4 The Village of Trieste

My windbreaker was utterly destroyed by the fire.

Some of the parts that didn´t fell of from my body while I was running from the cave were used as bandage for the head injury that Roxana suffered while in combat.

Despite catching a little bit of fire the moment the spider was lit, only some chunks of hair were burned.

Other than that, she didn´t get any extras injuries.

Me, however, I´m not pretty good. My right arm is without forces, my muscles don´t even move. That moment, when I threw the spear, I think I heard my bones crackling.

My breathing is still irregular, I´m sweating a lot and my body feels out of energy.

I can barely lift up my arm.

The entrance to the cavern was in the basis of a small cliff.

There was a narrow calloused way that led out of it, into the forest above.

The sun was on top of us, which meant that it was 12:00 AM. Probably.

I must have spent, like, two hours in the cave.

In spite of the clouds in the sky and the leaves up high on the trees, some of the sun rays were reaching the cliff, giving me a slight discomfort.

I left Roxana away from the entrance, near the narrow way up.

Fortunately, she didn´t take a long time to wake up.

-"W-where am I?" She asked, with an unstable voice.

-"We are out of the cave. Are you alright?"

She took quite a while to answer.

-"I´m not alright. Not at all." She paused for a moment. "My head is… confused."

I don´t think I can carry her anymore. At least not at this moment.

-"Can you walk?"

I lend my hand to her, at a slow pace getting her up.

-"Do you know the way home? I will lead you but we must get there soon so you can safely rest."

-"I don´t wanna walk, I´m tired. I want to sleep."

-"No, you can´t sleep here, we must walk. Tell me, what is the way to your home?"

It seems the fall was really bad. Her eyes are closing randomly and I need to hold her with my left arm because her legs can´t stand right.

With difficulty, we finished walking the narrow path.

-"Tell me, where is the way?" I say with a gentle voice, trying to get her attention.

-"Uhm, to the left there is a river and… up the river the forest ends and..." She stops again.

-"Thats sufficient. When the forest ends I will ask you again. Now you can rest while we walk, ok?"

-"Ok."

The river was a small brook.

The river bank was kinda flat, so it was not difficult for Roxana to walk here.

While walking, I summoned the status screen in my mind.

As I thought, it had changed.

~*~

_______Reynauld_______

#Skills#

...

Thrower 1

#Effects#

...

Fatigue 1

#Injuries#

Right arm – Overused muscles

~*~

I´m living in a fantasy rpg world. There must be all sort´s of skills, abilities and spells. Maybe I can find something that can take me back to my world?

Don´t get me wrong here, if my life in this world get´s better than my past life, I´m set. Well, I would miss my computer, the games that I played, the internet, anime and such things, however… the main problem is not the things I would miss from the past, but the challenges I would face while pursuing a good life.

Do I want to be a king? Well, I will probably have to deal with noble politics and be subject to backstabs, treachery and all sorts of stuff. Not to mention that, to become a king, I will probably have to be a vassal first, be granted a poor fief and work my way up from there.

Maybe I will have the opportunity to become the strongest being in this world? If that is the case, I need to learn magic, train in a martial art, exercise my body. Also, to be called the strongest, I will have to defeat the current strongest.

In life, whether in a fantasy world or in the real one, challenges will come everyday for you to overcome. It´s up to you to evaluate the risks and benefits of every opportunity that presents itself. Since I have the privilege to live in this fantasy world, I better enjoy it to the fullest.

It took some time to finally get out of the forest.

When we finished, Roxana was half asleep.

The forest gave up to a flowery plain, quite beautiful to be honest. I could see a village in the distance, however a small church upon a hill was closer to our position, so I decided to bring Roxana there first.

The church was made of a white stone and had windows made of blue glass.

Upon arriving, I left Roxana resting upon one of the long wooden chairs.

-"You can rest here, Roxana." I said.

The church was completely silent.

I went to the pulpit and still saw no one.

-"Is anyone here? Please, I need your help!"

Suddenly, the sound of books, a chair and someone falling echoed through the church.

-"W-who is it?" Someone responded.

-"Roxana is injured, I need someone to help me!"

-"Roxana?!" The man came out of a door behind the pulpit.

He was wearing an white tunic with some small golden details. He looked young for a priest, maybe 24, 25 years old, but definitely not younger than me. His hair was short and blond.

I quickly directed him to Roxana. He unwrapped the straps of the windbreaker from her head, and looked at the injury.

-"Here, help me move her to the medical quarters. You must be exhausted, so I will hold her shoulders, you hold her legs."

I did as the priest ordered so, although with a little difficulty since my right arm didn´t have the strength.

