The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 7

            The next morning, I wake up early with the sun barely peeking through the window. I lay there for a few minutes thinking. “It has been four days since I was born again…thinking back to when I died, I really hope Cowe got what he deserved. Amy…am I really that bad of a judge of character. I really loved her, but did she ever really love me? Could I not please her well enough in bed that she had to look for someone else? Am I just bad boyfriend or husband material?” Shaking my head from depressing thoughts that would do me no good right now. I’m sure if I had not died then I would be a total mess right now, but it seems trying not to die is therapeutic. Done with the soul searching I get up and dress, pick up my bag with the goblin spears, and grab the key to the room.

            I head downstairs to see only a few people at the tables eating their breakfast. I only see Helen, who is bringing food to a couple of humans at a table. “Here are your plates sirs.” One of the humans says, “About time dwarf, couldn’t reach the counter?” Helen just gives them her business smile and walks away. She sees me and quickens her pace towards me with a bright smile. “Good morning, Ladon. Would you like some breakfast?” I give her a small smile and say, “No thank you I need to get the Adventurer’s Guild to take some jobs. I’m sure the better jobs are posted early in the morning.” Her expression falls a little, but she kept her smile. “Oh, ok well are you coming back tonight?” I shake my head, “No ma’am, I’m probably going to be camping outside for a while. Here is the key to my room by the way.” She takes it and looks me in the eye. “Will you be coming back to stay, or will you be moving on soon?” I hesitate because I haven’t put much thought into it. “For now, I’ll be staying in Melcox but mostly I will be camping outside to save up money. I need equipment and better supplies if my occupation is going to be an adventurer.” After I finished talking, she beams the brightest smile at me. “Well stop by every now and then even if you don’t stay here. Cliff and I enjoyed talking to you.” “Haven’t heard that much in my life.” I thought as I said goodbye and made my way to the Adventurer’s Guild.

            I reach the guild and find it packed with different races of people. “It still amazes me that the gods MADE different races to inhabit Earth…I mean Marble. I can only imagine the number of wars that have happened since the races came about with the existing humans.” I thought as I made my way to the job boards. I find the section for E rank adventurers and look over them. Most of the rewards were laughable compared to the upper rank jobs. The highest paying job rewarded twenty-five bronze coins for finding and scouting out a possible goblin settlement in the Whispering Woods. I reach for the parchment, but stop and reconsider, “I think its best if I gain more experience before seeking out a whole settlement of those ugly and aggressive things.” I continue looking for suitable jobs and see two at the bottom under wooden plaques that say, “Population control and reoccurring herb collection jobs.” The jobs under the plaques consisted of killing a certain number of monsters or beasts. The highest reward being fifteen bronze coins. The other jobs were herb collection jobs the highest reward being five bronze coins. “I only got to skim over the book about monsters last night and I paid particular attention to the goblins page. They are one of the population control jobs. I need to show the guild the ears of the goblins for proof of the kill. Seems to be fifty copper coins per ear. That is rather low considering the danger of being surrounded by those things. Plus, I’m sure I won’t be leveling up much from them. Hmm…well it’s better to fight the enemy I know and gain my combat experience.”

            I decide to just go on a killing spree for the next two days in the Whispering Woods. I go to the same receptionist from yesterday. “Good morning, Miss Sherry.” She looks up from some paperwork she was doing and smiles a mature smile showing the creases starting to form on her face. “Good morning, Ladon.” Then she frowns in thought and asks, “Why did you call me Miss Sherry? Though you are very cute I am married, young man.” I blush as she gives me teasing smile. “Ah no…um…Miss is an honorific for respect where I come ma’am.” Her mouth goes into an ‘o’ shape and nods in understanding. “I see. Well, what can I do for you Ladon?” I clear my throat and say, “I want to hunt some goblins for the next two days so I was wondering what the price was for renting equipment and if you knew where I could get some camping gear.” “The price for renting equipment is twenty-five bronze coins and if destroyed a fee of one silver coin needs to be paid.” My eyes go wide and mutter, “What the fuck? Do they even care about new adventurers’ lives with that amount of extortion.” I sigh and shake my head, “Haa…looks like renting is out of the cards for me today, Miss Sherry.” She looks at me with pity and says, “As far as camping gear there is a general store not far from here that sells bedrolls, flint, rations, pots, etc. Most of their products are second hand so hopefully you can find all that you need or at least some of what you need. Once you go outside turn right towards the southern walls and look for a store with a sign that says, Chip’s General Store, you can’t miss it.” I nod and thank Sherry and went outside onto the street.

