Frostbound

I was furious and could barely stop myself from unsheathing my sword and taking this pompous asshole's head off.

Not only did he deny us aid, but he also tried to ask for compensation for using their pylon. All we were trying to do was use the points we earned from hunting the beasts in the forest to buy food.

Three factions had already turned us down but none of them were as rude as this asshole. He took what little power he had gotten and it went straight to his head. I was higher level than him and could kill him easily, but that wouldn't help matters.

I could feel the urge to take my anger out on him rising as more words oozed out of his mouth. If this went on any longer, I might not be able to hold myself back.

All the previous groups were polite and at least let us use their pylons, but this guy wanted to charge us a fee just for using it. One group even repaired all of our gear for us before we went on our way.

That one was particularly heart-wrenching. I thought we had finally found a faction that would take us in after a week of traveling, but in the end, they came to the same conclusion as all the rest. The elder gentleman that I spoke with was civil at least, much better than this guy.

The elderly gentleman I spoke to must have been an old grandpa before the system came. It was odd to see the effects that stats had on old age, I wasn't as young as I used to be but my body felt better than ever and I was only middle aged. Late middle aged, but still middle aged.

He came with a group of the strongest people that I'd seen thus far in the tutorial. Two people in particular stood out and I could still remember the feeling that they gave off, seemingly subconsciously. They were both level 22 and had a presence to them that I couldn't ignore. The reason I think it was a subconscious aura was because they didn't seem to be doing it on purpose.

The blacksmith in particular was very polite and decent to talk to, yet the feeling persisted throughout the conversation. It was like facing down one of the monsters during the waves. No one else in our group felt it but I knew it was there. I wasn't crazy.

We had been traveling for a while by then and I was running on fumes so that could have been it, but I didn't think so. All of the walking, along with making sure nobody fell behind, added to the job of keeping everyone safe. I didn't know how I was still going. Rebecca, my wife, was a bastion to lean on. If she wasn't here I didn't know what I would have done.

After the strong group and older man went back to discuss the request amongst themselves I thought we had a decent chance of getting approval. They seemed like nice people and their camp looked pristine. Their wall in particular stood out and looked way different than the one that was around our camp. It must have been upgraded or something.