The people of Salcret were a hardy bunch.
You had to be, to be able to create a self-sustaining settlement surrounded by magic- and non-magic beast and flora alike. Of course, having Skills helped a ton.
Imagining that Humanity somehow managed on Ross for a time even without it, supposedly; if you believed the legends–it was a mind-boggling idea.
Dormata was the capital of Humanity, and central to their lands, and from its roads spread village and town alike, all the way to the borders.
If you found yourself there you were lucky in that Humanity was mostly surrounded by vast swathes of wilderness rather than opposing, hostile civilizations.
The Cloven being the exception to the rule, but that did not mean there wasn't the occasional raid you had to watch for; every area had its opportunists after all. But Humanity’s heartlands were safe from all but the major threats.
Salcret was lucky to be down south of Dormata, most other villages and all the greater townships rather spread to the east and west, positioned almost like a shield for the sleepy home town of Harold.
This was despite how they were all located near the middle of the giant Elderwood continent. These lands were just too poor to attract much attention.
Salcret was still a frontier town, albeit on the smaller side, but they did not have the border in every direction thankfully. Going north you had nothing but peaceful forest, for most of the year. Relatively peaceful.
That was still through a two weeks trip through wilderness before entering the nearest other town; and by the point you had arrived there, there wasn't more than a day's worth of travel to the capital anyway.
That was the way the people of Salcret liked it. Their town was barely more than a hundred years old, and its founders had chosen the spot for various reasons, not least the quality of the soil, and rather complicated affinity to be found on that one hill.
Lena was one of the descendants of those very founders.
Today she was moping around the town square, letting the lack of sun bother her far too soon into the lightless season.
Ever since purchasing the Hare's retreat at a bargain, thanks to the village funds that encouraged young villagers who wanted to travel, which then again Lena had in fact contributed to. So, maybe it wasn't such a bargain. Anyway, since making said purchase Lena had been doing quite well.
She still served breakfast at the square and kept a few rooms to rent for the occasional visitor, including the [Farmers] and [Foresters] from the outskirts of Salcret who just felt too drunk to make the walk home some evenings; other than that she spent her days preparing some food to take over to the Hare's Retreat, where she relieved the young Aspiring [Innkeeper] who was trying out the life during the less busy day shift.
They were making bread, and the life probably wasn't looking all that bad for the teen, who just had to serve drinks and keep the place decently clean, while handling the occasional stock refill and getting paid.
Of course Lena was waiting until he actually picked the Class before springing the heavier, yearly chores on him. This was not her first rodeo.
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Harold, Kalle and Oscar returning so soon, and not having faced utter defeat, but with a stranger in tow, was a big surprise.
Lena had given the group good odds originally, and the Captain had agreed; only a five percent chance they ran into something dangerous and came back to live quiet lives; with them both knowing how most predators should still be fat and slow from the summer season… But less than one that they returned within the year with something like this.
A complete stranger, who made a bit of a splash when she sold quite the superior quality hammer in the square yesterday.
Lena was just returning to her own place, having closed up the Hare's Retreat; when she heard shouting voices from the, up until recently vacated lot behind her own house.
It was Harold's voice.
"[Guild Master]!? Why would you ever pick such a Class, you could have made any number of choices, we don't even have a guild in town, surely you know this or could have asked?" He didn't sound angry, more upset and shocked, and maybe frustrated with confusion.
He apparently received some answer that Lena missed, and not one he liked.
"What, what are you even talking about, we just started those yesterday, and we don't even have any way of recruiting more members, they need to be Casters, remember?" This was getting confusing, but Lena was almost leaning in the window to hear more at this point, so she could figure out what the situation was. [Guild Master]? Maybe she has a plan, something like the founders.
"BUT SO WHAT ABOUT NOW THEN!? Are you really just going to loiter until we find our real location, not leveling for the whole winter?"
The response he got seemed to finally calm him down because the shouting ceased, and the continued discussion was too low to hear from her corner. Interesting, maybe things are shaping up to something new around here.
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Livia proudly declaring her new Class had not been as well-received as she hoped, but Kalle had been sure he was just missing something, and Oscar leaned towards that mindset as well.
Harold was the only one whose lack of understanding boiled over into frustration and an eruption; but not even he was resistant to wisdom once he heard it all the way through. A Class was all about how you personally shaped it on your path, after all.
"There's no need to worry at all, even now at level 1 it can do a lot of useful stuff. But my Class is a bit like Kalle's in that some abilities work better if I don't explain them,” After how they’d handled Kalle’s secrecy that earned her some skeptical eyes. “It's just so you don't start feeling like everything I do is to level and not because it's actual advice."
She was thinking specifically of her [Nurture Talent] Skill, it was unlikely to work quite as well if you completely lost any personal relationship to your friends; your guild member could all too easily start feeling like all Livia did was aimed at cultivating their talent, and nobody wanted a robot for a leader.
She brought them into a huddle. "And even if we don't have any recruits knocking on the door right now, by the time we leave I definitely plan for us to be leaving with some more people too, besides us four. You can trust me on that, I’m gonna start looking around."