Sword Of Souls

Elven’s Mind Elven didn't want to fall asleep, not after the pain he had just gone through. First losing his father, then learning he had a family member he had never met before. It was too much. In a vain attempt to cheer him up, but honestly, he couldn’t eat or sleep, he didn’t even want to breathe. All he wanted was to join his father. He knew he couldn't though, it was unfair for him to think this way. For the sake of his friend's feelings, he escaped to his room, searching for rest in his bed. Maybe when I wake up this will all have been a nightmare,” thought Elven. Outside, lightning and thunder mirrored the battle inside Elven’s Heart, which was currently storming. Maybe that was symbolic of what was currently going on in Elven’s head, although it might foreshadow the painful battles that were to come. Elven, roused from sleep by hunger as he had not eaten much the night before, quickly stumbles around his room getting dressed and tying his boots before heading downstairs. “Well, I'm up now and starving, I might as well head to the kitchen” thought Elven”. While walking through the hallway, Elven noticed many things out of place. “Well, Kate has clearly been through here recently. I wonder if she’s still around”. Kate was very caring. She looked after Elven and took care of him, but don't get it wrong. Boy could she be scary when someone she cares about slips up. Her cooking was one of the best things about her. She was great at everything and amazing all around, but her cooking skills were on par with the kingdom's best chefs. However, when she puts stuff on your plate, you had better eat it. If not, she would make a million batches and ask you which was better over and over until you passed out in a food coma. But food is food to Elven. This morning, Elven could smell the scent of sweet berries cooking with a hint of cinnamon and clove-spiced oats. Following his nose, he arrived in the kitchen looking around for Kate. Kate was a fair-skinned lady with smooth, almost silky-looking skin. She had black hair and it was trickling to her shoulders. She also had a birthmark near her elbow and for some reason on the small of her back as well. She was five feet and five inches in height, and she looked her age, which was 18. With a curvy body, she was quite athletically toned in her physique and was wearing, well… uh nothing. Shocked, Elven nervously uttered “Uh hi Kate, '' upon hearing him, Kate immediately stood up straight as a board stammering back while quickly placing her hands to cover herself up “Elven y-you weren't supposed to be up for another hour, a-and y-you I was just… your oats…. Ready'' she dropped herself into a crouch to cover herself better “your oats spilled on me and I went to change but there are just no clothes here that fit me so I was waiting on them to dry'' Kate was getting more red by the second and Elven couldn't help but start chuckling, which he immediately realized was a mistake. Kate yelled angrily “Stop staring and go get a shirt for me” she stopped for a second “and shorts'' She added, “Now if you tell anyone I swear your friends will never be able to pull me off your dead corpse!” Elven immediately rushed upstairs, dashing around the hallway to his room to get Kate a shirt and shorts, after grabbing what she needed Elven threw it into the kitchen, afraid to reenter the kitchen and face the wrath of Kate. Elven actually didn't see much; he was more in shock than anything. Still, he had to admit it was a nice sight first thing in the morning, but he quickly shook his head thinking “No, my father once told me that girls were a trap for men and they'll try to just convince men they love them until they think they desire them in order to have an easy life” However Kate was different from almost every girl Elven had ever seen, for one she wouldn't care about her looks, weight or mannerisms around dates, she would go swimming in just her underwear or whatever she decided to, however when the need for formality did arise Elven had seen her dress up like no other, she was classy but flashy Elven was lost in thought as she snuck up behind him and said, “You’re doing it again, Could you stop thinking about that night.” Elven jumped startled by Kate's proximity; he turned around stammering “I wasn't thinking of anything and besides what am I supposed to think of after what just happened”. Kate just smiled and said “well you care about your life right? cause if you didn't, you might think about what had just happened again” Elven froze at Kate's death stare Kate continued “Besides, you've seen better right? Isn't that what you are always saying? Now let's hurry up and get out of here we gotta train today. To the forest we go'' She spun on her heel and sauntered out of the kitchen pleased with herself. Elven Went back upstairs towards his room, while passing through the hall there he noticed the normally locked storage room door ajar. Elven decided to check it out as he was never allowed access to the rooms after all these years his father was gone now and he was curious Elven flinched at the painful reminder but she shoved the thought from his mind. Stepping