In the middle of the forest, it was quiet as a gentle wind pushed through the air. A figure emerged from the small hill that held the entrance to the Forest Den.

I stretched, “I’m finally out of there.” I looked around, the sunlight basked my skin. The underground felt depressing, and the monsters didn’t really help. I had gained some souls and had reached level 24, finding the last four gates to get out of the forest den was the hardest part. I never really paid attention going through the first time. My stomach rumbled, “I need to find some food.” The only place I could think of was the village that we passed through before, I looked down at my armor and realized I was almost naked. The leather armor I had bought and the clothes underneath were torn to pieces. I possibly will be able to sell some of the battle wolf pelts that I got. Battlewolf pelts are tough and durable, but it was also hard to get without destroying it completely with black miasma.

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I arrived at the gate of the town, the guards near the entrance stared at me while I walked towards them.

“Do you think you are allowed here beggar?” The guard began laughing.

I glanced down at what I was wearing and looked back at them, “I don’t see a problem here, I’m not a beggar. I’m here to trade things.”

One of the guards pondered for awhile, “Fine, walk in. If we catch you begging, we’ll throw you out.”

The guards looked at me with mocking expressions and shook their head as I walked past them.I ignored them as the first thing I need to do is find somewhere I can sell the pelts, therefore I decided to head towards the market place.

The marketplace had less people than last time since night was drawing near, I walked around carrying the leather. After searching for awhile I found a stall that wanted to buy my pelts, I walked away holding 1 Gold, and 50 Silver in my hand. Good, now time to buy clothes. People have been staring at me the whole time since I got here.

I looked around and found a stall selling cloth clothes, I bought a new pair of pants, a small bag, a pair of cloth shoes and a shirt as well as a black cloak. I have spent 13 Silver in total, clothes are a lot cheaper than armor for sure. I shook the remaining coins in my hand, and looked towards the sky. I should find a place to sleep.

I headed towards the inn I stayed at the first day, and checked into a room. A room at the inn was 20 silver a night, I could stay here for six nights without a problem, but I would need income sooner or later.

I looked down at the scabbard on my waist, an eerie feeling started to emit while looking at it, I remember that this dagger had something to do with souls I think, I never really had a chance to identify it again. I grabbed the hilt and pulled the dagger out and laid it out on the table next to the bed.

Swiping my hand across the dagger, I used .

Equipment informationNameHarvesterRankArtifactAttack Damage30-34Souls0RequirementsNecromancer ClassPassive BuffProvides 3 endurance while equipped.

Not bad, I guess I’ll have to kill more monsters and feed it souls to unlock it’s true power.

I placed the dagger back into the scabbard, and unhooked it, laying it on the table. I guess it’s time to get some rest. I laid my head on the hard bed and began drifting to sleep.

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A glare began to pierce the curtains, I yawned and rubbed my eyes while I pushed them aside and looked out the window. The street was filled with people, “Well, good morning.” I sighed, the events from yesterday were still sharp in my mind. I envisioned James, as he threw me into the pack of battle wolves. I looked towards the Harvester, it seemed to thirst for blood. The aura it was emitting seemed more sinister than last night.

I got up and stretched, grabbing a hold of the scabbard and hooking it back onto my side. I opened the door to my room and closed it behind me. I walked down the stairs to go to the counter. When I arrived at the counter, there was an old man wearing tidy black clothes, his eyes were squinting and he was smiling. “May I help you?” he asked.

I half-smiled, “... Yes, I wanted to ask if you had any ideas on where I can make some money in this town?”

“Well, you look like an adventurer,” he chuckled, “Have you looked at the Adventurers guild on main street?”

“I’ll have to give it a look,” I nodded my head and went out the door.

After walking for awhile, I found the Adventurers Guild. It was the biggest building on the street and had a sign with two crossing swords over a shield hanging on the front of the building. There were people walking in and out, they all looked different wearing different kinds of armours and weapons on them. I walked through the front doorway into a big room. The room had a bar-like area and was filled with tables, there were many people chatting and laughing while drinking mugs of beer. The room smelled like sweat but it had a good atmosphere. “Excuse me, are you an adventurer?” I turned to see a woman sitting behind a desk.

“Yes, I’m looking for work,” I said.

“Alright, you will need to register first,” She opened a drawer and pulled out something that looked similar to the ID Card. “This will be your personal Adventurer Card, but you will need to bind it with your magic power, please do so real quick.”

I placed my hand on top of the card and surged magic power through my palm, light shone through my fingers as the card absorbed my magic power, when it was finished it began to dim. “Ok, now what do I do?” I asked.

“Alright, This card has many uses, ” She began pointing at places on the card, “This will allow you to track all of your jobs that you are currently tasked with, and this here will allow you to view and take new jobs but there is a limit on how many jobs you can take.” She paused and looked up at me to see if I was getting everything, I nodded. She looked back down at the card and pointed at the last section. “This section here will allow you to track your Adventurer stats, this will have your ranking and more, ” She looked up again, and smiled, “That’s all the basic information you need to get started, bring your card back with you if you finished a job, so you can collect the reward!”

“Thank you, “ I nodded my head and left.

