‘There can't be much to this place, eventually, the map will end or I'm in some AI-generated area that keeps creating content as I go along?’ Eric's thoughts distracted him as he walked through the woods while following the animal trail. Taking less and less attention to his surroundings, Eric again gets lost in thought. ‘I've played around with the interface to learn how to use it. I learned enough to know that it can only give me so much knowledge that I either have to encounter an item or creature enough times to get more and more information regarding it.’
Stopping quickly, Eric looked up at the new notification in his Vision.
Extremely high mana density detected!
Looking around him, Eric was alert, making sure nothing was going to attack him. Trying to force a perception check of the game he thought he was in only caused another interface notification to come to his vision.
Error, exposure to extremely high mana density is increasing.
Continued exposure may cause mutations, injury, or even death.
Thinking of the system, Eric retraced his steps backward until the pulsing message of high mana density stopped pulsing and faded from his vision. Looking around, Eric was hoping to use something to identify the edge of the mana density zone he accidentally discovered. Luckily, he found a stick on the ground, Eric grabbed the stick and tried finding the border of the dense mana that caused the interface to pulse a warning to him.
Retracing his steps, he used the stick to draw a makeshift line in the dirt path at the edge of the dense mana location. The surrounding area had little to no brush or foliage at ground level. As if not fully acknowledging the woods he was walking through, Eric had recognized the smell of pine, and the easily recognizable sight of pine needles turned rusty red on the ground had kept many of the normal foliage of the woods back.
Taking the blessing silently, Eric walked in a circle using the interface's warning of the dense mana to trace an oddly shaped oval where the dense mana packet was located. After spending half an hour tracing the ground with his stick, Eric took a look and noticed how large the packet of dense mana was. This wasn't something he would have normally avoided, it was thicker than it was wide, and he followed the path for roughly 10 minutes before the trail Eric was originally following veered off to the right and out of the dense mana.
Tossing the stick into the area Eric marked for the boundary of the dense mana, he returned to the worn trail and looked back at the marked area of the dense mana again. Trying to once again trigger a perception check, a feature of a game that Eric still believed he was playing.
After a moment of feeling like failure had taken the moment, Eric turned around and took half a step onto the worn path as he noticed an individual standing ahead of him on the trail, with two of the large squirrels hanging by their tails in the individual's left hand.
The individual in front of him looked at Eric with quick measure and half nodded, half pointed with his right hand towards Eric. "What were you doing just now?" a man's voice asked.
Eric looked at the man and then back at where the dense mana area was for a quick second. "I..," Eric paused trying to think of the words he would say as he had no idea if this man knew what mana was, if he was a player, NPC, or something else entirely.
Eric chose to make the safe gamble.
"I was marking a dangerous area so I wouldn't accidentally walk into it again," Eric stated as calmly as he could, failing to do so and letting some confusion and concern escape into his tone.
"How is it dangerous?" The man asked looking past Eric and then back into Eric's eyes as he spoke again, "The dangers here are many, but an empty area here in the woods wouldn't be much unless there was a nest?"
"Nest? No, I don't think there is a nest," Eric admitted, confused.
"Then why," the man paused gently shaking his head and sliding a hood off of it exposing his long dark brown hair with strands of silver and grey streaking from his temples. Eric took note of the man's features as he waited for the man to finish staring off into the distance. His face looked worn and aged, possibly in his mid to late 40's with hair just past his shoulders but brought in a ponytail behind his head. The hood was a dark green cloth that looked like wool. The rest of the man was covered in browns and dark greens of someone you would see at a ren festival if he wanted to look like a mix between the cartoon-dressed Robin Hood and a fantasy ranger from those hobbit movies. On his left hip were sheathed two daggers and as the man turned toward the right a little to look quickly behind himself, Eric thought he saw a quiver and longbow.
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Turning and looking back at Eric, the man spoke again, "Look I don't recognize you, are you from the village near the pillars, or down at the waterfall?
"Um.. neither, I didn't know there were villages out here," Eric stated as he wondered how many places people were living and how many people could be in this new world he found himself not long ago.
"Then why are you out here? Do you have a death wish boy?" the older man asked, letting his amused confusion show on his face.
Eric opened his mouth in confusion as his brow tightened for a second. "No, but it seems there are plenty of things that have been trying to eat me as I have been trying to figure out where I am. If you don't mind." Eric gestured to their surroundings, "Could you tell me where we are?"
