10 Chapter 10 - Apology and Double Summon

I let out a loud yawn as I opened my eyes and saw bright sunlight streaming in through the window to my right. I raised my right hand to shield my eyes and slowly sat up.

"You finally awake?" said a cheerful voice to my left.

I turned my head to see Leone staring at me, hands on her hips.

"Where did you guys sleep yesterday?" I asked in an apologetic voice. I had forgotten to tell my summons I was heading to bed yesterday, and I felt kind of bad. However, in my defense, my mind had been too busy thinking about Lory and other things.

She shook her head and smiled, "Don't worry, Domino slept in one of the other rooms while I slept with you," she said and turned to leave. "Come on breakfast is waiting and Domino said Dorand wants to talk to you before we go."

I threw the covers off myself and got up. I did a couple of quick stretches the splashed some cold water, from a bucket in the room, onto my face. I really needed to take a bath sometime soon, but I guessed I could wait until the capital, as I didn't think I really smelt that bad. After I was done waking up I headed downstairs and into the dining room. My summons were already there and I took a seat next to Dorand.

Breakfast was simple. Eggs, toast, porridge, and some meat which I couldn't identify. I fed Gible more of the baffle corpses while Leone took it upon herself to make me a plate.

"I've had some Rations prepared for you," he said while I took my first bite of food. "We also managed to get some spare coin, although we could only spare 4 copper."

I swallowed and turned to him, "It's completely fine. I'm thankful you gave me any coin at all. I wouldn't have cared if you gave me none," I replied in a casual tone. "By the way how does the currency work here?" I had forgotten to ask yesterday, and I needed to know how it worked, as I didn't want to get swindled or ripped off in the future.

"Well currency is different in other lands, but the Tyrofell currency is very simple," he answered. "Its 100 copper to a bronze, 100 bronze to a silver, 100 silver to a gold, and 1000 gold to a platinum." He took a very small bag and handed it over to me. "There's 4 copper in that bag, but seeing what I've seen from you. I don't think you'll have trouble coming across more coin."

I raised a questioning eyebrow, "And what do you mean by that?"

He gave me a coy smile and looked at my summons, "I don't know what you are, but your not a mage or kord, your something else entirely." I went to reply, but he raised a hand, "I'm not asking you to reveal anything or share any of your secrets."

I nodded and we finished the rest of breakfast in silence. After our plates had been taken away one of the villagers, a woman, walked in with a bag. She had her eyes downcast and slowly, almost cautiously, approached me. She placed it in front of me and I realized that it was the woman that I had saved from the guards when I had first arrived.

"Have your wounds healed," I asked. Her eyes widen and a small smile crept onto her face. "Yes milord, my wounds have healed up nicely and I helped prepare the rations to thank you." Milord? well, that was the first time I'd been called that.

"I'm no lord, Tracy," I replied and saw her eyes widen further.

"You remember my name?" she whispered in shock. I raised an eyebrow at her, "I've got a good memory and I'm quite good with names." She bowed low, "Thank you, milord," she said in joy and turned to my summons, "Thank you," she said with a smile directed at Lilah. The Darkwraith just nodded and Leone smiled next to her. Lilah wasn't able to express emotion as easily as we could, but I got the sense that she was happy for Tracy.

Tracy turned back to me, "May I ask if you'll ever be coming back milord?" she asked in a hopeful voice. I was slightly confused but answered truthfully. "I'm not sure, but if I'm ever near the area then I'll definitely visit. " Her face fell and she bowed low before heading out of the room.

I looked back to Dorand and he shrugged, "Girl wanted to thank you and it's clear as daylight that's she's smitten with you."

Smitten? What did he mean?

"Oh!" I said in realization and heard Domino and Leone snicker. "That's why she asked me if I was ever gonna come back." I'd had my fair share of girlfriends back home on earth, but most of the time I was the one who approached the other, so this was unexpected, but not unwelcome. I stored the bag of rations and money and stood.

"Oh, I forgot to say, but in some places, magic crystals and other items can be used as currency," Dorand said. "And to get to the capital head north, you won't miss it." I nodded and mentally smacked myself. I had just been about to leave and I hadn't even asked for bloody directions. I gave him a grateful nod and left the room with my summons behind me.

Lory was waiting for us outside of the room and approached us.

"Can I talk to you in private Nathan?" he asked and I could see that he was nervous.

I nodded and turned to my summons, "Wait for me near the village gates and make sure Gible behaves."

They nodded and left us.

"Let's talk then," I said turning back to Lory.

