A person was made up of the memories that shaped them. The life they lived until the present moment was who they were. That person's story is the history that they walked.
What happens if a person can't remember things? What if core pieces of their story, moments of their history, were just gone?
This was the current struggle Olivia realized she was going through. It wasn't that she couldn't remember anything about her father. There were pieces. Namely, she recalled the moment she learned Polymorph, and she could also recall the feelings she held for her father, as well as what her father did.
Before this village, her father traveled the world looking for something. She was taken with him, and they went to all sorts of places. Those were also the pieces that were missing.
She couldn't recall what her father was looking for, nor any of the locations he took her to. All of it was blank. Any time she tried to think about it, the same memory would come to her mind.
She wasn't able to be of any use to her father, and so he left her behind. That wasn't the whole story, though, was it? Why had she never considered it before? Well, that was obvious. In the past, she didn't have the Determined trait.
Somehow, the trait was fighting back against whatever effects her father had left upon her. As to what those were, why he did it, and where he went. Well, she was going to have to get the answers out of Rosco.
Just what was going on?
Ragna made another cup of tea, and he got seated. He nursed his glass and stared down into the brown liquid with dull eyes. "I'm going to be honest with you." He began to speak. "If you're hoping I'll know where your father is or why he left you here, I won't be able to give you a satisfying answer."
"What do you mean?" Olivia managed to grow calm, and she kept her cool, despite how fast her mind was whirling.
"Your father and I were good friends, but it was mostly one-sided. I doubt he considered me anything more than a useful tool." Rosco let out a bitter laugh. "The day he showed up in the woods near Fri, I knew he needed something from me. That was where he told me to take you in. He said that where he was going, he couldn't afford to take you. You weren't ready."
"I wasn't ready?" She could recall a conversation with her father. The one where he left her outside the village gates to be found. She had been left because she was useless, but he had given her hope. If she could become an Arcane Knight, she could see him again.
'An Arcane Knight. I need the help of a Knight. A powerful one. So, when you become an Arcane Knight and are useful, just come look for me.'
Why did he say that?
Did her father know that she would become an Arcane Knight, despite the fact that she was born with terrible stats and blood magic?
"What did Dad tell you?" Olivia questioned.
Rosco let out a sigh. "Right. Olivia, your father and I only had a short conversation, but he did mention something. He told me that—"
Olivia felt her hair stand up, and her body twitched. She jumped slightly and whirled around to look at the door. Something was wrong. She didn't wait for Rosco to finish talking; she left the shack, leaving him midspeech.
When she got out of the house, she saw that Davi and Ragna had the same feeling she did. Ragna was looking toward the mountain where she battled the Salamander, while Davi was rubbing his scar.
"Did you feel it also?" Davi asked.
"Yeah." Olivia nodded her head and winced. "Did one open up?"
The rest of the crowd looked confused, but Ragna just gave a nod. Rosco hobbled out of his house, confused by the sudden shift in the air. "What's going on?" The man questioned.
"A dungeon opened up," Ragna said simply.
"What!" The crowd looked shocked and frightened now.
Olivia bit her lip. What were the chances of that? A dungeon opened up right as Rosco began to speak about her father. Not to mention, it also opened up close to where the last dungeon in this area did. That was almost downright spooky. It was like fate itself was trying to stop her from learning the truth.
"Do we need to evacuate the village?" Rosco asked.
Ragna shook his head. "No. The dungeon just opened up, and so it's doubtful the monsters will be able to come out right away. Some monsters are able to leave and others aren't, but even the ones that can don't instantly come out until they get a feel for the mana in the air. We'll have this settled long before that happens, though."
"You will?" Rosco looked at Ragna.
Ragna gave a grin and nodded. "Dealing with dungeons is what we do best. Let's go." Ragna started toward the dungeon, followed by Davi and Olivia.
Rosco shook his head. "Olivia, don't; it's too dangerous for you." He said sternly.
Olivia stopped for a moment and made a face. "What? You know I'm a Knight, right? I deal with dungeons."
"I don't care." Rosco balled his hands into a tighter fist. "You shouldn't be entering dungeons. Your magic is—"
"Oh my Haru," Olivia rolled her eyes. "Ragna."
"On it." Ragna casually picked her and Davi up, and then, not even giving Rosco the chance to say anything else, he leapt into the air and blasted away from the village, leaving a cursing Rosco down below.
Olivia felt annoyance bubble up within her as she flew through the air, carried by Ragna. Rosco likely meant well, and he assumed she was still the same her that first started out on her journey. The old Olivia couldn't survive in a dungeon, but she wasn't the same as that version of her.
