Araluen was an open village with no castle. The buildings were made of mud brick and straw thatched roofs. There were fields everywhere, currently there was a lack of crops because it was still winter although it was obvious that the area usually grows primarily wheat. Towards the east side of the village there were orchards of trees growing various types of fruits. Running through the centre of the village was a series of small winding rivers which met together near the centre of the village.

At the city centre was a circle of the main buildings of town such as a blacksmith, tailor, general store, and an inn. Slightly up a hill was a house larger than the others which was the elder’s house, and down the hill was a large warehouse and granary to store the produce grown in the village. Along the main river was a large water mill which was presumably to mill the wheat into flour.

We made our way to the centre of the town greeted by all the farmers and village folk we passed. The centre of the village had a strong scent of freshly baked bread, the air was clean to breathe and the atmosphere was so relaxing that we began feeling sleepy.

In the centre of the city, I stopped and prayed at the cities hearth.

“What are you doing?” asked Zach

“I’m praying to Hestia to state that I’m I friend of this city. If you don’t do this when you visit a city, other players are able to kill you in town.” I explained

Everyone hearing this immediately kneeled down next to me and began praying to Hestia.

You have received the protection of HestiaUntil you leave the city you will be under the protection of Hestia as a friend of the city

“I wish I knew this earlier.” Kairen said staring wide eyed at the message in front of him.

“Well I need to leave you all here, and help out around town. Why don’t you see if you can find some work at the adventurer’s guild?” Rosetta commented.

“Ok we will try that later, first I think we should split up and finish any errands we each have such as selling items, then meet up at the adventurer’s guild.” I said

As we were leaving, Rosetta ran up and hugged me tightly “I’ll miss my Eri bear” she said.

“I will miss you too” I commented stroking Rosetta’s hair.

I left to the general store to sell off all my loot from the bear cubs we fought in the ice cave, and went to the inn to relax for a while before heading the adventurer’s guild.

The adventurer’s guild was a single storey building. The guild was completely empty except for Zach and a man in leather armour sitting talking at a table. The man was the person in charge of the adventurer’s guild. On the right side of the building was a single board which was completely empty and on the left side was a board with five flyers attached to it.

“There’s no adventurer quests available here, it seems they don’t really do much except farm, and if you need help farming you post it at the elder’s house.” Zach explained.

“Then what about that board over there” I said pointing to the board with flyers on it.

Shrugging Zach replied “bounties, it seems there are thieves in the area.”

“Yes we have a lot of thieves stealing and killing people for their food, all of them outsiders. If you are a bounty hunter you can take them and deal with them for us.” the man stated.

“What do we have to do to become bounty hunters?” I asked as Kairen walked in the door.

“It’s simple, you just sign up the same way as you did for the adventurer’s guild and receive a rank and reputation.”

“Ok we will sign up” Kairen said sitting down with the rest of us.

New job: Bounty HunterRank: Red

Reputation: F

“Unlike adventurer quests, you can receive as many bounties as you want at once. Many people can accept each bounty because we only give you a copy of the bounty. The first one to complete the bounty is rewarded. If you return to a guild, you can check if any of your bounties have been completed by another party although, that’s probably not going to happen around here. Normally bounties have reputation and rank requirements however, since we are somewhat isolated, we set all ours to the minimum requirements since we can’t be too picky.” the man explained.

We asked the man if we could receive a copy of all five bounties and his face lit up.

Bounty Received: Asconetrack down the thief Ascone and kill him.

Difficulty: E

Reward: 2 silver

Bounty Received: Kirintrack down the thief Kirin and kill him.

Difficulty: E

Reward: 2 silver

Bounty Received: Terreriatrack down the smuggler Terreria and capture him so that he can be punished for his crimes.

Difficulty: E

Reward: 3 silver

Bounty Received: Melanietrack down the murderer Melanie and kill her.

Difficulty: E

Reward: 2 silver

Bounty Received: thieves of the shadowstrack down the hideout of the thieves of shadows, and eliminate them.

Difficulty: D

Reward: 2 Gold

“Do you have any information on any of them?” Zach asked.

“Yes, Terreria has been trying to smuggle weapons into the town via the rivers. The thieves guild is said to be in the forest out west of the village. Melanie killed the elder’s daughter and ran off somewhere to the east, we don’t know where exactly.” the man answered.

