8 Chapter 8: Red Pill? Blue Pill?

I soon had replacement gear and a half decent horse. Wasn't a war horse, but better than nothing. Ulther had remained quiet for the whole day and now it was time for dinner. I set the bench back up away from the doorway and called the whole family out.

"If you speak, I will kill you. Now this morning the woman over there poisoned this spoon in an attempt to kill me. Maybe the poison would only knock me out, but the result would have been the same. I thought I have been pretty lenient. I will remind you all to be quiet. Since Ulther has kept me company all day I am going to let him decide what my response will be. If he is too easy I will pick the worst option."

"Can't you just forgive this mistake?" He asked. I gave him a long silent look.

"Ulther, when faced with an enemy you can have no choice but to act. I showed mercy and that mercy was pissed on. I could have easily killed your family. In fact it would have made things a lot easier. I decided to try and do the right thing and look where we are now. So you have a choice to make, what is the punishment, if you stay silent too long I will decide, everyone else don't speak or do anything. Ulther don't look at them either."

"I…I…don't know. Anything I pick won't be good enough."

"Then pick the least terrible option."

"My mother, she made the attempt."

"Ah, but it wasn't just her. The youngest one was used as bait to try and trick me, you are forgetting him."

"No, not-" I threw the sword I was holding and it speared the mother in the chest. She collapsed with a scream.

"No one help her. I warned her not to speak. Each action has a consequence." I looked at Ulther.

"Fine, I will go with you. Please, let us help her."

"The others may, you stay right there. A life time of service and obedience in exchange for your family?"

"Yes."

"I see the doubt in your eyes. So come over here and I am going to tell you something and then I want to hear your answer again." Ulther came and stood next to me. "Leave the sword on the ground, if anyone picks it up or touches it I will take that as a sign you want to fight." I turned to Ulther. "Sorry about that people try so many sneaky things. Anyways, the travelers come back when they are killed including me. So if you somehow betray me and I die, I will be coming here to finish what I started. There is a penalty for death and it may take me some time, but I will come and kill everyone. So go get that sword on the ground while you think that over."

Ulther walked away and picked up the sword he looked at the weapon and then looked at me. I saw despair in his eyes. Perfect, he was mine. "Ulther, two people were involved in attempting to murder me. Your mother will live, and you have given your life to me in exchange. I need one more, not your father or mother."

"No, I will do anything-"

"Quiet, I am your master now. You do not speak unless I give you permission. If you won't take a life what do you have left to give me."

"My loyalty, I swear I will follow you and do whatever else you ask. Please just not this."

"You will obey every command?"

"Yes."

"You will kill when I tell you to kill?"

"…yes."

"You will never speak to or contact your family again?"

"But…yes."

"Well random family I no longer care about, Ulther just saved all your lives. Think well of him and it would do him good not to speak of this. We leave tonight. Ulther put the sword on the bench and go inside and pack up for a long journey. Also take all the money that is in the house. They will live, but they will feel the pain of betraying my trust." Ulther ran off. The rest of the family just glared but they were smart enough not to say anything.

A couple of minutes later Ulther came out with a pack. "Set the pack on the bench." I pulled out my dagger. "I want you to search your family for any daggers or money take them and give them to me." I watched dispassionately as Ulther got to work. "If you can't reach tell them to kneel. All of you listen to Ulther."

I worked on making sure everything was in order before we left. Suddenly there was a commotion as the father slapped Ulther to the side and took the dagger. He threw it at me, but his aim was off and I was able to tilt to the side and dodge.

I picked up my sword and put a hand on my satchel. "Ulther go get that dagger."

"No, we are not going to listen to you. You are a murderer and a madman. Go inside Ulther."

Ulther looked torn on what to do. He turned towards the house and I let out a small sigh. I opened up the satchel and walked forward. "Everyone-" The father was cut off as his whole family was hit by the bulb spores, paralyzing them except for Ulther who was further back. I quickly closed the bag back up.

