Kaya used her skill, [Dash], as she ran down the alley, the bandit thug hot on her tail. Her body was empowered by her essence and mana, as she moved with supernatural quickness.

She lamented crossing this part of town at night, but she just had to get to the apothecary for her sister in a hurry. Unfortunately for her, the Bandit’s class included a similar ability or passive, as he easily kept pace with her.

She nearly tripped over some rubble from the ruins as she rounded the corner. Her eyes widened as she saw another thug coming around the next corner, causing her to dash through the open path between two buildings instead of her planned path.

The two snickered, as she looked at the dead end with despair. They had worked together, and corralled her where they wanted her to go. The two approached, with a vicious glint in their eyes. 

The two were both large, and she didn’t like her chances with the many knives on their vests and belts. Even if she could get out of this, it would be with more than a few wounds.

She had run when it was clear they were up to no good, but it had been too late once they had their eyes set on her. 

Still, she continued toward the dead end. She had one more means of escape, but she didn’t like her chances when the bandits were likely just as dexterous as her.

“Judgment!”

From behind the two men, a hand covered in ethereal white light reached and grasped onto the back of one of the men’s head. Three horrible images appeared, which seemed to depict the bandit doing horrible things.

There was a bloodied woman writhing on the ground with him on top in one image, and him stabbing another man in the back in the other. In the final image, he was selling someone chained to someone who looked to be a slaver.

The other bandit looked at the images with more than a little confusion. “You killed Richard?”

That same light came out of the bandit’s eyes and even mouth and ears, as he screamed in pain, his face twisting into a horrifying visage of terror.

His body began to crumple as if aging within an instant, the scream, and sight enough to haunt Kaya’s dreams.

If she lived long enough to have them. 

Despite the other bandit not being grabbed by the newcomer’s hand, some ethereal light began leaking from his mouth and eyes too, a hazy depiction of similar images appearing near him. He stumbled as he reached for his blade, just barely drawing it as he backed away from the pristine white hand.

The husk of a man who once was a bandit fell to the ground, his eyes wide open and his face a cacophony of horror. His body in his now too-big clothes was frozen stiff, and Kaya didn’t need to check him to know that he was dead.

Now that the man wasn’t in the way, she now could see the man who killed the bandit. Standing as tall as the large men, his green-blue eyes shimmered in the dim light. 

He wore a simple shirt, his body bulky and taut with muscle and pale white skin. He had no weapon in his hands, but something was strapped to his shoulder, and his white hair was long.

The man had an almost childlike smile on his face, enjoying all too much the ethereal white light entering his mouth. His features were both sharp and strong, and his ears were somewhat tapered like those of an elf. His body was so pale that Kaya thought he was some form of undead.

If this wasn’t bad enough, the man was covered in blood. Essence was nearly billowing off the pale man’s body in waves, causing Kaya to think he was high level at first, but she realized he simply hadn’t absorbed it for some reason–just how many people had he killed already? 

The essence had started to converge inside him, seemingly as a result of him using the spell.

The disoriented bandit stumbled toward the undead horror, but Kaya could tell he was already significantly weakened. The bandit stabbed at the pale man with his knife, but the undead easily grabbed his wrist and twisted it with one hand with alarming quickness, as he reached out with the other.

“Judgment!”

Once again, terrible images of similar depictions of evil appeared, one of which was a woman she recognized being stabbed. Kaya watched in horror as the light left the man’s face and was almost drank by the pale man, him laughing with excitement all the while. She realized now would be the best time to get climbing and escape, but it was like her legs couldn’t move. 

She was weak in the knees, and her eyes were locked onto the strange man’s as he absorbed the bandit’s light, along with all the essence surrounding him. It was as if she felt the need to watch the man be judged, those images feeling all too real.

The pale man laughed as the bandit screamed and was drained once more, a look of glee on his face. Like a child gifted a toy, he looked on as all the light was drained from the man.

The husk fell to the floor, and the pale man froze, as his eyes seemed to glaze over–a common sight, as someone interacted with the Orion System’s Menu. 

“Finally level two! Oh, that guy was level four. This game is insane!”

The man now seemed to notice Kaya, and all her instincts were screaming at her to move, until he smiled at her. It was a genuine smile, and he looked at her with what she thought was casual interest.  

“Oh! Did you have the quest too? I didn’t see you there. Sorry, I didn’t mean to steal your kills. You’re a player too, right?”

“W-What? Player?”

“The bandit quest. I gotta kill some bandits and their leader within the blue district of Havendale, it says. You don’t have it?”

Kaya shook her head no. The idea that he had received a quest to kill a random number of bandits and their leader was in fact a good sign. 

