The fallen Elf

Kai enjoyed traveling on foot on the way to Highgrove Village. He never really experienced nature in all its beauty back on earth since technology existed, and he would rather stay at him and play games than go camping. 

He never expected to enjoy being outdoors so much and not get bored with it. Maybe it was that he had powers now, or maybe it was because he was in a new world. Probably both if he was being honest. 

Together, he and Gwen had been traveling for three days, and there was only one more day left until they would arrive at their destination. Thanks to Kai's world map feature, he was able to track the distance as well as know what time it was, not that the time mattered. 

The sun was setting, and darkness began to fall. They decided to set up camp for the night before continuing their journey in the morning. 

"Are you preparing dinner tonight?" Gwen asked 

Kai shuttered. "Yeah. I won't let you near a pot again." 

"Hey! It wasn't that bad!" 

"Gwen, please. I don't want to think about it." He remembered back to the first night they set up camp. Gwen wanted to impress him with her cooking, so she handled the meal for that night. That was by far the worst mistake he had ever made. He literally purchased the ability to turn off his senses. Even the status window took pity on him and allowed Kai to buy it for no SP. 

"Hmph! Blame my mom! She never taught me how to cook!" 

"Asking is always an option you have. I asked my mom to teach me how to cook." Kai argued 

"Yeah, well, I never did." 

"You should have." 

"Fuck off!" 

After their camp was set and dinner was finished, they relaxed in front of a fire, eating their food and chatting with one another. 

"I still find it crazy how there is no kingdom for specific races." Kai had read tons of novels and comics. 90 percent of them had kingdoms for a specific race. Hell, even Norse Mythology had realms for the races, two of them were gods, and another two were for giants. 

"Why? Isn't that normal? I do recall in the distant past that each race lived separately; however, there was this one demon king who was so powerful that the heroes of each land had to band together to face him. After that, the races lived together. That was over 10,000 years ago." 

"Huh, the more you know." 

The sound of a twig snapping sent Kai and Gwen into alert mode. The camp was surrounded by a barrier, so Kai wasn't worried about threats hurting them, but they still withdrew their weapons and prepared for a fight. 

"Bandits?" Gwen asked

"Probably. Who else would it be? Especially during this time of night." Because of the barrier, Kai didn't care about being hidden. People could see their campsite in the woods, and curious people could find them easily. But since the barrier was always up, they couldn't enter or harm them. 

Just then, a woman with brown skin, white hair, and long ears fell over close by. She wore expensive jewelry and a fancy dress made from material of the highest-quality material. Only someone with substantial wealth could afford such clothing. 

Unfortunately, her clothes were torn in various places, dirt stained her dress, and her body was riddled with cuts and bruises, blood smearing against her skin. 

"P-Please!" She begged. "Please help me!" 

"Oh, fuck no!" Kai turned around and started packing their things. 

"What are you doing?" Gwen asked. "You aren't going to help her?"

"Gwen. I don't mind helping people, but I'm also not trying to get killed. Just look at her, she's clearly someone of importance. Whether she's the daughter, sister, wife, aunt, mother, or grandmother of that important person, or maybe she is the important person, I don't want to deal with it. Danger will only come our way." 

'You got me fucked up if you think imma get involved in politics at this current point in time. Fuck that. Sure, I can hypnotize people, but I'm not trying to use that ability every time. Things will get boring. Not to mention, I can only hypnotize people who are weaker than me, have weak wills, or trust me. If she's the daughter of someone important, even if I'm stronger than her dad, i'd be fucked if I can't hypnotize them!' 

"Please!" The elf girl started to cry. 

"Kai! Don't be like that! We have to help her. You're strong enough to do so after all." She grabbed the woman and dragged her into the barrier, where she would be safe. 

Kai sighed. "Gwen. I don't mind helping people, and I do like helping, but sometimes, being the bigger person can get you killed." 

"But it's the right thing to do." 

'Yeah, I'm definitely changing that part of her mind cause fuck that! I guess I have to deal with this situation first, though.' 

Four figures emerged from the shadows, each of them wearing black with minimal armor on their bodies. Their uniform was clearly meant for stealth and assassinations. 

Masks covered their faces, preventing Kai from seeing what they looked like. But because of his X-Ray vision, he could see past it. 

Each of them wielded short swords, daggers, and other tools for assassination. Judging by the blood on their weapons and the fact that they were clearly chasing the elf woman, the assassins were after her, and they had killed her guards or whoever was with her. 

"Hand the girl over." An assassin demanded 

'Human chasing after an elf? Wait, no, this is normal. Nobles get assassinated all the time, so this isn't prejudice or racism, it's literally just a power struggle or whatever. Fuck, just my luck. I was going to go to Pound Town on Gwen, but now my night is ruined.' 

"You'll have to get through us!" Gwen readied her staff, preparing to attack. 

Kai scanned the four of them and checked their Mana levels. All of them had numbers that ranged from 1,000 to 4,000. This meant the weakest of them was a Tier-4 assassin while the strongest was a Tier-6 assassin. 

The worst part was that each of them had red hypnosis auras. This meant that although Kai was stronger than the assassins, their will was too strong to control. If he were weaker than them, then their color would have been black. 

'Fuck man, just my luck.' 

A/N: [Just for clarification. I didn't feel like coming up with a ranking system, so I'm just using basic terms. If you're a mage and your mana is around tier 3, then you're a tier 3 mage. This applies to any occupation regarding mana.]