CHAPTER 5 – THE TIME IN ULLMET

The morning sun crept through the window of my room at the inn. The town's sounds began to pick up, chatting in the streets, carts being pulled, and children playing. I had grown bored with practicing what I would call Mana Sense.

Determining it was time for me to get up, I stretched out of habit. It really was nice to have a body. I would have to remember to thank Zozi again, but before that, I would need to go and pick up the food I had purchased from the food stalls yesterday. It would still be a while before the orders were ready, so I should go by the adventure’s guild.

First, I headed back down to the street with the market stalls, and like I thought, they were still setting up for the day: my next stop, the adventurer’s guild. I wanted to check if anyone could give me the rank-up exam the receptionist mentioned taking me from a D to C rank.

The adventurer’s guild was pretty busy as the adventurers picked from the quests on the board and taking them up to the receptionist. The line was growing as more and more adventurers lined up. I made my way to stand in line too.

The adventurers were a lot less rowdy than how I remembered them. After thinking about it, not only was the town different but the people as well. The standard of living had improved, and there were smiles on most people's faces. It was a far cry from the town I remembered.

As I was lost in thought, my turn came up. I was greeted by the same receptionist as yesterday.

“Ya’ find a job? Mr. Newbie?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Actually, I had other business to attend to today. I just wanted to check if there was someone available to give me the rank up exam?”

“Nope, the earliest someone should be here is next week. Sorry, I should have told you that yesterday. If you got time, though, we do have some free combat training going on.”

With the shops still setting up, I did have some time to get some practice in. It would even be a good thing.

“I have some time for that.”

“It should be starting out back behind the guild in a few.”

The area behind the guild had straw dummies used for practice strikes and archery. It looked like they were set up for the bare minimum of training, which was expected.  The attendees were a group of 5 men. They were all relatively young, still in their teens. In front of them stood the instructor, he didn’t appear to be much older, but he at least had some facial hair.

The instructor called out to me, “ Hey, you here for training?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit rusty and was hoping to sharpen up.”

“Well, we are glad to have yah. We had 5 and 6 will make an even number.”

I lined up with the rest of the men, and we started with some light stretches. Then proceeded into some jogging to get the blood flowing. Pretty standard stuff. I was glad to know I could handle it with my new body. After the light warm-ups, we got down into practice strikes.

Against the straw dummies, we each held a dulled practice sword. These were lent out to the attendees for practice. The instructor had us practicing our stances and our strikes on the dummies. Pretty basic stuff that even I knew from my job as being a guard.

For the others, they were all ears soaking up the information because, to them, it indeed could mean life or death. I mean, look at me. I had managed to at least take one of the dire wolves with me when I died just because I understood these basics.

The sun was still high in the sky, and I could feel its warmth on my skin. Unlike the other attendees, I hadn’t even broken a sweat. It wasn’t because I wasn’t exerting myself but because this new body was more efficient. I wasn’t even feeling the least bit tired from our training.

After practicing the basics of our footwork and strikes, he had us pair off against each other. This was the part that I was most concerned about. How far behind would I have fallen, being I had just relearned how to walk.

A young man squared up in front of me, bringing his feet shoulder length apart with one in front of the other. His body was turned ever so slightly, making him a somewhat narrower target. Both hands gripped his sword. Even though the blade was dull, it didn’t mean it couldn’t hurt or even cause severe injuries. The instructor told us to not try and harm each other. It was more of a mock battle to practice movements with a living opponent.

I wasn’t going to circulate my mana through my body like I did when I had fought the Mimic. It would be overkill, and I could hurt the kid.

 He stepped forward, swinging his sword from the side. The kid's movements weren’t half bad for a newbie. I brought my sword to parry on the side. I clang rattled through the air. Moving my feet to adjust my stance for a counter-attack took me longer than I had expected. I was still green in this new body. The kid was able to back up before I could launch my counter.

I would have to get more into this. I stepped forward to continue my assault. I launched off my foot, jumping right in front of him… but I was a little too close to my surprise. I body slammed right into him, we both fell down.

Neither of us was injured, well, except for my pride. Considering I should be the veteran here, I just kind of ran face-first into someone. If this was a real battle, I’m sure I would have been skewered on the end of his sword. They say the secret to becoming a master is a ton of practice, and that is what I did for the rest of the training.

Luckily there were no more instances of my pride being wounded so bad. By the time we were done, I was moving pretty well again. Not as good I used to but good enough, I wouldn’t look like an idiot. I would have to add this to my training, and I wondered if Zozi could create something for me to practice strikes and dodging with.

