It was the second morning she was in the village. She told Granny Li that she would leave for the city. When Granny Li heard this she was saddened and tried luring her into staying, but Xixi knew that she wouldn’t get to leave at all if she waited for the granny to be fine with it.

Having learned of her previous try with the resurrection system, Xixi prepared herself for anything that could possibly happen on her journey. She placed everything of value into her necklace, pushing only two stuffed pillows into her saddlebags before she put on her travel gear. She was happy that she got a traveling outfit, it was just a simple leather outfit with belts and fixings across its seams that offered a basic armor, that wasn’t that expensive.

After a good breakfast with granny Li, little De and his grams dod Xixi go over to the tannery and the blacksmith to pick up her new necklace, wearing it directly, and the modified tack.

Having all of that sorted out she went into the stable to get Nightflash ready for the trek. She first brushed him and then she placed the saddle pad and the saddle on his back. Lastly, she put on his bridle that she just got back. The purple stone shimmered in the sun, she had it fitted into the bridle right between his eyes in the middle of the cross that spanned from his ears to a few fingers over his nose.

Now she was ready to get on her way. Nightflash willingly followed her out into the open and let her use a barrel to ease herself into the saddle. Picking up the reins, she signaled him to start walking. Little De, granny Li, and that nice old grams waited at the iron grate gates for her and wished her a safe journey. Only after telling them that she will do her best to stay safe did they allow her to leave. Nightflash started cantering away as soon as he was past the small group. He seemed eager to flex his legs and stretch so Xixi simply let him choose the pace. Little De told her already that the next city was four to five days of riding away from the village so Xixi relaxed while she observed her surroundings.

Apart from seeing a few new animals and finding new plants, she already started to horde them in her necklace as she thought many of them could have a usage. Some curious gecko-like creatures with red eyes and chameleonic textured skin that changed colors and features, such as growing feathers or fur, for example, like a chameleon changes colors, and some bright insects whose eyes gleamed like baubles. Some other creatures included small ocelot creatures with twin tails and a feathered tip and long whiskers that spanned almost the length of its agile body. She wanted to find someone to teach her about making low leveled healing items for traveling, nothing major happened in the first two days. Nightflash went with his own pace, resting when he wanted to rest for a bit or running if he felt like it.

But on the third day, the two were surprised. Nightflash stopped as he saw a group of carriages blocking the road ahead of him, Xixi grabbed the saddle horn to stabilize herself and to be ready to defend herself. They still had a few meters to the carriages and Xixi was just thinking about whether she should ride up to them or try to get around them through the wilderness. But a group of men that stepped out of the bushes behind her left her with no real chance as they targeted her with bows and crossbows from behind, while the ones nearest to her pulled their swords and daggers. They looked an unsavory bunch, and their breath reeked of alcohol and their teeth were damaged like tumbling tombstones. Xixi’s eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. She tried to eye an opening, though the bandits hemmed her in and crept closer, so close that she could see the pores in their faces. They were uncomfortably close, and she wondered if these men had...lewd thoughts about her, as she could see some of them grinning lustfully at her neckline and eyeing the curve of her ass in her form-fitting leather breeches.

Nightflash tried to get out of it through the sides but they too were now packed with people holding weapons.

“We won’t hurt you miss,” one of the men said and Xixi only scoffed at him.

“As long as you simply follow us back to the base of our organization nothing will happen to you, I promise,” he said with a smile that made Xixi want to puke. The glint in his eye told her that he intended something far worse than death, and Xixi wondered how many innocent women suffered at the hands of these bandits. She only delved into this game recently, without much time to prepare, and life threw her a curveball like this. What should she do? She couldn’t call for help, she didn’t want to involve others, but the reality of the situation was sinking in and the bandits' intentions were made evident on their eager and twisted faces. One of them even licked their lips in a suggestive manner that made Xixi’s stomach churn. Did these people have no decency or sense of morals? She supposed not.

“I don’t think I know of your organization” Xixi replied, irritated that she didn’t find a safe way out of it but she wasn’t willing to risk Nightflash or herself.

“You never heard of The Crimson Desperados, Bellaria's most vicious bandit organization?” the bandit said, seemingly repulsed by her question.

“No, never heard of it. It doesn’t seem like you guys are as feared as you believe” she mocked the men, to calm herself down a bit. The bandit leader’s eye twitched as a snarl formed on his mustachioed face, but it was one of the men to her left that suddenly threw a dagger at her. Nightflash was fast to move and got his rider out of danger, but he seemed to get more nervous by the minute. Xixi was still gripping the saddle horn with force when she petted him with her other hand, trying to calm him down.

“You need to run, no matter what happens to me. Simply run away, you hear?” she muttered to him. She was sure that they wouldn’t be able to simply escape, but as long as Nightflash was wearing his bridle she would simply revive next to him again. So it was important for her that he would run away from the bandits as fast as he can, no matter where they would be afterward.

Feeling Nightflash shift under her she knew that he would do what she asked him to do. She then pulled a sturdy branch out of her necklace to use it as a club. “Oh… Little girl you should not try something stupid” the leader of the gang said calmly, obviously not taking her seriously.

