Oliver awoke to the sound of a monsters cry, it's echo seeming to shake the forest around him as he looked around for his weapons, seeing the scar on his leg through a torn part of his pants as he picked himself up. There he was, one of the key leaders of an army that reshaped his country for the better and a person who always worked in aiding others, now out and about hunting as if he was some old retired Texan. However, it showed that he could still do some good with his career, given the past few months after he had built his house he found requests for killing certain creatures harming travelers and traders, getting himself his own way of making coin anonymously. Now here he was a year later, looking for a large beast that had taken residence near the area he had appeared and was terrorizing travelling merchants, sometimes leaving limbs in the process of its hunt, putting a high bounty on them to ensure safety for travellers. Oliver smiled as he picked up his bow and quiver, setting his quiver on his right side as he started recalling some of the history he had read through back at his home.

'Cao Cao had taken to hunting and reading after he retired from his duties as a guard commander of the north part of the capital and a prefect, and then went out of retirement and became one of the greatest generals of his time. Could say I'm taking his route in an opposite fashion...' Oliver thought as he picked up a small hunting knife from where it was resting, having used it the last night to make some arrows from the ones he had broken, before he it in it's sheath and started walking over to the direction he had heard the sounds. He stepped over stray branches and twigs as he kept his gaze on his surroundings, his hand resting on his arrows from his prior experiences with the beasts in the area. He had learned more about the land from Reginhard's observation of the terrain, and gained confirmation of his thoughts of the place being the world he had anticipated, having read through the story and seeing the Empire's seal enough times to not mark it as an impossibility. He could practically hear the entity whispering in his head smugly about it 'They'd probably say something like: well, when you yourself have the power to travel into alternate realities after planning on the possibility of having to leave to one, it shouldn't be surprising that something like this is possible.'

He heard the monsters cry again, this time resounding with a second similar cry as he heard multiple shouts that were clearly human as he changed to a sprint, his hand soon grabbing one of his arrows as he moved through the trees and jumped over some fallen logs as he found himself amidst what he could consider to be it's path, soon finding himself on the trail in between Emerial and Reginald, one of the many trade partners with the town. There he found two large danger beasts that stood around sixteen to seventeen feet on four legs from his view of them, their claws long and sharp with their tails seeming to have a scorpions tail, but with the bodies of bears and their heads unable to be viewed from where he stood. In front of them, however, were a group of soldiers that still looked surprised by the attack, a dozen or so strewn around the animals with few still having their limbs attached. Oliver's gaze looked to the banner they were carrying, soon seeing the same banner that hung on the castle gates, making his eyes turn stern as he grabbed one more arrow from his quiver and kept them in his bow hand as he aimed his own arrow to the beast on his left, his mind going back to the survival skills his dad's friend taught him.

'Scorpions were poisonous and quick to sting anything it could call a prey or enemy, but with these creatures the tail probably works against larger danger beasts and could be easily fatal to humans from the puncture wound alone.' Oliver thought as he aimed his arrow at the stomach of one of the bears, moving to the side as one of the soldiers noticed him. he also noticed a severed arm with a two foot steel shield that held a small dent in it strewn a yard beside him, a sword right by his feet as he lightly stepped to it. 'These creatures have good traits, but should be slow with their bodies. I only need to kill them before any more problems are caused or distract them long enough for the soldiers to reform and manage proper formations, that way they can help if they need to.'

With his mind set on his plan, he released the arrow and quickly grabbed the second one in his hand as he switched targets to the second monster within a small gap of three seconds, soon dropping to grab the sword beside him and sprinting to the shield as he dropped his bow. The first arrow hit its mark, going deep enough to where only the feathers were visible as it cried out in clear pain, the second coming off slightly and only hitting the upper back of the second beast, stopping only halfway in as the creature grunted from the sudden attack as the soldiers backed up, both turning to Oliver as he grabbed the shield and worked on pulling the fingers of the hand off of the shields guard as the second beast sprinted for him, the first already beginning to bleed out as it looked at Oliver enraged.

