An hour later, they were sitting in Ryo's tavern while Elena and Marcus took turns grilling him about things he couldn't explain. The bodies had been dragged off the main street and dumped in a wagon for disposal, but the bloodstains on the cobblestones served as a reminder of just how badly things had escalated.
"Let me get this straight," Marcus said, pacing back and forth behind the bar. "You claim you've never had formal combat training, you've only been in two real fights in your entire life, and yet you just took on eight armed men simultaneously and won without breaking a sweat."
"I was sweating," Ryo protested. "Just not very much."
"That's not the fucking point," Elena snapped. "The point is that what you did out there is impossible. I've seen master swordsmen with decades of experience who couldn't pull off half the moves you just used. And you did it with weapons you'd never held before."
Ryo rubbed his temples, trying to think of a way to explain the system without sounding completely insane. "What if I told you that I think something is... helping me? Guiding my movements, giving me knowledge I shouldn't have?"
"Like what?" Marcus asked. "Divine intervention? Demonic possession? Ancient magical bloodline awakening?"
"I honestly don't know," Ryo said. "But ever since I arrived here, I've been getting better at things faster than should be possible. Not just fighting—everything. It's like my body and mind are learning from experiences I've never had."
Elena leaned forward in her chair. "Show me your hands."
"What?"
"Your hands," Elena repeated. "If you've been training with weapons for years, you'd have calluses, scars, specific muscle development. Let me see."
Reluctantly, Ryo held out his hands. Elena examined them closely, turning them over to check his palms and fingers.
"Soft," she said after a moment. "No weapon calluses, no training scars. These are the hands of someone who's never done serious physical labor, much less spent years practicing swordwork."
"So either you're lying about your background," Marcus said, "or something supernatural is happening to you."
"I vote for supernatural," Elena said grimly. "Because the alternative is that you're the best actor I've ever met, and I don't think you're that good at lying."
[TRUTH TELLING] - Level 1
Experience gained for honest self-assessment
[SUPERNATURAL INTEGRATION] has increased to Level 3!
Warning: System exposure risk increasing
The blue window appeared in Ryo's vision, and this time he couldn't hide his reaction. Both Elena and Marcus noticed his eyes tracking something they couldn't see.
"There it is again," Elena said. "That thing where you look like you're reading invisible text. What are you seeing?"
Ryo made a decision. If he was going to trust these people with his life—which he apparently already had—then maybe it was time to trust them with the truth.
"I see messages," he said. "Blue windows that appear in my vision, tracking my skills and giving me experience for various activities. It's like... like I'm living inside some kind of game where everything I do makes me stronger or more capable."
Marcus and Elena exchanged looks.
"Messages from what?" Marcus asked carefully.
"I don't know. I've been calling it 'the system' because that's what it feels like—some kind of underlying structure that governs how abilities develop and improve. But I have no idea what created it or why it's affecting me."
"Can you see one now?" Elena asked.
"Actually, yes." Ryo focused on the blue window. "It says my supernatural integration has increased to level three, and it's warning me about system exposure risk."
"System exposure to what?"
"Probably to you," Ryo said. "I think it doesn't want other people to know about it."
Marcus sat down heavily on one of the bar stools. "Well, that's just fucking fantastic. We're dealing with some kind of magical system that's turning you into a superhuman fighter, and it doesn't want anyone to know about it. That definitely won't cause any problems."
"There's more," Ryo said. "The system has been evolving since I got here. It's adapting to situations, developing new capabilities, even rewriting its own rules when necessary. And I think it's doing all of this because it has some kind of purpose I'm not aware of."
Elena stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the bloodstains in the street. "Purpose like what?"
"I don't know. But think about it—I arrive in a random village, immediately get involved in a conflict with local bandits, discover that the bandits are working for some mysterious noble with regional ambitions, and suddenly I'm developing combat abilities that shouldn't exist. That's either the most ridiculous series of coincidences in history, or something wanted me to be here for this."
"You think the system brought you to Millhaven deliberately?" Marcus asked.
"I think the system brought me to this world deliberately," Ryo said. "Millhaven might just be where I happened to land."
The silence that followed was heavy with implications. Finally, Elena turned back from the window.
"Other world?" she said quietly.
Ryo realized he'd said more than he intended. But at this point, partial honesty was probably worse than complete honesty.
"I died," he said simply. "In another world, another life. I remember dying, and then I woke up here with memories of both lives and this system thing guiding my development. I think I was brought here for a reason, but I don't know what that reason is."
Marcus stared at him for a long moment. "You're telling us you're from another world entirely."
"Yes."
"And you died and were somehow reborn here."
"Yes."
"With a magical system that makes you stronger and smarter and better at everything."
"Apparently, yes."
Marcus looked at Elena. "You know what? At this point, I'm just going to accept it. Because trying to come up with a rational explanation for what I saw this morning is giving me a headache."
Elena nodded slowly. "It would explain a lot. The way you talk sometimes, like you're familiar with concepts that don't exist here. The way you handle new situations like you've seen similar things before. And definitely the way you fight."
[TRUST BUILDING] has increased to Level 3!
[TRUTH SHARING] - Level 2
New passive ability: Enhanced team cohesion
Achievement unlocked: Full Disclosure
"So what does this mean for us?" Marcus asked. "Because Gareth is still out there, he's still planning to come back with more men, and now we know he's working for someone with serious resources."
"It means we need to be smarter about this," Elena said. "If Ryo's abilities are going to keep developing, we need to figure out how to use them effectively. And if there's really some kind of greater purpose behind all of this, we need to understand what we're actually fighting for."
Ryo pulled out the letters they'd stolen from Gareth's camp and spread them on the bar. "Let's start with what we know. These letters prove that Gareth is taking orders from someone else, someone with noble rank and enough influence to supply professional soldiers."
Elena picked up one of the letters and read it again. "The signature is still mostly illegible, but I can make out part of it now. Looks like 'Lord Something-shire' or maybe 'Something-ford.'"
"How many lords are there in this region?" Ryo asked.
"Three with significant holdings," Marcus said. "Lord Westford controls most of the territory south of here, Lord Blackshire has lands to the east, and Lord Ravenscroft owns pretty much everything north and west of the mountains."
"Any of them have a reason to want this area destabilized?"
"All of them," Elena said grimly. "This region is technically independent, governed by agreements between the villages rather than feudal obligation. If the current system collapsed, any of those lords could move in and claim the territory for themselves."
"So we're not just fighting bandits," Ryo said. "We're fighting a proxy war for territorial control."
"Looks like it," Marcus agreed. "Which means killing Gareth won't solve the problem. His employer will just hire someone else to finish the job."
Elena folded the letter and tucked it back into the pile. "Then we need to solve the real problem. We need to find out which lord is behind this and deal with them directly."
"How do we do that?"
"We make Gareth tell us," Elena said. "Next time he comes back with his army, we don't just fight them off. We capture him alive and get answers."
[STRATEGIC PLANNING] has increased to Level 3!
[INTERROGATION PLANNING] - Level 1
New skill acquired: [ENEMY ANALYSIS] - Level 2
"And if he won't talk?" Ryo asked.
Elena's smile was cold and sharp. "Then we get creative with our questioning techniques. I used to be an adventurer, remember? I know lots of ways to make people very eager to share information."
Marcus shuddered. "Jesus, Elena. Remind me never to get on your bad side."