I awoke early the next day, my dreams dominated by the faces of the three men I killed the day before, leaving me weary having woken up from the nightmares multiple times. It was worse than the nightmares I suffered after my family's death. If those were any indication they would haunt my dreams for years to come.

I packed everything and was ready for my departure when I received another visitor. It was Fiona Clark, a rather unassuming looking woman with dirty blonde hair. She was wearing a metal cuirass with shoulder guards but other than that her armor consisted of supple leather. I guess she was my travel companion and she didn't look happy, great.

"Bring your weapon and meet me in the training yard," she said and left.

'Geez, she could have said hi or introduced herself or something,' I thought in irritation. If it wasn't for my Identify skill I wouldn't even have know who she was.

Fiona Clark | Sword Dancer | Level 12

She was the lowest level person I had seen in the barracks so far. It was probably why she was assigned to this mission, being the least use in defense of the fort. I grabbed my staff and headed towards the training grounds. It was a square area about fifty feet across covered in hard-packed sand. I could see she was waiting for me, sword in hand and she looked annoyed. I had a sinking feeling about this.

"So, what is this training?" I said happily, trying to lighten the mood a bit as I stepped into the arena.

"A measure of your ability," she said flatly. Then she came at me like a blur.

I tried to sidestep the thrust of her sword, only managing to trip on my own feet. Her blade following me like a guided missile, cutting a shallow slash across my arm before ducking below my awkward swing and spinning back out of range. I was way out of my class against her I realized.

"What the hell!" I yelled, examining the cut on my arm. She had returned to her position on the sand.

"Your reactions are slow and clumsy, your technique lacking. Who trained you?" she said with a sour look on her face.

"My world didn't require martial skills beyond trained soldiers before the system came, why would I be trained?" I said angrily back, blood flowing from my arm.

She just tsked, "So you are relying on the basic proficiency that was given with your class I assume?"

"Yes, staff and mace. I choose it because I had no weapon at the time and was far from any place I could acquire one."

"At least you don't lack some wisdom," she said dismissively, "Come at me with all you have, do not worry about the damage we have a healer, and this arena will prevent fatal blows."

Well, that was good to know, although, she could have mentioned it before attacking me. I empowered my staff with Aura Strike and Flurry and dashed towards her casting Earth Fist. She sidestepped the earth attack and batted my strike off to the side. I tried to recover the blow but every time I got close she just batted it away with the flat of her sword all the while keeping on the move. I spun my staff trying to take out her feet but she just hopped over my strike and jabbed her sword into my closest hand causing me to nearly drop my staff. I backed away holding my wounded hand as it dripped blood on the ground. This woman was beginning to piss me off.

"Your movements are slow and highly telegraphed. Anyone with a modicum of training could see through them and you would have been dead three times over if I had wished it. We are not leaving today or even tomorrow. You will train and I will instruct. I cannot have useless baggage on this trip."

I retorted, "I didn't ask you to come", but she just gave me a death glare that seemed to be an inherent trait for women everywhere and we started training.

We trained for hours and I bled in a dozen different places all shallow cuts or stabs from her damnable sword. I hadn't managed to land a single blow on her yet. Then I got an idea. We circled each other and I kept well outside her reach as I started to spin my staff. When I had a good rhythm going I used Earth Fist under my foot to propel myself at her like a missile. I could see her raise one eyebrow at my surprising attack strategy. I grinned in triumph ready to finally land a blow. She met my staff with her sword guiding it away from her with negligent ease and into the ground. I flipped over the now impaled staff losing my grip and she kicked out at me as I passed.

"Oomph," was all that came out as she knocked the wind from me with her heavily booted foot and I tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"An interesting tactic," she said, "It leaves you open to any number of counter moves though since you have no control in the air. My suggestion would be to wait until the last moment and then use it to enhance your striking force instead. It may or may not work and it could injure you as the spell may still cause you harm, so use it at your own risk. I think that is enough training for today. I will see you here at dawn tomorrow," she said with finality and walked out of the area.

I just lay on the ground trying to catch my breath. I hurt all over and didn't feel any real improvement in my abilities. More a laundry list of stuff not to do, I guess that was some form of training. It felt more like she was punishing me for some unforeseen slight. After a while, I got up and headed off to my room. I would bathe and then eat. I also needed to talk to Frathsar about some things.

After cleaning myself I met up with the merchant and asked if he could join me for a meal.

"I already ate, but I have some free time to chat if you wish."