She had gotten stronger. Not just in terms of stats, but her way of thinking and fighting in general had all become stronger and better. She was confident she could beat the version of her that hadn't met Davi yet. It wouldn't even be a close fight.
She wasn't the weak girl that Rosco needed to keep safe. She was an Arcane Knight—one who currently required to do her job.
"I can't believe a dungeon opened up!" Ragna laughed and came crashing down onto the side of the mountain, near where the dungeon appeared. "Thankfully, it showed up so close I was able to sense it."
"I think I felt it also." Olivia mused.
"That's good. It's a sign that Mana Sense is starting to awaken in you." Ragna set her and Davi down.
"Isn't this where the last dungeon appeared?" Davi muttered. He stared up ahead at the winding path that led into a dark cave. The dungeon's gate was open, a black fog spilling out. "What are the chances of that?"
It was the exact same cave. The one where he had Olivia, Ash, Nev, and Trent. That felt like a lifetime ago now, though it honestly wasn't that long. Less than half a year had passed since that incident. It wasn't uncommon for a village to be attacked by dungeons multiple times, but usually they didn't pop up in the exact same place in such a short amount of time. Something seemed off…
Ragna approached the cave first and reached out with his hand. He placed his palm on the black mist and felt it curl around his hand. "How interesting."
"What's interesting?" Olivia asked.
"It's a low-level dungeon." Ragna pulled his hand back. "Not sure how strong, but I'm guessing it'll only have a single floor." He folded his arms and gave a nod. "This is good. The last dungeon, I didn't get to see you two fully in action due to having to save Crowe. Let's change that this time. You two will take the lead, and I'll watch from the sidelines and only get involved if you need me to."
"Sounds good to me," Davi muttered his spell and put his armor on. "Ready, Olivia?"
Olivia drew her knife and nodded. "As ready as I can be." Luckily, she pretty much got a full restore due to sleeping for over a day after eating the core. This meant all her blood was back, and the cooldown for Polymorph was finished so that she could use it again. She didn't have time to refill the bottles, which she collected when she was leaving the last dungeon, so she was limited to six spells, but she'd be able to make do.
Davi drew his claymore, not taking his new sword out for some reason, and he casually walked into the fog. As soon as he entered the dungeon, he stopped and let out a sigh.
"Really? Why, Haru?"
Olivia shivered as soon as she stepped into the dungeon, and she let out a wince. "C-Cold."
She had been expecting it to be a dungeon similar to the one the Salamander made, but that wasn't the case. That dungeon had been a large crystal cave that was pretty but also hot due to the heat the monsters gave off. This current dungeon was the complete opposite.
It was another cave, but a much smaller and closed one. The ground was covered in thick, jagged shards of ice, and frost clung to the walls and ceilings. Various frozen pillars were scattered around, holding the roof up, and it was dark. The place was cold and wet, and Olivia fumbled in the dark before remembering she had magic.
When her mana's aura formed around her, it caused light to scatter and bounce off the walls of the cave. It also allowed her to see the dozens of eyes that were looking at her from across the stone room.
Davi readied his weapon and turned his own mana on. Something came crawling forward on all fours, and the smell of gore filled the air. Olivia stumbled back when she saw the beast and covered her nose to block out the stench.
Monsters could come in all shapes and forms, and this one had a lot of features that were human-looking. In fact, at one point, it might have been a real human.
The creature had two arms, two legs, a head, a torso, and a waist—all things a person should have. Of course, it wasn't actually a human. It was extremely thin and lanky, and walked on all fours. Grey flesh was stretched out across its body, with arms and legs far longer than they should have been. Claws jutted out of its fingers, and its head was entirely hairless. Its eyes were sunken in and black, and its mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth. Despite being skin and bones and frail-looking, every step it took cracked the ground.
It wasn't alone either. At least six more trailed behind it, all of them staring at the new prey who had wandered into their home.
Wendigos. A type of monster famous for eating humans, but also for forcing other humans to engage in cannibalism. It is said a Wendigo would weaken groups of people, eating the weak, while getting the strong stuck in their dungeon until they converted and transformed into other Wendigos.
Despite being scary to some, Wendigos mainly excelled at taking on weak mages who couldn't defend themselves.
In an instant, one of the monsters lunged at Davi and attempted to slice into his stomach, but Davi side-stepped the attack and kicked up with his foot. He rammed it into the monster's stomach, shattering its ribs, and sent it into the air. As it fell, he raised his claymore, and the beast fell headfirst onto the tip of his blade.
The other monsters all paused, and Davi swung his sword out, sending the Wendigo flying off his blade. It smashed into another one, and that caused the rest of the horde to grow enraged again.
"Olivia," Davi called out to her.
