The Many Lives of Cadence Lee

  Why does the Adventurer’s Guild rank teams different from individuals? Because a proper team working together can handle way more than their Stats would indicate. Meanwhile an individual is utterly dependent on their own ability so they have to be much stronger in order to handle even half of what a team of the same rank could.

  Sure, they get a lot more experience and money because they don’t have to split either, but most people who go it alone die before they reach C-Rank.

  -A [Guild Receptionist] speaking to a new D-Rank Adventurer six hours before he died alone in the wilderness.

*Kingdom of Gracel, Two Years Ago*

[Farmer] Tamlin Mare’s POV:

  The sun was hot, but then the sun was always hot in Gracel. I was used to it and yet I was never unbothered by it. I would pray for rain, but the storms of Gracel were as unpleasant as they were short. The rain often seemed to come from nowhere at all with the sun still shining and not a cloud in the sky even as rain fell down like a waterfall. Fifteen minutes later, the squall would end just as abruptly. The combination of rain and sun made Gracel ideal for farming year round.

  I was ploughing one of our fields, guiding the oxen and using my ability, [Breaking Dirt], to ease the difficulty. I was - like many a young man just reaching adulthood in the area - bored and unsatisfied with my work. I didn’t want to be a [Farmer] my whole life like my dad was. No, I wanted to go to faraway places and see new things; I wanted to be an Adventurer!

  Neither dad nor mom took my goal seriously, barely even acknowledging me when I brought it up! I had learned the Spear Skill practicing with a broken hoe behind the house, I am sure I could gain a real Class and slay monsters! Or I would have if my little sister hadn’t tattled on me and I ended up getting a lecture from dad.

  “Son,” he said to me with a stern look on his face. “You don’t know how good you’ve got it. Before your granddad moved the family down here to Gracel we lived in Balkus, and Balkus doesn’t have the same kind of security against monsters as Gracel does.”

  He told me that I had no idea what monsters were like, but I wasn’t like him - I didn’t want to run, I wanted to fight!

  The sun was hot that day, when the village bell rang. I stopped ploughing and started to take the ox back to the barn. I moved slowly; I wasn’t worried about why the bell was ringing, it was probably just some proclamation or another from the lord, but I did want to milk as much time away from working out of this as possible. It struck me as odd that the bell was still ringing, but nothing more than that.

  What was there to worry about in Gracel?

  The first inkling I got that something was truly wrong was when I saw the small village - more a collection of farmhouses than a proper settlement - and the people fleeing it. People were shouting, running, taking whatever they could carry and loading it onto wagons or backs and leaving for the east.

  “The hell are you dawdling for Tam!?” My dad’s shout startled me, “get the wagon out, we are leaving now!”

  “What is happening?” I asked in utter confusion.

  “NOW TAMLIN!” My dad bellowed and I jumped to do what he asked me even as he was running around grabbing supplies of various kinds. Mom and Tessa - my little sister - were doing likewise as I started hitching the oxen to the cart.

  “Mom, what is going on!?” I was bewildered, and starting to feel the anxiety creeping up on me. The icy feeling of terror freezing even the heat of Gracel’s sun.

  “It's a Swarm,” she answered while loading as fast as she could. “Get the cart moving now, your dad and I will catch up.”

  The last thing I wanted to do was be separated from my parents, but I nodded and did what my mom asked. Tessa and I started the cart moving towards the main road - a part of me was worried that I would never see my parents again, but I didn’t push the oxen and they did indeed catch up.

  To my surprise, my dad was carrying a spear. A real spear with a long blade, and it seemed to belong in his hands.

  “Dad, where did you get that?”

  “Balkus was a more dangerous country than Gracel,” he gave me a nonanswer, and yet it did indeed answer the question as well as it needed too. “Was, at any rate.”

  I hadn’t had time to think yet. I had been too rushed and stunned to think much about what was going on, but now I did. A Swarm was coming; what would happen to our farm? I had wished to leave it all my life and now I was heading away from it realizing that I might never see it again.

