After a while of walking Jakob gathered the businessmen in an area of heavy brush, crouching down to be harder to detect. The other suited men quickly mimicked him. “Just up ahead at the edge of the forest marks the start of the bandit’s territory. The bandits you are about to face are considered a low level threat to us, however, by defeating them we will be freeing this road from a scourge that has plagued the people of a town we are visiting. For you to best understand the mechanics of this simulation, we have granted you administrator privileges. You will have access to all the basic elemental magics and a set of skills that will help you with your mission. I will be assisting you but that doesn’t mean there are no risks. If you get hit, you will experience ten percent of the pain it would cause you in the real world.” Jakob explained with his honed dramatic flair and an occasional sly grin. The men seemed giddy with the prospect of being a hero until his mention of pain.
“Are there any safety protocols….” Started a bespectacled and immaculately dressed asian man in Jakobs tour group before being interrupted by an arrow flying over his head. “They seem to have noticed you gentlemen” Jakobs remarked casually, coming to his feet, as he raised his hands towards the forest from where the arrow flew. A thick wall of earth rose from the ground seemingly under the control of Jakob. “I guess we no longer have time for pleasantries” Jakob commented jokingly, directing the comment to the rest of the men.
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Cleo struggled with the rope binding her hands and feet to a firmly entrenched pole. The rope dug into her fair skin, tearing it away the more she struggled against her bondage. Cleo had heard what bandits did to their captives. The fear of the rumors driving her to ignore her own suffering. The bandits had been distracted by something and left her unwatched, this was her only chance. She was inside a tent that the bandits clearly used to store the products from their heinous crimes, the smell of alcohol and stale blood hung heavily in the air. Cleo’s tears flowed more freely as she desperately struggled to regain her stolen freedom. Finally with the skin on her wrists almost entirely gone, Cleo managed to free one of her hands, her blood acting as a twisted form of lubrication. With her hands now free she wasted no time untying her feet spurred on by faint sounds of battle increasing in ferocity and volume as it approached the camp.
Cleo’s heart pounded harder than ever before as she came to her feet, her desperation to escape still driving her actions, she peeked through the flap of the tent hoping to see her route to safety. Her disbelief at what she saw froze her on the spot. A group of warriors and mages wearing strange black and white clothes were tearing through the bandits as though they were made of paper. A feral grin plastering more than a few of their faces. One of the men was using fire magic, burning every bandit he saw, the flames spewing from his palms . Another of the men was using a dead bandit as a weapon, smashing his limp body into other bandits with such force that they died on impact. The body of a bandit fell in front of the tent, shocking Cloe out of her surprise. She snuck out of the tent, as stealthily as she could, and slipped deeper into the forest before running as fast as she possibly could. Her panicked and desperate breath burned in her lungs as she exerted her body to its limit, frantically sprinting through the trees.
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Jakob was surprised by how vicious his guests were being, however, they were helping people even if it was brutal to watch. The amount of innocent people that had been harmed or killed by each of these bandits far exceeded the requirements for the death penalty in this world. Once the violence ceased he gestured for the men to gather around, almost as if he were a teacher calming a noisy classroom. “As I am sure you have noticed while in combat, You can gain XP (experience points) by defeating an opponent and magic is almost free form at a sufficiently high level. Your current avatars are above level 70, however, At lower levels people will have to work hard to use magic through learning chants or runes. As for the increased physical abilities and combat skills I saw a few of you discovering, lower level players will have to practice these skills under guidance or learning through combat.” “Do real world abilities translate to game skills?” questioned Lei , the bespectacled man. “We have found that for combat abilities, the system will recognise their efficiency and award or create the relevant skill. This also works for other skills, my own fluency in multiple languages granted me a skill called “linguist” that boosts the speed at which I learn new languages and scripts” Jakob elaborated drawing even stronger interest from the men.
