Yavneck woke up with the feeling of something strapped around the wrist of his left hand, he sat up and pushed the sheets aside and saw a basic version of a magical prosthetic at the end of his arm.

It was a four-clawed thing, with three long, hook-like fingers placed from top to bottom instead of the side to side of a regular human hand; three fingers were on the top while a single digit rests at the bottom. He tested their movement and saw that all of them moved up and down to mime the movement of a jaw, and that little test told Yavneck all he needed to know about the dexterity of the prosthetic- which is to say that there isn’t any, for all intents and purposes, the metal “hand” that has replaced Yavneck’s original one is more akin to an industrial claw.

And couple that with the crude enchantments that the thing no doubt has and Yavneck's sure that he would be tempted to replace this thing with something better by the end of the first week. Well, he is stuck in a small village without any excitement so what better time to learn about crafting and enchanting items other than the next few days?

He’d make himself a prosthetic arm soon enough.

For now though, he could work with this, beggars can't be choosers after all, and having a hand is better than having none at all.

Yavneck slowly moved his legs to the side and let his feet dangle at the edge of the bed while his eyes looked around the floor to spot anything that can be considered shoes or even slippers, when he didn't find any, Yavneck pushed himself off the bed and got on the ground bare footed.

The feeling of the wooden floor touching his newly healed soles was... Numb? Odd? Ticklish- that was the right word to use, his feet felt raw and touching something with them sent small jolts of electricity up his spine. Yavneck refused to smile despite each of his steps giving him the temptation to do so, and he swallowed down the chuckles that went up his throat as he moved around the house in search of anything that resembled a pair of boots.

Eventually, he did find something; his old Port hanging on a clothes rack to the left of the door, he pulled it off and shoved his hand inside to check the contents and to his surprise, nothing went missing, not his coins, not his clothes, and not the small arsenal of two wands that he kept in reserve. More importantly though, the spare clothes that he had gotten from the people that he robbed when he was a bandit were also here, all of them were of decent quality- which really is the only type of quality that Yavneck had made sure to grab whenever he joined his fellow bandits on looting their victims of the week.

And, like he had intended when he decided to hoard clothes, he was spoiled for choice when it came to what he wanted to wear.

Eventually, Yavneck had chosen a getup and was wearing it proudly despite their criminal origins: Tight brown slacks made of fabric, a woolen T-shirt that felt airy and loose worn underneath a brown leather vest, a belt full of tools that went around his shoulder- it mostly has blades and knives, though the occasional trowel is strapped there too, - black leather boots that reached his knees, and to finish it all off, one of the many mage's robes that he had collected was placed on top of everything, concealing his body from the neck down.

He checked and fixed himself one last time, and when he realized that his soles still felt ticklish even with boots on, Yavneck decided to take them off and wrap rags around his feet as a makeshift sock. With that done, he did one final check and when he was satisfied, he left the house to see the village that he had ended up in.

When he got outside, the first thing that Yavneck took note of was the way the houses were built, it may not seem important, but checking the architecture of human settlements would let someone know the state of various affairs- for example, and perhaps the most important aspect to look out for would be walls made out of carefully molded stone as those would inform anyone that there is a [Mage] lurking somewhere within the settlement, even if the settlement is small, walls of that type means that there is someone capable of casting magic nearby.

And as luck would have it, it just so happens to be that the largest house that Yavneck could see had walls of that very same build. It was placed at the center of the settlement, which is visible even from where Yavneck is standing. The village- well- Hamlet is that small.

And even though it was obviously the house of the chief- or whatever equivalent this tiny Hamlet has, - the fact is, even the highest level [Baron] wouldn't have something like that available to them if they do not have a [Mage] under their service. At best, they would have a pale imitation in the form of concrete, which is vastly inferior due to how soft it is compared to naturally forming stone.

And the existence of molded stone implies that there’s danger lurking in the corner, which Yavneck is admittedly concerned about but not by much as he doubts that the mage staying here is powerful or even a genius prodigy. So he assumes that he’s not truly in danger, but it is best if he is cautious because even when the mage here isn’t on the same level as the one in Yarya, as he didn’t doubt that this one would be powerful enough to make a fool of Yavneck and his current arsenal of- nonexistent - magical items.

Another thing that Yavneck took note of is the way the villagers around him looked tense, from their expressions, their worries aren’t really directed at him per se, but at something else and Yavneck wanted to know who or what it is.

