Crimson Dust and Crystal Deals
It's been 1 week and 3 days since I left.
The forest path twisted under my feet, roots like veins from the earth trying to trip me, as if the world didn't want me moving forward.
The sky was pale gray, heavy with clouds but holding back its rain.
My boots crunched quietly along the leaf-littered trail, hunger gnawing at my belly again, but I ignored it.
I had one strip of dried meat left.
I was saving it for when I really needed it.
Orario still felt like a dream.
I hadn't seen the walls, hadn't smelled the forge smoke, hadn't heard the clash of metal from the Dungeon's mouth
just trees, and monsters.
That's when I heard them.
Voices.
Yelling.
I crept through the brush and peered into a clearing below the slope.
A small group of merchants, maybe five or six, huddled around their overturned cart.
Horses screamed. Crates were smashed, their contents scattered. Surrounding them were monster's there were 6 small green human-like monsters, some had weapons,and 2 wolf human like monster, their low growls echoing through the trees.
I stepped back.
This wasn't my problem.
I wasn't an adventurer.
I was just trying to survive.
But then I heard something.
A twig snapped behind me.
My body moved before my brain did.
I ducked.
A jagged dagger whistled through the air where my head had been.
I twisted around and kicked.
My leg fast as lightning, connected with a snarl and a bone.
CRACK!
The goblin's face imploded under the weight of my heel.
Its skull caved in with a sickening crunch as it was launched backward, crashing into a tree and slumping to the ground.
Dead.
For a moment, everything froze. My heart pounded like a war drum.
Then the others saw me.
They charged.
I didn't think.
I moved.
The first goblin lunged.
I sidestepped, grabbed its arm, and spun into a flying knee to its jaw.
It snapped backward, gurgling blood.
A kobold swiped at me with a rusted cleaver.
I dropped low and swept its legs from under it, then stomped hard on its throat.
Another goblin screamed.
I caught it mid-jump, grabbed its wrist, and twisted until I heard it snap.
I flung it into the other kobold, and they both tumbled.
My fists and feet were fast.
Every strike was instinct.
Every motion is a memory in my blood.
I kicked one so hard that its spine bent the wrong way.
Another tried to flee, and I grabbed a loose stone and hurled it.
It hit the back of its head with a crack, and it dropped.
And then it was silent.
Crimson dust filled the air.
The smell of blood clung to the clearing like smoke.
I stood alone.
Breathing hard.
Alive.
Again.
"By the gods," someone whispered behind me.
I turned.
One of them, a round man with sharp eyes and a thin mustache, stepped forward. "That was... that was insane. Are you an adventurer?"
I shook my head, still catching my breath. "No."
He looked down at the corpses. "You sure? Because the way you handled those things..."
He knelt beside one of the goblins and nudged it with his boot. "You gonna take the crystals?"
I blinked. "What crystals?"
"Magic stones," he said. "In their chests. All monsters have them. And they will disappear after you pull it out fully. They're worth a lot."
I crouched, confused, and poked one of the corpses.
Its skin was still warm.
With a dagger I found on a dead kobold, I cut into its chest.
And there it was.
A faintly glowing shard, the size of a walnut, pulsing with a soft blue light.
When I pulled it out, the body dissolved.
My eyes widened.
"See?" he grinned. "You pull them out and sell them in Orario.
Even regular monsters fetch a few Valis dungeon ones? A fortune."
I stared at the crystal in my hand. I could feel its warmth, like something alive or once alive. It was a strange comfort despite everything.
"Do... do you want it?" I asked.
He laughed. "No, no. That's yours. You earned it. First kill, first stone. It's yours to keep."
I looked at the glowing shard again Its light reflected in my eyes in that moment, I realized that everything was changing.
The path I walked, the strength I was beginning to discover, and the world that had been hidden from me until now, it was all real.
"You said they sell in Orario?"
