As William walked down the other side of the hill, he decided to feel his biceps to see if the increases to Strength translated to muscle growth. He was delighted to see that they did. He could feel some shape to his biceps then he looked at the arm bearing his buckler only then realizing that his forearms had some definition now. He put his free hand up the front of his shirt and could feel the makings of abs. He wasn’t chiseled or anything like a big muscular man but would definitely say he was comfortable taking his shirt off at the beach. The settlement got bigger as he approached and he could see that a couple people were moving stuff around and others were inside a couple of the huts.

“I guess people have gotten settled in now,” he said as he reached within a couple meters of the first hut.

One of the others spotted him and walked into the second hut. William recognized the man as Jeff Goodwill, the owner of the funeral parlor back in their old town. William smirked a little at the situation. He had just got back from killing someone and the first person to see him was someone from a funeral parlor. His smile faded as others in different huts noticed Jeff’s hastened movements. And started to emerge. These were quickly followed by those in the hut Jeff entered; his family.

William was suddenly assailed by another sea of gazes, but was not as uncomfortable as before. Sure it wasn’t enjoyable, but he wasn’t panicking from it now. He felt uncomfortable as fuck, but felt he could tolerate it for longer now. The faces of the villagers were...interesting. Some looked at him with concern, his family looked gobsmacked, and the majority looked slightly fearful.

William decided to speak up first, “What’s wrong? I’m back from a...wild night out, nothing special.”

Silence. William had hoped to break the ice with the quip, but it was not meant to be apparently. He waited for a couple moments until his family, all three of them rushed over to him. His mother went to hug him but stopped as she caught the smell of blood and death on him. She examined him and appeared to be lost for words. William wasn’t much better. When was the last time she showed him such affection? He couldn’t really remember.

His father broke the silence. “Son, what the fuck happened?”

He had a look of concern, again a sight that William could barely recall seeing in a long time.

William replied loudly enough for others to hear, “After the little...dispute yesterday, I went to cool my head over the hill there.”

He pointed to the hill he had came from before continuing, “As it got to night, a guy appeared with two daggers. I think he was a bandit. He wanted to kill me quietly and said he had been observing us from a distance for several hours.”

He paused to let the message sink in for everyone there. They should be aware that they may not be safe there. Maybe some of them will pull their finger out and start training with their gear.

Jane was the next to speak, her eyes focused on his shield arm, “Where's the bandit now?”

“Dead. Over the hill I just pointed to.”

He was amazed at himself for being able to say that so nonchalantly, but also a little bit horrified at himself for it.

Would he become the person capable of slaughtering waves of people with little to no remorse? It would make life simple, but did he want to become that person?

Shock seemed to wash over everyone including his family at the statement.

Jane replied more concernedly this time, “Did...you...kill him?”

“Yes. We tried to kill each other. If it wasn’t for my HP potion I had, I’d be dead face down next to him now. Oh yeah, good info to have; HP potions make you regain limbs. They do leave scarring though.”

He lifted his buckler arm up at that. Some gasps escaped the crowd.

His dad got closer and scanned William’s bloody visage and visible scars. “Son, explain exactly what happened. You look like someone who had just emerged after a drinking session inside an abattoir.”

William was suspicious as that was an oddly specific comparison. The thought passed quickly and he sighed, but decided that it might make people more sympathetic to him, which could only help him socially.

“Okay, Dad. We entered battle and he cut my shoulder as I blocked his other dagger with my shield.”

William pointed to the shoulder with the long and jagged scar.

“When he charged again, I was able to cut into his hand, disabling it and making him drop one of the daggers. He seemed to get serious then as when he charged me again, I went to swing my shield to block it but he sidestepped and chopped my arm off in a clean blow.”

More gasps from the onlookers, with his family all paling at the story so far.

William lifted his buckler arm again and continued with his story noticing that all the onlookers were getting more horrified as the story continued.

He continued, “Before I could stab him, he disarmed me and brought me to the ground straddling me. When he lifted the dagger to kill me, I kicked him in the nuts. He dropped the dagger but it impaled me here.”

He pointed to his lower stomach.

“I pulled it out, rolled on top of him and stabbed him a few times before the dagger was stuck in him and I couldn’t pull it out.”

William saw one of the women in the crowd wretch at that, almost puking.

William figured that might be a good place to end the story but decided to say, “It gets more gruesome from there on. Are you sure you want to hear more?”

No one spoke, a dead silence the only thing gracing the settlement.

William’s father took on a serious expression as he said, “Yes, I want to know what happened to the bastard that tried to kill my son.”

