CHAPTER 6

Jumping into the river is the easy part. The hard part is to swim.

For starter, my Dwarvel ability is dragging me to the bottom of the river. I can carry the metal, but that doesn’t mean that it is buoyant. I have to turn it off. Second, the current is too strong. I can swim, but this is impossible for me to fight against the current. Fourth, some of the faceless men are in the river with me. At least the coward doesn’t follow me.

Okay. I have to go with the flow. I’m sure that the river will slow down eventually. If it get shallower to the point that I can stand, then I can use my Dwarvel’s ability again. At that point, I’ll have to fight all of the faceless men in the river.

In fiction, this river will lead to a waterfall. That’s just how it is. However, if the minions broke a cliché, then it is possible that the river doesn’t have any waterfall at all.

There’s a rock! It’s big enough for me to stand!

I position myself so that the current pushes me towards the rock. Closer. Just a biiit.

Now!

I activate my Dwarvel’s ability. My arms are spiky metal now. With this arms, I can cling to the slippery rock without drowning into the bottom of the ocean. I climb up the rock. As I stand, one of the stupid faceless man tries to catch my leg. My spiky leg destroys the man’s hand. I’m safe on this rock.

Let’s see what kind of options do I have.

To my left, my stalker is waiting at the bank of the river. He has several faceless men holding hands with each other to form a chain to reach me. Obviously, I won’t go there.

To my right, there’s a stranger over there. Someone with a white hair. His hands are holding a sledgehammer. I didn’t realize that there was someone over there. Considering that I was preoccupied with the river’s current, of course I couldn’t notice him earlier. This guy is closer to me. I can just jump to him, but can I trust him? His sledgehammer isn’t exactly giving me confidence.

There is a third option: go back into the river. Let the river bring me to the village.

I choose the third option. The river—as if responding to my wishes—pushes me faster and faster downstream. There’s no rock this time. It keeps going faster and faster and—there it is! The waterfall!

Now, what should I do? There’s nothing within Dwarvel that can help me here. At best, I can use it on my legs to land on rocks below there—if there’s any rock at all. If there’s no rock, then I’m basically helping myself to drown. I have to take a leap of faith.

It’s getting closer. The river is testing my resolve. It ramps up its speed because I’m starting to doubt what I’m doing. No! This is my decision! I have to be proud of it because it proves that I am still in control of myself! Bring it on river!

The moment of truth! My trajectory moves from horizontal to vertical. Gravity works with the water to pull me down. I cannot see what’s below me. All I can do is activate my Dwarvel ability on my legs.

I fall, and fall, and—rocks! I’m standing on top of rocks! Water still pours from the sky to my head. I should move. Luckily for me, the current in this location is weak enough that I can swim. My stalker and the mysterious white-haired man aren’t around. I can pick whichever river bank I want this time.

I climb up the river bank on my right. My senses are swirling and wavy from my little adventure with water. I should dry my clothes. There is a cave not far from me. Let’s see what’s in there. If there’s a sign that there’s a creature in there, I’ll bail. If it’s empty, it’s mine for the time being.

I activate my Dwarvel’s ability. This time, I keep the fire up so that I can see in the dark. Spike is important too. Luckily for me, there’s no creature here. This place is mine to do however I please. My situation seems to improve when I take a leap of faith. Is that part of Dwarvel’s ability too?

I don’t really need fire woods to make a campfire. My arms and legs can produce an indefinite amount of fire. All I have to do is just keep it up. However, I do need some woods to hang my clothes.

This… feels nice actually. I can claim this cave as my home, scavenge some fruits, hunt some animals with my metals, maybe learn to cook some new food. I can just… live here. The problem is, I won’t be looking for a way to return home to mom. Problem number two is that my stalker might find me here. My subclass has many functions. I have no idea if his subclass allows him to locate me.

Wait a minute, I could’ve just taken Goldcalibur from him back then! I can! When he was acting, I could’ve pretended to attack a faceless man near him THEN grabs the sword. Instead, I opted to punch his face. The punch was satisfying, but it doesn’t bring me home. If I want a chance at that, I might have to pretend to love him. That’s disgusting! My worth is not that cheap!

In the end, I can’t live in peace as long as he is alive. It might be a good idea to have allies that I can trust with me. I should’ve jumped to the white-haired guy. It never crossed my mind at that time, but in fiction, the first few strangers are usually long-term allies to the main character. Not saying I’m a main character, but if I am, that’s my best chance of getting one.

So far, I’ve made two mistakes in one case. That’s not a good start for my adventure in this world. How many more will I make before the day ends?

My stomach growls. I should try to eat something.