ã€ŠIt&#x27;s not a gameã€‹


 A strangers eyes

    I open my eyes.

    Why has the ceiling got so much mould on it? I feel groggy, I can¡¯t even remember how I got to bed. The party last night got a bit wild. My head hurts. I swear I¡¯m never drinking again.

    Although I suppose I shouldn¡¯t make promises I can¡¯t keep.

    My neck is stiff, very stiff. My pillow feels seriously flat and uncomfortable. I sigh out loud, this is gonna be a rough morning. Raising myself from bed, jolts of pain stab the inside of head. I feel sick.

    When the blurriness from my vision subsides something strikes me as odd. Why is my bedding different. My duvet is a beige colour with an ugly stain on it. It''s supposed to be white. Looking around I take in my surroundings. But they are not my surroundings, not my room.

    Did I sleep over at a friends place? No wait, last night at the party I had a fight with my girlfriend and she went home. She is annoying, she can be a real bitch sometimes. I was pissed and stayed at the party. I remember chatting to some other girl that one of my friends introduced me to after that, we were getting along well. I think they were trying to hook me up.

    Oh god, is this that girls place? Did I cheat on my girlfriend? No. No. I don¡¯t think I would have done something like that no matter if I was drunk or not.

    Wait a second. Where are my clothes? Why am I naked? Oh shit. Shit, this is not good. Actually now that I look at it, the bed I am in, it¡¯s a single bed. That should hopefully rule out any chance of me having screwed another girl.

    I quickly scan my surroundings, but I don¡¯t recognise anything that belongs to me, not my clothes, wallet, phone or anything of the kind. The room is also strange, it''s got an ¡®old person¡¯ feel to it. It also looks really old and run down.

    There is a bedside stand next me There are some clothes on it and some kind of pouch with a drawstring. Wait clothes? These clothes are a bit strange. A brown pants that looks to be made out of some kind of cheap material, really shabby. And a white shirt? It has a drawstring going down, criss-crossing from the collar to the chest area. It doesn''t look like it''s a fashion statement either, it looks like it''s actually used to tighten the shirt up a bit. There also appears to be a pair of sandals on the ground.

    Well, strange or not, I don¡¯t have a whole lot of options here. I quickly put the clothes on, without any underwear I might add, and fasten the shirt.

    The pouch on the dresser once again catches my attention. I open it up and find 10 strange copper looking coins inside. What the hell kind of money is this? For some reason something tells me I should hang on to it. Back then I think this was some kind of animal survival instinct kicking in.

    I put the coin pouch in my pocket, but then I realise there is something already in there. What is this? A card of some kind, I can¡¯t quite tell what it¡¯s made out of. The name at the top of the card catches my attention, ¡°Aluarc¡±. Wait, what?!

    Below the name there are various other numbers and things listed. No, no, no, no. Something is very, very wrong here. Ah shit. It just dawned on me. This is obviously a dream. I let out a deep sigh, I had no idea that I had such an imagination.

    Alright, screw it. It¡¯s not often you realise you are in a dream, let''s make the most of it. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    With this thought I put the card back in my pants pocket and head for the door of the bedroom. It opens up into a passageway. Just like inside the room, the floor, walls and ceiling are all made of wood. There is a flight of stairs at the end of the hallway, my room is on the opposite end. There is a name tag on the wall next to my room''s door, with the name Aluarc on it. Attention to detail, nice.

    I start walking towards the stairway, checking out the closed doors on my left as I pass them. I guess these are also bedrooms, is this some kind of guest house? Just before I turn to take the stairs, a name tag on the door opposite the stairway catches my attention.

    ''Misty.'' Wait, what? There¡¯s no way that''s a coincidence.

    I knock on the door. No response. ¡°Jessica,¡± I call out. Nothing. Curiosity drives me forward, I turn the doorknob and push the door open slowly. I am stepping inside the room before I even realise it. Wait what I am doing? Curiosity or coincidence, I shouldn¡¯t just enter someone''s room like this, I mean what if I have it wrong.

    That thought pauses me in my tracks with only one foot over the threshold.

    At the exact same time I come to a stop, something flashes in front of my eyes. Silver? There is a pain. My cheek is hot. Before I even have time to process what is happening, I see a spray of blonde hair following the silver flash, passing across my field of vision.

    A girl? She seems to have lost her balance? Why is she looking at me like that?

    In the next moment she seems to find her footing and the silver object in her hand changes course. It''s coming for me. I somehow recognise it on an instinctual level, It¡¯s some kind of knife.

    I don¡¯t know when it happened exactly, but my body must of moved on its own. Before I knew it I had lunged at her, deflected her hand, swept her off of her feet and pinned her to the ground. The knife left her hand and went skating across the floor, as she hit the ground with a loud thud.

    Damn, I don¡¯t know how I moved so quickly and calmly, But I clearly forced her down too hard.

    She was breathing raggedly, staring daggers into me. And then tears started strolling down her cheeks. Wait, what? Oh shit. I was on top of her, straddling her, while pinning both her hands to the floor. No matter how you look at this, it looks bad. Anyone passing by would think I¡¯m assaulting her.

    I quickly scramble up and take a few steps back. ¡°Sorry. I didn¡¯t come here to hurt you. I just thought you were someone else.¡±

    She slowly gets up and backs up against the foot of the bed, not taking her eyes off me. ¡°Where am I? What do you want with me?¡±

    ¡°Where are you? Honestly I don¡¯t really know. I don¡¯t know where I am even.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t abduct me?¡±

    ¡°Huh, no!¡±

    ¡°Then how do you know my name?¡±

    ¡°Wait so your name is Jessica?¡±

    ¡°How do you know my name?! Who are you?¡±

    ¡°Ah sorry, my name is Michael. I only entered this room, because my girlfriends name is also Jessica.¡±

    The blonde haired girl gave me a blank stare, and then without warning, she jumped up backwards over the corner of the bed and dived to the floor. What the hell is she doing? When she resurfaced, she seemed to have found the knife and was pointing it at me from the corner of the room.

    ¡°Whoa, whoa take it easy.¡±

    ¡°Who the hell are you? What are you trying to pull here,¡± she said in a very angry voice.

    I backed off instinctively. I noticed for the first time there was a mirror on the wall opposite me. The problem is I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. I touched my face just to be sure I was actually looking at myself in the mirror. My face, hair, body, everything was completely different.

    I stood there stunned, staring at the mirror, I had almost completely forgotten about the knife wielding girl in the corner of the room. I¡¯ve seen this face before.

    Something clicked into place in my head. I looked over to the girl once again. ¡°Jessica, is that really you?¡±

    Something in my expression must of disarmed her, or perhaps it was a shared realisation of something she had suspected for a while. Jessica lowered the knife and tears started rolling down her face once again. ¡°Michael?¡±

 Everybody knows that talking about IRL is taboo

    We confirmed each other''s identity with some sharing of private information, that know one else could know. We both looked completely different from our normal selves. The only reason Jessica lowered her guard earlier is because she had also seen herself in a mirror and at some point realised that I could actually possibly be her boyfriend.

    ¡°How? Why do we look so different? Where are we?¡±

    ¡°Actually, Jess, take another look at your face in the mirror, do you recognise it from somewhere?¡±

    Jessica looks into the mirror intently. ¡°It does look familiar.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ this is gonna sound a little crazy but I totally recognise my face.¡±

    Jessica stared at me expectantly.

    ¡°It¡¯s the face of my character creation profile for ¡®It¡¯s not a game¡¯.¡±

    A wave of realisation seemed to wash over Jessica¡¯s face and she sharply turned to the mirror again, this time scrutinising her own face. ¡°Huh?!¡±

    It seems this was also true for her.

    ¡°Wait, how? Huh?¡± Jessica was at a loss for words.

    It¡¯s not a game. Despite the name, it actually is a game. An MMORPG. What sets it apart from others though, was that it was what was called a true ¡®permadeath¡¯ game. Basically, you installed it via ¡®steam¡¯ (a game sales and download service). Once installed you create a character profile and play with that character. As is the case for a permadeath game, if that character dies, there is no do-over. You lose the character and all his progress permanently.

    What makes it a ¡®true permadeath¡¯ game is something that has only shown up in a handful of daring games recently. Not only do you permanently lose your character on death, but the game also uninstalls itself. You literally only get one life, one shot at the game, well per steam account anyway. You could always create another steam account, but you would have to purchase the game all over again in order to create a new character, not only this but only a level four or higher steam account is permitted to purchase the game, this means that you would have to create a new account, purchase a bunch of games on it and play these games for many, many hours before you would be able to even purchase another copy. All in all this obviously not a very practical thing to do, nor would anyone be willing to go through all that effort and expense to do so, hence the ¡®true permadeath¡¯.

    This is ¡®true permadeath¡¯, the most hardcore kind of gaming experience. So few game publishing companies are daring enough to create games in this manner, that I can count the number of true permadeath games on one hand.

    ¡®It¡¯s not a game¡¯, was the most recent of this genre, whatsmore being an MMORPG with PVP elements, it was definitely going to be a hair raising experience.

    Why would anyone pay money to play a game that you could easily sink hundreds of hours into leveling your character, only to lose it all in a moment, you ask?

    Simple, the thrill. A game like that, where so much more is at stake, is truly thrilling and way more immersive.

    Of course, I haven''t actually played the game yet. My girlfriend Jessica and myself purchased and downloaded the game yesterday. We often play games together. Although Jessica normally likes FPS games more, she was willing to try this one due to its extreme nature.

    We both created our character profiles after downloading the game. However the official servers for the game only went online the next morning. I think the game company wanted to give everyone a chance to set up their characters in as much detail as they wanted, before all starting the game together, hence the delay before the download release date and the start of the servers.

    Since it was the weekend and we had both had nothing to do until the servers were turned on, we went clubbing with some friends that night. And fast forward to waking up in a strange place this morning.

    ¡°I woke up in a room a few doors down from here. At first I thought this was a dream, but now I can¡¯t be so sure. I mean, you¡¯re here as well.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really understand what¡¯s going on, myself.¡±

    ¡°Look regardless of whether this is a dream or not, I don¡¯t think we should stay here. I mean the doors were not even locked, it doesn¡¯t look like we are being held captive or anything.¡±

    ¡°I guess.¡±

    ¡°Let''s get out of here and see what''s going on. That knife of yours, I think we should take that along just in case.¡±

    ¡°Dagger.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°It''s a dagger. It has a blade on both sides, a knife only has a blade on one side.¡±

    She was strangely knowledgeable about such things.Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°I found it in this room, along with the clothes I¡¯m wearing.¡± Jessica looked a bit troubled by that last statement. She must have also woken up naked.

    ¡°The dagger was in the corner of the room there, by the bow.¡±

    Bow? I turned around and in the corner of the room was a small bow and a quiver with several arrows in it.

    ¡°It''s strange, I just remembered when I was creating my character profile yesterday, I chose to be an elven thief. The dagger and bow were shown to be my starting equipment.¡± That said I only just realised that Jessica, or should I say Misty was an elf, with dainty little pointed ears.

    Pondering this for a moment, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ¡®card¡¯. Surely enough just below the name Aluarc was listed ¡®Class: Paladin¡¯ and ¡®Species: Human¡¯. Aluarc was the name I had chosen for my character and Paladin was the character class I had chosen.

    I did not know Jessica had chosen a Thief as her class, but she had informed me of the name for her character at the party last night, so that we could meet up in game the following day. The character''s name was ¡®Misty¡¯. That''s why when I saw Aluarc on my room door and Misty on this room''s door I was so compelled to enter.

    Looking up at Jessica, ¡°Do you also have a card like this, listing all your characters details?¡±

    Jessica nodded, ¡°And a pouch with 10 copper coins in it.¡±

    ¡°I see, same here. If the stuff in this room matches your ¡®starter equipment¡¯, then I wonder¡­¡±

    ¡°Okay, put your gear on quickly.¡±

    Jessica attached the quiver and bow to her body via, a sling over kind of harness that was present with it and put the dagger into a sheath on the belt-like portion of the harness that was present on the abdominal area. The crossbow hung to the side of it.

    ¡°Follow me.¡±

    I led Jessica out of the room and back down the hallway to my room.

    Surely enough there in the corner of the room, was a longsword and a small shield. My Paladin¡¯s starter equipment. I was in such a daze earlier I didn¡¯t even notice it there.

    My cheek hurts. I instinctively raised my hand to my cheek and grimaced.

    ¡°Sorry. I was really scared back there.¡±

    Jessica apologised. Oh right. She had cut me with the dagger there when I first entered her room.

    Paladin, huh. I wonder.

    One of the Paladin¡¯s starting skills should be ¡®heal¡¯. Staring at myself in the mirror, I slowly raised my hand to my cheek. No, I must be crazy for thinking this, but then again this whole situation is completely crazy. Regardless I tried it.

    A faint yellow glow came from the palm of my hand.

    ¡°Holy shit!¡±

    I had stopped immediately. But the cheek felt all tingly. Jessica¡¯s mouth was hanging open. I turned back to the mirror. Sure enough, the wound was gone.

    ¡°One of my Paladin¡¯s starting skills was heal. I¡¯m still not sure if this is a dream or what, but apparently we really have taken on the rolls of our characters.¡±

    Jessica¡¯s mouth was still hanging open. She seemed to finally realise this and shut it quickly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know whether to be scared or impressed.¡±

    I shrugged. And with a smile on my face ¡°But it sure is cool.¡±

    I attached the shield to my back and the sword to my side, using the provided harness.

    ¡°Let''s get out of here, and see if we can figure out what''s going on.¡±

    We left the room and headed down the stairs.The bottom floor wasn¡¯t very spacious. There was a fire place with some chairs in front of it and on the other side of the room a counter with a burly woman behind it.

    ¡°Gud mornin,¡± she bellowed in a rough voice, a little too loudly.

    ¡°Ah- hello,¡± I replied

    Jessica¡¯s hand was gripping the back of my shirt nervously.

    This place seems like the typical ¡®Inn¡¯ that you would find in an RPG or medieval, type of setting.

    ¡°Uhm- this might sound like a strange question, but can you tell me where we are?¡±

    The woman gave me a perplexed expression. ¡°Yous feelin okay? Must¡¯ve been hitten the liquor hard eh!¡±

    The woman gave a sigh of exasperation and continued, ¡°You¡¯re in Heimos. I¡¯m the owner of this ¡®ere inn: ¡®The burly lady¡¯.¡±

    I had to restrain myself from laughing at that, it could not possibly have been named more aptly.

    ¡°Another strange question, I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯ve ever heard of a place called London¡­ AHHHH,¡± pain immediately wracked my brain. Too much pain, I could barely stay standing.

    ¡°Mr Aluarc you okay?" the old lady quickly called out in concern.

    ¡°Michael¡­¡± Jessica was also calling out to me, as my senses were busy rebooting.

    ¡°Arrgh!¡± Jessica sundely keeled over in pain. She was on her knees clutching her head.

    My own pain had already subsided. ¡°Jess¡­ Arghh,¡± shit not again.

    ¡°Oih, just wait ¡®ere u lot, I¡¯ll go get the doc,¡± The woman left the counter and hurried off outside somewhere.

    ¡°Whats going on,¡± Jessica asked in a weak voice.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We seem to be fine now.¡±

    I helped Jessica up. What was that? The pain is completely gone now.

    ¡°It happened when you mentioned London and when I mentioned your name. Also, when you called out to me again.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t but help think to myself that it was impressive she was able to notice things in such detail, despite being racked with pain.

    ¡°Do you think we are not allowed to talk about anything IRL?¡±

    Jessica made a good point, but, ¡°But we¡¯ve been talking about stuff like that and calling each other by name the whole morning?¡±

    ¡°But not in front of anyone else, perhaps?¡±

    She was making a lot of sense. ¡°I think you¡¯re right. I still don¡¯t quite know what''s going on here, but I think it would be good to not talk about anything like that in front of anyone else. Also it seems that woman has us checked in here by our profile names, she called me Aluarc. Let''s call each other by our profile names for now, just to be safe.¡±

    Jessica nodded.

    ¡°Anyway I don¡¯t think it will be good to answer any of the coming questions when that doctor gets here. Let''s get out of here.¡±

 Its not a game

    Walking alongside Jess I can see a smile on her face, her mood has improved considerably from earlier, she is definitely starting to calm down. Of course this is largely owed to the nice scenery of this town.

    Heimos. A rather vibrant place. We have been walking around for an hour or two now and seen a fair amount of the town. Most of the architecture in the town resembles a medieval setting of sorts, but even within that it varies quite widely from modest countryside wooden buildings to modern¡¯ish elaborate stone structures.

    The scenery itself is also really beautiful. Mountains in the distance, sprawling forests and plains stretch out in every direction, in the distance beyond the horizon of the town''s main wall. The wall itself is quite a bit taller than the average person, but by no means unscalable. I am uncertain as to whether it is simply meant as some kind of deterrent, or just a general boundary?

    ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡±

    Jess pulls me out of my thoughts. Giving it a moment''s thought, ¡°Why don¡¯t we get something to eat then. I think we passed a tavern of sorts back around that corner over there.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Jessica¡¯s smile goes full tilt.

    We change course and go back to where I spotted the tavern, it¡¯s a two story building made out of a mixture of wood and stone.

    I enter ahead of Jessica, but have to pause immediately to take in the scene before me. The place is really rowdy, it¡¯s filled with people. Wait, people is not the right way to describe this. More than half the inhabitants of this room are not human. Lizardman, Cat-people, all manner of demi-humans, even what appears to be dwarves. The ages also vary wildly ranging from kids that can¡¯t be more than twelve years old, all the way to elderly people.

    This is truly a scene from an RPG, no not even that, a complete fantasy world. I feel a tug on the back of my shirt. Jess is hanging onto it with a gentle grip, the look on her face is priceless, shock and awe don¡¯t even begin to do it justice.

    I smile to myself, ¡°Let¡¯s get a seat.¡±

    I lead Jessica over to an empty table that seats two, or maybe three people. We sit down on the wooden chairs.

    ¡°Aaahhh,¡± I let a relaxing groan. I guess it¡¯s been a tiring morning and we¡¯ve been walking around for a few hours to boot.

    Jessica is just sitting there quietly, still surveying the room. I guess she is still taking it all in. Not surprising, her main focus is FPS gaming and there is not a lot of medieval fantasy type settings to be had in such a genre, never mind being thrown into it head first. At that I have an amusing thought, we¡¯re both playing an FPS right now looking through the eyes of our characters. Of course I don¡¯t share that thought, as she is right now, I doubt she¡¯d get the joke.

    It does not take long for one of the waiters to approach us. A human girl with short reddish hair. She, like all the other waiters here, is wearing a waitress outfit with a black skirt that stretches up like a low cut dungaree and white frilly top that accentuates her breasts, very much reminiscent of what you would associate with a german or dutch pubs waitress uniform.

    I ask her about food options and she explains the menu to us. We settle on some kind of soup that I can barely pronounce and bread to accompany it. This rather simple meal sets us back five copper coins, that¡¯s a quarter of our total wealth combined.

    After voicing these thoughts to Jess we agree that our first order of business should be to secure an income.

    ¡°This world is clearly based on an RPG and probably whatever the ''It¡¯s not a game'' game was gonna be like.¡±

    I pause for a moment, ¡°If that¡¯s the case then I think the obvious choice is for us to ¡®play¡¯ this game like we¡¯re intended.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±

    ¡°Treat it like an RPG. Go kill monsters, complete quests, earn money, level up, etc.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we getting ahead of ourselves here? Can we even be sure that this ¡®world¡¯ even works like an RPG in the first place?¡±

    ¡°True. But, we can make some assumptions. For instance, our adventurer cards clearly indicate both our character class and level number, which for both of us is at level one. Also I¡¯ve already used one of the Paladins skills. From this we already know that there is leveling and skills involved here.¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Jessica considers my words but gives me a doubtful expression. At this time the waiter brings over our order and sets it on the table.

    Now for one little gambit, ¡°Excuse me.¡±

    The waitress turns to give me attention. ¡°Where can we find out about any available quests?¡±

    The waitress gives me a slightly puzzled look. Oh crap. I¡¯m starting to feel embarrassed, looks like that''s not how it works after all.

    ¡°Over there,¡± the waitress points to the end of the room, ¡°we pin all the available quests on that board over there, you can look em o¡¯er at ur leisure and ask any o¡¯ the staff at the counter if ya be needin more details.¡± The waitress smiles and walks off.

    ¡°I guess you were right, it really is like we¡¯re inside the game.¡±

    We finish up our meal without much further conversation. I¡¯m not sure what was in that soup. There was definitely vegetables and some kind of meat. It wasn¡¯t anything I could recognise, so I have a feeling I¡¯m better off not knowing. Jess also looks a little unsettled by it.

    We head over to the large ¡®quest board¡¯. There are all kinds of quests, all written in very different manners, some with impressive artwork, others with plain text and some with really bad drawings and handwriting. They do generally have a few things in common though. They all list a description of what¡¯s expected as well as the reward.

    ¡°I assume if we were to take on a quest, being level one and all, we would have to take on something suitable for our levels.¡±

    Jess interrupts me, ¡°Actually, before that even, do you think we¡¯re the only people here? I mean, ¡®players¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Huh. Good point.¡±

    I peruse the room wondering about this. ¡°Probably not, but I don¡¯t think we would ever be able to tell, since we can¡¯t really talk about anything outside of this world.¡±

    Jessica looks a little sad at that last statement.

    I look back to the quest board. ¡°Je- I mean Misty, what about this one?¡±

    Jessica looks at the quest I¡¯m pointing to.

    ¡°It¡¯s just asking us to kill some goblins that have made a camp on the outskirts of town and have been doing raids on the villagers.¡±

    I lean in closer to Jessica, to whispering distance. ¡°I mean, we obviously don¡¯t know much about this world, but in general goblins are bottom of the wrung monsters, if there is two of us, combined with my Paladin''s healing skills, I¡¯m guessing we can manage.¡±

    Jessica once again gives me a doubtful look. ¡°I don¡¯t know about this. This doesn¡¯t exactly feel like we¡¯re playing a game here you know.¡±

    ¡°Aaarrgh!¡±

    We¡¯re both startled by the sound of someone else crying out. It¡¯s coming from outside.

    Not a moment before I¡¯ve put those thoughts together, the door to the tavern comes flying open, a short man wearing light armour and carrying a sword comes bursting through it. ¡°Goblin!¡±

    This is great! I swear whatever god(s?) inhabit this world, they are looking out for me. This tavern is clearly filled with many other ¡®adventurers¡¯ a goblin won¡¯t stand a chance here, and I can get a look at what we¡¯re dealing with first hand.

    ¡°Eeaerk!¡± The goblin grunts as it chases the man through the door. It¡¯s much faster than him. Small and nimble. The goblin lunges forward a short curved sword in his hand swings through the air and strikes the man.

    The man squeals in pain as he continues to scramble away from the goblin. Jessica gasps. I see the reason for it. The man has left his arm behind. The goblin sliced it clean off, blood is literally pouring out.

    Its as if time is slowing down, all the noise around me is being drowned out, all the color is being soaked up from the room. The goblin that looked like such small opponent, the bottom of the wrung small fry, now seemed like something else entirely. A menacing foe, a demon. It¡¯s small pointed ears, it¡¯s slanted red eyes, its fearsome grin filled with teeth. Terrifying, there¡¯s just no other word for it.

    Everyone else in the room had started reacting a while ago already, the waitresses and others running for their lives. Multiple people standing up brandishing all sorts of weapons. The ones that were charging forward mostly had melee type weapons at the ready to attack the goblin with. They were all a bit too slow though, the goblin had already raised his curved sword and thrust it deep into the armless man''s chest.

    The many adventurer¡¯s that had charged the goblin released their attacks simultaneously. Thud, thud, clang, clang. They were butchering it, it never stood a chance, there was blood flying everywhere.

    Finally things calmed down, they were satisfied that the goblin was sufficiently dead. I heard a voice call out ¡°We need a healer!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t waste your breath, he¡¯s already dead, he took one to the heart.¡±

    With those few words everyone settled down and started discussing what had just happened very matter of factly. They started talking nonchalantly and discussing arrangements for cleanups, funerals and to assign the goblin quest a little more urgency. It¡¯s as if the dead man wasn¡¯t even there. It felt surreal, like I wasn¡¯t even there. Is this really such a normal thing around here? A part of daily life?

    I felt Jessica clinging to my shirt again with one hand. I turned to look at her, she was staring into space, shaking and her face was sprayed with some blood.

    ¡°Yeah I know, there¡¯s no way we could be adventurers.¡± This is just too far out of reach for regular teenagers. I felt sick to my stomach, this is not a game at all.

 Digging my own grave

    What the fuck? Where am I? I¡¯ve woken up in a room that is not my own, with no idea how I got here. And I¡¯m naked to boot.

    Looking around my surroundings there are some clothes on a dresser near me and a small pouch. I get out of bed and take a quick look around the room. There are no windows only one door. I peep through the keyhole, but can¡¯t make out much.

    Without much other choice, I put the clothes on. Both the clothes and the room have sort of a ¡®village¡¯ or medieval type feel to it. My mind flashed back to the game I was creating a character for last night, before I went to bed for some reason.

    Inspecting the pouch there is ten bronze like coins inside. I have a feeling this will be useful. Next to the door of the room there is a stick adorned with decorations. I walk over for a closer inspection, only to realise it is not a stick, it is a short staff! I know, because I recognize it.

    The mirror catches my attention. No fucking way! This is the face of my character profile. This is nuts!

    I walk over, pocket the coin pouch, holster the short staff, take one last good look in the mirror, and exit the room. I¡¯ve watched a lot of anime, and read a lot of fantasy light novels. My favourites being the ones along the lines of a real life game, or transported to another world type genre¡¯s. It might sound crazy, but I¡¯m totally prepared for a situation like this, or at least mentally anyway.

    It¡¯s pure assumption at this point, but based on my appearance and circumstances I have to assume that I¡¯m either in a very realistic or elaborate dream, or I¡¯m ¡®playing¡¯ in the actual game ¡®It''s not a game¡¯ as my actual character. That game was also supposed to be an extreme permadeath kind of game, with no do-overs. Given the way these types of things normally work in novels and anime and the nature of the game, I have to also assume this is more like a ¡®sword art online¡¯ type of situation and that death in this world is permanent. Damn. I still have too many questions, too many things I don¡¯t yet know.

    I had already reached the bottom of stairs while pondering these things. I¡¯m in what looks like a reception area. Seems like it¡¯s some kind of an inn. I approach the man behind what looks to be a reception counter. ¡°Hello.¡± First test: Language.

    ¡°Gud day, mr. Hardoen.¡±

    I see my character name, well kindof. In fact it¡¯s actually ¡®Hard On¡¯, I was totally dicking around when I named him ." However, the people here clearly have no knowledge of such things, hence that soft pronunciation of the ¡®o¡¯ in the name. At any rate, looks like I¡¯ll need to ¡®stay in character¡¯.

    I catch a glance of the ledger in front of the innkeeper, I can read it. So the written and spoken language of this world is english. That or it¡¯s something else entirely, and I can simply comprehend it as english, not that it matters either way. A lack of ability to communicate was my greatest fear. Being unable to communicate in a foreign world like this, would have been nothing short of a death sentence.

    ¡°Apologies, but I must have had a rough night, last night, I can¡¯t remember how long I booked a room here?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no matter, ya only booked it for the one night, so pack up time be round midday.¡±

    ¡°I see, thanks. Also, how much does a room here cost per day?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯d be ten coppers a day. But if ya lookin for longer stays, I be happy to offer ya a discount,¡± the innkeeper smiles.

    I return his smile. ¡°Thanks.¡± I am not however smiling on the inside. That there would be my next big problem, loggings, food and meeting the ¡®bread line¡¯ as far as income goes. If we¡¯re living out our characters life in such a realistic and personal fashion, then I¡¯m sure we will need to sleep and be sheltered from the elements and also need things like food to stay alive.

    My full ¡®starting gear¡¯ money for just one day''s lodging, that''s a problem.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°So I feel kinda guilty to ask this, but I¡¯m new in town. Is there any place cheaper that I can stay?¡± I don¡¯t yet know the ¡®rules¡¯ of this world, or how closely it mirrors reality, but I can¡¯t help thinking of anime like ¡®Konosuba¡¯ and how those guys started out.