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Jakob and his tour group returned to the cart where Shin was still staring into space in a state of semi-consciousness. The adrenaline from the battle driving excited conversation among the group. The men boarded and Jakob gently tapped Shin’s neck. The light of focus and determination returned to the boys eyes. He flinched at Jakobs touch. Jerking his neck away he looked at Jakob quizzically “Sorry sir, I lost focus for a second there. How can I help?” Shin asked meekly. “Ah, I am sorry for scaring you lad. Would you mind turning back onto our main course, I just wanted to show my guests a little bit more of the country” Jakob justified, a soft tone in his voice. Shin looked around, clearly suspicious, as his brow furrowed. Jakob caught a glimpse of this but decided to hold his tounge as Shin turned the cart and head back in the direction the came.
Shin was relieved when dusk came around and they had made it to their final stop for the day, a peaceful village on the outskirts of the northern forest. He had tried to keep a low profile for the majority of their journey only occasionally explaining and elaborating on the areas they were passing or answering questions. For a portion of the trip he was scared as the people he was guiding were asking endless personal questions and trying to stump him with questions about trollies and deciding when to kill people for more people or when it is right to put someone to death. Fortunately Jakob came to his rescue to deliver a monolog about adventures and giving people purpose.
Shin helped the passengers off the cart and guided them to the inn they were staying at that night. Jakob jogged up beside Shin “are you ok kid?” he asked in an almost parental way. “Yes sir, I am well thank you for your concern” Shin quickly responded hoping he could finnish the conversation before it could start. Jakob’s eyes betrayed a hit of guilt. Jakob put his hand on Shin’s shoulder “come to the cart early tomorrow, we need to have a chat” Jakob said with a wry smile. Shin thought he could see concern in the old man's eyes. Jakob had been kind to Shin throughout the journey so he tried to keep his focus on that rather than his imagined murder the next morning. Shin hurriedly paid for the rooms and passed out the keys to his strange flock. He quickly showed them to their rooms desperate to drop his professional air and freak out properly as one can only do while alone.
Once he managed to separate from his group he immediately clutched his arm digging his nails into the flesh to prevent himself from breaking his composure. The entire cart ride har freaked him out from the strange conversations of his passengers to that time he seemingly zoned out for over an hour. The sun’s position was the only thing that tipped him off as to the drastic loss of time he had clearly experienced.
Shin had been sent on a errened that could get him killed and he was stuck. The people he was stuck with were absolutely insane and definitely wealthy, their clothes were weird but clearly contained silk and dye’s worth hundreds of gold. A single gold would be equal to a weeks worth of pay including tips for someone in Shin's position. If anything they were more wealthy than the nobles he had seen, which in his mind meant that they were even more dangerous. He was approaching a field far from the village when he finally couldn’t contain it anymore “WHY!!! WHY THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!!!!” he screamed into the empty field, relieving a lot of the tension that had built up in him. After a while of screaming, Shin had run out of choice words to scream and just sat on the cold dusty ground staring blankly. He had always known what to do in the past but this was so far beyond his expectations that he was stumped.
“ OK, think…..they just want a tour of the kingdom and they haven’t been violent so far. The leader also seems like a good person and it's only a few days actually riding. I don’t have to deviate from the contract or socialise with them outside of riding.” Shin organized his thoughts while being soothed by the cool breeze that swayed the golden oat field in oddly satifying patterns. Shin had never been a religious person but he found himself praying for his own safety the next morning. He slowly stood up from his patch of dirt and dusted himself off as darkness enveloped the land. Before heading back he shook his head to rid himself of the pressure he had felt all evening. Gently slapping both his cheeks he refreshed himself and headed back with only one thing left on his mind “wealthy people means a big tip”.
Despite his efforts he got no sleep that night, distracted no longer by fear but rather by his greedy imaginings of a tip that would allow him to stand proudly before his friends and family. His greed was understandable, after his parents passed due to famine while he was a child he had been taken in by a merchant that was friends with them who he considered his uncle. Blood held little worth in the Autumn kingdom after the famine. Many had lost loved ones and the shared suffering caused new family dynamics to be established among the commoners where wealthy people would adopt those less fortunate and the people would live by a pay it forward system of kindness. As with any kindness there were many who abused it causing the fall of many merchant families and even two noble houses. Even though it was a tumultuous time, It also created opportunity for those that had the right skills. Unfortunately Shin’s skills thus far had much to be desired.