken-guy stumbled back and Willbur just used Cores back as a ramp to jump over him and Mr Brother to land directly in front of Shuriken-guy. That one started to flee out of the alley. Willbur had a short impulse to tell Emelie to stunlockheal that one, but on the one hand Emelie didn¡¯t know how to do that and he also didn¡¯t want her to know that anytime soon, and also Shuriken-guy fleeing was the desired outcome. Core would take care of the rest. Willbur ran after him and chased him through some streets. He was fast, but Willbur was faster, he just had to wait until his enemy realized that. At some points he made an attempt to throw shuriken at him but Willbur just got closer to him so when Shuriken-guy had turned around he would look directly in his unmoving emotionless face and he started running again. After Willbur had swung his sword so that Shuriken-guy had lost some of his hair he seemed to get the message and started parkouring up the roofs. Willbur grinned wide. Evil fast guys would always flee up and try escaping over the roofs. Willbur put his sword away an followed him. Shuriken-guy seemed to be a little startled that WIllbur was capable of just following him on the roofs like that but continued trying to put some distance between them anyway. He also went even faster, until he suddenly stopped at a dead end. Well if you could call a roof that had no obvious jumping points for the next roof call that. Shuriken-guy turned around and faced him. ¡°Let¡¯s end this farce. You could have killed me anytime. Why didn¡¯t you?¡± Shuriken-guy snarled at him. ¡°Because then it wouldn¡¯t look dramatic.¡± Willbur replied and kicked him in the chest. Shurikenguy flew down the roof and landed on the ground with his back. To make sure he died Willbur jumped right after him and took a roll right beside him to lessen the impact. He took him up and threw the rattling and wheezing guy over his shoulder and rushed away from the commotion a falling body out of the sky had caused. In the next deserted and darkes alley he could find, he laid him down on the ground again. Then he put his foot and with it his whole weight on his chest. He heard rips break and knew that guy was done for and waited till he stopped breathing. Then he kept it like that for another 3-5 minutes. After he was done, he looked around to assert where he was. They had made a good distance, but it wasn¡¯t too far. He carried the dead body bride style through the streets and kept a rigid pained face. Crying would be better, but he would not be able to keep that going till he reached the others, and it could happen that someone investigated later. When he arrived at the place where he had left Core and Emelie, the fight with the Brother guy was over. Core had several deep wounds, where ice seemed to have frozen the skin, but the other hand it kept the blood from pouring out. Emelie was healing him. The brother guy lay on the ground. He had a burned scar over his left eye and seemed too exhausted to keep fighting. When the three of him saw him with the dead body, Core rushed to him and Emelie looked worried. ¡°What happened?¡± Core exclaimed. ¡°I couldn¡¯t do anything. He fled on the rooftops. I chased him, and when he was about to fall, I warned him to watch out, but it was too late. When I managed to get down, he was already dead.¡± Willbur explained his tale just loud enough so that Brother guy could hear it too. Core seemed sad, even though just the other day he had maimed some random guy. Fucking hypocrite. ¡°That¡­ it can¡¯t be.¡± Mr Brother whispered horrified. ¡°He always had been up to no good but¡­ but¡­ we grew up together.¡± Yeah come on, tell us your sob story. ¡°Heal him.¡± Willbur said to Emelie with determination in his voice. Emelie seemed to pause at that and even Core seemed unsure. Good good. Willbur had to keep himself from laughing hysterically. Instead he used to energy to emotionally shout at Emelie. ¡°Do it! Haven¡¯t enough people died today? He just lost his brother. A man has to be able to grief.¡± He declared. Emelie still seemed more than a little unsure about this. That was of course the right reaction, it was a shitty idea, and she was a clever girl. But for Willbur it was still worth the risk. Core on the other hand watched him with admiration in his eyes. Emelie healed Mr Brother while Willbur kept in the back >grieving< for his >mistake< and Core guarded Emelie so Mr Brother wouldn¡¯t unexpectedly try to kill her. Mr Brothers name was Tsuke, and he had been in a fight with the Shuriken-guy just this morning about his mugging business. He quickly took a liking to Core, even though they just had beat each other up almost to death and told them he had a mission to find and kill someone at all cost. Wow dark story boy. It influenced the other two though, and they seemed to be very conflicted about someone with a mission to kill someone else. But they naturally somehow bonded anyway and Tsuke agreed to join them if they helped him burry his brother properly. Willbur smiled internally. Now they had the fourth member of the team. V. This The funeral was