  “Are-” I swallowed, trying to wet my dry throat as I croaked out, “Are we moving fast enough? Will we be safe?”

  My parents… didn’t answer me. Their grim silence terrified me, but I tried to get a grip on my fear. I had always wanted to be a hero, and now I had to be one. Not for me, but for my sister who was shivering on the seat beside me, her arms wrapped around her body as if she was cold.

  The sun was hot that day, though it cooled down at night. We joined the camp of others who were running east and I was relieved to see soldiers and guards around the camp. They looked us over, noted my father, and let us in easily. Others who were running were rejected and I could see why.

  We had brought our own food, our own water, and dad was armed and seemed ready to fight. Others had fled with nothing and no one was willing to share when they had to look after their own. I thought it was wrong, but what could I do? I wanted to be a hero, and already I was willing to throw people away who might have been my neighbors and friends just yesterday.

  I couldn’t be that kind of person - so I approached one of the soldiers. They watched me warily, although I had no idea why. I was less a hero right now than a fool trembling out of terror.

  “Sir?” I asked one of them, “could I ask a question?”

  “Kid, I bet I know what you are going to ask. We can’t let just anyone into this camp.” The soldier answered, his tone was regretful but it was also unyielding. “Even just to sit. Desperation turns honest men and women into thieves and cutthroats. I don’t blame them for it, but neither can I trust anyone who can’t look after themselves.”

  “That was my question though, sir,” I couldn’t meet the man’s eyes. “Couldn’t they be armed with farm tools? A couple of hits with a hammer and a hoe is a spear and any mallet can be used as a club. They can fight!”

  “It won’t work out kid. It's a Swarm; in two months the Goblins will be dead but there won’t be a scrap of food for two hundred miles.”

  I balled up my fists, but that was that.

  “Then, would you teach me how to fight?” At the very least then, I would be able to do something. The request seemed to amuse him somewhat.

  “Hey kid, what is your name?” He asked me.

  “Tamlin,” I answered.

  “I’m Rauvin,” he replied, holding his hand out for me to shake. “Happy to meet you, although I wish it was during a better time.”

  I took his hand and shook it.

*Four Days into the Goblin Swarm*

  I hadn’t seen any Goblins yet, just more and more desperate people. I was starting to wonder if we had needed to run so quickly, couldn’t we have gathered more supplies; prepared better? Were the Goblins really that close behind us?

  The answer was yes.

  We were attacked that night by what felt like countless Goblins pouring out of the darkness that waited where the torchlight ended. I watched the fight, holding a makeshift spear I had scavenged from scrap we had come across. On the surface, there seemed to be no reason to worry.

  My father slaughtered the Goblins like he was helping the local butcher. A single swing of his spear - which was a thrusting weapon anyway - would kill two or three at a time. Other [Farmers] also fought with whatever they had on hand. They weren’t as good as dad, but they still killed Goblins by the dozen every minute.

  But the Goblins kept coming, minute after minute, and then hour after hour. People were pulled down and torn apart, exhaustion and numbers grinding them down until they died. Dad had fought more carefully than the others, more like the soldiers, saving his Stamina.

  Three hours later, it ended just as abruptly as a Gracel rain.

  That wasn’t even the edge of the Swarm, just a wandering group that broke off from it. How many Goblins had attacked? How many were killed? No one stopped to count, and in the coming days countless more attacked. More people died, supplies ran low, and even with the threat of Goblins the group began to turn on each other. The soldiers and guards were hired by a lesser lord, and were more concerned with the welfare of their charge than what happened in the rest of the camp.

