Now, you would think I would know better. I mean, I would never enter a dirty alley between two buildings in my home city back on Earth. Why, oh why would I do it in an unknown city on a different world? I don’t know, but I did and as you can imagine, there were consequences.

  I walked into the narrow alley. About 30 feet in, I saw them about 20 feet away. Two men standing in the middle, with large daggers in their hands, faces covered in cloth.

  “Look, another donation.”, one said, and they started running towards me. I knew they were robbers and activated Slow Time. Now they appeared to be moving through water, slow. Next, I cast Identification:

  [Name: Subad]  [Name: Deguart]

  [Race: Human]  [Race: Human]

  [Class: Rogue]  [Class: Rogue]

  [Level: 7]    [Level: 6]

  This was bad. They out leveled me, and I didn’t have time to cast another spell, so I called Balmung from my storage ring. It appeared in my hand, and I assumed the en-garde position. I was ready to fight. I am a Marine. I don’t go looking for trouble, but I won’t run from it either. The two thieves may have been startled by the sudden appearance of my sword, but they kept coming anyway. The first to reach me crouched, extended his arm and knife, trying to stab me in the stomach. I moved to the side and slashed down on his arm, or rather through his arm. Balmung passed through the arm with almost no resistance. He started to scream and waved his arm around, splattering my new cloak with blood, while I used the momentum from my sword swing to spin around and hip checked him out of my way, sending him crashing into a wall and then the ground. I continued my spin through 360 degrees, so that I was facing the second rogue. At this point the rogue was close. The rogue swiped at me with his knife, but I deflected it with Balmung, then I thrust my sword at the rogue. Balmung pierced his armor, then his ribs, his heart and continued all the way thru his body. The rogue stood there, my sword exiting out his back, his momentum gone and he looked me at me. Disbelief and fear showing in his eyes. He grunted and his body relaxed completely. He was being held up by my sword. I could hear the injured rogue still screaming. I turned around and saw him lying on his side, defenseless. As the fight was effectively over, Slow Time deactivated and time resumed its normal pace. Blood from the injured rogue’s arm splattered all over me again. My cloak was now soaked in blood. As I pulled my sword out of the dead rogue, he slid to his knees as if resting. His arms at his side limp, his chin against his chest. His complete stillness, the only clue to his lifeless state.

  Subad, the injured rogue, screamed again, the scream filled with anguish and pain. I quickly turned back to the Subad, who was now laying on his back holding his right arm with his left hand wrapped around the wrist, trying to stop the bleeding. His right hand was laying on the ground next to him. The thief continued to scream. That was it, the fight was over as quickly as it started. One rogue dead, one disabled, and me covered in blood but uninjured.

  The rogue’s screaming had drawn a crowd. They were watching the man but didn’t make any effort to come closer. Since his screaming was beginning to irritate me, I bent down grabbed Subad by the hair and cast Heaven’s Heal to stop the bleeding. Since I wasn’t interested in completely healing him, I stopped healing him after wound stopped bleeding but without regrowing his arm. Heaven’s Healing was very versatile that way. Subad then passed out.

  Just as I was done healing the thief, the City Guard showed up. There were four of them, and they forced their way through the crowd. They had their weapons drawn and shouted at me to step away from the thief. I must have been a scary sight, as I was covered in blood from top to bottom with two bodies next to me. I turned toward them, raising my hands, I stepped back, away from the thief. The guards stopped when they saw the body of the other thief. It was obvious he was dead.

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  “Drop your sword.”, one of the guards yelled at me and pointed his sword at me. Rather than dropping my sword, I placed the sword in my storage ring. Its disappearance seemed to shock the guards. Apparently, disappearing swords are not normal in Forest Glen.

  I looked at one of the guards and spoke calmly, which was weird since I had just killed a man. “I am Trevor of House Tierra. These two thieves tried to rob me. Probably kill me first, then rob me. I took exception to that and defended myself. Unfortunate for them.”

  I could tell the guards were jittery, worried that I might decide to fight them also. However, I recognized one of the guards. It was the Avery, the guard from the gate. I nodded to him and pushed my cloak’s hood down.

  “Avery is that you?”, I said to let all the guards know I was familiar with him. Avery turned to look at me, luckily recognizing me.

  “Young Master Trevor, “, he nodded and the guards relaxed a bit, “can you tell us what happened here?”

  “I was shopping at the market and when I was finished. I decided to go home to Covern House. I saw a possible shortcut and unwisely took it. Almost immediately I was set upon by these two. Unfortunately for them, I have experienced people of their nature. I cut off that one’s arm off, and when the other kept attacking, I stabbed him through his chest. I healed the first one to prevent him from bleeding to death, well really to stop his screaming. Then you arrived.” I tried to sound calm and matter of fact. In fact, I wasn’t freaking out about it. I was weirdly stoic about it.

  At the mention of Covern House, the rest of the guards attitude immediately changed. They no longer looked at me like I was a criminal. Of course, they were exactly friendly either.

  Looking at myself covered in blood, I decided to cast Cleanse on myself. The blood on my cloak and hands just disappeared. The cloak looked newly washed, and I felt slightly refreshed. Maybe that would help with the guards. Nope, the guards seemed even more nervous when the blood just disappeared. Wasn’t this a magical world?

  One of the guards was looking at the injured rogue, when he suddenly said “That is Subad. He has a bounty of 5 gold for murder and robbery.” He walked over to the dead rogue. “This is Deguart. He is wanted for murder, rape, and robbery. His bounty is also 5 gold.”. He looked back at me, “These are two hardened criminals that the Earl wanted very badly. The bounty was dead or alive.” The guards respect for me seemed to increase and they became less nervous. Thankfully.

  Avery asked a few clarifying questions after finding out about the thieves. He asked if he could bring the bounty to my house later that day. Also, his captain may want to talk to me further. If so, the captain would come by residence.

  “If the captain needs me, he can reach me at Covern House.” At the mention of Covern House, I noticed that Avery was a bit nervous. They must know of Covern House as it was in a very nice neighborhood and previously owned by the Earl. Of course, they must not know that I was the new owner. Maybe they thought I was just name dropping. “If it would be alright with you, could your team escort me back to Covern House. It would put my mind at ease. As you can imagine, I am a bit upset with today’s event.” Again, weirdly, I wasn’t upset at all.

  Avery and the other guards relaxed at my suggestion. He called over one of the guards, gave him some instructions about notifying the captain. He turned back to me and said “We need to keep a presence in the market, so I will go with you. The rest will stay here.” He smiled humorously and said “However, I suggest we avoid alleys on the way.”

  With that, Avery and I left to go to Covern House. During the mostly silent trip back, I wondered why I was not more freaked out. I started to think about how I have been acting since I came to this world. I have always been a somewhat stoic individual, but this was to another level. I should have been more anxious or scared or at least apprehensive throughout my time here. Instead, I was weirdly calm, even in the most intense situations. Acceptance at my situation, seemed to be my new normal. The next thing I knew, Avery and I were at the door to Covern House. Luckily it had been a quick and uneventful trip. Gabriel met us and Avery asked him a few questions. He reminded me that his captain may come by to ask for more information and then he left. I immediately headed to the garden, asking Gabriel to get me when the captain arrived, but otherwise I wasn’t to be disturbed.