Bilgar's PoV

Bilgar was in a daze as he was gazing into the first rays of sunshine while on the bridge to the north. The past half day has been crazy. He had barely any time to sleep since the First Minister had died.

When the crazed armored man called the First Minister a bad guy he could only think of the man as a lunatic. A dangerous lunatic. But after the First Minister's death, the rumor mill was even more active than ever.

The quiet murmurings of wrongdoing about the former noble were now a roar. Of course investigation followed. What they had found was very damning. In the minister's room there was a hidden stash of correspondence.

Had he not been a Royal Guard he would not have known that fact. And the words on those pages were damning indeed. When put together it looked like the now dead minister was days if not hours away from initiating a coup. The king was to be murdered during the night by mercenaries who had been bought and paid for by the Minister himself.

And the Royal Guard? Would have been fed sleeping potions mixed in with their rations, only to have their throats quietly cut. The Royal Guards that were not on duty? Zed intended to have the rest of them dismissed and would have blamed them for their incompetence in their duty towards the Royal Family. They even found the little bottles of sleeping potion hidden right where the letter had said they would be. This was found only hours after the minister had died.

After that… They found that chamber. Bile climbed up his throat every time he thought of what he saw there. Bodies. So many bodies. All of them killed in the same ritualistic way, then discarded as if they were trash in a corpse pile. From their clothing it was obvious who they were.

Tattered, worn and moth-eaten clothing. Some of the fabric being barely more than scraps. He remembered the rumors of the poor being kidnapped. Everyone had heard of them. Yet those who were middle-class or above scoffed at such rumors. Just like he did only a short time ago… How did that monster of a man know about all this?

Even if the armored man had been right, it still didn't mean he wasn't crazy or dangerous. The Captain was still investigating the matter further, however Bilgar was sent forward on a healthy mount to the bridge that gave access to the northern caves.

He was sent with orders to stress that the black armored man should be allowed to pass with no obstructions. Truthfully he was happy to take the task of going to his old post. It gave him a chance to clear his mind.

As he was gazing into the flowing river, a familiar voice called out to him "Oh, all high and mighty with your Royal Guard colors are ya? Can't even join your old friend for breakfast?"

Smiling Bilgar turned around to the weathered soldier and said "Now why would I do that Lieutenant Tucker? I know what you common regular army folk eat. Why, us Royal Guards only eat the best. My breakfast should be arriving hot from the King's own chef any time now!"

They both shared a chuckle at that. It was only a few days ago Bilgar had been under Lt. Tuckers command. But he was young and one of the best swordsmen around. The competition to get into the Royal Guard was fierce. But a big part of getting into the Royal Guard was from this man's training.

After a few more rounds of jokes the mood became a bit more somber. Even with suppressing what the First Minister had been up to, people still talked. He was under orders to not reveal anything about the investigation but even the common man could feel the tension in the air.

Lt. Tucker finally said "You really think that warrior is coming this way?"

Bilgar sighed and said "I don't know LT. Honestly I hope to never see that man again. There have always been legends of common people gaining the power to kill a god, but I have always thought of those stories as rubbish."

Haunted, he turned to Lt. Tucker and said "He pushed through a crowd of people like they weren't even there. And afterwards he did the same to the regular guards and us Royal Guards as well. The First Minister and his mount were cut clean through in one slice. And that's not the cutting through a neck in one slice. The strike started at the Minister's left shoulder, went all the way down through his right thigh and down to the horse's right flank. Then the attack gouged a hole as tall as a man into the road. Even just thinking about it I don't know how he could have made a longer cut. It was monstrous."

Lt. Tucker sighed and said "Well, the men have been given a description of him and have been told to keep well clear. Hopefully our luck will be better than the First Minister's."

The pair stood somberly together watching the sun creep over the horizon.

***

Jim's PoV

Jim was finally ready to start his hopefully short journey. The decision to find the village beyond the caves had already been made, so he made his way back to the road. There were three major points of interest, mostly just landmarks. The first was the bridge that crossed the major river. Second was the entrance to the dangerous cave, and finally was the exit.

Upon exiting the cave, the village should be smack dab in front of him. One thing that constantly surprised him was the scale of the place. Originally in the 2D game the bridge that crossed the river was only a couple dozen square tiles away.

Without adding the time for monster encounters it would literally take seconds to walk all the way to the caves. Yet for him seconds turned to minutes, and then into hours. Hours.

Jim had been walking on the road for hours and there was not a monster in sight. Thinking about so-called monsters he looked at his feet as the wolf pups were jogging in front of him. Did he really want to encounter more so-called monsters? Seeing that his little monsters appeared to be tuckered out from the walk, he scooped them up and continued onward.

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Time stretched and he really had nothing to do so he walked along the road while looking at his interfaces. It didn't take long for him to remember that he probably smelled terrible. His bar that represented the sense of smell was still at zero. Adjusting it slightly it was confirmed a second later.

Jim decided that he was going to go on a side quest. Washing up in the river would not take too long, and he really wanted to enjoy the walk. If he was going to walk for hours he wanted to smell the fresh air of the outdoors. Considering the walk was taking hours, a detour for a few minutes should be fine.

The work that was to come soon would bury himself inside until his task was complete. Not that he wouldn't enjoy the work, but work this time was different. Two worries repeated over and over inside his head. The first was getting caught by the police. Without the helmet device he wouldn't be able to make any changes to his mind. He had already made his choice so there shouldn't be much to think about, but his mind kept asking him the same questions.

