2 - Long trek

"Speed and violence is all you need, I guess that part won't change no matter what kind of world I find myself in…"

Standing over the corpse of the carriage driver / slave dealer, Tom didn't have time to notice how he had been awarded points for killing him and freeings his 'product' before something else happened.

"Um! W-what is going on here!?"

Turning to the group of former slaves and their brave representative, a girl slightly older than the others, stood brave in front of the others to cover for them. Dressed in nothing other than brown rags, the leading girl had a fierce look on her face, showing her teeth as her animal-like ears stood proud and tall.

"Calm down lass, I'm not going to hurt you."

"We're not going with you no matter how much you try to force us!"

(... She has clearly misunderstood my intentions huh?)

While Tom had no intention of hurting kids there was no way the leader of the former slaves would believe him if he simply stated that, so something else was needed to prove his intention.

(Well, given I got points for saving these runts I might as well…)

"I serve the Hunt, it gave me a new life and freed me from my own chains, just as I did for you."

In response to Tom's ridiculous statement, the runts quieted down and huddled up like they were about to play a deciding quarter of football. Figuring they were at least not seeing him as a threat now, Tom went on with a more pressing matter; disposing of the evidence he had left behind at the crime scene.

(Given that slavery seems to be accepted, killing slavers probably isn't, so I need to clean up this mess before anyone stumbles on it.)

The first thing Tom did was backtrack and pick up his brass, then he went up to the coach of the carriage and liberated the dead coach driver of his belongings, finding a leather waterskin, some jerky and a pouch of metal coins.

(In for a penny, in for a pound I guess.)

Pocketing the coins, Tom freed the horse-like creature from the harness that attached it to the carriage before he started rounding up the corpses and tossing it into the back of the carriage.

"Now I just need to start a fire… How many points would it be for an incendiary grenade I wonder?"

Before Tom actually managed to put thoughts into that question, the leading girl spoke up to get Tom's attention.

"Umm, do you need to set the carriage on fire?"

"Yeah, to throw off anybody who would come looking for me…"

As Tom spoke to the child he realised again that she was wearing nothing but worn out rags like the rest of her group and what exactly that meant for them.

"Are you and your friends going to be fine with that little clothing?"

"We're fine, unlike humans we can stay warm in this kind of weather."

"Then there's no need to take some of those guys' clothing, then yeah I need to set the carriage on fire, can any of you do that?"

Looking at the other children who flinched slightly when he mentioned them, Tom figured that their strange animal-like features weren't their only irregular features. 

"I-I can try!"

With an overly enthusiastic shout, one of the other girls brought a little too much attention to herself as her face went red with embarrassment.

"Okay then, give it a shot."

Patting the child with long, thin ears on the head to reassure her, Tom hurriedly retracted his hand when he realised how long he had been on the ball without securing overwatch.

"If you can set the carriage on fire, then do it fast, we need to leave before someone crashes this party."

"R-right."

Understanding the urgency, the long eared child put their hands together as she closed her eyes to focus. Within a few seconds, a small flame appeared between the child's hands which quickly grew in size until she chucked it into the carriage which quickly caught fire. 

"Okay, we need to get away from here now, follow me."

Relocating to the inside of the forest, Tom cleared his mind as he got down on his knees, focusing on summoning.

INTERFACE_CONFIRMED:_ACTIVE.

CONNECTION_SECURE.510_POINTS_AVAILABLE.

(I need some food, a single USIE 24-hour ration will do for now.)

Feeling the same heat as before spread throughout his body, Tom didn't realise he was being watched with great interest.

QURREY_COMPLEATE

STATUS:_AVALIBLECOST:_50_POINTSCONFIRM_PURCHASE_Y/N?

(Yes)

Opening his eyes as the ration appeared out of thin air in front of him, Tom found himself surrounded by the children he had saved from slavery.

(Right…)

"Do you guys want my desert ration?"

"What's that!?"

Not really understanding what he meant, the leading runt nevertheless caught on to the possibility that it was something interesting.

"Well, let's see."

A standard USIE 24-hour ration consisted of multiple different freeze dried dishes adding up to a total calorie amount that a soldier of the USIE needed doing 24-hours of front line deployment. Consisting of a primary main dish which could be heated up by a chemical heater, it also contained a random side dish, desert, snack and 'drink'. Opening up the pack, Tom dug into it and found his desert, a bar of artificial white chocolate.

"Here, try it out."

Breaking off a small piece of the sickly sweet chemical substance, Tom extended it out towards the hesitant runt leader. Although she was initially hesitant, the moment the young girl caught a whiff of the sweetly sick smell of the chocolate quickly quashed all sorts of resistance.

"S-so sweet!"

Having pacified the runts with sweets, Tom was finally able to shift the conversation in a different direction.

"Now that I've freed you, do you guys have anywhere to go?"

Immediately as Tom switched to a more serious topic, the leading runt sat up straight and stopped licking her fingers before she spoke up in a confident voice.

