The World of Tactics

Chapter Twenty I: Lawrence? Jagen?

"Well, hello there youngster. Looking pretty bad yourself, huh?

Well, I have been there once.

See this arm?

It is almost the same as yours, except it is on the opposite side.

You need to patch up.

Shall we go back to my dwelling?

As for this green thing, just leave it.

I have already got the core.

...

My story?

Haha-Huahahaha!

I'll tell you that you were the first person I've talked to in a long time. The story goes like this. Once upon a time, two twins were born. One was talented and the other was moderately average. I was that talented child. However, as a firstborn twin with a family of great knights. The heir to the family became an interesting question. A battle is a must between the two of us to decide the heir.

To be fair to the two of us, we were given fifteen years to grow. As both of us became older, my younger twin wanted to become the heir. As I never care for such, I fall into the scheme of those from the branch family. The branch family privately supports my younger twin from the dark. I had an accident a few days before our honorable duel. I was attacked, surrounded, and my left hand was wasted.

See this part below?

My tendon was purposely cut. I insisted on continuing the battle and lost it all. There was no mercy, no family warmth, and nothing from my younger twin. I was chased away from the family, pursued, and almost died a couple of times. Back then, I could have recovered if I had been given the elixir. But my father, the family head, had long been poisoned for years. I begged for the elixir, but the branch family obstructed my recovery. Till now, I have not recovered back to my prime self.

The years passed after I escaped, but I was barely surviving with nuts but my fighting abilities. To survive the disdain of being labeled by others as disabled, I have to hunt monsters to sell for gold coins. I have been saving gold for the last few years.

See those chests over there?

It's filled with gold coins. I have been gathering gold coins for years and the next two years. I would have enough to buy an elixir to restore my right arm. Of course, if you want to take it. Be careful of my powerful lance (It's a silver lance).

Huahaha!" Said a passerby distraught about a troubled past. Said Jagen to Lawrence.

---

John Smith fell onto his butt the moment he relaxed all of his muscles. This was the most intensive battle that he had been in. Even if he was besieged by many wolves or goblins, he would be able to easily take them head-on. However, an earth draco lizard with an overall boost was too much for him. Thinking back about if he was to have another summons, the situation would have become worse for wear. He bet that the two additional increases from his two summons would be his death. It was even so after he found out that the escape squares faded away. He was also curious why it had to fade away. Thinking about it, he did not care about it anymore. Everything is fine as long as he is alive and stronger. He was also glad that he was alive.

He snapped back once he remembered the last hew-haws of Dork as Dork escaped. Dork was well on the road in the yonder already. He realized that the battle did not take as long as he would have thought. He immediately stores the corpse of the earth draco lizard in his inventory before setting off to chase Dork. He felt uncomfortable with his ripped clothing, which was stained with blood and sweat. He cried out loud, "Dork!"

He was mentally tired and just wanted to rest on top of Dork. The crying chase did not take long at all because he saw that Dork looked back at him. The chase has not even started. He felt a bit relieved to see that Dork managed to hear even from this distance. Over in the distance was Dork's cloud of dirt. However, what he did not know was that Dork was escaping. Dork would look back once or twice and it just happens that Dork turns back after he cries out.

He took out the corpse of the earth draco lizard and proceeded to take out the soul core. The earth draco lizard is just an empty corpse without a soul core now. The figure of the earth draco lizard was bigger than a direwolf, but with his current strength stat. It was easy for him to carry it with one hand and hang his head down. He needs to drain the blood of the earth draco lizard. Just when he was about to slit the throat of the earth draco lizard, he frowned as his nostrils took in a particular earthy smell and it smelled pretty good.

He had thought that it was due to the nearby blooming flowers, but a breeze of wind passed and the smell of the flowers was completely different from that particular earthy smell. Once the breeze passed, he could smell that earthy fragrance. A few more huffs with his nostrils and he realizes that it came from the oozing blood of the earth draco lizard that he was currently carrying. He stopped to think and concluded that the blood of this earth draco lizard must be special. It is likely linked to the traces of blood within the earth draco lizard.

Thinking of dragon blood, he hurried and took out his half-used canteen. He hurried to drink some mouthful of water before quickly cleaning his b****y leather clothes. It was barely enough to moderately get it clean, but it will do. He set up the earth draco lizard and slit the throat of the earth draco lizard. Blood began to flow down and he positioned the canteen underneath to catch the blood of the earth draco lizard. After filling over half of the canteen with fresh blood of the earth draco lizard. He unceremoniously puts the canteen back into his inventory. This will fetch a good use or price later on when he learns the value of it.

