Chapter 12: Chapter 12 – The Drunken Woodsman

Luke finished unbuttoning his shirt, and was now looking at his bare chest. 

The silver hourglass tattoo looked the same as usual, still enveloped in the pure white whirlwind,  but what surprised Luke were two new, smaller tattoos. 

‘What could these signify?’ 

The silver hourglass tattoo was now surrounded with two smaller whirlwind tattoos.  

They looked exactly the same as the pure white whirlwind tattoo that was enveloping the silver  hourglass, only difference being that they were smaller in size. 

‘They must have something to do with the big chunk of that wind elemental I absorbed from the  mother Gleem...’ 

Luke bit his lip. 

‘What would’ve happened if I managed to absorb it in its entirety? Maybe the tattoo would’ve  changed into another shape again?’ 

Thinking about that, Luke buttoned his shirt back up, and returned to the small house.

He entered the house, and sat down at the table. 

Luke pulled out the map that he’d found on the old man’s corpse, unfolding it and laying it out  on the table. 

‘The problem is, I can’t read these letters…’ 

The map’s scale was also unknown to Luke. 

The areas around the forest seemed to be inhabited, and had people working and living there.

‘The old man said that this is the Exul Empire, so these territories probably all belong to it.’ 

The majority of the forest on the map had some kind of red diagonal lines drawn over it, with a  big red exclamation mark right below. 

The rest of the forest only had some small pictures of bird-like creatures. 

Luke glanced at the Gleem illustrations. 

‘This must be around where I am. This area is basically on the edge of the forest.’

According to the map, Luke was around the north-eastern part of the forest.

Luke was looking at a small circle with some text above it. 

‘There seems to be a town or a village to the east of here… It might be worthwhile to go there  and take a look.’ 

Luke took the compass out of his pocket. 

It was currently pointing to the south. 

‘If I exit the house, make a right turn, and then just run straight, I should be able to reach that  place.’ 

Luke’s initial plan was to stay here, and fight a bitter battle, dying over and over just to get  stronger. 

He did just that, but then he discovered this map, giving him many new possibilities. 

‘My initial plan is still viable, but there’s a bottleneck to getting stronger using only those tiny  wind elementals.’ 

Luke would need to slaughter hundreds of Gleems at this point just to get slightly stronger. 

‘If I could absorb the wind elemental from the mother Gleem multiple times it would be perfect,  but it’s still too strong for me alone to kill it with just my wind elemental.’ 

Luke remembered something that kept coming up in his conversations with Mark. 

‘The capturing artifact… Maybe there exists an elemental market or something similar in this  world?’ 

This thought alone was enough for Luke to reconsider his initial plan. 

Luke put the compass and the map back into his pocket, took his food, water and lantern, and  then exited the house. 

‘I should be strong and fast enough now to make it out of the forest before night-fall.’

Luke turned to his right and started running at his top speed. 

His legs were enveloped in thick wind, giving him a large speed boost. 

He was twice as fast, and he had just noticed that his field of view increased noticeably yet again. It was because of absorbing a large chunk of that wind elemental before Luke died. 

‘It was definitely worth it.’

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

 

Luke’s calculations proved correct, the night was only now encroaching on him. 

The dry and bare forest was slowly being replaced by lush greenery, the trees seemingly  regaining their lost vitality. 

The forest got thinner and thinner, until Luke was just running through an open, green plain.

‘I can see something up ahead.’ 

The green plain around him slowly molded into farmlands, with various crops sprouting out. 

Luke’s guess was that it was currently around early spring season, based on the temperature, and  seeing these crops proved him correct. 

‘I do have some experience with agriculture myself.’ 

Luke used to help out his grandfather in the countryside when he was younger. 

Although, after his grandfather died, he didn’t have much of a reason to go out to the countryside anymore aside from old memories, and soon after, he enrolled in college, pursuing a career in IT. 

Luke smiled bitterly as he reminisced about his late grandfather. 

‘He was actually very similar to a certain geezer I’ve recently met…’ 

Finishing his thoughts, Luke was now approaching a village. 

He scattered the wind around his legs, and started walking towards the houses.

‘I wouldn’t say that this place is small, but it’s not that big either.’ 

It was not yet fully night so there were still some people outside. 

Luke was walking on the paved dirt road, as people glanced at him. 

‘This village seems to be pretty poor.’ 

The people Luke saw wore tattered clothes, their hands full of calluses and wounds.

Some people were even lying down on the cold and dirty ground, sleeping in between houses.

Luke also noticed that the people here were all pretty skinny, which couldn’t be a coincidence.

‘It’s not only to the extent that they’re poor…They are barely surviving.’ 

Luke soon noticed a wooden sign. 

‘The Drunken Woodsman? That’s cute.’ 

He could hear loud cheering and laughter from the outside, so he decided to enter the building.

Luke opened the door. 

