The One Who Returned


When I was just thirteen years old I discovered the terrible injustice at the center of my community. On that day I could no longer enjoy the tranquil fields or pleasant weather of the place of my birth. I walked through the beautiful gates with nothing but the following:

Backpack
Cloth clothing (no armor protection)
Length of rope
Walking stick
5 gold coins

I was only a child, with little knowledge of the world and nothing but the natural exuberance of youth in my favor. I could be described as follows:

Level 1
HP: 20
Strength: 10
Constitution: 9
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 13

For many months I traveled, making my way further from my hometown than anyone I knew had ever been. As I walked my surroundings became more and more hostile. The sun itself seemed to recede from these cursed lands, and for the first time in my life I felt apprehension and fear. I passed into a dark forest and found myself moving in circles, lost without a map. Just when it seemed that I would wander in the woods forever, I encountered an old man.

“Bring me five rat tails,” he said, “and I will help you out of the woods.”

I sought out the rats in the twisted forest. Coming across one, I snuck up on it and attacked with my walking stick.

15 damage!
Rat was defeated!

I collected the rat tail from the rat and moved on, defeating four other rats. By the time I was finished by battle with the final one, I felt myself growing stronger.

Level 2
HP: 25 (+5!)
Strength: 11 (+1!)
Constitution: 9
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 13

Returning to the old man, I presented the rat tails. I wasn’t sure what he was going to use them for but I didn’t want to ask. He thanked me for my efforts and gave me a magic compass that would always show me the way to where I wanted to go. I wanted to get out of the woods, and the compass’s arrow pointed me along the trails until I found myself at the edge of a vast canyon. I made an attempt to climb down with my rope but my athletics skill was not sufficient and I lost my grip.

Fell down the cliff! Took 20 points of damage!

I was hurt really bad. Plus, it started to rain. Luckily I saw a cave nearby and managed to crawl into it to take shelter. Unluckily there was a goblin inside.

The goblin attacked! Took 2 points of damage!

This was bad. If I took three more points of damage, I would die. So I hit the goblin with my walking stick.

11 points of damage!
Goblin was defeated!

Phew, that was close. Thankfully defeating the goblin had given me enough experience that I felt myself getting stronger again. I had learned about fighting goblins.

Level 3
HP: 30 (+5!)
Strength: 12 (+1!)
Constitution: 10 (+1!)
Intelligence: 13 (+2!)
Willpower: 14 (+1!)

I picked up the goblin’s dagger and equipped it. It would help me do more damage than the walking stick.

I recovered my health by sleeping in the cave. When I awoke it was bright out and warm and I walked out into the light and felt optimistic about my journey. I used the magic compass and thought that I would like to go to where I could find another magical treasure. It pointed me towards a path that curved up the other side of the canyon and I followed it until I reached a black stone tower that reached into the sky. Entering the tower I felt a sense of foreboding. There would be many monsters here, I thought.

On the first floor I encountered a walking skeleton. It was frightening but I attacked it with the goblin’s dagger.

23 points of damage!
Skeleton collapsed!

I turned to walk away but I noticed I hadn’t gotten any experience from that fight. The skeleton was putting itself back together! I attacked the skeleton again.

21 points of damage!
Skeleton was defeated!

It collapsed into dust and I felt myself get a little stronger, but not strong enough to level up. I would have to fight more monsters for that.

By the time I reached the top floor I had fought many monsters and leveled up a lot. My stats looked like this:

Level 7
HP: 50
Strength: 18
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 16
Willpower: 17

Also, I was equipped with a silver sword, a suit of chainmail, and the dash boots.

I opened the door to the boss’s room and found the demon king waiting for me.

“You’ve done well to get this far. Why don’t you join me and we can work together?” The demon king said. I considered the offer but I knew he was evil so I said no and attacked him.

34 points of damage!
Demon King cast Fireball! Took 28 points of damage!

This demon king was a tough customer. But I had found a healing potion in the dungeon so I drank that and recovered my hit points. Then I attacked him again and hit his weakpoint.

CRITICAL HIT! 125 points of damage!

“Argh,” the demon king said as he died. I took the magic staff and cape from his loot. Now I was finally ready to return home.

“I’m here to rescue the child,” I yelled as I blasted open the beautiful gates with a fireball from my magic staff. “Don’t try to stop me.”

They didn’t listen, though. Some of the evil guards came and tried to attack me. Unfortunately for them, I was too strong. I leveled up a lot after fighting the demon king and learned how to cast magic spells so it was easy to defeat them.

I used the magic compass to find the dungeon where the child was kept. I had to defeat some more guards on the way.

“I’m here to rescue you,” I said.

“Eh-haa, eh-haa,” The child said. It was very thin and smelled bad. I took the child and cast a magic spell on her. It turned out that the child wasn’t a child at all but actually an elf that was cursed to be very ugly and sad by the evil people in my town. Now she was beautiful and voluptuous and smelled nice. She gave me a kiss and said thank you.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said. “Oh, and whats your name?”

The beautiful fairy smiled with her nice lips. “My name is Omelas,” she said.

“That’s a pretty name,” I said. “That’s also the name of this town. Let’s do sex now.”

“Ok,” she said, and gave me a big kiss. We flew away and I exploded Omelas (the town) with magic and got rid of all the bad people who lived there. I was a hero and I couldn’t wait to have sex with my elf girlfriend.


2 responses to “The One Who Returned”

  1. fadingreminder Avatar
    fadingreminder

    This started with such a sense of wonder and adventure, I really felt the childlike dream in it. I was NOT prepared for how this would turn out but it still feels oddly fitting. I was very amused.

  2. cat_dot_com Avatar
    cat_dot_com

    I love the tone. I only know about this genre from your own horrified posts about it but this feels like a fitting pastiche

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