“I’m not sure what to do with this one, so just wake up,” Rabbit said.
I woke to those words, which snapped me fully awake. I opened my eyes to see a little girl staring down at me. She had either dark-brown skin or light-black skin, but I couldn’t decide. She had adorable big brown eyes and hair that was big and fluffy.
“Hello, my name is Kibi. Why are you sleeping on our floor?”
“Hello,” I said. “Your dad let me sleep here last night.”
“Oh, that’s good. I thought I was going to have to kill you.” She pulled a knife out from behind her back.
“Holy shit. That kid is scary,” Rabbit yelped.
“No kidding. I’m glad she didn’t stab first, then ask questions later,” I responded, then turned to Kibi, wondering if I should disarm her. “Are you allowed to have that knife?”
“Oh, yes. Unlike you, I am allowed to carry weapons. I only brought this knife because it would only take this to kill you,” Kibi uttered those words so easily.
“It would take more than a knife to kill me. And I’m guessing you know who I am if you know I’m not allowed weapons,” I stated.
“I guess you’re the new person my dad is teaching. But as he always says, ‘You can never be too safe,’” she said. It was strange seeing someone so adorable and probably deadly at the same time.
“I bet he did teach you that,” I said under my breath. “He is definitely the ‘hit first’ type of person.”
“What was that?” Carrick said from behind me. When did he get here? Was he there the whole time, or did I not notice him sneak behind me? It could have been either. His sneak was so good, it took Rabbit telling me he was there for me to realize three people were about to ambush me the other day.
“Oh, nothing, just talking with your daughter. She thinks she can kill me with a knife,” I said with a smile. I thought it was pretty funny, since she was half my size and a kid around ten or twelve years old. I wasn’t good with ages.
Carrick smiled, sharing my internal laugh, and said, “That is pretty funny. She wouldn’t need a knife to kill you. Since she’s merciful, she likely just wanted your death to be painless.”
My smile faded, and I asked, “You serious?”
“Deadly,” Carrick said, still smiling. “I have been training Kibi her whole life. I know you’re new here, so I’ll break it down to help you understand. Children are small and weak, but they grow stronger over time. Kibi here is a level 14. This would mean she would dwarf you in every aspect if she were an adult. Since she is not, her strength is severely limited, but will continue to grow. In pure strength, she would be about your equal because of the limitations on her size and age.”
I looked at her in a new light, and with that knife, she was a serious threat. In the hands of an unstable or upset child, that was scary to think of. Perhaps to others, this wasn’t that scary because kids would always be weaker than they were. To me, a weakling, the idea of a kid having a mood swing and matching my strength was a crazy thought.
“It’s not just about strength but about skills. We keep telling you that skills are important. First off, she has an unarmed skill of 18 and various skills with weapons and armor. Each of those gives her a bonus that you can never have. On top of that, I have spent my life training her. When she grows up, she will be stronger and more skilled than I. You also don’t want to judge someone too quickly, because they could have hidden abilities that are sometimes dangerous. Everyone keeps those hidden if it’s a combat ability because they can be a lifesaver in a moment of need. Now, what did you learn from this, besides the fact that my kid is as impressive as me?” he boasted without hiding his evident pride and joy.
“Two things: never judge a book by its cover, and you don’t even wear a shirt to bed. Do you even own shirts?” I said.
“Ha! Shirts are for people who don’t look this good. And why wouldn’t you judge a book by its cover? Isn’t that where the name of the book goes? You are odd. What you should have learned is that you shouldn’t judge a person’s fighting ability by their outward appearance,” Carrick rebuked me.
“That is right. They probably don’t have fancy covers like we do, since they aren’t being sold in stores or online. They would probably write the name on the cover, and the cover is only there as protection,” Rabbit chimed in.
“Today, we will be leaving the village since Sophia gave you permission. That means I will be bringing a shirt and armor.”
“Daddy, can I come?” Kibi begged.
Carrick thought about it for a moment and said, “Yeah. I guess it will be safer that way. You can play lookout since Alf here is just deadweight.”
“Hey,” I said, a little outraged. “I survived in the woods for a little bit before coming here.”
“And how did that go?” Carrick questioned.
I remembered how the snake owned me before my hidden ability saved my life and almost killed me at the same time. I replied, “Good point.”
“Kibi, wear your light armor. I’ll use my heavy armor because Alf can’t run fast.” I looked down as Carrick continued, “You need some protection. Considering you’re thin and tall, you’ll fit into my wife’s armor.”
