Choi Ha-neul had reached the dungeon entrance before me and was currently facing off against a group of bandits.
She was outnumbered three-to-one, but she didn't seem to be losing ground.
There were originally four guards at the entrance, but one was already on the ground, a bloody mess groaning in agony.
Having seen the first one go down, the bandits recognized her strength and hesitated to charge recklessly.
Choi Ha-neul was stronger than any of them individually, but with three opponents, she wasn't making any hasty moves either.
All four of them stayed in a stalemate, weapons ready, glaring at one another.
As the tense standoff dragged on, one bandit lost his patience. He broke formation and swung his iron mace.
"Die, you bastard!"
"You idiot! Don't move on your own!"
Choi Ha-neul didn't miss the opportunity. She parried the bandit's sloppy swing with her axe and slammed the blade directly into his shoulder as he lunged forward.
"Ha!"
"Gwaaargh!"
Unfortunately, her physical strength was lacking; she couldn't cleanly sever the arm. Still, it was a fatal blow.
The bandit collapsed, his arm hanging by a few shreds of muscle.
Now it was two-against-one. The numbers were closing in fast. At this rate, her victory was practically guaranteed.
—Whisper.
Suddenly, the remaining bandits huddled and muttered to each other.
One of them circled around her, positioning themselves so she was sandwiched between them.
'They've got brains, at least.'
If they rushed her from both sides simultaneously, even she wouldn't be able to block everything perfectly.
It was a decent strategy for a bunch of thugs who made a living robbing innocent people.
Choi Ha-neul was in a bind, but—
She flashed a relaxed smile and held her palm out toward one of them.
Sparks flickered in her palm for a split second before a gout of searing flame erupted outward.
"AAARGH!"
The Flames spell engulfed the bandit. He thrashed in agony, a human torch, before slumping over dead.
Choi Ha-neul quickly spun around to roast the last one, but—
The final survivor had already lost his will to fight. He dropped his weapon and was high-tailing it out of there.
He was already past the range of her fire.
'Guess I'll step in.'
I nocked an arrow to my longbow, pulled the string taut, and fired at the fleeing bandit.
It revealed my presence, sure, but I had no desire to let a parasite who preyed on the innocent walk away.
Fwish—!
"Ack...!"
Unfortunately, my Archery skill wasn't high enough to take him down in one shot. The arrow merely buried itself in his calf.
However, the leg injury made him lose his footing. He tumbled over the edge of a cliff and met his end at the bottom.
When I looked back at Choi Ha-neul, she was catching her breath and holding a wound on her left arm, staring at me intently.
She must have picked up that injury while taking down the first bandit.
"Th... thank you."
Clearly drained, she managed a brief word of thanks, her exhaustion plain to see.
Looking at her, I felt conflicted.
'The wound is shallow, but the fatigue is setting in.'
Inside that bleak ancient tomb, there would be even more bandits than at the entrance, not to mention the monsters known as Draugr.
If she struggled this much with bandits, fantasy creatures like Draugr would be an entirely different story.
"Are you all right?"
"It's just a graze. I can manage."
"You're planning on going into that ancient tomb, aren't you?"
"How did you know?"
She looked at me, startled.
"What else would there be on this mountain?"
"Haha, true..."
"You look exhausted and you're hurt. You should probably head back down for now. If you go in there like that and the wound gets infected, you might end up having to cut that arm off."
"Huh?! Really?! But there's something I have to get from the tomb..."
"It can wait until tomorrow. Let's go down for now."
Choi Ha-neul thought it over for a second before nodding.
'Riverwood is right at the base of the mountain, so we'll head there.'
"Mister, would you like to come with me to the tomb? If you came all this way, you must have been planning to go inside too, right?"
Mister... I know I look like a man in his thirties in this body, but I'm actually twenty-seven. It's a sad age to be called "Mister" already.
"Uh... yeah. I was planning on investigating it."
"Then we should go together! With your archery skills, I'm sure you'll be a huge help!"
I didn't expect the protagonist to be the one to suggest a party first.
This worked out well. I could naturally join her on her quest.
"Fine. Let's head to Riverwood first."
"Okay!"
But before that, there was work to be done.
Specifically, looting anything worth selling off the dead bandits.
The leather armor they were wearing was burnt or shredded beyond use, but the gold in their pockets, their weapons, and their boots were still intact. I gathered them up.
"I'll carry these. You're injured, so just focus on walking."
I wasn't trying to steal the protagonist's loot; it was purely to help out. The gear and weapons looked like garbage, but they'd fetch a fair price.
As we trudged back down the path we had come from,
I glanced at the protagonist and thought to myself.
'Should I tell her who I am? She seems nice, but I'm not sure.'
It wasn't urgent, so I decided to keep my identity a secret for now and observe her a bit longer.
Since we were walking together anyway, I decided to analyze her.
First, it looked like her race was High Elf. Her ears were pointed, and she definitely wasn't a Dunmer since she lacked the grey skin and red eyes.
She could have been a Wood Elf, but she didn't use a bow and seemed quite skilled with Destruction magic, so the odds were she was an Altmer.
But something was different from the original game. Altmer skin is usually a sickly yellowish-gold, but Choi Ha-neul's skin wasn't like that at all.