"I've already called for help the second that the control collar was removed from my neck. My clan members will find us before the next sunlight."

(So there was more to those metal collars than I thought. Well, now I know what to do the next time I find slaves…)

While Tom knew what he was doing could properly get him executed, he wasn't about to stop after spending his last life trapped in indentured servitude as a de facto mercenary slave.

Parting ways with the slaves after giving them the bag of jerky and waterskin he had looted from the slaver, Tom had a new objective in mind as he made his way to the roadside in which he had heard about.

(Apparently the town of Rover has a distribution hub and auction site that those kids passed through… I wonder what would happen if that place suddenly caught fire?)

SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE(S)_UPDATED.

NEW_SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE:_DESTROY_THE_ROVER_SLAVE_HUB.

OBJECTIVE_REWARD(S):

SA_PDW_CLASS_WEAPON_UNLOCK

5000_POINTS

10_DAY(S)_1_HOUR(S)_04_MINUTE(S)_REMAINING

END_OF_REPORT.

(Orders received and understood… Let's get to it.)

With an objective in mind, Tom travelled along the road about a half a kilometre into the forest to stay in cover while he moved towards the roadside inn. Before long night started falling and Tom returned to the road to keep up his speed as the forest eventually broke and he spotted a small, walled-in hold ahead with torches lighting up its ramparts.

(I guess that's that road-side inn that slaver mentioned, I should be able to get some rest there and find out how to get to Rover in the morning.)

Approaching the inn, Tom spotted 3 guards up on the walls through his scope, with 3 more teams of 3 most likely on standby to rotate shifts throughout the night.

"Excuse me! Do you still have any beds free for the night!?"

Shouting at a good distance as he didn't want to be mistaken for a bandit, Tom clearly noticed how much the guard flinched as he hailed him, clearly these forces weren't that well trained.

"Step into the light!"

Although the guard did appear to be friendly, he nevertheless did his job as he notched an arrow on his bow and was joined by one of his coworkers.

Stepping into the light as he was commanded to, Tom made to put away his weapon as he repeated his question.

"Any free beds for the night? I got lost in the forest for a while and lost most of my things, thankfully I still have some coins."

Pulling out the pouch filled with coins he had looted from the slave, Tom made the coins jingle to underscore his point.

"No need for that friend, I'm afraid we're all out of beds for tonight, but you're free to stay in the stables through the night."

Greeting him with a friendly smile, the guard waved Tom closer as his buddy went down from the wall to open the gate.

"Hmm."

Even if the guards showed Tom friendly smiles, he still felt like there was something wrong. As he walked up to the gate, Tom moved his sling to make sure he could pull out his rifle quickly.

"Come on in friend, feel free to use the well, the stable is on the left and the first and the second ones are unoccupied."

Contrary to Tom's expectations, the guard was courteous and very well mannered as he welcomed Tom inside the keep.

Tossing the guard a copper coin as a tip, Tom quickly went to get some water before hitting the hay where he ate some of his USIE ration and dozed off to a light slumber.

Waking up after a good few hours of sleep, Tom stretched, ate the last of his ration before wiping some of the stray strands of hay off his back as he left the stable. With sunrise still a few hours away, the sun was nevertheless starting to illuminate the keep which was covered in a thin layer of morning dew.

(I need to get out of here before I draw too much attention, best to leave before all the other patrons wake up.)

"Morning."

"Good morning."

Greeting a new guard on the early morning shift, Tom didn't miss the guard's glance at his rifle before handing over a bucket half filled with water fresh from the well. Washing up quickly, Tom asked for the direction to Rover and got on the road, making a good distance before the sun started rising.

(It's still 2 days of walking to get to Rover, unless I cut out staying at a roadside inn and travel throughout the night… Yeah, I might as well do that, I need to make it to Rover as fast as possible.)

Having decided to go straight to Rover, Tom set a good tempo and put one foot in front of the other.

Walking throughout most of the morning and early afternoon, it wasn't until noon that Tom ran into issues.

"Hmm, those don't really seem like normal wolves…"

Bringing up his rifle, Tom crouched down and peered through his scope to examine the trio of horse sized creatures busy devouring what remained of a two carriage trade convoy, escorts, horses and passengers alike.

(17 rounds left… I might as well.)

Ranging the targets, Tom placed his crosshair in between the ear and the eye of the closest wolf. Squeezing the trigger, the air behind the wolf was filled with pink smoke as Tom quickly acquired his next target, shooting it through the eye as the third wolf finally realised where it was getting attacked from.

(15 rounds…)

Charging at him with the speed of a supercar, the wolf-like creature closed the distance, just not fast enough. Shooting the final wolf between the eyes as it charged him, Tom sidestepped its enormous body as it collapsed dead.

(14 rounds… Worth it.)

Making a mental note to never underestimate the fauna of this new world, Tom got back on both feet and let down his rifle as something strange happened.

CORRUPTED_CREATURE(S)_DESTROYED

1500_POINT(S)_AWARDED

END_OF_REPORT.

"... Neat."