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C4 - Hi

As the arrow hurdled towards Jack, he dodged, and after parrying the arrow that was hidden behind it, he quickly pushed himself to the ground, resulting in the arrow that was supposed to penetrate his skull to miss. 'Three more.' Quickly standing up, Jack brought forth the shield he had bought this loop and rushed forward.

As he was rushing forward, his shield blocked another arrow. 'Two more.' Throwing the shield to the ground, he jumped behind a tree to his left, just barely dodging another arrow. 'One more.' Walking out from behind the tree, Jack stared at the hooded figure standing just twelve meters away.

As the figure raised their bow once more, Jack stood completely still and observed as the hooded figure loaded another arrow and released.

As the arrow whizzed towards him, he rushed forth, completely ignoring the arrow. Jack couldn't help but smile. As the arrow hit his head, it cracked and fell to the ground, only leaving a small wound in its place. After twenty loops, his skill [Tough Skin Lv15] had become [Tough Skin Lv27] With an increase of twelve levels, his skill had passed the threshold of 25 and had become a tier two skill.

With the level increase plus the increase in tier, the skill had made his skin tough enough to withstand the arrows to a certain level.

With the arrow falling harmlessly to the ground, it seemed as though the hooded figure was flustered, as they quickly turned and tried running away. But with the short distance, Jack easily caught up to them and slammed them towards the ground.

Jack and the hooded person rolled a couple meters before finally stopping, he quickly got on-top of them and slammed his fist into their hooded face. As my fist met their face, their hood flew off and I finally saw it. Dark, almost black skin, two long ears, short silver hair and red eyes. It was a dark elf. The mysterious hooded figure had been a dark elf.

Jack continued punching her face until she lost consciousness. After making sure she was unconscious, he debated on what to do. While he could indeed just kill her and get it over with and absorb her core, he felt that it would be a loss to just outright kill her.

Maybe he could communicate with her?

In the end, he decided to temporarily let her live because he was extremely curious to why she had attacked him unprovoked.

After making sure that he had picked up everything of interest, Jack picked up the girl and started carrying her somewhere safe, he needed to interrogate her, and that would most likely result in her screaming, and because of that, he needed to get her somewhere he wouldn't have to worry about hobgoblins or potentially even orcs or trolls.

...

After an hour of walking, Jack saw a hobgoblin leave a hole in the ground. After dispatching it and storing its core within his bag, he entered the hole, which turned out to be its home.

Within he found three other hobgoblins, which he quickly dispatched.

After making sure that there were no more hobgoblins, Jack carried the now dead goblins out of the hole and cleaned up within. The whole process took him another forty minutes, but after finishing up, he grabbed the girl and carried her inside.

After placing her against the inner wall of the small cave, he waited.

...

Drow Pov.

Regaining my consciousness, I suddenly felt the throbbing pain emanating from my face. As the pain assaulted me, I opened my eyes in a panic. What had happened? As I opened my eyes, I suddenly heard a man's voice.

“Finally awake ayye?” Looking towards the voice, I saw him. Sitting next to the small fireplace. My eyes met his and I couldn't help but shiver. They were cold, yet inquisitive. The last time I had seen such a look, I hadn't come out unscathed, rather, it had been an extremely traumatizing situation, and I had only escaped due to my brother and my uncle saving me. A shiver ran down my spine as the man stood up.

“Not the talkative type? Well, that will change in just a few moments.” His voice was cold to the touch. It was only now that I realized that I had not been tied up. Reaching for the shortsword I had hidden in my cloak, I suddenly froze.

“Looking for this thing?” The man said while pulling my shortsword out of nowhere. “Listen, you don’t really stand a chance here. How about you just start talking hm?” After putting the shortsword away, he continued.

“Why did you attack me? I only went into this forest to eliminate the goblins. Yet, you came out of nowhere and kil-” The man paused before continuing. “What I mean to say is, I don’t think I ever provoked you, and find the fact that you attacked me, extremely rude!” His tone was cold at the start, but it quickly changed at the end of his sentence, only being filled with his rage.

I opened and closed my mouth multiple times before responding.

“Uhm, are you not with the Silver Legion?” At my question, the man seemed confused. His confused face made me realize something extremely important. He wasn't with them. So, after a little bit of hesitation, I continued. “The Silver Legion massacred my village, a-and killed my family. During the commotion, I had somehow managed to get away, yet they found out and have been hunting me for the past five months and made multiple attempts at my life. I- I just assumed you were with them, I’m sorry.” tears fell as I was reminded of the massacre.

The man’s gaze met mine and I couldn’t help but look down. Knowing what was to come, I couldn’t help but hate myself for my foolishness. Why had I attacked him without making sure that he really was with them? I closed my eyes and awaited the beating.

“I see... Could you explain in more detail?” But the rageful tone never came, instead, a soft and mild-mannered tone came out. Feeling extremely shocked, I opened my eyes and looked up, only to find that his gaze was no longer cold, rather, it was filled with warmth and interest.

