Note: About the spidey sense in the past chapter…. It was a joke. Basically, I was trying to say he “realized something was not right” in a more comical way. It isn’t a skill… and yes his survival was partial luck but this time around, he actually fought his enemies instead of running away…

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The new day was peaceful, for which Richard was desperately thankful, since he was in no condition to run or fight if he had to. After last night… well, let’s just say he was drained emotionally and physically. He had literally spent a cold night huddled near some bushes, nervously watching for the men… bandits to return. Thankfully, they never did. However… it didn’t help that he had spent the night on an empty stomach after puking up everything he had eaten and that he had experienced the ‘shakes’ on and off as he had stayed hidden.

Richard remembered whispering, “Him or me, him or me, him or..” all night long, almost numbing himself to what had happened. However… some things couldn’t be suppressed that easily. Even now, his thoughts still kept going back to the man he had killed… Whether the fellow had a wife or children, who would never see him again… or if he had friends, who would miss him… or even what his last thoughts had been. It was… not logical. Richard knew he had done what he had to... but there was a big difference between killing a bunch of mindless lizards and actually killing a person.

The worst part was that Richard realized he would probably have to do the same thing again in the future. Oh… he had a choice of course: to hide somewhere and be a cog in this world like he had been in the old one, but… hiding like that was not living. He realized that in his old life, he had just drifted through life, and even though he tried to avoid and ignore all the ‘evil’ around him… in the end, it had still come to devour him. In the World Labyrinth, from what he had seen, the ‘evil’ or unjustness was greater with much less to restrain it. Slavers, monsters… bandits… Richard knew that he would have to face them for as long as he lived…….. that’s if he really wanted to ‘live’ in this world instead of fading into mediocrity and obscurity like in his old life.

However, none of that changed the fact that he was human… and had human morality and emotions that controlled what he could or could not do.

So, it was understandable how paranoid and stressed he felt by the time he caught sight of the first farm on the outskirts of the village of Ortesse. For a second, he paused on the road and stared at the crude, wooden log house in the distance, wondering how he should approach it. If it had been a day ago, he might have just waltzed up to it without a second thought, but almost being killed by strangers… well, it kind of changed things.

He scratched his head and looked his body over. His clothes were a pair he had switched out earlier… but his arms were still stained lightly with blood. And the smell of blood still lingered around him… There was only so much he was able to do last night with leaves, dirt, and some water from a leather water skin to clean with. Remembering the desperate scrubbing, he shivered a bit…

After a minute of watching people working in the fields around the house, he decided to avoid them for now. It seemed better to deal with others when there a lot more of them around. Maybe it was his paranoia speaking, but… it was better to be safe than sorry.

So, he passed the farm quietly and a half hour so later, arrived the village proper after passing a handful of villagers, who avoided him as much he avoided them. His first sight of the place was a lookout tower in the distance, and the closer he got, he realized there was a wooden, log wall surrounding many of the village buildings, most of which seemed to be modest homes built out of logs, wattle, and daub. It was about the same as all the other villages he had passed through, but he was still a bit disappointed about how shabby and almost medieval the place looked. The only interesting thing was the lake on which the village sat. It looked to be huge, and from what Richard could tell, there were a few boats in the water, no doubt heading out for the day.

Sighing, he made his way towards the nearest buildings, passing a few people dressed in rough looking woolens and linen clothing. The only information he had concerning his destination was to find a man named Nevel, who lived somewhere near the village. Master Mulfow hadn’t been too specific in his directions, since he hadn’t been out this way in years and had last dealt with this Nevel, when the man had worked for the Guard and was based out of Serenthal.

As he made his way to the village gates, he saw an armored man standing guard with a halberd near the place. The guard’s light equipment looked to be the same as those he remembered seeing at the Guard fortress back in Serenthal, and Richard decided to deal with him instead of some of the skittish looking villagers, who were starting to stare. The other reason was that the helmeted guard was also looking at Richard with narrowed black eyes. Muttering, “Better to deal with this before things get worse,” Richard approached the young looking guardsman. “Hello!”

The guardsman frowned and asked, “Who are you stranger?”

