Chapter 2 The Never-Ending Land

"On your feet, you useless rats!" That yell and the fact that I was pulled by my bindings woke me up.

Immediately, I tried to get up with everyone else, but it was a bit difficult. Fortunately, it seems that they were giving us enough time. When we were finally up, I was able to look around and see that there were so many more people now. What was actually happening here, and why were all of us naked? Did everyone really appear here the same way as I did?

I had so many questions, but it was a bit hard to think of what I should do when my mouth was so dry. Some groups seemed to have more trouble getting up, but it seemed like that was because some had died during the night. Their bindings were removed, and they were simply left where they were.

I was surprised at how many bandits there were, but there were a lot more of us. They had weapons and most had armor. We had our hands tied up. Tring a mass escape would probably not work. We still had someone who held our central rope and two others flanking. Everyone else was being led the same way.

It was still early in the morning, and I suspect it would have smelled amazing around here if it weren’t for the bandits who ruined the smell. But I couldn’t blame them solely, as I was already stinking as well along with everyone else.

What followed was a grueling march on what once might have been a road. Around my hand bindings, I could see that my skin was red, and it hurt to move. That pain, however, was muted by the screaming coming from my feet. I almost looked longingly towards the grass just a few feet to my left, but I guess we needed to walk on this stupid road.

One of our group twisted his ankle, and when he started to slow us down, he was simply killed. When someone was too exhausted to walk, they were killed. When someone started to speak, they were killed. I do not know why they went through the trouble to catch us and then just kill us for absolutely everything.

Whenever they spoke, they did it in huss tones so we wouldn’t overhear. Nothing made sense to me. Was this really my future, to become some slave right after I died and was brought to this world? Just thinking about this made me want to give up, but I had seen what happened to people who simply stopped responding and walking. They were simply killed.

Near the evening, we could finally see many smoke pillars that didn't seem to be too far off. I was somewhere in the middle of the back, so I couldn’t see anything that was going on in front.

I kind of expected to see a burned-down town or village that these bandits had raided, but when we were finally close enough and no one was obscuring my sight, I saw what looked to be a war camp.

From my current vantage point, I could see basically all of it. There were some basic defenses, but it seemed that they weren’t too worried about anyone attacking them. There were so many tents and so many fires. There must have been thousands of bandits. But there was another sight that drew my attention.

On the field near the edge of the war camp, there was another group of naked people similar to ours. What was even more frightening was that in the distance we saw another group that seemed even larger than ours coming this way as well. They would probably make it here in an hour or two.

"So many rats. This means that we will be heading towards Black Rock. Finally, we will be able to spend our coin," one bandit said. He stopped speaking when another one elbowed him. Immediately, he shut up, but it looked like no one went to complain to whoever was in charge of them.

I wanted to yell out what one of them had spoken to get them in trouble, but it was not worth dying over. Honestly, I was getting really sick of all of this, and my fright was slowly being replaced by anger.

When we reached the field where all the others were, I was surprised to see that they had no hand bindings and even more surprised when the bandits around us started to remove ours. When I looked around and saw how many bandits were guarding us, I understood that if anyone tried to escape, they would be killed.

It was hard to see, but there was some commotion up front. I simply sat down to finally get off my feet. Some of the bandits looked towards me, but they didn’t move to kill me. I didn’t know what was happening, but every once in a while, I had to get up and walk closer towards the war camp. It seemed that they were doing something, most likely sorting us.

Some of the people who refused to get back up or simply couldn’t were once again killed. This time, however, the bodies were taken away. Eventually, we were joined by the third group. It was starting to get properly dark when I finally reached close enough to the war camp to see what was happening.

During all of this, almost like clockwork, we heard screaming from the front. Now I could finally see why. They were branding the people up front. Before I could see better what was happening, a bandit with a bucket of water approached. I could see that he was filling a cup of water and handing it to the other prisoners to drink.

I had been so out of it that I hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t the only bandit doing that. Now I could only focus on that bucket of water until finally it was in front of me. The water smelled bad, but I didn’t care and just drank all of it. Afterwards, my thinking cleared up a bit more. The first thought I had was how I was still functioning well without being able to drink water for so long.