"Right! Row Blood Shield." Olivia held her wand in her other hand and flicked it out. Just like in the battle with the hellhounds, she created a wound shield for Davi. With the new defense, Davi blocked several strikes that the Wendigos threw at him, and he began to slice through them with his claymore, hacking them apart.
The strategy she and Davi created was straightforward. Since she had lower stats than he did, she would hang in the back and focus on defense and ranged combat. She had to make every spell count and couldn't afford to waste spells or get injured, so it was a lot safer to create a shield for Davi and let him gather all the aggro and do his job, while she could save one of her spells to get him out of a sticky situation.
Speaking of which…
Davi's sword came down and hacked into the head of a Wendigo. It got stuck on the skull, and before he could force it out, another Wendigo tackled him to the wall. With a swipe of its claw, it dug into his chestplate and pinned him down. More tackled him and began to lay into him, but Davi calmly lifted the shield up.
"Row Blood Slice!" Olivia called out from the other side of the room, and she swiped her arm out. Shockingly, it wasn't her wand that the spell fired out of.
Davi's shield flashed, and the slash blasted out of it, ripping into the Wendigo horde. Many of them were torn in half, but a few managed to survive, though even then they were gushing blood and looked to be on death's door. Davi calmly picked up his sword and got to work finishing them off.
While he did that, Olivia struggled to stay on her feet. Despite the spell coming out of her shield, her blood for the second spell was still used up, magically flowing from her into the shield Davi had.
Davi finished off the last of the Wendigos. "You good?" He called out to her.
"Yeah." Olivia gave a weak nod. "I still have one more spell left in me."
Near the entrance of the cave, Ragna watched with his arms folded. "Don't let your guard down." He called out to the two of them. "Yes, it's true you both managed to defeat the threat in front of you, but remember. This is a dungeon. You still have the boss to deal with."
Right on cue, the cave began to shake. The ice glowed with a sickly black light, and the smell of gore grew much stronger.
Olivia gagged once more and nearly threw up. As the shaking grew worse, bits of flesh and blood from the Wendigos lifted into the air. All the corpses began to break down, and their bones began to connect. This wasn't any normal boss. The Wendigo boss was a powerful spirit that would only be born when all its followers were slain. Now that they had cleared the dungeon out, it was here and ready to fight them, and if it could, convert them into some of its kind.
The spirit of the Wendigo formed its body and stood tall over Davi. It had four legs, and its waist was like that of a horse, being stretched out. Its torso jutted up, and four arms formed out of it, each having even longer claws. A mouth ran along its stomach, and various eyes covered its form, all wide and staring out. Where its head should have been, blue energy erupted out like fire, taking on the ethereal form of a deer skull with massive horns poking out like branches on a tree.
In a flash, the monster struck out at Davi, and he narrowly lifted his shield, blocking the strike. He was picked up off the ground from the force of the blow and sent crashing across the cave.
The Wendigo bound forward on its four legs and reached Davi, stabbing down with its hands toward his head. Davi attempted to block again, and like before, he was shoved back, but this time into the ground. He grunted, dropping to a knee, and used all his strength to hold the strike back.
In a panic, Olivia readied her wand, and her mana surged. "Row Blood—"
"Olivia!" She froze when she heard the voice call her name. Everyone seemed caught off guard by it, even the Wendigo, which paused, and Ragna was the first to turn around. Rosco stood at the entrance of the cave, breathing heavily. "Olivia!" He shouted again. Then he froze when he saw the monster. The Wendigo struck out. Not at Davi. Not as Ragna. And not even at Rosco. "Look out!"
Olivia turned back to the monster, just in time to see its claws slashing toward her face.
Ragna got ready to get involved, but at the last second, Davi managed to somehow throw himself forward. He appeared in front of Olivia just in time and used the shield she gave him. The spirit's claws tore through it and slashed into his arm and the front of his armor, but it did its job and kept him and her safe.
Olivia felt the wind be knocked out of her as the force of the attack caused Davi to slam into her, and the two of them tumbled back.
"Olivia!" Rosco went to step toward her, but Ragna threw his arm out in front of the man. "Get out of my way—"
"Shut up." Ragna's voice made Rosco freeze up. "Just sit there and watch."
"What do you mean? She's in trouble."
"No." Ragna looked back to where Davi and Olivia crashed. "Neither of them is."
Olivia managed to roll out from under Davi. He was bleeding a little, but his armor took most of the blow. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah." Davi nodded.
"Good. Row Blood Heal." She used her third spell to heal Davi up, and then, as soon as the effect ended, she used Polymorph, her body igniting with a golden glow. When it cleared, she wore her witch outfit. "Row Blood Scythe." Her weapon formed out of her wand, and she swung it out at the approaching monster, causing it to hiss and take a step back. "Let's hurry up and take this boss down."