Chapter I
I am awake. I don’t know how long I was asleep. I don’t even remember going to sleep. As I sit up, I look at my surroundings. I feel as though this is the first time I have ever laid eyes on the room, yet somehow I recognize it. I know where everything is before I look - the door in the corner opposite the bed, the clothing and armor hanging on the side wall closest to me, the weapons hanging on the side wall furthest from me - but not because I remember seeing them there before. I just know. I realize that I know a lot of things that I can’t remember learning. I know how to speak. I know that the language I am speaking is called English. I know that the world outside this room is a dangerous place. I know that I will need the armor on the wall to protect my body from harm, and I will need the weapons on the opposite wall to fight off any manner of strange creatures that might attack me. Armed with this knowledge, I get out of my bed.
The room is actually a small house made of logs. I look first at the clothing on the closest wall. There are various armor pieces to choose from of various materials and weights. I decide to don the lighter fabric and leather armor, as I prefer to be light and quick. As I make my way across the room to the wall with the weapons, I look to my left out the window above the bed, and I see that this house is in the middle of a forest. I already that knew the forest was there, but I did not know that there would be a small group of humanoid creatures approaching. They see me as clearly as I see them, which causes them to begin yelling at me and at each other and draw their weapons. I know that these creatures are called goblins. They are relatively small and aren’t very smart or strong, but they are vile and savage, and they are here to raid my belongings and likely leave me for dead. I make my way over to the weapons.
My first instinct is to grab the rifle, as it is a powerful ranged weapon and the goblins are still a distance away from me. It fires bullets at a rapid rate over a long range, but first I need to load it with ammunition. I find a fully loaded magazine in a box on the floor, load it into my gun and make my way back to the window. I don’t feel as though I have ever fired a rifle before, yet I seem to know exactly how to use it. I fire off one shot at a time into the approaching goblins. In a matter of seconds, I have killed three of them using seven bullets. This causes the rest of them to quickly scatter and take cover where I cannot see them. In the commotion, I am able to count an additional three. Even though I can no longer see them, they will still be approaching the house. While I could try to use the rifle at close range, I realize that it would be more effective to switch to a close range weapon. Despite the power of the rifle, I know that I am strong enough to easily kill three goblins in melee combat with a sword. Before I leave the window, I also realize a consequence of using the rifle. I hear more goblin yells in the distance. The loud noise of the gun has drawn their attention. I will quickly deal with the three goblins remaining here, and then figure out my next move. I set the rifle down on the bed, grab the longsword off of the wall and then hold still so as to listen for the approaching goblins.
I can hear two of them circling my house and heading for the door. The third is most likely standing outside my window. Despite their overall lack of intelligence, they do possess some instinctual pack hunting strategies, and they are trying to surround me. I wait for the two outside to make their way to my door. They begin to bang on it and yell threats at me. Not only are they trying to break in, but also trying to distract me so that the third goblin outside can surprise me through the window. I decide not to wait. I unlock my door and immediately kick it open, which knocks both of the goblins behind it to the ground. I stab them both through the chest before they can retaliate. I turn back to my window just as the third is starting to climb through it. I leave my sword in the body of one of the goblins outside and make my way to the window. As he leaps at me with his knife poised to strike, I grab him out of the air and break his neck with a single motion. Goblins are small and weak, and a single one is no match for a strong fighter. I toss his body outside, pick up my rifle, and secure it to my back using a strap. The wall still holds three weapons. I take the dagger and pistol and strap the sheath and holster to my thighs. Then I take all of the ammunition remaining in the box and insert the magazines into the straps on the pistol and rifle. Finally, I strap the bow and quiver of arrows to my back along with the rifle. I make my way outside, retrieve my sword, quickly clean off the blade, and insert it into its sheath, which I have attached to my waist. Now, I need to deal with the rest of the approaching goblins.
My first move is to climb the nearest tall tree and wait. Barely a minute passes before I see the next set of goblins. I take the bow from my back and prepare to release an arrow. As before, I can’t remember ever using a bow, but I seem to have a feeling of where to aim to hit the first goblin. I loose the arrow and it hits him in the head, killing him. I can see three more of them so far, and they stop to examine his body. I release two more arrows and kill two more of them before they seem to understand that they are being attacked. By now, five more goblins have emerged, and they start to look for me. Their rapid movement makes it harder for me to aim. Although I am quite accurate, I seem to need more practice to be comfortable shooting at a moving target. I wait for one of them to slow down, then loose another arrow. It hits him, but unfortunately, some of the others saw the direction from which it came and see me in my tree. They begin to scramble. As I try to decide which one to shoot next, I notice that one of them has something in his hand. He picks up and smashes a rock on the object, and it begins to spark. I then realize that he’s holding an explosive, and he just lit the fuse. I quickly attempt to down him with an arrow. I succeed, but not before he’s thrown the explosive at the base of my tree. It explodes, blasting apart the tree trunk, and my tree begins to fall over. I brace for impact. When the tree falls, I am able to avoid injury, but the goblins are quickly upon me. I draw my dagger and my sword and engage in close combat. I kick the first one away and quickly use my sword to block the attack of the second. I stab him with the knife, then swing my sword around to cleave the head of the third. The fourth grabs at me from behind, and I kick him away. The first is getting back up, and I decide to try out yet another skill and throw my knife at him. It hits, and he dies. Just before I turn to deal with the fourth one, I hear a gunshot behind me. A bullet strikes me in the arm. It’s painful, but not incapacitating. I reach for my pistol, but I find nothing. The goblin must have taken it from me when I kicked him away. The goblin continues to fire at me inaccurately as I duck and turn around. I instinctively reach my arm out toward him and discover yet another ability that I seem to have. A force projects from my palm and knocks him to the ground, causing him to drop the pistol. I quickly capitalize on the moment, grab my sword, and dash toward him, killing him just as he starts to get back up. I recover my weapons and the five expended arrows, and reflect on what had just happened.
