Ozzy was drying himself off when he heard a knock at the door. “Hey, Ben had some spare clothes you could use” He heard Cederick say from outside. “I’m just gonna set them on the shelf just inside the door.” Ozzy still wrapped the towel around himself just in case as the kid cracked the door and set the stack of clothes on the shelf. “After you’re dressed I’ve got a few other places to show you”. That sounded a bit different than the tune from when he’d gotten here. Maybe coming unannounced had caused some troubles.
“Thanks!” Ozzy said, taking a look at the clothes. They would do well enough. Everything was rough spun cotton or at least it looked and felt like it. The fit was rather decent considering the place it was made, and that it wasn’t made for him. It all smelled a bit like the aloe soap he had used to wash himself. Which was much better than his clothes and really what made the decision for him. He’d initially been thinking about just dressing back up in them, but they smelled like rancid sweat and meat. He was surprised he had gotten used to it with how bad it was. Getting dressed quickly he balled up his old clothes and used his old T-shirt as a bag for them.
Stepping out he was greeted with a “Surprise!” with Cederick holding out some leather shoes. They looked like a cross between sandals and a moccasin with a leather tie at the ankle but the whole foot was covered. Maybe leather foot wraps was the best description but he wasn’t a footwear connoisseur. Either way they were miles better than bare feet.
“Thank you.” He said Taking the offering and stepping back to the rim of the tub he sat to put them on. “Really, thank you.” he added while trying to figure out the ties “I likely would have made a mess of making something like this.” As he continued to struggle with them he mumbled “If I even could”
“Here, “ Cederick stepped forward and knelt, “let me show you. It’s quicker once you’ve seen it done before.” With that he grabbed the other shoe and quickly showed the orientation and pattern. One piece went over the other then around the angle twice then wrapped around the foot and tied at the top. It was pretty straight forward once seen. The way the leather lay looked like it was formed specifically to sit just as it’d been tied. Next time it would be a little quicker but he’d likely need a few attempts before it became habit. “Well it’s the least I can do” Cederick continued “We’re gonna need to head back to your place before we can check out the next haven” The forced upbeat attitude didn’t very well hide the undertone of uncomfortableness.
“I take it my unannounced visit didn’t go over very well with Benjamin?” Ozzy guessed.
“Not exactly that” was the only reply as the other shoe was tied as well.
Which of course to Ozzy meant that yes it was exactly that. He wasn’t too upset, as at least he’d still be able to meet others besides, and he’d seen some interesting things here. Had a nice bath. He also had some new clothes. Not to mention shoes he didn’t have before. Of course there was also the likelihood that if someone reacted so poorly to being dropped in on unannounced that they were not the most welcoming host to begin with.
Meanwhile Cederick was certain that Ozzy knew there was more to this than a simple uninvited guest being asked to leave. He desperately hoped Ozzy would drop the subject and just follow him. To that end Cederick offered another gift “Also I bought some seeds for you.” He said holding up a bag, which was more of a towel folded in half and stitched together “There’s something like cotton, some wheat, and actually I got some little sprouts of those fruit trees”
“You bought it?” Ozzy wondered.
“Absolutely! Remember trade was one of the first things that I was able to get people to agree to before Benjy… uh Benjamin allowed me and some others to join him here.” Cederick started as he made his way back toward the end of the path they’d originally arrived on. Momentarily Ozzy wondered if Cederick just didn’t know about being able to leave from any point at the edge, but then he saw the edge of this havens domain. The membrane was completely different from the one surrounding his own haven. None of the pores were open. Actually it appeared there were no pores at all. As if the entire thing had been rebuilt. At the end of the path there was one large opening that had what looked like a multilayered system of security surrounding it.
Something about that suggested that whoever benjamin was Ozzy could have learned a lot from him if it wasn’t for this inopportune meeting. Again he took a page from Cedericks book and let bygones be bygones. It was around then that Ozzy realized Cederick had continued talking but he didn’t catch any of it. Though it appeared it wasn’t a question or anything else requiring input as he wasn’t looking to Ozzy for an answer and had continued down the path afterward. “So, How much did it cost you?” Ozzy asked while jogging to catch up, curious if he could start trading himself soon. Well with one of the other havens they were heading to.
“Oh just a few of the energy packets left by the monsters.” Cederick said dismissively, even waving Ozzy off as if it were nothing. It would be nothing to Ozzy if he could actually get some trade going. He had hundreds of them in his recliner pocket back in the haven. Which had Ozzy wondering what people call those as Cederick hadn’t mentioned earlier. “Well different groups call em different things” Cederick explained when he asked “Some people call em chits, tokens, or coins. Some even call em Spirit Coins. Benjy likes to call em energy packets as he doesn’t like to label things other than they are. Says it gets you thinking about them wrong”
Benjamin was sounding more and more like someone Ozzy would have liked to have met. Although, another glance at the mystical doomsday bunker this haven was turned into by the prepper part of the guy definitely gave him thanks he hadn’t. Maybe he’d be able to repair the relationship at some point so he could pick his brain at least. He sure wasn’t ever going to be staying the night here in what was likely a minefield of mystical booby traps.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
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A simple step found them back on the few square meters Ozzy had been calling home so far. Which felt like returning to friendly soil after being abroad for days despite the visit lasting less than two hours. Finding himself sighing and flopping down on the recliner he realized he still had a guest and nothing to offer him. Well not nothing actually. “Here Cederick” Ozzy said, holding up a handful of the cores he’d collected previously, in a bit of the blanket he’d cut off. Not the large one from the uber rat of course.
