Second chance swordsman.., p.6
Second Chance Swordsman (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1), page 6
They mentioned seeing a young man fighting wild beasts in the forest.
There was no way that kid could have taken this gate on by himself.
If he had, though, it would make him a young fighter of incredible potential.
He turned around on his horse and started heading back to Resfall.
He would have to inform the guild to keep an eye out for a young Traveler of immense talent.
12
The party in the orphanage had begun to wind down.
Many of the orphans had returned to their bunk beds and had fallen asleep in food comas from all the pilfered food that had made up their harvest time feast.
Toby had joined Sam, leaning against the wall with him.
Toby turned to Sam.
“Do you think I’ll die from the worm in that apple, Sam?” Toby asked with a sincerity that ignored the fact that he’d asked a variation of the same question more times than Sam could count in the last ten minutes.
“Maybe,” Sam teased. “You never know.”
Toby leaned his head back against the wall with a new spiral of worries enveloping him.
Oh, Toby, Sam thought. You have so much more to worry about than that worm. If only you knew...
Sam glanced across the room, looking for Klara and couldn’t find her anywhere.
He had decided he would speak to Klara tomorrow about what he knew. They needed to start training as soon as possible.
At that very moment, Klara emerged from the bathroom and glared at Sam.
“Sam,” she said. “Will you speak with me in my office?”
Toby shivered at their orphan leader’s words and whispered to Sam, “Good luck, mate.”
“I heard that, Toby,” said Klara in a stern voice.
Toby’s eyes widened with fear.
Sam left his friend to his incessant worrying and followed Klara into her office.
Klara’s office wasn’t actually an office. It was a janitorial closet with brooms, mops, and other domestic supplies.
Still, it was the room where Klara had her private one-on-one conversations with any orphans she thought were struggling, or more likely, she thought deserved a stern talking to.
Klara closed the door behind her and looked at Sam with a serious glare in her eyes.
“Sam—tell me what’s going on?”
Before Sam could even open his mouth to say anything, she continued speaking at him, “You’ve been acting weirder than normal all week, your eyes have somehow magically changed color, and you just don’t seem like yourself. You know, Toby and I had to cover for you all week when the priests and nuns were asking where you were. You know how they can be with runaways.”
They both bristled at Klara’s last words.
“Yeah, I know,” said Sam.
“So what’s going on?”
Sam looked at Klara in her sweet green eyes. She was so strong, not because she was bossy or was stern, but because she put on a brave face so everyone else around her could feel comfortable being afraid. That took real guts.
Sam had told himself he was going to wait until tomorrow to tell Klara about what he knew about the future, but they really didn’t have any time to waste, and the opportunity had now presented itself.
Where did he even begin though?
He didn’t want to come straight out and tell Klara he’s a future version of himself. For one thing, he wasn’t sure if that would make him more or less credible with what he had to tell her. And for another thing, he knew he should keep the source of his future knowledge as secret as possible. If people found out about it, Travelers with telepathic abilities or something similar would be able to harvest his mind, and he could end up creating a second timeline that was even more apocalyptic than his first.
I definitely need to avoid that, Sam shivered to himself.
So what did he tell Klara then?
“So?” said Klara, getting impatient. “What’s going on then?”
Sam stared at her intently. He needed to make Klara feel how serious he was. That he wasn’t joking around.
“You promise not to freak out when I tell you?” said Sam.
“I promise.”
“You promise to not think I’m joking with you?” Sam asked.
“I promise.”
“Okay,” sighed Sam. “I can’t tell you how I know this, but I need you to trust me and believe me when I say this. You, Toby, and many of the orphans here are all in grave danger.”
“What do you—”
“In about a month’s time at the start of Novriel, the Spectral Church is going to make us all enter a white gate.”
Klara’s face paled.
“You can’t be serious—”
“Remember, your promise,” said Sam. “The reason I’ve been away all week was so I could get ahead with my training and gather some resources so I can help the rest of you as well.”
Klara shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, I can’t just skip over what you just said to me. How could the Spectral Church do something like that? It’s heinous. And even if it were true, how do you know what they’re going to do in the future?”
Sam’s eyes twitched.
He knew even a small portion of the truth was going to be a difficult pill to swallow. If she could hardly fathom the news he’d just told her, there’s no way she’d believe he was from the future.
“I had a vision in my dreams that warned me,” said Sam, making up a lie on the spot. “I think the vision is what caused my eyes to turn red.”
Klara’s eyes widened at that.
“Look—you don’t even have to believe me, all I want is for you to promise me you’ll help prepare for this awful event and if it doesn’t happen, well you can make fun of me forever. Here’s the thing, though, if my vision happens to be right: the next month’s training will be the only thing that keeps us all alive.”
13
Klara blinked and looked at Sam like he was crazy.
