After walking inside, I was expecting the place to be a crowded mess, but surprisingly there were only a few people here and there. I was even starting to wonder if I was in the right place. Looking around, I saw that the guild house was just one huge hall with doors on both sides.
I stopped a man who was passing nearby and asked.
"Excuse me, could you tell me where the adventurer guild is located?"
The man looked at me like I was an idiot before saying: "Are you blind or something? That door right behind you." With that, he freed himself from my hand before I had the chance to thank him and continued on his way.
Turning around, I noticed an inconspicuous brown door, with some words written on it. I told Ai to add those words as the translation for adventurer guild and made my way inside.
Once I entered I was even more disappointed. There was only one stall with a person reading some book behind it and a lot of papers placed on that stall. I made my way over and said:
"Is this the adventurer guild?"
The man looked at me, place the book down and said:
"Yes, do you want to register?"
"Yes, sir."
"Take a form, fill it up and give it back to me." Said the man as he passed on the form.
"Sir, I can't really read or write." I replied as I felt my cheeks getting hotter. Not knowing to read and write was getting more embarrassing by the day.
The man looked at me for a good second but didn't say anything. He picked up a pencil and asked me:
"Name ?"
"Ethan Knott"
"Two names? This is the first time I've seen a noble who can't write. Age ?"
I kept giving him information while paying attention to what he wrote so that Ai can record it. There were all basic questions and after he finished filling up the form, he placed it on top of another stack on the desk before saying:
"Follow me to the back so I can check your level and give you a badge."
As I followed the man to a room in the back, Ai said to me.
[I managed to complete a basic alphabet and can now translate for you.]
'Great. At least I will not have to embarrass myself anymore, thanks.'
After we reached the room in the back, the man made me place my hand on a stone tablet, on which words started appearing soon after.
[That seems to be a representation of your status. It has your level, age and parameters.]
The old man wrote something on a card before passing it to me together with a badge that according to Ai had the letter E on it.
"This is your adventurer card and badge. You will need the card to take on quests at the guild. Also, you must always wear the badge on your clothes while on a quest. You will have to wait until tomorrow to go and pick up a quest from the guild so I can pass on your information. That will be all."
After I took the card that looked no different than an ID card back on Earth and the badge, I thanked the old man and made my way outside the guild house. Walking through the crowded streets I asked a few people and managed to find an inn. I bought a room until tomorrow, for a total of two silvers and made my way towards it.
Inside my room, I laid down on the bed and started learning the alphabet of this world. According to Ai, the language here was quite easy and learning the alphabet should be enough for me to read and write. After tormenting myself for the rest of the day and half the night, I finally managed to remember all the sixty two letters of their alphabet and went to sleep.
In the morning of the next day, I got some directions from the innkeeper and made my way towards the adventurer guild. Anna's disappearance and learning about the war brought a feeling of pressure to me, an urging to grow stronger fast. Walking through the city for five or so minutes, I finally reached the adventurer guild.
This place was exactly as I imagined, with strong looking people walking in and out constantly. I made my way inside through the crowd and finally say how it looked inside. There was a big room, with tables in the middle, fully packed with adventurers drinking or chatting. On the side was the quest board, separated into ranks from F to S. I walked up to the counter, near the quest board and waited in queue for my turn. When it was finally my turn, I asked the girl behind the counter.
"Excuse me, I just registered and I was curious about what quests I could pick."
She extended her hand and asked for my card. After checking up the card and looking through some paper she said:
"You can pick up quests from ranks F and E. You are only allowed to have three quests active at once. After picking up your quests, come back here to register them with me."
She passed me the card back and I went to look through the quests. After looking through all the quests I only picked up one rank E quest nearby.
\\Clear the bandits\\
\\Some bandits have set up camp in the forest outside the city and keep attacking the merchants traveling to and from the city\\
\\Kill all the bandits and try to rescue any captives. You will need to bring back a stolen item or a captive as proof.\\
\\Reward: 100 silver + 10 silver/ rescued captive\\
After registering the quest with the guild, I asked around and made my way towards a weapon shop in the marketplace. As soon as I entered, a kid that looked no older than 10 came up to me and said:
"Welcome to our store, sir. What weapon are you looking for?"
"Can you show me what spears you have for sale?" I was in need of a weapon and I only knew how to use a spear.
"For how much?"
"I only have around 50 silver." Anise left me 60 silvers for a month at the inn and decided to save a few in case I fail the quest.
"Follow me."
He led me towards the depth of the store, where a handful of spears were on display.
"We don't have that many spears because not many people use them."
I looked through the ten or so spears that were on display. The cheapest one was around 10 silver and the most expensive one was a full 20 gold. I looked at a spear priced at 50 silver and asked: "Do you mind if I try it for a bit?"
Seeing him nod, I picked up the spear from the raft and weighted it a bit. It was slightly heavier than the one I used in the village but it wasn't that big of a difference. Seeing me moving the spear around, he started telling me the characteristics of the spear. I had no idea what any of those meant but it looked sturdy enough so I decided to just buy it. After paying the 50 silver, I thanked the boy and made my way towards the forest outside the city.