    ¡°Well ya could always take a nap under a tree or a bridge,¡± the innkeeper chuckled as he spoke, ¡°or you could sleep in the stables. My inn don¡¯t hav em mind you, but there be plenty o other inns that do. It be quite common for them to rent out the stables when they be full up, or a customer be lookin for a cheaper place to stay.¡±

    Bingo. I thought there might be an option like that. ¡°Thanks very much. Last thing, is there any place where I can find out information about things like places of interest, or available jobs, etc.¡±

    ¡°Oh sure, I reckon the town hall il have all ya lookin for.¡±

    All right then, they say knowledge is power. Or it¡¯s more like I¡¯m going to need as much knowledge as possible to survive in this world, time to do some digging.

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    We lie together in a single bed, it¡¯s a tight fit. Jessica has her back turned to me. I put my arm around her and try to pull her a little closer, at this rate she might fall right out of the bed.

    Jessica immediately shrugs my arm off violently. I sigh. I can somewhat guess the reason for her current mood, she is probably blaming me right about now for the mess we are in.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I¡¯m not really sorry of course, who could possibly have anticipated anything like this mad ¡®game¡¯ happening, but Jess needs to hear it otherwise she is not gonna calm down.

    Actually right about now I wouldn¡¯t mind if someone could calm me down, there are just so many problems that we are facing right now. We spent the entire remainder of the money on our lodging tonight and some more food. While we have eaten enough food for tonight and have left a bit for breakfast tomorrow, what about after that?

    At the rate we are going, we are gonna need at least 20 coppers a day to get by. We scouted all day, collecting information on employment, but the options were not very good.

    Most skilled kinds of labour paid enough to cover those kinds of costs, but were not easily obtainable, since you either needed actual experience and someone to vouch for you, or you needed to belong to a suitable guild for the type of work in question. The only other option was odd jobs and unskilled menial labour and that did not pay very well, at most 10 coppers a day.

    All said and done, I have already accepted a job digging graves for the next few days as a stop gap measure. I am almost certain there is irony in there somewhere. The job pays nine coppers a day. This is of course not enough by even half of what we need, but it¡¯s better than nothing right now.

    Jess will have to find a job as well for this to work. Almost all of the work available for woman in this town fall in the skilled category, and most of the rest fall in a category that would put Jess in a position to deal with a different kind of ¡®monster¡¯ compared to the ones encountered while adventuring.

    She actually did receive one job offer out of the blue while we were on tour today. Some guy wanted to hire her as a bartender, but the way he looked at her like he was running his tongue across a slab of meat sent shivers down my spine. I¡¯d have to be way more desperate than I am right now to let her work for someone like that. Actually scratch that, adverturing would even be preferable to that guy and probably less dangerous.

    I feel an arm wrap around me and try to pull me closer, It¡¯s warm and strong. I feel myself seeking it out. No, screw that. I shrug away hard and the offending arm retreats.

    A moment later ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    Damn right whose fault do you think it is that we¡¯re in this fucking mess. If only he hadn¡¯t convinced me to play this stupid game. Damn you Michael, why do I have to put up with this. The food is terrible and not nearly enough. This bed is as hard as concrete and if things keep going like this we won¡¯t have even that come tomorrow.

    There was a man from earlier today who offered me a job, me? I¡¯ve never had a job before, I¡¯m only seventeen, I¡¯m still in fucking high school. But the way that man looked at me, it¡¯s like I was stripped naked and being assaulted on the spot, it made me feel sick to my stomach.

    Why must I get a job, my parents have more than enough money and now I¡¯m being dragged around in this shithole. What happens tomorrow? Or the day after? Are we ever going back?

    What are my parents doing right now, are they looking for me, are they worried? I was supposed to help my little sister with her piano practice, what will she do now? Is she gonna cry over it? Oh god, will I ever see her again?

    At some point tears had started streaking down my face, as the emotions rummaging around in my heart are threatening to overwhelm me. I once again feel an arm stretch around me and hold onto me, but I don¡¯t immediately chase it off this time, I no longer have the strength of will. Instead, I stop shaking, which is apparently a thing that was happening until a second ago.

    ¡°Everything will be okay, I¡¯ll protect you.¡±

    Those words are like a lighthouse in the raging storm of my heart. The arm is no longer offending and instead offers warmth and safety. I can¡¯t help but feel myself melting into it.

 Monsters come in all shapes and sizes

    ¡°Ah, yes, sure, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± The boy in front of me is fumbling over his words with exaggerated hand gestures. Guys always get a bit nervous around me, especially virgins. Of course this is a great opportunity for me to get in on a rather rewarding quest that I doubt I would have been able to find a party for any other way.

    The fool in front of me is a blade dancer just based on the medium length dual swords strapped to his back and his rather light armour. If I had to venture a guess based on his gear alone, he¡¯s probably about a level five.

    The girl to his left, a druid by the looks of it, is currently giving him a dirty look, clearly displeased with the fact that he is failing miserably to hide the fact that he is ogling my rather voluptuous breasts. I am grateful at times like these that I am so good looking. It makes negotiating with this salivating fool and securing my spot on this juicy quest much more practical.

    I wonder if this girl is his girlfriend, no that¡¯s more a look of disgust in her eyes than one of anger. She glances again to the base of my Emiel wood staff. So that¡¯s how it is, she noticed the runes engraved there. I need to hurry up and bring a close to this before she starts getting in the way.

    I immediately pounce on the unsuspecting man, clasp his hands in my own and bring myself so close to his face that our hands are practically being squashed between his chest and my own.

    ¡°Thank you so much,¡± I say with the brightest most innocent smile I can muster, ¡°You are a real lifesaver, I don¡¯t know what I would have done if I had not met you.¡±

    The boys face is smiling awkwardly and is bright red by this point. The look in the girls icy glare has also dropped another ten degrees.

    The third member of this mans group is apparently a bard, but by the looks of it has very little interest in this conversation and much more in the bottom of his beer jug.

    Well that about seals the deal anyway. I just hope this party turns out better than the last one, I really am quite broke after that little misadventure. The man in front of me has regained his composure a bit and already introduced himself, ¡°and your name is?¡±

    I smile ¡°Sarah.¡±

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    We both stare at the table in front of us with glum expressions. I had earned my very meager paycheck from the days labouring, the result of which was the rather meager meal in front of us and a few spare copper coins. In spite of the hunger from working hard all day and skipping lunch, I found myself eating rather mechanically.

    Jess had been out all day trying to find some ¡®reasonable¡¯ work, but had little success. I was initially against the idea of sending Jessica around on her own to do this, this place seems quite dangerous for a teenage girl not used to the surroundings. But there were not many other choices.

    She couldn¡¯t stick around me while I work, the foreman would have gone ballistic, he was not a particularly flexible kind of guy. She couldn¡¯t stay at the inn past midday either since we didn¡¯t have money in advance to book another day there. And in the end we desperately need more money. Although I wasn¡¯t exactly expecting things to go well with her finding a job, but I must admit some corner of me was holding out hope.

    At any rate now that even that has been crushed we still need to deal with the fact that we have nowhere to stay tonight. After we finish our meal we decided that we¡¯ll go around begging for a place to stay offering our measly three coppers as compensation. But after many hours of wondering around, that plan seemed to fall flat on its face.

    Door after door no matter how many inns we tried people would either laugh at us, sneer at us or throw us out on our asses outright. It was completely hopeless. We at some point learned that there was also the option of staying in a stables if they weren¡¯t currently occupied by animals, but even then they still charged for it and the cheapest such option we could find was four coppers.

    I begged the owner to let us stay there for just three, even offered to pay him the remainder the next day, but he wouldn¡¯t hear any of it. He looked at us with disgust and contempt in his eyes.

    Just what exactly would have to happen for everyone in a place like this to become so cold. I heard from some of the guys at my job about a little of what was going on in the world. It was a long day and I had plenty of opportunity to chat with some of them, under the guise that ¡®I was not from around here¡¯.

    Turns out the country is at war with mysterious forces consisting of all manner of creatures and demons. Nobody knows where they came from but they have been fighting for several years now. As a result, the economy is completely fucked.

    Trade routes get cut off and are dangerous, caravans have to hire adventurers to protect them and that doesn¡¯t come cheap either, so their wares end up costing a fortune. Basic resources that would be gathered outside of the town in nearby areas for even the simplest daily necessities are now dangerous to acquire and thus a lot more expensive.

    The only profession that benefits from the current state of affairs would be the adventurer, which there are now a lot more of thanks to that. Luckily Heimos is one of the smaller farming towns and of little importance in the scheme of things. Coupled with this they are also far away from where the bulk of the war is happening, and only have to deal with the overall drastically increased monster populations. For which there seems to be more than enough adventurers around.

    I pause for a moment and Jessica stops behind me. It got dark quite a while ago and we¡¯ve just been trudging around aimlessly this last hour or so. Even the nearby houses and inns have already turned their lights off.

    I turn to Jessica, ¡°We¡¯re gonna have to sleep outside tonight.¡± Jessica¡¯s eyes go wide for a moment, but she slowly nods. Perhaps she¡¯s just too tired to put up any resistance at this point.

    ¡°We¡¯ll take shelter under that bridge we passed a little way back.¡± It¡¯s all I could think of at the time. It had started to get a bit cold and I was worried about it. I doubt we¡¯d die or anything like that, but it would probably weaken us quite a bit or we¡¯d get quite sick. As it stands we have enough problems as it is without concerns like that piled on top.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    After arriving at the bridge we check to see if anyone is around and then snuggle up underneath it. It¡¯s a large stone bridge crossing a large river that flows through part of the town. There is plenty of space underneath it to sleep on the embankment. The grass is soft enough to sleep on without being too uncomfortable I suppose, but it really has gotten quite cold, so I snuggle even closer to Jessica.

    I think about a lot of different things, all the various challenges we face, what more are still to come and what we can do about all of this. Is this situation permanent or temporary and stuff like that. Strangely the things that are farthest from my mind are the things that you would think mattered the most, that is to say, all the people I left behind, like my mother who must be worried sick about me right about now. Is it because Jess is here with me that I haven¡¯t spared a thought for such things, or has this world already got such a hold on me? Probably I¡¯ve just had too much to deal with to have the time for such thoughts even.

    A considerable amount of time passes while I¡¯m lost in my thoughts and I can¡¯t seem to get to sleep at all, probably on account of all the stress. Jessica fell asleep quite some time ago, she must have been exhausted. I lay there a while staring at her pretty sleeping face. Well it¡¯s not exactly her face, but I can¡¯t help but feel a little guilty over thinking that it¡¯s really pretty.

    Jessica was by no means a bad looking girl quite the opposite actually she was every bit a model. But I still can¡¯t help but think that having a gorgeous elf for a girlfriend is by no means a bad deal.

    For now I put such thoughts out of my mind for one she¡¯d probably kill me if she found out, but also, I need to pee.

    I carefully wriggle out of her grasp and stand up. I consider talking a leak in the river, but I kind of have an issue with ''stage fright'' for some reason and I feel bad about peeing in the river, who knows who is all using that water and for what. But, there is no need to concern myself over such things as I remember that there was an outhouse just outside a tavern, just a little down the road from where we are. I start walking down the embankment , leaving our weapons behind propped up against the underside of the bridge.

    Yeah we still have those, been carting them around the whole bloody time. I guess we were just too afraid to let them go with all the uncertainty surrounding us. It might be time to try and sell them, I mean I don¡¯t see any chance of us becoming adventurers any time soon and we certainly do need the money.

    I walk down the riverside a bit and approach the nearby tavern. Even at this time of night I can hear the place is still lively inside. I considered at one point that we should hang out there for the night, but what good would that have done if we couldn¡¯t get any sleep for the next day and also I¡¯m pretty sure that non-paying loafers would just end up getting thrown out anyway.

    I arrive at my destination. A good old fashioned outhouse situated just outside the tavern. Now I know it¡¯s meant for the taverns customers, but at this point I¡¯m already a homeless person, so why the hell not. I muse to myself as I take care of business.

    With that wrapped up I turn to head back to the bridge, I shouldn¡¯t leave Jess alone there, I doubt it¡¯s very safe. Just at that moment I spot something move in the distance.

    I squint hard and can just make out a figure in the shadows down the road from the tavern. I can¡¯t make out much but it appears to have yellow eyes, or that could just be my imagination, it¡¯s not like I can see very well. But the figure does appear to be staring right at me.

    The staring contest only lasts a moment and then the figure moves really quickly all of a sudden dancing between the shadows and then it¡¯s gone. I might be mistaken but it also looked like one or two other shadows moved at the same time.

    I stand there for a while but nothing else seems to happen, whatever they were the¡¯re clearly gone now. Another moment''s hesitation and then I turn and quickly head back to the bridge, in part I think my pace has increased on account of being really creeped out.

    As I near the bridge I part from the road and head down the embankment. As I round the corner I pause, a strange scene is in front of me. There¡¯s no Jessica, instead some really fat villager appears to be lying in her spot.

    It only takes me a moment to shake off the surprise and notice that the fat villiger is not alone there two other men here. Not only that but so is Jessica, I just didn¡¯t immediately notice here below the ridiculously oversized man. Villager B was kneeling down beside her restraining her hands and mouth while villager C seemed to be a lookout.

    The fat villager was kneeling down over her with his pants pulled down and his putrid cock in his hand, with a stupid grin of anticipation on his face. Jessica underneath him had already lost her pants and her blonde bush was exposed for all the world to see. She was clearly struggling but to little effect under the weight of the two men.

    Rage explodes inside me and I grab my sword from the side of the bridge, luckily the weapons were stacked up by the edge of the wall of the corner I happened to come around. In the same breath I lunge at the fat bastard. Villager C had already spotted me and called out, as a result the vile piece of oversized meat had just narrowly rolled out the way of my lunge. He lands on his ass, his fat rolls and vile cock still bouncing around.

    Villager B lets go of Jessica and quickly draws a dagger from his belt and takes a swing at me. I am able to move out of the way in time, in so doing he appears to lose his footing a bit. So I take the opportunity to take a swing at him instead, with my sword. However he expertly changes the motion of his dagger and brings it up to parry my sword very close to the hilt where the least of the swings power is. I am surprised by this movement and accuracy despite him being clearly off balance after his initial swing had missed me. He seems to be very experienced. In spite of all this my sword had come down with all my power and rage and despite being successfully blocked, it was not enough to stop the swords movement, it was still coming down squarely upon his neck.

    Unexpectedly villager B instantly realised this and changed the angle of his grip while sliding his dagger up along the length of my blade towards it¡¯s tip causing a mass of sparks as the two blades grinded against each other in their still downwards motion. A loud sound of metal ringing happened and my sword came down not on his neck, but just past the other side of his head, he had successfully flicked its path off course. The sword may be easier to stop near the hilt but it was apparently easier to divert its path near its tip.

    Ridiculous. I don¡¯t know much about sword fighting, not anything actually, but to do all that in an instant with just his dagger and while off balance, this guy must be unbelievably skilled. However he was still off balance and just narrowly escaped death, so with the hopes that his feathers are still a bit ruffled I brought my sword round in his direction once more, while he was trying to regain his footing. Unfortunately he was back in control and easily backed off away from the path of the sword.

    How am I gonna beat this guy, his skill is way above my own, I think the only reason I¡¯m still alive is because of the difference in both the weight and reach of our weapons. Wait before that even there¡¯s still two more guys, what are they doing?

    I glanced over to them briefly. Villager C was just standing there apparently not sure what to do and the fat cunt had already pulled up his pants and started running away.

    ¡°Screw this,¡± Villager C suddenly mutters and immediately starts chasing after his gluttonous companion.

    Villager B stands there for a while eyeing me with his dagger still in hand. He glances over his shoulder to where his friends are still running away and clicks his tongue in distaste. He glances over to Jessica who has already put her pants back on and is huddling behind the corner of the bridge on my side of the affair. After eyeing her for a moment with the look of child giving his parent the stink-eye, upset his toy got taken away, he then turns around and starts running after his friends.

    I just stand there for a moment not even sure what to do. Then I remember, Jessica. I turn towards her and she is already falling into my arms sobbing. My sword drops to the ground as I use both arms to secure her in front of me. ¡°Sorry.¡± It is the only word that my primitive mind can seem to muster.

 Too many empty graves

    Twelve coppers. It¡¯s not exactly a lot but it¡¯s enough to get by on for now, well at least for one day anyway. That¡¯s how much I earned for the last quest I partook in. But considering how extremely low risk it was when compared to some of the other ¡®beginner¡¯ options, it¡¯s probably a pretty good pay.

    There was one other person with me then, a warrior type, also low level like me. Our client for the quest was a young girl who runs a herbalist type store and needed to get some more ingredients. In this world healing magic is pretty common and people who run healing ''clinics'' are a dime a dozen. This was one of my first considerations for a career path. But the skills to do this are all abound and there is an abundance of ''adventurers'' that would rather do this for a living than risk life and limb on quests. As a result of the over saturation, the money to be made there is about the same as the most basic forms of labour in this world, suffice is to say not enough.

    It is a curious thing that there are still herbalists. Apparently healing magic can only mend flesh and bones and the like and can do nothing for things like old age and diseases. I am very curious to find out at some point what the actual difference is, this needs more investigatingfor sure.

    The exception is apparently debuffs. Status ailments caused by ''things not of this world''. These of course need anti-debuff magic skills or magically enchanted potions, that require the right ''skills'' to craft.

    But I digress. The herbs the herbalist needed, were at the foot of the nearby eastern mountain range and to get there you had to pass through a small forest that has been known to be inhabited by rabid squirrels.

    Of course I only got to find out later that rabid squirrels actually means really big and hungry fucking squirrels. Well no matter, as per my suspicion when I created my permadeath character, a priest does not see much combat. My role is mostly to provide buffs and healing, and for the most part stay nice and safe, while everyone else does the fighting.

    This was exactly the case yesterday as the warrior in my party of two, was the once doing all the dangerous work, cutting down squirrels left, right and center. Well, is not to say that I didn¡¯t have to wack a few of the more unruly ones myself, but that was minimal by comparison.

    Of course all that money is gone by today, thanks to food and lodging expenses being so high. The economy is good and truly fucked up in this country at the moment, as the result of a long standing war going on, or so I learned on my first day here when I was running around gathering as much information as I could. With the prices of things the way they are and the kinds of work that would be available to me, the rather dangerous profession of ¡®adventurer¡¯ was pretty much the only practical choice left to me.

    Of course a regular LitRPG protagonist would probably be chomping at the bit to be an adventurer, were he in my shoes. I like to think however, that I have a little more common sense than that. For one, the game that I¡¯m supposedly stuck in here was supposed to be permadeath. This concept alone does not bode well for my chances to ¡®respawn at last checkpoint¡¯, should I happen to bite the dust. So all said and done I¡¯m only here in this tavern because I don¡¯t have any other viable options yet.

    Although my two days ¡®life savings¡¯ are not the only things gone, so is my ¡®friend¡¯ from yesterday. He actually has a regular party he normally goes around with, I was just a substitute at the time since they were all busy that day and he had no one to party up with. This is obviously not the case today and I am now currently a bit stuck on what to do thanks to that.

    I had already tried to join up with some other parties, but well established groups don¡¯t let outsiders in very easily and most adventurers around here are at least a level four or higher, they are not very keen to join up with a level one adventurer, or I should say a level two, ever since yesterday.

    I have already decided to try recruiting a party as well and subsequently put a notice up on the ¡®recruitment¡¯ board that is located right along side the quests notice board, but have had no takers as of yet. In the meantime I¡¯ve been going around and targeting the singles to see if there is anyone that will join me.

    It is at that moment that I spot a blonde bombshell sitting alone across the room with a rather glum expression. My first instinct is of course, ¡®pretty girl¡¯ - run. As would be the case for any self respecting loner, but I am of course not exactly swimming in alternatives and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m trying to pick her up or anything.

    With that I muster up my courage and approach her.

    ¡°Hi, sorry to bother you. I¡¯m not from around here and as a result haven¡¯t had much luck joining any of the existing parties. So now I¡¯m trying to recruit my own, would you be interested?¡± On second thoughts I may have come on a little strong there, as she seems quite startled.

    ¡°I¡¯m having a very similar problem,¡± she smiles, ¡°so this sounds like a good idea to me.¡±

    Excellent, nailed it. ¡°Hi, my name is Hardoen, level two priest, how do you do.¡±

    The blonde returns my smile and says, ¡°Hi there, I¡¯m a level four sorceress, the name¡¯s Sarah.¡±

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    Jessica tagged along with me in the morning to my job. She planned to carry on looking for work straight after she saw me off. I can¡¯t say I want her running around alone after what happened, but despite how much it shook her up, this morning she seems determined to change her circumstances I guess.

    To be honest I am feeling pretty desperate. Neither of us slept much last night after what happened and I¡¯d rather die than see a repeat of that, but I still don¡¯t know what to do about our current situation. Things being the way they are, I still don¡¯t hold much hope for Jessica being able to pin down a job.

    As I¡¯m mulling this over, we reach the foreman''s office and when I say office, I of course mean mud hut.

    ¡°Oh hey there, Aluarc, just the man I wanted to see,¡± the big burly foreman bellows at me.

    ¡°Hey boss,¡± I mutter in a less than enthusiastic tone.

    ¡°So. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any easy way to say this and I¡¯ve never been one for beatin round the bush either, so I¡¯m just gonna lay it on you straight.¡±

    ¡°Hahahaha. Oh. Hahahahahaha.¡± I can¡¯t seem to help myself as manic laughter claws its way out of my throat. I guess I¡¯m laughing at the shear and utter hopelessness of our situation.

    The foreman is packing up this ¡®branch¡¯ of his, due to a cancellation by his biggest client. It is no longer worth his while to maintain a presence here in Heimos, and as a result is letting the handful of employees he has here in Heimos, go. This obviously includes me as well.

    The insane laughter has at least stopped, but Jessica is still looking at my with great concern. What the hell are we gonna do now, I just lost our only source of ¡®not even enough¡¯ income and the day has already started. Employed for only one day, I¡¯m a laughing stock.

    I place my head in my hands, the shear weight of it all is finally coming down on me in full force. I find myself having to bite back tears, I can¡¯t let jessica see me like this.

    The scene Jessica had to endure flashes across fresh in my memory. I do my best to shake it off. And here I was talking big about how I would protect her, I can¡¯t help but scoff at my ineptitude. I remember how I felt just a little while ago, ¡®I would rather die than see that happen to her again¡¯.

    A bold realisation dawns on me in that moment. Well if that¡¯s how I feel then it actually makes things pretty simple, doesn¡¯t it. I stand up, with a new fire burning in my soul, take Jessica by the hand and look her straight in the eye.

    ¡°I said I would protect you and I meant it.¡± I pause for a moment and then drop the bomb, ¡°Jess we¡¯re gonna become adventurers.¡± Perhaps it was the intensity of my gaze, but all she could seem to manage was a meek nod in affirmation.

    Due to the urgency of our dire financial straits, we headed straight back to the tavern where our downward spiral had initially begun. The tavern where that man had been mercilessly killed by a goblin right in front of us. In part we came back to this tavern because it was the one we were most familiar with, I mean we at least know that this one has a quests board and by extension many adventurers gathering here, but I suspect it may also have to do with a desire to overcome our trepidation.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    The tavern is as busy as ever, with many different villagers and adventurers mingling and drinking. The place was quite rowdy, not so much from drunken conversation, but more just the hustle and bustle of people going on about their daily lives and in the case of most of the adventurers their livelihood I guess.

    This time We¡¯re gonna play it smart. I start by approaching one of the barmaids and tell her that we are new in town and ask about the best way to find like-minded fellow adventurers to team up with. I figure that a party consisting of at least a couple of people would make the most sense from an adventurers perspective, both in a game and in real life. My role as a paladin is quite flexible, as both a light-weight healer and a combatant, it should make it relatively easy to slot in with most existing parties.

    The barmaid indicates that while a lot of people don¡¯t openly recruit new party members, some do post recruitment notices on the ¡®recruitment board¡¯, she points over to a smaller notice board, next to the main ¡®quests board¡¯.

    I must admit I didn¡¯t even notice it the first time we were here, must¡¯ve been all the excitement from last time, you know transported to a fantasy world, watching a man get butchered to death in front of you, etc.

    I approach the recruitment board, with Jessica in tow and start perusing the various ¡®help wanted¡¯ ads. The barmaid mentioned that if I find something useful, I can bring her the advert and she¡¯ll be able to tell me how to get in contact with the owner.

    Almost all of the adverts are for parties of a higher level, like level four and upwards and are looking for similarly skilled adventurers. Jess and I are both level one, so they go straight out the window. There is also an ad that doesn¡¯t specify precisely what they are looking for, just lists the members that they have. Unfortunately they seem to have a few melee types in their group already all around level two. I am doubtful they will take on two lower level melee types such as ourselves as well. They would more likely want alternative class adventurers to balance the party out.

    There¡¯s one more advert that catches my attention, it lists a party of two, a spellcaster and a support class looking for one or two melee class adventurers of low level. Of course this means that Jess and I will be the only melee types in such a group and would see the most dangerous combat, but considering that we are melee class adventurers to begin with I suppose that was likely going to be unavoidable.

    Yep, this is no time to get cold feet, this is the one. Time is of the essence here, we have no money, no income and the daylight hours or ticking by, it¡¯s literally ¡®do or die¡¯ time. I snatch the notice off the board and bring it over to the barmaid again.

    I am a little concerned, we will likely have to first get in touch with the owner of the notice, then once we find him, sync up with the other member of his party, and then we still have to find a quest to go on. When you think about it that way it seems unlikely we will be able find and do some kind of quest today still. Given our current financial disposition, this is of grave concern to me.

    The barmaid smiles after looking the notice over and says, ¡°You¡¯re in luck it would seem, a young man posted this notice not even an hour ago, he¡¯s still here in the tavern havin a drink.¡±

    I swear I could feel my heart grow wings and flutter around inside my chest, finally some good luck for once, god knows our share of it is overdue. I follow the barmaids direction and with Jessica at my side, take a deep breath and stroll over to the table where a young man with dark black hair is sitting.

    He looks to be quite bored, just going off of his slouched demeanour and lethargic gaze into the bottom of his now almost empty bear jug. Actually what is that he¡¯s drinking, some kind of pale apricot colored substance, it certainly doesn¡¯t look like beer.

    Sitting with him at the table, is a gorgeous blonde girl with a considerable set of boobs on her. Propped up against her chair is a long wooden staff. She must be the spellcaster and he must be the support guy. That¡¯s one more box checked, could this day get any better?

    ¡°Hi, we saw your recruitment notice and are looking for a party to join.¡± The girl looks up at me, I can see her eyes quickly scan over our weapons, obviously determining that we are indeed the melee types that they seek.

    The young man practically jumps out of his chair, either by enthusiasm, or maybe he was just startled? ¡°Hi.¡± He holds out his hand to me and I reach over and shake it firmly. As we shake hands the girl next to him casts a curious glance at us, as if she were confused about something.

    ¡°Hi. So I am a level two priest, my name is Hardoen and this here is Sarah, a level four sorceress.¡±

    ¡°Hi,¡± Sarah casts a beautiful, heart warming smile at us.

    My turn I guess, time to get in character, can¡¯t afford any slip ups here. ¡°Hi, my name is Aluarc, I am a level one Paladin, and this is my girlfriend Misty, a level one thief.¡±

    ¡°Well this is better than we could have hoped for, with a spellcaster, a healer and support, and two melee class adventurers, I¡¯d say we have the makings of a pretty good party going here.¡±

    I take this moment to correct him ¡°Actually one and a half melee.¡± Hardoen gives me a curious glance and I elaborate, ¡°Misty has not had much practice to date with melee combat and has mostly been doing ranged combat, as it has been just the two of us so far, so to jump right in as a melee would be quite difficult.¡±

    Hardoen seems to pause for a moment thinking, and then says, ¡°Given her class, melee combat is something of an eventuality, so best not to avoid it. That being said I think it¡¯s fine if she focuses on ranged attacks and only switches to melee if it is suddenly needed, better that than everyone just up and dying right?¡±

    I nod ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± It is actually a reasonable compromise and probably the best I could have hoped for. I will just have to make sure to keep her safe.

    ¡°Would you guys like to join as for a drink?¡± Sarah suddenly interrupts.

