Chapter 3:
Wаnt tо Lіvе? Lеvеl Uр!
Chapter 3. Angels
I’m running. My heart thunders in my chest, my breath is ragged, and behind me the thudding of dozens of paws is getting closer.
Training Room! I focused with all my might. Activate! Come on…
Nothing. The world around me stayed the same.
I clenched my teeth and tried again, concentrating even harder on my only skill.
Please, work!
Emptiness.
“Damn!” I shouted aloud, choking on fear. “Activate! Training Room!”
And again—nothing. The System wasn’t responding.
I whipped a look over my shoulder: the rabbits were already twice as close as when the chase began. Their dozens of red eyes burned like bonfires in the night.
“No, no, no!..” I gasped, tearing forward.
My gaze flicked left. The river. Last time it had saved me.
I dashed for the river without considering any other path. Only five meters wide and about a meter deep—nothing for a person. But for the rabbits it was more than enough to stop them.
I lunged forward desperately and reached the opposite bank. I grabbed the grass and began to haul myself up—
“Aaah!” Pain flared in my neck, sharp as a white-hot knife.
“Damn!” I cried out. One of the rabbits had sunk its teeth into me from this side. They were already here!
I seized it with both hands, tore it off—my neck cracking—and hurled it away with all my strength.
Blood ran hot and sticky over my skin. I clamped my palm to the wound and glanced around in panic.
On the far bank of the river the rabbits stood. There were more than a hundred of them. Their red eyes glowed with a sinister light.
The one that bit my neck was clearly already on this side—after all, the others weren’t even trying to cross. They bunched up right at the water’s edge and moved in the same direction I was running.
I forced myself to speed up, but with every second I felt weaker. Blood was trickling from the wound down my chest, my breath faltered. After a couple of minutes my legs started to give, and keeping pace grew harder and harder.
I glanced toward the river. My heart dropped.
Plop!—something fell into the water. One of the rabbits jumped straight into the river and thrashed desperately, trying to cross.
“No… no…” I breathed.
Another leapt in after it. Then another. And another.
Soon, dozens of white bodies were already jumping into the river, slapping the water with their paws, striving to get to my side.
I was gasping, forcing myself to speed up.
“No! No, no, no!..”
I pushed forward in desperation, my legs barely obeying, but still I looked back. Half the rabbits had already made it to my bank. And now they were quickly gaining on me.
“No… I don’t want to die… I don’t want to become prey to these beasts!”
I tried to go faster, clawing for every step, when something flickered right by my face. A light brush of air, as if a shadow swept past my head.
Maybe I imagined it?
Behind me came new footsteps. But they weren’t like a rabbit’s—heavy, booming, as if something enormous were pressing down on the ground.
“No…” I whispered. “I don’t want to look back…”
Maybe there was another monster. Or… a giant rabbit. Anything was possible. I didn’t dare check.
I drove myself onward, but my strength was failing. Darkness crept at the edges of my vision. My body wouldn’t obey. I dropped to one knee.
“No… I don’t want to die…” I rasped.
And then I saw them.
Two figures. Two angels. One—fair-haired, wreathed in golden radiance. The other—dark-haired, cold and beautiful. So lovely that for a moment my fear retreated.
Maybe dying isn’t so scary…
If they had come to take my soul, I wouldn’t resist. Fine. Let these beautiful angels be the ones to guide me.
I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain, for the moment those nightmare rabbits would sink their teeth into me.
But the pain didn’t come.
I wanted to turn, to see why the rabbits still hadn’t torn into me, why they hadn’t ripped me apart. But I had almost no strength left. Just enough to crack my eyes open a little.
And then I heard something I couldn’t believe.
Was it my imagination?.. One of those beautiful angels… was swearing.
I didn’t know what to think. An illusion? Feverish delirium? But no matter how much I wanted to keep looking at them, darkness wrapped around everything.
My body gave out, and I fell face-first to the ground.
My consciousness slipped completely into the void.
--
Slowly, my senses began to return. I came to.
Warm… cozy. As if I were lying on a soft bed.
What was this strange feeling?..
I’d had a very realistic dream. As if I had ended up in another world and gained skills.
Though… I would’ve liked more—say, the ability to use magic. Fire magic or ice magic.
Yes, everything was wonderful until I met that white rabbit. From that moment, it all turned into a nightmare.
And yet at the very end I saw two angels. Their appearance seemed like an ending. As if they’d come to save me from that nightmare.
A very realistic dream. Too realistic. Almost a good one… if not for the part that turned into a horror.
No, enough lying here daydreaming. Time to get up and get ready for work. I can’t be late.
I opened my eyes. I saw something strange… but at first I didn’t register it. I rubbed my eyes, sat up, yawned, and looked around again.
“Damn… this isn’t my room.”
I was in the very place I’d seen in the dream. A river about five meters wide ran through the middle, and on both sides stretched banks—about twenty to twenty-five meters each. They ended where sheer walls climbed ten to twelve meters high.
Yes, it was a gorge. The same beautiful gorge I’d seen in the dream.
I was lying on soft grass, covered with a blanket.
