A Warlock's Ascent

Chapter 23 Old Man Grump

?Fighting those midgets was a nightmare for Dave. Those green midgets were small in number and were pretty weak as well. But they were very difficult monsters to deal with. And the sole reason for that was they were intelligent.

These midgets were using stones, long pointy wooden spears, and dung as their ammo and were constantly bombarding him with their attacks. He was able to defend some of them. But most of them were too fast for him to defend against. Even if he wanted to, there is not much he could have done.

As he could not run, he was surrounded quickly, and those sadist little bastards started playing with him. They would not go near him, they would throw stones at him from different directions, he tried to dodge them, but his broken leg didn't give him a lot of agility.

When some of them try to get close to him, they found out that he may be an idiot, but he was a dangerous idiot. With his strength, he was quickly able to cleave them in half. So they changed their tactics and started making him tiered.

Their tactic worked, but as time passed by, he started getting tired, finally, it only took a stone on his head, and he was done. He didn't lose consciousness, but the stone made him fall to the ground. And that was the only chance that the midgets needed. It was then the swarm of green midgets moved in. They started beating him with sticks and clubs. Some of them even started beating him with their hands and feet.

And at the same time, the only thing that dave could do was curl up and protect his head…

***

The next time Dave woke up, he found himself under a makeshift tent. His whole body was aching as if he was crushed by a double-decker bus. He tried to look outside and saw light, he figured that someone has started a bonfire by the tent. He could also hear murmurs of people speaking outside the tent.

Dave tried to move his body but alas it was too painful to move any part of his body. So he tried to call out whoever was outside the tent…

"Hey! ANYONE!" he tried to yell. But only a soft sound came out of his mouth. But that was enough to attract some attention. Soon, someone came to the entrance, and instead of entering the tent, that person pulled the sheet on which he was lying and pulled him out of his little tent.

An old man had pulled him outside. "Oh lookie here, the dumbass warrior is awake."

The old man's face was covered in wrinkles. He had a long grey beard and a bald head. The very peculiar thing about the man was that he was ripped, he had everything from well-toned muscles to tight six packs abs. There were also various scars covering most of his body, making him look like a badass commando.

"Hello…" dave greeted him slowly.

The old man then turned around. "Oye Martha! The dumbass is awake!" then he got up and went towards the bonfire. And then a woman appeared in front of Dave. The woman seemed to be in her 30s. She had short hair and a scar that ran from her left cheek to her mouth. She was wearing leather armor and looked like a warrior as well.

"Finally! The dumbass warrior awakens." The woman said while sitting beside Dave.

"Is that my nickname now? Dumbass warrior."

"People gave that name to you when you went to a battlefield, to fight a goblin horde when you can't even use a bow and arrow."

"I could use a sword."

"Yeah, you have a good amount of strength considering you cut a few of those little buggers in half. But considering your injured leg and wounds literally covering all your body, it was a very dumb move to pick a fight with a goblin horde."

"The people that were surrounded… Are they safe?"

"Yeah. Your distraction helped them a little bit."

"And the child."

"She is asleep with her mother."

"That is good to hear…"

"What you did right there was brave. Not many people would have the guts to pull off, what you did."

"Thanks…" he then shifted uncomfortably on his makeshift bed. "Now if you have time, can you tell me something about my body? It is still hurting it has crushed under a large Earth Porcupine."

"You have multiple fractures all over your body. Your injured foot had started to rot, we have to stop the rot from going deeper in your leg, if we had been unsuccessful, then we would have to amputate your leg."

"WHAT?" Dave yelled. Then he tried feeling his injured leg, luckily it was still there.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it. Old man Grump had a healing potion, that fixed you right up."

"A healing potion?"

"Yes, it was thanks, for your effort. It is only because of your distraction that they were able to get out of their practically harmless." The woman said.

"But a healing potion? I hope I didn't cause too much trouble for you guys."

"It is alright." The woman said. In the meantime, the ripped old man from before came back. And he had in his hands a glass bottle containing a purple color liquid.

"You told him about the potion?" the old man asked while sitting down beside them.

"Yeah." The woman replied.

"Good. Now listen to me boy, you will drink what I give to you. You will ask no questions nor you will spill a drop of the potion. Are we clear?" the old man asked in a gruff voice.

"Yes sir," he replied. The old man poured the liquid into his mouth gently and slowly.

As soon as the potion entered his body, he felt all of his pain vanishing, his bones which were aching previously, now felt normal. The weird part was that he could in fact feel every change that was taking place in his body because of that potion.

And finally, after 2 minutes, he was able to sit straight up. All the pain and fatigue in his body were now gone. He was feeling as if he just had a nice comfortable sleep and was now as ready to tackle anything that destiny throws his way.

"That was amazing. What was the potion that made me drink?" Dave asked the old man.

"It was a high-tier Revigorating potion." The old man replied.

"High Tier? What does that mean?"

"The potions come in 4 different tiers based on their effectiveness. The one you drank is the second strongest tier of potion. So definitely it was strong." Martha added.

"4 tiers? That is amazing. Can you also fix severed limbs from these potions?" dave asked.

