"The skies are bleeding.
The leaves are the colour of wine, the gods must have made merry in this place.
I have met four beasts.
I have slain four beasts.
Beasts of flesh and stone.
A garden of blackened blossoms.
A field of dying corpses.
The path of salvation is down below."
"'The skies are bleeding'... that could be the Sunset Valley, if the old name came from the sun's light being blotted out — a bleeding sky isn't far off from that. 'Leaves the colour of wine,' blackened blossoms... that sounds closer to Nightmare Bog. But if those two are already spoken for, is the field of dying corpses a third place, or just whatever's waiting at the end of the first two?"
He paused for a moment,
"And then, there are the Beasts. Abominations? Or perhaps something else..."
Dust groaned,
'It's still too confusing for me to decode.'
He let out a sigh.
There was no use thinking of it for too long.
He slowly rose to his feet.
Although his survival was important, he also had to hunt. More so because his food supplies were running out, but also because he had to acquire more Marks of Sin.
He could tell that this was the key to his survival.
As long as he count obtain more Marks of Sin, he would be able to fight and defeat even stronger foes.
His current goal was to gather a thousand of them.
And at the moment, he only had three.
***
Name: Dust.
True Name: Heretic.
Seal Rank: F
Seal(s): Seal of Divinity (locked).
Relics: Rippling Blade, Wandering Spirit's Journal.
Skills: Heretic Eye.
Description: Town Guard.
Sins: Heretic, Witness.
{Heretic}: You are one who truly does not believe. Thus, you have been deemed a Heretic by the heavens and have acquired the Curse of the Divine.
{Witness}: The Heart of a Heretic is the One true witness, for it is the only thing not bound by belief. The Witness cannot be easily afflicted by knowledge and madness.
Marks of Sin: (3/1000).
***
The river he had washed down from was filled with all sorts of corrupted creatures.
However for the most part, these creatures were rather harmless to humans. That was why the area surrounding the marsh was considered a Category Blue zone. Meanwhile, the area with the cave would be considered a Category Green.
In terms of the certain death quality, both areas were rather mild.
Still, a creature such as the Dark-Ichor Chimera was lurking right in the fringes of a Category Green zone. Such a thing made Dust fearful to no end.
Still, it was time to leave the cave. Even if it was for a little while.
Although there was still daylight, it was murky and diluted by the semi-dark sky. For some reason, the sunlight seemed to shy away from this terrible place.
Dust's body tensed up when he heard a chilling cry come from the depths of the dark woods the river cut through.
The area where the cave of the Dark-Ichor Chimera was on the edge of the woods, so it was relatively safe and didn't see much traffic.
'It will be fine. Everything will be fine.'
As he walked away from the cave's mouth cautiously, Dust felt something strange.
Like a pair of eyes boring holes into his neck.
He froze.
'Already?!'
He drew the Rippling Blade and turned around.
He half expected it to be just his nerves playing tricks on him again.
But it wasn't.
His face paled as his eyes caught onto the blood red orbs staring at him menacingly.
The thing glaring down at him was an enormous wolf-like creature.
Its fur was matte black, and its eyes glowed with crimson flames, like the colour of blood.
It bared its fangs to reveal canines that were as long as daggers.
Its black tail whipped about, revealing that it was covered with numerous curved barbs.
Even worse, Dust noticed that there were actually two pairs of eyes glaring down at him.
The damned beast had four eyes.
However, one of the eyes seemed rather damaged.
Dust frowned.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that the beast was quite wounded.
Dust suddenly realized something.
'It wanted to rest and recover within the cave...'
Wounded creatures seeking shelter in the cave would have become prey to the Dark-Ichor Chimera.
Luckily for the poor beast, the Dark-Ichor Chimera was dead. In its stead, however, was Dust...
Dust took a moment to size the thing up as he brandished his blade.
If it was not injured, then perhaps the bare would have ended poorly for him.
But he could tell its injuries were quite severe.
Dust sucked in a deep breath.
A look of determination flashed across his face as he took a form step forward.
Not only did he had his training, he also felt a bit stronger than before.
If he couldn't defeat this damned thing here, he might as well go find a tree to hang his noose from.
The wolf-like abomination jumped down from the mouth of the cave and began to circle around him.
Dust bent slightly into a low crouch and steadied his weapon.
The calm before the storm...
His thighs trembling from the tension, Dust was the first to move.
With a burst of speed, he rocketed forward, drawing a wide arc through the air.
The Abomination snarled as it opened its unsurprisingly wide maw up to reveal numerous rows of sharp teeth.
Dust stopped mid swing and kicked off again the ground to kill his momentum.
His pupils shrank to pinheads as he slowly observed every movement the Abomination took.
In its current state of injury, the creature was not as fast as it had once been.
However, that mattered little as it was still faster than he was.
But besides that, it also couldn't help but reveal where its injuries were. Either by relieving the area of pain by clenching certain muscles, or not leaning in a foot that has an injury.
'Found it.'
Ducking to the side, Dust dodged another lunging bite and closed in.
His breathing narrowed with his vision and he hissed our a sharp breath.
The edge of the Rippling Blade sang the midday's chorus of the wastelands, reflecting the dampened light for just a moment before it was stained with blood.
The Abomination yelped and tried to run back, but Dust wouldn't let it.
Pushing his weight into it, he maned to topple it over.
Pulling his weapon out, his eyes turned savage for a moment as he stabbed down again.
The wolf Abomination was stubborn and refused to die without a fight.
It's sharp claws torn at his skin, ripping through it and into muscle with ease, covering him with deep, bloody gashes.
But Dust was also stubborn and refused to leg go, stabbing down at what he could only assume to be vital spots over and over again.
Finally, the Abomination couldn't endure its wounds anymore.
With a finally chilling cry, it collapsed to the dirt, dead.
***
{Rejoice, Heretic. You have slain a Mirehound}
{Marks of Sin: 4/1000}.
***
Collapsing to the ground, completely exhausted and thoroughly wounded, a strange light appeared in Dust's eyes.
'This... could this be?'
Could it be that in his misfortune, he had stumbled upon a rather useful hack?!