"I'm sorry," he said and took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to react like that, but its-"

I raised a hand to stop him, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said in a gentle voice. "I understand and I'm not mad at you."

"No!" he said. "I need to say. I've kept it to myself and I need to let it out."

I nodded in understanding and took a seat on the stairs. He sat next to me and took several deep breaths before speaking.

"Ravan," he began in a grim voice. "I'm from the kingdom of Ravan. It's where I got married and where Lemma was born." His hands were shaking and he took several more deep breaths before he continued. "I worked as a farmer and my wife, Etta, worked as a seamstress. We earned enough money to get by and we were happy." His hands balled into fists and I could practically see the regret and sadness coming from him.

"As Dorand said, our kind isn't treated that well and one day a passing noble Lady took an interest in Etta and offered her position as a servant and concubine. My wife, of course, declined and said she had a family and husband. The noble expressed her displeasure but didn't do anything and instead just left and we thought that's was the last we'd see of her." his fists tightened even further, and his voice became angry "But we were wrong. so very, very, wrong."

A tear slid down his right cheek. "They came in the night and I had to watch as my wife was taken from me." His voice was now hollow, cold, and tears were pouring from his eyes. "I took all the coin we had and ran with Lemma as fast as I could. Etta's screams followed me that night and I've heard them every night since."

I didn't really have much experience comforting people, so I just placed a hand on his shoulder and silently sat with him. I had known that this world would be crueler and more unfair than my own. I had seen some of it when I came to this village, but hearing a story like that from someone I knew put things into perspective. I needed to remember that I would see things like that and worse as I traveled and explored this world. However, that didn't mean I couldn't stop it or at least try and help. I had power, a unique and amazing power, and it was clear that power meant a great deal in this world. Lory sobbed for a few more minutes before his tears finally stopped.

"Where is the Ravan kingdom?" I asked.

"It's part of the Tyrofell empire and it's not far from Larra," he said and turned to me. "Why?"

"I'm not heading there now, but if or when I do, I'll see if I can find Etta and bring her back to you," I replied in a serious voice.

his eyes grew wide and disbelieving. "W-why would you do such a thing?"

"Because we're friends aren't we?" I answered in a truthful voice. "So tell me the noble lady's name if you know it."

His eyes became watery again and I rolled my eyes, "No more tears Lory. Look to the future. You have Lemma so focus on her." He gave me genuine smile and a grateful nod.

"Lady Myra is the name of the noble who took Etta, she's the daughter of a duke, so please be careful," he said in his classic worried voice. I opened my mouth to ease his worries but a door open to our left and Lemma walked in. She stopped when she saw me and Lory.

"You have fun with Gible?" I asked. Her face split into a wide smile and she nodded frantically, "Uh-huh, me and Gible played lots and lots yesterday and big sister Leone showed me some new games I could play."

I smiled at her and stood to leave, "Well if I ever come back you can play with him again." Her smile, if possible, grew wider and to my surprise, she ran up and gave me a hug. I leaned down and hugged her back.

"Take care of your dad for me," I whispered in her ear and felt her nod into my shoulder.

"Thank you, big brother," she whispered back and I felt my heart melt at her words. she unwrapped herself from me and gave me one last smile, before going to her father. I looked back to Lory and Lemma and waved, "Be good and stay away from baffles," I joked.

Lemma's giggling was the last thing I heard as I left the house. I walked through the village and was met with thanks and waves from the villagers as I passed by them. I made it to the village gates and met up with my summons.

"Ok, let's get a bit further away from the village." I had two tokens I wanted to use, but I didn't want the villagers to see or freak if I summoned a monster or something large. We passed through the village gates and walked for 15 minutes before stopping. The wide-open plains looked just as beautiful as when I had first seen them and the bright sunlight and clear day only added to that beauty. I felt the urge to go roll around in the nearby flower fields but stopped myself.

"So what happens now?" asked Domino.

"Now you guys back up a bit and watch," I answered and used one of my summing tokens.

[1 Common Token Used]

[Summoning Entity]

The brief flash of white light came and went.

[Summoning Complete: Zombieman(One-Punch Man)]

"An S-ranked hero," I muttered. "Not bad at all."

The man or should I say zombie in front of me had scruffy short black hair, red eyes, and pale skin. He was wearing a worn-out open gray trench coat over a black singlet, with tan stitched pants and a thick brown belt. There were more belts wrapped around his body and under his coat and he had tanker boots. In my opinion, he looked pretty badass. He wasn't my favorite s ranked hero but he was still pretty damn cool.

