I started to back up and get away from the thugs looking around. My mind was running on overdrive while I was sneaking away quickly. Apparently I wasn't being sneaky enough as the thugs heard me.

I heard someone say "Oi, you hear that? Something made a sound over there in that house over there." I heard someone else say "Might be a skeleton but let's check it out. Damn place is infested with the bloody things." I heard footsteps coming in my direction and started to sprint away into a nearby building away from where I was heard. The thugs chased after my sound as I ran.

I hid in the second floor of an abandoned house. As I was catching my breath 3 thugs rounded a corner with weapons drawn, looking around for something. They were catching their breath and one of them said "What the hell just ran away? Nothing in this damn place runs away. It either kills you or ignores you." A thug weilding an axe nearby said "I just hope it's edible. Dude you don't know how long it's been since I ate anything. I mean yeah we don't need to eat anymore because we are Soul Bodies now, whatever the hell that is. But meat still tastes great!"

I saw the axe thug drool over the prospect of cooked meat while a third whacked him on the back of the head saying "Focus you moron, first we need to catch the thing before eating it. If even the rabbits here can kil us quickly then whatever just ran away is probably something nasty and weak like a mutated rat or something." They all shuddered as they seemed to remember something and then with renewed vigor they started to look around. Unfortunately they went towards my building.

I started to think of what to do and realized "Why don't I just snipe the fools? I have magic now, might as well use it. I just need to be careful with my shots and not miss." I peeked back out the window and concentrated. Mana formed into a blue ball floating in the air. I aimed at the one who seemed like a leader and fired my mana ball. The mana ball flew at the leader rapidly and..PIERCED THROUGH HIS HEAD?! I sat there like a fish out of water with my mouth agape staring at the damage but that was the wrong move.

The 2 thugs that were alive panicked and one screamed "Dude hes dead! What the hell was that?! All I saw was a blue streak fly through the air before punching a hole through him and blowing up on the ground. What the hell?!" The axe wielder looked around and found me staring at them. He promptly screamed "Over there! Somethings up on the second floor sniping! Let's get it!" He started running towards my building while the other one panicked and stared at the dead body, still proccessing what was going on and trying to figure out what to do. I shook my head, getting out of my stupor and formed another ball of mana and fired it at that guy that had stopped responding.

His friend turned around and yelled "What are you doing?! Move before you get-!" A hole the size of a basketball appeared in his head, bringing him down just like the leader. Blood poured out of the hole but that didn't bother me at all. I had seen way more gory stuff in video games and vr lately is rather realistic so I wasn't bothered by the sight. I was just glad my experiment had worked out. Why did I try and experiment with magic during a battlefield you ask? I don't know, I didn't bother to think of the consequences as I could always run away with magic and I literally had 6 lives to spare. Anyways my experiment was changing the size of the mana ball.

I had first changed the size of my mana ball to be as small as I could make it with the first person. It seemed that the mana ball was the size of a tennisball and could go to a basketball at biggest. It seemed that it consumed the same amount of mana to shrink or grow the mana ball for some reason which confused me but I chalked it up to magic logic and went on with my day.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While I was lost in thought I heard footsteps coming up the stairs behind me. "Oh shit there was one more person. Right." I turned around and saw the person running up the stairs while screaming. He screamed "You bastard! I'm going to kill you! You slaughtered my friends! You MONSTER!"

A vein on my head bulged. "Oh so I'm the monster now?! You guys are the ones killing and looting other people! Screw you!" I poured mana into a mana ball and fired the spell at the axe wielder. He dodged to the left and the mana ball sailed past and blew up on the wall. It left a small crater there but otherwise did nothing. The thug started to close the distance while screaming random profanities. I started to back up and fired a second mana ball, this one a tennisball size, lets call it a mini mana ball for now.

The mini mana ball flew straight at the man but he still managed to avoid dying to it. It slammed into his left arm and pierced through while blowing up after passing through. "I was right! The mini version is faster than the big version! Alright, say goodnight you bastard!"

I took another step back but there was nothing there. I looked behind me and saw I had stepped out of a hole in the wall and out of the second floor...into the air. I screamed in panic as I plummeted from the second floor to the first floor. I landed on the ground and it hurt a lot less than I imagined it would. It still hurt a shit ton but I didnt have any broken bones or anything. I opened my status and saw that I went from 900 hp to 820.

"Why the hell does falling to the ground from the second floor cause less damage than those rabbits?! What the hell?!" I got up and saw the thug staring down at me in shock.

His face turned into one of horror as he yelled "What the hell are you?! You should have broken a few bones with that fall or even died! How are you ok?!" He looked on in horror as I just looked rather confused. So this wasn't normal? Or did I just have way more health than that loser? I just shrugged it off and fired a mana ball at the dude. He dodged it but like a moron he dodged to the left...off the roof. Just like me he fell off the second floor but unlike me he crumpled in a heap and didnt get up. I walked up and he looked like he had broken a bone in his good arm without a hole in it. Other than that he was coughing blood and not looking too hot. Just how little hp does this guy have?

I pulled out my bone dagger and prepared to finish the job but froze. Wait. What the hell was I just about to do? Was I about to kill someone?

...

Hold on... I technically already killed 2 people already. I was just adding to the pile at this point. I started to have an internal dilemma about what to do while the poor guy moaned in pain at my feet. I spent a minute or 2, I don't really know how long it was but once I was done contemplating I had decided on something and resolved myself. This world wasn't going to be kind. It was going to be ruthless and cruel. It was going to rip me to pieces the second I showed weakness. So I was going to become the monster that ate monsters, the thing that people fear. If I was powerful enough that no one messed with me I would be safe. I wasn't going to run around slaughtering and looting like these bandits were doing, but I wasn't going to shy away from anymore fights. I had already killed 2 people so there was no turning back, not when I killed the first person out of cold blood.

"Alright then, I've sorted out my mind. Man that makes me feel a lot better. Sorry pal but you arn't going to live through this encounter." I said as I looked down at the bandit who was laying on the ground with both arms useless and in a lot of pain. He looked at me with fear but I didn't let it get to me. I just reminded myself of the submerged vr games I had played and the fact that I had to do this to live. Besides he wasn't going to live even if I left him here. He was dead either way.

"God damnit stop stalling!" I smacked my self on the side of my head and gripped my bone dagger tightly. My grip on it was so tight my hand hurt from gripping it too hard. I looked at the dying man infront of me and stared at him dead in the eyes as I plunged the dagger into his throat and pulled it out. I pulled it out and gripped my slightly shaking hand. This place wasn't a fantasy funland.

No...this place was hell, and I was going to survive and even thrive here.