A lot of thoughts popped into his head. The first was the most obvious one: Where did they get these?
That wasn’t your wooden training sword; it was plain metal. He could see them shining even from that distance. Had the crafters advanced to this point? It had been nearly two weeks since he had isolated himself in that forest. It was possible that people had learned more since then and started making weapons using metal instead of rock.
But at a closer inspection at the thing the old man was holding he dispelled the previous thought that it could be a walking stick. He wasn’t that old to begin with; he should be around sixty. Sure, he could have a knee problem or whatever, but the carvings and details on that thing made the idea absurd. He was too far to see more details, but that was no walking stick. And if it wasn’t a walking stick, what else could it be? Lucas had only one thought in his mind: mage. That made him even more anxious. He needed to talk to them, but what if they were hostile? Could he get out unscathed?
I can’t see their levels from here. But if I get closer, they might spot me and think I have bad intentions since I was hiding, not to mention this outfit…
Before anything else he took off the meat attached to him. Previously he had taken out his vest to put the meat on his waist. It was a gift, and he didn’t want to get it dirty.
He had encountered a couple of lakes and rivers on the way, but he was afraid that if he went there to wash himself he could lose sight of that group. So he took his water pouch and washed himself a little before putting on the vest.
He didn’t know how much better he looked now with his vest and without all the meat. His pants were now almost completely red with blood. And he couldn’t get rid of some of the blood in his hands. He had washed a couple of days ago, but it was difficult to keep himself clean in his situation.
He always cared a lot for presentation; he knew he wasn’t handsome, but at least he took pride in being clean. So it was a little distressing having to meet new people in his current state. When he first met George and his party, he was too distracted with the new world to think about this, but now that more than a week had passed, things were different.
He sighed. There was nothing he could do at the moment. He took comfort in the fact that at least his ear had already regenerated. He wasn’t sure at first that it would, but after a week it had fully healed. That was a relief because the thought of having only one ear for the rest of his life scared him. He was also much more muscular now than before the system, and even his pale complexion was gone, looking healthier, if a little savage.
He still wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to approach them; after all they were in a group of five, heavily armed, and he was alone with his rock axe and good intentions. But he also knew he was too curious of a person to just let it be.
He climbed down the tree, and before setting off, he decided to leave the spear behind for the time being. He wanted to show he came with good intentions, and if he needed he had his axe in his bag. They spotted him when he was five yards away. They seemed way sharper than George’s group had been. The ones holding the sword took a defensive position, and the bow raised a little; even the old man seemed to grip his scepter tighter.
Now, on a closer look, he was sure that was some sort of weapon, probably a magic-related one. It made him even more confident in his decision to come. Have these people figured out how to get a class?
He looked at their levels and was surprised again:
Race: Human. Lvl 6
Race: Human. Lvl 6
Race: Human. Lvl 6
Race: Human. Lvl 7
The old man was the one with the higher level in this party. Lucas frowned a bit. After all that crazy hunting spree that he had gone on, he had only reached level 8. And these people had already reached levels 6 and 7, and they didn’t even look beat up or even dirty.
“Hi… I saw you passing by and wanted to say hello,” Lucas said hesitantly. He usually wasn’t shy, but having people look at him so intently, he couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.
They kept staring at him; they almost looked… angry, maybe afraid too. Okay, this is weird. No one said anything for a whole minute and then the old man spoke.
“It looks like you have been in this woods for a while,” he said in a weird way, that left Lucas confused. What is with this tone?
“Yes, I was heading north for some time now, trying to see if I could find something else other than this forest when I ran into you.”
“How coincidental,” replied sharply one of the men holding a sword.
“Is it?” Lucas asked, now genuinely confused. He had already started regretting coming here. He didn’t understand why these people were acting like this, but clearly, something wasn’t right. “What’s so coincidental about walking in a forest?”
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“Don’t mind my nephew’s lack of manners. It’s just that a few people from our party have been disappearing around these parts, and we are all a little… on edge about the whole thing. Tell me, do you know anything about that?” the old man asked.
Hearing there were disappearances on the forest didn’t surprise Lucas. Lately, the forest seemed to be getting more and more dangerous; he wasn’t sure if it was due to the difference in places or the passing of time. But he started to get annoyed by how they were talking to him. Even though the old man said it in a nice tone, it was pretty obvious he was implying he was the one behind all the disappearances.
“What makes you think I know anything about it?” Lucas said sharply, already looking for escape routes. He had a feeling this wouldn’t end well.
“That’s an interesting question. But first, let me ask, have you chosen your class yet?”
Now he was even more confused.
“No, but how does that have anything to do with it?”
“Ah, don’t worry, I will get there. Well, you see, a week ago, we found this city of… What did you call it again?” He looked at the man holding the bow behind him.
“NPC’s,” he replied. His eyes seemed filled with fury as he stared at Lucas.
