As I sit up inside the cave I take a look at my surroundings. I take notice that a chest is in the cave that I'm in. Soon after I saw it I received a message from Reya through the system. Curious as to shat she is messaging me about so soon after leaving I open up the message.

*Hey Winter, thank you for being so kind to me. As a thank you I sevretly sent some stuff to help you along your path in that chest. Also to prepare you for the world, your probably going to want to come up with an adventurer name fore when you sign up.

A little information on the world you were sent to, you are currently a few miles outside a small town, not big but not small by any means either. You'll be able to get and identity card ther through the guild. Also, there is an infamous bandit group nearby that you could take down, if you bring his head to the guild it could give you a pretty decent foundation in the guild. I've marked the location of their hideout in your map if you decide to do so. I wish you the best of luck in this world.
          -Sincerely, Reya

As I finish up the message I send a short, but sincere, thank you message to Reya for helping me then go to the chest. As I open the chest I see a full set of soft leather armor, which included body armor, boots, gloves and a coat. From my appraisal skill I was instantly able to tell that not only was this armor, but it also had the ability to change appearance for a casual look.

After putting on the armor I went into the system to change the armor to its casual appearance. After I set the look of the casual appearance in the system my clothes turned into a white bouse, a light blue pleated skirt, a gold colored braided waist belt, a black over coat and a pair of black mid calf boots. As I was looking at my appearance, when changing the armor to casual appearance, something felt... off. It was then that I noticed a slight, almost unnoticeable, point on my ears, and that my eye color changed. Now my eye color changed to a mix of icy blue, and light purple, though I noticed I could change between the colors at will. Not only that but my pupils were slightly elongated. Along this line of thinking I decide to send a message to Reya, to see if this will cause me to be discriminated against, as a lot of fantasy world have prejudice against non humans.

*Hey Reya, I'm a little worried about what I should do about race considering that I have slightly pointed ears. Please let me Know.
          -Sincerely, Winter

*Ah, your not going to actually need to worry about that, in this world humans recognize the Descendant type races you are as what they call high humans. All of them like you have high elemental affinity, though not nearly to the same degree as either of you elements, and almost always only one element.

*Oh!!! That's really good to know, thank you so much for all that you have helped me with, talk to you another time!! =D

After I got all of my worries out of the way, I finally prepared to go out into this new world. As I was leaving the cave, I set the armor to its regular appearance and a black well fitted armor consisting of hard and soft leather covered my body.

I stepped outside to be welcomed to the foothills of a mountain and a forest. After checking the system map, I was able to figure out where to go to get to the bandit hideout. Now that I have my bearings right, I start making my way to it.

Doing my best, I slowly and as quietly make my way through the forest towards the bandits hideout. After a little while, I finally see the first bandit from the hideout and use appraisal on him.

Bandit Thug
Rank: E-

As I see the bandit, many different conflicting emotions start to fill my mind. It is almost guaranteed that he's done terrible things, but at the same time I can't bring myself to end his life. I want to cling to that part of me, so I decide that I will just knock him out instead of killing him. With that decision made, I channel lightning energy into the movement skill I created, as well as lightning into my fists. Positioning myself so that I can knock him out instantly if I can. With a burst of speed I close in on him, but he's still able to get a good look at me before I am able to knock him out.

Making my way to the bandit hideout, I continue to knock out different scouts in the area, unfortunately that doesn't give very good experience, barely even a tenth of normal. Eventually I find a female bandit among them and I change my armors appearance to look similar to it. As I continue to repeat these actions I get a few notifications from the system, notifying me of skill gain and experience. The first thing was that my elemental affinities leveled up, as well as gaining martial arts proficiency, as well as the basic stealth skill. Luckily the martial arts skill is quickly leveling up, making it easier to move my body.

After I arrive close to where the hideout is supposed to be, I hide myself and take a quick look at my status screen. Looking at it, it seems that I'm super close to leveling up I just need a tiny, miniscule amount of experience to get there. Unfortunately I haven't quite reached that point yet. Other than that, I think I should be able to take on the hideout.

Pondering over a few plans on how t best get inside the bandits hideout, I eventually decide to see if I can get inside with my bandit armor disguise. With this plan, even if I get found out, I shouldn't be surrounded immediately, and if I'm not able to take care of them quickly, I can still run away with my stats. The only problem is that this plan could also go very bad, very fast. I could also pretend to be a civilian and get captured, but same as the sneaking in, a lot could go wrong. Thinking about what could happen, I get goosebumps. Needless to say, it would be a fate worse than death. Finally, I realize that despite the danger, a frontal assault would be the least dangerous plan. I wouldn't get surrounded in a cave, like I could with the others, and it would be a lot easier to run away if I'm still outside the cave.

I quickly start to plan for as many possibilities as I can think of, hopefully none of them will need to come into play. I know that I need to be fast, as either on of the bandits I knocked out may wake up and get back, or they will notice their absence. My guess is that I only have half an hour left before I am forced to make a move, so the sooner I move the better.

