Kalamedra quickly removed a few of the leather thongs from his spatial ring, winding them around each hand a few times. He watched Laf’aera move a few more feet into the small room, approaching the mattress he slept on. She clearly hadn’t noticed the blankets looked empty, but then again her Elven eyes could not compare to his Dark Elf darkvision.

She was mumbling to herself, and he probably could have made it out if he cared. He didn’t. She had made her choice, irrespective of anything that he had actually done to her and trying to question “Why?” or feel any empathy would only make him hesitate at the wrong moment.

He moved as quietly as he could, right up behind her. Flipping the leather cords over her head from the back he jerked down and back hard, digging the rough leather into her larynx. Then he turned around, so that they were back to back and stepped forward brutally jerking. At the same time, he bent forward forcing her to arch her back over his, making it even harder to breathe.

He could feel her scrabbling at the cords, trying to loosen it’s cruel grip and catch a breath. Her breath was now coming in rapid gasps, and her feet were starting to drum at the floor. He made sure to move around a little to keep her from finding a foot hold, and her breath started to rattle in her traitorous chest.

He stood there, her corpse laying on his bent back for longer than strictly necessary but he wasn’t about to take any chances with a person who had expressed a bald intent to murder him. Once he was sure she was done fighting, he laid her on the ground, and put his head to hear chest and listened for a long moment. As quiet as the grave, and relentless as an avalanche, he moved to master the situation.

Time is of the essence. Jasper is waiting for her, and won’t give her too much extra time. He wasn’t comfortable from the start, but there is no question whose side he is on. If I turn up missing and this elf turns up dead, I will have a posse on my trail by daylight. No, this is going to have to be the night I prove myself to myself. This is something I never imagined myself doing, but I have to treat “Kalamedra” as if it’s my life, because it is now. No room for weak heartedness.

First things first, he quickly moved to get the dagger that she had been preparing to use on him. He used the pommel to beat in her temple. After some consideration he had decided that stabbing or cutting anything would have left too much of a mess. He quickly started searching the house for anything that would help him on his way and storing it in the spatial ring.

There was a few more sets of her brother’s clothes in the room, and a pair of boots that looked like something beyond the ordinary. In Laf’aera’s room he found a dark, charcoal grey hooded cloak and a chest under her bed had a bunch of dresses and skirts. Under all of that he found an empty, black-lacquered scabbard for a long sword. Not knowing what was worth keeping, and what was trash he took anything interesting.

In the rest of the house he took any transportable food, some utensils and cooking pots and such. He found a few pouches with coins but he couldn’t be bothered to count them at the moment so he just allowed them to be entered into his spatial ring. Once he had all this in the ring, and the dagger tucked behind his improvised belt, he turned to the corpse of the elf.

I wonder how much of a game it is. This world has magic of course, but is it magic that can be bent to really dance all over phsyics? Well, I guess this is the time to find out.

Kalamedra grabbed the corpse of the elf and stuffed her in his spatial ring. It was almost with a sense of disbelief that he saw her body disappear, but also with a wave of relief. He quickly picked up the cluttered room and walked out into the night. Maybe a murderer, but no one’s fool.

Not knowing where Jasper lived was going to be the biggest hurdle. He could try to track him, but besides not having the skill it was a heavily traveled road in a town gripped by festival. A worthless attempt at the best of times. No, what was called for here was some guile, and patience. A wry grin gripped Kalamedra’s lips as he considered those two of his least developed attributes.

The way forward clear he moved to the darkened market square, which most people had abandoned at this point, and started searching for someone left behind. Eventually he found a drunken man, a farmer by his look, laying on a temporary bench made from a hay bale. Gently shaking the man until his blurry eyes opened and tried focusing.

“Hey, old father, I got turned around. Where do I find Jasper’s house?” He tried to pitch his voice and words in as neutral a way as possible, relying on inebriation to sell his acting.

“Whazzat? Jasper? Jazz-purrr… That’s a weird name now that you mention it.”

Kalamedra’s grey eyes closed momentarily as he sighed involuntarily, before steeling himself to ask again. “Yes, Jasper. Haha. It is an unusual name at that. Where is his house again?”

