Chapter 2

After What felt like both an extremely long time and no time at all, Andrew's consciousness surfaced along with a rush of memories and a massive headache. This body's name was Edmund, no last name. He was in the kingdom of Eunard. His family was a group of commoners traveling with a merchant's caravan to a different town. They were less than a day away before a group of bandits attacked, leaving nobody alive. After the flood of pain was gone Edmund asked Robin "Why does it hurt so much? Why do I feel so tired?"

Robin answered "Your soul is currently weak. You will learn more about souls in the more powerful realms, so it would be a waste of time to explain it now."

Edmund nodded his head while looking around. He was on the side of a road, surrounded by corpses and blood. After searching around, he found a sword on the corpse of what seemed to be the remains of a caravan guard. Soon he started to walk in the direction of the town the caravan was heading to while looking for a stream to wash the blood off his clothes. He asked Robin " what is the purpose of coming to this realm? They don't have a power system I can bring back to earth to get stronger there, from what you told me before we came here."

"To gain experience. Unlike worlds that have developed a power system, in this realm no being will come and erase your life with a single breath. This is the best place to gain experience and hone skills you will use in other worlds. Also, there seems to be just enough SI points to activate the mapping function. Would you like to?"

"Make sense. What does this 'mapping' function do in detail? And don't be snarky, I know from the name it creates a map of the area. I want to know the details." Edmund responded, while his ears perked from the sound of running water.

"The mapping function creates a sphere map 2 kilometers around you. It will show and mark things like rivers, streams, caves, resource pockets, landmarks, and on the high seas, the most likely storm forming spots and storm routes. It will also show any large masses of life in the area, such as a large herd of animals or a large army. You can upgrade the scanning range with 100 SI points, but every time you do so the cost doubles."

While taking off his clothes, Edmund thought 'I might be able to use this to create a successful mining company or be a great commander.' Edmund then proceeded to scrub as much blood out of his clothes as possible with only the running water of the stream and a flat rock he found and rinsed off. "Activate it. It will be useful in the future." After putting on his clothes, which were still wet with freezing cold water, he once again started walking towards town.

*******

Walking up to town, no small village, in clothes that were both stained red with blood and wet, and a sword hanging loosely in his grip, the one guard by the road looked at him with a hostile eye

"What are you, a bandit that got separated from the bunch?" the guard said as he drew his weapon.

"No sir, I-I was in a merchant caravan traveling from a smaller village. We were ambushed by bandits. I survived only by playing dead! A-a-a-after they took everything from the wagons and looted the merchant's corpses they left. I got up soon after they left, grabbed a sword from one of the guards, and ran." Edmund said all this while crying, looking exactly like somebody who had just experienced such an event. "After I ran for a time, I-I-I thought the smell of blood would attract predators, s-s-s-so I found a stream and washed as much blood away as possible. Y-y-you have to believe me, Sir!" While the events of the caravan massacre were fresh in his memories, he did not experience the event personally, so he was not traumatized, meaning his acting skills were pretty good.

The guard instantly put his weapon away and gained a look of sympathy. "Calm down son. It'll be okay. You need to tell me what happened in detail so I can make a report. Give me the sword."

"S-s-sir, is the army recruiting? I don't want to ever have to go through this again. I want to learn how to fight!" Edmund exclaimed, in what was his best impression of ignorant youthful bravery. Inside, however, he was both excited and nervous. If this worked, he would be able to improve his skills in fighting, something that would help him in whatever realms he went to in the future, be them ones that relied on melee combat, advanced ones that relied on technology, or Mystical ones that allowed one to play god with others, combat experience would always be helpful.

"If you really want to join the noble's army, go to the barracks."

"Thank you, sir!" Edmund said. After leaving the sword with the guard, Edmund ran to the barracks.

At the barracks, Edmund began looking around, at which point a man in chainmail armor came up to him. "What are you doing here kid? This isn't a place for children to play around."

"I came to join the army, sir. The guard at the entrance told me to come here."

Hearing that, the man smiled. "We could always use more people. You see Will over there? Go talk to him, he'll get you sorted." after saying that the man walked away. Edmund walked towards the man named Will. When he got close WIll said

"I heard it from here, follow me." After saying that, Will walked into the building behind him. When Edmund followed him in he was greeted by the sight of a rack of leather armor and a rack containing many different types of weapons. "You get a set of leather armor and a weapon of choice plus a dagger." After that Will threw a set of leather armor at Edmund. Edmund caught it and stumbled back, before starting to look at the weapons on the rack.

The weapons were a standard long sword, a longbow, a short spear, a shield, a long spear, a war-ax, a war hammer, two hand sword, and a mace. He was instantly attracted to the mace and spears. He hesitantly asked, "Can I learn to use multiple types of weapons?"

