Chapter 2 - Good Morning

The village of Seia.

A medium sized village under the jurisdiction of the Fleiora Kingdom, one of the prominent kingdoms in the continent. The village's population is approximately 1000 people. It is a village that is near the Great Forest of Roke, thus it can be inferred that its villagers were mostly lumberjacks and hunters.

The houses in this village are majorly made of wood. Thus, this village is called "Wooden Village" by its tourists. However, the village's appeal is not limited to its wooden houses, its appeal is also in its bright and refreshing environment that can soothe oneself.

Within this village, there is an orphanage located near its center, and as a new day is approaches the village, a certain someone suddenly wakes up.

"W-what!?"

Exclaiming Greus as he 'wakes up' again.

The only difference is that, he is now in a very familiar place. So familiar that it makes Greus sigh in relief.

The place he is in now is his room. It is a room not too big and not too small. It is a room located at the second floor of the orphanage.

Greus can feel the cool morning air that enters the window. It made him even more relax.

"Ahhhh... A good morning erases bad dreams!"

Feeling refreshed, Greus gets up.

He then grooms his hair and made different poses in the front of his mirror.

"Oh you! Such a cool looking guy."

After making such a narcissist remark, he then grabbed his dagger.

The dagger he grabbed is a steel dagger that is very important to him. The reason is that it is the only connection he has to his parents.

It can be seen that Greus really treasured the dagger so much since it is in a very good shape.

Greus would frequent blacksmith shops whenever he feels that the dagger's durability is getting low. Yes, it is quite costly for him, but it is the least he can do to preserve the only thing his parents gave to him.

"Let's do our best again today!"

Greus muttered as he sheathed the dagger in his waist then walks out of his room. However, the weirdness of the dreams tugged on his mind. Getting a wierd dream not only once, but twice in a row in one night is really strange.

But dreams are just dreams so Greus just shakes it off like a leaf that sticked to his hair.

When he got downstairs, it was really quiet.

"Seems like Miss Maria is still asleep... Hahahaha! How rare."

Thinking whether if he should wake her up or not, in the end, Greus chose not to. He thought that she must have been tired and he should let her have some well deserved rest.

Greus did the things that Miss Maria always does in the morning, like cleaning, watering the plants and checking the kids.

When Greus finished, he realized that he didn't even feel tired from all the work and he did it so fast that he still have plenty of time. Thus, he decided to not buy food from the market and chose to hunt one by himself.

"Now then, let's go!"

After doing some stretchings, Greus then proceeded to run towards the forest.

Though the forest is not that far from where he's at, Greus still ran towards it. Reason? He feels as if he's brimming of energy!

"H-hey!!"

"Greus!? What are-"

"To think you-"

Those people who Greus passed by shouted at him, but Greus didn't care that much at all. He really wants to go hunting at the forest now, while he still has his 'morning buff'. Who knows? It might disappear later.

A couple of minutes passed, Greus finally arrived at his destination.

The part of the forest he went to is different from the 'normal part' of the forest that the villagers always go to.

It's not that Greus is not a social person, it's just that hunting alone is what Greus prefers. Also, wandering around the forest by himself has its own charm.

Now that he is here, Greus goes 'hunting mode'. A sign that he's now serious. His eyes sharp.

Since this is just the outer circle of the Great Forest, Greus does not really need to be afraid. Only animals show up here, and also, visibility is high as the sunlight can still pierce through the canopy of the big trees.

Greus maneuvered around the forest. It didn't take long for him to find a deer.

A deer. One of the common animals that can be found within the outer circle of the Great Forest. A harmless animal unless threatened.

"Perfect!"

Greus muttered to himself as he silently head towards his target.

If this was a normal occassion, the deer would sense the danger creeping onto it then run to avoid such danger.

Unfortunately, Greus has been hunting since he was young, and he is quite talented at it. Also, the power gap between a seasoned young hunter and a normal deer is high. Thus, the deer really has no way of sensing him.

...

A couple of minutes have passed and Greus is successful in his hunt.

Smile can be seen on his face, but it's not because of the successful hunt. A successful hunt is common for him. Instead, he is smiling because something happened for the first time!

Greus have successfully one shotted the deer by a slash in its neck. A clean slash that is!

This is no small thing for him, in fact, in the past, his dagger would always stop midway in the deer's neck. Thus, what happened now is a clear sign that he became strong!

Ofcourse it bamboozles him as yesterday he can't do it and all of a sudden he can do it now. The normal would be something like his dagger stopping more than midway until the day that he can finally do it cleanly arrives. However, from midway yesterday, to a clean slice today is really not normal.

Strength can't develop that fast overnight in his own experience. For years he has hunted this is the first time a leap in strength occured in just one day!

Only one thing came to Greus' mind.

He's been thinking about it this morning, but does things like that really happen?

"It can't be..."

Greus have finally came to a realization of what happened.

"It must be because of the dream right?"

Greus seriously asked the question to himself.

"Those dreams gave me a buff!?"

Greus exclaimed as he made a hypothesis for the reason of the sudden power up.

Greus thought about why he only experienced this 'morning buff' now. He always wakes up at such a nice morning but, this is the first time he experienced this. The only difference is...

"Those dreams!"

Yes those strange dreams! No matter how he thought about those, those were really absurd dreams!

Dying in the hands of a goblin? Honestly, he is scared to fight one, but he is not the type to fight if he's not confident, so that dream is really strange to have! More so, he is yet to meet one in real life...

Also, meeting a hero in his dream? And the much more surprising thing, that hero ironically killed him the same way he got killed in the previous dream! Now that is stranger!

Thinking about those things made Greus head ache, but he cannot deny that those dreams must have caused something.

"Oh well... I must return to the orphanage now."

Seeing that it's about time to go back, Greus shook off his thoughts and carried the deer's body on his back as he went back to Seia.

"Maybe I will find out the truth later..."

Greus made such a foreshadowing sentence as he walks.