"Mmm... mmm... yes.... hmm... the distinct aroma of piss." JohnWillStab sight tossing a bottle of booze away, unbeknownst to him, the bottle was snatched up by one of the borderline-homeless citizens of Levelgreen.

"If you don't drink anything you'll die." pointed out Jordan taking a swig from one of the bottles.

"It's a little better than the piss in Grimwood." he continued.

"Booze just dehydrates you anyway." JohnWillStab retorted.

"Not booze with low alcohol levels," Jordan exclaimed.

He lit a cigarette.

"This place is strange..." he complained.

"I kind of expected something like this would happen," sighed John.

"I thought about it... but for some reason, I believed that stuff like that would stay out of a world like this..." Alex said from behind.

"Aha! He finally accepted this is a different world!" thought JohnWillStab.

Jordan and JohnWillStab turned to face Alex who just returned from his journeys around the town.

"Welcome back," John announced.

"Well, I had a look around town, looks like there are about thirty people, apparently most of them spawned in the nearby zones, but fled to the plains because of the low monster count and because 'Grimwood is scary'." Alex made air-quotes for the last statement.

"Few homes, an inn, though everything insides except the quests and maps was taken... even the furniture."

"A blacksmith, though it looked like all the starter materials were used for a certain guy's armour."

"I went ahead a released the healers from the market," Alex explained.

"Oh... and you might want to see the training pit..." he said pointing to the corner of one of the walls.

JohnWillStab walked over to it.

A small hole, less than a meter deep was dug and in it were a few people tied to poles, two of them dead, one almost dead.

"Shit!" JohnWillStab exclaimed taking a step back.

"I know right?" Alex sighed.

The surviving person was a woman with long chestnut hair, from the clothes, John guessed she was a caster, in fact, everyone looked like a caster.

JohnWillStab moved towards the area, he slid down the steep slope of the pit.

He cut all the people free from the poles, as it turns out, three of them were alive, one was a Fishman, the other two were human.

"Since the casters' bodies are here... it means they were killed for real... it was either respawn here or respawn a few meters over in the centre of the town since that's the nearest one, did they run out of lives or just opted to have their souls annihilated?" thought JohnWillStab,

"Do you guys think the fatass was just against magic users in general?" asked JohnWillStab.

"Maybe he was afraid of the potential of magic?" Jordan speculated.

"Yeah, if I was a tyrant, I would definitely be more afraid of magic than anything else." JohnWillStab agreed.

Jordan looked up, "Looks like it'll be raining tonight."

JohnWillStab followed his gaze.

"Yeah,"

They both looked at the massive grey cloud heading their direction blocking out the setting sun before making their way back to the clean part of the town where they sat on a bench.

From across the town, chained to a wall sat the beaten and bloodied man, his hammer discarded.

He eyed JohnWillStab with a powerful hatred.

"What should we do about him?" Asked Jordan.

"Well, it's not really our business..." JohnWillStab sighed.

"We can't just let him go back to terrorizing these people!" Jordan exclaimed.

"Alright, what will you do with him?" asked JohnWillStab.

Jordan fell silent.

"None of us will be leaders in this town, so the people here should make up their own minds on the subject." JohnWillStab continued.

"...guess you have a point..." he agreed.

"Let's return the mini-hill-giant and start questing, I grabbed some of the quests beforehand." Alex grinned flashing his pocket filled with a dozen quest papers.

"Nice." JohnWillStab smiled.

"They won't be coming tonight," Eric said from behind.

JohnWillStab spun around.

"Illusionist?"

"My name's Eric..." he reminded John.

"Anyway... the giants won't be coming over today, the rain keeps them away from some reason."

"Makes sense, if I weighed as much as a mountain, I wouldn't want to sink in the mud because of some rain." JohnWillStab shrugged.

JohnWillStab looked over to Alex and Jordan.

"I think I'll camp outside the town for tonight, you two are free to stay." JohnWillStab explained.

"What? Why?" asked Jordan.

"This place smells awful, I don't want to catch some disease..." he half-laughed before standing up and walking towards the gate.

"Hold on, I'll at least go light a fire for you." Jordan offered standing up and following John.

"Screw that, I've been dying to sleep on a real bed for once," Alex exclaimed not budging.

"He was lying..." mumbled Thal.

"I could have guessed that much."

"Why not follow him then?"

"Because it's probably something he wants to deal with himself..." Alex thought.

"Hmm... what a pain..." sighed the sword.

"H-hey! Blond guy!" Eric almost yelled, he was trying to get his attention for a full minute.

"Hmm?"

"You were staring off into space weirdly," Eric commented.

"Oh, nice of you to be concerned for me!... Oh, wait, how'd we meet again?" Alex taunted him.

"Look I'm seriously sorry about that! We didn't have a choice!"

"I know, I just like bullying you." he shrugged.

Eric's head sank a little and he looked down to his feet.

"You think the others are still mad at me over it?"

"I seriously doubt either of them cares, though bullying you is fun, I get why the fatass did it." Alex nodded.

"You people really are assholes..." Eric sighed.

"Exactly," Alex replied, a satisfied look on his face as he crossed his arms and leaned back.

Moments later Jordan returned.

"Alright, I made him a quick fireplace," Jordan exclaimed sitting back down on the wooden bench placed in the cleanest part of the town.

"Hey, Jordan - are you still pissed about the whole illusionist murdering us thing?" he asked.

"No, they were clearly manipulated into fighting us," he replied.

"See, Illus-" Alex began but when he turned to face Eric, he was already gone.

"Looks like he ran off." Alex shrugged.

"I feel kind of bad for him." Jordan sighed.

"My God, you can show compassion for an adult!?" Alex exclaimed.

"Shut up..." Jordan sighed.

The group stayed silent for a while.

"It's because I have a brother back on Earth... he's twelve, it's his character I'm in right now..."

"I getcha, that's why you need to get home?"

"...yeah... that's all..."

"Hmmm...." Thal hmm'd in Alex's mind.

"What is it, now?"

"I can't tell if he's lying or not..."

"Ugh... I'm sure he has a reason to lie, if he is lying!"

"Isn't that pissing you off?!"

"No! Much like my browser history-" his thought was interrupted by Thal.

"Which is horrific..." Thal added.

"- some things are up to an individual to keep locked up forever, like a responsible adult!"

"Are you alright?" Jordan asked seeing Alex stare off into space again.

"Hm? Yeah, Thal was just talking shit again."

"...asshole..." complained the sword out-loud.