Patch 1.7

The path was eerily similar. The footsteps and hoofmarks were gone, but the trees, the scenery around me stayed the same.

Even the rifle in my hand told me that I had not been reset. I tread the path once more. The beta... it was like they were rewarding me for my great work.

Yet it was strange... just so strange. I should not be given an advantage this great. No one should be.

I made it seem like I was complaining, I wasn't. Just wondering why I was given this treatment and whether I was the only one.

When I made my final turn I was expecting the same abandoned town, with dirtied roofs and rotted wood. But in its place was a sprawling city.

No, it wasn't sprawling. But there were people walking the paths with small smiles on their faces. Guards that laughed at the edges of the town and played games. 

They were all dressed in winter attire and wore tired but healthy eyes.

"Hey!" I was waved over to. It wasn't like I was hidden that well. But even then they shouldn't have been able to see me from this far.

Especially since the clothing I wore was as white as snow.

Either way - and to not invoke suspicion - I waved and walked towards them. 

The people had a certain tenseness to their gait. Their hands wrung their sides as if searching for a weapon while wearing tired smiles. 

Visitors weren't common nor were they welcome.

That was what their posture told me.

"Hello."

My shoulder startled and gave me a mini heart attack as someone pat it with grandfatherly force. My hand instinctively reached down for the bayonet I had stashed in my sleeves.

But when my eyes met his I just sighed and let the tenseness flow off of my body.

It was just some old man.

"Hello." I echoed back.

"Must be one of those visitors, yeah?" 

I wasn't quite sure what to say. The tone he pronounced 'visitors' with seemed... strange to say the least.

He shook his head and muttered to himself, something along the lines of - "Silent one?" - before he stretched his arms and crossed them towards me.

I nodded my head at that. At least that statement I could more than agree with.

Looking around a question came to mind. There were only what seemed to be NPC's around here. None of them looked the slightest bit out of place. Like a homogenous society.

It begged the question.

Aren't we supposed to be sent to starter towns?

/./

Before I sat I put my coat on their coat rack. It was a nice thing, made completely of wood and eloquently designed.

My weapons were stashed at my side, both my rifle and bayonet. I had detached the latter for self defense in case someone got too close to me.

On the table, in the middle of the two sets of couches, was a table with - again - two sets of hot tea. I took one and drank it without hesitation.

If they had wanted me dead they wouldn't be so personal. Not that I could detect any hostility in their movements either.

The elder in front of me smiled and took a sip of his too. Next to the elder was his Grand-Daughter... Daughter? Whichever one it was she sat next to him.

She held the same type of cup we used - a Victorian age one - and drank from it. She was the one who had made the tea and kudos to her. She made it quite well.

It wasn't me that broke the silence.

"I never quite learnt of your name."

"Gabriel."

Their hostility was great, their smiles were genuine. But my responses remained short and curt. I had great trust in my instincts and while they said these people were fine.

A little suspicion never heart anyone.

That wasn't true but I was going with it now.

I was short and brisk. I had no idea who these people were, why they had seemed… well it wasn't too much of a mystery why they seemed suspicious of me given they were in this giant winter forest.

My name was fine. I had no relatives, no family to call back to, or a home to... well call home. I found it just fine to give them my name.

As I had been called, I was a visitor. Not a native.

He stood and reached for my hand. I shook it.

"Adrian. Well met."

"Nice to meet you, Adrian."

"So formal. Not that that's any bad. But you'll have to hide yourself better. People won't take politeness as the be all end all."

I was pulled close. When? I couldn't tell. But I was. His voice echoed in my ear and his breath played on my neck.

I turned to look at the woman and she sighed in exasperation.

Was this common for him?

"So… visitor of mine, death, or will you listen to my request."

I was thrown back onto the couch. My arm felt like it had come out of the socket - it hadn't. But if felt like hell.

Despite my misgivings about this I still spoke.

"I'll hear you out but I want information in return."

"Good." He spoke. Adrian brought the cup back to his face. Sighing out a nugget of information.

"I'll give you this little freebee. You visitors aren't very welcomed. If you wanted grand parades, then ya should've gone ta…" 

He trailed off at the end.

"Either way, ya shouldn't let it be too obvious. I'm sure any other visitor - other than on the frontier - will be prosecuted. Lucky you to be given such a perilous task."

"And what is this task?" I ground out.

"Nothing much, some extermination. Nothing ya should be too unfamiliar with."

He looked to my rifle before looking back to me. 

I had slung it over to my side by habit it seemed. Taking comfort in the cold wood.

Just some extermination. I could endure that; it might even be good for me. Either way I would have fought, be it humans or beasts. Better it beasts than people.

"Great!" He practically jumped. "These old bones can't do what they used to, so take out the cavaliers for me will ya."

I nodded and took the map he handed to me.

Soon after I was again within that extreme cold. Huddled against the warmth the coat I wore gave me. My attention placed solely on the large trees surrounding me.

Only now, in the freezing cold, did I have the sense of mind to open my status.

/./

[Gabriel]

[Lv1]

[Skills: Precision(MAX)]