Bjorn opened his eyes, he was inside of a small building, there was a single bed, a fire pit off in one corner with a small fire with what appeared to be a pot of water hanging over the top of it, a small table, and a few low stools, the table had various items that looked like they belonged in a lab. There were vials, flasks, a pestle and mortar, and various other small metal instruments, including a scale. Along the ceiling there were plants hanging up, most likely drying. In the other corner there was a bookshelf with a few books, and odds and ends of items on it. There was a pleasant aroma in the air, it was warm.
Taking a look at his health bar it was at 49 out of 90, a lot closer to 0 than Bjorn was entirely comfortable with. A dull ache in his arm made him remember that the bear had most likely broken one, or even both of the bones in his forearm. Taking a look, his arm looked like it had been set, bandaged and then splinted.
That was when he saw the notifications in the corner of his eye. A thought brought up a cascade of windows.
You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 2. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 3% over base damage.
You have been bitten by a level 7 Brown bear, suffering 34 points of damage.
You have broken a bone: Right ulna, right radius. Mobility of your lower right arm has been reduced.
You have been maimed: With out proper treatment you will lose much of your ability to use the maimed part of your body.
For your part in slaying level 7 Brown bear you have been awarded 259 (base 207) XP.
Your maimed body part: Right forearm, has been set, and bound, with proper rest you will regain full use of your maimed body part.
You have ingested a healing herb. You will regain three times the health points for the next 12 hours.
You have applied a healing salve. You will regain two times the health points for the next 12 hours.
As he was sifting through his notifications the door to the cottage swung open and the woman who saved him walked through the door carrying a pack on her back. As she slung it off of her back Bjorn got a better look at her height, he was probably around 4 and a half feet tall. Looking closer at her body, she was a bit on the husker side. With a little bit of a gut, but over all her entire body just looked more dense.
She turned towards Bjorn and said something he didn't understand as she started to walk towards him. Bending down she took a look at his arm. Not fully understanding what was happening, Bjorn tried to pull away. The woman made a hissing noise which apparently was universal for "stop you idiot".
She lightly took hold of Bjorn’s arm and started to contort it gently, all the while making a light clicking sound with her tongue. Apparently coming to the decision that the bandage needed to be changed she started to unwrap his arm.
As his wound was revealed Bjorn got a look at his arm for the first time since it was hanging at an awkward angle after the bear let go of him. There were obvious signs of where the bear's teeth had punctured his skin. She motioned for him to relax. Which was alright by him, after all he was starting to get a little queasy looking at his slowly healing mutilated arm.
The woman walked around the room picking a few different herbs off of the ceiling, after dropping the bandage into the water pot, all the while keeping up a slow string of incoherent babble almost under her breath. She then Sat on one of the low stools and started throwing herbs into the pestle and mortar and started to grind.
“Look, I don't know if you can understand me, but thank you for saving my life. I don’t think I could handle dying a third time in the span of a week. As soon as my arm has been fully healed I will get out of your hair and be on my way.”
The woman made no signs of understanding, or even hearing what Bjorn said, she just kept working the pestle and mortar while occasionally throwing in a new herb.
After what seemed like a long time she walked over to the fire, stoked it and then pulled the bandage out hanging it up to dry. She took the pot and threw the now bloody water out of the window, looking over at Bjorn she said something to him, and walked out the door. She came back in a few minutes later and set the pot of what looked like clean water back over the fire and sat back down at the table.
After about half an hour more of sitting at the table she stood up and walked back over to Bjorn sitting next to him she started to apply the contents from the pestle and mortar to his wound. By this time his arm was starting to stray into pain territory again. Shortly after applying the paste his arm started to drop back down to a dull ache. After applying the paste she started to bandage and re-splint his arm in place.
Half way through working on his arm she stopped and touched her chest looking at him and said “Medera.” Touching his chest she looked at him quizzically.
“Bjorn.” He responded.
Giving him a nod she pushed him back down onto the bed and walked over to the pot, throwing a few herbs in it she let it sit for a few minutes before taking it off the fire and pouring it into a cup. She walked over to Bjorn, handing him the cup, and motioning for him to drink.
Figuring if she wanted to hurt him he would be dead already, he took a drink from the cup. Immediately he started to become drowsy and fell into a deep sleep.
