Chapter 5: 005 – Vow to God

Chapter 005: Vow to God

We wake up in the morning with the chant of the rooster.

Suzabeth was holding onto my chest and moves away. She seems calm.

“I’ll make breakfast, Edward.”

“Thank you, Suzabeth.”

We dress up awkwardly near each other.

Suzabeth’s bruises had darkened. The contrast to her clear white skin made it look all the more terrible.

She quickly dressed up in order to hide them.

She moves to the door and looks at me.

Her large forehead and small jaw made her blonde braids look good. With her fragile expression, it made me feel compelled to help her.

She trembles. “Please…”

I move in front of her and open the door. It’s still dark, with very little light. I take out my phone and use the torch mode. The place is still clean, the bandits didn’t break in.

Suzabeth looks curious, but then enters the room and lights up the embers in the chimney.

She then cuts the rest of the chicken we ate yesterday, then hands me a bowl of water.

We eat together.

“I need to ***** water by the *****.”

It seems she wanted to go get water. I didn’t see a well nearby.

She must mean there’s a river then.

But with the bandits possibly around the corner of the house, going out is quite awkward.

However the chicken cluck around calmly. So I believe they’re not here.

Still, I put on my helmet and wield the short sword and knife before opening the door. Suzabeth is also holding a knife.

I step outside, there’s no one.

I step away from the house and go around it.

“There’s no one there.”

Suzabeth sighs in relief and grabs onto a bucket.

I go grab my bow and arrows, prepared to shoot, as I guard Suzabeth.

The grass is wet with morning’s dew.

After walking down the hill, I hear the stream of flowing water.

Suzabeth fills up the bucket and stands up, walking back.

Once back to the house, I walk in first, to make sure no one got in.

“Alright, I’ll come back soon. I’ll go get my bag. Don’t open the door.” I tell Suzabeth.

“I understand.”

I walk down the hill towards where I was first teleported. I find my bags, put them on my shoulders and walk back up the hill.

Then…

“Hey motherfucker!”

The voice of a bandit comes from further inside the forest. I turn around, drop the bags and nock an arrow.

I can’t see him.

(Fuck! Are they baiting me?)

I relax, take my bags and go up the hill.

They end up not doing anything.

I knock on the door and call out to Suzabeth.

She lets me in and I put my bags on the floor in Suzabeth’s home.

I step back outside.

“Close the door again. They’re close.”

“I see… Be safe, Edward.”

“Yes!”

The door closes behind me.

I head toward the forest from another direction. I don’t want the bandits to know where I am while I don’t.

(Let us hunt each other.)

After entering the forest, I walk lightly, making sure to not leave footprints.

Then I find a bigger tree and climb up to it.

I climb until I’m hidden by enough leaves that it is hard to see the ground.

Still, I can aim and shoot at anyone passing by.

Then I wait.

There were four bandits, including one badly hurt. He might have died.

I hear birds chirping.

I wait…

…

I hear footsteps coming closer.

The bandits are here!

Looking down with my bow ready to shoot, I wait until I can see at least two bandits.

That way I can take down half of what’s left, then I could defend myself easily, one versus two. I would definitely win, without great injuries.

As luck shines on me, two bandits walk over, with one in front looking down at the soil.

(He’s actually tracking me! Damn, being careful was a waste of time. They’ll soon realize I came up this tree.)

I pull on the arrow, ready to shoot the one behind in the head.

(Now!)

I let go of the arrow, it flies straight into the man’s head.

I nock a second arrow.

“Fuck! He’s here! He’s up a tree!”

The first bandit runs away shouting.

I send an arrow after him.

The shout of pain tells me I got lucky again, but I see him run away through the woods.

(I can follow the blood trail. But that’s risky.)

I fasten my motorcycle helmet and slowly make my way down the tree.

It’s useless to stay here now.

I check on the bandit I shot before, he’s dead. I try to pull on the arrow, but it won’t budge.

I give up on it and follow the blood trail carefully.

Unlike those bandits, I look up often at the trees to make sure no one’s hiding.

