A small group awaited me on my return to the glade. It consisted of my team: Arrjee, Onre, and Kossa. Also present was someone I did not know, a human male adult, probably in his mid-20s. He was quite handsome, with a swimmer’s build, black hair, and brown skin with facial features that reminded me of a cross between an Asian and a Native American. I greeted them and they responded with their own hellos.
Arrjee introduced, “Forrest Rhodes, this gentleman may become your martial arts master. His name is Lenyet Birch.” As we reached to shake, I analyzed to see:
Lenyet Birch – male Human, age 27
Level 30 Martial Artist, Tutor
Adventurer
A little part of me was disappointed he had not been a Mixologist.
No ‘drunken master’ adventures for me. Oh well.
“Lenyet Birch, please call me Forrest.” He told me to call him Lenyet. As both a martial artist and a teacher, I could see him having special interest in working at the new school. After exchanging pleasantries for a few minutes, I learned he was currently living in River, which I remembered is the village near Hesta Blakeman’s farm. He must be earning most of his money as an adventurer for that to show up as his profession.
I remembered to begin analyzing everyone else and what they were wearing. They were all in leather armor. Onre handed me a bag, saying “Special delivery from Cottage’s finest.” I thanked him and opened it to see a leather belt with buckle, the clips from Mista Smithson, and a sheathed knife. It was a little bigger than I expected.
As I took the knife out of the bag, it seemed obvious that we would not be headed directly to town. “Something tells me we have plans for this morning. What is up?”
Kossa asked, “What does ‘what is up’ mean?”
“Oh, sorry. It is a very informal expression from Earth. I was re-asking friends specifically what those plans are.”
Puzzled, she replied. “Repetitious, but okay. In answer to your question, we’re going hunting! I suggest you take a good look at your knife. Onre already showed us, and Lenyet told us how good it actually is.”
The sheath appeared to be high quality and rugged, with a built-in belt-loop behind the handle.
Knife sheath – leather sleeve for safely transporting a knife at the almost-ready. High quality, no wear. Charms:
* Self-cleaning
* Self-repair
Pulling the knife out, I saw there was a good solid grip wrapped with leather supporting a blade of about five inches. One side bore a long, sharp edge, while the other was heavily serrated, perhaps for scraping fish scales and the like. Near the top of that side was a wicked-looking hook. I analyzed:
Wilds knife – a multi-purpose knife used for hunting, fishing, and general outdoors use. High quality, no wear, very sharp. Charms:
* Self-sharpening
* Self-repair
Nice! Onre did good.
Is that all you want to know?
“What do you mean?”
Focus on the “Self-repair” line.
A second window popped up.
Self-repairs up to 70% damage at a rate of about 10% per hour.
“Holy schnikes! Could I always do that?”
No. The ability to further evaluate charms and enchantments was gained at Rank D.
I looked up. “Sorry guys, I’m busy being too impressed. I’ll be back to reality in a minute.” Everyone smiled.
The knife will self-sharpen over time from a completely dull state. Maximum sharpening duration is 20 hours. Knife will only lose 3% of the mass which physical sharpening would cost, and it can even gain mass if the wear were extreme.
“Holy schnikes, Rank D is incredible! Not to mention the knife itself.”
Yes.
“Umm, If it normally costs a little mass, why does a lot of sharpening let it gain mass?”
In extreme cases, you gain a synergy of self-repair and self-sharpening.
“Cool! Does it cost extra ki to do the further evaluations?”
No. The full report is included with your 4 ki, but the extra info is not shown unless you specifically request it. Once you dismiss the main window, however, you would need another Analyze to view details you failed to read the first time.
I walked over to Onre and hugged him. “Awesome, man. Thank you!”
He informed me, “I thought so too. Uncharmed, the knife and sheath cost 3s 50b. The cost to charm them was an additional gold. I knew that was what I would want, and you told me to use my judgment.”