            I turn right as Sherry said and make my way to the store and soon find it and make my way inside. The interior had shelves of varies items ranging from pots to half used candles. At the back of the store was a human man with messy hair and a mustache. He seemed to be around fifty years of age and had a constant irritated expression. I take a breath and walk up to the counter and say, “Good morning, sir. I am looking for a blanket, water container, cheap rations for about three days, and a bag to hold goblin ears.” He nods and walks around the store gathering the items. The man brings back a ragged blanket, a stained waterskin, some dried meat and fruits, and a burlap sack. “That’ll be four bronze coins, kid.” I look at the items and then back at the man. “You’re saying this crap is worth four bronze coins?” I say with annoyance in my voice. With the exact same expression, he had when I first came in the man just nods. “Am I just that fucking poor right now? How the fuck am I going to get by, am I just spoiled from past modernization?” I thought to myself as I sigh and give him four bronze taking the items and putting them in my bag leaving some dried meat out to eat.

            I walk out into the street and start heading to the gate I came in a couple of days ago. A few minutes later I cross the gate and head to the same forest I was born into towards the west. I reach it by mid-morning and decide to follow the tree line north until I see farms to the east towards Melcox and mountains that highlighted the horizon in the north. “Hmm…I didn’t know there were farms around Melcox. I need to see a map of the area soon. There may be one in the library at the guild.” I decide to finally enter the forest that is close to the farms knowing the information I skimmed over about goblins. They like to raid and steal from homesteads, so I’ll be doing a service for the farms as well.

            I keep close to the outer edge of the forest and search for any tracks that resemble a goblin. I finally see some broken branches and unnatural shifting of the forest floor. I grab two crudely made spears from my bag and follow the tracks. It only takes me a few minutes before I see two goblins with their ugly faces sitting down eating a chicken that looks like it was from one of the farms. I hide and decide my plan of attack. “I need to be careful. I don’t have any armor and only have crappy weapons. Hmm…I want to see how good I am at throwing a spear.” Dropping my pack, I expose myself while they are tearing into the chicken. I take a spear into my dominate right hand and rear back and throw as hard as I could aiming for the chest of the goblin on the right. It found its mark and dug into the goblin center mass. “Holy shit!” Stunned I lost my chance at throwing the other spear I had at the other goblin before it recovered from shock of its companion being skewered into a tree. The goblin charged at me with a big stick that could be taken for a club. I barely dodge its strike and thrust with the spear I had in my left hand. It backs off staring at me with pure hatred. It steps forward into my reach and tries aiming at my left leg. I shifted my leg out of the way and thrust straight at its neck piercing through and snapping the spear. “Fuck.” Panicking a little until I noticed the goblin dropped its club and grabbed its neck. Taking the chance and not leaving an enemy alive to retaliate even if there is a piece of a spear in its neck, I pick up the club and bash the head of goblin until it was resolutely dead.

            “Haa…Haa…fuck that was intense. Now I only have five spears left since the ones used both broke.” I catch my breath and survey my handiwork. “Ugh…I thought I had gotten used to gore from the army, but this is just brutal and to up close for my taste.” I cut the ears off the goblins and put them in the burlap sack. “I wish I could have learned how to use magic before having to scourge for coins like this. Maybe there is a storage spell or something so that I can store stuff in because these ears are going to start smelling.” I thought to myself as I left the area quickly before beasts or monsters smell the blood.