“Hold on a second,” she said and before she could continue, she just shook her head, unable to process everything Sam had just said. “So, you’re saying—”
She just couldn’t articulate the words Sam had just said to her. It all seemed too crazy. Outlandish, even.
She looked at the boy. She admired him. She caught herself thinking about him more than she would like to admit. She found herself frustrated with him that she could look and watch him for whole minutes before he would turn and notice her doing so.
“I need you to trust me,” said Sam. “I’ve never been more serious in my entire life.”
The boy looked her right in the eyes and in that moment Klara knew for sure that he was telling her the truth. That even if the craziness he was saying didn’t match up with his normal level-headed self, the intent in his eyes and manner did.
“Alright,” said Klara. “I believe you. What should we do next?”
“I think we need to bring Toby in.”
Toby was still sitting on the floor, staring at the ceiling, wondering if he was more likely to die from a worm eating him from the inside out or from a poison apple.
There was another thought going through his head, though, one that made him more uncomfortable than even his own impending death.
He was wondering what Klara and Sam were talking about behind the closed doors of Klara’s office.
What if they were confessing their love for each other? Together, Sam and Klara will live the perfect life that Toby had always wanted with Klara and he’ll just be the creepy sad uncle who comes over for dinner once a month.
That is my fate, Toby thought, starting at the wall, despondently. But if that is indeed the case, I must honor my friends’ decision and support them in their love, however challenging it may be for me. That is what a good friend would do.
Suddenly, the door to Klara’s office opened.
He expected the two of them to walk out, holding hands, but instead it was just Klara, looking at him sternly.
“Tobes, get in here.”
Toby got up and joined his two friends in the office.
Oh wow, he thought. They knew they were going to break my heart so they wanted to do it in private to save me my own embarrassment.
“What’s going on?” Toby asked.
Klara looked to Sam. “You tell him.”
Sam cleared his throat and said. “There’s no easy way to say this Toby but in a month’s time something really bad is about to happen. We’re all going to be thrown into a white dungeon gate against our will.”
Toby blinked and said, “That’s it.”
Klara and Sam looked at each other. “I mean, yeah, did you hear what I just said?”
A huge feeling of relief surged through Toby.
They’re not in love!, he thought happily. They haven’t gotten engaged! I still have a chance!
Sam looked at Toby strangely.
His friend who normally worried about every single thing there was to worry about had just heard that he might be sent into a deadly and dangerous magical portal and yet he seemed...overjoyed?
Toby was blushing and smiling to himself. It was definitely not the reaction either Klara or Sam had expected.
When Toby’s fit of joyous delirium finally came to an end, he looked back at Sam.
“Wait, what did you say about a white gate again?”
Klara couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed Toby by the shirt and shook him. “You numbskull, did you not just hear what Sam said? What were you just celebrating in your head right now? Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”
Toby blushed all over. “It was nothing. I mean, I’m not sure. I mean—okay, I’m listening now and what you’re saying sounds really bad. Like the worst thing imaginable. Worse than dying from a poison apple.”
“What we need to do now is figure out an action plan,” said Sam.
There was just so much they needed to accomplish in such a short amount of time.
Sam bristled thinking back to his time in the white gate from his previous life. He was not looking forward to reliving the horrors of it, even though he knew it was necessary.
The three of them went over some logistics and agreed to a plan.
“Now, all we have do is tell the others,” said Sam. “Klara—I think you should do it.”
“Nope,” she said. “I’m with you one hundred percent on this, but you’re telling those kids out there what you told me. I can’t be the messenger for this one.”
“Alright then,” said Sam. “Let’s go tell them now.”
Fifteen minutes later, the orphans were nudged from their post-feast naps and gathered in a group for an impromptu orphanage meeting.
Klara and Toby stood on, watching as Sam took center stage and began telling the orphans what was going to happen over the next few weeks.
Klara nudged Toby. “He’s amazing, isn’t he?”
Toby shrugged. “Yeah, I mean—well—anyone could do—” Toby wanted to muster some kind of counterargument, but honestly couldn’t in the face of their fellow friend giving such an inspiring speech. “Yeah, you’re right. He kinda is amazing.”
Sam continued speaking to the enraptured audience of orphans.
“We have a month to prepare for our trials in the white gate. It’s not a lot of time, but if we work hard, we might be able to survive. I know you’ll have a lot of questions and I’m going to hand that off to Toby and Klara here. But all I’ll say is this. Get a good night’s sleep. Training begins tomorrow.”
14
In the depths of the grand cathedral of the Spectral Church in Resfall gathered a group of men in hooded robes.
The archbishop stood in the center of the meeting, welcoming all the priests who had managed to join them.
Archbishop Baylen was a very powerful man. He had learned the ways of the Travelers and dungeon gates and had unlocked a powerful class of his own. He kept much of his training secret even from many within the church.