With the training concluded, I said my goodbyes and thanked the instructor. Back when I was still alive, you would have to have paid for training like this. I could add that to the list of how things had changed.

♦♦♦♦♦

It was already in the afternoon I needed to get the food I had ordered for Zozi. I made my way back to the food stalls I had found yesterday. I made my way through the crowds of people who were here shopping. The first shop I visited was the fried cake lady.

“How you doin’ sonny? I didn’t think I’d see you today; it was getting pretty late.”

“I’m sorry about that. I got caught up in some training at the adventure’s guild. I thought I would give you some time to set up, but I spent more time there than I thought I would.”

“No problem, your order’s ready, but how you going to carry all of it? You don’t seem to have a cart.”

I blinked a few times, astonished I hadn’t realized that. I had this magic bag, but things disappearing right in front of everyone would cause a panic. Even if people knew magic items existed, something like the magic bag wouldn’t be something people typically see.

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I let out a chuckle. “I can’t believe I didn’t think about that. Would you be able to bring it by the Crowned Pig? That’s the inn I’m staying at.”

The fried cake lady let out a sigh. “I can, but it will cost ya’.”

I made the arrangements with the fried cake lady and the other shopkeeps to bring the foodstuffs I had bought to the inn. I’m sure Zozi wouldn’t mind spending a few more copper so I wouldn’t cause a commotion. I would bring a lot of unwanted attention to myself if I were to use this bag in public.

Once back at the inn, I let the receptionist at the front counter know I would be staying another night and that I had some deliveries coming. I decided not to get food tonight as I had planned to snack on some of the tasty treats I was hoarding for Zozi.

I spent the spare time I had waiting practicing my mana sense. I could tell where the receptionist was and sense her coming up the stairs to my room up until the very moment she was at the door.

Knock, knock knock. “Mr. Ruten, your delivery is here. They placed it in the storeroom.”

“Thanks! I’ll be down in a moment.”

♦♦♦♦♦

In the storeroom, they had packaged the sweets in cake boxes. There was a pretty good number of them. Considering how much I spent there should be. Zozi would be happy with this.

Opening one of the boxes to check the contents, the smell of fresh fudge-filled the air. The receptionist was standing next to me; her eyes seemed to shine as she stared at the chocolate fudge. Her wavy black hair bounced around as her head turned back and forth, surveying all the boxes. She must have just realized what they were filled with.

I think this was the first time I seen her not act extremely professional. Maybe she was getting comfortable, or she was like Zozi, where the only thing on her mind was treats. Either way, seeing a beautiful woman exude such innocence made my heart skip a beat.

“Excuse me, but would you like to travel the world with me?” I asked.

Her brow furrowed as she looked at me and her cheeks began to blush. Perhaps from the out of the blue question from a stranger or realizing how she acted just moments ago. “Sorry mister Ruten. I couldn’t do that; I need to tend to my inn. I couldn’t just pack up and leave.”

It was my turn to blush.

Akk… How could I ask something like that? That was so embarrassing. I can’t believe I blurted that out. Maybe dyeing made me bolder, but I couldn’t believe I asked her that out of the blue.

Deciding to pretend I didn’t just say that, I offered her some of the fudge. Nodding her head up and down as she eagerly reached for the fudge, I had safely rebounded.

After I set a portion for myself to eat aside, I opened the magic bag and thought about storing all these boxes with the sweets. In an instant, all the boxes vanished.

Mouth half-full of chocolate fudge, the innkeeper gasped. “Graaghhh! Whagh was that?”

Grinning as I tied the magic bag closed. “It’s a magic bag from a dungeon. Pretty cool, right!”

She nodded, then her eyes widened. “We can’t have anymore?”

“Nope, that was it. I have to get this to someone who ordered it. In fact, they might be a little angry we took some. I need to get going, so I won’t need to stay for the rest of the night.” I handed the receptionist the key and left to go back to the Dungeon.

She looked a little dejected, and I was sure it wasn’t because of my manly charisma but had to do more with the boxes of treats I had stored away.

♦♦♦♦♦

“Halt, we have closed the gates for the evening. You shouldn’t head out after dark. There have been reports of a gang of bandits attacking merchants recently.” The gate guard said while standing in front of the gates to exit Ullmet. He was dressed in the same leather tunic and light armor I used to wear when I was a guard.

I was still a D rank adventurer, so my guild badge wouldn’t help much.

“I’m not carrying cargo. I’m sure I’ll be fine. The bandits probably wouldn’t go out of their way for me anyways.”

“I can’t really stop you if you want to leave, but I really would suggest you stay put in town and leave in the morning with other caravans heading out.”