When next he woke it was dark in the room. Sitting up and looking around Medera was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall, lightly snoring. Looking at his health bar it was a lot fuller than it was when he was last awake. With a little mental focus it showed his health being at 79 out of 90.
“So I've been out for 5 days, assuming nothing has slowed down my healing process.” Thought Bjorn. Upon closer inspection his arm no longer hurt, but was still splinted. Feeling surprisingly good he decided to try to get out of bed.
As soon as he pulled back the rough woven blanket over the top of himself Medera’s eyes snapped open and looked right at him.
“Sorry.” Said Bjorn.
Grumbling to herself Medera stood and started to move about the room. She got the fire stoked again, and walked out of the room, coming back in after a bit with a few bits of dried meat. She offered some of the meat to Bjorn. Realizing how hungry he was, Bjorn gratefully took it.
After they were done with breaking their fast, she stood and came closer to Bjorn, taking a look at his arm. Poking and prodding it, all the while looking at his face, seemingly gauging his reaction. When she saw he didn't wince at all, she nodded and removed the splint.
Motioning for him to follow her, Medera walked out the door to the small cabin. The cabin was on a clearing on the side of one of the mountains, there were 3 small buildings total in the clearing, off to one side was a small cultivated garden with a wood fence going around the outside of it. Rudimentary paths are visible from where there has been obvious foot traffic, going in between the buildings and the garden with the paths converging on a stone well in the center. There was a small stream running down the side of the mountain off behind the other two buildings that were kind of clustered together. Down off the side of the mountain the stream first fell off in a waterfall, as there was a 100 foot cliff on that side of the clearing and then continued down meeting up in a river that ran down the center of a gorge.
“Wow, what a view.” Commented Bjorn to no one in particular. They both stood there for a while just taking in the sight of what was before them. When he looked over at Medera she had the slightest of smiles on her face.
Saying a word and beckoning Medera took off for the right of the two buildings. Heading over and looking inside there were all sorts of knick knacks you'd find necessary for living in the woods. There was a tinderbox, an ax, a draw knife, a hatchet, thread and needles, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, a hoe, and various knives, to name a few. Off to one side of the wall there was a waist high table, sitting on top of was Bjorn’s bow, arrows, and his sword. Upon looking closer at his quiver he was down to only 5 of his original 12 arrows.
Once again beckoning to Bjorn they left the right building and walked to the one of the left. Inside was where Medera stored her food, she seemed to be very well stocked, if he was going to guess she would be able to live off of what was in there for at least 6 to 8 months. There was a second door which going through, there was what looked like a smoker, the back wall of the building was built out of stone, there was a grate separating two chambers.
“Nice place” Said Bjorn. She just nodded in response. “What now?”
She looked at Bjorn quizzically and she just started walking back to the cabin. Not really knowing what to do he decided to follow her. Inside she set about making them a kind of soup if he was to make a guess.
Time passed in silence as the food cooked. After they both ate she pushed him back down into the bed as she turned on her heels and walked out of the cabin.
The next morning Bjorn was awoken to the sound of rustling in the room. Opening his eyes Medera was kneading a dough. Climbing out of bed he walked over and motioned to help, She looked at him and stepped back letting him take over on the dough. Occasionally she stopped him and corrected what he was doing, and adding more flour or water, whatever was needed, eventually satisfied she took the dough and put it in the pot hanging over a small fire she had built as Bjorn was working.
In the corner of his eye there was a blinking notification, mentally clicking on it, it opened.
Congratulations you have advanced in the skill: Cooking, you are now skill level 2. Your attempts to make an edible meal have increased by 2%.
“Well that's great”, Thought Bjorn, “My notifications seem to be sarcastic.”
After setting the dough in the pot she then beckoned him to follow her outside, heading over to the shed. She took the shovel out of the shed and a wheelbarrow, and handed it over to Bjorn. Through pantomime she was able to convey that he should dig out the paths between the shed and the cabin.
Not one to shirk from a task Bjorn set to digging with fervor. Medera walked off out of the clearing, only to come back about an hour later with a large glowing green boulder floating behind her. She set it down with a hand motion and turned around and sat on it, she was covered in sweat.