I arrived there around noon, and wishing to finish the quest by nightfall I started running through the forest randomly hoping to find the bandit camp. While I was searching, I heard a whooshing coming from up front, I hid behind a tree on instinct and saw an arrow pass by the place I was before.
'Looks like I found them.' I got out from behind the tree and started running in the direction the arrow came from. Arrows kept coming from the front but I was too fast and managed to easily dodge them.
After dodging two more arrows, I saw a man sitting up a tree with a bow in his hand. The man jumped down and started running away but he was too slow. After getting close enough, I used my spear to hit his legs from behind. When he stumbled down, I placed my spear at the back of his neck.
"Wait, don't kill me, please."
"That depends, where is your camp and how many of you people are there?"
"Huh?" the man sounded confused and tried to turn around. I pressed the tip of the spear harder, even managing to pierce a small wound on the back of his neck and said.
"I didn't say you could move. Where are the other bandits and how many are there?"
"Wait, I'm not a bandit. Don't kill me."
Now it was my turn to be confused. I eased on the pressure and asked.
"Then what are doing here, all dressed in black, trying to kill me?"
"I was hunting for food and thought that you were a bandit."
I was about to retreat my spear when Ai's voice sounded inside my head.
[Don't. He's probably lying.]
Deciding to trust Ai, I pierced a bit deeper in the back of his neck before saying.
"One more lie out of your mouth and I'll kill you. Now tell me where the others are?"
The bandit finally gave up and said:
"Will you let me live if I tell you?"
"Depends, now answer before I get bored and decide to try to find them on my own."
"Ten minutes further in the direction I was going. There are a total of around 50 of us. I am only a scout and never participated on any robberies, please let me go."
I stabbed my spear and pierced his neck before saying: "Sorry, I'm on a mission to kill all the bandits. You are no exception."
I wiped the blood from my spear on his clothes and was about to move in the direction of the camp when Ai said:
[Check to see if he has anything of value.]
I checked his pockets and managed to find around five silvers. I wanted to take his bow as well but I couldn't carry that into combat so I just left it here. After walking for around ten minutes, I reached a clearing in the forest where tents were set up. Bandits could be seen walking all around.
"That bandit lied again, there are at least 100 of them here. Good thing I was careful and didn't just run straight in."
I moved back a little, climbed up a tree and decided to wait for the sun to go down. I couldn't take on 100 people at once, and had no idea how strong they actually were.
Around sunset, I noticed a bandit making his way towards me.
'He must be the shift change for the one I killed.'
I waited patiently, and when he passed right under my tree I jumped down towards him. He lifted his head towards me and was about to scream but it was too late as I thrust my spear down his open mouth, piercing all the way down to his stomach. He was dead before he could even let out more than a gurgling sound. Searching his body, I picked up 2 silvers and two black knives. I placed the coins in a small bag and tied the knives around my waist. Since my clothes were white, I also grabbed the guy's clothes to make getting noticed at night harder. It felt a bit disturbing to steal someone else's clothes but I had no other choice if I wanted to complete my plan. I also hid the coin bag at the base of the tree to avoid the coins making any noise while I was moving around and alerting the bandits.
I continued to wait there and kept watch over the camp until midnight, when sounds of snoring could be heard all around the camp. There was no light inside the camp so I had to rely on moonlight to make my way in. Grabbing my spear, I slowly walked towards the closest tent.
After reaching the tent, I lifted the cloth that was covering the entrance as slowly as possible. Inside, I could barely make up the shape of a person laying down. Seeing that there was only one bandit, I stabbed his heart in one swift motion, killing him instantly.
After that, I continued killing bandits one after another. If any tent happened to have more than one bandit sleeping together I would use the daggers I stole to kill them at the same time. After finishing killing around 40 bandits a message appeared in my vision, showing my status.
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 18;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 9/600;
Health Points: 60/60;
Mana Points 40/40;
Level: 4;
Vitality: 6;
Strength: 8;
Dexterity : 5;
Intelligence: 4;
Resistance: 6;
1 free stat point
———
System Points: 0;
Spirit: 380;
]
'Looks like I leveled up.' I was excited but I didn't stop as I made my way towards the next tent after adding the free point in dexterity. I cleared all the tents except the central and biggest one, which I left for last. It was the size of ten normal tents combined. Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked inside.
This tent was the only one that still had light inside. There were crystals similar to the ones I saw inside the cave back in the village. After slipping my head inside, I noticed that the tent was split in two. The room I just stepped into had a lot of cages stacked up on top of each other, with girls tied up and gagged inside all of them. Their ages varied from the youngest looking no more than 14 while the oldest looked about 30.
As I slowly made my way towards the other room, the girls inside the cages started getting agitated, trying to pull at the ropes that tied them and letting out muffled groans. The noise was quite loud because not long after they started getting agitated an enraged voice came from the other room, accompanied by the sound of footsteps.
"What is all this ruckus? Do you want another whipping?"