  Theft and fights became common. The first blood I ever spilled in my entire life was not that of a Goblin, but of a man who tried to sneak food away from our wagon. I planted my spear in his stomach and watched as he stumbled back, disbelief on his face. He didn’t die quickly, not until dad put his spear through the man’s heart. I should have finished him off instead of letting him suffer, but I had not wanted to kill him! I hadn’t even wanted to hurt him, but…

  The man’s family was put out from the camp. A young woman and a young girl, if the world had been different it could have been my mom and my sister. The resigned grief on the young woman’s face would haunt me for the rest of my life. I hadn’t personally put a blade through them myself, but I knew that I had killed three people that night.

*Six Days into the Goblin Swarm*

  We knew, of course, that this day would come. The city of Plyae was only a few days away, and our food wouldn’t last that long. Dad spoke with Rauvin quietly, and came back to tell us not to worry. He had made a deal with Rauvin - our oxen would be butchered at Plyae and my dad and I would work as [Warriors] for the lord - and we would be somewhat taken care of.

  It wouldn’t exactly be enough, but where others would have nothing we would have something.

  That night was when I saw my first Hobgoblin. The monster was as large as a man - larger than many - and broke the shaky line that the fatigued [Farmers] had been holding. Goblins flooded into the camp and the soldiers pulled back to protect the lord. Even they were hard pressed as well, more Hobgoblins were emerging from the shadows of night to challenge them.

  I had trained, and I had watched, but I was not prepared to fight. I did anyway, because my mother and sister were behind me.

  It might sound foolish, but in my mind I kept telling myself to be a hero; that I was a hero. Heroes don’t run, heroes don’t back down, heroes don’t fall! I was stupid kid, telling myself I was a hero as if that would make it so. But I wasn’t one.

  I don’t know how many I killed, but it wasn’t many. I wasn’t my dad, I wasn’t Rauvin; a few Levels of [Spearman] and [Warrior] did not make me a fighter. And the Goblins just kept coming, and eventually I was too slow. They grabbed me, pulling me down, and I struggled as Tessa screamed. They bit and scratched me - eating me alive even as I fought - but I wasn’t going to give up until I bled my last.

  Suddenly, they were pulled off me. I saw my dad, standing tall with his spear in hand. He was bloody, he was hurt, and he didn’t care at all. He neither slowed or stopped as he killed the Goblins that had swarmed me. He shouted at us to follow him and we did, although I had lost my weapon in the clamor.

  At the edge of the battle, dad handed his spear to me, my mom hugged Tessa and myself, and he told us to run. My parents turned back and fought the Goblins that would have followed us while I grabbed my sister’s hand and ran. I wasn’t thinking, the significance of what had happened wouldn’t hit me for another minute, but I didn’t turn around when it did.

  That was the last time I saw my parents. I will never forget it. I will never forget the overwhelming grief that scene inspires in me, neither will I forget the overflowing love that they showed for me and my sister. It would have been so easy to sink into that grief and hate, but a hero doesn’t do that. A hero is driven by the weight of the sacrifices they carry with them, not broken under their weight.

  I would not throw away my parent’s sacrifice, I would take care of my sister and live.

*Three Weeks into the Goblin Swarm*

  [Congratulations! You have reached Commoner Level 5!]

  [You have gained +1 to all Stats other than Mgc!]

  [You have gained the Class ability: [Hunger Resistance: Minor]!]

  I started giggling hysterically at that notification. Of course! Of course I got that now! Requiring less food would have been so useful two weeks ago when there was food to ration, but now? Now it would only prolong my suffering.

  Both Tessa and I were thinner, sickly even. Tessa rarely talked, barely making a sound except when she started screaming at night. She couldn’t concentrate and nearly stabbed me when I startled her on accident. She turned eleven years old on the streets of Plyae, hungry and wary that someone might try to take the little nook of an alley we called home now.

  I never wanted to give her a knife. My happy, joyful, playful but ultimately peaceful, sister? I could never have imagined her picking up a weapon, but things happened to the vulnerable on the street. Even a girl as young as my sister wasn’t safe from cruelty of all kinds. Without food or shelter, mankind devolved into monsters themselves.

