Warrior woke under a large oak tree, the leaves covering the dawning morning. It was so early he could still hear the sound of grasshoppers, and only the faintest sounds of the singing birds.
He lay on a bed of grass, the shards cold and wet with dew, rubbing all along his back. Staring up, he pondered the day as the sun started its edge from the tree line. Spring was going, which meant hotter days, which also meant he wouldn't have access to the snow for water anymore.
'Water Town could have something,' he thought. It was a day's travel; he could get some food and perhaps a job there. Killing roaches or rats. It'd be enough for a couple days of food and water, 'don't you already have means for that?'
Looking down, he saw the stolen coin purse on his hip. Three days of a slow and painful healing process from that beating by the Redbrands, and yet he hadn't spent a lick of gold on any potions or medicine. In fact he hadn't spent any of it at all. Perhaps it was some sort of guilt eating at him, although he knew he would eventually spend it.
He lurched back, snapping his right foot down and using the nearby tree to hoist himself up. The oak peg leg that'd replaced his left smacked against the dirt as he steadied. 'This is not walking,' he thought.
The removal of his leg was a harsh blow to a martial such as he. All power came from the ground, meaning he had to create an all-new style of what little sword technique he once had. A style that was slow and defensive, focusing on powerful one-off stabs or strikes instead of wild swings.
Gathering what little he had from the inside of a small cut out hole in the tree, Warrior collected his bastard sword and hand crossbow and a small quiver with several bolts. Sheathing the former and placing the latter into his boot.
The day was clear with skies blue and the heat not yet at the levels of summer. When he was younger, he and his friends used to go play swords at the edge of the village where everything was away from the prying eyes of disapproving parents. Then the eventual calls for the children to be home at once. Going home, wondering what Ma had made for the night and Pa with his stories of heroic adventurers. But those were days long gone by, and never to come again.
He passed through the small forest, the leaves coating the trail around him. His boot and leg crunching on the ground in small successions of the strange walk he had taken to.
The trail winded on and eventually he began to pass by other likeminded adventurers, merchants, or simple travelers on their way to and from the town. He kept away from all of them. The trail would end the next morning, he'd camped on the outskirts because the town closed its walls at night, and it turned into a great expansive bridge leading onto a body of water towards the town which lay in the middle of a circular lake.
To call it a town was a falsehood really, the place was more of a city. A central hub for all the people in the frontier land to come and make their fortune. Its appearance was heavenly, with large white buildings made out of limestone.
Warrior looked upon it standing in the dawn of the morning sun and walked on. He should've been excited; he'd never been here before. He'd not been back this far east since...he thought no more of it.
Guards in plate armor stood at the massive ornate gates to the city. People went in and out from them, the whole city was packed with life. The streets themselves filled with all walks of life. Walking in, he came upon a massive market with booths set up for as far as he was able to see. Beside the small bridge about twenty or so feet down there was a large man-made river flowing about the city. Boats with folk rowed on the water, men in long white robes guiding them lazily with long sticks.
He moved through, weaving around the personage, unseen and unknown like some ghost of a past long forgotten. For a moment, he wondered if he should just leave but kept going.
Several hours were spent in the early morning eating at the closest tavern he could find, the soup was cold and the ale hot, he ate both anyway. When he was done, he exited onto the streets. At midday, they were more packed then when he arrived. Walking through the crowds was a such a struggle that he found himself not regretting a visit in the past.
After a while of his roaming, he came round to a large block filled with all manner of shops. He scoured the street, seeing a wooden street sign at its turn titled, 'TrollFemur alley.'
The stores were diverse with sword and armor displays in one and another with cauldrons brewing something dangerous inside, he finally stopped at one of these, a large stone store with a sign with a red curled dragon around the name was posted on the outside that read, 'Book Wyrm's Treasure.'
Opening the door, a small bell dinged and the air smelt of strange ingredients and old as Warrior saw the inside was decorated with beautiful stone and hardwood shelves of books to the right of him and a counter with two shelves of scrolls and a door behind it.
