Two weeks passed and the dark brown-haired man remained copped in the room he was given, trying hard to remember what he could. His wounds had completely healed and he could now walk without any help.
Eryth barely left his room. The only time he does is to the balcony to stare at the grey-haired lady, that was all he knew about her, she had grey hair, or if he was to take the food dropped in front of his door.
Eryth got up on his feet and stretched his body. "Well fuck it, I am not going to waste my time dwelling on what happened yesterday."
He put on some clean clothes, slipped his dagger into his boot, and picked his sword from the table before making his way out of the room and down the stairs.
Instead of going to where the monk asked him to meet, Eryth walked to the training ground where he finally saw the lady who yelled commands at the young warriors.
She had grey hair which she tied up in a bun, her skin was pure white with black markings around her blue eyes. She wore fine body armor to her waist and tight black pants coupled with some boots. In her hand was a sheathed sword.
Eryth smiled as he approached the group. He narrowed his eyes unsatisfactorily as he watched them. After remaining silent for a couple of moments, he let his warrior mind take over and spoke. "I don't mean to interrupt, but you're not doing it right."
Unlike the last time he saw them, this time, they were using swords to train. The young fighters stopped and the lady turned to face him, her face devoid of any positive emotions. "What?"
"You are supposed to strike with your muscles, especially your abdominal muscles."
The lady narrowed her eyes. "Are you questioning my way?"
Eryth stayed quiet for a second before answering. "I mean I can't let you instruct them wrongly."
"Masatly!" She yelled and a formless figure marched out.
"Yes teach?" The figure had a male voice so the dark brown-haired man could tell it was a male. The instructor extended her hand with the sword.
Masatly, the formless figure extended his part which was apparently his hand, and collected the sword. He pulled it out and made his battle stance.
"Oh, you want me to fight that?" He asked surprised. "The trainee?" He asked again.
The figure began inching closer and as Eryth stared at it, he suddenly saw himself. It was as if the figure had taken his form.
"Fuck," he muttered before raising his sheathed sword. "I haven't swung a sword in a lot of days, so I'll take this as a warmup.
Masatly charged forward, mercilessly swinging his sword at Eryth's neck. The dark brown-haired man laughed as he effortlessly dodged the attack. He moved smoothly to stand behind the formless thing and slap the sheathed sword on its back.
Masatly swung another but Eryth dodged again. It continued that way for a moment until Eryth got bored. He raised his sword to his chest level and unsheathed it. A strong wind pushed the formless figure back, sending him crashing to the ground in front of the white-haired lady.
The dark brown-haired man hummed, stared at his sword then sheathed it back. Just then he felt a cold metal pressing to the back of his neck. He smiled and veered around to see Masatly.
"In this realm, Eryth, nothing is as it seems," Monk Zumma's voice came in from behind Masatly.
The figure on the ground rose and walked into the one holding the sword to Eryth's neck, becoming one. He bowed before returning to his spot among the other trainees.
"Illusion act?" Eryth thought to himself before turning his attention to the monk. "Old man!"
"Have you finally figured out how you ended up here?"
Eryth frowned. "What are you talking about? I was only letting my wounds heal."
"Who is this man?" The lady queried.
The monk turned to look at her. "Oh, this is Eryth, I picked him up beneath the mountains."
"You pick up random people now?" She yelled. "What if this man works for him and is just here to spy on us?"
Monk Zumma sighed. "Lady Grevla, not everyone is an enemy, you need to learn to trust people."
The lady whose name is Grevla pulled out her sword and pointed it at Eryth. "I won't make that mistake again."
The monk stepped backward. "Go ahead then."
Eryth raised his brows as he looked between the two. "Huh?"
Grevla groaned and slipped her sword back into its scabbard. "I'm watching you," she said before turning back to the beings she was training.
"Come with me," the monk said, turning his heels in the opposite direction. Eryth spared one more glance at Grevla before heeding Zumma's words.
"Your lady seemed to be pissed about something."
"She is," he replied.
"Must be something big."
"It is."
"I'm gonna keep going till you tell me what. I stay here now, don't you think I should know what's going on?"
