The buildings and the clothes of the people became more luxurious the closer Ashley got to the castle. The old-fashioned, strictly white or brown gowns with tunics over them started to turn into colorful dresses with smooth fabrics. The men wore suits and coats. The buildings were predominantly built from bricks and stones. The roads became wider and wider, enough for carriages to tread through, and they did.

There was a three-tiered fountain in the middle of the road where the buildings made way for a traffic circle.

Ashley dashed to the fountain as if it was her only saving grace, which it likely was. She dipped her cupped hands in it and scooped out five handfuls to sate her thirst. As the stickiness in her throat faded, she let out a sigh of relief.

With her thirst sated, she could see her face in the water.

She was clean, as far as appearances went. Her hair was blonde, like her actual hair but the shade was wrong. Instead of the platinum she was used to, it was golden. Her nose was slightly higher and her forehead was clear of any acne. More importantly, she looked far younger, almost like an early teen —the body was almost a decade younger than hers.

Almost like her game avatar.

Ashley turned to look at her hands and spotted that they were smaller than they should have been. The difference was easy to miss but was evident when she was actively looking for it.

That’s when she noticed eyes on her.

They weren’t staring at her in fear but in contempt.

“That’s nothing new,” she mumbled and turned her eyes at the fortress that was now in plain sight.

It was built from white marble and had no shortage of guards manning it. It was almost like a manmade mountain in its size, towering over all other buildings in town. Almost like a skyscraper among suburban houses, except it was wider than any building she’d seen in her life.

Shouts sounded out from the distance followed by hurried footsteps.

A boy in rags ran past her, holding a paper bag in his hands.

After almost a minute, a guard came running and stopped on the other side of the fountain. He stared at the boy run off to the distance and slowly exhaled, clearly panting from exhaustion.

Two others followed, but they were in better shape. Unlike the knights, they wore no crest nor tabard but leather armor over chainmail. On their heads rested kettle head helmets but their signature spears were nowhere to be seen.

If the buildings weren’t a hint enough of what continent she was on, this was.

“Myriad Drake Continent,” she whispered, “Second worst place to start in.”

“Dammit. Lost the brat again,” cursed one of the guards and clicked his tongue. He pulled off his helmet and threw it on the ground.

It didn’t dent.

Guards weren’t cultivators. If they were, they’d have been knights and there was little reason to remain a guard. Both the salary and the treatment they received were far worse than that of a knight’s. Especially considering that guards weren’t strong enough to beat most common criminals, who happened to be cultivators so they had to rely on knights or other cultivators.

That was the plot of most quests.

This was the perfect opportunity for her.

Instead of walking all the way up to the fortress, which was still a considerable distance away despite looming over her, she could ask them here.

“Umm, hey there,” said Ashley as she peeked out from around the fountain. The fountain had been conveniently concealing her presence until then, “I wanna be a knight so… where do I go to sign up?”

“Become a knight?” asked the guard without a helmet. He scoffed and shook his head, “That’s impossible, brat. There’s no way a commoner can become one so why don’t you bugger off?”

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She expected that.

“Well, what if I happen to be the illegitimate child of a knight?” said Ashley.

“You think they go around banging any woman they see or something?” asked the guard.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” said another one of them and pointed at the one without a helmet, “If you can drop this guy, I’ll try to talk to Sir Verlice. I hear he’s looking for a squire.”

“Don’t humor her,” hissed the one without a helmet. He picked up his helmet and turned on his heel, “Let’s go. We’ll catch the brat next time.”

“When? Next year when he steals another one?” asked the other one.

“I’ll pay the reimbursement. Just like last time,” said the one without the helmet.

“People would say you’re buying the cake for him every year,” said the other one.

“Shut it. He’s too fast and there’s no way in hell I’ll be letting the baker suffer losses. He’ll complain to the captain and she’ll start yelling at us,” grumbled the first one and put his helmet back on, becoming almost indistinguishable from the others.

“I’ll do it!” Ashley yelled out, “I’ll take him down.”

