Surviving as a Broken Hero

Whether it was healing me or just serving as a sort of local anesthetic, the end result was the same—I was able to move without pain.

“Avoid placing anything over or on the wound until it fully scabs over at least.”

I wasn’t sure how comfortable the torn armor would be anyway. It was about time for me to find new clothing.

“Believe it or not, my residence here stems from a similar sort of misunderstanding.”

The orc spoke again after I turned to face her, head tilted towards the ceiling in contemplation even though she could not see in a habitual gesture.

She paused as if she was going to elaborate further, but the pause continued into a long silence.

“…You’re going to want to head towards the city when you’ve recovered enough.”

‘The city?’

It was surprising to hear that there was a city out there, especially because, if there was one, it wasn’t one that was very common knowledge.

I also wondered who would inhabit said city and why they had never come into any or much contact with people before.

It sounded like Krylla was already trying to get me into the mindset that I would be leaving soon, eager to see me off, but there was still more I was curious about.

“Which city?” I questioned her, curious to know more about where she was trying to point me toward.

“It’s the City on the Edge, up through the northern mountains, though you can take the caverns below instead of attempting that treacherous climb.”

A city on the edge of what?

“Could you tell me more? Who inhabits the city? How big is it? What should I expect? How do I get there?”

Krylla grunted in response, mulling over her words before speaking.

“The city is inhabited by those who reach the edge and can’t bear to go back. You’ll see what I mean when you get there. Dragons rule the city, and as a result, it’s probably one of the safest places you can find out here.”

I knew that dragons existed from the tales I had heard of them, legendary beings often hunted by humans or told about being defeated by extraordinary adventurers like the Lion. Of course, I had never seen one in person before, as such beings existed far away from the likes of civilization as I knew it.

…Or so I had thought.

“I can tell you how to get there, the way is pretty clearly marked from a certain point not far from here, though your safety will be up to you.”

She was saying that she wouldn’t accompany me far. She probably didn’t want to leave the Relic too far behind.

“Can you tell me more about the Relic?”

“Mmmm…”

Her deep hum echoed through the tunnel, a vibrating tone that seemed to work its way into my bones.

I hadn’t previously gotten close enough to properly examine the Relic with the system, so all I had to go by was that Krylla insisted on guarding it, the Relic was sought after by people who might use it for bad, and what it looked like.

“It’s a Relic that grants abilities based on the wishes of the user. It can give you just about anything, but it asks for things in return as well.”

She gestured vaguely towards her blank eyes with her hand. The Relic had taken her sight, then? If so, what she had gotten in return was probably whatever sense she used to navigate the tunnels. It could have been something like my recently acquired heat sense.

But if she was so worried about other people finding or using the Relic…

“Why don’t you just destroy the Relic or collapse the cave so that nobody can reach it?”

It was what I would have done. Why bother protecting something you couldn’t use when you could just make it so that others couldn’t reach it?

“The Relic knows. It wants people to be able to reach it, it’s why it exists, after all. Collapsing the tunnel or trying to destroy the Relic itself would only bring about destruction for the sorry sod who attempted it.”

Ah, an intelligent Relic, then.

Relics could be anything from places to items to something more. Who was to say they didn’t have minds of their own? It would actually make more sense that way.

Just then, new windows popped up in response to the information about the Relic,

[[New Quest!

Utilize the Relic or destroy it before time runs out!

Fail Condition: Relic is used by someone else.

Time: 8:00:00]]

{{New Quest!

Protect the Relic from those who seek its power!

Fail Condition: Relic is used by someone else.}}

Two quests, each from a different System…

The most worrying aspect, of course, was the inclusion of the time limit.

From the way the quest also mentioned stopping others from using the Relic, I came to the conclusion that there was probably a group or individual that would reach the relic in the next eight hours.

Krylla’s face didn’t change. I was apparently the only one who had received the quest. Then again, for all I knew, she had a persistent quest that required her to protect the Relic at all times.

“You mentioned people that have come for the Relic before… Was there anyone recent or that might have escaped?”

Her brows scrunched together and she stared at me with those unseeing eyes.

“Why do you ask?”

“You’re going to have to trust me on this one, but I just received a quest to protect the Relic, and it comes with an eight-hour timer.

“…The last to try was a few days ago, It’s hard to make out details besides the body silhouette, but they were strange in that their skin was scale-like to the touch, they had tails, and there were oddly malformed wings on some of their backs.”

An image came to my mind of the imps that I had previously fought. They mostly matched the description.

“Were they pretty small, about knee height?”

“No… They were about average height for a human. Do you want to see them?

Was she keeping the bodies somewhere or something? I wondered for what purpose, but there were some questions that I really didn’t want the answers to.

* * *

She ended up taking me back through the caverns again to what she told me was the “feeding storage room”.

When I asked her if she ate the bodies of those she killed, she laughed and told me that the bodies were kept to feed the things lying outside of her section of the caves that she had come to a sort of mutual understanding with.

I was curious to know more, but the sight of the bodies was enough to confirm my suspicion.

—They were related to the imps.

The creatures looked like strange abominations somewhere between a lizard and a human, with short, malformed wings on their backs. They had a humanoid build and stature and wore gear in the same way humans did, which meant they were intelligent. I should have guessed as much anyway if they had sought the Relic.

It was a worrying coincidence that the same types of creatures I had just fought and killed in the city were again causing trouble not far away at a source of incredible power. I could only imagine why they would want a Relic or who they were acquiring it for.

“Yeah… I’ve fought things like these before where I come from. The lord of the city was working with them for power, I call them demons.”

They certainly looked how I would imagine demons to look and had only performed what could be considered evil deeds, to boot.

She rubbed her chin, thinking about something else.

“Then I guess we should prepare… If it’s a System quest, it’s probably going to be more than just a scout party like these guys appeared to be.”

There were three of their bodies in the room. I couldn’t imagine what we would be facing for both Systems to react the way that they had.

Krylla led me back towards her personal offshoot of the cave system before we turned to a relatively flat, large cavern at a separate dead-end tunnel.

She held out the blue sphere and focused on it for a few moments as it grew brighter from a higher influx of mana and she strode to the center of the cavern, placing the orb into a small crater on the ground where it wasn’t likely to roll about.

“If you’re going to help me, you’re going to have to learn to not be useless.”

It was a harsh remark, but it was true that I would be useless if I couldn’t see what I was fighting.

She stared at me for a few moments and widened her stance, leaving the axe on her back and holding out her arms to make a wide gesture at me.

“Attack me.”