I guess we should start with the smuggler then” Zach said.

We went to the rivers and asked around at the mill for Terreria. The Miller told us that Terreria usually came into the city by the north river at night and left as quickly as he came. We thanked the miller and went to the general store to buy some rope before following the river to the north.

The river north wound up into the mountains, flowing gently through a forest. Deep in the forest we found a boat tied up to a tree. Thinking this the place and it being nearly nightfall, we decided to hide nearby with a clear view of the boat.

Once night finally fell, a short stocky man came out of the shadows dragging a heavy bag behind him. He had short brown hair, a scar on his left cheek, and steel plate mail armour covering his body. He was a dwarf.

We slowly made our way around behind the dwarf and whispered “Terreria?”

The dwarf looked around and said “yes?” followed by “Who goes there.”

Using his reply as a confirmation, I leapt out of the bush and raised my rapier dancing my dance of the dragon. Zach shot a paralysis bolt at the dwarf, and Kairen smashed his shield into the back of the paralysed dwarf knocking him unconscious. We proceeded to bind him up with the rope we bought and placed him in the boat before sailing back down the river towards the guild.

We left the dwarf with the guild collecting our silver before heading to the inn to relax. Whilst in the inn eating a steak, potatoes, and peas, we heard a deafening female scream.

Immediately we ran outside and looked to the direction of the scream where a man was laying on the ground in a pool of blood and a woman was crying over her body. To the East we saw a thin woman running away into the darkness.

“Think it could be our murderer?” Kairen asked.

“Most likely” Zach said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” I said.

We began sprinting down the streets and through the fields in the direction that the woman ran. The woman ran into a forest at the edge of the village, we continued running hoping to find a trace of her when finally in the distance we saw smoke.

We slowed down and headed in the direction of the smoke. When we reached the smoke, we saw a small thatch cottage with smoke coming out of its chimney. We walked up to the house and peered in the windows.

What we saw was a young girl of about 15 years of age with a bloody dagger on a table next to her removing her blood soaked clothes. The girl had long waist length blonde hair covered with blood, lifeless grey eyes, and elf ears. Her body was riddled with scars from the impact of a whip, and her skin was covered in dried blood and dirt.

“Do we really have to kill her?” I asked crying looking at the frail girl in front of me.

“I’m afraid so, she is a murderer after all.” Zach replied.

“But, can’t we just talk to her and ask her to stop?” I asked.

“Be my guest but, when she attacks you, don’t come crying to me.” Kairen said.

I walked to the front door and knocked.

“Who’s there?” the girl asked with a trembling voice.

“I’m Elyssa, I want to talk to you”

“Like I believe that!” the girl shouted.

The girl flung the door open and charged at me with a dagger. I was so unprepared that she stabbed me right in the hip causing a gush of blood to escape from me.

“Please, I don’t want to hurt you.” I said whimpering in pain.

The girl’s lifeless eyes lowered as she stared at me.

“Why don’t you put some clothes on first and we can talk.”

The girl walked inside, and came back out with a short grey dress. Meanwhile I had bandaged my injury and my health was slowly regenerating.

“What do you want?” the girl demanded.

“I want to know why you are killing the people in the village.”

The girl told me a storey of how she came to this village when she was young. When she grew to be 12 years old and started going through puberty, she was kidnapped. She was taken by a group of people out the west side of the village where she was raped and whipped daily. She fell pregnant twice and the children were killed. When she turned fifteen, she fell pregnant once more and with the aid of the village elder’s daughter she escaped here into the woods.

Whilst she was escaping, the village elder’s daughter was killed by the man she stabbed today in revenge for taking the life of her saviour.

When the girl finished her tale, I held her in my arms and we both sobbed uncontrollably. At that point I decided to leave the girl alone as long as she promised not to kill anyone else.

The girl called herself Melanie and because of this I cancelled the bounty to kill her. She told me of where the thieves hid, and I started heading towards it to be followed by Zach and Kairen with eyes filled with rage.

*triing*

You have been blessed by LyssaLyssa has seen your rage and blessed you.

+50% damage from attacks.

-10% accuracy

The angrier you get, the stronger your attacks become.

tell me what you think of this chapter.

*blatant plug for reviews* I have ratings but, those don't really tell me where to improve. a review or tow would be nice :D