A visibly uncomfortable Zack travelled alongside RuRet and Jasper.

They were travelling through the large open plains of Lokle.

The warm hues of the grass and the large, chalky rock made for some pleasant scenery.

A tense silence lingered as the hooded and masked, not to mention undead, escorts surrounded the two borderline prisoners.

“...”

“...”

“Idiot…” Jasper muttered, he sounded tired but still angry.

“Tree!” RuRet exclaimed excitedly.

“Elephant…” Zack continued uncertainly.

“Tard…” Jasper exclaimed, glaring at Zack who just did his best not to meet his gaze.

“Dust!” RuRet said proudly.

“Time” Zack suggested.

“Eejit…” Jasper hissed.

Every time Jasper was told to come up with a word for the game, he would come up with an insult.

“Thunder!” RuRet suggested.

After several awkward seconds, Zack spoke up.

“C-can we stop… playing the game yet?” He asked in a pleading tone.

RuRet smiled smugly.

“What’s wrong? Can’t think of any R words?” he teased, his smugness indicated he knew several.

“Retard…” Jasper butted in.

“Oi! Wait for your turn!” RuRet cried.

“How about you LET ME GO ALREADY!” he commanded, Jasper’s many escape attempts were always thwarted by RuRet’s seemingly unending undead army.

RuRet clicked his tongue.

“Sorry, I made a deal!” he shrugged.

The distant inn came into view for the trio.

“Looks like they reopened it!” he exclaimed.

Zack cocked his head.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

RuRet smiled.

“Back in the game, a lot of players used to come here! Until a certain… incident…” he remarked.

Jasper didn’t say anything, his eyes jumped from undead to undead, looking for any chance to escape.

He looked up and saw the massive swarm of black crows circling the group.

“Damn it!… I have to wait for an opening…”

That very instant, Jasper lunged at RuRet, planting the perma-death stamp on him.

“Wha-?!”

RuRet fell to the ground, clutching the back of his head, the place where he was stamped.

Zack turned to look at the grinning Jasper.

Jasper erupted into laughter as he turned towards Zack with the “you’re next” look.

Moments later the fell to the ground after receiving a swift karate-chop to the head from RuRet.

“Just kidding~” he teased.

The attack was too weak to even knock Zack off his feet, but it was an unpleasant shock.

“HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THAT?!” he demanded.

RuRet put a finger to his lips and smiled.

“It’s a trade secret!” he said.

Zack breathed a sigh of relief, even thought RuRet was technically their captor, at least he seemed pretty nice.

Jasper readied his weapon for combat, prepared to defend himself against the necromancer who just cracked a sly smile and turned around.

“Anyway, let’s keep going!” he said, pointing towards the distant inn.

Not long later, the group reached the inn.

Inside, a large, muscular player stood, he wore a massive broadsword on his back.

The man didn’t say anything as RuRet, Jasper and Zack, as well as several undead, entered the one-story-tall establishment and took up most of the seats inside.

The building looked pretty shabby, you could tell their drink selection would be limited to “beer” and water.

The giant of a man approached RuRet.

“What do you want…?” the bored man asked.

RuRet looked down to his name-tag.

“Greetings, Bolst! We three weary travellers have come for-”

“Just say your damn order!” Bolst barked.

RuRet lifted his hands in defeat.

“Alright, alright!”

“Can… I… get… a beer…?” he asked, as if he was trying to decided which of the two possible beverages he would choose.

RuRet turned to look at Zack and Jasper, the two sat opposite each other on the wall-side table.

“Order away! It’ll be my treat!” he said with a thumbs up.

Zack looked at the grimacing Bolst.

“C-can I get a glass of water?” he asked.

Bolst nodded, he looked over to the third so-called adventurer.

“Bring me wine, red.” he demanded.

“Don’t have any.” he shrugged.

“Pathetic! And you call this an inn?” he laughed mockingly.

In a mere second, Jasper was grabbed by Bolst.

“YOU GOT SOME NERVE TALKING SHIT LIKE THAT!”