Zombieman was the 8th ranked hero in one-punch man. He wasn't ranked that high because of his psychical strength or because he had special/magical powers, but because of his overpowered regeneration. He was described as a man that even in death cannot die. He's able to regenerate any part of his body no matter how severe the injury is and the speed of his regeneration is near-instant. If I remembered correctly In the manga he fought a really strong vampire, that beat him in every other aspect apart from regeneration, and died 200 times in that fight, but still won because he wasn't able to be killed. He should also have some weapons in his inventory like his axe, I thought to myself.

"What the hell are you?" asked Domino in confusion, tilting her head to the side. "You a vampire or something?"

"He does kind of look a vampire with the pale skin and red eyes," Leone commented.

"Tch, I ain't no damn vampire just because I got red eyes," he answered and a machete appeared in his right hand. "I. Am. A. Zombie," he shouted and drove the machete into his chest.

The looks of shock on Leone and Domino's face were priceless and I couldn't help but let out a laugh. Their shock grew, even more, when Zombieman pulled the weapon from his chest and the hole closed and healed instantly.

"See," he said and the machete disappeared. "I'm a Zombie, not a prissy vampire."

"That was slightly disturbing but cool," said Domino.

"So you can't die?" asked Leone.

"He's not invincible just very hard to kill," I interjected. "Go stand with them, Zombieman. I've got one more token left."

He walked over to them and they started talking as I used my other token. I had some pretty good summons but I wanted something that could fly or heal. The reason for wanting a healer was very simple. My summons could heal in storage and couldn't die, but I didn't know how long it took for them as non of my summons had gotten injured yet and I myself had no way to heal, so a summon with healing powers would be very useful.

[1 Common Token Used]

[Summoning Entity]

The brief flash of white light.

[Summoning Complete: Rathalos(Monster Hunter)]

There was a mighty Roar that seemed to shake the very earth.

My eyes were as wide as saucers and my jaw dropped as I stared up at the magnificent beast that I had summoned. I had asked for a flying summon and it seemed that the system had delivered.

The Wyvern in front of me turned to me and I felt my shock grow as it bowed its head. I knew it was my summon and that it would obviously listen to my commands but seeing a fucking Rathalos bow its head to me was just unbelievable and I had fictional characters at my side, so that was saying something.

I shook myself out of my daze and examined the summon. It was large and bipedal with an armored hide covering its body. It was primarily bright red, with black markings throughout. Its wings were wide and its membranes had ornate patterns. It also had a long thick tail with a heavy spiked club at the end that looked like it could easily crush a car. It moved closer to me and I could see the large talons on its feet which, I knew from the games, were highly poisonous and known to inflict toxic mortal wounds. It bumped its head onto my chest and I let out a laugh as I rubbed and pet it. As it let out a pleased sound I remembered that Rathalos possessed a flame sac which is used to produce deadly flaming projectiles. The image of flying on Rathalos while it let out fireballs popper into my head and I grinned.

I was extremely happy. Not only had I gotten something that could fly, but it was large enough that I could ride it and I also knew from the game that Rathalos were expert flyers and called kings of the skies. This beautiful and deadly monster would follow my commands, which made me a lot happier than I thought it would.

"Holy Fucking shit," said Leone and I turned to my summons.

Leone's eyes were sparkling in delight and she was smiling while Domino had an approving look on her face. Zombieman just looked indifferent and Gible was jumping up and down, shouting his name. It wasn't unexpected that they weren't as shocked as I was as I knew Leone, Domino, and Zombieman had seen far bigger and crazier things. As for Lilah, well I couldn't see her face, so I didn't know if she was shocked or not but considering where she came from, she probably wasn't.

"I'm gonna have to store you guys because there ain't enough space on Rathalos for all of us," I said. "But I'll bring you guys back out as soon as I can."

"Please let me fly with," said Leone in a pleading voice. "There's definitely enough space for two people." She was making puppy eye's at me now and had both her hands pressed together. I sighed and rolled my eyes, "Fine, but no messing about while we're flying." I did not want to fall off Rathalos's back in mid-flight.

"Yes!" she shouted in joy. "Thank you." She was smiling and it bought a warm feeling to my chest. Then and there I vowed that I would try and make my summons as happy as I could and listen to any requests they had. I asked my other summons if they were interested in flying and swapping out with Leone later, but they didn't care, so I sent them all to storage.

"Come on," I said to Leone and turned back to Rathalos. "Let's fly."