For Lawrence, a city boy, it was the first that he had ever seen any village, having only travelled to metropolitans when he went overseas.

There were wooden and mud huts about and a group of children playing in the sand by the coast.

“Oi, Craig, where on earth did you go!?”

A woman’s voice that seemed to be furious caused Craig to recoil. Lawrence turned to watch the spectacle that unfolded in front of him.

Apparently, Craig had promised to help this lady, who by now through her screamings was obvious was Laura, to preserve some fish for the future. He, however, quietly slipped into his hunter’s armour and fled into the forests.

Craig raised his arms to shield his face, as Laura started hitting him with a large wooden ladle.

Lawrence couldn’t help but laugh and as he did so, Laura seemed to realise that there was someone else here.

“Craig, who is this handsome young man?” Laura said sweetly, doing a small curtsy towards Lawrence. Now that Lawrence could take a good look at Laura, he could tell that she was probably in her early thirties, a platinum blonde who was slightly tanned. She was definitely a looker, especially with her curves in the right places.

“Ah, this is Lawrence Carstein, he gave me—“ Craig hurriedly opened his bag and showed it to his wife, whose eyes widened with excitement.

“He gave them to me. He is an adventurer from distant lands.” Craig said again and Laura smiled sweetly at Lawrence.

“Lawrence, this is my wife, Laura, whom I told you about,” Craig said, formally introducing his wife to him. Laura then bowed once again, the wooden ladle looking oddly out of place in her dirty brown dress.

“Nice to meet you, Ms Tumbleton.” Lawrence smiled and Laura giggled with the silliness of a lass who just saw a knight.

“You seem just like those Crusaders we saw marching through here aeons ago, strong, handsome and with that large shield of yours…”

“Ahem!” Craig coughed and this prompted Lawrence to laugh.

“My house is this way.” Craig pointed to a house near the beach and edge of the forest, constructed of wood that reminded Lawrence of those houses he saw on documentaries.

It was made of large wooden logs with a chimney sticking out from the top. There were two windows and Lawrence could see some fish being hung out on a thread on the beach nearby. That must be the salted fish that Laura was talking about.

“Please, come in for some tea, we don’t have much but we hope to extend to you the full hospitality of our family, Lawrence.” Laura smiled warmly, holding open the door for the esteemed guest who had bestowed 5 Blue Glowing Mushrooms unto the family.

“A bit overly familiar, are you?” Craig said dryly as Laura placed a kettle of water above the fireplace. Lawrence was amazed that they actually left an open fireplace unattended in a wooden cabin no less.

Lawrence set his tower shield against the wall, his armour giving off a loud cling as he sat on the wooden chair.

“Did you guys build this yourself?” Lawrence asked, looking around. The interior was a bit bare bones, but it had two rooms, aside from the living room which Lawrence was in that was combined with the kitchen and dining room.

“Yes, I spent some time building it. Gorgeous, isn’t she?” Craig said proudly, puffing his chest out.

Lawrence was impressed, but he wondered, whether his Guardian ability, Homehearth would be able to function here. Home Hearth was a skill that let him build a stone hut which had helped him and his clan mates in the past greatly, as it shielded them from harsh weather conditions.

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As the kettle boiled, Laura placed three wooden cups on the table, with some orange leaves in them, which the user interface promptly told Lawrence was Ringo Tea Leaves.

Pouring the hot water into the tea, Laura sat opposite Lawrence with the sweetest smile on her face.

“So, where is the next adventure going to take you?” Craig asked and Lawrence scratched the back of his head.

“I will probably get my bearings first, especially since this territory is completely alien to me.”

However, as Lawrence sipped his tea, a loud bell suddenly tolled, as if it was being struck urgently.

Craig and Laura stood up at once, with Lawrence blinking in confusion. The door of the house flew open, with a girl in a dark grey dress looking rather ragged and tired.

“Mom, dad! The Hill Bandits are here for real this time!” She shouted, not even noticing Lawrence in her hurry and panic. Hearing that bandits are here, Craig, quickly grabbed the longbow and quiver of arrows while Laura ran to the room.

