Days gone by

Days had come and gone since the village elder had issued them both a scantily detailed quest, Sven had procured enough wolf hides in this time to upgrade both bandit swords into rugged berserkers, they had less reach but were brutally strong and come with a unique passive: flesh based life forms would take a small bleed damage over time. The bleed was nice and all, but the pure boost in damage was more important. Going from the +30 damage of the bandit longsword to a +55 rugged berserker was going to enable more one shot criticals against tougher opponents.

The weapon damage was a nice boon, but the increase in level was also of significance - especially for Elise who had begun her journey as a simple level 3 and had now recently reached level 10. Sven wasn't as far ahead now either, at a solid level 12. Level 10 in the Axiom game world was of significance due to the fact that this is where you could choose your primary class - this is usually offered as a quest and the player can simply choose which class they want by selecting the correct quest.

In Svens past life he had chosen the Gatekeeper class due to its devastating heavy blows along with its renown survivability and raid boss tier tankiness. It was a difficult class to play due to its lengthy cooldowns - demanding the player know an absurd amount of information about the game paired with a tactical mind to perform to a proper standard. Many players would call the class under-powered and lackluster until Sven had entered the world stage, soon enough the pros were begging the developers to nerf some of the Gatekeepers higher tier abilities.

'But how am I meant to pick a class if I can't even read my quest log?' Sven wondered to himself as he watched Elise dispatch a group of wolves all on her own. She had acquired a bow 2 days before and was steadily practicing her aim, like before she had a shaky start but soon warmed up to feel of the weapon, the drop of the arrow and coarse linen string against her fingers becoming more and more familiar as she used it.

"These enemies are becoming easier and easier! Your tutoring really works Sven!" Elise glowed a radiant smile, Sven blushed from the compliment - something he wasn't particularly used to. She wanted to try out magic too, but that combat style was a little more specialized than he would have liked. He had explained it to her all the night before, but becoming a mage isn't something everyone can become like the other 2 classes. Every character upon generation rolls for their magic affinity stat, an unchangeable statistic that determines how much damage they deal with magic, how much mana they receive per level, their resistance to other magics and so on. If your character rolls a low magic affinity stat, then they would be a useless mage.

Sven understood that pain all too well, when he first created his character he had wanted to be a sorcerer but was dismayed to find that he had rolled the lowest possible magic affinity stat you could roll. A big fat ZERO, meaning not only would he be a bad mage, he literally couldn't cast a single spell due to him having no mana to cast anything.

'Maybe things are different now?' Sven thought to himself, after all he had an academical proficiency instead of a cooking proficiency like his old account had, maybe that means he could have a good magic affinity stat. The thought excited him a little, maybe that step to becoming a sorcerer wasn't so out of reach?!

"Come on, we should head back to the inn. We can continue searching tomorrow." Sven picked himself up off the log he was sat on, Elise made an unsatisfied look, the kind of look a spoiled child would give to a parent who had told her she couldn't have something.

"But the night is still so young! What if the door is just around the corner, we can still go on-" She was cut off by the sounds of twigs snapping, Sven directed his attention to the thicket of the trees, the darkness made it hard to see, but a glint of metal shining off the moons surface was the only warning the pair got before they both jumped back for a volly of arrows landing at where their feet had been.

"Who goes there?!" Sven asked, however the response he got was yet more arrow fire. That settles it then, they were foe and not friend. Sven dodged an arrow aimed for his head and bolted into the trees, their arrow fire would be suppressed and limited here. He couldn't see Elise but he was sure she had done the same. Hearing more twigs snapping he honed in onto the source of the sound.

Bandits again, three of them. They had thrown their bows to the ground and had drawn their longswords, they had greater reach than Svens rugged berserker but in this darkness, this factor wouldn't be as important. At the same time, Sven and Elise flanked them from both sides, deflecting their opponents attacks and striking when there was an opening. This kind of battle was childs play compared to the one at the hamlet, and now that they were better equipped with higher levels, the battle ended almost as soon as it had started. Just as Sven was about to slit the throat of the last dying bandit, he raised an arm and begged for his life.

"Wait! If you let me live, I'll tell you where the camp is, that's what you're looking for right?! If you *cough* let me go, I'll point you in the right direction." Sven really needed to stop thinking of these bandits as the simple NPC's from the game, they were as complex as real humans and had needs and desires just like he had. An NPC in the old game would have just mindlessly attacked until either the player or he had perished. But here a bandit was pleading for his life, offering information as trade. It hadn't really struck his mind to find the camp until this point, he had been primarily searching for this secret door for the quest, but now that he could learn where this bandit camp is, it might be worth checking it out.

"Deal, for what is left of your life, I will spare it if you show me where the camp is. And if you lie to me." The bandit watched as Sven looked at his bodies condition, bloodied and only strong enough to crawl away. "I'll know where to find you." The bandit shivered and pointed in a direction that he had came from.

"That way, a ten minute walk I swear it! The boss has us patrolling throughout the night, there will be others! So we have a deal, you will let me live?" The bandit shifted nervously, Svens eyes darkened.

"Would you have let those farmers live?" The air caught in the mans throat, and before he could even begin to splutter a response the sharp end of the rugged berserker pierced his neck - silencing him off for good.

"You broke your promise..." Elise gasped at the ruthlessness, even though on some subconscious level, she understood his reasons. It still didn't quell her shock, seeing the man she admired break his word - even to someone as low as a bandit.

"He's a bandit, if we had let him live there's no guarantee that another patrol won't walk by and be alerted to our presence by him, besides his life style is the kind that is intolerable to any peace loving person, why would I honor a promise to the honorless?" She could see the reason behind that but it still left a sour taste in her mouth.

"A person should always keep their promise, even if the person they're promising something to is a piece of shit." She finally said, Sven wordlessly set about hiding the bodies the best he could, was she right? Should he have just killed the bandit out right? He was pretty sure his outcome was better as he played her suggestion through his mind.

With that little spat over with, a quiet awkwardness lingered as they walked. Time to see if that bandit was true to his word, the couple walked through the overgrowth of the deep forest until soon enough they came upon flickering lights ahead of them. It was dark but Sven could still make out the wooden walls and outposts that circled the bandits camp. Men were stationed up on the ramparts, others atop the outposts, more still patrolling the perimeter. It was like a small fortress right now, the good thing being that most of them were on show so Sven could gauge their true numbers.

"20, no 25 men maybe?" Sven estimated as he counted. "That's probably all of them, they're in a state of high alert, they wouldn't be hiding much more inside." The men looked tired, sluggish even. They've probably pulled several long nights of patrolling and lookout duties, no doubt many of them disbanded after their humiliating defeat against farmers and peasants, this was likely all that was left, 30 men at most.

"Are you with me?" Sven asked Elise, her resolve steeled at the question.

"I'm with you, Sven."