Sometime after dark

Watching the farmhouse ahead of him with his night sight, he spotted a total of four sentries around the farmhouse. The building itself is made of sun-baked dirt bricks and has a thatch roof that requires repair. The building looks like it has been built in three phases over the year. Halfway around the building is an outer dirt wall that is crumbling in various places from neglect. The shed nearby was fallen in, so there was no one around it. Near the shed are several horses that pull the wagons. Two bodies of children were unceremoniously dumped nearby about a hundred feet from the shed was and was already have several possums like creatures eating on them. Glancing up at the night sky, seeing the sky ablaze with a milky way like galaxy covering most of the sky, none of the moons have risen yet, to dim the showcase that is in the heavens. It took about four hours of travel while avoiding both barons' spies on the road and paths to reach this place. Searching through Joseph's memories brought nothing on who used to live here or any information that could help him. Trying hard not to be distracted by what to do with all the people he found. Returning them home will only put them back in the same spot or worse dead. Only the thoughts of being on the frontier keep coming to the foremost of his mind. He really wants to make some money and buy some land from a baron, a duke or even a king, at least money always seem to work in the stories that he had read. The fact that he can make some shoes or even boots and some leather armor like the ones that Halley asks him to make for a neighbor kid that lives nearby her. So he watches several videos of how to make scale mail armor and even some different leather Armour and learn to stamp leather. He also made a costume for a fellow soldier to give to his son for cosplay as a musketeer. He even learns to make chainmail to enhance some of his leather pieces. Even though it was not something, he enjoys doing as much as working with leather. He made quite a bit of money selling specialty leather goods online over the last few years. It was enough to live on while his military disability went into buying the ranch he wanted.

An hour had passed already, and the sentries have all group up around a fire pit to keep warm during the autumn night. Seeing the night as if it was daytime, he was able to make it to the shed and spotted three cages like wagons, the first real wagons since he has gotten to this world. Looking one of them over, he can see it could still use a lot of improvement. And the small sold wooden wheels would not last more than a month of continuous travel. Tex hates sloppy workmanship more than anything. The cages are all made of wood, making the wagon heavy. Checking each of the wagons, he can smell the feces and urine pool at the bottom of the wagons. The last wagon had a matted doll made of wool with some dry blood on it. Reigning his angrier, he moves over to the farmhouse while slipping out a dagger as he walks over to the door and hears snoring from the other side of the door. Apparently, someone is asleep guarding the entrance. Moving over to the windows and finding them all shutter with a bar holding them in place from the inside. He back away into the bushes to think.

As he ponders the problem, he notices the sentries moving off to patrol the area, giving him a chance to take them out. One of the men came to the door nearby him and knock with three taps then two then three more. The door opens, and he could hear them talk.

"How is it going in there?" the sentry asked.

"It quiet, other than that damn elf is in labor!" the old voice spatted out.

"I not heard any screaming."

"Too prideful that bitch is." The old man sneered, "They should kill all those filthy elves!"

"I heard Lady Maple, want the baby, to sell in the capital after it born, and the woman is to be taken to her manor for breeding."

"Aye, but I not sure if the woman will make it. She tried twice to kill herself and the child in her womb. And the midwife said a half breed baby drains a lot of energy from an elf. Only a few survive giving birth because most of the mana in the mother is transfer to the baby. which is why they can do magic."

"What we do if she dies, and how are we going to feed a baby!" the sentry exclaimed.

"We worry about that when it happens. She should birth the child by morning, so have the wagon ready to leave. We will have to leave fast if we want to be paid the gold promise us." The old man said gleefully about the gold he is going to get.

"What about the other children?"

"We burn them and the farmstead when we leave. Just take the girls, we don't have the horses to for more than one wagon and for all of us to ride. It a shame we could have made money on selling them to be trained to work in the workshops. But the baby will make us ten times what they will bring us and I have a guy that wants the young girls will pay us good coin for them. It the bitch dies it no matter to me. The Lady already paid us, so whether she lives or not is of no concern of mine.

The longer he listens, the more Tex wanted to kill both of the men slowly. Human traffickers are the worse scum of the world to him. It will be a pleasure to kill all of them. Waiting for the guard to leave, he follows behind the man and slice his throat and catching the man as he fell. Groaning to himself over the fact he needs to excise more. He drags the body into the bushes. He doubts serious that he could even bench his weight right now, shaking his head in detain over how weak this body is compared to his old body. His speed is faster, and his agility is far in advance to his old body. He still misses his height and built.

Pausing in thought and staring at the wood behind the house, the feeling that something in the woods seems to be calling to him. The feeling seems to tug upon his body as he just stares at the woods before moving off to kill the second sentry by using the bow to pierce the man in his throat with an arrow. After watching the two other sentries walk around to the other side of the house, blocking their view.

"Hey, Kevin, why is your ring glowing?" Someone said aloud.

"Shit! We got an elf nearby!"

"Kevin. Of course, there an elf nearby the bitch is in the house is giving birth!" Said a man in a disgusted tone. "Use your head!"

"Oh! Sorry. I forgot. Every time I am near an elf, this ring glows. Cost me some gold to buy it and pay for itself already." Laughing evilly.

The ring flares up for a second as the back of Kevin's skull cave in from the handle of the dagger striking him.

Tex rushes over to the corner of the house, looking for the other sentry. Upon seeing a shadow from the rising moon moving toward him. Tex reverses the dagger and plunges it up into the man's stomach and behind the rib cage into the man's heart. Cleaning off the blade and searching the bodies, he found some silver and a few coppers, as well as the ring. Looking the ring over, he slips it onto his finger as the ring glows briefly before the glow faded away. Two spells came to mind at that moment. Thorns and Plant Growth. The spell Thorns was the ability to fling nearby thorns as if they are darts. The requirement requires thorny plants or thorns to cast the spell. The spell Plant Growth allows a person to make plants grow individually or over an area until they mature or mana stops. Raising an eyebrow, Tex looks surprised.

The knowledge that he can do more than healing and detect traps make him happy and a little bit scared at the same time. This type of magic is real magic, not the fake magic you see on television! Pulling out several thorns, he had wrapped up. He raises his hand with the ring and imitates the flow of finger movement that appeared in his head. He watches with a blink of an eye as one of the thorns embeds itself into the mud wall not more than ten feet away. Wide eye, he just stares at the spot where the thorn was embedded in the wall. Feeling a little bit tire from casting the spell, he moved over to the wall, and he tries to pull out the thorn. Only to realize it is firmly embedded in the wall. Shrugging and thinking, 'Oh. Well.' Tex looks toward the house as he pulls out several more thorns that he hand wrapped up earlier and walk up to the front door to knock.