She approached my location while deliberately making as much noise as possible, and upwind from me. Not something one did while stalking. I relaxed the draw and lowered my bow, but kept the arrow nocked just in case.

I’d seen her before, she was the other young woman at the abbey along with Amelia. She also carried a bow in hand, and a quiver over her shoulder. Her attire was warm and simple, made for hunting. Blue padded vest, pants and a fur cloak with a red hood over her head. She stopped before me, but instead of looking at me, she focused her cold blue eyes on the carcass behind me.

That’s when I realized why I couldn’t smell her. The scent from the blanket had masked her, and that’s because she smelled exactly the same. Was the blanket hers?

“Okay, wow,” she said with an impressed look on her face. “That’s … that’s really something, ain’t it?”

“Huh?” I asked. “Do you mean the bear?”

She scoffed. “Yah, the bear.”

“It came out of nowhere. It was crazy.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, they’re like that.” She turned to me and looked me over. “I love what you did with the blanket, it’s very .. practical.”

I didn’t like it when beautiful women paid me compliments, rarely as it ever happened. It set off all sorts of alarm bells in my head. It made me immediately suspicious of her. What was she doing here, and what did she want from me? Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to sucker me into doing free chores. No way. I'd already learned that lesson with my ex, Brenda. Thank you very much. That was the last time I trusted a gorgeous woman asking me for simple favors.

“Oh, thank you. Was it yours?” I asked her. “Because it smells lovely.”

She froze for a moment. “Uhm .. yes, yes it was.”

Even as she blushed, it still took me another minute longer to realize what I had said. I was kicking myself mentally over that one. She probably thought I was a creep for hitting on her now. Thankfully, the conversation had already moved on and she was asking me if I was going to carry the remains back to the village.

I pointed to the carcass. “This bear here? The one that weighs a literal ton?”

I grabbed the paw and tried dragging it, but couldn’t even nudge it. It would need to be taken apart first.

“Right, I suppose that’s a bit too heavy, hmm? And .. and you just killed it?”

“Yeah, just now, why?”

“No, no, nothing. That’s great. It’s just, uhm … well, the last time a dire bear appeared in these woods, three hunters died before a hunting party managed to finally kill it. Which of course cost another life, and many broken bones. But sure, you were out for what … an hour?”

“I lost track of time. Has it been that long? ”

She laughed at that. “Not even. But If you don’t mind, I’ll go back to the village and get some help to bring this all back, yeah?”

“Oh, that’d be great. I’ll just wait here?”

“Yeah .. sure.” She turned and took off at a light jog heading south.

I waited until she was out of sight before patting myself on the back mentally. Good job, Kevin. You didn’t get suckered into doing free labor again, and in fact, someone was helping you instead. That felt rather nice for a change.

Then a thought occurred. Maybe it was all a prank, and she wasn’t going back to the village to get help, but instead she’d just leave me hanging here for hours? Something like that has happened to me before.

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I sighed. Well, I had some things I could do while waiting. If she wasn’t back in an hour, then I’d just skin the damn thing myself, and bring back as much as I could. If what she said was true, it meant I was as strong as a hunting party, and maybe even more. Though, I felt that my encounter with the dire bear could have gone very bad in an instant if I missed my shots.

I opened the status screen to use the points I got leveling up three times. Apparently hunting powerful creatures had its rewards, but the horrifying experience was not something I wanted to repeat any time soon.

Both the Power Shot and Steel Trap had saved my ass, so I figured I’d upgrade them both. They were affected by my Strength attribute, so I dumped all +15 attribute points into it. Without having any passives, those points got saved for later.

With one exception, I rested easy knowing that whatever I assigned now, I could reassign later. On the Status screen, skills and passives had a [Reset] option to reimburse the points, but warned me those points wouldn’t be available for reassigning for 24 hours. The exception was for attribute points -- those allocations appeared to be permanent, so I had to be more thoughtful with those points.

For skill upgrades, the choices varied in price and consisted of various aspects of the skill like damage, mana cost, duration, etc.

* [t1] Power Shot [Projectile] [Attack] [Physical]

* Upgrades:

* Mana Cost: -20%, 1 Skill Point

* Damage: +20%, 1 Skill Point

* Area of Effect: +20%, 2 Skill Points

* [t1] Steel Trap [Trap] [Physical] [Duration]

* Upgrades:

* Immobilization Duration: +20%, 1 Skill Point

* Clamp Force: +20%, 2 Skill Point

* Steel Trap Limit: +1, 3 Skill Points

I didn’t know when I’d get more levels, but I needed upgrades now. So, I upgraded the clamp power of the [Steel Trap] and the damage of the [Power Shot.]

After taking care of the points, I started testing out my new skill.

* [t1] Illusion [Duration]

* Bring your imagination to life.

* Cost: 50 mana

* Cast time: 1.5 seconds

* Duration: 30 seconds

* Range: 20 yards

* Size: 20 inches

* Limit: 1

Instantly, I thought of Yoda and the miniaturized green master sprung into existence. He wouldn’t move, or make any sounds, that’s what the skill’s expensive upgrade options offered. I considered some tactical uses for it, and created an illusion of a bright, pulsing light. Unfortunately, it was nowhere as bright as I had imagined it to be. Perhaps I couldn’t make an illusion of a spotlight, but it would work well enough to distract an enemy.

Afterward, I walked around the area trying to see if I could spot a boar. Instead, I came across some mushrooms. [Keen Eye] didn’t say if they were edible or not, but with a name like ‘Webcap’ it sounded innocent enough. There was a huge patch of it too, enough for the whole village.

***

Okay, so Kaveen wasn’t quite what Darya had expected. This was strange, because she took great pride in her ability to see through all the lies and masks people put up. It didn’t look like he was hiding anything, though he was a little guarded and suspicious of her -- not something she would fault him for, being cautious of strangers was always smart.

She could understand why someone might find him appealing. Those broad shoulders hinted at strength and capability, and the commanding presence of his horns gave him an almost regal aura. But it would take a lot more to dazzle or lull her into complacency. His traits could just as easily belong to a master manipulator skilled in subterfuge and deception.

Men like him didn’t come from nowhere; he had to have undergone rigorous training. Perhaps he was shaped by the elite curriculum of the North Academy or forged in the crucible of the enigmatic Raiders. Either way, she knew better than to trust appearances. His demeanor, while seemingly genuine, felt carefully calculated—designed to lower her defenses. Well, two could play that game, and she’s been playing it already. She was no amateur when it came to presenting a convincing smile or crafting a conversation with just the right balance of charm.

What bothered her the most was that if he meant them harm, why pretend when he could just send down a meteor and wipe out the entire village in an instant? Unless of course he was the sort that took great sadistic pleasure in betraying, and killing innocent people one by one. She’d heard of such serial killers on the loose. A cold chill ran down her spine when she remembered that many were never caught. She had to be even more vigilant now.

A quick jog and she was back at Moorhaven. Going from door to door, Darya barked out orders to grab baskets and gather at the square. With the chief, her father, still bedridden, Darya had taken up most of his responsibilities. Normally, it would have fallen upon the oldest, Amelia, but she was a priestess overwhelmed with duties at the orphanage.