Human ingenuity should never be underestimated
One of the ways he gathered information, at the same time that he gained experience and some money was to act as a guide for the adventurers who went out to explore the southern lands from the city of Ciliana, these were mainly magic beast hunting missions or cave exploration, ruins or labyrinths, as I had become quite well known in the city, I was always recommended as a guide by the Merchants Guild when they sent a request to a group of adventurers.
Currently, he spent almost half the year in the city of Ciliana, since I had decided to expand my knowledge of magic and alchemy, I had decided to move temporarily to the city, although there were people in the village who already assumed they would never return, it was really just part of my preparations, at the age of 20, many considered it strange that he did not have a wife, in the village my mother was pregnant again and my younger sister was already 9 years old, at least I wanted to meet my new brother or sister before leaving and leave as much helpful advice and guides for my little sister.
I also wanted to make things as good as possible in the village, as it would be a considerable loss in manpower once I leave, currently, thanks in large part to my efforts, the tribe lived a period of remarkable prosperity, I had surpassed my parents for what was considered the strongest and smartest person in the village, some even began to say that he should be the new chief, but that would mean that I would lose my freedom, fortunately, my grandmother came to my rescue saying that the chief should be the wisest person and a good connoisseur of the other tribes.
In my 20s, I was the same height as my father, around six feet tall, although my complexion was very chunky, it was somewhat slimmer, I inherited my father's blue eyes, my skin tone was paler than the rest of the tribe but more tanned than my father's, I had inherited platinum white hair from my mother, which added to my decidedly Nordic facial features gave me a striking appearance without a doubt.
Over the years I had perfected my own hunting and fighting style, weapons, it used 2 short swords, its design was based on the 《Gladius Pompeii》, optimized for stabbing, my fighting style was based on rapid successive stabs, not so much in giving cuts, as secondary weapons it carried 2 fully metal Tomahawk axes made of one piece, In the style of the tactical Tomahawk of my previous life, but in my guiding role, I rarely went into close combat, so he always wore a compound recurve bow with me, I created it in the style of Mongolian bows for its power and compact size, other weapons I carry are a braided leather sling to smash stones, a short wooden blowpipe for throwing poisoned darts, throwing knives, and a host of metal caltrops to cover retreats.
For protection, I used two layers of clothing, hardened leather on the outer layer and a piece of thick cotton fabric with silk reinforcements on the inner layer to give me mobility and protect my limbs from insects, snakes, and stinging plants, when the weather got colder I could change the inner garments for warmer ones, chainmail covered my upper half including the arms located between both layers of clothing, on his chest, he wore a light steel breastplate to cover the vital points, on his forearms he wore gauntlets that I myself had made of steel and mithril.
They had the function of serving both as protection and gloves for fighting without weapons, I also used two layers of pants, the hardened leather exteriors were double-layered and had various reinforcements, the inner trousers were made of cotton also reinforced with silk, the outer garments I had made myself, with leather of the best quality, in the style of the military uniforms of my previous life, so they were functional, with large pockets and very resistant, the protection on my legs was complemented with steel knee and shin guards, my boots were also made in the style of the military boots of my old life, but they had added steel protection for the instep, steel toe and heel to cause more damage in case I have to fight unarmed.
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From my mother and grandmother, I learned to make deadly poisons, as long as it is not meat to consume, I poison my weapons and projectiles for greater effect, the mighty magic beasts of the great black forest will show no mercy, so one must use whatever means at hand to survive.
Like my father, I learned alchemy, but I have perfected it beyond my father's reach, creating smoke bombs with stinging and paralyzing effects, incendiary bombs, indelible dyes to mark targets, which made me good money when I sold the recipe to the alchemists' guild which allowed me to build good relationships with them and to buy recipes that are not available to everyone.
During an expedition, I saw a magician carve runes on a wall and floor and then charge them with magic power, it was a simple but deadly magic trap, I asked him to teach me but he only knew those magic runes, but he told me that the Mages Guild could give me more information about it, although they had the reputation of being very arrogant and arrogant with the people of the frontier, I managed to soften them up a bit by teaching them a degraded version of my optimized body reinforcement magic, so they were very happy to teach me all they could about runic magic.
Runic magic widened my possibilities, I just needed to carve the appropriate rune on an object and charge it with magic power, of course, not everything was so convenient, a runic spell consumes more magic power than the same spell normally cast, about 30 percent more, but it wasn't a huge handicap for me because of my great reserve of magical power and my superior resilience gained thanks to my arduous training.
For now, it's safe, I carved wind magic runes on the arrows to give them more momentum and carved lightning magic runes on my throwing knives to release electric shocks, I would not use fire magic on the arrowheads as I would use them poisoned, I would do a lot of experimentation to get the optimal combinations on the throwing weapons and I would also experiment with carving runes on my gauntlets and boots, giving electric shocks when hitting and kicking would certainly help, I also learned all the runes related to magic traps, also take the opportunity to order a magic bag from the Mages Guild, as they were very expensive and difficult to make, if you wanted to buy one you had to enter a long waiting period, they would have it ready just before the beginning of winter.
With the approach of winter, I decided to return to the village, surely my mother was about to give birth, I would spend the winter with my parents and my brothers, then he would make a proper farewell and leave in the spring, therefore I bought abundant provisions and gifts for the farewell, in a few months I would also turn 21, almost the same age at which I started as a mercenary in my previous life, I felt very excited, a whole unknown world was waiting for me, I would live to the fullest, but many dangers awaited me, the level of threats in this world was terrifyingly high, wild animals, magical beasts, bandits, natural disasters, the threats were many for the travelers.
All of this made me feel aroused, the physical age of my brain coupled with the rush of hormones at this age almost clouded my sense of danger, if I had not had the conscience, memories, and experience of my previous life without a doubt I would be a very reckless young man, finally, a caravan from the village of gray wolves arrived in the city of Ciliana, doing the same routine, they would unload the exotic goods, then they would load the essential supplies and then they would return to the village, I joined the young men who unloaded the wagons, I was surprised not to see my father, those present told me that my mother had given birth to a child a few days before they left the village and for that reason my father did not lead the caravan, "so now I have a younger brother" I thought while making a smile of joy.
The journey back to the village was very uneventful, I was warmly received by my younger sister at the entrance of the village, under a soft snowfall, from the entrance of their large store my parents looked at me happily with a small child in their arms.