            The first day in the forest was wrought with the smell of blood and screams of goblins as I finished the day with fifteen ears. I decide to the head back towards where the farms were and sleep at the edge of the forest. Before I settle down for the night, I look at the notifications I received throughout the day. All the notifications said was the confirmation that I killed fifteen goblins and no mention of a level up. “I guess this confirms that the soul of essence of the same monster species only give dwindling results the more you kill them. No wonder goblins kills are cheap at the guild. I read in the book that they have no desirable parts to use for people. They are only a nuisance and if left alone can destroy villages with their numbers since they reproduce rapidly. Typical fantasy cliché…haa.” I lean back on the trunk of the tree I was in and close my eyes to sleep.

            I woke up to the rays of the sun and eat my breakfast before heading to continue my massacre of goblins. The sun is at the highest when I killed another fifteen goblins. Now I have a total of thirty ears to turn into the guild. After my latest fight I ended up with ten spears strapped to my bag. Having strapped the spare spears to my bag I hear a rustling around the area. I stop and listen as hard as I could. I hear snarls and growls and think to myself, “Those are not the sounds of the stray dogs I heard the last time I was in this forest.” Suddenly four huge wolves with horns with spikes jutting out their foreheads jumped out from behind the bushes surrounding me and the corpses of my latest kills. I pull a string, and the spears become lose from my bag. “Easy now, if you want the goblin corpses you can have them.” I try to back away from the area only for one of the wolves to snap at my legs making me move back to my original position.

            “Fuck me. I don’t remember wolves being this aggressive in the documentaries I watched. Have they mutated into monsters instead of just mutated beasts?” I thought as I keep the four at bay with my spears. I throw one spear at the wolf in front of me impaling him in the eye. This did not kill it but at least took it out of the fight for a moment. I swing the other spear in my left hand to keep the others at bay. I pick up another spear at my feet near my bag and throw it at the wolf to my right. It misses and breaks on impact with a tree. “Fuck!!! How am I supposed to get out of this with shitty weapons.” The wolf behind me launched at me and bites my left arm. “AAAAHHHH…YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!!” I punch the wolf on the nose with my right hand breaking its snout causing it to let go. “What the hell? How did I break its snout with just my fist?” Not having time to contemplate my own question the wolf that was on my left attacked and swiped at my calf with its claws. I clench my teeth with pain and thrust with the spear that was in my left hand switching it to my right. I caught it as it was leaping backward to evade but was not quick enough as my spear went through its chest. I leave the spear inside the wolf and rush to grab two more spears from my bag.

            With two wolves wounded the other two are more cautious as I bring up two more spears in my hands. They growl, snarl, and snap at me as I keep them at bay. I keep an eye on the wounded wolves to make sure they are staying out of the fight. I start to breathe hard and feel the blood run down my left arm. With no time to think I keep the wolves at bay with thrusts and swipes of the spears. Running out of patience one of the wolves tries to rush past my left side and aims for my wounded arm again. Expecting this I thrust with the spear in my right and catch the wolf in the mouth impaling itself on the spear. The last remaining wolf with the broken snout tries to gouge my stomach with its horn only to be met with air and a spear in its side.

            Finally, all of the wolves are on the ground with wounds that prevented them from retreating. “Haa…Haa…I gave you a chance.” I breathed hard and cautiously approach each wolf finishing them off with my spear. I sit down in the middle of the carnage trying to calm down from the adrenaline rush. I drink water with shaking hands from the waterskin letting the water spill from the sides of my mouth. Once I’m calmed down and bandaging myself, I think to myself, “I wonder what can be used from these wolves. I have no experience in dressing game, nor did I ever have the desire to…Haa…Well like I always say, ‘do what you gotta do.’ I have to learn some time, and I should get started soon before anymore show up. I’ll try to just skin them for the furs and take the horns.” I start butchering the wolves for their furs and horns. I’m sure I did a horrible job, but coins are coins.

