William woke to the sounds of clashing steel, roaring flames, and shrieks of pain. He rushed to grab his sword and shield, hook his sheathed daggers to his thighs and making the tough decision to leave the rest of his belongings in the shed, darted out the door. The firs thing he saw was Wallace halfway to his hut sprawled on the floor. Blood pooled around him. William ran over and leaned to check for a pulse but only got cool stillness. He gritted his teeth in anger and got back to his feet, stomping towards the main fight occurring around the well and the overall center of the village.

Two bandits saw him and rushed William intent on turning him into a pincushion with their twin daggers. William felt nothing as they approached, too cold and apathetic now to feel anything. Their movements were slow to William and with a simple twirl to the right of the first bandit, he timed a slash across the back of the bandit as William squatted in reaction to the attack of the second bandit. As the blades breezed over William’s head, he pivoted and in an upward arcing slash cleaved across the front of the second bandit. William heard the pair hit the ground at the same time. William turned to look for more just in time to see a big bruiser of a man barrel into him. William was sent flying and expected the first dirt to hit his back, but instead just saw a flash of stone and the feeling of open air below him. As he arced downward, William had just realized that he was in for a harsh landing.

With a resounding thud and simultaneous snapping of many bones, William’s limbs twitched as he crashed into the bottom of a hard stone floor. He tried to get up, only losing seventy HP but couldn’t move. Anything below his head was immovable; he had been paralyzed. His attention however was drawn away from that as he had seen that he wasn’t alone down there. Jane and his father were also down there with him, dead and eyes open but unmoving, horror stricken on their faces. William screamed and broke into a guttural cry.

Why him? Why them? He repeated the same two questions as tears poured forth and he slowly got short on breath. He was pulled out of the notion as he heard a familiar soft voice pleading, “No, please, please no!!” then he saw it at the top of the well. Stacey had just had her throat slit. He saw the life fade from her face as her body slumped on the edge of the well. Next to her was an already dead John and many of the other villagers. He heard maniacal laughter from the bandits peaking over. In unison, the bodies were tipped over the edge and started falling. The bodies thudded at the bottom of the well creating a cacophony of thumping as William felt and saw blood spray onto him.

William had no energy left and just waited, too horrified to react as he saw oil start to be poured into the well and watched as a small layer of oil eventually reached his current chest height. A torch was dropped and in a flash of orange shifting to a blinding white, William woke up.

William shot up into an upright position as sweat beaded at his forehead and perspiration had dotted up on the front and back of his torso. William wiggled his toes then lifted his feet, “Good. They work.”

He then wiggled his arms and moved them around a little. He nodded to himself as he started to slowly regulate his breathing. It was just a dream. William felt an amount of relief he hadn’t expected to feel. Was he getting...attached to the people of his village? He did feel that he was getting closer to having some friends in Stacey, John, and Wallace, but a handful of conversations didn’t equate to friendship otherwise he would be friends with thousands of online players he had spoken to over the years if that was the criteria. He was warming up to them though, and through being around his father and sister he was starting to reconnect to the familial ties that had dwindled over the past years, but the other villagers? Why did he feel grief at seeing them all dead too? A couple people deaths was tragic but a large group was just a statistic after all. It wasn’t as if many of them had acknowledged him until they arrived in GAEA either, but something in him couldn’t get behind the idea of everyone else dying too. He exhaled a loud sigh, frustrated at thoughts. They were irrelevant at present and would just distract him.

William decided to cheer himself up by committing to doing two things; count the money in the second coin pouch he...acquired, and identify his daggers. He finally had a bit of downtime to do so and with a quick rub of his hands and a small smile, William opened the coin pouch. It wasn’t as filled as he hoped, but it was still more money than he had before. He counted thirty silver and fifty five copper. A respectable haul he felt. He put the coinage into his main pouch and put the empty pouch into his pack. William gave the now fed pouch a light pat and pulled out his daggers. He put them onto the ground in front of him and cast Identify:

{Ascension_Protocol}

Weapon – Arcane Steel Dagger

{Description:}

A blade crafted from Steel, forged in magical fire. The natural infusion of Arcane energy into the metal makes the blade enhance any enchantments applied to them. Enchantments applied to the items work at 2.0x standard efficacy.

{End}

The other dagger was exactly the same. William chuckled at the results.

“This shit is so fucking scripted,” he said.

The amusement took a good few minutes to calm himself down. He wanted to dive straight into enchanting them. He could only do one every ten hours due to cool-down. He also had to consider what he would enchant them with. Knowing the six runes he did at present, some of them had no reason to be on a blade and would be more useful on armor or clothing. He also had plans to take his “party” to the woodland today to collect more food and maybe get some levels in for his companions and maybe himself if something bigger showed up so he would need to use his next Runic Imbuing before they set off. His MP supply was still low at barely over fifty and he really needed to try to get a handle on meditation. He got to his feet and quickly stuck his head out of the door after moving the trap dagger he had placed to check the position of the sun, and had saw that it wasn’t long past daybreak as he looked to his perceived East to see the sun low in the sky. He decided he had about an hour or so until they should head off so he would try and figure out the meditation stuff in that time. William closed the door again and sat down cross legged like in movies with meditation.

William was pleasantly surprised to find that he could do it almost instinctually and he had a feeling that the system they were in was the reason for that.

“Still on training wheels eh?” He asked the system, knowing he wouldn’t get a response but waited for a moment still.

