The first step(2)

Brom headed into the mine and easily dodged the few traps that he knew were there because they were in the game and quickly killed the mine's lookout with a single stab from his sword.

Brom was beginning to wonder why combat was continuing to get easier even though he has not trained since being reincarnated into this body. He shrugged and passed it off as him just getting used to the new body.

He continued going through the mine and noted two important things, firstly there was a bunch more iron ore in here than the game showed. Secondly, there were actual miners who appeared to be slaves of some sort as they did not try and resist nor raise the alarm when Brom passed. The most reaction he got was the occasional glance with a look of satisfaction or the glimmer of hope in their eyes.

As he neared the end of the mine, he finally saw what he was waiting for. The bandit leader and a mage, who Brom guessed was the second in command here, were currently cutting up a mammoth.

"Had another traveler fall into the trap today, we need to send one of the men to reset the brush." The bandit leader said to his comrade.

"Yeah, I'll tell them after we finish up with this one." The mage replied with a laziness in his voice that Brom recognized from when he was younger, he used to sound like that.

This mine was actually used as a trap for mammoths to fall into. Back farther in the mine the bandits had dug a hole and built spikes on the bottom, they would then cover up this hole with a net of leaves. Every now and again a stray mammoth would fall into the holes hit the spikes and die. Leaving the bandits access to its rare and expensive horns and fat. This was how these bandits made money besides from the actual mine. Much safer than raiding.

As Brom remembered these events from the game, he realized something he had never thought of while playing the game. The whole motivation of almost every character was power, and the best building block to that power was money. As a character in a video game Brom had never needed to rely on money to obtain power, he simply just leveled up. Now he saw his way to the top. He needed money and lots of it.

Brom bushed these thoughts back for when he was in a safer place. He then looked for a way to quickly dispatch these bandits, not wanting a prolonged fight as he was still too weak to fight an experienced fighter and mage at the same time.

He looked around and noticed a few things; one, there were resources stockpiled here that he wanted; two, excess mammoth fat and grease was covering the floor near where the mage was cutting up the dead mammoth, and three, he had a flame spell that would mix nicely with that fat.

Brom smiled as he saw the odds turn in his favor. He quickly and quietly ran half crouched back through the mine till he got outside and grabbed one the bows from the bandits he killed and some arrows. He then went back to the main craven in mine with the two bandits and got into a suitable position.

He was located on the raised ramp that led to the actual mine. He first nocked and arrow and instinctively aimed and shot the mage through his ankle then as the mage was pinned and hurt, and the bandit leader was charging towards them both. Brom smiled and lit the fat on fire.

The fat and grease immediately caught on fire and spread and by the time the mage or the bandit leader realized Brom's plan, both were covered in flames. The latter started shouting curses while the former just screamed. Brom then started raining the rest of the arrows he brought on both the bandit chief and the mage, he didn't want to leave anything to chance.

As the flames died down rather quickly due to all the fat being burnt up and nothing left to fuel the fire. Brom walked passes the bandit chief for now and went straight to the stockpiled resources. There were some iron ores, silver ores, and a few ingots of iron. There were also mammoth tusks waiting to be sold along with gold the bandits had saved up. Brom counted this gold and whistled.

"857 septims" While this was not a lot in the long run, it was more than Brom had seen yet in this life.

Brom packed up the gold, cut off the charred bandit leaders head, and grabbed his key. Hoping the burnt head would still satisfy the bounty, Brom headed out and locked any gate he found on his way while releasing the current slaves. He wanted to be able to come back here and manage the rest of the loot later, and he simply did not have the time to manage all of the slaves and didn't feel the need to kill them.

Brom exited the mine and began his long walk back, now with a smelly head.

-9 hours later-

The trip back took longer due to his tiredness and the extra load of the gold and bandit leader. As he entered the through the gates, he saw the previous guards who tried to extort him earlier and winked as he passed. The guards exchanged glances and were both glad they decided not to push the new bounty hunter. Brom trudged his way to the bounty poster board and from there turned towards the guard's barracks.

The guard's barracks was much bigger than the little building near the gate in the game, this one was two stories and as wide as the inn. It was made of stone with wooden doors and windows. But more importantly to Brom, off the side of it, was the official bounty collector's building. It was a small wooden front with a stone back, probably due to keep whatever gold the jarl allotted safe in the back. In the game, one would walk all the way to cloud district and have to speak to the jarls steward. In reality, this made no sense, so there was a collector posted near the entrance of the city.

Brom entered this building and first dropped the head on the counter in its sack, which was now definitely smelling retched. Brom noted that he was very lucky this building was open 24/7 to bounty hunters, because between the travel time and fighting, it was already midnight.

"Well at least it isn't soaked in blood like the usual bags that get thrown at me," the Bounty collector said. He then continued, "My name is Hargulf, and I'll have to see the bounty paper you are here to collect."

"Brom, and here" Brom handed over the bounty he had taken off the board only this morning.

Hargulf looked in the back and pulled out the head then held the bounty next to it.

"It's hard to tell with it being so burnt, but I'll let it slide as it is your first bounty." Hargulf gave Brom a smile and extended his hand, "Well done on the first bounty I hope to see more from you"

"Yeah, as long as it keeps paying you probably will," Brom said and shook hands with the man sealing their trade.

Hargulf unceremoniously chunked the head into the fire pit at the side of the room and started counting out Brom's coins. Brom could hear him counting to himself.

"… 100 … 230.. 350… 490… 495, 496, 497, 498, 499, and 500. There you go. See you later when you bring back more bounties" Hargulf waved Brom off and went back to doing paperwork.

"thanks" Was all Brom said as he left and started back towards the inn.

Being extremely tired and having already thought of some plans for tomorrow… well later today anyways, Brom entered the inn and paid for another night. He'd worry about his new revelation on how power worked in this real world later. For now, he just needed to sleep.

Before laying down to sleep in his bed, he prayed for the first time since coming to this world, he prayed that he would not be assaulted by those memories once more. Then as Brom laid in bed and closed his eyes to sleep, he smiled knowing that he was on his way to becoming the person he always dreamed of being.