As usual, I already know what caused the force from my palm, despite that I can’t remember ever seeing it before. It is called magic. I, like most other humans, possess the ability to manipulate my surroundings to varying degrees. People are born with some innate magical ability, and can hone it through study and practice. Additionally, people are quite strong and resilient, and magical power can add to this resilience. That’s why I am able to shrug off gunshot wounds, and also why bladed weapons are still useful. A person can be strong enough to wield a dagger or sword and do more damage than a bullet. Being in close proximity with your opponent allows you to cancel out any magical defenses he might have, whereas a bullet is solely dependant on the strength of the gunpowder. Also, magic gives me the ability to remove the bullet from my arm and accelerate the healing process.
I seem to know a lot about the world in which I am living. What I don’t know is who I am or why I can’t remember anything at all before the moment I woke up in that house. As strange as it is, I also don’t care very much. I’d rather not worry about the past right now. I’m more interested in what I should do in the immediate future, as there are many more things I know which are quite disturbing. Suffice it to say goblins are the very least of this world’s dangers.
I return to my hut for one last inspection to ensure that I have taken everything of use. I can’t afford the encumbrance of carrying the other set of clothing, so I leave it where it is. I open the cabinet in the corner and find a pendant. The pendant is in the shape of triangle with a star embossed inside. I’m not exactly sure what it represents, but I figure I should bring it with me. As I exit my hut, I hear the sound of a horse approaching. Within seconds, a man emerges from the forest on horseback carrying a rifle. He appears to be a patrol officer, most likely from a nearby settlement.
“Stop where you are. Don’t make any sudden moves. What are you doing out here?” he begins.
“I live here,” I respond, as I glance toward the hut.
“I heard a lot of commotion over here. What’s happening here?”
“I was attacked by goblins, and I dealt with them.”
He keeps his gun at the ready and keeps me within his view as he slowly rides his horse toward the goblin corpses. After he gives the area a brief visual inspection, he seems to relax slightly. I certainly have no intention of attacking him, so it doesn’t matter much to me. He makes his way back over to me after circling the hut.
“How long have you lived here?”
“Not long.”
“I’ve been in this area of the forest before, and I don’t remember ever seeing a hut here. Did you build this recently?”
“No, it was here when I got here.”
He looks a bit confused by my answer. In truth, I have no idea how this hut got here, nor do I have any idea how I got here myself. For all I know, this hut belongs to someone else, and I don’t actually live here. However, given the officer’s comment that he’s never seen the hut before, it seems unlikely that it was here long.
“Well, regardless, this hut is in the territory of Rochester. I’m fairly certain you haven’t registered your residence with the town,” he continued, “So, I’m going to need you to report to the town hall. They’ll sort this out there.”
“How do I get there?”
He seems amused that I had to ask. “Just head through the forest in that direction. You’ll come to a road in a hundred yards or so. Head north - which is to the right. After about an hour’s walk, you should come to the town. The town hall is the building with the pillars out front.” He pauses as if waiting for me to respond, but when I say nothing, he continues, “I’m going to go on ahead to file a report and continue my patrol. You’ll have until the end of the day to check in. If you haven’t, some more officers will come back here to find out why not.”
“Alright.”
“Okay, then,” he says, and turns his horse toward the road. Just before he leaves, he turns back to me. “By the way, killing an entire goblin patrol by yourself is no small feat,” He gives me a suspicious glance before continuing, “especially considering that you appear to be relatively unscathed.”
“Is it?”
“Indeed. If I may be so bold, I’d recommend that you look into becoming an officer yourself. We could always use more talent, provided that you prove to be trustworthy.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Fair enough. Until next time, then.” He rides off in the direction of the road.
I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t comply with his request to head into town, so I immediately head toward the road. However, given that I have no idea where that hut came from and only a marginal interest in ever returning to it, I probably won’t actually report in. Only that one officer saw me, so it’s not like anyone is going to know that I disobeyed. A more evil person than myself might have killed the officer to leave no witnesses, but I’d rather not. The walk to the town should give me time to think about the state of the world.
I doubt I will take him up on his offer to become an officer. Being tied down to one town won’t suit my interests very well. He is right, though. Towns are in need of any strong fighters they can get. With the extremely varied range of powers that people can have, it’s not entirely rare for a powerful villain to wreak havoc on a defenseless town. Such havoc ranges from simple extortion to outright destruction. Having various other powerful people defend a town can go a long way toward protecting its more modest citizens. Luckily, most towns are successfully able to resist the torments of a high-end criminal. Crime, in general, is not much of a problem. Due to the possibility that any potential victim might have the power to crush the offending party, most of the less ethical people decide that it’s safer to stay within the bounds of the law. However, all of this only applies to the denominations of the Allied Forces.
The Allied Forces consist of many kingdoms and scattered towns and is the largest such grouping in the world. Its territory spans much of the planet. It aims to provide a society of both order and liberty to its denizens, allowing them to happily live out their lives. While they are far from perfect, they could be considered the good guys of the world. In comparison to the alternative organizations, I don’t think any sane person would disagree. A peculiar thought occurs to me as I ponder the current state of affairs. While I know what’s happening in the present, I don’t seem to know any of the history, such as how the world got to be the way it is now. Yet another anomaly in the mystery of my past. Regardless, that’s a concern for another day.