‘Fucking boars! I’m trying to find just a single boar! For almost a week! Where the hell did they all go? Normally the woods here should be overflowing with game, but since a few months ago it started to dwindle rapidly.’

Ben was the son of the owner of the only restaurant in the entire Rimmlands. Not that that was hard, with the hard conditions everyone faced. His father’s restaurant was also the reason why he was so pissed.

Once a month Ben had to hunt a boar, which his father then prepared in a special way for their village blacksmith. Ben could still remember how angry the werewolf was when Ben was unable to hunt and his father had to take out time from his busy schedule and hence wasn’t able to deliver in time. Thanks to this scary memory he didn’t even play with the thought to return empty-handed.

Now there was only a bit over a day left until the usual delivery time arrived if he included the time his dad needed to cook Ben had only a few more hours before he had to be back. More importantly, he would miss the exercise day if he didn’t come back before tomorrow morning.

‘I really hope that stupid cripple doesn’t pick me for the demonstration again.’ Ben shuddered at the thought of the exercise day last week.

Out of options, he decided to take a risk and leave the relatively peaceful low mana zone he was currently in. ‘Whatever I meet there shouldn’t be as horrible as the punishment I would get if I miss training or don’t bring a boar home in time.’

Ben quickly climbed on one of the bigger trees. After finding out in which direction the mountain was, he came back down and made his way in its direction.

The mana zones in most of the Rimlands where seemingly random, but in reality, they never jumped more than three levels between zones. So it wasn’t surprising that the zones directly around Greencliff where relatively low-level. But different to all other settlements every zone more than three zones away from the village was at least a high-level one.

Another uniqueness of Greencliff was that the village that was nestled under and in a cliff was the only known place where a zone with almost zero mana bordered directly on a high-level mana zone. The cliff itself and a small area beneath it had nearly no mana, but everything on top of the cliff was at least high-level. In general, the zones near and especially on the mountain were on a much higher level compared to everywhere else. The only exception was the village which was directly on its foot.

When this was discovered, around 200 years after the zones appeared, and the mountain grew, hordes of mages, researchers and adventurers tried to find out why that was the case, but never got any results.

This was also the time when the expansive system of caves, tunnels, and houses in the face of the cliff were first created. Ben was told that some mages thought that there were mana zones inside it and tried to find them by digging, without success naturally.

Ben also wasn’t too sure about the mountain growing part. But their town mayor told them he once had a friend who lived at the foot of the then much smaller mountain. If what he said really was true, it would mean that he was over 700 years old, which didn’t make it more believable in the least.

If his parents hadn’t warned him to always be respectful to the mayor, he would just treat him as a confused old man. Which he still did, but he didn’t show it.

Concentrating back on finding boar trails, Ben felt a slight increase in the mana concentration. This meant that he had arrived in the border region between zones. A few minutes of walking later the concentration stabilized again.

After crossing two more zones he arrived at the foot of the mountain. Contrary to anything he knew, Ben didn’t encounter even the most basic magically enhanced animal, let alone a true monster. Even after a thorough search, he didn’t find one. They and boars seemed equally scarce.

Without much of a choice, he went to the next zone. After almost an hour of searching, Ben found the trail of a few boars. Exited he followed them ‘If I see thing correctly, they left just under an hour ago. If I’m lucky I’ll be back before dinner.’

Soon he discovered more and more trails. They all seemed to lead in the same direction.

Half an hour later he discovered the boars he had followed in front of him. Carefully he sneaked towards them. As he came closer he discovered that one of the boars was a magically enhanced animal. This made it strange that he hadn’t been discovered already.

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When he was in was close enough to comfortably kill them with his bow. He stopped and observed them. When they focused on something to their right, Ben released the arrow he already had on his bow.

Surprisingly one arrow was enough to kill the magic boar. And its companions also didn’t seem to care. They relatively unhurriedly made their way into some shrubbery and continued with their way.

Ben quickly tied some branches into an improvised sled and heaved the boar on it.