No one inside even noticed that someone had entered, let alone said anything. 

There was a big table across the entrance with five soldiers sitting there, laughing, cheering and  drowning themselves in alcohol. 

Luke could tell they were soldiers because they wore light leather armor, and were carrying  weapons. 

They were surrounded by above-average looking women, laughing along with them.

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Luke sat down at one of the tables, and kept looking over at the soldiers. 

A man soon approached him. 

“Welcome to “The Drunken Woodsman”! What can I get you, sir?” 

“I just need some information. Where is the nearest town?” 

The man narrowed his eyes, before forming a smile. He was a bald man with a French  moustache and a large build. 

“Sure, I could provide you with some information… As soon as you order something, that is.”

Luke sighed. 

“Look, I’m new here. I have no money, so even if I order something, I couldn’t pay you.”

That’s when one of the drunk soldiers who overheard their conversation yelled out.

“Ish fine! Pour ‘im one on us!!” 

The bald man looked over at the soldiers and nodded. 

“As you wish.” 

The bald man then walked over to the bar and started pouring the alcohol.

Luke glanced at the soldier that yelled out and nodded at him in appreciation.

‘They’re not actually that bad, huh.’ 

The bald man soon came back with two tankards full of alcohol, placing one of them in front of  Luke, and sitting down across of him. 

The bald man took a big gulp of alcohol, and started talking. 

“You can call me Boldee. What’s your name?” 

Luke also drank a mouthful of alcohol and then answered. 

“My name is Luke.” 

Boldee smiled. 

“Luke! So tell me, what is it that you wish to know?” 

Luke started organizing the questions in his mind. 

“As I asked earlier, where is the nearest town from here?” 

“That would be the town of Millef, just north of here. It’s pretty close. Are you new to the  Empire?” 

‘I’ll need to mark that down on map later.’ 

“You could say that. Anyways, would you happen to know anything about silver robed people  who use wind elementals?” 

“Well, of course! They are the famous priests of the Wind Temple, the pride of our Empire!” 

‘The pride of the Empire? They seem to be a pretty powerful organization. Why would the old  man make an enemy out of them though?’ 

“Could you tell me more about this wind temple and its priests?” 

Boldee grinned like a child. 

“I’d be delighted to! The head priest of the Wind Temple carries the title of the “Wind God” and  is known to be the strongest wind elementalist on the whole continent!” 

Boldee was so excited to talk about this that he stood up, sat down closer to Luke, and then  continued explaining. 

“The elite priests, including the head priest, all have indescribably beautiful golden embroidering  on their robes! You really need to see them in person to really be able to appreciate it…” 

‘I saw it in person, alright. Multiple times.’

“Sorry that I’m interrupting, but can you tell me what the head priest’s name is?”

“Of course! It is head priest Alissia!” 

Luke’s heart skipped a beat. He almost wanted to laugh out loud. 

‘It does makes sense though… She was so fast that it seemed like she was teleporting and she could also kill me with a twirl of her finger.’ 

Luke gulped two more mouthfuls of alcohol. 

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why do the people in this village look so tattered and  starved?” 

Boldee smiled bitterly. 

“There was a drought throughout the Empire for the last two years, causing many citizens to die  of starvation, or lose all of their money and get sold into slavery to repay their debts…” 

‘Slavery exists here, huh…’ 

“Anyways, do you reckon I could earn some money around here?” 

“Your best bet would be to travel to the town of Millef. You might be able to find some work  there. Even if you were to help the people around here, they sadly wouldn’t have anything to pay  you with.” 

“Alright, thank you for your time Boldee.” 

“Anytime! Just remember to visit again!” 

Luke stood up and exited the tavern. 

It was night-time already. 

Luke glanced at his pocket watch. 

’9:55, huh.’ 

Luke was exhausted. 

‘I really need to rest, but I’m broke. Maybe I could go back to the small house, but it would be  pretty risky.’ 

He looked between the houses and saw people sleeping there. 

Just as he thought about heading there, someone suddenly grabbed Luke from behind, and he felt  something cold and sharp against his throat.

Before even managing to conjure a wind blade, the sharp iron blade slid across his throat.

*Slice!* 

A massive stream of blood started gushing out of Luke’s throat. 

*Squirt!* 

“Glooh!! Blough!” 

Luke tried muttering something out before slowly collapsing, bleeding out on the cold ground.

He could feel someone patting his body all over, searching him for anything of use.

“Pffft, nothing useful.” 

Luke heard a rough voice, full of disdain. 

He could see a silhouette of a skinny man standing in front of the moon. 

He used the last of his strength to gather a wisp of wind, forming it into a tiny wind spike, and finally shooting it into the man’s forehead, causing him to die instantly. 

Death soon enveloped Luke, slowly singing him a lullaby. 

The silver hourglass rotated upside down, causing the blue sand to shine out brightly before starting to flow in reverse.

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