“Absolutely! If you ever spend my money again, use that same judgment.”
“Alright,” he replied, “but you don’t have a lot of money left.”
With a big grin, I told him, “Worth it! I’d much rather wear it on my hip than have it just sitting in a bag somewhere.” As I said that, I put the knife back in its sheath, and threaded the belt through the sheath’s loop. I added one of the clips, and put on the belt, adjusting the knife and clip to sit against opposite hips. Then I put the two remaining clips back in the bag, tied it shut, and squeezed the neck into the remaining clip.
As I was doing that, Lenyet said, “It is a very good sign you can recognize value, young Forrest. Let us use this day to evaluate if you would be my apprentice, and I, your master. However, I will not be leading the hunt.”
Arrjee has invited you to join their party.
Do you accept?
“Yes.”
I was third in. After everyone had joined:
AS: On Community Day, Onre told me Forrest had an interest in learning to hunt. We invited Kossa and Carrie, but Carrie was not interested. Since you would be here on Tenthday, that was the obvious time to do this. Yesterday afternoon Lenyet came to town to meet with the Mayor. Since I knew he might become your master, I invited him to join us.
LB: Thank you Arrjee. Will you be leading the hunt?
AS: Yes. We have similar levels of hunting experience, but Kossa and Onre said I should lead this time because I have lived in the area the longest.
FR: Why are we using the party interface when we are all standing right here?
OL: No particular reason.
KS: I didn’t think so.
We all laughed out loud at that point. Lenyet then inquired, “I see you are credited with 21 defeats, Forrest. Could you tell me about that? I understand this is only your fourth day on Heere.”
“Yes, certainly. On my first day, Arrjee and I defeated a level 8 zebor which was threatening a farmer and his two kids. Mom helped the farmer defeat the second zebor. These were scouts, and guardsmen fought the rest of the pack elsewhere. Then during my second day (I call them ‘Tuesdays’) I was involved in a guard’s bounty hunt of giant spiders. Arrjee, Onre, and Kossa were there and my sister Carrie. A guardsman named Asha Yon led us, along with Master Runtel Trillet. There were some minor injuries, but all in all we were quite safe fighting small groups of level 4 to 7 forest spiders. We teens mostly paired and took turns fighting them. I guess I must have been credited with 20 defeats that hunt, because I didn’t do any fighting during my third Tuesday.”
“You fought a fire,” Onre said. “And pulled two people out of the back of a burning, smoky building.”
I replied, “He didn’t ask about that.”
Onre countered, “He is evaluating you as a potential apprentice. He should know. Incidentally, you suck as a fighter. He should know that, too.”
“He should. He thanks you.” Lenyet responded without snark, resulting in numerous grins.
Wry sense of humor. This could work.
I wondered, “So, what are we going to hunt?”
“Game,” Arrjee answered. “Food.”
“Uh, could you be more specific?”
Arrjee responded, “Two deer, three swine, and five rabbits.” Kossa laughed. I rolled my eyes.
Lenyet’s was funnier.
“That is kind of a lot to carry back,” I observed.
“Maybe I should not be specific then, brother. A routine hunt for food is a hunt of opportunity. We kill what shows itself to be hunted, if we expect to eat it.”
“Okay, I get it. If it’s there and we can carry and eat it, it becomes a target.”
Arrjee continued, “That sounds like a reasonable plan since Lenyet is with us. If not, there are some beasts the four of us would be better off avoiding, no matter how tasty.”
Onre asked, “What if we encounter a zebor?”
“A zebor is very unlikely,” answered Lenyet. “They usually travel in packs, and fortunately they are uncommon in this area. At least so long as game is plentiful in their normal territory, which I believe it to be. But if we encounter zebors, I suggest we first try to back away quietly. It is possible something else would already have their interest, and they decide it would be easier than attacking a party of five. If not, we take a stand and fight. It will be safer than running, and we might stand a good chance for everyone to survive with little injury if the pack were no larger than five members.”
