Lucas finished the day with his mother nursing a headache. While the training swords didn’t do much in the way of damage, the fall when he reflexively tried to dodge out of the way of the sword after it had struck his neck had caused a large knot to the side of his head, his mother had made sure he was ok and then almost choked to death holding back her laughter at him and his rather snarky, in his opinion, system message.

Dodge Failed!

Your attempt to dodge an attack has resulted in a critical failure.

Your lack of attention on your opponent has resulted in you being struck by an attack. Due to your critical failure you have become dazed.

30% reduction applied to perception, dexterity, and wisdom for 5 minutes.

(Potency and duration increased due to critical failure)

He went to bed still rather disgruntled, especially since [Combat Focus] didn’t seem particularly useful, even if his mother was terribly excited about it. He had tried it briefly while reading and was able to slow things down quite a bit. His mother had been talking to him when he attempted to activate the skill and her words seemed to come out in slow motion. Unfortunately for Lucas, the skill required far more mana to use than he had access to and he had experienced [Mana Depletion] for the first time as well that evening. Worse than that was the fact that he was only able to use the skill for about four seconds, relatively, and it only slowed things down by about a third to a quarter. He felt that giving up all of his free mana and getting a headache in return was a poor trade for getting to experience three seconds as four seconds instead.

The next morning, Lucas was woken up by his father, which generally meant a long day helping his father with something around the homestead that needed to be repaired or replaced. It wasn’t late enough in the year to replace the cellar glyphs, the barn was fine, and there wasn’t any damage to any of the fences or pens. He got up and dressed quickly and was ready with the false dawn giving a faint outline to the trees in the distance and little else.

He made his way to the kitchen where his mother was sleepily stirring porridge. At least I’m not the only one he woke up before the sun came up good, thought Lucas. He sat at the table and placed his forehead down on his arms, lulled to sleep by the comforting smells and sounds of his mother working to finish breakfast. After what seemed like only seconds, his mother gently shook him awake and set a bowl of steaming porridge with a hearty helping of beeling honey in it in front of Lucas.

“Son, now that you finished the herb lore book, we need to get you the skill,” said his father. “So, today we’re gonna’ go into the outskirts of the beast range and you’ll be huntin’ down a list of plants that Randolph gave me. You should get the skill before you find ‘em all. This is also a good opportunity for you to work on that cat,” his father continued. He cut a quick glance to the area in front of the oven where the animal in question had lay down as soon as Lucas’ mother had finished preparing breakfast. “He’s a year old now n’ that’s the age where the big cats generally start learnin’ to follow more complex commands. You’ve done good teachin’ him the basics, and he’s probably a bit farther along than most just because of how close you two are. We just gotta’ expand on what we’ve got started”

“Why do you want me to get the herb lore skill, dad?” asked Lucas. He didn’t normally question his father’s orders, but he didn’t want to miss a chance to get better with the sword just to learn a skill as boring as [Herb Lore].

“Randolph calls it a foundational skill. It’s like my own [Tracking] skill. It serves as the basis for a bunch of my other skills and is a core skill for my class. If I hadn’t gotten the skill, I couldn’t have moved from [Rogue] to [Hunter],” Stan said. He noticed that Lucas still seemed to be disappointed that he would be in the woods learning a different skill than his [Swordsmanship].

“But, dad, what if I learn a bunch of skills that can’t help me fight and can’t learn new skills like my [Swordsmanship]?” Lucas asked.

“Look, son, I know you think that the best way to stay safe is to get stronger, I get that. But there’s a lot of different ways you can be strong. Your ma can whip me up and down the yard with that little pig sticker she calls a sword, but she couldn’t hit our barn with an arrow from the inside. She just ain’t good with the bow. She also couldn’t find me five meters into the woods over there if I didn’t want her to. That don’t mean she ain’t strong, she’s just strong in a different way. She could mix just a little bit of the wrong thing in my dinner and give me the runs for a week, and there’s nothin’ I could do about it, I rely on her for my meals. That’s part of her strength.