William was a little taken aback at the statement. He stabilized his emotions as he thought, “Where was this concern when Walter tried to kill me?” William refused to dwell on it, though. After all, he felt that this was a slow progress thing. William decided to explain the last part. Detailing the biting, the destroyed hand of his used to end the bandit, right up to the point he passed out. It was safe to say that everyone was stunned by the recap. some people threw up their gorge as he detailed the eye gouging moment and brain mashing. Maybe people wouldn’t fuck with him now and actually treat him with some respect.

His father then shocked William as he wrapped his arms around him, under his breath, William’s father said, “I’m sorry son, I should've been there to protect you, both when the Duncans harassed and attacked you and when someone tried to murder you. I need to be a better father I know, we're in a new place, and a possible new beginning for all of us.”

William fought back tears as he hugged his father back, “It’s...a lot to take in. This place, our situation, how we function as a family going forward. So...let’s take it slow okay?”

He felt his father silently nod, before letting go of him.

William saw his mother looking a mixture of confused and worried and said, “Mum, It isn’t ideal what happened, but it’s irreversible now.”

His mother met his eyes and replied, “Yes, killing is irreversible. A sin of the highest degree. God save you.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

William was sad at that. He didn’t want to say his next words but felt that it was better to do it now rather than let her carry on ignorant.

“We’re on another world now, Mum. An apparently omnipotent entity sees all things and sends us computer like prompts. I don’t see how belief in a god has any merit or weight here, and no, I don’t think this entity is God as God predates computer science supposedly, and I expect wouldn’t communicate to us in this way.”

Some of the crowd gasped at his words. It wasn’t normally wise to make atheist statements to religious rural Americans. His mother didn’t gasp.

She shouted, “You can’t say that! You know better!”

“I’m sorry, Mum. I’ve never been a believer. If God was real, He wouldn’t care about a small group of people in the middle of nowhere praying to him. Either He would have smote me already, or deemed us too insignificant to consider in any way.”

His mother paused at that, trying to find words. He knew that the typical approach to such a comment would be to dodge it and circle back to something discussed prior.

He was bang on the money as his mother said, “God may smite you soon for killing someone! Maybe not through direct action, but through fate.”

William chuckled a little but gained control of it quickly. “God doesn’t condone killing and his followers shouldn’t kill right? Well, explain the crusades. Explain any of the many Christian atrocities committed. All religious atrocities from all peoples. They were all devout, yet did evil things. I won’t apologize for killing someone who wanted to do the same for me. If God smites me then I won’t exactly be around to complain about it will I?”

“No, but you will be in Hell.”

William shrugged and said loudly, “If so, then it is better to be a ruler of Hell than a servant of Heaven.”

William walked away towards the well, intending to wash himself off. “Fuck, that was a fine line,” he thought to himself as the people parted like the red sea for him. Ironic.

William reached the well and put his buckler down beside the base of the well wall. He then unhooked his sword and sheath before leaning it against the buckler. William put his pack down on the other side of him and took out his water-skin. He took a swig of water from it and emptied the remaining contents over his head. He started to use his hands to scrub the blood out from his hair. A few minutes passed by and, after finishing with the hair, he saw that some of the crowd went about their business, but the rest watched him.

“Nothing to see here folks, carry on with what you were doing,” he said loudly.

To his surprise, a good number of them followed what he said, and then the rest followed those people.

“Gotta love herd logic,” William muttered quietly as he started to pull a pail of water from the well.

He put his open water-skin inside to refill it and once done, tossed it back into his pack.

He took one of his daggers and cut the other arm of his shirt at the same spot as where he lost his arm. He needed a rag, and more importantly, it would match on both arms. He wet the cloth and started to wipe his face as he heard footsteps approach. He turned calmly still holding his dagger just in case, but spotted Jane approaching. William sheathed his dagger and turned to face her proper.

“What’s up Jane?”

Jane looked a little less composed than usual but looked at him eye to eye and replied, “I’m...glad you made it back. And...sorry you had to go through it.”

William just smiled sadly at that.

Jane continued, “I know you haven’t had the best experience over the years socially, and I am as much responsible for that as everyone else from our town. I heard what you said to Dad...about...taking things slowly.”

William let out a tired sigh. “You’re right, my life outside of my hobbies was shite. I think the animosity to my hobbies when I picked them up drove me to them more, and that led to more animosity, and so on. It doesn’t excuse everyone else’s behavior though. I intend to take things slow, as quite honestly, I've felt like I had no family for years. I’m a little bit pissed off that it took me nearly dying, killing someone, and being whisked away to another world for people, my own family in particular, to start considering my existence again.”