"Ulther I am disappointed, go get some rope. Move!" I shouted and he ran off. I beat the father black and blue with the flat of my blade. Ulther returned with some rope. I had him go retrieve my dagger while I tied his father and brothers up and gagged them. I then waited for the spores to wear off and had the mother take the youngest into the house.

"Ulther what now? He tried to kill me and struck you and you are under my protection."

"Please no more." He begged.

"Pick one of your brothers or sisters and they will be punished."

"Please, stop it." He walked over to me tears coming down his face. I stood up and back handed him across the face.

"Stop crying. It is annoying. I want you to pick or I will pick all of them." Ulther stood up, his lip bleeding and his face had the beginning of a nasty bruise.

"Yalen." He gestured to the eldest boy.

"Yalen it is. You girls can go back inside." They quickly ran back inside the house. I could see the fear in his eyes. He was already pissing himself as I stared at him. "No back bone, oh well. Ulther come here, I am going to help you with this bit. Work with me or we will have to try again." I walked over and pressed the dagger in Ulther's hand and then wrapped my hand around his, while standing behind him.

I felt Ulther shaking as my hand wrapped around his. I pushed the dagger forward until it had barely pierced the brother's chest. A small red patch began to grow on his shirt. "Ulther, do you want to save him?"

"Yes…"

"Then use the knife and cut out his eye. Then I want you to eat it without throwing up. If you can do that, then his life will be spared." Everything was silent as the eldest struggled and tried shouting through his gag. The other brother looked on in horror was the father was raging in his bonds as well.

***

Torture-5 MAX

Noooooo!

-1% Charisma per LvL

LvL 1: You understand the basics of torture

LvL 2: You understand the theory behind torture

LvL 3: You understand the limits of torture, +1% Charisma

LvL 4: You understand the applications of torture, +1% Charisma

LvL 5: You are a master of torture, +1% Intelligence

Fear Aura<Active Skill>-1

Run for the hill!

LvL 1: All LvL -50 will feel uncomfortable around you

Cost: 1 MP per Minute, 1 SP per Minute

Depraved-15

You are a demon in human flesh

+1 Fate per LvL

I really liked the fear aura skill. I was tempted to try it out, but I was only level 49 so it wouldn't really do much to anything. A couple more levels and I could scare the kiddies at least. Depraved went up by five levels, wow. That is actually pretty impressive since I didn't kill anyone directly. I guess forcing sibling disfigurement and cannibalism by proxy is pretty depraved.

We traveled all that night and took a short break at dawn. After that we continued with nothing said between us. I picked out a spot to stop for the night second night. "Ulther, take care of the horse and then go gather fire wood." He was like a dead robot. It made it that much easier to reprogram him but was also boring. I could have interesting equals or servants, not both.

Once a fire was going I made him do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. The moment he looked like he was slowing down I whacked him with the flat of my blade. "Ulther, say status."

"Status."

"Did anything happen."

"No master." I cursed to myself. So much for the easy way.

"Observe."

Ulther

LvL 12

Strongest Stat: Luck

I then had him sleep with his legs inside the bulb spore cloud.

The next day, I would have him breathe in a mouthful of paralyzing spores and then toss him over the horse while he recovered. We stopped for camp and repeated the physical exercises, this time I joined in. I still hit him with my sword if he slowed down. He had developed a touch level one immunity since the bulbs no longer affected him. He was not at level two immunity so there was nothing to train during the night.

The next day rolled around and we reached the area where the Ents were hanging out. That was when I saw two other people approaching us. Looked like players, and they both had bows and swords. "Stay quiet and let me do the talking." I said to Uther.

"Hello, there." I called out. We were about thirty feet apart.

"Hey." I saw the guy and girl looking between me and Ulther. With my appearance I was easily a player. They were looking at the teen dressed and appearing as one of the local NPCs trying to tell if he was a player or an NPC. I could see them trying to process the situation.

"So, what now?"

