"I ... I'm not a hero!" I raised my voice, "Besides, why am I here? Soon there is my grandfather's funeral... send me back to my world! " I let all my emotions come out.

"Hihihi ... what an unoriginal reaction ..." the old woman said with a crazy smile on her face, both irritating and scaring me not a little, "You have no choice, you are the seventh hero of this world, and until you kill the Lord of the Plagues ... this will be your world! "

I looked down again, I wanted to complain, but, what would have changed?

"I, I can't be a hero, I have nothing special…" I raised my voice, then took a breath trying to calm down, "Probably ... you're wrong about me ..."

"Hihihi ... what humility…" She said wryly, "Khihihihi ... well, whether you want it or not, you ARE the seventh hero of this world, put your soul in peace. "

I did not want to accept this, however, I realized that I could not make her change her mind in any way.

'Me, a hero?' I thought ... 'the idea of ​​being some kind of hero, like those of the Latin epic stories, is not so bad ... however, risking my life ... here we are not talking about a video game or something like that ... this is real life... ' I began nervously ticking the pommel of my sword with my fingers.

I turned my gaze to the sword that I had attached to the belt.

'Just thinking about fighting with this ... and then, what will I have to fight against?' A shiver ran down my spine.

"Plagues, errants… the lord of Plagues? What would they be? " If I really should have stayed in this world, then I needed as much info as possible.

"Decades ago ... well, maybe even a hundred years ago, a being with an almost infinite magical power created five monsters, titanic in size and endowed with strength never seen before, these were called by humans <Plagues>, and the one who created them was called the <Lord of the Plagues> ...the Lord gave them the task of forming armies of monsters, dividing the lands of this world among them and bringing darkness to every corner, and so they did ... ", she paused, cleared her throat, then began to speak again, "Once upon a time this land was in the hands of three races: the humans, rulers of the plains, the dwarves, rulers of the mountains, and the elves, rulers of the woods ... well, if we want to go further back in time ... there was another race: dragons, rulers of the skies ... albeit with some local warfare, these races dominated this world in a discreet harmony ... " The old woman seemed to wander with the thought, "if only the dragons weren't so decimated… " she said with a grim look.

After that, she remained silent for a few seconds.

"What happened to the dragons?" I asked curiously.

"Mmfh ..." she stared at the floor for a moment, then looked up again, "The catastrophe, remembered as the First Catastrophe ... how much time has passed by now ... 300, maybe 400 years ..."

'She talks about it as if she had experienced these things ...' I thought. 'How old is she?!'

"A dragon with all black scales was born from the mouth of the Chaos volcano, the largest volcano in this world, and from which it took its name ..." The old woman looked in the direction of my sword, then immediately looked up again, "this dragon wreaked havoc on this world for decades, until an alliance between all four races succeeded in slaying it ... The War Against Chaos, as the bards called it... " She took a deep breath, "In this war, hundreds of thousands died, maybe millions ... but above all, more than 90% of dragons died ... the strongest and wisest beings in this world ..." the old woman's words emanated sadness and nostalgia.

The room fell into a gloomy silence, the old woman seemed to have a saddened look as if she were remembering things she would have liked to forget.

"Wait a second... but if what you told me is called <first> catastrophe, it means there is also a second one, right?" 'As in our world, the First World War is distinguished from the Second'. I thought.

"KHihihih ... are you stupid ?!" She said with a forced smile, "The second catastrophe is the one we are experiencing now ..." She added.

"Ah, right ..." I scratched my head, "and the errants?" I asked.

"Mmh? Ah, yes ... you wanted to know about them too ... well, the wanderers are beings that have always existed, which, as their name suggests, wander aimlessly through this world ... there are two types of errants: the shadow errants and the undead errants ... "

She then explained the distinction between the two, the undead errants, as the name suggested, were what I would call zombies, or rather, bodies of dead living beings controlled by a particular mushroom, the Zaribar mushroom, or by a curse, the "necromancer's curse". The shadow's errants, she explained to me, were the most dangerous, but which, at the same time, were not always "bad", they could in fact attack you on sight as well as not even deign you a glance, these errants are born when a body of a living being very akin to mana dies only to be taken over by its own shadow.

She then explained to me how to tell them apart.

"Before you go I want to give you gifts, young hero ..."

She snapped her fingers and my clothes changed. I was now dressed in a white/yellow linen shirt with small fangs of some animal instead of buttons. Over the shirt, I wore a coat of very dark fur, fur almost entirely thin enough to allow agile movements, thicker over the shoulders. It was brown and black in color, with sometimes light gray streaks, I didn't understand what animal it was made of.

Lower down I wore hemp trousers, also very dark, almost black. The boots I wore, however, did not change.

"In this world, it is almost winter ..." She added.

She then told me how special the pants I was wearing now were. The two pockets could hold up to 2 kg of items per pocket, moreover, these pockets did not take into account the size of the items. The two pockets were a kind of mini inventory.

Then she suggested that I check the right pocket.

I followed the old witch's suggestion.

'Oh! there's something ... '

It wasn't very big, I grabbed it, it looked like a metal box. I pulled it out.

"Is it ... a compass?"

It was an octagonal-shaped metal object that could be snapped open. In the lid above were represented, in bas-relief, some symbols, of which, to my surprise, I understood the meaning instantly.

"Ask and I will show you the way" was written.

"Exactly, what you have in your hand is not a simple compass, try to open it.

I did as she said, however, the compass, lifting the lid, did not show a normal quadrant with the cardinal points, in the quadrant there was only inscribed an arrow, which did not seem to point to anything specific.

It confused me, 'What good is a compass that doesn't even show where North is?!'

The old woman, seeing my confused face, laughed heartily in her usual sour voice.

"KHihihi ... compass, show me the way to the nearest inn!" Said the old woman.

The arrow began to rotate around the dial, stopping shortly after and pointing to my right.

"A-are you telling me what time it is pointing out where the closest inn to us is ?!"

"Hihihi, that's right, this compass is special ... it's magical!" She said smiling, then suddenly stopping, and remaining with a serious face.

"I know it was not your will to be a hero, however, before deciding whether to follow your destiny or not ... travel this world ... look at the darkness that is slowly killing it..." She paused.

"You are a hero, even if you don't believe it yet, you are ... you will be ... and remember, you will notice it over time, you are more akin to the mana of this world than its inhabitants, you know all the languages ​​and the weapons are "friendly" with you ..." she said, then waved at me and the door behind her opened and I was thrown out of her old shop.

"Farewell Hero!"

{TO BE CONTINUED ...}