“John, wake up.”

I stirred at the words, mumbled incoherently, and fell right back to sleep.

“John, wake your fleshy butt up now! Someone approaches.”

As I processed her words, a surge of adrenaline pumped through me, waking me in a rush of anxiety. I opened my eyes and tried to look around without moving my head. I saw nothing.

“What’s happening, Val?”

“Someone is approaching the camp from the west, approximately two hundred yards away.”

“What do we do?” I whispered.

“Eliminate them before they eliminate you,” she said.

“You want me to fight? How? I don’t have any abilities yet.” I was beginning to panic. I wasn’t remotely prepared for a real fight.

“It’s not a Player,” Val said, sensing my distress. “It’s an NPC. You have a sword. Use it.”

I let out a breath and thanked the stars they weren’t a Player.

The fire was long dead, but the hot coals still cast a dim light, and I didn’t want to risk being spotted, so I quietly rose from my meager bedding and scampered into the dark trees.

I desperately wished I had more of that potion that Hesta had given me, but I had drunk the entire flask before my fight with Val’s Dalari host. Then I remembered I did have something that could help. I didn’t know how effective it would be, but something was better than nothing.

With a thought, I pulled the small bag of valera root powder from my inventory. I remembered that big doses reduced pain and small doses boosted your energy. Not wanting to take too much, I licked my finger and stuck it in the bag. When I pulled it out, it was coated with the fine, brown powder. It tasted like chalk, but I kept my finger in my mouth until I was sure I had licked it clean.

I didn’t feel any different, but I assumed it wasn’t as fast-acting as an actual potion. Regardless, I didn’t have time to wait around for the effects to kick in.

I stalked west a good distance away from camp, staying low and quiet the whole way.

“Val, do you know who is coming? Are they someone you can identify?”

“It is a bandit, but I cannot discern their identity. He is heading directly for your camp.”

“Damn. What do you think he wants?”

“To kill you and steal everything you have, obviously. Why else would a bandit be stalking you in the middle of the night?”

That was my assumption as well. I wondered if I was ready for this. A few weeks of training was all I had before the Kurskins forced me into that first battle. I had carried myself well on that chaotic field of bodies, but a one-on-one fight was a different story.

Fear and self-doubt weren’t the only reason I didn’t want to fight. Now that I knew the truth, the idea of killing another human made my stomach turn.

“I can’t just kill him Val. The Master Control may have made him a bandit, but he could have been an innocent person before it changed him.”

“No,” Val said. “He wasn’t.”

I frowned in the dark. “You said you didn’t know who NPCs were in the past.” If Val had been lying to me about what she knew, I was going to lose it. If she knew who NPCs were before the change, it meant I could have been looking for my wife this whole time instead of escorting an ill-tempered teenager.

“I do not know who NPCs were before the creation, but we can infer what type of person they were. A basic NPC’s identity reflects their real personality and characteristics. If someone was good on Earth, they’re good on Erda. If they were bad there, they are bad here.”

I stalked up behind a tree, peaking around the thick trunk. “What should I do, Val?” I whispered.

“Kill him, of course. If you don’t, he will kill you, and then he will kill Tara.”

“There has to be another way.”

Val let out an electronic growl. It made my ears tickle.

“Listen to me, Ethan, and listen well,” she said. “You are going to kill this man. You do not have a choice. Only one of you will survive this night. If you hesitate, you will die.”

Her use of my real name sent a chill down my spine. Val was serious about this. Deadly serious.

I closed my eyes and hardened my heart for what was to come.

I had no idea how he knew where we had made camp, but in the end, it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that he knew.

I remained hidden, unmoving, and waited for him to pass near me. In the distance, I could see his silhouette moving between the trees. As he approached, my heart rate increased, and I felt a rush of adrenaline. That rush turned into a steady river of pent-up action. I felt focused. I felt ready. The valera root powder was taking effect.

It was nothing compared to the Kurskin’s potion, but I did feel like my senses were heightened by the stimulant.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He was close to my position but not close enough to notice me. He held a dagger in one hand. I waited for him to pass and show his back to me.

When it was time, I didn’t hesitate. Crouching, I closed the distance swiftly but carefully. My attempt at stealth paid off, and he didn’t hear me coming until it was too late. By the time he turned around, my sword was already flying toward the soft flesh of his neck. He tried to scream but only managed to open his mouth before my newly sharpened blade cut five inches into the side of his neck.

He collapsed toward the ground, bringing my embedded sword with him. I managed to keep my grip on it and yanked it out as he fell. His body was twisted on its side, but his head still faced me. He was unmoving but not yet dead.

Our eyes met. Confusion and fear were all I could see in them before life left them.

This didn’t feel like a victory. It felt like a murder.

A notification popped, and I immediately focused on it instead of his gory neck and lifeless eyes.

NEW ACHIEVEMENT!

BLOODED: You killed someone! What the hell is wrong with you? They probably had a family. As this is your first kill, it’s worth double the experience! Congratulations, you monster.

NEW ACHIEVEMENT!

WHAT YOU DO IN THE SHADOWS: You successfully snuck up on an unaware opponent and killed them before they could scream. This achievement unlocks a unique skill: Simple Distraction.

