Dawn- An age of Darkness

I woke up some moments later. I was under the lap of one of the adventurers. I retracted my previous sentiments. There was nothing amazing about it. Because the adventurer's lap I was under was a cross-dressing male. Why would anyone pull such a prank? Was it a prank to begin with? Fortunately, I never asked and no one ever told me.

There were four of them, counting the driver.

A guy holding a spear like it was his smartphone or something was in the corner. "Looks like he's awake." The guy with the spear was even taller than me and had a deep voice. He had a scar on his left cheek. With blazing yellow hair and eyes with more sharpness than daggers, he was definitely more handsome than me. Then again, I was not much of a looker, so that was apparent.

"Oh my! You're up already?" said the guy whose lap I was just under.

I immediately got up. My chest felt like it just exploded with pain. I groaned.

Getting up like this was a bad idea. The crossdresser was a modest looker. He had some make-up over his face, making him look uglier than he was (At least to me). However, he had broad shoulders and lengthy arms; fit for a swordsman. His voice was…not that compelling.

Lianne was here. She was a little far but on the same side. "Take it easy, there's no need for rush." I was glad to see Lianne sitting up. She was so injured yet she didn't look defenseless even for a moment.

"I'm okay…" I said.

Some of my wounds were being treated by normal herbs. They were effective but my body was pretty busted.

The third guy didn't talk much. He was rather chubby for a bowman, or perhaps he used other weapons than just bows? I didn't see anything else on him though. With brown soft beard, and short stature, he looked like a dwarf. Maybe he was one.

"Anyway why don't you lie down on my lap again? I promise to take good care of you…" the cross-dresser said. He tried to imitate a woman's voice but it ended up sounding horrifying. And the way he smiled kind of seemed villainous to me. Maybe I was the odd one.

"No thank you." I moved further away from him and sat next to Lianne.

Without many thoughts I could understand that we were being transported to the city. The cart was covered with curtain like cloths. Those cloths were much sturdier than they looked. I could see the back of the cart and the endless field of grass and monsters roaming around in the distance from slight sway of the cloths. Streaks of light occasionally came inside, and painted my face warm.

"We will stop by a village nearby," said the middle aged man.

"We need some restocking to do, too," the guy with the spear said.

Lianne smiled. "Very well." She was still in her veils. But finally, I could relax a little.

It was afternoon. We stopped by a village to get myself treated and for the guys to restock. But I got the feeling that it was mostly for me.

Honestly those guys were really nice. Not only did they take us in but they also made arrangements to treat us. However a question did remain, why would they help us?

Was it really just courtesy? Why would they go through needless trouble over some random nobody? I decided it was best I didn't ask them. I should talk to Lianne before making any rash assumptions. Since I was passed out, Lianne must have made some sort of arrangements with them; that was the only logical choice after all.

It was a small village of only five families in the middle of some trees and a single pond. Hopefully it wasn't one of those undead mermaid's traps: There were fish, after all. A total of seventeen small huts were here. They must move around a lot.

There wasn't much defense set there. One family had former adventurers, so they weren't in that much of a threat from monsters in the grasslands. Besides, the only monsters we saw so far were herbivores and non-hostile ones. As for the undead, there weren't any in a few mile radius. So safety wasn't that much of an issue.

Lianne decided she would look after her wounds by herself and went into a tent. I didn't see anybody object, and apparently elves were rare in these parts and they were supposed to be secretive: I didn't see much truth to that though, or maybe Lianne was just different. But I lost my chance to talk to her.

In my case the village priest gave a helping hand or rather he would have if he wasn't running late. Priests were a serious treasure in this world I suppose.

While I waited for the priest, I opened one his books. It was about human magic. Magic was scarce in that world. But the people who were extremely religious and devoted their lives to gods, gained special abilities like healing or dispelling curses and the alike. Sounded like BS (I was an atheist, remember?), but I kept on reading.

That made me want to believe god's existence but I was still not fully convinced; few could gain such skills as they train mindlessly for decades, which could be gained from spiritual training. So even if people didn't believe in god, they could still acquire such skills in theory. It was proof enough for me to rebuke the ideas of gods: I knew I was just being stubborn. However this world has made clear that gods do exist and they most certainly hate me. Besides, I'd already met one, probably.

I started reading out loud. It was a weird habit but I couldn't help it. "Although most humans could potentially learn magic in theory, they fail to achieve it for reasons unknown. Once an elf told me that to cast spells you have to visualize it and name the spell. It would help with the process but I never really understood much of it. The elves and demons could master magic and as a result are far more powerful than humans. Elves in particular are more gifted with magic than any other race. Demons however have superior strength. Alves (One of the lost races) was said to have even more magic than elves but they are long gone. Dwarves don't possess any mana in their bodies. But they are probably the strongest among all the races. As for the humans, we are most definitely the weakest."

The priest entered, rather magnificently. "I believe that is inaccurate. We might be weak but we possess a strength the other races do not. Love and hope!" I couldn't understand if he was serious or joking, but I didn't reply. I didn't want to.

"So if humans tried hard enough they can learn magic?" I asked. I didn't know much but it didn't hurt to ask.

"Only few in history have ever achieved that, so I can't deny. But that also doesn't mean I can agree either." He wasn't being helpful with his neutral approach but I couldn't blame him either.

"Fair enough." I put the book back and my treatment began.

I was gravely wounded yet the priest was surprised that I was in the process of recovering already. Something was wrong with my body.

"He has a very strong healing system. His looks say, he's human but this healing state otherwise," murmured the priest.

He had a white robe on top of his clothes; a middle aged man with a decent personality. His beard was rather fluffy. But sometimes he was just plain weird. Perhaps that was his way of relieving stress?

"I don't know how to answer that…"

"Oh, don't worry! I was just mumbling to myself. They said you will head to the city tomorrow, correct?" The priest smiled. He was hiding his surprise. Or more like, changing the subject.

Unsure of how to react to him I just nodded.

"You have a few wounds, which I'm afraid I'm unable to heal. Especially a tricky curse hangs over your soul. It's not necessarily bad but you shouldn't live with curses," he said. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "This curse may have very well saved your life, but even so, I don't think you should deal with curses."

"Maybe I'll visit the church in the city, once I'm there," I said.

I was aware that something was wrong with me but never expected it to be a curse. A curse? Well, I shouldn't be surprised now. Actually not many things would be able to surprise me now.

The priest thought for a moment. "Meet sister Ashlyne in the northern church. She tends to the wounded without compensation or discrimination. She will be able to heal you fully."

"I'll remember that. Thank you." There's discrimination even in churches? Since there were a lot of gods, so there was bound to be discrimination. I should have seen that coming.

He grinned. "You're welcome."

"So, what kind of curse do I have again?" I needed to know. After all, I didn't necessarily felt all that bad. So it piqued my interest.

"Regeneration."

How the hell is that a curse? "Aren't those things more like blessings?" Being able to heal quickly and easily was probably one of the most sought superpowers. And yet, this priest was calling it a curse. To me, a guy from the twenty-first century, it didn't seem all that practical to call something like this a curse.. But maybe I was missing something. Maybe there was a price?

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