The first feeling Stanis experienced when he saw Yora village was shock. He had been gone for about a month so he had been expecting village growth. But the sheer amount of growth he was now faced with was something that should have been impossible to achieve in the time period.
Yora village had been built over the skeleton of a former town, and Stanis had initially thought that the past would always be larger than the present. But it was now clear that he had been as wrong as wrong could be. Houses and shacks and tents and huts all sprawled outwards from the former town; Yora village had clearly outgrown its name.
The next thing he noticed was the multitude of ants bustling around. He was currently standing on the top of a hill and this made the village look more like a messy toy-set than anything else. But despite his high vantage point, he still couldn't tear his eyes from the dark shapes that constantly moved. They were clearly people; what else could they be? But the number, the sheer number!
Excited, Stanis began his descent downwards. Even if everything else he saw was crap, just the sheer growth in terms of numbers had already impressed him. And it was all his, after all, who could contest him if he got serious? No one, especially not Jen…
It was as he walked closer that his mood began to simmer down. There were defences all around the village, sticking out like needles on a porcupine. This macabre part of scenery had been overshadowed by the buildings at first but as Stanis got closer to the artefacts of war, it became increasingly obvious that battle was an everyday occurrence to the village.
The first ring of defence was a large ditch. It was an easy jump for anyone who had survived the apocalypse till now and thus Stanis had been confused at first about the practical purpose of such a defence. There were four bridge-like posts on each side of the village but Stanis decided to ignore them and jump over. It was the second his leg passed over the ditch's boundary that a strong suction forced pulled at him from the ditch. He easily broke the force and passed by, but not without looking into the ditch one more time.
Inside of it were countless monster corpses. Some had long ears, others had racoon-like teeth, whereas other ones were completely hairless. The list went on but there was one thing common between all the corpses, and that was the fact that every single one of them looked like they had been squeezed dry. It was as if some giant had stepped all over them and squeezed whatever coloured blood they had, leaving behind a thin layer of skin and bones.
Finally realising the defence's purpose, Stanis picked a stone from the ground and threw it into the sky well above the ditch. The second the stone passed over the ditch's boundary, it instantly shot down into the layer of gore like a bullet.
He smirked at the result before turning around and moving towards the second major defence. The second defence was just a simple wall. The reason why it was a major defence was because of its scale. It wasn't perfectly circular but it just about circled the whole village. The dark-purple stained walls were 4m tall and made out of stone. It was as he thought of jumping over the wall in a single step that he realised that a similar gravitational field to the ditch's was around the wall. It wasn't quite as strong but still strong enough to make sure people had to scale the wall if they wanted to get over.
At this time, most likely due to him hopping over the ditch, Stanis could feel a few stares on him. He didn't need to turn around to know that people were watching him as his mana sensitivity did it for him. There was a gate through the wall a little distance from him but he wanted to test the wall out and so he instead began climbing where he stood. What he had initially thought to be an easy climb grew much harder as he realised that the rugged-looking rock was actually very smooth. Very smooth…
A few attempts later, without using his mana, he climbed to the top and pushed himself to the other side. What met him there was the third line of defences, which didn't look quite ready by his standards.
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It was tens of cannons lined in a circular formation! But it was clear from the cogs lying around and the various other parts that the cannons weren't quite in working form yet. The most likely scenario was that the cannons would be pushed onto the top of the wall once they were all finished, but it was clear that there was quite some time till that became a reality.
He confirmed that the cannons were made out of metal as he passed them by. The cold touch of steel instantly reminded him of Rikkey. But he then shook his head at the thought in the next second; Rikkey was definitely a talented and hardworking blacksmith by his standards but it took more than just hard work or talent to make something as advanced as a cannon. That required knowledge.
Out of the crowd of people warily watching Stanis, one of them revealed himself and walked forwards as he saw Stanis fiddling with the cannons. Stanis stunk of power, whether it be the confidence he moved with or the occasional mana fluctuation that escaped his cage, but the cannons were too high a cost to sacrifice for just a bit of fear.
Stanis noticed the man walking towards him but at the same time ignored the man, instead opting to walk into the Yora village. He walked slowly as he took in everything around him but it seemed the man who had been meaning to confront him had decided against such a decision as the time passed by quietly.
It only became loud again once he reached the market. When he had last been here, it had been his personal storage room where he could take out whatever he wanted for free, but it was clear it had grown quite a bit since then. The vendor's stalls were all marked brightly with bright ribbons and flags. There were arguments and haggling, cheers and whispers, and a whole lot of shouting to tie up the whole package up.
Stanis navigated the disastrous maze with his nose instead of his eyes or ears. And due to this fact, he navigated the market with striking efficiency as he moved from food stall to food stall, gobbling up whatever he fancied. It seemed the rest of the people paid for items with money but for Stanis that was an unnecessary complication, borrowing indefinitely was a lot more quiet and discreet: much more his style.
He eventually walked away from the market with a full stomach and in a good mood. For some items, he had needed to serve up money but it turned out that passer-by's pockets were just as good hunting grounds as the forests outside.
Stanis had expected for one of the watchers still on him to run to the leaders of the village and announce his return, and then for the leaders to run to him and welcome him. But it turned out his dreams would have to stay dreams for the day as it seemed no one in the village recognised him. Sure, he had been killed, resurrected into a tighter body, killed again, born into another body, but he had still hoped for at least one person to recognise him. After all, he still had his tanned skin and black hair, alongside with his chubby cheeks.
He reigned his thoughts back in as he reached a crossroad. There were many people and places he should visit but his desires weren't much in order right now. He thought of Alyona, and Riverbeat's former leader Drak. He thought of Rikkey and Kevin, alongside the rest of the squad he had essentially baptised. He then thought of Orena, Caleb and finally Sil. The last thought served him well and he licked his lips.
While he had nothing romantic with Sil, even a physical round with her after a month of hell was something to look forward to. After several minutes of wandering around, he eventually found himself in front of the house where she had used to stay. He knocked the door and waited. A young man opened the door and looked at Stanis threateningly.
"Is Sil here?"
The man looked at him as if he had just asked a bear to sing a song.
"Sil?" he answered with even more confusion on his face.
"White hair, slim, girl?" Stanis tried again.
"Oh, you mean that Sil. Man, I don't know why you're here looking for her. She should be somewhere near the centre, nowhere near here man,"
"Oh, cheers," Stanis ended. The man closed the door and went inside. As Stanis walked away, he could hear laughter coming from inside the house.
Ignoring the slight incident, Stanis restarted his search for Sil. After asking for directions from many people, he eventually found himself at a house much, much larger than Sil's old one. It was clear that she had done well for herself. Before he could knock, he heard laughter coming from inside.
Curious, Stanis consciously killed all the mana fluctuations coming off him and cast Scout and sense. Inside, he saw Sil lying in another man's arms. That man was Jayesh Kumar…