Oliver finally managed to pull the shield free as he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a swipe from the beast as he put his hand through the handle of the shield, coming back up and lifting it to block the creatures stinger. His eyes finally caught a clear glimpse of it's face, the features clearly being that of a wolf, making him grow more serious now that he knew the traits as he took a defensive stance, his shield raised and his sword angled to where it could come from either under or over the shield as the two began circling each other. There was then the sound of hooves as the two were circling before an armored woman rode up to the back, her armor's features clearly that of a general as she looked at what was happening.

"Lass, I'd suggest you go after that other one before it finally decides to not care about that wound I inflicted and go on a mad rampage." Oliver shouted over to her as he kept his gaze on the beast, which in turn tried to strike at him with it's tail again as he angled the shield to push it to the side, soon slicing upward and chipping off the stinger just as it was reeling back to it's position. This caused the beast to cry out as Oliver took the chance to run forward and attempt to slash at its legs, the creature in turn moving back as the the woman looked to the other beast, who had now finally come out of it's pain and was looking at its attacker enraged.

The woman quickly drew her sword, clicking her heels into her horse while the creature crouched for a charge before she rode past it's gaze, slashing her blade up and through it's neck and severing the head as Oliver dodged another attack from his own beast and took the opportunity to slash the right leg of the beast, giving him enough leeway to spin with the blade's slash as the beast wobbled from the sudden cut and stab up into the creature's chest, the beast beginning to scream in pain as Oliver's blade went through before he twisted the blade, blood coming down Oliver's sword and onto his arms as he pushed it to the side, the beast dying as it went with the push. The soldiers were still standing there dumbfounded as the woman rode forward to Oliver, cleaning her blade with a small cloth while she looked at him.

"You acted rather stupidly in attacking two creatures that had obviously cut through a good deal of my men." the woman spoke, Oliver only sighing in response as he dropped the shield in his left hand and stretched both hands behind his back, getting a few good pops from them as he felt the muscles he had used have a familiar burn to them. Now that Oliver could get a good look at her, he saw that her hair was a clean black that had parts of it reflecting the sunlight, making her look more as a figurehead than a general, though the stern gaze from her eyes proved otherwise, their gaze topped with their color as blue as the sky. "How did you end up over here along this path anyway?"

"I followed the sounds of death, found a key position of an ambush and took it, expecting your soldiers to have the knowledge to form up in groups and use either spears or arrows to try dealing with them." Oliver responded as he lowered his arms, soon turning to the monster as he looked at it's body structure and checked the lower area he had stabbed into, the blade still glinting in the beasts chest. He then turned and walked over to the second creature, kneeling down to look for any differences as the soldiers murmured in front of him. "The dead should be mourned, but they were hopefully the last to fall to these beasts, given these two were both male and more than likely didn't have anyone to breed with."

"Truly..." the woman spoke before she looked at the bodies in front of her troops. Oliver watched as the warrior closed her eyes for a short time before opening them, staring dead at her troops as she sheathed her blade, her voice resounding through the area. "We continue our march to Emerial, where we'll ask the guards in the barracks to come take the dead! Six of you will stay here and ensure nothing happens to the bodies."

With that said Oliver looked over to find five soldiers, their helmets hiding their faces, step out from the front line, their eyes grave from the deaths they more than likely saw, a sixth soon stepping forward from far back and looking around it in shock. "You'll stay here and help them return to the town, understood." The woman spoke as Oliver looked up, nodding as he pulled his bag off of his back and took out a skinning knife.

"I'll be heading back in the same direction anyway." Oliver spoke as he stabbed his blade into the creature while the soldiers reformed and marched around the bodies. The general then nodded before she turned and rode forward, more than likely to keep the men up front with decent morale as the six others moved to the side of the road, Oliver finishing his cut through it and beginning to take the skin off of it as the soldiers passed, some murmuring as he kept his gaze on his work. When the soldiers finally passed and had taken a turn to Emerial, one of the soldiers walked up to Oliver as he took a quick break to let the body bleed out.

"You seem to have gotten accustomed to your new trade, Oliver." the volunteer spoke in a feminine voice, making Oliver smile as he turned to her.