Resting for a few minutes, Medera looked to have recovered some, standing with determination she walked into the cabin, and came back out fairly quickly with a slice of fresh bread, handing it over. She looked at his progress and nodded.
Medera then started speaking, motioning to his bread saying a single word. Getting her meaning he repeated after her. Nodding again she then moved on to the boulder they were sitting on. Saying a word and waiting for Bjorn to respond. They spent the next few hours going through words. Eventually Medera stood up in a huff and stormed off. Obviously she had issues with his pronunciation of the word “urndlikr”.
Not knowing what else to do Bjorn got back to excavating the path, much of his day was spent this way, until evening when Medera came back to the boulder and took a squat in front of it, and started to chant. A dark green glow started to surround her fingers as she used her hands to draw a complex rune in the air. As she finished the spell a green ball of energy shot from her fingers and sank into the boulder as it started to crumble. Falling into gravel. Once again she just looked at it and nodded, she turned to look at Bjorn with a big smile on her face.
She motioned for him to use his shovel and wheelbarrow to put the gravel down in his trench he excavated, and then went inside, after a while she came back out with a stew and some of the bread in two bowls, they sat eating their dinner, watching the sun set behind the mountains. Once they both ate they went inside and had another lesson on language.
Over the next few weeks Bjorn fell into a bit of a routine. He woke up, and either cooked or ate, then he went outside to start working on his paths some more, he would work until his stamina would become close to bottoming out, dropping down to the single digits, he would then stop and they had a lesson on language. By the end of the lesson his stamina would have regenerated enough for more work, he worked some more and then they had dinner, another lesson and then sleep. As for Medera, what she did didn't look so monotonous. Some days she worked in her garden, some days she walked into the woods with the axe and spent most of the day felling a tree, delimbing it, and then cutting it into more manageable sections.
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Medera was a woman of many talents, Some days she did carpentry work, turning the sections of logs they brought back to the clearing into planks, or into chunks for firewood. Other days she took some of her herbs that she had hanging and turned them into what Bjorn could only guess were potions. Sometimes she would be happy with the results, others she would get angry and throw the contents off the side of the cliff down towards the gorge in disgust. On other days she took out her thread and needle and repaired the holes in Bjorn’s clothes from the bear attack.
Bjorn also learned that Medera had a bit of a temper. Sometimes she would be patient and would put up with him butchering her language for hours, or they would only work for 10 to 15 minutes before she would get angry and storm off. One thing was for certain though, no matter how annoyed she would get she never ran him off, or made any attempt to bring harm to Bjorn.
Another benefit that came from doing his work he gained some stats. He gained 1 in strength, 2 in endurance, and oddly 1 in intelligence. Bringing his stats up to 10 strength, 11 endurance, and 10 intelligence respectively. He also gained a new skill.
Congratulations, you have gained the new skill: Construction. As long as you have the time, resources and tools necessary you will build wonders that will awe any living being that comes to see it. You now have the skills to build roads, buildings and the structures to provide safety to you and the ones you care about.
And finally Bjorn gained the prompt he had been hoping for.
You have learned the language Mountain Dwarvish to a basic level of understanding.
Medera looked at Bjorn and said "finally I can hold a bit of conversation with you, the dunce."
"What? How can I all of a sudden understand what you're saying? And for that matter how do you know that I finally can speak Dwarvish? Lastly, I don't remember learning the word for finally, so how come it sounds different when I say it?"
"For your first question. The only answer I have is magic. Somehow once you get to a certain amount of understanding a language It's like magic fills in the rest for you. As for your second question, when you read the prompt, which I'm assuming said something along the lines of "After long excruciating hours of pestering Medera you have learned how to kind of speak mountain dwarvish." There was a glow in your eyes and surrounding your ears. Which led me to guess that you finally learned how to speak in a proper tongue, not that barbaric language you speak sometimes. Lastly, the answer to your last question isn't too far off from your first question, magic."
"So magic is real? Like really real?" Asked Bjorn.
"Duh, how else do you think I saved your life? How else do you think I moved that boulder?" Answered Medera.
"Can you teach me? What kinds of magic can you do? What kinds of magic are there?"
"For heaven's sake, if i knew you'd ask so many questions i would have left you ignorant of how to actually speak. You get 4 questions and then I'm going to kick you out to go back to making your path. Use them wisely."