“Finally awake,” I heard a voice.
I turned sharply toward the sound. By a campfire—small, but burning steadily—sat her: an angel. Or rather, one of the two I’d seen before I lost consciousness. The blonde. She was calmly watching the flames and seemed to be cooking something over them.
“Are you mute or what?” she suddenly asked, turning her face toward me.
I opened my mouth, but the words stuck in my throat. No… I wasn’t mute. I just didn’t know what to say.
What I’d thought was a dream… wasn’t a dream.
It was reality.
And apparently, those I’d taken for angels were not heavenly beings, but ordinary people. Just… too beautiful for me to believe it at first glance.
If that was so, then they were the ones who saved my life.
And then I remembered the wound. My neck.
My hand jerked up on its own, to the place where the rabbit’s teeth had sunk in.
No… the wound was gone. But my fingers felt dried traces of blood.
I quickly looked down—and my heart plunged.
There were dark patches of dried blood on my neck and chest—a lot of them.
There were bloodstains on my hands too, as if they’d soaked into the skin and refused to disappear.
“What are you doing over there?” the girl spoke up again. “Can you answer at least somehow? Or are you actually mute?”
“No… I’m not mute,” I managed to force out. “I just… didn’t know what to say to you.”
I hesitated, but added:
“Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”
“Don’t mention it,” she replied evenly. “Come closer. It’s not very convenient to shout from this far away.”
True—she was sitting at the fire about twenty meters from me.
I got to my feet and carefully walked over. I crouched nearby, feeling the warmth of the flames.
A very pleasant aroma hit my nose. Fish were roasting over the fire, skewered on sticks—the girl seemed to be cooking them right over the flames.
I’d never liked fish, but right now the smell stirred my appetite unexpectedly hard.
The girl must have noticed my glance.
“They’re not ready yet,” she said calmly. “But once they are—feel free to try some.”
I nodded, a little embarrassed. They’d saved my life, and now I was shamelessly about to ask for food, too. And still… where was the second girl? the thought flashed by.
“While the fish isn’t ready, you should go wash up a bit,” the blonde said suddenly.
Damn. She was right.
I looked at myself—there were dried blood traces everywhere, and my embarrassment only grew.
“Yeah… right now,” I muttered.
I hurried to the river.
Washing off dried blood turned out much harder than I’d thought. Without soap it took longer, and still didn’t give the result I wanted.
I raised my hand to my face and sniffed—the smell of blood still lingered. Well… that was all I could do for now. I’ll find a town—buy soap and wash properly.
Washing off dried blood turned out much harder than I’d thought. Without soap it took longer, and still didn’t give the result I wanted.
I rubbed my hand and grimaced—the smell of blood still lingered. Well… that was all I could do for now. I’ll find a town—buy soap and wash properly.
I stood and headed back to the fire. At that moment, from above, up on the bluff, came heavy footsteps. As if something massive was moving right over us. My heart lurched—that wasn’t a person. The steps were too heavy.
I lifted my head, peering into the dark.
“Don’t worry,” the blonde by the fire said when she noticed my alarm. “That should be Rem. She went to gather some firewood. There isn’t much of it around here.”
So the second girl’s name was Rem, I thought, slowly calming down.
“But why are her steps so heavy?” I puzzled, glancing at the blonde by the fire. “As far as I remember, she’s the same height and build…”
And then something dropped from above.
I jerked my head up—and saw.
It was a black-haired girl. She landed lightly on the ground, as if a ten-meter fall meant nothing. How… how did she jump down like that?
“Oh, looks like you’re awake,” she said, looking straight at me.
She was carrying a hefty armful of wood. A lot of wood. And she didn’t drop a single branch as she walked to the fire. She set it down calmly, as if it were nothing at all.
And then something huge plunged down from above.
The moment it landed, the ground trembled and a faint vibration rolled through the gorge. As if a stone block weighing several tons had fallen.
I spun around—and saw.
Before the fire stood a giant. A stone giant. No less than four meters tall, with monstrously thick arms and legs. In the firelight its body looked carved from a solid slab of rock.
“Could you maybe lower your golem a little more carefully?” the blonde snapped, irritated, glancing at the brunette.
The latter—Rem, if I’d heard right—just spread her hands.
“What was I supposed to do? I just told him to follow me. Forgot to dismiss him when I jumped down. Sorry.”
“Well, fine…” the blonde sighed. “Nothing to be done.”
At that moment, a crackle came from the fire. A couple of fish, skewered on sticks, fell right into the flames, hissing and sending thin streams of smoke upward.
I watched cautiously from my spot, studying the creature—the Golem.
Its body looked as if it had been hewn from stone. A soft white glow shone in its eyes, and lines and symbols ran over its surface, pulsing with the same light.
“Don’t worry, he won’t touch you,” Rem said calmly.
“I’m not worried,” I thought. “I’m admiring how cool it looks.”
“Dinner’s ready,” the blonde said cheerfully. “If you’re still hungry, you’d better hurry. Otherwise there won’t be any fish left.”