Something wasn't adding up, but so many things weren’t adding up that it was hard to keep track of it all. Another scream focused me back on what was going on in the front. There was a weird device the size of a small cabin. There were a few bandits around it, but the one who seemed to be operating it had a lot better clothes than anyone else around.

They were saying something, and the same person was branded once again. I could see some people rushing backwards when they noticed what was happening, but they couldn't escape too far. If they left our group, they would be killed by the bandits waiting and guarding us.

A few large-looking bandits worked in unison towards the front of the group and picked another person, either escorting or dragging them towards the weird-looking device. A person who seemed to be in charge of this entire process looked the prisoner over and then pointed towards the device.

The prisoner’s hands were then put onto the device and held there for a little bit. After a bit of time, he was branded not once but twice on the chest. None of the women were branded; instead, necklaces were put onto them, and then they were taken further into the camp. Some of the prettier men had the same treatment especially if they were properly equipped.

I didn’t know what would be worse, to be branded or to have a necklace put on me. The ones who were branded were also taken further into the camp but not towards the same location as the ones wearing the necklace.

I was starting to feel tired once again. When I looked backwards, there were still so many people. For some reason, I didn’t think that they would stop sorting us anytime soon. I did not want to pass out from exhaustion, so without making it obvious, I decided to slowly move towards my evaluation.

I did not come to this decision easily, but I had hoped that there would be at least water or food waiting for me after this sorting. Perhaps I was deluding myself, but I didn’t want to get too weak just waiting around. Finally, my arms were grabbed by the two big bandits, but I didn’t let them drag me and walked with them.

The one in charge looked at me. He only needed a second to point towards the device. Now everyone was taken to this device, but if they were to put a necklace on me, he would have indicated that before. Damn it, that meant that I was going to get branded. The pain was going to be bad, but I think I prefer this to the fate of the necklace wearers.

When I was taken close to the device, there was an obvious place where I needed to put my hands. Still, the two men held my hands there until I felt a few pricks. A moment later, I was surprised to see text forming underneath that, the well-dressed person stared at. I had no idea what the text said as it was in a language I didn’t know.

"Strength 23 with a potential of 50?" the person reading the device said, their voice rising in pitch by the end. "Now let’s see, power 31 with a potential of 61. That’s something you don’t see every day. Now let's see, endurance 15 with a potential of 30. At least that seems more normal." That person then looked towards the one in charge.

The person in charge held up three fingers. Most of the time, he didn't hold up any fingers and almost everyone I saw was branded with the O. From the brazier, they took out a branding iron with a big three on it. The person who had been reading the device then went back to fiddling with some buttons.

I was pushed to my knees and held down while a person with a bored look pressed the number 3 onto my chest near my heart. The pain was excruciating, but I didn’t scream unlike most of the others. I had seen how they relished delivering pain, and I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of screaming.

The branding iron was taken away faster than I expected, and I was let go so I could slump down. It still burned so much, and it was hard to concentrate, but I focused on the person who had been reading the device.

"Another empowerment affinity. There really are a lot of them. Let me see how powerful," then that person started to curse. "Stupid device not working properly." There was a lot more colorful language, but it was still hard to concentrate with the pain radiating from my chest.

"What's the problem?" I heard a commanding voice, and for the first time, I saw the person in charge speak and even move towards the device. The second branding iron was in the shape of a star. Most received a star that only had borders, but some got one or more of the arms of the star filled in.

"It's showing me two stars, but I think there’s a third, but the display isn’t showing properly," the person who had been reading the device said. "I think we need to repeat the test." The person in charge nodded. The two big bandits who had brought me were already selecting a new person to bring here. Two different bandits picked me up and took me closer to the device.

I was looking at the display. It looked like someone had carved some words into a stone and two stars. It seemed that the display was a bit messed up as there was only a little bit of the third star visible.

When the person who had been reading the device pressed the button to clear the display while discussing with the person in charge that they needed to get a new device, the display for a moment showed five stars before going blank.

Even with the pain messing with my thinking, I knew that it was bad if they saw five stars. They didn’t even have a branding iron for four stars. My attempts to act casual failed only a moment later when the person to my right stopped moving.

His eyes were wide, but before he could do anything, the night was filled with a weird sound. Absolutely everyone looked towards the sky, and I was able to see a glint of metal flying through the sky. It looked awfully similar to some scenes I have seen in movies where arrows were flying in the night.