Xixi pressed her legs into Nightflash’s flanks and he suddenly jumped forward starting a mad sprint to escape. “Stop her!” the leader screamed and tens of daggers, arrows, and bolts were hurled at Xixi. Thinking only about escaping she ignored them and threw her makeshift club to create a hole for Nightflash to run through. The bandit that was hit by her club fell to his knees and with a powerful jump, Nightflash went over him. But just before he jumped off, multiple blades embed themselves in Xixi, and with the movement of the jump she lost her last hold on the saddle and fell to the ground. She could just see Nightflash landing behind the bandits and running off as if a monster hunted him. The pain registered when she was sure that her companion was safe, at least a dozen of the weapons had found their target. Groaning she tried to move, but her body was like paralyzed and she could already feel her consciousness slipping. One last thought to show herself her status showed her what she already thought was happening, as her HP was falling as the blood that pooled around her became more and more.

“Huh?” Xixi was stunned when she found herself in the Character creation area again. Before she recovered, she heard steps behind her. Turning around she saw Raven smiling at her as he walked over. “What a wonderful day this is, allowing me to see Miss Xixi again,” he said, amusement and mischief sparkling in his eyes. “This day should be a day of celebration as it has me seeing squire Raven again” Xixi replied in the same way, giggling away. “So Raven… why am I here again?” she said after she stopped giggling. “Well Miss Xixi, this is about the Update that was installed. It allows for more customization of the character. So as you went through the process of respawning, the system checked for these new attributes, and as you don’t have these attributes you were sent back here to add them. You can, in fact, change your whole character again if you wish so. No skills or items will be lost and no NPC will realize the changes” Raven explained and brought up the holographic screen that showed her current character.

Lineage : >

Life Goal : >

Role : >

Honor: 0

Dishonor: 0

Wealth: N/A

Six new attributes showed up. Honor and dishonor were really easy to understand for her but she still asked Raven for an explanation of all new Attributes. He nodded to her request before he let two comfy looking couches appear and gestured for Xixi to take a seat. Only after they were seated did he start.

“Let me start with Honor and Dishonor. Right now both stats are at zero which means both are in fact nonexistent as you haven’t gained honor or dishonor yet. The moment you do something dishonoring your dishonor attribute will grow and if you do something that gains you honor the honor attribute will grow. But both of these are linked, as you can only have honor if there is no dishonor and vice versa. So if you have honor of 20 and do something that gains you 5 dishonor you will lose these 5 honor, bringing your honor down to 15 while your dishonor will grow to 5. As long as your honor is higher than your dishonor you won’t be openly called out on your dishonor, but the higher your dishonor is, the more likely are dishonorably deeds of your subordinates and the less likely will someone with high honor and low dishonor accept you as a friend. But all these won’t be relevant anymore if you step over a certain amount of dishonor. The moment you gain too much dishonor you will be openly despised even if your honor is higher. So it is highly recommended to try to gain as little dishonor as possible” Raven started his explanation. Seeing that this round of explanation will take its time, Xixi changed from her seating position to a lounging, laying on her side while watching Raven.

“The Wealth attribute shows the full wealth you have, including assets that you might not access every moment. You can choose the display to your liking. Have bound and unbound assets shown together as one, or displaying it as two attributes is possible. Bound assets are items or deeds, while unbound assets will only show the amount of money in your possession, it will automatically exclude the amount of money that you are having at your person. Any amount of money that you have in your home, shops or even in your bank account will be shown as an unbound asset.

The Lineage will decide your social status as well as the area you are from. Your chosen parents can also influence your honor and dishonor attributes as well as your wealth and your possession. An example would be a thief as a father, he would influence your dishonor so you would start off with a higher dishonor attribute. Also if he is a thief that is good at was he does it is highly probable that your family is well off so your wealth would rise, though you might not be able to access it whenever you want. On the other hand, having an honorable knight as a father will let you gain honor to start with as well as the possibility to start off with some possessions your father gifts you like a horse or a sword. Gaining some possession through the lineage will only be possible through gifts that are made because of the lineage as well as through the untimely death of one or both of your parents. Depending on the lineage one or both ways are possible, but neither is free to choose from.

The life goal is the goal you set for yourself to reach. It will influence your status points to help you reach it in the beginning. There won’t be any repercussions if you choose to give up on it though. But you can only choose a life goal once” Raven said and made sure that Xixi got the importance of choosing the life goal most fitting for her.

Only after he was pleased with her reaction, showing the needed seriousness for his liking, did he explain the last point.

“Lastly the role. The roles you can choose from are influenced by your life goal and your lineage. It will influence the growth of your stats to help you reach your life goal. Though your role won’t stop you from learning anything, so if you want to change your way of living later in the game you can. But you might need to work harder to reach the same skill levels as others.” ended Raven his explanation.

Xixi thought about it for a moment, the usage of a role in Knights of Honor was definitely different than any other game she had played till now.

A few moments later she nodded again and stood up, “alright Raven. Let’s see what I can choose from” she said grinning.

The two went through all the options together and Xixi really had a hard time to choose, but in the end, she was really happy about her choices.

Lineage Baron of Faeglade and Baroness of Coral, House of Baron of Faeglade, low ranked noble Lifegoal Honor of Knightship Role Paladin Honor 0 Dishonor 0 Wealth [bound] N/A Wealth [unbound] N/A

Raven also explained her that her wealth, honor and dishonor attributes would only update when she returns in the game. Though she already chose to have her wealth be shown as two attributes instead of one.

After she accepted the changes and did confirm that this was really her wish did she wave Raven goodbye. She then walked through the door that will let her respawn next to Nightflash.

Just when she stepped through the door a message popped up in front of her

Name changed to Titania Xixi of Faeglade accept decline

She pressed accept and let herself be engulfed in the colorful streaks that comes with resurrection.