into the room, his eyes widened in awe over all the armor and weapons. Looking over the room one particular item caught his eye, on the ground laid a silver shield with a blue and gold sun crest on it. The next item Elven spotted was a massive sword, with a light brown center and dark brown outer edge, Elven approached the sword as if drawn to it, almost like it was calling out to him, reaching out he Grasped the Hilt shivers running down his spine, the hair on his neck and arms raised, he felt Eye’s watching him….no..not eyes like something was looking through him peering down to his core and he couldn’t hide from it if he tried, Elven shook his head and quickly looked around to the door expecting to see Kate there scowling at him for not coming right downstairs but she was nowhere to be found. Elven looked back at the sword unsure of what had just transpired but the sword didn't feel inherently bad in his hands rather like it belonged there or maybe it wanted to be there. Elven continued exploring the old store room until he came across a key hanging from the nearby hook on the back wall. ”There's only one place I can think of to use this'' thought Elven, a feeling of excitement rising in his chest as he dashed out of the storage room around the corner, down the hall, and leaped down a flight of stairs to the familiar door of his fathers locked office. Slowly Elven approached the door, he had never been allowed in his father's office, so many long hours locked away behind dark redwood. Elven let his hand slide over the door remembering the times as a young boy he would wait for his father to emerge from behind it, he slowly inserted the key, the sound of the clicks as he turned it was drowned out but his own heart racing; he could feel the pounding in his ears with one final click, he breathed a sigh of relief. As the dark redwood door pushed open, the long forbidden room was free for him to explore. Inside was a normally plain-looking office with a desk and chair like any other but it was what was on the desk that caught Elven's eye. There on the desk was an open journal, Curiosity pulling him forward like a hungry mongrel, he decided to skim through it, “Not like he’s gonna find out now.” though Elven, thought he again felt a twinge of pain at his own thoughts but quickly pushed them aside, Checking through the page that was open he read: ‘This journal is in the consideration as if I pass on, this journal contains various individuals strengths and weaknesses, and the highlights of how to confront them, fight them, and potentially ally with them. The Middle of Early Autumn: It's a cold rainy night and I've decided to write as much as I can in the case of my passing. When the person who reads this next is able to understand and strategize, this journal will be a great help. My hope is that it is Elven and that this journal especially, will help him with the things I have never told him before. This journal has formatting of stats being first and information panels being 2nd. This journal is an accumulation of all the experiences and time I've spent at war. I have come to understand many things but there is still much that only your grandfather alone could learn. Unfortunately, he never shared his wealth of knowledge with me. In his words “A son needs to discover his own path so he may come to understand the hidden, reveals people's true nature and develops an understanding of his surroundings, and people many of whom will be influenced by the various people.” In any case, I hope that Elven is the one to receive this journal, but on the off chance Brandon is the one to receive this instead, I hope you find the true path to what you are searching for so you may find relief for all the pain I've caused you.” I guess by now you've figured out I have a hidden sword upstairs in the storage room, but I should tell you what the sword itself is and how it affects you. You will have noticed as soon as you feel the blade. You can feel someone watching and you may wonder what this feeling means. As I wielded this blade for many years, I came to realize that this is a great ally that provides a near-perfect 6th sense, don't worry if that doesn't make sense just yet, it will soon enough. From what I've learned this blade is called a ‘ranked one blade.`` Each sword that is crafted with this special type of material is formally called a ranked one blade. They say you can find only 5000 of these at one time. From what I know, a group of people called The Assassins will reclaim any blade that is sold or stolen by a regular person or by nefarious means. I always felt this sword had a second gear to it or at least a way to figure out what force is behind this ‘sense. This blade’s name is Dullfire and I leave it in your capable hands. Elven placed the blade back down on his father's desk. “I’m not sure now is the time for me to take this yet” thought Elven ”besides I already have my own steel sword” Elven whispered to himself breaking the silence that until then had been deafening. Leaving his father's office Elven relocked it and placed the key in his pocket, with one last look at the door he turned and began