a short and painless and also very fast task. Tsuke had been alienated a lot from his elder brother, so he didn¡¯t seem to be too sad. On the other hand, Tsuke was one of those guys who solved everything with themselves in isolation, so maybe he was internally crying even more than Emelie. Why she was crying was just not understandable for Willbur, except if you somehow counted >young people are stupid< as a reason. The dead guy had tried to rob her or at least played a part in her robbing and probably had wanted to kill and rape her too. And now she was crying for him. Willbur wondered how long she could hold up that good persona act of hers. Would she be killed by Cores fate before she finally got some reality sense or would she have an borderline traumatizing event that broke her and then finally be able to not give a damn about people who wanted to kill her? Willbur estimated a 50:50 probability based on his experience so far. When the brother of Tsuke had been buried and all mourning and crying had been done, they prepared for traveling the next day. This time Emelie had a quest. Apparently while they had talked to the priest who had accompanied the small funeral, she had found out that the business she had in Lumia city couldn¡¯t be resolved here. She needed someone higher ranked from the church for that. Core on the other hand had most of his errands done when Willbur had given him his Hellfire sword. Apparently his main reason to go to Lumia city had been just to see a big city, and get some decent equipment, of which the later one had been resolved, while Core didn¡¯t feel like doing the first one anymore. Willbur had got himself a two-handed sword, so he could fight properly if he needed to. The chase above the roofs had been fun, but it still felt like he would at several points of this journey need a little more of his skills to nudge the whole thing in the right direction he needed. Tsuke was just eager to leave the city where his valued but not really loved brother had died. After everything was said and done, it was just at noon the next day when they left Lumia city again. As always Willbur kept mostly to himself during the travel and just watched how the dynamic between the three developed. As always, Core was just the good-hearted but strong-willed boy with good but totally unrealistic morals. Emelie seemed like she was shy and angsty, but on several occasions spoke up against Core, especially when he said something really stupid. When he accidently flirted with her she blushed and hit him or called him names. It was adorable enough Willbur wanted to puke. Tsuke was obviously on some broken revenge quest against someone and used almost every occasion to foreshadow something dark from his past or tell Core in irony drenched phrases how much of an idiot he was. Not that Core got any of it. If he had been in Willburs team, Willbur would have just put him on the spot, killed the guy or whoever it was that Tsuke wanted to kill and then tell him to get his shit together and start doing something useful to society. Normally guys like Tsuke would be totals dumfolded that someone just had really listened to them, not been horrified by their epic revenge quest and just did whatever had to be done. You could use these guys real good, they normally survived a long time before some ricochet arrow finally killed them fast and unexpected. Some of them had even put two and two together and splitted early enough all by themselves and surrived, so WIllbur was pretty sure he liked Tsuke the most of the three teens. However, Cores approach to Tsukes obvious struggle was just to be an idiot. That naturally would lead to some epic showdown between the two of them. That without a doubt would strengthen both of them enormously, but the price paid was the lives of a dozen innocent bystanders that Core wouldn¡¯t even realize where there when he toppled over buildings in his fight for the soul of Tsuke. In fact, Willbur had a feeling he should do something about this development. These kinds of conflicts normally took priority to epic teacher-student fights and he would hate to have to watch Tsuke go on a rampage just to resolve this whole issue.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Hey Tsuke!¡± he yelled from the back and the three of them turned around. ¡°You¡¯re brooding the whole time now and told us you want to kill some guy. If that¡¯s so important for you, why haven¡¯t you just done it already?¡± Willbur confronted him. Tsuke seemed embarrassed and annoyed by the sudden interruption of their love-triangle dynamics, but he answered anyway. ¡°I was too weak.¡± He solemnly replied. Good answer. That happened to be almost always the reason why people you wanted to kill were still alive. ¡°Yeah no doubt. But what makes you think you can do it now?¡± Willbur taunted. He needed Tsuke to expose a little more of which guy exactly he wanted to kill, so Willbur could steer their adventure in that direction and do a little background detective work to force a fast showdown. ¡°I¡¯m not¡­ but¡­ I will be soon.