I didn’t rise to the bait on his wife’s armor. I figured it would be ridiculous and no one would be subjected to that humiliation. Instead, I asked what came to mind. “If people get stronger with levels, would armor make a difference?”
“That’s a good question,” he replied, “as the concept isn’t obvious. You know how gaining health points doesn’t make you physically larger?”
“Yes?” I responded, unsure where he was going with this.
“Your skin doesn’t become tougher to your touch, your muscles don’t bulge out more, and your bones don’t feel denser. For instance, if you were to bite your tongue, it would still bleed as easily as before. The nature of your physical form remains constant.”
I shook my head because he wasn’t wrong, but also wasn’t correct. “I am stronger, capable of jumping higher, and when I attempted to punch you, it barely made a dent. That must be due to your level. I do, however, agree that I look the same.”
“Exactly.” Carrick wiggled his finger at me. “Your Constitution doesn’t change your body, but grants it a resistance. This is akin to invisible armor that only encounters external forces. For example, if a tree fell on you, it might struggle to break your skin or fracture a bone. This isn’t because your body has physically hardened, but rather because it has magically increased its resistance to external threats.”
“So you’re saying that armor gets stronger because of this effect?” I questioned.
“Well, sort of. Some armor and weapons can draw on your natural resistance, but we don’t have access to that kind of gear. Normal armor and weapons aren’t made of anything special, and for folks at a high level, they don’t do much good. But you don’t need to worry about that.”
“Because we don’t have any?” I asked, feeling a bit let down.
“No, it’s because your level is so low that it wouldn’t make a difference. If something is strong enough to cut through your armor, it’s going to take you out either way. And having a slightly tougher breastplate isn’t going to stop that.”
Kibi jumped in. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re probably never going to be strong enough to need to worry about things like that. Plus, unless you’re as rich as the Skyline Bank, the items that can do that kind of thing usually have some drawback.”
“Drawback? More resistance doesn’t seem like a drawback to me.”
“Kibi’s right,” Carrick chimed in. “Imagine having more resistance, but the metal is softer, almost like cloth. Getting hit while wearing that wouldn’t block any damage.” I understood what he meant. Just because something had the effect you wanted didn’t mean it was worth it for us normal folk. But if you had enough money, you could buy the best of everything. I’d guess that was true anywhere.
Following the conversation, Kibi stepped up with Carrick’s wife’s armor while he left to get dressed. I had this nagging fear it would turn out to be one of those absurd armors often showcased in games. The kind that had ridiculous features like armor formed to accommodate breasts or, even worse, that resembled metallic swimwear, providing minimal real-world protection. Initially, I considered voicing my doubts, but soon reminded myself of my lack of authority and that any armor, no matter how it looked, was better than no armor at all.
To my relief, when Kibi presented the armor, it was a standard set that wouldn’t look out of place on either a man or a woman. Carrick, with his overdeveloped muscles, clearly couldn’t fit into it. But it accommodated my less bulky frame quite well, if only a bit short. The shoes that came with it were unfit for use, so I decided to stick with my own.
“Won’t your mother mind that I am wearing her armor?” I asked Kibi when we were alone.
“Oh, no. She is dead.” There was a long pause before Kibi continued. “She died before I could remember her, so it isn’t that bad on me. It is for Dad. Even though he is quite the catch, he says he will always love her. There are plenty of girls hoping to marry him, but I doubt it will happen. He spends a lot of his extra time training me to make sure he doesn’t lose me too.”
That sounded so sweet. I may have misjudged Carrick. Sure, he was self-obsessed and often insufferable, but it was clear that he held a deep love for his family, even in the absence of his wife. Despite his bravado, this touched me and hinted at a depth to his character that I hadn’t anticipated.
As sweet as that was, I doubted he was celibate. If girls were pounding down his door to get married, I was certain he would be doing just as much pounding.
“He doesn’t mind me wearing it?” I asked.
“It’s just armor. Should we be bothered if you were wearing her old apron?” Kibi giggled. “Dad wears it sometimes too, and it’s hilarious.” The thought of Jack, a massive muscle-bound man, crammed into a tiny apron while cooking, brought a smile to my face.
I looked around the room and reassessed. There was a pair of bright red briefs that looked straight out of a wrestler’s wardrobe, half-hiding under a pillow. I had originally assumed they were his wife's, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Putting on the armor was extremely difficult. I was so glad Kibi was there to help me. There were buckles everywhere, and things weren’t clear. For example, what side of the arm bracer went forward, and on which arm? I knew after seeing it once that Rabbit could help me, but it was even more helpful to have someone show me what to do.
