Aluci's ears twitch as he continues to rest beside me. That only happens when something is approaching that isn't just some random, harmless animal. I can sense when I'm in danger and that isn't acting up so it's probably a person rather than a monster or wild beast.
While I've thought about approaching the villagers many times throughout the roughly three weeks I've been here, I decided to hold off on it for a little while longer. It's given me ample time to replace the wooden shingles of the roof for the cabin and find suitable branches to replace parts of its walls.
Waiting has also given me time to do other things as well, such as forage more, map out the area better, and prepare a few items. The use of magic enables me to skip steps people without it have to deal with, such as the drying process for wood or hides. They need to either wait or use salt, while I can simply pull the moisture out with my magic.
The amount of times I've done it since I was first taught the trick when I was nine has enabled me to draw moisture out of things at an even rate to avoid splits while working it quickly. That's no small amount of time saved now.
I suppose now isn't too bad of a time to meet one of the locals, though I keep my attention on the pond before me. It's the one I freed of the bush, and fish swim in it once more. That shouldn't really be possible without someone introducing them back into it, but magic doesn't care for such things.
Once I suspected the presence of fish, I made myself a rod and came up here to see what I can catch. There's a fish that's curious about the bait I've attached to my string and I want to be ready to pull when it bites.
"I came to investigate the claim the stream was flowing once more," a voice says as a mind enters my range. "And found an unknown person fishing in it with a wolf beside him. You do know that fish don't just appear like monsters, don't ya?"
The mind feels young, close in age to me. Maybe twenty-one or twenty-two.
"Magic cares not for ordinary rules," I keep my voice soft. "And if you speak too loud too close you'll scare off the one that's approaching my bait."
He finishes approaching and surprise enters his mind upon seeing the green-scaled fish within the clear waters. Surprise and disbelief.
"There's fish," his voice is a lot quieter.
"There's fish," I confirm. "He's about to bite."
The fish was starting to swim toward the side, but quickly dashes to the worm, clamping down on it. I pull back on the rod and the string and after about ten seconds of resistance from the fish, I have him swinging in the air.
"Not a bad catch," the local says. "You're quite good at it, but your accent's too refined, ain't it? Your words are much too clear. Since when do city boys fish?"
"How many have you met?" I ask as I end the fish's life and place him into a small wicker basket beside me.
"Only a few," he admits. "But I've been in the town enough times to know your accent's even better than theirs. What's a city boy doing out here? And how can you fish so good?"
"Fishing's not hard," I say. "And I haven't been a city boy in a long time. It's where I spent the earlier part of my childhood, but I've been an adventurer since I was thirteen. You pick up a lot of small skills, especially ones which help for survival when traveling in the wilderness."
I look at the other man properly for the first time and find my estimate of his age to be correct. He's only a year or two older than me. Like nearly everyone within the kingdom, he has brown hair with a slight curl to it, while his eyes are brown.
His outfit consists of an off-white tunic, brown pants, and leather boots, belt, and gloves. A leather cord hangs down from his neck, with a wolf's fang hanging from that and a small, plain wooden bead to either side of it on the cord.
Leather armor is worn over his outfit, some cuts and markings on it showing damage from use. Still sturdy enough to wear for now, especially if all of the goblins which might bother the village are as weak as the ones I've taken out over the last week and a half, but it wouldn't do anything for something stronger, like the wolves.
A quiver is strapped to the hunter's back while an old bow is held in his left hand, a knife fixed to his belt. Judging by the more muscular build he holds, the bow isn't something he uses rarely.
He's fairly attractive, and I do tend to lean more toward guys with a little bit of muscle. Slender guys are fine as well, but I like a guy whose abs are firm and toned whether they're slender or bulked up a little. There's a small trace of surprise and attraction in his mind, but I won't try to make a move on him even if I haven't done anything in weeks.
We don't know each other and trying to make a move on him will only make him more suspicious of me. Chances are, he'd have to get to know me pretty well before I have a chance at anything with him.
At least he's attractive, though, as that means I can still subtly check him out while he appraises me.
Based on his build, he's a solid hunter, I'm sure. Also ready to attack if I turn out to be a threat to him or others. People who live out in the sticks are less trustworthy of outsiders than those in cities.
A good way of viewing outsiders who aren't farmers like them, to be fair. You never know if they'll try to abuse the area, take over, dominate the locals, or some other heinous act. When they have a beast such as a wolf simply napping near them, an outsider is even more suspicious.
"Name's Rowan," I introduce myself. "Been staying nearby for a little while."
"Thomas," there's skepticism in his mind. "What brings you down here?"