¡± Tsuke replied and touched his right eye, the one that was covered by dark hair. Willbur stopped walking abruptly. ¡°Tsuke, show me your right eye.¡± He demanded sternly. ¡°What¡­ why would I¡­¡± Tsuke started to argue but Willbur would just not have any of it. ¡°Show me your right eye. Right. Now. Or I swear to god I will¡­¡± Willbur hesitated. He needed an appropriate threat for this situation. Killing and maming didn¡¯t fit his image of a grumpy teacher with a heart of gold. God this was going to be lame. ¡°I will never ever trust you again in my life.¡± He explained. He wanted to disappear in the ground at that moment and only a lot of training and countless dramatic moments prevented him getting as red as a tomatoe. But as expected Core came to his rescue. ¡°Tsuke, Willbur is a really experienced adventurer. If something is wrong with your eye, he certainly has an idea how to fix it.¡± He reassured him. Tsuke still seemed hesitant, but in the end he put his hair back and showed the three of them his eye. It had a sickly yellowish shine and no iris and no pupil. It was just this. A yellow shine that seemed not all too bright. But Willbur stilled cursed internally. That idiot had implanted a goddamn shard of despair in his goddamn eye. And he had used it not too long ago too.
¡°Okay we need to remove your eye.¡± Willbur declared, while he put his stuff down on the ground searching for some knifes he could use as a surgical tool. ¡°What?!¡± Tsuke exclaimed in unison with Core. ¡°That seems a little extreme to me?¡± Emelie also objected. Willbur sighted. This really wasn¡¯t the right moment to hesitate, but he still needed to at least convince Core that this was for the best of everyone, especially Tsuke. ¡°Look what you implanted in your eye for whatever godforsaken reason will indeed make you strong Tsuke. But it will also drive you mad. Murder-hobo mad. And you can¡¯t just undo what you did, at least not anymore. When you had implanted it first you could have put it out with a little help from a specialist. But the yellow shine means you used it. When exactly was that?¡± Willbur explained while he started a little fire to disinfect the knife he had deemed usable. ¡°W¡­ when I fought against Core yesterday.¡± Tsuke admitted. ¡°So that means we got till this evening to cut your eye out. You will have only one eye left, but if we wait any longer, the shard will bond with you. And it can only go downward from there on, trust me.¡± And Willbur absolutely could not have that. He chided himself for not earlier getting a look at the obviously hidden eye of Tsuke. But he had been too busy to set the whole fourth companion thing up. The problem was that a shard of despair really was a nasty little fucker. The moment someone tried to destroy it by killing the host, the shard would skip over to the next stronger host in proximity, and that meant normally the strongest member of the opposing team. However in this special case it would mean that it would always be him who would be the next host regardless if he was the one to finish Tszuke off or not. The name of this thing was not some overdramatic naming sense. When he first had encountered it, it had taken out teams after teams of heroes. Always bouncing to the stronger one. He had to sacrifice a good friend at the time to get rid of that thing. Unfortunately that wasn¡¯t an option anymore. He had no friends left to begin with and also non that fit the criteria of being slightly stronger than him, but not unbeatable with a bit of effort and guilt of said friend. All three teenager stared at Willbur while he had prepared the knife and a disinfect solution as well as some clean bandages with methodical routine of a well known butcher. Or phsysician. Whatever. ¡°So are we gonna cut out your eye or what?¡± Willbur asked impatiently. VI. Shit ¡°There¡­¡± ¡°I¡­¡± ¡°We¡­¡± all three of them started talking back at once. Willbur sighted and pointed at Core to hear them out one after another. ¡°There has to be another way. How do you know that you have to cut out the eye and why can¡¯t we just wait?¡± Core asked. Emelie nodded. ¡°We need more information to make a decision this heavy. You can¡¯t just expect us to accept cutting out an eye of a comrade with no explanation at all.¡± ¡°And there is no way I will let you cut out my eye.¡± Tsuke added. Willbur nodded sagely to all these useless commentary, but internally he fumed. The shard of desperation was one of the single most dangerous items he had encountered in his many years as an adventurer and while he had been close to death many times, he had only very few times been so close to said desperation and never because of a single artefact. An eye of a comrade was a very small and very reasonable price for such a dangerous item. ¡°All right you want more information. Ill give you more information, but don¡¯t cry if it¡¯s a little too much for you.