Characters in the game were categorized into tiers starting from the absolute lowest 10 and all the way up to tier S, though there were some legendary characters like the Obsidian Dragon or Dark Phoenix which were put into tier X but they did not appear much into the story and had only a minor part. 

 

The protagonist right now was around tier 4 or tier 3, which is ridiculously strong for someone that young.

 

The average of the academy was around tier 7 and yours truly was tier 6 just a level better than the masses and far behind him. In a course of a year the protagonist would go through various trials and situations which would not only increase his tiers but also would make the girls fall for him.

 

Is this anything remotely connected to me? Yes, for once even though I have backed off from the engagement my beating is still uncertain and even if that was not the case I would like to grow stronger, strong enough to protect myself and my family.

 

And this Bretton woods incident is my first step towards that, you see in the game one of the protagonist's friends has this ‘ring of regeneration’ ,a super rare artefact, his name was Trent if I am not wrong. How did he get his hands on that?

 

The mana beast everyone in town is talking about is actually a troll, yup giants with less intelligence but great physical prowess and a stupidly crazy regenration which makes killing them difficult. Tonight the prince aka protagonist will make a subjugation team and send them to kill this troll and they would succeed in it, Trent’s father would be a part of this team and after killing the monster when the loot is dropped this ‘RoR’ would be dropped too.

 

At that time, Trent’s father would judge it as a common strength increasing ring and would give it to him. Later during the game at some point Trent gains knowledge about the real deal and thanks his lucky stars.

 

The RoR is not a major cheat but beggars can’t be choosers and this is my only way to gain some strength before I decide to take the more difficult route. We need a plan before anything happens.

 

And like that the rest of the day passed by, him walking in the city observing guards and asking random strangers about the incident and the official response to it. In the late evening he returned home and after having dinner with a chat about his day and about Lily he retired to his home.

 

“Okay from the info that I gathered, a team of 16 elite guards and two knights with some fat noble leading them are going to Bretton woods to kill that Troll.” Knights are soldiers who are trained from a very young age and have the ability to use some magical spells apart from extraordinary swordsmanship and physical fitness. They were the elites of elites, the cream of human nation armies.

 

So my plan goes like this, since I have no way to defeat that troll by myself and that take that treasure, I would sneak in the fat noble’s entourage, uh yes the noble has no training in swordsmanship, magic or leadership so why is he chosen to lead such a group goes beyond my understanding. He is going to be transported in a carriage and he will also take some servants with him and that’s my cue.

 

I will knock out one of the servants and take his place. When the expedition succeeds in killing the monster and loot is dropped it will be sent to the noble as he is the one leading them. The noble will order one of the servants to take that and that’s my chance to slip the ring and replace it with a fake one.

 

 “Let’s wait for everyone to sleep and then I will snuck out of here.”

 

A few hours later

 

In the city hall the subjugation squad was assembled on the orders of the prince. Their goal was to kill the mana beast that was rampaging in the Bretton woods and their leader was let’s just say, they didn’t like it.

 

But this mediaeval society had a hierarchical system, where your birth decides much of your life and even if this joke of a leader had nothing to offer in leadership he was chosen to lead the squad. Even the kings had to be mindful of not alienating the nobles so what could a prince do?

 

The squad consisted of elite guards knights and some regular soldiers all of them were waiting for their supposed leader to show up and he did so with no less than 12 servants following him.

 

I was watching all of this unfold from a corner of the store waiting for my chance, and it came up as one of the servants, who was a scrawny man, decided to answer nature’s call and went off the group in the nearby bushes. I secretly followed behind and then with a simple karate chop on his neck and there he goes unconscious. Normal people were around tier 9 so for someone like me who was tier 6 it was way too easy.

 

After taking his clothes which were fit enough as he was a scrawny guy. Putting him in the bushes and wearing his clothes, I made my way back to the entourage, as for my face all the servants wore a kind of veil which is weird but hey it helps.

 

“Okay so now that everyone is here let’s move. Mana beasts are weak at night and this is our only chance.” One of the knights says with everyone nodding except the noble.

 

“Yes everyone, let's go and slay that beast.” The fat noble says to rile everyone but it was mehh.

 

So the journey starts, it will take us less time as we were riding on chariots pulled by a hybrid horse mana beast and the knights and elites had their own beasts to ride upon. 