The blood trail stops. It seems he must have stopped the bleeding, there’s nothing around me.

I look around. Nothing.

PANG

Suddenly a loud sound resonates around my head.

I see a rock freshly on the ground on top of dead leaves. Then another hit gets my arm.

“Argh!”

My coat protected me a bit, but it stung a lot.

I move behind a tree.

I hear leaves getting stepped upon.

I nock an arrow.

(I have my helmet, it’s just rocks… LET’S DO THIS!)

I get out of cover while aiming my bow.

I find the closest enemy and shoot him.

I miss. He gets behind cover.

I see another bandit throw a rock, but I’m not ready to shoot. I side-step the rock. He hides behind a tree again.

Nobody moves, things are at a stalemate.

I move towards my left to flank them, but they also adjust accordingly.

My last resort…

“Georgey dead. Fed to chicken, haha.” I say in a weird tone.

My ultimate provocation.

“Damn it, damn it!”

One guy steps out a bit to throw a rock, I immediately aim and shoot, hitting his shoulder.

He goes back behind the tree.

“Damn it Jayson, don’t *** on your own!”

“Georgey was my best friend!”

“Georgey was my best friend too! But to take *******, we must **** together!”

It seemed Georgey was the emotional support of the group.

I provoke them more.

“Georgey dead, pipi poopoo on pants, haha.”

From behind a tree, one bandit shouts. “SHUT UP!!! Don’t you dare say another word!”

Since he dared me, I couldn’t say nothing.

“Another word! Another word! Georgey ugly! Georgey smelly!”

“HAAAAAAAAAH!”

The earlier bandit with the hurt shoulder starts running towards me, but I shoot him in the torso and he falls to the ground.

“Damn it Jayson… I’ll avenge you!”

“Let’s do this! Together!”

The last two bandits sprint and strafe through the trees.

I shoot a few arrows but I miss.

By the time they get close, only the last arrow I shoot hits its mark into a man’s torso. He falls to the ground in pain.

I take out my short sword and knife and dodge the last bandit’s charge.

He turns back, breathing heavily with red eyes.

“HAAAA!”

He has an axe. He swings it overhead with two hands.

My martial arts kick in, I kick the ground, advancing up close to him and I slash off his wrists.

The axe continues on its way with the bandit’s hands, with the handle hitting my shoulder.

“AAAAAHHHH!!! MY HANDS… Damn it… Damn you! How are you so--”

I trust my knife into his chest, he falls on his back, taking his last breath.

I go check on the other bandits, one was still alive and I end his suffering.

“…”

With this, I had killed all of the bandits.

This was…

“As expected, the hardest mission is the latest mission… This is getting harsh...”

As I feel the pit in my stomach, the white door appears in front of me.

I try to speak to it.

“There are no bonus points for finishing early, so reappear later when I’ve finished treating the woman’s wounds.”

The white door fades away.

A white door icon appears in my interface through my mind’s eye.

…

After going through the bandits’ personal items, I found some gold coins which I brought back.

I forgot to do the same for the other bandits, so I went to check the corpses.

They were still intact, with some rigor mortis.

I search through the pockets and find more gold. There were no damning letters, not that I thought these guys could read in the first place.

I walk back to Suzabeth’s home.

I knock on the farm house’s door.

“Suzabeth? It’s me, Edward.”

The door gets unlocked and I see a tearful Suzabeth with a sad smile.

You are reading story Yume Howling at novel35.com

She leans over and hugs me right underneath the entry to the farm house.

“Suzabeth?…”

“I’m glad you’re safe…”

She looks up to my face. I lift my visor.

“They’re all dead. Left them there. Don’t worry.”

“… Thank you, thank you!…”

Suzabeth hugs me tighter while hiding her face on my shoulder.

I hug her back. She lets out a groan of pain, I must have touched a bruise.

“Sorry…”

“Don’t be…”

Standing there, doing nothing for a few minutes, I call out to her.

“I’m getting hungry.”

Suzabeth moves and wipes her eyes.