  Three weeks ago, that man mugging another homeless and impoverished person was probably a good person. Three weeks ago, he would have had a family to talk him out of something so cruel - or perhaps he still had his family and he was doing whatever he had to do to take care of them.

  I never told my sister, but I had unlocked several Classes over the past two weeks. [Thug], [Cutthroat], [Burglar], [Prostitute]... Unlocking a Class was supposed to be a reason to celebrate, but there was nothing good or heroic in how I unlocked those. I wouldn’t take them, but they would always be in my Status as a reminder of what I had done. My only comfort was that Tessa did not have to unlock them herself.

*Five Weeks into the Goblin Swarm*

  Monsters are hated because they prey on man. They kill, rip apart, and consume humans. It turns out that there really isn’t much of a difference between a man and a monster.

*Seven Weeks into the Goblin Swarm*

  The sun was hot that day, I can never forget how the heat baked the putrid stench of the city into my nose. It was the smell of death; death and sickness and rot and heat.

  For the last seven weeks, Pylae had been surrounded by a sea of Goblins. They couldn’t get through the wall - although there were areas they had tunneled under - but neither could the human forces in the city do anything to face the solid mass of Goblins outside the gates. There were so many Goblins that you couldn’t see the ground, the land had been a writing mass of screeching monsters for as far as the eye could see.

  But in the seventh week, that changed. Explosions rocked the city even though the blasts did not land inside it or even near it. Fire fell from the sky like rain drops on the Goblins on one side of the city, on the other the writhing mass was stilled as ice crept through their ranks. The [Archmages] had come and delivered the opening strikes that would break the siege of the city.

  I didn’t see it personally, but the tales spread like plague. S-Rank Adventurers sweeping Goblins aside by the tens of thousands, mages directing walls of fire to consume the beasts, the armies of man driving the Goblins away. No, I didn’t even try to watch what was likely a legendary display of power. I was aiming for some of the food that this army must be carrying with them. I prayed to all the Gods of the world that they could help feed the city.

  Tessa was sick, and I had seen others die of the same wasting illness. If she didn’t eat, she would waste away into nothing but dry and pallid skin stretched over her bones. I was desperate, willing to do whatever it took for even the smallest bit of food. The vanguard entered the city first, and I approached to beg or barter whatever I could. I held onto my father’s spear, which I had managed to keep this long, willing to barter away his memory if that was what it took.

  “Hey, that spear…” A familiar voice called out, “By the Gods! Tamlin, is that you?”

  But I was too late, because the city was already full of Goblins. Everywhere. I saw Hobs killing my father, Goblins ripping my mother apart and eating her, torturing my sister and laughing with their awful lau-

*Present Day*

  “Hey, wake up,” A soft hand on my shoulder and soft voice woke me with a start. “You were having a nightmare.”

  Yes, I had been. I took a moment to catch my breath, before looking into Ray’s concerned eyes. I raised my hand, brushing a fallen stand of her hair back behind her ear. How I had ended up here, with her next to me, I could hardly fathom. A farmboy pining after an immortal, he might as well wish to become a hero, yeah?

  “I’m fine now,” I say as my heartbeat calms. “Thank you.”

  She doesn’t say anything more, there is nothing to say. The weight of her head against my chest is reminder enough that I am free of that part of my life. Things have changed so much and even after a nightmare like that I was able to chuckle at a thought it brought up.

  “Something funny Tam?” Ray murmured sleepily.

  “Just wondering how my sister will react when I introduce you to her,” I say with a smile. “It is a good thing she is already in a temple, because she will probably need a [Healer] for the shock.”

  I watched the stars for a while as Ray fell asleep again, thinking about how life changes. From a farmboy who knew nothing of the world to an Adventurer with an Elf lover who was taking a Wyvern to a lake so that it could be half-drowned to unlock an Evolution.

  Maybe hero wasn’t impossible after all.