There was no way the Orion System would give out such a quest to an undead or a lawless person, as their quests would involve probably hiding and killing unsuspecting victims to empower themselves, she imagined.

He scratched his head, her now noticing his fingernails were quite long, like they hadn’t been trimmed in forever.

“Aw, I had been hoping to team up, I got no idea where these bandits are.” He turned around, looking at the dead bandits. “Oh, neat. I got a new spell already!”

Kaya’s heart thumped in her chest, as she remembered the first terrifying spell. 

He pointed at the first killed bandit. “Create Soul Servant!”

White light surrounded the pale man, and shot out from his hand, washing into the bandit’s body. The almost husk of a body filled out once more, the life returning to its flesh. 

That was wrong, Kaya reasoned. It was not life returning to the flesh, but evil magics, as this was clearly a necromancer. Despite her instincts telling her he wouldn’t hurt her, she decided she would need to escape. She used this distraction to approach the awning, trying to keep her movements slow so he wouldn’t notice.

The man chuckled. “Damn, that’s cool as hell! I can really control you. Slap yourself.”

The undead bandit slapped itself across the face, and the man laughed, as he made his new undead servant stand on one foot and jump up and down, as Kaya began to climb. She’d already grabbed onto the ease of the second story, and lifted her leg, then–

“Oh! I forgot to ask. Do you have a quest for me?”

Kaya frowned as she froze. Why would he want a quest from her? He was clearly a combat class. Her fear made her mind race as fast as her heart, looking for a possibility. 

What if he didn’t like her answer? Her bestial instincts said he didn’t seem like a bad person, but the guy was clearly weird… 

She remembered his interest in her–that she was talking to a man. She replied, not turning around, “Uh, my grandma is sick, could you help me reach the apothecary and back safely? If you help me with that, I’ll show you where the bandits are.”

The man turned to her, as she watched him over her shoulder, and he gave her a beaming smile. “That’d be great! Your quest sounds boring, but this place is confusing. I thought this game kinda sucked, it didn’t even have a map! I woke up in a crypt, and was fighting tons of rats for like hours, and I was about to log out when I stumbled out of the well and into the city. There was nobody around and all the doors were all locked when I found the bandits. One ran right in front of me. That judgment spell felt amazing!”

There was way too much for Kaya to unpack there as she set her feet both back to the ground, watching him attentively. She asked, “Log out?”

The man frowned. “Y-Yeah, log out. What, you don’t know what that is? Were you an NPC the whole time?”

What was he on about? The man froze, as he looked over his menus of the Orion System.

“Where’s the log-out button? What’s going on here?”

She then saw the man grab onto his head as if he were wearing a helmet, and lift the invisible helmet above his head. Of course, this did absolutely nothing, the man’s face switching to that of horror. 

Actually, his face looked eerily similar to that of the two bandits as their life was drained from them. He fell to his knees as he breathed heavily, his chest heaving, and he looked at the drained husk of a corpse next to him. 

“Am I stuck here? Trapped in a game forever?”

She frowned. “What game? How are you trapped?”

The man scoffed. “Yeah, a game, why else would there be this weird menu. I just went to sleep, when–” He froze once again, as it appeared he came to some sort of realization. “Okay, maybe not a game, and not a dream, but…”

Kaya frowned, and now felt concerned for the man. He may be covered in blood, but something led her to think he wasn’t a danger now. “You’re really in Havendale. You’re not from here?”

He seemed to ignore her words. “I thought… this was just an unusual introduction for a game. I… killed those guys?”

She nodded, and the man looked sickened for a moment, but his eyes quickly hardened, before he closed his eyes. Then he took several deep breaths through his nose, and smiled as he opened them. 

“Oh well.”

Kaya was taken aback. He seemed to be having an existential crisis, that resolved itself as quickly as it came on. “Oh well?”

He laughed as he stood up. “Yeah, oh well. This place is kinda cool, at least. My name’s Nick, what’s yours?”

“Kaya.”

He gave her an obvious look, as if he was evaluating her–a typical man’s gaze, as he gave her a smile like he was now up to no good. “That’s a pretty name. Where that quest be at? We gotta heal your sick mother, or something? Is she cute?”

Kaya frowned. “I said my Grandma! Weren’t you listening?” She hurriedly generated the quest within her menu, since the reward was her action or promise, it was all too easy to send him one generated by the Orion System.

He shrugged as he accepted. “I thought this was a game before, lady! I didn’t even read any of my quests before, neither. I just saw the word bandit in the quest and one ran in front of me. It’s a good thing, too, because these guys had enough knives on them that I don’t think you’d have made it up that building before they put more holes in you than a sieve. That reminds me.”

