"Well, this was strange."
Earlier, he was barely alive and at the verge of death. Next second he was awake in the middle of a forest, not knowing where he is.
"Am I dead?"
He wasn't. But it was a question that flabbergasted him to the point of scratching his head, though he stopped himself from doing so.
Something was amiss, and he knew it.
But, his curiosity had grown up, and he had he doubted that he was in the afterlife or even in YGGDRASIL, even though it was possible that he was in the game.
"There is only one thing to find out if I still have my abilities.... [Check Status: Self] , [Open Command List] ."
Suddenly, two floating, transparent blue screens appeared in front of him, showing 150 or more commands that he uses, some of which were toggled on. And the other showed his status.
His admin status is still permanently on, and cannot be removed through ordinary and even advanced means. That means nobody can quite literally hack his admin status out of him since he's made several
"Absolute Immunity, which has three types, one which nullifies all negative status effects and the other which nullifies damage, and the last which is both. I suppose keeping the third type on should be enough, and a few more admin commands need to be left toggled on for safety precautions."
While Absolute Immunity had its own perks, there was one problem that forced him to patch the Admin Code to the point where people with World Items, World Enemies, World Champions, or anything related to World Items.
Hackers, especially Griefing Hackers. You know the rest.
Feeling sure of this, our protagonist began to walk somewhere..... and stopped.
"I'm going to be lost wandering randomly. [Activate Minimap] ."
A round minimap appeared on the corner of his vision, and because of his Admin authority, the minimap was completely uncovered, showing off a few locations near him and several tens of people moving towards one place.
Naturally, he knew which were players and which were NPCs, and none of them were players.
Through curiosity and the thought of experimenting with his powers motivated him, aside from that, he thought about the possibility of YGGDRASIL spells actually working as they were intended to be and how they translate to the real world.
Maybe doing a small work of "saving a village for a heroic reason" is required, too.
[ ~ Line Break ~ ]
A village was being attacked by people in a knight's armor, and obviously this was done in order to incite war over two kingdoms.
In fact,
"Rally them up, burn their houses, and pillaged the village, for the Six Gods!" Their commander, whose name was Belius had yelled out, before grinning madly as he observed his knights run around to do as commanded.
No matter how much resistance the villagers had given, they were already too weak and defenseless. The knights were stronger than the weakened villages.
And those who could still fight back were immediately taken down and killed before a proper counterattack could be made.
While Belius looked around, he noticed two girls running to the forest and immediately pointed at them.
"Hey! Get those girls, they're escaping!"
"Don't worry, Lord Belius! They'll just tire out eventually!"
"Just don't lose them, otherwise one of the Popes will punish you!"
4 knights followed the two girls leaving the village, leading the two to run faster.
The two were Enri Emmot and her little sister, Nemu Emmot, who she had carried just for her to be safe in her arms.
But the moment they heard rapid footsteps from behind, their adrenaline began to burst, forcing Enri to run faster.
"There they are! You won't be able to escape us!"
The knights behind them began to laugh and chuckle while were catching up the two because of their superior bodies.
Nemu squeaked, urging for Enri to run faster, but Enri was beginning to tire out quickly and she was at her limit.
She tripped over a root and accidentally tossed Nemu away, the smaller girl crashing and rolling on the grassy ground momentarily.
Enri breathed heavily as she began to stand up, scared and tired.
Her legs felt like they were burning like no other, and she saw her little sister on the ground, looking at her.
"You know the orders, just kill the two of them."
"Oh come on, we should have fun with the two of them! That sounds good, right?"
"You know what, I'll tell commander that you pissed on the trees after this."
One of the knights that wanted to just kill them immediately took action and wounded back of Enri, stunning her as she was now laying on the ground.
The village girl focused on moving forward and protecting her little sister, who couldn't at all run as both of them were about to die soon.
But..... suddenly, a voice came from nearby.
"Hello and good morning dear Sir Knights, could you point me to the direction of a nearby village?"
That man was Ragna.
And the knights who noticed him immediately became flabbergasted.
Well, that was because he looked more like a foreigner that was no different to a High Class noble that was wandering around.
A black coat that reached down his knees, adorned with intrinsic golden patterns and jewels that were placed around the clothing, looking carefully crafted to not make visual clutter.
Long sleeves of black were also present, reaching up to his wrists as his gloved hands of white were shown.
He had worn tight white pants and light metal boots that blended with the pants, strangely enough.
And why the change of clothing from his pure white suit to this? To answer that, he had several costumes for certain types of events, the black one being made purely for aesthetic and not for battle, unlike the white one which would definitely give buffs stronger than most highly customized Divine Class Items, and even his other sets of costumes weren't merely for show.
"Hmph. I was being sarcastic, who is your commander? I wish to talk to him. But first things first...."
He spoke in a stern manner as he stepped towards Enri and Nemu.
" [Item Creation: Restoration Tonic S - 2 Pieces] ." Ragna muttered, as two small vials materialized through pixels on his palms.
The knights were flabbergasted at him, creating such an item like nothing has to be something surprising.
Was he some form of sorcerer? Or was he something else?
Ragna knelt down towards Enri, offering her the vials, but she was reluctant to take them.
"Hey, come on, if you want to live I'll give this to you for free. Maybe you can still live another day, and your loved ones wouldn't suffer because of your death. Don't worry, that's not poisonous as it is tried and tested."
His dialogue alone was what pushed Enri to accept his offer and drink what was inside, and her wounds healed immediately.
"I... what happened?"
She was once tired, now she had recovered.
"Sister, what happened?" Nemu asked, wondering what had happened before the both of them were told by Ragna to calm down because he will take things from here.
He stood up and kicked away a knight through a tree, reason: counterattack.
"Is this your answer?" He asked the knights who looked pretty much angry at him.
"Who even are you?!" One of the knights asked, stepping back away from him.
It did provoke his thoughts, and in a matter of seconds, he gained a light, prideful smile.
"I am Ragna, a wandering merchant. It ain't even a pleasure to meet you fodders right now, because I will meet your commander soon because of... personal reasons."
The knights, without hesitation, charged at him in different directions to corner him, though it did not really work as they were too slow.
But, right now, they were knocked out because he had his reasons.
Carrying the knights by his shoulder, he glanced back at the Emmot sisters.
"You may choose to follow me or stay there, I will not force you to choose."
"Will you save the villagers?" The red-haired child asked, and he nodded.
It felt like he was obligated to do so, if not, he could have actually stayed neutral most of the time....
But....
Then he realized something.
Something very, very important.
'...Am I free? Am I really free to do anything as much as I want?'
He stopped in his tracks, even for a moment, before smiling genuinely and even tearing up silently. Those tears were quickly wiped out before the Emmot sisters could notice.
'What would my goals truly be? What would I become soon? Could I.... no...'
".... Can I still return to my homeland, despite the desolated state of the land?" He asked, leaving Enri and Nemu to wonder about it.
"Your homeland?" Enri asked, while he shook his head.
"Only I can worry about it. After all, you aren't one of its people." Ragna replied casually, as they were close to the village Enri lived.
[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]