"You're not staying in the cabin?" Thomas asks as he enters the clearing behind it, a large, circular wicker pack strapped to his back. "The sides look fine to me, and the roof."
In addition to the wicker pack, Thomas has the quiver I gave him with the arrows that went with it inside, though he still has his old bow. The one I gave him is a higher quality than that, but I suppose he's not comfortable with a new bow since he's not used to it.
It's been a few hours since I met him at the pond, and it's a few hours earlier than I expected him to return. Fortunately, I'm just in the middle of twisting twine so he's not seeing me use magic. Without money, a mage family, or special circumstances, almost no one ever learns magic. I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn any if it weren't for my innate magics.
So it's better if I keep quiet about my ability to actually cast magics for now, just in case they're the type who would want to come to me for everything. Some people – especially out in the sticks – tend to think mages are able to do basically any magic. The moment they learn someone is a mage, they start asking them for help with everything, including healing magics.
Which are an advanced school of it and not wielded by too many people. Yes, I can use [Lesser Heal] and some other holy spells, but I'm not an actual healer.
"The floors aren't, though," I tie an end to the length of twine I'm working on, then set it to the side and stand. "They're a bit rotten and not yet replaced. I'll be moving in then."
"I see," Thomas looks around the camp.
There's the section where the fallen trees are stacked by size, the wood piles for the branches and sticks, the zone for tanning hides, and a couple of crafting spaces. My temporary shelter is still in the same spot it was before, though I've woven its walls properly now so leaves completely cover it in case of rain.
"So you're the one hunting the wolves," his gaze rests on the wolf hides rolled up and stacked, then shifts to the ones in the middle of stretching. "Though I'm fairly certain tanning takes longer than this. Didn't you say you've only been out here a few weeks?"
"Adventurer's trick I picked up."
He doesn't believe me but chooses not to say. I'm guessing he's figured out there's some sort of magic involved and is choosing not to comment on it. That's at least a good sign regarding what he'll tell others, I'm sure.
"You noticed the wolves were thinning out?" I ask.
"I've seen a few signs over the last couple of weeks that wolves were taken out," he tells me. "Blood on the ground by their tracks, mostly. And they haven't harassed any of the farms is the main one. They're damn hard to track down, though. I can usually only manage one or two in a season unless I'm specifically looking for one of their greater variants. That looks like seven pelts? Or eight?"
"Nine," I correct. "There's the one making up the door to the cabin as well. That's the adventurer side of me, wanting to make sure the area is safe. Hunting them and similar beasts has been a job I've taken on many times. Far too many times, a job I've been approached for involved taking out beasts which hunted local children. While these wolves aren't monsters, they're still not normal wolves."
"Yeah," he says. "A girl was taken last year, and a boy a few years before that. With how small our population is, that hurts. A family took the risk and moved last year because of it, as did the girl's family."
It's a dying village, to be fair, so the population is only going to continue to shrink. The only way it won't is if something happens to stabilize or even grow their numbers, which is unlikely. What numbers I have for this place indicates it's not the sort where a couple has half a dozen children before stopping but only one or two.
With how far out they are and the amount of time it takes to reach, most other farmers who marry someone from here will have their new spouse move out to them instead, I think. Part of it is to stay closer to their family and not have so far to travel to trade in the town. Another part of that is the willingness of the locals to move due to the village dying out.
A dying village is sort of perfect for me right now as it means it's quieter. However, it also means that a threat to the population is greater… those two kids have the potential to represent a significant portion of their youth, especially if most of the residents here are on the older side, rather than the population being even between the ages.
"I'm glad to have helped, then," I tell him.
"What do you do with the meat?" He asks. "It looks like you're only keeping the pelts? You're burying it, right?"
"Er…" I point towards a series of wooden crates. "Those have the meat, actually. They contain enchantments on the inside which produces a cooling effect which allows for longer storage. But yes, I bury the animal parts I don't keep."
I built the crates over the past week. Since I can use [Arc Slash] to cut wood to size and draw water out with magic, it wasn't too hard. Creating the wooden pegs to act as nails was honestly the most difficult part since I had to carve those with a knife. Even assembling the crates and enchanting their insides was easier than making the pegs.
