Nathaniel Fordias

**Nathaniel Fordias,** mostly known as **Nat,** is a Hunter and a member of the Azure Stars guild. He is one of two protagonists through which the series is mostly told, and the deuteragonist of the series. His stats are somewhat above average making him a good all around combatant. He was also a childhood friend of Sean Deckard before they became adventurers.

## Appearance

Nat is an average-looking teenage boy just like his friend Sean, but with mostly the opposite features. He has jet-black hair and very dark-brown eyes (seemingly black), and his skin is slightly darker than the average Terrasian due to his mixed heritage. Nat has maintained this appearance for a long time, though much to his chagrin, his hair is usually quite messy and frizzy, sticking out at many points.

While his features are quite soft, and he looks slightly younger than his real age, it is not to the extent that he looks childish in appearance like Andrea. He has a lean build and is shorter than Sean, but also relatively more muscular. Generally, Nat dresses the same way as Sean does, but prefers brighter colours, though they occasionally end up wearing the same colours.

Nat also prefers light, leather armour since his class is more suited to it, though he has upgraded and tended to his equipment a lot more than Sean. Being a more positive person, Nat is often seen smiling, albeit many of his smiles are awkward or uncomfortable ones.

## Personality

Quite the opposite of Sean, Nat has always been athletic and diligent. He didn’t have much of an interest in studying or reading books, but was good at sports and in particular, archery. He is very kind and loyal to a fault, albeit naive, as his view of the world was quite rose-tinted due to his limited knowledge. However, that is changing due to his experiences as an adventurer.

At the same time, he is not very decisive, being conflicted often in both matters of the mind and heart. He likes meeting new people, but is also quite shy and easily embarrassed. He respects and cares for all of his companions deeply, but seeing their strength, feels quite inadequate while also greatly admiring Zero, Kuri and Finrod in particular. Has shown interest in girls on many occasions, though had terrible luck with romance in school, so is easily discouraged and lacks confidence.

Unlike Sean, Nat never had much trouble in making friends, but most of his friends used him when they needed him while pretending not to know him otherwise, exploiting his earnest nature. While Nat moved past those hurts quickly, it impacted Sean more negatively. Nat himself only lost self-confidence, but maintained and still maintains a positive outlook on life and people.

One of his defining characteristics has been his inability and hesitation to take human lives. Earlier, due to a phobia, he would often hesitate when monsters got too close, but with time and experience he has mostly overcome that. However, due to the kindness of his heart and his soft nature, he struggles to kill enemy humans, or even see them be killed by his fellow adventurers.

His likes are **archery, horse-riding, swordsmanship** and **meaty foods (particularly roasted boar).**

His dislikes are **monsters** and **blood/gore.**

## Plot

### Arc 1

In the **Prologue**, the reader is first introduced to Nat from Sean's perspective, when he meets up with him. It's Nat's birthday and he has decided that on this day he would become an adventurer despite Sean's attempts to discourage him. In a surprising turn of events, Nat also begs Sean to join his guild and team up with him. They both pay the fee and are given an Adventure Card which they scan to discover their stats. Nat's stats are slightly above average and make him suited to be a Hunter, a class was well known as a ranged support, but also effective in setting up or detecting traps, making them very effective in dungeon quests. When Sean is infuriated by his meekly stats Nat suggests in a small voice that he can be guild leader in an attempt to calm him.

The arc continues with **Chapter 1**, Nat is giving Sean pitying glances which infuriates him even more so they decide to go check out the quests. Once they've picked out a boar killing quest they meet Lediga and Cookie, the former gives them some advice and teaches Sean the skills Taunt and Basic Swordsmanship, explaining that Taunt will be an easy way to set up targets for Nat. The decided to meet at the gear shop in 30 minutes, 20 minutes later, Nat meets up with a fuming Sean carrying his stuff at the gear shop. There they buy some equipment, mainly an overpriced worn out bow for Nat and a sword and some leather armour for Sean before adventuring beyond the wall to complete their first quest: Boar Slaying.

In a meadow by a herd of boar, they both devise the plan to use Sean as bait while Nat shoots at the boars from above. The plans starts off fine, Sean activates his Taunt skill attracting the nearby boars and Nat snipes them out, however, they both fail to grasp the range in which Taunt takes effect and Sean suddenly finds himself pursued by a lot more boars than Nat can snipe, Nat looses his cool at the sight of his friend running for his life and becomes unable to aim properly, missing all his shots. Thankfully the two are rescued by Finrod and Vector before they are run down and killed.

In **Chapter 2**, Finrod and Vector introduce themselves and invite Sean and Nat to their guild. Sean refuses outright and drags a whining Nat back to the city guild to collect their reward. There they meet Lediga and Cookie once again, Lediga asks them to join him on a goblin hunting quest which the two agree to. All four of them head into the forest, with Sean protesting that the forest is infested with monsters and that they should turn back. They then come across a camp of approximately 20 goblins, which Lediga instantly charges into, sword swinging.