“I’d better hurry, or there really won’t be any,” I thought, stepping closer to the fire. Hunger no longer left me a choice.
As soon as I sat down, the blonde handed me a skewer with roasted fish. I blew on it carefully and, unable to resist, took a bite. Hot… but very, very tasty.
“By the way, my name’s Sherial,” the blonde said.
I suddenly choked on the hot bite and even teared up a little. Sherial laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Stop teasing the man while he’s eating,” Rem remarked in a stern voice.
“Well, since we’re making introductions—my name is Rem,” she added, looking straight at me.
“Ah… Alisar,” I managed, coughing and wiping my eyes.
After that, we ate in silence, enjoying the smell of the fire and the taste of the fish. No one was in a hurry to start a conversation.
But when the meal ended, Rem broke the quiet:
“So, Alisar… where are you from? What were you doing here?” Her voice was calm, but her gaze was piercing.
I went cold inside. “And how am I supposed to answer? Say I went to sleep in my apartment and woke up in another world? Who’d believe that? They’d sooner decide I’m crazy.”
I hesitated, then said:
“I… don’t know how I ended up here. I just woke up here.”
Rem raised an eyebrow slightly:
“If you woke up right here, then you must live somewhere nearby? In one of the villages?”
“If I turned up here and don’t know how I got here… it would be logical to assume I live nearby,” I thought. “But that’s not true.”
I swallowed and took the plunge:
“No. I don’t know where this place is. Honestly. I can’t even imagine. I think it’s very far from my home. And how I got here—I don’t understand.”
I tried to speak as honestly as I could. I truly didn’t know how I’d ended up here. But my home… was most likely very far away.
Rem narrowed her eyes.
“Can you at least roughly say where you’re from? Which village or city?”
“What do I say?” my insides clenched. “Tell the truth—they’ll think I’m insane. I’ll have to lie.”
“I’m… from a small village,” I squeezed out. “It’s in the mountains. A mountain region.”
“What’s the name of the village?” Rem asked, eyes narrowing. “No, better give us the name of the nearest big city. We’re unlikely to know some tiny hamlet.”
I froze.
“Well… um…” I stammered. “Our village doesn’t have a name. We just call it ‘the village.’ It’s pretty isolated. I almost never got any news from outside. So I don’t know the nearest cities, or even… the nearest villages.”
Rem drew her brows together.
“Hm. Then that could be a problem. If you know nothing about your own area, you’re unlikely to make it back anytime soon.”
“Well, I was planning to leave the village anyway, to explore the world and learn more about it,” I said.
The conversation gradually shifted to other topics. I learned a lot about the region itself and about those terrifying rabbits. The girls turned out to be adventurers from a guild, and they hadn’t been sent here for nothing. Several hunters from nearby villages had reported encountering strange rabbits: after death they vanished, leaving behind magical stones. A clear sign of dungeon monsters.
Officially, there were no dungeons listed in the district. Which meant a new one had formed somewhere nearby. The girls’ task was to find the entrance, establish its exact location, and investigate whatever was inside.
On top of that, it turned out this region was considered one of the safest—of course, that meant the cities and human settlements, not wild places full of monsters.
The ruler here was a former adventurer—Rank A. Once spoken of as a hero of the country, and apparently he’d become a worthy ruler indeed. Thanks to his order, there were no bandits, the roads stayed safe, and taxes were fair.
All in all, that’s everything I managed to learn. The conversation wasn’t very long—soon it was time to sleep. It seemed we’d have to get up very early tomorrow.
From what they said, I also gathered that they’d used a health potion on me. What else could have healed my wound so quickly? Unless it was healing magic… though that would be even more surprising. It pleased me that health potions seemed fairly common here.
I lay down on the soft grass and pulled the borrowed blanket over me. A couple of minutes later, my mind began to fog.
Well then… sleep well.
--
POV: Rem
“He seems to be asleep,” I said quietly, looking at Alisar.
“Yes, he’s asleep,” Sherial answered calmly.
“What do you think—what was true in what he said, and what was a lie?” I asked my partner.
Sherial might seem frivolous at a glance, but in serious talks she was surprisingly focused and reliable. That’s precisely why I trusted her opinion.
“That he doesn’t know how he got here is most likely true,” she said after a brief pause. “But as for the village, his ‘isolated home’… all of that is a lie.”
I nodded.
“Yes, I think so too. Maybe he has a reason to hide the truth. But how can you trust a person who lies from the very start?”
We both knew the work of an adventurer always demanded caution. And even though he seemed defenseless, that was no reason to let our guard down.
I quietly activated my summoning skill. A magic circle flared right beside the sleeping Alisar. From the glow rose a fourth-rank golem—massive, heavy, capable of crushing an ordinary person with a single blow.
I summoned four more golems. Together with the first, that made six—more than enough to feel safe tonight. Fourth-rank golems are strong enough to handle monsters and common bandits. And even if something truly powerful attacked, we’d have time to wake up and put up a fight.
I glanced at Alisar. He lay peacefully, wrapped in a blanket. He’d better not try anything suspicious. Otherwise, in the morning I’d find nothing but a crushed body.
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