The next moment, we could all see them clearly, and there were a lot of them. They were flying towards us from my right, and I had just barely started to duck when the arrows landed. The same sound of arrows landing came further into the camp. There were yells of pain, but I expected there to be more. At this point, the bandit who had seen the stars and was to the right of me fell to the ground with many arrows piercing him.

The guard at my left had an arrow in his arm. If I hadn’t ducked it would have hit my head. The person in charge was dead along with everyone else close to the device. The device itself looked unharmed. When I glanced backwards, I expected there to be a lot more people pierced with arrows, but there weren’t. It was a close thing, but it seems that the prisoners weren’t the target.

As soon as I heard that sound again, I immediately jumped behind the device to take cover. The guard with the arrow in his arm had the same idea, but he was just a moment too late. Multiple arrows hit him, and he dropped dead. Then I heard horns. Multiple ones. All of the bandits that had been guarding were rushing towards the camp.

All of a sudden, everything was so loud that I could barely hear myself think. Looking towards where the arrows were being fired, I could barely make out the people at the edge of the forest. My attention, however, was taken from what I saw and heard past the war camp.

It looked like a scene from a movie. There must have been hundreds of horsemen charging towards the camp. Then I heard more horns and immediately noticed more people on foot rushing out from the forest towards the camp. These bandits were under attack.

For a brief moment, a smile appeared on my face, but it disappeared when I realized that I didn’t know if these people were better or worse. It was hard to see what was going on, but seeing a wall of dirt suddenly appearing to block the charging horsemen was hard to miss.

The bandits who were rushing towards the enemies cheered, "War chief! War chief!" Their cheers, however, immediately stopped when the wall of dirt collapsed and the horsemen charged through the remnants. It was then that I started to hear the proper clash of battle, and it was so much louder than I ever expected.

When I saw some of the bandits turn around and start to run away, I knew that they were going to lose. For a moment, I thought about running, but I was simply too weak from the lack of food and water.

There was also the problem of the five stars I saw. I think whatever this world is, getting attention before you're strong is bad. There is obviously some kind of magic in this world, so I need to think how to not get examined again. I could not hope for another lucky break of getting evaluated by a device that wasn't working properly.

My eyes landed on the brazier. Most of the prisoners had already started running, so I was alone here. I quickly picked up the branding iron, but I hesitated for a moment. Whatever this device was, I could see that they needed someone who obviously wasn't a bandit to operate it, and as time went on, I saw him getting weaker and weaker.

There must be some cost to using this device, which means that similar devices will require resources and trained people. Organizing this many people took time and resources, so whoever these people who were attacking shouldn't waste extra resources to retest everyone. I accepted my logic, aimed the branding iron, and pressed it next to the three.

I held it as long as I could, but it must not have been very long. Still, I looked down to see a star with two arms filled. This should be good enough to perhaps get me better treatment but not enough to make me stand out. Doing this was way too painful, but I put the branding iron back into the brazier.

I then headed back to take shelter next to the device to wait for the end of the battle. The bandits had been pushed halfway out of their camp, but the war chief was still alive, as I saw walls of dirt popping up every once in a while. My body was completely exhausted, and the pain was difficult to bear, but I still continued to watch the battle as best as I could from my sitting vantage point.

As time went on, I was able to see more as the tents and buildings of the temporary camp were destroyed by the battle. My head was spinning from the pain and exhaustion, but I couldn’t look away. This was a true medieval battle, something I’d only ever read about and seen bad examples of in so many movies.

When I was finally able to see the battle a bit better, there were clear lines between the two forces. There was a large snaking battle line where both sides were trying to kill each other with spears while protecting themselves with shields. Towards the center of the camp, it was a lot more chaotic, mostly because of the magical elements.

Magic was rare, but I swear that I saw a fireball at some point. It was hard to see exactly what was going on even after watching this battle for over ten minutes. This time could be shorter or even longer as I was not entirely sure how much time had passed, but it felt like ten minutes.

As some of the bandits retreated, their enemies only chased them for a little while before they collapsed towards the center. It was a standard flanking maneuver, and I suspected this battle would not last for too much longer. With that realization also came the realization that soon my fate would once again be decided without my input.