What will happen if he can't figure out what's going on inside his head in time? Will he be willing to stay in jail to keep his secrets? Or would he spill his secrets to stay out of jail? Could he survive in jail if he was being attacked by prisoners in addition to the ones in the game world?

The helmet was a state-of-the-art piece of equipment and had a huge price tag. He really didn't know how much time he would get behind bars, but he did know there was a huge difference between stealing a one thousand dollar car and a one million dollar car. His useless worries seem to be on a repeat loop.

The second situation he was afraid of was frying his brain out. He needed to make a diagnostic program and upload it into his head. Borrowing a super computer was the safest bet for his potential health but the other risks of using it were too great.

No matter what assurances he was given, the owner of said machine could take all his information. Just because companies said that they would not read your personal information did not make it true.

Even if the company operated in good faith there was always corporate espionage. Jim had even been a target of their enticements once. Strangers offering millions of dollars for inside information was not out of the ordinary.

Afterall why invest so much on research when the results can be stolen for so cheap comparatively? Which brought him back to using his brain for processing power and possibly becoming Vegetable Jim.

Jim went over and over trying to think if he was operating rationally. There was going to be an epic rush, and he wanted to be part of that rush into the unknown. Not just part of it but leading the way. There were so many ideas rolling around in his head that he wanted to try. And with that kind of push forward in tech there would be money. Money itself didn't interest him, but money bought freedom.

With that kind of money involved he could do whatever he wanted. There would no longer be someone boxing him in to work on projects that he had no interest in. While it was true he would have been a very wealthy man had he turned over everything to 3D Tech, Jim had no doubt that his creativity would have been limited. A massive paycheck would be put in his account every month while his ideas and dreams rotted.

Everything would have been about making a profit, and once the cat was out of the bag would they really need him around? How much red tape would corporate penny pinchers put up? Would he even have the luxury of making a game like this without an endless number of reports? He wanted to be on the frontier. A path unhindered by bosses, checklists, penny pinchers, analysts and marketers.

Was that worth the risk? In his mind, there was no question. A sharp and resounding "yes" was his response. He knew he might be worrying over nothing, but it helped him come to a conclusion. For better or worse, sickness or health, he wasn't going to spill his secrets. If his dice throw sucked and he ended up in jail while another person figured out the helmet's potential, so be it. If he became Vegetable Jim, so be it. Even if the mental gesture ended up being meaningless, he felt as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders as he came to that realization.

With that conclusion in his mind he looked up to find a familiar yet different bridge. The former one square tile bridge was now a massive structure in front of him. Jim smiled as yet again something that used to be small was upscaled.

The formerly one square tile river was now absolutely massive. Smartly the bridge spanned an area that narrowed considerably. Still the bridge looked much larger than the game version's one square tile counterpart.

The entire thing end to end was made of stone. If he didn't know any better he would have thought it was another castle. Every so often there were mini-ramparts dotted along the sides of the bridge with walkways attaching them all together.

It was like they took the idea of a fortified wall and a bridge and mashed them together. It was impressive. However, as impressive as it looked, it was time for something else.

Scanning around the area he tried to search for the best place that he could take care of his side quest. After looking around he came to the conclusion that any place was as good as the next, so he started walking off the road and aimed to the right of the bridge. As he approached the river he opened his inventory and dragged the icon that represented his chest armor outside of the menu.

The armor appeared in his hands and he scanned over it. Blood splotches covered it. Technically he could just toss it out and grab another, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Memories of when he had finally earned the whole set when he was just a kid came to him. It took a long damn time to farm the whole set out. He was so proud at that moment.

Tossing it out or just stowing it was the logical thing to do, especially since he had 98 more of the same sets of armor. Still he could not bring himself to do it. Instead he continued taking pieces of armor off in the same fashion and put them in a pile near the river.

Jim now had just his underclothes on. He was half expecting to have a shirt in jeans on, after all that's what he was currently wearing. However he still had his underclothes on from when he first logged into the game. With no icon to drag off his underclothes from his character, he took them off the old fashion way and went into the river.

To his surprise it felt wonderfully warm. Taking a few minutes he enjoyed the warmth of the water as he began washing the grime off him. Once the filth was off of him he turned his sense of smell back up. Jim took a deep breath and was immensely pleased by the fresh air. Much better.

A few minutes passed and soon he heard yips coming from one of his shadows. Looking over he found one of them wagging its tail at the edge of the river. Scanning for the other dog, he found the pup's partner in crime got his head stuck inside of one of his gauntlets. He sighed and made his way back to his pile of equipment.

After freeing the demon, he took the pieces of armor to the river and washed off the blood and grime attached to his gear. Once the task was complete there was only one more thing to clean. Smiling evilly at the wolf pups he quickly snatched the gauntlet thief and gave it a good scrubbing. The wolf's sister gave up barking and finally came in and started swimming to attack Jim. A few minutes later two wet dogs were fleeing away from him back to land.

Once finished, Jim relaxed in the river again. He almost didn't want to go. The water felt great. Hearing a clank above him, Jim looked up to the top of the bridge. He could see a head over the railing. The figure tossed something down which splashed into the water near him. Curious, Jim grabbed it. It was a bottle, and after taking a sniff it was obvious it was alcohol.

That made him think, and unfortunately that was a mistake. While he was thinking he could hear the sounds of someone hurling up above him. And of course the damned man seemed to have an insane accuracy rating. Feeling the wet slop hit the back of his neck, Jim could only think it had to have been his imagination. Of course his helpful nose confirmed what the substance was only a second later.

Slowly Jim looked up to find the man. The guy put his head down on the bridge railing and seemed to have passed out. What the hell was up with his luck? Why did foul things keep attacking him from above?