William was getting warmer inside from the anger that was trying to come out with his long buried emotions.

He saw that every new statement appeared as another weight over Jane’s head. He looked at her for a couple seconds more as she looked down at her feet. He turned back to use the cloth to wipe down his shirt. It was her turn to speak and he had no current reason to say more. Several seconds passed and all it did was smudge the bloodstains more. William huffed and tossed the shirt down onto his pack and turned to start wiping his new boots off.

“I’m so sorry,” Jane said quietly.

William stopped what he was doing and looked up at her again, “Sorry is a good start. If we're to actually function like a family though, it’s going to take time from you, and from me. I can’t just throw away several years of feelings now that something has changed. I have fucking anxiety from the shit I’ve had to deal with. All because I didn’t have the same interests as everyone else.”

Jane slumped a little and replied, “I know William. I think from my perspective, I missed the times we would go and play in the fields, or run around the street with the other kids. They all came to an end when you found your new hobbies. Not at first, but over months. It felt like my big bro was gone.”

Jane lifted herself back up a bit as she continued, “I think that was why I focused so much more on my singing, as a distraction. I was also lonely, but for a different reason. I didn’t have you to guide me like you used to do.”

Their eyes met and both of them had matching looks of sorrow and frustration.

William continued wiping his boots, looking away, but said, “I am sorry for that. To be honest, I’m not blameless either. I’ll never say I’m as guilty as everyone else, as it’s simply not the case. I am, however, truly sorry to you. I did abandon you, I got absorbed, and neglected to watch out for my little sister. Truth be told, I’m happy we're talking like this. Maybe not the topic specifically, but the fact we aren’t ignoring each other.”

William had finished cleaning his boots and moved on to his pack. Jane walked up to him and stopped about a foot away.

He looked up and saw her extending her hand out before saying, “A new beginning then?”

William felt a different warmth in him now; happiness.

“New beginning,” he replied and shook her hand.

“I’ll leave you to finish cleaning yourself off...brutal slayer.”

William’s eyes went wide. Jane just stuck her tongue out and smiled before turning and walking off.

For the first time in a long time, he deeply laughed hands on his belly as he roared with amusement. Tears were forming at his eyes. It got a couple looks from the few people that were still outside doing stuff but nothing concerning. He calmed himself down and thought about what Jane said.

“I guess she’s learning about what she can do here too,” he said quietly.

Once he had finished cleaning his gear, he poured the bloody water out of the bucket onto the ground and put his gear back on. William decided to figure out where he would rest going forward. He had seen, after walking through the new village that people were grouping up to rest in each hut, reminding him of a manga based off of a medieval story that mentioned group hovels.

He wasn't going to be doing that. He then remembered that when he first arrived there, he had found several sheds and tool storages. William walked behind one of the huts and passed the dried fields he had seen on his first visit before coming to a halt at the door to a small, two meter by two meter shed. William opened the door and coughed as a small cloud of dust hit him. It seemed that the shed hadn’t been used in a long time but didn’t have the airflow to stop dust collecting. William briefly recovered and considered the shed. It was dusty but empty, and big enough to fit him in with a little bit of space for his gear. He used the cloth he had made earlier to dust the floor. After several minutes the floor wasn’t spotless, but it was nowhere near as dusty. The cloth was ruined though so he tossed it outside. William laid his bedroll out and put his pack down to test how much space was used. He didn’t have a large amount of space but he could stand, move his arms and legs freely, and pick up his belongings easily enough. He didn’t trust the others yet not to take his stuff though, so he would take his pack and bedroll with him whenever he left the shed. Still, it was good to have a roof over his head.

William was laying down on his bedroll in the shed, pondering his situation, the fight he had, where he would go from there, and the turbulent family ties he had. A prompt then suddenly appeared:

{Ascension_Protocol}

{Region Event – Message to all individuals in region.}

Bandits have been sighted in the hills around you. They appear to be looking for something, or someone. Bandits are ruthless and pillage those too weak to resist. Will you be their next prey?

{Objectives}

1. Survive.

2. Repel any bandit attacks.

3. Defeat the bandits’ final assault.

4. Slay the bandit leader.

{Duration}

2 Months.

[Notice – Final assault on instigator's settlement will commence on the last day of event.]

[Personal Notice – William, as the instigator of this event, bonus EXP will be awarded for every bandit slain by your hand, and by your contribution to the objectives of the event.]

{End}

He was flabbergasted at the prompt and when he heard worried voices from the nearby huts he could only think of one thing to say, “Motherfucker.”