Kossa asked, “What if there are seven or eight of them?”
“It would no longer be a ‘good chance’ with this group of limited-experience hunters. We have a swordsman, two knife-wielders, and two martial artists. None of us can yet generally debuff foes or buff allies, and Forrest only offers limited healing. But it would still be better to stand and fight than be torn apart individually as we run away. Assuming we survive, the guard will grant a large bounty. Zebors are obviously targets single-digit hunters should avoid.”
“The good news,” Arrjee summarized, “is that we are very unlikely to encounter zebors. I’m glad we put some contingency thought into it, though.”
“We have been in this glade long enough,” Kossa stated. “I think it is time our fearless leader Arrjee, uh, fearlessly leads.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Try to walk as quietly as you can. Onre, you have your silent boots, so stay up front with me. You may get an opportunity to scout.” We started walking.
Oh, hey!
Leather boots. Excellent quality, no wear. Charms:
* Resizability
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
* Self-cleaning
* Self-repair
* Climate comfort
* Silent locomotion
The boots will make no sound traveling on any terrain. Other sounds made by the wearer will be audible, however.
Your feet, from your toes to your lower shins, will remain comfortable and safe from -30 to 60 degrees.
“Interface, is that Fahrenheit or Centigrade? It has to be Centigrade, right? Otherwise 60 is of surprisingly limited value.”
Celsius. Only Americans call it Centigrade.
“What do Covargh call it?”
Degrees.
I quickly verified that my pair of leather boots had the same climate comfort range. They did, but since mine were open-toed, climate comfort did not extend to them. Both were gifts from Skawa, so equal ranges were what I expected.
Damn. No wonder these things are comfortable.
AS: Now that the hunt has begun, let us communicate this way so as to make minimal noise. My plan is to travel along the nearby stream, where game of all types might be drinking. If the animal is traveling with one or more immature young, we shall skip them, intentionally scaring them off. My answer to Forrest was partially serious; I expect us to find deer, swine, or rabbits. A bear is not unlikely.
KS: Will we be following it upstream or downstream?
AS: Upstream. That will keep us closest to the road and provide easiest access to our cart.
As we were walking, I opened my inventory to quickly analyze everything in it.
Nope, geez. 5 pieces of armor, undergarment, 2 armbands, belt, knife and sheath, leather clip, bag, and if I opened the bag, 2 more clips. At 4 ki per item that would be 60 ki.
Just one thing then.
Belt with lucky coin buckle. The belt is leather, and the charmed buckle is silver, mounting a lucky copper coin bearing the well-wishes of a friend. High quality, no wear. Charms:
* Toughness
* Damage resistance
Further evaluation revealed the buckle offered me 2.5% global damage resistance, and itself 95% resistance. There was no more information obtainable from the coin concerning the “well-wishes of a friend” thing. Its “value and stackability” charms as money were apparently masked at being a component of the larger buckle.
Thank you, Bustel Sendrin.
FR: I just analyzed my belt. Thank you very much, Arrjee, for thinking of mounting the lucky coin on a buckle. I love it! It says it ‘bears the well-wishes of a friend’, as it was passed to me from Master Sendrin.
LB: Should I know them?
OL: Master Bustel Sendrin is head of the First Duchy’s Adventuring Academy. I was a cadet there before coming to Cottages. She came here for a single evening to represent the goddess Einvigi in explaining the purpose and scope relating to the establishment of the school.
LB: Will the new school be a branch of hers?
AS: No. There will be a pair of independent headmasters, one mortal and one a Skolturi Wraith. The only relationship with Master Sendrin’s academy is that they both operate under the auspices of Einvigi.
LB: Ah, yes. The Mayor told me about the international nature of the school.
FR: And it doesn’t seem to have deterred you.
LB: Deterred?? I am excited!
KS: I like an excited man.