“You sure, kiddo?” asked the third one who hadn’t turned around —the one that hadn’t spoken yet. He was evidently older than the other two and had a visible beer belly, “Guards aren’t weak. Even if you’re a cultivator, you might get beaten up if you can’t fight.”

“It’s fine. I think I’m strong enough,” said Ashley and tried to crack her knuckles but no noise came out, reminding her once again that this body wasn’t her own. It was shorter and that made everything look larger, which she’d chalked up to people being tall until looking at herself in the fountain.

“She seems serious,” said the second one, the tallest of the trio but not by much. He patted the first one on the back, “Go for it, Georgie.”

“Why me?” he grumbled in response.

“Because you’re the youngest one. No one will blame you if you bully the kid,” said the second one and gave him a wink.

“Look, kid. Let’s just do it this way. You hit me here and if you can actually hurt me, then we’ll bring you to the knight. How about it?” asked Georgie and tapped on his biceps. He flexed it and the muscles in his arm bulbed.

The second one covered his mouth with a hand and the third one only watched with a small smile on his face. The people that encircled them watched with glee, sneering and smirking.

“Wait. I’m like… strong, you know? Like it’ll ‘actually hurt’ strong,” said Ashley and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, then that’d be good for you, innit? Come at me,” he said and tapped on his arm again.

The basket wasn’t enough to measure how strong she was. The bot told her about the percentage difference but how strong it was, she did not know. It didn’t give her any measurements in Newtons or Joules or easily understandable terms.

“What? You chickening out now?” asked Georgie.

“Okay… here I go,” she said and stepped forward.

The few weeks of boxing training she attended, most of which she’d skipped, paid off as she attempted the punch.

Ashley clenched her right fist and stepped forward as she extended her right hand. Everything was going smoothly. She didn’t slip and she didn’t miss, except she did. Instead of being derailed, though, she didn’t reach Georgie.

Carried by the momentum of her punch, she stepped forward and lost her balance. In doing so, her fist grazed his forearm. The chainmail he wore caught in her fist and stretched until it reached its limits, then tore into the skin of her knuckles. When it reached the boney part of her knuckles, the chainmail snapped and the wires scattered across the ground.

“I missed,” she said.

“Well, I’ll be damned. That’s one scary kid there,” said the second one and tilted his head almost ninety degrees to the side, “Seems like the bastard child of a knight alright.”

“You sure? If you become a knight…” started Georgie but trailed off.

“Yes, yes. I’ll be sent to war and forced to fight. I’m ready for all that,” she said but she meant none of that.

It was suicide to be sent to the frontlines with the ongoing war. They were at war with another continent —one filled with vampires, monsters, and worse. However, she was young and would be a squire for years. Preferably years during which she ended up growing strong enough to escape to another, more peaceful continent.

“No, he probably meant that Sir Verlice isn’t all that nice a guy. If you become his squire… Well, you’ll see soon. How about I take you to watch him from afar and you decide, eh?” asked the tall one and gave her a brief smile, “You can just become a good ol’ guard and work your way up like our captain. It’s more peaceful, too.”

“The guard captain is a cultivator?” asked Ashley.

“Most of them are. Only a handful of small towns have normal folk like us as captains,” said the tall one and rubbed shoulders with Georgie, “This guy over here wants to be one. If you ask me, his odds aren’t good.”

They were always mini-bosses in the game but she didn’t expect them to be cultivators, mainly because they were the same as the other guards in how they gave out quests and refused to do anything unless they were in hostile territory.

In hindsight, it made sense.

Ashley opened her mouth, intending to ask about the other kids. They had more seeds and if they turned out like her, and more importantly, as the girl from before said, then they’d become knights as well. But she closed it.

She didn’t know where they lived nor who they were.

“Come on now. Let’s go stalk the guy,” said the tall one, placed his hands on her shoulders, and almost pushed her to the fortress.

She still had to walk there.

With an almost betrayed expression on her face, she peeled the hands off her and took the lead, staring at the wound on her knuckles to see what exactly happened to it to cause an itch.