"One moment! one moment please!" he heard the squeaky muffled from behind the door. Approaching the counter with a bit of caution, Warrior waited for a moment and saw the door swing back and saw nothing.
At first that was because when he looked over the counter, he got a view of a small gnome in as small blue robes pushing a stool up to the counter. The man had a long beard down to his chest and a bald head hidden under a comically large hat, so large that Warrior struggled to see his face.
They looked at each other for a second as the gnome climbed the stool, rather quick for the portly build he had. "Apologies again," he said with his high pitched squeaky voice and took a low bow, his beard dragging on the counter, "welcome to Book Wyrm's Treasure, what can the Spellkeeper do for you?"
"It depends on the spells," Warrior begun to scour some of the bookshelves around him as they talked, "what do you have?" he rubbed his wrist and looked back.
The Spellkeeper seemed to be excited by the question and started bouncing on the stool slightly, "Oh there are many spells here, many...are eh...you a student of magic?"
Warrior glanced down at his unkempt clothes, then glanced up, "No."
"Well, it's...I noticed the pendant on you there." He pointed at Warrior's chest, "Is that an adventurer guild thing?" the wire from porcelain pendant was hanging from his shirt pocket. Quickly he put it back in.
"It's a...pendant or a tag is the proper word."
"Oh, I see, it's just I've been getting business from folk a part of that new guild in town. I think it got built a couple years back. Folk were real inspired after all that business with eh...what was his name...ah yes Goblin Slayer. Yeah, the people were real pumped up."
Warrior drummed his fingers on the counter, stopping when that name came into play, "I'd heard about a guild here."
"Yep, wait you aren't with them?"
"I...got my start in the frontier town."
"Ooh, long way from home, aren't you?"
"What about this Goblin Slayer? did you see him?"
"Oh no, but I heard things. He had a group of..." the gnome rubbed his beard, "think there was a Priestess, I know there was an Elf but that's about it. Quite the story, they fought a whole herd of creatures down in the sewers. Goblins among other things."
"Goblins?" Warrior's body almost curled right there. As he'd gotten closer to the east, he'd heard many a tale of the Goblin Slayer and his group of hearty adventurers saving whole towns from the scurges of monsters. Alongside him, however, there was always a human Priestess. His nose always tickled just a bit at her name in this grand tales. Sometimes he wished to go back, and see her, thank her. It was when they traveled to visit Fighter that he'd usually stop himself.
"Excuse me," the Spellkeeper said snapping his fingers.
Warrior popped to attention, "H-Huh?"
"There you are, sorry if that was scary, but you were looking really funny at the counter for a moment. I almost thought you shut down."
Warrior put his hand up and rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry, I was thinking."
"About the spells you want?"
"Sure...those're scrolls?" Warrior nodded to the several racks behind the counter and the Spellkeeper.
The Spellkeeper nodded, "Ready to be bought, though I could always write one if you had double the gold and time for me to do so."
Warrior pulled the coin purse out. It jingled which especially got the gnome's attention. For a few seconds he counted on his fingers then said, "How much will a hundred get me?"
"Up to second level at best."
"Just that?" Warrior grimaced.
"I'm running a business, not a charity case," the Spellkeeper wagged his finger.
Warrior sighed with a dowry expression, "Suppose that's true...do you have a list I could look at?"
"Of course," the gnome ducked down and pulled from the counter shelf a large notebook filled with writings and color-coded bookmarkers. Handing it to Warrior, he pointed to some nearby waiting and sitting chairs at the further right of the counter, nearly perpendicular to the door outside. "Sit if you please."
He nodded and went there and sat, the coolness of the chair hitting his sweating back. Flipping through the pages he went over the many, many incantations, rituals, and spells within the grimoire.
Wizard would go through this type of book for hours into the night, using the campfire or a lantern as light. Often, he or Fighter would tease her about it. Warrior's grip upon the book tightened.