"This is our hunting area, we kindly ask that you move around." I remained silent and stared at the two. I needed a better idea dammit, "Observe."

Willlow Broadstroke

LvL 32

Strongest Stat: Constitution

I could easily take both of them. "You are in no position to make demands."

"Come on Willow, do you know who that is?"

"Quiet Rana, we didn't make it this far by being pushovers. We found this place so it is ours."

I flipped open my satchel casually as I spoke while walking away from Ulther and Horsey the Third off to the side. "You are facing the legendary Rain of Blood, Kenji Shadowmer. I already know you are a level thirty two Willow Broadstroke and that you have put too many points into Constitution." With every word I could see the fear sink into their hearts.

"We will just be-" Rana began. I rushed in. Drawing my blade, I rapidly closed the distance. I had noticed that my max speed had been increasing. I wasn't able to pin it down to a specific stat, but I guessed either Strength or Dexterity. SP loss from movement was almost nothing while walking but plummeted like crazy at the higher speeds.

I had about half a minute at my top speed, which was probably somewhere around sixteen miles per hour. That meant at thirty feet away they only had a second and a half to react. Less because of the five foot range from the spore cloud. I ran past the girl who collapsed and swung at the guy. He managed to block my attack but then collapsed as well.

I covered up the bulb and disarmed both of them. "Ulther come here." He got off Horsey the Third and walked over. "Kill both of them. Sword to the back of the head and be quick about it." He looked and me and took the blade I handed over. Two quick stabs and it was over. I did another observe and Ulther had gone up a level. That was perfect.

"Search guy for anything useful." Ulther got to work while I checked the girl. Some coins, stale food, canteen, arrows, sword, and bow. I took it all. The guy had pretty much the same load out as well. I then got out a rope and tied both corpses together and then used a tree branch in combo with my rope to lift them off the ground.

I then made various cuts along their bodies to let the blood drain out and collect underneath them. I led Ulther and Horsey some distance away. I made him get to work on a fire and then exercise some more. I rechecked my blades as I waited. The knight's sword was holding up really well to all the wear I had been putting it through.

As it got dark I went to check on the corpses. To my delight there was a massive brown bear gnawing on them, the guts were everywhere. I had the bulb, but I wasn't too confident that poison would work against a creature of the forest. I pulled out the bulb and gave it a hard roll towards the bear. It looked at the bulb and mushed it into the ground with one paw. It wiped its paw on the ground a couple of times before going back to eating the corpses.

I left the satchel on the ground along with my sheathes and gripped a sword in each hand. I would dart in and slam both of them into the creature's back hoping to kill it in one attack. It was moderately quick, but if the bulb was any indication it wasn't super fast. I would easily guess Strength as its strongest stat. I readied myself and breathed in and out a couple of times and then rushed forward.

I am quick, I am light, I am the wind that flies through the air. I jumped and drove both swords between the bear's shoulder blades. It let out a roar and spun around. I allowed the force of the spin to push me away while gripping both blades. They slid out and I went tumbling along the ground. I lost my grip on one sword and it went off into the shadowed brush.

I moved on the ground slowly trying to avoid drawing attention and saw the bear spinning around. If it moved towards me I was ready to leap up and defend myself. It walked around the corpses snarling and then went back to eating. I may have been wrong, Constitution is this thing's highest stat the way it shrugged off my attack. Both blades went half a foot deep and I could see the bears fur wet with blood. It just didn't care…wow.

I slowly moved until I was behind the bear and rushed in again. The bear began to spin and I was forced to stop and slash out. The blade cut between two of the bear's claws. The bear's version of a paper cut. It lunged forward but I leapt back, avoiding the pounce. As it recovered I darted in again and drew a long cut across the side of its face. I had been aiming for the eye, but it was hard to tell in this poor lighting.

It charged and I kept moving sideways while swinging out with my blade making sure to stay out of the reach of those claws. My SP was plummeting. I had about thirty to fifty more seconds at best at the rate I was moving. My minor cuts just seemed to piss the bear off even more. I knew that one hit and I was done for. In hindsight this was a terrible idea.