Kaya froze, as she realized Nick noticed a lot more than he let on. He hunched over the husk of a corpse. He put his hand on the body, and said, “Loot.”

He frowned. “Ah crap, the old-fashioned way? Gross.” He thought for a moment before he smirked, looking at his undead servant. “Loot this guy,” he ordered.

The undead just stood impassively. “Ah for real? Can’t even do that? Ah, maybe… Collect the valuables from this corpse,” he vaguely gestured with his hands at it, and a small amount of blue-green energy left him, the combination of soul and mana magics.

The undead then moved, and began collecting the dead bandit’s belongings. Nick nodded with a boyish smile, all too satisfied with himself.

The undead handed him the belt with knives on it, which he strapped to himself with a smile. Then, he was handed some hard-tack. 

“Oh snap, he had lunch?” He sniffed it as he frowned. “Damn, forgot about that. Y'all ain’t know how to cook, huh. You hungry, Kaya?” 

He took a step toward her with the offered ‘lunch,’ and she couldn’t help it, she flinched and took a step back. His frown deepened. 

“What, you scared of me? Why?”

Kaya looked at the deceased husk, then looked back at him like he was the dumbest man in the world.

“Oh, shit. Forgot about that part. You don’t need to be afraid of that spell, I think. Look. How do I share that?”

He must have realized or just tried to will the screen to be shared with her because she saw it.

[Spell: Judgment]
[School: Soul]
[Mana Cost: Moderate]
[Judge a sentient entity. Punish evil by draining their soul and body essence, increasing your own soul cultivation. Causes scaling soul damage based on magnitude of sins, as deemed by Archaen Law.]

She just stared at the prompt. She knew sharing that kind of thing could be faked, but the idea that the horrible spell was meant to punish evil did make her feel a little better. It matched both what she saw and felt, so it seemed to be legitimate.

It appeared to be an extremely powerful spell, and she wondered where she could get and learn it. There were many men and women in Havendale in need of judgement.

He pocketed the hard-tack. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get going. Your dog needed help, right?”

She decided not to correct him, as she realized he might be doing it on purpose. She once again gave him the look, and looked over to the undead servant.

“What’s wrong with Jerome here? He’s my best buddy now!”

“J-Jerome? You named him? He’s undead! The city guard will kill him, and you, on sight!”

He frowned in doubt. “No he’s not, he’s a Soul Servant. Jerome ain’t ever hurt anyone. He’s my bandit butler!”

She growled. “Necromancers are an evil class, and they are not allowed in Havendale, or just about anywhere!”

He smirked. “Damn, that growl is cute. What’s that got to do with me? I’m a Soul Knight! I’m kinda like a paladin and a necromancer at the same time.” 

She had never heard of such a class. Still, she didn’t think the city guard would take him at his word. He even looked like undead himself, though, he looked handsome and human or elf enough that he could probably pass as just a citizen, despite his glowing blue eyes. 

She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter, only evil magics from terrible classes can raise undead,” she saw him stir and try to say something, she assumed that his class or race was not evil, but she continued, “normally, so they won’t take you at your word on that and just see you as a threat. You say he’s not undead, but something’s clearly weird about him.”

He shrugged. “Fine, Jerome, put that cloak on. There, happy?” Jerome put a cloak on, and now a hood covered the… servant’s head.

She gestured at his face, his eyes glowing blue just like the man’s. “His eyes glow! There’s no way the guard isn’t going to notice that! Come to think of it, yours kinda do too! … And, you reek and are covered in blood, besides.”

Nick looked at her incredulously. “So what?” He gestured at the servant. “Jerome here like walked straight out of a wanted poster for a bandit, and he did just fine in this town before. You’re telling me the guard would see glowy eyes and kill me, but they didn’t arrest this guy? My pockets itch just lookin’ at ‘em.”

Kaya scowled. “It’s complicated, okay! The guards don’t patrol the blue quarter at night, and bandits would hide during the day and do most of their operations then. The mayor is in the bandit leader’s back pocket, so they turn a blind eye to his and his people’s activities, as long as they stick to some rules. The apothecary is in the green quarter.”

“Damn, they got some organized crime shit going on? Fine. Let’s take Jerome and this… husk to the well right quick and hide ‘em, then we’ll save your dog or whatever. It’s right over here.”

The infuriating man started to walk away, and despite having the perfect chance to run away, she followed. He was weird, but seemed strangely dependable.

Nick smiled at her over his shoulder as they walked. “By the way, why you got furry ears on your head and a tail. You into cosplay? I knew a girl into that once. What is that, a raccoon’s? One of my favorite animals. I used to give them dog food every once in a while, they’d call like all their buddies and share. Raccoons are awesome.”