Sword of Justice candidate one

Thoughts?  

Chapter 1: The beginning

“Thanks Tim.”

“No problem, John,” I offered, setting the box down and taking a moment to breath.  John’s grandfather seemed to only have heavy boxes left and John’s mother, Helen, left them for the two young men to carry.

Like an intelligent person.

“Anyway, I owed you one,” I continued.

“Like hell you do,” said John handing me a sports drink.  “You’d have done this whenever I asked you, because that’s who you are.”

“Jeez man, it’s the least I could do, I am getting paid for this, you know,” I replied uncomfortably.

“Yeah, you demanded twenty bucks and a few bottles of water for a half day of moving heavy boxes, that’s real highway robbery,” said John shaking his head.  “You could have asked for more.”

“You’re like family, John,” I replied.

“You need money,” said John watching me.

I didn’t say anything, instead looking up at the house.  On the outside, it didn’t look like much.  That made the inside way more impressive.

“So was grandfather loaded or something,” I asked.

John shrugged, accepting the change in subject, “Totally, used to tell me there was a magical cupboard in the basement where you could go mining for gold.”

“Is there,” I asked.

“A cupboard, yes,” said John shaking his head.  “Magical, no.  But I did tell everyone that through grade school and got made fun of constantly for it.  I was the cupboard kid, if you remember.”

“I don’t, you never really talked about your grandpa around me,” I said.

“Point, you were my first post crazy grandpa friend,” said John.  “I was getting made fun of constantly, and then one day gramps walks up and tells me they were all stories he was making up and I shouldn’t believe any of them.  He also threw away the cupboard.  I think mom made him do it, but that took years for me to lose the reputation of the gullible kid.”

“It was well deserved,” i offered.

“Har har,” said John.  “Anyway, I used to look up to gramps like a hero, and it turned out he was just kind of addled the whole time.  Not really all there, you know.  And he kept going missing for weeks or months at a time.  That’s why it took us so long to clear out his place, he vanished at least two years ago.”

“And you didn’t find him,” I asked.

“No, we finally hired a PI and he basically just fell off the map,” said John finishing his drink and linging up a shot on the garbage cans.

It missed.

“Did he just die, or have a stroke somewhere,” I asked.

“Doubtful, I still saw him during the holidays,” said John.  “Gramps was a unit.  Pure muscle, heck he ran a five k two years ago and set the record.”

“Setting the 60+ record is impressive,” I replied.

“I mean the race record, he made it in 13 minutes and claimed he could have gone faster if he wanted to,” said John.  “Time just never seemed to bother him.”

“Well, anyway lets get those last few boxes in the basement,” I offered.

“One more from you, you are supposed to be going somewhere in fifteen minutes, remember,” said John.

I froze for a minute, “You know.”

“Yes, which is why mom gave me this,” said John holding out an envelope.  “Five hundred dollars, for Hope.  Don’t even try to refuse, mom insisted.”

“I don’t want charity,” I sputtered.

“Well then this is charity for Hope, or a long overdue bonus for babysitting, or whatever you need to do to mentally reconsile that everyone loves your sister,” said John waving the envelope in my face.

I took it, “Thanks.”

“This is for you, one crisp 20 dollar bill, mom told me to tell you to spend it on yourself,” said John.  “You need to take care of yourself, too.”  John patted me on the arm and walked over to the U-Haul to repack a few things.

I didn’t say anything, and just started back to the basement.  It was generous and all, but five hundred dollars wasn’t even a scratch in my sister’s medical bills.  I still hand it over to the hospital and hope it would buy her a bit longer, but what little we still had left was running out.

The sun was going down though, if I wanted to visit hope I was going to have to start walking soon.  The hospital was nearby so that wasn’t much of a chore, and I’d told John that’s where I parked to get a good spot.

I sold my car last week.

John was a good friend, but he didn’t realize how bad everything was.  He though with a bit more gumption, and a bit more work I could pull Hope out of this spiral, but I was making my peace with the fact that wasn’t going to happen.  If I had a million dollars for the experimental procedure, I might be able to save her, but anything less and my sister was a goner.

I stepped down the basement stairs into the main room.  The bookshelf was clear and there were a few boxes that still needed moved.  I could probably grab at least two on the way back up, or make two trips with two each and get the whole thing cleared out.

I was actually surprised the bookshelf was there, it was the only piece of furniture left int eh basement, but it turned out to be built into the wall.  As I bent down to pick up a box, I noticed a sliver of light from it.

“That’s odd,” I said out loud, listening to my voice in the basement.  I punched the wall next to the bookshelf and it was solid.  That’s what I would have expected, this wall went right up against the alley.  There wasn’t space for anything behind there.

Yet when I hit the back of the bookshelf it sounded decidedly hollow.

I looked around the old basement, the house was nearly 80 years old and the conduits were still plainly visible on the walls.  One line of wiring went over the bookcase into nothing.

“There isn’t a box here, where did that go,” I wondered, tracing the wire back.  The panel was nearby and the wire went straight into it, well not straight.  There was a junction box in the middle of the wire for no reason.

I reached up to the utterly mundane piece of hardware and pushed on the cover, the metal plate slid up revealing a switch inside.  If you weren’t an electrician, or a desperate handyman, you wouldn’t even have noticed it.

Pressing the button caused the bookcase to slowly open even as the metal flap fell back into place, hiding the switch.

“John, you have to check this out,” I yelled, stepping down the stairs into a secret room.

There were maps here on every wall, straight out of a fantasy game.  Several of them looked very ornate, and all had push pins jammed through them at various points.  Some even had strings attached.

There was a naked mannequin, against one wall right next to a cupboard.  A magical one I presumed.  I opened the door to the cupboard and found a mundane empty cupboard.

“Dull,” I said looking around.  There were weapon racks, but no weapons, and a letter from someone which was covered liberally in what I had to assume golden ink.  I couldn’t read it, it wasn’t written in any language I recognized, but someone had paperclipped a handy guide to translate the language next to it.

Finally, there was a tiny window that allowed in just a small amount of light.  There was also a large fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling that did most of the heavy lifting.  It flickered a few times, then stayed on.

I noticed the bookcase shut itself, but spotted a switch right next to the door.  Easier to find the button on the secret side, of course.