“Yes, these brainless things that looked like robots. Anyway, we did a quest there and chose our classes, and with that come a few benefits. As you see, our weapons weren’t man-made. But that wasn’t the only benefit; together with the class comes the basic knowledge of how to operate the weapons. That made the task of hunting—previously exceedingly hard for people who a couple of weeks ago only knew how to put the beef on the cart and swipe the credit card—a lot easier.”
He made a pause and checked if Lucas was listening, catching the look of surprise on his face. He looked even more reassured when he proceeded talking:
“After a lot of worrying disappearances of people who, despite being lower-level than us, were still pretty capable and with their classes already claimed, we came here to investigate and we found you. Covered in blood, higher level than all of us, and apparently still without a class, am I right?”
“Yes… but that doesn’t mean anything. They could get killed by any beast here in the forest. And besides, why would I do that? I don’t even have any of their weapons; I can show you,” Lucas said, pointing at his bag.
“What would that prove? That you hide them somewhere along with their bodies? No, there’s no need for that. And the reason is pretty obvious from how you managed to reach your level without having a class and all by yourself.”
“What… No…” He raised his hands, trying to explain.
“There’s no use arguing. You thought you could apply the same scam on us, that you could fool us into trusting you just to stab us in the back later, gaining easy levels in return. But this time you’ll come to learn that you bit off more than you can chew.”
This time his voice was full of hate, and Lucas knew there was no way he could get out of this peacefully. He reached for his axe.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lucas asked, his axe in hand.
He kind of understood why they were angry. People they loved were disappearing and they weren’t in their best state of mind. But he was pretty mad at being accused of something he didn’t do with that bullshit explanation. In this world, there would be no trial to judge who was right or who was wrong; there would only be the living and the dead, and if he wanted to live, he might have to kill. He had never thought about this before, and it scared him to think what he would need to do.
“Don’t think you are some bigshot just because you could stab people in the back,” one of the swordsmen said, his face full of anger. “You killed my sister, and you are going to pay for it!” He moved forward with his sword ready.
He wasn’t the only one; the others swordsman also joined in, as Lucas retreated a couple of steps. The situation was terrible for him, even though he was confident he could hold his ground in a battle; that was a five against one, with the opponents having both close and long-range combatants. He gave a quick look around, there were a lot of trees there, but he doubted if he could make it to them without getting an arrow in his back. Although the archer was an impediment to his flight plans, the most concerning of them at the moment was the mage, because he had no idea of what he could do.
Before he could think any further, one of the swordsmen attacked. The sword aimed for his side. If he tried jumping or ducking, he would become vulnerable to the attack of the others, and he couldn’t just get out of the way in time. So he did the only possible thing and used his axe to stop the blade. All of this was decided in a split second; his reflexes were now much more acute, he even surprised himself with how lighter he felt without the weights holding him down. His movement was cool and collected. Rock collided with metal. But the result wasn’t good.
It wasn’t a matter of skill; Lucas’ weapon was just inferior; a dent was made on the rock. He was forced to retreat. The others didn’t make a move, it seemed they were just testing the waters with that attack. And the damage to his weapon made them smile.
Seeing that, Lucas took a gamble. He had to do something.
“Let’s see if you will be smiling in a couple of minutes,” he said, showing his own smile. He almost cringed when he said that, but it worked.
The smile vanished from their faces, and they attacked together, just as he was expecting. He rolled diagonally, stopping right next to the first assailant’s leg; in the next second, his axe chopped the leg off. He saw the archer pulling the string on his bow and dodged again. The arrow missed by a few inches. The man who had his leg maimed was screaming on the ground, blood was splashed everywhere. It was a small win, if that. A few seconds after he raised, something very similar to a fireball came for him.
A fireball, really?!
He could only dodge again, as the fireball passed a few inches off his back, almost lighting his vest on fire. One of the swordsmen descended his sword in Lucas’ direction right after, giving him no time to breathe.
He was on the ground, and the sword was raised high—it was almost too easy—and the axe cut yet another leg. The swordsman couldn’t even complete the movement as he fell to the ground, screaming. Lucas took the opportunity to raise again. When he did, the archer had his string pulled, and Lucas didn’t hesitate. All this time, he had been waiting for this moment. The axe went flying, making full use of his skill.
Before the axe hit him, however, his arrow split in two, magically. He couldn’t dodge both, so he let one of them hit him in the arm.
He didn’t stop to see the notification that had popped up and sprinted to the woods. As expected, a fireball came right after him, but it didn’t take much effort to dodge this time around, since he was expecting it. After he saw the old man’s attack, he knew it didn’t present much of a treat from a distance because it was slower than the arrow, making it easier to dodge.
It took a good ten minutes for him to fully escape them. Only then did the thought of having killed a fellow human really sink in. And the System awarded him with a level-up.
*You have killed Human – lvl 6. Experience earned.*