Arrival at Hammers Rise

As the adrenaline leaves, Nathan groans as he feels the pain throughout his body. He has a wound traveling down the length of his side where the Aarog sliced him, and the side of his head is swollen.

Nathan checks his status and sees his health is showing 45/57.

"I got lucky that he didn't go for the kill and wanted to capture me instead," Nathan says while looking over the two corpses.

The Razorspine's corpse is starting to release smoke and the Aarog's body is doing the same. Where the blood is puddled and spilled is smoking the densest.

'I wonder if the blood is acidic' Nathan ponders as he observes the corpses for a moment.

Working his nerve up with the thought of, 'Fuck it, I can always recover health points if it is acidic', Nathan nudges the Razorspine's corpse.

<Collect loot>, appears as a pop-up window near the body as Nathan touches it.

Nathan does a mini cheer as he says yes in his mind to collect the loot.

Two gold coins, Razorspine fur, and Razorspine spine shards appear in Nathan's inventory. After collecting the loot, the Razorspine corpse starts to smoke even more and looks like it is desiccating.

Nathan walks over to the Aarog's corpse and collects the loot. He receives 33 gold pieces and the strap to hold the sword. 'This game is awesome; I was able to take this mob's weapon and use it for myself.'

Nathan walks over to the Aarog's head and picks it up by its appendages. A <Collect loot> message appears as Nathan holds the head in his hand.

"Not so haughty now are you," Nathan says to the head as he adds it to his inventory.

While adding everything to his inventory a plus one in green text floats in front of his face. The pain in his face goes away and the throbbing in his side subsides a little bit.

"Scion! We got lucky as hell! It looks like this sword must be a magic blade and has some type of life replenishment on it." Nathan says excitedly.

"With life replen, I'll be able to farm mobs for a lot longer before needing to take a break to heal."

Nathan quickly inspects the two-handed sword he commandeered from the Aarog.

[Low-Quality Reptilian Banesblade] 5 – 15 damage, +1 to life replenishment.

"You did well for your first battle in the Planes. I wasn't expecting you to have to fight an elite yet." Scion praises Nathan.

"The big cyan guy and Razorspine were elites?" Nathan questions Scion.

"Not the Razorspine, the Aarog was an elite. Judging from his capabilities of having himself a tamed beast and a magic blade, even a low quality one, means he was an elite." Scion explains.

Nathan thinks about his two kills and a profile H.U.D. appears showing his name and his kill counts.

'Oh, that's convenient. I love having record displays in games.'

In Nathan's profile, there are a few different records that are tracked.

Under the kill count category, it lists:

Normal

Elite

Champion

Legion Commander

Currently, Nathan only has one next to normal and elite.

After looking at the different types of records being tracked, Nathan continues to travel onwards to Hammers Rise.

Eventually, the pair come across a road and decide to stick to it to help speed up their travel time.

"I'm surprised there aren't any people traveling on the road Scion. Do you think Hammers Rise is a small settlement and that's why we are not seeing any travelers?" Nathan looks with a confused look on his face.

"You know as much about this plane as I do Mr. Emblem. I guess we'll find out once we get there." Scion says as she twirls around Nathan while flying.

After an uneventful couple of hours of travel, they finally get close enough to see the gates.

Nathan is fully healed from his body's natural life replenishment and the blades help.

Nathan marvels at the fact he has no scar or marks of the wound except on his sliced clothing.

Not wanting to come across as hostile, Nathan sheaths the Banesblade over his shoulder across his back as they get closer to the gates.

Unknown to Nathan, after Scion lands on his shoulder she phases out of sight.

The walls of Hammers Rise are littered with battle scars and patches of blackened stone from flames. In some places, the stones have been dyed a blackish-red from dried-up bloodstains.

The towers along the wall are also in need of repair. Some of the towers have holes in the walls and roofs.

People can be seen moving around the tops of the walls with wooden planks and other carpenter tools to make repairs.