“Oh, I….” Cederick looked like he wanted to say no, but clearly did want the cores.
“Consider it a payment for services rendered” Ozzy countered, thinking of the amazing bath he’d been able to experience. “And of course for helping introduce me to whoever else you’re able to”
“Well, I do hope the next visits go better.” he said while pouring the coins into a little pouch he’d apparently had tied to his belt. Which Ozzy hadn’t seen before. “Speaking of these ones I will definitely need to clear it with them first so It’ll take me a bit to get that set up.” He said, turning a little to the side to avoid eye contact.
“That’s perfectly reasonable” Ozzy reassured him. “I wanted to see about planting the tree and whatnot.”
“Oh, yeah!” Cederick excitedly pronounced “Benjy said you could give em some energy and they’d grow faster, but I have trouble doing that” he ended on a sour note with a bit of a frown. “I’ve tried cracking one of the packets right next to them but I absorb them to quickly, even when I do it from a distance with like a stick”
This piqued Ozzy’s interest. For a few reasons. He didn’t realize you could break the cores with a stick for one. And for two that just sounded like an absurd absorption rate from a distance. He’d been looking at so many different things but focused on Cederick now. Immediately he could see a few things off. One was that the kid seemed to be sucking in energy. It wasn’t just hitting his skin and absorbing as happened with Ozzy causing a little buzzing. There was a whirlwind of energy flowing into Cederick from several feet away from him. He also had a sheen about him when looking with his new senses. It was a bit like a membrane but it was clearly his skin that looked almost metallic. Finally something else was off that took a bit to realize. Cederick had no domain at all.
The rats he’d observed before had a domain that barely wisped outside their body. Even the largest rat still had one, and it expanded even further from its body. With this boy there was not a hint of any domain anywhere around him. Tentatively Ozzy reached out with his own domain and felt the vortex pull at it. Stretching out it touched Cedericks skin and stopped. It felt like it was still being pulled in but the membrane or whatever this barrier was, prevented it from moving further. If this was simply a membrane it was exactly aligned with Cedericks skin. The texture of each cell was aligned with that of whatever was blocking his domain. Realizing he’d paused for quite some time he looked up to find Cederick was looking off to the side apparently lost in thought. “Anyway, “ He added eventually “I’m gonna go see if i can setup a meeting with somebody”
“Alright! See you!” Ozzy agreed, waving “I’ll just be here working on all the great things you got”. Gesturing to the bag of goodies that Cederick had set on the grass. That and he planned to try his hand at all the different things he’d learned of as well. As he thought that he watched Cederick wave and jump away. Ozzy found himself sighing again. With as much as he’d been missing socializing, he felt he’d gotten more than enough in the last couple hours to last him a good week. Somehow talking to someone younger than yourself was exhausting. If it ended up the boy wasn’t back for another few days he wouldn’t really mind. With everything he’d seen in such a short time he’d likely have months worth of tinkering he could do. Not to mention he also had new plants and tiles to play with.
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The plants had been about as easy as he’d thought they would be. Feeding them energy was significantly easier for him with his domain to direct things. That and the lack of a vortex stealing all the energy. There was some finesse involved as just dumping a cores worth of energy on a sprout resulted in a thick limbed bush type thing shooting up that had no leaves or fruit to speak of. After testing with the other a bit and varying the speed at which he allowed energy to hit it he found a good rate that would effectively fast forward normal growth. Soon he had a fruit tree half again taller than he was standing on the center of one tile of his lands.
There were of course some oddities with its growth beyond just the speed. The roots didn’t poke out the other side as he’d expected. In fact they also didn’t penetrate past the tile they grew into in any direction. Despite having roots less than a few centimeters deep and barely a meter wide in total the tree was quite solid. It seemed every single thing he learned here brought about ten more questions. Though at least some of those things were obviously valuable to him while others were simply curiosities. Maybe he could make use of that info later but for now he’d move on.
Looking back to the other sprout he’d failed to grow properly he found some interesting changes. That first sprout was slowly growing properly now. Slowly only compared to the speed he’d just grown the other though. It seemed the energy in the air alone was enough to get it to correct itself. Not only that but it appeared that it was using all kinds of different energies. Not just the most useful types that Ozzy could utilize. But several of the waste energies that he couldn’t. Looking back at the fully grown tree he could see it doing the same and sprouting fruit as it did so. Even better was the fact that he could see the fruit contained quite a bit of energy.