After everyone was armored up, we left the village. Only then did Carrick hand me a short sword and remind me that I could not take it into the town. If both of them died and I survived, even though that would not happen, I should not take the weapon there. Rules were rules. I told him I understood, and he began lecturing about what we would do for the day.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Today, we are going to hunt. By ‘we,’ I mean you. And by ‘you,’ I mean, you will most likely get into trouble, and I’ll end up saving you. The game isn’t stupid enough for it to come close to the village, so we have to go further out. The easier game is toward the ocean, and the larger game is away from it. As I don’t think you can kill anything bigger than a squirrel, we will be heading to the ocean. If we see slavers, we will retreat. Do you understand?” Carrick declared.
“Yes,” I answered, and thus, we began our journey. It was not eventful, owing to the fact that when I tried to talk while we were walking, Carrick slapped me hard and asked me if I had ever hunted before. I told him no, and he slapped his hand against his face, telling me not to make any noise.
After a couple of hours, we saw smoke in the direction we were heading, far out in the distance. Carrick stopped Kibi and me and said, “Fire shouldn’t be coming from that direction. Kibi, you go check on it.”
Kibi flew up into a tree. I used the word 'flew' because it was the only word that came close to describing what she did. I knew from physics that there was a thing known as the square-cube ratio. It stated that exponentially more force was needed to move a proportionally larger object.
In English, that was to say, if something were twice as big, you would need four times the muscle to move it. You could take, for example, an ant. An ant could lift 20 to 100 times its weight, but if it were the size of a Human, it wouldn’t be able to stand. The same way elephants had a ton of muscle relative to body weight, but they couldn’t jump. Just think of yourself as the size of an elephant, and your legs wouldn’t be nearly as thick. The same principle applies to bone density. It would require significantly denser and stronger bones to keep that elephant upright.
What Kibi did was jump vertically around ten feet easily, grab onto a branch, and throw herself up again without even putting a foot on the branch. The fact that she was as strong as I, with a weight that was half of mine and agility that should be a lot higher, made her fly up the tree like nothing I had ever seen.
“Wow,” I said breathlessly.
“Yeah. She is impressive. Like I said, you would not win in a fight,” Carrick said.
“Tell me about it,” I said slowly while gazing up at her. “Oh.” I started to snap out of it, and things began to fit into place. “I think I might know what the fire is about.”
Carrick squinted at me. “Go on,” he said slowly, as if I was in trouble.
I put my hands up in innocence. “Woah, not my fault. I was talking to Kaylie, Kaji, and Sana, and I told them about a sickness in some of the trees. Kaylie said that she was going to grab some hunters and check it out. See, not my fault.”
“Alright, that adds up. I guess there isn’t much to worry about. We will have to avoid that area because no living creatures will be around, but it should make our hunting easier since the animals will be moving away from the coast,” Carrick said, without the accusing stare anymore.
About a minute later, Carrick put his hand to his lips to tell me to be quiet and said, “Kibi has been up there too long. There might be something wrong. Put your back to that tree and be as still as you can.” This time, I moved over to the tree Carrick pointed at, as slowly and as quietly as I could. Carrick crouched down and approached some bushes, searching the area intensely. He would look around and then up every couple of seconds. After about another two minutes, my hands were sweating from holding my sword so tightly. Then suddenly, Kibi jumped down from a height that might have broken a leg of mine.
“Report,” Carrick said.
“The fire is burning by the cliffs near the ocean. I am not sure what it is for, but the slavers were sailing by and turned toward land. I stayed to ensure they made a full turn to land, not just to turn around. I think they are disembarking because of the fire signal,” Kibi said.
Slavers? My thoughts immediately turned dark. I started wishing for their ship to crash against the rocks and sink with all of them still on board.
“Dark,” Rabbit replied, hearing my surface thoughts. “But a quick death might be too good for those kinds of people.”
"Damn," Carrick said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “No, Alf told me they are scorching that area because of a disease. Our people are over there. Was the fire burning on a hill or a flat plain?"
“I know what you are thinking, and no, I don’t think they could have seen the ship from there. I only saw it because we are still on the mountain,” Kibi replied.
The village was situated on a mountain, the same one where my journey began. When I first arrived, I had faced the ocean, but the town lay on the opposite side, facing the mainland. As the terrain descended toward the sea, it eventually flattened into beaches bordered by cliff bluffs. From those flat areas, ships were not visible. However, from the smaller hills that dotted the landscape, one might catch sight of them.