"Alright" Replied Bjorn, sitting quietly he thought about what he wanted to ask. "What kinds of magic are there?"
"Easy enough" replied Medera, "There are 8 basic schools of magic: earth, fire, water, air, light, dark, life, and lastly death. After that there are Higher forms of magic, combination magic if you will. Types that I know of are, Blood, which is life and water. Shadow, light and dark. Spirit, life and light. And lastly soul, life and death. There are other forms of magic that I know of but haven't the foggiest how they actually work, I've just heard about it, and that is time magic. Before you ask your next question I'll give you a freebie, I know a little of Earth, and light magic, more earth than light."
"Wow." Said Bjorn. That was a lot to take in. Given those combinations, there could in theory be endless types of magic. What is stopping something from taking 5, 6, 7, or even all 8 of the elements all at once.
"Alright, for my second question, can you teach me what you know about magic?"
"Now that is an easy question, with an easy, and hard answer. Easy, I might be able to teach you, there is no guarantee though. Hard, it is complicated as to why I might not be able to teach you."
After a few seconds of waiting Medera didn't look like she was going to be forthcoming with why it would be complicated, instead of pushing he decided to just push onward.
"Are there others? Other people like us, living in the woods out here?"
With a slight smile Medera answered. "Other's living in the woods on the side of the mountain, with a normally solitary life? Not that I know of, no. There is a small town of my kin a ways away. But none that brave living in the wilds like I do. I'm sure there are hermits that live all over but I haven't come across any. The wilds are dangerous, as you learned, there is much out here which wishes to kill us. You are lucky that you ran into a bear instead of a griffin, or an owlbear, or even a Mother goose."
"And for my last question, are there many different races? I see that you are a mountain dwarf, I am a human, but you didn't seem to react at all to my species."
"There are more races than you can imagine. Now that you have asked your questions, begone with you! I am feeling lazy this morning and will take a nice nap."
As Bjorn left the hut, he took a look at his path, it was almost done going from the hut to the shed. Picking up his shovel he went back to work with a sigh. It took only a few hours to finish his work. Taking a step back and appreciating his work he had fully built the path between the two buildings. With a new flashing prompt, he mentally clicked on the prompt.
Congratulations you have gained the sub-skill. Road building. Road building is a sub-skill of construction. Some say empires are built upon their infrastructure, and they would be right. No empire can ever last without a way to logistically move troops and supplies throughout their lands. As a road builder your prowess with shaping the land into traversal able land is one of the most important tasks to the growth of an empire.
With a sigh of contentment, and a smile on his face, Bjorn started to walk back towards the hut.
Once the door was open Bjorn could hear a soft snoring coming from the bed in the corner. Shaking his head with a slight smile, he closed the door. Not knowing what to do with his time, he could continue building the path, but with such a nice day out today that just seemed like a waste. Walking back to the Shed he retrieved his bow and arrows, depleted as they were, and set off into the woods.
Not really having a goal in mind Bjorn sort of wandered aimlessly. Looking at this and that. Grabbing leaves off trees, looking at plants, and flowers. After a bit he stumbled upon a plant that looked familiar. Not really knowing what it was Bjorn bent down to get a closer look at them. The plant had a bulb with small clusters of leaves growing out of the bulb. Each cluster had 3 leaves and a single stem that ran down and attached to the bulb. Each leaf had orange running across the outside of it, and towards where the leaves attached to the stem turned into a royal blue color, the stems themselves were also a royal blue. The bulb itself was predominantly green with steaks of orange and royal blue running through it, and about the size of a small plum.
Scooting closer to the plant Bjorn reached out to touch the bulb. As his hand came close to the plant the leaf closest to his hand went rigid and lashed out at his hand.
You have been cut and poisoned by a deathwart. You will take 2 points of poison damage per minute for the next 10 minutes. As the poison of the deathwart has a paralyzing effect you will lose control of your right hand for the duration of the poisoning.
"Ah! Mother Fucker!" exclaimed Bjorn as he pulled his hand back from the plant. The cut on his hand was short and shallow, but he could see an orange residue left on the cut itself and it started to seep into the wound. from where the wound on his hand was he could see lines of orange start to grow across his hand, Many of them running along the veins in his hand.