He nodded. "Big market there. Adventurers bring back loads of them from the Dungeon. If you're smart and careful, you can make a decent living. Maybe even more."
I looked up at him, then at the rest of the merchants. A few of them were still watching me, cautious but grateful. One even smiled.
The merchant laughed. "No, kid. That one's yours. You earned it. But... I do have a proposal for you."
I looked up.
"We're heading to Orario," he said, gesturing to the other merchants.
They were still shaken, but alive. "We could use someone like you. We pay protection fees to adventurers all the time. You protect us? We feed you. Pay you. And when we get to the city, I can introduce you to some guild contacts."
I hesitated.
The other merchants gathered close, nodding.
One was a woman about my father's age.
She looked at me kindly. "We'd be dead without you. Please. Come with us."
A part of me wanted to say no.
To keep running to stay alone.
But...
I looked down at the blood on my hands.
The broken monsters.
The crystal.
Maybe it was time to stop running.
I nodded. "Alright. I'll protect you."
The round merchant clapped his hands. "Fantastic! Name's Bren. What about you, kid?"
I hesitated, then said, "Mateo."
He smiled. "Well, Mateo... welcome to the road to Orario."
I sat down on the cart's edge as they began to fix the wheel.
Bren tossed me an apple and some bread.
I took a bite.
And for the first time in days...
I didn't feel alone.
It's been 3 weeks since the attack, the merchants were in better spirits.
Some cracked jokes, others cleaned their weapons, and the round man with the mustache, whom I'd learned was named Bren, kept glancing at me like I was some kind of walking legend.
We were making our way down a narrow forest path, the wagons creaking behind us, when I felt it.
That stillness again, birds fell quiet, wind slowed, the forest exhaled silence.
"Something's wrong," I murmured.
Bren looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Again?"
I didn't answer I crouched low, scanning the trees.
Then I saw the shadows moving through the brush, at least a dozen goblins, kobolds, and two ogre-like creatures with clubs the size of logs.
"Get down!" I shouted.
The monsters exploded from the trees like a wave of nightmares.
I didn't hesitate.
No weapon. Just my body.
The first goblin lunged, teeth bared.
I twisted grabbed its face, and slammed it headfirst into the ground with a crunch that echoed like breaking bones in a drum.
Another came from the side I whirled and backhanded it so hard its jaw dislocated mid-air It flew into a tree and didn't move again.
A kobold snarled and swung a cleaver at me I ducked, caught its arm, and hurled it over my shoulder into a charging wolf they collapsed in a mess of snarls and screams.
I followed up by spinning into a flying knee that shattered another goblin's ribs with a crack that made Bren wince.
Everything was motion.
I flipped over a wolf, grabbing its fur mid-leap and swinging it like a flail into a group of monsters.
Limbs snapped.
Screeches echoed.
The ogres bellowed.
They were massive, twice my height and packed with muscle.
One lifted its club and smashed the earth, dirt flying.
I leapt into the air, kicked off its shoulder, and twisted into a midair double stomp to its skull.
The impact drove its face into the dirt, the ground trembling under its weight.
Before the second ogre could react, I sprinted at it, jumped, and delivered a spinning heel kick to its throat.
It gagged, stumbled
I was already on it.
I slammed my fists into its face again and again, each blow cracking skin, bone, and spirit it tried to roar, but I shoved both feet into its mouth and kicked off, snapping its jaw sideways.
I landed, rolled, and came up fists ready.
Blood sprayed across the leaves. The forest floor was littered with bodies. Monsters twitched and groaned. None stood.
My body trembled not from fear, but the aftershock of fury. My hands were split, my knuckles raw. I could feel the heartbeat in my fists.
Behind me, the merchants stared, mouths agape, like I'd just torn open the sky.
Bren finally spoke. "You're aren't human, are you?"
Still, I turned back to the road, not looking back. "No, I'm only half let's keep moving."
Orario was still far.
And the road was still hungry.
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