AS: Time to cool the excitement. Here is the stream. Onre, take the lead by about four yards and let us know if we are approaching any game.
----------------------------------------
While Onre pulled ahead, Lenyet moved forward to walk even with Arrjee. He did not explain. It was obvious he wanted to be able to support Onre if needed, as well as be right with the rest of us should trouble arise. Even with Arrjee’s indirect direction that we focus, we kept up with light banter. The stream was providing some background noise as it flowed, which I hoped would mask the group’s approach to any target.
We carefully advanced for about half an hour. I had begun analyzing things once per minute, allowing ki to mostly regenerate each time. It didn’t need to be an all-or-nothing training decision. I could understand now why the majority of people tended to be satisfied with their Analyze at Rank C. Even a curious mind gets bored after analyzing the fifth pair of leggings or the sixth blade of grass. Respect to Captain Pokka for pushing his to B. I still planned on A, though, but being an immortal, that’s an easy plan to make.
Hell, if I’m here over 1000 years, might as well rank it to S.
I could hear a commotion ahead. Roars and maybe grunts.
OL: There is a large boar and a bear fighting up ahead. We may luck out and only need to defeat the winner. Right now I’m not sure who that will be.
He had stopped moving forward, and we caught up with him and watched. They both had higher levels than I’d seen before, and they were both loud and vicious. I would not want to be fighting either alone. But I still asked,
FR: Do we want to run ahead and get some credit for both kills?
AS: No, brother. Our early entrance could scare off one or both at this stage. Onre is right; let there be a victor. It may end up suffering serious injuries, meaning we won’t have to chase it far, if at all. This is a game hunt for food, and training in woodsmanship. We can get recreation later.
FR: For those who cannot yet Analyze at a distance, the bear is Level 9, and the boar 10, and both are adults, with over 80% of their HP right now. In general, if these levels of animals are around, how safe are these woods, really?
LB: Neither is particularly aggressive without provocation. Unless they perceived you as a threat to their young or you approached their lair, they are likely to actively avoid Covargh and Humans. Just as with Zebors, though, if food were scarce, their behavior would alter. For whatever reason now, they have engaged in a death-fight with each other.
The fight was a savage one. The boar was using its tusks as it found opportunity, but the bear had a significant reach with its front claws. Neither was trying to bite the other yet. The boar’s hide seemed to almost be operating as armor, which was limiting the effectiveness of the bear’s strikes.
AS: These boars have particularly tough shoulder hide. You can see it mostly brush off many of the bear’s attacks. But offensively, its tusks offer it very short range, so it hasn’t yet hurt the bear badly either. This fight could go on for several minutes. We are an abnormal hunting party with little to no ranged capability. A bowman or an offensive mage could be adding to their overall damage, and they might not realize where it was from until too late.
FR: Lenyet, I plan to eventually become competent with both the bow and the bo.
LB: Have you used either?
No, but I have seen them in movies.
FR: No, but I like the idea of having a little more range from a bo, and a lot more from a bow.
Too bad the Covargh words are not homophones. In English that’s hilarious.
If you say so.
“I do. And who is the only native English speaker here?”
I am not sure, but I would guess it is the dumbass.
If anyone saw my quick grin, no one commented.
LB: It is good that you have skill goals. Arrjee is correct; a bowman would add a lot of capability to this party. I regret I did not come to Cottages prepared for a hunt. Should you become my apprentice, I can assist in the training of both.
KS: Bowmanship would be a very good skill for a bard as well.
OR: And a scout.
AS: Don’t look at me. I’ll zap them.
FR: Brother, so you have settled on becoming a sword mage?
AS: I would not say “settled” yet, but it is what I keep coming back to as I consider various options. I wish I knew the class goals of our other member.
LB: They could not make it today?
KS: You could say that. We expect to be adding a Trichyan.
LB: Very interesting. Until recently, I can honestly say that is a sentence I never expected.
OL: It is just speculation, but it makes a lot of sense given the purpose of the school and our early acceptance as a team.
