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  However, the world was not. “Get your hands off my woman.” A voice came from Ajax’s left, and he watched the crowd part for a party led by a man who looked strange but Ajax couldn’t place why.

  He pushed that out of his head and looked at Missy who’s expression was just as confused as his.

  “Come over here, darling.” The man extends his hand inviting her to come to take it. Ajax, however, didn’t miss that the possy behind him flowed out and started to surround the two. The others, six girls and two men circled around the front of the crowd that had stopped to watch the spectacle.

  Glancing at them, Ajax shivered. The girls all had blank expressions like they were dead inside. The two men were practically salivating while looking at Missy.

  Looking back at Missy, she was building herself up into a fury. Ajax didn’t blame her, looking at the situation, who wouldn’t be? She held the hilt of her new weapon glaring menacingly at the haughty man.

  That’s when Ajax noticed what was wrong with him, he still wore the same colors of everyone else- white tunic and tan pants. But his shirt was far nicer than everyone else and his pants were leather.

  Ajax focused on him and inspected him. That’s when Ajax saw his name, . Yeah, he was never going to acknowledge that name. Looking at his gear however, it was all in white text, even his boots were uncommon grade in green. Meanwhile, his and all of Missy’s gear were common grade gray.

  Ajax was already trying to guess how much silver he’d have to pay to get all of this gear. Then looking at all of his goons who didn’t even have weapons Ajax understood. They had pooled all of their money for him to buy better equipment.

  “Sweetheart, it’s Richard. Richard Waltz. Come here and we can quest together.” The man was becoming more and more disgusting in Ajax’s eyes. He could hear the coercion in his voice. The surrounding eight started to take aggressive stances.

  However, Ajax wasn’t worried. This was a town, wasn’t it? There isn’t normally player versus player allowed in towns. “Missy, do you know this tool?” Ajax leaned close so he wasn’t overheard.

  “Only by reputation. He’s from a secondary family of the Waltz ‘empire’” She used air quotes to show how much she cared about the overbearing corporate family. “He’s also a professional player, but he’s terrible. He relies on buying gear to get an advantage, even then he’s a C class player at best.” Ajax made a mental note to ask about what a C class player was but he understood at least it was lesser than herself.

  “If they attack, just defend at first, this is a town there should at least be a penalty of some sort for starting a fight in the city.” Ajax had a hand on his new ax.

  Missy straighten up and glared at Richard. “Get. Lost.” Her tone held no room for argument but Richard seemed immune to it.

  “Come now, are you sentencing this man beside you to death? If you keep saying no, I’ll have him killed over and over till he quits the game.” Richard's expression remained casual as if he was talking about the weather. The eight goons took a step forward.

  Ajax’s face contorted. “You heard her. Get lost.” He tightened his fist on the shaft of his ax. He could feel this was going to go sideways; this rich boy didn’t have an ounce of common sense. “Missy, let's go.” Ajax reached to pull her away, and it was like he’d given the goons the single to start.

  The biggest of the guys came swinging at Ajax as soon as he grabbed Missy’s hand. Ajax pulled out his ax and braced it to block the blow with the haft. The man’s face went red and by the look of his hand had taken more damage than Ajax, but that’s not what got everyone’s attention. The man and the rest of Richard’s party suddenly had red skulls flash above their heads.

  “System what’s that?”

  “The red skull is a debuff placed on those caught committing a crime in a city. They are now viable targets for you to protect yourself within the town. Furthermore, they will receive a penalty if you manage to kill them. They have been marked by the city guard and if they stay here too long they are likely to get arrested.”

  Grinning, Ajax no longer needed to hold back and spun at the first of the approaching goons with a power attack. It struck his shoulder with a wet crack and went limp; Ajax was sure he’d disabled it.

  He couldn’t revel in his success for long he was sorely outnumbered in the fight. The poor thugs were almost on him.

  “Missy, there’s no more penalty for fighting back.” Ajax saw the first blow coming towards his head and ducked into a leg sweep knocking one of the girls on her ass. Crowd Control, or CC that’s what he needed now. He needed to disable as many as he could to even out the fight. With that goal in mind, he smashed another knee with his ax and bounced to his feet.

  Two more down still left five coming at Ajax. He took a few hits as he backed up, and a quarter of his health chunked away.

  His brows pressed in pain from the blows and Ajax could tell the other girl actually hit the hardest. Focusing on her he caught her wrist and pulled. She was thrown off balance and he took advantage to crush her elbow with the club.

  A ring of steel sounded Missy joining the fight.

  He chuckled to himself. He knew these guys were about to be in for a world of hurt. Missy didn’t disappoint. Ajax saw two of them scream and turn to her, turning their back to him. Big mistake. Ajax slid his hand to the back of the handle for more leverage and swung down hard on the guy with his back turned.

  He seemed to sense something and started to dodge but it was too late, and Ajax managed to cut deep into his shoulder.

  Ajax was hoping for an epic moment of dismembering the man, but maybe that required a higher gore setting. The man, however, didn’t even react to what Ajax imagined was brutally painful.

