Wanderer

As Gilgamesh stepped through the muddy swamp, numerous Sagebeasts attacked him relentlessly.

Massive crocodiles sprung from below, sending splotches of boggy water and debris in ever direction.

Gilgamesh's clothes were completely sullied, ripped all over and barely functional as clothes. His arms had been bitten off more times than he could count by the crocodile Sagebeasts.

At first he had not seen the attacks coming, and had managed to experience the sensation of being attacked. Now, he had become numb to this as well.

The further he ventured across the swamp, the more Sagebeasts he encountered.

Massive serpents struck at him, wrapping themselves around him and crushing him in their grip, before swallowing him whole.

Laying in the somewhat cramped space of the serpents stomach, he eventually became bored. It took a long time before the serpent's body started to reject him.

He could not be digested, as he would always remain in perfect condition.

It threw him up, shot him a disdainful look, and slithered away in the dark, brownish-blackish water.

Gilgamesh stood up and pressed on at the same unchanging pace. His body was purified, but his clothes remained in tatters.

Soon, there was a large disturbance in the swamp as a hippo Sagebeast arose, its gaping maw clamping down on Gilgamesh before he could even notice it.

He did not care to notice it, because the subconscious awareness of his immortality had set in.

He was bitten in two by the hippo Sagebeast, and it swallowed his top half like it was nothing.

His bottom half remained standing in the swamp as the hippo left, and soon his lehs started walking on their own.

From that severed waist, more of Gilgamesh's body started reforming. As his legs moved, his abdomen regrew, and his chest, arms, neck then finally his head.

There was no kind of reaction on his face, just a resolve to keep on walking.

Soon enough, he left the swamp behind.

In a few weeks time, Gilgamesh entered a town somewhere along the border of a grand city. Realizing that he had been walking in the city's direction, he decided that that was where he would go.

Upon arriving at the town, he received all manner of looks.

Passersby stared at his sorry state and wondered if he had been robbed.

Gilgamesh ignored them all as he pressed on. The town was walled off by structures of wood, with guards posted along the wall, on towers and such.

When he stepped toward the open gate, he saw two guards posted at either side of the entrance, eying him more than just strangely.

"Trouble on the road, wanderer?" A guard asked, her voice deep and almost masculine.

Gilgamesh did not respond, and kept walking.

"Oi! You deaf?" The other guard stepped forward, looking down at Gilgamesh from a height that was far from average.

Gilgamesh kept his eyes fixed on the town through the open gates, and had no reaction to the guards.

The tall male spat on the ground where Gilgamesh walked, while the female simply shook her head. "He's clearly been through a lot. Looks like Clent has yet another vagrant roaming the land."

"Hmph! Lost causes, his kind. All good for nothing." The male guard spat again, then went back to stand where he had been, looking out at the road.

Suddenly, the woman thought back to when Gilgamesh had popped up. When she looked back on it, he had not come from any of the winding dirt roads that led to other towns or villages.

"That vagrant... didn't it look like he came from the Swamp?"

"Now that you say, I do think I saw him coming from that direction." The male pursed his lips in thought.

When they looked back, Gilgamesh was no where in sight.

"But he couldn't have, right? He didn't feel like a cultivator to me," she mused.

The male shook his head, "Neither a mortal. Whatever he felt like, it wasn't normal. I was actually hoping to get a rise out of him so I could guage his strength, but you saw how that turned out."

The guards thought more on it, but soon there was a distant shout in the town.

Above them on the wall, posted on a tower, a guard who had cast his divine sense outward before them shouted.

"Trouble in the Square, by the look of it! Someone stole something!"

Not hesitating, spatial waves fluttered and weapons appeared in the guards' hands. They ran off into the town, soon joined by a few others.

Parting ways through the road, they pressed on past coarse wooden houses, small stone abodes and through the mess of the market.

Eventually, they got to the square where a large number of vendors had posted up.

When the initial two guards got there, they saw Gilgamesh walking in the opposite direction as an old lady repeatedly whacked him on the head with a staff.

"Thief! Thief! Bloody fucken' thief!"

Gilgamesh took the blows in stride and kept walking, uncaring. Some people cast pitiful gazes his way, feeling sorry for him as they pressed the woman to give him a break.

"No way! D'you know how hard it was to stea- to make those clothes! I'm so old, and I need money, so I choose to work hard!"

"This young man should do the same!"

Thunk!