I moved to the side and hit behind a cage in the back, carefully observing the situation. I would prefer it if I could just take them by surprise, but that didn't look like a possibility anymore. Not long after, the cloth the acted as door for the other room parted, and a tall man dressed in black like the other bandits walked in. Behind him were another two bandits, each of them carrying a sword. That was weird as I never saw a single sword on any of the other bandits I killed. The one that walked in front, and I just assumed he was the leader, was a youth, no older than 30, carrying a wooden staff in his hand.
[He is a magician and judging by the mana fluctuation around him, his level is most likely higher than yours but not by a lot. Retreating is advised.]
I stared at the bandit leader while pondering Ai's words. I was quite sure that if I got the chance I could kill him before he even had the chance to use his magic. The problem was the two swordsmen that walked right next to him.
'Ai, any insight about the swordsmen?'
[The walking pace and gait suggests deep sword knowledge and noble background. Your chances of success in this mission just dropped to under 5 percent. Please retreat.]
I was honestly feeling the same way, but getting away is going to be difficult as well.
'Ai, you recorded all the books inside Anise's laboratory. Do you know how magic works in this world?'
[From what I can figure, I works using your imagination. At low ranks, magicians use chants and magic circles inscribed into objects to cast spells, while at high rank, they can use wordless casting, making magic a lot easier. The staff in the hands of that bandit probably has a circle inscribed inside, making him able to cast the a spell by just channeling his mana inside the staff.]
'How fast is it? Do you know what spell it is?'
[It should take between one and three seconds and I have no way of identifying the spell.]
'So just bolting out of the tent probably is also risky.' Left without options for now, I decided to wait and see how the situation unfolds.
While I was busy speaking with Ai, the leader reached the closest cage and ordered one of the swordsmen to open the cage and let out the girl inside. The swordsman showed no mercy and grabbed the girl that looked around 16 years by her hair and dragged her to the leader, making her kneel in front of him. The leader looked at the terrified girl with a cold look and said after taking the gag out of her mouth.
"What is all the ruckus about? Was the beating you received earlier today not enough?"
The girl was obviously shaking from fear, she bent forwards with her face right next to the leader's shoes and said.
"I'm sorry, there was an assassin walking in here and we were scared." Said the girl while pointing back towards the cage I was hiding behind.
"This is bad." Having no time for anything else, I used my spear to cut the tent right behind me and started running towards the woods. As soon as I walked out of the tent I felt a scorching heat coming from behind, making me stumble forward and fall down. As I stood up and looked back, I saw that the tent and the cage I hid behind were all in flames. Two shadows made their way through the flames, running straight at me. I knew they were the swordsmen from before and that I couldn't hope to win against them so I started running through the forest again, with the two after me, slowly catching up.
[They will catch up to you in 20 seconds.]
Hearing Ai's calculation, I knew that I will probably have to fight them, but decided to get as far as possible hoping at least the magician will be left behind.
Twenty seconds later, I turned around and used my spear to swipe the attacks coming from the two swordsmen and opened a slight gap between us. I was about to try to speak with them at least but it seemed like they had no such plans, because they opened some space between them and attacked me from two sides right away. With two attacks coming from two different direction, I had no way to block them both so I just rolled backwards to dodge and give myself a bit more time to come up with a plan.
After rolling out of the way of the attack they didn't even give me time to breathe as they followed up with another attack. My balance was still a bit off from the roll so I couldn't do another one. With no other choice, I moved to attack the one on the left while leaving myself open to an attack from the right side. The one I attacked on the left retreated as soon as he saw the spear moving towards him, making me miss as my right side was sliced by the sword of the other on. Feeling the sword cutting through my flesh, I also redirected my attack to hit the one on the right, but he stepped back as soon as he saw me targeting him. With both of them retreating a few meters backwards I finally got some breathing room but there was a two fingers deep cut on the side of my body. Applying pressure with my right hand to the wound to slow down blood loss, I used this time to speak to Ai.
'Looks like I failed this time. I see no way of winning this. Do you have any plan, Ai?'
[I don't.]
Hearing her words I decided to just accept it. It's not the first time I died and I already knew what will happen. I looked up at the sky through the branches of the trees surrounding us.
'Too bad I won't be able to save this world after all. I'm sorry I failed you again, Anna. Hope you got to meet your mother at least.'
Letting out a sigh, I looked back down at the two swordsmen that by now started moving towards me again in the same formation, my eyes calm without a single trace of fear or despair.
'I might die today but as sure as hell I'm taking you guys with me.'
Making my decision to go down together with the swordsmen, I let go of my wound and spear and dashed towards the one attacking from the right. Charging forth, I used one hand to move his swords away from my heart. Getting pierced by his sword on my right side, I endured the pain and hugged him close with my other hand. The other swordsman didn't cancel his attack and pierced both of us with his sword from my back. I turned my head back and used one of the knives from by belt to slice the neck of the swordsman behind, before doing the same with the one in front. All three of us fell down to the ground, the two of them dead with both their swords inside my abdomen. One piercing the right side of my chest, right into one of my lungs and the other one through my stomach.
As I felt darkness engulf my vision and waited for death to take me as well, a chuckle escaped my lips.
"Hehe..I got you."