  Instead, he rushed Missy with abandon like a maniac. Swinging his one good arm he managed to get a few hits before Missy cut him down.

  Ajax watched with disgusted curiosity at the act. He noticed the rest of them were startled by his fervor before their expressions changed. When they started raising their hands, Ajax was confused before he realized what had happened. The man must have set his pain setting to zero. That wasn’t even fair, he was like a reckless berserker… if all of them here were like that. The realization made Ajax sweat. He couldn’t waste any more time; he had to end this as quickly as possible.

  Missy picked up on it at the same time and went straight for stabs at the chest and throat. She wasn’t fighting now, she was killing.

  Ajax was the same, his ax swings went for the throat now. Checking another goon with the haft of his ax, Ajax pushed the head forward and sliced the man’s throat. It was brutal, but those training fights where he’d had his throat torn out by wolves had hardened him a bit. In the heat of the moment, he had no thoughts for mercy.

  Suddenly he and Missy stood in the circle of onlookers with eight corpses. It was a gory sight, blood everywhere but at least the bodies were intact.

  Ajax suddenly thought of Richard and tore his eyes from the sight before him to look for the bastard. However, he was disappointed. The prick had run. Ajax felt waves of emotions bubble up. It just wasn’t fair that some corporate child born with a spoon in his mouth could act this way without consequences. He thought back to the goons who had clearly given up all of their money to Richard for him to likely have the best gear in the starting area right now. Where was he when they were outmatched though? Nowhere. He dumped them because they no longer had any value.

  Missy was looking at him strangely, and he realized he must have been making a horrid face. “I know it’s a bit bloody. Let’s continue to the caravan.” Ajax left the misunderstanding alone and started out.

  The crowd had already started dispersing but shouts caught Ajax’s attention. The crowd seemed to part around a head of blue hair moving towards them. Sky came out of the crowd dragging a limp Richard with an arrow stuck in his eye socket. She sashed forward dragging the corpse, a vicious grin making it hard to appreciate her otherwise beautiful face.
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  Ajax felt the corners of his mouth tug involuntarily. He had to keep from bursting out in laughter. Apparently, Sky had served up justice just fine on her own. “How’d you know to attack him?”

  Sky laughed “A big red skull above his head got my attention. Then I read the debuff and decided to try out my new bow.” She tossed him down in a heap, and the three of us looted him for all he was worth. Which in the long run really wasn’t much Ajax realized, but it felt good.

  Missy and Sky hung back and talked in hushed voices as we walked. He guessed they were sharing details about who this guy was. When he looked back on the two beauties, Sky’s face was contorted in a frown, Ajax guessed she at least knew of him.

  CHAPTER 10

  The trio moved on to join the caravan. Sky caught up with Ajax while Missy was talking to a few of the caravan guards. “Great job…um… before she catches up I wanted to ask you a question.” Whatever it was, it died before it left her mouth as Missy rounded one of the wagons and joined them. The two gorgeous ladies were both very attractive in their own ways. Sky held a simple elevated elegance with her calm demeanor and blue hair which now half-up with her bangs pulled back. Missy on the other hand had pulled her wavy hair into a ponytail, having a more sporty look. She swayed her hips as she walked, dragging Ajax’s eyes with each movement.

  Working to focus on the task at hand, Ajax shared the details of the quest with both of them. They were excited to get far away from the beginner town. “Let’s go; it’s an escort quest so it’ll be painful. I hope since it’s going to take so long that the exp is well worth it.”

  “That much exp. I..s the quest too high of a level for us?” Missy offered.

  Ajax didn’t think so, but there were still other benefits “Worst case we follow these NPCs, leech some exp from the mobs that spawn on the escort, and we learn where the next city is. This place is too populated to do us much good. We need to get out ahead of everyone.”

  “I agree with Ajax. Getting to a new city is probably the most beneficial part of this quest. With three of us even if we are under-leveled, we should be able to handle it,” Sky said. Ajax couldn’t help but notice some of her cheer had faded, but then again, Ajax didn’t know her well enough to tell which side of her was the normal one.

  As the group neared the wall Ajax saw a building tagged Supply Depot.

  Ajax darted into the empty shop, leaving the girls behind. They would need a variety of gear to go on a trip this long. He was dirt poor, but he grabbed what he could with the coin earned from the fight with Richard. At least that idiot will be paying for their camping gear.

  Ajax hopped out to see the caravan being looked over by the guards. Ajax hurried to get back in file with the two ladies. “I wasn’t sure what we’d need, but I grabbed some travel rations and camping gear in case we need them.”

  Both girls looked at him strangely, not registering what he said yet. He seemed to have interrupted something. Missy was first to react, her brows relaxing as she smiled sweetly.

  “Good thinking Ajax.” Missy shouldered up to Ajax batting her lashes. Ajax looked over at Sky, seeing her giving Missy a level look with equal mixture frustration and understanding.