“We have no choice. You two go back to warn everyone about what is happening. If something attacks, both of you scatter and return to the village to report the incident. Do not engage, as we don’t have time for it,” Carrick ordered, his serious expression underscoring the dangers we might face.
“Dad, you should send Alf back. If the smoke stops before we get there, I’ll be a better scout than you are,” Kibi said.
“I know I’m not of any use, but I’m the one who told them where it was. I’m pretty sure I know exactly where they are if the smoke stops,” I proposed, hoping that Rabbit would be able to pinpoint where I needed to go if needed.
Carrick pondered for a moment. “I’ll take Alf. He knows where to go. Besides, I doubt the village would listen to what he has to say secondhand. It might take too long for him to tell people and for him to be moved up the chain before they believe him.”
Kibi looked disappointed but understood. “Okay, I’ll meet you over there,” Kibi added as she took off in the opposite direction.
I turned to him and said, “You weren’t going to take your daughter no matter what, were you?”
“Nope,” Carrick said, checking all of his equipment, making sure he had everything.
“That means that even if we get in trouble, reinforcements won’t come in time?” I questioned.
“You aren’t as dumb as you look. If you want, you can wait here. I doubt you know your way back. You’ll slow me down anyway,” Carrick mentioned, staring at me stoically as he waited for an answer.
I had an opportunity right now that might not come again. I was being left alone in the woods, armed and equipped, and there was a real emergency. If I waited until Carrick left, I could slip away without much trouble. I’d be kitted out, and no one would be chasing me.
I could go. Hell, I should go. This was the perfect out. I had weapons, supplies, and no one to stop me.
But the thought of Carrick facing the slavers alone stuck with me. Not because I owed anyone here anything, but because no one should end up a slave.
If it were any other enemy, I would have taken my chances and run. But not stopping slavery at every chance felt like letting it spread. Like saying it was acceptable. And I couldn’t live with that.
I wanted to survive. But I wanted to deserve to survive, too.
I made my choice. I confirmed with Rabbit and stepped forward.
“I may be able to get there faster than you. I think I know the best path,” I said.
“Okay, this I have to see,” Carrick replied.
Crossing the jungle wasn’t a straight line. There were open forest areas, but there were just as many streams, hills, cliffs, and obstructions. Lucky for me, I had Rabbit with me. We traveled to the village, but that wasn’t in a direct line. On that path, we wound up and down, and he could see better zones than where we were. That hadn’t helped in the past, but now Rabbit could match everything he had learned with the little bit of map that he got a glimpse of in Sophia’s office to give us the best route.
Even if Carrick were much faster and stronger, he would not have made as good time as I unless he knew this area very well. While I bet he knew the grounds around the village, I doubted their people made it out this far regularly. While Carrick was skeptical at first, over the next two hours, he became a believer in my way. I would zig and zag, never hitting an obstruction, but always having a path through.
The smoke did stop about halfway through our journey, so it was a good thing he brought me. By the time we got there, Carrick had commented, “I think we've found your hidden talent. I’m not sure if you have an amazing ability to remember or if you were born to be a cartographer.”
“That is someone who makes maps,” Rabbit defined helpfully.
“I know that.”
“Are you sure? I bet you thought it was someone who draws carts,” he teased.
For now, Carrick was looking around the area, while I stayed hidden and quiet.
“No, but I did wonder. If a cartographer draws maps, then would a photographer draw photos?” I asked.
“That is interesting, but also funny. The word ‘photo’ actually refers to light, so that they would be drawing light. But yes, that’s what they would be saying,” Rabbit added.
When we arrived, the scene was one of utter devastation. It looked as though the area had been ravaged by fire, then drenched in water, and finally, as if to ensure total destruction, someone had attempted to demolish what remained with a bulldozer.
Carrick then beckoned me over to a corpse on the ground. As I got closer, I noticed more corpses and blood splotches scattered everywhere. “My guess is our people lost. If you touch the body, you can still feel warmth in it, but an ax to the head isn’t an easy thing to heal,” he said, pointing to a big split down the skull. The person looked odd to me. He had a darker complexion for a white man, and he had a single green dot in the center of his head, as well as two green dots below that. “The other two were our people. They must’ve died before the enemy got a chance to heal them.”
“Why would the enemy heal our people?” I asked.