“The [Herb Lore] skill and the other skills that Randolph plans for you are gonna’ make you strong in a different way. We’re teachin’ you the sword so you can fight when you need to, but we’re teaching you everything else so that you don’t have to fight all the time. And when you do have to fight,” Stan finished with an evil grin. “They won’t expect you to shove that needle of yours right up their ass,” Stan paused for a moment then patted his son on the shoulder. “Now, just cause we ain’t goin’ to fight don’t mean we’re not gonna’ find trouble. Go get dressed and bring your weapons, including that bow.”

Lucas got up from the table and hastily returned to his room. He got dressed quickly and called for Mr. Snugglepuss to follow him from the kitchen to the barn where he gathered his bow and sabre, this time without the training stone in it.

His father was waiting for him on the front porch of the house with three packs. On Stan’s back was the regular pack that he used on all of his trips. It had basic weight reduction, but no type of storage ability. It was made from dark brown leather from some lizard and was one of the tougher types of non-enchanted leather. In Stan’s hands were two smaller and vastly different packs. On his left was a pack similar in style to Stan’s own. It was made of a lighter brown leather, likely something basic like a cow or deer, but it was brand new and had dozens of smaller pockets around the outside. It could be strapped around the waste to keep it from bouncing and had places where a bow could be tied, unstrung, to the side.

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“This is yours,” Stan said handing the smaller backpack to Lucas. “It ain’t enchanted, but it’s well made. Several of the pouches are water tight, but if you pack it right, the whole thing can be submerged for a few minutes without any water gettin’ in. It ought to last you a good long while and it’ll work great for collectin’ your herbs and such.”

Stan waited until Lucas had the pack strapped securely to his back and tossed him the other pack. It was a harness, similar to what went on some hounds and other pets that Lucas had seen occasionally. Only, instead of having a leash so the pet owner could keep the animal steady, it had several buckles and rings on it. Attached to two sets of these buckles were a pair of bags that were eerily similar to saddle bags. Lucas couldn’t help but grin as he recalled his fantasy of riding his void cat like a steed. All he needed was a saddle and for his cat to be about three times his current size.

“I reckon you know what this is. I’ll leave it up to you to get your cat in it. You’ll need to train him to wear it all the time. The bags can be removed and the harness can be used to layer bags or barding as necessary. You’ll also need to take care of it and replace the leather as necessary,” said Stan.

“Come here, Mr. Snugglepuss,” said Lucas as he turned to his pet void cat.

Mr. Snugglepuss attempted to turn and go back inside, immediately disliking the tone of his master’s voice, but he was quickly grabbed around the neck and Lucas gave him a quick headbutt.

“You’re gonna’ have to wear this. Dad had it made special for you,” Lucas whispered to his future steed. With only a modicum of fighting, Mr. Snugglepuss was equipped with the harness and bags. There was a delay for Lucas to get his mother to cast her heal and for him to change shirts before they set out towards the beast range east of the house, but Lucas was okay with the trade. He was starting to outgrow that shirt anyway, and the faster he had Mr. Snugglepuss trained to wear the harness, the sooner he could figure out a way to put a saddle on his cat.

The trip to the beast range was uneventful and took all of the morning. Their homestead was considered dangerously close to the beast range by most, but Lucas’ grandparents weren’t stupid. His grandfather was a powerful [Adventurer] class, though Lucas wasn’t sure which one. There were a lot of ways that classes ranked up, and even a [Loremaster] would be hard pressed to remember all of the known [Adventurer] rank ups. It was the world’s most common class for a reason.

The trip could have gone slightly faster, but Lucas was tasked with finding herbs for his skill as soon as they exited their homestead. He was constantly having to move off the path and into the woods to try to find specific herbs that grew near their home. He had already found four common and one uncommon ranked herb. He felt it was incredibly lucky that there was a snap dragon shoot so close to their house. His herb lore book noted that the snapdragon let off a fragrance that attracted three species of bird who built their nests near the shoot. All three species’ feathers were powerful crafting ingredients for a variety of professions, and the eggs from one type, the blue-crested tyrant manakin, were used in several alchemist potions. He was hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the birds and maybe climb to the nest and collect a couple of the eggs if his father would let him.