Meanwhile, the bear had positioned itself so it could reach the side of the boar, and took a heavy swipe at its stomach, which was torn open.
FR: The boar just lost half its health. I’d guess it is about 40% and dropping. I’d say the bear is still almost 70%.
The fight wasn’t over yet. The boar made a desperate lunge at the bear’s face, and one of its tusks pierced an eye. Yet with the boar's belly tore open, stuff which was supposed to be inside was coming out. I’d heard of entrails before, but it is much nicer as a word than to see them in the open.
FR: Boar 25% and dropping. Bear still above 60%.
It wasn’t more than half a minute more before the boar fell over, and the bear continued a ferocious attack.
AS: Now! Focus on the bear, but grant them both a quick death.
He took the lead with his sword. Even with half its vision gone, the bear was still very dangerous, and Kossa and Onre set out to achieve the latter part of Arrjee’s instruction. I was readying both Dodge and a Ki Punch (not as the earlier combo!), but suddenly Lenyet athletically flipped over us all, made another jump and punched the bear in the head.
“The bear is stunned for several seconds,” Lenyet announced. “Attack it freely but quickly.” Arrjee stabbed the bear in its stomach, and I added a full strength Rank D Ki Punch to its head. Arrjee pulled the sword out and seemed to position himself to get the still-standing bear through its heart. Somehow I remembered that we would probably want minimum damage to the bear’s pelt, so I did not use Claw Strike. Instead I punched the open wound where Arrjee’s sword had been, and my whole fist went inside the bear.
Yuck!
“I should be the one saying that,” I said as my hand pulled out. I activated Dodge again, just in case.
I feel everything you feel. “Yuck!" was the appropriate expression.
“Seconded then, ‘yuck!’.”
The concussion ended as the bear collapsed. Just seconds later I verified from their stat gauges that both beasts had passed. “They are dead. What do we do now?”
Arrjee responded, “I think we displayed excellent teamwork. No one rushed stupidly ahead, and we waited for an opportune moment. Thank you for stunning the bear, Lenyet. It allowed us to avoid injury. Forrest, our next step is to ‘field dress’ the beasts.”
“You mean skin them and stuff?” I asked.
“Eventually. We'll do that near town, though. Right now there are several preliminary steps. We should set them upright and tie them to a tree so they can bleed out. That will reduce their weight and make the rest a cleaner process. Note that I said ‘cleaner’ and not ‘clean’. The step after that is to remove their intestines and other body organs we have no plans to eat. Without any of us having the Hunter class or a mage spell to lower their temperature, we should move fairly rapidly to get them into town where someone can chill the corpses.”
Jacques had never watched the rumored PETA, “Where do hot dogs come from?” video, but I was willing to stand on the sidelines and learn. And I felt the ethical imperative to do so; until such time I become a vegetarian, I am responsible for this part of getting meat on the table and fur or leather on my shoulders. Arrjee and Onre did most of the work, requesting I assist when there was something particularly important to learn.
Eventually Kossa stated, “While you guys are doing this, I’ll go get the cart.” Lenyet said he’d go with her. They both washed blood off themselves and left.
Once they were gone, Arrjee asked expectantly, “Do you think they will do anything?”
I didn’t expect that sort of question. “You mean something sexual? She is 14, he is 27!”
Onre noted, “So? She is a teenager and even flirted with him. But no, I don’t think they will. They know we will be needing the cart before long.”
I closed my eyes for a few seconds and inhaled, thinking, “not Cleveland, not Clevleland, not Cleveland.”
Forrest already knows this is not Cleveland.
“I must still have a little Jacques in me. Forrest adjusted to teenagers with teenagers.”
Whenever he has opportunity.
“Okay, I’ll try to let it go. You hear that, Jacques?”
Arrjee had noticed my reaction. “You aren’t backsliding, are you, Forrest? That alien was a nice enough Earthling, but you are a great Covargh.”
