Sin gathered his belongings and started on his way towards the river, the jog to it had been uneventful. There had been many changes in the time last 3 months. Some animals had gained elemental affinities, but none of them were any real threats. At least none of those in his surroundings, he hadn't explored much. Some flora also seemed to have gained sentience, which could be seen by how the forest seemed to thrum around him. There was also that one time when he baited an orc into chasing him into the forest and a tree, under which they had been fighting, suddenly swatted the orc over the head with one of its bigger branches.
That tree must have been pissed because those orcs had been cutting down tens of trees every day. The clearing which was only 50 meters in diameter at the time he discovered them was now over 200 meters wide. And although he kept killing them, their numbers weren't dwindling, in fact their numbers had risen to over double the amount. 'The speed at which they are breeding is insane. I will have to deal with them when I become stronger.'
I got to the river and started travelling down the river. Humans are sociable creatures and usually can't survive if they aren't in communities, and if our history records are correct humans like to inhabit places at the river deltas or where they flow into some other water body. I kept running for 2 hours when I saw something fast approaching from the corner of my eye. Thankfully my agility is pretty high so I was able to avoid this likely fatal attack in time.
Eastern green mamba (Wind affinity), level 14 This arboreal type of snake is very secretive and quick, which makes it a perfect ambush predator. Now that she has attained wind affinity this ability has been amplified. By the lines on it's body it seems to be on the cusp of evolving. Well, aren't you lucky? If it had evolved you would be slowly dissolving in its stomach by now hihi.
'Wait, what!? I thought the system was inanimate, what the hell? It's actually sassing me?' "Whoa crap, fuck you system, you almost got me killed!" As he was distracted by the systems sassing, the snake snapped its jaws at him once again. He focused on the fight ahead of him and readied his weapons to slash at the mamba when it struck again. Though this time the mamba coiled and launched its body towards him, opening its jaws wide. Although he was startled he reacted in time, though the course fo action he took may have been a little stupid. He barely moved out of the way, and set his knife so that it would cut the snakes right side in half if it didn't change directions midflight. And luckily his risk paid off, he didn't kill the snake although it was hurt badly. If he fled right now it would likely die of blood loss. For the rest of the fight the snake didn't manage to bite him, but it did smack him with its tail into a tree hard enough to disorient him. His instinct flared to life and he rolled out of the way when the snake smacked into the tree and he quickly severed its head with all his strength.
"Phew, son of a bitch!" he heard some leaves rustling and decided that was his signal to bail, so he ran and didn't stop until he finally reached a small town. It looked like something out of the middle ages, but considering every city in the world was levelled, and the planet wasn't what it was, this could be considered good. It was surrounded by a wooden palisade, probably with some walkway on the inner side, because he could see people walking on it, probably acting as guards or lookouts. He started walking when he got in range, so they wouldn't shoot him if they had bows, if they panicked.
"Hey," he yelled "can I come in?" they finally noticed and they looked at him suspiciously, before one of them turned around and yelled for someone to get their superior. He only waited for a few minutes when someone came out of the gates with a small squadron of guards.
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"Hail, stranger, who are you and why have you come?" Direct, cool, I really don't like dealing with beaurocrats or people who speak windingly. He had a small brown beard, and a cleanly shaven head, his features were quite unremarkable, not handsome, but not ugly either.
"My name is Synyster, and I have been living in the forest since all of this fucking mess started. Thankfully I managed to come accross this town. What's it called?" I tried to act friendly and not threatening, and I guess it worked since his face broke into a small smile at that.
"Welcome then Synyster, we could use more people here, it's tough living like this in the wilderness. My name is Bryan, and I am one of the officers in our little town of Delta. Yeah, yeah, not much imagination used but we had more stiffling matters to deal with, like surving, than to think of names for our settlement." He got a little worked up, I guess people were calling them out on the unremarkable name. " Say, do you have any talents or production abilities that could help us here?"
"I delved a little into Herbalism and Alchemy, so I can make some salves, pastes or potions that would help heal wounds, or help with cleaning them." Bryans eyes shone brilliantly and he directly ushered him in, the little suspicion he held long gone.
"Really? That would be most helpful, we don't have anyone with any kind of working knowledge on that matter here. Would you be willing to produce some for us? We could give you a few people to teach what and how to gather and you wouldn't have to risk yourself to gather the resources. What do you say?"
I got really thrown off my game seeing his enthusiasm. I nodded quickly, hoping he would calm down a little. Damn, and here I thought he was normal, I really don't know how to deal with his kind of people. " Sure, as long as I can help. So, who runs this place?" I asked as I took a look around the town, there were many shacks and cabins strewn around, as well as a few bigger, better built buildings which probably housed certain important facilities. There was one that caught his eye, because it was the only "building" built into the ground. There was constant smoke billowing from its top. "And what's that building in the ground?"
"Your help will be greatly appreciated, we will give you the position of the Alchemy Guilds Guildmaster, effective immediately!" His eyes crescent in shape by now. I gotta admit this guy was giving me the creeps. "As for the leader, it's the currently strongest member of our little society, Kathrin. I will introduce you to her later on. That is our our smithy, we found someone who had been a premium blacksmith before the system was introduced. He was making those katanas and whatnot the wealthy liked to hang on their walls to show off. If there is anyone who liked the change brought about by the system, it's our dear Smed." He seemed to have seen something in my expression because he explained further right away. "He was orphaned as a child, he never knew his parents, and all he had was his master who thaught him his craft. He didn't really have anyone to lose to the system because his master had already passed away long before. So you can imagine how happy he was that he would finally be able to make products that would actually be used, and would serve a purpose other than as a decoration."
"I guess I can see that. So what will be my responsibilities during my stay here? You know besides teaching?" He responded with a hearthy laugh "My friend, you are an eager one. Most people can't wait to get out of my clutches so I can't give them any more tasks. You have one of the most important tasks in this whole settlement and you want to more besides it? I wouldn't have the face to do so. Just do what you want in your free time, and of course help out with defense if necessary, otherwise you are free to do as you please."
He led me to a cabin which he told me I was free to stay in. It didn't have much to it, but it sure beat sleeping in a hole in a forest. There was a simple bed and a table, and basically a circle of stones meant to be used a campfire, you know, for heat and making meals and stuff. He told me he would come get me when he needed me, and that I should come report to him should I decide to head out of the walls and left me to my devices. I still had some fish in my inventory so I ate it and went to sleep. I was exhausted and sleeping on a bed sounded really good. I went out like a candle as soon as I hit the soft grass.