  “I’d love to share a meal with you; I’m sure we’ll have the chance during the trip.” Sky’s voice seemed directed partially at Missy. She looked past Ajax while speaking and grabbed his other arm. She had a calm air settling around her, like whatever was going on wasn’t her concern. Yet her grip on Ajax’s arm was unmistably firm.

  Ajax nodded dumbly. He didn’t understand women but had the feeling that this could get messy. “Let's get through the gate security, yeah? I’ll go first.” Ajax separated himself from the girls and quickly answered the guards’ questions. After the caravan cleared the guards the group headed off together through the grassy plains to the east.

  Ajax stepped up to the guard captain. “Sir Remblaar, me and my group wish to prepare as best we can. What sort of trouble do you think we’ll be facing?”

  Ajax wanted to be prepared for whatever sort of monsters they would meet along the way. Not that he really could prepare very much. Though if Sir Remblaar had the concept of levels, that would be useful information.

  Before Remblaar answered, System had answers of her own to share.

  “You are entering an instance Ajax, there is a disclaimer: This instance contains a temporal dissonance of 10 to 1” System’s notification interrupted his thoughts. He had no idea what temporal dissonance was, but he could imagine what it meant by the name. He couldn’t help his mind wandering at the reference. Was this game really capable of such a thing?

  “What does that mean System?” He had an idea but wanted to hear it from his AI guide first hand.

  “Time inside the instance will pass ten times the speed of the real world, or at least that’s how it will feel for you.” Ajax had guessed but he was still surprised the game could accelerate time? Rather the perspective of time, but who doesn’t want more hours in the day? They’d be able to do the entire quest in less than a day in real-time. He could imagine the advantage when you thought about what it would be like to have a one week head start on the other players.

  Ajax returned to the conversation with Captain Remblar alongside the wagons. The captain didn’t seem phased by his short conversation with System.

  The group was finally leaving the city gates. Ajax took in the caravan as it stretched away from the city. There was only enough room in the wagons for the merchants and a few of the guards at a time. Everyone would likely rotate through those luxurious positions to rest. Meanwhile, everyone else was walking alongside the train of wagons overstuffed with goods belted down on every surface.

  Ajax thought, the wagons made the caravan an obvious and attractive target for bandits.

  “Mostly goblins, maybe a few orcs,” Remblaar spoke up. “We will be going near a swamp, so there could be merlocs or a myriad of other things that live in the swamps.” Captain Remblar’s answer brought Ajax’s sight away from the caravan. The land just outside the city was flat, the woods cleared well away from town. They weren’t headed toward them though. They were headed off to the east, where slow rolling hills dotted the horizon.

  “Ah, thanks for the information. I know goblins and orcs well enough. Do merlocs or anything else we might have come out of the swamp have particular abilities? We want to make sure we are helping the best we can.” Ajax smiled, wanting to discuss more with the Captain.

  “Best bet would be to follow my orders. Everyone will work better if we are all a team.” Sir Remblaar still didn’t seem to really want Ajax and the girls with him. “Have you three died yet? I heard adventurers couldn’t be killed. At least not really killed; they come back eventually, it just takes some time.”

  Captain Remblaar’s question wasn’t exactly making Ajax feel welcome but he kept up his smile “Yes, I’ve died a few times. It’s quite painful. Why do you ask?”

  Remblaar turned to Ajax “I wanted to know if you’d run when it got tough, but now I’m concerned you’ll just dive into battle, tactics be damned.” Ajax thought that sounded like any other game where the two sides of NPCs in an event lined up like a real battle while players completely ignored any structure of the fight and just killed things haphazardly. Ajax wanted to blame it on the game not really being interactive enough to put the players into the battle like that, but he knew it would still occur here.

  “As long as you don’t treat us like we are disposable, I’m fine listening to your orders in a fight.” Ajax’s answer seemed to satisfy the guard captain as he nodded and moved to check on the rest of the men.

  He fell back to walk along with the two girls.

  “Did you two get the system notification?”

  “Yes, I was worried when it said the quest was 7 days but if somehow time is sped up 10 times then it would take about 15 hours.” Sky didn’t seem at all worried about how time was sped up.

  “This should be a huge advantage for
us.” Missy had a huge grin plastered to her face and a bounce in her step. “Think about it. Day one ends and we already will have 7 days of grinding done AND we will have traveled 7 days away from everyone else.”

  When she put it that way, Ajax was pretty excited too. A seven-day advantage over the other players would be a huge boost to his dream of getting ahead and going pro in this game.

  “Don’t assume we are the only lucky ones, but yes, this will put us ahead of the pack for sure.” Sky’s words were logical but also like a bucket of cold water on the two. But then she turned and gave Ajax an excited smile. “I think we need to understand how to make the most of the situation though. It seems like exercising is increasing our stats, and we can make up our own skills. Missy, what have you discovered?”

  Playing with her pink locks, Missy responded. “Skills level up too. I learned a passive called a critical strike. If I hit a vital area I can do extra damage. I mostly aim for the eyes and throat. It got stronger as I used it, from the beginning to the end of fighting boars the shots to the eyes seemed to be doing more damage. If you check the skill in your character menu there is a progress bar for the next level.”