"Looking to get away from life," I answer. "Want something a bit more slow than needing to travel around and looking for work. Knew this area was calm and peaceful, so came down here. Also have enough experience from other villages out in the sticks to know I might not be welcome, so I set up camp away from it. Down by a cabin further down the stream, just south of the cliffs."
"An old farm," he says. "That hasn't had a resident in decades, though. It's well overgrown, and I know the cabin's not in good repair."
"I know at least the basics of woodworking," I tell him. "Was taught some before I became an adventurer."
More like I was forced to learn, but that's not something I'll say right now. Telling him such a background will only raise his suspicions.
"Though repairing it's taking time," I admit. "The roof and walls are fine, but the flooring has to be replaced as well. Now that it's protected against the elements, mostly, I can work on that."
The pelt of the first wolf I hunted is large enough for me to use to cover the door, which is now the primary way to protect the inside from wind and rain. A proper door is out of my current abilities and supplies, but I can make do with what I have. Once I get the flooring replaced, I can move into it.
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"I see," Thomas still doesn't trust me, but I wasn't expecting him to. "How did the pond fill back up? I ain't seen that spring before."
He's turned his gaze to the two exits for the spring's water that are above the surface of the pond.
"Wasn't there a bush there?"
"That bush was blocking up the holes," I inform him. "Its magic drew water to it, then destroyed it on contact. Prevented the spring from flowing properly. I destroyed it when I came out here. Not the first time I've encountered such a plant and it burns nicely."
He doesn't need to know that I didn't burn it.
"Huh," he looks over to the spring again with mild surprise. "That thing's been stopped up for almost thirty years now. The stream feeds into a pond further south and made up half of the water in there. That's how we found out it was flowing again – the stream was feeding the pond once more. Though the chief only found out yesterday evening. Asked me to investigate today."
There's something not fully true in his statement, based on how his mind feels when he says it, but it's true enough that I'm not going to concern myself with the real way they found out about the stream.
"Been almost three weeks now," I say.
"So it was the bush," he mumbles, then shakes his head. "No one knew what was causing it. All they know is the spring stopped up. The bush came later."
"It sprouted within the holes themselves," I tell him. "That's how they form. They start destroying the water before it's actually visible to people. Can I see the tips of your arrows?"
"Why?" His suspicion of me immediately heightens.
"A thing such as that is the result of killing monsters with inadequate tools," I tell him. "If you do that and don't purify their remains, they create problems. If you use the right tools and weapons, however, you can skip that step entirely."
While he's still suspicious, Thomas pulls out an arrow. It has a metal tip, which surprises me considering the location, but is otherwise unremarkable. They don't have a metalsmith here, so he probably paid a pretty coin to have the arrowheads forged for him in the town. Judging by their state, he sharpens them himself and has used them for a long time.
"Ordinary arrows," I say. "Magic is how you neutralize a monster's corruption effect."
"Do you know how difficult learning magic is?" He scoffs. "And I've never heard of that before."
One of the things I brought with me on this fishing trip was a bow and quiver of arrows, crafted just a few days ago with a little bit of magical help. My instincts told me that I should bring them with me today, which is why I wasn't too surprised someone showed up.
I pull one of the arrows out and show him the tip. A slender, pale wooden shaft with bright green fletching, with a tip carved from stone. The edges of the head are crystal, however. Thin and razor-sharp, the edges run perfectly straight.
"You don't need to learn magic to kill with magic," I tell him. "Monsters turn to mist and drop an item or two when they die through magic. One of those items is a magic crystal, which you can use to coat the edges of a weapon with, if you know the right alchemy recipe. They last a little bit less time than arrowheads like yours, but they're also sharper and contain enough magic to work for neutralizing the monster corruption effect. I've taken out about half a dozen goblins from the barrens a little north of here and made this bow and the arrows myself. Have a second set back at my camp, too. If you want this one for hunting monsters with, you can have it."
There's a lot more skepticism in his mind, which is understandable. I'm offering him something without asking for something in return, and it's something he's no doubt certain is fairly expensive.
"What do you want in exchange?" He asks.
Nothing an outsider offers is free, that's a mindset which is widely held by people regardless of where they're from. It's a fair assumption with this as well as I'm not really going to just give it away for free.
There are things I want, after all.
"That monsters are hunted with something like that," I tell him. "A significant amount of work adventurers do results from people not knowing that decaying monsters corrupts the area. Don't leave behind the magic crystals, you can either bring them to me or sell them in town for a decent amount. With me, I can make more tips for magic arrows, or do the same for knives, spears, and other weapons. That'll cost a lot less than making the trip to town. Unless you guys have some form of faster transportation here, it'll take at least a week to get there rather than an hour or two to reach me."