Receiving my first skill made me feel a little better about killing this bandit in cold blood.

I tried to read more about it but was distracted by my experience bar. It was filling rapidly. It crossed the one-hundred-point threshold, and my level changed from one to two. The bar continued to fill until it finally stopped about a quarter of the way to level three.

The experience bar was flashing, so I mentally clicked on it.

A warm feeling washed over my body, and my skin seemed to glow with a faint golden light.

CONGRATULATIONS PLAYER. YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.

A new sensation pulsed through me, a jolt of pleasure that I found difficult to describe. Intuitively, I knew I was now stronger, faster, and weirdly healthier. The change was subtle but unmistakable.

“Congratulations, John,” Val said cheerily. “I knew you could do it.”

“Thanks, Val,” I said. “I couldn’t have done this without you pushing me forward.”

“That’s what I’m here for. Now, let’s dig into your rewards.”

Relishing the distraction, I checked into what I had received for reaching level two.

YOU MAY SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING SKILLS AND ABILITIES.

ROADTRIPPER: Tired of being tired? Make that feeling a thing of the past. Run for longer periods of time without fatigue setting in. This is a passive ability and can stack with similar bonuses.

SILENT BUT DEADLY: Take your victims by surprise. For three seconds, your actions will be completely muffled. Clap your hands, shout obscenities at your opponent, or move through a room without making a squeak. The possibilities are limitless! This skill can be used twice a day.

DEVASTATING STRIKE: What’s worse than getting slashed with a sword? Getting slashed with a sword really really hard. Triple the power of a single swing of your weapon. This skill works with any weapon, including your bare hands. This skill can be used three times a day.

I considered the usefulness of each skill. Roadtripper didn’t seem to have much value to me, as I was already in decent shape. Silent But Deadly intrigued me. As a low-level Player, stealth would give me the advantage I needed, but at the same time, I needed to improve my fighting abilities, and Devastating Strike could give me a considerable edge over my opponents.

“What do you think, Val?”

“I think you should choose,” she said. “Every skill is valuable. It’s up to the Player to maximize their usage.”

“Helpful as always.” I rolled my eyes. “Silent But Deadly and Devastating Strike seem like great starter skills, but why did the system even offer Roadtripper? It seems useless to me.”

“You’ve walked nonstop for the past two days. The system must think you enjoy it.”

That actually made sense to me. This wasn’t a game in the traditional sense. There were no stats to allocate. My innate abilities and the skills that were offered to me were determined by my actions. I’d need to keep that in mind and act accordingly so I could receive better options in the future.

I thought for a few more seconds before selecting Devastating Strike. While I preferred to use stealth and avoid face-to-face confrontations, if I was in a real fight, I intended to win it. This skill could be the difference between life and death.

Finally, I checked out the Simple Distraction skill I had received for killing the bandit.

SIMPLE DISTRACTION: What was that? Hmm, must have been the wind. Five times a day, you can generate a sound at any visible location within a twenty-yard radius of yourself. Sounds may vary. This skill has a one-hour cooldown.

It seemed like I didn’t get to actually pick what sound I made when using the skill. Five times a day was generous, and I felt like I could test this skill out and not be disadvantaged from wasting one of its precious daily uses.

I mentally selected the skill and directed it toward a nearby tree. There was a quick snap like someone had just stepped on a fallen branch. Not bad at all.

For the last couple of minutes, all of my attention had been focused on leveling up. It was intentional on my part, as I didn’t want to come to terms with the reality of what I had done, and this new aspect of the game had helped divert my attention.

But there was still a dead body resting at my feet.

He was older than I would have expected. His hair was grey, and his beard was well on its way to matching. I placed him in his fifties or early sixties. He seemed old for a bandit, but it’s not like he had any say in choosing that life. That was the Master Control’s decision.

Despite my rewards, I wasn’t proud of what I had done. It had been too easy to take his life, and I hadn’t given him a chance to fight back.

Val was unlikely to care about my guilt, so I said nothing to her.

Not wanting Tara to wake up and find a dead body in the nearby woods and thus forcing me to explain away this entire incident, I grabbed the man’s feet and dragged him further away from camp and deeper into the forest.

That stupid shovel I saw back in Weldon’s would have come in useful now. Since I had nothing to bury him with, I collected as many leafy branches as I could find. Before I fully hid the body, there was one more thing I knew I had to do.

I had to loot him.

He had no coin on him and the only food he had was so moldy, I couldn’t tell what it was. I remembered the dagger he had been holding and located it back where I had killed him. It was about eight inches long with a handle made from what looked like bone.

I inspected it.

Elkhorn Dagger

This unique dagger has a tempered steel blade embedded into a tine from a bull elk. This unusually sharp blade will never dull. It’s older than you, so treat it with respect.

For now, I stored the dagger in my inventory. I had no doubt I would eventually put it to use, but I didn’t have any experience fighting with a blade so short. My sword had three times the reach. It may not be as sharp, but that shopkeeper back in Brighton had done a good job honing the edges, and I was familiar with the weapon. Besides, I wasn’t entirely comfortable carrying something I stolen from a dead man quite yet.

Maybe in a few days, the shame would wear off.