When I caught sight of the road, I nearly palmed my forehead.

They had gone with the classic log on the road trick. With a little flavor thrown in. The road itself was barely more than five meters across. Any average tree from the forest could have crossed it easy. There was around two meters of clearing on each side of the road, widening the overall width of the road. But that was still small.

They had used three logs, each of them long enough to cross the road with length to spare. There was a few meters between the logs, and they were filled with large stones. In all my time in the Realm of Mesily, I hadn’t seen rocks that big. Hell, I hadn’t seen any rocks other than the pebbles in the stream. And the stones on the bridge, but I had gone nowhere near the bridge so it was hard to tell.

It would work. They would stop dead in their tracks.

But then, why would anyone in their right mind approach something like this? If it was me, I would sight it from far away and turn tail.

Looking around, I couldn’t pick up any of the bandits. Because that is what they clearly were, bandits. I had thought I followed them at a safe distance, but they were nowhere near their barricade. Or if they were, they knew how to hide from sight. I hoped the same could be said about me. I was deep in the forest, several tens of meters away from the barricade on the side of away from the bridge. My view as it was, was half covered by underbrush and tree trunks.

A few minutes of waiting and I saw the carriage make its approach, still keeping its slow pace. I knew for certain that the carriage driver must have noticed the barricade. But they didn’t appear bothered by it at all. Given their speed, that is. It was possible they could be in cahoots with the bandits. A resupply carriage perhaps, while they waited for the real quarry.

But when the carriage got close enough for me to make out details of its occupant, I knew for certain that they were not in cahoots. They were way much better dressed than the bandits. The quality of clothing they had on was higher. While the bandits’ clothes had appeared as rough leathers, those looked like they were made of a finer material. It wasn’t easy for me to tell from such a distance, but I knew they had to be better. At first, I had thought rough leathers to be the norm, but it appeared that wasn’t the case. It could be that the carriage driver was on the other end of the spectrum.

Either the carriage driver was an ignorant idiot, or the bandits were about to bite off more than they could chew. Either way, I was not getting involved at all.

The carriage came to a stop near the logs and the driver looked back into the carriage for a few long seconds before alighting. I couldn’t make out the inside of the carriage at all. There was a grey curtain of sorts blocking view from the outside. The overall make of the carriage was a tall rectangular box with a half cylinder on top. Other than the curtain on the front, I didn’t see any other openings on it. Then again, I only had a view of only one other side. It was of a light brown wood and had four wheels, with the front ones slightly smaller than the rear ones.

As the carriage driver studied the barricade, the first of the bandits made his appearance. The bald one. He held his club by his side as he casually approached the carriage. The driver gave him a long look before resuming their inspection of the barricade. The bald one began waving his free arm around as if gesturing. He only got minute head movements from the driver. From where I was, it looked like they were conversing.

Around the carriage, four of the other bandits had appeared. That left only one of the six I had already seen, the assumed leader. They had the carriage surrounded on all sides but the front. Then the leader made his appearance. He came out at the barricade, right in front of the carriage and next to the driver.

The driver looked around before taking a few steps back. At first, I thought they had stared at the potential foes. But it had looked like they stared at the forest itself all around. It had me worried, did they know I was around? All my hopes of getting closer were dashed then. They must have that [Mana Sense] Skill that I couldn’t even see.

The leader of the bandits was still talking, looking from the driver to the carriage and back. All the while gesturing about.

‘Tell the others to come out,’ I assumed he was saying. ‘We know they are in there. Tell them to come out or we will blow this whole carriage to smithereens.’

But with their weapons, it was safe to say they couldn’t use magic. Or if they could, it was only for utility and support. As far away as I was, I couldn’t tell what was being said. So when the fight began, I had no idea why it started.

The first to make a move was the driver, throwing a ball of fire at the leader of the bandits. The flame washed over the leader as if he was protected by an invisible barrier. The leader was still forced back a few steps. The follow up attack wasn’t so merciful. One of the huge rocks on the ground accelerated towards the leader from the side, it carried him all the way out of the road and into the forest. Whatever protection he had, I didn’t think it had worked against that second attack.

Another fighter had already emerged from the carriage. I couldn’t see them properly, but I was becoming familiar with their work. One of the similar clothed bandits was already down but I hadn’t even seen what had happened to him.

Realizing that there was a power difference, I decided to use [Identify] on them all. They were in the middle of the battle, if they noticed, they would assume it was the opponent they were fighting. I mean, they had to keep track of the opponents [Status] somehow.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[Human : Ange – Level 30-38]

[Human : Nikson – Level 30-36]

[Human : Gary – Level 21-25]

[Human : Kruger – Level 21-24]

[Human : Jimmy – Level 20-22]

[Human : Merson – Level 19-21]

Okay, they were all humans, I got their names, and their approximate Levels? Is this what it meant that a Level difference would determine whether or not I can know the Level? It seemed to work just fine for me. An approximation wasn’t a bad thing. It gave you a feel of what you would be up against. Honestly, I was expecting a lot of question marks.

