"Here," Yavneck gently placed the now filled bag in front of the apothecary, and Barow took it without any reaction, he didn't show surprise or even pity about Yavneck doing the task, just neutrality as he grabbed the bag, opened it, checked the contents, and finishing it all by giving Yavneck a satisfactory nod.

"You did well," he said as he opened the bag and started taking out the herbs, he inspected them for a moment before placing them one by one on top of the table, "Thank you for doing this despite your state,” Yavneck didn’t reply, “And for the time being, you can rest as I don’t need you to do any other task for me, go out and do whatever it is that you want, you can even run away if you want to,” eyes full of mirth locked into Yavneck’s own, “but I advise against it,” Barow chuckled.

“Don’t worry, I won’t." Yavneck dismissed the man's concerns, "I don't plan on leaving this place for a while and I'm spending at least a month here,"

Yavneck slowly walked towards the door, waiting for the old man to say something else but Barow remained silent even when he reached it and his hand touched the handle, he twisted the knob and pulled it open but before he stepped out though, he turned back to the old man, "see you,"

He got nothing but a grunt from the occupied apothecary in response.

Yavneck stepped out and enjoyed the way the fresh morning air brushed against his face, at the moment, he had no clue on what he wanted to do, and without a single plan forward to really take, Yavneck thought that this was the perfect time for him to go around the Hamlet and start introducing himself to everyone else.

Going to the pair of siblings- who had introduced themselves as Nero and Nela to Yavneck after apologizing to him for what happened inside the forest when they got back to the village, - is out of the question for the time being, as he doesn’t really plan on interacting with them before he makes his own impression of the two, so for now, Yavneck's is planning on knowing what they do and how they act around the Hamlet before he goes and meets with them.

The first person that Yavneck found and introduced himself to had been a spritely old grandma who sat on a rocking chair in front of her house, the chair beneath her moved back and forth as she kicked the ground.

Her listless eyes watched the empty street with a bored gaze, something Yavneck would no doubt learn to sympathize with in the coming weeks that he spends in this Hamlet, as for all it was peaceful, there was also nothing to do around here, though the people that he met so far didn't seem to mind that sort of thing.

Not the old woman in front of him though, she looked like she wanted to start running around like a child, she even looked like she was trying to make her rocking chair move faster.

Yavneck went near her and offered a wave, then a simple greeting, "Hello," he said, prompting the woman to turn to him and raise her eyebrow.

"Oh, you're that injured kid," she said, recognition clear in her eyes. Her feet anchored themselves to the ground, stopping the rocking chair from moving any further, she fixed the brown dress she was wearing while eyeing Yavneck measuringly, then she said, "Say, do you know how to take care of Wasps?"

Well, that’s a great way to start a conversation?.. - Yavneck silently drawled.

He nodded, "I do know how to take care of wasps, yes," was the brief answer that he offered before looking around for any signs of the aforementioned things, there was nothing here as far as he's aware, no sounds of buzzing either, "What kind of wasp are we talking about here?"

"Sun Wasps," she answered while pointing to her house, "They're on the right wall, living inside that sticky hive of theirs while buzzing around, I can't sleep most of the day because of it," she narrowed her eyes at Yavneck, more specifically, she was eyeing his lone hand, "so, do you really know how to take care of them?"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Really," Yavneck reassured, and seeing that he doesn't need to wave at the old woman twice, he threw his hand back inside his robe. The stare she was giving it had been uncomfortable, "I can help you out,"

"Okay, I’ll trust you," she said, standing up and walking back towards her house, "I'm gonna go prepare some food while you're busy so that you can come back to a small meal after you're done,"

"Sure," Yavneck replied non-committaly as he moved to the side of the house, "Thanks,"

A few steps to the right side of the house and a turn on a corner later and Yavneck was looking at the Sun-Wasp nest that had been bugging the old woman: Colored in dusk brown with hints of amber, the nest looked like a large piece of rock, with sharp edges and small pieces jutting out of the main body, holes littered the entire thing, with orange-colored Wasps crawling in and out of them, going towards other places and doing tasks unseen by Yavneck's naked eye.

Buzzing entered his ears as he got near the artificially created home, and though most of the insects hadn't noticed him yet, a few were positioning themselves defensively and were facing him, it didn’t take a genius to know that the wasps were trying to threaten him, raising their dotted abdomens and spreading their wings in a display of promised violence, one that will come to him if he doesn't leave in the next few moments.

Yavneck ignored all of that, as he didn't really care because he has more than enough bags of Ring Pollen to throw at things.

And that was what he did, he filled the Sun-Wasp nest with the pollen of a particular flower that's aggressive towards Wasps and other predatory insects that have the potential to prey on Heoloptic Caterpillars, the larvae of a certain green butterfly that's the only thing capable of surviving the toxic bud of the plant's flower and spread its pollen.

The Wasps didn't even get the opportunity to spread their wings and fly towards him as the Pollen’s toxins killed them in mere seconds, one by one, the wasps fell to the ground, unmoving save for the small twitches that occasionally spurs their legs to move.

Before long, the surface of the nest was clear of wasps and by Yavneck's estimate, it wouldn't take long for the Wasps hiding inside to die as well.

His guess had been correct, because the sound of buzzing soon died and Yavneck was free to cut the nest using one of the blades from his belt, it went down loud enough that the old woman came from the corner to check before giving Yavneck a grateful smile, "Thank you!" She said and Yavneck only nodded in response as jumped down from the chair he had been standing on, "I thought that you would just look at it before giving up!"

"It's fine," he said as he dusted the pollen off himself, though the old woman is, well, old, the toxin only affects humans in large quantities so she should be fine.

The old woman responded by grabbing Yavneck's hand, "Come on, the food is ready," Yavneck let her drag him along and soon, he was standing in front of a small table with bread and brownish soup.

"I don't even need to guess that you're hungry," she said as she spread a small towel in front of Yavneck, the bread went on top of it followed by the soup right next to the bread. As Yavneck started eating, the old woman started a conversation, "I never would've guessed that you would use Ring Pollen,"

He gulped, nodded, and replied, "It's something that I have in large quantities," well, him and the other bandits he was living with because insects can get pretty annoying when one is living inside a forest, "Usually I turn it into wet paste by mixing it with Autumn Dew and then spread it around my skin as a deterrent but sometimes, throwing it directly towards insects works too,"

The old woman nodded in agreement, "Can I ask you why you need Ring Pollen?"

Yavneck stayed silent and thought about an answer, well the simple answer would be ‘because I used to live inside a forest’ but she was gouging him out, wasn't she?

And technically, he can also start a fake reputation for himself around the Hamlet based on what he says to her while they talk and... that does sound like a viable option so he thought about what kind of fake backstory he would give himself before deciding that he should just pretend to be a wandering [Mentalist], his past occupation as bandit settling inside a forest doesn't need to follow him around, better to cut that sort of past before it festers.

He opened his mouth to answer- "The places that I usually go to involve a lot of insects," he started, "Due to me wanting to study ancient temples and the like, carrying bags worth of Ring Pollen often saves me the trouble of going back and forth between my current study of the week and markets,"

"Interesting," the old woman replied, "you study stuff? Are you some sort of [Atlasman]?"

"No," Yavneck answered, "I'm actually an Adventurer, but mainly I'm a traveling [Mentalist],"