"Where am I?" Nike wondered.
She had just woken up in a bed to see an unfamiliar roof.
She then sat up and looked around the room.
There wasn't anything of note in her surroundings other than that it looked like an ordinary room.
She then looked down onto herself to see her body bandaged up.
It wasn't a heavy amount, just covering some superficial wounds she had acquired from fighting the bear and rushing out of the forest.
After looking herself over, she also noticed the scratch marks she gained from all the wolves she fought were entirely healed, not even leaving scars.
She then looks up due to hearing the sound of a door opening.
She looked towards the sound to see a slightly older woman come in the room.
She looked at Nike and showed a surprised face, not expecting to see her awake.
Quickly after though, she gave her a small smile and said, "So, you finally woke up, huh?"
"How long have I been asleep?" Nike questioned.
"Around two days. Why were you in the forest? Monsters love to roam around in there."
She decided to tell the woman part of the truth.
"My village was raided by a monster horde and I almost died during it. I guess that when I fainted, they thought I died and brought me to their cave as a result of that guess. I was able to escape but was stuck in those woods for a few days."
The woman looked at her with pity, and held a slight smirk Nike didn't pick up on."
"So she's alone." The woman muttered.
"Such a sad occurrence. Well, luckily for you, I just finished with food so if you want to eat, you can."
Nike nodded and got up, but her walk had a visible limp which she can guess she gained after the fight with the bear.
Sadly for her, the room she was in is on the second floor of the building so she had to have the old woman help her down.
Once down, she finally smelt the food and instantly rushed over to the table to eat it.
The amount of food on the table was so large that it looked like they were celebrating a holiday.
She quickly thought that, but hunger overtook her senses and she started to devour the food.
She was pretty hungry as she had expended way too much energy over the few days, and the little bit of wolf meat she was able to cook to be edible wasn't able to fully satisfy her body.
She would randomly grab what she could and shove it into her mouth, not really caring for what it was.
That didn't mean she was eating a lot of soup.
No, as was said, it looked like a feast for a holiday, so there was meat, and many other types of food.
Once she was finished, she saw all that she ate, and also saw that the old lady, and now an old man, were watching her eat with smiles.
Seeing how much she ate, as around half of the food was gone, she instantly became embarrassed and gained a slight blush.
"S-sorry! You both made this and yet you haven't had any yet!"
The old man gave her a dismissing wave and the woman gave her a soft smile.
"It's fine. You haven't eaten properly in a few days... Oh yeah, this is Harold, my husband, and my name is Stella."
"Thank you for all of this, Stella!"
Now that Nikes hunger has been sated and she has fully woken up, she felt a bit of pain around her body.
She could easily guess that the fights took more out of her than she had expected.
Nike then looks around the shack and notices how cozy it looks.
"This is such a nice place you have here."
Stella gives a small chuckle and says, "We built it with our own hands. It has withstood many disasters and we are thankful for it."
Nike smiles but then instantly has a weird thought.
If things like bears are this close to this cabin, how are they able to survive?
They obviously are frail and old, not looking to have trained in combat in their life.
Of course, she could just be underestimating them.
You never know.
So, she decides to ask.
"I was thinking of this, but how do you fight off the beasts when you live this isolated?"
Especially when they are surrounded by forest with a view of a city far in the distance.
And at that question, she starts to feel dizzy.
She puts her hand to her head and says, "I think I should go back to lay down..."
Only to then pass out at the table.
That entire interaction, the old man was looking straight at her with a smirk.
"Can't believe she withstood it for that long. She will catch a good price."
At that, the woman frowned.
"They have already given us enough to live normally. Can't we stop working for them?"
The man looked at her as if she were insane and said, "we will have a talk later, however they are currently outside the door and waiting."
He then claps and the door is opened by a guy who is in very obvious bandit wear.
"Took you a while," the bandit said.
"She cleaned the entire table. I think she was worth waiting for."
The bandits eyes went wide in surprise, and then a greedy smirk appeared on him.
"This may be the most profitable one you brought us then. Both looks and drug resistance, she will catch a high price."
He walks to the girl and lugs her over his shoulder.
"Like always, you will get the money when she is sold. Have a good day."
He walks out of the house, ties her up, and puts her into what seemed to be a portable prison cell.
Then he gets into the drivers seat and started moving the carriage.
And after a few bumps in the road, to his incredulity, she woke up.
The amount of drugs put into that food could even put a bear to sleep a few minutes after digesting, and that's in only one of the pieces of food available, and she cleaned the table, so the fact that she is even up now is absurd.
This just makes his smirk wider.
They hit the jackpot with this one.
She starts to open her eyes to see herself surrounded by darkness, and also felt her arms and legs bound by rope.
"W-what?!" she mutters.
"I'm surprised your awake, well, no matter, you can go back to sleep," the bandit says as he uses her surprise to sneak up on her and give her a good whack in the back of the head with the but of his sword.