As the battle went on, the resistance of the bandits was crushed except for the center, which kept holding even though they were surrounded now. "Don’t move," someone said right in my ear, and it was at that point that I noticed there was a short sword at my throat.

I, of course, didn’t move. To my left, I noticed movement. It only took a moment for a person to come into view, pointing a drawn bow at me. His eyes were cold, and I expected I would die the next moment. "It’s a sapling?" I heard him say, after which, to my complete surprise, he lowered his bow.

The short sword that was at my neck was pulled back as well, but it was still pointing at me as the person stepped in front of me. "Get up," he said, and I immediately tried to do so, but fell down once from dizziness. They didn't bark more orders at me or threaten me to get up faster.

As the adrenaline slowed down a bit, I was finally able to focus enough to properly look at the soldiers in front of me. Both of them seemed to be bow users, and both had short swords. They were a lot better equipped than the bandits, but they still seemed to have mostly leather armor.

The soldier that was pointing a sword at me indicated quite obviously with that sword that I needed to move towards the other side of the device. Doing so, I found eight more soldiers on the other side, one of them opening up the device. "Davis, you’re on guard duty."

I did not know who spoke, whether it was the one who was pointing the sword at me or the one who still had an arrow knocked, but Davis pointed a sword towards the ground in front of him. Not wanting them to get even more hostile, I immediately walked towards him.

"Turn around and sit down," he said as soon as I got near him. I immediately did so. What followed was awkward silence, at least for me, but it was still interesting to see one of the soldiers slowly open up the device and start examining what was inside.

It wasn’t what I expected. While there were some wires, it didn’t look anything like technology back on Earth. The realization of what I just thought hit me a lot harder than I expected.

Damn it, I had a good life back on Earth. I didn’t know how a panic attack felt, but I think I was about to have one. Then one of the soldiers spoke up, and I was able to refocus on something else.

"So Roger, are we getting a bonus or what?" There was a moment of silence before the soldier who was working on the device spoke up.

"Sorry to say, but I don’t think so. The device is put together from a lot of different parts from different eras. Honestly, I’m surprised this thing even worked."

Every other soldier reacted in their own way to these words. Some even cursed. I could feel the mood drop, so I just tried to make myself as small as possible to not catch their attention. "Wait, this display might have promise." Everyone refocused on the device and the soldier examining it.

Minutes passed, and eventually, it looked like he wasn't even examining the display any longer. The same soldier who asked first once again spoke up. "So, is it worth anything or not?" The soldier examining the device looked back towards him and smirked. "You son of a bitch." Everyone except for the one who asked laughed at him.

The moment the laughter started to die down, Roger spoke while trying to keep his laughter in check. "Almost everything is useless here except for the display, which is definitely an A-rank find. I do not know from what era it’s from, but they were really good at artificing."

"Enough messing around, I need a full report before I can make a decision," another one of the soldiers said. Now that I looked at him, he seemed to be a bit better equipped. Perhaps he was the leader.

"It’s hard to say, it's truly a mess in there, but it still seems to be functioning. It's only displaying strength, power, and endurance. The numbers seem accurate. It's also showing the highest affinity, displaying it in stars."

"So what does 2/5 stars mean?" another soldier asked while pointing towards me. I did not like the attention it brought towards me as almost everyone looked at me.

"That's the weird part. It only seems to be displaying full stars. So, one star seems to indicate around 10 affinity, with every additional star adding 10, up to 5 stars, so around 50 affinity."

I decided to speak up to clarify what was going on. "The device showed two stars for me. I think this star brand means that I got two stars." For a moment, I waited for a hit to the back of my head, but nothing happened.

"Well, that clears up some things," the one who looked to be in charge said. "My name is Harold, and I’m in charge of the 17th Hunters. What’s your name?"

"Mike. My name’s Mike. What's going on? Where am I?" As soon as I said that, absolutely everyone looked at me with pity, but only for a moment.

"There are many words for this place. Most just call it the World. One thing, however, is certain: wherever you’re from, you died in that place, and you are now here. You will learn like everyone learns. Take care of him. Roger, take the display, leave the rest. I need to go and report to the commander. David, you are in charge."