Jim's POV

Something was shaking Jim awake. Groaning he said “Just give me five more minutes.”

Seconds away from getting back to sleep he was shaken again.

“Just give me a few more minutes! I'll totally get up!”

Then Jim froze. He was still in his hotel room. There shouldn't be anyone shaking him. Finally he opened his eyes and found to no surprise at all that there was no one but him in his hotel room.

Shifting his right eye over to the game world seemed to be getting ingrained as a habit. His right eye was now looking at an overly large wolf pup that was nudging him. Jim muttered “At least the armor held up this time.”

It had been two days since he played with his puppies so he figured he could spare them a couple minutes. Replaying that last thought he realized he called them “his puppies.”

Even though they were not people he had no doubt that these creatures were real. He wondered what their brain activity would look like. Jim had yet to look at information concerning non-humans yet. How hard would it be to find their creature ID number? Mentally he put it on his to do list, it was getting too full. This time Jim closed both eyes and was soon in his room at Forest’s place.

He was about to take his gauntlets off to pet them but it took him a couple seconds to realize he wasn't the only one in the room. Looking slowly at the left wall he saw a familiar pretty face. Well, not so pretty now. One of the pups had their jaws around her throat and she seemed to have a good gash on her shoulder. It was only then did he notice that his helmet was off. Taking his gauntlets off he felt around his neck and looked down at three small pin pricks of blood. Damned karma, why was he always right. On the bright side it looked like it turned out to be a great idea taking all of those greater sources. He laughed as he saw two knives next to his pillow that had broken blades.

Assassin’s POV

Scarlet felt like a fool. How could she have underestimated her foe so badly? She was blessed beyond all others with three ranks of sharpen blade. It was a magical skill that was highly coveted by people of her trade, and she had three ranks in it. A solid strike from her daggers made most armor look like paper, which was nothing compared to what it did to their insides. The massive man and his dogs were all level one. Level one! She had the first rank of sense as well. Most people would feel lucky just having one skill, but she had four. A talent such as herself would make most people quake in their boots if they only knew. But she was too overconfident. In hindsight it was obvious. When she used the sense spell the information provided was only “Level 1 human male.”

Every other time it would give her a breakdown of their stats. Most people didn't even know these numbers existed. The only time she had seen information omitted was when someone was greater than five levels ahead of her, and those people she stayed away from. The guy looked like a monster but he was only level one. How was she to know her daggers would be so ineffective?

Scarlet remembered seeing the man for the first time in the jet black armor. Upon first seeing him a shiver of fear went down her spine, but it was quickly suppressed after she casted the spell. And that made her greed flair up. He would make the perfect target. A level one with all that expensive gear on? He was ripe for the pickings.

She was on a scouting mission to see if there was any mischief she could make. Rightnow the towns folk thought that she was part of a merchant circle from Jacksburg, a port town not too far away. The real merchants were to arrive in a couple days. The plan was to cause a bit of mischief beforehand, and then disappear only to have the merchant circle pick up the blame. Locally most people just called this place "the village", but when abroad it was referred to as King's End. If the people of King's End happened to have retaliated in kind against the merchant circle, then Jacksburg would probably send a force up these mountains. Jacksburg was one of three major city states that occupied the region. There has always been an unsteady peace between the trio, because if one attacked the other, the last city state that did not attack would take the board. But the people of her city were tired of waiting so they sent people like her to make that situation happen. If Jacksburg was taking care of a fire in there backyard, it was possible to make a bigger piece on the board commit. Which is why she was in this dinky town in the first place.

After reading that the man was only level one in that insanely expensive armor she thought she had her mark. Not only would it accomplish her mission, but she would make a good bit of gil to boot. The problem? Right when she was working her charms, he flat out called her an assassin! Scarlet was calling herself all kinds of a fool thinking that she had been tossed some bait to distract her so they could surround her to take her out. There were always other people of her trade that played for the other sides. But to her pleasant surprise she was not in an ambush. The man went on his way without a care in the world and there was no one trying to kill her.

Scarlet made a quick retreat and started gathering information, a task that she was really good at. After only a couple hours she learned that this guy had came from the cursed caves! There were only two kinds of people that came out alive from the caves. Either they were blessed with the luck of an entire village or they were more deadly than anything in there. The only problem was that the last warrior known to have crossed through the caves and survived was over a hundred years ago. Most of the village was going on about how a lucky man made it through. With her research done she figured she shouldn't have second guessed herself. Even if he knew what she was, the man had no ties to the village. No one would care if his body showed up in the morning. Finding out his location was as easy as pie, so she waited for the night. For two days she watched him. And in two days he barely moved an inch. A couple times she saw him flail his right hand around. Combining that with the fact that he hadn't moved she thought it was highly probable that the man was suffering from some kind of illness.