After that, she doesn't wake back up and they were able to transfer her into a cell in their hideout.
And soon after, she wakes up again to see herself in a now brighter area and locked behind bars.
She looks around, just as surprised as when she woke up before, she started to frantically look around and make a lot of noise.
Due to this, the person she now noticed seemingly standing guard by her cell looked in and smirked.
"Seems our walking money bag is awake, eh?"
"W-what?"
She couldn't help but ask.
The man smirked, and then she heard someone walking closer to the cell.
"She finally awake," the unseen male asked.
The guards smirk turned even uglier than it already was and said, "Yup, and boy does she look even more attractive when scared," the man said, his face turning red when looking at her.
'Disgusting,' is all she could think.
"You should know that if you were to even lay a hand on her the boss will have your throat. He will not let a golden goose like her get any sort of damage before being sold," the unseen male says, finally stepping into her view and letting her get a good look at the two.
The one standing guard has short blonde hair and green eyes with freckles on his face.
He has a lean body with leather covering practically every part of his body.
The other male has black hair, blue eyes, and a bit of a chest to him.
He is in a bit more of a heavy type of armor, however it's one she doesn't recognize.
Now out of her initial stupor, she starts to analyze the room she is in, her stats new kicking into full gear.
She looked towards the metal bars locking her in and they... Looked pitiful.
If she hadn't been taught about the process of rusting by one of the alchemists in her village, she would have thought that they were keeping her behind flaky copper bars.
Thankfully, her dad had been open to teaching her about the truths of this world, and one of them had been the slave trade.
People who kidnap their own kind to sell them for money.
An incredibly evil business that many are attracted to.
When they sell slaves, they use a unique magic that can create a sort of brand that is connected to the buyer and can be shaped and placed in any way they want.
Using this brand, the buyer it is connected to can send a shock at increasing levels of pain towards the victim whenever they want, whether for punishment or sadistic glee, they will give the shock.
Knowing this, of course, she didn't want to go through this pain.
So, she knew she had to escape.
But she also knew that it meant killing humans...
No, she knew that she would need to rationalize it somehow.
There was no other option.
Of course, she could try to sneak out of here, but there are multiple things that can happen in that time.
A guard she knocked out could wake up and sound the alarms, she could take a wrong turn and end up where she can't hide nor run.
it was too risky.
So, she knew she would have to kill them.
However, for beings like these?
She can very easily rationalize this.
What being would willingly enslave a member of their own race?
A monster.
So she is simply killing monsters.
Intelligent ones, but monsters nonetheless.
So, she sits next to the bars and looks out towards the left, and sees a wall with only a few guards.
She then goes to the other side, and also sees a few guards but also a split path.
So, when she breaks out, she will go straight right.
Why? well, when the guards to her right set of whatever alarms they may have, when the main force reaches this area, the walls will only permit one or two at a time to attack her, and she can handle that.
Since she only sees these beings as monsters, she will use this opportunity to power herself up.
She may be unable to slice stone, but would that be true after one or two sharpness upgrades?
It should work.
So, that's what she will do.
Now, out of her contemplation, the two males had stopped talking and were back to silently doing their duties, blissfully unaware of the fact that they will die in a few seconds.
She summons a flying sword and makes it float behind him but out of view of other guards, and steps closer to the gate.
She then breaths in and slices through the heavily rusted metal while the sword lodges itself into the blondes head.
She mentally upgrades the sharpness and in an unnatural burst of speed, she runs to the left, and notices five guards, and only the closest, who was the black haired man, seemed to have noticed, but not yet digested what had happened.
She quickly sends the flying sword at him and runs past, said sword leaving the now dead mans head and blitzes towards the next dead man.
Using the four others cluelessness, she sends the sword in her hand flying into the third guy, and trusting her strength, she smashes the head of the second into the wall, leaving spiderweb like marks behind and left behind pure viscera.
She was a bit stunned at her strength but regained herself when she noticed the flying sword that dealt with the second guy fly past her to deal with the fourth.
By this time, the guards on the right noticed her, and one began to run to most likely inform the other, while the rest, ten this time, started to get ready to unsheathe their swords.
The fourth guy, being informed too late, was quickly killed, while the fifth got into a defensive stance.
So, she sent the free sword at him and ran with it.
He deflected the sword and her punch, however sadly for him, he didn't realize the sword did an instant 360 and stabbed him through the chest, and the other sword came in using his surprise and got his head.
Now, the guards have their swords out and are ready to fight.
Due to her current curiosity though, she has a sword slice the stone walls but they get stopped but leave a obvious chip in them.
'Seems like it may be one more level.'
She glances at the requirements and notes that she now needs 40 kills.
'That I can do.'
She then focuses back at the guards, and smirks at them being forced to come one by one.
Her smirk turns into a smile as she says, "bring it on!"