Richard cleared his throat and replied, “Just a messenger. I was sent to here by my master to find and speak with a Nevel.” Then, seeing the guardsman looking at his hair and arms, Richard said, “Ah… don’t mind the blood… I was attacked by a pack of grasards about a day ago. It was… a bloody battle. If you can also tell me where I might be able to claim the bounty for the dead beasts, I would appreciate it.” He decided to strike first in the conversation instead of looking like he was trying to hide something.

The guard, who was frowning, suddenly broke out in a slight smile. “Ah… you mean that pack that’s been harassing some of the outlying farms and the travelers coming here… Sergeant Cothers will be happy to hear that! The village put up a bounty specifically for those creatures a week ago, but the few mercs, who went hunting, never showed back up. There must have been more than a few. How many did you get? How did ya kill them? Were you wounded?”

From how excited the guardsman sounded, Richard realized the guard was probably younger than he seemed, maybe in his late teens, but his suddenly friendly tone was more than worth the barrage of questions. It also helped that the handful of villagers in Richard’s line of sight were no longer frowning either.

So, Richard decided to milk the positive reception for all it was worth. “Ahem… Ahh… I was attacked by nearly two dozen of the foul creatures. They came upon me as I was traveling peacefully on the road to your fair village. They were as horrendous…” So, he spend the next few minutes regaling them about the encounter, throwing in some blatant lies about his amazing sword work and the desperate struggle with only a tree to protect his back…. Of course, he left out the part where he was sitting in a tree and spent a couple hours killing the damn creatures. He figured they were white lies… since he was telling the truth… for the most part.

By the time he was done, a crowd of a dozen or more people had gathered around him, staring with wide eyes and broad smiles. The guardsman was no better, with clear admiration written on his face. As the villagers began happily talking amongst each other about the road being cleared, the guardsman said, “Amazing! You’ve done us a huge service. I have to tell the sergeant about this.”

Richard’s smile slipped a bit, when the guardsman tried leave. Reaching out quickly, he grabbed the young man’s armored shoulder and said, “Umm…. About my question from earlier. Nevel?”

The guardsman turned back with an apologetic look, “Oh… I’m sorry… Umm… His cabin is west of here towards the marsh. You can’t miss it if you take the road that way… “

“That won’t be needed, Mever.” The new voice cut through the chatter, and Richard looked off to the right to find a middle aged man dressed in a mix of animal furs and leather. He had a medium build and a weather beaten face under his scruffy, grey streaked beard. The shaggy haired man looked totally like one of those American frontiersmen from a couple hundred years ago. “You were looking for me, stranger?”

Richard replied, “Ahh… You’re Nevel, then?”

The frontiersman smiled, showing yellowed teeth. “I’m the only one aroun’ here wih that name. So, yes, tha’ would be me.”

Richard forced a smile in return and pulled up his inventory off to one side. A quick grab let him pull out the wax sealed letter Master Mulfow had requested he deliver. “Master Mulfow requested that I deliver this to you.”

While a couple of villagers gasped or spoke in surprise after Richard's little display, the frontiersman didn’t even blink. He acted as though he was used to what Richard had done. Instead, Nevel took the letter and waved at Richard to follow him. A few minutes later, they were standing behind one of the village houses, and Nevel was busy reading through the letter.

When he looked up, he had a worried look on his face. “Master Mulfow…. Did he tell ya what he wrote in this?"

Richard wondered how he should answer for a second but quickly decided to stick to the truth. Shaking his head, he said, “No. Just that I was to deliver it directly to your hands.”

Nevel grunted and scratched at his beard as he stared at the letter for a bit. When he spoke, it was with a serious voice. “The old man wants me to teach you some basics on woodcraft and to help you hunt Blood Vipers. He said you would know when to stop hunting… That make any sense to you?”

Richard’s eyes widened. “Yeah… I think so… but what’s a Blood Viper?"

Nevel’s smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes, which had a dangerous glint to them. “The most poisonous magical beast in this part of the world, and lucky you, the Furea Marshlands to the west are one of their biggest nesting grounds....”