Various screams of pain echoed around him as he stared at Jackson’s corpse. Although he only just met the man, and most of their contact involved a sword being held against his throat, he still felt guilty. Even though he knew it was just a game, even though he knew these people were just strands of code, he couldn’t help but get emotionally attached.

But alongside the guilt, he felt shame. He felt ashamed of himself that a vile thought crossed his mind, he felt ashamed that he had a brief moment of regret.

Regret that he didn’t deal the finishing blow to Jackson as he watched him die, regret he didn’t earn the reward for the kill, which he felt even more guilty for.

He was ashamed that his instincts wanted him to be a monster for profit, to betray someone he planned to help, just to get further ahead. Even though he already had the biggest advantage in his knowledge of the future, he was still greedy for more.

Yet another corpse was flung towards him, sliding past and ripping through a nearby tent. Another notification appeared, but Merlin had become numb to them at this point.

「Bandits remaining: 7」

Standing up once more, he turned to face the ghost who was once again massacring the village. Merlin rushed forward once more, brandishing the gladius in his cursed hand and swinging around the hooded lantern in his other.

The ghost didn’t even look at Merlin this time around, instead two tentacles shot towards him. Merlin pushed himself away from one of the tentacles by slapping against it with the shield, pushing himself back. The second tentacle went for another sweep, but he successfully avoided it by jumping.

As Merlin landed, he felt his feet slide in the mud, but with a little effort he regained his balance. Ignoring the pain from his ravaged leg, he ran towards the ghost again, forcing her to pay attention to him.

She whipped her head around and released an ominous cry, causing the wind to pick up once more. Merlin flinched as he was buffeted by the strong winds, it wasn’t dealing any damage, but the cold winds made it very uncomfortable to open his eyes.

He managed to force his eyes open, only to find that a tentacle was flying towards him. Not having enough time for a full dodge, Merlin tried twisting his body out of the way to minimise the damage he took. Unfortunately his pivot foot slipped in the mud, causing him to lose his balance. As he began falling, Merlin instinctively flung his arms out in front of him in a hopeless attempt to stabilise himself.

When the tentacle was close enough to strike, it barely missed Merlin, rather it seemed it avoided him purposefully. Merlin realised he had messed up as the tentacle instead chose to rip through his lantern. The lantern oil had covered the tip of the tentacle, and it caught fire, forming a large fireball that threatened to spread towards the undead.

What Merlin didn’t expect to see was the tentacle thrust itself into the mud, somehow managing to extinguish itself. Merlin was aware this particular creature had high intelligence, although it wasn’t that intelligent compared to most creatures at higher levels, but it was still odd for such a creature to be found right outside of the tutorial village. Merlin chalked it up to this being Gaia’s first attempt at balance before the main world was created, this was the point of the beta test after all.

Merlin ran towards the closest light source, a lantern hooked into some kind of small thin tree. It seemed to be used to light the general recreational area, the bandit version of a streetlight. He ripped the lantern from the tree before running back towards the ghost. Two more notifications appeared before him, one replacing the other.

「Bandits remaining: 5」

Two tentacles were sent to attack him once more, one slithered through the mud as it approached, seemingly trying to camouflage itself as it swept at his feet. Merlin noticed it rather easily, as if it wasn’t actually trying to hide itself that well, but it still forced him to jump over it.

It was only while he was in the air that he realised why it made itself obvious, unlike last time, the other tentacle thrust towards him as he was still airborne, it was a trap.

Unable to pivot himself in the air, all Merlin could do was try to helplessly block the attack with his shield. He felt the strike through the shield, and although it was successfully blocked, it was still strong enough to deal partial damage through the shield.

Without any footing to stabilise himself, or any way to push back against the attack, his body was flung away with little resistance. Merlin tried to align himself so he landed feet first, but the impact had sent him spinning. He flew for a few seconds before hitting the ground and then continued travelling until he collided with a tent, dealing a significant amount of damage and stunning him.

As he laid there stunned, he watched in the distance as the remaining bandits were slaughtered, one after the other. Several notifications appeared, only to be replaced by the updated version shortly after, until he received the last notification.

「You have completed the quest, “Lycoa bandit subjugation”, visit the mercenary guild to receive your rewards.」

There were more than twenty people living in the village, and as Merlin laid there stunned, he watched as the ghost annihilated the rest of the village. All he could hear were screams of pain and mournful cries as everyone in the village was ruthlessly mowed down by the monster.