Suddenly a stone flew out of the trees and struck the bear on its head. The bear turned to look which was a rookie mistake. I darted in as fast as I could and drove my blade into the bear's eye socket. I was already moving away as it began to trash about and attempted to remove the blade. It's efforts only pushed it deeper and deeper. After a couple of seconds it collapsed.

"By the eight that was-"

"It isn't over stay back." Ulther moved back into the tree line. It was quickly getting darker and darker. I checked my screens and no experience pop-up. That bear might have a bit of Wisdom as well to play dead. "Ulther go back to camp and bring me a spare sword, go." He ran off. I stayed still and watched the bear. Ulther was back after a minute. I took the blade and approached the bear on the side I had just blinded. Picking up branch I threw it just short of the bear.

The bear spun and slammed a clawed hand down where the branch landed. I moved in and drove this blade right above the bear's front leg in its body. I was already moving away by the time the bear swung again, its movements much slower than before. It collapsed and then I got my experience. With that came a level up. I brought Strength up to fifty and Constitution up to twenty one.

Strength Focus-1

Go punch a brick wall

+25% to Carrying Weight per LvL

The bear was still impossible to move even with the new bonus. I didn't have a skinning knife and it was getting dark. A giant bear cloak also wasn't my style and there was no place I knew that I could sell it. "Good job Ulther, that was well timed." He gave me a small smile as we returned to our camp fire. I helped him gather more wood to build it back up.

That night the moths came. I had been expecting them so I was ready. I quickly cut them down and set them aside. The next morning I fed Ulther trace amounts of Luna Moth poison. While he was recovering I went to check on my bear. The entire clearing was a mess. Blood and entrails from the two players was scattered under their corpses from where the bear had been feeding.

With the fight, this just spread out the mess. It was hard not to vomit since the girl's lower half had been ripped off and smeared all over the ground to a pulp. Even I, Rain of Blood, felt queasy at the site. I retrieved my rope I had been using to hang the corpses up allowing them to hit the ground with a sickening squish. After that I got to work on the bear. Biology was a skill and this was a great opportunity to level it. I left my clothes off to the side while I cut into bear body.

Every so often I would go back to the campsite to check on Ulther and make sure he kept eating poisoned bread to build up immunity. By mid-day I was done and Biology had gone up to level three for one percent bonus to Intelligence. I washed up and returned to our camp where I began scraping the yellow poison powder on the Luna Moth wings into an empty money bag.

I figured I needed about twenty of the critters to fill it up. With bulb and Luna Moth poison, I was feeling fairly confident I could win in any one on one fight. As it got dark I had Ulther stop eating poisoned bread and had him be ready as I returned to the clearing. I hadn't heard anything, but I figured something was bound to come by. I saw a pack of wolves, seven wolves. I backed away and returned to Ulther.

I would wait until night fall, and then attack. That way they would be full and resting. I waited till after the Luna Moths had shown up and I killed them. Only three, that was unfortunate. I had two swords strapped to my hips and two in my hands as I approached the clearing. The wolves were all lying around with full stomachs and bloody fur. I picked out the biggest wolf at the center and rushed in with a burst of speed.

The wolves were full and relaxed and by the time they started moving I had plunged one sword into their alpha's head and drew a replacement. Ulther shot an arrow which hit a wolf in the flank. I darted to the next closet wolf and drove a sword into its chest. It collapsed on the ground, but I was barely paying attention as I drew my last replacement blade. The wolves moved as one.

One leapt high on my left while another changed in on my right. I crouched down and jabbed out with both my swords. The key to fighting successfully was to do two or more actions at once. The leaping wolf impaled itself causing me to lose my grip as it slammed into me. This threw off my aim with the other wolf as the sword cut into its shoulder.

The wolf bit down on my arm, but thankfully the leather guard I had kept from the soldier's outfit stopped its teeth from digging in. I swung with my free arm and punched the wolf in the face. It let out half bark and staggered back. I swung my sword and cut into its snout. It let out a yelp and ran off. I quickly got up and surveyed the scene.