¡± He answered, while his glance lingered a little longer on Emelie than on the others. ¡°The thing Tsuke implanted in his eye is called a shard of desperation. It¡¯s part of a greater artefact, the lantern of desperation and that¡¯s only because someone had the desperate attempt to stop that thing. I don¡¯t know much about the lantern. Legends say it was some kind of super overpowered necromancer artefact that couldn¡¯t be destroyed no matter what. So some guy shattered it instead and hid the shard in deep necromantic dungeons.¡± Willbur sighted. ¡°I don¡¯t know if whoever that guy or girl was, was a hero or a villain, but he obviously didn¡¯t want anybody to ever find or even use them. Unfortunately dungeons fall under the common misconception that at the end of them there has to be some kind of price. So when the necromantic dungeons were found and some years later cleared by groups of adventurers, everyone assumed this thing at the end was some kind of grand price and not the very reason all of the undead abomination had fought so fierce in the first place. ¡° The three teenagers listened to his story but especially Tsuke still didn¡¯t seem so see why all of this was bad news. ¡°So just as Tsuke did, some people implanted the shards inside themselves. But you have to see, adventurer parties able to clean out a whole dungeon of undead were ridiculously strong, even at that time. And when they had cleared it, normally the strongest one of them - the leader - did the implanting. For a very long time nobody knew much about these shards. People only knew that there were necromantic dungeons, that could be cleared and for some reason or another the clearing adventurers parties tended to become ridiculously strong, cruel and then disband or completely disappear for some reason.¡± Tsuke had started to shift uncomfortably from his right to left leg and the other two looked worried. ¡°The shard of desperation is no simple cursed item. It¡¯s a treacherous backstabbing nasty motherfucker. First of all it doesn¡¯t become active as long as you don¡¯t use it. So nobody had been able to connect the dots right away. As soon as you use it, you get more powerful instantly, with little side-effects, so it indeed feels as if it is a price.¡± Willbur made a pause and internally disputed if he should tell the whole truth or just the abridged version. He decided to go with a half-truth that sounded plausible enough. ¡°But the thing is, with time you get more and more mad. And it¡¯s not just madness as in seeing things I was told, but a much more violent madness. You get bloodthirsty and you start killing people. At some point it gets so bad you start to kill just about everyone. And when research was done by the desperate adventures, they always found out that they should have rejected the price in the first place or if they had implanted it, never used it or cut it out. These things just need to be buried as deep as possible; there is no known way to destroy them. And once they have fused with the carrier, there is also no way to extract them anymore. If Id cut out your eye in less than 24 hours after you used it first, it would just wander to your other eye, or your leg and if there is nothing left to your heart or brain.¡± He sighted. The truth was a little bit trickier, but there was no reason to create doubt in them. What he said basically was the truth, there was just a little silver lining that seemed like hope at first glance, but just made the thing crueller still. ¡°And this is the truly disastrous thing about the shard of desperation. Once its activated, it will never stop, as long as there is a stronger host in proximity. If the carrier is killed, the shard will not go inert, it will jump to the next strongest person and fuse with that one instantly.¡± Emelie had paled while he had told the last part, so she likely had understood the implication. Cores face was so strained from thinking it looked like he was about to lay an egg and Tsuke looked solemn. Willbur wondered what their decision would be.
¡°So¡­¡± Core started to ask.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Is there any way to kill it at all?¡± he asked. ¡°Suicide.¡± Tsuke replied. Got it one. Smart kid. He really started to like the edgy one. Hopefully he would see reason and do without his worthless eye. There were a lot of ways to work around a missing eye and even some to get stronger. ¡°Then how are you still alive?¡± asked Core. Emelie had the answer to that one. ¡°He defeated someone stronger than him.¡± She guessed. That was also right. The problem with this method was, there really was no cheating. If you had a concealed power or were secretly strong, the shard still identified you as stronger. Only if there really was no one stronger in proximity the shard went to inert mode. So it basically again came down to assisted suicide, even if it sounded a lot more heroic to phrase it the way Emelie had. ¡°These things are responsible for more than one suddenly risen demon lord.¡± Willbur emphasized. ¡°The moment it becomes active, you either sacrifice part of your body, the carrier as a whole, or you start a circle of never-ending despair.