Before the end of the half hour was up I start to put my plan in motion, I can't afford to postpone any longer. I start to sneak as close to the hideout as I can, hoping against all odds that I don't get noticed. To increase the odds, I change my attire to match the surrounding forest so I am less noticeable for as long as possible. Unfortunately with my basic stealth skills I get seen pretty quickly when I'm at about the 50 yard mark (40 m).

Knowing I can't delay any longer I turn my armor into my main look. I quickly activated my movement skill enhanced with the lightning element and bolted for the entrance of the cave, arriving there in an instant. Once I get there, I switch my element to ice so that I can increase my maneuverability as well as to try and control their movements with the patches of ice my movement will create.

When I'm close to the cave I see the first round of bandits running at me, there were roughly seven I could see at first glance. What I saw though completely wiped away my underestimation that I had of bandits, unlike the uncoordinated ways they sometimes attacked in games, these had very good team work. Silently I thanked myself for deciding to use ice in this moment as it will make the fight easier. All of this only further solidified and reinforced that I was in a real and new world.  As I close in on the bandits, I use my appraisal on them to see their strength and they are all roughly the same strength of the other bandits that I fought earlier.

Surprisingly, in the first few moments I found that with my high agility and nimbleness, these low level bandits didn't pose a threat to me. In the first few moments of the fight I already was able to take care of three of the thugs. Unfortunately, that was when the easy fight ended. After seeing me take care of their underlings so easily, the four bandit captains at the E+ rank joined the fight as well as five more thugs joined the fight. It was then that I knew I fucked up, I knew that there was no way that I could finish all of this easily, like I initially thought I could. I knew that if I didn't want to die or experience anything worse, I'd have to kill. Because despite their much lower level than me, they had numbers and team work. The only problem was that I didn't have time to pull my scythe out of my inventory, so I'd have to try to make an opening to do so.

After a much longer period than the first time, I was able to take down another three bandits, the ice that my movement made being the major contributor to why I hadn't lost yet. It was now that I was finally able to find an opening to be able to summon my scythe. When it appeared I immediately filled it with my scythe energy, as my lightning element, bringing its damage potential to a peak. I instantly activate an energy wave type skill, as a power that seemed like it could sever and destroy anything appeared. Originally aimed at the three captains and a few thugs in range, I hit two of them as well as three thugs, reducing their numbers by half.

A feeling of guild over killing them nearly takes me over, but I try and suppress it for now, but even harder to suppress was the feeling of nausea from the gruesome scene. It was so much different from the more... mature games I had played in the past. At least in a game I could tell myself that they were just mobs, that none of it was real and that made it bearable. Now though it was completely different, this was the blood and guts of real people those who had lived full lives. Even though I didn't want to kill them, if I didn't it would be me, and I didn't want to die yet.

I started to feel a resolve fill me, I wouldn't let this change who I am, and who I've always been. I want to be kind hearted and merciful, but I will still protect my life when push comes to shove. I should be able to finish these bandit soon but the problem is that I'm running out of mana, and Broderick the Nightmare, still hasn't joined the fight. The big problem though is that without my strengthening ability, I will only be a little bit stronger than him at D+. I'll definitely be faster and more nimble than him so to win I'll have to push that advantage to be able to win.

A few moments latter just as I expected I was able to finish the last of the bandits, and I had just enough mana to stay conscious and fight the bandit boss.

"You're going to regret ever stepping into my territory little girl, but I'll at least make your stay here worth your time." As I stood there with my scythe I cautiously watched Broderick's every movement. Disgust, and trace amounts of fear, filled my mind as I saw the look of unveiled lust in his eyes, his words and eyes clearly carrying his meaning. As I keep watching I find a slight opening to take advantage of so I dash forward, but I make the attack a feint and just as I suspected it was a trap.

With a small amount of footwork I maneuver myself around him, following some of my previous momentum. I take another attack towards him but he is clearly more experienced than me. He easily manages to dodge the strike making his own attack on me, trying to knock me out to fulfill his promise. Flurries of attacks fly move through the space as we exchange blows, and slowly but surely, my mana is recovering.

Just as thing start looking up for Broderick, and as he takes advantage of an opening I left, I activate my lightning element in my movement, instantly appearing with my scythe on his neck. A look of surprise and fear fills his face but it's to late. As I finish my attack behind him, his severed head flies of his head behind me. As the adrenaline high falls, I collapse onto my knees in the cave, exhausted from the fight. With so little strength left and the adrenaline leaving me, I can finally process everything that just happened and I start emptying out my stomach. Small sobs leave my throat as I feel like I lost a part of myself, making my earlier resolve seem like it was only a dream, wishful thinking.

Eventually I regain a little bit of my composure, getting back on my feel, some of the light missing from my eyes. I look towards the inner parts of the cave, as I prepare for what I'll probably see.