So, while standing in a seedy dive that fit the stereotypical mold of fantasy taverns and surrounded by murderous villains, who would probably slit his throat for a cooper coin, Richard tried to rationally figure out how the old man had come to the conclusion that Richard was an ‘average ruffian.’ What did that even mean? It was like Richard was supposed to be some petty crook, who stole the purses of little old grannies for a living or something. It… it....

“Excuse me, young sir… Are you okay?” The old man’s question jolted Richard out of his spaced out moment.

Forcing a fake smile, Richard said, “Ahem… Ah yes… and just to be clear. I’m not a ruffian. If I seem a bit disheveled… well, sleeping in a horse stable doesn’t helping me get a good rest.”

The old man’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Indeed… that would be an interesting topic to research. Sleeping surrounded by horses… hmm… they don’t seem to be the most comforting animals… all that whickering… but I wonder if dogs or cats might be…”

“Um… Sorry to interrupt you, but Master Haroken said we might have more important things to talk about.” Richard kind of felt bad cutting off the old man, but the fellow reminded Richard of one of those absent minded people, who stood at the convenience store counter taking a dozen minutes trying to figure out if they needed something else or how they should pay.

Master Mulfow nodded and frowned a bit. “Yes, we have much to discuss, but… this place seems a bit too crowded and noisy. It may be best if we retreated to my residence. It will be a lot more comfortable and a bit more private that this… um… establishment.” Richard nodded, hoping to get to a safer place than the tavern.

Looking around, he caught sight of Master Haroken still talking to the slightly chubby woman, who was leaning over the counter, making doe like eyes at him as he talked expressively about something. Turning back to the old man standing nearby, Richard said, I’ll meet you at the door, sir. I need to go tell Master Haroken that I’ll be going with you for now.”

The old man nodded and said, “Indeed, indeed. Though, if he wishes, he may come with us a well.”

Nodding, Richard parted with the old man, saying, “I doubt he’ll want to, not with the way things look right now…”

As he got closer to the counter, Richard finally started hearing what the stable master was saying. “And… monster… dived into… mouth. Not… what… but the next thing I see… explosion.” Richard’s eyes started twitching as he realized what the crazy man was talking about. Thankfully, the stable master’s girlfriend didn’t seem to be too interested in what the fellow was saying, but that wasn’t true for the half a dozen or so drunks and tavern maids staring at him in rapt attention.

“Shit…” Richard walked up to Master Haroken and tapped him on his shoulders. The stable master turned around with a wide grin… which quickly froze.

“Uhh… Richard… lad… You’re done so quickly? I was just telling some of Marie’s associates here about you, my new friend….”

Richard kept his fake smile on and through clenched teeth, said, “That’s nice... But let’s keep the story to a minimum shall we…?” When the stable master nervously nodded, Richard then said, “Anyway, I’ll be going with Master Mulfow for a bit. He’s invited me to his home to discuss things.”

Master Haroken frowned a bit. “Be a bit careful, lad. The Fuldow district is a bit rough… and with it getting dark outside, it’s only going to get worse.”

Richard waved it off and made his way to the exit, where the old man was waiting patiently while staring at the drunk from earlier, who was still stumbling around like a fool. Master Haroken saw Richard approaching and said, “This man is a curious specimen. He makes me wish that we could learn how much alcohol is within a person’s body at any given time. We could easily determine at which point people lose their ability to think properly… like this poor fellow.”

Richard smiled a bit and wondered what the old man would say if he knew such methods existed back on earth and that it was actually a commonplace process. However, now was not the time to be thinking about something so random. Richard slightly shoved the drunk off to the side, allowing easy access to the door and the outside.

A few minutes later, he and Master Mulfow were on their way through the darkening streets. Though there was enough light from nearby buildings and the last rays of sunlight to see by, it was pretty nerve wracking, since people were still out in the streets causing a ruckus. Interesting enough, Richard realized the old man didn’t seem worried. In fact, the old fellow kept mumbling, talking about this or that as though the rough neighborhood was some experiment rather than reality.

“You [email protected]$%h!”

