Sam’s eyes opened slowly, he felt horrible, like the worst hangover he could consider without having been drunk in his life. He needed several long seconds for his mind to clear, and he was happy to realise that it cleared up surprisingly well. He could hear the ocean, he could feel the sand and he could see that he was still on the beach.

The moons had moved quite a lot across the sky but it seemed like nothing had changed around him. The fact that he was still here and that he was alive, made it seem like his last-ditch effort in desperation had worked. Forcing himself to his feet as the grogginess faded he could confirm that it worked, the body of the ranger had 13 of the blades lodged in his body, all the named weapons being among them.

[ Experience gained: +25 000. ]

[ Levelup +1! ]

[ XP to lv.14: 7225 / 40960 ██░░░░░░░░ ]

His eyes widened as he finally got a chance to look at the information windows in the side of his view, 25 000 XP... for four targets. Checking the log it seemed that the muscleman gave him 10k, and the others gave him 5k. Janik did say that PvP was lucrative in many ways, but this was... a bit much. A brief thought of how much XP Sam was worth aside, he spent some moments getting all his stuff together and going through what the others had.

While going through the stuff, he wondered if it was smartest to level up right away, it would give him a higher weight limit if he went for Spirit, but it wouldn’t give him more hands or weapons just yet. Since the level-up healing didn’t happen until he confirmed levelling up, it felt like a better idea to just keep it for now, until he had more points to use or if he suddenly needed healing.

The men weren’t that well geared, the swordsman had two 10-damage swords, but the amount of hands he would need on them due to weight, didn’t make it worthwhile. The ranger had a bow, also doing 10 damage and a bunch of arrows. The scout had a single dagger and the boss had no weapons. All of them had armour with a Defence rating of 3, which was not much at all. They had no potions or other interesting gear. In the end, he didn’t care for most of what they had, he only took the Scout’s dagger which was much like his cheap blades.

Now having a few choices, he wondered what he should do. He had in a way just slept due to the Sleep Arrow, but it didn’t feel like he had slept at all, and since it was quite late, his phone didn’t have coverage but the clock confirmed that it was in the early AM’s before it died due to low battery. He needed to get a new one, one of the Arcane Crystal ones would be a good idea, they last for quite some time before needing to be charged, and could even be charged by other Aether Crystals. But for now, he was left only with the Flashlight he borrowed from Janik not long ago. It did work on Aether Crystals, so it would light for many, many hours before needing a swap or recharge.

But, using a flashlight would show anyone or anything around where he was, and though he was again armed, he didn’t know where he was or what to do. He set off into the jungle, aiming for the mountain, if nothing else he might be able to find somewhere to sleep, and tomorrow he could get a lay of the land... maybe.

Walking through the pitch-black darkness of the practically moonless night, though the moons cast plenty of light, due to the trees, foliage and canopies, there was not much of it reaching the forest floor. Though he was on guard as much as he could be, his mind wandered, wondering why he was here, where ‘here’ even was and what the point of this place was. The Tower System hadn’t given him any quests or information, when he thought about where he was there were no information prompts. The men looked like they had been here a while, except perhaps the scout, or perhaps it was just his lower rank that made it seem different. They all looked somewhat rugged from time in the sun, so it might have been something like that. But if there were bandits, to call them something, on the island, they had to come from somewhere, right? He needed to find someone and question them, he needed to know more.

Almost tripping every few steps, he took his time to avoid faceplanting in the unknown. This made for a very, very slow progress. The sun was rising well before he had made it to the mountain, but the bonus of that was light! He could see where he was going as time went, allowing him to get himself to the base of the mountain. He assumed that it had been 5 hours since the arrow hit him based on the passive self-healing having healed 5 HP. Janik and the system information confirmed that a passive 1HP/hr healing was standard, which was a bit sucky for higher-health Players, but at least it was something. It also gave him a vague control over what time it was.

Walking around some thick trees, having already started to vaguely go uphill he suddenly overheard a familiar though not understandable chatter. Staring into the face of two goblins he had a moment of inner crisis; he had no idea what power level these fuckers were on, being slightly larger than he was used to, they carried simple spears with bone tips. Before Sam could prepare himself one of them threw his spear, having it land in his gut.

[ Armour, Defence 40 has negated the damage. ]

This gave Sam a huge sense of relief as he pulled his weapons from their various sheaths, mentally dividing them between the targets. As he was about to attack the other Goblin had stepped in and delivered a powerful thrust. Sam tried to dodge but he was exhausted and since the damage was negated before, there wasn’t a huge sense of urgency.

[ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]

[ HP: 13 / 35 ███░░░░ ]

Sam’s face pulled into fear, 11 damage went through his Defense rating of 40, and this was a goblin. This was the same level of the Beastfolk Chieftains that Janik told him to stay away from, a critical hit would kill him instantly.

In panic, he sent all his weapons against the primary target, which was the Goblin with a weapon. He didn’t know how much damage they could do unarmed, but it felt like the logical choice. Though none of the named weapons activated their ability, it seemed that the sheer damage he could throw out was enough to kill him in one blow.