Looking around frantically he saw a small stream running across the forest floor not too far off. Running as fast as he could, Bjorn booked it for the stream. In his hurry he tripped over a rock that was buried underneath the debris of the large trees around him.
Out of reflex as he fell Bjorn thrust his right arm out to try to break his fall a little bit. After he landed on his right arm that is when he noticed, there wasn't actually any pain in his right arm. He couldn't move his arm from the middle of his forearm down, but he still had control of his arm from the elbow up. As he was marveling about the lack of pain, he remembered why he took off running as the orange streaks were starting to move further up his arm just past the middle of his forearm now.
Getting himself to the steam, he thrust his hand into the water and started to scrub at his hand with his left. The orange residue came off easily. Remembering something he was told when he was little, "If you get bit by a rattlesnake try and remove the venom anyway you can." Starting from right above the orange lines on his right arm, Bjorn applied pressure and started to try to squeeze his arm sliding his left hand down towards the wound while keeping the pressure as constant as he could.
A sickly orange and red gunk came out of his hand wound. It looked like the orange residue combined with his blood and turned into a gel of sorts. Spending the next few minutes repeating the process, tons of the orange and red goo oozed out of his body, more than he was comfortable with. His efforts were not in vain though, as the orange lines started to fade. Only stopping when the orange was gone from his forearm, and the liquid that came out of his body started to look like normal blood again. That was when he noticed the flashing icon on the side of his vision.
With the removal of the poison from the deathwart you have slowed the damage you will take. You will now take 1 point of poison damage every 5 minutes for the next 10 minutes.
Congratulations you have advanced in the skill: Survival, you are now skill level 2. You are now more likely to see dangerous situations before you are in them.
You have gained the skill: Healing. Through your knowledge of the natural way the body works you are able to turn what for some would be a fatal injury into a mild inconvenience.
Your constant inability to avoid damage has somehow made your body stronger. You have gained 1 point in constitution. Maybe if you weren't such a pansy this notification wouldn't have been necessary.
"Well that is just hurtful." Thought Bjorn as he read the last of his notifications. Looking down at his hand it was still slightly bleeding. Using his left hand he started to prod at the right. He was starting to regain feeling in his right hand. As he was regaining feeling he was also regaining mobility.
Taking a look at his health bar it was at 87 out of 100. Gaining that point in constitution he gained another 10 points of health. Doing some math Bjorn had taken 6 minutes of the full poison, he figured the first point of damage was from the leaf cutting his hand. Looking through his notifications he found that he was right, the leaf had cut him for 1 point to begin with. Walking back over to the plant with a scowl. Bjorn was trying to decide what to do with this plant.
Upon closer inspection, the leaves clusters on the bulb were only on the upper part of the bulb. Kneeling down with a sigh of resignation "I hope this works." Bjorn mumbled. Placing his hands on the underside of the plant he waited. The plant was as docile as it looked. Expecting some sort of trap, he pulled upwards with a gentle force as the plant started to slowly unearth. Once the plant was fully out of the soil the leaves sort of drooped.
With bravery he felt like he shouldn't have, Bjorn again moved his hand towards the leaves, and this time they didn't react. Relaxing, Bjorn took off his shirt, spread it out on the ground, and placed the plant in the center of his shirt. Looking over at the small patch of the deathwart there were 7 more of the plant. Repeating the process for all 7 and placing them onto his shirt, finally he tied the shirt corners together to make almost a gunny sack of sorts. He picked up the shirt and set off wandering again. As he was setting off once again there was that flashing icon.
You have gained the skill: Herb-lore. There are many wondrous and unknown things about the plant life of this world. Today you set off on your journey to find out what those wondrous things are, is it folly? Only time will tell one thing is for certain, the pursuit of mastery of herb-lore will either lead to greatness, or death.
"That's not ominous at all." Thought Bjorn. "Oh well." Taking off again. This time deciding to follow the stream. Not within half an hour there was a rustling ahead. Dropping into a low stance, setting the shirt on to the grass quietly. Bjorn pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back and set it to the bow string on his bow. Slowly and as quietly as he could, Bjorn crept forward around the trees. Up ahead as he rounded a tree there were 6 deer along the stream. 2 were laying in the grass, 3 were drinking, and the last one which was closest to him was digging through the grass with its nose.