"Ha!" The man half laughed as his face turned serious. "You are lost? You are lucky you haven't been eaten then, you don't have much but scraps of hide for clothes and a dagger. How did you survive out here?"
"With luck, it seems." Eric shrugged.
The man smiled and let out a short laugh. "Well come with me if ya want, and we can get you some real clothes and a meal." The man turned and started walking down the worn path.
Eric smiled and followed.
———
The walk back to the man’s village took the two a little over an hour as they paced themselves along the worn path as it curved and weaved between the trees. Some parts of the path looked more worn, and others looked fresh as they walked around areas that hinted at possible danger as they passed them.
He had the chance to learn more about the area and the new face, the first person Eric had seen since before he woke up in the sewers to be chased by rats and a crocodile.
“Thanks for the help,” Eric said as he unwillingly let a little anxiety out in his words.
Glancing towards Eric, the man half nodded, “I’m just a hunter, so I can’t help against a goblin squad, but random beasts that live and hunt around here aren’t anything I am worried about. With your looks and..” The man paused his walking and looked at Eric, up and down as if quickly judging him for his lack of proper clothing.
“With your attire, I doubt you would last much longer than a lost child.” The man said as he resumed walking, following the path.
“Well, thanks anyways, I’ve been stuck eating those large rabbits and squirrels, and even had a couple of wolves to practice my knife skills on,” Eric stated, half showing off and half amused he hasn’t died already.
It was always something that seemed to cause challenges and difficulties for Eric. For as long as he could remember he had to deal with heartache, pain, and life-or-death challenges. From losing his parents as a child to being bullied in school, to being chased and bitten by nearly every creature he encountered since waking up in this new world he found himself.
At least after he got to high school Eric felt like things were going to go well for him. His life didn’t do so swell though and his thoughts of his past were interrupted as he heard faint sounds of voices.
The man spoke up as they rounded a turn and both Eric and himself were able to see the woods end to a clearing with a makeshift fence of twigs and half-cut logs running around a small village.
“Here we are, welcome to where I call home, Scentbell,” The man said as he paused at the edge of the wood line.
Eric took the sight in. The village looked larger than he would have thought. Easily counting 12, 20, no 30 buildings of sticks, mud, and stone. Huts, a longhouse, and a few larger buildings that looked to be stables or barns. Kids, women, and men all milling about doing their choirs, talking, or playing. From the edge of the woods to the village was just over 40 feet before the fence was blocking and providing safety for the villagers inside.
Thinking about the creatures that Eric had encountered so far made him half relieved he was going to be finding himself in a place where he could, or possibly, get a proper night’s sleep.
From where they stood, Eric could hear the sounds of what he believed to be chickens but as he saw a few of the poultry animals roaming about he realized they were bigger, at least twice the size of a normal chicken. They looked like smaller turkeys but had black and white feathers with looks just like a chicken, but hard-looking eyes and claws that could rip flesh from a man or a child if they got too close.
Yet Eric could see a little girl, maybe 12 years old, by the way she looked, leave a small hut where she was holding a wicker-like basket with much larger eggs than a chicken could produce. They were a little bigger than duck eggs from the distance he was from the girl as she reached a smaller fence line and opened a small gate before closing it quickly behind her as she took a quick step out of the chicken pin.
Surprise was easily showing on Eric’s face as he saw not a single evil-looking chicken glance at the girl, they were all happily walking around or pecking at the ground. Oddly to Eric’s surprise, as he was getting more and more surprised as he watched, he was able to hear sounds from the evil-looking chickens that sounded just like the chickens from Earth.
“Wow, they had to make them big!” Eric said surprised as he thought out loud, letting his bad habit make itself known in front of the man that was helping him get to a safe place for the night.
“Yea, those are young, the adult birds are in a different pin.”
Eric looked at the man as he saw the amusement grow more pronounced as he observed the surprise and wonder on Eric’s face.
“I take it you aren’t from around here, where did you live, the mountains?” The older man asked as he stared at Eric.
“We need to get going, I have to drop these off at the butcher’s place so we can get good material from them before they spoil.”
Eric looked at the squirrels the man was holding and nodded at him. “Sounds great!” Eric said, causing the man to smile again.
Taking the chance to get to the village for safety was complete, and Eric just needed some clothes now.
‘I wonder if the clothes here are just as itchy as the hide or worse?’ Eric thought to himself as he started following the man once again toward the village.