            By the time I was done the sun was setting so I decided to head to the edge of the forest and sleep. Before I slept, I invoked my personal scroll to see the notifications.  

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

[Defeated goblin. Goblin soul essence absorbed.]

[Defeated warg. Warg soul essence absorbed.]

{Level up}

[Defeated warg. Warg soul essence absorbed.]

[Defeated warg. Warg soul essence absorbed.]

[Defeated warg. Warg soul essence absorbed.]

{Level up}

“Holy shit.” I mutter as I see that I have leveled up two times from the fight with the wolves which seems to be called, wargs. I wait for the notification scrolls to disappear to see my personal scroll.

            Seems my best attribute is endurance which must go towards my overall health and pain tolerance. I barely feel any pain from the bite the warg gave me now. I only expected to level up once to having leveled up twice has left me contented for the night. I go to sleep feeling a sense of accomplishment. The next morning, I head back to the city. I reach the southern gate by mid-morning see the same guard as last time. Before handing over the toll I ask the guard, “Is there a discount for adventurers?” He looks at me and my bag that has warg pelts rolled up and strapped to it. “Yes, adventurers pass for free as long as you have a dog tags and pass the inspection of the Scroll of Law.” The guard says with annoyance in his voice. I show him my tags and pass the identification scroll and head to the guild.  

            When I reach the guild, I head to the line with Sherry as the receptionist. I reach her after a few minutes and greet her, “Good afternoon, Miss Sherry.” She smiles and returns the greeting. I drop my bag and say, “I have goblin ears and warg pelts that I would like to exchange for coin please.” “I see that you are injured Ladon. Are you okay?” Sherry asks with a tinge of worry in her voice. I look down at the bloodied bandage that I forgot to look at before leaving for the city and reply, “Ah, yes, I’m fine Miss Sherry one of wargs tried to take my arm as a snack but I’m feeling better already.” Sherry eyes widen at the mention that I was bitten and exclaimed, “What?! How are you still standing they are venomous!” Shocked my mind went into overdrive, “What! They were poisonous! Wait…wait…I’m not exactly human remember Ladon. I’ll think about that later. She is bringing to much attention my way. I need to think of a lie…this is fantasy Earth now with magic and monsters. There must be potions or something right. Okay let’s go with that.” With my fast brainstorming done that surprised me with how much clearer my mind felt I calm down Sherry and say, “Calm down Miss Sherry I am fine.” I smile before continuing saying, “I had an antidote on hand plus, I’m pretty sturdy.”

            After saying that Sherry sat back down and took a breath of relief. “Oh goodness you shouldn’t scare an old lady like that young man.” I smirk at her and just nod. “If you want to exchange your spoils, you’ll need to head to the warehouse next to the guild. They’ll assess the pelts and inspect the monster parts before giving you the coin.” “Thank you, Miss Sherry.” I go to leave but remember Tye’s dog tag in my bag. I take it out and hand it to her saying, “By the way I found this in the forest I don’t know if someone lost it or if it is from a missing adventurer.” She takes it and looks at the name and her expression changes from happy to a little sad. “Ah well this confirms things then. Yes, this adventurer was reported missing a few days ago on a scouting job for the lord of Melcox. Thank you for bringing this back to the guild.” I nod and head out of the guild to the warehouse.

            I step inside the warehouse and immediately smell fresh blood. There was a big counter with people with bloodstained aprons on tending to adventurers turning in their spoils of war. I head to one of the employees and quickly exchange the goblin ears and warg pelts and horns. The goblin ears came out to be seven bronze and fifty copper. The pelts came to two bronze coins due to damage from the fight and my amateur dismantling skills. The horns were worth more than I thought exchanging for five bronze coins. Doing the math, I now have twenty bronze coins and fifty copper coins. I decide to take tomorrow off to train and study in the library for the rest of the day. I decide to head back to the guild to learn some magic.