I nodded and we went to the food hall, I wanted to call it a cafeteria for some odd reason.

"I'm glad I was able to run into you before I left. I have a few questions about the system I was wondering if you could clarify for me."

"Certainly Paul, what would you ask me?"

"Well, one thing I noticed was the size of roaming groups anywhere from three to six, except the Commanders group and that large war party. Is there a reason for this?"

"That depends, there could be several reasons. If you are in a party all experience is shared among the group which can be good and bad depending on the situation. It's the most likely reason you see smaller groups running around town. If you lack any special skills to enhance group size your group limit is six people."

"Now you can run into much larger groups that aren't in a party. This means only the one that does the killing blow will get the experience. For example, the Commander has leadership abilities that allow him to group the entire barracks and set subgroups within. This is quite common among city defenders and the like. A war party is slightly different. War leaders utilize another skill that allows the leader to command a large group. Everyone under the war leader gets reduced experience and the war leader receive a larger share. The reason armies or war parties do this is so they can track the flow of battle and easily command troops by giving them instructions directly through their system display."

"Makes sense in a way, another question?"

"Certainly, go ahead and ask."

"Why is it that nobody here is using advanced weapons or armor?"

"That is an oddity of the world I came from. Most advanced technologies didn't seem to work well on our planet, that and the fact that most guns like your rifle or pistol do little damage in the grand scheme of things means people were better off utilizing primitive tech and armor for the stat bonuses."

"There are certain mana fueled technologies that did work and were starting to appear on the market but they are prohibitively expensive for most people. My mana pistol is one example but you would need to supply these types of items with the mana unless you have a mana battery or generator to power it."

"Your world is different. It seems from everything I have seen that technology and magic will coexist just fine here."

Have you noticed any working tech?" he asked questioningly.

I shrugged and pulled out the wind-up flashlight from my small bag that I carried with me now.

"I have this," I said winding up the device and turning it on.

He marveled at the item and asked if he could inspect it. He turned it over in his hands inspecting every piece of the item before handing it back.

"A fascinating little device, do you know how it functions?"

"I have a general idea," I said, "From what I understand spinning this piece will generate an electrical field that powers a capacitor. I haven't seen any other working technology other than guns of course but those are only mechanical in nature."

"Hmmm. I wonder if a mana fueled version of your device could be created I will have to ponder that and see if I can cobble something together. I enjoy a bit of tinkering now and then," he said with a smile, "Now, any further questions for me today?"

I thought about it for a bit and came up with one more question that maybe he would have some insight on.

"These gangs," I said thoughtfully.

"Yes, what about them?"

"It seems odd to me that on the very first day groups like this would coalesce and hit levels well above my own."

"It is odd," the merchant said, "Unless, they had prior knowledge of the system. Perhaps someone attempted a power play to control your planet but failed and the system activated early. It would explain a few oddities I have noted."

I didn't like the thought of some globally reaching power trying to control the entire populace through the system but it made a strange sort of sense. I had nothing against governments controlling the populace to some extent, but if Frathsar was right this seemed more like someone wanting ultimate control over everyone's lives and I wasn't about to be someone's slave. I would have to do some more digging; maybe a larger town could provide some more information. I thanked the merchant for his time and headed off to bed.

The next two days were a rinse and repeat of me getting my ass handed to me by Fiona, who only seemed to get more violent with me each day. In those two days, I had only managed to score a glancing blow on her that resulted in an extra helping of whoop-ass from her. I lay in my bed too sore to do anything other than remain still. It did allow me time to think about the trip south. We would be leaving tomorrow and I was tempted to just leave the prickly woman behind and tell the Commander he could go screw himself. But I knew an extra fighter on this trip couldn't hurt. Originally my destination was ninety miles or so but if we ran into more rending on the way who knows how long it would take. So far the roads were intact but even that could change. There were just too many unknowns. I sighed and closed my eyes to try and get some sleep.

We set out early the next day with no fanfare. Not that I expected much but seriously nobody even cared to wish us off. Oh well. Fiona was as grumpy as ever and refused to even speak to me. The typical silent treatment I thought, but I had no idea what I even did to draw her ire so I left the woman to stew in her feelings. When I tried asking she just glared daggers at me and I decided to keep to myself after that.