Lucas never saw one of the birds he was hunting but continued to gather the odd herb. He noticed that once he found an herb, the information that he had memorized was a little bit clearer the next time. In addition, it became easier to find more of the same herb. The downside was that finding the plant did not equal collecting the plant. In nine cases out of ten, he felt that the plant wasn’t in good enough condition to be used or sold.

Just before noon Lucas’ father had them step off of the path. Lucas followed his father for about fifteen minutes before they came to a small pond. There was a clear area near the pond with an old fire pit and several logs set up around the area to be used as tables or seating. The pond itself seemed fresh and clear, with a stream meandering off to the north.

“This is where I make camp when I’m ranging on the edges of the beast range. We’ll stay here for a couple of days while I scout the area to make sure nothin’ new has moved in then we’ll move to our main camp for the next couple of weeks. This spot is generally free of any beasts or dangerous plants. There used to be a wyvern that lived here back in my pa’s day. Pa killed it as soon as he and ma settled in the area, but a wyvern’s mark lasts a long time. It’s unlikely that we’ll be bothered while we’re camping here, but I want you to stay within site of the pond at all times when we’re in camp,” Stan said as he lowered his pack from his back.

“The water’s good to drink, but I’d collect from the stream up there,” he pointed to an area on the northwest side of the pond, “about five meters after it starts there’s some rocks with water moss on em. Shouldn’t be nothin’ in the pond to worry about, but don’t go to close to it without me nearby,” Stan stopped talking and looked over at his son. “Well, go ahead and start looking around here for any herbs that are on your list and I’ll start settin’ up camp.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Lucas. He quickly headed towards the spot that his father said had water moss. It was one of the common plants on his list and he would take the freebie. The moss had purifying qualities and when collected and prepared properly could be turned into a mesh that could be placed over bottles, jars, bowls, and other containers. Any water poured through the mesh was filtered and as clean as pure spring water. The moss ate the contaminants normally, but when it was processed into the mesh, it wasn’t able to gather enough energy to keep it fresh perpetually.

He quickly approached the stream and found the area with the water moss. The water moss made clear just how difficult Lucas’ task was. Lucas was told exactly where the moss was located and still had trouble finding it. It looked like any other moss and settled on rocks with water moving over them, but it couldn’t survive with a current that was too fast or when exposed to air. He had to work his way down the stream, bending to retrieve stones from water that was a meter deep in many places. Lucas knew just how deep the stream was because he slipped on a slick, non-water moss covered stone and received an impromptu bath. By the time he found a stone with the right moss on it, he was soaked through and regretting that he started with the stream. He quickly scraped some moss free from the stone, leaving enough to regrow, and placed the stone back into the stream. He then placed his mark on a nearby tree with the glyph for water so that he could find the spot again.

Lucas stuffed his collected moss an quickly called for his cat to follow. “Come on, Mr. Snugglepuss, lets go. We’ve got a long day ahead of us.” With a gentle smack of his cats head as it tried to get it’s teeth into the harness it was involuntarily sporting, he and his pet moved back towards the camp on the southwestern shore of the lake. He started at what he considered his maximum distance from the pond and decided to work his way around the pond to the stream while looking for his herbs and slowly circle in until he was at the shore.

That night he went to bed with two pouches full of herbs that he’d probably have to throw away, a more intimate knowledge of five new common herbs, a scratch from his wrist to elbow from a thorn bush, and a disgruntled cat who truly disliked the harness that his master was making it wear.

“This is a lot harder than I thought,” he said to his cat. Mr. Snugglepuss, being a cat, didn’t respond, but he did show his current disdain for his master by turning and tucking its head under its paws instead of curling up with Lucas like it normally did. Lucas rubbed his cats head and closed his eyes. Tomorrow was going to be a rough day and Lucas hadn’t even made it all the way around the pond one time yet.