Blood slowly drips from my wound, taking with it the little life left in me. As hard as it is to get up, I have to do it in order to drink another potion before its too late.

♡8/103

I gather my forces and get on my feet, a sharp pain emanates from somewhere deep inside me, making me fall just as I got up. Maybe this is payback for the pain I caused...

♡6/103

Step by step I go to the bedroll, grabbing the potions I made before sleeping and drinking them up all at once, ignoring the side effects I will surely get.

♡12/103

A chill runs through my body, lessening the pain a little. The wounds start closing slowly, the flesh comes back in place with a disgusting feeling of something abnormal occurring. While I rest waiting for the wounds to heal, I charge my weapons and equip my armor, putting on piece by piece. There has to be enough time for that... or else... No, I won't give myself to depressive thoughts now or I won't do it.

Soon, they will send people back here once they notice the missing soldiers, but I will be long gone by then, and the corpses will be missing some of their possessions...

The wizard carried an amulet of creation and staff of shielding. The rest of them had only 1 potion, 12 coins and each had their holy book of the Aesirite on them, some sort of manual how to be a good citizen and about their holy crusade to unite the lands in order to protect it from the evils of other nations.

A thought crosses my mind... What if there are groups worse than the Aesirite around here? I hope I don't bump into more...

I pack everything I can along with herbs to make potions and some gems. With my backpack full, I tie the two staves to it and put on the cloak. Skelones notes said of an alternative exit that should lead to right outside the valley, opposite of the way I came. I follow it, light from the light-crystal brightening the way for me. After getting away from here I plan on finding either another hideout for a while or to get away from those fanatic freaks… I know I can't face an army.

Walking through the cave wasn't dangerous, no creatures appeared beside an occasional bug that I sliced in half with an arcane wave. Despite the cold of the caves, I was sweating heavily, always looking behind me to see if there was someone following my trails. It's not easy to carry this much weight while nervous either...

Maybe I should check the notifications from the fight, this always helps me calm down a little.

◇Battle magic is now level 3◇ ◇Battle magic is now level 4◇ ◇Battle magic is now level 5◇ ◇dagger mastery is now level 2◇ ◇dagger mastery is now level 3◇ ◇dagger mastery is now level 4◇ ◇dual-wielding is now level 2◇ ◇dual-wielding is now level 3◇ ◇dual-wielding is now level 4◇

Lots of levels. I wonder why the fighting skill got none? Maybe it gets harder after 10...

There is probably half a day I left my hideout. Those caves are enormous, I would surely get lost if not for the directions Skelones gave me, I just hope these are right as I do not want to live in caves forever.

A faint light shines in the distance, hope filling me as I get closer and see an actual exit. The way out is actually no more than one meter high, so I take out my backpack, passing it through first, and then I go out. Familiar gray trees with red leaves bringing life to the place, moonlight shining through the treetops making the night quite a beautiful one.

These bucketheads might have ways of tracking me at night, but it might be harder for them to do it... I hope.

Now… Where do I go? For an ancient robot of advanced technology, Skelones drawings are… well, they look like the drawings of a 4-year-old kid. There is a mountain with a cave which is probably where I am, the village of Krosh, A sun with a happy face and a city far away named Kavros, located after the valley of Maedra ends. The city is the only place marked on the map, so I guess I will go there.

As I walk, the vegetation gets progressively scarcer, already being at the edge of the valley.

Part of me wishes to go back to the village and liberate the place but I know that wouldn't bring my old life back. Neither would bring Skelones back...

Part of me believes he is still alive somewhere, just a little damaged, fixing himself up in some hidden cave as he waits for the right moment to strike and save the villagers. But I don't want to get false hope, it's better if I just accept he is gone and won't come back.

Now I find the road that leads to Kavros, according to the drawing. I walk it for a while but the weight is putting me down, I am tired, fighting while not getting a proper rest took a toll on me. There is a hill not so far from the road, but not too close either. I stride there, making my camp behind it so no one finds me while I am asleep again. Placing my bedroll on the ground, I sleep instantly like a stone.

