Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Birthday Presents

Darkness filled every corner of Wolstan’s vision, he turned around but saw nothing throughout the endless void. He tried to call out but couldn’t make a sound, he tried to take a step but found he had no feet. He was simply a floating consciousness aware of his own existence but unsure of what happened to him. A cold panic wormed its way into his mind.

He should have been in his bed sleeping off a hangover from his coming of age party, but now it appeared he died in his sleep. There was so much he still wanted to do, he still hadn’t caught a Drenid, opened that bakery he always planned to, or even found out what happened to his birth parents, and now it seemed he never would.

Worst of all time seemed to move differently in the void. Seconds became minutes and then what felt like hours as it settled in that he would never see Kesta again. The old man would find him in his bed probably dead from choking on his own vomit.

The thought of dying in such a dumb way shouldn’t have been funny but Wolstan couldn’t help laughing. He tripped at what should have been the starting line.

The void lightened as that thought washed over him. A chair materialized from thin air, covered in thousands of multicolored hands all grasping one another. Wolstan would have jumped back from the grotesque display if he could but stuck as he was he could only watch as a bright orb appeared floating above the chair.

“What are you?” Wolstan tried to ask, but again nothing came out. He didn’t know why he bothered.

“I’ve always wondered that myself…” The orb answered in a playful tone. As delicate as the voice was, it reverberated throughout the void. If Wolstan still had hair he was sure it would have stood. “Some praise me as their savior, others say I don’t exist, and there are those that regard me as a creature of annihilation. Many have an opinion on me even though I myself don’t…”

Cryptic as the orb’s message was one thing it said stood out to Wolstan. It used the word creature.

“Are you a Drenid?” He thought out.

A long silence filled the space between them before the orb spoke again. Wolstan hoped he hadn’t offended them.

“Something like that I suppose…”

“And what would a Drenid want with me?” Wolstan asked. He knew some of them had psychic powers but he found it unlikely it was acting on its own. “Is your hunter pulling some kind of prank?”

“What do I want with you? I’m not exactly sure… All I know is something bad is going to happen, and someone around you is related to it. I’m just not sure how they’re involved…”

Wolstan’s mind went into overdrive hearing that. He ran down a list of everyone he knew that might be in some kind of danger starting with Kesta. The old man was getting up there in years, a bad fall could’ve been the end of him, Olin liked his liquor a little too much, Wolstan always feared he may drink himself into a stupor, and there was always a chance a wild Drenid might attack the village. The Drenid was too vague to pin down who needed help.

“Can you end whatever this is so I can go help whoever might be hurt?” He asked.

“... Of course.” The orb responded and the room lightened further. “All I ask is you somehow, someway, find me…”

Wolstan tried to ask what she meant by that but found he could no longer project his thoughts. The void vanished in a flash of light.

***

Wolstan snapped awake to blinding sunlight filtering through the flimsy tarp he used as a window cover. He tried to grasp the details of the strange dream he had but they rapidly fled his mind. Someone was in danger, or something bad would happen to someone related to him, he couldn’t remember which. He looked around his small bedroom in hopes of seeing anything that might remind him of the strange orb he saw but instead landed on a calendar marked off with crosses. It was his nineteenth birthday.

He should have remembered from the dryness of his mouth and the churning of his insides; a parting gift from the amount of shots Olin forced on him. He was finally old enough to enter Zertold Forest and catch his first Drenid as he planned to since he was little. 

He jumped out of bed, dashed over to his cracked mirror, and tried to comb his black hair into something Kesta might find respectable. The dream fell almost completely out of mind now, he would see Kesta’s anyways and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind the old man was fine.

After getting his hair down as flat as he could he ran to the door but stopped just as he grasped the doorknob. The tarp covering his window rustled.

His throat tightened. He had the uneasy feeling of being watched for well over a decade now but whatever it was, showed up more as of late. It could have just been the dream that put him on high alert but he still didn’t like it.

Regardless, he figured his stalker wouldn’t dare attack him in the open so he threw the door open and stepped outside.

He looked around for his would-be assassin but found himself quite alone. The only living beings around him were people who enjoyed getting up early and of course their Drenids they had doing their morning chores. 

The normally humanoid creatures were all around Zertold plowing fields, watching their hunters' children, or doting on their humans as they went for walks. 

In some cases it was difficult to tell them apart from humans but each one had a sigil somewhere on their body that matched one on their hunters’ hand. In other cases the differences were quite obvious. 

A Drenid hanging sheets beside a house had hooves for feet and jagged antlers growing from his head, another swam through dirt and rock as if it were no different from water, and most distinctively one grew black fur all over her body, wielded sharp claws, and had wolfish ears on top of her head.

No one knew where the strange creatures came from, why they had such mysterious powers, or why humans had the power to control them, and most didn’t care. That was a subject for those that studied them.

And now it was Wolstan’s turn to join the ranks of those called hunters who caught Drenids.

He set off towards Kesta’s house, a small wooden building as close to the black wrought iron gates that stood between the village and the forest as many would get, and let himself in as he always had. 

Taking a glance around the house Wolstan found books filled every shelf and littered every corner. Sylvia, Kesta’s wife, watched sharp eyed as a black haired, olive toned, Drenid cut up vegetables in the kitchen. In the back of the house he found Kesta deep in thought reading a newspaper at his desk.