    ¡°Right, where are my manners, please take a seat.¡± Hardoen beckons to the two remaining empty seats at the table. I take a seat and Jessica follows suit. ¡°Shall I call the waiter over, will you be having anything?¡±

    I quickly lay the cards on the table. ¡°Please forgive me, I don¡¯t mean to dampen the mood or anything, but to be honest the two of us are flat broke and really eager to get to work.¡±

    ¡°Of course, no worries there,¡± he responds. ¡°So I already have a good idea of the skills that are involved with the Paladin class, low level personal contact healing abilities and tanking skills like smite and taunt. As for a thief I believe the focus is on ranged and finisher attacks and skills; with other useful survival focused skills like pilfer and disarm. Did I miss anything?¡±

    ¡°No that definitely sums it up.¡± He basically listed all the skills that currently exist on both of our ¡®adventurer cards¡¯. This is a relief as one of my concerns was that they would ask us about our adventurer skills and although I could list them out, I have no idea how half of them even work.

    ¡°Do you have any questions about our roles and abilities?¡± Sarah asks.

    I¡¯m definitely not gonna miss that opening, ¡°I must admit that I do not know the specifics of most of the classes outside of our own, if you would be so kind as to fill in the blanks for me.¡±

    ¡°Sure, no problem. From my side, as a priest, my primary role is support. My equipment is obviously not suited for direct combat, but I am able to apply various buffing spells to strengthen those around me and also have a variety of potent anti-debuffing and healing spells.¡±

    Hardoen¡¯s, explanation finished, Sarah begins. ¡°As a sorceress I have command over the elemental magics, although admittedly, I am only really proficient in fire magic. Though as a sorceress, my fire spells carry a real wallop,¡± she explains with exaggerated hand gestures, signalling what I assume to be a giant explosion and a big grin on her face.

    Hardoen carries on with the explanation, ¡°It goes without saying that a priest with his vital support and survival spells, as well as a sorceress with her potent ranged magic typically take a rear position in a parties formation and need to for the most part be kept away from the monsters to be most effective.¡±

    Of course I already somewhat understood this, but it means it puts me and Jess on the front lines, so it¡¯s still a little scary to hear.

    ¡°Hey guys, can I get you anything, food, drink?¡±, a red haired waitress with freckles suddenly interrupts.

    ¡°No we¡¯re good here, thanks,¡± I respond.

    The waitress turns to me and smiles. She leans over towards me so far, that her ample cleavage threatens to slip right out of her white blouse and says with a seductive smile on her face, ¡°If ya need anything at all, don¡¯t hesitate to call on me,¡± she says as she winks at me.

    With that she stands up, and walks by me, while casually laying a gentle hand on my shoulder as she walks past. Jessica can¡¯t do anything but glare at her back as she walks away.

    ¡°Well since we ourselves are not exactly sitting on personal fortunes here,¡± Hardoen ignores the commotion and just carries on, ¡°I think we are all eager to get started, shall we try and find a quest, while we still have the bulk of the day ahead of us?¡±

    I nod happily, ¡°We should pick something nice and easy, just to get used to the new party I think.¡± I had already prepared this excuse in advance, since Jess and I are complete noobs here and I don¡¯t want to dive straight into unnecessary danger.

    Hardoen then offers, ¡°Well on the subject of quests, I¡¯ve already looked over what¡¯s available this morning. Most of them are fairly high level for our group and others don¡¯t offer enough chance of success, whereas I think most of us need a more definite payday. There is however a quest to eradicate some slimes that have taken up residence in a cave on the foot of the nearby eastern mountain range.¡±

    ¡°That sounds like a good starting quest, slimes are pretty low level monsters overall.¡± I agree with him, although I don¡¯t actually know that for sure, but that¡¯s how it usually works in an RPG and he himself offered this quest for our low level party, so it must be the case, but at least I can try and sound like I know what I¡¯m doing here.

    ¡°Hmm, I have no objections one way or the other,¡± Sarah pipes in, ¡°I¡¯ve never actually fought slimes myself, so I¡¯ll just take your word for it,¡± she adds thoughtfully.

    ¡°Well it¡¯s decided then, if you guys have all your gear with you, as it seems you do, shall we set off immediately then?¡± Hardoen asks.

    We all nod in agreement, including Jessica, who up until now had only been listening to the conversation unfold.

    ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll go fill in the necessary paperwork,¡± Hardoen says as he sets off to a small room at the rear of the tavern.

    Paperwork hey. I find that kind of funny, you would never find something as mundane as admin work in an RPG that would instead be trying their hardest to retain their player-base.

 Even slimes have complaints you know

    A pair of hungry eyes watches from the shadows between two buildings. A group of four strolls out of the tavern. It¡¯s target is amongst them. It watches with a mild hint of irritation and impatience as the girl is moving away from him, increasing the distance, slipping away from him.

    Not for long though, not for long. I missed my chance with you, but we won¡¯t let you slip through our fingers again. He licks his lips thinking about the moment he will have her, oooooh the taste, it will feel so good. He is certain, no conquest can be sweeter than the one that got away.

    He beckons to the others in the shadows with him, come, lets go. The man to his right scoffs, ¡°We would of had her if you weren¡¯t such a chicken.¡± He simply glares at the man and then carries on retreating into the shadows.

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    We exit the forest. It was not a very big one, we had only been walking for about three hours since we accepted the quest. At any rate, I assume it¡¯s about three hours, it¡¯s not like I have any accurate way to tell time over here. It¡¯s a bright and sunny day with a light breeze. Or at least it was a light breeze, it seems to be getting a bit more windy as time wears on, but either way it feels pleasant.

    The biggest concern was apparently wild animals attacking us, especially the monster variety of them. Monster seems to be a generic catch all phrase for anything ranging from demons to dragons, humanoids and even a cute furry little creature called a scubble? That last one is apparently especially dangerous. Compared to a dragon in the same sentence, seriously? Apparently, generally speaking, any creature that wasn¡¯t around before the war gets labelled monster, so it pretty much means unnatural creature I guess.

    There¡¯s clearly a lot to learn in this world, I could really use a wiki right about now. Hardoen seemed to be especially concerned about something called a rabid squirrel. But honestly going on the name alone, they don¡¯t sound all that bad. Fortunately while we saw one or two different types of passive mobs on the way here, nothing actually attacked us.

    If I didn¡¯t know why we were here, I¡¯d say we were on a leisurely hiking trail in the warm afternoon sun. Jessica also seems to be in high spirits. Maybe the calm before the storm, who knows. We have already made our way across an open field and started approaching the foot of the mountain.

    The area over here turns from flat grassy plain into a rocky mountain side almost instantly, but this only goes on about a kilometer in either direction. To the North side of the mountain, it curves around a bit and meets the forest, with trees starting to climb up the side as the mountain seems to lessen in slope as it goes on. To the South side it retreats away from the forest line a bit and also lessens in slope.

    The directions Hardoen got for the quest must have been spot on, as I can clearly see a cave entrance near the base of the mountain side just up ahead. Everyone starts slowing down their former brisk hiking-pace.

    As we get closer to the cave entrance, I can¡¯t help but have a sense of foreboding, I can see Jessica also seems to be stiffening up quite a bit. The cave is really dark, I can¡¯t see into it at all. We did not bring any light sources with, as Sarah assured us that she can easily create fire sprites as a light source. They are apparently small little pets made of fire and while they have absolutely zero attack power can be useful as a light source, seeing as how they will follow the caster around.

    Hardoen breaks the silence, ¡°Alright this is it, I guess.¡±

    Wait ¡®I guess?¡¯! He did not sound confident at all, I seriously had him pegged for a more senior adventurer, level two or not. Fuck, we¡¯ve come this far I can¡¯t afford to get cold feet now, so I steel my resolve and remember what I¡¯m fighting for.

    Just then Sarah starts throwing a few loud whistling noises out in rapid succession, like she¡¯s calling a fucking bird or something. I have to immediately quell the urge to punch her, what the fuck is she doing. No, wait a second. I think I¡¯m the one that¡¯s way too nervous here, she seems quite calm and composed. Isn¡¯t luring the monsters out if you can the smart thing to do? As opposed to jumping into the dark with them, which now by contrast, seems utterly moronic. I have to wonder at this point, if I''m actually an idiot.

    Calm down Michael, seriously, calm the fuck down.

    My thoughts are interrupted by a sound of something softly grinding against the dirt, like the kind of sound you would hear if you were riding a bicycle tyre against soft dirt. And then it appears. A gelatinous blob comes crawling out, or is it rolling? I can¡¯t quite tell.

    This creature, a slime, looks like a giant blob of jelly about the size of a basketball. Its body is majorically transparent in a murky water kind of way and it is a purplish-grey color. There are no other discernible features, it is quite simply, just ¡®a slime¡¯.

    Upon closer inspection this thing is quite slow moving and does not seem like a threat at all. Sure there are now several slimes emerging from the cave and joining their friend as it rolls, no crawls, no. Fuck it, as it crolls across the ground towards us.

    Jess apparently felt like show time was over, as in that moment, she released a crossbow bolt straight into the nearest one. It seemed to stop it in its tracks.

    I had asked Jess earlier on whether or not she could even figure out how to use the damn thing, as I had already sold her to the group as the ¡®ranged attacker¡¯ and as such, this was a massive oversight on my part. But she assured me that she could, and loaded a bolt from her quiver into the crossbow right in front of my eyes, in a matter of seconds. It would seem that the skills and characteristics of our assigned classes become inherent knowledge. Would certainly explain why I was able to hold my own against that man with the dagger and why I didn¡¯t die outright.

    The slime with the arrow planted firmly in it, started moving again. Now the arrow was bobbing around in weird directions as it carried on crolling towards me. I could hear Hardoen performing a small chant somewhere behind me, probably some kind of a buff. At that moment I felt a strange sensation flow through me, my body felt lighter, but at the same time stronger and my sword and shield had a faint shimmer too them.

    Jessica released another arrow at the ¡®injured?¡¯ slime. This time the bolt passed right through it and buried itself in the sand. The slime just carried on like nothing even happened. It would seem that the strengthening buff just made Jessica¡¯s crossbow even more useless against these things.

    Well, I guess I¡¯m up. I walk up to the clearly not injured slime and take a nice big swing at it with my sword. I manage to bury my sword deep in it, albeit a little off center and it causes a spray of blood, no more like just droplets of the slime to fly out in all directions. The slime itself cries out in pain with a sound reminiscent of a squealing pig crossed with a dying bat or something. Wait do slimes even have voice boxes in the first place?

    This thought is interrupted by an intense burning sensation on my left cheek, I can¡¯t help but groan out loud in pain and wince away. It would seem like a drop of the slime landed there and that they are apparently made out of fucking jello-acid, good to know. I glance back over to the slime I chopped in two, only to find that it has been freed from the crossbow bolt that was stuck inside it and now instead, it is two smaller blobs that are each crolling forward all willy-nilly without a care in the fucking world.

    I groan to myself subconsciously. I am officially upgrading these fuckers to a medium threat level, it¡¯s going on my wiki page I tell you! I heal my cheek quickly, raise my shield to try and prevent any more ¡®splash damage¡¯ and start hacking away at the little vermin until it¡¯s julienned into nice and tiny little pieces. It seems if the pieces get to about an eighth of their original size they become ¡®dumb¡¯ and can¡¯t really move around, any smaller than that and they appear to just ¡®die?¡¯ Fuck this is gonna be a long day.

    I hear Hardoen chanting another spell and wait for him to finish before I go after another slime, they are still appearing from the cave by the way, there are at least a dozen of them now.

    ¡°I buffed all our weapons ¡®holy wrath¡¯, they should deal some holy-magic damage now.¡±

    Another slime has crolled close to me so I try the new buff out and take a swing at it. There is less ¡®splash¡¯ this time and more ooomph. The slime cries out in pain and ripples like jelly that has been hit by a powerful blunt force. In addition to this the area around the spot where I hit it starts dissolving into, well, nothing. I smile, this will do nicely.

    With that Hardoen also comes to the front and takes a whack at a slime with a very similar result. It¡¯s a lot safer to do now, with the reduced splash. Even more slimes are still pouring out of the cave, just how many of these things are there?This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Jess starts approaching as well, but I quickly signal her to stay back, she only has a dagger after all, even with the buff the weapons range is too short, it would be too dangerous for her.

    I get ready to go after the next slime, but as I approach it, it seems to be trying to back off. Or more like it¡¯s failing to do even that and sort of just scrunching up into a tighter ball. It gives the impression it¡¯s cowering in fear. Aaah. What¡¯s the matter, slimy wimy afwaid. Well eat shit and die.

    I raise my sword to dispose of the nuisance in front of me, but that¡¯s when it happened.

    The slime all of a sudden shot towards my face like a bullet, I was so surprised that I fell over backwards landing on my ass. As a result I got to watch the slime shoot through the air over my head and land some twenty meters behind me. SERIOUSLY! I mean SERIOUSLY! Fuck this game.

    I turn towards the mass of slimes approaching and sure enough several of them have tightened themselves into tight little balls. I shout out ¡°Incoming!¡±

    And just like that several more start flying through the air. Jessica shrieks as one whizzes past her shoulder, Hardoen hisses as one grazes by the outer side of his left thigh, singeing his pants and I assume his leg a little.

    ¡°Kill them quickly!¡± I¡¯m not even sure who said that, but I had already tried to start killing as many as I can, as quickly as I can. I hack at each one two or three times as hard as I can, leaving them in pieces just small enough that they can¡¯t move around too well and pose a minimal threat, then I move onto the next one as quickly as I can. It¡¯s a race against time here as more of the things keep coming out of the cave and sooner or later someone''s gonna get seriously injured, probably sooner than later mind you.

    I keep hacking away, so does Hardoen and Sarah. Wait why is Sarah hitting them with her staff? I mean I get that it¡¯s buffed with magic damage, but she¡¯s a spell caster right, shouldn¡¯t she, I don¡¯t know, cast some fucking spells! Unfortunately I am in no position to ask her right now. Jessica is also firing crossbow bolts one after the other, but even with the magic damage buff, they still aren¡¯t doing much against the slimes other than dissolving a tiny portion of them as they pass through them, for the most part, harmlessly.

    A slime comes flying at me, but I manage to get my shield up in time and it splatters against it, the impact of which causes me to take a step or two backwards to keep from falling over. Aaargh, shit. My foot feels like it¡¯s on fire, I stepped on a piece of slime and it started burning through my sandal.

    Now that I look around there are pieces of hacked up slime everywhere, this place has become a minefield. Just then I hear a sharp blood curdling scream of pain. I turn to face Jessica as she stumbles backwards.

    My blood freezes. A slime has struck her squarely in the left side of her abdomen. It is dripping or kind of rolling down her, as gravity goes to work on it, eventually plopping to the ground, but not before searing a large portion of her lower body. Jessica is still screaming in pain and she stumbles backwards a bit more before landing on her ass a little bit away from the slime on the ground.

    I have already started running towards her but a slime comes hurtling towards me and crashes against my shield mid-stride, causing me to completely fly off balance and fall to the ground. I quickly look up and see that Hardoen is already by Jessica¡¯s side, he swings his short staff with one hand like a golf club and strikes the slime squarely, sending it hurtling away like a golf ball.

    He kneels down by Jessica and starts healing her. She is sobbing profusely and I can smell the smell of her burnt flesh all the way from over here. Fuck. I get to my feet and look around again. We are all covered in various burns from all the flying bits and pieces of the slimes, but only Jessica has taken a life threatening hit like that so far.

    Not only that but we are completely surrounded on all sides, the little fuckers have been jumping all over the place, it¡¯s a miracle we haven''t all been melted away already. What¡¯s worse there are still more coming out of that damn cave. There must be at least a hundred slimes that¡¯s come out of there already, most of which are still alive and kicking I might add.

    Sarah has finally started using magic and is busy hurling some fireballs around, but they look seriously weak. Some of the slimes are evading them and the ones that get hit only take a little bit of damage. I take a swing out a nearby slime that clearly wants to ¡®jump¡¯ me and cause it to reconsider its purpose in life, even if just for a moment.

    Jessica seems to be healed, but she is still sitting on the ground sobbing. The left side of her pants is in tatters and her crotch is practically hanging out. I glare at Hardoen instinctively, but it¡¯s for no practical reason in particular, as it seems he hasn¡¯t even noticed and already rushed off to carry on slime-bashing.

    Not a moment later and Hardoen¡¯s been floored be a slime that took a decidedly unhealthy looking bite out of his right foot and another has collided with my shield arm, oh god it hurts. My arm, shield still attached is dangling, it must of burned away the tendons or something.

    Fuck, fuck. We are going to die here, there¡¯s no way we live through this. I muster all my strength and shout, ¡°SARAH, DO SOMETHING!¡± Sarah looks at me with a nervous look on her face. I¡¯m busy applying some healing to my arm but its not as effective as a priests healing spells, Hardoen seems to have already finished healing his foot, which at the time looked to be in way worse shape than my arm, and he is busy standing up.

    I glance angrily at Sarah again ¡°NOW, ALREADY!¡±

    Sarah seems to find her resolve or something and starts chanting a spell. Another slime comes flying past my face, singing my eyebrow. ¡°--alyeoht,¡± Sarah seems to have finished her chant and fire starts flowing from her staff in all kinds of waving patterns fanning out in all directions. She appears to be using her free hand to try and control it, or direct it. The ¡®living flames¡¯ keep expanding in all directions and keep changing color from its initial red, to yellow and now even a bright white color.

    The heat is incredible, I can feel it all the way from over here, the air in the area is shimmering violently. Actually I¡¯m a bit worried about where this is going. I notice the slimes have already started retreating in all directions. Is it that bad hey? I call out to Sarah, ¡°That¡¯s enough they¡¯re on the run,¡± but she can¡¯t seem to hear me. She seems to be muttering something.

    ¡°Shit. No. no nonono, come on. Fuck,¡± she turns towards us and shouts, ¡°LOOK OUT!¡±

    Wait, what?

    The brilliant white flames start running wild in all directions, completely out of control, like wild galloping stallions arching through the air. One such blade of fire sweeps through the air and curves downwards heading straight for me. I dive out the way and roll across the grass, it passes by me, the heat is indescribable, it feels like my skin is on fire.

    It arched through the ground where I was standing and right back up into the air. Only, there isn¡¯t ground there anymore, just a empty crevice in its wake, surrounded by blackened, scarred and molten earth! If that had hit me, there wouldn¡¯t even be dust left of me.

    Most of the dancing ¡®fire blades?¡¯ are concentrated in one or two directions, I take off to where Jessica and Hardoen are, that directions seems to be safest. Sarah seems to also have realised this and is running towards the same spot.

    I get there first, Jessica looks up to me with tears still in her eyes, then her eyes go wide, ¡°Your hand!¡±

    I look down at my hand, only its missing three fingers! Holy shit! Instead there are three blackened stumps where they used to be. I didn¡¯t even feel a thing. I guess I zigged when I should have zagged.

    ¡°I got it,¡± Hardoen immediately starts healing my hand and the fingers start regenerating. A priests healing spells really are on a different level, but just as I¡¯m thinking that, he adds, ¡°I don¡¯t think I have enough energy for any more spells after this, I¡¯ve used too much already.¡±

    Sarah catches up to us, but just as she does we hear the squealing of numerous slimes. I look up and the fire blades have made their way over to a large group of the running or should I say hopping away slimes and are proceeding to summarily incinerate them.

    There are fewer blades now, they seem to be whittling down. Each time one of them comes into contact with a slime though, the shear heat causes the slime to explode into a cloud of purple hazy gas. It really is a bizarre sight to watch them go poof each time. The four of us just sit, all battered, bruised and charred, gawking at the bizarre sight. Poof. Poof. Poof.

    Sarah starts coughing and soon all we start coughing. Only now do I realize the wind has picked up considerably and has carried a quite a lot of the purple clouds across the field in various directions.

    ¡°Shit, we need to get out of here, this is bad,¡± even as Hardoen exclaims that my vision is already a bit foggy, the clouds must be toxic. By the sounds of the ¡®poofing¡¯ still happening in the distance, the fire blades are still hard at work.

    I help Jessica up, but just as I do two of the fire blades come careening across the battlefield apparently seeking out the slimes still running way on the opposite end. All four of us have to ¡®hit the deck¡¯ or jump out of the way to avoid them as they fly by to the other side.

    Helping each other up again, the fog has gotten even thicker and the fire blades have gotten to working on their new targets. My vision is getting even hazier and I¡¯m having a hard time breathing.

    ¡°This way,¡± I hear someone call out, ¡°we have to get downwind.¡± I don¡¯t know who said it, at this point all I can hear is a mix of people coughing and wheezing as they gasp for air. Nonetheless, I fumble for Jessica¡¯s hand and lead her, stumbling forward, in what I think is the direction of the voice. The purple fog is so think at this point that I can¡¯t see more than five meters in front of me. I no longer hear poofing sounds, the fire blades must all have died out by now.

    ¡°Come on, *cough*, hurry.¡±

    I can¡¯t see straight my vision is fucked, Jessica keeps stumbling and I have to keep pulling her up and along. But it seems to be paying off, the fog seems to be clearing, or are we leaving it? We are already back in the forest, the mountain to our right.

    Jessica is passed out completely now and I¡¯m currently dragging her I think, my chest is on fire, I can¡¯t seem to get air into it anymore. I spot Sarah and Hardoen up ahead, Sarah seems to be unconscious on the ground and Hardoen has fallen to his knees and is busy collapsing next to her.

    I¡¯m getting closer to them, but I don¡¯t have the strength to lift my feet any more. I¡¯m on the ground and Jessica is face down in the dirt, did we trip and fall? I see more purple clouds approaching from the mountain. No those aren¡¯t clouds, they are more slimes! Was there more entrances to their cave, oh fuck.

    I lay there motionless, my vision spinning out of control, as the darkness threatens to take me. I look over to Hardoen and notice Sarah is now standing up, no, that can¡¯t be she¡¯s lying down right? Finally my body gives out and the world fades to black.

 Winter wonderland

    Ah. My face is really cold, so are my hands. My back is nice and warm at least. Rather, it is a bit too warm. I drag my eyelids open and am immediately assaulted with a pounding headache, like somebody drove a sword into my skull. I wince and shut my eyes again.

    This time I open my eyes considerably slower and the once black world now fades to white. White?

    A strange scene is before me, the world has gone totally white. As my eyes start readjusting, I notice that it is not completely white. The trees all around me are more of a pale brown color than the deep mahogany I remember. The white ground has tufts of grass sticking out here and there and they seem to shimmer in the light.

    There is not much light, the sun has started its descent over the mountain. Some time has passed since the battle. My mind is getting clearer and my vision sharper now.

    The scenery around me is that of a literal ice-world. The sparkling tufts of grass appear to be frozen solid, into literal ice. There is only a clump here and there sticking out of the snow that blankets the ground. That¡¯s right, it¡¯s snowing, no wonder I¡¯m so cold.

    Many trees have been snapped in half, or completely uprooted and scattered about. The ones still standing have wispy sheets of ice trailing off them, It¡¯s like a super strong wind came through here and then literally froze the air itself in place.

    I turn over to the sole source of warmth on my back. A fire, someone started a fire. Jessica is also lying next to the fire. I quickly sit up and lean over to check on her.

    ¡°She¡¯s fine,¡± A voice calls out to me, ¡°Just resting.¡±

    It¡¯s Hardoen. He is sitting here by the campfire with his palms stretched out, seeking its warmth. Sarah is also here sitting next to him with her arms folded around her legs and her chin resting on her kneecaps.

    ¡°I woke up first, well after Sarah started the fire. I used cure and healing spells on all of us since then, so we should all be fine.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were out of energy to be casting more spells,¡± I enquire.

    ¡°Plenty of time has passed since then and minor healing spells and debuffs don¡¯t really need the same kind of juice as healing spells that grow back body parts,¡± he says while pointing to my hand.

    ¡°What happened here, I think I saw more slimes chasing us just before I passed out. Are we safe?¡±

    ¡°She happened,¡± Hardoen points at Sarah, which seems to cause her to momentarily flinch nervously.

    I stare at her expectantly. She seems to be waiting for Hardoen to continue, but he¡¯s gone back to warming his hands and summarily ignoring her. When she realises this, she sighs and buries her chin even deeper into her legs.

    While staring at the ground solemnly, she answers: ¡°I¡¯m a S¡¯vantic.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what that means,¡± I respond.

    She looks up at me with a look of surprise. Then she carries on explaining. ¡°Do you know the fundamentals of how sorcery works?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Well, um, a sorcerer channels their life force, or as it used to more commonly be known as, mana, into their skills and this allows them to cast spells. The same is true for any type of spell caster, not just sorcerers. For classes with more physical based skills you expend stamina, a different kind of life force. These days this is often all just referred to as your energy, even if they are different things, they have the same result and similar effects.¡±

    She pauses and continues her explanation, ¡°A spell caster recharges his life force by draining ambient magical energy that exists in the world all around us. This is accomplished via your mana gate. Generally speaking it is an automatic process that you don¡¯t even have to think about. A person''s mana gate also automatically closes to keep him or her from being boiled alive, which is what happens when your physical being is oversaturated with mana.¡±

    ¡°S¡¯vantics have an abnormality, whereby their mana gates do not connect to the ether like other people, they instead connect somewhere else. Most people believe it connects to the world the monsters originally came from, or if you will, the ¡®demon realm¡¯.¡±

    ¡°The mana that enters us from that world is many times more potent than in this world, as a result a S¡¯vantic sorcerer is able cast spells many times more powerful than a normal sorcerer. But it comes with a big problem, the mana from the demon realm is really evil stuff. It¡¯s always seeking to take control and cause harm. As a result any spell other than really small ones carry serious risk of going out of control.¡±

    Well that explains a lot of what happened earlier.

    ¡°Only the most learned and skilled S¡¯vantics ever master control over high level spells. For this reason our presence is not very welcome in most groups of adventurers. We¡¯re simply too dangerous to have around. I must be honest I thought you guys might already have known I was S¡¯vantic, we are common knowledge and are easy to identify.¡±

    Sarah lifts her staff up for us to see. ¡°These runes carved on the base of my staff are very simple runes that are designed to limit and restrain the mana passing through it. Every sorcerer is trying to make his or her spells as powerful as possible, only a S¡¯vantic could ever possibly have a use for runes like these, in fact it¡¯s a very basic requirement for us.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    The magic lesson seemingly at its end, I take a look around. Everything was frozen or blasted outwards from our current location. To do all this, it must of been one hell of a spell. ¡°So I assume you¡¯re responsible for all this?¡± I ask her.

    She nods.

    ¡°I thought you were a fire sorceress?¡±

    ¡°Ah, no, um-,¡± she fumbles over her words a bit, ¡°You see, most sorcerers can only channel their magic into one of the elements. It is exceedingly rare to find a sorcerer that has the ability to channel into more that one type of element and rarer yet for you to find one that has actually mastered it.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were so talented.¡±

    ¡°Ah no, that¡¯s not what I meant at all!¡± Sarah blushes profusely, ¡°I have absolutely no mastery over it, I um, um, just got really lucky is all. It¡¯s a miracle we¡¯re not all icicles right now. I might have on rare occasion the ability to channel into water sorcery, but have absolutely no talent or ability for it, or at least nothing compared to my fire sorcery. It would be suicide to even attempt it.¡±

    I sigh. She clearly did attempt it regardless. Hence this frozen wonderland and the lack of any slimes around us. ¡°So what¡¯s the status of the slime army?¡±

    Hardoen answers, ¡°Sarah got quite a few of them, but the cave system is apparently more extensive than what the quest giver knew about and there should be many more slimes left still.¡±

    ¡°Well I vote for not fighting anymore of them,¡± I exclaim. They all seem to be in agreement.

    I notice Jessica waking up. She looks very confused.

    On the way back, we were rather silent, with only a smidgen here and there of the occasional small talk. I of course reiterated everything that had been said about Sarah and S¡¯vantics to Jessica, with Sarah doing a lot of nodding and the odd correction or clarification where needed.

    It took us quite a while to get out of the ¡®ice world¡¯, at least a half hour. The sheer scale and power of the spell she cast is just unbelievable. I know she said she got lucky and that this is according to her explanation, the true power of magic from the demon realm, but man that is some serious power and some serious luck.