his trek to the training grounds meeting Kate at the door who was much more appropriately dressed for training than she was for breakfast. Kate and Elven made their way out to the forest training grounds. They decided on a scenic route through the Farming Spot to the Residential Areas and passed by the Meadows area to reach the forest. They walked in silence. The forest was a weird place, on one hand, it was truly beautiful, dense, and full of color. On the other hand, it was eerie, uncomfortable at times, and gloomy. This was possible because it was such a dangerous place even a pin drop could be heard. Most would ask why Elven and Kate had come to such a place to train, the reason was simple there were a few monsters in the kingdom, which are what the people call soul animals. Truthfully no one knows why we call them that. They appear to be normal animals. Although they tend to come in several different colors, in this kingdom for example the soul animals tend to be white in this area. Everything from rabbits to dogs was white and had an almost ghost-like appearance, some docile while some of the stronger ones put up a tough fight but with training, a soldier could eventually capture a soul animal. They were faster than there are average species and made up Elven and Kate's training regimens. They would catch and release them, fight the tough ones, and try to match the animal's movements. One of Elven’s favorite animals to fight was the white serpents roughly 3 feet, fast and masters of remaining undetected. It took really good eyes and instincts to catch one in your line of sight at all let alone to catch one, only one person had ever caught the White serpent, but every time Elven had asked the people who it was they would get sad and stare off into space. Kate and Elven always followed the same regiment. First, they would try to swim like the white fish, then they would try to find skurs. Skurs were tiny creatures 3 feet long, they looked very peculiar, with almost automa-like faces, bright blue eyes that were as vast as the sea, they had black underbellies and nearly as the fastest animal in the forest. One animal stood above the rest though, an oddity in an already Odd ecosystem but easily the most ferocious animal in the forest, the lone golden wolf. No one knew why the Wolf settled in this area. It seemed to keep to one side of the forest, maybe indicating it was protecting something but it was immediately on to you the moment you crossed over the border into its territory, right in your face, teeth bared. Kate and Elvenalways tried to stay on the east side with the Skurs and snakes, nice and easy well…except for this day Kate had suggested we go to the north where the bears like to roam. To the south, there were little dragons, blue ones. They were fierce looking but somehow their features made them cute. It was actually a tradition to get one as a pet for your wife in this town. As traditional as it was, Kate had declared on numerous occasions she did not want one, she claimed they were revolting. Ironically she tended to soften when near them but remained adamant she was disgusted, “well whatever it's her choice even if she's lying to herself” thought Elven. Every Time They had come to the forest the two would grab the wooden swords and practice, Kate was quite skilled in most forms of combat sadly this was not the case when it came to swords, however, if you put a dagger in her hands With her quick flashes of speed and precision she can easily take out a skur matching their every move however when she had a sword she stumbled a lot, losing her balance and had an issue is even walking straight. Elven had told her countless times not to carry a sword during practice. Her response was always the same “I can do this, I just need to balance it right, and besides it's not that difficult if you can do it, and if you can do it obviously so can I.” She would take two steps forward, throw the blade to the right, start spinning in on herself, throwing off her balance, and collapse to the ground every time. Well, this day Elven wasn't having it, something had changed Elven's mood and left him upset whether it was the dreams or the Events of the past week he was mad. Elven snapped out “Don't grab the blade, just for the love of all that is precious to do. not. grab. that. blade”. Despite Elven's jerkish nature taking over, Kate smiled and casually replied “Today I will happily do as you ask cause I want to take it easy, but don't you ever tell me I can't do something especially when you can.” Kate's gentle mocking got Elven's nerves razor hot and his temper flew out the roof taking his emotions with them Elven screamed at Kate “I'm not trying something I could never do. Every time you fall I have to carry you back and I'm not having it. I'm sorry but I'd like to actually train today instead of playing doctor to you.'' The moment he had finished his outburst Elven knew he had made a mistake and he quickly learned not to piss off Kate especially when she’s carrying your backpack, which holds the map and your food rations for the day. She didn't even say anything, she just started running. Now Kate