Just in case. William was pleased that after an hour, he had gained sixty MP, so a one MP per minute recharge rate. He decided to take a look at his character sheet:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Character Sheet – William Level 7}

{Attributes:}

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

- Strength: 39

- Dexterity: 38

- Intelligence: 22

- Wisdom: 22

- Vitality: 25

- Charisma: 13

{Classes:}

[Primary – Fighter Level 5] [Secondary – Enchanter Level 3]

{Class Skills:}

[Fighter Skills:]

- Swift Thrust - Indomitable Parry - Shield Bash - Dagger Toss

- Empty

[Enchanter Skills:]

- Runic Imbuing - Mana Conversion - Empty - Empty - Empty

[Racial Skills:]

- Identify

[General Skills:]

0 out of ∞

{Jobs:}

- Empty - Empty - Empty

{Job Skills:}

Job 1 – 0/5

Job 2 – 0/5

Job 3 – 0/5

{Titles}

Brutal Man-Slayer

Relentless Combatant

{Current Resource Pools:}

HP 250/250

MP 125/220

SP 390/390

{End}

William grinned at his sheet, it was starting to look good and he wasn’t far from Race Level ten and he hoped there was some milestone event or something. He was confident that he would find out soon. As William finished his self-review he decided to enchant his shield next. Thinking through his options for several minutes he almost facepalmed as he realized that the obvious choice for his shield was the Rune Shield. Embarrassment felt and rammed down inside himself, he got out his etching tool and began the process. It took William around ten minutes to complete as he took it slow, not wanting to slip on the curved shield face. Once he had pumped Mana into the etching, the shield became outlined with a thin layer of blue energy, again like his sword, merely a hair’s breadth in size. It reminded William of some games he had played where the art style had a thicker outline on game objects and characters. He smiled in his reminiscing, feeling a little bit of sorrow that all his games and manga were literally worlds away.

William was snapped out of his thoughts as a soft knock sounded on the shed door.

“Two secs!” He shouted as he collected his gear.

More than two seconds but less than five minutes later, he exited and was a little bit taken aback as he expected Jane but instead saw Stacey, “Oh hey, I thought you were Jane coming to collect me for our trek.”

Stacey paused briefly, looking at him curious but gave a slight smile, “No, I volunteered to grab you myself...and obviously visit your humble abode.”

William looked back at his shed with her and he chuckled before replying, “I’d offer you coffee or tea but it’s currently in short supply sadly.”

William felt nervousness well up in him then. He had just made small talk with someone he didn’t really know very well. Were those odd points into Charisma finally paying dividends? It seemed that way, but he had a doubt of that as he still felt nervous and slightly anxious.

Changing the subject he just continued with, “We should meet up with the others and make sure everyone is set to go.”

Stacey’s smile curled up a little further at his awkward shift in topic and she nodded, following William to the well where their Party were waiting.

“Sleep well?” Jane asked, a polite smile accompanying the question.

William just shook his head before saying, “Not the best night’s sleep honestly.”

That was an understatement. Though his sleep was technically uninterrupted until he woke up so it kind of was in terms of regained energy.

Jane seemed surprised a bit at that as she replied, “You sounded quite tired as you...turned in for the night.”

William winced a bit, reminiscing at his harsh words that he had shot at his mother. He should have tried to keep his cool more.

“Yeah, I may have been slightly too harsh in the wording, but my sentiment was still true enough.”

William thought he caught a flash of sadness in Jane’s face but it was so brief he didn’t decide to mention it. She just gave another polite smile and nodded.

Wallace spoke up next, “We have a bit of badass here now it seems, if last night was anythin’ to go by.”

William let out a tired sigh and looked down finding the ground very interesting in that moment.

Wallace patted him on the shoulder and added, “I’m ex-army lad, I’ve took the lives of a few others in my time unfortunately. I think you are makin’ the best of a shit situation though, so stay strong and keep marchin’ forward.”

“Thank you,” William replied quietly.

He raised his head again and looked over his party. Jane’s red hair trailed down over her white cotton clothing down to her shoulders, a similar length to his, her rounder face partially covered by her bangs. William hoped they could find some better gear for her soon, and for Wallace too as neither of them had clothing beyond starting gear. He took in Wallace’s appearance, and noticed that the older man’s always short hairstyle was starting to grow out. Facial hair had formed a salt and pepper beard of stubble on his face and the skin was a slightly leathery and weathered complexion that comes with graft and older age. He looked quite imposing, but less so with William knowing the man’s current stats.

He turned his glance to John next, whose short and blond curly hair were starting to grow out slightly and a very faint line of blonde facial hair formed a smattering of sporadic fur on his more youthful face. The man was only a few years older than William but looked a similar age. The pants and jerkin matched William’s and seeing the bow resting on John’s shoulder, William felt like the man looked like a low level but more native fighter to GAEA. At least what he pictured as a low level in that world anyway. William turned his gaze to Stacey last and he had to admit that she was quite stunning. She had neck length straight black hair, a slightly shorter equivalent to his own, complimenting a slightly freckled face on a smoothly curved head. Her eyes were a vibrant blue, like small pools of water. The daggers at her sides and the boots she had on were kinda hot honestly. She caught his eyes linger a little longer and she blushed somewhat at that. William’s face started to creep into a soft pink hue as well but he snapped himself out of those thoughts, as he caught Jane giving him a knowing look. William felt a little sheepish, but tactically shifted the conversation.

“Did you all manage to meditate successfully?” He said.

They all nodded and William smiled. Good. They must have had a similar instinctive sense to meditate.

“Okay, let’s be on our way then. We can spend a few decent hours of foraging and maybe slaying some wild beasts for levels, or in Jane’s case, healing injuries we might get,” William said, leading the group from the village to the West, noticing the curious glances of other onlookers.