    ¡°So, um,¡± Sarah breaks the silence, ¡°I feel kinda bad about what happened.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Jessica asks, ¡°From what I hear, it sounds like you saved us.¡±

    Hardoen coldly explains, ¡°What she means, is that she is the main reason we were in such danger in the first place. Yes, we were not well equipped to deal with slimes as a party, I¡¯ll be the first to admit that, but if we had a sorcerer that did have control of her spells and did not have to hold back, then things would likely have turned out very differently.¡±

    ¡°Ye- yes, that,¡± Sarah mutters while seemingly trying to shrink back into her own shoulders.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a little harsh?¡± I ask.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m not saying that she¡¯s a bad sorceress or that I don¡¯t want her in the party, actually I don¡¯t mind at all having her around.¡± Sarah¡¯s eyes seemed to go wide with that last part. ¡°A S¡¯vantic sorceress fails a bit in the traditional sorceresses roll in a party, but they are very powerful in their own right. I¡¯m sure if we were to come up with a proper plan and chooses a quest accordingly they could be very potent.¡±

    ¡°You mean I can stay?¡± Sarah¡¯s eyes were practically tearing up at this point.¡±

    ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t see why not,¡± Hardoen replies, ¡°The thing I took issue with was you not telling us such vital information, even if you were afraid of getting kicked out of the party, we all could have been killed for that little bit of dishonesty.¡±

    Sarah tears of joy are now seemingly back to tears of misery. ¡°I know, I¡¯m really sorry about all this. It¡¯s just, I- I got kicked out of my last three parties, even though they were relatively successful quests, but people get really freaked out when they find out I¡¯m a S¡¯vantic.¡±

    At this point she¡¯s practically sobbing and I feel kind of bad, ¡°So I don¡¯t really mind either if we stick together you know.¡±

    Sarah stops sobbing and gives my a genuine, radiant smile. ¡°You know,¡± She says, ¡°I still feel really bad about all this, how about I treat you all too dinner?¡±

    Hardoen immediately replies, ¡°I will not say no to that, I am flat broke after all and now we won¡¯t even be getting paid, since we didn¡¯t actually finish the slime eradication quest.¡±

    Those words froze my heart. ¡°So we¡¯ll also have to take you up on that offer, when I said we were broke I meant as in we don¡¯t have a single copper to our names¡±.

    ¡°Um, does that perhaps mean that you don¡¯t have any accommodation tonight either?¡± Sarah asks.

    All I can do is scratch my head and look away in embarrassment.

    ¡°You guys can stay with me tonight if you want,¡± Hardoen offers, ¡°I¡¯m currently staying in a stables, I¡¯ve rented it out for a few days. they are much cheaper for us nomadic types compared to accomodation at inn¡¯s, as long as you don¡¯t mind such conditions.¡±

    ¡°No, not at all, we would be really grateful,¡± I jump at this opportunity of course. It¡¯s not the best thing in the world but Jess at least won¡¯t be sleeping under a bridge and will be with the two of us.

    ¡°Actually,¡± Sarah interrupts, ¡°The room I¡¯m currently renting isn¡¯t very big, but I think it would be fine for Misty to stay there with me tonight. I mean- I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a great thing for a girl to stay in a stables, or what I¡¯m trying to say is- ah- only if you want to that is.¡±

    Jessica answers enthusiastically, ¡°I would love to, that would be great!¡±

    I sigh. She sure dumped me fast. Well at any rate, I am glad. ¡°Thanks Sarah, it would really be a big help.¡±

    With that, we all set off for the inn Sarah was staying at. They apparently also doubled as a tavern, with drinks and food being served downstairs and rooms for rent upstairs. The place was apparently quite rowdy even at night, which meant it wasn¡¯t very popular as an inn, but Sarah said this makes the rent a bit cheaper.

    By the time we finally arrived at the ¡®inn?¡¯, the sun had already set. Sarah beckoned us over to a table with four chairs. ¡°You guys have a seat. You can order some drinks so long if you want, just tell them to put it on my tab.¡±

    So tabs are a thing too? Interesting, I suppose she is actually staying here and probably for a while now, so I guess it would not be unusual to have such a facility available to her.

    Sarah then turns to Jessica, ¡°Misty why don¡¯t you come with me quick and I¡¯ll see if I have some spare clothes for you to wear.¡±

    ¡°Ah- thanks I¡¯d really appreciate that,¡± Jessica quickly responds and then follows Sarah upstairs. Her pants was still all torn up and she had been for the most part holding it together with her left hand, to keep the important parts out of sight. I was truly grateful to Sarah she really has helped us out bigtime.

 BFFs

    Sarah leads me up the stairs and to her room. Upon entering I am immediately greeted by a small room with a single bed and window and a large wardrobe unit. There are also lots of boxes scattered about the room, but other than that there is no sign or indication that a woman is currently living here. No attempt seems to have been made to make the place more ¡®homely¡¯.

    ¡°Have a seat so long,¡± Sarah beckons to the bed and immediately starts rummaging around in her closet. I sit down without a second thought. I am exhausted. I almost died today, probably more than once. The beds in this stupid game no longer seem to be as hard as I remember, maybe I¡¯m just too damn tired.

    ¡°Hey Sarah, how long have you been staying here?¡±

    Sarah momentarily ceases her search, and turns around to answer the question, ¡°Oh about a month I think.¡±

    ¡°How long have you been an adventurer then?¡±

    ¡°The same amount of time.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see,¡± that is interesting, ¡°Do you mind if I ask what you were doing before that?¡±

    ¡°Sure, no problem. I was a seamstress. I didn¡¯t have my own shop or anything like that though, I just belonged to a guild.¡±

    Sarah has by this point abandoned the closet and started searching through the boxes scattered about her room. They appear to be filled with various clothes and bundles of fabric, that I assume are used to make clothes.

    ¡°It looks like you¡¯re still at it though,¡± I say while smiling, ¡°I can¡¯t imagine this is all just storage.¡±

    Sarah chuckles, ¡°No, I¡¯m still at it. Even if I¡¯m not doing it for a living, I just can¡¯t help myself, I love making clothes.¡±

    ¡°Why did you become an adventurer, you clearly enjoy making clothes.¡±

    ¡°Sure, it was always my dream to work my way up within the ranks of the guild and become a renowned seamstress. But then the war started and a lot of things changed. Life become a lot tougher and the majority of people could no longer spare money for such frivolous things like fancy clothing. Only the nobles and such upper echelons of society can still afford such things. This meant that the guild started radically shrinking in size, keeping only its upper rank and senior members, as there was no longer enough work to go around. Well I stayed for quite a while, earning minimum wage, by accepting all the menial work. But in the end I decided it was pointless if I couldn¡¯t make the kind of clothes that I used to, the kind of clothes that I want to make. So I decided to take the path that my parents had originally wanted for me, the path of a S¡¯vantic. Well it¡¯s not like I¡¯m aiming for Unaira or anything. Ah- sorry that¡¯s when a S¡¯vantic has reached his peak and is able to control the mana from the demon realm perfectly. I just want to make enough money to finance my passion.¡±

    With that revelation, Sarah pulls out a short brown pants, with a large folded over leg hem, clearly designed that way for style. It is also adorned with embroidered flowers of different colors on its left-front side and even a butterfly.

    ¡°Oh wow,¡± I can¡¯t help the broad grin on my face, ¡°that¡¯s so pretty!¡±

    ¡°You like, hey. I thought it would look good on you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure it would look good on just about anyone!¡±

    ¡°So what say we find you a matching shirt,¡± Sarah smiles mischievously at me.

    ¡°Oh yes, lets,¡± I return her smile and we both giggle excitedly.

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    ¡°So what will you be having?¡± I ask Aluarc.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    He seems to be lost in thought. ¡°To drink. What do you want to drink?¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Ah- no nothing, I¡¯m good.¡±

    I call a waitress over. ¡°We¡¯ll have two mead¡¯s.¡±

    Aluarc looks at me questioningly. ¡°Well I¡¯m not gonna drink alone now am I?¡± Truth be told I just don¡¯t want to be the only one ordering drinks on Sarah¡¯s account, it would look bad. But I¡¯m not giving up free drinks either, screw that. I¡¯ll just have this stick in the mud drink with me whether he likes it or not.

    I sigh, reflecting back on the day. We failed the quest, I¡¯m gonna have to go report it to the adventurers guild.

    The adventurers guild is now apparently the largest of all the guilds in this world, it wasn¡¯t always this way of course, but from what I hear they are one of the oldest guilds. They have basically made a business for themselves managing quests and adventurers. They have cleverly positioned themselves as such.

    Why I say, is because it would otherwise be next to impossible to collect taxes from adventurers, a profession as wild and unruly as it gets. By forcing citizens and businesses alike, to only log quests with them and not with adventurers directly, they can instead control the flow of money generated by adventurers.

    The Adventurers guild themselves pay taxes and not the individual adventurers, this encourages the number of adventurers generated as they think they are not paying tax, but in reality the guild has already deducted it from the actual quest rewards. Also since the crown get their taxes at the end of day, the guild is officially recognised by them and has their full backing, meaning they can exert the necessary influence to carry on their business as they see fit.

    The waitress brings over our mead. I watch as Aluarc seems to examine his mug in an apprehensive fashion. Whatever, I take a sip of my mead and note that it is very different from the mead I drank at the previous tavern. This one is more bitter but at the same time I could swear it has the taste or maybe smell of cinnamon to it. Either way, It is pleasant.

    As I drink my mead, I continue my pondering. The Adventurers guild is also used to maintain law and order, well somewhat. When the war started the crown quickly realised that it did not have the manpower to fight a war outside its borders and maintain law and order within them at the same time. As crime was running rampant the ever growing Adventurers guild stepped in to solve the problem. Once again they made a brilliant business move and convinced the crown to let them maintain order, mostly be way of meting out justice in their stead.

    When a crime is committed, someone can create a case with the guild and the guild will organise a reward, paid for by the city council of course and create a ¡®justice¡¯ quest to find and punish the guilty in exchange for the reward. This way the crown only has to pay rewards here and there for ¡®justice served¡¯ and not maintain a very costly standing, law enforcing presence.

    It goes without saying that there is plenty of crime still, since this is a stop gap measure, compared to having an actual ¡®policing force¡¯. But it is obviously still much better than the alternative of having nothing at all.

    I mentioned that this was a great business move, on the part of the guild, even though when you think about it, they are not making any money from this. Well the thing that most people obviously fail to realise from this state of affairs, is that the guild is now the sole ¡®justice¡¯ system. If there is a certain criminal act that they don¡¯t want ¡®punished¡¯, they just make it disappear. If you are a corrupt member of the guild, you can get away with pretty much anything. Or they can just accept money from people who can afford to make their ¡®misdeeds¡¯ vanish. All in all I imagine that subverting ¡®justice¡¯ must be one of their most lucrative ventures to date.

    All in all though, the impression everyone seems to have of the Adventurers guild seems to be rather favourable. I suppose this is due primarily to the lack of a printing press being invented yet, or twitter for that matter.

    I notice the girls returning from upstairs, they walk over to our table arm in arm giggling with each other mischievously. It¡¯s only been about twenty minutes and they¡¯re already besties?

    Misty is wearing different clothes. Her pants is short and brown with some girly patterns embroidered onto it and her shirt is white with a v-cut neck with lacy edging and the bottom of the shirt stops just above her pants, leaving its round cut to hang just a little over it. I would say that the whole effect, on an already good looking elf with a model-like figure is very stylish even by my worlds standards.

    She obviously was not happy to run around with a torn up pants. That reminds me of when she took that hit from the slime and I had to heal her. Although at the time, I was trying not to vomit from the sight and smell of burnt and dissolving flesh. Now that I remember it, the visual treat I got Immediately after I healed her, of her torn up pants and her blonde hair downstairs, along with one of her ¡®lips¡¯ sticking out, the memory of which is currently giving me hard on. Better pull my chair in a little closer, under the table.

    The girls sit down.

    ¡°You look good,¡± Aluarc comments on Misty¡¯s new attire.

    ¡°I know right? Sarah leant me some clothes. Did you know, Sarah is a designer?¡±

    ¡°Designer?¡± Sarah asks, while cocking her to the side.

    ¡°Oh sorry, I mean a seamstress.¡±

    I ignore the three of them while they prattle on, I have bigger concerns. Things like should I stick with these losers or find another party and would that even be possible?

    In the end we order food and eat, before going to bed and I deem it impractical given the state of affairs to switch parties for the time being.

 Its a bigger world than you think

    ¡°So what now?¡± Sarah asks after a long awkward silence. There are not any low level quests available today either. We had gathered in front of the quests board at our usual watering hole, which by the way I only found out today is called O¡¯Brians tavern.

    ¡°Well since slimes are not a good fit for us, that only leaves the general goblin subjugation quest.¡± Hardoen was offering a general purpose quest posted on the board that the Adventurers guild issued on behalf of the city council, to kill any goblins you can find and bring them back the ears in exchange for coppers. Five coppers per ear to be precise.

    ¡°Like I¡¯ve said before, we¡¯ve seen a goblin first hand and I don¡¯t think we could kill a bunch of them without dying,¡± I reiterate. Me and Jessica are naturally not keen on fighting those things.

    ¡°Alright how about this then,¡± Hardoen offers an alternative, ¡°we go out scouting for goblin camps, since reporting these dangerous camps to the guild pays okay enough. Finding them on the other hand is luck of the draw. If we run into any goblins in small numbers that we feel we can take on, then we do that too. Somewhere between these two things we can just make it work and earn enough for our ¡®breadline¡¯, until better quests become available.¡±

    Jessica was the first one to actually agree, ¡°This sounds like the only half reasonable plan anybody¡¯s come up with so far, so I say, yeah, let¡¯s do that.¡±

    Since nobody else had any other ideas, we ended up going with that plan. Sarah provided a camping pack that she had in her possession, as well as breakfast for everyone and some food and supplies for the trip. We of course promised to pay her back for all this. Well not Hardoen, that jerk didn¡¯t seem to mind leeching off Sarah one bit.

    The idea behind all of this, was that we may very well not be able to find a goblin camp on the first day, if that were to happen we might be more than a bit screwed. So like this we can stay out for another day or two without wasting time having to travel back and forth, in other words, we can search deeper.

    Hardoen returned from the room at the back of the tavern where I learned an official from the Adventurers guild works. He brought with him a strange pyramid shaped object.

    ¡°You guys all set?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I responded. ¡°You all done with the paperwork for the quests?¡±

    ¡°Yes, there wasn¡¯t much paperwork needed. None for the goblin killing, for that we just bring back ears. I just needed to fill in some to get hold of one of these,¡± he motions towards the pyramid thing in his hands.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I ask.

    ¡°A locator artifact.¡± Sarah instead answers, ¡°It is used to mark a location and send information to a paired artifact about monster populations in a small area around it.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Hardoen carries on explaining, ¡°We deploy this when we locate a goblin camp and the guild will instantly know its location and how many goblins there are. They also won¡¯t have to send anyone out to confirm that we actually located a goblin camp, and we can just come back and collect our reward.¡±

    ¡°Well that¡¯s really handy,¡± I comment.

    ¡°So I guess we¡¯re all good to go?¡± Hardoen does one final check.

    It¡¯s another beautiful day. There seems to be one after the other in this world. It¡¯s like god is mocking us, making this cruel world so pretty, as opposed to the one we come from being all gloomy and rainy, well at least in our little London at any rate.

    We are trudging along through the Eastern forest, well a bit to the south this time, so at least we won¡¯t be running into the slime cave. The info Hardoen got from the guild was that the most recently logged goblin camps were behind the Eastern mountains. Sarah claims she knows the area and can guide us through a mountain pass.

    Well, that¡¯s the plan at least. I am of course worried about running into actual goblins.

    ¡°What¡¯s that noise?¡± Jessica stops to ask.

    ¡°I don¡¯t hear anything¡±, Sarah responds.

    ¡°Me neither,¡± Hardoen agrees.

    ¡°It¡¯s like a faint thumping noise,¡± Jessica explains.

    I can¡¯t help but wonder if those elven ears of hers are the reason she can hear it.

    ¡°Wait, I hear it too!¡± Hardoen exclaims.

    But there was no need, everybody could hear it by this point, myself included. ¡®Doof-, doof-, doof-¡¯, a rhythmic thumping sound that was getting louder by the second.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like the sound of that, we should get out of here,¡± Hardoen suggests.

    ¡°Agreed,¡± I quickly add.

    Just then, however, the bushes and trees ahead of us start rustling. Our attempt to flee is immediately foiled.

    Eeeaaah! eeeaah! eeeeeaaah! A swarm of creatures are running towards us. No, judging from the movement of the trees, they are also ¡®flying?¡¯ towards us.

    Eh, eh, eeeaaah! ¡°Rabid squirrels!¡± Hardoen shouts, ¡°Get closer and stand your ground!¡±

    We all practically fall over ourselves to follow his instructions, as the one amongst us who has actually fought these things before.

    The squirrels come into sight, but to be honest they are easily the size of small dogs and they look absolutely ferocious. I don¡¯t see how these things can be called squirrels.

    ¡°Brace yourselves!¡± Sarah calls out.

    And then they hit. I¡¯ve stepped in front of Jessica with my shield raised to try and keep the bulk of the incoming squirrels off of her and begin slashing wildly, trying to ward them off. God, there¡¯s so many of them, this is way worse than with those slimes.

    I¡¯m not the only one, we¡¯re all scrunched up into a ball swinging wildly at the mass of squirrels. How long did this go on? It felt like forever, although I suppose, realistically it could not have been more than a minute so far.

    There¡¯s just so many of them, it¡¯s a miracle no one¡¯s been seriously injured so far. Actually now that I think about it, most of the squirrels are just running right past us, aren¡¯t we fighting a bit one-sidedly here?

    ¡°Aaaargh!¡± Sarah suddenly cries out. Of course I had to jinx the moment. A squirrel had landed on her head and started clawing at her. She immediately fell over in pain or shock, or maybe both. The squirrels did not miss this opportunity and a bunch more attacked her.

    Jessica and Hardoen are moving to assist her, I on the other hand am currently their sole vanguard and am too afraid to drop my shield to assist them. I fear if I stop ¡®tanking¡¯ for even a second then we will all suddenly become the squirrels prefered snack.

    Hardoen grabs one of the squirrels by the scruff and pulls him off, he grabs another by the tail and flings it across the battlefield, it protests loudly while mid-flight.

    Jessica¡¯s got her dagger in a backhand grip and brings her arm round in an arc, until the dagger buries itself into the side of one of the squirrels. But her motion doesn¡¯t stop there, it continues, ripping the squirrel off Sarah while impaled on the daggers blade. The arc of her movement complete, she instantly reverses her motion. The new direction of her dagger coupled with the momentum of the squirrel, causes the dagger to part from the squirrels side, while the squirrel flies off the blade, leaving a trail of blood between the two.

    Her daggers new course is taking it straight towards another squirrel that¡¯s stuck to Sarah. Jess leans in as she completes the motion, seemingly to get more power into the strike, and gashes the squirrel wide open along its back and side as the blade glides over it. The whole movement was so elegant, it was like I was watching a fucking ballet or something. Must be that innate knowledge really paying off.

    I nearly lose my balance as multiple squirrels crash against my shield. Jessica¡¯s already helped Sarah to her feet, while Hardoen applies healing magic. I on the other hand am running out of steam, I can¡¯t keep this up.

    ¡°Guys, a little help here!¡± I call out. Hardoen turns towards me to assist, but immediately freezes in place, his eyes wide. A chill runs down my spine and I instinctively turn around to the direction the squirrels were bombarding me from.

    I see two strange looking abnormally large tree stumps. No, they are attached to something, they are legs. I look up to see what they are attached too. A giant. There¡¯s no other way to describe the thing towering over us.

    ¡°Ogre!¡± I hear someone call out, but it¡¯s too little, too late. The Ogre had already started bringing down a giant sized club upon us. It was so big and swung with such power that I could hear the air pressure changing in its path. So this is how it ends hey. Man I really sucked at this game.

    ¡°Respite!¡± I think Hardoen muttered something. Just before the club reaches us to smash us into dust, it suddenly explodes into thousands of splinters and with a deafening crashing sound. My senses are overwhelmed, but I think I can make out electrical sparks flowing away from where the club had seemingly struck something.

    The ogre was so caught off guard that he fell over on his ass and was now trying to get to his feet. ¡°This way, run!¡± Hardoen calls out to us, he has already started to run in a direction not dissimilar from the one originally intended for our party. Of course nobody in our group needs to be asked twice and immediately chases after him.

    I run like my life depends on it, well it actually does, while keeping an eye on Jess to make sure she¡¯s keeping up. I chance a glance back at the ogre. He¡¯s already stood up, but seems more interested in chasing down the squirrels. Maybe they did something to piss him off.

    Everybody is gasping for breath, either sitting down or keeled over. We are all exhausted. Holy shit. A fucking ogre. This is nuts. We ran all the way out of the forest and most of the way across the plains between the forest and the mountain range that we were initially aiming for.

    There is no sign of the ogre any more, actually there hasn¡¯t been for a while now. Didn¡¯t stop us from running though. Hardoen and I were the slowest in the group. I had the heaviest equipment in the group and Hardoen was carrying the camping pack. This was decided as he is one of the two males in the group and had very little weight to carry around equipment wise.

    ¡°What was that spell?¡± I ask him, ¡°That was you right?¡±

    Hardoen nods. ¡°It¡¯s called ¡®Respite¡¯. I acquired it when I became level two. That was admittedly a bit of a lucky break though, as this is the first opportunity I¡¯ve had to test it out. That could have gone very differently,¡± he motions back towards the forest. ¡°I did know what the spell is supposed to do of course, I had gotten the necessary information on its usage from the guild. Basically it creates a really powerful, invisible shield. They say it¡¯s so strong that it might as well be invincible for all intensive purposes. The catch is, that it literally only lasts a second, hence its name.¡±

    ¡°That actually sounds really useful,¡± I comment.

    ¡°Nah, I can feel it used more than half of my available energy reserves. It¡¯s usefulness is definitely very limited.¡±

    We rest a little bit longer to catch our breath before continuing on our way. We will just have to try and avoid that section of forest on our way back, take a different route. Sarah leads the way once again, towards the mountain pass.

 Getting our hands dirty

    Sarah leads us diligently through the mountain pass.  It is new scenery that Jess and I have not seen before.  Lots of smaller bushes and plants and the occasional clump of small, brightly colored flowers.  On this rocky mountain side the grass has also thinned out considerably.

    As we move up the thin winding mountain path, we have to be careful not to get blown off, the wind up here is a bit stronger.  It probably isn¡¯t strong enough to blow us off to be honest, but that doesn¡¯t make it feel any less scary.

    After taking another bend,  Jessica points out, ¡°Look, over there!¡±

    We all follow the direction of her gaze and sure enough there was some kind of camp at the foot of the mountain.

    ¡°Those are definitely goblins,¡± Jessica explains, ¡°I would not mistake them anywhere.¡±

    I¡¯m surprised she can see that much detail.  All I can make out are the various huts that make up the camp and what may very well be some kind of large campfire.  I guess that settles it then, she¡¯s got herself some keen elven senses.

    ¡°It looks like they have set up camp in such a way as to guard the exit of the mountain pass,¡± Sarah comments.

    ¡°Can we deploy the locator then?¡±  I ask.

    ¡°No,¡±  Sarah answers, ¡°It is too far away.  We need to get closer. But I don¡¯t think that following the mountain pass is very safe, if it was their intent to guard it all along.  Also, we need to deploy the locator somewhere out of sight to make sure no one finds it, so I think we should go off road and get closer to the camp like that.¡±

    Nobody objects and once again we all follow Sarah as she leads us off the road and through the mountain side.  We have to carefully watch our step and due to the bits of climbing in between, our progress is significantly slower than before.

    Nevertheless, we finally come to a spacious ledge overlooking what remains of the mountain side.  I can now see the goblin camp in much greater detail, they are more or less directly below us. There are many goblins of all shapes and sizes mulling about.  Their huts appear to be teepees made out of sticks and dried up branches.

    Sarah pulls me from my thoughts, ¡°Let¡¯s plant the locator and go, it¡¯s not say here.¡±

    Hardoen immediately retrieves the locator from his side pouch.  He places it on the ground and as soon as his hand retreats, I hear the little device start making small mechanical whirring noises.  The top of the pyramid all of a sudden opens up revealing a small green glowing orb, embedded in a variety of miniscule mechanical parts.

    ¡°There we go, all good,¡±  Hardoen comments, ¡°It¡¯s green¡±

    ¡°Green,¡±  I mumble out loud to myself, pondering the implication.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Hardoen seems to pick up on my question, ¡°It glows green if it¡¯s found the target creature it was set to by the guild.  It instead glows blue if it was not able to detect the creature in question, or if it is out of range of them. And finally it glows red if something went wrong with the pairing and it is not able to connect to the paired device.¡±

    I¡¯m speechless at this point.  That is some pretty advanced non-technology technology.

    He simply smiles at me, no doubt guessing my thoughts, ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate the artificer job class.¡±

    ¡°We should get going,¡± Sarah interrupts us, ¡°It¡¯s not safe to hang around here.¡±

    We all nod as once again Sarah leads us back towards the mountain pass.

    ¡°I doubt we will be running across any small goblin groups anytime soon,¡± Hardoen comments.

    ¡°Why would you say that?¡±  I can¡¯t help but ask.

    ¡°Well, looking at the way they had a large force protecting the entrance to the mountain pass like that.  From what I heard goblins normally hang out in small groups, so that sight is a bit unusual, it would seem they are trying to protect their ¡®territory¡¯.  If that¡¯s the case then I don¡¯t imagine there will be any camps beyond that point. Of course we could still run into a group of goblins raiding, I suppose.¡±

    As we were busy discussing goblin military tactics, or lack thereof for that matter, we had arrived at a large plateau.  It is a brief relief from all the narrow, scary paths and climbing we¡¯ve been doing.

    Jessica all of a sudden tugs on my shirt, ¡°Someone¡¯s there.¡±

    I look over to where we need to descend to meet back up with the mountain path.  Four men are coming over the hill. Our party had stopped moving of course and were eyeing the oncoming men suspiciously.

    ¡°I think they¡¯re bandits,¡±  Sarah comments to the group, ¡°Stay on guard.¡±

    ¡°Hello there!¡±  A large muscular man, armed with a one handed axe and a small round shield, says with a wide grin.  ¡°What are you fine people doing out here on your own?¡±

    You could practically hear his voice dripping with ill intent.  ¡°We don¡¯t want any trouble.¡± Sarah answers his provocation, ¡°Four clearly experienced fighters versus a well balanced adventurer party.  That could go either way and would likely end badly for both of us.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    She practically spelled it out.  But she does have a point. The bandit leader also seems to be considering her words seriously, while trying to size us up.  Aside from the bandit leader I think I recognise the three men with him.

    It¡¯s villager B and villager C from that time under the bridge!  Or should I say Bandit B and Bandit C! Wait, that also means¡­ I look to the right of the lineup of four bandits and sure enough I recognise ¡®Fat bastard¡¯.  Something is strange though, Fat bastard is making a strange gurgling noise. It must be due to the fact that there is a large crossbow bolt stuck through his throat.

    I turn towards Jessica and sure enough she is holding an empty crossbow pointed at his direction.  I hear fat bastard collapsing to the ground. She just killed him without a moment''s hesitation!

    Before anyone can react, the bandit leader already issued an order, ¡°Kill the priest!¡±  I instinctively step in front of Jessica, my shield and sword at the ready, as Bandit B and C approach us.  The bandit leader has veered off to the other side and is charging straight at Sarah.

    I ready myself to intercept Bandit B and C, but they instead charge right past us.  They must be following their leaders instruction and chasing after Hardoen. Actually now that I look at it, that fucking coward has run away!  Just then, a crossbow bolt comes whirring past Bandit C. It missed, but caused Bandit B and C to stop chasing Hardoen, who was now at quite a distance and turn to face us instead.

    ¡°Arrgh!¡±  I heard Sarah shriek.  Glancing over at her, she is on the ground, covered in blood.  The leader got to her and ¡®axxed¡¯ her. Shit. I¡¯m sorry Sarah there¡¯s no way I can spare a thought for you right now, Bandit B and C are coming right at us.

    The leader must be experienced, he sent his men after the priest right off the bat and he himself went after the sorceress of the group.  He must clearly have ¡®hunted¡¯ adventurer groups before. That being said he obviously could not have known that our priest was apparently a coward and that our sorceress is a glass cannon, not our main DPS.

    I step in front of Jess once more and brace myself.  I know from our last exchange that Bandit B is more skilled than I am.  Bandit C probably isn¡¯t as much of a problem though, he seemed like a real coward last time.  Before the two of them reach me however, ¡°Heal!¡±

    I hear Hardoen cast a spell.  He seems to be healing Sarah from a distance.  Was that his plan all along? To provide support from a distance where he can¡¯t be interrupted with fighting.

    ¡°Kill the fucking priest already!¡±  The leader calls out with irritation in his voice.  Bandit C immediately peels off to chase down Hardoen again.  Bandit B decides to remain and come after us.

