Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 5 – Before the Storm (2)

THUD

His body fell to the ground, lifeless.

DING

[[XP gained: +100]]

[[Current XP: 675/1000]]

It felt different from when the adventurer party had betrayed me and tried to steal from me; perhaps it was due to the close nature with which I had killed the thug—a gun vs. knife sort of killing.

Regardless, the shock of having killed a man, the pain in my body, the blood running down my face, and the great sense of fatigue from having pulled that ability from within me all pooled together to create a single feeling of tired numbness.

The underlings stopped trying to rob the man, giving me a dumbfounded expression, similarly having trouble comprehending what they had just witnessed.

“He killed him!”

One of them let out a cry and took off down the opposite end of the alley, no doubt intending to spread the news to his higher-ups, which would only create more trouble for me.

“Fuck…!”

The other one took off to follow his partner in crime, tripping over himself and bouncing off the wall in the process.

The drunk continued to lie on the ground, groaning in his stupor.

I turned and left, numb legs carrying me, liquid from puddles of who-knows-what seeping into the hole in my boot.

***

It wasn’t much later that I dragged myself into view of the run-down rectangular building I called home.

Wedged near the West-side city outskirts, the building was two stories tall and constructed primarily of shaped foundations with wooden walls.

I didn’t know my neighbors too well; people were constantly coming and going, and most wanted to keep to themselves.

Save for one…

“Aizen?”

A familiar face greeted me after I climbed the steps leading to the walkway around the upper level and moved to unlock my door.

Long, smooth blonde hair, rosy skin, and sky-blue eyes. I wouldn’t have admitted it to her, but she was one of the few women who made me feel nervous.

Her name was Rhil, and she was my neighbor. I had known her for the past year or so that I had been living there—she had moved in one day without much fanfare and had mostly kept to herself since.

We had talked from time to time and I liked to consider her my friend, though she always seemed to keep some distance. I knew that she was a retired Awakener, though I hadn’t pried into her reasons. Everyone had their demons.

“Hey, Rhil…”

It looked like I had arrived just as she was heading out somewhere.

She noticed my face first. She took a step forward and tilted her head to peer up at me.

“What the hell happened to your face? Another run-in with the Snakes?”

She had seen me return bruised and battered before, of course, but I suspect that I looked worse than just “bruised and battered”.

“Yeah… I guess you could say that…”

She squinted her eyes.

“What happened…?”

“It’s fine…”

“…”

We fell into an awkward silence for a moment before she noticed.

“When were you planning to drop the news that your leg had been healed?”

I tapped my foot on the ground, showcasing its new usability.

“No better time than the present.”

She let her lips curve up a bit.

“Well, congratulations. I hope you gave them worse than they gave you.”

‘You could say that…’

“You sure you don’t need anything? That looks like it hurts.”

I wrinkled my nose a bit, the pain still sending tingles through my face. It was a bit crooked, likely broken.

“Yeah, it’s nothing worse than anything I’ve experienced before. I think I just need some rest.”

“Well, let me know if there’s anything I can do. We’ll go out for drinks on me after you rest a little, got it?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, thanks, Rhil.”

* * *

Reaper Scans

[Author – Farlight]

[Proofreader – Harley]

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* * *

I entered my apartment, which was little more than a square room with a bathroom separated by a dividing square that took up about a quarter of the space. The room itself was lit by a single square of illumination on the ceiling powered by ambient mana, which could be turned on and off with a simple touch-activated rune near the doorway.

Slipping off my boots, I let them rest next to the door and walked across the rough wood floor to the bathroom.

Hssss!

I took a long shower, glad for the runes that kept the water constantly warm. The grease and grime seemed to slough off of me and drain into the grating on the floor; the water tinged red by the time it drained away.

“Haaa.”

Letting out a deep breath, I turned off the shower and looked at myself in the mirror.

Finally seeing myself for the first time since gaining that strange archetype from the gold System, I noticed the changes in my body.

I wasn’t taller, per se, but I did notice a definition that hadn’t been there before in my muscles. My body was more toned, and previous areas of softness around my arms and stomach had been hardened as if I were a regular gym rat.

My hands rubbed at my eyes, not quite believing what I was seeing. Maybe that had something to do with the unexpectedly explosive power of my punch that had killed the thug.

Looking at the description in the golden window again, it made some sense.