had 3 mechanisms that you needed to learn to navigate in order to be her friend. The first one is to shut down and shut up. This one was hard to react to, for as long as I had known her this was her go-to, it was scary, uncalculated, and stressful to deal with. The second was subconscious intimidation: Kate would start sharpening her blade or cleaning her tools. Elven would say this was only reactionary but when she got stressed she would automatically do this. The third one was rare and only happened when she was really truly upset. Although Elven had rarely seen it, Kate would leave and hide in her special spot. No one had ever found this spot and she would sometimes hide for days with her outdoor survival training. Elven remembered her boasting she could survive hiding for a full month and no one would ever find her. Elven was too stressed today with the morning and events of the week he wasn't mentally prepared to spend the day searching for Kate. Now he was in a predicament about how to train. Everything I've ever done training-wise was with her in this forest. They had been to most regions of the forest though it was a far too expansive area to map out accurately. So Elven did what a normal person would do. I sat down and tried to draw in the sand, He thought about 3 things, number 1 was how to get food. There were a couple of things that came to mind first, spearfishing. Which was the best in the rivers to the west Or number 2 he could find Kate, he had never actually looked for her Dylan had and Michael too but Elven could always tell when she was near. It's like he could sense it being this close to her training every day; it just came naturally to him. Elven thought to himself out loud “I may be able to find her but even then what would I do or say apologies? admit I was dumb and didn't mean it? No, no matter what I said she wouldn't forgive me today” Elven sighed “I best just let her go and find her tomorrow”. The third option training spearfishing might take skill but it didn't raise any points in Elven stats. No one ever came here and when they did it, it was to escape the law, but they would run into Kyle the town's protector… and drunk, he spent his days out by Elisa’s tavern all day long buying pitcher after pitcher, always sitting in silence, his level or rank was 1500 last Elven checked and that was pretty high for some beat downtown drunk. Elven had asked him for training on multiple occasions. He would typically agree, stand up, proceed to stumble and fall over his stool and then immediately face plant into the ground. After hitting the ground he would murmur “wake me in an hour.” Every time Elven would try to find him after, he was gone. He had questioned Elisa every time but she always seemed to get busy right as Elven was trying to ask her. Elisa was Elven’s father's friend. I think they may have even been best friends at one point, a fiery redhead that was 5’ 8 but could flip any man over her with one arm. No one knows why Elisa never went into the ranks; she could have had an easy time; she might even rival Kyle. Perhaps he could see if there was something in the journal that could help better explain the ranking system. Elven grabbed the journal from his stash and opened it up, the first page described how the ranks work. “Looks like I'm probably ranked 5000 because I've received my funding for rank 5000”. The book indicated in order to get more funding, one must beat/kill the next rank up. It may be as simple as Elven finding number 4999 beating him in a fight then I get rank or level 4999 Elven thought to himself “I really have to figure out the correct terms to use for this”. He continued to read the book “You want to level up your rank for a couple of perks. It looks like the first one is when you reach 4000 you get your own sword artist and armor cutter, I personally think this is one of the best perks”. “The Next is the main reason, a lot of people do it for the joy of the hunt and for the money. Ranking up allows you to keep their gear which you can sell or keep, however, weapons are hard to master especially before you surpass rank 1000 it's said that you can pick up maybe one or two weapons and use them masterfully”. “Hmm…” thought Elven “This is why Kate has so much trouble with a sword” what she claimed is that her big sis who Elven had never met told her to use a two-handed broadsword, Elven wondered who that person was but whoever it is if they exist they had her convinced not to give up and she was intent on following it through Elven had seen her go on and on all throughout the week swinging swords that were heavy with ease although she was not graceful with them. Elven decided as he was ranked 5000 he was officially allowed to travel to the council and appeal for his reward money, every spot he climbed was money in his bank. No one in the town knows why the kingdom wanted more soldiers. However it was completely your choice to sign up or not, you signed a petition when you were 10 and as you turned 18 you sat and waited till a carrier arrived and let you know your journey had started. The main reason was for coins. The other reason people decided to