¡± And that again was the tricky thing with theses shard. Because the only realistic way to get rid of them was to suicide after you had obtained it, it meant that they were mostly found in desolated places. Right at the middle of the dead bodys of obviously strong adventures, often with insane equipment and even in death the body of half-gods. So every looter was strongly tempted to activate the shard again or at least bring that thing with him and then it was just a matter of time till everything started again. With his trick he had found a workaround to be one of the people who knew how that thing worked and still be alive, so he had hidden it really good when he finally had deactivated it. But he really didn¡¯t want to do this again and even if he would want, there were not many people honestly stronger than him and none of them who were willing to sacrifice themself. So the moment that activated shard fused, he had to bail out and let Core and Tsuke to their own devices and get as far away from them as possible. Surley they would work it out somehow. Or not. In a way it was some godlike luck that he had found out about it before it had fused irreparable with Tsukes body. Cutting it out or killing the host like that was such a specific case, that someone needed to first activate it and be found out by someone who knew what he was doing in 24 hours that Willbur thought it almost unreal. If not for Cores fate-bending presence he would suspect some kind of trickery. ¡°You have the choice Tsuke.¡± Willbur ended his monologue when the three teenagers knew all they needed to know. ¡°Either I cut out your eye right now, or you become a murder hobo in the next weeks and likely Core and Emilie and me have to die for it too.¡± The last part was nonsense of course, as if he would die for these three midgets. He just had to bail and let them work it out by themselves. Maybe they¡¯d even find a solution, fate-power and all, but Willbur was very sure he wouldn¡¯t survive to tell the tale. And also it would fuck up his plan to retire once again and he couldn¡¯t have that. Tsuke seemed conflicted. ¡°How do I know I can trust you?¡± he asked. Ah someone who knew how to ask the right questions. A pity he still had to lie to him. ¡°Well you don¡¯t. But I swear to everything that is holy to me that I told you the truth and that there really is no other way.¡± Willbur thought it kind of ironic, that this wasn¡¯t really a lie, since nothing really was holy to him. Not anymore. Core also seemed very conflicted. ¡°You decide whatever you want Tsuke. We will find a solution even if you keep the eye. But if you really think there is a tiny possibility that Willbur is telling the true you should go along with it. That thing really looks ominous and if it¡¯s even half as bad as Willbur just told us you¡¯re better off without it.¡± Tsuke seemed almost convinced. ¡°But the power¡­¡± he hesitated. ¡° I will personally assist you in whatever revenge quest you have and kill whoever stands in the way.¡± Willbur said. And to his own surprise he meant it. It almost was the first sentence without any hidden meaning he spoke to the trio. But then again it was a risk, as he saw Emelies shocked face and Cores confused look. Didn¡¯t really fit well with his played persona, but if he could not convince Tsuke he had to force him or give up on this whole thing entirely, so it was a well calculated risk. Tsuke seemed surprised too, but after a short while he nodded.
They lay him down on a little stone and Willbur instructed Core to hold Tsukes arms up and Emelie to prepare healing spells. Tsuke got a leather strap to bite on and Willbur started. With a swift stab and a loud scream Willbur hat inserted the knife in Tsukes eye-socket. The Shard was much sturdier implanted than Willbur had anticipated. Troublesome. He had to be a little rougher and do a lot more cutting than he had intended to. Gouging out eyeballs normally was easy when you had done the first bit, but the shard seemed to have fused with Tsukes skulls orbita. Luckily Willbur knew how to sharp a knife, so after some more screaming and cutting the thing finally only had the central nerve left. It glowed ominous, but Willbur cut out the nerve nevertheless. A deafening scream escaped Tsukes mouth, so inhumanly loud that Core and Emelie slumped together and Willbur felt his eardrums burst. Tsuke lost consciousness and Willbur had the shard in hand. Finally. He didn¡¯t really mind the blood trickling out of his ears, but something was not right. The shard still glowed. It didn¡¯t infect him, thank god, but it also had not deactivated as it should have by now. Instead it started glowing brighter and brighter and¡­ ¡°Oh shit!¡± Willbur exclaimed and threw the thing as far as he could in the sky while it continued to glow even more bright, almost blindingly. It hadn¡¯t even flown 50 meters, when the brightness reached its maximum point. Willbur could feel the tremendous shockwave of the explosion that almost swiped him from his feet. That kind of shockwave meant, when the inevitable heat of the explosion would reach them, they would not be able to survive it. ¡°SHIIIIIIT!¡± Willbur hoarse voice, unheard and unanswered screamed in defiance at the explosion. He activated his ability.