"Looks like this place has seen its fair share of action," Nathan says to himself as he observes the state of the settlement.

"Halt!", two guards along the top of the gate yell towards Nathan as one trains a crossbow on him and the other draws an arrow and pulls back on his longbow.

"State your name and business traveler," The guard with the crossbow says to Nathan with a motion for Nathan to put his arms up.

Nathan quickly puts his arms up to comply and puts on a disarming smile as he responds to the guard.

"My name is Nathan Emblem. I arrived on this Plane not too long ago and come to seek shelter and supplies to continue my journey." Nathan answers in what he feels are appropriate for game talk towards NPCs.

The guards show a shocked expression after hearing Nathan's answer.

"A Planeswalker?" The guard with the bow exclaims while he slacks his draw on his bow.

"Do not lower your guard!", the crossbow-wielding guard admonishes the other.

The guard quickly fixes his stance as his face turns red from embarrassment.

"There's honestly no need for weapons, I'm not here to cause any trouble," Nathan says while trying to placate the guard.

"That Banesblade across your back speaks otherwise. That's an Aarog's blade if I've ever seen one."

The guard holding the bow gulps at his partner's words and begins to look at Nathan warily.

"So everyone is going to be able to identify my gear if I loot it off corpses and kills," Nathan says under his breath.

Louder, he says to the guards, "I took this blade off an Aarog in combat and killed him with it. That's how I came to be in possession of it."

The guard with the crossbow laughs disdainfully at Nathan's comment.

With a bit of hostility in his voice, he says to Nathan, "Bullshit! Planeswalker or not, a human can't defeat an Aarog in one-on-one combat let alone someone as young as you. A group is needed. You need to leave Hammers Rise and go elsewhere. We've had too much trouble in the past days, and I'll be damned if I let you come and cause a disturbance."

"Wait, please!" Nathan says to the guard pleadingly.

"I'm not lying to you, I have nowhere else to go and have no idea where I am."

"That's your problem, not mine", the guard states flatly.

"This is the last time I'm telling you to leave."

Nathan quickly pulls the Aarog head out of his inventory and displays it to the guards.

"This is the Aarog I killed. Now, do you believe me?"

The bow-wielding guard cries out in shock upon seeing the decapitated head.

The crossbow-wielding guard swears to himself and lowers his crossbow. He turns to the other guard and says,

"Quickly, go get the Captain and bring him here. I'll take this person to the gatehouse guardroom and wait for you there.

Tell him it's a potentially powerful Planeswalker."

Turning back towards Nathan he grins at him and says, "You can come in and speak with the Captain, he'll make the final decision. I'll come and let you in."

'This fucking guy. Don't know why he must go through all the theatrics just to let me enter the town.' Nathan grumbles to himself.

Nathan waits a few moments, a door next to the Gate opens and he sees the guard waving him over.

"No hard feelings, yeah mate?", the guard says while flashing a smile at Nathan.

"The name's Tom. Hammers Rise has been experiencing raids sporadically this past fortnight and tensions are high. Come with me inside and we'll wait for the Captain."

"I understand, you're only doing your job. I can't fault you for that." Nathan says to Tom as he follows him into the gatehouse.

"Who has been raiding the town?" Nathan asks Tom as they sit down at a table.

Tom pours himself a mug of water from the pitcher on the table. He throws back the mug and drains it in one go.

He ruminates in anger and responds, "It's the Gods damn Legion! Edenfell is being attacked and raids against settlements are happening everywhere."

"I see, that's why I'm here. To fight against the Legion and hunt down and kill the Legion Commander." Nathan explains to Tom.

Tom snorts derisively and looks at Nathan as if he's a lunatic.

"Mate, you may actually be a Planeswalker, but one person cannot defeat the Legion or its Commander in this Plane."

As Tom is going on about the impossibility of anyone defeating the Legion and how it would be better to find a way to survive, the door on the other side of the room bursts open and two people enter.

'That guy must be the Captain. Finally.' Nathan thinks to himself as he stands up to greet them.