The meat is wrapped up in paper I made, the process somewhat accelerated through magic, allowing me to store them without the pieces sticking together.
"You're keeping the meat?" He frowns. "Why? I see rabbit pelts so I know you're hunting other things for food. You know there's a small chance the wolf meat can poison you if you don't cook it all the way, right?"
"There are things you can buy which neutralize that," I tell him. "Cleanse the contaminates which cause it."
He accepts that answer without skepticism attached. It really shows me some of the knowledge of the area, since the only way to do what I said is to use magic yet it doesn't make him suspect anything.
"You won't go through that much meat before it goes bad though, will you?" He asks. "Even with refrigerator boxes?"
"I said 'cooling'," I say. "But it's more like 'freezing'. That keeps it good for months rather than days. Though I'll admit that I'm not actually sure what I'll do with that much meat, I'm just used to keeping it and either sharing with others at the camp or selling or trading for goods. Until I came out here, I was part of a large group for awhile."
Thomas snorts and looks around a little more. His gaze lingers on me a little while I watch, and I can tell it's due to that small amount of attraction. But it's such a short linger that my earlier thought is probably right: I won't be able to make a move on him safely without spending months building up his trust, so there's no reason to act like I noticed.
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Even if he's pretty obvious. The fact that I'm bare-chested at the moment is probably the only reason he's even checking me out.
"You sure work fast," he comments.
"You learn a few things as an adventurer."
While he outwardly doesn't show any signs of doubting that, I can feel the skepticism in his mind over that statement. He's definitely certain there's magic involved.
"Here are the promised goods," he pulls off his pack. "Though I do need the basket back, of course."
"Of course," I start pulling the goods out of it.
There's a stick of butter wrapped in a cloth, half a dozen eggs cushioned in a smaller basket using straw, a small sack of wheat, a small sack of salt, and a small sack of sugar.
"Sugar as well?" I ask. "I'm not opposed to that, just didn't think I'd find it easily here."
"One of the villagers farms sugar beets," he tells me. "Lets us make jams to store for winter and sell to the town during trips in."
"How often are trips made?" I ask. "And how? If you don't mind my asking."
"Once a month by truck," he answers. "Except in winter, since it's too dangerous. You're insane, walking out here in winter. The pass wasn't good for the truck to go through until just last week."
"You've got a truck?"
Those are fairly expensive, so I was expecting it to be by a beast of burden pulling a wagon or wagons. In addition to the costs of just buying a truck, there's also maintaining it so it can run and fueling it with mana crystals. Unless there's an easy way to mine them in an area, they'd have to buy them from the town on the trips they make and that's a sizable expense.
"The chief does," he tells me. "Passed down from the previous. It's old but it works. We can get mana crystals in small amounts at the old mines, as long as we're careful with the monsters in there. Doubt the arrows will work on all of them, though. Some are made of more hard materials."
"Those ones won't for sure," I say. "The stone heads would break, for starters, and the crystal is from a weaker beast so it's not that strong. It can handle plenty of things around here, but it'll break against a hard-bodied beast. I only used stone because that's what I have available. You'd need something different for sure."
"Figures," there's resignation in his mind. "The mines have been getting worse over the years and even change their layout from time to time. Is that from this… the 'corruption of monsters' you mentioned?"
"Probably," I answer. "Though it could also be the proximity to the Mistwood. That can have some odd effects. More than likely, it's a mixture of the two. I can make weapons which work against hard-skinned beasts, but part of it would depend on the fighter's Strength stat and his abilities."
"Thanks to me fighting monsters and hunting," he says. "I'm one of the stronger ones around, even if I'm not as old as some of the other men here. I have 25 Strength."
He seems pretty proud of that, and it is impressive. His more labor-type Skills are probably only a couple of points at best considering his age and the more simple life he's no doubt lived. The norm for a farmer villager is around 14-18 Strength at twenty-two years of age. Even the blessings I've received wouldn't have changed that too much for someone, since normal farming, ranching, and fishing gives very little Skill Experience.
Most of what he's gained probably comes from [Hunting], [Combat], and [Ranged Weapons].