As I brought my attention back to the fight itself, two more bandits went down and another turned tail and ran in to the forest on the other side of the road. The only one left was the bald one. He turned to run away but came face to face with the other member of the carriage party. From where I was, it appeared like their clothing was a yellow-green suit. They made short work of his club and punched him dead with one punch.

At least I had thought so, but when I checked the bald one’s [Status], he was still alive but unconscious. And apparently, he was Gary. I didn’t even try to check the two from the carriage. I didn’t know how far their [Mana Sense] could go. If they didn’t know I was there, then they wouldn’t go checking too much. I assumed so as I moved a ways from the road to make sure I didn’t fall into the radar as they passed my hiding spot.

They quickly loaded the unconscious Gary onto the carriage before using their magics to remove the rocks and logs from the road. The whole process took them no more than five minutes. And they were back on their journey to the palisade wall area. Was it a town, a village, a city? I would know when I got there.

I waited for more than a ten minutes after they disappeared before I could move from my spot. I slowly approached the road, hoping to get something from the downed bandits there before anyone else passed around the area. To my surprise, I found no bodies of the bandits I had seen killed on the road. Even the blood had been cleaned away somehow.

With nothing to gain, I quickly left the road and slithered back into the forest. Towards where I had seen the leader fly to. There was no way they cleaned him up too. After a few minutes of searching, I found the rock. And the leader underneath. Even from a far, I could hear little whimpering noises. He was still alive.

He was still going to die, just slowly. The rock was big. When I got close to it, I could tell it was a rough sphere slightly less than an arm in diameter. It had him pinned against the base of a tree, leaning slightly towards the river. The right side of his body, the one on the lower side of the incline, was completely under the rock. From the way his body was bent, it was safe to assume that his back had been broken. It formed a near right angle at the end of the ribs.

I stared at his face. If I took away the agony, he had a youthish appearance. A clean-shaven beard leaving only a tuff of hair at the chin. He had a long face that narrowed from the forehead to the chin. A thin small mouth below a moderately straight nose. It appeared to have been broken and healed more than once. In a world of magic, I would have thought something like that would be rectified completely. Maybe there were limits, or he didn’t seek out the best healers. Finally, his eyes.

They were bulging out of their sockets. And I was sure that had a lot to do with the impact on the tree. They didn’t appear to be seeing anything at all. Not even me standing so close to him. The rock on him didn’t appear like I could move it. Not with anything I had at hand. But looking around, I noticed that the ground had a considerable incline to it. All it would take would be a little shove and the rock would roll away.

I checked my staff and then the rock. There was no way my trusty staff would survive such an encounter. I placed it a safe distance away and went in with my arms. I could carry ninety kilos on my neck in my previous life, what was pushing a thousand kilos down an incline.

I set my feet shoulder width apart, shook myself a bit and leaned forward, placing my hands under me and on the side of the rock. I pushed as hard as I could and only managed to slide my feet back on the ground. I tried a few more times, and even when I felt like I had gotten stronger in between the trials, the results were the same. Sometimes, I even fell down hard enough to bruise my lips.

I decided to change tactics and analyze the problem. I wanted the rock to roll down an incline it was already in. I was trying to push it from the higher ground to make it roll down, but my strength wasn’t enough. If only the incline was greater, it would be easier. Greater incline. I could make the incline greater by digging on the lower side of the incline. I would just need to be careful not to get crushed myself when the rock began moving.

Due to the loose wet soil of the forest, it took me less than ten minutes to dig a hole big enough to cause the rock to slide off the leader. But due to the size of the hole, it did nothing more than that. But I had accomplished what I wanted. The leader was free from the rock and I could finally get to his clothes.

I know, I know. But beggars can’t be choosers. The ones who died on the road would have being better, but the carriage did a thorough cleanup and I was left with only one option.

The whimpers had stopped sometime during the digging. I looked at him for a few seconds before quickly beginning to remove his clothes. When I saw the health of his down below, I nearly left the pants. But I needed them. I swore to myself to thoroughly clean them and still visit a high grade healer the first chance I got. I still left the innerwear behind.

After relieving him of his clothes, money pouch and weapons, I passed by where they had had their camp. They didn’t have much in terms of belongings. I only found two bags, one full of musty bread and cheese and the other a bedbug and flea lidden bedroll. I quickly threw them both in the small fire that was slowly dying out.

I went back to the river, roughly at the area where I had branched off when I saw the bridge. I soaked the clothes, beat them with my staff and placed over a fire I had created. I gave the pants special attention when it came to them on the fire. I repeated the process more than I could remember. By the end, they had lost all color and turned a dull brown grey. I wasn’t sure whether the brown was for the blood or the original color of the fabric.

As the clothes went through the final round of drying, I went through the money pouch to see how much had fallen on my hands. It felt heavy but when I counted the actual coins, I was disappointed. 6 gold, 36 silver and 12 copper coins.

I didn’t know much about the currencies in fantasy settings, but I knew I would need to find a job fast. I needed money for food, lodging, clothing and emergencies such as illness and injuries. All that meant finding a well-paying job. I just didn’t think I had the job skills for that.

As the sun started its slow descend into the horizon, I repacked the coins after washing them and the pouch, and drying it over the fire too. Wore my new not-new set of brown-grey pants and shirt. And began my journey to the palisade walls.