Both of them were staring at me, almost concerned. Giving them each a look in the eye, “Maybe a little, short backslide. Interface set me straight.”
Onre grinned, “Good job, Interface!”
We finished dressing the carcasses, and only had a couple of minutes to wait before Kossa, Lenyet, and the cart arrived. It was wooden, had 4 wheels and the bed was almost 2 yards wide by 3 yards long. The two were wearing simple human harnesses, connected to the front of the wagon. They were attached left and right, although I saw where a harness could be attached in the center for a single puller.
Be your own horse, I guess.
“Do people pull wagons and carts often?” I wondered aloud.
“Why bring a horse when it is not needed?”, Kossa replied.
“In Jacques' world, I just don’t remember ever hearing about people handling anything larger than a small hand-cart, designed to be pushed. Oh, wait. Another culture than his had ‘rickshaws’, which were designed for transport within a town of one or two people. It was pulled from the front by a single person, holding onto two shafts extending from the sides. ”
“We have both of those too,” Kossa said. “They are considered small carts and small wagons. I cannot think of specific names for them.”
“The small wagon is called a ‘taxi’,” Onre said. “To minimize weight, there is no top to it, and it only has two wheels.
Of course. I know the word by function but didn’t know what it would look like.
Lenyet inquired, “Was Jacques the name of your previous self?”
“Yes, he was Human, from a world where they were the only sapient species.”
“How boring,” Kossa said. “A girl wouldn’t have much variety.”
“Or a boy,” Arrjee added.
I responded, “They get by.”
“You used present tense,” Lenyet observed.
“Jacques died about three weeks ago. I doubt there has been much change.”
Or not even four days ago. …
We rinsed the carcasses in the stream to remove remaining filth. Then we hoisted the two carcasses into the wagon. With most of their blood, entrails, and other nasty parts gone, moving them wasn’t too hard. It was certainly not easy for most of us; they were still dozens of stones of dead weight each, but with five of us, that was no problem. At Level 30, though, Lenyet could probably carry one of the carcasses himself if he had wanted to.
Arrjee and I harnessed ourselves up, with Onre helping me figure out the strapping. Kossa assisted Arrjee, and we were soon headed for the road. Kossa and Lenyet both had a path mapped, so they led. When we got to the road, Onre volunteered to take a turn, but Arrjee and I chose to pull the cart into town.
At one point I asked, “Do you think we could run while harnessed like this?”
“Not really,” Arjee replied. “Horses can always keep hooves on the ground. Running for us means a lot of the time both our feet would be in the air. Trying to pull a heavy cart that way would be highly inefficient, with us constantly losing momentum. Let us be good horses, and pull steadily,” he summarized with a smile.
I asked about how it would work if we needed to go downhill. Kossa responded, “You would just put your backs against the wagon, braking its movement down the hill. Horse harnesses have breeching which allow the horses (horses closest to the wagon if more than two) to control forward momentum. But two legs, a back, and a cautious mind can serve the same purpose.”
Lenyet added, “On a really steep slope, we would assist from the back end of the wagon.”
Even at our moderate “gait”, I was winded by the time we rounded the curve which revealed Cottages. That was good in that my stamina was regenerating, and I had picked up the pace of my analyzing, so my ki regen was getting a constant workout as well. I doubted I was at the pace Interface suggested would allow ranking these in five hours, but I didn’t feel like I was slacking off.
A lot more construction had taken place at the site for the school. Two buildings were up. “Are they already done with the living quarters and meeting room?” I asked in surprise.
“Not yet,” Arrjee responded. “The basement is dug out for the apartment duplex, and as you can see, the outsides are mostly complete both for it and what will be the initial administration building. They will be putting up a temporary barricade, with a full wall to follow once more final plans are made.”
As we approached the gate, Arrjee led us off the road. “We’ll skin them out here, and then get someone from town to chill the meat.”