"Glad to see you're up," Yavneck did his best to swallow down a reflexive flinch as he turned to face the speaker, the [Apothecary] stood to his right and Yavneck gave him the best smile that he could fake. The man had worn the same clothes that he did yesterday when he had a conversation with Yavneck- which is just composed of a messy yet colorful robe worn over his entire body, which unfortunately for Yavneck, hid everything the man had on his person, including whatever dangerous trinkets he might be hiding.

"I am," Yavneck replied with a proud yet grateful smile, he had to show his appreciation in some way, the healer in front of him had nursed him back to health after all. "No thanks to you,"

"Mhmm." The old man hummed, "I'd like to introduce myself-" he held out a hand, Yavneck took it, "I'm Barow, a [Herbalist],"

"Yavneck," he replied, introducing himself with a simple nod. Though it seems that Yavneck had been mistaken about the man's class, because he thought for sure that with his age, his class would have at least been upgraded but either it didn't get upgraded or Barow is lying to him.

Yavneck decided to lie back, "[Mentalist],"

"Hm." Barow grunted, "You're one of those... people who just sit around in libraries all day right? Serving Horos and all that,"

"Indeed," Yavneck nodded in agreement, and though he himself didn't have the class he was posing as, he certainly knew how to serve the God that every [Mentalist] out there brainstorms ideas with on a daily basis. He was, and still is an Acolyte of Horos, and knowing how to praise the God of Knowledge is like second nature to him.

"Though I wouldn't really say that we serve Horos all day, it's more of a mutually beneficial research that we conduct alongside the God, and the staying indoors part is wrong as well, as I like to travel," He both corrected and explained as he tried to remember what Horos' priests told him about [Mentalist]s and their duties, "he allows us to tap temporarily into his domain where we... I'm afraid I have said enough,"

The "Herbalist" chuckled with a shake of his head, "I thought for sure you were some sort of [Mage]," he replied, "with the wands in your Port, it was definitely a possibility,"

"You checked it?" Yavneck asked while hiding his suspicion. He wasn't angry at what the man did to him, as he too would do the same should he find someone unconscious carrying a Port. Anyone could just carry anything inside of a magically altered bag after all, checking it was simply the most reasonable thing to do in that situation, and well, it’s not like anything was taken from his Port.

"Yeah. I'm a healer aren't I? I can’t just not check your bag for anything that can save you,” Yavneck nodded, fair enough, if he had some special diseases then it is expected that he would carry a cure for it wherever he goes, and checking his Port with that logic in mind seemed reasonable.

Barow continued, “And since you didn't storm out of the house and yell for my name, I assume that you have also checked what's inside and found out that I haven't stolen anything correct?" Yavneck nodded again at the man’s words, which mirrored his own thoughts somewhat.

"Cannot argue with that," he flashed him a small smile. "So, about that job you were asking me yesterday, I do believe it is paramount that I start now instead of later,"

"Ah..." Barow said uncomfortably, "I... don't really think it is appropriate of me to ask you this with the village’s current crisis,"

"Hm." Yavneck hummed. Village huh? The two of them have been walking around the place for some time now and Yavneck has been observing everything they came across. Combine that with what Yavneck gathered earlier during his short observation, he concluded that this place is more akin to a Hamlet instead of a village. The settlement is not only small, it also does not have the recreational buildings that villages usually have nor does it have a village's large populous, the people here at best can be counted up to 50, and that's him being optimistic and giving his guessed number the benefit of the doubt.

Yavneck snapped out of his thoughts and looked away from a small family cooking breakfast in front of their house and turned to Barow.

"What's the crisis?" He asked, he did notice that the people here had been tense, and feels like it was some concurrent problem that the Hamlet is currently facing on a daily basis but he hasn’t really signs of a famine so far so it couldn’t be that, still, if it is a famine or something similar, then Yavneck’s knowledge can be of use, "I would like to help if possible,"

"... I don't think you could," answered Barow.

"Why?" Yavneck asked and just in time, they passed by a young girl and guy talking to each other about something.

"The Dire Bear isn't gonna attack the village Nela, calm down, and even if it does, we have-" and the two were out of earshot before Yavneck could keep listening.

"Dire Bear, huh?" Yavneck frowned. "Indeed, that is a pretty bad problem." He faced Barow to see that the man had a strained smile on his face, "and fortunately, it is not a problem that I cannot solve," A lie, as he cannot deal with the Dire Bear using conventional methods (which is to say, killing it,) but he does know how to use poison to kill an animal and well, as luck would have it, he has an extensive knowledge on the various kinds of poisons found out there in the world, both the manmade and the natural.

Yavneck smiled, "consider me a helper of this problem, and with that being said, I would like to start collecting herbs,"

Barow sighed but ultimately gave in, "if you insist,"