"And a soldiers outfit doesn't make you look any different from the next, Serphia." Oliver replied before the soldier took off her helmet, revealing the guard he had first met when he arrived here. She had occasional run ins with him while he was eating at the bar, and had eventually become his friend and a form of teacher about this world for him on the things his abilities couldn't show him. "War doesn't seem to have changed you, though."

"Well amazingly we didn't have to do much fighting, we managed to surround and quickly defeat any enemy armies without much of a fight, and I was working reconnaissance when there was any major fights." Serphia replied, soon seeing the dagger on his belt. "Still holding that dagger anywhere you go, then?"

"Old habits die hard." Oliver replied as he cleaned the skinning blade off on his shirt, seeing as the sleeves and chest area were already stained with the same blood anyway. "So then, have you been training in what I showed you?"

"Yes sir, been moving rocks into a circle from one side of the camp to the other, and it caught the generals interest in what I was doing." Serphia spoke, reminding Oliver of the day she had left while she changed her tone to a more worried one. "Did anyone try to mess with Sylphy while I was away?"

"Not that I've seen, and she normally comes to my house to tell me about the letters you send her." Oliver replied smiling, Serphia looking almost ecstatic when she heard before she remembered the bodies around them and looked over at one of the bodies, a soldier's head in a pool of blood while the right eye hole had the clear dent of a stinger. Oliver only sighed as he saw where she was staring. "There are some times you can't stop deaths, Serphia, you have to remember that. The fact these creatures are dead means their deaths weren't in vain, they stopped a larger number of bodies from piling up."

"Excuse me, but what right do you have to say their deaths make sense?" came one of the soldiers, soon making Oliver look at him as the man stood up and walked forward.

"I never said it made sense, I only said that it ended up serving purpose." Oliver spoke as he looked back at the bodies, the man stopping around a few feet behind him. "If you only look at the cause of their deaths, you see it as meaningless, but if you see it at the grand scale of things, you see it has a purpose that has prolonged effects. If it was battle, you'd see more meaningless deaths from stupid tacticians than the way nature acts."

"Don't worry about what that guy's saying, he's only a hunter." one of the other soldiers shouted to the volunteer that had gotten up, who just seethed and walked back to the group, who had begun to talk while Serphia looked at them a bit peeved.

"Don't let what people say rent space in your head, especially if it's not about you, otherwise you let them win." Oliver spoke as he kneeled back down to the creature in front of him, making Serphia look back at him confused as he continued his cutting through the creature's skin. "Besides, I rather like the title I have at the moment, though the insults from some higher classes are rather odd. Not one insult calling me a bloodhound yet, which was one of the few things I was looking forward to."

"I still don't get your way of thinking, though with your view on things I'm not complaining." Serphia spoke as Oliver began to cut up and around the upper legs of the creature, keeping an eye on the bodies as he wandered back into thought.

-eight months ago-

Oliver was returning to town for the first time this month, this time with a small cart with three human sized reptiles to sell that had a similar look to small dragons, though each held feathers on their wings and parts of their back instead of the webbing he had normally seen. As he was passing the bar he had worked at with Oric, he saw three royally armored soldiers harassing one of the waitresses, making him sigh as he moved his cart to be beside the window, placing his hand beside his dagger's sheath as he walked into the bar to see Oric starting to walk over to deal with the three. Once he saw Oliver, however, he stopped and only nodded as Oliver stared over at him, soon turning back to the soldiers as he whispered to one of the waiters, who ran out of the bar as soon as Oric was staring back at the three.

"Excuse me, but your coat of arms doesn't allow you to do as you please here." Oliver spoke, his gaze scanning the armor that they wore. Though their pauldrons were steel plate, their gloves were leather and their chest protection was chainmail, meaning that heavy blows could still hit them hard. The three men just continued what they were doing, one of them even reaching for the waitress before Oliver grabbed the man's arm and slammed it on the table, causing the three to look at him as the waitress left the table quickly. "Like I said, your coat of arms doesn't give you the right to do as you please. If you continue this behavior then we'll have to ask you to leave."

