Crusader: Champion of the Dark One

Chapter 8

The world snapped into existence around Jason and he found himself standing in a town.

It took him a moment to get his bearings, as his head stopped spinning. He noticed the medieval look of the city he found himself in. It kind of reminded him of fantasy MMORPG games. He could feel a gentle breeze on his skin and could make out the noise given off by the activities going on in the city. Looking up into the sky, he could tell by the position of the sun that it was around midday. He looked around him to realize he was standing in some kind of alleyway between two buildings. He took notice of his simple brown trousers and cloth shirt he wore and as far as he could tell he had no weapons on him.

Jason exited the alleyway to a courtyard of some sort that had a single exit and a burly guard posted on each side. The two guards wore leather armor and their faces were obscured with metal helmets. Each guard held a spear and had a leather belt around their waist that held a dagger sheathed into it. They seemed to ignore the individuals passing by them as they looked straight ahead. Jason was in no hurry to move around the city just yet so he decided to first check his stats. Saying “status” in his head as the old man taught him, his vision immediately became covered with a screen displaying his stats.

Character Status

Name: Jason                    Gender: Male

Level: 1                             Class: None

Race: Human, ????          Alignment: Chaotic-Evil

Fame: 0                             Infamy: 100

Health: 100/100             H-Regen: 0.30/Sec

Mana: 140/140               M-Regen: 1.45/Sec

Stamina: 110/110          S-Regen: 1.10/Sec

Strength: 11                    Dexterity: 11

Vitality: 10                       Endurance: 11

Intelligence: 12               Willpower: 13

Jason noticed that his name had already been set to ‘Jason’ in this world and that the appearance of his face shown on the status screen was different from his original appearance. He looked more handsome with white hair that ended in red tips that made it look as if his hair had been dipped in blood, the only part of him that didn’t change was his eyes that stayed the same green as before.

Jason glanced at the two guards as he approached them, he was thinking of asking for directions to the tavern where the old man said he would meet his helper who would guide him and help him settle into this new world.

” What do you want?”, one of the guards asked gruffly as he saw him approach, his shadowed eyes boring into Jason.

I was hoping you could direct me to the Pig’s Snout tavern

We don’t want your kind here and I doubt you would find anyone willing to help you here in this city. The guard responded and then spit on the ground.

What do you mean, my kind?

Do you think we can’t see a killer when he stands in front of us? The look in your eyes speaks for itself, as well as the stench of bloodlust around you, plus the symbol at the back of your hand says it all. You are one of that demon worshipping cultist, be glad I don’t gut you where you stand.

And why don’t you attack me since you seem so eager and itching to do so?

Glaring daggers at him, the guard responded, “By the laws of this city, we cannot attack citizens and travelers unless we see a crime being committed and not because of their religious beliefs. Trust me, if it were otherwise, your body would already be cooling on the ground.”

Jason stepped further back to think for a moment, due to the information revealed by the guard he could see that the old man was right when he said his followers are not being actively hunted in this kingdom but that did not mean they were liked. Another thing to take into consideration was the fact that the symbol that marked him as a champion of the dark one was well known in the city meaning he would have to cover it up. Lastly, no matter how heinous the crime as long as he is not caught red-handed, the guards couldn’t attack him for some reason due to the law.

Jason was standing a few yards from the guards mulling over what he had learned when a group of men dressed in the typical fantasy adventurer fashion passed by talking about going to the pigs-snout to unwind with a few drinks after the hunt they just had.

‘Maybe I can follow these guys to find the tavern”, Jason thought.

He kept a cautious distance as he followed the group out the courtyard past the guards, he made sure to smirk at the offending guard as he passed by. He could see the guard's hand tighten around the shaft of his spear upon seeing him smirk. Jason glanced around the city as they headed further into the city, the buildings on either side of the street were made up of a mixture of stone and wood. The structures were crammed together, resulting in a winding cobblestone road through the town. Occasionally, Jason noticed darkened narrow alleys between two buildings and he could make our other busy streets through such passages.

The road was also full of townspeople making their way about their business, women and children run around in their linen skirts and the occasional wagon would pass by carrying hay or lumber. For the most part, the residents wore clean clothes that were well cared for but nothing too luxurious. Jason believed that these were the middle-class citizens of the kingdom. He observed the group he was following and noticed how they behaved, talking and laughing boisterously among each other, and could tell they were very good friends who had probably known each other for a long while. The road ultimately led into a large, circular marketplace that was filled with people and wooden stalls. Shouts came from merchants peddling different wares with people examining and buying various wares. Jason noticed how there were no tall buildings in the marketplace and that this probably was the center of the city as from here he could see how there were thick stone walls that circled the buildings that made up the city and an enormous castle in the distance make up of stone with at least fifteen-foot-tall wooden gates surrounded by walls with parapets and dotted with arrow slits.

As Jason took in the city around him, he noticed that he had lost sight of the group he was following, he scanned the crowd around him frantically looking for them until he heard one of the men yell he recognized to be from one of the men he had been following. Jason quickly headed for the voice to see one of the men arguing with a merchant over the price of the stuff they had obtained from their hunt.

As Jason leaned against a building waiting for them to finish, he heard several merchants conversing but one of them really seemed to catch his attention.

“….sales aren’t moving as fast as they used to.”

The other merchant nodded in understanding. “Times have been much harder around here lately. I barely sold anything this week.”

The first merchant pointed at the castle in the distance saying “ It doesn’t help that the King stays silent and out of sight, there are rumors going around that the King is dead and that those greedy nobles are the ones truly in control of the kingdom”.

“Naa, that’s just people talking, if he were dead we would surely know besides this is the type of talk that get’s people hanged you know”

Jason saw that the group had concluded their business and were leaving, he took a glance at the merchants talking with each other and left after the group.

He followed the group without incident and arrived in front of a building that had a pig with an apple stuffed in his mouth on a sign and concluded that that must be the pig's snout tavern.

Just as he was about to enter a screen appeared in front of him informing him of two notifications he had received:

New Passive Skill: Tracking

You have carefully identified and stalked your prey. Not all tracking involves following wild animals and this skill has many applications.

Skill level: Beginner Level 1

New Passive Skill: Perception

You have observed and evaluated both your environment and the people around you. You are able to notice details that usually go unnoticed

Skill Level: Beginner Level 1

‘This must be the perk that old man granted me, he said that unlike others I was not limited in the skill I could learn and did not need to undergo years of training to obtain said skill, so long as it fell under his domain and was not I could obtain the skill by performing certain actions.’ Jason thought in his head as a smile broke out on his face. Unlike others, I did not receive a massive power-up and overpowered skills but with this so long as I am given time I would become unstoppable. Jason cleared the notifications with a thought and walked toward the door. It was time to meet this so-called guide of his.