“No, plezee!”

“Who do you think yer wantin’ payment frem! I work fer Lord Masur!”

Thunk! Splat!

The noise and yelling was drawing a small crowd of people, who were watching the argument from a safe distance. Richard and Master Mulfow stopped next to the crowd, curious as to what was going on. For Richard, it only took a few seconds to figure things out.

1. A man and woman were involved.

2. The man was standing, and the woman was down on the ground being kicked by the man.

3. The woman was wearing what was most likely hooker wear for this world. It didn’t look like she had anything on underneath her ripped, thin blouse and muddy skirt.

4. The man was very drunk and was wearing a black and red outfit that looked like a uniform of some kind. Of course, the uniform looked like it had been hastily thrown on.

No one standing in the crowd did anything. They all watched the beating, and Richard… well… he realized he was one of them. There was a psychological term for it: the Bystander Effect. In a crowd, your sense of responsibility and motivation to act decreases, because the responsibility is spread out among everyone. It was easy to believe someone else would act, that someone else would do something...

Richard wanted to believe that. More so, the woman was just a hooker….

Richard’s eyes narrowed. Just a hooker? Where did… How could… Did he always think that way? Did he really think she was worth nothing? A hundred thoughts raced through his mind in a few seconds. What would happen if he acted? Who was the uniformed fellow? Was the hooker in the wrong? Was it worth it?....

And then, the snarling man began raising his foot near the woman’s head, no doubt getting ready to stomp…

Everything changed in that one moment… For once in his life, Richard acted.

He automatically selected ‘Biogas,’ and a large globular area glowed in front of him. The glow, which only he could see, was the magic zone of activation for the skill, and he could freely move it around as he saw fit. It took a fraction of a second to set it so just the man’s upper body occupied that globular space. Then, with another thought, Richard’s skill activated. All of that happened in a little more than a second.

The effect was almost immediate. The drunk’s eyes suddenly bulged, and he stumbled, gasping and making weird fish like faces. Tripping over his own feet, he fell backwards, slamming into the ground hard. However, he wasn’t knocked out completely due to the limited exposure to the toxic fumes.

COUGH! COUGH! “[email protected]#$h!” COUGH! “Whatchya… uck.. do. heuehhuhh?” The man was flailing on the ground, holding his throat and face as though it was hurting him.

The woman, who was sobbing, began crawling towards a nearby alley as she tried to get to her feet to run away.

The small crowd began whispering and muttering.

“What jus’ happened?”

“The man… he’s…”

“Do ya smell that… et smells like the sewers on a bad day…:”

Richard suddenly smelled the same stench, most likely from the toxic fume cloud dissipating into the air. However, the mess wasn’t over yet. The uniformed man suddenly rolled over and began trying to get up, yelling, “I’ll kill ya, [email protected]$%h!”

Again the spike of anger hit Richard, and he finally lost all his patience. It took a second more to activate ‘Quagmire’ right under the man. Suddenly, the man began to thrash around as his body began to sink into the muddy, soupy ground. “ARRGHGH….. Damn! Magic User! Who es it! I’ll kill ya, you basturd. Then, I’ll finish the womun!” The man continued to scream even as he sank all the way down to his knees.

Even though he was feeling a bit drained, Richard felt his fists clench in rage, and without thinking, he edged forward to push through the few people standing between him and the drunk fool. Richard had dealt with bastards like that all his life, and he had always swallowed his anger and frustration every time he had seen some screwy situation, being too afraid to get involved. Now, it was different… He didn’t really have anything to lose anymore. He had already faced death a half a dozen times, and more than anything, Richard could only think of the fact that a piece of shit like this man was responsible for killing him on earth. And here he was in a supposedly new world, and guess what? Assholes like that still existed. The only thought in Richard’s mind was to make the drunk eat his own words.

Suddenly, a bony hand grabbed his left arm in a vice like grip. “Young fellow, you need to escort me home. My eyes are not what they used to be.” Surprised, Richard looked down at Master Mulfow, who was staring back with narrowed eyes.

