The Gambling Hero

Chapter 16: Emotional Instability

I quickly figured out that today would be another bad day when I opened my eyes, and on my plain gold ring a green emerald was shining brightly like it had always been there. I knew that random changes with the ring were never a good sign, but to make matters worse it seems like people had stumbled on the camp. Lilith stood with her daggers on her side followed closely by Bastrin who was standing on his hind legs in cat form looking ready to leap. Two short green men came out of the woods speaking in a language I had never heard before. It seemed that they were goblins, one of the weakest races in the same category as humans, but they still posed a slight threat. Strangely though I felt nothing for the goblins, any fear I would have normally felt, not a shed of it remained as I stared at the goblins. I walked past my companions, right up the goblins I was about to kick one of them as hard as I could because they were an eyesore.

Bastrin however was faster, and leapt at the goblins in cat form unhinging his jaw he devoured the first one whole, Lilith casted a short spell, and lit the other on fire. It flailed around, it proceeded to say something incomprehensible, and dropped to the ground with a thud. I stood still mostly unfazed by the whole ordeal other than being grossed out by the dead bodies in front of me. Bastrin looked at me worried, "Dante! Have you no sense in your head human? Just because they are goblins doesn't mean you can handle them." I frowned now why he had said something like that those goblins were like infants I shrugged, "What's the big deal those goblins aren't scary just looked like free resources to me." Bastrin got mad, but before he said anything he paused, "Wait kid you didn't feel anything when faced with goblins? They might be weak, but most people understand they are still dangerous unpredictable creatures." I thought about it but concluded, "Yeah I don't see what you mean seemed pretty weak to me."

Bastrin glanced at my ring and he seemed to have understood something, "Kid that ring seems to have taken away your sense of fear for right now." I was confused, "What? My sense of fear? Well now that you mention it I guess that does make sense. I think something did seem to be missing when I looked at those goblins." Bastrin had seemed to calm down, "Well Dante I guess green means fear, so with that in mind I wonder if that emerald will go away, or if you will always lack any fear." I didn't really care either way if I kept this demerit or lost it completely I felt no anxiety at all. I spoke in a calm tone, "Well guess we'll see if I go back to normal, or if this curse is a permanent thing." Lilith spoke up with a green glow, "Master if this is permanent this will be an immense burden on everyone you not feeling fear can put you in immense danger." I didn't really care either way, I said to Lilith, "Right now I can't understand your concerns, but if you don't mind we should probably get back on the road." Lilith still glowing green looked like she wanted to scold me, got back on her horse, I ate some breakfast, and drank some water. Supplies from last night had gotten kind of low, especially the water, but I got on the horse focused on our next destination.

I didn't bother to feed the horses, I put Bastrin in my backpack, we rode for a bit, but after about 20 minutes the ring glowed, and the emerald started to disappear, after a few seconds it had disappeared like it was never there to begin with. The fear that I had been holding it for a half hour let loose all at once. I frantically called out to Lilith, "Lilith what about the horses!? Lilith oh man what about getting water? Lilith dammit we forgot to collect anything from the goblins, and I almost died!" Lilith jumped on her horse apparently not ready for my onslaught of anxiety. She responded, "Wh- Master calm down what's wrong with you? Why are you freaking out all of a sudden?" I was trying to calm my thoughts, but it was hard, and Bastrin said in an amused tone, "Hey kid looks like all the fear hit you at once ha ha that's more like it human."

I tried to calm down, but my fears grew worse, "Bastrin I want this ring off I almost died today because of it I can't deal with the harsh demerits of this ring." Bastrin laughed, "Well kid I would recommend you calm down, and as we ride in this forest you think of what each color means. It would help if you knew every color, so you knew what emotions to avoid when the color comes up. It would also help in reading people's emotions." I managed to somewhat calm down. I responded to Bastrin's advice, "Hm, that's surprisingly good advice for once." Well I figured that would slightly anger him, so I glanced behind me and the backpack seemed to silently radiate a red aura. I took mental notes, so far I knew that red meant rage/fury, and from the earlier circumstances I now know that green is fear/anxiety. I glanced over at Lilith. She seemed to be glowing a faint blue hue. I asked her, "What emotions are you feeling right now Lilith?"

Lilith responded quickly, "I guess I'm just thinking about some depressing memories ." I said, "Thanks that will help me determine what each of these ring colors mean." I decided that blue must mean sadness, or even melancholy. I have determined three of the colors, but I had to wonder how many different colors were there? Next time would I encounter a strange new color? I pushed those fears to the side for now, I had to focus on the journey ahead first. I decided in an hour we would stop again to both feed the horses, and try to gather some water for the journey ahead. I was really hoping that tonight we would find a place to sleep. It would take another two days to make it out of this lawless country. We needed to hunt properly before then since we had mostly been ignoring any animal/monster we saw, and find some place to trade again before we leave. After we took a break I would propose to my companions what I had been thinking.

We stopped near what appeared to be a pond of some fresh water deeper into the forest Lilith, and I filled our canteens. We also took time to feed, and give the horses some of the water since we had been somewhat neglecting their care. I proposed what I had been thinking to my companions, "Hey, listen up I think we just start seriously hunting monsters to both sell, and take the food with us since we will need to be self-sufficient on our journey." Nobody spoke up to complain it seemed like we all agreed that whenever we saw monsters/animals along the way we should use them for resources. Once we had finished our break we started back on the road, but about a half hour later we spotted some wolves down the road. We stopped quickly on our horses, and I watched as both Lilith and Bastrin teamed up to quickly take care of them.

I decided the meat would mostly be for Bastrin, but we could use some of the fur, claws, and teeth to sell in any town along the way. I put these items in a special pocket in my backpack, and we repeated this same attack on many forest animals along the way. We didn't take everything because there was only so much I could carry, so we decided to only take the most essential monster/animal parts. We spent the next couple hours on horseback, and we didn't stop along the way, but instead the forest scenery that we can come to get used to changed to open dirt roads again. It seems this road will finally lead to somewhere we could actually spend the night, and sell our goods.

After about an hour of travelling we finally arrived at the place in question, and it was massive, but there were no big buildings or anything. The town we laid eyes on was really more of a big campsite than anything, but it was very large spanning as far as we could see. I rode the horse to the front entrance of the massive camp, and what I saw dropped my jaw. There were tents all around the place, and everywhere you looked it seemed like races I had only dreamt about seeing took shape in front of me. It seems this was a mixed town that simply accepted anyone no matter what race, or origin you were, so I guess we wouldn't need disguises. I walked up to the gates where two guards stood looking bored. I approached them, and they simply said in unison, "Welcome to Blascot enjoy your stay." They moved their swords blocking the path their faces looking like they would rather be anywhere else.

That was fast; they didn't ask for anything. What was the point of having guards if they were just for decoration? We rode around the tents, some seemed to be places where people were staying, small shops, and small lodgings. Blascot had so many tents, they stood in a line for what seemed like miles they were endless it would take forever to look at every tent, or shop. I decided it was important to first get some money to stay the night at the very least, or else we would have to sleep outside again. I approached a somewhat shady tent that appeared to be selling stuff, and we got off our horses to approach a man in his late twenties. He was scruffy, and looked like he wanted nothing more than to close up shop, and fall asleep. The man glowed a faint pink which by now I assumed was boredom since just one look on his face could tell you that. I spoke up, "Hey we are travelers looking to sell some goods can you help us out." The man glowed a darker pink which I had no idea what that meant he hissed, "No I can't help you human I dont sell to your kind get lost." I was surprised, but wait wasn't he also human? I looked again, and I noticed something extremely inhuman on his face.