And so I died for the third time (not including death on Earth).

I floated in the unknown space I had been in two times before, waiting to be transferred back to my body. It usually took some time before my body was finished being healed, and was prepared to take my consciousness back. I took this time to try to notice if my emotions had dwindled further, and it seems like they had. It was a tiny fraction of the change that had occurred upon my first death, but still a change nonetheless. A sense of loss flowed through me yet it disappeared as quickly as it appeared, which was to be expected. This change in personality was the one thing that I needed to confirm, and now that that was over—I had nothing to do except wait. And so I waited…

...for what I thought as 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then an hour.

Yet nothing developed. No resurrection, no village, no nothing. Just that dark, quiet, empty space of nothingness. I tried to yell out, but my voice was gone. Only my mind remained… thinking about how to return to my body. The time I was spending in here seemed endless, until I was finally relieved at some point. My surroundings were filled with light and then, I could suddenly feel my body again as the cool air brushed against my bare skin. The town square filled my surroundings and I heard a familiar DING!, but my attention shifted immediately once I felt a sharp gaze aimed towards the back of my head.

It was the bald villager that had killed me twice now. Once from death by suffocation and another time from death by hoe. I should have been angry at the man, but that once familiar feeling could not be found inside of my heart. It was gone, POOF, it had disappeared into thin air. I looked at the man that had killed me more than once, calm and collectively. He stared straight back at me, apparently flustered at my sudden appearance, for awhile as if contemplating his options before making his choice. The option he chose was the obvious one, yell out a question about how I was still alive.

“How the hell are you still alive you monster scum!” yelled out the bald man.

“I don’t want to say this again, I’m not a monster,” I replied while calmly assessing the reactions of the nearby bystanders. I made sure not to let my gaze wander off too much, allowing me to maintain direct eye contact.

“Stop lying you bastard! How did you not die right now then!?”

“First off, don’t go hitting people in the back of a head with a hoe,” I stated, making sure to rub the back of my head to emphasize the fact. “Secondly, I have no obligation to answer that question.”

“That’s basically you admitting that you’re hiding something!”

Our exchange was starting to attract some unwanted attention from the people walking by, all while I thought of an unrelated topic. Did the humans of this world speak English too? I conversed with that man just fine, and the other residents of Sheldor seem like they understand everything that’s coming out of my mouth just as well.

“Pay attention when I’m talking to you! Listen up son—”

“If I’m a monster, wouldn’t you have ran away by now?” I said with a little more force, interrupting the other man’s sentence.

“I-I, don’t get smart on me boy! I’m not going to fall for your evil schemes!”

Guess there’s no helping this situation now. He won’t change his mind that I’m a monster, and he has reason to believe so. Still, it’s inconveniencing me quite a bit. I will have to take action in some way or another soon, either run away but that would be even more suspicious. Or, I could continue talking it out with this man—but that doesn’t seem like it will end up any better. Should I just shut up? I’m afraid that might provoke him even more. What should I do, hmm.

It was hard to make a decision in such a short amount of time, but I was saved by the sudden appearance of a group of people.

“Make way for the Royal Family!”

“Stand to the side! We’ll collect your taxes shortly!”

“Bring out the Village Chief immediately!”

A throng of people parted one of the paths to reveal several men who looked like knights. They had on silver armour with a layer of chainmail underneath, and a longsword attached to their waist. These knights seemed like they were accompanying—more like guarding a pair of people. A girl with blonde hair and a sharp face who was wearing fancy robes, walking beside a man in gold armour. The armour this man wore was evidently more expensive than the other knights, who were walking a distance both in front and behind the pair. He also had a more colourful sheath, embedded with a few gems. This man’s sword must be just as extravagant.

That man must be the captain of the guards, and that girl is probably a well known noble’s daughter or possibly even a princess. The knights are escorting that girl to the town square, probably to collect the tax money from the Village Chief. I had overhead one of the knights shout out something about the matter earlier, so I had a vague idea why someone of higher status was coming to this small town. This was my chance to escape while everyone was distracted. I ran towards one of the alleys hastily, but right when I was about to escape from the commotion, one of the knights stopped me.

“Hey, who said you could leave? You can’t evade paying taxes, it’s against the law! Don’t make the princess wait any longer!”

I tried to act like I was pleading with my eyes for him to let me off the hook this once, but my hopes were dashed. I could only lower my head in disappointment and follow the knight back towards the girl that I now knew was a princess, and her guards. The town square was filled with people dressed similarly to the bald villager, and the princess stood on a podium. She was repeating that she was here to collect taxes, and that everyone had to form a line in front of a few knights.

“Residents of Sheldor! I, Lila Darcey, princess of the northern kingdom has come to collect your yearly taxes.”

“Please form an orderly line in front of a few of our knights,” declared the knight in gold armour.

There was a wagon holding a giant sack, attached to horses where residents were dumping gold, silver, and copper coins in. It seemed like that was the currency used in this world. Out of curiosity, I asked one of the knights what one could buy with a gold coin. He answered hesitatingly, saying that one could buy a decent carriage with 10 gold coins. Assuming a decent carriage was about the size and quality of a middle end car, I decided that a gold coin was worth approximately $50 USD. I concluded that a silver coin was worth about $10 USD and a copper coin was worth about $1 USD from the extra info the knight provided me.