We layed her in a small bed, in a room filled with medical assets, some flasks with strange colors, flowers and leaves of various types.

The young priest didn´t talk during the process. I was waiting him to perform some kind of healing magic, but he performed the usual medical procedure.

Roxana was already sleeping, but he washed her head injury carefully. He sprinkled some kind of dust, and then wrapped up her head with proper straps.

-"The entire village was searching for her this morning." He said. "We even dispatched 3 groups to search for her, her mother cried a lot. It´s good to know that she is alive. Where did you find her?"

Should I tell him my story? He won´t probably believe I´m from another world.

-"I was teleported to a cave while sleeping. It´s a cave in the middle of the forest. While confused to what had happened, we found each other wandering through that dungeon..."

I proceeded to tell him all that happened.

-"You actually managed to kill the spider? You must be an hardened adventurer, despite your young looks. Many would be adventurers entered that cave, trying to end such a monster, but almost no one ever returned." He explained. "We must tell everyone what happened and calm the nerves of the citizens. They will probably be even happier by the good news you bought us. The spider will no longer harass us at night."

The groups dispatched to search for her only came back at night.

The ones who stayed in the village, mainly the wives and children, upon hearing that the giant spider was killed, decided to prepare a party.

The center of the village, which was called Trieste, was filled with chairs and tables, foods and drinks of all sorts.

Her mother, Helena, personally thanked me for saving her child, as did everyone else in the village.

Roxana waked up soon after the search groups returned.

She also thanked me, but really if it wasn´t her I would probably be dead in that dungeon.

In the middle of the festivities, the villagers made me get up in one of the tables and say something.

-"First and foremost, thank you all for the amazing feast. This is my first day in this village, and everybody here treated me so kindly. My salute to every citizen of Trieste!"

And so, with an uproar the people shouted:

-"Hero! Hero! Hero! Hero!"

I was a little nervous with all the shouting, but managed to behave properly among the villagers.

I slept at a room in the church, lended me by the priest. Roxana returned home, but not before receiving an scolding by her mom and the priest and apologizing to everyone in the village.

Before my sleep, the priest, whose name was Alexander, fetched me new clothes to wear and ordered me to the take a bath in the river.

-"While you were in the village helping in the feast, I was cleaning the temple. Your footsteps took a time to disappear."

-"S-sorry. I will pay more attention next time."

At this moment I was very dizzy, so the only thing going through my mind that night was the bed. I didn´t even realize the clothing was actually a tunic similar to his until I waked up next morning.

The bed was kinda hard and uncomfortable, but the tunic was really nice to sleep with.

The difference between my tunic and his was that mine didn´t have any golden details, and was a simple white tunic.

I asked him if it was ok to wear a clergy clothing despite not being a clergy, but he replied that this tunic was used by people who are just simply serving the church( or being served by her), not actual members of the clergy, so it was fine for me to use it while living there.

Also with the church, he fetched me some sandals. My old clothing's were stored in the church, but I didn´t plan to use them since they were damaged by the fire.

In the morning me, Alexander and a group from the village went to the cave to be sure the spider was dead.

When we reached the cliff though, the entrance had collapsed. The fire probably caused a cave-in.

While Alexander and the rest spreaded through the forest, searching for any survivor spiders, I alone stayed at the entrance, looking if any spiders would appear.

And one did appear.

-"Did you really think it would be this easy?"

-"!"

I looked everywhere. To the entrance, the cliff, the trees and its leaves. The source of the voice nowhere to be found.

-"I was planning on playing with the girl, but suddenly my lair became ice cold, and you appeared out of nowhere."

-"Who are you?!"

Tsk, I don´t even have an weapon with me! I knew it, I knew it was too easy! There is no way I´m stronger and smarter then the countless parties of adventurers who ventured into the dungeon only to be slaughtered.

But… who is this? Can spiders talk in this world?

-"Now that my lair is utterly destroyed, I have no other choice than to leave. You defeated me this time, but if you show up at my new lair I will construct… be prepared to face me!"

Some tree branches falled behind me.

I looked back, hanging from the tree was a strange spider girl. She had 6 eyes, some fangs coming out of her mouth, a strange black hair reaching past the shoulder. Her skin was purple, but besides it, she looked like a normal human. She was wearing a black tunic, and in her hand she was holding what appeared to be a purple ball of magic.

She closed her hand, making the ball disappear.

-"Sleep well, 'hero', at least my lair is going to be very far from here. I won´t disturb this village anymore."

And, like a shadow, she disappeared.

Upon arriving, I told Alexander and the others what had happened.