It was as clear and white as snow. Her eyes were sky blue.
Is she actually an Altmer?
'I should just ask and stop overthinking.'
We were going to be adventuring together, so it should be fine.
"What's your race?"
"I'm a High Elf."
"Hmm, as I thought."
"Pardon?"
"Your magic was quite good. Mages aren't that common around here."
In the game, you'd frequently run into hostile necromancers or pyromancers in the wild, but meeting a magic-user in this reality was rare.
Now that this world was real, most people relied on cold steel, bows, and crossbows.
If mages equipped with human flamethrowers were common, the world balance would be completely broken.
The mages I had seen so far usually specialized in low-offense spells like Illusion, Alteration, or Restoration.
Even those who used Destruction magic weren't that threatening because the Magicka cost was massive and the casting time was long.
Of course, there were a few masters of Destruction, but you didn't just meet them on the street.
I wondered if the professors at the College of Winterhold had become monstrously powerful here.
"You handled your weapons well, too. Where did you learn that?"
"That's because of my ski—I mean, no, my father taught me when I was young!"
"Oh, really?"
I'd been noticing it for a while, but she was incredibly sloppy in many ways.
Not just in conversation, but in the way she fought earlier. She didn't check to finish off the downed bandits.
She also headed straight for a tomb without a shred of a strategy.
The flaws were endless.
I'll give her a pass on finishing them off, though; she might still be squeamish about killing.
For the record, the only reason I didn't finish off the bandit I shot was because I was afraid she'd get wary of me if she saw me killing people without any emotion.
Besides, he was probably going to die anyway.
As we small-talked our way down the mountain, Riverwood came into view.
The sun was starting to set, so we needed to secure a room quickly.
The moment we entered the Sleeping Giant Inn, I heard a familiar voice.
"Orgnar. The last batch of ale tastes off. I think it's spoiled. Orgnar! Are you listening?"
Orgnar scratched his head and answered half-heartedly.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening. It's spoiled. Right."
"I thought you had potatoes stuffed in your ears again. Hurry up and get some fresh ale."
"Fine..."
It was Delphine, the owner of the Sleeping Giant, and her employee, Orgnar.
I didn't particularly like Delphine, but hearing those lines was oddly nostalgic.
"Hey, innkeeper! I'll take two rooms."
"Ah, welcome. Hmm? And you're that Altmer who visited the village recently, aren't you?"
Delphine treated me like any other guest, but I noticed her brow furrow slightly when she looked at the High Elf, Choi Ha-neul.
Considering Delphine and the High Elves were long-time bitter enemies, the reaction made sense.
'But it looks like to everyone else, she just looks like an ordinary Altmer.'
Regardless, I sat her down in a chair in the inn room and wrapped a bandage soaked in a potion around her left arm.
"Thank you..."
I told her to drink the rest and get some rest before leaving the room.
While she was resting, I had quite a bit to do.
First, I had to deal with the gear I'd looted from the bandits.
Heading to the forge, I saw Alvor busy quenching steel.
"Hey there. I took down some bandits. How much would you give me for these?"
Alvor stopped what he was doing and appraised the equipment I had brought.
"Hmm... the swords have some notches in the blades, but the mace is in good condition. The boots, though, are complete garbage. I'll buy the weapons. I'll give you 85 Septims for the mace and 40 each for the chipped swords. What do you say?"
It was a lot of effort to lug them all the way here, so it was a bit disappointing he wouldn't take everything.
"Won't you take the boots?"
"I don't think those can even be repaired. The soles are gone and the leather's completely worn out. They're not even worth the cost of materials."
"Fine, then. It's a deal."
"By the way, you're an outsider, so I have to ask... is it true that a dragon appeared? Have you heard any other news?"
This man seemed quite curious.
"Hmm. You want the news for free?"
"Hah, I get it. Here."
I stuffed the 5 gold Septims Alvor handed me into my pocket and gave him some reasonable information.
"Did you know that Ulfric was able to escape just before his execution because the dragon showed up? Word is he's already made it safely back to Windhelm."
"Is that true? And what of General Tullius?"
"He's safe as well."
"I'm glad to hear he's alive, at least."
Alvor seemed a bit dejected. Curious at his reaction, I asked,
"Did something happen?"
"My nephew, who was a soldier, died during the attack on Helgen. He was a brave warrior..."
"I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences."
"It was an honorable death."
When escaping Helgen, a player can choose to follow either Hadvar or Ralof.
Whichever one you follow, the other is fated to die under the rubble.
It seems the protagonist chose to escape with Ralof. Newbies always seem to follow Ralof first.
Unfortunately, I couldn't sell the boots, but I made 205 Septims from the three iron swords and the mace.
The extra 5 gold for the info was mine to keep, of course. It really hit home that the best way to make money is looting people.
I could almost understand how the bandits felt, though I'd never tolerate their villainy.
Next stop: the general goods store.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"Welcome..."
There stood Lucan Valerius, looking completely drained of energy.
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah, well... there's been a bit of a theft..."
I already knew exactly what had happened,
But I didn't want to miss the chance to trigger a quest event by talking to a famous game character, so I feigned ignorance.
"Theft? Did someone steal your merchandise?"
"Well, you see..."