"You're expected to" answered Will. "If your weapon breaks in the middle of battle, you don't just get to retreat. You have to pick up a weapon from around you and keep fighting. You learn the basics of using a sword, spear, and shield plus your weapon of choice. That is after you have had the primary physical training."

Hearing that, Edmund went and picked up the mace, along with a shield. The mace was about one and a half kilograms, and three feet long. The shaft was made of what appeared to be a bronze shaft and an iron head, which was flanged*. The shield was small and round, about 8 pounds, and attached to the arm or outer armor through a leather strap.

"From now on, the maintenance of your gear is up to you. You'll learn the basics soon. Be here at sunrise every day for training, kid."

********

After three weeks of physical training and lectures about how to use weapons, Will took Edmund to the sparring ring. "Show me what you got kid," Will said, drawing his sword.

Edmund nodded and raised his mace. Looking for an opening with inexperienced eyes and seeing none, he slowly advanced with his shield raised. When Edmund got within range of Will's sword he suddenly accelerated and swung his mace upwards.

Will easily parried it and said "mistake number one. Never swing upwards. Makes recovery time longer" before swinging his sword. Edmund blocked the sword with his shield and stumbled back. "Mistake number two. You should have parried that. Now your balance is off, your guard is down, and you're on the back foot. If you can parry an attack to the side, always do so, as it allows you to counterattack while they are recovering their weapon." hearing that Edmund quickly regained his balance and went back on the offensive.

He approached Will and swung mace from the side while keeping his shield in a position where he could quickly raise it. Will sidestepped and raised his shield. The blow which had gone over its intended collision position became awkward and was easily blocked by Will. Will responded by slashing his sword diagonally, to which Edmund used his mace to try and block, but instead, his mace fell to the ground and he resorted to his shield to block the incoming blow. Right after, Edmund found the tip of the sword pointing at his throat. He had lost after in less than five exchanges.

Will removed his sword and sheathed it. "Happens to everybody. You just need more experience. I'll make a soldier of you, just you wait."

**********

After 6 months in the army, Edmund had completely transformed. While he was still lean, he was no longer scrawny, instead, he now looked like he could lift professionally in his weight class. He had grown taller by a few inches, making the armor fit better, no longer looking like a young and stupid teenager who ran away from home to join the army in search of glory. During the past six months, he had been drilled on how to use his weapon by the older soldiers.

Recently a group of bandits were found stalking a major trading route that the area relied on. Normally the nobles of the area wouldn't care, but the son of someone important was soon to pass by so the noble in charge of the area was moving the army to wipe out the bandit pests.

Edmund was thinking of the operation he was taking part in. Before the mission, he had replaced the flanged mace with a spiked one, as flanged maces were better for metal armor, of which the bandits had none. He had never killed anybody, so he was extremely nervous about what was about to happen.

Thirty soldiers would be sent to kill a bandit group of about 40-50 people. The plan was to draw them out using a "passing caravan" before abusing them with archers placed in the forest. Soon he was snapped out of his thoughts by the commanding officer ordering them to march.

After two days of marching, a scout came back with the location where the bandits were ambushing people. Ten people were separated from the group and sent to be 'caravan guards' while the five archers were hidden behind a big rock. The remaining fifteen soldiers, including Edmund, were hidden near the spot of the attack in the forest. Soon a fake caravan consisting of only soldiers in disguised clothes passed by. They were soon surrounded by a group of 50 bandits.

"Hey boss, this one looks like it has plenty of wealth. No women though."

"Just attack them. Don't give them a chance to fight back, I want this finished quickly."

Just after that, the driver on the carriage snapped his whip to the side. Five arrows immediately flew, taking 5 bandits out of the fight instantly. The soldiers in the encirclement then took out their weapons as the 15 outside charged toward the bandits. Five more arrows flew, taking another 4 out of the fight and killing one. Then the violent melee began. Edmund charged toward a bandit and swung his mace down, hitting a bandit in the head. When Edmund pulled his mace back out, a chunk of the man's head came with it, exposing the brain and causing blood to spew out. The man fell over as Edmund moved to his next target.

This time, the bandit was better prepared. As Edmund swung his mace, the bandit stepped aside, then counter-attacked by swinging his sword awkwardly, showing how inexperienced he was. Edmund didn't even bother to use his shield, instead deflecting the poorly swung sword with the shaft of his mace before stabbing forward, hoping to use the spikes on his mace to disembowel the bandit. The bandit, unable to react in time, was stabbed in the stomach. Distracted by trying to hold his organs in, he was unable to dodge the swing from the side that immediately took a chunk of his head out.