People eyed the comical scene with varying expressions of amusement before noticing the guards.

Seeing a group of them, some people immediately made way and looked on from a distance.

"Let him be, he's likely just another refugee from Bristenvale!" Someone in the crowd gave a pleading shout to the guards.

"He seems able-bodied, why not take him in as a trainee?" Someone else offered.

"Lock him up!"

"Give him a good spanking!"

"Bloody vagrants make me sick!"

The guards ignored everyone and surrounded Gilgamesh. Even the old lady paled and got out of their way, suddenly not caring so much about her stolen items.

Gilgamesh was still walking, but a swift kick to the back of his leg and a yank of the clothes in his arms sent him face first onto the ground.

"He's not just deaf, he's blind too!" The tall guard spat, his saber at his side.

"Come on, get up!" Another man grabbed Gilgamesh by the shoulders and pulled him up.

"You just got here and you decide to go steal something? I'll have you know, we don't tolerate robbery of any kind here in Ire's Field." The one female guard said, her voice softer than the others' but still gruff.

Gilgamesh stood up and looked at each of the guards, and his eyes suddenly seemed to lose even more of their light.

He sighed, then turned away to keep walking.

"Buh-buh-buh, not so fast maggot!" A man stepped in front of Gilgamesh, his arm outstretched across Gilgamesh's chest to block his advancement.

"Where do you think you're going?" The tall guard came up on his side, looking down at him with undisguised contempt.

They felt like Gilgamesh wasn't taking them seriously at all, but the truth wasn't exactly so.

He was taking them seriously, which was why he decided to just leave. It didn't matter to them what he did or where he went, so he would just leave.

He was not important.

Seeing that the guards tried to stop him, Gilgamesh eyed them strangely, trying to figure out if they were right in the head.

The people around watched and whispered amongst themselves, but no one spoke up for or against Gilgamesh anymore.

"You don't just try to steal something and walk away. There are rules for that kind of thing." The woman encircled Gilgamesh before stopping to stand in his face, looking up at him with amused eyes.

"You understand?"

Gilgamesh sighed again. "I apologize for trying to steal. I'm not going to waste any more of your time."

The guards were dumbfounded before some of them laughed. The woman remained silent as her eyes narrowed.

"Haha! An apology?"

"You think an apology is enough?"

Even some of the crowd started laughing.

Gilgamesh suddenly turned around. He looked at each of the guards, his eyes lingering on their eyes.

"If an apology isn't enough for you, that's your business. I said I'm sorry, so now I'm leaving."

He started walking.

"If you want to stop me, you'll have to kill me. Good luck." Gilgamesh waved as he walked, and the guards were in an uproar.

"You ain't goin' no where!"

A swift pommel struck Gilgamesh in the back, while the tall guard at the front pushed into Gilgamesh's neck with his arm.

However, Gilgamesh's body did not budge. Despite the guard pushing with his arm, Gilgamesh continued forward like nothing was there.

"Damnit!" The tall guard's saber was drawn, and he attacked with the back of it.

Gilgamesh was struck again and again, but he kept walking like it was all nothing.

He was struck behind the head, on his legs, in the back and on the chest, but Gilgamesh was undeterred.

No one watching understood what they saw, but it was a sight they would never forget.

Those guards were all at the Peak of Qi Condensation. They were no ordinary mortals.

Yet, Gilgamesh brushed their attacks off like it was nothing.

Suddenly, Gilgamesh stopped and grabbed the saber from the tall guard, simultaneously pushing him backwards, causing him to stumble and fall.

With the saber in hand, Gilgamesh looked down at the guard with a placid expression as gasps rang out.

"Don't be stupid! Killing a guard is an even worse offense than stealing!" The female guard was already unnerved.

"I'm not trying to kill him. I just want to show you all why it's pointless."

Gilgamesh took the saber and wielded it expertly, swiftly cutting at his neck before tossing it aside.

Before everyone's eyes, he took his half severed head and started pulling before completely removing his head from his neck.

A collective cry escaped the mouths of everyone present.

"Good God!"

"What is this!? What is he!?"

The guards all stepped back, and even the tall guard on the floor started to scramble in fear.

Gilgamesh's headless body then continued walking as he tossed the saber aside, then put his head back on his neck.

It was instantly reattached.

"You get it now, right?"

Those were his parting words to them, though a part of him felt they were also meant for himself.

'I do get it... I can't die...'

'No matter how much I want to...'