“Slaves. The slavers heal their enemies just enough to keep them barely alive, too weak to move. They toss them into a hold, with a healer watching to make sure they don’t die. This way, they don’t need extra restraints. The wounded or those who surrender are chained and locked up. Our only advantage is that they probably don’t have enough healers to treat everyone before leaving for their island, let alone our mainland. The downside is, I’m not sure we can catch them. For now, we should head to the cliffs and see where they’ve moored their ship.”
As I looked around, it made a lot more sense. The blood everywhere was a result of the fighting, but the lack of bodies was due to the fact that they healed some people and took them away.
Carrick started to move in the direction of the sea. It wasn’t the same direction where we could see some of the bodies being dragged. He didn’t want to walk right into them without having a plan. What were two people going to do in the first place without the element of surprise?
When we reached the edge of the cliff, we got down on our bellies and crawled through some mud to get a good view. I was going to have a hard time getting all this stuff clean, and I could guess who was going to clean Carrick’s armor as well. We could see the ship moored a little way out to sea, with two transport boats, each big enough for around 10 people, ferrying people to the vessel.
“Shit. It’s too late. They only have one load of people left. Right now would have been the perfect time to attack. They don’t have many people on land, and if we could surprise them, we might have a fighting chance to save a couple of people. Maybe even barter for some of our people back,” Carrick stated his idea.
“Then, why don’t we?” I asked stupidly.
“I know you’re new and all, but there is no way to get there before they are loaded up. You see the beach access down there? We won’t reach them in time. The only way down there in time is off the side of this cliff. Even if we could get down there uninjured, we couldn’t surprise them. The best thing we can do is confirm for the village what happened here, so at least the villagers will have some closure,” Carrick explained dejectedly.
“You’re giving up? They are just going to be slaves?” I questioned hotly.
I did not particularly care for the villagers enough to risk a fight with Carrick. What I could not stomach was the thought of anyone being turned into a slave. To me, and to most in my world, slavery was one of the most vile things imaginable. The idea that one person could own another, strip them of their choices, their dignity, and their future, made my skin crawl.
Some people justified war. Others justified killing when it came down to a matter of survival. But slavery? That was a rot that spread from the inside out. It did not just break the body, but it broke the spirit. It told a person they were nothing, that their life belonged to someone else. No one deserved that. Not a friend, not a stranger, not even someone I hated.
If I had a chance to stop it, I would. Every time. That was not about kindness or mercy. It was about drawing a line. Some things could not be allowed to exist without becoming complicit. And slavery was one of them.
“Life is what it is, and I want to help. You've gotten us this far pretty quickly, which I doubted we could do, but I can’t change what’s happening. And no, not all will end up as slaves. I’m certain some will resist and be tortured to death. I’m not sure which fate is worse,” Carrick said, his eyes vacant as he stared off into the distance.
“I have an idea to save them, but you are not going to like it,” Rabbit butted in.
“You’re the man, Rabbit. Well, sort of. But I’ll do anything,” I replied in my head.
“I’m serious when I say you’re not going to like it,” Rabbit insisted.
After Rabbit explained his plan, I questioned calling it a ‘plan.’ It felt more like wishful thinking than a real idea, hoping I wouldn’t die or take too long to heal.
But still, I agreed. This world may have allowed such a vile practice to spread, but I wouldn't. If it cost me my own blood to stop them, then I’d bleed deep enough to drag them under with me.
“Just remember to cover your head. If not, you probably won’t wake up until you’re in chains,” Rabbit advised as one last thought.
The boat was approaching the shore, and the people were preparing to load the prisoners as soon as it arrived. I had to hurry.
“Here is my sword,” I said to Carrick. “It will only get in my way.” I started rubbing mud all over my face and hands.
“What are you doing?” Carrick asked, bewildered. He probably thought I had lost my mind. Someone who handed their sword away and started playing in the mud was usually bonkers.
“Carrick, thank you for standing up for me at the village. It means a lot to me that you were the only one who was willing to tolerate me, even though I couldn’t learn skills. Today, though, I’m going to show you my true power. That is the power of stupidity. I’m either going to save those people or share their miserable fate. Either way, I won’t stand by and do nothing.”
I stood up at the cliff’s edge, and Carrick immediately put his head down so he wouldn’t be noticed, and then I jumped. I turned around to see the priceless look on Carrick’s face.
I doubted he would have ever guessed I was going to do that. Then I covered my head and tumbled down the cliffside. It was not a nice fall, although the armor helped until I passed out.