“Hick! Hick! Next to his smithy of course! Can’t let that out of his sight or all the damn caravaners will steal all that good iron! Even if he is an outsider himself.”

Letting the man fall back into his drunken slumber, Kalamedra moved down the main road towards the side of town with the Caravanserai. He had seen what was obviously a smithy there earlier in the day when being shown around town. He made his way as silently to the smithy as he could. He noticed that the log notification was now starting to become a cherry red color, probably because he had so many unread system notifications since being abruptly awoken. They could wait.

Moving around the back of the building he found a window slightly ajar, clearly the one Jasper had left waiting for Laf’aera. He moved up to the window and listened intently. The soft sounds of snoring caused his face to take on a particularly cruel smile, and he hoisted himself in the open window, and down into the small smithy-adjacent room.

He paused for a moment and waited for his darkvision to adjust to the room’s lighting, once again grateful for darkvision. His race might provide him with challenges, but also benefits that could not be purchased for any price in-game. As the room swam into focus he saw a bed a few feet away, a dwarf sleeping on his side turned away from the window.

It’s a shame to have to take him out, but I have to protect myself, first and last. Even though he disagreed with Laf’aera, he also stood aside while he knew she was going to kill me. Some brave new world this is…pfah!

The dagger fit in his right hand like it had been made for it. He slowly stalked his sleeping prey, and once he was standing over him he did not delay or morally equivocate. His left hand he placed over the dwarf’s mouth while his right hand slashed down, driving the dagger’s point into the neck and using all his strength dragged it to the side, completely tearing the neck open.

The dwarf’s eyes sprang open momentarily but the end was very quick. His body twitched a couple times as his life’s blood spilled out like a punctured wineskin. In his darkvision the bed quickly changed from a light color to a slick dark palette.

He rolled the dwarf on his back, and removed the elf’s corpse from the spatial ring and place it beside the dwarf as if they had been cuddling. He wasn’t creating some cruel tableau but rather creating a scene which would be embellished with further elements momentarily. Not being an idiot he quickly moved through the room collecting anything that might help him on his way, for it was surely obvious that he must depart Far Westburg this very night. He grabbed a few more bits of transportable food, a belt, some pleated swordsman’s pants in a dark color, and a pouch with a decent amount of coins that was within a chest at the foot of the bed. The last item that caught his eye was a curious long-sword with a slightly curved shape and one sharpened edge hanging over the dwarf’s fireplace.

It was immediately obvious that it matched up with the scabbard he had acquired earlier, part of a set. It was a katana, first he had seen in the game. He knew that the Dark Elves used some Asian weapons and armor, and he put it together with the overheard discussions to determine this must have been a trophy from the Dark Elf slavers. Knowing that a smith would not hang up a piece of shit on the wall, he took it down and put it in the ring as well.

Then, calmly and with a steady hand, he took a lantern and spilled the oil all around the bed and taking a coal from the hearth he lit the whole place on fire. He quickly retreated outside and behind a house slightly down the road and made sure it was going to quickly and completely burn up before he strolled out the west end of town, swaddled in the concealing darkness of night.

He walked for hours, his sandles turning into shreds of leather by the time he found a wayside camping spot. Clearly used by passing travelers, there was a semi-permanent fire pit and some logs that had been set around it for a place to sit. Deciding it was time to see what he had gained for his trouble, he started to take things out of his ring.

Feet aching, he retrieved the boots he had got at the elf’s house and started to examine them closely. At first they merely looked like a nice pair of boots, with thick soles and soft uppers all of a dark black leather. The more he looked at them though, the more he felt like he could determine some of their characteristics. Suddenly, there was a new system message of a type he had not seen before.

Masterwork Leather Boots of Travel These boots, while mundane, have been crafted by a master leatherworker. They conform to the measurements of their owner’s feet and provide firm support, excellent traction, and supple comfort. 5% Movement Speed Increase Weight: 1.0lbs

Fucking amazing! Even the non-magical gear here is worth getting, if it’s well made. I am curious to see what magic gear looks like though, and I think I might have something to test that on. I wonder if you need some kind of magical identification spell? Oh well, only one way to find out.