It didn't take us long to leave the town behind as the barracks were situated closer to the southern end of the town. We encountered only one weak group of Sulid that Fiona and I dispatched before they even knew we were there. After that, we walked unmolested for hours. I started to notice more and more abandoned cars on the road. A few were burned-out and blood, lots of blood. Fiona had been quiet and weird, occasionally looking back as we walked. I tried asking her about it but she acted like it never happened and glared at me. Fine if she wanted to play the petulant child so be it.

I stopped to examine the blood and one of the unburnt cars. The blood was mostly dry and I only gave a cursory examination to the drying stains. The car was my real goal, I was examining an old wood panel wagon probably from the late 70's early 80's if I had to guess. Likely carbureted and should still run but it was stopped like the rest of the cars. This made me curious to know why and might explain why I had not seen any working vehicles at all.

"Why do you waste your time examining that horseless carriage when we need to hurry south?"

I was surprised to hear Fiona speak after so long in silence and blinked in surprise.

"Curiosity mostly, and to answer a question I have had since day one. It won't take long," I added seeing her sour demeanor.

I got back to the car and ignored the surly woman for a few minutes. The hood popped open and I pulled it up. Everything looked intact and it should start. I turned the key but no power. I found some loose wire and connected it to either battery terminal then touched them together. Not so much as a spark.

"Well, that answers my question."

"Good now we can quit wasting time and keep moving."

I rounded on the woman, "What is your problem?"

She just ignored my question and started back down the road. The woman appeared to be a bit jumpy like she had never left the safety of a town before. I thought this was why her behavior was so odd. Not for the first time I wished the Commander had sent someone else with me. We walked for another hour before the land changed for the extreme.

Terrain that should have been mostly flat farmland with small groups of trees dotting the landscape turned into sharp rock outcroppings and deep gorges that looked like a scar across the landscape. So that's what I decided to call it on my hand-drawn map The Scar.

You have earned 500 XP for naming an unknown landmark

Oh, experience for discovering and naming a new location. My inner explorer shouted in joy at this news. The edges of The Scar weren't visible from this vantage point, too many trees. It reminded me a lot of the Grand Canyon, only not as deep or wide and the tops of the rock pillars contained the remains of the road and even part of a house that I spotted far off. Also, unlike the Grand Canyon, it was filled with trees and shrubbery along the sides and bottom.

"Let's stop here and rest for a bit," I suggested, knowing it would be either a long trip down or around and this was as good a place as any to spend the night.

"No we will continue on into the night so I can be done with this assignment."

"Then be my guest I'm stopping here. I am not entering those foothills surrounding The Scar in the dark."

"Scar? What nonsense, you will continue, I command it."

"Command all you want lady, I don't report to you," I said angrily, getting ready to sit down before I heard her sword leave its sheath.

"What are you doing?" I said, eying her warily.

"I know what you are up to, and I will not fall victim to your ploy."

What was this woman on about, what ploy?

"I think you're confused about something, how about you put away the sword and let's talk this out."

"Silence foul trickster, I have heard enough of your lies and stalling tactics. I can hear your friends approaching even now."

'Friends? What is she on about,' my confusion at her words showing on my face. This didn't hold her blade though.

She came at me in a blur and I twisted to the side managing to knock her sword away at the last moment but I knew I couldn't beat her. All my boosts were active as I had just refreshed them, but she also had these same advantages as we were grouped up at the time of casting. She left the group right as she attacked me leaving me low on mana.

She chose the perfect moment to strike so that I would be at a disadvantage and I was, my mana was below 200 and I couldn't cast the only spell that may even the odds in this fight. She slashed me across the bicep as I reeled back trying to get outside her reach but she kept pushing me and I couldn't block or use my abilities fast enough as I backpedaled and slid to the side to avoid her strikes.

The kick came out of nowhere and I felt myself flying through open air. That's when I realized my mistake she had lured me into a position to kick me off the cliff. I flew through the air for a few seconds before I tumbled down the incline losing my staff and taking multiple hits from trees and rocks as I bounced down the rocky hill. My health fell precipitously but I managed to cast Rejuvenate as I fell, hoping it would be enough to save me as I slammed into the ground.

They say it's not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop at the end. "They" can fuck right off, I hit the bottom with a meaty thud 12 health remaining both legs broken and at least one of my arms as well. The other was pinned between some rocks that had tumbled loose from my fall, I just lay there in pain gasping to try and recover my breath that had been knocked out as I slammed against the ground, my head too fuzzy to cast any more healing. I was bleeding and the only thing keeping me alive was my slowly dwindling Rejuvenate spell.