“I’ll prepare lunch, Edward…”

…

…

Two days later, Suzabeth’s bruises were on the recovery phase. My common was a bit better. No other bandits had come, but with the lack of telecommunications in this world, that was to be expected.

If these bandits were sent here, it would take months until those that sent them find out what happened.

But that temporary safety could vanish.

“Suzabeth, let’s talk.”

“Yes?”

I take out the pouch of gold I took from the bandits. I knew I couldn’t bring back a single coin back with me, so I had to use them in hopes of getting more bonus points.

“This is for you. For your travels.”

She takes it and looks inside, her eyes widening.

“… But this should be yours…”

“No, I don’t need it.”

“But how could I ever repay you…”

“…”

“I can’t live with myself if I take so much and don’t give back. Edward?” Suzabeth looks at me.

“Then, if we meet again, you can become my maid.”

“… Will we meet again? Where will you be going…?” Suzabeth looked saddened.

After these few days, we did grow close.

“My Goddess will tell me.”

“… I see.”

“If not for her, I wouldn’t be here either.”

Suzabeth looks out the window, as if contemplating.

“Can I not come with you?”

“I’m sad, but no. The Goddess won’t let me.”

(Unless you can see and enter the white door.)

Suzabeth looks in my eyes and places her palms over her chest.

“But I love you, Edward… Please, let me come with you. I swear to the Goddess Ellabizina Pa Lepma, I shall be your servant. I shall follow your *******. May ******* ***** me if my ****** isn’t true. Goddess, ***** my wish forever…”

My eyes were already wide open by the first sentence, but after she finished her prayer-like declaration, a light shone onto her.

Suzabeth looks at me with a smile.

“The Goddess has let me become yours, Edward. I’m coming with you.”

On her forehead was a newly formed mark that shined from all colors in the shape of a diamond. It quickly disappeared.

“This is…”

Suzabeth just smiled in response.

To make sure whether or not she could actually come, I click on the white door icon, the white door appears right next to me.

Suzabeth looks at it in surprise.

“What is that!?”

“… This is how I leave. I didn’t walk here.”

“Amazing. You’re truly ****** by the Goddess. In every way.”

“Take what you can and let’s go. It’s time I return to my own home.”

“Yes!”

I take my bags and get ready to leave.

Suzabeth takes her few chicken in a smaller cage, some clothes and the gold in a bag.

“I don’t know if the Goddess will let you take that. I could only bring what I have.”

“I see… Was that why you didn’t take the gold?”

“Ahum… I would have left most of it even if I could take it.”

Suzabeth smiles back. “I know, my *****.”

“Go in first.”

“Alright then.”

Suzabeth drags the chicken cage along and opens the white door.

She enters inside and disappears along with the chicken. I follow through.

…

The white room.

Four walls of the antithesis of darkness, no visible ceiling. A white floor. And a woman with her chicken.

“You really made it through…”

“Un… I’ll follow you wherever!”

I had achieved the maximum score. Considering that instead of leaving her in that world, I took her with me, healthy, I suppose this would happen. Depending on how the system works, I could have gotten zero points. But this is a divine artificial intelligence, I think.

The news of this being actually the last ‘tutorial mission’ all along is what bothered me.

Did this mean things would get “serious”? Harder? With longer mission durations?

“Search, –…”

I was about to say brainwashing, but I hesitated after seeing Suzabeth. Thankfully she didn’t speak English, and I didn’t know the translation of brainwashing in common anyway. Anyway, this wasn’t for her anyway.

“Brainwashing.”

Now, I didn’t want to literally brainwash Hope, using torture and whatnot.

I wanted a convenient magic spell.

Memory Rewriting spell cost a lot. The details told me it could only be used on someone weaker magically that’s unconscious.

On the other hand, Hypnotic Mental Suggestion spell can be used on someone conscious, but its uses are limited to ‘inserting ideas deep into the mind’.

It’s not absolute control, at least not at the first level.

But among the cheaper options, it’s the best for me.

I buy it.

Now it was time to enhance my combat capability.

With 60 points left, I felt quite rich.

“Search, magic damage, affordable only.”

These were all quite unique.