Turning around and running, he felt the need to create some distance between them, he couldn’t risk a critical hit or more of those spear attacks. He pulled out and consumed the D-rank potion, instantly healing 50% of his health and bumping it up to 30 again! He only got a few seconds of running before he looked back to the Goblin jumping at him, grabbing him and landing a powerful bite on his shoulder.

[ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. Critical hit! ]

[ HP: 2 / 35 ░░░░░░░ ]

His health bar was gone, the sickening red text hinting his critically low health was back which only heightened his fear. Having plenty of control to not attack himself as he swung the Psyhands around, he brought everything down on the Goblin.

[ Critical hit, double damage. ]

[ Critical hit, double damage. ]

[ Critical hit, double damage. ]

Even without the critical hits, it would have been enough, but the Goblin fell off him like a sack of potatoes, rolling a few times in the weak downhill before a root stopped him.

[ Experience gained: +600. ]

In a panic, he drank the only potion he had available, which was an E-rank health potion. It only gave him 3 health bringing it up to a total of 5.

[ HP: 5 / 35 █░░░░░ ]

It was... better, the text was still red and threatening and Sam felt fragile, instinctively starting to sneak he needed to find shelter, somewhere to rest, the Goblins probably had some cores but he didn’t feel comfortable considering that now. He continued towards the mountain, double-checking every corner, every boulder, every tree. Hunger had become a problem, as had thirst, his main problem was exhaustion which was only made worse due to the lack of sustenance. The lack of sustenance to his brain also made him forget that he had a level-up he could activate to gain full health.

His steps grew heavier and heavier, taking more and more effort, until the next step didn’t have enough energy to bring his legs with him, passing out on the way to the ground he felt a sharp blow to his head before blacking out.

Waking up with a sudden jolt his eyes were accosted by the strong sun and he found himself quite tied up. Looking around he saw that he was not only tied up but caged in a quite sturdy wooden cage made of wide pieces of tree-trunks. Outside the cage, he could see what looked like a native camp. People he would identify as modern humans with varying levels of gear and clothing walked around. There were also a few beastfolk, all of them Kobolds, walking around with chains attached to their metal collars, doing menial labour as some of the people were angrily ordering them around. If one of the beastfolk didn’t behave as the people wanted, they were kicked, hit, had their chains sharply yanked or worse.

“Oh, you woke up.” A male voice commented, looking towards it Sam could see a man wearing his Armour. A second look around gave him a different view, he was not the only person in the cage, there were two other men, a woman and a kobold, all tied up and naked.

He wasn’t fond of this situation, but he could see the logic, it was somewhat hard to hide things without anywhere to hide them. Checking the man again Sam could see that he had dreadlocks reaching his mid-back, it was held back by a vine, root or some plant-thing used as a rope. He was sun-tanned and looked quite strong, Sam was also annoyed to see that the man had all of his named gear, the sword, both daggers, his armour and rings, and even his shoes seemed to fit him.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The only positive thing was that his HP had increased.

[ HP: 27 / 35 █░░░░░ ]

22 hours had passed since he fought the Goblins, he still felt destroyed but at least he had gotten some sleep.

“W... water...” He managed to request through parched lips.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” The man smiled at him as he walked over to a barrel of sorts, plunged a bucket in it and brought a ladle. Sitting down on a stump acting as a stool he started feeding water to Sam in a surprisingly nice manner, at the moment Sam didn’t care for his motivations and just drank everything.

Feeling incredibly satisfied a moment later, though still hungry and... not happy about the situation, at least he got some water which calmed down his mind considerably.

“So, let’s start with some questions.” The man started as he put the bucket and ladle away. “You were geared to the teeth, no Class I have seen needs this many weapons, you a throwing class?”

Sam processed this for a moment, he remembered the clerk at TAC mentioning that his class wasn’t registered before, so it would make sense for them to not know. It was also a super dumb idea to let them know that even tied up, he could do almost whatever he wanted within reach. Though he wanted to use his weapons and attack the man, with Sam’s armour on the man he had close to zero chance of damaging him. He could probably get free, but there was no good way to get his stuff back. Or rather he could probably get his weapons, but telekinetically yanking the armour, rings and shoes of someone is... harder.

Right now he needed to find out what to do, when to strike. If nothing else he knew where all his important gear was, it was... something.

“No answer, that figures.” The man nodded as if he expected it. “Well, you had some really nice stuff, so thank you for that.” he smiled widely almost as if it was an actual gift.

Leaning in closer to the cage his smile faded for a more serious, accusing expression. “I don’t suppose you’re the one that killed our guys at the beach east of here? They were shredded, and, well, you had 23 blades on you.”

Sam chose to not answer, he knew that nothing he could say would make the situation better.

“Where is this? Why are we... you... here?” He opted to ask his questions instead of answering.