“Notice me.”

I looked around, spotting nothing.  I thought I heard a voice.  A very quiet voice.  I slowly took a few paces around the table in the middle fo the room.

“Notice me”

That’s when I saw something strange.  The weapon’s rack was solid underneath.  Too solid, if you were going to put weapons in it that made sense but the amount of material underneath was extraordinary if that’s all you were doing.

I felt along the edge of the empty case and found a tiny hole, one that anyone who’d ever reset an electronic device would recognize instantly.  I grabbed the paperclip and bent it straight before shoving the pin into the hole.  I pressed down for a moment and felt a click, then I found that I could lift up the lid of the weapon rack to reveal a second, hidden shelf where a sleek sword with a golden hilt lay.

Swords were not my thing, I mean obviously I played swords when I was a kid but I had no idea what this thing was worth but it screamed valuable.  LIke, I could sell you and pay for my sister to live money.

A wicked part of me wanted to take it.  Another part wanted to ask for the weapon rack and then claim I found the sword later, but I knew the truth.  If Helen asked I’d give it to her because she was like my second mother grown up, and I was thinking stupid anyway.  The sword was probably not worth a million bucks.

Still, I wanted to at least hold it once so I grabbed the hilt.

“Behold mighty Champion, for I am Justice!”

Chapter 2:  The Sword

So I dropped the sword.  It landed with a whump right int eh cusion and was silent again.  Obviously, I was hearing things probably doing to my 80 hour work weeks and then doing manual labor all day.

I grabbed the sword gain.

“Behold mighty Champion,” began the sword.  I dropped it again.

“I’m going crazy,” I thought.  I knew it.  It was the overworking.  I shouldn’t have gotten the other job at the meat packing plant.  Sure the pay was good, well, pretty good, but the hours and the labor were killing me.  A person could simply not work 80 hours a week for very long without going bonkers.

Now it was a contest between my broken mind and this sword.  It was going to be silent.

I grabbed the sword again, and blissful silence.  I wasn’t crazy.  I was just exhausted but I got to see the sword.  I slid back the scabbard an inch to see the blade.

“See, I’m not crazy,” I said.

“You aren’t crazy, don’t drop me,” began the sword.

I dropped the sword.  This time it fell out of the case and clattered to the ground.

It was exhaustion.  Working an 8 followed by a ten two days in a row was not healthy.  I barely got four hours of sleep and it was causing delusions.  I was going to have to shift back to two five day a week jobs, and then I’d at least get two slow days where I could sleep for seven hours or so at a stretch.

“Whelp, no fun for me,” I said picking up the sword again in preparation of putting it back into the case.

“Do not place me back in the case until I have told you of our quest,” began the sword.

“Sorry talking sword, you need to go back into the case,” I said, out loud, to my self.

“I not just a talking sword, I am a Magical Blade.  I am Justice,” said the little crazy part of me who thought he was a talking sword.

“Okay magic sword,” I said holding the thing.  If I was going to be crazy, I might as well have a bit of fun.  “What can a magic sword do?”

“My powers are limited here, but I see that you are exhausted,” said the sword.

“Yeah, I’d say I am, I’m talking to a piece of metal.  Now I’m wondering if the entire secret extra basement is not just me being slightly batty.”

“I can recover your endurance, with MAGIC,” declared the sword.  Suddenly my arm twitched and a blast of cold flowed through my body.  All of the exhaustion in my system was gone.  In the last 72 hours I’d managed 8 hours of sleep and was about ready to collapse, now I felt like I’d slept on a feather bed for 12 hours.

“Okay, you have my attention,” I said holding up my hand.  It wasn’t shaking.  I looked at my reflection in the blade and even the bags under my eyes were gone.

“Excellent, to continue,” continued the sword, “I AM JUSTICE, a Magical Sword granted only to the most powerful of Magical Knights.  We are on a universal quest to save world from the forces of evil.  My previous knight is missing, so a new knight must be forged.  Will you be that knight?”

I considered that for a second, “no.”

“Good, now shall,” began the sword.  “Wait, did you say no?”

“Yes, I am not saving worlds, that sounds dangerous and hard,” I said.

“But they need saving,” said Justice.

“Cool, do they have people that do that,” I asked.

“Yes, Magical Knights, who’s higher calling is to save the universe from the forces of darkness and evil!”

“Cool, cool, is there a high turn over rate for those knights,” I asked.

“Many fall in the line of duty,” said the Sword.  “But they die… heroically.”

“Good luck then, I’m not about to go marching off to die saving someone else when I can’t even save my own sister,” I said.

“But you could, a Magical Knight has many benefits,” said Justice.

“Define them,” I said.

“Well you get a magic sword,” said the annoying sword.  “And prestige, and exposure!”

“Is any that money,” I asked.

“There is asense of pride and accomplishment,” replied the sword.

“Okay, well, still a hard pass on that being a knight thing,” I said getting ready to put the sword in the rack.  “I’m looking for more of a miracle that could heal my sister.”

“Why didn’t you say so, for Magic Sword Knights, miracles are around every corner,” said Justice.

“Like actually around  every corner, but not really,” I said.

“No, like if you save a world the ruler will almost certainly grant you a major boon and curing your sister of WHATEVER is wrong of her certainly fits,” said Justice.  “And if not, I am prepared to do whatever it takes to heal her.”

“That sounds, a little vague,” I offered.

“My previous master used a magical potion he earned to cure cancer of the fourth stage.” stated Justice.  That got my attention.  That was one stage worse than what my sister had.

“Fine, I’m in,” I said.

“Really,” stated the sword.

“Yes, whatever it takes.  I will save my sister, it is the least I could do,” I said.

“Then do you swear to uphold the honor and duty of the Magic Sword Knights in our pursuit of Peace throughout the universe,” said Justice.

“Yes, I do,” I replied and felt a weight settle onto my shoulders.

“Then, Squire Tim, we shall travel to the planet Exagin for your first quest to save the world from evil!”

“Squire,” I began.

“You don’t start off at Knight rank, you are new,” said the sword.  “Take the belt and my scabbard to the cupboard.”

I grabbed the belt, which was leather and much nicer than my belt.  I spent a moment switching it out before clipping the scabbard to it.  I slid the sword into the scabbard without thinking.