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Sitting in my room at the inn, I was looking at the Adventurers card flipping through the jobs that I could take. In the Adventurer's Guild, you start off at Bronze Rank. In order to increase your rank you must do jobs, after Bronze is Iron, and after Iron is Steel and so on. The highest rank one can achieve is Diamond.

The jobs in the Adventurer's Guild are broken up into categories for each rank, the jobs that each rank can choose are different. The jobs that I can do are easier and less rewarding than what an Iron rank can do and so on. I scrolled through the listing and decided that I would need to find one particularly without other people, since I don’t know how they would react to the black miasma.

I hummed as I sat and looked, soon with a flick of my finger, I opened up a job.

JobGoblin Extermination!LocationHowe VillageDescriptionOur village has been terrorized by a small group of goblins for the past few weeks. No matter how many times we have sent help to the king, they send nobody! We don’t have much to give as our village is poor and everything of value has been stolen.Pay4 Gold CoinsExtra InformationRecommend a group of 2-3 of Bronze Rank Adventurers

With a swipe I added it onto my list of current quest removing it from the jobs available section, “I should be able to get through this alone.” After a second confirmation, I absorbed the adventurer’s card back into my body.

I should get some rest before leaving tomorrow morning after hitting the shop.

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The sun peered over the horizon, light rays shined through the window. I shifted in my sleep, and opened my eyes. I sat up and yawned, looking at my hand black mist appeared on the surface but it subsided within second. There is a lot I have to study about this power.

I quickly dressed and hooked the Harvester on my waist, along with my small bag and went to the front desk. The same old man was sitting behind the counter. When he noticed me he smiled, “Hello again, are you looking to stay a night or?”

“No, I’m here to return the key and pay for the first night.” I put the key on the desk along with 20 silver.

The old man, picked up the key and placed it behind him. Next he grabbed the silver counting it slowly and smiled, “Thanks for staying, have good luck on your adventures outside.” He smiled as I left the inn.

The first place I went to when I left was the General Store. There was a couple of items that I would need to grab before I make a trip. The most important of them all was the map, without a map I would have no idea where I was going!

The general store was a small building on the side of the road a couple buildings down from the Adventurer's Guild. The front of the store was old, but it still looked welcoming. The inside was cozy, and many people would come and go occasionally after grabbing what they needed.

I walked into the General Store, behind the counter was a young man wearing a brown apron. “Is there anything I can help you with today?” He asked.

“Yes, I would like to get a map, a firestarter stone and three wrapped loaves of bread.” I replied, these items were usually the most popular for adventurers to buy. The Adventurers card had a lot of tips for travelling and most of them seemed useful for first time travellers. When time arrived, I would be able to travel with a lot better food supplies and go without things. Most of this trip I decided would be taken by walking on the main roads to avoid bandit activity, bandits would travel in groups and depending on how powerful their group was it could mean death.

After I finished, he nodded and started gathering what I asked for, the map was laid out on the table and a black stone with a red tint was laid on top of it, along with the three wrapped loaves of bread.

“That will be 7 Silver please.” He held out his hand, and I placed 7 silver coins in his palm. He counted them real quick and slid the items towards me. I picked up the folded map, and placed the firestarter stone and the 3 loafs of bread in my small bag. Afterwards, I headed outside and found a bench to sit on. After sitting I opened up the map.

The map was titled “West Region”, The kingdom was broken up in two Regions, the East Region contained the wall that blocked off the demon and the West Region held the majority of large towns and the population as they felt more safe than being in the East Region.The south in both regions was the border of the Dustscar empire, and to the north was the border of Aglana, the country of the demi-humans. There wasn’t much known about Aglana and it was marked a dangerous place for humans because of the humans turning demi-humans into slaves.

There were multiple towns and cities, and places of interest marked on the map. There was an X that marked my location where I bought the map, “ehh So this place is called Green Forest Village”. After a while, I found the place I was looking for, Howe Village. “It’s about 2 days out if I follow the main roads northwest,” I mumbled as I put the map away in my small bag. I got up and walked towards the west gate leading out of the town.

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A couple hours later, a group of 5 black armoured kingdom guards showed up in the town. They all had a symbol on their right shoulder, this showed that they were the most prominent squad in the kingdom, The Black Wind Knights. There were only 15 Black Wind Knights in the entire Kingdom! There was only one person that could give them orders and that was the leader of the Black Wind Knights, Master Raven.

“Alright, we are here to find this demon and exterminate it. We are also looking for that worthless hero and if we don’t find his body, he may be the one that will betray the human race and become the new Demon King.” The voice was loud, but the people nearby in the town couldn’t hear it.

“Disperse,” with one word the 5 figures flickered and shot off in different directions of the town. The first place to look was the town, than they would go to the Forest Den. Demons are known to hide in towns and cities, there was nothing stopping them from doing it as they could disguise themselves. If someone was powerful enough, they could easily distinguish the difference. This is the reason a group of the Black Wind Knights were sent. Only a couple hours later, a wave of elite guards appeared in the town as well. This was stunning to the inhabitants, but they passed through quickly and headed towards the Forest Den.

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Thanks for Son of Kasei for editing!

Possibility of chapter 08 to come out today as well, or tomorrow as an extra chapter this week!

Chapter 09 will still come out on next tuesday regular time.

If you have any suggestions on the story, or any tips for writing (or any fixes) I always read the comments.