After spending far too much time in my new home I finally felt some degree of satisfaction. I’d built a 1 story pagoda on a second island complete with a bed and bath for me to live in. I had enough food to last me a few more days at most. Though I didn’t need to eat, I rather enjoyed it. So out to hunt I went, with my weapon in hand. While I was out hunting, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could better defend my new home and quickly came to the thought of defenders. I needed creatures that would protect me and my home in case I was indisposed or not present. How to go about it was another story. I couldn’t just start making creatures again. Even if I could create the spell that allowed me to do so it would require far too much mana and it could possibly garner the attention of the other gods. So that was out of the window for the moment.

While I wandered around the forest lost in thought I stumbled across a small fluffle of rabbits. Seeing an opportunity to replenish my food supplies I quickly cast entangle, locking them in place while I rained magic down on them. Forgetting the sensation of their souls flowing into me. I was met with a barrage of them overwhelming me with a sense of pleasure. Before I became consumed in the feeling, I shook myself from the dark thoughts that sparked in my mind and collected my bounty taking them back to be cleaned for later meals.

Once I had collected all the rabbits, I saw something in the corner of my eye. Quickly casting entangle once more fearing that I’d stumbled on some more wild dogs. I heard a voice reach out to me in panic.

“Wait! Wait! I didn’t mean you any harm. I swear it! Please let me go.”, the strange voice said.

Cautiously I approached the voice to find an elf completely bound by my spell. Looking him over I saw that he had a crude bow on his back and what looked like a small hunting knife on a belt. He looked me in the eye with panic and worry. Realizing that I’d just attacked a sentient creature I quickly released him from my spell with an apology.

“Sorry about that. I only caught a glimpse of movement, and I thought you were a wild dog. You’re not hurt, are you?”, I said to him.

“No. No. Sorry for startling you. I was just out hunting and happened to see you kill those Horned Rabbits and was kind of surprised. Once I’d realized that I’d been sitting there for a while I started to look for new game and then I got grabbed up by those vines. I realized it was you because it was the same method, you’d used to trap kill them and I kind of freaked out.”, the man said.

“Oh, my name is Thorn.”, He said with hesitation, “What's yours?”

Looking at him with a sense of worry and curiosity I managed to stutter out my name, “Savas… it’s Savas.”

With a smile he said, “Well met Savas. What brings you out here unless it’s only to hunt?”

I told him that I lived out here and was out collecting food supplies and pelts to make some clothes. From there we chatted a while longer. Eventually he told me where his settlement was stating that I could trade pelts and meat there for other goods and services. It wasn’t too far away. Merely a 2 hour walk through the forest from my cave. We said our goodbyes and I went back to cleaning the rabbits and made my way home. Drying them into strips of jerky reminded me I needed to find some plants to mix into my diet. I was about to do just that when a thought crossed my mind. What if I grabbed something poisonous? As a mortal I couldn’t remember all the things I’d created. In fact, I could barely remember anything. So, I tossed that idea to the side, vowing to collect information on edible plants before I went off and killed myself eating some random food I managed to find in the forest.

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The next morning, I set out to hunt again wanting to have a good stock of meat in the event I needed it. I set off to find more game and was happy to see a herd of deer grazing on the grass. I went back to my tried-and-true method of hunting. I wrapped them up in vines and rained down on them with wind blades and stone bullets. I’d managed to take out 6 of the deer. Once I cleaned one of the deer, I realized that I’d over hunted and there would be no way I would finish all this meat before it spoiled. I cleaned 2 more and dried them for myself and cleaned the rest. I wrapped the meat of the other 3 deer in large leaves and tied them off with vines to make cheap bags to carry it all in without dropping it. Once I was done with that, I picked up my load and set off for the settlement Thorn told me about.

It didn’t take long before I came to a small village? Hamlet? I’m not sure what to call it but there were roughly 30 elves living there. Each buzzing around completing some tasks that had to be done for the day. The homes were surrounded by a wooden wall and had a gate with a wooden arch atop it. Standing on the arch were 2 guards armed with bows.

“Halt! Who might you be? I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you lost?”, One of the guards said to me.

“No. I came to trade some deer I hunted this morning. Thorn told me about this place. My name is Savas.”, I replied.

I could visibly see the tension leave their bodies, but they didn’t let me in right away. One of the guards went to presumably confirm my story. Soon he returned with Thorn following at his side. Once Thorn told them that he’d invited me here they let me in without any more trouble.

“Savas! Good to see you. I have to say I didn’t expect to see you so soon. What brings you here?”, he asked.

“Well, I was out hunting this morning and I managed to collect quite a bit of meat. I remembered that I’d taken the game you were hunting yesterday and decided to take you up on your offer to trade for some supplies.”, I told him.

With that out of the way he showed me around the village. They had a blacksmith, a Tanner, a Tailor, a Fletcher, a Farmer, a butcher, a hunter's lodge, a Carpenter, an Alchemist, a general goods trader, a Pub, and an Inn. All of which accounted for over half of the village. Leaving the Guards, Elder, and Council making up the rest, excluding the children.

With a rough layout of the village now I made my way to the butcher and traded my excess meat to him for some coins. I’d brought 3 deer worth of meat each netting me 20 copper coins. Not sure how much money I really had, I went to Thorn and asked him to accompany me while I shopped. Hoping he would prevent the villagers taking advantage of me. He agreed to come with me, and I ended up spending almost all of the coins I’d earned. I bought seeds for various vegetables, seasonings for cooking, 2 healing potions, and a book on alchemy. Leaving me with only 5 copper coins remaining.

While we were shopping, I learned that Thorn was one of the village's 3 hunters not including the hunt chief. Who ran the hunters lodge, sending the hunters out on tasks to bring back things the village needed. I also learned that this village was a sort of rest stop for travelers who were making their way through the forest towards one of the big cities on either side of it. Though they rarely saw people anymore due to some new transportation company who managed to tame wyverns. Only seeing a traveling merchant once, a month to help them restock the supplies they needed.

With everything I needed, I waved goodbye to Thorn and made my way back home. Promising to return after another good hunt. Once I was back, I opened the alchemy book and started reading. There were 5 recipes for potions and 5 recipes for oils in the book. Healing potion, mana potion, strength potion, defense potion, speed potion, hardening oil, slick oil, sharpening oil, cleaning oil, and darkening oil all labeled as simple G Grade potions and oils. Each had a multitude of ingredients needed to make it. Fortunately, each ingredient had a picture and a description making it helpful for new alchemists to find for themselves. I had almost none of the ingredients except for the rabbit horns and deer horns. That meant I needed to head out and collect the rest myself.