“You will find we can communicate as long as you are wearing the scabbard or I am held in your hand,” said Justice.

“So If I put you down, you’ll be quiet,” I asked as I opened the cupboard.  The empty cupboard was replaced by a glowing purple portal.

“Is this dangerous,” I asked.

“This, no,” said Justice, “Everything after, certainly!  But fear not, I JUSTICE will get you through.  Exagin is a low danger world where you can learn the ropes, a quest fit for a squire.”

“Excellent,” I said, stepping through the portal.

“Or at least it was when I learned of it, how long as Henry been missing,” asked the sword the moment before we vanished.

Chapter 3: Exagin

So the portal wasn’t on ground level.  It was about ten feet in the air, and I was flung out of it at a reasonable speed.  I just like to mention the particular to explain that when I landed, I broke a leg and wrench an ankle so badly I was pretty sure the foot was going to fall off.

“Please stop screaming,” said Justice and suddenly the pain went away.

“Wait, you cured me,” I said, rising to my feet and promptly falling over again.

“No, I stopped the pain, please stop walking on your very broken leg and foot,” said Justice.

I looked around, we were in a forest or maybe a jungle.  Could have been either, it was kind of dark and I was face first in the dirt.  Heck, we could have been a mall parking lot for all I knew, it wasn’t like I was going to be walking anywhere anytime soon.

“Excellent, this area is safe,” said Justice.

“Joy,” I hissed, rolling onto my back.  My foot flopped around when I turned over.  I interpreted that as a bad sign.  “Can you heal that?”

“I’m kind of tapped out of mana at the moment after curing your exhaustion.  Normally a Magic Sword draws it's power from their knight, but you are strangely bereft of magic,” said Justice.

“Magic isn’t real,” I retorted.

“Ha, that’s what Henry said the first time,’ said Justice.  “WAIT, I remember.  My awesome mind, like a steel blade.  Humans from your world have their magical powers dimmed for some reason.  I shall enable them using the power of Justice.”

“Okay, magic is good, I like magic,” I said.

“Also you eat that little pink flower over there,” said Justice, “While I prepare your magic!”

I picked the flower and looked at it.  It smelled strange.  “Is the flower going to give me magic?”

“The flower and my powers combined will activate your magic,” said Justice.

“What are the percentages of flower vs sword here,” I asked.

“Like 99/1, if I had to put numbers to it,” said Justice.

“Cool, cool,” I said, and ate the stupid flower.

You have recovered .001 points of mana

I drew breath for the first time in my life.  Everything smelled better, more crisp, more real.  Everything was so much more detailed, there were so many more colors I never saw before.  I heard new sounds, a leaf falling, a drop of dew.  I felt the grass, every blade, the wind.

Then it dimmed, and my legs hurt.

Your mana pool has fully filled, you have 1 point of Mana.

“Excellent, your first stage has completed,” said Justice.  “This is an improvement, Henry found out that he could gain mana only after he drank his first healing potion.  That was a bad time.”

“Hate you so much,” I ground out.

“Now, let's fix your legs,” began Justice as the sword glowed briefly and then so did my legs.  I heard several loud popping sounds and the pain dropped from a solid 11 down to 0.  Even the soreness from working all day was gone.

“Couldn’t we just do this to fix my sister,” I asked.

“Unfortunately no, there is not enough mana on earth to cast any spells, and we cannot bring her here because she is not a Magical Knight,” said Justice.

“But a potion,” I said, straightening up and looking for the portal.  It was gone.

“Yes, that would work.  They contain their own magical reserves,” said Justice.

“Okay, lets get that potion, and save the world too, I guess,” I said, standing back up and feeling my glorious, functional legs again.  My foot was even attached properly.

“I love that attitude, but first you should probably level up,” said the sword.

“Like a video game,” I said.

“Yes, like a new fangled video game,” replied Justice.  “At least, that’s what henry would say.”

“So do I like wave my hand or think about it,” I asked.

“No, I do it for you,” said the sword and suddenly a menu exploded into my vision.  It was poorly laid out with no concept of UI.

“Is this Henry’s” I asked.

“Yes, he was quite proud of it,” replied Justice.  I shrugged, I’d dealt with bad user interfaces before and I could manage one now.  I spotted the level up icon, which was handily placed in the side, and selected it.

You are a level one Magical Sword Squire

Strength: 15 | Endurance: 14 | Agility: 13 | Reason: 11 | Logic: 9 | Willpower: 16

Mana: 1 | Stamina 2

You gain the ability, Magical Strike.  You can channel your Mana into your sword for additional damage.

“Do I have hit points,” I asked, not seeing them.

“What are those,” asked Justice.

“The ability to take more damage than normal,” I said.

“Not at this level, you are essentially a normal human body with a few enhancements, but worry not at higher levels you will become significantly more durable,” said Justice.

“Okay, and what does Mana do for me,” I asked.

“You can focus it into me to allow me to do far greater damage,” said Justice.

“And you can also use spells, is that from my mana pool,” I asked.

“No, I have the ability to cast spells on my own, for I am great,” said Justice.

“Cool, cool, What is stamina,” I asked.

“That is the ability to channel your body’s inner reserves to push beyond your limits for a short time,” said Justice.  “You need to unlock skills to use it!”

“How do I do that,” I asked drawing the sword and waving it around a bit.  The sword seemed functional enough.

“You can either find a skill trainer or I can train you in certain skills, but be warned the human mind is a paltry thing and you can only handle so many Magical Knight Skills!”

“So they are different than normal skills,” I asked, sheathing the sword and rapidly drawing it a few times.  If Justice cared about this he didn’t say anything.

“Yes, you can learn any conventional skill your mind can process, but Magical Knight Skills are special in that they are far more powerful than conventional skills, rule breaking if you will.  For example, any human can learn first aid to treat minor injuries, but a Magical Sword Knight using first aid could easily repair the damage you took to your legs in a moment’s notice.”

“So is there a potion skill trainer nearby,” I asked, looking around.  We were still in a forest and not a mall parking lot.

“Perhaps in the nearby town, we shall go there and learn more of our quest,” said Justice.

“Excellent, I’m really eager to learn more about skill training,” I offered and Justice pointed me towards the town.

