The doc looked through the window of the metal tube, and I could see his mouth moving, but I heard nothing. I saw the doctor giving a thumbs-up before walking away from the glass window.

Here we go, I guess.

Suddenly, the whole metal box shook. Violently. I shuddered but tried to remain calm. This was all part of the process, right?

I watched as the walls of the metal box seemingly began to melt before my eyes. The tube was now shaking so much that I found it almost impossible to remain standing.

This eventually led to me completely losing contact with the ground, and I began floating upward before hitting the roof of the metal tube. Or, i thought i would, but somehow the roof had disappeared. The walls extended far upward.

The floor of the tube became hard to make out, and I found myself floating inside a huge melting metal tube seemingly stretching into infinity on both sides.

The walls began to glow red. It continued to get redder and redder, until There was nothing but bright neon red in my view. I reached my hands out to try and touch the walls of the cylinder, but it wasn’t there.

Suddenly, an incredible force launched me down the tube.

I struggled to keep my eyes open due to the immense wind speeds, and I continued to build speed until I suddenly hit something. I found myself lying face down on the floor of the metal tube.

My hat floated neatly downward and landed perfectly on top of my head like some sort of cartoon.

I got myself off the floor and I looked up. There was no tube. The only thing that remained was the floor. I was basically standing on a huge metal saucer.

I got onto my feet and looked around. The place I found myself in looked like a shack. Have you ever seen one of those ancient huts with grass roofs? Yeah, that’s basically how this place looked.

I quickly frisked myself, confirming that I had everything on me. Revolvers? Check. Gunpowder? Check. Knife? Check. Money suitcase?

Shit. I hope the doc keeps his promise and doesn’t scam me out of all that cash.

Looking up, I realize that a lady had been staring at me the whole time.

“Oh, pardon me miss. I didn’t mean to intrude on anything.”

The woman looked at me like I was talking japanese.

“Err. Do you not understand English? What country is this?”

“Grð mooþu freᛒja?” The woman asked me.

“...”

I just walked out of the house.

Once outside, I looked for any signs or anything that could help me know where I was.

After walking around aimlessly and asking a few strangers for directions (And getting no useful answers) I tripped on something. I tried to get up off the ground, but I found my leg stuck in some sticky substance.

“What the-” Was all I could say before the lady from before hit me upside the head with a pan.

...

“Ugh.”

When I woke up, I found myself restrained to a metal post with rope. “What in the world?”

“Exþell mullð, Frigrid.”

I looked up to where the voice came from, and saw a man dressed as a knight.

“Hello, outsider. The translation spell I have cast on myself should make you able to understand my words.”

I looked to where the new voice came from, and saw a man dressed in what looked like a hooded bathrobe. “Yep, I hear you.” I spoke.

Translation spell. That’s useful information. Wait, is this guy implying he knows magic?

‘First things first’ I thought. “Why have you chained me up to this post?”

“We thought you might try to harm someone.”

“Hey mister, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just...”

I thought about telling them the truth. That I was a time travelling gunslinger from the future, sent here to retrieve a lost scroll of power on request of a crazy old doctor.

“I’m just a passerby.”

“I see.” Said the robed figure.

“Well, as a matter of law, it’s a requirement that every ‘passerby’ or otherwise arriving in our town gets checked at the council of truth.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“I see. Well, sorry for my rudeness, I was not aware of this law.”

“Name’s Faron. Faron M. Dick.”

“ᛒryd.” the knight voiced. His voice was deep and confident.

“And my name is Aleþ. Nice to meet you, Faron.” The robed man added.

The lady from earlier, ‘Frigrid’ I'm guessing, was handed a coin from the knight. Payment for capturing me, I suppose.

“ᛒryd, please remove this man’s restraints.” Aleþ said.

(Okay it’s getting annoying to copy paste those runes, so I'll call them Bryd and Alep from now on.)

The knight didn’t hesitate for a moment before he cut the ropes tying me to the metal pole.

“Thanks.”

Aleb and Bryd simply nodded, before pointing me toward a building in the middle of town. It was called ‘Council’.

“The other Evaluators will be ecstatic to meet our newest townsmember!”

I got up from the floor and dusted myself off. Alep and Bryd turned their backs on me, and began wandering toward the building.

For a moment, I got a sick feeling. Like I wanted to shoot them both in the back and just make a run for it into the forest. I even put one hand on my revolver, debating it for a single second.

I decided against it. They had been so hospitable toward me so far; I had no reason to kill the two. Besides, if I need to stay here for an entire day, I need to be conservative of my bullets. This place didn’t exactly look like it mass produced them.

