After more than two weeks of travelling, we entered the first human village. Kira introduces herself and the group in front of the heavily fortified village gate. As soon as she manages to convince them that she was an active hunter with the guild we have no problem entering. They must be afraid of more than monsters at this village if they are this careful who enters.

The village is spread out around a wooden holdfast at the centre and a solid wooden palisade around the whole village. One of the villagers at the gate introduce himself as the captain of the village militia. Based on what analyze is telling me, he is a former hunter married and retired in the village. His level is higher than mine, but his skills are inferior.

I haven't actually checked my skills and levels for awhile. I know I leveled up a couple of times due to all the goblins I killed, but having people to interact with, pretty girls in particular, has kept me occupied. Lawra leads us to the market square. We don't have much currency, but we have a lot to trade. Lawra soon shows how she can contribute to the group. As the daughter of a merchant I should have known she had a few trading skills. I spend the whole time following her around, picking up her skills as I am observing her.

With coin in our pocket we head for the only inn in the village. It is a fairly large and busy village. If the village continues to grow it could soon class as a small town with an increase in facilities not usually found in villages. The wooden holdfast could do with an upgrade though. It has clearly stood there for a long time. It was probably the first building in the village. As we come closer I ask a couple of villager if I can have a look inside. They don't seem bothered. They point out that it is pretty derelict, and no one actually lives there anymore.

Inside I see that it is in fact several buildings built together to form an even square with an open area in the middle. The outer walls are all solid wooden timbers stacked high enough to deter any attackers. All windows are on the first floor. To avoid the ground floor being too dark there is plenty of open space up to the first floor. The windows are more like narrow arrow slits for arrows to be fired at enemies outside. Despite all the fortification elements around the holdfast, it is clear that it once housed a small farming community with all essentials, like a well, a small smith, a grindstone and other basic farming necessities.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Back at the inn, Lawra discuss our housing options with the innkeeper, as there is no room big enough to house us all. The largest room fits a bed large enough for all but two of us. Lawra negotiates a second room with one smaller bed. I ask her who she had in mind for the extra room. "You and Mari of course. It is about time you to have some time to yourselves." I get her point. My nightly tryst with Mara ended when we set off on our journey to avoid a late pregnancy being suspicious. Since then I have not had a single moment alone with Mari.

As I prepare to sleep in the first comfortable bed since my last life, I notice Mari taking off all her clothes before slipping into the covers. As she looks up at me still standing beside the bed her looks seems to say; "what is taking so long?" As I slip under the covers I whisper to her that we don't have to do anything if she does not feel like it. She smiles back and says: "Lawra prepared me for this, and told me to tell you to do your husbandly duty. You don't need to worry about me anymore."

I wake up the next morning feeling more refreshed than I have ever felt. I head down for breakfast with the girls. The common room is full with people, mostly farmers. It seems they come from nearby farm holds to trade in the village. The farm holds probably all have a structure like the wooden holdfast in this village. This is clearly the frontier. There is plenty of land, but due to the dangers of the forest near by, all farms and villages need to be fortified. This in turn puts a dampener on development, though this village seems to be doing well.

As we set off from the village, I notice that we are now walking on a proper road rather than a track. A good sign of civilization. After a few more uneventful days we finally arrive at the nearest town. I ask the girls what classifies a town from a village, and get the response that a town has usually both a lesser lord to oversee it and a guild branch. The guild branch in this town is particularly large due to the close proximity to the frontier. Entry to the town is a lot less strict than at the village.