"I'm asking you again, are you sure about this?" Barow, who seems to be rather insistent with keeping Yavneck within the village asked in concern for the 5th time in a row while watching his patient fiddle with the mouth of the knapsack he had provided him.

Yavneck repeatedly opened and closed the zipper-like contraption, and when asked about why, he would answer something along the lines of- because this thing is still technically magic (even if [Alchemist]s insists that it isn’t) and can fail. That’s why it’s important to check if the magical components- even if they’re natural and without any enchantment, - won’t just stop using mana and malfunction somewhere down the line.

“It won’t get broken,” Barow insisted and Yavneck hummed.

“It will, just because these things haven’t for you doesn’t mean that they always work as intended,” the scholar replied, “sometimes magic just fails, even when it’s no fault to our own.”

Yavneck is especially worried about the zipper because it is crude; with it simply using a naturally occurring magical reaction within nature using Terror Wood, which either tenses or relaxes whenever Bloodstone touches it, thus creating a small device that can be closed and opened on regular intervals.

Yavneck, for his part, wanted to see if the dead wood gets tired or if the preserved bloodstone can somehow lose its function.

To most, this would be unnecessary and Yavneck knew that, but he’s being petty since Barow disagreed with him when he suggested that he can just use his Port- which is a more efficient method of storage all around, - to carry the herbs, and when he insisted, the man fervently pushed the idea back, stating that Yavneck should carry the collected plants in this bag instead, which has a preservation enchantment that is apparently "better" than that of a Port's.

"I am, Barow," Yavneck replied for the 5th time, and by this point, he's already tired of saying it and no longer wants to so he decided to lift the bag and sling it over his right shoulder, preparing to leave.

"Don't worry," Yavneck waved the man off with his remaining good hand, which at the moment is holding his most basic and only Wand because he didn’t want to use the other one as it came from his previous “sponsor” and apparently, the Wands that the Fratenian army had given to him was cursed to fail. Yavneck felt cold regret whenever he thought back to proudly carrying that Wand and not knowing that it was cursed as it seemed so useful at the time that he didn't see that it was obviously too good to be true.

Oh well, guess he just lucked out that instead of potentially getting killed against a [Great Mage], he almost got disintegrated by a powerful spell from them instead.

"What's stored inside of that thing anyway?" Barow asked while staring at his Wand, making Yavneck focus back in the present and stare at the man.

"Why?" He asked, eyebrow raised, and Barow crossed his arm across his chest and threw a pointed eyebrow at him in response. Yavneck dismissed the man’s act of confidence by waving his hand at him, uncaring about whatever threat the gesture implied.

Regardless, he's gonna give the man an answer if that'll end this farce- Yavneck faked a sigh, "Nothing much, just a simple [Force Blast] spell,"

"You have... a melee spell in there?" Barow asked again. Though this time his tone was laced with confusion and a tinge of condescension.

"Yes," Yavneck replied aggressively, and he then realized that he was antagonizing the man so he decided to bite his tone back by a bit.

"And another spell that I won't tell you about," he added as a small gesture of placation, which in of itself does have some truth as well as a proper answer, but not a single one of those is something that Barow is expecting. "With that being said, I am leaving.”

“And don’t worry about the Dire Bear, I will be fine," he said before Barow could remind him. Yavneck waved goodbye to the man as he walked out the door, when he stepped outside, he noticed that the sun is up in the sky and that the time of day is now officially morning.

Of course, much like him, morning for the people living in places such as this Hamlet starts much earlier than that, as they need to often work their fields without the harsh glare of the sun impeding them or the darkness blinding them, and Dawn is the perfect time to do that, as there's sunlight, but not so much that it made you exhausted or caused sunburn.

Still, despite that daily routine for most of the adults living here, it can be said that the ones who just woke up did not need to work because they are either women or children, and given that they make up the larger population of the Hamlet, the answer why it is only during this time that the place feels so lively is obvious; because those who liked to play and talk have just woken up.

And with that liveliness came the stares of curiosity people shot his way. According to Barow, to those living here, Yavneck is known as the man that their local healer had found washed up half-dead on a riverbank, they did not know who he is nor did they know where he came from, the only thing that they did know would be that the event that got him wounded in the first place is connected to the earthquake that happened a day ago.

Yavneck shuddered at the thought, he truly did not know that the mage he was targeting back then held that much power.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

And that fact is rather eye-opening because no matter what he did, Yavneck would've lost and ended up either dead or wounded. That sort of gap in power is rather huge and Yavneck couldn’t help but feel as though he had been overconfident back then, thus resulting in him continuing to pursue something he shouldn’t have.

It reminds him of a story, come to think of it: The Fall of the Races, a myth borne from the Times of Origin, where everything is equal and every creation is at its peak- until that is, the creations sought to be more than their original designs and pursued quests for power, which they went after so hard that it ended up backfiring on them, and that is how every single race fell- by chasing such a pointless hubris.