Chapter 3: The future Mall Parking lot

Shorts and a tee shirt were great things when you were moving a bunch of heavy boxes, assuming you were smart and invested in good footwear.  I had.  The problem was that shots and a T-Shirt were pretty much the worst possible thing to wear in an unspoiled forest, with sticker bushes, and poison ivy just about everywhere.

“How soon until you recover your healing power,” I grumbled as I found the largest patch of poison ivy yet, while I was in the dead center of it.

“Several more minutes,” said Justice as I fought the urge to scratch, and I fought it hard.

“So I’ve learned the skill, spot poison ivy and we won’t be crossing any more patches of it,” I said bluntly, as I stomped out.

“That is not on your character sheet,” said Justice.

“I am more than my character sheet,” I growled, “You idiot.”

“I am not an idiot, I am Justice!”

We were going to have to agree to disagree on that.  It turned out swords were terrible pathfinders.  I was content though, I’d lived though poison ivy before, and in a few minutes I didn’t have to worry about it again.  All I needed to do now was find this stupid town which was located in the dark, spider web filled forest.

“Aw fuck,” I hissed, drawing the sword.

“Do not fling me away in frustration,” began Justice.  “Oh, they are behind us as well.  We are totally surrounded by giant spiders.  Fear not, I will use my magic to…”

“You are out of magic,” I growled trying to figure out how to get around the spiders.  I’d stepped right into them after leaving the poison ivy patch.  They were everywhere, about the size of a corgi and they all looked hungry.

One got close, so I slashed it.  Turns out using a sword was harder than Hollywood would have you believe, but not by that much.  Either that or the sword was really sharp, or spiders were really weak against sword slashes.  In either case, my slash went right through the spider’s head, killing it instantly.

I’d have happier, but he was just a distraction and the other spiders were jumping at me from behind.  One landed on my back and started biting me through my t-shirt.  That armor easily repelled the bit, preventing a nasty wound that penetrated any serious damage.

Man, that would have been nice.

I screamed as the fangs dug into my flesh before rotating and slamming my bloody back into a nearby tree.  The spider smashed and another spider leapt at me.  I swatted it in mid air, with the sword.  That cut the spider in two, which had the unfortunate effect of spraying my face with spider guts.  Now I couldn’t see and I was getting attacked by spiders.

I started slashing in an erratic pattern that confused the spiders.  That wasn’t what I was trying to do, my arm was going numb from spider posion, but it had the effect of not letting them murder me.

“Try fighter better,” yelled Justice.

“Fuck you, sword,” I thought, slashing around trying to find another one when the sword slammed into something and stopped.

“I am stuck in a tree,” said Justice.  Which was true, I’d gotten him stuck in an old growth tree that I couldn’t have put my arms around if I wanted to.

So I found out that the worst thing in life was not being surrounded by flesh eating spiders, it was being unarmed while surrounded by flesh eating spiders.  I yanked on Justice, but he was stuck dead.  Dead being the appropriate term because that was what was about to happen to me.

“Channel your mana,” said Justice.

I focused on the blade, and willed it to power.  The sword glowed blue for a moment and started sliding through the tree.  All the way through the tree, the tree was cut in half.  It slid off the trunk with a boom as the tree struggled to find somewhere to fall.

This had several interesting lessons.  I learned, for example, that adult spiders are larger than baby spiders, which is what I was fighting.  The adult spiders learned that when a tree is cut in half it slides off the base in a hurry which caused a very high level shock up top.  The spiders also learn about gravity the hard way.

Five massive spiders fell from the canopy of the forest and splatted onto the ground.  One landed on a baby spider that was entertaining the idea of eating my face.  The giant spider twitched where it landed, so I thrust Justice into his torso and yanked the blade away carving the creature in two.

Then the bluish light faded and Justice looked normal again, while another giant spider crawled down a different tree, with around thirty of the baby spiders.

“I’m going to die,” I said.”

“You need to have a positive attitude,” said Justice.

“I”m positive, I’m going to die,” I replied.

“I walked into that one, a Magical Knight needs to be aware of his surroundings, use them to your advantage,” said Justice.  That was easier said than done because a massive spider was walking right towards me and it looked pissed.

Of course I didn’t know if it had another expression.  Maybe hungry.

At that moment, I noticed something.  One of the baby spiders that was approaching me walked into the poison ivy and then instantly hopped out.  It began shaking several legs vigorously.

“They don’t like poison ivy,” I said, and I ran back into the patch with my bare legs.  The baby spiders stopped, unwilling to enter into the itchy hell, unfortunately the adult spider was looking hungry, or maybe pissed.  Could be either.

I backed all the way to the middle of the patch, giving me as much poison ivy as I could muster.  There were no trees nearby, which is why the patch was so large, and I looked up and noticed the other giant spiders saying safely above me.

“They can’t reach us here, only if they go on the ground,” I said as another giant spider walked over and tapped the poison ivy with it's leg.  The spider pulled back.  Apparently the only one brave enough to enter the patch was already here, looking pissed.

Maybe hungry.

“Spider tactics, go,” i said as I began circling the spider.  It didn’t want to move unnecessarily but was willing to charge over to me if it thought it could reach.  I did my best to keep it at range while I thought of a a better idea.  The front end of the spider was full of fangs, teeth and other things I’d rather avoid.

“At your level, avoid is the suggestion,” said Justice.

“We are here now, we have to kill this spider, what are my options,” I asked.

“Well you already used your Magical Blade strike,” said Justice.  I checked my mana, it recovered after about an hour which was useless in this context.  “If you can hold him off for another minute, I can prepare a spell.”

That spider wasn’t having it, it charged me racing through the poison ivy desperate to get this fight over with.  I rolled out of the way, ensuring that every bit of me that could be affected by ivy was.  The ivy was so thick the spider lost me for a moment and was leery of randomly digging into the underbrush.

“Be careful, I am covered in poison ivy,” said Justice.

“Wait,” I said, as I started gathering up more of the annoying plant until you couldn’t even see the sword.  “I wonder if the big guy over there is as resistant all over.”

I stood, holding Justice and waited for the spider to see me.  It did and charged against, this time I didnt’ dodge, instead I thrust the ivy covered blade straight into the creature’s mouth.  The sword only got about half way in before I struck something that stopped it, saving my hand, and it turned out the spider wasn’t all the way resistant to poison ivy.