On the third night she struck. It was the first time that both of those dogs had finally been asleep at the same time. Creeping over to the bed she used her slender fingers to unlock the chin strap and put his helmet to the side. With an expert slash she swiped the dagger across his throat while holding his mouth closed. The strike felt off and she was confused when the red smile did not appear on his neck. After another couple seconds she realized that there was no wound. What magic was this? Scarlett glanced at the two dogs to make sure they were still asleep and then casted Sharpen Blade Lv3. Lets see him take this!

Nothing happened. Nothing! The man didn't even wake up! Finally she just stood on top of the man and put the point of the dagger into his throat while using one foot to push down harder. After a few good shoves she took a look at her work. One small pool of blood was on his neck. She had seen more blood shed while shaving! Annoyed she tried the same trick again this time with both feed on the cross guard, and then she toppled over. As she got up from the floor she was an inch away from reflective yellow eyes. But they were just large puppies so she ignored them. Taking her other dagger out she was ready to try that trick again. This time the blood splotch was a little bit bigger, but her dagger broke. Her dagger broke? With Sharpen Blade Lv3? It was crazy. She still could have run but since jabbing a dagger into his neck didn't wake him up, she figured a few dogs barking probably wouldn't do anything. As she was in the process of doing the dagger pogo dance again one of the wolf pups bit her. It bit her and it hurt! She felt teeth bite into her right shoulder and only stop when they hit bone. Toppling over she put a hand to her wound and was about to stand up when jaws clamped down around her neck. She went still. For some reason the dog didn't clamp down and end her. How could these pups be so powerful?

As she was contemplating that the other wolf started nudging the man. And he didn't get up. The next twenty minutes she could only watch dumbfounded as the dog tried ever more impressive moves to try to wake the man up. It started jumping on his chest. It licked his ears. It barked like crazy right in front of his face. What kind of mage was that guy? Why would someone create a magic barrier so strong that no one could wake him up? A few minutes later the man finally got up and was oblivious to her. She would have rolled her eyes had it not been for the fact that she was about to die.

After taking a few seconds looking at her his eyes shifted to the dog that was not currently pinning her down and said "Really? I had two mighty guard dogs and still an assassin crept in my room, took off my helmet, and managed to break not one but two daggers before yall stopped her?"

The dog that was currently holding her finally drew back its jaws, She saw both of the wolf pups laying down in front of the man whining while not meeting his eyes. That was one of the oddest things she had ever seen. Can wolves be embarrassed?

The man studied her and she didn't know what to say. It's kind of hard to put a good spin on "I was trying to kill you and wanted to steal all your stuff."

Stil, now that she was free her hand dropped to her belt and grabbed a small maroon colored vial and drank it. It was a medium healing potion and should make her arm good as new in only a couple seconds. The man and his pets were strong, but still an opportunity to escape might present itself.

The man then started doing that weird arm flaily thing again. Scarlet coiled herself and was about to bolt for it when in his hand appeared the most beautiful dagger she had ever seen. She was mesmerized.

Jim's PoV

Ha! This was perfect bait. All assassines love daggers! Genius baby! He slowly moved the dagger left and right and watched her eyes follow the weapon hungrily. It was like watching a dog look at a ball before his owner threw it. Absolutely hilarious!

In a sing song voice Jim asked "Do you want the daggerrrrr?"

Finally the woman's eyes snapped back to his face and she said guardedly "Maybe. What would you want for it?"

Little Jim had a couple ideas but he quashed those. "Do you know of anyone else that is trying to rob me?"

Instantly she said "Yes. Three are watching right now and there has been four others that have been spending way too much time around your house."

Jim blinked and he looked outside his window. Indeed there were three men with weapons not too far away. And they all seemed to be way too interested in what was going on in his room. Had they been planning on ambushing assassin lady when she came out?

Jim tossed her the knife and said "I got a matching pair to that dagger and a few pieces of high quality leather armor if you make my stay peaceful. Shouldn't be more than a week."

A vicious smile appeared on her face and she said "You got it wizard. And I better get my payment. I don't know what spell you used to stop me, but cross me and I'll find a way to break through your barrier."

Jim could only watch confused as the woman vaulted out of the window to chase the three men. Laying back down on the bed and pressing log out, he wondered what was going on in her head. Wizard? What kind of joke was she playing at? Women. Same in both worlds. Crazy as hell.