Cheering crowds.
"Hero. Hero. Hero."
Many faces, familiar yet new. Similar yet different. After seeing so many people of the realm most faces blend together to the point of not knowing whether you've never seen them before or if they are one of the millions you've seen before.
"Long live the Hero!"
Dedicating your life to the people was always your dream. Feeling the appreciation of the people. Knowing that your actions saved millions of lives and that you are loved, not by the nobles and thier machinations, but by the common man.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The vision shifts. Not immediately, but gradually. Faces distort. Proportions become wrong. You see the people not as they are...
"Kill our enemies Hero!"
But as they actually are. As you have learned they truly are beneath the facade. You thought the nobles and royals were bad with thier pomp and circumstance, hiding thier hideous sides of doing whatever it takes to tear down thier rivals or build thier own standing. Betraying thier fellow man for just a small gain.
"Die for us! Die for us!"
However the 'common man' is no better. They are just as greedy. Never content with what they have. Wanting more and more and villifying whoever won't give that to them.
"Long live the Hero! Long live our Murderer!"
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Jack wakes with a startle covered in cold sweat.
"That same damn nightmare again."
He grabs a towel from nearby and roughly dries himself with practiced ease, as he has done every day for the past ten years. After drying off the sweat from the night he swings his legs off the bed and begins to start the day.
Leaving the bedroom of his small cabin, Jack walks to the kitchen to prepare himself his morning meal. As he never learned proper cooking the most he makes most days is eggs, bacon, and some locally picked fruit.
"Running low again. Gotta make another trip to town." With a sigh the man takes stock of his ingredients and begins a mental list of required amenities to pick up from the town.
After breakfast he goes out to chop some wood, part of his fall routine. With most of the nearby forest sufficiently harvested of the available fruit wood cutting for the coming cold months is a much better use of his time in the early morning when frost still hangs. After cutting another few days of wood from his stock of fallen logs he sets the pieces to dry and begins his preparations to head to town. A worn rucksack and a hidden blade as well as some warm clothing to stave of the chill of the early morning. After assuring he is sufficiently prepared he steps off towards the nearest town.
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After arriving at the town of Halbrook, Jack heads to his first destination which is the local Adventures Guild. A place of primarily rough men with enough years under thier belt to be labeled Veterans yet not enough skill or talent to leave this place for more lucrative cities. Even the smallest towns and villages have use for adventures yet none can pay the commission that the residents of cities can afford.
Looking at the commission board, Jack takes stock of any new requests that pay well without exceeding his perceived level of strength in this town, he had made that mistake more than once. Selecting a commission to scout out a goblin den he walked to the reception desk to iron out the details.
"Good morning, sir. How may I assist you?" The cheerful receptionist greeted him as he approached. She gave him a vibrant smile as she took the request from him and began the process of registering him for the quest.
Jack always saw the same thing when he looked at people in this realm. A smile hiding a hideous face. People pretending to be good people yet all they would want from a Hero like him is sacrificial destruction.
'Thank you good Hero for slaying those monsters.'
'You saved us just in the nick of time, luckily you hadn't been later.'
'We lost a good man today why couldn't you have gotten here sooner!'
Eventually everything he did wouldn't be enough. Even running from town to town with minimal rest, running on fumes, there was always bound to be a horde he couldn't stop in time. Always "more he could've done!" When he was a Hero people barely gave thought to the fact that he was stopping multiple attacks on towns every week, resting only when he was lucky enough to run into a carriage on the way. They only saw him arrive just too late to save a few more people.
They gave no thought to the nobles who "ruled" these lands not sending thier own men to assist, because he was always there to blame.
"..r. .ir? Sir are you okay?" Jack snapped out of his musing to the receptionist attempting to get his attention.
"Yes, I'm sorry for that just lost in thought. Am I good to take the commission?" Jack asked burying his thoughts before giving the woman a small smile.
"Yes everything should be good to go. Good luck adventurer!" She replied giving the same cheerful smile.
Jack began to leave the guild, off to collect the necessary items to complete his quest. As soon as he was out of earshot another receptionist walked up to the woman he talked to.
"Who was that?" She asked skeptical of new faces as most are in small towns such as this.
"Im not sure. I havent caught his name yet, he always is so short spoken and never sticks around." She replied hiding the same distrust.
"Have you heard that they still havent caught that rouge Hero from ten years back? Maybe it could be him?"
"I don't know he doesn't look like a Hero. Are you sure its him?"
"Who knows. Just to be safe though we should report it. We don't want to get in trouble if someone else does. Haven't you heard what he did? They say he massacred a town and then disappeared."
"Yeah, I heard they have the other Heroes hunting him down. Do you really think it could be him?"
"If it is then I hope they find him soon." She replied worriedly.
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Jack began to depart from town after gathering some dried foods and a few healing potions. After walking for a bit he began to trek through the forest towards the nearest spotting of the goblins.
'With the fact that this request was so new most likely it is a small nest with only a few adult goblins. Once I get back they will probably ask me to take them out if I can.'
Jack, as tired of fighting as he was, still needed to make a living somehow. As a Hero he never learned anything but fighting ever since the age of five. That used to be fine because as a Hero he was given a party to work with that had the necessary skills such as cooking and scouting and even the odd mage or two when one was available, however the kingdom only has a few mages in total as humans are not very adept at magic in general.
While occupied in his thoughts Jack noticed small footprints on the ground. 'I sure am glad I spent time learning from our scout how to track.'
Following the footprints for half an hour led Jack to a small cave in the base of a large hill. Slowly he made his way closer to the entrance and when he was within 10 feet he stopped scrunching up his face in disgust.
"Goblins may be filthy and foul but isn't this a bit much?"
He smelled a truly revolting mix of smells that made him regret his choice of quest. Goblins had always been foul smelling but this cave stank worse than every goblin he had encountered before combined.
"I have a bad feeling this isn't going to be as easy as goblins should be."