Happy with this luck, Bjorn hid back behind the tree. He set up so his back was to the tree and drew his bow back, and silently rounded the tree again. The deer was closest to him and moved closer, to a distance of about 20 feet. taking aim down his bow, the deer was facing him. And Bjorn waited, one breath, 2, 6, 13. As his arm started to quiver from holding his bow under tension did the deer turn and present him with a broadside. Sighting his arrow on the deer right behind the foreleg, halfway down the torso.
Exhaling, he released. With a soft snick of the bow being released the deer tensed and turned to look in the direction of the sound, but it was too late. The arrow flew true and hit the deer right where he was aiming. The deer leapt away, as it did so the other 5 deer took off in a sprint. The deer that was hit ran 50 feet, and slowed to a walk, looking behind it, it laid down in the grass.
With a hoot Bjorn broke cover and ran over to the deer, laying there breathing heavily. It was dying but not dead yet. Reaching for his sword, he realized he didn't actually bring it with him. With no knife or sword, there was no easy way to kill the deer. With dread he did the only thing he could think to do. Pulling out another arrow, and sinking to a knee he took the arrow and plunged it into the eye socket of the bleeding out deer. It squealed in pain and kicked weakly. The arrow and only sunk up to the arrow head, it was stuck on the eye socket. With a grimace he moved his hand holding the arrow around until it hit a soft spot and sunk further in. With that the deer stopped its flailing and finally died.
With disgust Bjorn went to retrieve his arrows, he was able to get one. When the deer laid down to die it fell onto the side his first arrow hit and had snapped the arrow shaft. Resolving that he couldn't do anything about that yet, he picked the deer up, putting its belly on his neck, grabbing his bow, he stood up and turned to head home. Stopping to get his shirt with the herbs inside he started to trudge on.
That is when it finally hit him. He had killed a deer, and was now carrying it back home. Oddly enough, his earlier moral dilemma about killing things didn't really seem to bother him all that much. Reflecting on how fast his outlook on life had changed, Bjorn was actually not that upset about the change. He was now living the life he had fantasized about when he was a kid. He had always wanted to live a rough life, in the medieval times. He was always fascinated by knights, swords, and bows and arrows. As he grew older that fascination about the medieval turned into fantasy, and now he seemed to be in a fantasy world. There was magic, and plants that could never be in his own world. He was living with a dwarf of all things! It was everything he had wanted, yet it wasn't as glamorous as he envisioned it being. There were things that he missed. There weren't showers, he is pretty sure he hadn't bathed since he came to this world. He had got mauled by a bear, he has been chewed on by a slug, he even burned to death inside an active volcano, and now he was carrying a dead deer through the woods feeling it's blood slowly drip down his bare back, and could feel it slowly soaking into the back of his pants. Why did no one ever think to include this in their stories, in their games. The real world is a dark place, it is not a clean place, things die all the time and their bodies are left behind to slowly decay and provide a use to other parts of the ecosystem. This fantasy world was even darker and grungier than the one he came from.
As Bjorn's thoughts kept getting darker and darker, the trees finally parted and he was back home. Medera was in her garden kneeling pulling weeds. Hearing the sound of footsteps in the grass. She stood and turned around. "So you're back it would seem, when I couldn't find your bow after my nap I thought you would have run off. I guess I was wrong. The mighty hunter even returned with a deer, well done. How long ago did you kill it?"
Without a word, Bjorn walked near the food storage and smoker and set the deer down on the ground. Setting his shirt there as well, he stood and walked towards the well. Retrieving a bucket of water he set to removing the blood that had fallen onto the bow as he walked back.
Walking up to him Medera said "Boy! Did you hear me? I asked you a question, how long ago did you fell the deer?"
Looking up, "less than an hour ago." he replied. After his bow was clean he took the bucket of cold mountain water and started to remove the blood that had dried on his back. Once he finished with his back, he stripped his breaches off and set to cleaning his lower half from the blood. Finally clean from blood, and not even looking towards Medera he took his breaches and threw them into a fresh bucket of water to let them soak. Standing up stark naked Bjorn slowly trudged back to the hut, falling into bed he fell into a deep sleep.