Jasper grinned as he reached for his stamp only to find it as well as his ink missing.

He patted his pockets frantically.

“Eh!?”

Slowly, his head turned to face the panicking Zack as well as the incredible smug RuRet who patted a small box of ink whilst observing Jasper curiously.

Before Jasper had a chance to reach out for the box, he was pummelled in the gut by Bolst causing all the air to be knocked out of his lungs.

If he had eaten anything, he would have definitely thrown up.

Jasper gritted his teeth.

“I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS!” he threatened both RuRet and Bolst in the same breath.

He punched him again, his blood splattered onto the floor.

Zack began to sit up when he felt RuRet’s hand push him back down gently.

“Hold on…” he quietly instructed.

By the third punch, a mix of blood and spit trickled down Jasper’s battered face.

Seeing that he didn’t stand a chance of killing the man unarmed, he looked over to RuRet.

“DO SOMETHING, ASSHOLE! YOU NEED ME ALIVE, RIGHT!?”

RuRet scratched his head.

“Well, you kind of asked for it, why don’t you try to apologise?” he suggested.

Jasper’s teeth which were now tinted red became clenched even harder as he looked Bolst in the eyes.

“JUST APOLOGISE, MAN!” Zack exclaimed.

Instead of apologising, he head-butted the man.

The only blood that was drawn was the already released blood from Jasper, painted on Bolst’s undamaged forehead.

“YOU ASKED FOR IT!” Bolst exclaimed, dropping the human to the ground and kicking him repeated until he stopped moving.

After breathing a frustrated sigh caused as a result of choosing not to stomp Jasper’s head open like a watermelon, an outcome RuRet was already prepared for with several undead stationed at the nearest town.

RuRet stood up from his seat.

“Help me get him onto the chair, would you?” he asked.

“R-Right!” Zack nodded before rushing over to Jasper’s right arm.

The two lifted him up, though before they could seat him at their table, Jasper pushed Zack away, causing himself to fall down and hit his head against the floor.

“Hey!” Zack exclaimed, standing back up.

RuRet breathed an amused albeit exhausted sigh.

“This is going to be a long journey…” he remarked.

Eventually, with the help of the undead, RuRet managed to get Jasper back onto the chair.

From the looks of it, Jasper hasn’t broken anything except maybe his nose.

“G..ive me… the d…amn…ink…” Jasper hissed.

“Give you a damaged sink?” RuRet asked.

“T-…Th…e…Ink…”

RuRet shook his head.

“Would you have healed the innkeeper after beating him? Well, you were going to kill him so the comparison doesn’t really work out, right?” he remarked with a chuckle.

Jasper glared at RuRet hatefully.

Bolst returned with a wooden platter moments later, he placed RuRet’s beer on the table, Zack’s water as well as a glass of water for Jasper, plus some enchanted bandages to help his healing.

“Don’t go shit-talking people in the future…” Bolst advised.

Jasper was tempted to say something but he remained silent.

“Thanks!” Zack and RuRet said in unison.

RuRet paid for the drinks.

Seeing the familiar green hue of enchanted bandages, Jasper reached out for them, hoping to ease his pain.

“You need some help?” RuRet asked smugly.

Jasper gritted his teeth before snatching the roll of cloth up and roughly placing it against his face, as he spun the bandage around his head they simply came off, accomplishing little aside from smearing his blood around his face.

“...”

“...”

Zack and RuRet watched him with looks of pity on their faces, if Jasper wasn’t already covered in blood, his blushing might have been visible.

“...”

“...”

“You sure you don’t need help?” Zack offered.

He sent the man an angry glare before eventually tossing the bandage at RuRet who couldn’t help but grin.

“Aw, alright, I guess I’ll have to help patch you up~” he said causing Jasper to reach for his stamp instinctively only to be reminded that it wasn’t there.

Fearlessly, the fishman approached Jasper and placed the bandage on him properly.

Zack didn’t bother to mention his suspicion that the water was intended to wash the blood off before bandaging up.