Part 2

The walk back the village takes forever, and means I have to cut my way through various monsters in my way. These encounters seem to just be random. And there's so many of them. I didn't think I was ever going to make it back to the town.

The first thing I do is head to the church that hired me in the first place. I show the stone to the stern faced priest and he nods at me. "Thank you," he snaps, taking the glowing stone back. He turns and leaves me alone.

"What about my pay?" I yell after him. "You owe me gil for this!"

"Why should I pay a traitor to the Empire?" he asks.

"You would so easily assume I am a traitor?" I ask. "Why?"

"The pendant you wear," he answers. "It is the symbol of the free people, from before the Empire unified this place."

I reach up and touch the pendant, a star with a white stone in the center. "I didn't know," I say. "It was a reward for a job well done."

"Do I look naive?" he asks me. "Who's was it? Your father's? Your husband's?"

I growl. "Never mind the gil," I snap. "I'll be off now."

As I make my way through the crowd, no one has much to say to me. A person traveling alone and carrying a sword is just asking for trouble in this day and age. The Empire fears insurgents.

But I'm not an insurgent. To be an insurgent I'd have to care. And I gave that up so very long ago.

I have lost key item: Sacred Stone. But luckily, the monsters I was fighting on the way back to the village were carrying gil...I don't know how...and I might just have enough for a few more potions and some new armor. Maybe I can even stay at the Inn for the night before heading back out.

There's always work for a good mercenary these days. Just not in this town.

Please Name Your Character

You're always going to be the main character of your game.

You are always the hero with a tragic past you may or may not even be able to remember. You've had something taken from you, your family, your country, your love, your memories. Maybe you don't start out to change the world, more likely than not you start out with a simple quest. You need to go get your sister or run an errand for the shopkeeper. And it all goes downhill from there.

At some point on this seemingly simple mission, you come across something that changes your life. You fall off a cliff and discover you're the only one who can wield a sword of legend. You overhear the empire plotting against the people. You're sucked up by a giant water demon in the middle of a game of water polo. Suddenly you've got a quest to complete, and a life bar over your head for good measure.

You have to find your destiny now. There's no choice. Like it or not the fate of your world rests on your shoulders. Your shoulders which hold more power than you can ever imagine. You see, it's no mistake that this has fallen upon you. Your place in all of this is grander than you could ever imagine possible. On your way to achieve your goal you'll discover who you are, and reconcile yourself with your past and your future.

I happen to be a "knight of the people." Which is my way of saying I'm a mercenary. I used to serve the local lords, but hard times forced me to start selling my sword to whoever could pay. I couldn't imagine what my dear mother would think of me now. But that's not my concern. My concern right now is to exterminate the villains outside the village. They're paying me a pretty large amount of gil for the job, so I might as well actually do it.

It's as I'm wiping out the last of them that I find what they've stolen. It's some sort of crystal and when I touch it, it glows white. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm sure returning it in one piece earns me more than returning it shattered.

Hoisting my sword onto my back I take off back to the village having attained key item: Sacred Stone.