The Overseer & The Class S "Hero"

Chapter 2

We arrived in a forest a short distance away from the beginner's village, and Aurelius immediately tried to use the portal again. Of course, it didn't work, and the young man gave a little snort at that.

"We are going to meet the beginner village's elder first and get information on the slime extermination quest," I said, striding off in the direction of the village.

"Wait. Aren't we going to defeat the Demon Lord?" The young man huffed.

"Well yes, but the Demon Lord has a level. Yours is rock bottom zero, and you have to complete all the checkpoint quests to even unlock the Demon Lord's location. Side quests will raise your level faster, so it doesn't matter how powerful you are."

Aurelius looked disgruntled, but he couldn't go back now and so he had no choice but to follow me. We walked in silence for a bit, me taking the lead, though after a while he just walked past me, setting a brisk pace as though not liking being the one who followed behind.

The young man made an ugly sound of surprise as I yanked him back by the cloth of his tunic, pressing my hand to the small of his back.

"What are you-"

A brilliant flash of light silenced him, and he tore away from me, swiping at his eyes as he tried to blink away the spots in his vision.

I walked to a nearby lake, studying my disheveled reflection which stared back at me, grime covering its face and leaves in its unruly hair, clothes torn in places and muddied in others. Touching my own neatly-combed locks, I turned towards Aurelius, a little amused at how stunned he looked at my new image.

"Come and see how you look," I said, stepping aside as he joined me at the lake.

"Is this your power?" He asked, looking down at his clean, undamaged clothes and back at his own bedraggled reflection.

"It's a little illusion, that's all. If anyone asks who we are, just say that we are travellers from far North."

"Huh."

Scanning the ground round the lake, I bent down to pick up a long sturdy tree branch, brushing it off and handing it to Aurelius. He took it without a word, and as we continued on, he walked silently by my side.

The distant sight of thatched roofs and low wooden fencing spoke of the village, but even as we neared it there was nothing but deathly silence, the place lacking any of the bustling activity it would normally have. The two young men at the entrance snapped to attention at our approach, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Aurelius leaning more heavily on the branch, his teeth gritted together.

"Halt!" The guard on the right ordered, holding his crude weapon stiffly as he sized us up. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

I clasped my hands together, glancing at Aurelius as I did so.

"Please, we are just travellers who lost everything in the forest! We just want some food and board-"

"You said you lost everything, didn't you? We don't house stragglers for free here," the young man scoffed.

I took a step forward, the guard's eyes hardening as I did so.

"My partner here is a competent fighter, it's just that he's injured. Once he's healed up he can help exterminate the monsters!"

The other guard, taking an interest in our conversation, crossed over to us, different emotions warring on his youthful face.

"Wait, how do you know we are having problems with monsters?"

I lowered my gaze, fidgeting where I stood. "Well...it's so quiet...and there are guards. We also got ambushed on our way here."

The first guard studied us, his gaze lingering on the dark stain on the front of Aurelius's tunic. Eventually he sighed, stepping aside to let us through.