He was somewhat split between immediately going back home or finding out where all the trails lead to. In the end, reason prevailed and he made his way back home.

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It already started to get dark when he was able to see the massive defensive wall and its towers of Greencliff. These defensive fortifications alone would be enough for any other place to become a town. And if one considered the population size of Greencliff too, it bordered on a miracle that they still were a village without its own official crest.

When he had asked his father why that was the case, Ben was told that the mayor refused any kingdom or empire that wanted to bestow one onto them. The main reason was that he and most of the village's inhabitants didn’t want a garrison force stationed inside their walls.

Back when he was still a child he discovered that above the entrance to the cave, in which the mayor lived, was a crest engraved into the stone of the cliff.

The answer that his school teacher gave him, after asking about the crest, was that Greencliff already had a crest, but none of the surrounding powers wanted to accept it. It was as old as Greencliff, which was enormous for the Rimland. The oldest town in the Rimmlands Ben knew of, besides Greencliff, was a 200-year-old bastion city of some empire.

Arriving in front of the gate, Ben greeted the guards that were lazing around in the guard chamber in the gate. If he didn’t know them Ben would assume they didn’t take their jobs seriously, but somehow they always knew when something was going to happen.

After passing through the gate, Ben made his way over the cleanly paved streets towards his home. Only a few dozen meters away from home he was stopped. One of the street sweepers, this was what the locals called the people that wanted to migrate to Greencliff, yelled at him. “I just cleaned here! Don’t you see that? You’re smearing blood everywhere. Can’t you pay attention to the fucking boar you’re dragging around?”

He could understand the street sweeper. But the point in having him do this job was to find out how serious he was in moving to Greencliff. Only if he was able to last the month of community work without complaining, would he be allowed to truly move in.

Just when he wanted to answer to the man, two guards arrived and took him away. ‘Another one that doesn’t make it.’ Ben thought and continued home.

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“You’re finally home! Mum and I were about to send someone to search for you. Do you have the boar?” Bens father seemed more concerned with the boar than with Bens situation.

“Yeah, it took forever to find one, I had to go up the mountain to hunt one…”

“You did what?” asked Bens mother, who just came in, upset.

“I had to go up the mountain to find a boar, but I shot a magical one. Maybe I can get a nice bone arrow from uncle Gren.” Ben answered.

“The only thing strange was, that most of the magical animals and monsters seem to have gone somewhere in the mountain, I discovered their trails when I went after the Boars.” He added.

“What? Do you think, that is the reason why there was so little game in these past few months? If you think so you have to tell the mayor about it. Some of the people with special needs had a hard time finding prey.”

“Keith, you take Ben up to the mayor. Ben, we will talk after you are back.” Said Bens mother and with a stern gaze at Ben she added. “Don’t think you will get away scot free.”

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After the long walk to the cliff face and the even longer walk upwards, through the countless tunnels and caves inside the cliff, Ben and his father arrived at the highest point. A few guards, secretaries and advisors were the last obstacle to reaching their goal. Thankfully Bens father Keith was a respected member of the village, he even was in the council, so he had no problems meeting the mayor.

This was the first time in a few years Ban visited the mayor. Almost magically his eyes were attracted by the crest above the door into the mayor’s chambers.

It showed a mighty tree with huge roots and an eye in the base. The roots seemed to clasp a stone beneath them. Behind the tree was a mountain, that vaguely resembled the mountain on which’s foot their village was.

His father’s knocks tore him out of his thoughts. Very soon the mayor called them in.

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The mayor was a big man, and despite his clearly advanced age, he was still fit. If it wasn’t for his unkempt silvery grey beard and his always moving eyes he would look quite dignified. Coupled with the stories he tended to tell, especially to the kids, Ben always felt he was a mad person.

The worst thing was, that as soon as a topic wasn’t to his liking, the mayor started to unconsciously release his aura. Which, despite being nature attributed, was irritating, to put it nicely.

Now Ben had the questionable honor to tell him about his discoveries.