I strayed towards the back of the group of people once the knight that had ordered me back to the town square left to go deal with other things. I think it was about time I checked that notification I had received upon my revival. I clicked on it, but an unfamiliar screen showed up. It wasn’t one of those one sentence messages anymore, it was a whole blown page!

[System has finished updating. Changes have been made accordingly.]

{Ryan’s Stat Page}

15

[Skills]

Slash (2%)

Dig (1%)

Avenger (0%)

[Skills have updated. New system implemented where skills have been altered to increase in proficiency until 100%. Once the skill reaches 100%, the skill will evolve.]

Wow, everything is neater and more visually appealing. Also, I have the opportunity to evolve my skills now instead of them just matching my power level in battle. What an unexpected caused by my third death. That makes me wonder if this system of mine will continue upgrading upon further deaths, or this would be the only time it happens. There was also this new skill I got that I want to check out.

[ Buffs MP Storage by 20% when fighting against someone that has once inflicted severe damage against you. Buff effect cannot stack on top of each other.]

It seems like this will go perfectly with my revival skill, which is what I had decided to call the process of me dying and coming back intact. This will allow me to have a better chance at fighting back against someone that could possibly kill me in the near future, since I might have to fight quite a few people to take over the city. Also, the buff couldn’t stack on top of each other. Or else that would be too overpowered, it made sense to put that restriction on . All of a sudden, I was interrupted from my thoughts when someone called out towards me.

“You there, you’re next. Come here and deposit your coins!” said one of the knights.

“Uh, I don’t live here. Plus, I don’t have any money anyways,” I replied earnestly.

“Enough with the playing around, I get that you don’t want to pay, but it’s the law. Sorry,” said the knight in a comforting tone.

Everyone from this world doesn’t believe one word I say. They have good reason after all—how could they know I’m from another world? But it still frustrated me how many times I have to explain myself and the trouble I get into because no one understands my situation. Now, I have to explain things to the knights which is time consuming which isn’t something on my to-do list.

“Hurry up and walk! Don’t make the princess wait any longer than she has to!”

Suddenly, I had a flashback to my childhood days from when I was still on Earth. My mom holding my hand while walking through a empty street after having just watched a movie together. If had been an enjoyable night, I got to eat plenty of popcorn and I had spent it with my precious mother. But then everything changed that night. A man in black that I had later found out was a wanted man performed an armed robbery against my mother and a child version of me.

He had said, ”Don’t make me wait any longer!” before stabbing my mom in the chest.

I was powerless back then, and it was the same now. The situation was just not as severe, but it still brought bad memories to the surface because of what the knight had said. Luckily, my mom had survived or else I don’t know how I would have reacted right now to the statement from that foolish knight. I calmed my heart down—it was quite easier now compared to when I was still living on Earth.

“Sure thing,” I said in an indifferent tone.

I walked reluctantly towards the wagon piled high with coins, because I still didn’t have a solution to this problem of an encounter. What could I say that would get me out of here? Negotiate with the knights? That wouldn’t work with their boss standing a few feet away, so how abou-

My time had finally run out, I was in front of the wagon with a black haired knight motioning with his hands. Obviously, he was ushering me to hand over the tax money so he could deposit it in the sack. Strangely, this motion made me think that this tax money collection day almost seemed like a robbery of some sort. Residents of Sheldor being forced to give up their hard earned money to a robber (a princess and her knights in this case) that probably never worked for money in their entire life. Only stealing from others because it was less work and they had the authority to do so. A robber held the authority over you because they usually had a weapon of some sort, and the princess here had the authority to punish anyone as she pleased with the help of the knights.

“What a disgusting society this world has, but I guess Earth wasn’t that much better,” I thought as I stared aimlessly at the ground. I had run out of time and options, and I could tell that the tax collector was starting to get impatient. Would he lash out at me if I didn’t move at all? That wouldn’t… that couldn’t happen right? Not in front of al-

A sudden strike to the side of my face startled me out of my thinking. I felt the red spot on my right cheek where the knight had slapped me out of irritation and impatience. It thankfully hadn’t been a hard slap, or else my whole face would be puffed up right now.

“Hurry up you bastard! Stop wasting our precious time and take out the money!” yelled the man wearing armour once again.

While maintaining an expression of calmness, I asked imposingly, “Are you a robber? Because tax collector’s sure don’t hit their customers for taking a bit longer than usual.”

The knight’s face flushed red, before he started yelling angrily. In addition to the assault to my ears, he even had the nerve to pull me by my collar like some bully. In just a few seconds, the angry knight moved in in order to get close and personal, but then a girl’s voice rang out from my left.

“Let him go, I’ll deal with him.”

The princess stepped down from the podium and walked in an elegant manner towards where I stood frozen.” Was I going to die again? Did I solve one problem just to run into another one?” I thought as I shook my head in satisfaction. “What a horrible world this is—this even makes me think that I’d be better off if I was still alive on Earth.” And then, the princess finally arrived in front of me with her fancy robes fluttering in the wind. I hadn’t noticed before, but there was a definite aura that emitted a strong pressure if you got within a certain distance of her because I was experiencing it now.

“Kneel before your princess and show your loyalty first,” said the princess of the north in a condescending tone. “Then, we’ll move on to the matter at hand.”