"Just who do you think you're talking to?" one of the soldiers spoke as the waiter returned with three of the guards, who just looked over in shock as the three men stood up staring at Oliver. He could understand why, though; the men bore the crest of the elite soldiers, so they were supposed to be above even the guards of the city. From what he had heard, however, some of the men only acted elite around their general and caused havoc in the city on small occasions, and though the general had managed to deal with most of the ones he knew of, there were still some that caused trouble. "We're the Dragon guard, the king's elite soldiers. Our coat of arms is among the highest law."

"Even furthering your own idiocy, otherwise you would show honor to the coat you bear on your chest." Oliver replied as he spoke, making one of the men clench his fist as he looked him dead in the eye, Oliver's glare making the man shake from its pressure. "Now if you really want to fight me over this, then you can do so outside. If not, show honor to your king and act like proper soldiers."

With that one of the guys to his right had it and tried to punch him, causing Oliver to simply step back as he lifted his hand and grabbed the man's arm, soon pulling him further than he intended before he slammed straight into the table across from him, causing some of the people to get up and move out of the tavern as Oric walked to the guards, who were just staring at the events in silence. the man to Oliver's left tried to kick his shin, to which he just quick stepped back while the third man kept his daze from the stare Oliver had given him, the second guy soon trying to kick Oliver again before he grabbed a nearby chair and slid it in the way, causing the man to yell as his shin hit the wooden surface of it.

"Well then, I guess that's a no to honor?" Oliver asked as the third man saw the dagger, soon smirking as he looked at the guards.

"Arrest this man for resisting a guard with an open weapon." the man spoke, making the three look at each other confused while Oliver smirked.

"Really, with what weapon?" Oliver spoke as he picked up his dagger by it's sheath, sliding it off of his belt. "This can't be drawn."

"We'll see." the man spoke as he drew his blade, soon followed by some shouting as Serphia pushed through the crowd that had started to gather in front of the tavern, looking at what was happening while the other two guys were going for their own weapons.

"Oric, those monsters out front are for your stew, if you're interested in making it." Oliver spoke as he set his dagger on the bar, looking over to Serphia as he smiled. "Hey, does it count as resisting arrest if they started the fight?"

"No, but it is considered a crime punishable by death if you go using a weapon against them or go killing them." Serphia replied in shock as Oliver rolled his sleeves back, sighing as his gaze changed from it's amused gleam to a far more serious glare that seemed to cause some people watching to feel his presence. the three men soon circled him as he kept his gaze on each and their footing, their weapons held poorly with only one hand when they were clearly two handed weapons.

"So I'm free to fight them with hand to hand so long as I don't take their swords from them?" Oliver asked as he cracked his knuckles, Serphia soon nodding before he turned back to the three and took an attack stance, the three soldiers already circled around him as he analyzed their stances, smirking as he stood back up and looked at them. "Wait, you guys are seriously calling yourselves elite with those stances? Wow, you really are pathetic."

That seemed to push the man on his left over the edge as he charged at him and swung his blade in an upward side slash, to which Oliver ducked under and sweep-kicked his legs from under him, using the momentum to slide over to the next guy to his right and smashing his fist into the man's stomach. He then looked over to the next guy, who had already stepped forward and tried to slash down on him before Oliver stood directly in front of the guy, pushing him back to their table where he bounced off instead of taking the table with him. 'Oric, you really knew where to buy these things.' Oliver thought as he noticed that neither that table or the other one had budged when they were hit, but his thoughts were cut short as he turned to see the man he had punched back up and drawing his blade back to strike him.

Oliver instinctively spun counter clockwise, living his left foot and smashing it straight into the man's chest, smashing him back into a chair right beside the door, now having a larger crowd watching while he walked over and grabbed some of the plates by one of the tables, soon ducking from another blade swipe from the soldier he had pushed onto the table as he noticed the man he had hit the start of the fight lying unconscious, his head having hit the chair beside him, though it didn't seem to be fatal from the small bruise starting up. Oliver set the dishes on the bar as the last soldier tried to smash the hilt of his blade on his head before he spun around and grabbed the man by his throat, lifting the man up in the air as his eyes had a faint red glow around them.