He must have been a good guy to stop me from making a stupid decision, but I really wanted to get these treats back to Zozi. I enjoyed my time in Ullmet, but I was too embarrassed to stay another night there after being rejected by the innkeeper.

“Thanks, but I really would like to leave.”

The guard moved aside hesitantly, letting me leave the town.  

♦♦♦♦♦

The dirt road was illuminated by the light of the moons high in the sky. They were no longer full. That was proof enough that Zozi’s mark had kept me from fading back into the empty void.

Not long after leaving the town, I could sense people off in the tree line. They began approaching me, several of them holding torches to light their surroundings. It didn’t seem that dark to me with the full moon out.

A few were circling behind me under cover of darkness, but I could senes them with mana sense. They were clearly going to use those others sneaking around to ambush me.

A rather large man that looked like he hadn’t bathed in months was the one to first approach me.

“Haar harr…What have we here?”

“Just I traveler,” I said.

“Well, we are just some traders. We will trade your possessions for your life,” the rough-looking bandit said as he belted out another laugh.

They all clearly wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

The men that were circling around seemed to have gotten into their positions as they had stopped moving.

“I see… an interesting offer, but I have nothing of value I can offer you.”

“Well, you can start by handing over that pouch.” He gestured over to the magic bag that was hanging at my hip.

“Of all the things I have, this is the one thing I can’t let you have.” Zozi had to give me this bag for operation tasty treats, and after everything she had done for me, I wasn’t going to let her down.

I felt like I wasn’t in any real danger. Perhaps it was the cold nighttime air or the moons high in the sky, but I felt like I couldn’t lose at the moment. An urge to fight was filling me.

The large man reached for my collar, I expertly sidestepped, and he was left grasping at air. The shocked look on his face didn’t last long as I followed up with a kick to the back of his head, sending him tumbling.

The surprised look on the faces of the other men he had with him vanished as they charged me. Expertly I dodged their incoming attacks as if dancing around their swings and grabs. They were not even on the level as the boys that the adventure’s guild was training.

I had no room to counter-attack among their barrage, but I kept up with dodging them until suddenly I felt a searing pain in my back. Looking down, I saw the tip of a sword protruding from my belly. I had completely forgotten about the other sneaking up from behind and hadn’t kept track of them.

The blade slowly slipped back out, blood dripping from the wound. It hurt, and it hurt a lot. However, I didn’t feel any fear. The urge to fight only grew stronger, almost as if I couldn’t contain it anymore.

The smug looks of the bandit staring at me began to change into looks of confusion. I imagine they were expecting me to cry out in pain and start begging for my life, but what they were getting was a sinister smile that had spread across my face.

I began to circulate the mana through my body and through the tip of my sword. Spinning around in one quick motion, I cut the man behind me in half at the waist. The mana enhanced blade slid through him like a hot knife through butter.

The bandit's confused looks quickly changed from that of confusion to fear, and the ones who had the most sense began to make a run for it.

I launched my sword through the air at one of the ones that had begun to run. It hit its mark, sticking out of him like a dart. Causing him to fall face forward.

Next, I leaped forward in between two of the guards that were too dumbfounded to move, grabbing each of their heads in each of my hands and slamming them to the ground. The force was so overwhelming that their heads split like melons.

The running bandits turned back to see what had happened; they were horrified by the grisly scene.

Running forward, I grabbed my sword out of the man’s back and gave chase. Not giving them another chance to run. Each of their heads fell to the ground. It was almost if they were in slow motion.

Only one more bandit was left that had attacked me, one of the ones from the ambush group. He was darting in the opposite direction as these ones. I was going to give chase, but then I had realized I had just taken so many lives without giving it the slightest thought.

I could easily have given chase, but I was confused. Confused by the lack of guilt I was feeling. Mixed emotions ran through me, but the guilt of killing so many wasn’t among them. I was afflicted by the urge to give chase and squash him. The let down of the fight being so one-sided, but there was also happiness at getting my revenge for stabbing me.

Concerned that if I continued down this path, I might really become a monster. I decided I shouldn’t continue, so I let the last bandit escape.

Massacring all these people wasn’t what the human would have done. He would have been scared but fought. He would have also been torn between killing but not if it meant his own life.

At the moment I don’t think they could have killed me and it was more me killing them for sport. The human me wouldn’t have done that.

I just wasn’t human anymore…

I checked my wound; it had already healed since the time the battle started. Zozi had said this body would be hard to kill, and she wasn’t wrong. After being stabbed clean through, my wound had already healed. Not even a scar remained.

What if they would have taken my head instead? Could I have healed from that? I would have to be more careful going forward.