{{When this archetype is selected, the user gains an extraordinary physique, superior bodily control, and can instinctually move their body how they wish.}}

After throwing on some clothes that weren’t in the middle of disintegrating from wear, I collapsed into the bed in the corner of the room proper.

A hard cotton mattress and rough sheets might as well have been a cloud made of the smoothest silk, as I fell asleep almost as soon as my eyes shut.

Disjointed flashes of gold and blue permeated a black night sky. The flapping of leathery wings in the distance grew closer with each beat.

The roaring of fire accompanied the cracking of earth, and the scene shook. Smoke rose into the night sky, glowing with an orange hue.

***

The next morning.

By the time I woke up, it was already late morning. A pang in my stomach, accompanied by a dull growling noise, alerted me to the fact that I hadn’t eaten for almost two days.

I exited the apartment with two goals in mind that day: find something to eat and get my adventurer license.

One fortunate thing about living away from the main road was that the sounds of the city barely reached there, and the morning air was quiet with anticipation.

My eyes briefly lingered on Rhil’s door before I left. I would have to get that drink with her when I came back.

A cold dread settled over my heart as I walked through the alleys, expecting at any moment to run into the Snakes again, thinking over what I had done the previous day.

I knew that I couldn’t just let things stay as they were. I needed to get out before the Snakes figured out how they would extract payment for their dead member.

With that thought in mind, I stopped briefly in the main street to buy a warm pastry from a street vendor, allowing myself to splurge a bit as a sort of self-reward for having finally leveled and for everything that had gone on.

It had been so long since I had something so sweet that the sugar was almost sickening. I made sure to eat every bite, suppressing the urge to regurgitate it onto the street.

The Association was located not far from the city’s main square on the north side of the city. The main road led through the center of the city to the main square, a large open plaza surrounded by some of the most central buildings and businesses in the city.

Smaller roads branched off the square in each direction to the trade district to the west, the upper district to the north, and the temple district to the east. Luckily, my main goal for the day was located pretty prominently in one of the buildings around the square itself.

The Association building.

Consisting of three stories, the building somewhat towered over the rest of the city.

Adventurers regularly came and went at most hours of the day, receiving tasks, exchanging information, forming parties, getting items appraised, and exchanging materials that they didn’t want to bother with selling elsewhere.

I trailed behind a party of three other adventurers as they entered the building, warm air rushing over me from the inside, which was temperature-controlled year-long by a special magical artifact built into the functions of the building.

I split off from behind them. It looked like they were going to one of the tables in the Association’s large common room, which took up most of the third floor. They were likely waiting to meet up with another party.

It was a bit of a strange feeling to be back in the Association building after having lingered in that common room on an almost daily basis for such a long time before being able to barter with a party to level me up.

Though they had tried to kill me in the end, I suppose they had accomplished what I was going to pay them to do, even if it had cost them their lives.

I approached the counter to speak with a familiar face, Alikr.

One of the few elves I had interacted with, Alikr had somewhat of a reputation for being a book that couldn’t be judged by its cover.

Though I suppose anyone who knew of the elves’ fabled martial abilities would be cautious around him, that didn’t stop some from trying to intimidate their way into a better bargain or a quest they didn’t meet the prerequisites for.

I had seen Alikr in action more than once, and it was always a sight to behold.

He seemed to take me in all at once as I approached—my slightly disjointed nose, the absence of my cane, my ability to walk—and his eyes even shone with some other knowledge, no doubt appraising some difference in my physique that I had thought hidden beneath my fraying clothes.

“I’m glad to see that things worked out for you, Aizen.”

He greeted me as I walked up to the counter.

“Nose looks broken; you’re probably going to want to visit the Temple district after this if you don’t want it to be permanent.”

We stared at each other for a moment in silence before I saw the edges of his lips quirk up slightly as if he were happy to see me.

“Ahh~ well, what can you do? Glad to see you’re ok, Aizen.”

He was one of the ones responsible for helping me find work, even with my previously crippled condition. Usually, the Association strictly handled Awakener business.

I couldn’t be more thankful for that.

“I take it you’re here for your license? What class did you get?

“It’s a weird variation on the fighter class with some elemental earth control… Have you ever heard anything about a separate or gold system window?”

He paused to consider for a moment, flicking his eyes up towards the ceiling.

“I can’t say that I have, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Can you show me?”

I pulled up my system windows and made both viewable to him.

____

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