After retrieving his mace, Edmund suddenly turned around and parried a blow from a bandit. Starting off on the back foot, he had to block three blows before seeing an opportunity. On the last of the three blows, he took 2 steps back. The bandit followed him, but Edmund tripped him by kicking his leg. The bandit fell forwards, where Edmund kneed him in the face, sending him falling back. After the bandit was on his back, Edmund swung his mace down on his chest with all his strength. One of the mace's spikes penetrated the bandit's heart, killing him instantly.

Retrieving his mace, he looked around and went to help a soldier who was struggling against 2 opponents. The bandits didn't notice him until he cave in one of their heads. The other turned around surprised after his comrade fell dead, and got stabbed through the chest by the other soldier. By this time more than half the bandits were dead and a quarter was fatally wounded. The fight was soon to come to an end.

A polearm came from Edmund's left side. Edmund blocked it, and in the time it took the bandit to retrieve the polearm, rushed forwards. The bandit dropped his polearm and switched to a long sword, parrying Edmund's oncoming blow and striking back. Once again using his shield to block, Edmund used the weapon retrieval gap to send his mace into the man's chest, crushing his ribs.

Seeing a wounded soldier facing a bandit, Edmund ran to his aid. Hearing the footsteps behind him, the bandit turned around only to see a mace falling towards his head. He quickly sidestepped, only for the mace to suddenly change its direction and come towards his chest. The bandit tried to block the oncoming mace with his wooden club, only to lose his grip on the weapon. The club fell out of his hands and onto the ground, and the mace hit him in the shoulder knocking him over and shattering his shoulder blader, sending him flying three feet. Edmund chased, and upon catching him, brought the mace down on his head, killing the man and sending blood and chunks of flesh and meat in all directions.

Turning around, looking for another bandit, Edmund was suddenly contending against two bandits at once. One was holding a spear while standing behind the other who was holding a sword and shield. The one with the spear opened up by stabbing toward Edmund's chest, forcing Edmund to back up. The one with the sword advanced and swung his sword at Edmund, which Edmund blocked. The spear wielder once again stabbed. That was when Edmund realized he was in trouble. Whenever one was retrieving their weapon the other was covering them, making it hard for Edmund to break the chain and keeping him on the back foot.

After thirty seconds of Edmund backing up and blocking, the two bandits made a mistake. The spear hit the sword, and Edmund seized this chance, quickly smashing his mace into the one with the sword, knocking him to the ground. Quickly running to the spear wielder, Edmund took him out of the fight by kicking him in the groin. The man keeled over, and Edmund caved his head in before returning to finish off the other one, who had gotten up at this point. Quickly overwhelming the other man with a quick blow that forced the man to step back, leaving an opening which Edmund took advantage of, hitting the man in the arm and disabling him, before killing him with a forceful blow to the head.

After some time, the fighting came to an end and the fact that he had just killed another hit him. As Edmund stared up into the sky, a veteran soldier came up to him and said "I know that look. The look after the first few kills. You come to terms with it and get used to killing eventually." The soldier then patted Edmund on the back before moving away to help with the wounded.

In this operation, no soldiers died. 14 were wounded. Most of the bandits were killed and any who survived had fatal wounds that would kill them in hours. After bandaging the wounded, the group set off back to town. When Edmund asked what was to happen to the bandits that were still alive and the corpse, the man next to him said something along the lines of 'leave em for the birds.'

********

When the platoon got back to the town, everybody went celebrating. Everybody except Edmund. While the soldiers were drinking and eating, and having a good time, Edmund was staring up at the stars, lost. He had just killed multiple people. Was it right? They had slaughtered many before the soldiers had wiped them out, but what right did they get to say someone deserved to die. Maybe they didn't do it willingly. What if they were pushed into it by circumstances? And the gore. He could still smell it.

"You didn't do it maliciously, did you?" a voice said from behind him. Edmund looked back and noticed Will. He had learned Will was a veteran, going on 40 years old. "As long as you still feel like that, you are still human. The second you get used to killing, you become something different from human, kid." Edmund nodded, and Will left.

Seeing he was alone, Edmund asked Robin "Was killing necessary? Do I really need to do this?"

"Andrew, You need to realize that it was either you or them. They would not have hesitated to kill you. This is not earth were any killer will be found and brought to justice, where everybody has the same power. The power of this world is concentrated in whoever is more skilled, has a bigger army, and is whoever was born into it. Not many realms you go to in the future will be like earth, and killing will be the norm. You will have to get used to it.

*flanges on maces were there to add armor penetration and lethality. they were just metal pieces attached to the mace at a 90-degree angle.