    Out of the corner of my eye I realise that the leader has raised his axe with the intention of finishing off Sarah before she can be healed.  Just moments before he executes her, a crossbow bolt lands firmly in his left shoulder. He grunts in pain as he stumbles backwards. Looks like Jessica just saved her life.

    Bandit B had reached us and I attempted to hold him off with my shield held high and my sword pointed resolutely at him.  He did not fight me with a shield last time, so this time, he seemed content with the occasional jab of his dagger which I easily blocked with my shield.  I can only assume he¡¯s testing my defenses before going in for the kill.

    I hear a battle cry, coming from Hardoen of all people.  Bandit C is almost on top of him, brandishing a curved sword.  But Hardoen isn¡¯t running away, he¡¯s charging at top speed towards Bandit C, yelling like a maniac.  He¡¯s gonna get himself killed, what exactly does he plan to do with that short staff his.

    Just as the two are about to collide, Hardoen shouts ¡°respite!¡±  Bandit C looks like he ran head first into a steel beam. His body contorts in unnatural ways just before he flops to the ground lifelessly.  Did he just use a defensive skill, offensively? Hardoen quickly picks up Bandit C¡¯s curved sword and drives it into his heart without hesitation. Man, cold.

    The distraction seemed to reveal an opening in my defense.  Bandit B pretended to come at me with his dagger high and to my left.  As I pushed my shield out to deflect the blade and try and through him off balance, he did not retreat or harden his stance as he had done before.

    Instead he let go of his dagger just before the impact and caught it instead in his left hand.  As my shield collided with his right arm, he pivoted on his left foot like an axel and used the momentum sent into his right side, and translated it into a lunge with his left arm, now wielding the dagger.

    The dagger easily cut into my left leg.  What is this guy? Is he from a fucking circus or something?  My left side crumples underneath me and I fall to the ground. Shit, he must of hit something important.

    Jessica is exposed now, if he goes after right now, I won¡¯t be able to do anything about it, with his reflexes and skill, he¡¯ll probably kill her instantly.  I vaguely heard her firing of another bolt just a moment ago, presumably at the bandit leader again, he would be the biggest threat to her while I¡¯m occupied with Bandit B.  She should not have had enough time to reload another shot. If he comes at her right now she¡¯s done for. Although I have a feeling that even if she did, this guy could not be stopped by a single crossbow bolt.

    Just as Bandit B looked away from me to eye his next target, or maybe just to quickly survey the battlefield, ¡°Heal!¡±  I could feel my leg wound starting to heal. Hardoen must still be trying to heal from a distance.

    This did not escape Bandit B¡¯s attention, he immediately raised his dagger, clearly intent on finishing me off before I can heal.  Oh well, so much for that. I am about to shout for Jessica to run away, before she also dies, but I notice something strange, Bandit B has stopped moving.

    Bandit B suddenly collapses to the ground to reveal Jessica.  She is off to the right-side, rear of where Bandit B was standing, facing away from us.  In a half crouched, half standing position, with her right arm stretched out to her right and above her head.  She is holding her dagger in a reverse-grip where the back of Bandit B¡¯s neck should have been. The dagger is coated in blood.

    When did she get there and how did that crazy guy not even notice her? She must of moved very quickly judging from her current posture, it looks like it was a very fast and fluid attack.  She must of taken advantage of the moment he was distracted by the prospect of finishing me off. Is this perhaps one of those ¡®finisher¡¯ thief skills.

    Jessica stands up and Hardoen calls out, ¡°You all okay?¡±  I look around and see that he is jogging towards us and that Sarah Is standing up again, all recovered.  But what happened to the bandit leader?

    I notice that the muscular man is trying to run away and save himself amidst all the confusion, with one crossbow bolt stuck in his shoulder and another two in his shield.  Looks like Jessica kept him plenty busy and off of Sarah while she was healing.

    ¡°Misty, would you be so kind?¡±  Sarah seems to be asking Jessica something, ¡°I don¡¯t want to fireball him, I need his head.¡±  His head? Jessica raises her crossbow, takes aim and fires a bolt into his back, more or less where his heart should be.  He drops to the ground like a log.

    I look around, at the dead bodies around us, blood pooling on the ground under each.  Jesus Christ we just killed people. I feel sick to my stomach. Is Jessica okay, she just killed two of them.  I look at her face, but she seems calm, disconnected even.

    Sarah is busy walking over to the bandit leaders corpse.  She pulls out a hunting knife and after a short chant, it¡¯s blade is glowing orange, with heat.  ¡°We¡¯ll take the leaders head back, I¡¯m sure the guild will offer a decent reward for it.¡± She smiles at us while she begins hacking away at his neck.

    I am definitely gonna vomit.

 When blood runs cold

    My mead does not taste as great today for some reason.  To be honest I don¡¯t feel like eating or drinking anything really, nevertheless I continue to force it down my throat.  I have a funny feeling that I may lose my mind if I don¡¯t continue to marinate it in alcohol.

    We killed four people earlier today, oh wait, we also found a goblin camp, that also happened.  It does however seem like a distant memory now though. Anyway after all that, we¡¯ve come back to this establishment, the ¡®Four leaf clover¡¯, where Sarah lives.  I am currently drowning my uneasiness in alcohol. I always thought that the whole adventurers sitting around a tavern, being a boisterous bunch, constantly drinking thing was a cliche.  But after finding myself sitting here once again with ¡®beer in hand¡¯, I can no longer fault them, or pull my nose up at the trope. I suspect it¡¯s just how they get by with all the shit they have to put up with.

    Jess is here too.  She seems to be staring into space, nursing her mead.  This world doesn¡¯t have such things as an age restriction for things like drinking or sex or marriage, or anything like that.  You¡¯re just generally going to be held responsible for your actions, should you fuck up, I guess.

    ¡°Hey, you okay?¡±, I ask her.

    ¡°Hmm.  Ah, yes.  I was just thinking about where we go from here.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I put you in that position.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I said I would protect you and in the end you had to face off with your attackers.  I allowed things to escalate to the point where you had to kill people.¡±

    Jessica smiles at me gently, ¡°I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re so concerned about me, but seriously don¡¯t worry about it.  I¡¯m glad I had the opportunity to kill those bastards.¡±

    I almost choke on mead when Jessica says that.  How can she even say something like that.

    ¡°It was- liberating, in a way.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t bother you that we murdered people?¡±, I can¡¯t but help ask her in disbelief.

    ¡°Well not really, and by our definition of human, they were probably more like NPC¡¯s.  Actually scratch that, they are definitely monsters, I mean in any RPG, bandits are classified as just another mob.  Let¡¯s not forget they tried to rape me,¡± She adds with a sharp glint in her eyes.

    Now I feel even more uneasy, after that conversation.  At first I was worried about what would happen to us. I mean, anyway you look at it, Jessica started that fight, straight up killing a man.  But, seeing as how this world works on a bounty system more than an actual justice system, Hardoen assured me that we would be fine. He said that no one was going to give two shits about a couple of dead bandits, in fact, Sarah brought the fucking leaders head back with us and Hardoen took it with to the Adventurers guild to go see if we can get a reward for it.  What a fucked up world. We kill people in cold blood, even if they were animals, and get fucking rewarded for it.

    Hardoen returns with Sarah in tow.

    ¡°Oh- so how¡¯d it go?¡±  I ask him.

    ¡°Good actually.  The camp we located was a large one, we got quite lucky with that.  And the bandit leader was a bit notorious so his head also fetched a decent reward.  We earned eight silver coins total. That¡¯s two silvers each.¡±

    I do a quick sum in my head,  I know that one silver can be traded for twenty five coppers, so that¡¯s fifty coppers for each of us.  That¡¯s fantastic, Jessica and I can get by for a good couple of days on that if we pool our resources, even after we pay back our debts to Sarah.

    ¡°That¡¯s great news.¡±

    ¡°Well don¡¯t get too excited,¡± Hardoen smiles at me uneasily, ¡°We got lucky this time.  Most of the reward came from killing the bandits and on top of that we lucked out finding a large goblin camp so easily.¡±  Hardoen sighs. ¡°But hopefully with a head start this good, we will be able to hold out on this shitty goblin scouting business, long enough for some decent quests to be posted.¡±

    I briefly consider buying Jess and myself some armour, but decide against it.  Armour does not come cheap, even the cheap kinds for that matter. We need to in anycase hold onto our funds for living expenses, as we do not know how long this ¡®dry spell¡¯ will last.

    ¡°But seriously, how long is this going to go on?¡±  Hardoen mumbles to himself. ¡°There haven¡¯t been any low level monster killing quests for days now.  Just those slimes and they were a really big group so don¡¯t even count. Goblin camps are also plenty dangerous enough, not to be considered level one material.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Hasn¡¯t it always been like that?¡±

    ¡°Not from what I hear.  Apparently this town used to be a haven for new level one adventurer¡¯s starting out.  There used to be an abundance of low level monsters. I wonder where they¡¯ve all gone.¡±

    ¡°I guess that¡¯s why we all had such a hard time forming a party, all the level one and two adventurers would also leave if there were no suitable monsters for them to take on,¡±  Jessica adds to the conversation.

    ¡°Well at any rate we¡¯ll just have to stick it out, it¡¯s either that or goblin hunting,¡± Hardoen continues.

    ¡°So do you guys want to stay here?¡±  Sarah breaks the silence, ¡°I found out from the innkeeper that there is a room available.¡±

    Jess looks at me expectantly.  ¡°You said the rent here is cheaper in general, right?¡±  I ask. Sarah nods. ¡°Well then I would like too. I¡¯m sure Misty would also love to.¡±  Jessica nods with a smile.

    ¡°What about you Hardoen?¡±

    Hardoen shakes his head, ¡°No, I¡¯m fine in the stables it¡¯s even cheaper,¡± he smiles.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll go make the arrangements with the innkeeper then.¡±  Sarah heads off to secure our accommodation.

    ¡°By the way, did you tell the guild about that dangerous ogre?¡±, I enquire.

    ¡°Yes, I informed them of it.  They will soon put up a kill quest for it.¡±  Hardoen sighs. ¡°More work for high level adventurers to do.¡±

    I turn my thoughts to the prospect of sleeping on a ¡®soft¡¯ bed tonight.  It will be great to get out of the stables, it¡¯s really smelly and dirty there, and sleep in a proper room with Jessica by my side.

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    Four days have passed since our initial cash injection and we once again find ourselves back in the pits of despair.  With our funds once again almost depleted and still no low level quests to take on, things are looking bad for us.

    In these last four days, we were not able to find a single new goblin camp that hadn¡¯t already been scouted.  The only income we managed to accrue, came from killing two goblins that we accidentally ran into. Yes, we actually killed our first goblins.

    Sarah and Jessica took down one of them, Sarah¡¯s small scale fire magic seems to be a lot more effective on them than it was on those slimes that time.  I of course took down the other one. I must admit they do not seem nearly as scary as they did the first time Jessica and I encountered one.

    All four of their ears netted us twenty coppers, which doesn¡¯t really mean much in the scheme of things, when it has to be shared amongst four people.  I can¡¯t but help sigh. Well at least Jessica and I got a level up out of the deal.

    It was weird.  After we killed the two goblins, we each got a ¡®notification¡¯ of our advancement to level two.  And when I say notification, I mean an actual fucking text popup in my view! Jess and I appeared to be the only ones that could see them.  The whole thing felt incredibly cheap and half-assed, like a game developer running out of money to finish the game and just dumped any old shit he could into the games missing UI parts.  I wonder if it¡¯s the same for NPC¡¯s like Hardoen and Sarah. But I am too afraid of ¡®death by headache¡¯ to risk asking a question of that nature.

    At any rate Jessica and I did practice a bit of after the level up and could definitely feel some kind of improvement.  It¡¯s like our ¡®stats¡¯ increased a little bit, or something. We can¡¯t be certain of course since our adventurer cards only contain information about level number, job class and skills.  There are no stats to speak of.

    On that note, moving up to level two gave each of us a new skill.  Jessica learned sneak, which allows her to move around while ¡®sneaking¡¯.  This slows down her movement a lot, but in exchange allows here to greatly conceal her presence.  I don¡¯t fully understand how this works, but while she¡¯s using it, it¡¯s really hard to see or hear her.

    I on the other hand learned ¡®unwavering stance¡¯.  It¡¯s a skill that for a short amount of time, allows me to tank any attack without budging an inch.  So I can¡¯t be forced back, down or out of the way. The downside is that it also seems to increase the amount of damage I take.  Although this might be an unintentional side effect of simply taking a blow ¡®full on¡¯. I have to question how useful this skill is going to be.

    ¡°We have no choice anymore,¡±  Hardoen, interrupts my thoughts, ¡°We have to attack a goblin camp.  We have three level two¡¯s and a level four in our group, we can handle it.¡±

    After making his case, nobody is any longer objecting to chasing down a goblin camp for money.  We have a lot more experience as a party now and Jessica and I have actually killed goblins. Of course it doesn¡¯t help that we are running out of money and still don¡¯t have any prospects for more.

    ¡°OK.  Let¡¯s do this.¡±

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    A shadowy figure sits down on a nearby boulder to rest.  He sighs and wipes the sweat from his brow. That was a lot of work, he mumbles to no one in particular.

    ¡°Whats taking so long?¡±  A stern voice calls out to him.  He immediately jumps up off the rock and stands too attention for the new figure that just entered the cavern.

    ¡°Ah- s- sorry.  I just finished.¡±

    ¡°We need to hurry this up.  The locals are getting suspicious.  There are no longer any low level monsters hanging around this town.  It¡¯s starting to draw the attention of the nobles and high level seer¡¯s.  If this drags out we¡¯ll be discovered. Not to mention that our quarry may even escape before we¡¯re done.¡±

    ¡°Apologies, we have had to move very carefully not to alert anyone.  But, fear not, we are almost done.¡±

    ¡°Good, and you have made arrangements with one of the local militia¡¯s?¡±

    ¡°Ah, unfortunately the group of bandits we were going to use were killed a few days ago.  But fear not, we have already found suitable replacements and are busy finalising the details with them.¡±

    ¡°Good.  Get it done.¡±

 Lend me your ear

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of them.¡±

    ¡°How many do you think there are?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Just going by the number of goblin huts alone, there could easily be two hundred of them. Assuming that half of them are fighters, then that would probably make one hundred dangerous little goblins.¡±

    ¡°Hey Hardoen, are you sure about this? I¡¯m pretty sure we¡¯re gonna die if we attempt this.¡±

    ¡°Just stick to the plan. If it goes sideways, then we run away. We should be far enough away for that to be feasible. Right Sarah?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes. I also think we can pull this off.¡±

    ¡°That settles it then, lets get in place, before they notice we¡¯re here.¡±

    With that we leave Sarah crouched behind the rockface about five hundred meters from the edge of the goblin camp. The three of us start making our way back. Once we have a distance of about a hundred meters away from Sarah, Hardoen signals to her to go ahead.

    This is a new goblin camp that just cropped up. According to the guild, it was only just reported last night. Further South of the Eastern mountain pass that we visited previously, just in front of the mountain range, on the open plains. A goblin camp some two hundred strong.

    Normally this would be suicide for a low level group like ours, but Hardoen proposed a plan that makes good use of our groups ¡®unique¡¯ composition. Namely Sarah.

    ¡°Will she be alright?¡± Jessica asks nervously.

    ¡°She should be fine.¡± I attempt to calm her anxiety, ¡°She herself assured us that her spells do not backfire on her, herself, as the owner of the mana used to create them, but rather only on those around her.¡± Of course I did not reiterate the part where she used the word ¡®mostly¡¯ when explaining this to us.

    ¡°It¡¯s time!¡± Hardoen points out. Sarah has just finished chanting her spell and lifts her staff straight into the air, releasing a bright flare straight up into the sky. After just a moment, she swings her staff downwards with great force, coming to a rest pointing directly at the goblin camp.

    The flare immediately bursts and numerous giant fireballs arc out from its position, towards the goblin camp. They glow brightly while they zip through the sky, leaving a trail of fire as they travel. They look a lot like a meteorite breaking up in the atmosphere and raining down upon the earth.

    And rain down they do! As they begin to strike the goblin camp in various places in rapid succession, each exploding in a great ball of fire, sending debri, fire and body parts flying in all directions, like a massive high speed carpet bombing. It literally looks like hell on earth.

    ¡°Here they come!¡± Jessica calls out.

    Three of the fireballs did not head towards the goblin camp. They disobeyed Sarah¡¯s will and instead started arcing towards us, but it looks like only one of them has arced enough to reach us.

    Just before the fireball obliterates us, ¡°Respite!¡± The fireball strikes Respite¡¯s indestructible barrier and explodes with a deafening roar. The noise dies down now that all the fireballs have landed. All is going according to the plan so far.

    Sarah had chosen this particular spell, because we needed something that could do large scale AOE destruction to wipe out most of the goblin camp, but it also needed to be over very quickly. Respite could only protect us for about a second and could only practically be cast once.

    I look over to the goblin camp to try and assess the damage. It looks like the destruction was extensive, it must of wiped out most of them. There are several goblins running in our direction already. Those little fuckers are tenacious, to have recovered this quickly and go on the offensive.

    ¡°I think there¡¯s still too many of them, we should retreat for now.¡± I suggest.

    ¡°No, can¡¯t,¡± Hardoen replies to me over his shoulder, as he starts running in the direction of the goblin camp.

    ¡°Wait, what? Why?¡± I shout after him.

    ¡°Sarah¡¯s down!¡± He shouts back.

    I glance over to Sarah¡¯s position and she¡¯s lying on the ground. Fuck! ¡°Come on let¡¯s go!¡± I shout to Jess as I start after him. I thought her own spells wouldn¡¯t backfire on her! Oh, right, ¡®mostly¡¯.

    We manage to reach Sarah before the goblins do. Hardoen has already started healing her, she is badly burned and charred from head to toe, even missing part of her arm.

    I am about to ask Hardoen if she¡¯s going to be okay, but cuts me off, ¡°She¡¯ll live, but this is gonna take some time. Hold the line!¡±

    ¡°Right!¡± I jump up over the small rock face, with Jess following me and take up position about fifty meters ahead. Jessica takes up position a little bit behind me and starts releasing bolts at the oncoming goblins.

    She manages to take down two of them before they reach us. I brace myself and ram my shield into the first goblin that comes flying at me, it knocks him away and unconscious.

    Another goblin charges me. He slips past my shield and tries to stab me with his curved sword. I manage to shift out of the path of his blade and instead give him a good kick. The kick knocks him right over. Goblins are the size of children after all. I take the opportunity to bury my sword into his chest while he¡¯s on his back.

    I can see one more goblin quickly approaching me. I glance over to Jessica, she has bolted one more goblin, but four more are about to attack her. It doesn¡¯t look good for her, even if she switches to melee. There¡¯s only one choice.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Taunt!¡± I activate one of my ¡®tanky¡¯ skills as a paladin. Taunt emits a brief aura that attracts the attention of all nearby mobs. The higher the intelligence of the monster or human, the less effective it is. But against a bunch of goblins, it¡¯s perfect. Actually it¡¯s too perfect! All five goblins are now heading straight for me.

    I swing my sword downwards at the first goblin to arrive, but it jumps to the side and avoids the blow. Meanwhile another goblin launches itself at me and takes a stab at me. I manage to deflect his blade with my own, mid-air. But he lands on me and grips the side of my shirt, clinging to my shoulder. He raises his sword for another strike.

    I have no chance of bringing my sword that¡¯s still pointed towards the ground, back around to stop him, and even if I did the angle is bad, I probably couldn¡¯t strike him. Before he brings his sword down into my neck, I jerk my arm back up and to the side, and strike him with the steel pommel of my sword, in the side of his head.

    It works and he falls off me, groaning in pain. The awkward motion however throws me off balance and before I can get my footing, I notice another goblin at my feet, already swinging his sword towards one of my legs.

    Shit I¡¯m going down, there¡¯s no way to avoid this one. A bolt lodges itself in the side of the goblins head with enough force to make it tumble away, before it can complete its attack. I quickly find my footing as Jessica begins to load up another crossbow bolt.

    I kick the goblin that fell off of me, to keep him from getting up and bring my sword down once again on the goblin that initially avoided it. This time it connects and rips him in two. Just in time too, the last two goblins are trying to flank me from either side.

    Instead of letting that happen, I quickly stab the goblin that¡¯s down and run away to the side a bit, forcing the other two to come at me from more or less the same direction, and buying Jessica some time to load up another bolt. It works well, I drive my sword through the closest goblin and Jessica bolt¡¯s the second one at the same time.

    The immediate threat over, I quickly survey my surroundings. There¡¯s another wave of goblins coming, at least twenty of them this time. I also notice Sarah is back on her feet, Hardoen must be done with her.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here!¡± I signal to Jessica and she nods. We meet up quickly with Sarah and Hardoen.

    ¡°Let¡¯s retreat for now, there¡¯s still too many of them.¡±

    ¡°Okay!¡±

    With that we all start booking it towards the forest, as fast as we can. Running our asses off with the goblins crying as they chase behind us, I suddenly see an arrow come flying past me. Shit! They have archers as well.

    ¡°Ignore it!¡± Hardoen notices my indecision, ¡°Archers can¡¯t run after you and fire arrows at the same time.¡±

    The forest tree line is close now, but I can hear the goblins are gaining on us. The little buggers are light on their feet it would seem. As we enter the forest I can hear the rustling of grass and bushes as the goblins are giving chase.

    ¡°It¡¯s no good we can¡¯t outrun them!¡± I shout.

    ¡°Alright we stand our ground!¡± Sarah responds.

    We all stop running and turn to face the directions of the goblins, but we can only see one or two of them. Did they stop chasing us? No. I can see and hear bushes rustling all around us and in between the trees. They are surrounding us.

    ¡°Eeeaark!¡± A goblin squeals as it jumps out of the bushes and comes at us from straight ahead. I move to intercept it, shield at the ready. But I hear rustling and a patter of feet, somewhere behind me.

    I fight off the one in front of me, not able to spare a thought for any of the fighting I hear behind me. Shit, this is bad. They are clearly trying to flank us and launch sneak attacks.

    I hear a shriek of pain and chance a glance back, away from another goblin in front of me. Jessica took a wound to her leg. Hardoen is trying to quickly heal it. I notice that Jess has already switched to her dagger and given up on ranged attacks, despite the crossbow already having been loaded with a fresh bolt. Sarah is also lobing small fireballs at any goblins she can see that aren¡¯t too close to us.

    This is bad. If they storm us right now, we¡¯re done for. I don¡¯t even have time for these thoughts as I struggle to fight off two goblins at the same time, that are right in front of me.

    ¡°Arrgh!¡± A male voice! I turn to see that Hardoen is on the ground with a nasty looking stomach wound. Jess is all healed up, but I see a goblin running off with his short staff! I don¡¯t think he can cast healing spells without that! Fuck!

    I need to heal him, but I can¡¯t afford to stop fighting, none of us can, we¡¯re just too outnumbered. Jessica grabs her crossbow and fires the shot that was already loaded into it, at the staff thief. He crumples to the ground, dropping the staff, but it is too far away to be able to risk retrieving it.

    Hardoen is still on the ground busy bleeding out and it feels like we¡¯ll be joining him soon.

    ¡°Aluarc, Misty, cover me!¡± We follow Sarah¡¯s instruction and stick a little closer to her. Sarah starts launching one fireball after another at our surroundings much more carelessly than she did before. She does not appear to be aiming at any goblins, however their attacks seem to be lessening.

    She has turned the forest into a blazing inferno in a matter of a minute. ¡°Now you can heal him!¡±

    ¡°Right!¡± I take the lapse in fighting as a chance to start healing Hardoen, before he dies. Sarah lobs fireballs at any goblins that break through our fiery surroundings and Jessica picks off the survivors.

    It¡¯s beautiful watching her weave from side to side to intercept the incoming goblins that Sarah couldn¡¯t get to. Thin streaks of blood flying outward with each one of her elegant slashes, like some kind of artist painting the world red. Her blonde hair flutters about with each turn she makes and goblins are dropping one after the other. How the fuck did she get so good at this, so fast. And is she actually smiling?!

    I¡¯m finished healing Hardoen and the goblin attacks have died down considerably. But the heat from the now raging forest fire is nuts!

    ¡°We need to get out of here, before we get roasted!¡¯

    ¡°Only place the fire isn¡¯t too intense is that way.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s back towards the goblin camp!¡±

    ¡°No choice, come on, let¡¯s go!¡±

    We all make a run for it and Hardoen manages to pick up his staff the goblin dropped, along the way. The goblin must of been trying to retreat back to the camp with it. We emerge from the forest covered in soot and coughing our lungs out from all the smoke.

    I look around to get my bearings. There are no goblins coming from the direction of the camp and there appear to be only a few escaping from the forest. Looks like we managed to kill or roast almost all of them. Despite being really exhausted, it does not take as very long to kill the rest of them.

    ¡°Hey, I saw a lot of goblins running for the hills when we first came out of the forest. Do you think they¡¯ll be a problem?¡± Jessica asks.

    ¡°No, doubt it. They¡¯re probably non-combatants running for their lives. Even if they visit one of their neighbors to call for help, it will take them quite some time to do so.¡± Hardoen answers. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean we can afford to dilly dally here. Let¡¯s get to work collecting goblin ears before any help arrives.¡±

    And with that we spent the next hour running around the goblin camp, or should I say moon crater, cutting off charred goblin ears and also collection scattered pieces of them. I couldn¡¯t however bring myself to cut the ears of the charred corpses of the child goblins.

    Oh man I feel sick again.

 A gorgeous imposter

    Jessica is already lying in our shared single bed, under the covers. I walk over to the bed and sit down on it. We made good money today, five silvers and a couple of coppers each. This is owed to the fact that we were able to salvage over a hundred goblin ears, or enough bits of them for the guild employee dispensing our reward, to be regarded as such.

    We considered buying some armour on our way back to town, but decided that we should instead do one more goblin camp first. Even if it is smaller than the one we raided today (that might be a little safer), we will still have more than enough money at that point to buy us some armour and still have leftover money for living expenses for a few days, should things go sideways again.

    Today we were really putting our lives on the line, we could have easily been wiped out. But a lot of that is owed to inexperience. We were discussing at length on the way back: you know, whether we could take on a goblin camp properly next time and with much less risk. The general conclusion that we all arrived at was yes, we had learned a lot from today.

    Fortunately we did not get back very late, unlike most of our other outings to date. This left me time to run one very important errand, while I had Sarah distract Jessica. I reached into the bag I have with me and pull out an item wrapped in an old cloth.

    ¡°Hey Jess.¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡± She answers lazily while turning to face me.

    ¡°Here.¡± I hand her the bundle.

    She eyes it with great interest, even sitting up in bed. Unwrapping the cloth reveals a dagger, with a leather grip dyed, an almost rose red like color. The pommel of the dagger is steel, with a pick rose and one or two vines painted on it. It is truly befitting a teenage girl, if you can of course look past the whole tool of murder thing.

    ¡°Happy birthday.¡± I smile at her.

    Her eyes go wide in realisation. No doubt amidst all the chaos of everything that¡¯s been going on, she forgot about her own eighteenth birthday. I struggled to figure out what kind of gift to get her. Up until several hours ago, I didn¡¯t even have any money to get her a gift.

    So when, on the way back, I realised we were delivering over a hundred goblin ears, I hatched a plan with Sarah to distract her, while I run down to the local market place and try to find a suitable gift. Of course I had no idea at the time, what to get her. But, luckily I spotted this dagger for sale and at a good price too. I somehow just knew that she would fall in love with it.

    So, even though I have seriously mixed feelings about getting my girlfriend a weapon as a birthday gift, well let¡¯s just say that in this world and the messed up situation we¡¯re in, it does somehow makes sense. Luckily daggers are small, and do not use much materials to craft, making them relatively inexpensive.

    ¡°It¡¯s beautiful!¡± She seems to be over the moon. She hugs me tightly and thanks me.

    ¡°No problem.¡± I smile at her.

    Not long after, I take of my clothes and join here in bed. Man I¡¯m tired, it¡¯s been a rough day.

    I put my arm around her, with her back facing to me and hug her tightly. ¡°We¡¯re actually doing this, hey. We¡¯re adventurers now.¡± I say half to myself, self reflectively.

    ¡°Yes.¡± She responds softly, but in a warm voice.

    I lie there a while trying to fall asleep, but there is still a lot on my mind, also the excitement from everything that¡¯s happened today, isn¡¯t exactly helping matters.