Sunlight wakes me up, heating my body enough for me to sweat a little. There aren’t many trees around here so no good place to cover from the huge fireball in the sky we call the sun. I think the people who said hell was beneath the ground never woke up in a semi-arid place.

Drinking a bit of water from my waterskin, I get up and prepare myself. My belly is rumbling but I don't want to lose time here, I need to get as far as I can, so I eat one of the rations while walking, leaving me with 4 others that I will have to make it last until the end of my journey to the city.

Through the blazing sun, I walk the road. No living soul on sight, not even after a few hours. The only thing that caught my attention was something shining in the distance. A smile forms in my face as I get some hope of it being the city, but as I get closer I notice the shine was actually originated by some pieces of iron leftover in ruined buildings.

The buildings are more architecturally advanced than the ones from the village, some looked like they had quite some floors before. I think this used to be a city...

The road dives deep into the ruins now. Curiosity instills me to go check on them, study their structure, and find out why they are here, but it could be dangerous and besides, I can’t lose time.

Something is wrong. I can feel it is. I look over my shoulders in search of anything odd, any movement… then, one dry branch on the ground cracks, as if someone stepped on them. I arm myself and run.

“Fucking boulder feet, Thane, you revealed us!” a man yelled.

Looking behind me, 4 figures were on my track, 3 armed with metal clubs and scrap armor, while one of them used a cloak and holding some kind of rod. A mage.

I keep fleeing but I can’t outrun them with all this weight on my back.

“I told ya there were more refugees! The bucketheads will pay us for them!” says another man.

They are hunting refuges... How can I deal with that? I can't run that fast, the only way out is to fight. If it's only four maybe I can do it. I drop the backpack on the ground and position myself waiting for them to come at me. Three more come from the other direction, one of them equipped with good quality armor and a mace, also, another cloaked mage by his side. The odds of winning this fight just got a lot lower now...

They approach, surrounding me, I search for the weakest of them to reduce their numbers, I get my pistol and shoot quickly, taking him down, then I drop the pistol and run to the next, sending a cutting wave with my dagger, taking his arm out. He cries and screams on the ground, the mage is in panic, clearly inexperienced. I run to the cloaked one and strike her head with the handle of my dagger, she falls to the ground. Four left.

Suddenly, I feel a familiar sensation of heavy gravity as the second mage makes gestures, drawing a rune in the air with his fingertips to hold me with magic. Five more people are approaching from far, I guess part of their group. I touch a stone on the ground, marking it as an arcane bomb and kick it as strong as I could after activating. The mage stops his gravity magic and conjures a golden barrier around the stone, completely nullifying the explosion.

I use the diversion to attack the mace user. The man evades my arcane wave and with an unnatural speed, gets close to me, striking his mace at my chest, bending my breastplate inwards. I Can’t breathe. I try to get air into my lungs but I can’t. the glove of alteration is on my backpack… I have to take off my armor somehow...

I feel something behind me. Turning my head, the last thing I see is a metal club right into my face. The light left my eyes and everything becomes void.

Consciousness slowly returns to me and I start opening my eye. There is a lot of pain on my face and chest, and my vision is still a little blurry. I try to move my hands but I noticed some resistance. There is something cold holding my arm... metal. Looking around, ruined walls surround me, as well as some of the people I fought. The closest one is the mage I knocked out, she seems younger than me by a few years. White and pink light comes from the rod she is holding, the light bends and circulates my wounds, healing them a little and soothing the pain.

“what… Who are… Shit.” is all I can say, my head hurts too much to form words right now.

“Sorry, about that. Do yourself a favor and don’t fight back, they will kill you if you do.” she says.

It’s true, I lost. The man with the mace looked to be far more experienced in fighting than I am. The way he moved and attacked an indication of his strength. Trying to rebel now would only make it worse...