“Oh,” Quenya said, noticing a very confused man drinking his tea.

“Hello,” Lawrence said politely, setting the cup down.

“I think I better go, Mr Tumbleton,” Lawrence said, but Craig shook his head.

“My friend, I think it best that you follow Laura and Quenya to the storehouse. That’s where the villagers evacuate to when the bandits come. Thick and high walls.” Craig said and feeling a pat on his shoulder, Craig’s daughter, Quenya was nodding in agreement and patting him on the shoulder.

“What about you, Craig?” Lawrence asked and the hunter stroked his longbow.

“Got to help the other men prepare the defences, we’ll see you in the storehouse,” Craig said, leaving the hut.

“Come, Lawrence, we need to go or we will run out of time,” Laura said, carrying a rather tattered looking luggage that no doubt contained the house’s valuables.

Lawrence helped to take one of the bags off Laura’s hands.

“Come, let me help,” Lawrence said, fastening his tower shield to his back and Quenya taking the other one off her mother.

“Mr Lawrence, you can use a sword right? It will be good if both your hands are free.” Quenya said, offering to take the bag from him after seeing a longsword fastened to his waist.

Lawrence pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

“I will be fine.” Lawrence smiled encouragingly. He knew for a fact that his character was able to use one-handed weapons fine without a shield since he had taken even the dual wielding skill. He could fight with all sorts of weapons.

Quenya nodded and the three of them made a dash for one of the buildings, which Lawrence understood was much more easy to defend than attempting to fend for the entire village. He could see some sandbags stacked against in front of the massive doors of the warehouse and families rushing in.

He saw Craig kneeling behind one of the stacked sandbags and walked up to him. Craig’s face was grim and Lawrence was naturally concerned.

“Ah, Lawrence, you are here,” Craig said and Lawrence passed the luggage to Quenya, gesturing that he will be talking to the men.

“Hey, Craig, who is this?” One of the men who was holding to an extremely crude spear which seemed to be that of a sharpened wooden pole asked. He was very plump and was wearing a butcher’s apron along with a rather rusted medium helmet that showed his worried expression.

“Ah, Lawrence Carstein, explorer.” Lawrence introduced himself naturally and the plump man extended his hand and Lawrence shook it.

“Jacob Witzger, butcher. But uh, you picked a bad time to come here.” Jacob said, sitting behind the sandbags. From Lawrence’s eyes, he could see that there were about 14 men, the rest must either be elderly or women and children.

“Close the doors!” one of the men shouted and the warehouse doors, pulled by the women, closed.

“Apologies, Brother Lawrence, I may have to trouble you to fight with us. We need to cause them enough pain for them to not attack the warehouse itself.” Craig said grimly.

Lawrence could not help but gulp. Fighting? Killing?

“How many?” Jacob asked and Craig shrugged. The man who had shouted for the warehouse door to be closed gathered all the men as they huddled together.

“Alright, there’s 14… No, 15 of us,” the man said, adding on that one after looking at Lawrence up and down and looking at his armour and shield.

“Quenya said she saw at least 50 bandits coming. They must be after the food here in the warehouse. Harvest in other towns haven’t been that good, but we always relied on the seas and forest anyway.”

Craig whispered that this man who was near the 50s and dressed in what Lawrence identified as steel armour, was called Roland Ritz, the village chieftain.

“Why don’t we just give them the food?” one of the men suggested but Roland shook his head.

“They are desperate and they sure as hell will be attacking us, why not just kill all of us and get everything we have instead of that small amount we will give them?” Roland replied and the man sighed.

“We can’t fight.” One of them said and the rest nodded.

“We can sure as hell try. You want to give your wife to them, kid?” Jacob growled, and in an instant, every man who seemed to be low on morale rallied.

“They sure as hell am not touching my wife or daughter!” one of the militiamen spat, and the men cheered.

“Okay, everyone, behind sandbags, and you, Lawrence, right? Thank you for helping. If you wish to run during the battle, we will not fault you.” Roland smiled and the Guardian smiled.

He was nervous as hell, but maybe… Maybe he would be able to help?