Richard’s mouth suddenly ran dry as he realized what he had done and was trying to do. Worse yet, the old man somehow knew Richard had been the one to act. He began to stutter, “But… but… the wom…”

“It seems like things have resolved themselves. Now come along…” With that, the old man slightly dragged Richard away from the crowd, which was getting restless as people tried to figure out what had happened.

For a while, neither Richard nor Master Mulfow spoke, and Richard just trudged along, his brain finally catching up to his anger. He had acted impulsively when he saw the man about to stomp on the woman’s head…Why?... Memories long buried came back… Vague ones… But they were there. A hazy one, where a woman was on the ground… and a drunk stood over her, beating her even as she begged. Over the screaming and shouting, Richard remembered the desperate sound of a child crying… It didn’t take much to know the child had been him. With slightly trembling hands, Richard wiped the sweat off his face and took a deep breath.

It had been years since he last thought about that memory… years since he had sworn on paper as a teenager that he would become someone important to make sure something like that never happened to another child or mother. That essay he had written for his seventh grade teacher had gotten a A+, and even though his teacher had never praised him openly for it, he remembered getting a few important words of encouragement from the old harridan when he got his essay back. “Strive for what you wish, Mr. Jaeger.”

Richard didn’t know what happened to him after that. Maybe, reality hit him, or maybe, he lost motivation along the way…

“Mr. Jaeger… yes… I believe that is your name, is it not?” Master Mulfow’s inquisitive voice broke Richard out of his thoughts.

“Ye… yes.”

“Well, Mr. Jaeger. I am impressed… You have access to Elemental Earth magic… That’s something relatively uncommon among folk here.” The old man seemed almost happy as he spoke.

“It is?” That confused Richard a bit, since he had been told Elemental Fire was a common skill by the interviewer/office geek. Elemental Earth seemed like a similar skill. But there were more important questions. “How did you know… that I was the one to stop that man?”

The old man chuckled a bit and said, “Yes… a very successful use of your magic… or skills as you outworlder adventurers call them. Though I don’t know what you first did to that fellow to make him collapse, I was able to easily see your activation of your ‘Quagmire.’”

Richard’s hands trembled a bit. “How?... I mean how did you see that?”

Master Muflow deftly dodged a sow and her piglets that were crossing the street and said, “Well… because I have Elemental Earth magic as well, including ‘Quagmire.’ So, I am familiar with the effects. But more importantly, my Elemental Earth mastery is high enough that I can see the aura of earth magic being used.”

Richard kept walking as he nudged away the sow, which seemed to stop to sniff at his shoes. “You know Elemental Earth… and wait… the aura?”

Master Muflow said, “You know… the glow that you see. Not only did I see the aura being set up under the drunk fellow, but… I also saw the aura surrounding you, when you began to use the ‘Quagmire’ spell.”

Richard felt a bit stunned, and he realized how screwed he was if someone else in the crowd had seen his aura or whatever. He had acted almost impulsively to save… to save the woman. Though he didn’t regret it… the consequences now seemed a lot more looming.

“I would not worry about what happened back there if I were you.”

Richard looked to his side at the old man, who was peering up at him with an unruffled expression. Richard choked out, “Excuse me?”

Master Mulfow said, “Your face tells much, Mr. Jaeger. But, like I said, do not worry. The council enforcer won’t be able to figure out who did that to him, and the crowd won’t talk even if they knew who did it. This part of the city isn’t… well let’s just say that they aren’t very cooperative with the council. So, you do not have much to worry about. Mind you, I was intrigued by why you chose to help that poor woman even as worried as you are now about the consequences.”

Richard didn’t know how to respond to that. For one thing, he was a bit relieved that the old man didn’t think there would be any problems. But for another… what was his reason? A childish dream? His anger? A desire to help the woman?.... But there was something more than that… he knew there was.

Suddenly a quote from a movie popped up in his head. It was a quote that he had scorned so much, because it didn’t look like anyone actually believed it even though the idea had existed for a long time. However, he knew that somewhere deep in himself, he still wished it was true.

Almost whispering, Richard said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”