"If you're done acting like a child, the exit's over there." Oliver spoke in a clear annoyance as he tossed the man to the door, who just got back up and readied his blade as he looked at Oliver in fear, seeing the glow in his eyes as Oliver took a stance in case the man decided to attack.

"Cease this fighting immediately!" came a voice a bit behind the crowd, snapping the man and the crowd out of the fight as Oliver's gaze changed back, soon looking past the guards to find a man walk past them that seemed to tower over everyone, his armor full steel plate with the dragon crest engraved upon it. "Is this how you treat an unarmed civilian, soldier? Drawing your blade in a public area?"

"General." the man spoke as he kneeled, his gaze on the ground. "This man had readied a weapon to fight us with, and we were only trying to kill him as given the rights."

"That is a fabrication of the truth, he didn't draw or grab any weapon." came Oric, which the man looked over to before Oric pointed to his dagger. "That's the only weapon I know him having outside of some broken ones he keeps at his home, and he's even said that it can't be drawn, it's only for decoration."

The general's gaze then looked to the dagger before returning to Oliver. "May I?" the general spoke before Oliver nodded, raising his left hand to it as an open statement as the general walked over and grabbed the sheath, soon gripping the hilt before pulling at it, his arms soon shaking as the sheath remained in place, not budging an inch. The general stopped and looked at it with stern eyes, turned his head and nodded to Oliver as he released his grip on the blade. He then turned to the man as the other one Oliver had kicked slumped over, finally unconscious from the kick. "You and your friends here will be coming to the barracks immediately to be stripped of your ranks and privileges, along with any right to bear a blade in this city. Take them to the barracks and throw them in the cells."

The guards behind him then nodded and moved fast to follow orders, Serphia looking at Oliver in shock as the general walked to him, handing his dagger over. "Quite a strange blade you have here, but it's weight feels like it's perfectly balanced." the general spoke as Oliver took it. "It felt as if it was preventing me from drawing it."

"That's what shadow-forged weapons do, depending on what they're made for." Oliver spoke, his gaze on the sheath as he tugged at the dagger, his own tug useless as he set it on his belt. "In the case of this one, it can't be drawn outside of night, or when the user feels they require it most, and even then it can't cut through anything."

"A strange weapon description, but with the distance between you and it by the time I came here, along with the heat of the hilt, it's obvious you didn't use it." the general spoke as he turned and saw Serphia still standing there, a few more guards that had come in from the crowd now walking through and grabbing the two unconscious soldiers and the only conscious one and dragging them off. The man only walked up to her, his form towering over her as Serphia looked up at him. "From what I heard from a waiter, a blonde haired girl that belongs to the guard barracks gave this man the advice on the weapon code, correct? Keep up the work you're doing."

"Sir." Serphia replied as she stood in attention, the general only nodding as the crowd followed the arrested soldiers before he walked out, Oliver sighing as he sat back in the chair behind him and Oric took a look at the creatures he brought, Serphia walking to him as he looked at the ceiling. "How did you learn to fight like that?"

"I trained in martial arts with my father, his training dealing with me facing multiple enemies instead of a traditional one on one fight outside of a twenty round match." Oliver spoke as he remembered the times he had trained with his father soon after he had told him of his deal with the raven, shuddering from the memories of his training going into his head before he looked at Serphia, who seemed to be shaking as she looked down at the ground under her, making his gaze turn serious. "What is it?"

"Is it possible if you'd be willing in taking on students?" Serphia asked as she looked up at him, Oliver smirking as he looked over at her, soon standing up and walking past to head to Oric.

"Tell you what, you come to my home sometime with determination in your eyes and an open mind, I'll consider it." Oliver replied, Serphia looking over to him in shock as he left out the door, soon turning to Oric so he could see to getting a deal on the monsters.


Alright, now I've hit the chapters I've already written, so expect much longer chapters here on in that range from 3,000-5,000+

As always, I'm hoping to hear something from people on how to make the story better or in correcting grammar mistakes, but until then I'll be working on the chapters that are long past this one.

This is Ron, signing off-wait, why the hell do I do this?