It bucked madly as the chemicals in the ivy went to work in it's maw.  The creature twitched violently, collapsed and then kept right on twitching.  I was ignored as the creature went through whatever hell that was.

Walking over to the side I started hacking off legs, which were surprisingly easy to cut off.  When I did they practically exploded off of the creature as the spider’s guts were seemingly held under very high pressure.

“It is having an allergic reaction,” offered Justice.

“I gathered,” I said after I cut off the last leg on one side and got a clear angle on the head.  One swipe later and the creature was dead, and I was covered in spider guts.

“Any of you other jerks want some?” I yelled.

Turns out no.  I didn’t know if the spiders were intelligent or not, but they certainly didn’t want anything to do with the ivy patches.

So they were somewhat intelligent.

Chapter 4: The town of Nordrin

I stepped out of the forest and looked at my green tattered shirt and green tattered shorts.  My boots were also green.  So was I.  Turned out spider guts stained, rather badly.

“Shall I cast healing on you now,” offered Justice.

“My clothes are practically dripping in ivy juice, so I don’t see how that would help,” I said.

“We can buy more in town,” offered Justice.

“With what money,” I stated.

“I looted the big spider, we can sell it's parts for gold,” said Justice.

“That is good to know, I am happy that all of that worked out,” I said stomping towards the gate.  It was easy to find, there was a road.

“I’m sorry about the ivy,” said Justice.

“No poison resistance spell, literally nothing,” I asked, again.

“Only cleanse, which will cure the poison you have.  You can learn resistance spells if you can find a trainer,” offered Justice.

“I hate you, so much,” I grumbled as I walked up the road to the town gate.  We were the only people on the road, and Justice was a person otherwise I was talking to myself.  The guard spotted me and told me that had some nice tomato juice ready to take care of my wounds.

Of course not.

“Orc,” one yelled, pointing his spear at me.

“Die foul creature,” stated the other as he stepped towards me.

“Do I look like an Orc?  I am green because I have been killing spiders and if either of you take one more step towards me I swear to god I will suck the eyeballs right out of yoru face!”

Both men stopped, and looked at each other.  “He’s not an orc, there wasn’t a single thing there that was scatalogical.”

I stomped towards the door.

“You’re right.  He’s a human with the worst case of poison ivy I’ve ever seen,” said the second guard, backing off slightly, “You probably need to see a healer.”

“I need clothes,” I said.

“You can’t have mine,” said the guard, stepping back.

“Inside, there is a general store,” said the other guard.  “Philbert, go get the general store owner, and a shovel.”  A young boy dashed off ahead of me and I was told to follow him.  I saw several people giving me something that felt like the sign of the cross before I spotted a building Philbert ran into.

A young women stepped out and looked at me as I got close.

“Clothes, how much?” I stuttered.

“Not one step further, do you have any money,” she asked.

“We should bargain for a good price, she’ll know you need the clothing and charge you an increased rate,” said Justice.

“Money you stupid sword,” I hissed.

Four silver coins appeared in my hand.  “Anything, now.”

She looked at the money and nodded, stepping inside.  She came back out with a new shirt, some pants and a shovel which Philbert took.  She threw the clothes away from the money, and I walked over and began stripping down in the street.

“You dignity as a squire should not suffer so, and what is that,” asked Justice.  I undid the belt and sat him on the ground with my foot on the scabbard.

Every part of me was swollen.  I looked so bad I didn’t even look human.  “Do I need to wash.”

“No,” said Justice, who cast cleanse on me causing all the toxins to leave my body in a flash.  My flesh rapidly returned to normal, even the green coloring faded.  Cleanse didn’t just cure you of regular poisons, it removed all filth form your body.

The horrified shopkeeper’s expression changed from horror to curiosity instantly.  As did just about every elese.

“A shapechanger,” one yelled.

I grabbed the pants and pulled them up, hiding my shame.  “I am a Magic Sword Knight, I’m here to talk to someone about saving the world.”

The young woman’s eyes bulged, “Do you speak true, for it has been many years since the call for a knight has been issued.”

“Can they hear you,” I asked.

“Nope,” said Justice.

“Why did this take so long,” I asked.

“Henry vanished, now it is your sacred charge to save this world,” said Justice.

I looked around at the rapidly expanding crowd.  It looked like everyone int eh town square had come out to see the naked orc change into a person.  It was time to lay it on a bit.

“I apologize, for there were hardships in my realm, but I am here now to save your world from evil,” I declared.  The crowd cheered.  “There shall be no evil that reigns under my watch!”

The crowd cheered again.

I gave my best steely eyed look to the young woman, “I shall meet with your quest giver, and I need to talk to a potion trainer.”

“I am Nadia, my father was the original quest giver but he was slain int eh uprising.  I thas been many years since you were summoned,” she said, the hint of bitterness in her voice was palpable.

“It has taken several years,” I said uncomfortably.

“I was tugging at my mother’s skirt when you were called, and we requested a full knight, not a squire,” she said.

“How do you know I’m a squire,” I asked.

“You aren’t wearing your armor,” she said now quite openly glaring at me.

“Well, I am here now, are you refusing my aid,” I said.  Hopefully blustering would work.  Flip side if the quest got canceled I could probably leave.  Maybe the potion trainer was in town.

“No,” she said firmly, “It is said that even a knight squire is a champion of the downtrodden, and we are downtrodden.”

“Excellent, then point me to that trainer, and the bad guy, preferably in that order, and I’ll save your world,” I said.  I was channeling every bad speech I’d ever heard in my life trying to convince her to tell me where the potion trainer was.  I guess there was also the quest.

Saving the world seemed hard though.

These people didn’t look too bad.  They were slightly underfed, maybe.  Some of them did look tired.  Most of them.  They looked kind of oppressed.  I could probably do something before I left.  Maybe win a fight to bolster the resistance or something.

“The resistance has been destroyed, we are the only free people left and our numbers are few,” Nadia said.

“This is the best you have,” I said, my eyes not quite bulging.

“And the leader of the orcs is coming soon to collect our taxes, thankfully now that you are here you can stop him,” said Nadia.

“I will need some time to prepare, and perhaps brew a few potions,” I said.

