A Grim Tale of Darkness and Adventuring

Chapter III- Adventure! Bandits! Victory!

Learning from the tavern that there is a dungeon next to the town, you decide to go there. You believe you can learn a few things from slaying beasts and demons. Plus, dungeons are always fun.
You walk to the outskirts of the town, where a big grotto is. That's the place. You feel ready and excited.

The grotto is beautiful and serene, with sparkling running water, jagged rocks, trees and more. You walk along the path, looking at all the neat scenery.

Suddenly a bandit appears from the leaves, and jumps at you with his dagger. You easily dodge his attack and bash him in the head with your sword, knocking him out. The bandit falls to the ground, but before you can celebrate, another one appears from behind.
You turn around and swing your blade, decapitating him.

As soon as his head hits the ground, a nondescript person appears. It's actually a spirit, an apparition that came from the Tear. These beings only appear when the sanity or morale of a person is low. The humans' low sanity makes them an easy target for the spirits because they can easily die of fright or insanity.

Fortunately or unfortunately for you, you have a rare condition, your mother called "mens novis", when even if by all means your sanity should be nonexistent, you still function perfectly. Though, this also makes you appear like a target to the spirits and beasts but thankfully you know and love fighting.

You blast the spirit with a fireball, burning it where it stands and it howls into the air, disappearing.

You continue on your path, you see a man sitting on the ground. He appears to be day drinking by himself, a few bottles of varying alcohol in front of him. He growls at you like a beast as his eyes shine an unnatural shade of yellow.

As you try to pass him by, he scurries away like a rat, huffing and puffing. You are left there confused but you just shrug and continue on your way. Soon, you see another bandit hiding behind the corner of the wall. You immediately prepare to fight, but he quickly speaks.

"If you've come to kill our leader, the Prince of Thieves, then I advise you to leave if you value your life," after saying that, he vanishes.

You see this as a challenge, a chance to prove yourself to the villagers.

Rushing giddily further and further into the dungeon, you eventually end up in a large cavern. To your surprise, there are people here that aren't thieves. A man sits by a campfire drinking what looks to be apple juice.

You decide to sit beside him.

"Hi, I'm-"

"You're not a thief. Your clothes are too nice," the man interrupts you.

"I'm...not! I'm an adventurer from the nearby town, Eswick."

"Really? Interesting. Last I heard about that town, demons were attacking it."

After chatting awhile, your morale increased and you've learnt where the Prince of Thieves was. You head towards him, determined to defeat him to assure at least somewhat of a safety to the town.

Eventually, you reach the lair. Before you stands a man who has a more intricate outfit than others had.
"What?" he asks, rather impatiently.
"I'm here to challenge you, Prince of Thieves!" you say, with determination. He only scoffs, taking his sword out.

He charges at you, but you manage to dodge. You take your own sword and swing it at your foe's ankle. He falls and you swing your sword again at his head, but he blocks it, skillfully. Pushing you away, he manages to stand up, but with magic, you make a spike from the earth, impaling him.

"Wahoo!" you say to yourself, as you take his sword with you, as proof of your victory.
You exit the dungeon, taking your spoils of victory with you.

In Eswick, you take the Prince of Thieves' head to the mayor, who gives you the reward money along with some delicious candy. Not a bad day, all in all.

The people seem to have found some new respect for you, yet because of your optimistic personality and love for fighting, they still steer clear of you.

Of course, only everyone beside Vic, the half feline half human, and his friend, Karl, the human.