He moved on to removing the two fangs and stumpy claws before opening up the stomach. Contrary to his expectation of gross smelling guts and whatnot. The smell of the earth draco lizard's guts had a tint of earthy fragrance that covered most of the smelly guts. Hence, the smell was on a level that he could take in with his nostrils. To truly remove the guts, he still had to pull the lungs that are attached to the artillery. A strong grip tightens, a moderate pull, and he easily separates all of the guts from the carcass.

Afterward, he did not bother digging a pit for the guts. He just threw it over yonder and into the bushes. Once night came, the other monsters would clean it for him. However, this does not mean that his job was over. He proceeded to remove the leather-like scale hide. He did not make any unnecessary cuts after he got a good hold on one part of the hide. He grabbed the tender meaty part as well before forcefully ripping the hide from the meat. The only trouble came once he had to remove the hide from his tail. However, he managed.

Once he cleaned everything up into his inventory, he continued while munching on some meat strips. This would make up for his loss of appetite during the morning. The break had gone far beyond his expectations and Dork had enough rest. The cloud also covered the sunny sky from way above. It was not a good omen at all and he had a slight feeling that the weather would turn for the worse and rain. It was best to find a better place to start camp early on since the rain would take quite a long while to settle down. He doubted that he could find a cave to hide from the rain, but he had to get a move on before it was too late.

The tremors from the cloud that is gradually darkening are worrying. It was just a sunny day just a while ago and now he knows for sure that it will rain. He quickly hopped on top of Dork and they both quickly made their way forward. The sky was rapidly darkening and there were more tremors and rumbling sounds. It was not good at all because this might become a dangerous thunderstorm.

It was only ten minutes on the road and he could feel a watery drip coming from the sky. It was raining sparsely for the moment and he feared that it would become much stronger later on with the howling wind. His hair and Dork's mane had already been roughed by the sharp wind, so he even urged Dork to go faster. However, it was difficult for Dork as well, because the wind was blowing against them.

Five minutes later and the situation completely changed because it was raining much harder than he expected. He and Dork were completely wet while the wind direction was still up against them. Proceeding further would prove fruitless, so he directed Dork into the nearby high woods to find a good place to hide from the rain. Dork was even more eager than him and rushed directly into the woods.

They made their way into the woods and their situation became even worse because of the wet ground. Not only that, the ground was quite slippery and Dork had almost tripped on one or two occasions. Even though the treetops did lessen the wind and rain. Moving forward was very tricky. Likewise, trying to reach a higher elevation is not easy. What they needed to find was a cave that could hide them from the rain.

No matter how he let his eyes peel, he could barely distinguish his surroundings due to the rain and his eyelids battled against the incoming rain. This continued for a long thirty minutes and there was no progress in finding a cave at all. At this moment, he realized that he might have made the wrong decision. He regretted that he should have started finding a cave the moment the sky started to become cloudy.

Just when this thought cropped up in his mind, Dork became excited. He could tell that something had agitated Dork. Since the battle grid line did not start forming, he believed that there was no danger. Dork did not let him think for too long, since Dork had already stormed in one direction. Along the way that Dork chose, he could not tell directions apart because of the darkened surroundings and the veil of raindrops.

However, he did discover something far in the yonder. It was a distinct spark of light that was reflected by a fire source. At first, it was just a bright white light. Then, as both of them got closer and closer, a bright orange glowed far in the distance. This made Dork even more excited and he was the same. He could vaguely see the open mouth of the cave and the light was quite a distance inside the cave.

With Dork's enthusiasm, they reached the distance in under fifteen minutes. Dork was also becoming more nimble the closer they were to the cave. There were almost no slips from Dork's rush. Even so, it felt a bit uncomfortable sitting on top of Dork with Dork's irregular movements. He felt that it was more exhausting to sit rather than to run right at that moment. Likewise, he was not going to complain because the cave opening was only twenty meters in front and he could make out the outline of the fireplace. The rain was still as heavy as it began and the wind was also the same.

The reason why he did not rush forward was that he knew that there was a fireplace within the cave. There should be living things that start such a fire. Likewise, he had hoped that it was goblins inside the cave rather than humans. He could easily take care of the goblins inside. However, if there were humans inside. Then he could consider running away, since for such a fire to be lit here. There would be a high chance that the people inside were bandits.