The monk continued walking and just when Eryth was about to utter another word, he began speaking.
"Lady Grevla is the daughter of the late Herimolian king. But her family got attacked by evil. Her entire family were murdered and he took the throne, only she and her sister managed to escape. He was someone Grevla trusted."
"Oh-"
He continued. "This evil has been going around killing innocent lives and absorbing their energy to become stronger while turning them into his undead knights. He desires to take every realm that exists."
Eryth frowned in disappointment. "Well, shit. I am guessing she's pissed because she can't fight back?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll help. I got nothing doing, plus I never say no to an interesting quest," his eyes narrowed as he uttered the word 'quest'.
"What about where you came from?"
Eryth sighed. "I get aches whenever I try to think about how I ended up here. It is as though I have the memories, but I don't, it's there and it's not," he paused. "I don't know, the only thing that is clear is that my name is Eryth, I am a Rune act mage and I love boobs, I mean books… and of course the night I had with the Raven girl and her husband and it still feels like yesterday and it happened in this realm, so I have decided to not think about it anymore."
"You are a Rune act mage?" The monk asked with a shocked expression.
Eryth face palmed. "That is all you picked up?"
"What color?"
"What is wrong with you old man? I'm here comforting in you and you are only interested in my act?"
"What Rune color do you use?" Monk Zumma asked with a more serious tone.
"I don't understand," the dark brown-haired said after realizing how serious the old monk was.
The monk sighed and cleared his throat before speaking again. "As a Rune act mage, what can you do?"
"Well err, I don't… oh," he said, finally understanding what the monk meant.
"I think it was blue, or not." He extended his hand and a black rune marking appeared in front of his opened palm. A second later, a gust of flame rushed out of his palm, burning the tree in front of him.
The monk stared at him with wide eyes. "You are a black coloured Rune mage?"
"If there's anything I have zero idea about, it's how my act works, it's boring and I couldn't give two fucks about it."
Monk Zumma waved his hand around and two stools appeared. He pushed one to Eryth and sat on the other. "You know about the Acts, and ability gifted to us by the OR-DER gods so we can protect ourselves from evil. Unlike the Anaheym realm, which is the mortal world, which the 'keeper of the veil' tried to protect from knowing this Act because he felt it would cause chaos… which he was right… other realms had these acts from the beginning.
"Among these acts is the Rune Act, classified under the Mage Act. A Rune act user can connect into and perform one or more of the other mage acts," he paused to catch his breath before speaking again. "Now this Rune act is also classified into four, called the colors: the blue rune act which is basically useless, the white Rune act- which can connect to one of the ten other mage acts to perform the skill, Orange Rune act - can perform at most four mage act and the Black Rune act…. a user of this color can connect to and perform all ten of the other Mage act."
"Really?" Eryth smiled.
"People call the Black Rune Act an abomination because the user can sometimes get an act outside of the Mage. They are Dark Mages."
Eryth's brows moved up. "So in a nutshell, I am powerful."
"You may be. But it is hated and most realms and kingdoms kill people with this act. It is a very rare act and only unlocked in a person after a while of living… it is believed to be unlocked when a person has come in contact with one of the Chaos gods."
"That's… wow."
"I know it is too much for you to handle, but if you let me train you, I could help you control your powers and you won't be consumed by your Act, like others who possess the Black Rune Act."
"What is it that you want to teach me that I don't already know?"
The monk's brows shift up. "Everything."
Eryth let out a small chuckle. "Sure, I can't just sit around doing nothing."
For the first time, Eryth noticed a bright smile on the old monk's face. He looked as though he had finally achieved his long-awaited dream.
"Well then, I'll see you at the bottom of this mountain before sunrise tomorrow," he said before starting towards the village.
Eryth nodded. "Sur… wait, sunrise?? The hell? Who wakes up before sunrise?" He turned but the monk had already disappeared from his view.
Eryth shook his head, realizing what he had put himself into. He stood up to leave, but before he could, a scream came from within the woods beside him.
Without wasting time, Eryth dashed into the woods, following the sound of the shouts and screams.
.…
ns 15.158.61.5da2