With Humans, his own race, becoming nothing more than a blank slate full of untapped potential because of a cleansing ritual that the Tapestry sabotaged.

Well, Yavneck comparing his situation with a genuine myth sounds like something that would get him executed by the churches but then again, what led to his current state is nothing short of a miracle because had Cego not released his pet monster, Yavneck wouldn’t have cast his [Shield] and would have died. If a single thing went wrong, like how he missed a second in casting the [Shield] spell, then he also wouldn’t be here.

How fortunate for him that all of those events happened at the perfect time, truly fortunate.

Hm. Maybe he’s even a part of Horos’ plans. And at the thought of that, Yavneck wondered what kind of pawn he is within what plan in motion.

But since he knew that ruminating about the plans of Gods (of all things) is downright pointless,Yavneck placed that certain train of thought out of his head and proceeded to head to the edge of the Hamlet to proceed with his own plans; starting with him reaching the halfway point between the settlement and the forest where he then took a passing glance of the surrounding greenery and saw that the foliage here have been disturbed by something heavy at some point, and the paw prints left behind by the culprit were large enough to fit his head with room to spare.

Yavneck narrowed his eyes, Dire Bear tracks this close sounds like it would spell disaster for the Hamlet but why is everyone back there fine?

Well, regardless of his suspicion- he’d put the investigation of it at the back of his head for now, - Yavneck is sure that he’s safe because he knows that Dire Bears are lazy and thus is not truly active during the early hours of the day, it would be noon before the thing starts to hunt and by then, Yavneck would be out of the forest with a bag full of herbs.

Though then again, one can never be too sure of their safety so Yavneck is planning on setting up traps around the nearby area in hopes that it would hinder the Dire Bear.

Doing that is a risk in of itself of course, as Dire Bears are smart enough to understand that traps come from somewhere, but all forests have Goblins living in them and Yavneck is confident in his assumption that by this point, the Dire Bear has met at least some of the annoying greenskins and would immediately assume that the dumb bastards are the cause of the traps.

With all of that considered, Yavneck didn’t waste a single second of time and took a step forward to begin his Herb gathering journey in earnest.

He walked past the wall of trees and fearlessly continued to do so even as the flat, grassy ground devoid of shrubs disappeared underneath his feet, he left it behind him and the scholar welcomed the sight of lush undergrowth and tough tree-bark, seeing such things didn’t make him feel scared, it was quite the opposite because it made him feel at home.

He wasn't scared of something as simple as navigating a forest when he's been living in one for the past few years of his life, his former occupation as a bandit had been one of the main reasons why he was so confident in going here and collecting herbs, because not only is he good at moving across forested areas, he also has experience in laying traps, hiding his scent, and even tracking herbs and animals.

Yavneck couldn't have been more perfect for the job.

Which is why, of course, the Tapestry decided to throw him a curve ball-

"HEY!" Yavneck stopped walking as an oddly familiar voice echoed within the forest, "WAIT UP!"

He turned back to spot two people running towards him, he waited for them to come to him and Yavneck stared calmly at the two newcomers as they grabbed their knees and panted for air. Two heads worth of brown hair bobbed up and down in front of him as the sound of ragged breaths became the only sound within the silent forest.

Now that he looked at them closely, their faces were not only similar to each other, but also quite familiar to Yavneck because these two had been the same people who conversed about the Dire Bear earlier this morning.

Usually, he would appreciate help such as this as even when people are useless, they can always be used as meat shields but right now, Yavneck has a kind and non-criminal image to keep up and he doesn’t like the fact that he has to babysit these two for the next few hours.

Why are they even here anyway?

"I've waited," Yavneck said to the two as he looked down on them, he did his best to keep his impatience out of his voice but that's clearly a hard hurdle to get through because Yavneck still heard it leaking out of his lips, and well, it's not like his impatience wasn't justified, these two suddenly came out of nowhere and asked him to wait, "What do you want?"

"Well," the back of the male went ramrod straight, he was clearly tired from all the running he just did and was in no state to be in this forest let alone stay in it, which just got Yavneck angrier.

And worse still, the kid had the gall to look sheepish as he smiled and said, "We heard that you wanted to gather herbs for Barow and asked him if we could protect you, or even lead you to places where he usually gets his stuff."

"Right!" The female's back also went straight and she poorly pointed the tip of her short-sword towards Yavneck, who ignored the way her grip started to shake from such a simple action. "We're here to also protect you from the Dire Bear."

"I do not need anything from you two," Yavneck explained, which in of itself is the truth since he can do his current task alone, even when crippled. “I know the places certain herbs grow in, and protection against the Dire Bear is something that I can handle,”

The two looked at each other for a second before their eyes moved to his prosthetic, “really?”

“Yes,” Yavneck spat out, “so please leave me alone,”

“We’re following you,” the girl said and the boy nodded.

"\If you’re sure,” Yavneck replied without any real emotion, well he could always use the help, “just do not regret it.”