 

After two hours we reached the outskirts of the town, it was actually my first time seeing this side of the Bretton woods as in the game you would come across the western part which is located on the other side and this area was devoid of monsters so no one bothered to come here. The surroundings were cooler than we were in the city. You could hear sounds of various animals and insects. It made the whole scenery look scary.

 

“Okay everyone we have reached the place so be on our guard one mistake and you could be the next victim.” The knight said, his name was Wilbert or something. I will call him Will the knight.

 

Will the knight told the noble to stay there with some regular guards and let them go in the forest. This proposal was readily accepted by him and to be honest it was the best for me. Sit and wait for the reward to come to you, what’s better than that?

Well anything could have been better than that, the troll although less intelligent than humans were predatory by nature and seeing that the strong ones have left weak ones like us in the open he came out of his hiding spot and sprinted towards us. 

 

I was scared, it was not like you get to see something like this back on earth. But still even if my stats were not enough to fight with him they were more than enough to run away towards the knights and guards and that’s what I did.

 

“AAAAHHHHHHH”

 

“This monster is killing us, guards help!!”

 

“Ahhhhh, please I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, someone help!”

 

Cries of help and the sound of wailing servants were going on behind me but I left all that and ran with all of might. After a few miles the silhouette of the armoured guards and knights came into my visage and finally I could sense some hope.

 

“HELP, GUARDS, KNIGHTS,”

 

I shouted at the top my lungs and that seemed to come into their notice as one the guards came forward and said,

 

“Aren’t you one of the servants? What are you doing here?”

 

“Haah, haah, I-I, there bac- back there, help, help.”

 

One of the knight came forward and said,

 

“Boy my name is Mckenzie, calm down and tell me what happened.”

“Sir Mckenzie the monster, it was green and a giant with a huge hammer in it’s hand and it attacked us, I was so afraid that I ran away.” Uhh acting is hard, to portray myself as the pitiful servant who ran away to protect myself is going to be a challenge.

 

“What! The monster attacked you guys?”

 

“Yess, sir knight. It is currently back there killing all of my friends.” And I cried to make the act look natural.

 

“Everyone, let's go back and slay that monster.”

 

The two knights took charge and everyone else followed them from behind. I was put on with an elite guard and he was carrying me safely, after a couple of minutes we were near the camp that the noble and his servant had set up. The scene in front of my eyes made me vomit, there were mutilated bodies, some of them had their intestines out and some others were just completely covered in blood. The atmosphere around it was like death incarnate and the one who did it was happily eating one of the human arms like it was chicken wings.

 

“This is not a mana beast, it is a god damn Troll. Everyone use formation star and slowly surround him then by your weapons to make him unconscious first then we will burn him.” The knight said and took his sword out of the sheath.

 

The fight was nothing spectacular as the knights primarily used swords and less magic but nonetheless it was a long and arduous one. The troll understood that this meal knew how to fight and many times tried to run away but was surrounded in their star formation hence it could only burn his strength and stamina to keep alive. His regeneration factor depended on his mana and was not a passive ability so the key to defeat him was to tire him out first.

 

So the subjugation squad did, they tired him out and at the end the knights used their mana to construct a fireball which obliterated him to ashes. 

 

A status screen formed it self in front of me,

                                                                   

 

Ah, yes there is a Status window in this world too.

 

“Did anyone level up?”

 

“Yes Sir Knight I did.”

 

“Good for you, now one of you can go and collect the loot while others will look for survivors.”

 

“Please Sir Knight, let me do that so that all of you can focus on the survivors.” Please accept, please don't use your brain at this moment.

 

“Yes, let him do this job. He’s just a normal civilian and it would be easier for us to focus on the survivors, if there are any.” The other knight chimed in and thank God he did.

 

“Very well, everyone scatter out and look for any survivors. We will regroup here in 1 hour.”

 

‘Phew’

 

That was close, he was really a pain in the ass. Now onto my reward for doing all this. I walked over to the loot of Troll and there were many things like his skin, bones, teeth which could be used to make wearables or weapons. But the thing I was so interested in was the ring of regeneration.

 

And there it was lying near one of the bones. From the outside it looked almost like the strength booster ring father gave me but that’s the reason it was able to fool all the people around here. I exchanged this ring with the one on my fingers and soon another status window opened in front of me.

                                                             

 

Since its properties were already known to me there was no need for the status to show it but it still did. This makes me a little suspicious as when this ring was acquired by others the status must have shown so why did they give it away? And why is it evolving?