IiS Chapter 05 (Patreon)

The changes were subtle but still noticeable. The world was just more realistic as Ralof and I made our way through the cave system. Darkness, the world didn’t have perfect lighting for everything so Ralof had to walk through the cave carrying a torch while I could just barely see. All elves had low-light vision, orcs possibly did and it was enough for me to be able to make out shapes in the dark. It wasn’t as good as Khajiit’s dark vision but still better than what a pure Nord could see.

A large crowd is fighting and with my and Ralof’s intervention, we quickly flip it in the Stormcloak’s favor. Looting the bodies I pick up a bow and arrow as well as another five sets of clothes to sell later with the six other sets I took off the imperials I had killed so far. The living Stormcloaks needed to stop and catch their breath and Ralof told them we’d scout the rest of the tunnel by ourselves. I lowered the drawbridge before heading left to get the loot from the dead end. Cold, I could tell if I picked a race not attuned to this cold weather it would have been a nightmare to just survive in Skyrim let alone kill a dragon. 

The quarter Nord blood in my veins kept me warm enough not to freeze to death as my feet were soaked traveling through the ankle-high water. The imperials would need to build a campfire at the end or they’d risk exposure or frostbite. My Nord blood was enough to lessen the effect so they were just an annoyance instead of a complete hindrance that would stop me from functioning if I didn’t warm myself up.

I took everything not nailed to the floor into my storage. Pulling out a bow I fuck up the spiders before they make it to me and collect their poison applying it to my arrows. Taking aim I fire at the bear, this was clearly another difference from the game becoming real life. Bears… Were fucking huge and terrifying. The little tiny baby-sized bear I remember in the game was no longer there, instead, it was a ton of murder sunbathing.

If the bear wasn’t riddled with wounds with a dozen imperial corpses around him then this would have been the end of my journey as I fired before I really got a good look at him. Thankfully the weakened bear was about as strong as the bear from the game was, so they weakened it through the circumstance to make it the same difficulty of the game… I doubted they’d do that with every single bear and I just got really lucky they weakened this one or I’d have had to run back into the cave screaming while firing and hoping it didn’t catch me before Ralof.

It only took a few more well-placed arrows before it fell defeated, still, the sheer size difference was truly terrifying, I thought of perhaps storing carcasses for food but it would be far too much to fit into my storage just by itself. I cut off a large section of its fur while also taking a chunk of its meat for later if I couldn’t find anything else. If this was like real life I would have to thoroughly cook the meat as bears were normally riddled with parasites.

Making our way out felt nostalgic. I remember this as where the game actually began. Ralof mentioned heading to his hometown and I separated from him heading left towards the bandit camp to get the treasure map. This time before I fired I noticed… There were two more bandits than normal. The world wasn’t the same, it was clear with Helgen but the world was more full than the game.

That meant more enemies and if I planned to fight my way to Alduin alone I would be quickly overwhelmed. For now, they were shitty bandits. A few extra bandits wouldn’t make much of a difference as long as I played it smart. Firing off a few arrows before they noticed, I took cover weaving in and out from behind a few trees. The two bandits who charged at me full speed weren’t expecting me to drop the bow and conjure a sword out of thin air. The one out front impaled himself and I kicked him off my greatsword before cleaving the other's stunned head off his shoulders.

I kept my guard up waiting for the last bandit to fire an arrow or spell but nothing came. I look at the encampment and see nothing I couldn’t help but curse. “Shit, the fucker ran.” I doubted anything would come from it right now but it was something to think of in the future. My enemies wouldn’t fight me to the death if they were cowardly, they could run and would run if given the chance. That also meant they could go for help and make an outnumbered fight even worse as they brought reinforcements.

The Thalmor soldier was still dead on the ground near the shrine that I touched. I felt no changes but if it was accurate to the game I just got an eight-hour buff. Making my way back, I touch the mage standing stone. The lover was better for builds that leveled everything like I planned to do but for now, mage would be fine until I went to power-level smithing or a melee weapon. Getting the circlet that let me use two standing stones at the same time was something I needed to work on sooner rather than later.

Making it to the first bandit cave this was the first clear sign of changes between the world I was sent to and the video game. The cave was full, absolutely full of bandits. The trap wasn’t set but that was because they didn’t need traps to deter enemies with their sheer numbers. The first room was eight men putting on armor, I heard more running from deeper in the cave towards them. What I thought would be a quick trip now had them getting prepared as the single bandit that fled warned them. I heard the leader talking. “What do you mean a single man wiped out the lookouts watching Helgen? There were five of you!”

The captain struck the noticeably smaller man. Something else stood out to me as I looked at the group, it was just the sheer difference in them than you could get in a Skyrim playthrough. The leader was a tall fat man with a steel set of armor that looked like it was on the verge of falling apart while the smaller man was wearing ragged clothes instead of armor.

Most were wearing clothes instead of armor, the main reason is armor fucking sucks to wear. It’s heavy and chaffed, if you knew you were going to fight then you would wear it but inside a cave, you thought you were safe in why would you ever bother? Now they were putting on the few sets of leather armor that was near the entrance. I pulled out the magic spell I learned from the caged mage and as my hand started to glow with magic I couldn’t help but stare at it for a second before looking at the group.

The magic was just bright enough to give me away if I was visible, hugging the wall I targeted the leader first. Something else I suspected to be different was that if I burned someone's skin off their total health might never cap out. Some injuries I received or dealt with would never recover and melting someone's skin off was something I doubted anyone could heal from. I burned the bandit leader for three seconds as they all stared in shock that I outright attacked a group as large as their own.

The bandit leader's shock finally faded as he began to scream, his skin melted off and his clothes burned and fused to his skin. The moment I saw the two archers of the group draw their bows back to fire I ran out of the cave. The charred leader was still alive but if they did chase me I could fight them much more easily out in the open. If they weren’t a coordinated team, all I had to do was keep running and they would separate naturally giving me time to attack the front group while the group from behind prepared to fire at me.

Only a single reckless guy came charging out of the cave at me and I put a sword into his gut. It was another thing that they couldn’t really portray in the games. The… Inexperience that most people had when it came to really fighting. The Nord just charged at me and I had several different ways to kill him besides stabbing him with my weapon that had longer reach. My ability to rapidly change my weapons was a complete game-changer in getting my enemies to underestimate me. With that, I made my way to Riverwood. I’d have to come back when the bandits weren’t expecting me.