At my silent shock, the man chuckled. “Listen, I understand the circumstances. I would have probably done the exact same in your situation. Now, could you tell me about the Silver Legion?”

...

The dark elf that I had now learned was called Sophie, told me many things.

First being about the Silver Legion.

The Silver Legion was composed out of humans. All of which despised demi-humans, elves, dwarves, and all other beings who were not humans. But the ones they despised and hated the most, were the dark elves, or as Sophie calls them, the Drow.

Apparently, the Silver Legion rules an empire called Scavana. It’s located in the northern part of the continent and according to Sophie, they would even resort to enslaving other races.

Sophie didn’t know much of their history, but of what she can remember, forty years ago, there was an empire called Hudra. This empire allowed the Drow and Humans to coexist in harmony. But due to certain circumstances, a civil war broke out and during this time, the Silver Legion was founded. The creator and leader of the Silver Legion is still unknown, but according to Sophie, the leader had been strong enough to beat the Hudra empire and establish the Scavana Empire.

The emperor, the royalty and the nobles still standing with the empire were all slaughtered during the civil war. After establishing the Scavana Empire, the Silver Legion Massacred and enslaved all Drow civilians living within the previous empire.

The bloodbath had been ruthless and merciless, whether you were a child, woman or man, they were all either slaughtered or enslaved, leaving no Drow alone. Sophie’s family had somehow managed to escape, and they had met up with other surviving Drow and made a village deep within the northern woods.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

But the Silver Legion had somehow ended up finding them five months ago and had slaughtered everyone as a result. Sophie had only escaped due to the sacrifice of her family and friends.

“Why did they go to such lengths to keep you alive?” I had asked her, but her response was lackluster. “I- I don’t know...”

The whole story was unfortunate, and while I knew that this was commonplace within this world, I couldn’t help the rage flowing through me. I’m not a good person, but even I have my own limits, that being massacres of innocent people.

With the fact that I was cursed with the ability to loop, I found no reason not to help her. Sure, I might be extremely weak right now, and even the lowliest of the Silver Legion soldiers could probably kill me, I knew that I would eventually become stronger than them.

Looking back towards Sophie, who was now sitting next to the campfire, in the middle of eating, I couldn’t help but sigh. She would forget all of this the moment I died, and I would have to relive this over and over.

Slapping myself, I decided to stop thinking of these annoying things.

Looking towards Sophie, I realize that me slapping myself had made her stop eating. “Sophie.”

“y-yes?” It seemed as though she was still uncomfortable around me, but I couldn't blame her, I mean, who in their right mind would not only let the person who tried killing them live, but even volunteered to take revenge for them?

A small chuckle escaped my lips, but I quickly stopped.

“I’m going to hunt more goblins and hobgoblins, you’re free to leave if you want to, but... If you want to, you’re also free to tag along.”

Giving her one last look, I turned around and left the cave. As I entered the outside world, a cold wind and rain met me. During the time I spent within the cave, rain had started to pour.

I looked around and spotted a big hill not too far away and decided to go there. My emotions after having spoken to Sophie were still all over the place.

I wasn’t even sure why I had gotten so emotional over her story. It wasn’t as though I was a hero, or an emotional person, I was just a bounty hunter. These feelings were new to me, feeling empathy was confusing.

Even when I look back at my memories, I can’t see a single moment in time where I’ve been sympathetic, which confused me even more. Who even was I? I was Jack, but why can’t I remember anything past my first death?

As I was having a midlife crisis, I climbed up the big hill and observed the area around me. The forest stretched as far as my eyes could see. As the rain pour became heavier, I stood there and basked in the rain.

It was a calming moment. My emotional turmoil calmed itself as the sound of rain filled my ears and I was soaked. As the calm filled me, I noticed a dim light in the distance, maybe five hundred meters away.

“H-hey” Turning around, I was met by Sophie. Looking at her, I couldn’t help but pity her. “Hey! Decided to come with?” I tried sounding as positive as possible, I needed her to trust me, because if she was going to be with me from now on, we needed to trust each other.

“C-could you tell me your plans?” Her voice was timid, but I could see determination within her eyes.

“Sure, well, for now, I plan on growing my strength. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to take care of the Silver Legion yet, but I plan on doing so in the future after I’ve become stronger. For now, I plan on traveling the continent while doing bounty work.” I wasn’t lying. There would be a point at which I would take care of the Silver Legion and destroy the slave market. But for now, I had to grow in strength. Reaching the strength, I needed for eliminating the Silver Legion would probably take many years, but even so, it was a goal I would reach.

“I see.” That was all she said, but I could see that she agreed with my thought process. Looking back towards the light, I smiled. “Let’s go!”

...

As we arrived close to where the light was being emitted, we came across a big tent, getting closer, I started hearing voices within, human voices.

“Do ya think we’ll find er’?”

“Well, we either find her, or the boss will be pissed.”

“Dat’s true Joel! I hones’ly can’t stand er ay’”

“But why are you drinking on the job, Knacks?”