I quickly removed my hand from my holster and continued to follow the two men.

Once we were inside the Council building, I was surprised as to how big it was on the inside. It looked like a regular shack from the outside, but inside it was simply massive. There were many trinkets strewn about inside the building, there was even a full set of knight armor neatly on display for visitors to take a gander at.

“Now, Faron, I need you to follow Bryd into the council. You don’t look like you’re carrying any weapons, but if you are, please discard them before entering the room.”

I snap my fingers, remembering that I have a bowie knife strapped to my belt. “I do have a weapon. Sorry for not announcing this earlier.” I pull the sharp knife out of its sheath, before driving it into the visitors table, down to the handguard.

They probably don’t know that the revolvers on my hips can do far worse than a simple knife, and seeing as they didn’t react to me keeping them, I did.

“Thanks for ruining my table, jerk.”

I snicker before following Bryd into the room. I swear I saw the knight crack a smile through the chainmail of his helmet.

“Welcome, visitor.” I heard a very old and wise voice call out from the darkness.

“We’ve been expecting you.”

The room fell into utter darkness as Bryd exited the room, closing the door behind him.

“Your first trial is to light up this room.” The old man called out from the dark.

I looked around the room and spotted a single torch hanging on the wall. I took the torch and began waving it around the room. My gaze landed on a mirror on the wall, and I decided to bring the torch closer to the mirror.

The light from the torch hit the mirror on the wall, reflecting the light into another mirror. The light continued bouncing from mirror to mirror until the whole room was baked in light.

“Well done!” The first old voice said.

“Thanks, cool mirror trick you have here.”

“Why thank you! It was my idea.” A different, but similarly old voice spoke out from the now bright room.

I looked up at where the voices came from for the first time, and I saw two very old and very wise looking men and two women of similar age.

“So, who are you?” I asked the group of old people.

The leftmost lady extended her arm in a greeting.

“That is Grylla, our master of deduction. She’s mute, hence why I'm speaking in her stead.” The voice of a kind old lady rang out into the room. “And I'm Edna, master of healing magic.” The old woman nodded.

Healing magic? Maybe I don’t need to waste my money on getting cured after all.

The leftmost man then spoke up. “My name is Fredric, and I specialize in the retrieval of powerful scrolls. The old man made a quick nod. “I would love to show you an example of such a scroll, but I'm afraid I cannot as everyone present would perish.”

I made a mental note to not mess with Fredric.

Finally, the right mage spoke up. “And I am grand overseer Deacon, Beast tamer.”

“And you are?” Deacon asked.

“I am Faron. Faron M. Dick.”

“All right, with formalities over, it’s about time we began the evaluation.”

I watched as a pedestal slowly rose from the floor, and atop it sat a black, almost crystal-like sphere.

“This is what we call a seeing stone. From touching it, we will be able to sense your intentions here, and some basic knowledge about your language, and race. You seem human enough, but it’s happened before that people live without knowing they have other race’s genes.”

Other races?

I decided to hold my questions for later.

“So, I just put my hands on your weird crystal orb?” I asked, as I began walking toward the pedestal.

“Indeed.”

I put one hand on the orb, feeling a slight sting as lightning forked from the sphere to my fingers.

“That’s normal. Just put your other hand on the orb, and we can begin the ritual.”

I did as he told me.

“Good. Now, close your eyes.”

Hesitantly, I did as he told me, and shut my eyes.

“Fool.”

I immediately opened my eyes, and to my surprise the room was now empty.

Time seemed to slow down again, as I got a strong feeling that danger was approaching.

I turned my head to my left, just in time to see a knife’s edge going for my throat.

I ducked, dodging the attack.

The figure lunging towards me was shocked, and fell on their stomach, landing neatly on my back.

I straightened out my back again, launching the person backward.

Not even giving them a chance to regret their decision, I pulled out my revolver before spinning around 180 degrees and shot them once right between the eyes before their body even hit the floor.

“Suits ya.”

I did a flashy spin, twirling my revolver in my hand a few times before re-holstering it.

“What in the world was that?” I heard a voice, seemingly coming from the corpse I just shot.

Impossible. He should be dead.

Suddenly, the man I thought to be dead appeared right in front of me. I could see the blood still oozing from his head where I had shot him.

“That didn’t feel like an arrow.” The corpse remarked.

I took a step back, in shock that they were still alive.

Nobody could survive a shot like that.

“Oh, Faron. Did you really think a vampire such as myself would succumb so easily?” The corpse laughed, before flashing his dagger-like canines.

“What... are you?”

“Your worst nightmare.”