Before Keiran’s mind could process what was going on, he definitely smelt, heard, and felt it. The pungent smell of manure prevaded the barn, while the prickly dry straw itched the nape of his neck. The squeals from angry rats definitely didn’t help either. Death by rat, it is to be avoided at all costs. Luckily for him, the rats were perfectly fine letting him be. As he started to gather himself, a series of messages bombarded his vision. The accompanying migraine was not helping either.

Keiran groaned as acknowledged the message. Guess I should count myself a bit lucky that I didn’t dump points into Intelligence from the get go for whatever predicament I will face, he thought. He hated that the starting zone difficulty had been elevated due to his skills and yet all of them were disabled. There was a really bad taste in his mouth. 

The barn was largely dark, save for a few flickering torches by the large front door. Wherever he was, it was late during the day. As he got up and stretched out his legs, he tried to call up his character sheet. Nothing happened. The usual words such as status, admin, help, logout, log, system, menu, quit, etc didn’t respond either. As he contemplated his situation, a commotion near the entrance caught his ears. He quickly hid in one of the empty stalls of the barn. Judging from the noise, it didn’t sound friendly. He could make out the voices of a few men shouting and laughing and that of a woman. It sounded like she was pleading and screaming at the men. The suspense didn’t last long as the door of the barn was pulled open that instant.

“~~Get inside! We are going to make ourselves nice and comfortable for the next few hours~~” said the large and imposing man. Crap, it looks like I didn’t get any free translation skill to help me here, thought Keiran. By Keiran’s estimation, the man was definitely over six and half feet. He sported a wolf pelt as a mantle and a rough beard braided at the end. His midriff was completely bare and wore a set of brown breeches along with a belt. Two hand axes were dangling from the belt along with a pouch. He wore thick furry boots that in Keiran’s old world would be out of place in summer. What caught Keiran’s attention was not the man himself but the accompanying smell that came with him. He stank so bad, it overpowered the smell of manure and animals in the barn causing Keiran to silently gag. Keiran labeled him Stinky.

Three other men accompanied him inside the barn. Each carried a weapon, whether a short sword or spear or a bow of some kind. They were dressed less extravagantly than the other guy. A grimy looking tunic, leather vest along with maroon tights, and lastly a pair of simple yet barely held together shoes. These were clearly Lackey 1, 2, and 3. Lastly, entered a woman, dragged by one of the lackeys unable to overpower him and get away. She wore a simple dress. The whites of the chemise had seen better days and had clearly lost most of its luster. The black surcote doing its job and hiding her modesty. Her sandy hair was a tangled mess and streaks of tears and snot ran down face. “~~Come on sweetie, the sooner you and the boss get to know each other, the sooner you’ll get to sing and dance with the rest of us. It’ll be a night you will never forget~~” he barked at the woman while grinning. The other men started laughing and mumbling something at his comment. 

“~~Sams, tell Vidic to start collecting the security taxes from the villagers for this month. I’ll call for him once I am done teaching this wench the finer points of plowing fields.~~” said Stinky to Lackey 2 while grinning. “~~Sure thing Boss!~~”, replied Lackey 2 and immediately left the barn. “~~No one disturbs me.~~” he barked with a bit of force at the other two remaining lackeys who scampered out of the barn, sealing it shut. He immediately turned to the woman and grabbed her from behind, terror filled her eyes as she screamed at him. With his other hand he grabbed the front of her surcote and ripped it off forcefully, eliciting a scream from the woman. He played with breasts for a few seconds while slobbering all over her face. Keiran observed the whole affair from his hiding spot. Despite not understanding the local language, he was pretty certain his wasn’t some mongol bride kidnapping ritual and even if it was, he wasn’t going to sit here doing nothing while the poor woman got raped. Silently he took off his leather armor to get rid of the -1 stealth penalty from his shirt before putting on the leather armor again. Every point of advantage counted right now. Searching around the barn yielded an iron poker. 

Stinky was done playing and suckling the poor woman’s breasts and had ripped off the bottom half of her dress. He started shimmying to loosen his belt and pull down his trousers. This was Keiran’s only clear and safe chance. The woman who was quietly sobbing and faced away from his angle of attack. Hopefully, she would not alerting Stinky of him. Sticky successfully got his breeches off and was preparing for the insertion. Keiran had successfully crept behind him and pulled back the poker to jab it into the rapist's neck.

Horror swept Keiran’s face as he realized his quarry wasn’t dead from the attack. Quickly he tried to pull the poker out to launch a second attack. Unfortunately, the poker had caught onto something, using his leg and Stinky’s back as leverage he forced the poker out.

As Keiran's second attack doesn't go as planned as the 2 second stun timer ran out. Stinky brushes away the second jab from Keiran. Surprised by Stinky’s recovery, Kerian loses control of his momentum, strikes the floor of the barn, with his gut falling on the blunt side of the poker, toppling him to the ground.

Hoping he is able to recover before any counterattack from Stinky, Keiran preps his body to roll away quickly but no attack is forthcoming. He pushes himself up and notices Stinky is couched over his belt trying to find something. Shit! He might have a health potion or something in there. I cannot let him get to it, he thinks. Picking up the poker, he rushes over, and jabs it up Stinky’s butt.

How is he still alive?! Just how much HP does he have? thinks Keiran. Not taking any chances he goes for the tried and true method every gamer knows, headshot.

He kicks his target on his back and sees Stinky’s shocked and pale face. Keiran jabs the poker straight through the eye.