    Jessica is also fidgeting a lot. If she keeps shifting around like that, then I really won¡¯t be able to fall asleep. Come to think of it, only her lower body is shifting around and it is kind of rubbing up against my manhood.

    Hmm. ¡°And what are you up to ¡®Misty¡¯?¡± I say half jokingly.

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± She responds coldly. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to get comfortably on this hard bed.¡± Oh, did I read her wrong?

    She then starts shifting in a different direction. My already erect penis is being rubbed up and down between her two small dainty but cheeks. I can feel her asses full curve and sensation through her thin soft nightgown.

    We had not done anything of a sexual nature since we came to this world (we have of course done it many times in the real one), owed to the fact that I wasn¡¯t sure how she would feel about it. Being in another girls body and me looking different as well. Then there was the whole bridge incident. Jessica has never been a very ¡®sexual¡¯ girl to begin with either, so it was always up to me to make the first move and there was no way I was going to do that under these circumstances.

    Of course all these worries seem to have been for naught, as by this point her nightgown has climbed up from the friction, leaving her bare ass rubbing against my bulging cock.

    That was the last straw. ¡°You asked for it!¡± I reach down and slide my hand across her smooth bum slowly, sending a small shiver of anticipation through her body. My hand practically a foreign monster of its own by this point, curves round her ass and pushes between her legs from behind.

    Fingers outstretched It glides over her ¡®entrance¡¯. Two of the fingers indent into it slightly while passing by, only to feel them almost sucked in by the surrounding soft lips, into her already wet hole. It is an enticing and heavenly sensation. But they steel their resolve and remain true to their purpose, gliding past the soft entrance and towards their final destination.

    I rub between the top of her lips gently, careful not ¡®frighten¡¯ her cliterous.

    ¡°Hrrnn.¡± She lets out a soft noise like some kind of cat, purring in heat. This of course drives my senses wild and makes me go at her with fervour. My entire hand is now working her juicy bits, not just my two fingers. My fingers keep rubbing between the top side of her lips with my palm is now also rubbing up and down her entrance.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    This is clearly too much for her at this point. ¡°I want you inside of me.¡± She whispers to me, with heated breath. ¡°Now!¡± She also adds urgency to the mix.

    I decide to take a chance and sweeten the pot a little. ¡°Okay, but I want to see you.¡±

    She turns to face me, smiling mischievously. She knows exactly what I mean. Since we got here I have only seen at most glimpses of her naked body. As much as I wanted to admire the body of the gorgeous young elf girl in front of me all this time, I was always concerned about how Jess would take to me ogling ¡®another girls body¡¯.

    But she clearly wants that dick badly and doesn¡¯t hesitate for a second to kick the blankets off and all but tear her nightgown off. I move to the foot of the bed to make space, so that she can lay down on her back comfortably.

    As I¡¯m about to move back to position, I freeze as she does something I never in a million years would have expected of her. Not only did she spread her long slender legs enough to ¡®make space¡¯ for me. But she instead continued the motion bending her knees up and spreading her legs so wide she was practically doing a split.

    My mouth nearly hung open in surprise. Who is this girl and what has she done with my girlfriend! Her legs are spread wide enough that that her ¡®lips¡¯ have parted on their own and given a clear view of her ¡®crack¡¯ and all the way down her juicy ¡®hole¡¯.

    ¡°Is this what you had in mind?¡± She says tauntingly.

    The sight before me is surreal. A beautiful blonde haired girl with cute pointy ears lay there, her body shimmering under the candle light. Her sweet supple breasts with their pink perky nipples. Her slender body shape and sexy legs, all pointing towards her glowing pick entrance, that is only accentuated by her soft blonde pubic hair.

    There is so much blood and hormones flowing into my penis at this point, that it feels likes it¡¯s going to explode. All reason is driven from my mind as I practically pounce her and guide my member into her welcoming hole. The warm, soft and slippery sensation feels amazing. Her hole is really tight, but she¡¯s so wet already that there¡¯s almost no resistance to me entering.

    I start moving back and forward gently, letting her vagine squeeze and stroke my manhood and I can feel her body almost writhing in pleasure as she lets out an almost inaudibly soft moan. She eyes me while smiling and says, ¡°You¡¯re getting to fuck another girl without cheating on me. I wonder who¡¯s birthday it really is.¡± she says playfully.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, I better give you another present.¡± Without stopping my ¡®massaging¡¯ of the inside of her tight vagina, I lean in closer and kiss her passionately. After a minute of intensely enjoying the flavour of her tongue, I lean in past the side of her head, her pretty blonde hair brushing up against my face and gently nibble on the tip of her pointy ear.

    She lets out a sudden sound, that sounds of both surprise and pleasure. The speed of our rhythm has increased and Jessica brings her hands around my back and pulls me closer. I can now feel her erect nipples rubbing against my chest with each thrust, it is a very sexy sensation.

    My emotions get the better of me though, and I reach my arms around her petite back and hold her tightly against me. There is no more nipple friction, as with each thrust our bodies now move as one. She seems to really enjoy being embraced like this, based on the soft moans she¡¯s now making.

    In the next moment, however, she takes me completely by surprise. At some point she had leaned in closer to me and stuck her tongue right into my ear and started licking it out. It sends shivers down my spine, not just the sensation but also the rustling sound her tongue rummaging around in my ear. It drives me mad, my desire for her practically erupts.

    I pull away from her and sit up right, with my legs spread wide and my knees folded over double, pointing outwards. I grab her waist and lift her ass into the air while pulling her against me. And then I plunge into her. She has nowhere to go from this position, her back arched over a few inches above the bed. Her knees are still bent into the air and only her toes, shoulders and head are still resting on the bed.

    I drive into her again and again with reckless abandon and she does not give a damn. Her moaning has become louder, as I watch her breasts sway back and forth over her arched stomach, each time I plough into her. Her vagina has started making slurping noises from the now over-wetness and my balls are making erotic slapping noises each time they strike her but cheeks.

    Jessica has reached over, under herself and grabbed onto my thighs at some point, seemling trying to help the motion along, not being able to get enough of it. It¡¯s only about now however, that I realise how far I¡¯ve already lifted her into the air. This must be putting quite a strain on her back.

    ¡°Nggghpph!¡± My thoughts of letting up on her a bit are immediately interrupted by her nails digging into my thighs deep enough to draw blood.

    Bitch!

    She retracts her claws and tries to tug on my thighs motioning me to continue, while she smiles at me with an evil grin and lustful eyes.

    ¡°Fine, have it your way!¡± I return her malicious grin in kind.

    First up, ¡°Heal.¡± That taken care of, I get onto my knees and bend her ass and back over, towards her, practically above her head, with my raging cock still inside of her. It is now strained at a downward angle with her ass and vagina pointing almost straight up towards the ceiling while I¡¯m still mostly upright, on my knees.

    I begin pushing it down into her. She gasps for breath, clearly this is intense for her, possibly even painful. I pull up and in again, this time she bites her lower lip and and moans loudly. By my third thrust, the biting has all but abated and given way to a lustful, grinning smile and unabated moans of pleasure, I¡¯m sure the neighbors can hear her loud and clear by now.

    I start thrusting down into her contorted pussy as I please, and please I do! The pressure is amazing and the view from this angle is incredible! I can see her cliterous in great detail, between her stretched lips. I can see my cock pushing inside of her, stretching and flexing the pink skin at the entrance of her soft pussy, with every thrust. Just beyond her fucking enticing mound, I can see breasts bobbing about and practically slapping her own chin.

    She is clawing at the bed sheet, moaning out loud, I have never seen her like this before, it¡¯s breathtaking. I can feel myself getting close to cumming at an unbelievable speed. Shit, can she get pregnant in this world? Wouldn¡¯t that be really bad in all kinds of ways! I need to pull out!

    Jessica clearly sensed my indecision and quickly grabs onto my ass tightly, amidst the throws of her pleasure, a heated breath slips out of her mouth, ¡°Stop and I¡¯ll fucking kill you!¡±

    Woah! I can¡¯t help grin at that and respond hole heartedly. I ram into her with all my might, forcing her head and shoulders to sink deeply into the bed each time I pound into her. Her legs are flailing wildly in the air, with each motion and the creaking bed sounds like its ready to break in half.

    We are contorted at such an angle, that the base of my shaft is practically rubbing against her asshole, with each thrust. I can¡¯t hold back any longer, this whole experience is just too incredible and I blow my load deep into her. She practically screams out in pleasure at the top of her voice each time my raging cock pulsates inside her hot pussy and release more fucking angels and ecstasy.

    It finally dies down, running out of steam and juices, and Jessica¡¯s legs go limp, hanging lifelessly to either side of me. Her whole body practically now only held up by the giant dick stuck inside of her. We are both breathing heavily.

    God, I love this fucking game!

 When to run and when to fight

    The morning sun is baking down on us, It¡¯s clearly gonna be a really hot day.  We are once again heading for the Eastern mountains, this region seems to have become our de facto hunting grounds, or it could just be that it¡¯s the only area all four of us are familiar with, at least now anyway.

    We¡¯ve already left the forest and entered the plains just before the mountain range.  We are headed for Sarah¡¯s mountain pass, with the goal of scouting some more goblin camps and if the opportunity presents itself, attacking one.  All the goblin camps on this side of the mountain range have already been cleared out, not just by us of course, we only took down that one camp yesterday.

    I glance over to Jessica and she catches my gaze and smiles at me, she seems to have a ¡®spring¡¯ in her step.  She inches closer to me while we walk and whispers, ¡°Hey, you should get your mind out of the gutter, we¡¯re in enemy territory here,¡± she says with a wily smile.

    ¡°My mind actually wasn¡¯t in the gutter, until you mentioned it,¡± I jab back at her, ¡°Now I can¡¯t help it.¡±

    She gives a soft chuckle.  Hardoen is giving us a rather exasperated look, clearly not a fan of having his fellow party members openly flirting and Sarah is just smiling at us.  Come to think of it, she¡¯s been smiling at us most of the morning, as if she knows more than she¡¯s letting on. A lot more!

    I¡¯ve heard that girls ¡®talk¡¯, did Jessica and Sarah chat about last night?  Last night was rather extreme. The Jessica I know wouldn¡¯t have the nerve to talk to a friend about something like that.  Then again, the Jessica I know wouldn¡¯t be able to participate in something like that. Crap, now I can¡¯t make eye contact with Sarah.

    Before I knew it, I was holding hands with Jess, while we all stroll along towards the mountain pass.  She seems to be really happy. And I don¡¯t think it¡¯s from just a good fuck. Well I suppose we have come along way, since we first started out in this world.  We slowly but surely moved up the ranks from ¡®homeless¡¯ to ¡®labourers¡¯, to ¡®slime food¡¯ and now finally ¡®goblin slayers¡¯. Actually I no longer feel all that proud of these ¡®accomplishments¡¯.

    I sigh.  A long way to go I guess.  For that matter, where are we going?  What are we heading towards? I haven''t given any thought to this in a while, but how are we getting back home?  I must admit I would not mind spending the rest of my life here with Jess, well, if it wasn¡¯t for the dead-end career path.

    Even I¡¯m not so naive as to believe we can live like this forever.  Eventually, some monster somewhere is going to kill us. If not, then some fucking person, begger or bandit.  This is a medieval-ish setting after all and a rather unforgivingly realistic one at that. I make a mental note to myself, to start trying to investigate more of this world whenever we¡¯re at home, I mean, in town.

    Maybe I can unlock some clue on how to get back home, or maybe this ¡®game¡¯ has some kind of victory condition or an ending.

    ¡°Eeeaarrrgh!¡±  What the fuck?

    There¡¯s someone running out of the forest, screaming like a madman.  We all stop to watch, we are almost by the mountain range ourselves, so he is quite a distance away.  He appears to be a ranged type fighter, equipped with a lightweight chainmail, a metal helmet and a bow.  His equipment is clearly not cheap, he can¡¯t be a low level fighter, so what the hell is he running from?

    I don¡¯t have to wait very long for this question to be answered.  ¡°Roooooaaarrr!¡± A giant ogre bursts from the forests treeline and sends one or two trees scattering in different directions.  It¡¯s roar is ferocious. The ogre is giving chase to the fleeing man.

    ¡°Should we try and help him, he¡¯s going to die,¡± Sarah asks.

    ¡°Leave him,¡± Jessica coldly answers.  I look at her with a dumb expression on my face, she just condemned him to death so easily.

    Hardoen picks up on the atmosphere and defends Jessica¡¯s decision, ¡°Only an attack from Sarah could stop something like that and any spell powerful enough to kill it would no doubt also kill that man as well.¡±

    ¡°Hey, shouldn¡¯t we at least try?¡± I plead.

    But Sarah herself buts in, ¡°And what happens if my spell doesn¡¯t kill the ogre, do you think it will just let us leave after attacking it?¡±

    I have no recourse for this and can only watch helplessly as the ogre catches up to the man.  It raises its giant club and with just one fearsome swing the man is gone. There isn¡¯t a trace of him left, least none that can be seen from this distance.Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°Hey, Hardoen.  Didn¡¯t you say that another party killed that thing?¡±

    ¡°No.  I said that a couple of days ago I overheard a party that was talking about tracking down and killing that thing.  And from the looks of how pissed off that ogre was, I¡¯d say they managed to track it down in the end, but the idiots were clearly underestimating their quarry.¡±

    I heard from Hardoen, who apparently had studied up on ogre¡¯s after our first encounter with one, that aside from hunting wildlife for food, they are relatively passive mobs.  Likely the only reason this one is chasing down humans was because it was attacked by them.

    ¡°Hey guys, I think that thing is looking this way.¡±

    Jessica¡¯s right, the ogre is staring right at us.  And then, without warning, it breaks into a run, heading straight for us.

    ¡°Run!¡±  Hardoen screams.  ¡°Too the slime cave, it can¡¯t fit in there!¡±

    We all start running as fast as we can.  It was a good idea, the entrance to the slime cave, or at least the one that we know of is close by.  The slimes have already been eradicated a while ago by another party, based on the fact that the guild removed its quest from the notice board.

    I chance a glance over my shoulder, as I can hear the ogre¡¯s footsteps clearly now.  What!. He¡¯s almost on top of us, and so fucking quickly. How fast can this thing run!  We are not going to make it the cave in time, no chance.

    ¡°We won¡¯t make it!  Sarah attack it!¡± I shout after her.

    ¡°Forget it,¡± Hardoen shouts back, ¡°It takes too long to charge a powerful spell, we¡¯ll be dead before then.¡±

    We are still running as fast as our legs will carry us, but I can already feel the ogre¡¯s presence behind us.  I feel the air shifting behind me. I know this feeling, we are dead. Hardoen glances back over his shoulder and his eyes go wide.

    ¡°Respite!¡±  I hear a crashing sound and turn back in time to see the ogre¡¯s club crashing up against respites barrier.  The club does not shatter this time. The ogre probably didn¡¯t strike it as hard as last time, owed to the fact that he was swinging it while chasing us.

    Of course none of us stopped running for a second, even while the ogre was busy regaining his balance.  Only Hardoen stumbled momentarily after casting Respite while running. No doubt the sudden loss of most of his energy, mid stride made him lose balance a bit.

    My lungs are on fire, I can¡¯t breath.  I¡¯ve never run this hard before. I glance to Jessica who seems to be no better off, even though here equipment is lighter than mine.  I can feel the ogre on top of us again, but the cave is still a little way off. Dammit! We were so close.

    There¡¯s no way Hardoen can use respite a second time in a row and if we don¡¯t do something right now, we¡¯re done for.  No choice but to try it. I feel the air pressure change again, no doubt the ogre¡¯s raised his club, ready for another swing.  If I don¡¯t do something right now we will all die, Jessica included.

    I dig my right foot into the ground and bring myself to a stop.  As I hold my shield out firmly in front of me, I hear Jessica shout back at me, ¡°Mich-¡±, followed by a groan of pain.  Silly girl, I smile to myself, don¡¯t use my real name.

    I brace myself for the impact from the incoming club and then, ¡°Unwavering stance!¡±

    The club collides with my shield.  Wind tears past my face on either side, bruising my cheeks and drowning out the sound of my surroundings completely.  Bits of grass and dirt are flying up all around in a cloud of sand, but it doesn¡¯t move me an inch, I stand firm.

    The power behind that blow, my god!  It sent a shockwave throughout my entire body.  I can¡¯t feel a thing, everything is numb and lifeless.  My vision is fading. I¡¯m pretty sure the impact from that blow has shattered every nerve and bone in my body.

    I am so out of breath.  On my hands and knees I pant aimlessly.  It is dark, I can¡¯t see a damn thing. Fuck!  This is bad. I call out, ¡°Is everyone alright?¡±  It is getting brighter all of a sudden, Sarah has cast some kind of spell.  I can see a bit better now.

    I seek out Misty, she is sitting nearby with her knees bent and hands folded around her legs, rocking herself back and forward in a soothing motion.

    We ran deep into the caves, falling over ourselves while we ran inside the pitch black darkness of the caves, to get a safe distance away from the ogre.  I¡¯m pretty sure I bumped my head into a stalactite, it really hurts and feels warm, it¡¯s probably bleeding. Actually everything hurts, I¡¯m completely drained.

    After ¡®Unwavering stance¡¯ was used, I grabbed Misty and pulled her along to the cave, she appeared to be in a great deal of pain.  Luckily that last move bought us the time we needed to get there. Unfortunately I don¡¯t know what happens after this. The ogre is still hanging around the cave entrance, clearly upset that his prey got away.

    I feel nauseous, that blow was too much, even I couldn¡¯t handle that.  Misty appears to be in shock, she isn¡¯t moving an inch, other than rocking herself back and forward soothingly.

    After ¡®Unwavering stance¡¯ was used, not only did Aluarc stand his ground, but the ogre had a lot of trouble trying to pick him up.  We used the chance to escape. Sarah and I dragged Misty, kicking and screaming, into the cave.

    There was no point in trying to attack the ogre and rescue Aluarc, he was motionless and I don¡¯t mean from the effects of ¡®Unwavering stance¡¯ either, he was probably dead on impact.

    Just before we entered the cave, the three of us were treated to the wonderful sight of the effects of ¡®Unwavering stance¡¯ wearing off.  The ogre was finally able to pick Aluarc up and eat him.

 Hell on earth

    I stare into the bottom of my empty mug, where the last of my mead used to be.  This is tough. Just the thought of going out there again, scares the shit out of me.  But I know that I currently have no other means of a livelihood. I know it must be done.

    It goes without saying that I will double down on my efforts to find an alternative means of earning a living.  Who knows how much longer I can last like this.

    Also from now on I need to work even harder to gather information on my surrounding, people, quests, monsters and their weaknesses and behaviour patterns.  I thought I was doing really well with this up till now, but clearly there¡¯s room for improvement.

    Sarah comes down the stairs and approaches my table.

    ¡°How is she?¡±

    Sarah shakes her head.  ¡°As ¡®bout as well as can be expected.  She¡¯s awake but, she won¡¯t come out of her room.  I had to practically force feed her.¡±

    Aluarc died three days ago.  We waited until nightfall that day, before we worked up the courage to leave that cave, even though the ogre had grown bored and left after the first hour already.  Misty¡¯s been holed up in her room ever since.

    ¡°Things can¡¯t stay like this.  We need to join another party.¡±

    ¡°What! She just watched her boyfriend get eaten and you¡¯re already abandoning her!¡±  Sarah practically snarled the words at me through her teeth.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say we should abandon her.  Don¡¯t put words in my mouth. But, we need to work, we need money to survive.  I¡¯m sure you have some savings, you¡¯ve been at this a while, but I¡¯m running out.  I need to get back at it.¡±

    Sarah glares at me with a fiery gaze, ¡°You go work then!  If Misty runs out of money, she can just move in with me.¡±  Her fiery gaze cools down and is replaced with one of cold disgust.  She turns on her heel and walks away, back upstairs. She turns left at the top of the stairs, no doubt heading back to her own room as Misty¡¯s room is the second on the right.

    I sigh.  My words maybe cold and my motives impure, but it doesn¡¯t mean they aren¡¯t true.  Survival isn¡¯t such a kind thing as to step aside and leave room for compassion. I have a feeling I now have no choice but to find a different party, but that¡¯s problematic in its own way.

    I get up and start walking towards the stairs.  It¡¯s worth a shot to take one more crack at Misty before enacting such a measure. Let¡¯s see if I can raise her from the dead.  I climb the stairs and turn right. Maybe I can use a motive of revenge or something like that, after all she has gotten quite blood thirsty these days.

    I knock on the door.  ¡°It¡¯s me Hardoen.¡± There is no answer.  ¡°I¡¯m coming in.¡± I slowly open the door and enter the room.

    Misty is lying on her bed, facing the wall, in a fetal position.  She is motionless, clutching a dagger in her hands. Normally I would be concerned about suicidal tendencies, but Sarah had already told me about the dagger that she had received as a gift from Aluarc.

    I close the door behind me and stand there staring at Misty.  Actually I have no fucking idea what to say. Was this a bad idea?  I mean honestly, I am not a peoples person, I don¡¯t even have any friends.

    Fuck it I¡¯ve come this far.  I walk over to the bedside and prepare myself to play the tough love card.

    There is a thunderous crashing sound.  My mind doesn¡¯t have time to even process what is happening.  The roof is falling in. The floor is splitting and rending. Myself, the bed, the cupboard are all being flung towards the window-side wall.

    Arrgh.  The pain.  Everything hurts.  I can feel the warmth of blood all around me, probably my own.  And I definitely have more than a few broken bones. ¡°Heal!¡± I begin self healing.

    While my magic is doing it¡¯s work I try to get my bearings.  I¡¯m on the ground, dirt ground. There is also debri on top of me.  I can see faint light slipping through the cracks of the debri, very faint.  I have no choice but to wait until my healing is finished.

    As soon as the healing is finished and I confirm full control of my motor functions, I begin pushing through the debri that is on top of me.  It was not that much luckily, just a bunch of wood and stuff.

    It¡¯s dark outside, have I been lying here the entire day?  No, that¡¯s not quite right, it doesn¡¯t seem so much like there is not light, but rather that it is being blocked out.  There is a thick black fog hanging in the air, limiting visibility to little more than twenty meters I¡¯d say.

    I take in my surroundings, what little of it I can see.  I spot Misty lying on the ground nearby, there is debri all around her.  She is wrapped up in her bedding, with the mattress she was resting on covering her.

    I quickly rush to her side and start healing her.  She doesn¡¯t seem to have sustained any major injuries, probably protected by the bedding and shielded by the matress.  Okay, healings almost done, she¡¯s waking up.

    I look around once more.  This wreckage seems to be what¡¯s left of O¡¯Brians tavern, which is too say, not much.  ¡°Sarah!¡± ¡°Sarah!¡±

    I try calling out for her a few times, but I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s even here.  I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s alive or dead, or how much time has passed since whatever the hell happened here.

    ¡°Hardoen.¡±  Misty is slowly getting up, ¡°What happened here?¡±  Her eyes go wide, ¡°Is this the inn? Where¡¯s Sarah!¡±

    ¡°I have no idea.  I woke up to this mess.¡±  Parts of the wreckage are on fire, there is a very thick and strangling smell of smoke and ash present in the air.

    ¡°Saraaaah!¡± Misty starts screaming hysterically while clawing away at the rubble.  I consider helping her, but my thoughts are cut short by an unbelievably loud crashing sound.  A shockwave ripples through the ground, it¡¯s so intense that Misty and I are thrown to the ground and some if the debri even goes flying into the air.

    ¡°What the fuck!¡±

    Flat on my back I can see the sky, or at least the black murkiness, where the sky should have been.  A faint light catches my eye. I squint to try and make out more detail, but instead notice that there are several faint lights.  They are getting closer and larger by the second.

    Wait a second, I have seen something very similar to this before!  I jump to my feet and grab Misty¡¯s arm, ¡°We have to go, now!¡±

    ¡°No, what?  We have to find Sarah!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no time,¡± I use all my strength to rip her away from the debri and not a second too late.  I giant fireball comes crashing down nearby, into the debri. It explodes with tremendous force and bits of debri and shrapnel fly outwards from the impact.

    ¡°Respite!¡±  We watch in horror as all manner of shrapnel, stones, wood and fire spews against respites invisible barrier.  That was close. A moment later and we both would of been shredded to pieces.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, there¡¯s more where that came from!¡±  I jerk Misty along by her hand and we start running.  Fireballs start raining down all around us, with deafening explosions and intense heat.  Shit if one of those things lands even close to us, we¡¯re done for.

    ¡°Protection!¡±  I cast one of my buff spells while we run.  It should protect us from some physical damage and offer a little bit of magic resistance, just a little mind you.  We are forced to turn left as the road ahead is blocked off by a literal ¡®wall of fire¡¯.

    We carry on running down the path.  I can hear many fireballs crashing to the earth in the distance.  The air is filled with the smell of soot and the sound of people screaming.  We pass one or two burnt corpses and parts of bodies. A lot of the buildings have already been reduced to piles of fire and rubble, with debri scattered about all over.  The debri is making it very hard to run.

    A fireball comes crashing down on a still intact house to our left.  It explodes and as the house caves in, wood and stone are sent flying in all directions.  Some of the rubble and bits of flame hits us, knocking us over. But thanks to the buff, this much isn¡¯t enough to cause serious injury.

    I quickly help Misty to her feet and we carry on running.  ¡°Where are we going?¡±

    ¡°Out of town.  Anywhere but here!¡±

    I lead Misty onto a stone bridge, that crosses the main stream that runs through the town.  We pause momentarily to catch our breath and I try to again survey our surroundings. The fog is a little bit lighter here.  Does that mean it has an epicenter. The location of whoever or whatever is attacking this town?

    An impossibly large stream of fire comes sailing through the air a ways off, to the right hand side of the bridge (eastwards).  It causes a new ¡®wall of fire¡¯ that reaches high into the air. This stream of flames running from south to north starts inching its way towards our position at the bridge, the heat is so intense if feels like my skin is going to be fried right off my bones, even though the firestream is still some fifteen meters away.

    It starts moving towards us really quickly all of a sudden!  I only have a second or two to act, before we are incinerated.  I dive-tackle Misty, off of the opposite side of the bridge and we plummet into the ravine below.

    I look up from under the water of the ravine.  The surface is glowing an intense yellow-white.  Misty is struggling in my arms, thrashing around wildly, trying to swim upwards.  I had to move quickly, I didn¡¯t have a chance to tell her to hold her breath. I tighten my grip on her and pull her back down, even though I know she is busy drowning.  I¡¯m sorry Misty, but drowning is the better option at this moment, the surface of the water is still glowing yellow, the fire hasn¡¯t passed yet.

    Another thirty seconds passes before the fire goes out.  The water is so hot at this point I am at risk of getting burns.  I quickly drag Misty to the surface, and onto the embankment. She has already lost consciousness.

    ¡°Heal!¡±  No that doesn¡¯t seem to do anything, time to kick it old school.  I begin performing CPR on her. A little while later she finally coughs up the water on her lungs.  While she¡¯s coughing profusely, I perform a little healing magic on her, it seems to help this time.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    ¡°You tried to fucking drown me!¡±  I flinch back a little bit as I realise she is still clutching her dagger.  I can¡¯t believe she held onto it, even while she was drowning! Actually It¡¯s a good thing she didn¡¯t stab me with it back there.

    ¡°Look around you, it was necessary!¡±  I respond assertively.

    Misty looks around and her eyes go wide.  The world is on fire. There is nothing but fire and rubble in every direction.  There are more surfaces on fire than those that are not. This is hell on earth. If hell was an actual place I¡¯d imagine that this is what it would actually look like.

    ¡°We have to leave, now!  Can you move?¡±

    Misty nods and gets up, seemingly fine.

    I lead the way and Misty follows.  I have been trying to head in a northerly direction, at least where I assume north to be.  It¡¯s not exactly easy to tell amidst all of this. We climb up the embankment and start weaving between buildings that are on fire.

    ¡°Eeeaarrrgh!¡± A screaming person runs by in front of us, he is covered in a large blanket of flames.  It¡¯s a child. Misty gasps at the sight, and starts moving to chase after him, but I grab onto her arm and pull her away.  She turns to glare at me, but I ignore her.

    We don¡¯t have the luxury of saving other people right now and what would she even do if she chased him down.  I forcefully pull her along and after a little while she stops resisting.

    A large crashing sound comes from my left.  Something fell down. We pause for a moment to wait for the dust to settle.  It¡¯s some kind of monster, a long and humongous snake-like monster. I can¡¯t see either end of the thing and it¡¯s diameter is about the size of a tavern or an inn.