The bell of the door rang, and Warrior looked up and saw the Spellkeeper who had been writing on the counter with a quill rather oversized for the gnome glance forward. The old man smiled, "Ah you two in again?"
A bubbly, high-pitched voice came round the bookcases, of which Warrior could not see beyond, "You got that right Mr., this guy over here needs yet another scroll to copy off of!"
"Oh, what so I can't be prepared?" this voice was deeper, a man and a woman. The conclusion that they were adventurers came to Warrior rather quickly.
He heard their footsteps approaching the counter and lifted the book to his face, getting up would take time due to his leg and that was currently not on his side.
The two's steps reached the counter, and Warrior looked and saw them. First, he saw a rhea girl with a short sword strapped to her back and red hair tied into a ponytail. Her armor was meager, but then again, she was probably a rogue if Warrior had to guess so it made sense.
Then there was the man, sporting a head of red hair also. He wore a colorful shirt and dark pants with a cloak that seemed to have been sown onto his coat several times over. He pushed up small spectacles on his eyes.
The Rhea stared up at him, "Trying to avoid a repeat of the half-ogre incident?"
What caught Warrior's attention as the two bickered was the velvet blue pendants they wore around their necks. Sapphire ranks.
"What incident? there was no incident!"
"You specifically said you wouldn't need shield...and guess what?"
"Shut up..."
"Knocked on your keister by a half-ogre. I nearly died saving you, but then..." she started swaying around with her halberd and gave a fake romantic smile, "you, mr. big and strong Wizard boy carried me to-"
"Alright!" he said as the Spellkeeper looked away, trying to hide his laughter, "hey!"
The gnome straightened up, "Yes?"
He opened his mouth, then sighed and hunched his shoulders. The Rhea giggled next to him. "Just show me what you have," he said.
"By all means, but I'm afraid there's another customer with the book, you'll have to wait or share...hey where is...oh there you are."
Warrior had quickly moved back to the seat and sat with his leg crossed and the book up to his face, as if he'd been there this whole time. The two sapphires looked at him, as did he for a few seconds.
"Were you...looking for something in particular?" the old gnome said to the two.
"Haste." Wizard said looking back at him. But Rhea kept looking at Warrior. It was like she was studying some strange fossil or structure. She began tugging at Wizards sleeve. "What?" he said. Warrior stood up and closed the book and began walking towards the bookshelves.
"Yo wait up!" the Rhea said.
He stopped. Then turned. She was walking to him and the Wizard boy followed behind her, the embarrassment clear on his face.
"Isn't that the boy who almost got his party wiped?"
"What a loser! hitching up with him must be like carrying a one-hundred-pound weight!"
"They all must hate him! I know I would."
The jeers were constant. Like a constant barrage of arrows into the very soul. Yet he always kept trying, kept going. Visit after visit to the guild girl. She would look at him and smile, always smile. That smile was just a face, a face to mask the disdain all of them had for him. He knew it well.
"A year in the guild and he's not even past Porcelain!? HA!"
He would do it on his own, he would show them. Show all of them. Show himself. He saw Priestess with that other group, he heard stories about her. Sure, sure she could do all that. So could he.
He collapsed like a heap to the ground, looking and feeling awfully pathetic. Staring up at the group of adventurers in front of him and the elven samurai who'd thrown him to the dirt, "W-What the hell!?"
"For the last time kid, you aren't joining us."
"W-Why not!? I can fight too!"
"Are you serious?" another member, a tempest human cleric said holding his mace over his shoulder, "from what I hear you got your last party disbanded and violated."
"What..."
"Yeah..." he rubbed his face, "wasn't it some fighter? guess that's expected of a porcelain-"
Warrior popped up from his position, a rock in hand. The next day he was on the road, his face bloodied and bruised. Banned, banned for what? for defending her and his honor? nobody believed him. It was his, the eternal Porcelain's word against a group of noteworthy adventurers.