“Hwat? Yus’ expect me to stay sober on a Saturday!? I’m a half dwarf for fuk’s sake!”

Their conversation went on for another three minutes before the self-proclaimed half dwarf stormed off. I heard an audible sigh coming from within the tent.

“You go after the drunk, I’ll take care of this guy.” I whispered to Sophie, who in turn nodded and sneakily ran off.

I slowly approached the tent entrance and peaked inside.

Sitting on a chair next to a table was a tall, thirty-Ish man with glasses and dirty-blond hair. As I was observing the man, it seemed as though he sensed something was amiss. “Who’s there?” Because he stood up and grabbed ahold of a staff.

However, as time passed and no answer came, it seemed as though the man calmed down. “Guess I’m just paranoid...” As the man put his staff down, I took advantage of the opportunity. I unsheathed my daggers and entered the tent, resulting in me alerting the man, who was now moving to grab the staff that was now lying on the table.

But I was quicker. He didn’t even get to touch the staff before my dagger reached his abdomen. As it entered, he let out a scream, but I didn’t stop at just stabbing him once, no, I pulled the dagger out and stabbed once more. Over and over, it wasn’t until the man stopped moving that I stopped.

Looking at the body that was now under me, I sighed and picked up his staff and put it in my bag. After looking through the rest of the tent and finding nothing of value, I exited the tent.

Upon exiting the gate, I was met by Sophie.

“Done already?” I asked and she nodded. “Good. Let’s look for some goblins and head back to town.”

...

The next day, we arrived at the front desk, and I was met by Elise once more. After giving a questioning look at Sophie who was currently hiding her face, she looked at me. “Back already?” She asked. “Yeah, went a little overboard though, here.” After finishing my sentence, I started removing all the cores from my bag.

After a couple minutes of counting, Elise finally spoke. “Whoa, you weren’t wrong! A whole 266 cores! But I must apologize... We can only reward you for the bounty that you were given. But what we can do is buy the extra cores, if you’re willing to sell of course.”

...

After some heated negotiations, we finally agreed that I would get five gold for all the cores. If my skills were better, I could’ve probably gotten more coins, but alas, my negotiation skills were yet to be that high.

While on topic, I got the Bargain skill and it leveled to 12 during the heated negotiations.

After grabbing my coins, I gave my final goodbyes to Elise, and headed off towards the stables to buy a horse.

I had never ridden a horse, but according to Sophie, she had reached level 23 in the Horse-Riding skill, which meant that she would be the one riding the horse.

After buying the biggest and strongest looking horse they had at the stables, and gaining another level in the Bargain skill, Sophie helped me mount the horse and then proceeded to show me her skill.

As we rode out of town, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic.

I hadn’t left this town in, well, ever. But I didn’t feel sad, rather, the only emotion filling me was excitement.

I was excited to finally leave and grow stronger.

...

Just as my lower back and other parts of my body started hurting from the hours of riding the back of the horse, rain started to fall. At first, the rain was barely worth noting, but as the minutes passed and the rain became stronger, we finally decided to take some shelter.

As the rain gradually became stronger, and our ability to see became more challenging, we found a small hut. Finding the fact that a small hut in the middle of a forest was suspicious, we got off the horse a hundred or so meters away from the actual hut, and snuck towards it.

Upon arriving at the hut, we peaked through one of the windows, only to find no one inside. Walking towards the entrance, I touched the door handle and attempted to open it.

To my surprise, it was unlocked. After sending Sophie off to fetch the horse, I entered. Upon entering, I was immediately met by a rotting stench. I immediately felt my earlier meal move its way to my mouth, but I did my best to swallow.

Feeling the taste of my own puke, I couldn’t help but feel disgusted.

Walking towards where the pungent smell was emanating, I was met by a door that was barely open, giving the door a small nudge, I looked through the crack and was met by a sad sight.

Lying on the bed was what I presumed to be an old woman, though, it was quite difficult to actually see the gender of the corpse, as it was rotting and covered in a strange looking mucus and insects.

Pushing the door fully open, I immediately felt the smell become much stronger, this time, I failed to swallow my breakfast, and I had to let it all out...

...

Feeling sick, I opened the windows, resulting in rain immediately invading the small room. But I gave it no mind and after wrapping the body with sheets I found in one of the many cabinets, I threw it out.

After throwing the body out, I threw the out the mattress and after dismanteling the wooden bed by breaking it apart using my own strength, I threw everything out the window.

Feeling satisfied, I closed the window, and left the room.

As I entered the living room, I saw Sophie sitting on the couch, half naked.

“I think we’ll have to stay the night.” I said while glancing at her. After receiving a light nod in response, I sighed and looked for something to eat.

Looking through the kitchen, I opened the fridge, but everything was rotting. Feeling disappointed, I walked back into the living room and sat down next to Sophie.

“There’s no food in the kitchen, looks like we’ll have to hunt something tomorrow morning.” Looking out the window, I couldn’t help but sigh.

The rain had become so strong that I could barely see out the window.

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