“Alas, the orc took all of our skill trainers to parts unknown,” said Nadia.  “But he should be here in two days, perhaps your knightly powers will be able to get the information from him.”

“Of course, I’d do anything to get that information, about the evil place where evil is gathering… evily,” I said.

“You are bad at this,” said Justice.

“I’m trying to get a skill trainer,” I said.

“I can teach you skills,” said Justice.

“Potion making,” I replied.

“No, sword stuff,’ said Justice.

“I shall do whatever is necessary to get that information from the orc,” I said.  The town cheered again.  They wanted their people back.  I wanted one of their people, but was willing to save all of them if that helped.

Of course, the next problem was how did I do that?

Chapter 5: Training

“So did I get enough experience points to level up,” I asked.

“How did you know about experience points,” said Justice.

“There are levels, there are experience points,” i growled.  “Everyone knows that.”

“Fine, you fought one spider, so no.  You did not earn enough XP,” said Justice.  “We would have to fight many more spiders than that.”

“Nadia, are there any other monsters around here other than giant spiders,” I asked.

“The zombies,” she said, “they are in the nearby graveyard and are plaguing the village.”

“What’s easier,” I asked.

“Zombies attack more conventionally,” said Justice.

“I shall deal with those pesky zombies while I wait for this puny Orc,” I said confidently.  “Do you have any armor, you know, laying around I could borrow?”

“No, our armor smith and our armor skill trainer were both taken,” said Nadia.  “We could fix armor you find.”

“Think the dead guys have any armor,” I asked Justice.

“That would be grave robbing,” said the sword.

“I will die if I fight the orc wearing linen and he will capture you and use you as a butt scratcher,” I said.

“But sometimes sacrifices must be made,” said Justice.

“Good sword,” I said, leaving Nadia to look at me oddly.  I walked down the street in the direction she pointed, hopefully the graveyard was this way.  “Okay, what skills can you train me in?”

“Sword stuff, like Swords,” said Justice.

“Great, how many skill slots do I have,” I asked.

“Two, I suggest Power and Dexterity,” said Justice.

“Okay, what do they do,” I asked.

“Power will make your strikes do more damage, and Dexterity will allow you to avoid damage while positioning yourself for more devastating strikes,” said Justice.

“And why aren’t we starting with Swords,” I said.

“Swords is an advanced tier skill, it requires the skill of Power, Agility, and Fortitude for you to access it,” said Justice.

“So earn more skill slots as I advance,” I said.

“Yes, every odd level you gain one additional skill slot,” said Justice.  You started with two at first level.”

“And not everyone does,” I asked.

“No, your stats are higher than average due to your exceptional nature.  That is why I chose you,” said Justice.

That was a bold face lie, I was the first person to find the sword and it was desperate.  I knew, Justice knew it, but I let it pass because I wasn’t going to stand in the street and argue with myself any more than I was doing right now.

When I found the gate with four guards, I knew we were going in the right direction.  “Zombies?”

“Over that way, Sir,” said the guard.  “I’ve never seen a Magic Knight fight before, can I watch?”

“I will be practicing ancient techniques, I would be concerned that the Zombies might get you,” I said.  “No one wants that.”

“Thank you sir, I didn’t realize,” said the young man.

I nodded sagely and continued walking.

“Didn’t want him to see you run away,” asked Justice.

“This is going to be embarrassing, I just want to make sure I don’t die,” I replied as we walked over to the graveyard.  The zombies were obvious even at this range.

“Attack from the side away from the town, so if the zombies come they dont’ just walk there,’ said Justice.

“Which side has the road that the orc is taking on it,” I asked.

We picked that side for our first training montage.  I gripped Justice on with a two handed grip and checked to ensure that Dexterity and Power were both equipped.  I brought up Power just to see what it did.

Power, Initiate rank: Your strikes will be 10% more powerful, additionally you can spend stamina to briefly increase your weapon strikes impact by 50%.

Dexterity, Initiate rank: You are 10% more mobile, you can expanded one stamina to briefly increase your mobility by 50%.

I only wanted the potion making kill, but if I could earn more skill slots it made sense to select skills that would help me to level up faster.  I had two days, and I needed to get up a few levels before this orc showed up.

That was going to be a problem.  I could probably ambush and kill the orc, what was going to be tricky was capturing him alive so I could interrogate him later.  That was going to be peasant, but I needed a cancer potion.  Well a cure cancer potion, if I had a cancer potion I could probably use that to interrogate someone.

“Any idea how many of these zombies I have to kill before I level up?”

“Many,” said Justice, and he wasn’t kidding.

The first zombie stepped out and I just decapitated him.  He was what I would call a fast zombie.  They weren’t smart, or all that vicious, and what they made up for that with was a whole bunch of running face first into a sword.

I had a slight problem with the next four zombies were also fast zombies, but I learned the trick of walking quickly to the left.  This brilliant plan caused two fo the zombie to run into each other and fall over.  The first two came and me and were decapitated before the second two got up, and then I killed both of them.

“That’s five,” I said.

“Excellent,” replied Justice, instead of saying something useful.

Two more zombies stepped out of the graveyard and began marching towards me.  These ones were slower, and they had a bunch more bulk to them.  I called these the tough zombies, because I had to use my first point of Stamina to kill one.  The second one was easier because I didn't’ go for a single hit kill, and instead I smashed his skull in a string of kendo style strikes.  It took a bunch of strikes, which was fine if there was only one of them.

Then three more came.  They werent’ fast like the fast zombies, but they weren’t exactly slow either.  Fast zombie could move at a good running pace, the tough zombies moved at a steady jogging pace.  Even with Dexterity, it was tough running backwards fast enough to avoid two of them getting to me at the same time, and I ended up using both of my stamina points to kill those two and retreated back farther still while I bashed in the last zombie.

“How many more,” I asked.

“Until what,” replied Justice.

“I level up, or my skills advance, or something,” I said.

“Leveling up is not super quick, even at your lower experience threshold,” said Justice.

“Like how many,” I asked.

“A hundred or so,” said Justice.

“That’s manageable,” I replied.

“For a skill increase, probably a thousand for a level up,” continued Justice.

“Are there a thousand zombies in that graveyard,” I groaned.

“No, but you can fight the spiders, there are lots of those,” said Justice.

