Chapter 4 - To Fight

The next morning after waking up, both Ben and Gwen went to the adventurers guild to register Gwen. When the receptionist saw this, she frowned and gave Ben a disgusted look before she asked Gwen where her mother was.

"She died." Gwen stated with irritation at the receptionist.

The receptionist went quite at this and turned to Ben who said. "It was already too late, and I decided to take her in."

The receptionist had an apologetic look as she handed an application to Gwen, explaining that Ben would need to be the guardian of Gwen until she turned sixteen. Ben nodded at this and the turned to Gwen who was currently staring at the paper with a glare. Ben seeing this couldn't help but chuckle a little as he picked up the paper and began filling out the paper, making plans to teach her how to read and write later.

After reaching the age and name part, he turned to Gwen and asked. "What's your last name? Also, were you seven or eight years old?"

Gwen turned red at this and answered. "Lumel is my last name and, I'm... Twelve."

"Huh." Ben said before saying a little louder. "Twelve!?"

Gwen nodded as Ben looked her up and down once more and sighed internally. "Looks like malnutrition can do a lot more damage than I thought. Great, now we have even less time to make her into a great mage."

Despite this though, Ben took it as a challenge to make a mage out of her. They finished the registration and then walked over to the quest board. Seeing the E rank quests on the board, Ben found one that was suitable for what he was going to teach Gwen. It was a quest to exterminate a growing population of Horned Boars within the Eastern Woods, about five of them. Ben already knew their location thanks to yesterdays quest and there was also a sub-objective to bring in the boars remains for food. Ten silver coins for each boar and five silver coins for each completed corpse brought back.

Registering their name to the quest, the two left out of the city on foot. As they approached the forest, Gwen began shaking and held closer to Ben. One of the reasons why Ben took on this quest alongside Gwen was to teach her to conquer her fears. Ben knew she was just a kid but this world wasn't kind and if she wasn't ready, she would die.

Sending a mana wave, Ben felt a horned boar a few dozen meters away and turned to Gwen and said. "Do you know why I brought you here on an extermination quest?"

Gwen thought for a moment before she nodded slowly and answered. "To train me?"

Ben nodded at her conclusion before he unclipped his dagger and handed it to her, explaining to her. "There is a boar a couple meters in that direction."

Gwen nodded and didn't seem to like where this was going as Ben finished. "I want you kill it."

"But!" Gwen wanted to say that it was impossible but stopped when Ben stared into her eyes.

"Who said it was impossible?" Ben asked.

"I'm just a kid." Gwen said looking down, holding the dagger weakly.

Ben sighed and then told her. "No one sets your own limitations but yourself, remember this for all your life Gwen. Life isn't fair and if you don't fight against fate and adversaries, you will die, if not that then someone you care about might suffer in your place. Have courage in yourself and never hesitate, never regret."

Gwen still shaking looked in the direction of the beast Ben told her about before taking another look at Ben, only to find him missing. She panicked and ran around looking for Ben but stopped after she realized Ben would only appear after she finished the objective given to her. So she slowly but surly walked towards her new enemy that she needed to kill.

Ben of course followed behind and wouldn't be doing anything unless she was in dire need of saving. This would test her will to survive and fight, and for some reason, Ben felt excited at seeing how she would grow.

After about a minute, the horned boar came into view. It was about two times the size of a normal boar and had three horns coming out of it's forehead in a vertical line. Upon seeing Gwen, it roared and charged, Gwen became frozen at this was too slow to dodge. The boar slammed its shoulder into Gwen and she cried in pain as she was sent flying away as all beasts were enhanced a little by mana.

Gwen cried and held left arm as it was broken, the blade fallen in front of her. Ben seeing this felt disappointed, but felt the test to have her conquer her fear could be saved. So he acted upon his idea and walked out clapping his hands, catching the attention of the boar.

"Ben!" Gwen had a look of relief but that stopped when Ben closed his eyes. "Ben?"

The Boar roared at the bigger enemy that had appeared and charged at Ben. It's three inch horns pierced Ben's chest and stomach, making him land on the ground. Gwen was shocked at this and after a pool of blood formed underneath Ben, his earlier words rang inside of her head.

"Life isn't fair and if you don't fight against fate and adversaries, you will die, if not that then someone you care about might suffer in your place."

Rage and fear filled Gwen's mind at the thought of the beast hurting, if not killing Ben and she reacted wildly with screams. She got up despite the pain and gripped the dagger in her right hand as she charged over. The boar hearing this wanted to turn around to face what was coming but was stopped when Ben grabbed his head with both hands like a vice.

With no maneuverability, the horned boar was a free frozen target for Gwen as she stabbed it. One stab, then another, then another, not stopping even after the boar stopped crying in pain. once she ran out of energy, she crawled over to Ben's side and held his head close to her chest as she fainted.

Ben sensing that she had fallen unconscious opened his eyes and kicked the boar off of him as he stretched and then yelled out. "That hurt like hell!"

The wounds that the boar inflicted had pierced not only Ben's lung, stomach and liver, but it had also scratched his heart. Ben swore he would never get used to pain and slowly the injuries began to close rapidly with steam being produced. The scratch on his heart, lungs, stomach, and liver healed and with a quick thought, the blood vanished into dust in the wind.

"Well, at least she has the will to at least fight for someone else. That's a start." Ben said as he picked up Gwen in his arms, healing her broken arm and other injuries back to perfect health.

"Might as well continue the quest since we need the money." Ben stated as he broke off the larger middle horn of the dead boar with his telekinesis and located four others.

----- -----

Waking up slowly, Gwen looked around to find herself in an inn. A second later she shot herself out of bed and ran to the door as memories of what happened earlier appeared. She needed to find Ben and make sure he was alive and apologize for her inaction. Just as she was about to pull the door open, Ben did it first and smiled when he saw that she was awake.

"Ben!" Gwen yelled as she hugged him tightly with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll never hesitate anymore! I promise."

Ben rubbed her head and smiled at this. "That's good."

*Growl*

Gwen turned red when she heard her stomach growl but also felt she didn't deserve to eat due to her actions causing Ben to be hurt. That reminded her of what had happened and she lifted up his shirt to look for injuries, only to find none.

"How?" Gwen was at a lost for words.

"We'll talk about it after you eat." Ben said as he led her to the bed with a bowl of meat stew and bread.

Gwen was still shocked at how Ben could be alive as she clearly remembered the large amount of blood and how Ben's chest was pierced. That was when she also noticed that the bruises and broken arm she had gotten were all gone.

"Magic?" Gwen said as she held her food.

"Got it in one." Ben said as he explained. "Tomorrow will be the day I teach you my own special brand of magic. But it might take a while as my style of magic will be based upon myths and stories so you'll have to remember them."

Gwen nodded but was focused on one and only one fact. "I'm glad Ben is safe."