Merlin scanned around his surroundings, looking for anything he could use to fight it. When Merlin felt the stun wear off, he attempted to stand up, only to find that his shoulder had been impaled on a shattered piece of wood. Gritting his teeth, he ripped his shoulder away, causing pain to swell through his body, at this point he was tempted to reduce the pain synchronisation, but decided against it.

He looked around and noticed that his lantern had shattered from the impact, rendering it useless. As he searched for another lantern, he found one in what looked to be a kitchen area, Merlin grabbed the lantern and searched through the kitchen’s pantry, finding a small pouch of salt and a large bag of flour.

He wasn’t sure what kind of undead this was, but he did know that it didn’t like light or fire. He decided to try anything, just in case he found its weakness. Salt was typically the weakness of spirits, most ghosts were dispelled by it, and the flour was the backup plan.

Merlin ran through the town looking for a second lantern, which he had found near what looked to be a storage tent. He took the second lantern with him as he ran towards the ghost once more, carrying two lanterns and two bags of ingredients.

He ran into the ghost near Jackson’s tent, it was moments away from finishing off a villager it had pinned down. Merlin threw the bag of flour and a lantern onto the ground and charged towards it, taking a handful of salt from the pouch.

The creature’s attention snapped to Merlin as a handful of salt flew towards it, upon making contact the salt sparked before turning into small wisps of smoke. The ghost flinched in pain, but it ultimately didn’t seem to do anything against it, either there wasn’t enough salt or it needed to be blessed.

Before she started attacking Merlin again, he ran back to the bag of flour, hauling it over his shoulder before turning back towards the her. The ghost sprung forward in a mad rage, quickly closing the distance, but not getting too close due to the two lanterns. As it got closer, Merlin grabbed the bag of flour by the corner and span around, throwing it with as much force as he could muster.

The bag flew through the air towards the ghost. But before it made contact, a tentacle speared through it mid-flight, ripping it in half and sending a large cloud of flour into the air, forming a smokescreen around the ghost.

A cheeky smirk formed on Merlin’s face, although he was still feeling glum about the situation, this was one of his favourite strategies that he very rarely had the opportunity to use.

“Here, catch!” Merlin yelled out in a mocking tone before throwing one of his lanterns where he thought the ghost would be. As he let go of the lantern he scampered off, grabbing the lantern he left on the ground before diving behind cover.

Merlin heard a shattering sound and a few seconds later the cold night air had vanished. A wave of hot wind blew past Merlin, caused by the sudden appearance of a large fireball that had formed where the smokescreen once was.

This was the result of a dust explosion, a rapid combustion of fine particles, such as flour, suspended in the air and then introduced to something such as a flame or spark to start the reaction.

Merlin felt rather confident at this point, even leaving his cover to inspect the damage he had caused. The ghost stood there motionless, her red dress had caught fire, her skin was blackened and her tentacles were withered and charred.

As Merlin stepped closer, her neck let out an ominous cracking sound as her head snapped to face him, this simple action sent shivers down his spine and washed away all the confidence he had previously built up.

Merlin could feel his arm itch, the purple blight had spread up to his elbow. Merlin felt completely helpless against it, he didn’t know whether to run or fight to the death. But surely it should have taken plenty of damage, it was even enveloped in a fireball.

Merlin noticed as the sky started to lighten, it seemed he had spent so much time in the camp that the sun had barely started to rise. The ghost let out a pained cry as it began disintegrating into a pile of rose petals, it seemed like it couldn’t maintain its form during the day, this left the battle with an anticlimactic finish, but Merlin knew their fight was far from over.

Merlin limped through the camp, witnessing the death and destruction he was the indirect cause of. He passed by various corpses he partially recognised, the main one being the smarter bandit who brought him to the camp.

“I’m sorry–” Merlin heard a man’s pained cries and ran over to them, thinking he found a survivor. Unfortunately he arrived at the man’s location only to find that he was bleeding out after being impaled on a tree. “I couldn’t– I couldn’t stand by and watch him torment them.”

The man seemed to be in a state of delirium, he wasn’t able to see Merlin, he was just rambling moments before death, but Merlin noticed the name floating above his head, it felt familiar so he made a note of it, “Woodrow Pollard”.

“You were right, I should have just been smart.” Merlin stood by and listened to the man’s final words, it was the least he could do to help himself. “I’m sorry. You were right.”

As the man passed, he continued limping through the village, making his way to the village entrance. As he arrived he saw the young bandit he befriended, he was on his knees, weeping over the corpse of his father.