    The snake like thing starts moving towards us at an alarming rate.  ¡°Run,¡± I lead Misty in the opposite direction. Is it rolling towards us, it¡¯s moving sideways, sweeping up people and entire buildings as it goes.  I notice that there is a gap below the snake-like thing, there definitely wasn¡¯t one before.

    It¡¯s about to strike us.  I quickly pull Misty to the ground with me.  The snake thing lifts up and flys just over our heads, raining bits of debri on top of us as it passes by.  It continues swinging itself into the air, into the darkness and out of sight.

    ¡°What the fuck was that?¡±  Misty practically screams at me.

    I help her to her feet and we carry on running ¡®north-ish¡¯.  ¡°I think it was a tail!¡± There are bits of people, blood and guts smeared all along the path that the tail moved through.  I feel like I¡¯m gonna be sick. Misty also looks really pale.

    Woah.  I stop dead in my tracks and Misty crashes into me from behind, but I don¡¯t care.  I had to get out the way of a galloping horse that was passing by. The horse itself was on fire, a true visage of the apocalypse if ever I¡¯ve seen one.

    I feel a sharp pain in my chest.  There¡¯s a sword sticking out of it!  The man that put it there shoves me out of the way forcing me to the ground.  Aaah fuck, it hurts. The man then grabs onto Misty and tries to pull her with him.  What he¡¯s trying to kidnap her in the middle of all this!

    I mean she¡¯s gorgeous, but come on, how about a little self preservation instinct first!  I use all of strength to pull the sword from my chest, god it hurts. And start applying healing magic.  I look up at Misty and the man still trying to grab onto her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking touch me!¡±  She growls at him and pushes her dagger so hard into his stomach that she ends up driving him right up against the side of a burning building.  She retracts the blade and stabs him in the gut twice in rapid succession, while grunting at him ferociously through her teeth.

    She then pulls her dagger out of his gut sharply, leaving a trail of blood.  She instantly twirls the dagger around in her fingers and seizes the handle in a reverse-grip.  She slashes upward with a long stroke in a lightning fast move, slashing the man all the way across his body, chest and through his throat.

    The man loses all strength and slides down the wall gurgling on his own blood.  Misty is panting heavily. She looks to me sharply with a fire in her eyes. I can¡¯t help flinch for a moment, before I realise that she¡¯s actually on my side.  I think.

    My healing is done and she helps me to my feet.  We carry on running and pass a couple of children sitting on the ground crying next to someones corpse, probably their mother.  Misty spots the sight and I increase my grip on her hand, without slowing down at all. Misty doesn¡¯t offer any resistance this time, but instead looks away from them in a very forced manner.  I can see by the look in her eyes, her heart is breaking.

    We jump over the wall that surrounds the town and carry on running through an open field.  I can see more fireballs raining down in the distance to either side of us. The fog is much lighter now, however we don¡¯t stop for a second.

    We reach the edge of the northern forest and carry on running.  The ground turns into a steep upward slope, but we don¡¯t slow down at all and keep running / climbing as bushes and branches scrape away at us.

    We pass into a large clearing in the forest as the we continue climbing the hill.  Just before we exit the clearing and head back into forest, I pause and turn back to face the town.

    From here we have a pretty good view of the entire town in the distance and I am shocked by what I see.  The entire town is covered in a black smog, with only the taller bonfires and piles of rubble sticking out and being visible.  The smog is mostly lying low above the town and does not reach up very high.

    The real issue is the thing that¡¯s towering above the smog.  An impossibly large black beast. It¡¯s so black it almost can¡¯t be made out against the night sky.  The beast has two heads and a long tail, it is so large that the span of its body cover most of the town and if it were to stand on its hind legs I am confident its heads would touch the clouds.

    One of the heads is currently busy spewing a massive stream of fire at the town that is barely hidden in the smog.  Misty is also staring at the spectacle with a mixture of awe and horror. What the fuck is an end game level boss doing wiping out a beginner''s town!  What the fuck is with the game balance here!

    ¡°Come on, we¡¯re getting the fuck out of here!¡±  I declare as I lead Misty back into the forest.

 Dont dwarves look kind of like children?

    I am swinging on the swing, swaying back and forth.  I always did like the feeling of the wind brushing against my face.  All my friends have gone home already. Mom¡¯s always late like this.

    It gets really boring here at school when I¡¯m one of the last children left.  Suddenly my phone starts ringing. I quickly hop of the swing and open my school bag.  After searching around a little I pull out the phone and answer it.

    ¡°Hello.¡±

    ¡°Hey sweetie.¡±

    It¡¯s mom.  ¡°Hi mom, where are you?¡±

    ¡°Sorry about that sweetie.  Mommy¡¯s going to be a bit late.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re already late.¡±

    ¡°I know dear, just wait a little bit longer okay.  Just play with your friends so long and I¡¯ll be there before you know it.¡±

    I sigh, what friends.  ¡°Sure Mom.¡±

    ¡°Okay, I gotta go, luv u sweetie.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye Mom.¡±

    I hang up the phone and return it to my school bag.  I stand there a while pushing the swing aimlessly while I try and pass the time.  I can¡¯t but help think about what my friend Mary-Anne was telling me about today. Could my mom and dad really be lying to me?

    I know parents don¡¯t tell their kids everything and that the world of adults is pretty complicated.  But this? This is kind of a big deal.

    No.  I need to find out for myself.  I find my resolve and head for the school gate.  My mom always comes to pick me up after school, but she is very busy at work and often quite late.  I wish she would let me walk home after school ends, we do live really close by. A lot of my friends travel home by themselves and they¡¯re also in third grade like me.  Honestly, I think Mom is just being too fussy.

    I¡¯m probably gonna get in big trouble for this and normally I¡¯d just put up with Mom being late, but I have a mission today.

    As I approach the school gate, I quickly look around to make sure that no one I¡¯m familiar with sees me leave the school grounds on my own.  Then I quickly slip out the gate and run down the sidewalk until I reach a portion of the school fence that is covered in tall bushes and hide in front of that.  Right now no one in school should be able to spot me.

    Next is to cross the road.  I look left, then right, then left again.  No cars, good. I quickly cross the road via the pedestrian crossing.  I follow down the street for another three blocks, carefully crossing roads as I go.

    Oh no!  I quickly duck behind the wall.  I spotted uncle Larry exiting the shop in front of me.  If he spots me it¡¯s game over. Uncle walks to his car, parked just a bit up ahead and gets in.  A few moments later he drives off.

    I exhale a sigh of relief, that was close.  I carry on with my trip, after one more block, I turn left.  Another two blocks down, I finally reach my destination, home.

    I unclip the side gate and close it behind me.  Chocolate immediately notices me and comes to greet me.  Hey boy, you doing a good job guarding the place? I pat him gently and his tail wags, quite pleased with himself.

    I walk up to the front porch and search the pot plant for the spare house key.  Found it! I quickly unlock the door and enter. The alarm keypad starts beeping at me.  I only realise now that I¡¯m too short to reach it! I quickly go around the corner, into the piano room.  If I don¡¯t hurry, the alarm will go off.

    I grab one of the short stools that are located in this room and drag it across the floor and hallway, back to where the keypad is.  I quickly climb up the stool and deactivate the alarm. Dad made the alarm code easy to remember, it¡¯s my birthday. Although I don¡¯t think he realised the fact that it would be easy for me too remember as well, not just Mom.  Probably not what he originally had in mind.

    I climb back down the stool and head down the hall and up the stairs.  Upstairs, the first door left is my sister¡¯s room. I open the door and enter.  I quickly put down my bag and push the silver power button on her computer, to turn it on.  This is the reason I ¡®escaped¡¯ to home early today.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    About two weeks ago my sister suddenly left home to go study in America.  She did so suddenly without even saying goodbye to me. This made me very sad.  Sis hasn¡¯t even called me once to say hi. Mom says it¡¯s because she¡¯s really busy at her new school, but something about the whole thing has seemed really strange to me.

    The computer has finished starting up and is now asking for a password.  I climb up onto the chair and enter the password. I¡¯ve seen my sister enter the password a bunch of times, it¡¯s really simple, just her boyfriends name.  My sister used to let me play games on her computer a whole lot.

    Mom didn¡¯t know, she didn¡¯t like me playing games, says their not good for young children.  I have to admit she was probably right. A lot of these games can be quite violent and are probably not suitable for most kids, but I never saw the harm myself, I mean they are just games and should not define how a kid behaves in real life.

    My friend Mary-Anne says that a lot of people are talking about a computer game that makes people disappear.  Apparently anyone who plays it disappears and is never heard from again. She says that the police think that they are all being kidnapped, but she knows of a bunch of people that are talking about what ¡®really happened¡¯ to the kids, that they were sucked into the game.

    What got my attention was the name of the game, ¡°It¡¯s not a game¡±.  I know that my sister couldn¡¯t wait to play that game, right before she left.  She was apparently going to play it with her boyfriend. It can¡¯t be a coincidence.  I think Mom is not telling me the truth and that the game took Sis away.

    After logging in, I find the icon for the game and double-click it.  The game starts up. I am presented with a screen with many sliders and options, with a man standing in the middle.  Char-ac-ter creat-ion. It looks like they want me to make my player.

    I start fiddling around with some of the options, It doesn¡¯t take long for me to create a girl, with blonde short hair.  I also find that a ¡®female¡¯ - ¡®dwarf¡¯ looks a lot like a kid my size, especially when I play with some of the sliders to make her much thinner.

    I want to make my player look like me as much as I can, so that if I meet my sister in the game she can recognise me.  I squint hard at Sis¡¯s full length bedroom mirror to try and get a good look at what my face looks like. I then carry on playing with the many different sliders and options.

    I sigh.  I am tired.  I have been trying to get my player right for at least an hour already.  This is really hard work. I think the result is pretty good, I mean It doesn¡¯t look exactly like me, but I guess it does kindof.  Well it is a game after all, so it was going to be impossible to begin with I suppose.

    I hit the next button and the screen asks me for a name for my player.  I know that in games like this you are supposed to make up a name to suit the player you created, but since my goal is to find my sister I enter my own name, ¡®Amy¡¯.

    I hesitate for a moment and then click on the ¡®start¡¯ button.  Don¡¯t worry Sis, I¡¯ll find you.

    Eh! What! The chair disappeared, I¡¯m falling!

    ¡°Eeeaargh!¡±  It hurts! I¡¯ve landed on the ground, but it¡¯s really hard.  I look around, but I¡¯m not in my house anymore, I¡¯m outside. Does that mean it worked?  Am I in the game? Will I be able to meet Sis?

    I¡¯m bleeding.  My arm is cut and my leg really hurts.  I fell a bit when I got here, it really gave me a surprise to just fall through the air like that, even if it was just a meter or two!  I¡¯ve landed on some kind of garbage heap, or it looks more like a wreck from some old demolished building or something.

    Landing on the rubble really hurt, my head is throbbing.  I trying to get up slowly. The sky isn¡¯t exactly blue, it¡¯s more of a grey color, there is a lot of smoke in the air, making it difficult to breath.  Where am I exactly?

    I look around a bit as I crawl over the rubble.  Everywhere I look, all I can see is destroyed buildings, scorched ground and smoke.  What is this place, it looks like a whole city was set on fire.

    I limp forward and down a ¡®path?¡¯ a bit.  There¡¯s someone just up ahead, around the corner of a broken wall.  I quickly limp over to the person. ¡°Um, excuse me-¡±

    My body freezes up.  I don¡¯t quite understand.  What¡¯s wrong with your head?  Where is the rest of it? How can a person have only half a head?  I don¡¯t understand. I don¡¯t-

    My body is shaking.  I can¡¯t seem to stop it.  My legs give way and I collapse to the ground.  This person is dead right? Tears are starting to well up in my eyes.  Sis where are you? Sis.

    ¡°Hey.  There¡¯s another one over here.¡±  Who is that? I turn to face the man that¡¯s pointing at me.

    ¡°Alright load her up, she¡¯s cute.  She¡¯ll fetch a good price.¡±

    I don¡¯t understand, who are these people?  One of the men comes over to me and picks me up in his arms.  ¡°Looks like you¡¯re also injured. Well at least your face isn¡¯t hurt.¡±  The man laughs to himself. He carries me over to a wagon and puts me inside, with about seven other woman.  They are all covered in various wounds and blood, but at least they¡¯re alive.

    The man closes and locks the door on the wagon and traps us inside.  The wagon is encased in metal bars, even the ¡®door¡¯ is made out of metal bars.

    I¡¯m scared.  Who are these people and where are they taking me?

    ¡°Alright let¡¯s get moving.  Hey, we¡¯re gonna go ahead so long, we¡¯re full up here.¡±

    ¡°Okay, We¡¯ll see you in Detron.  We¡¯re still looking for the VIP, and I¡¯m sure there are still more able bodies to be found here.¡±

    The wagons starting to move.  I quickly shout after the other man, ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯m looking for my sister.  Do you know her? Her name is Jessic- Aaargh!¡± What¡¯s happening. My head, it really hurts.

 The Wildlife

    I open my eyes.  I am lying down on the hard ground.  Well I am lying on top of some leaves and grass, but it does not make for much of a bed.  Where am I?

    I am in a forest, next to a large cliff face, that hangs over just a tad, providing a little bit of shelter from the elements.  It looks to be late morning, just based on the low-ish altitude of the sun, whose beams are filtering through the trees. Every direction I look, all I can see are trees.

    I sit upright.  That¡¯s right, we escaped from Heimos last night. Neither Hardoen or I knew what the fuck that giant monster was.  That thing was nuts, it was wiping out the entire city like it was nothing. So many dead people, probably Sarah too.  She¡¯s probably also dead. Everyone around me is dying, only Hardoen is left.

    Wait, where is he?  I look around, but Hardoen is nowhere to be found.  Did he die? No, we escaped together and spent most of the night running through the forest.  But he¡¯s not here now, he must of abandoned me. I can¡¯t say I blame him, I must be like dead weight.  I feel like I¡¯m dead weight right now.

    Everyone¡¯s gone, I¡¯m alone in this stupid world now.  Michael. Why did you have to leave me? Didn¡¯t you say you were going to protect me?  My body feels numb and very heavy. My chest is really tight, it¡¯s difficult to breath.  I feel like I¡¯m being crushed by the weight of it all.

    There just isn¡¯t a point to it anymore is there?  I pull my pretty dagger from its sheath on my belt.  My last memento of Michael, the only proof now that he ever existed.  I press the blade against my wrist and start dragging it across my skin.  This is enough right? I mean I don¡¯t have to do this anymore?

    As I drag the blade slowly across my wrist with a shaking and unsteady hand, I feel the pain from the cut.  It is a welcome sensation. It feels real.

    Blood is leaking onto the blade, staining it red.  Oh crap, I¡¯m making his present dirty, I feel like I¡¯m defiling his precious gift somehow.  I pause with a moment of hesitation, but ultimately find my resolve. I¡¯m sure he¡¯d forgive me.

    As I¡¯m about to continue cutting, I hear a rustling sound, something is coming.  I chuckle inwardly, what a waste of time. Here a monster is coming to finish the job.  I stop slitting my wrist and instead await my fate patiently.

    Hardoen!  He emerged from the trees and is carrying a bunch of twigs and branches.  I quickly hide my dagger and my wrist. What is this feeling of guilt?

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake?¡±

    I nod slowly.

    ¡°Well, I hate to put you to work right away, but we are losing the daylight hours here, so you¡¯ll just have to bear with it.¡±

    What is he saying?  There¡¯s work to do? He dumps his sticks in a pile and then picks something up off the ground and carries it over to me.

    ¡°Here, I need you to try and skin this.¡±

    He hands me a bird.  No this is not a bird, what is this thing.  It¡¯s big, bigger than a chicken. It looks like some kind of monster.  It doesn¡¯t have much feathers aside from its wings and most of its body is covered in some kind of leathery skin.  Its claws are serious business though, they are really big and sharp, and glint in the sunlight like they are made of steel or something.

    ¡°You have the only weapon between the two of us.¡±

    Seriously doesn¡¯t this guy realise I¡¯m a girl, how can he be so boorish?  Well I suppose in this world this sort of thing is probably pretty common.  I sigh and resign myself to the grisly task at hand.

    Hardoen gets to work building a small campfire in a patch of clear dirt.  He lines it with stones and fills it up with branches, sticks and dry leaves.  He then reaches into his side pouch pulls out a small glass vial, with an orange liquid inside of it.  After uncorking the vial, he pours a few drops of the liquid onto the campfire and then returns the vial to his pouch.

    Now he¡¯s just sitting there staring at the unlit campfire, what¡¯s he doing exactly?  All of a sudden the campfire starts smoking and flames start encasing the dry leaves.  He must of bought some potions from an alchemist at some point. I wonder what else he has in that bag of his.

    Come to think about it, I really don¡¯t know anything about this guy.  He doesn¡¯t interact with his party much aside from participating in and planning for combat.  All I really know about him aside from his role as a priest, is that he is pretty smart and kind of a total dick.

    Hardoen carries on tending to his fire, which honestly does not require much work at this point and leaves the bulk of the work to me, that is to say skinning this damn ¡®bird¡¯.  It is really hard, really gross and takes a really long time. And that asshole leaves all of it to me. Strangely enough though, the whole time while I was working my but off to skin this damn thing, I found the work to be really soothing.

    ¡°I¡¯m done.¡±  I hand the now skinless, feet-less and headless bird to Hardoen.  I had to also cut it open to carve out its insides, and It is still covered in blood.

    ¡°Not bad, you¡¯re a natural.¡±  He takes the bird and inspects it.  He flicks the bird around hard, shaking off most of the excess blood and puts a stick through it and rests it on top of some stones that he had stacked up to support it above the fire.  The fire itself at this point has mostly been reduced to burning hot coals.

    ¡°Uh.  I need to clean my dagger and my hands.  Actually I¡¯m quite thirsty as well.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately I haven¡¯t spotted a water source yet.  We are gonna have to go without for now. As for cleaning up, I recommend you wipe off with some leaves in the meantime, not much else can be done about that at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡±  I pause, wondering about something, ¡°Say where did you get this monster bird from, did you kill it?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s your staff?¡±

    ¡°Lost it in all the confusion back at Heimos.¡±

    ¡°How did you kill the bird?¡±

    ¡°I was out looking for something for us to eat.  That thing just came charging in from the sky, it clearly wanted my face for lunch.  So while it was charging straight for me, I introduced it to ¡®Respite¡¯. And then when it was writhing in pain on the ground, so I kindly introduced its skull to a nearby rock.¡±

    ¡°Defense, offense, buffing and now hunting, is there anything you don¡¯t use that spell for?¡±

    ¡°Cutting down trees.  Tried that out once, it doesn¡¯t really work.¡±

    I can¡¯t even comprehend what this guy is getting at.  ¡°Wait, so you can cast spells without your staff?¡±

    Hardoen carries on turning the roasting ¡®chicken¡¯.  ¡°Sure. Any magic user can cast spells without using a channeling tool or weapon.  It¡¯s just wasteful, uses much more energy and the result is often weaker.¡±

    ¡°Does that mean you left me alone while I was sleeping, in a forest full of monsters!¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Relax I cast ¡®Ward¡¯ last night before we went to sleep and again this morning.¡±

    ¡°Ward?¡±

    ¡°Oh that¡¯s right, I haven¡¯t told you yet.  After that last tussle with the goblin camp, I became a level three priest.¡±  He is only telling me this now! What¡¯s with this guy?

    ¡°Anyway, when I did, I learned two new skills, ¡®Ward¡¯ and ¡®Sacred blade¡¯.  Sacred blade is used to imbue weapons with holy magic, very effective against undead monsters.¡±  Wait did he just say undead, this world has shit like that too?

    ¡°And ¡®Ward¡¯ is used to create a repelling barrier around an area.  Monsters that approach it will instinctively turn away and leave the area.  It¡¯s more of a subconscious thing and will only work as long as you haven¡¯t agro-ed them or gotten their attention, but beyond that it¡¯s really effective.¡±

    ¡°I see.  It still seems risky though to leave me like that.¡±

    ¡°Sure, but to be honest we¡¯re out in the wild right now with little more than the clothes on our backs.  Everything we do is a risk at the moment. Now eat up, breakfast is ready. And we need our strength.¡±

    The smell of the funny looking meat has been getting to me for quite some time now, my stomach is practically clawing at itself already in hunger.  Haroen brings out two really big leaves for us to use as plates, they look kind of like water lilies and I use my ¡®sort of¡¯ clean dagger to carve pieces of the piping hot meat off for each of us.

    We gobble down the meat in relative silence.  It tastes funny, maybe a little bit like turkey, but it goes down really easily despite being clearly tough and overcooked.  I guess I am just that hungry.

    ¡°Is it safe to eat monster meat like this?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s difficult to answer.  Most people seem to think it¡¯s dangerous and certainly some monsters are poisonous.  But when compared to regular animals the same could be said anyway. I suspect that It doesn¡¯t matter and that it¡¯s just really taboo.  So you should be fine, just don¡¯t go bragging about it too anyone.¡±

    Once we are finished, Hardoen kicks sand on to the coals to put them out.  And picks up the bird, stick and all and slings it over his shoulder, holding it be one end.

    ¡°Come on let¡¯s go.  We can eat the rest of this later, but we have a lot of ground to cover.¡±

    Hardoen starts walking off into the forest and I follow him.  ¡°Where are we going?¡±

    ¡°Denos.¡±

    ¡°Denos?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a town mostly north of Heimos.¡±

    ¡°Is it far?¡±

    ¡°I suppose, if you are walking, then it¡¯s really far.  But it¡¯s the closest town to Heimos. That¡¯s why when we were running for our lives in Heimos I was trying to leave the town more or less from it¡¯s northern side.¡±

    I didn¡¯t even realise we had been going in a specific direction back then.  Come to think of it the sun is rising on our left side. I learned some time ago that the sun rises in the West and sets in the East in this world.

    ¡°Wait, you said ¡®mostly North¡¯, so we are travelling blind here?  Is there not a chance we will totally miss our destination?¡±

    ¡°Doubt it.  If we keep going north we will slam into a river that flows mostly North and a bit to the East, that river will take us straight to Denos.¡±

    Man, my hands are really sticky.  So is the rest of me for that matter, I could really use a bath.  The nice clothes Sarah gave me are also covered in blood. I wonder if she survived, no it seems impossible.  But I can hope right? Even if she did though, what are the chances that we would ever see her again, the world''s a big place right?

    I sigh, my thoughts are turning to Michael again.  I can feel the strength draining from my body. My body is going heavy again and I am forced to drag my limbs across the ground to keep up with Hardoen.  I really don¡¯t want to go on right now.

    Before I knew it I had completely zoned out and lost track of my surroundings, as a result, I bumped into Hardoen¡¯s back when he stopped dead all of a sudden.

    He whispers to me, ¡°Goblins.¡±

    What?  I look around him and there in the distance I can see a goblin, just standing there staring at us.  I only see one though.

    ¡°You¡¯re fighting them.  I¡¯ll stay back and provide support like normal.¡±

    I glare at him, this guy!

    He seems to notice my anger, ¡°You¡¯re the only one with a weapon.  Just do it, or we both die here today.¡±

    The goblins seem to have made up their minds about attacking us as the one I was able to see starts charging towards us and two more appear from the trees behind him.  I start charging forward to meet them head on, I¡¯m probably being reckless right now, but I can¡¯t really say that it feels like I care much.

    I feel Hardoen has cost some kind of buff on me.  It feels good, I feel powerful.

    The first goblin charges straight at me, sword first, but I am easily able to step out of the path of his blade and hold out my dagger in his path instead.  His own momentum easily carries him forward and my dagger slides across his neck effortlessly. He drops to the ground drowning in his own blood. It might be because of Hardoen¡¯s buff having gotten stronger at level three, but has it really become this easy to kill these things?

    The other two goblins are almost on top of me, I quickly dart to the side to chase down one of the goblins before they can both gang up on me.  I have realised for a while now that elves can actually move pretty quickly, especially compared to most monsters and humans.

    I approach my target, but recoil in a moment of surprise.  This goblin isn¡¯t wearing any pants! Normally these little critters wear animal skins, not always on their entire body, but at least always around their essential bits.  This little fucker in front of me has his dick hanging out for the whole world to see, not only that but it is fully erect!

    I swing my foot forward in disgust as he charges me.  I plant my foot firmly into his little green balls and he immediately stumbles forward at my feet, writhing in pain.  I take the opportunity to plant my dagger into the little shits skull.

    I turn around as I hear the final goblin catch up to me, he¡¯s on top of me a bit sooner than I expected.  I try to parry his incoming blade with my dagger, but the angle is awkward and I miss. The goblin buries the tip of his blade in my gut.  ¡°Aaaargh.¡± Fuck it hurts. This fucking green turd! I¡¯ve felt my anger steadily growing this last minute and now it threatens to boil over and consume me.

    He is just of reach of my dagger, so I lean over and grab the hilt of his sword, that he is still hanging onto and pull both him and his sword a little closer.  The sword cuts deep into me, possibly most of the way through me now and my body is wracked with unimaginable pain. But I am smiling. Smiling right into the pits of this monsters eyes as I drive my dagger into one of them.

    He lets go of the sword and rolls around on the ground squealing.  I collapse to the ground, in a kneeling position, his sword still sticking out of me.  My strength has already left me. It hurts.

    I notice Hardoen has come over to me.  He takes the dagger from my hand and finishes of the now almost defenceless goblin, before returning it to me.  I look up at him exhausted.

    ¡°Brace yourself, this is gonna hurt.¡±

    Huh?  He places his foot against my chest, grabs the hilt of the sword and pulls it out of me in one swift motion.

    ¡°Eeeeaaaarrrrggh!¡±  You fucking cunt! The force from his foot knocks me over on my back and I just lay there in pain for a while, devoid of all strength, while Hardoen starts healing me.

    Once he is done, he helps me back up, to my feet.  My strength is back, but I still feel the after effects of the hole that was in me.  Even when you get healed your mind doesn¡¯t forget the pain for a little while.

    ¡°There are people there.  Where the goblins came from.¡±

    ¡°People?¡±

    I follow Hardoen over to the corpses of two women.

    One is lying face down in the dirt, naked.  There is a lot of blood pooled underneath her and it looks like her throat was slit.  Her legs are spread a bit. Don¡¯t tell me, the goblin with the erection! He was raping her!  And she¡¯s clearly already dead.

    I feel sick to my stomach.  I can¡¯t stand this world, it¡¯s just too fucked up.

    I notice Hardoen walk over to the other woman who is lying face up with a big stab wound on her side.  She has also bleed out, but at least she¡¯s still wearing clothes. Hardoen places his fingers on her neck.

    ¡°She¡¯s got no pulse, she¡¯s dead.  But she¡¯s still warm and the blood around her wound is still wet, she must of just died moments ago.¡±

    He pauses for a moment and then, ¡°Heal.¡±

    It doesn¡¯t seem to have any effect thought.  I can¡¯t help but wonder where these woman came from and what on earth they¡¯re doing out here in the forest.  Maybe they also ran away from Heimos?

    ¡°Hmm.  So ¡®Heal¡¯ doesn¡¯t work if the heart¡¯s already stopped.  Is that what qualifies as dead?¡¯ Hardoen is mumbling to himself.  What he does next surprises me though, is he busy feeling up her breasts!

    No that¡¯s not it, he is pushing down into her chest quite hard and several times.  He then leans over to her and after breathing in deeply, blows air into her mouth, twice.

    Wait, what?

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±  I ask timidly, my voice is practically shaking.

    ¡°It¡¯s a little technique I learned to try and get a person¡¯s heart started again.  I think if her heart is beating, my ¡®Heal¡¯ spell might work again.¡±

    ¡°Is that technique called C.P.R?¡±  I ask him nervously and note the lack of a headache!

    Hardoen immediately stops what he is doing and turns to face me, his eyes have gone wide.

    ¡°You¡¯re-¡±  He doesn¡¯t even need to finish that sentence.

 Man-eater

    The breeze is gentle and soothing.  It is a nice warm night. I admire my nice little patch of soft grass that I am resting on, from which I have a great view of the clear starry sky above me.  My horse is tied to a nearby tree, sleeping quite peacefully.

    There are trees all around me for the most part, but to my side is a sheer cliff face drop off of about five meters, that gives me a nice clear view of road that runs from Heimos all the way to Denos.  I always pick spots like this to rest where I am less likely to be caught by surprise.