Two of the wolves were full of arrows. It also helped that all our weapons were laced with Luna Moth poison to make sure they were one hit kills. They were all ten or more levels higher than me, which meant a nice chunk of experience for me and Ulther. We collected our discarded weapons and returned to our campfire.

I washed my clothes out in the nearby stream while Ulther collapsed next to the fire falling asleep almost instantly. I also went to sleep. The next morning we cleaned off our weapons and packed up our camp. While the fighting was good experience for Ulther it wasn't our main reason for being out here. We traveled for half a day along with Horsey the Third until I recognized the area where I had battled the Ents. I noted that there were a lot of saplings where the ash had been.

Then it began to rain. We both collected wood in an attempt to keep our meager fire going but we weren't having much luck. I thought Luck was Ulther's highest stat, but I guess you would need a thousand luck for something like this. I smiled to myself at the thought of someone putting all their points into Luck. How would that even work in a fight? If I swung at them would my sword shatter? What about poison, would the air currents be just right to deflect every particle? It was an interesting question to consider.

The rain finally quit late in the afternoon. I hated the rain and hadn't been too worried since it had only rained a couple of times since I had started in FEAR. We spent quite a lot of time collecting fire wood and drying off. Thankfully my pack was treated leather and water resistant.

"Where is your home?" Ulther asked.

"Do you want to know the truth which is horrifying or a lie which will bring you comfort." There was a long moment of silence.

"The truth."

"You know how you have books. You are taught by your parents and so on for hundreds of years. Where I come from we have accumulated a tremendous amount of knowledge and magic. Using this my people created a world to send our thoughts into. While you exist and you feel like you are real, none of this truly exists except as a dream."

"By the eight…"

"The eight you like to proclaim are little more than constructs built to manage this world and provide a back story. That is why even if I am killed I will come back."

"And the rest of the Travelers?"

"The same, each of us is dreaming and sending our thoughts into this world." We sat there letting the fire steam away our dampness.

"So I'm not real…."

"A great man once said, 'I think therefore I am.' Since you can think you exist, no matter what that means. The fact that I spend more time here than my own world is proof enough that the line between what is real and what isn't, is not that clear."

"Is that why you hurt everyone?"

"You are full of complicated questions tonight. Yes and no. Right now everything I say and do is recorded. I change some things around but I sell quite a bit of what I see to other Travelers. This pays for the medicine that allows me to dream my way here. Unfortunately there are many Travelers and the only way to interest them is to kill. My nickname is 'Rain of Blood'."

"I wish you never came here. I hate all of this. I hate you. I hate-" I got up and pulled Ulther into a hug as he cried. I didn't say anything and just let him cry it out. "You…you know, you could be nicer." I let him go and sat back down.

"But then I couldn't afford the medicine to dream my way here, since people don't want to hear about kindness and team work. They want blood and violence. If I could change this I would, but that is just the way things are. Well, there is one other solution." Ulther spun to look at me. "The person who conquerors this land will receive unlimited medicine and could bring peace to everyone. That is why I need help." There was silence after that as we both stared at the fire.

"Good night Kenji." He turned and lay down next to the fire.

"Good night Ulther." I stayed awake and killed five more Luna Moths.

***

TheBrain: Rain of Blood is right, this guy is insane

Ramponator: Got to love the blood

KilluaXXX: Freaking guy is so OP

GODHAXLOL: HORSEY LIVES!

HolyMan: We must use the power of prayer to smite him

PedoBear9000: You know he has that prayer book, I bet he makes the kid learn

Ramponator: The first of many followers

FuriousGhost: I am going to feed that kid to you, you sick freak

Tattles: Protect the kid

6996: 'Exploit' the kid

6996 has received a warning!

HolyMan: The kids shall be protected by the almighty internet gods

UltimataSecret: You got god mixed up with admin