            I return to Sherry and ask about the magic lessons offered by the guild. “Lessons are about to start for the day and will be one bronze coin per lesson.” I hand her a bronze coin and she tells me to head the same training grounds I went to when I registered at the guild. Once I reach the training grounds, I find myself being the only one taking lessons. I look around and see a human man leaning on a wall with a chalk board nailed to it. I walk up and ask, “Hello sir, are you the one who teaches magic for the guild?” He raises an eyebrow and says, “Yes, I’m surprised anyone showed up.” I tilt my head and ask, “Do you usually not have anyone show up?” He nods his head and shrugs, “Most adventurers end up in a party with a mage or just rely on the magic that they have learned in their childhood.” Taking his answer at face value I say, “Well I don’t know any magic or really anything about magic.” Shocked he looks at me like he doesn’t believe me and remarks, “That’s impossible even five-year-old know the cleanse spell.” I sigh having figured that I would be an odd ball, but it couldn’t be helped since I have never been around magic in the first place.

            I decide it best to explain and say, “Well where I come from magic isn’t exactly needed for day-to-day life.” Confused he asks, “Where do you come from?” I stare at him and change the topic, “How should we start sir…” He realizes that he would not get anything else out of me from where I come from so, he says, “Ah, sorry I didn’t mean to pry. Well let me introduce myself, my name is Don, and I am a ‘D’ rank adventurer.” “Nice to meet you Mr. Don. My name is Ladon an ‘E’ rank adventurer.”  He nods and goes the chalk board and starts the lesson, “First since you don’t know how to use magic to begin with, I guess I’ll explain where mana comes from inside the body first. Every race of the gods has an ethereal organ where mana resides. In monsters that organ has a physical state that is the mana stones used for various purposes in society today.” He pauses for me to digest the information so I ask, “So, I have an organ that cannot be seen since its ethereal?” He nods and continues, “Now since you don’t know how to use magic lets first have you sense the mana in your own body.” He comes over to and sits down in front of me. “Sit down and get comfortable.” I sit down cross legged and face him. “Close your eyes and focus your mind’s eye inside your body and try to feel anything that seems out of place.”

            I close my eyes and try to do as he says. I sit there for what seems like hours before I feel his hand on my shoulder. I don’t move or bat his hand away because I am focused on searching for what he talked about, even though his explanation was vague. He speaks with a voice that sounded far away from myself and says, “I will pass my mana through you so that you can get an idea of what you should be looking for, though keep in mind everyone’s mana feels different from one another.” I feel…something coming into me from where his hand is on my shoulder and become rather uncomfortable with the sensation. Soon he removes his hand, and his mana is no longer coursing through me. With that I quickly find something that felt warmer than my own body heat and a calming sensation of water flowing across my skin as if I was submerged in a gentle creek. I open my eyes and see strands of different colors flowing through the area around me and Don. Soon as quickly as it came the colors subsided and I was staring wide eyed at Don. “Holy hell what was that? What were those strands of colors?” Don looks at me with raised eyebrows and says, “What are you talking about?” “He doesn’t know what I’m talking about. Hmm…I should probably keep it to myself then. I’ll experiment later after I learn some spells and time to experiment when I’m not struggling to get by.” I thought to myself before saying, “Never mind, must have been because I had my eyes closed to tightly.”

            He shrugs and asks, “Well, did you feel anything different?” I nod my head, and he grins, “I’m impressed. It usually takes children several days before noticing anything though I guess that is the difference between an immature mind and a mature one.” He stands up and motions me to do the same. “We’ll move on to the elements that are known. Most people specialize in one or two elements that they are more attuned to, but everyone can use all the elements to some degree. The known elements are fire, water, wind, earth, space, light, and darkness. The elements can be combined to make more complex spells.” As he named the elements, he wrote them down on the board. “Since you don’t know what elements, you are more attuned to I suggest we start with simple and everyday spells for you to get used to mana coursing through your body. In the next lesson we can start with simple offensive spells that adventurers like to use.” I nod my head agreeing with this plan.