“What are you going to do with me?” I gather my strength to ask.

“well, you are lucky I am here, or they would have killed you already. Carls, the man you cut off an arm tried to do it, actually, but I healed you.” she pauses for a moment and resumes speaking “I am only doing it because you could have killed me but choose not to. Also, no one died so they won’t throw money away just for revenge.”

Throw money away…

"You are going to sell me to the Aesirite, aren't you?" I ask

She nods, confirming it. After she finishes healing me, she signals the rest of her group and they come close

"Don't try anything, I can hold you with magic, he can break your face and she can heal it so he breaks it again." the other mage say

I nod in silence as I try to think ways to escape. I could explode the cuffs but that would kill me so no. Using it as a temporary artifact to launch bolts would be too silly against these guys, besides, it's steel so it would only go wrong.

After a long walk, they take me back to the valley, right to the village. A tower made of stone stands in the middle of it.

"Glory to Aesirite!" Says a soldier guarding the entrance, placing his open hand on his chest, then closing it firmly.

"Glory to Aesirite" responds the gravity mage, leading part of the group inside. The girl who healed me and others stay there, outside.

We come inside one of their barracks, some soldiers are around, and there is one with shiny armor, bald, and a mustache who is sitting on a chair, filling papers up.

"Back already. You captured the demon, I see." He says to the mage.

"As expected, she did try to go for Kavros. The mercenaries did their job." He says, pointing to the man who hit me with the mace. "She also had many expensive items we retrieved."

"They will be compensated. As for you, Zett, a position awaits at our glorious army. You will be Sargent Zett from now on."

"Thank you, sir, for showing me the glory of the Aesirite" Zett responds. Where had I heard this name before...

"Take the demon to our purification fields, even sinners can bring progress to our kingdom when guided by our gauntlet." The man in charge says, signaling some soldiers to take me.

Having no other option, I go with the soldiers. They bring me to to a room first, there is a table at the mid of it, decorated with a red fabric of good quality. On top of the table, a translucent blue pyramid full of runes stands.

"Place your hands on the artifact" the soldier says. Not wanting to get a beating, I place my hands on the artifact, but I do scan it first.

SCANNING ARTIFACT Name: Artifact of Revelation (Blue) Description: Reveal the stats and magic potential of the person who touches it.

Oh, I think I heard about those before, it's how normal people usually measure their stats and such.

As I place my hands on the Artifact, a panel appears above it. Apparently, everyone can read it.

Name: Kali Strength: 112 (+12) Endurance: 103 (+13) Reflex: 117 (+17) Intelligence: 134 (+34) Willpower: 83 (+23) Charisma: 101 (+1) Magic potential: 0 Mana: 0/0

"Zero magic potential? Ever heard of that?" One of the soldiers say.

"Indeed. They are called mana cripples. People who are unable to develop magic potential. Her willpower is also below normal, which might be because of her situation. So all her magic came from those artifacts… Probably she got those from that shop where she murdered Jake. I would categorize her as danger level blue, despite her accomplishments." A wizard who was in the room said.

"Blue? Do you know how many she killed? That woman is a demon" the soldier says.

"Yes, I am aware. All her power came from the Artifacts she had, without them, she is just above your average farmer." The wizard responds.

After that, we move out of the village in the direction of the mountains. The soldiers chat about mundane stuff like beer and how they missed the beer from home.

I see what they are doing now. They are building a castle. A huge space designated to it.

The place is strategic for building, a natural cliff covers half of the area, while the rest has walls with spikes impeding anyone to enter or leave in any way other than using the gate.

When we enter, I get to see what is going to be my future. People from the village are all over carrying stones or woodworking while soldiers beat them every once in a while. The face of the people is that of despair. In the distance, I see the entrance of a mine, as well as multiple cages located in the open, with just a wooden plank covering the top. The smell is also terrible... How I am going to escape that?