The decision to ban him was guaranteed the moment he tried smashing the cleric's face in with a rock.
"Forgive me..." Warrior said to nobody and everybody as he slept shivering with tears under the stars.
As he turned to face the Rhea and the Wizard. He did so slowly and with a face that was unreadable as possible, "Yes?"
She pointed to his chest, "Is that a porcelain tag sticking out of your pocket?"
'Dammit!' Warrior thought, "Oh uh..." he stuffed it back into the chest, but it was clear she'd seen the tag, "Yeah."
"You just start out then?" Wizard said. "Shouldn't you be with another group already?"
"Uh..."
Rhea tugged at Wizard's cape, "Oh be more polite!"
"It's just a question."
"I actually just arrived in town," Warrior said. The two turned in simultaneous fashion. It weirded him out. How long had it been since he'd had a normal conversation outside of merchants and tavern owners that wasn't with the elephant of his status? please let it last for just a little longer. Please.
"Ohh, makes sense. Are you out of Frontier town or something?" the Rhea said.
"...Yes."
"Really? Wizard said.
"Yes."
"How's that whole trainer thing going? I hear its not a fence and a few wooden weapons anymore, the lucky bunch don't have to train in the mud anymore like we did."
"Uh..."
"What?"
"It was okay I guess..."
They stared at him, then shrugged, "Seriously though," Wizard said crossing his arms, "you should group up with other people at your rank...eh are you another Warrior?"
"Yes..."
"Dang, what happened to your armor though?" she began walking around him, studying the broken half-plate and chainmail.
"Had a..." he shifted his eyes, "run in...with goblins."
"Oh no! you're lucky to have gotten away uninjured. Those little buggers are vicious." She stopped then looked to the Wizard who had ventured back to the old gnome to pay for his scroll. She then seemed to realize something, and rushed up to the boy, "Hey! I have something you should do!"
"What?" he breathed, "I'm trying to pay!"
She pointed at Warrior, who stood awkward and with hunched shoulders. "Use that spell that repairs stuff on his armor! come on!"
"Wha-"
"No excuses about preserving spell slots either!"
"I wasn't going to say that I was going to ask if you could get off my arm." She'd been climbing on the upper half of him the entire time without noticing. Quickly, she zoomed off. The old gnome had a perpetual smile on his face as he took the gold from the Wizard. The latter turned to Warrior.
"Come here."
He took a few steps forward, "So how does..." he nearly fell out of his skin when the boy touched his broken half-plate and mail. It began glowing a golden yellow and sealing along the edges.
"It'll take an hour or two, just try not to get it broken during then."
Warrior stared as the metal reformed itself, and then he looked at the two of them, "T-...Thank you...I..." he regarded the Wizard again and stared in a strange way at him. The red hair, the eyes, no...it couldn't be...
"Wowie! I didn't think you'd ever do something like that out of the kindness of your own heart. Good boy!" Rhea said to Wizard and stood on the tips of her toes and started rubbing his hair. He brushed her arm away.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Wizard said. The kid's eyes were narrowed, a certain determined look...oh gods.
"N-Nothing...thanks again." He brushed past and walked to the door.
"Hold on you didn't buy nothin!" the gnome called from his desk.
The door closed. The three were left to wonder. "The hell's his problem?" Wizard said rubbing his head.
"You think we oughta go after him?" Rhea said.
"And do what exactly?"
"You two can pay for this scroll first!" the gnome called.
Notes: From now on I think I'll separate the characters into their own mini chapters since it allows good pacing and shorter chapter length (I'm doing several longfics already) this will certainly change when the characters are all together again, spoiler I guess but c'mon you guys already know they'll come together.
Gotta say I'm having a lot of fun with this, it feels like I'm writing a grimdark dnd campaign. The whole cities innards since we don't see too much of it in the manga was slightly ripped from Waterdeep if you want an idea of my inspiration. Thanks for reading and have a great day/night.