Arch Nemesis

"... poor kid, I wonder why that goblin was trying to kill him?"

The skinny woman with knives asked from above his head as Gordon opened his eyes.

"Who cares, just finish healing him so we can go about our day. It isn't our business."

Gale answered a little forcefully.

They were all still in the middle of the street and while he had just been unconscious he had the feeling that he couldn't have been down from more than a few minutes.

"I think he needs one more healing potion to get back to full."

The assassin said slowing Gale down.

"What! Hold on, you already used a blood boiling potion, two healing potions, and a stamina potion! How many more potions are you going to waste on this boy?"

Hearing Gale's protest Gordon sat up and politely pushed the woman's hands away. Gathering his determination Gordon made an effort, pushing himself to sound healthy and happy.

"It is okay. I can heal the rest on my own."

Smiling up at the three who were surrounding him he couldn't help groaning as he stood up. It still felt like his midsection was horribly bruised, but the stabb wound itself had been closed and the muscles basically knit back together again.

"Thank you so much for your help! I would have been dead."

Gordon thanked his rescuers.

Mollified now that Gordon had had the decency to thank them, Gale calmed down a bit.

"Don't mention it kid. Remember keep your fighting to the ring. No fighting in the streets."

Even though there had been nothing about this fight that had been Gordon's choice, he still nodded his head and looked down humbly accepting the words of wisdom.

The woman who had looked after him having stood up as well at some point called out.

"Raksha! Come, let's move."

A dragon who Gordon only now realized had been snoozing in the shadows of the fast approaching twilight stirred, stretched, and then lazily paced on all fours over to her master. Nuzzling her master the ten meter long beast quietly received some scratches along her nose below her eyes and behind her ears between her horns.

Eyes wide now and stomach churning with dragon fear Gordon froze.

"Oh, don't mind Raksha. She is just a big beauty."

Holding her hand in a cupping motion suddenly the dragon disappeared and Gordon knew that the woman, who Gordon now realized wore the gear of the assassin profession, had called it back into her heart space. As soon as the dragon was gone and he could think more clearly he realized that they must have been flying over the city and saw the commotion that he had made running from the goblin.

"You can have the body, if you want, we don't need it."

Annie said before walking away. She gave the impression that all this was below her notice.

"Ma'am, actually, I can't do anything with this body. I have no need for it."

Hurriedly Gordon said to the assassin since any had already moved away.

"Are you sure? A Goblin's body can at least earn you a few coins at the slaughter house."

The assassin said and then also started walking down the street.

"I know, but I can't pay the removal fee."

He said, but he didn't say it loud enough. All three of his saviors had already moved on with their lives.

'I really wish I could buy a space ring!'

Gordon thought to himself. Carefully he walked over to the body and then smiled. They had left the goblin's knife and armor.

"Score!"

But in the next moment his erstwhile bully came back and reaching down he picked up the knife while one of his cronies casually reached down and touched the corpse. Immediately the body and all its pitiful belongings were gone.

"You won't be needing this or that."

Laughing Craig said and then pushed Gordon back causing him to trip and fall into the dust of the road once more.

"Just get over it, trash. You don't belong out here. Go back to the pit where you would actually be helpful. Accept the fact that the only job you are fit for is taking out the trash."

With that Craig and his gang left. Gordon didn't even both to try justifying or reasoning with them. The phrase 'taking out the trash' was a euphemism for all the jobs that people like Gordon did to keep the city running and the soldiers, adventurers, and the nobles fed and happy.

Just like everyone else Gordon had been tested since he was a little kid. The harsh reality of living in a fantasy world like this was that his new body just didn't stack up well. Sure with some elixirs and some training he could become stronger, he could become better at memorizing, and he could increase his soul power. But what the fantasy world couldn't change was his mental thinking speed.

Gordon was a slow thinker. It wasn't that he wasn't smart. His grades were in the top three percent. It was just that it took him longer to think things through in novel situations. And the wilderness was a novel situation 100% of the time. 

This was a free society, though, they couldn't prevent him from training or from leaving the city to explore, but they really did their best to discourage him. The school ranked their students by projected ability to succeed in the wild and then gave benefits. Starting at the number one ranker and then moving down the student body was showered with gifts. 

Cultivation scriptures, skills books, one-on-one training, items, weapons, armors, you name it the people of the city went out of their way to spoil the rising student body knowing that their only hope of surviving in the future was in maximizing the talent of each year's graduating class.

Of course from Gordon's point of view things were much different. He had never received even one item, not even a single cultivation scripture. Instead he had even been forced to work for and serve his fellow students. It was expected and encouraged. The have nots had to do whatever it took to support the haves.

He didn't like it and everything in him wanted to rebel, but at the same time the logic of it was frightening. Outside the city walls was a wilderness were humans were not the dominant species. Instead the world outside the city walls was controlled by a mysterious race that no one would really talked about. Demons.

Shaking his head Gordon stopped thinking about things that he could do nothing about and instead quickly made his way back to his home.

"Hi, mom!"

He called after coming in the front door.

"Hey, Gordon. There is some food for you on the counter!"

A woman's voice called out from the back room. It was her office and lab. He knew not to bother her while she was working so he grabbed some food still warm on the counter and headed up to his room where he quickly shut the door. It was time to have a little chat with his system.

Sitting in the chair at his desk he crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He had been seeing transparent text boxes popping up when the system decided to talk to him, but now it wasn't enough to just passively accept whatever it said. He had to know how this worked and most importantly he had to somehow get some more information about what happened today.

'Why aren't I dead already?'

This question had been echoing in Gordon's mind the entire walk back to his house. True he could have confronted the system at any time. But he hadn't because he had wanted to think things through. There were many ways that the goblin could have shown up at the beast center earlier. However, from the way the system had behaved it sounded like the goblin and the system had been linked somehow. Could the goblin have been some kind of system generated type event? The way it just seemed to show up suddenly, it had looked like some kind of teleportation. As if the Goblin was being teleported closer and closer to his position. As great as the empire was, teleportation was still not possible. Gates were possible. But what that Goblin had been doing was just not possible in this world. Could it have been an illusion?

No the goblin was real. Gordon didn't think it could have been his own system, though. Instead it seemed like a more powerful suppressive force had been acting somehow.

[I can explain everything. That was my arch nemesis.]

'That goblin was your arch nemesis?'

Thinking something weird Gordon couldn't believe what he was understanding.

[No, of course not! My arch nemesis is powerful beyond your wildest dreams!]

This idea squared with what he had already been thinking. Using teleportation was something beyond possibility at least in this world. But on the other hand once the goblin had been teleported to Gordon's vicinity it had seemed to lose the ability to teleport and even then it had really simp. Sort of like how goblins would be thought of in the light novels of his old world.

'What?? If this arch nemesis is so powerful why was that goblin so weak?'

Gordon challenged the upgrade system.

[So weak? It was only weak compared to those adventurers.]

'I don't get it. Why didn't your arch nemesis send a much more powerful enemy?'

It didn't make sense. To Gordon's way of thinking if he had been an enemy of the system he would have sent an all powerful beast to destroy the upgrade system's host as soon as possible. The faster it struck the better when the host was weakest.