It was about midday when I walked back into town. No Mae, no pips, and I had even asked Jen to stay back during this initial meeting. I was alone, but I wasn't going to watch any more people or animals get hurt because of me.

I walked toward the tallest building in town assuming that it was the mayor's house or city hall. Was I enforcing a stereotype because I hadn't asked for directions from either of the people who had actually been residents of this town? It didn't take too long for a goon to find me wandering around looking for tall buildings.

"Hey, buddy, you look lost." The voice came from behind me as I walked down one of the main streets of which the town only had a couple. It was bigger than Roseglen by a factor of at least five. I estimated a total population of a couple of hundred people.

"Thank you, pal, I am indeed lost." It was probably not the greatest response based on the initial gruffness of the man's voice. I turned toward what turned out to be a very muscular man who was in dire need of a shower.

"I can get you where you're going and lighten your load, friend," he said. The way he spat out the words made me doubt his congeniality.

"If you could just point me in the direction of the town leader, I'd be merrily on my way. I'm comfortable with my current burden, chum." I regretted that last word as it left my sassy lips, but it was getting difficult to other terms for 'buddy' to respond with.

He smiled a dastardly smile and kept walking in my direction. He was closing the distance and only about twenty feet away. "Give me everything you have of value and I'll let you limp out of this town alive."

"Okay. Time out, amigo." I held up my hand in the traditional stop sign signal.

He stopped and adopted a confused face. I think my reaction to his threat was so different from what he had expected that his brain needed to reset real quick.

"First, we had clearly been using a different, buddy-adjacent term of endearment consistently in our back-and-forth and you just dropped the ball. I'm talking me in the outfield, two outs, bases loaded, pop fly, it's the bottom of the ninth, and I lost the big game because I thought I saw a cat 'dropped the ball'. I now understand the disappointment of my family and peers. Second, can you limp out of somewhere dead? I feel like adding 'alive' was a little superfluous." My attempt at throwing him off-kilter while also confusing the crap out of him worked perfectly.

Unknown to him I had been pouring MP into a Waterball spell for the last ten seconds with my hand behind my back. My hand shot forward around the same time that he snapped out of it and started sprinting towards me. He stopped when he saw the spell hurtling towards him.

The large ball of water hit him square in the chest and completely soaked him. When I wasn't imbuing an arrow the ball of water was already formed so I got a water balloon effect instead of the explosive formation of a large amount of water from a small point. It did what I knew it would do though.

"What was that all about?" He asked looking down at his now wet clothes and the large puddle he stood in. "That isn't going to stop me from killing you."

Before he could start coming at me again I began phase two. "Hold up," I said with my hand out the same as before. It worked again and he paused waiting for me to speak.

"That was a Waterball spell, to answer your question. It is really good for washing clothes and yours seemed to have needed a good cleaning. I was trying to be helpful but I am sorry that I misread the cry for help. Also, I wasn't trying to stop you from killing me with THAT spell." I put extra emphasis on the last two words to get his brain going. Surprisingly enough he took the bait.

"What do you mean 'that spell'?"

Once again my hand shot forward and his eyes went wide as the Spell of Frost that I had been holding behind my back hurtled at him too fast to dodge it. He froze in place from head to toe in a matter of seconds. Even the puddle he was standing in was frozen.

"How did that work twice?" I asked the thugsicle.

I knew he couldn't answer but I couldn't help but ask.

"Mae?" I asked out into the open air.

"What Teddy?" Mae flew out of a nearby alley and blinked in suprise at the frozen man as she came over to land on my shoulder.

"I just wanted to ask if this guy would unthaw or what was protocal for this kind of situation?" I really didn't want to hurt him too bad and I was hoping that freezing him would be a non-lethal solution.

"I don't think he will be in too good of shape when he unthaws, Teddy." I could tell she was holding back. Guilt and fear flashed through my brain as I tried to process what she said.

"Are you saying I just killed this guy?" I asked quietly.