"It also depends on the monsters in the mines," I add. "Their own strength and resistances. Unless you've got estimates on that, I'd need to look at them directly to know. But if they're within your means to fight anyway, I could do something like make some gloves with the crystal touch, or coat a knife which can do damage to them with the crystal edge. I'd still need stronger magic crystals for that, though."
He deflates a little bit.
"I'll see what I can do," he says. "I don't really know how strong the hard-bodied ones are as I haven't fought them before."
"If you can get magic crystals from the softer ones near them," I say. "I can estimate things that way. Though for arrows, knives, and the like, I really would need it to already be able to at least do some damage to them. Could do something for a hammer or staff, though the latter probably won't work well unless the tunnels are large."
"They aren't," he says.
"And of course," I say. "I don't do things for free. I need supplies of my own, after all, and you're still paying off the arrows and bow."
"I know," he says. "One of our older residents knows how to make glass. I did some work for her a couple of years ago and she made panes for my family's windows, so we don't have to worry about covering them to keep the wind or rain out. Well, we did need some extra work to make it so the windows can open to let air in, but that's not too much. I can arrange for her to make windows for your cabin."
That sounds a little odd. Windows are more difficult to make than something like a bottle or jar despite seeming easier. A hunter-farmer shouldn't be able to just "arrange" for a glass-maker to make windows for someone.
"Arrange how?"
"Do some work for her," he clarifies. "She doesn't need much help these days, but there's always something which can be done. If I offer to help her with some of the less important stuff in her life, she'll agree to make some windows."
That makes sense, though it does bring up the question of just how many of these "unimportant things" there are if it would be enough for a glass-maker to perform her craft in return.
"I appreciate the offer for windows," I tell him. "Except there are two problems. The first is that you'd need to also bring the windows to me after she crafts them, which wouldn't guarantee their state by the time they reach the cabin. That means it'd be better if she came out here to craft them, and I doubt she'd be able to take all of her tools out here to do that since it requires quite a few things, some of which can be rather large.
"Second and more importantly," I say. "The cabin's only ten feet on each side and if you look… it doesn't have windows, and it lacks a fireplace as well. The cabin wasn't actually a cabin, it was a storage structure whose goods and furniture were removed either when or after it was abandoned. The lack of spaces for windows is another problem."
"Oh," Thomas looks at the cabin. "I suppose that makes sense. A lot of us do have a sturdier structure for storing extra goods before they're taken to town for sale and trade. Where's the actual cabin, then?"
"It was probably about seventy feet in front of this one," I answer. "I found scattered stones there that could have been its foundation and fireplace, destroyed by tree growth at some point."
"Why did this one remain standing, then?"
"The forest spirits probably liked it better for whatever reason they have," I shrug. "Though that does only go so far, and they probably decided to stop protecting it against rot at some point in the last few years. Or they set it up to decay just a little and used it as a playhouse once it felt more naturey to them. I've spotted a few others around here in similar states."
"I don't know much about nature spirits," he says. "But I doubt they'd just let someone use their playhouse as a home."
"They don't really care, to be fair," I say. "Spirits tend to be laid-back and as long as you aren't destroying their actual homes, domains, or sacred spaces, they're more likely to just adapt to your presence and alterations than take anger out on you.
"Back to the previous topic," I say. "While windows aren't reasonable right now for the reasons I gave, I could use jars and bottles, whether glass or ceramic."
I could craft them myself but acquiring some in a trade will save me the time and effort.
"That'll take a bit of time," he says. "But I can get them made while you work on the gloves, once I have the materials for you."
"Alright," I say. "Thanks, though don't forget that I'll need good magic crystals for that. I might be able to acquire some around here, but there's no guarantee."
Thomas dips his head to me and pulls his basket pack back on, then looks at me. There's still skepticism in his mind, but I think he's accepting what I'm saying at face value. He wants to keep an eye on me to see if I'm as trustworthy as I'm coming across or if I'm something more suspicious.
"I'll see you again in about a week, I think," he says.
"May the spirits and gods guide your paths," I tell him.
"May the spirits and gods guide your paths," he returns.
Thomas leaves and once he's out of sight, I look at Aluci.
"You're lucky he didn't notice you making faces at him."