Chapter 02: Freedom
Opening his eyes, Lorthic escaped the eternal darkness of sleep, what he saw was the roof of a not so evenly eroded cave, he felt the ruff uneven stone surface underneath him.
'I need to get a bed'
Lorthic slowly stood up from the cave floor, stretching his limbs as his joints cracked and popped. He walked out of the cave and observed the surroundings.
The fire had long gone out, and around it was footprints of small animals that came towards it, probably drawn by the scent of cooking fish, though none dared to come near the cave due to his presence that would deter most unintelligent creature like animals or low leveled magical beasts. The forest was still full of life and could frequently see movement in between the trees and under bushes, as small and medium-sized creatures went about there business foraging and hunting for food.
Lorthic chose a random direction and started walking. He didn't care which way he went since it was all the same to him, this world was new and he decided to enjoy every bit of it. Although he wanted to reach civilization and eat good food and sleep in a comfortable bed, it wasn't a necessity not to mention his dislike of crowds or people in general.
It might be ironic for someone who was tasked and vowed to protect an entire kingdom not like mingling with people, but for most of his life he didn't, his only interaction was the previous guardian and high ranking officials. Other than his master the previous guardian of the kingdom he disliked all other people he met, even those of royal blood like himself because he could see their hearts and true intentions and it revolted him.
They schemed for power and betrayed those close to them for more wealth, he wanted to do something about it but his vows stopped him, he knew that not all humans were like this, he had observed his kingdom and seen how the lower class treated each other, how some nobles were true that, noble. This was the only solace he could find in protecting the kingdom, for those few kind people in his kingdom.
He was chained by his vows but the day the king turned and plotted against him was the day his chains were broken and he was finally free.
'Freedom...'
The sun shined through the canopy of leaves and bathed him in sunlight, he raised his head and enjoyed its warmth.
'So this is how it feels'
He smiled slightly as he thought of his current status, right now in this world, he was no one, he had no status he had no responsibilities.
Crunch
The sound of something stepping on a twig brought him out of his thoughts. A wolf came out of the bushes and growled at him, it looked frighteningly thin and malnourished while limping on one leg.
"Are you all alone too, friend?" Lorthic said to the wolf as he stared at the animal's wounded leg, it was broken probably on a hunt, it was injured and could no longer stay with the pack so was kicked out.
Lorthic approached the wolf that kept growling at him, which did nothing to deter him thus it prepared to pounce. He wasn't its target they just crossed paths, the wolf could instinctively feel that Lorthic was dangerous and thus wanted nothing to do with him.
Just as it was about to attack Lorthics was quickly placed on its head freezing its motor functions.
[Paralysing Touch], a relatively low tier cantrip of the Transmutation school of magic meant to immobilize enemies with lower mental power than the user. Lorthic could also use [Paralysing Gaze], a stronger version of the spell but decided against it, he was going to touch the wolf anyway.
"Fear, not noble creature, since we have crossed paths I will be kind enough to offer you some aid, though I am no Cleric I have my way."
With his hand still placed on the, wolfs head he cast two spells of the Enchantment school, [Empower], [Regeneration], which gave the wolf two temporary buffs allowing it to not only regenerate its limb but use the extra energy from the empower spell to do it as not to overtax the wolfs already weak body.
The limb quickly regrew under Lorthics' two spells and with the leftover energy from the [Empower] spell the [Regeneration] spell quickly buffed up the wolf again so as to let it turn back into a form more befitting its old glory.
The two spells were both rather low tier but they had a great effect when working together, that it could even rival a mid-tier spell.
"There we go, friend."
Lorthic said rubbing the wolfs head a bit before continuing with his journey, the paralysis spell would wear off in another 30 seconds so he didn't bother undoing it, if the wolf was so unlucky as to be killed in that time frame, Lorthic could only lament that it was the wolfs fate.
Having walked for a few hours straight, Lorthic found himself next to a river, it wasn't that wide, only three meters and probably a meter in depth.
He tapped his foot on the ground using [Earth manipulation] to form a bridge over the river and having it return back to normal after having moved across.
The further he went the denser the forest got and the darker it became as the Leavey canopy of the trees kept blocking more and more of the light from the sun.
The darkness didn't affect Lorthic as he could easily see in the dark just as good as in the light thanks to his dark vision he got after stepping on the Path of a [Pale Master] a being akin to a god to all Necromancers. While still technically human the further you walk this path the nearer you go to death while still being ultimately alive.
Roar!!!
A bestial roar could be heard coming from Lorthic's left and the sound of heavy footsteps resounded as the owner of the roar charged in Lorthic's direction.
Lorthic waited patiently for his foo... attacker to approach, he even kicked a rock out of boredom while waiting for the beast to make it his way.
'Why the fuck would you roar at me while being so far away, its as if you want to give your pray time to escape'
Lorthic could only shake his head as he waited.
Soon he saw the outline of the figure appeared in front of Lorthic, his eyes constricted as he saw the thing that appeared in front of him.
'You have got to be kidding me'