Chapter 6

It was now time for Einar to move towards the capital. He had to travel a hundred kilometers, which was not a short distance. To make matters worse, two-thirds of this distance is all desert. He had food for a few days, but the trip through the desert itself would take around five days for him. He was planning to visit some of the villages on the way.

He did not have any money with him either to buy food, so he was hoping that the villagers in the villages would let him work, to get some bread. This would make the trip to the capital a little longer. This did not bother Einar too much though.

He would not go to any of the villages for the first few days, since he would still have food. He would use these days on traveling at day, and train at night. He wanted to get stronger on the road, so he wouldn't disgrace his master or himself at the academy.

The first day quickly went by with traveling. There were no accidents on this day, so it was all walk. It was now nighttime, so Einar was thinking it was about time to make camp. His camp was very simple. It was a small bonfire to make the food on, and a sleeping bag to sleep in. Even though he wouldn't get much sleep.

He wasn't really hungry at the moment, so he chose that he could train his 'Quick Draw' skill now. As he read through it, he got a basic understanding of the skill. It was very simple, draw your sword at your greatest speed.

He went over to the side, where he had found a big rock, he wanted to see what kind of damage he could do.

"Shing"

The first slash he made, made a sound of a blade being drawn. The slash of the blade itself was not so strong though. It barely scratched the surface of the stone.

Einar was proud though, he knew he had executed the skill the correct way. He could feel some kind of energy transferring from him, and into the blade. This in turn made the attack stronger.

"This is the power of my 'Aura'?" Einar muttered to himself. "It is quite weak, I need to train it!" He was a little skeptical, but proud of himself nonetheless for using 'Aura' for the first time.

The only two ways he knew how to train his 'Aura', was through using it continuously, or by killing monsters. He had no idea of where to find a monster on his level right now, so all he could do was keep using it.

He stood in front of the boulder for hours, as sweat started to form on his body. He kept going even though he was tired. At some point, his arms had started going numb, but he kept going. At some point, his whole body started to scream at him, but he felt it was so fun, he barely felt the pain.

In the end, he had been at it for more than 6 hours, and at this point, his body could not take anymore. His whole body was about to collapse, and he could barely walk. But when he looked at the big rock, he felt it was worth the pain.

When you looked at the rock, you could see on the blade mark, much deeper than all the others. It was around 6 centimeters deep, and 2 meters long. He went from barely scratching the rock, to cutting 6 centimeters into it. Einar could not help but be happy as he fell asleep.

As he woke up the next morning, he felt that his whole boy was still aching, but he did not mind as he got ready to move out again. He ate some breakfast, before he packed all of his things, and went on his way.

The next few days went by just like the first one, walk, eat, train and sleep. He had a good routine, and he felt comfortable.

On day four, he had no more food to eat, so it was time to find a village to see if he could get some. He had planned it so that he got to a village by now since he knew he would not have any food left at this point.

The village came into view for him, but the streets did not seem to be bustling with people. From the distance he was at, it looked like there were no people on the streets at all.

The village looked quite sad already since all of the houses were made of pure sandstone. There were a few windows in the buildings, but none of them had a glass. The doors were all made of poorly produced planks, with wooden handles.

There was not a spot of grass in the whole village. The roads inside of the village were made of either sand or sand stone.

As he went into the village, he could see that they had a well in the middle. It had a wooden roof, with a bucket hanging in a robe.

He went up to the well to refill his water. There were still no villagers in sight.

'Is this an abandoned village?' He could help to think, as he saw a tumbleweed silently flow through the village.

He turned around to go deeper into the village, but as soon as he turned around, he saw something that brought back memories. He saw blood scattered all over the buildings and on the walkway. He saw bodies that had been torn into pieces by claws.

He saw how the people on the ground had shocked at scared expressions. This made him remember his village, and how it was slaughtered. He looked around to see if the monster was still there, but he could not see anything.

"AAAAAAAAAAH" He heard a cry, it was quite a scared cry. It was not too far from him either.

'I have to help!' He thought this, as he ran straight to where the sound was.

As he arrived at the place where the cry happened, he saw a big, cat-like monster. It was chewing on a human adult at the moment, quenching its own hunger.

Behind the monster, Einar could see a lot of people. They were all looking at the monster with frightened expressions, but none of them had the power to do anything to this monster.

Einar knew he was the only one, who had at least some power. He only had one technique that could damage a monster. So he had to be smart about it if he wanted to kill it in one hit.

He knew he didn't have too much time left, because when it was done eating, it would go find a new meal. A monster like this needed to eat a lot, if it wanted to stay strong.

After thinking for a while, Einar had found a plan, which was not really a plan. He wanted to get the attention of the monster, and then use his 'Quick Draw' to slice the head of the monster. He knew it would not be so easy, as he needed to dodge a strike from the monster, so he could slice the neck from the side.

"HEY, YOU BIG PIECE OF SHIT! COME EAT ME!" Einar yelled out to provoke the monster.

As soon as he had yelled out his word, the monster looked at him straight away. His body's hair stood on end, he could not help but be scared meeting such a monster.

'Did I make a mistake? Should I not have involved myself in this mess?' He started doubting himself if it was a good idea to help these guys. Then He turned around, looked at all the mutilated corpses. He took in the horrible iron smell of blood. His eyes changed into ones of determination 'NO! I won't let others suffer what I suffered!'

The monster started charging straight at Einar, this made Einar tense up a little. He knew though, that being tense in this situation, might make matters worse, so he tried to relax his body.

The monster got closer second by second, and it would not be long before it was right in front of Einar. His attention was completely on the monster now, his face was ice cold. A small hue of red started to form around Einar, as the monster was only one step away from him.

The monster reached out its paw, going for the head. The split-second before it hit though, Einar took a quick step to the side.

The monster was now exposed, as it was in the air, and flying right beside Einar who was ready to strike. Just like that, Einar used 'Quick Draw' aiming at the monster's head.

"Slit!"

The strike cleanly cut off the head of the monster. The head and the body of the monster kept flying with the momentum until they landed 4 meters further back. The body fell in place, while the head kept tumbling away.

"Splash!"

Einar swung the blade, as the blood on it flew off, and landed on the ground. This was the second monster Einar had killed.