Though, occasionally, the archbishop would snap his fingers and a flicker of bright green and nightmarish mana would emanate around his fingers. Only for a brief second. Just enough time to strike terror in all of those who worked under him.
Only the most trusted and highly valued priests were welcomed into this secret order that was gathering that evening.
Father Irwin always reminded himself of that.
He was special. He was good. He was one of the best.
If only those annoying brats at the orphanage he looked after would stop getting into so much trouble, he might be able to get promoted further.
It was that irritable trio of Sam, Klara, and Toby.
Oh, how he quietly despised those three little wretches.
The archbishop began the meeting.
“Today, we will be discussing what we shall do next with our experiments with the white gate. Our knowledge of its power is only growing deeper, but we must keep experimenting.”
“Great Archbishop Baylen, what do you propose our next move shall be?” asked Father Irwin, eagerly.
“Well—”
The morning after Sam had told the orphans about the incoming danger of the white gate, he led the orphans out just beyond the walls of the city to begin their training.
Klara had paid off the guards with some of her pickpocketing money so the guards wouldn’t make a fuss about a bunch of orphans running around outside the city walls.
It could get people talking and the last thing they wanted was to bring attention to themselves.
The one advantage the orphans had in this whole scenario was that the Spectral Church didn’t know that they actually knew what was coming.
Once they were gathered in the woods nearby, Sam materialized a large heavy bag from his inventory.
He turned the bag over and dumped out all the contents onto the ground.
All the orphans gasped in amazement.
Daggers, copper swords, and shields all piled out onto the ground.
A lot of it was loot he’d got from the goblins in the blue dungeon gate, but some of it was from selling off that loot and exchanging it for other things.
It was far from the best equipment, most likely closer to the worst equipment, but it was certainly a step up from what they had going into the white gate in Sam’s previous lifetime, which had been absolutely nothing but raggedy clothes and empty hands.
“What are you all staring at me for?” said Sam, grinning. “Go pick up your new equipment. Everyone take one of everything.”
Once the items were distributed Sam began his very first lesson.
He walked them through the basics of swordsmanship. How to hold a sword properly, thrusts, parries, and all sorts of other things.
“It’s okay if you don’t remember this all in the heat of battle,” said Sam. “Hopefully, your muscle memory will begin to come into play at that point; but if in doubt, you see a monster, a good rule of thumb is to just shove the pointy end as deep into the monster as you can.”
The orphans nodded at that, their faces going pale at the idea of actually fighting monsters.
“Okay, everyone get into pairs and practice the exercises I showed you,” said Sam, before walking over to the shade of a tree to take a sip from his water canteen.
He watched the orphans try the techniques, most of them wobbling and struggling to get the footing and handwork correct.
“What do you think?” asked Klara, walking over.
Sam scratched the back of his head nervously.
“We have a long way to go,” said Sam.
At that very moment, Toby swung his sword so incorrectly he fell completely on his face.
Sam then corrected himself, “A really long way to go.”
“But—” said a shocked member of the Spectral Church council, “that will be more experiment subjects than we’ve ever used before.”
The archbishop grinned. “To learn the secrets of the white gate we’ll need to throw lambs to the slaughter. It’s a small price to pay. If anything we’re cleaning the streets of vermin. We’re doing a public service.”
Father Irwin nodded along eagerly.
The meeting had taken place while walking through an underground tunnel, until the bright haunting lights of the white dungeon gate lay before them.
Father Irwin grinned.
He was in a good mood.
When they had realized they didn’t have enough people, Father Irwin had volunteered the orphans from orphanage-H to be in the next wave to go through their dungeon experiment.
Oh boy, Irwin thought. He couldn’t wait to send those little rodents to their demise.
It would all happen in about a month’s time.
Irwin could not wait.
15
A day later, Sam continued to instruct the orphans.
They were falling over, sweating, and complaining.
The whole lot of them still seemed quite hopeless.
Not only was he worrying about the orphans themselves, he was worrying about their overall strategy. Should Sam be spending so much time training them or would it be better for him to be gaining more power himself?
He didn’t want the orphans to be defenseless but the fact that he had a class already meant he was their best hope for survival.
It was a tough dilemma.
Should he go gain more power for himself or help the collective?
Klara clearly noticed Sam had been lost in thought for a few minutes and came over to him.
“Sam, I know the drills, I can stay and help everyone if you think there’s somewhere else you need to be to help us survive.”
“Yeah, I can help too,” said Toby, chiming in.
“Says the guy who can barely hold his sword upright,” giggled Klara.
“Yeah, but that’s only because I have blisters on my hands,” said Toby. “I’ll be able to do it right soon. I mean—unless blisters can be a cause of death? Can they?”
Sam chuckled. “Fine, I’ll leave you two in charge.”
