Musou Knight: Crow of Cinders-Chapter 13: Fire Compatibility

Chapter 13 - Fire Compatibility

’I burned myself? Then what the hell am I? A zombie from the unreleased medieval Project Zomboid? Wait, maybe there’s that.’

I had an idea what had happened. I muttered.

"Awakening."

"What?"

"Never mind. Just random rambling."

In this game, there were two ways of improving a character.

The first way was the food method. Players simply replayed a stage and searched for specific food, which commonly spawned at a set location. Killing elite mobs, lieutenants, commanders, and generals also dropped special food items, weapons, and equipment. Consuming these items would boost the game character’s status attributes permanently.

The game world also had a unique system. Playable characters possessed one innate talent by default, and it could be upgraded by fulfilling specific conditions. There were nine levels in total, and all characters started at level 1.

Coincidentally, every fire-based Musou character had to burn themselves to complete the first awakening condition. While other conditions differed, the majority involved the player defeating a set number of enemies. Once the ritual concluded, the character underwent a transformation, and their HP was fully restored. Their overall status attributes also increased.

A chuckle slipped out of my throat. Apparently my grand awakening had been triggered by sheer stupidity. Congratulations to me, the world’s first accidental prodigy. This should have granted me a non-musou special attack ability. I wondered if I was a mage-type or a warrior-type.

Experimenting with myself, my index finger went up as if I were about to cast divine judgment. In reality, I just stood there imagining a fireball like a kid pretending to be a wizard.

Several seconds later, nothing happened. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

I facepalmed.

"What are you doing?" Studium frowned at me.

"Um, nothing. Just trying something I dreamed of."

"You’re going crazy. Put on some clothes. I knew you had some talent, but you are definitely not a full-fledged knight."

I was quite surprised that Studium didn’t seem shocked that I had used musou.

"You seem fine with me being a musou knight?"

"Pfft. A fake knight, I can tell. You are too weak to be a real knight. Let’s face it. A real knight wouldn’t have let someone escape or collapsed after using your power once or twice."

Shame hit me like a brick, mostly because Studium was right. Nothing hurts more than sarcastic truth.

Studium added, "Also, you’re too soft. A real knight would have killed me when we first met."

"Oh. But that’s too cruel."

"That’s why." Studium leaned closer to my face and yelled as usual. "Don’t join the army. Don’t become like them."

More like, don’t join the villain faction. There were still good guys out there, you know?

I put on new clothes and new leather armor because nothing screams "competent knight" like dressing up in cosplay gear and hoping nobody notices the fraud underneath. It was not like my nuts were shivering.

Anyway, I didn’t know what abilities I had yet, but I would find out soon.

After breaking a vase and magically producing a cooked turkey, we had breakfast together and saved the leftovers for dinner. We stocked up on freshwater in our containers and continued our way south.

By tracking the water’s flow, we found animal tracks. Studium stopped and inspected footprints and dirt in the area. He picked up a suspiciously black ball with his bare hand and licked it.

My stomach reeled. Seriously? The geezer was taste-testing poop like it was fine wine. Medieval Google reviews must have been brutal.

"It’s a boar path."

I covered my nose and mouth while I coughed. "Go back to the stream and wash your hands. Wash your mouth while you’re at it."

"Pfft. What’s wrong with licking animal dung? Haven’t your parents taught you about tracking and hunting?"

"No, but we didn’t eat shit, sir."

"I see you hadn’t starved enough to eat dirt and dung. Good for you."

I was speechless. I guessed people in the medieval era had it rough.

And thus, we took advantage of the animal trail. It led us southeast, but it was better than heading straight south through bushes and dried woods.

.

Traveling further for a whole day, we reached the end of the path. Before us lay a natural cave just under a meter in height.

I peeked into the cave and noticed a shallow area. No animals were inside, but it seemed suspicious. Rather, it was perfect, exactly the kind of place horror movies start.

"Oh, nice. A hole to sleep in." Studium cackled and prepared a piece of rag to place inside the cave.

I was skeptical about this. I opted out.

"I’ll be watching the campfire."

"Ah, sorry about that. I wished I could stay up late like when I was in my prime."

"Don’t mention it. You’re an elder. I’m still young. It’s my job."

I fetched my knife and sliced a piece of firewood as if I was reenacting a survivalist tutorial video on YouTube, minus the competence. The dry wood caught fire instantly and spread to my hand, yet it didn’t hurt anymore.

Studium frowned at me, but he scoffed and shook his head. He took half of the leftover turkey and left half for me for dinner.

The sun disappeared over the horizon. Once again, I was stuck counting seconds in front of the campfire.

I wasn’t alone this time.

In less than an hour, I heard noises. If I had been an NPC, I would have muttered, "Must have been the wind."

Human footsteps became more distinct. My eyes snapped southward because the ominous noise had to come from the one direction I didn’t want company.

Several men in metal breastplates entered the light and showed their faces—familiar faces.

I had seen them a few days ago.

Leading the crowd was a certain female knight. Hadn’t she headed north? How the hell did she show up from the south?

"Oh, it’s you." Lenitia lifted her visor and smiled at me. "What a coincidence. Do you mind if we share the campfire? We’re quite exhausted from the journey."

The obvious question slipped out before I could stop myself.

"Didn’t you march off the wrong way days ago? Or is this your new cardio routine? Did Google Map scam you?"

"What in tarnation are you talking about?"

"...Nothing. Must have been the wind."

Lenitia gave me a weird look before she confessed... or seemed to be.

"Truth be told, we’re lost."

Bitch, please. You were full of caps.

"I told you the correct way, but you headed north. And for the love of God, we were traveling south, and you appeared from OUR south. How the hell did you do that? Had you been stalking us?"

"A coincidence, really."

I had no words. I doubted the entire squad of hunters would get lost easily. They might have been stalking me for a while.

I hadn’t forgotten that Lenitia was a cunning woman. I couldn’t afford to trust her words.

For several seconds, only the crackling noise of the campfire echoed in the night. I was unsure what to say, and Lenitia appeared embarrassed by her incompetence.

I wondered whether Lenitia’s first battle had ended yet. I hoped it had, as it would simplify matters for both Studium and me.

"Say, had you met the men from Avaritia yet?" I asked.

"No, we were looking for them, actually. We did run into Invidia’s patrol."

"Did they ambush you?"

"No. Of course not. They were weirdos, actually. When I introduced myself as a knight, they all ran away."

"Every sane person would run away from a noble or a knight, especially musou knights, ma’am."

A chuckle escaped Lenitia’s entourage by mistake. Lenitia glanced at them, and they shut their mouths.

I couldn’t help but shake my head at her and her comedic underlings.

Lenitia squinted her eyes and sized me up. Her eyes turned cold as she rested her hand on her sword hilt.

"You sounded like you knew about Musou knights. Now that you mention it, you’ve been wearing the Invidia uniform. Were you one of them?"