become soldiers was that they want to learn, travel, and expand their knowledge of the whole world. Elven couldn't think of much else so he decided to go spearfishing which would be the easiest way to level up his collecting skills. Maybe if he was lucky he might even catch some snails or oysters. While Elven was searching for the oysters, he dunked his head under the water feeling the sharp cold in his face spiked his senses once the initial shock had worn off, looking deeper for his prey he spotted some oysters little ways down the river, Elven resurfaced breathing in deep letting the anger he held earlier roll off his shoulders, happy to have found some dinner. As his hearing attuned itself to his surroundings Elven closed his eyes appreciating the sounds of nature listening to the woods, birds, the river flowing, and a low crackling sound he didn't quite recognize, his eyes shot open, and suddenly Elven noticed a skur skulking around, Elven’s senses heightened further as the adrenaline started pumping in his chest and he froze. The Skur had pushed onto a nearby old tree, dead but massive, with a snap that to Elven sounded like thunder the tree it cracked and fell, before Elven could react the tree landed directly on top of Elven, With no time to react or think Elven dove back under the water in an attempt to escape the falling tree. Shock pierces Elven's body as the cold water envelops him, completely knocking the breath out of him. In a frantic attempt to reintroduce his lungs to air Elven found himself trapped under the water, the scabbard of his sword pinned between the tree and riverbed. With his Lungs now screaming for air the reality of his situation had set in “ I’m pinned underwater in the middle of the forest with no one who even knows where I am”. Elven thrashed back and forth retching at binds holding his scabbard, fire building in his lungs, his vision blurring darker as he fought for his freedom. His arms strained exhausted, in pain but he refused to give up, something hit Elven”s foot “the tree” thought Elven it had to be the tree, he braced his feet to the tree and his back to the riverbed and fought with everything in his will, with a violent jerk he felt his body push out from the tree hitting the rocks of the river bed. Elven clawed his way back onto the river bank coughing and gasping for air, funny if this had happened just last night he may not have fought it but something had changed. After a little while back on land, he noticed he had lost his steel sword with the scabbard. Elven looked back to the now almost completely submerged tree with a heavy feeling of remorse over having lost his old sword. Now he was unarmed and miserable, the sound of brush rustling snapped his head towards the other shore where he spotted the rare golden wolf Elven sensed the wolf was staring him down. “Oh,” Elven thinks to himself “ I must be too far out of the safe part of the forest”. Elven quickly decided to walk back away from the wolf's territory to the way he came until he sensed the wolf wasn't watching anymore, it was on guard and it was guarding the way Elven then realized he can’t go home because the wolf was now guarding the way back from where he came. he would have to stay up and make camp for the night, for the meanwhile he would still need to find something to eat. Elven went to the nearby clearing in the forest and started to clear away wood and brush in an area approximately 16 feet long and wide He then searched the surrounding area for a curved stick sturdy with a little flex, and taking the leftover string from the binds of his scabbard He fastened the string to the curved stick fashioning a crude bow. Next, he searched for a sharp rock nearby to shape and sharpen basic arrows out of the sticks he collected from the brush. The makeshift bow only had around a 20 ft range meaning he would need to get a lot closer than he would like. The sky had started shifting to an orangish pink hue. As Elven noticed this he thought “it’s now or never for finding something to eat”. Elven went to work tracking, focusing his senses listening for any type of game knowing that his blunder and the presence of the Wolf from earlier had most likely scared away anything like a deer, he had begun to slowly step through the trees, slowed his breathing and kept his bow up and a tense quarter draw. As Elven focused his ears he was answered with a small twig snap approximately 15 feet to his right, his years spent training in these woods had made short work of honing in on his prey, Elven Turned the right spotting his hunt a medium-sized rabbit, and it had noticed him turn, it lept in a desperate attempt to escape, but Elven was counting on it, with a slight adjustment to his bow Elven pulled it to its full draw he wasn't taking any chances this night, in one motion he let his breath slowly purse its way out and released the arrow, as if watching fate in slow motion the arrow smoothly intercepted the rabbits jump path burying itself deep under the animal's shoulder blade, the kill every hunter dreams of clean through the heart, the rabbit felt no pain. He goes on to stalk and hunt a couple more rabbits.