            We pass the rest of the morning with him showing me simple spells like the fire starter spell to light a campfire with the fire element and the cleanse spell to remove filth from the body with the water and wind elements combined. By the end of the lesson, I could feel my body heating up like I had a fever and a headache starting to form. “Good job, today Ladon you have made impressive progress though if you plan to use magic often, I advise you to grow your mana organ.” I look at him confused and ask, “How do I do that?” He answers, “Meditate and focus your mana throughout your body or use all your mana then let it replenish and repeat. The second method is not very popular due to the strain on the body and mind. Only the battle mages in the army for the kingdom do that type of hardcore training. Oh, and it’s useful to increase your intelligence attribute stat.” “Oh! This is the first time anyone has mentioned anything about the personal scroll attributes.” I eagerly ask, “How do I increase my intelligence attribute?” He puts his hand on his chin and looks at me with a raises an eyebrow before answering, “Well from what I was told when I was a kid you raise it by broadening your knowledge with books, learning new spells, and experiencing new things.” He stops for a minute looking at me in the eye and says, “You know, most of the things you ask are weird. Even a child would know by going to the church in their village or town.” I scratch my head and look away avoiding answering him.

            He sighs and says, “Well whatever as long as I can help adventurers from getting themselves killed in the field it doesn’t matter.” I smile appreciating him not digging anymore and ask, “Will you be here tomorrow for lessons as well?” “Yeah, I’ll be here in the morning so just come by and we will begin where we left off today and teach you simple offensive spells.” “Thank you, Don you have been a great help to me.” I hold my hand out for a handshake, and he takes it with a firm grip. “Thank god that the handshake still has the same meaning.” I thought as I head back to the guild and pay the fee for the library. I spend the rest of the day reading about the monster around the area. I plan on learning magic tomorrow and studying in the afternoon. Time goes by and soon I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look up to see Sherry smiling at me and says, “We are closing soon Ladon.” I look up to the window and see the sun low in the sky dipping below the city walls. I stand up closing the reports on monsters in the area and say, “Ah sorry Miss Sherry this is the second time you have had to come get so that you could go home.” “It’s okay Ladon I’m glad to see you taking the job seriously and not going on jobs blind.” I smirk and go to put the reports and books away that I had been studying and leave the guild to head to the Drunken Elephant.

            “Ah Ladon, how have you been, haven’t seen you in a couple of days.” Cliff says as I reach the bar. “I have been okay just camping in the forest and killing goblins and wargs.” I hear some people who I assume are other adventurers snicker as I said this to Cliff. I ignore them and say, “I’d like a room for the night with no meals.” Cliff nods and goes to get a key for a room. While I wait, I see the cute Helen attending tables. I wave at her, and she beams a smile and waves back. She is too busy, so I decide not to bother her. Cliff returns soon and says, “Room 207 on the second floor is empty. Want anything to eat or drink before ya head to, ya room.” I shake my head. “Nah, I’m too tired and I still have rations. I’m trying to save money for better equipment. I can’t rely on goblin weapons as they break too easily.” Cliff gets a concerned look in his eyes when he looks at my arm which still had the bloody bandage wrapped around it. “Be careful out there yeah. Adventuring is a dangerous job and lot of people die every year doing jobs for the guild.”

            Surprised by his concern I just nod my head and head up to my room. Soon I’m inside the shower and then sitting on the bed. “I wonder if the cleanse spell works on clothing.” I grab the bloody bandage I took off before showering and saw that my wound was already healed only leaving small scars where the teeth of the warg penetrated the skin. I cast the spell and after a few seconds the bandage lighten from a deep black red to a softer light red. “That’s cool. At least now I won’t have to wash my clothes by hand.” I cast it again on the only clothes that I had which were starting to look like rags from all the cuts and bites I have suffered. “Dammit along with weapons and armor, I need new clothes. Haa…buying them will have to wait. I’ll use burlap if I have to before I get some decent equipment.” Tired from the eventful past few days I lay down on the bed and as soon as my head hit the pillow I fell into a deep sleep.