“Kesta?” Wolstan called out as he approached. The village mayor looked up from the paper and sighed.

“You actually came…” He said.

“I said I would, didn't I?”

“Yeah well, if I’m being honest I hoped Olin put you in a coma with that swill he calls rum.” Kesta said and put his paper away to stare Wolstan down. “Look, Wolstan, wouldn’t you rather wait until a Drenid seller comes so you can just buy one? Or I could even escort you to Trilx to get one, anythings better than risking your life over some dumb legend.”

Wolstan smiled. “You’ve been like a father to me Kesta, but I need to do this. There’s just something about the idea of finding my own, you know? Besides, I’d go broke trying to buy one.”

Kesta looked like he wanted to argue but his Drenid came over with a tea set and placed it on the table before curtseying.

“Always good to see you, Wolstan.” She said before scurrying off back to the kitchen under Sylvia’s distrustful gaze. 

Wolstan thought Sylvia would have gotten used to her living with them by now but she wasn’t from Zertold, he assumed they did things differently in Gelia.

The interruption apparently took Kesta off guard, he huffed and took out a small silver key that Wolstan eyed hungrily, an old book, and a flat black dot that he pressed to Wolstan’s wrist.

A small shock ran up Wolstan’s arm as the dot pressed into him but the pain vanished a second later. His eyes lit up as he realized it was a Dredot, an old invention of the Dregux family used to study and assess Drenid’s all over the kingdom and register hunters. It could even house a single Drenid and store things among other abilities.

“Well go on, try it.” Kesta said.

Wolstan didn’t need to be told twice. With his free hand he pressed the Dredot, aimed it at Kesta, and a silver screen popped up. 

Hunter Name: Kesta

Sigil: Blue Leaf

You are reading story The Drenid Saga: Pluveria (A fantasy litRPG) at novel35.com

Registered Drenids: 1

Smiling to himself he pointed it at Kesta’s Drenid and the screen changed.

Drenid Name: Lyra

Hunter: Kesta

Tribe: Gretian

Form: [Hoplite] (2nd stage)

Class: Warrior

Level: 24

Strength: 30

Defense: 14

Intel: 20

Agility: 23

Wolstan tapped the dot again and the screen disappeared. 

Kesta nodded. “You know what to do then, assuming you don’t get gutted by a wild Drenid?” He asked.

“Of course, I’ve been waiting forever for this day.” Wolstan laughed. He reached for the key but Kesta covered it with his hand.

“Not so fast,'' the mayor said and held up the book. “You’re planning on going to Gelia aren’t you? I wondered if you could return this to Trilx’s library when you pass through? I’m sure it shouldn’t be too much trouble for someone so eager to get maimed.”

Wolstan nodded, taking the comment in stride. He knew Kesta simply wanted what was best for him even if he was being a bit rude about it. He took the book and key, held them to his Dredot, and watched them zip down into it as he’d seen other hunters do.

“Well then, I’ll be off. If all goes well I’ll make it to Gelia before nightfall.” Wolstan said, turning to leave.

“Take care, and be careful in the capital won’t you?” Kesta said, picking his paper back up. “Anti-hunter sentiments have been on the rise. Kids apparently have nothing better to do these days than antagonize hard-working people.”

Wolstan barely heard this as he was already halfway out the door and approaching the gate to Zertold forest. Conquering the gate would be his first step into adulthood. He pressed a finger to his Dredot, thought of the key, and it appeared in his hand as if from thin air.

He hesitated to unlock it though, as he remembered his stalker. Being alone in the forest would be the perfect chance for them to strike. He activated the dots screen in the slim hopes he could catch whoever was watching him so he could finally put that mystery to rest.

The key slid into the gate with ease, he turned it but stopped as a great pair of sharp emerald eyes glared at him from beyond the gate. He pointed at them and they disappeared in a flash but not before his menu changed.

Drenid Name: Es

Hunter: Evr

Tribe: Natr

Form: Wend 

Class: Be

Level: 8

Strength: 2

Defense: 2

Intel: 3

Agility: 2

Judging by the fact its form didn’t say what stage it was or its complete classification the device only captured part of the Drenid’s information. Luckily its stats seemed weak but he’d have to stay on his guard.

“Careful now.”

Wolstan whipped around with his screen, an old woman holding a cane watched with concern plain on her face.

Name: ???

Registered Drenid: 0

She wasn’t a registered hutner.

“The Drenid in the forest have been acting strange all morning.” The woman continued. “You usually see a few of them playing near the gate or gathering food but I haven’t seen one all morning.”

“I-I see.” Wolstan said and looked to the sea of towering trees. It did appear unnaturally empty. “You’re positive you haven't seen at least one?”

The Drenid that hounded him already had a hunter, if the forest truly was empty he might have had to wait until another day to catch one. Kesta may have inadvertently gotten his way.

“Well, there was one tottering off to the left there.” the woman said, pointing out the way it went. “It looked injured, I was actually just on my way to tell Kesta about it. I think somethings in the forest that shouldn’t be…”

Wolstan nodded slowly and looked back towards the trees. What started in excitement slowly gave way to fear, turning back before he got mauled was the obvious choice.

But he’d come too far.

He thanked the woman for her advice, unlocked the gate, and stepped inside as a cool breeze rustled the leaves above.

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