There's still some degree of skepticism over the "free" bow and arrows.
"That can't be all," he says. "You don't get anything out of it."
"I didn't say that was all," I tell him. "Just that it's something I want you to do if you accept it. To be honest… I came out here with very little. No butter or oils for cooking with, which limits what I can make. No salt, either. Since we're close to the ocean, I'm sure there's someone who harvests salt. I don't have any grains, and whether or not an egg is fertilized is up for debate when I find them."
"So food," his face relaxes, no longer showing the skepticism he's been directing at me since he arrived even if it's still present in his mind. "You want butter, wheat, salt, and eggs."
"Doesn't have to be all at once, of course," I tell him. "Or in large batches. Just what you can afford to give up, if you're okay with that. That's what I'm asking for in return. I can forage for things fine and as an adventurer, I'm used to hunting. And fishing, as you can see."
"Yes…" he examines the arrow again, then looks at me. "Adventurers also know how to craft bows and arrows?"
"Some," I say. "You pick up various skills to save on funds. Any adventurer who's done so for at least five years and knows how to use a bow also knows how to at least make a basic bow and simple arrows. Though in my case… I was an orphan and got adopted by a wealthy family when I was nine. My father was insistent on me knowing how to hunt, but he refused to let me learn to shoot a bow until I knew at least the basics of crafting them and their arrows. Said that if I made my own bows, it would teach me to respect them more.
"Since I had some woodcarving experience from the orphanage," I continue. "I was able to pick up on the basics pretty easily. By the time I turned eleven, I'd shot my first rabbit. Had caught some with traps before then. The magic tips for them… that was something I learned after I became an adventurer."
None of that is a lie, either, so it should be more believable to him. My adoptive father did teach me how to use a bow, and I do have some basic proficiency in it. While I prefer to use magic for my hunts, both now and before, I was at Level 6 in [Ranged Weapon]s before Zolbiatz reset my Skills.
That's not the only skill my adoptive father insisted I learned, either, and some of them were reinforced when I became an adventurer. I can fight with martial arts, a spear, and a sword with at least a basic proficiency.
In that regard, I'm not actually all that special. It is normal for adventurers to pick various crafting and combat styles as they journey, acquiring basic proficiency in at least three or four different areas by the time they've been adventuring for five years.
"And as for Aluci," I say. "I can tell you're wary of him. He's a shadow wolf I met when I was little and he just sort of follows me around. Not a pet, not a familiar, just a wolf who decided he likes me. He doesn't pose a threat to anyone unless they try to take his food away from him."
That doesn't seem to lessen his worries about Aluci, but I wasn't expecting it to. I just felt I should at least address the presence of the wolf so he knows the deal with the beast, even if it's not the full truth.
"Okay," Thomas slips the arrow back into the quiver, then picks up the quiver and bow. "I'll accept your offer. There are a few rotting cabins along the stream, which one is the one you're staying at?"
The skepticism is still there, but it's not as severe as it was before. He's accepted my response and probably my trade offer as well.
"The first one south of the cliffs directly south of here," I tell him. "Just several hundred feet down. I don't mind visitors, but I do ask for some discretion about my presence. My current goal is to just get settled in and as I said, I came down here to start over a bit and just want some time away right now."
"I can do that," he says, though we both know he'll be telling people about my presence.
As long as he keeps to the unspoken agreement, there shouldn't be a problem with people coming and visiting me for no reason or just to check out the outsider. He'll let them know to keep contact with me to a minimum until he can get a feel for what sort of person I am.
"I'll report back to Chief about the pond," he tells me. "Then grab a few things and stop by. It won't be enough to pay for the bow and arrows, but I'll bring more in about a week or so. We'll be doing our first wheat harvest of the season in a few days and usually sell some of it to the town when a goods trip is made. We can give up some of it for the arrows."
"Thanks," I say. "I'll see you later, then."
His gaze lingers on me for a few seconds longer than it should, and I can tell he wants to ask something. Whatever it is, he decides not to ask it and instead opt to leave. For a moment, I contemplate reading his mind to learn what it was, but decide not to.
There's no reason to treat him like an enemy to interrogate, after all. He probably wanted to press more about my reasons for coming down here.
Once Thomas has left, I look at Aluci.
"I'm feeling like doing two fish for lunch instead of just one," I tell him. "So I'll be out here a little bit longer before heading back. While he probably won't arrive at my camp in time for me to eat lunch, dinner will definitely be an improvement if he keeps to his word."