A visit

I walked across the plains, forests, and hills, following my path. I didn't encounter hardly anything, but I did still make safe houses every night, as well as being pretty careful. Despite my care and equipment, a group of about six people at some point silently surrounded me. They all had ragged clothing, with metal scraps seemingly melted onto parts of their clothing - around the gut, thighs, shins, and forearms - to act as armour. One of them did actually have a partial set of what appeared to be chain mail armour, however it was also really damaged and, in some places, rusted.

One of them - who I assumed was the leader, he had the chain mail person following him closely - sauntered to me, stopping before me and saying "You have come into our land, and now you must pay the fees or feel the cost." I simply stood there, confused, before eventually going 'These guys are criminals!' Upon which I simply said "I am on my way to meet the Head Knight of the nearby kingdom." Before mentally adding 'I really need to learn it's name.' The criminals all cracked smiles before breaking into laughter, before the leader said "We've heard a lot of things to attempt to get out of paying out fees, but that one is new!" Before collapsing into a bit more laughter.

They stopped laughing before getting serious and saying "Now, pay the fee or die." He and the others with him then drew their swords - one had a bow instead - and surrounded me - the one with the bow obviously went back instead - and then - the leader - called to me, saying "Well, you gonna attack? Or are you too much of a fancy little noble to do anything?" Upon which I simply drew my diamond sword and pointed it at the leader, saying "Just because I don't want to fight doesn't mean I can't. Back off, now." They simply scoffed and swung their sword at me, with I blocked before swinging at a random person to my left, who yelped in pain as my sword dug into his shoulder, stopping an inch or two in. I then charged him and kicked him in the gut before snapping a leg while he was grabbing his wound. I then took his sword and threw it like a frisbee at the leader, who ducked under it just in time.

Multiple arrows then started pinging off of my amour, very occasionally sticking into the joints. I then swung my sword in a very dangerous looking manner at the person to my left, who yelped and ducked down, dropping his sword in the process. I picked it up, ignoring the stabs from the people around me, and threw the sword to the vague direction of where the arrows were coming from. I heard a yell of fear before arrows started coming back, although they occasionally paused before coming from another place. I started 'disabling' some of the other people, injuring one and disabling another before I was kicked in my back by someone, sending me to the ground due to how strong they were.

He then stepped onto my chest, keeping me to the ground before kicking my sword away a bit. He then leaned down and I saw it was the person in the chain mail, who then went and said "Neat fighting techniques, but everything can be overcome with strength." before trying to rip my helmet off. He eventually stopped, seemingly shocked or confused by the fact that he couldn't before saying "Are you even a Human?" to which I responded by wriggling a bit more and then grabbing at his ankle, trying to crush it. He started grimacing before eventually yelling as I bruised his ankle. I then started punching him instead. Again, I failed to do more than bruise him. He then kicked me in the chest, somehow crumpling my armour in and probably sending a chunk of shrapnel into a lung given how it suddenly became way harder to breath. I then pulled out a spare iron sword from my inventory, which shocked some of the people and made them back away, with only the leader and the strong man staying where they were, with the leader saying "A mage huh? Don't see many of you guys around anymore."

I was pretty worried at this point, given the fact that my health was halfway down according to that weird bar thing and it was also occasionally ticking down over time. I then chopped at the strong man, hitting his chain mail, to which he laughed as nothing happened to it - I later found out it wasn't iron but rather some sturdier material - and then punched me in the face, instantly taking two of the 'hearts' away. I had like two and a half hearts left and was pretty scared at this point. I then said "I have no money on me! I don't even know what this place uses as money!" which did make them pause. The leader then said "No gold? No silver? No diamonds even? Nothing? Not even an emerald? How?" to which I said "I haven't even found silver or emeralds, and the tiny amount of gold I've found is in a chest back at my home! And I have no diamonds!" - this was a lie, as I had a diamond pickaxe in my inventory and my sword nearby, but for some reason they didn't consider this as a lie? Maybe once something is converted to a tool or weapon it doesn't count anymore? Or maybe they didn't know what my sword was made of? I still don't know to this day. -

The strong man then got off of me and said "Well then, if you can't pay in money, then pay in strength! Beat me in hand to hand combat and you can go free!" the leader then looked at the guy and said "No that isn't how we do things-" upon which the strong man said "Let me handle this, he probably can't win anyways." to which I inwardly smiled a little bit. I may be injured and not as strong as him, but I am a bit trained in official hand to hand combat courses. That, and I once took a little bit of Karate. Not much but a bit.

We then faced each other, me holding my chest because while my health is restoring, it still hurts, him occasionally... I don't know, thinking? The leader then sighed and said "Go on and beat each other into a bloody pulp for all I care." which the strong man took as a signal to start, as he then charged me. Kind of obvious, but fast. I barely rolled out of the way and he still managed to skim me with a punch. I then retaliated by running back a bit and waiting for him to charge again. He did, and this time I stepped aside, punching at his outstretched arm while also tripping him. It worked, sending him - and also me - to the ground. I got up as quickly as I could before jumping onto his back and trying to break his left arm. I did dislocate it before he got me off and stood up again.

He then charged again, sending a right hook my way, which I dodged by face planting into the ground and tripping him again. This time I didn't bother going for the arms, I went straight to injuring him, kicking him and keeping him down. One of the other bandits came forward, but I just punched him in the jaw, sending him to the ground as he rubbed it. I then kicked the strong man in the face one last time, which made him groan, before turning to face the leader. As I was about to say I had finished, I suddenly felt a sharp, piercing pain in my gut. I looked down and saw an arrow buried halfway into my abdomen, leaking a bit of blood. I looked up to see the archer sitting there with his bow in hands and the leader looking pleased. I then collapsed, noting absentmindedly that I had only half a heart left as my vision faded.

When I woke up again, I was in a bed. I quickly sat up, fearing I had died and respawned in my bed - which had begun happening I had noted after falling into the ravine and dying once - before realizing I still had my armour on. I then looked around instead of freaking out, and realized I wasn't in my home. I was in a place with the banner of that 'Church of the Holy Testament', and the room was, big surprise, mostly white with a bit of hospital red! I then noticed a sleeping cleric type person on a chair nearby, who I tried to wake up from my bed but failed, leaving him just snoring on peacefully. I then looked around the room a bit more, finding it looked to be in a basement, which I very intelligently deduced through looking through the only window behind me and found that the ground was just under it's sill. Hooray for intelligence!

After waiting for a minute or so, the sleeping cleric slumped to the side and woke up from the fall, who upon seeing I was awake again went and left the room for something. Somewhere between ten and twenty minutes or something later, the door opened...