He set the boots aside for a moment, fully intending to lace those bitches up as soon as he was done checking out the rest of the gear. He opened the spatial ring’s interface and saw that the coins had autosorted into like types, and that he had currently 57g 37s 103c, or 57 gold coins, 37 silver coins, and 103 copper. Bog standard fantasy currency system then, even If he didn’t know what each coin was really worth.

He removed the scabbard and sword from his ring and put them both across his knees and started looking at them. The scabbard was black, and lacquered, but it had been roughed slightly to reduce its shininess. The sword, from the grip, which had raised swells to aide in controlling it’s swing, through the tsuba (handguard) down to the blade was black as well. It appeared to be made of separate pieces of black cloth, and metal, and no ray of moonlight reflected from its surface.

It was plainly a work of art, as well as an efficient killing tool. Kalamedra had read somewhere in his old life that the sword was the first weapon made for killing men specifically as it had no use in hunting, and he could well believe it looking at this beauty. As he spent time examining, at least a half hour, he grew more and more attached to it. This is not something he would easily give up. When he finally received an interface popup it was less than enlightening.

Ka’vanth Sword of Rending This sword and accompanying scabbard are the work of the Ka’vanth Clan, and are works of exceeding Mastery. Know across the Dark Elven kingdoms for their weapons, this stands at the pinnacle of their efforts. You do not have sufficient Appraise Skill to Appraise this sword. You may reveal its hidden attributes by acquiring Appraise Master 1, or an appropriate Identify Spell. DMG: 2-8 Slashing Weight: 3.0lbs

Well, that fucking rocks! I need to find someone to identify it, I guess, because I don’t see myself hitting “Master” anyskill anytime soon. I can’t help but notice that 2 or 3 chops of this would kill me dead though. This game is deadly! I need to find out how armor works!

He took the belt and pants out of the ring, changed out his current attire and put that in the ring, and put on his new pants, boots, belt, scabbard and sword. It was funny how a few pieces of non-noob gear could really make you feel like a badass. At least until you run into another fucking giant rat.

Guess it’s time to check out my notifications as well. That icon is looking bright red now. That must be an indicator of how many messages I have to read.

System Notification Log Here is a summary of you System Notifications since you last acknowledged your notifications. You are currently set to digest mode. If you would like to receive notifications real time you may do so, otherwise they will simply accrue here until you acknowledge them. Skill Increase: Perception is now Beginner 2 (+1) Skill Increase: Perception is now Beginner 3 (+1) Skill Increase: Hide is now Beginner 3 (+1) Skill Increase: Sneak is now Beginner 2 (+1) Skill Increase: Dirty Fighting is now Beginner 2 (+1) XP Increase: You have gained 300xp Skill Increase: Search is now Beginner 3 (+1) Skill Increase: Sneak is now Beginner 3 (+1) Skill Increase: Dagger is now Beginner 3 (+1) XP Increase: You have gained 700xp Level Increase: You have reached Level 1! You gain 5hp and 1 Boost! Skill Increase: Search is now Beginner 4 (+1) New Skill: Appraise Discovered Skill Increase: Appraise is now Beginner 1 (+1) Skill Increase: Appraise is now Beginner 2 (+1)

Holy Shit! I leveled off that? How high a level was fucking Jasper? Clearly, I was fighting way out of my league! And what the hell is a boost?

Kalamedra LEVEL 1 XP 100/2000 PLAYED 25:13 hrs AGE 12 RACE Dark Elf LOG IN 14:20 03/19/43 SEX Male FAME/INFAMY 0 ALIGNMENT 0 * * * * * * * * HEALTH 15 MANA 0 STAMINA 64 STR 10 DEX 14 CON 8 INT 14 ESS 10 CHA 8 LCK 20 * * * * * * * * GOLD 57 SILVER 37 COPPER 103 BOOSTS 1 BELIEF 0 * * * * * * * * LANGUAGE Common GUILD None CITIZENSHIP None FAITH None LIEGE None PKILL 0 TITLES Dark Elf