“Nice try, but no, you don’t get to ask questions. Answer me and I’ll answer you.”

Sam considered it and let out a sigh. He’d have to try and lie at least a little...

“I’m a Ranger, but I focus on throwing things instead of bows or whatnot, I’m also training in melee as a backup.” Though one could argue that it was a blatant lie, it also wasn’t; he was a ranged kind of class, and he did focus on throwing and ranged attacks. The melee is something he had thought of recently as a backup... it’s never dumb to at least have a tiny bit of backup just in case.

“Oh, yeah, that kind of checks out. I have met those kinds of Rangers before, a bit expensive but it works better for weaker frames which... I suppose suits you well.” He had a small smile at the sting he made at Sam’s weak frame.

Sam... had to agree on that one. His strength was sub-par to just other people in his age group, so this was nothing new being compared to other Players. Though he didn’t reply, just stared back at his captor.

“Well, it doesn't matter, if you killed them they deserved it from a scrub like you. Based on your gear you’re at least somewhat stealth-focused, so you probably snuck up on them, you sneaky bastard, you.” He scrunched his face almost like he was complimenting a child or puppy, the condensing tone was palpable.

“I don’t suppose you can be persuaded to work for us? We have a strange lack of a decent ranger after someone, you know, shredded him.”

Sam didn’t reply, he couldn’t think of anything besides ways he could try to get his stuff back. The only method of attack he had right now was his Force Pulse, the problem there was that this was a non-damage ability, so even forcing all his power into a single pulse into someone's eye wouldn’t destroy it, it would cause considerable pain and most likely some vision problems, but nothing permanent. He needed some tools, weapons or something.

“I thought as much.” The man sighed as he got back on his feet, looking surprisingly saddened before leaving the people in the cage alone.

“Don’t piss him off, man.” One of the two men in the cage commented in a tone almost making it sound like a hushed order.

“And you are...?” Sam asked through his reply.

“I’m captured like you, the fuckers are going to do horrible things to us... The last woman in here didn’t want to... submit... to him.” The tone of his words hinted strongly that this was intimate. “So he sent her to fight some beastfolk... Naked and unarmed she had no chance.”

Sam somewhat expected something like that, they seemed like the kind. The only chance he had was to fight his way out. But without weapons or armour that was a problem, to say the least. Though he had possibly three allies in here.

“What if we make a break for it?” Sam whispered to them, and as he did they all grimaced at him like he asked them to eat their own feet.

“Are you insane? They’ll kill us, torture us or worse.” The woman chimed in, she sounded almost panicked in her voice.

“If they are going to kill us, or worse anyway, shouldn’t we try?” Sam pleaded, if the outcome was the same, death in some way, why not try for the optimal outcome?

“Guards! Guards!” The last man shouted out in a panicked voice. Sam tried to shush him but he could see the broken mind in his eyes.

It didn’t take more than a few seconds before several men came rushing over. The panicked man in the cage continued with his panicked expression. “He’s planning to escape, he plans to do something!” Nodding frantically at Sam.

“Well, we can’t have that.” One of the guards commented with a twisted smile, nodding the others to the cage they opened it and took the man out.

Sam was a bit surprised as he halfway expected to be the target of whatever they were planning.

He was untied as the first man to speak put a hand on his shoulder. “You did good to warn us.”

The man’s eyes lit up getting the compliment.

“But what did I say about telling us shit we already knew?” The bandit asked in an annoyed tone.

“Wh.. what? You.. you didn’t tell me an-” The naked man tried to defend himself but his voice was halted as the bandit thrust a dagger through his throat before pulling it out. Letting him fall to the ground and bleed out as his body twitched.

They locked up the door to the cage again. Sam got a vague look at it, it seemed to be a latch system you could only reach from the outside. Not too different to what you’d have on a dog cage, but the main difference was that the door was covered by a plate so there was no way to reach it. They did... something extra to it, probably a pin or something to make it more solid.

That was going to be his way out.

The bandits laughed as they left, leaving the corpse there on display for the people in the cage. Sam could tell this worked on the two others. Their eyes stopped looking at anything in particular, and their whole selves metaphorically disappeared into a thousand-yard stare.

Since he was just laying there he took the time to touch and feel around the cage properly, his Psyhands were invisible, after all. He touched around the cage door a lot and after a few minutes confirmed what he initially thought, there was a simple latch system kept ‘locked’ by a wooden pin. If what he felt was correct then he could open it in a few seconds. He had also used some time to loosen the knots on his ropes, not enough that they’d drop off just yet, but enough to confirm that they were at least loosening. The bandits were also somewhat dumb, there were simple weapons all around the place, within range of his extended Area. He just needed to wait for nightfall.

“Hey, fuckers!” The voice of the man who was wearing all of Sam’s gear came close. “I’m bored and think it’s time to let you guys have some fun.” He had a twisted smile as he had drawn the Moon Blade and was resting it on his shoulder.

“Get them out, this is going to be entertaining.” He nodded his command at some other bandits who did as told.