    I hear the clitter clatter of horse hooves and the rumbling of wagon wheels.  Another one? I¡¯ve already seen two wagons passing this way, headed for Denos.  Both were filled with women and a few men, no doubt on their way to be sold as slaves.  Those poor woman have a fate worse than death in store for them.

    I just came from Heimos myself, or at least what was left of it.  By the time I arrived, it was already nightfall and the town was under siege from some unbelievably powerful arch-demon.  A demon like that doesn¡¯t just pitch up out of nowhere without half the country hearing about it first. Which means someone summoned it.  But still I can¡¯t believe someone could summon something of that magnitude, it must have taken weeks of preparation and an unimaginable amount of magical power.

    I wonder if ¡®He¡¯ had something to do with it.  Regardless, I could not exactly afford to stick around and immediately turned around and gave up my only ¡®lead¡¯.  I rode all the way back here. Denos is about another half a days ride still, so I decided to spend the night here.

    After that I spent another day and night here, just sticking around, reluctant to just give up.  I wanted to see what this little event would flush out. But, alas, so far the only people that have passed by are slavers.  The demon must have been dispelled the same night already.

    What I¡¯m most curious about is how did the slavers find out about this event so quickly, it¡¯s as if they knew beforehand something was going down, and were literally waiting outside of town for it to go down.  I can only assume that they are somehow ¡®in on it¡¯. I am reluctant to go down to one of the passing caravans in order to ¡®ask them¡¯, I get into enough trouble with the Slavers guild as it is and I suspect that they might actually lock me up this time.

    Slave trade is perfectly legal in most cities on this continent, as decreed by the king.  However the Slavers guild was formed to enforce certain rules upon the trade and act as a kind of authority.  Basically the only people that can be made into slaves are criminals decided on by the royals, people that are to be executed and foreign invaders or prisoners.

    There are of course underground markets for slave trade that you can go to, to avoid these regulation, but it is not without risk.  If somebody recognises and reports someone that should not actually be a slave, and if the Slavers guild traces it back to you, well let¡¯s just say that even a slaves life is heaven compared to the punishment you will meet.

    The Slavers guild can only operate by the grace of the King and us such they will go to extreme measures to enforce law upon the business in order not to invite the King¡¯s ire.  That being said these bandit cockroaches are taking one hell of a chance enslaving the survivors of the Heimos incident en masse like this.

    I watch the wagon pass by underneath me and then unexpectedly one of the wagons wheels break.  Hmm, I don¡¯t like this. The men below me are arguing, the one accusing the other of driving to carelessly.

    What¡¯s really strange is that this slave wagon is holding only one girl and she is being guarded by several men.

    ¡°Well hurry up and fix it!¡±  The man barking orders must be the leader.

    ¡°Yes, right away!¡±

    I watch as the leader goes back round and climbs into the caravan again.  Some of his men are complaining about the boring trip and how there were not much ¡®spoils¡¯ to be found in Heimos.

    ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s have a little fun while we wait for the wheel to be replaced.¡±  The leader just said something that bothers me.

    ¡°You two over there, hold her down!¡±

    I can hear the girl crying out to them to stop and the sounds of her struggling against her many captors.

    ¡°There¡¯s not enough space here, you lot get out, only need the two of you to hold her down.¡±  The leader carries on, ¡°You guys can each have a turn with her when I¡¯m done.¡±

    The girl carries on begging them to stop.  I sigh, there¡¯s just no way I can overlook this happening right next to me.  Oh well.

    I get up, dust off my pants, pull out my axe and my parrying dagger, and jump off the side of the cliff.  The gentleman directly below me is kind enough to cushion my fall, although the sound of his bones cracking and splintering under the weight of my landing can¡¯t be very healthy.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    The remaining four men that climbed out of the wagon on their leaders orders, are staring at me in shock.  One of them looks up to the top of the cliff face five meters above us in disbelief. Stupid man.

    The leader already noticed the comotion and issued an order, ¡°Who the fuck is that?  Kill her!¡±

    I can¡¯t but help smile, it¡¯s play time!  The man behind me lunges forward with his spear, but I can hear it coming a mile away.  I easily step to the left and let the spear pass safely on my right. At the same time I swing my double sided axe out to my right and behind my, slicing the man''s head neatly of his neck.

    The other three men just stand there looking really dumb, until their leader who is almost done putting his pants back on, barks another order at them, ¡°Fucking kill her already!¡±

    The two men that were holding the girl down leap out of the wagon, with their leader soon to follow.  A sword comes flying at my face, but I use my axe to knock it out the way and at the same aim another is headed for my left side, I easily parry it with my dagger though, throwing the man off balance.

    I take the opportunity of the third man fumbling around with his crossbow to bring my axe around and cleave the off balance guy¡¯s midsection wide open.  He falls over backwards rather lifelessly.

    I hear the release mechanism of a crossbow behind me, sounds like that guys stopped fumbling and started shooting instead.  I lean my head to the side just in time to feel the crossbow bolt graze past my left cheek.

    I step in behind me and bring my body round.  My axe arcs low and sweeps through both the bowman¡¯s legs cutting, clean through them with enough force to lift the guy off the ground.  The force started rotating him till his body is horizontal and he is facing the sky. At which point he may have noticed that I had brought my axe back round and overhead, in one swift motion.  Before gravity can start working on him and put a stop to his temporary mid-air suspension, my axe comes slamming down into him, driving him into the ground. Gravel and dirt sputters out in all directions around him.

    After nearly cleaving the bowman in two, the other two men that jumped out the wagon had touched down and both brought their weapons to bear at the same time.  As the two swords start arcing towards me, one clockwise, one counter, I step quickly between the two of them. As I pass safely between the two of them, their swords closing in behind me I take the chance to offer one of them a devious smile.

    The two men notice it to late, I have already passed between them.  I feel a bit sorry for them, they put all their hearts into those swings.  Of course that meant that they could not possibly put a stop to them once their target had stepped out of the way and as a result end up burying their swords deep into each others sides.

    The leader has leapt from the wagon as well, intending to bring his sword down upon me, but I don¡¯t feel like killing him just yet.  I instead step away and towards the coward that has been shaking in his boots the whole time, hiding behind his shield, instead of attacking me.

    Just one, two, steps and I¡¯m almost on top of him with such speed that he instinctively raise his metal braced tower shield in front of him.  Fine, have it your way. As I step in for the final pace, I bring my axe round towards him. It collides with his shield with enough force to crumple it like a wet rag and send the man hurtling through the air, into the cliffs rocky side, with a large crashing sound.

    I waste no time and step back towards the leader who, to my surprise has already stood up from his failed swing and readied himself for another attack.  Hmm, this man is actually quite skilled isn¡¯t he? I take another step toward him, but have to put the brakes on as the leader quickly swings his sword towards me.

    His blade arcs upwards diagonally past me as I arch myself over backwards to avoid it.  But alas, at the same time I brought my right leg straight up, with all my power, into his crotch.  I can¡¯t but help be disappointed, the whole thing really is over too quickly.

    Well at least I have the feeling of his pelvis shattering from the force of my kick into his balls, as he is lifted at least two meters into the air.  I guess he¡¯ll never be able to use those things again. I can¡¯t but help muse as the man sprays vomit and blood from his mouth and nose, as he falls back to the ground.

    I stand there just a moment as I enjoy the sight of him convulsing on the ground, with his eyes rolled all the way back into his head, leaving only the whites showing.

    ¡°Aaargh.¡±  That fucking hurts!  There¡¯s a sword stuck in my side, who the fuck put it there!  Oh, that¡¯s right. I forgot about the guy that was replacing the wheel.  I pull the sword out of my side and flick it away to my left, it flies away and buries itself in the rockface.

    The disarmed man cowers before me as he watches my wound close up on its own.  I draw my face in close to his.

    ¡°Tell me, do you know of a man that goes by the name of Darvos?¡±

    He shakes his head violently from left to right.

    ¡°Too bad.¡±

    The man¡¯s scream fills my ears.  Now that that¡¯s taken care off, I turn my attention to the girl left behind in the wagon, she is staring at me in shock.  I must say though she is really cute.

    ¡°You okay?¡±

    ¡°Ah- ah- yes.  Thank you. For rescuing me.¡±

    ¡°Oh I was just passing by, and it didn¡¯t really sit right with me, what they were getting up to.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    ¡°So I¡¯m heading to Denos, you wanna come?  If you¡¯re coming from Heimos, then I guess you probably got no better option at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, that is true.  Do you mind?¡±

    ¡°No problem.¡±

    I help her out of the wagon and lead her around and up the back of the hill, to the top of the cliff, where my trusty steed awaits me.  I untie my horse and help the girl onto it. After mounting it myself and grabbing the reins, I ask the girl, ¡°My name is Hannah, whats yours?¡±

    ¡°Oh, pleased to meet you, I¡¯m Sarah.¡±

 Im so lonely

    We finished eating supper. We were able to catch a few rabid squirrels that wanted to eat us, so now we got to eat them instead. I lean back in satisfaction, I¡¯m stuffed. I really hope Hardoen is right about it being okay to eat all this monster meat.

    Ow! I feel something take a bite out of me and quickly flick it off my neck. I am no longer concerned about the various insects that crawl on me from time to time, I¡¯m mostly too tired to care, I just care that they are eating me alive, it¡¯s annoying.

    ¡°Hey, what are you doing?¡± Hardoen has started kicking sand on to the fire we used to cook dinner. ¡°It¡¯s really cold tonight, we¡¯re gonna freeze to death without that fire.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t be helped, we need to get some sleep.¡±

    ¡°Even more reason to keep it going then, I¡¯d rather not die of hypothermia in my sleep you know.¡±

    ¡°¡®Ward¡¯ is not going to keep us safe if we have a fire attracting attention.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t we take turns to sleep then and stay on guard, with the fire burning?¡± At this point I¡¯m practically pleading.

    ¡°Do you seriously want to keep waking up to fight monsters? We need our rest.¡± He replies coldly. ¡°We¡¯ll snuggle up together for some warmth.¡±

    ¡°Oooooh. And when did you decide that exactly?¡±

    ¡°Relax, I assure you, my intentions are pure here.¡±

    I snort, ¡°I know they are. There¡¯s no way someone like you would be stupid enough to try anything funny with me.¡±

    For the first time ever I get to see Hardoen genuinely laugh. It was a small and short chuckle, but a laugh nonetheless.

    After the fire is completely dead and some of the smoke has parted, the two of us lay down in our would be bed. We found a spot with a collection of boulders and fallen trees that make for a partial shelter, very partial.

    Hardoen is lying on his side, with his arms at his side, straight out and he looks like a human log, he¡¯s so stiff. I nearly laugh out loud at the sight. I lie down next to him, with the back of my head to front of his.

    I snuggle up tightly against him, but leave some room between my butt and his crotch. He seems like a bit of a virgin and I suspect that if we¡¯re pressed too tightly against each other, that he¡¯ll probably get a hardon and I¡¯m pretty sure neither of us want that.

    He¡¯s still lying there like a log, he¡¯s so awkward, it¡¯s even making me feel uncomfortable. I sigh, what a pussy. I reach over and grab his right arm and pull it over me and around my stomach. I do make sure to give him one final warning though, just in case: ¡°That arm stays there, don¡¯t get any ideas.¡±

    I can feel him nod in agreement. Good. It really is getting quite cold.

    When we found out about each other this morning, that we are both from the same world, I was really excited. I wanted to ask him all kinds of questions, but the bastard wouldn¡¯t even tell me his real name. I offered some details about myself, like name, age, location, etc. In the hopes that he would open up to me a bit, but instead he started lecturing me.

    He said that who we were back in the real world doesn¡¯t matter, that even if it did, those people, who we were, were fakes. He said that in a world like this, a ¡®raw¡¯ world he called it, that here, who we really are shows itself, as a world this unforgiving has no room to spare for your facade¡¯s. His point was that if this is who we really are and this is the world we live in right now, then that previous world and who we pretended to be was utterly irrelevant and as such did not need to be discussed.

    So in the end despite our huge discovery, I still know next to nothing about this guy. You would think that that would make me feel even more lonely than I already do, but strangely enough ever since the big ¡®reveal¡¯ I feel less lonely.

    I¡¯m still a little upset that he was being so curt with me and it bugs me a whole lot, that a lot of the things he said really made sense. Since coming to this world I seem to have become a completely different person, now I enjoy things like fighting and killing monsters, I even find it therapeutic in a way.

    It¡¯s also annoying me right now that I have to seek warmth from this cold person behind me. I even feel a little guilty for cuddling up next to another guy. I really miss Michael.

    <hr style="margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px">

    Last night was really cold, but this afternoon is really hot, the sun is literally baking me alive. The weather in this world seems to be really inconsistent, like they threw down a ¡®var temperature = random(5, 35);¡¯ in the game code or something.

    Misty snaps me out of my thoughts. ¡°Hey Hardoen. How do people normally travel from Heimos to Denos, isn¡¯t there a road or something?¡±

    ¡°Yeah sure there is.¡±

    ¡°Then why are we trudging through the dangerous monster infested forest?¡±

    ¡°Because I don¡¯t believe that the dangerous human infested road is going to be any safer for us.¡± I reply sarcastically. ¡°Besides, we don¡¯t have horses and the road takes a long and winding approach to get to Denos. Travelling on foot it would take as far too long, this approach is much more direct.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you, how come you know so much about this world. Before the whole C.P.R thing, I would never have even suspected you of being from the our world, you just seem too much like a citizen of this world.¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°When I first landed in this world it didn¡¯t take me more than five minutes to figure out I¡¯d been sucked into the game. I have spent every spare moment I had since then, cramming my head with us much information about this world as I could. I figured it was going to be essential to my survival.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re definitely not normal.¡± I can tell by her expression she doesn¡¯t mean that in a good way.

    ¡°When I first met you in that tavern, you looked to be in pretty bad shape, like this world had seriously put you through the wringer. So I think I¡¯ll stick with being ¡®not normal¡¯ thank you very much.¡± I watch Misty as she grimaces, clearly remembering some unpleasant things.

    ¡°Look!¡± Misty exclaims as she runs ahead. When I catch up to her I see what got her attention. It¡¯s a river! More to the point, I suspect It¡¯s ¡®the¡¯ river. We both lean down and start scooping up water to drink, neither of us have had a drop of water for a day and a half now, it¡¯s like drinking the nectar of the gods.

    We were already at dangerous levels of dehydration to be honest, aside from the dry lips, throat and skin, I myself had also started feeling dizzy. The heat from today had sped up the symptoms quite dramatically as well and I was starting to get seriously concerned.

    After resting by the river for a little while, just taking in the refreshment of it all, Misty speaks up, ¡°I want to take a bath. I¡¯m covered in muck and dried blood, it¡¯s really unpleasant.¡±

    ¡°Um, okay?¡±

    ¡°Go wait over there behind that big boulder.¡± Boy, bossy aren¡¯t we? ¡°Oh and if you try and take a peek, I¡¯ll castrate you.¡± She taps the handle of her dagger for added effect.

    ¡°Got it.¡± I sigh and go sit behind the boulder, it provides a decent amount of shade for me. I can hear Misty entering the water somewhere behind me.

    My thoughts drift to our immediate future while I wait. Things we will need to do or find out once we land in Denos. I also ponder various other things like the history of this world, at least the parts that I already know of and how and in what way is it linked to our world, things like that.

    Quite some time passes with me lost in my thoughts, when I realise that Misty is making an awful lot of noise in the river water. No, wait, I recognise this sound. She must be trying to wash the blood out of her clothes.

    Of course that means that she is completely naked now right? Well makes sense, she did send be behind this fucking rock after all. I have to seriously resist the urge to not try and take a peek at her. Yes there is a seriously hot naked elf girl behind me right now, but it is not worth losing my balls over.

    Just picturing her has already given me a hardon. I sigh, I really feel like jerking off right now, but I¡¯m sure that she would hear me with those sensitive ears of hers.

    What¡¯s this? The water has stopped moving and I hear footsteps, did she get out?

    And then it happens! Misty comes around the corner and stands in front of me. Her slender naked wet body glistening in the sunlight. My mouth actually does hang open at that moment, but I quickly come to my senses, or something approaching sensibility I guess.

    I jump to my feet and quickly spurt words out of my mouth, ¡°Take it easy, I definitely wasn¡¯t peeking!¡± But I can¡¯t help it my eyes are glued to her naked body.

    ¡°Oh. I see somebody else doesn¡¯t agree with you.¡± She is looking down at my bulging pants when she says this. Misty walks right up to me and places her hand on my chest, I feel like a deer caught in headlights.

    ¡°You know, I¡¯ve felt so lonely.¡± She says looking at me with the saddest face I¡¯ve ever seen. ¡°I just want to forget.¡± Or so she says as she kneels down in front of me and pulls down my pants.

    My fully erect penis flaps up and down wildly from the sudden force. Misty grabs the shaft with her right hand and puts it in her mouth. She starts sucking on the head tightly while licking the underside with her tongue and using her hand to stroke the shaft. My confusion is immediately drowned out with pleasure and I instinctively grasp her pretty blonde head in my hands.

    It feels so good and the sight of her ¡®working it¡¯ below me, while her blonde hair shifts around on her small cute shoulders is driving me crazy. Misty lets go of the shaft and instead places her two hands around the back of my calves instead. She uses them as grips as she drives her face forward and back, stroking most of the length of my dick with her lips and tongue. It¡¯s a different kind of intense as she basically skull fucks herself.

    ¡°Aaarggh!¡± What? She drove her ¡®claws¡¯ into my left leg, that¡¯s a little too wild for me. I¡¯m about to pull my leg away from her grip, but she senses it and while sort of smiling with my cock still buried in her mouth, she plunges her face forward deep into my crotch. I feel the end of my dick going into the back of her throat and the tip of it being almost forced downwards at the end.

    What? Is this deep throat? The sensation is so overwhelming, literally nothing else exists at this moment. Misty pulls back a little bit still smiling and my reason totally leaves me. I must have that feeling again.

    I tighten my grip on her head and plunge my cock back into her throat. I pull out a bit and do it again and again, the feeling of my ¡®head¡¯ shoving it¡¯s way into that ultra tight space is unbelievable, my legs are getting weak.

    Misty seems to sense this and pulls me down onto the ground. She then gets on top of me and guides my manhood into her. Aaaah. Another great feeling.

    She arches her back and starts sliding her hips along my pelvis, driving my cock deep in and out of her. Her body is wet and slippery, it slides effortlessly against mine, it is also cold from the river water. This only serves to accentuate the feeling of the intense wet warmth surrounding my dick right not, as the soft flesh inside her massages it along its full length.

    God I¡¯m so close to coming already. Misty leans down and drags her tongue across my neck, sending shivers down my spine. She then bites into my shoulder, it doesn¡¯t hurt as much as it did with the leg, by this point I¡¯m to busy riding the high of the feeling from my dick that¡¯s about to burst.

    ¡°Hey.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°What?¡± I look up to see Misty standing over me. Why has she got her clothes on?

    ¡°Seriously, just what are you doing?¡±

    ¡°Huh, what¡¯s going on.¡± Ow! There¡¯s a bite wound on my shoulder and another on my leg.

    ¡°I found you passed out, with this thing gnawing away at your shoulder.¡± She holds out her dagger, on the end of which is a cute little ball of white and grey; fur and teeth. Well cute might not be the right word for it, those teeth look sharp and most of its fur has been dyed red with my blood.

    ¡°Holy shit! Is that a Scubble?¡±

    ¡°A Scubble?¡±

    ¡°Yeah remember, I told you about them quite a while back.¡±

    ¡°Come to think about it, I do remember you mentioning something like that.¡±

    ¡°They were really feared by the locals. They use a kind of mind magic to induce hallucinations and while you¡¯re paralysed, they feed on you. Of course the real danger is not just bleeding out, but rather that other monsters will be attracted to the smell of fresh blood and come snack on you, while you¡¯re still ¡®out of it¡¯.¡±

    Misty glances towards my crotch which is currently still testing the limits of how far the fabric of my pants can stretch and then she looks back at me with a murderous glint in her eyes.

    ¡°So tell me then, what exactly were you hallucinating while I was busy taking a bath?¡±

    ¡°Nothing!¡±

 Whiplash

    Clip, clap. The sound my shoes make as I walk along the cobblestone path that leads into the slums. The slums in Denos are quite small when compared to other major cities, this is probably owed to the fact that Denos is quite a prosperous city.

    Denos is a prosperous commerce and trade center located centrally for most of the country. This city is also a port city and has seafaring access to the majority of the ocean trade routes. They also happen to host the head offices for several major guilds, including the Slavers guild.

    This has automatically made Denos the number one slave traders destination, this city boasts an average ratio of two slaves to every single citizen living here, an outrageous number when compared to most other places.

    Of course with all this going on, the underground slave trade market is booming and the guild is having a hard time getting a handle on it, which suits my interests just fine.

    The scenery around me quickly changes, turning from one of bustling city-scape, to dank and dreary muck, with broken down buildings and the smell of decay, piss and shit in the air. Home sweet home. No do-gooders would willingly come into a place like this. It can be difficult to see sometimes, people here don¡¯t light many candles and there is very little moonlight tonight.

    As I pass by several ¡®establishments¡¯, some of the woman for ¡®rent¡¯ are trying to get my attention. People in a place like this, literally ¡®smell¡¯ money. These overused and worn out slave prostitutes can sense that I am a cut above the rest of the filth around here.

    Of course I ignore them. These damaged goods are not to my taste, I usually go into ¡®town¡¯ for my slave girls, I like them fresh. I am in a particularly good mood today, as I am about to come into a small fortune.

    Earlier today my men loaded off all the slaves that we had ¡®acquired¡¯ from Heimos at one of the underground slave markets. I have already made deals for selling off most of them. It¡¯s true that the biggest prize and the reason we were supposed to be in Heimos that day, got away. But to be honest I got a hold of so many slaves that day that it completely drowned out the loss from the one girl I was gonna get paid for.

    I have arrived at my destination. I enter the tavern that is on my left.

    ¡°Yo!¡±

    ¡°Hey boss!¡±

    All my men are gathered here. I decided to keep them all together in one place. Our client for the Heimos job seemed like someone powerful, not to be trifled with. So I¡¯m keeping my men together in one place, in case he decides to take revenge on us for losing the girl.

    I go over to the bar, ¡°Hey Mac. Pour me a drink.¡± The old man jumps to attention and immediately complies with my order. This old man is the owner of this tavern, he is also the only person that works here. I don¡¯t remember what his name is anymore, so I just call him Mac, he feels like a Mac.

    My men and I took over this bar yesterday already and I ¡®asked¡¯ Mac to keep my men happy and supplied with alcohol. This ensured that they would stick around like I told them too. They are all general scared shitless of me, I am a pretty decent bandit leader in that way, but they can still be really stupid sometimes.

    Before I have a chance to enjoy my drink, I hear someone entering the bar from behind me. I can almost feel the man¡¯s presence, he has a strong aura about him. I already know, he has come.

    I turn around on my bar stool, to face him. The room all around me has quieted down considerably, even my brainless men can tell, this guy is dangerous. The figure before me, standing near the entrance to the bar, is wrapped from head to toe in old and disgusting clothes. Even his face is heavily concealed. At a glance, he looks like a slums beggar, but any experienced fighter would be able to instantly tell just from his presence and his posture, that he is anything but.

    ¡°Where is the girl.¡±

    I respond to his stern question, ¡°I don¡¯t know. One of our wagons was attacked on the way here. Whoever it was, killed several of my best men and must have taken the girl.¡±

    ¡°Unacceptable.¡±

    This guy really is harsh. It¡¯s like the rest of my men in this room don¡¯t even exist to him, he hasn¡¯t so much as glanced around, like we are the ones under threat here, not him.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°Honestly it would have taken someone of considerable power to take out my top fighters like that, I had assumed that you had a hand in it.¡±

    ¡°You assumed wrong.¡± The mysterious man¡¯s voice is highly agitated. ¡°It took weeks of planning and preparation, you can not even comprehend the resources and costs that went into summoning that archdemon.¡±

    I must admit, I still don¡¯t know why they needed to summon a fucking archdemon in the first place and level an entire town. If they just wanted one fucking girl they could of just hired us, no need to go through such trouble. Honestly I thought they were mad when this man told us what they intended to do. I did not expect to find the girl they were after alive amidst the wreckage of that town and yet we found her, alive and mostly unharmed, just as he said we would.

    ¡°Look there¡¯s nothing I can do about that now. I¡¯ll just have to return your deposit.¡± My men all turn their heads to look at me, various expressions of shock on their faces. I know. That is not something they would ever have expected to hear from me. But my instincts have never failed me, and they are screaming at me, that this is not someone I want as an enemy.

    ¡°Not good enough.¡± The voice replied coldly. Between the slits in the scarf that is wrapped around his head to conceal his face, concealed in darkness, where his eyes should be. I see it. A yellow glow!

    ¡°No fucking way? You¡¯re-¡± I don¡¯t even have time to finish my sentence. The disguised man pulls a glowing yellow sword out from under his cloak and immediately swings it.

    One would think that with no one in immediate striking distance this guy must have lost his marbles. Reality, however could not be further from the truth. The man¡¯s glowing sword extends outwards at least five meters, maybe more. As he swings it, it ripples through the room, like some kind of whip made of glowing yellow energy, being shaken wildly. The energy whip-sword sweeps across the room from right to left.

    As it flicks around like several dying fish tied head to tail, each, I watch in horror as my men lose limbs, heads and are otherwise cut in two. There are wood and splinters flying everywhere from the furniture that are being ripped to pieces, some of the fragments embedding themselves in my flesh as I hit the ground trying to escape the path of destruction.

    The whip-sword rips the walls to pieces as it passes over them and portions of the roof starts caving in. By the time it reaches the bar pieces of wood and glass are barreling out in all directions with thunderous crashing noises. The pieces of shrapnel are skewering what few men are surviving the carnage.

    The noise dies down and the whip-sword finally retracts itself back into the shape of a regular sword, minus the still yellow glow coming off it. I look around at the destruction that threatens to cave in the entire building in awe. That was one sword swing!

    I¡¯ve heard stories about what ¡®these¡¯ guys are capable of, but so few mortals ever even laid eyes on them, so I always took the stories with a pinch of salt, but not after today! Although the second I realised what he was, I already knew, that this day would be my last.

    The cloaked man seems to be fine, despite all the shrapnel that was flying around, in the next moment I find out just why. Three of my men had already recovered, and fired crossbow bolts at him. I watch in wonder as the bolts strike some kind of invisible shield and disintegrate into yellow magical dust.

    The man flicks his left arm out in the direction of the three bowmen and three yellow bolts of energy shoot outwards, penetrating the skulls of the three bowman, leaving gaping holes in their heads.

    ¡°Take this!¡± One of my men, Garoth, has a lit grenade in his hand, and was readying himself to through it. Garoth was a nut job, and was always tinkering with different kinds of explosives. As Garoth hurls the grenade at the man, he simply disappears in a small puff of swirling yellow energy and the grenade passes right through it, landing instead at the feet of some of my still alive men and a few of the not as a alive ones. The ensuing explosion ensures that many of them join their comrades in the after life.

    I quickly scan the room in search of the man and find that he has teleported behind Garoth and already cut him in two. The man then proceeds to teleport around the room a few more times, cutting down my remaining men, one after the other. He doesn¡¯t even need to parry a single sword swing from my men, as he simply teleports away when in danger and kills someone else first, instead.

    At this point an insane, manic laughter is escaping me, oh to be crushed like fucking insects. The last surviving man in this establishment, aside from myself, has rushed to my side and helped me to my feet.

    ¡°Boss we have to go!¡± He has already started running for the door, but the man has no intention of letting him escape. He stretches out his arm in the direction of my man, his fingers stretched out and palm facing upwards. As he slowly raises his arm, my man is lifted off the ground and engulfed in towering yellow flames

    My man screams in agony as the fire not only chars him, but also seems to start dissolving him. His agony only lasts for a few seconds, as the man all of a sudden closes his palm into a tight fist and swings his arm towards the ground.

    My man immediately plummets to the ground with enough force to rip into the flooring and send pieces of wood flying, with a loud crashing sound. The yellow flames dissipate instantly and my man is vapourised, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of dust and bone fragments.

    The man then turns his attention to me, we are alone now.

    ¡°Why?¡± I ask calmly.

    He replies in a rather uninterested fashion, ¡°No witnesses.¡±

    I steady my legs and charge him, brandishing my sword for the first time since this shitstorm hit. I, the leader of the great and infamous red belt bandits will not die with my tail between my fucking legs!

    The man raises his hand before I can reach him and my vision is filled with bright yellow light, and then- black.