“Then I can’t wear armor, because it will get coated with poison,” I said.

“I can Cleanse magical armor with my spell,” said Justice.

“Will I have magical armor,” I asked.

Justice paused, “Maybe there are more powerful undead in the graveyard, they should grant more experienc epoints.”

“I hate you, let's just shoot for a skill increase,” I said holding my sword at the ready.  Thankfully at least the stamina points recovered in a reasonable timeframe.  About a minute per point, which meant that I was probably looking at about 1000 minutes of killing zombies assuming I had a target every minute.  An 8 hour shift only had 480 minutes in it.

I was going to be here a while, fortunately it was still easier than the job at the meat packing plant.

Chapter 6: The next day

I woke up the next morning sore and partially exhausted, until Justice did his restore energy thing to me.  Instantly I was back at full strength ready to tear down the evil empire by the throat.

“I should just avoid sleep and just do restorations,” I said, stretching out my muscles.

“Henry tried that once, after a few days you start to go crazy,” said Justice.  “It is unpleasant.”

I brought up my stat sheet.

You are a level one Magical Sword Squire

Strength: 16 (+1) | Endurance: 14 | Agility: 14 (+1) | Reason: 11 | Logic: 10 (+1) | Willpower: 16

Mana: 1 | Stamina 2

Power, Initiate rank 3: Your strikes will be 30% more powerful, additionally you can spend stamina to briefly increase your weapon strikes impact by 70%.

Dexterity, Initiate rank 3: You are 30% more mobile, you can spend one stamina to briefly increase your mobility by 70%.

“My bonus increased for both skills,” I said.

“That is normal, each rank increases the bonus, every 10 ranks you gain an additional effect,” said Justice.

“How many did we get yesterday,” I asked.

“Around 587 before the numbers coming out of the graveyard thinned,” said Justice.  “You are quite diligent in your training.”

“We’ll have to go into the graveyard today, see if there are any ones there I could kill,” I said.  “How did we do for equipment?”

“I have over one thousand armor scraps, but not actual pieces of armor.  We have also recovered well over one thousand silver coins,” said Justice.  “This will allow us to buy some improved equipment.”

“Nadia, is there no armor, or shields I could buy in town,” I asked.  She yawned and put her head on my chest.

“None that I am aware of,” she said.  “The Orcs have spent a lot of time taking all of our weapons and armor so we cannot defend ourselves properly.  If you slay them, they will have equipment you can use.”

“I’m going to make breakfast,” I said, attempting to push her head off of me.  That was a task easier said than done, though I eventually did end up going to make breakfast half an hour later.

“That is interfering with your training,” said Justice.

“I’m going to eat, and then train for the rest of the day,” I said.  “I need to get some armor for the fight tomorrow.”

Justice didn’t say anything as I made some bad eggs.  Nadia rushed in when she smelled burning, but nothing was so badly burned that it was objectively ruined.  Just bad.  I didn’t quite understand what happened when I got back.

Apparently despite my request to the contrary, the guards eventually decided to watch what I was doing and after I got the first rank up in Power I could fell even the tough zombies in a single blow, if I was careful.  It helped that I learned to actually use the sword more effectively by then.

A lot of it was just learning when to use Stamina and when to bash something to death.  When I ‘got good’ the zombies stopped being a problem and started being a slow trickle of skill points.

What I didn’t know was that the four guards were fighting zombies nearly daily anymore and there used to be six guards.  So me going in and killing off nearly the entire population of the graveyard had caused Nadia’s opinion of me to shift from possible loser to possible savior.

Seeing as how everything in this little town was kind of miserable, I think she needed the hope more than anything else.  I just hoped I didn’t screw anything up too badly.

“There’s a spell for that,” said Justice as we left the town.

“Did you cast it,” I asked.

“Yes, Henry taught me a valuable lesson in that regard,” said Justice.

Maybe geing a knight wasn’t so bad.

The graveyard looked far more empty than it was last time, of course the giant pile of zombie outside of the graveyard was an eyesore, but even the flies stayed away so I didn’t mind it.  I was going to try something different today.

“There are four crytps, pick one,” said Justice.

“That one,” I said gesturing to the one closest to the south gate.  “Good exit path and it doesn’t look to large or fancy.  Probably fewer undead in it and they should be less powerful.”

There were a few nasty surprises yesterday.  Aside form the fast and tough zombies were swarmer zombies.  They came in as a group, and consisted of a mixture of fast and tough zombies plus a third kind that was weaker than either.  They came in late, or I would have had problems.

The final zombie of the day was the only well dressed zombie who suddenly charged me after I had determined she was a tough zombie.  She was a fast and tough zombie, which was far more of a challenge to deal with.  She actually avoided my first strike, causing me to waste a point of stamina.  I quickly realized she was faster than a fast zombie, and tougher than a tough zombie.  I ended up having to use a point of Mana on a strike to finally kill her, and withdrew afterward.

She had a cloth headband that was of great utility to casters, and zero utility to myself.

The walk into the graveyard was simple enough.  There was a swarmer zombie right at the entrance, but by the time he started summoning his minions I’d already killed him.  That confused the rest of the zombies so dispatching them was easy.

After that group was done I was able to walk into the graveyard without being hindered at all.  I walked around the small walled compound, looking for anything dangerous for a good five minutes, and while I found a number of a new type of zombie I called defects, I didn’t find anything else that was a serious challenge.

“Okay, time to go into the darkness,” I said.

Justice suddenly lit up, “I am prepared.”

“Good sword, let's kill some zombies,” I said as I stepped down into the first crypt.  The plan was simple: kill a zombie and then retreat.  No sense in complicating things.  If more followed me out, all the better.  Fighting them in the graveyard would be preferable to down here.

“The exit path is clear,” said Justice as we stepped into the crypt.  I looked around, and it was pretty much what I expected from video games.  There was a central room, which seemed to not have any zombies in it, and then several side rooms.  I was guessing that’s where zombies were.

“Torch,” I said and a torch appeared in my hand.  I tapped it on justice and the sword automatically lit it for me.  Making the whole blade super hot for attacks was mana intensive, lighting a torch that was made to burn was not.