"No. The potions won't help you with that. But with magic, it could be done. But it is a long and arduous process and requires a skilled Mage who is level 60 or above." The old man added.

"Woah," Dave said in astonishment.

"By the way, I still didn't get your name son." The old man asked.

"It's Dave. My name is Dave."

"With this, the debt between us had been settled. Now excuse me." The old man said and then he got up and left. His words felt like he had done him a big favor, which he had, but his overall tone was very rude.

He mumbled sarcastically. "There was a debt?"

"Don't mind him. He is a high-ranking adventurer. You know how those guys are… But he is not a bad man. He came to our aid when the beast tide hit us. And he had been protecting since then. He is a great man." Martha said.

"Okay…"

The group that had saved were the survivors of various villages from the east. The old man Grump (That is what people called him) was visiting that particular area. From what he heard, Grump was spending some time with his granddaughter and daughter that night. As the beast tide hit, villagers were able to run away, safely, with his help. And now they were traveling to Ravenshade.

Till now they had rescued around 8 infantry soldiers of the Ravenshade, and around 20-30 normal farmers from their plight. A group of this size needs plenty of supplies to survive. That is why they send a group to the ruined town where they found him. They were there to scavenge anything they could find, but instead, they got spotted by a local goblin horde that attacked them…

Martha introduced him to the group and also gave him a meal. Both of them quickly became friends, and it is then she asked him, where was he from. He simply lied to her. He didn't want to tell her that he was Earthian. And he couldn't lie to her about being a local of Ravenshade as he didn't know the local towns and villages well enough to lie about it. So instead he cooked up a bullshit story about how he gained consciousness in the middle of the grasslands with no memory of where he was or how he got there.

He then added some small lies as well in the mix of his big lie about how he found a bow and quiver full of arrows and a sword by his side when he woke. So he thought that he knew how to use them. That is why he was sure that when he came to their rescue.

In the end, the whole camp got interested in his story. As more people, got involved, he had to spin a web of lies around his story, which started giving him a lot of anxiety. And it is only after that, someone raised a pretty valid question that he should have thought about before cooking up the lie.

"If you lost all your memories, and you can't remember anything from the past… Then how did you know that your name is Dave?" asked a little girl from the group.

Hearing her, he finally saw the glaring hole in his story. He started wrecking his brain to find a possible solution for the mishap…

When asked this question, he unconsciously put his hands on his head and started wrecking his brain. As he didn't answer for a few seconds and stayed like that, people thought that this question must have really messed with his brain or something. With that, he started to get sympathy from everyone around the camp.

It is then the older people of the group consoled him and told him not to force his mind in remembering the details. They let this matter go and told him to go, and rest. He desperately needed it…

The group welcomed him wholeheartedly. They shared their meals with others, even though they were short on food supplies. They gave him a separate bed and some soldiers when heard his story gave him some pointers as well about archery and swordsmanship as well.

He felt bad that he had a lot of food in his inventory that he could have shared with people here. But he didn't dare to do so. He didn't want any suspecting that he was in fact Earthian. He knew that the final destination of the group was Ravenshade, which is why he decided that he would leave the group the first chance he would get.

For now, he decided to stick with them. From what he remembers, there are roads from Ravenshade, that lead to Cloudhold. As he doesn't even know the direction of Ravenshade, he figured it would be for the best to stick with them for the time being. And when he finds the road leading to Cloudhold, he would split up…

Most of the people of the camp were asleep in their tents. While a handful of people were still awake and taking watch duty around the camp. He volunteered in the first batch of night watch because he was not feeling very tired. He had slept through most of the day because of his injuries. So he was more than happy to stay up for the first watch.

When the moon was high in the sky, he took his sword and went a little bit away from the group. He then took out his sword and started swinging it. He had no idea how to even start training with the sword, but once he saw a movie where the protagonist is ordered to swing the sword in the same pattern 300 times, which apparently is part of the protagonist's training. He had no idea why this was important, but he had to start from somewhere.

SLING

Because of his strength, his sword started cutting through the air, while making a whistling sound. He kept up this for a few minutes before he heard a gruff voice from behind him…

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he turned around and saw old man Grump standing behind him.

"I was practicing… my swordsmanship," he replied nervously under the intense stare of the old man.

"And you are doing that here?"

"I didn't want to disturb anyone back at the camp."

"You do realize that monsters can easily bypass your eyes and get close to the camp because you wanted to swing a sword in peace."

"Ah… I didn't think about that. You are right, I will return back." he said and quickly started walking fast towards the camp.

The old man then suddenly said. "If you want to leave, then you can leave. I will not say anything nor will I hold you accountable."

"I don't what are you talking about old man," Dave replied nervously.

"I am an adventurer boy. I have seen and faced more foes than there is hair on your head boy. I know and I can tell when a man is lying. And you, my friend, have been lying since you woke up. So as I said before if you want you could leave. I will not say anything to anyone about your whereabouts. But if you try to hurt someone from the group, I will have your severe every fucking muscle out your body and feed you to kobolds." The old man said and then he went past him.