True to the lore, the tree seemingly provided protection to the new village. Only small, weak and frail monsters made themselves known, and even then, the local guards rarely needed to intervene for the farmers. Only two occurrences of strong monsters appearing have been recorded. The first, I’ve now confirmed from my records, happened approximately 9 months before the birth of the young man of interest.
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Alright! I can see the whole town now. Although what I’m actually using to see is still up for debate…
The houses don’t appear to have any significant substance, since I can see right through them as if they were made of tinted glass. The people, and even one of the dogs are much easier to see, shining much more brightly. Although I’ve noticed that three of them are much easier to see at all times, I think they’re all guards, but that doesn’t clarify why some are easier to see than others. Older people are generally easier to see than the kids which makes everyone and everything kind of look like a bunch of ghosts wandering around a ghostly town on a planet that looks like a ghost also... hmm.
Speaking of the town, what is with this layout? The outside is a giant ring of farmhouses and barns with wall-like fences between and a single gate that leads to the road. It looks like the fields and pastures for each farmer radiates out from the town, but I’ll need to improve my range to confirm.
My tree is inside this outer ring close to one of the farmhouses and seems to have a small park for the children to play in underneath. The inner ring looks like vegetable gardens, followed by another ring of houses, and then finally some larger buildings with what I’m guessing is a church surrounding an open area in the middle.
At a glance, it looks like a smart design that reeks of a ton of meticulous planning on the town’s part. The unbroken line of houses, barns, and walls provides defense; while the gardens and access to livestock inside provide sustenance in the event of a siege, but that theoretical siege is where everything starts falling apart.
Bandits could easily slip through one of the doors of the houses, and while my knowledge of medieval siege tactics is minimal at best, I’m pretty sure a decent sized battering ram could easily break though the wall since there’s no ramparts or scaffolding located against the walls.
Also, I only see three guards carrying weapons. That’s hardly enough to mount a defense, so why even bother?
Ugh, wish I could ask someone… I don’t know how or if I even can figure out how to communicate with my little ant colony of people.
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Uh oh, looks like the blacksmith forgot where he put his hammer again, and a bunch of old ladies are pestering the farmer’s wife that lives close by. Tch tch tch. I can almost hear them asking about why she hasn’t given her husband any children yet. I see the priest is walking over my way with a book in hand, really wish I could see what’s written in it.
Sigh … I miss being able to physically sigh… the mental ones I do in boredom just don’t quite do it.
Oh hey, it’s the farmer, why is he running? Is he injured! Oh, crap! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to jinx everyone. Priest! Get off your ass and go help him!
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Well, that was a stressful day… why was I complaining about being bored? Farmer got patched up and the bell in the church started ringing not long after. All of the villagers have started congregating in the center of town except for one of the guards who grabbed a horse and rode off. The other two guards are speaking to the people, and everyone looks nervous.
I wonder what happened? I try thinking back to what happened earlier this morning and, to my delight, I can recall exactly what happened this morning in perfect detail. Replaying the movements and actions as if everything was just a movie, I fail to see anything out of the ordinary.
So, apparently swords get perfect memory. Why didn’t I notice that earlier? Oh, right, I was busy trying not to go insane... Probably shouldn’t dwell on how long it’s been since I was stuffed inside this sword. If I’m being honest, it’s probably been decades now.
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The guard is back, and he’s brought friends?... I think… what’s up with these guys? They look even more tangible than the guards except I can see the brain and spinal column of one in vivid detail. Another one looks more like a person with no skin. The other two look a bit more normal I guess, although I can see the eyes much more clearly on one and the last one, I’m pretty sure isn’t a human. Granted, I’m in another world and for all I know maybe some humans have tusks.
I really wish I could see actual colors instead of whatever amalgamation of lights these hologram-like figures are before me.
Huh, those new guys didn’t even go into the town, they just rode off after meeting with the remaining guards. What are they? Soldiers? Mercenaries? Adventurers?
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It’s been hours now, are those guys coming back? Everyone in the town looks nervous, especially the farmer’s wife. He’s still lying on a bed inside of the church shaking and shivering. If I look hard and push my focus even harder, I can see little red lights clustering around him. Occasionally, either the wife or the priest wipes a wet rag over him and that causes some of the little red lights to leave.
Hmm, now that I’m looking, those red lights are everywhere, just more condensed and moving freely in the air around him. Those small red lights, along with the others I see, apparently blur together when I don’t zoom in so closely, kind of like how you can see the individual RGB cells on a monitor if you look real close.
Ugh, I still don’t understand how my vision works, and what I’m actually seeing. Those new guys only raise questions, why do they look so different? I mean, overall, all four of them look to have about the same amount of light when compared to each other, but for some reason it's just distributed differently.
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I pick up movement on the edge of my vision’s range and spot the weirdos returning to the town dragging something behind. What the… it looks like a bull successfully mated with a chicken… it’s got a bull’s head and body, a beak for a mouth, giant chicken legs for his front feet, a crown and wattles, and finally a bunch of tail feathers coming out of its rump.
The guards start shouting with the monster hunters and soon the townspeople start cheering and rushing into the church and nearby buildings. They all start pulling out tables and benches and even manage to get a fire going before the large beast gets dragged in.
It doesn’t take long before the beast is cooking over the fire and the townspeople start listening to the four tell the story of how they killed it, complete with flailing arms, hand gestures, and… wait… what was that?
A puff of red light quickly gathers near Brains, and he raises his arm in the air before shooting it off into the sky as if… he was a wizard!
I focus as hard as I can on the group, straining my hardest to pick up as much detail as possible. I watch as he does the action again, and I see some of the red lights in his brain start pulsing faster, more red lights in the air start gathering around his palm, then start pulsing in the exact same rhythm, he holds his arm up and then molds the lights into little arrow like shapes before they shoot off away from his hand.
I take a moment to see the townspeople’s faces and it’s like seeing the faces of people watching fireworks for the first time.
It then finally hits me. The little lights that I’m seeing… it’s magic!