I tossed it into the first chamber.  This would not have worked on a person, or even a smart animal.  However, Zombies, even fast and tough zombies, were stupid.  I hoped.  At least every zombie I ran into so far was stupid and Justice seemed to think that was damn near universal.  I saw movement, first towards the torch then towards Justice, my zombie zapper.

The first more powerful undead stuck his head out of the hallway and I slashed down at the same moment activating a stamina assisted swing.  The head came off the zombie’s shoulders and it died instantly.  The exit was behind me, and the room was empty, so I waited a full five count and then slapped the wall with my hand.

“Are we pulling out,” asked Justice.

“I think we are okay, right now, if we keep pulling out and coming back this is going to take forever,” I said.  “Still be cautious, but lets get at least one more.”

Justice didn’t say anything.  I expected more of the first clothed zombie, this was a let down.  I controlled my breathing and waited for another zombie, checking all four passages while Justice kept monitoring the exit.

A second zombie came towards the door, then stopped when it spotted the decapitated zombie.  I started backing up a bit.  I heard a shuffling and then a zombie launched itself out of the room.  I slashed down hard, carving the zombie in two, the headless zombie felt apart at the shoulders and the second zombie rushed in right after it.

“That’s not a zombie, it's a ghoul,” said Justice in a useless bit of information.  I started back out the door instantly, but the ghoul realized I was trying to escape and moved inhumanly fast to cut me off.

We both watched each other for a moment.  I could hear more zombies in the other room gathering themselves for another strike.  I couldn’t hesitate, if I stayed here I would be swarmed.

Launching a series of rapid kendo strikes towards the ghouls head, I forced it back first into the door frame and then into the graveyard.  The rapid strikes gave it no opportunity to counter attack, unfortunatly when it got to the graveyard it realized there was a whole wild world out here without a well armed man attacking it.

The ghoul must have smelled the town, because that’s where he started running.

“Shit,” I yelled, chasing after the ghoul.  Even with my dexterity skill allowing me to run much faster than a normal human, I was still unable to keep pace with the ghoul.  If it got to the guards, there was going to be a problem.

“Options,” I said as I used a stamina point and vaulted over the graveyard wall after the ghoul.  They somehow missed the ghoul, but I was was painfully obvious in my landing.  I rolled to my feet and continued towards the ghoul.

I was a full thirty percent faster than when I came to this world, but it wasn’t like I was some recordholder back home.  I was thirty percent faster than old me, who considered cross country running to be a decidedly unnecessary pursuit.

As the ghoul began to cross the last few feet I realized that the guards were doomed.  That ghoul was going to tear them to ribbons and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to stop that.

“You need a ranged attack,” Justice finally yelled.

“Great idea, Emergency sword strike,” I yelled, flinging the sword towards the ghoul.  I learned a few things.  One, swords didn’t throw well.  I supposed that might not apply to all swords, I’m certain a sword could be made to thrown at an enemy.  Justice was not that sword through, and he bounced off of the ghoul’s back.

The next thing I learned was that the ghoul was perfectly fine attacking me if I was unarmed, which was true because the second he turned around to see what hit him and realized it was my sword, he charged.

The third thing I realized was that Power didnt’ just apply to my sword, so when I threw a point of stamina into a punch I was able to strike the errant ghoul so hard his head nearly snapped off.

Fourth, and finally, I realized that if I punched as hard as I could, I would shatter my hand.

“Mother flipping testical tornado,” i growled, looking at my destroyed hand.  Several of the guards began the process of re-killing the zombie.  By stabbing with spears until they got tired.  I endorsed this move, and picked up justice.

“Do not fling me in anger,” yelled the sword.

“We got the ghoul,” I said.

“Oh, well, then I approve,” said Justice as he cast the healing spell and my hand stopped looking like so much pulp.

“Sir,” asked one of the guards.

“That one was quick, I’ll have to be more careful next time,’ I said.

“What about those one,” he asked, gesturing towards the entrance of the graveyard where at least four more fast tough zombies were out.  I exhaled loudly.

“Hey that one had a piece of armor,” said Justice.

“Does it need fixed,” I asked.

“No it is a bracer, we will need to fix it soon though,” said Justice and the bracers magically appeared on my arms.

“Any stat buffs,” I said as the four zombies charged towards the entrance.

“They are metal,” said Justice.

“That works,” I said, rushing out to meet the zombies head on.

I was out of stamina, but I still had my super move on tap.  It was my get out of fail free power.  I activated Magic Strike just as I swung at the first fast, tough zombie.  It attempted to dodge back, but I knew about how far it could go and managed to carve off the zombie’s arm and head before it got out of range.  The skill only lasted about three seconds, so I aimed at the second zombie and likewise bisected it.

Now I was only looking at two to one, and I could probably handle that.  The zombies were smarter than I was hoping, they realized I was a threat and tried to keep their distance which was fine my be.  I was recovering a stamina point, as soon as I did that I was going to kill one more and the last one I could handle easily without any special powers.

Unfortunately they realized that I wasn’t making any more big attacks at the same moment and both rushed towards me.  I did a kendo strike against the first one, but she managed to pull her head out of the way and I only managed to take off an arm.  She slammed into me and I went down just as the other zombie tired to close.

I shoved my bracer into the zombie’s mouth and then rolled ontop of her, using the missing arm to my advantage.  I placed the sword against her throat and drove all of my weight into it.  A conventional sword would not have worked as well like that, but Justice was magical and it drove far enough into her neck that her limbs stoped moving.

Then the other zombie bit my ear off.  Like tore it entirely free in one bite and was going after a second when I brought the pomel of Justice into the inside of his knee with my newly restored point of stamina.

Zombies might be undead killing machines, but they obeyed physics like you’d hope.  The knee shattered and without the joint to support him the zombie went down too.  I stood up, thankful for Justice’s pain deading ability and drove the point of my sword into the creature’s skull.

“Can your spell regenerate my ear,” I asked carefully as I tried not to think about my maiming.

“If you can find it,” said Justice.

“Did anyone see,” I began and the guard walked over holding my ear.

“You need a helmet, sir,’ said the young man.

“Name,” I asked.

“Frank,” he replied.

I took my ear and placed it against my head.  My body glowed blue for a moment and a quick tug showed that it was reattached.

“Quite correct, Frank.  I’ll look for a helmet,” I said as I started walking back towards the graveyard.