Schörl wasn't sure about his whereabouts, it was the only part of the forest he hadn't explored, it was the Beast Valley Of North.
He didn't realize how far he had traveled while in the Rune Cave and ended up in the only dangerous part of the Northern Kingdom. He had to find his way home while trying to survive the monsters that live in the forest.
A screaming voice suddenly came from the woods, and Schörl turned around to see where it came from. 'What the hell was that, maybe a deer?' He went closer until he saw trees crashing down toward him. He started to run from whatever was chasing him until he stumbled on a root and fell to the ground face-first.
As he looked at what was chasing him, he got chills down his spine as he realized it was a fiend. It looked like a buffalo with thicker skin and had black feathers instead of fur, but some of the feathers had strange yellow and brown spots. Some say those spots indicate how many humans the fiend has hunted and eaten.
Fiends are also classified as A-rank hell spawns, which means it would take around three A-rank adventurers to defeat one.
The fiend opened its huge jaw, and Schörl saw an explosion of black flames that then turned into black ice, piercing the fiends skin without any effort. Then, as Schörl's consciousness started to fade, he saw the rune on his palm shine black, just like it did in the cave.
***
Schörl woke up in the middle of the same forest with the beast lying on him. The ice had disappeared, but the fiend seemed to have died.
He got up and took a claw, about the same length as his own arm, to use as a weapon against weaker monsters. He still didn't know how it had died, but he knew the rune had saved him.
He felt as though the rune was there to protect him while he was weak. This just made Schörl angry, having it on his palm and being unable to get rid of it. He didn't believe that he even needed it, and that it would be better to die fighting an A-rank hell spawn instead of being saved by fate.
Schörl finally found a road that he believed would lead him back to his home village. Then he looked up, and for some reason, he couldn't see the North Star—only the east, west, and south stars were visible.
Normally, all four of those stars would be visible, even in the worst of fogs. The good thing was that his village was east of the Northern Kingdom. He just found it odd that the North Star wasn't visible.
***
As Schörl began to head east, he felt safer. Still, he had to fight off a few lone dark goblins, which were only E-rank monsters when alone and weaponless. When he finally reached the village, the guards panicked as they saw him covered in bruises, blood flowing from his forehead, and holding a fiend claw stained with blood.
"Whoa, are you okay, Schörl? How did you get into this shape, and why are you holding a fiend claw?!" the guard said, gripping Schörl's shoulders.
Schörl tried to fake a smile while saying, "It's fine. I just got lucky by finding this, and then I ran into some dark goblins, but they were alone, so I survived with not much effort."
"Fine then, you scared us for a while there, but a boy your age shouldn't be strong enough to slay dark goblins. I guess that old man really trained you well." They took Schörl with them and guided him to the bar where he lived.
As he stepped inside, he heard Chird running toward him, crying and calling his name. "Finally, you're back home! It's already well past midnight. I got so scared of what could've happened to you," Chird said while hugging Schörl.
***
Chird started to make some cocoa for Schörl and began asking questions like, "What happened there? How did you get those bruises, and how did you survive?"
Of course, Schörl didn't want to give his old geezer a heart attack, so he just told him what he had told the guards. But on top of that, he added, "Oh yeah, I also explored one of the caves and found a rune there. It shined bright but was still pitch black somehow."
"Oh well, in that case, show it to me," Chird said, and Schörl gave him his palm, only to find out it wasn't visible. "What? I swear on the Eastern Protector Tulikettu that it was on my palm!"
"Hey, kid, are you sure you weren't just seeing things?" Chird asked. Schörl got a little mad at Chird's questioning and answered, "No, I wasn't seeing things. It was there in the cave, and then it just was stuck to my palm until I got here." Chird had lost interest in the rune and didn't believe Schörl.
Schörl just drank his cocoa while listening to the adventurers talking about how the North Rune had chosen someone.
"Hey, Chird, what's the North Rune?" Schörl asked. Chird answered with excitement, "Oh, where do I start? Listen carefully to me now. The North Rune is one of the four Divine Runes that have chosen a hero as their master. Nobody knows how they work, but the Divine Runes are said to be the things that created the stars. When one of the four main stars—North, East, West, or South—is gone, that means that star's rune has chosen someone and infused with them.
The runes choose their masters only once every ten thousand years, and each has two names. Now, the North Rune, also known as Pohjolan Rune, named by the Pohjolan Kindom, has chosen its master, and we know this because the North Star is gone."
***
"Yeah, uhh, that's too much info for my head to wrap around. I'll go to bed since it's already so late," Schörl said while yawning and walking upstairs.
"Goodnight, kid, and remember to brush your teeth," Chird said to Schörl.
As Schörl went to bed and closed his eyes, he woke up in a different realm. He didn't know where he was, but it was dark...
It felt as though he was drowning underwater, and the only light he had was a gloomy star.