"Your notification says you "defeated" him," she responded putting the word 'defeated' in air quotes.

I quickly thought about my notification history and sure enough the last notification matched what Mae had said.

400XP awarded for defeating a Bettyford bandit.

I walked over to the man who besides having an awesomely alliterative appellation was also the first person I had ever killed. I tried to tell myself it was an accident, but it didn't take away the emotions I was feeling. I dropped to my knees and a tear started to form in the corner of my eye.

"Are you crying?" Mae asked me with surprised indignation.

"I just killed someone!" I bit back at Mae with anger and sadness in my voice.

"It was an NPC who had just threatened to rob and beat you!" She responded matching my tone.

"He specifically said I would be able to limp out of town." I felt stupid as the words left my mouth.

"He was not, nor had ever been, a real person," Mae said fluttering over to the frozen man and stabbing a finger at him to punctuate her statement.

I got up and matched her action when I responded. "It felt different than the goblins and orcs. He was the first NPC I have killed in this place. Can I get a little sympathy and understanding? He was real to me!" As my finger stabbed at him he started to move.

I stood in abject horror taking in the scene before me in what felt like slow motion as the sound of cracking ice originated from his ankle area. His whole body shifted downward and back as the fell to the ground. All the king's horse and all the king's men wouldn't have been able to reconstruct this poor guy after he shattered into pieces before me.

"Well, now you can definitely feel bad about killing this poor man." Mae stood there shaking her head at me as if I didn't feel terrible enough already.

I reached down to grab a few frozen pieces of the man and my brain's first thought was to push the two pieces together hoping they would magically merge together. Adding to my horror was the ill-timed loot box that popped up when I had touched the pieces.

I sadly hit loot all mostly just to get rid of the window as quickly as possible and continued my vain attempt at reconstructive surgery. His dagger had been the only surviving item and seeing it briefly as I sent it to inventory sent another waive of guilt through me.

"Hey!" A man yelled after seeing me standing over the former NPC's icy pieces. "What are you doing?" He ran over and must've recognized his former ally in the pieces of face that were scattered before him. "Larry?!"

"It was an accident," I said grasping for words. "I'm sorry."

Mae had made herself scarce when this second bandit arrived. It was probably for the best as she would have just used this to add fuel to her sassy fire.

"You're sorry!" The man yelled as he grabbed a chunk of my clothes in each of his meaty fists.

"I didn't mean to kill him," I poorly tried to explain to the angry thug. "He threatened me first." I realized that trying to justify my actions was not going to do any good.

"Well, I am just going to kill you," he said pulling a dagger from his belt still holding my clothes tightly with his left hand.

"Technically that is also a threat." I popped my sword out of my inventory instictively and it materialized with more than half of its length inside of the man's midsection. His dagger clattered to the ground followed by his lifeless body.

"Not again," I said looking down at my second NPC kill who was now laying on the icy shards of the first. I grabbed his dagger as well, but as I reached to touch him for looting purposes I heard something I wish I hadn't heard.

"Hey!" Shouted a third man from behind me. I quickly looted the second bandit without looking at the plunder that was stained with the guilt of my second NPC kill. I tried to comfort myself by repeating that it was self-defense, to no avail.

"I killed them both, but it was only slightly on purpose," I said to the man who was equal parts confused and angry.

"What?" He asked, pausing briefly. "I'm taking you to the interim mayor."

"Finally. That's what I was asking the first guy about." I started calming walking over to the third man who I promised myself wouldn't be my third NPC kill and he pointed motioning for me to walk infront of him. I complied hoping I wouldn't get stabbed in the back. I tried to walk in such a way that I could see an attack coming which was a bit easier since he seemed to be afraid of me.

"Sorry about Larry," I said hoping to lessen the chance of attack. "According to him we were buddies too."

"Shut up." He seemed to be leading me to the fake mayor so I just went with it and didn't speak again. I was still processing what had just happened so it was probably good to have the extra silence. I wondered what the second man's name was.