The situation goes wrong quickly as Sean gets separated from the group while trying to Taunt some goblins, Lediga is getting clubbed by the goblins, Nat is frozen in fear. Realising they're quite outmatched, Cookie steps in, casting Bind on a group of goblins and vanishing a group at running after her. Sean comes back just in time to save Nat, with the situation quite dire Sean casts Blinding Fog with hopes of being able to escape, leaving Lediga behind. However the backlash from the mana-hungry ability causes him to faint. Thankfully they are once again saved by the intervention of Vector and Finrod.

**Chapter 3** opens with Sean screaming at Vector and Finrod for burning down a significant portion of the forest in their rescue attempt. Vector, who is completely out of mana, drains some from Finrod to be able to cast Flood and extinguish the fire. Vector goes overboard as usual and almost drown the lots of them, leaving Lediga in a critical condition. Nat is safe in his tree but has gone quite pale and has no words for all the destruction he just witnessed. Finrod is forced to give Lediga some of his dragon-knight blood to stop him from dying before they can get him to a healer then the group makes their way back to the city. Vector argues for a while with the Guild receptionist who claims that the damage dealt to the forest far outweigh the rewards before Finrod drags him way and pays for all the damages. Once again, Finrod extends his invitation which Sean refuses, but Nat convinces him to accept by appealing to his more mischievous side.

After a tense altercation, Finrod also convinces Lediga and Cookie to join up with them, meeting the minimum requirement of members to form a guild. They'll need a headquarter and Finrod has his eyes set on a haunted castle but first they'll need an Exorcist to cleanse it.

They make their way to the church in **Chapter 4** with the intent to recruit an Exorcist. During this chapter Nat only talks when they are having drinks, he reminds them of the plan and urges the group to focus. For the rest of the chapter he stays behind with Cookie.

In **Chapter 5**, Sean is trying to hang off for dear life as his horse tries to throw him off for the fourth time while they ride down to the haunted castle. Finrod asks Nat to check for the surrounding area using Farsight and he detects goblins, boars and slimes around the castle. In the cleanup task, Nat is charged with providing ranged support to all the fighters. During the battle, Nat can be seen shooting at the boars which sends them in a frenzy causing them to bump and trample the goblins pursuing Sean. As they enter the castle to go to bed, Nat wishes everyone a good night.

Now that the surroundings are cleared, the party can start cleaning up the castle itself in **Chapter 6**, for that Finrod decides that they will all sleep in the castle while Luuk patrols around and purifies the place. Nat is awakened brutally when Sean bangs on his door begging him loudly to let him in, Nat opens the door and Sean falls on top of him in his precipitation to get in. Nat snaps out of his half-asleep daze when Sean reveals that he was being pursued by a spider-shaped ghoul, completely losing his calm he grab Sean and shakes him, screaming that he doesn't want to die like this.Thankfully Luuk arrives just in time and purifies the ghoul before sending them both to sleep in the Great Hall. When zombies break through the gate after Cookie opens the window letting in bats, Nat can be seen running around terrified trying to escape them. When Sean finally clears the great hall of all creatures, a worried Nat asks him if he's okay to which Sean replies "No thanks to you". During the cleansing ritual, Nat can be assumed to be shooting arrows at zombies to no effect.

With everything resolved, the **Epilogue** opens with Nat wanting to go on a quest and the rest of the guild minus Finrod fighting over who gets to use the couch. As Lediga returns he claims the couch as his own through a duel of rock-paper-scissors with Sean. Finrod and Vector are about to leave for the magic shop and Sean asks if he can join them, to which Finrod says yes. When the three of them return to the castle they are greeted with an unpleasant sight: Raethis Des Toridae has come to reclaim his castle.

## Equipment

**Leather armour:** High-quality leather armour consisting of a breastplate, knee, shoulder and elbow guards.

**Leather gloves**

**Short broadsword**

**Long-bow**

**Horse-bow**

**Emergency ring**

## Abilities

Nat's physical ability is above average, starting at above average strength and endurance stats as well as a high agility stat. While he has average intelligence, low luck and many moral convictions that hold him back, he is a valuable combatant as well as the guild's primary **ranged support,** being a rather skilled Hunter and adept in hand-to-hand combat.

**Intermediate Archery:** Level 7

**Snipe**

**Intermediate Trap Expertise:** Level 4

**Horse-Archery**

**Night-vision**

**Far-sight**

**Tracking**

## Trivia

* All the main characters represent a part of humanity, Nat represents kindness.
* According to the author, Nat's personality is an **ISFP-T,** on the **Myers–Briggs Personality Type Scale.**