The Awakening

Chapter 5

A tall mug of mead slammed against the counter as a boisterous laugh filled the air. In this small space, any noise was audible to everyone around, but the man making noise certainly wasn't trying to keep it down.

Gasps of breath in between deep throaty laughter echoed in the cozy bar. The man responsible was large, his rippled legs were covered in chain mail and dominated the sides of the chair he sat on. Chest like a barrel and arms like logs, it's no wonder the man's voice wasn't small, he wasn't either.

Though the boisterous man wore armored leggings, he seemed to be wearing casual town clothes on his upper body; a simple brown cotton shirt with a small V in the neck. V neck shirts were common enough to find, but the man seemed to have cut his own V in the shirt rather crudely. It was an odd fashion choice, but seemed to fit the man's boisterous attitude and strong voice.

A bald head rounded out the man's already strong appearance, red tattoos flowed from the back to the front of his scalp on both sides of his head. The pattern was that of an odd rippling wave that ran over itself several times. Strong eyebrows accentuated the man's bold and crinkled eyes, still wet with joyous tears. A large and bulbous nose and a wide jolly smile were plastered on the man's face.

"Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa" The man's voice echoed once more in the ears of everyone within the tavern. "There's no way that's true! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaa!" Seemingly losing himself over something one of his companions said, the man slammed his mug against the table again.

Another man at the table was also jolly and laughing, albeit not quite as loudly. This one was much less giant than his boisterous companion. Skinny in comparison to his comrade, but no goblin by any means, the man looked to be quite able. Long blond hair swept over his forehead and around his ears. In a much more common volume, the blonde haired man laughed along with the big one. His sky blue eyes shone with tears clearly as he lost his breath. Closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around his leather jerkin, he sucked in a deep breath and gently elbowed the woman sitting to his right.

With long and curly brown hair, the woman seemed to be another companion to the other men. Giggling a bit to herself, the casually dressed woman took a sip of her sweet berry mead before resting her chin on her hand and smiling gently at her two companions.

Finally tearing his eyes apart from the rowdy group of adventurers who had barged in, Lycel rested his arms on the bar counter, his head on his small and calloused fists, and closed his eyes. It had been around a month or so that he'd been on his graduation mission and already a few days in this town, one of the first things they taught you as an apprentice was patience. Patience was even on the Commandments of the Family, in fact it was number 3 on the list. Lycel wasn't about to forget the first thing driven into his head as a youngling, he didn't think he could even if he wanted to.

That being said, he had tracked the target's location since Iriel and ended up here in this backwater travelers town. Local parties of adventurers made this place their base of operations between missions. This was likely due to the fact that the border for the fallen kingdom of Kievia had been nearby. Ever since the country had fallen and the population had been ravished, no one had bothered to clean up the scattered remains of the people who once lived there. Due to the fact that no one cared enough to spend their resources cleaning, mana had begun to fester around the collapsed kingdom, resulting in a dangerous Mana Zone. The dead had begun to walk once more, undead by the grey mana that festers in corpses and some of those beyond the mountains. It was regarded as an evil mana, a malicious plague that infected citizen after citizen. Even worse off, it's effects were invisible until after death.

These adventurers who camped here, as well as many of the other travelers' towns, were travelling to the villages on the outskirts of the Kievian Empire. There, they would slay the undead and loot the village for anything worthwhile. If they carried a killplate with them, it recorded how much and what they slayed during their outing. If the party returned to one of the many guild houses spread throughout the world, they'd be rewarded depending on how much and what they slayed. Magical creatures and other such dangerous entities had different ratings on them, from F to S+. Most were in the F to C range, but in places such as the Calamitous Caves and other dangerous Mana Zones, there could be significantly more powerful creatures.