Assassin Awakens: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy (The Sworn Sword Book 1) by Miles Hunter

Author:Miles Hunter [Hunter, Miles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

SURVIVORS

The ride back to Vaelthara passed in relative silence for the first hour, each of us lost in our own thoughts as we processed what we’d just survived. The adrenaline of combat was fading, leaving behind the familiar ache of bruised muscles and the hollow exhaustion that came after genuine terror. Even the horses seemed subdued, as if they could sense the weight of what had happened in that dark cave.

It was the soft jingling from Kael’s saddlebags that finally broke the quiet.

“You know,” I said, glancing over at him as another telltale clink of metal on metal reached my ears, “I have to ask. Was it really worth risking your life for a handful of coins?”

Kael’s expression grew serious in a way I rarely saw from him. “Do you want to be a soldier forever, Aeryn?” he asked, his usual smirk nowhere to be found. “People still play this game, those few who come here, and few ever get drafted into an NPC army. Think, Aeryn. They’ll send us to fight in their wars and put our lives at stake for something we don’t even care about.”

His words hung in the air between us, and I found myself without an immediate response. The implications of what he was saying were uncomfortable in ways I didn’t want to examine too closely. When I remained silent, Kael continued.

“You can do what you want,” he said, his voice carrying an edge of something that might have been desperation. “If you think you’re safe while guarding the prince, enjoy your normalcy bias. I know that I’ll be out of here first chance I have. I’m not dying for an NPC, brother. My life is real. And there is a whole world to explore out there.”

“So you’d rather lose it for a fistful of gold,” I pointed out, though even as I said it, I could hear the uncertainty in my own voice.

“For a chance to be free? Hell yeah, kid.”

The conversation died after that, but the tension it had created seemed to settle over our group like a weight. I noticed how Tommin’s jaw had tightened during Kael’s little speech, his knuckles white where they gripped his reins. Wren, still recovering from his injuries, seemed oblivious to the undercurrents, but the silence that followed was heavy with unspoken disagreement.

For the rest of the journey, I found myself thinking about what Kael had said. Was I just accepting my role in this world without questioning it? The memories of my previous life felt increasingly distant and unreal, but they were still there, fragments of a different existence where I’d had choices, where my future hadn’t been determined by military rank and royal service or a curse placed on me without knowledge or consent.

But then again, those memories might not even be real. This was all a game, and I was just another character in a digital world. What did freedom even mean? Was Kael chasing something that didn’t actually exist, or was I

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