The elemental type spells had many elemental variations, but each variation cost points.

There were also elemental combination spells, like Ice, Steam, Mud, Lava.

The one that caught my eye the most was Magic Missile. That’s because it was the spell I used and loved the most in an online game I used to play. I look at the detailed description.

‘Creates a mana construct capable of locking onto a mana signature or not. Does arcane damage on contact. Medium projectile speed. High range.’

This was great. Lock-on mechanism and arcane damage. Decent enough speed. Great range.

I buy it. I’m left with 40 points.

I test out the magic missile in the white room.

A bright oval-shaped sphere appears in my palm, the size of my hand. It shoots out at about 8 meters per second, then lands on the white wall, disappearing without a trace.

I feel weak right after and get on a knee.

“Damn…”

“Edward!? Are you alright?”

Suzabeth comes to support me.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

I used up all my mana in one go.

This magic missile’s consumption wasn’t a joke.

I needed to increase my mana capacity and regeneration.

Who knew if the mental suggestion spell cost even more?

“Search, Mana.”

I quickly find ‘Mana Regeneration 1’ and ‘Mana Capacity 1’ for 15 points each. I take them, leaving me with 10 points.

I start feeling better. My mana seems to come back five times faster than before.

I cross my legs and use Mana Convergence that I got from the cheap tutorial pack.

My mana starts regenerating twice as fast.

I feel good within a few minutes. In this configuration, I’d need twenty minutes to fill up to my new capacity.

With just ten points left, there are not many options left to take.

I did see just before the ‘Mana Control 1’ passive for 10 points, but before that, I need to communicate in common better. Being seen as an outsider wherever I go won’t be any good.

I buy Common Language Proficiency 2 for 5 points.

I leave the last 5 points for next time.

As always, I feel both reluctant to leave 5 points and disappointed I didn’t leave more.

“Suzabeth, it’s time I tell you everything I know.”

“Yes, sir Edward?”

“I’m not from your world. I suddenly became the apostle of Ellabizina Pa Lepma, then I got transported to different places with different challenges and gained new powers, like the magic missile I just shot.”

“An apostle of legend…”

“Saving you was the mission this time. Now I’ll return to my home. To do that, you just need to express out loud you want to leave.”

“Which world is it?”

“… Un? It’s called Earth, sometimes Gaia.”

“I’ve never heard of it… It must be the 23^rd world. To think it would appear in the time of my lifespan, and that I would pledge my self to an apostle…”

“What is an apostle? I’ve barely figured out I’m one, but the Goddess doesn’t speak to me.”

“Their existences are ancient and mysterious… They are chosen by the gods and lead the world they’re in, according to their god’s instructions. That’s the most that I know of.”

“… Interesting.”

(Was the Goddess giving me powers little by little until I could conquer Earth on her behalf?)

I continue. “Anyway, there’s no door when I leave. Try to leave this white room.”

“Yes… I want to leave!”

Nothing happened. A message appeared through my System Interface.

‘Followers cannot access teleportation privileges to Earth.’

“… It seems the Goddess won’t let you come with me, I’m sorry… I think the doors will work for you, as it did just before.”

“Such a shame I couldn’t visit your homeland… That’s alright, I’ll wait here. For you.”

“I’m called here every week. You’ll have to wait such a long time… I’m leaving you with my food, water and tent.”

I show her what food items I brought. The problem is water, especially if she needs to give water to the chicken. It should be enough if she rations herself.

I mount and install my tent for her.

“Alright, Suzabeth…”

“Call me Suzy, sir Edward.”

“… Suzy. See you next week… I’ll bring lots of water and food… Some books, even if it’s just to see pictures of my world, they should occupy you next time.”

“Yes, don’t worry. I have the chicks with me.” Suzy smiles reassuringly.

I couldn’t fathom staying a week in this white room. The inside of the tent was dark enough to sleep at least.

“Then… Let me leave.”

…

You can find story with these keywords: Yume Howling, Read Yume Howling, Yume Howling novel, Yume Howling book, Yume Howling story, Yume Howling full, Yume Howling Latest Chapter