Approximately three kilometers from the [Forest of Beginnings], a frontier village named Novus is located. It has a population of about five hundred people, with just enough homes and establishments to support this community. It was founded a hundred years ago, but it never made any extensive progress, due to the constant danger around it and including its distance from any other town. Even though it is rather small it was still a much-sustained village with no shortage of able-bodied men and other hardworking people, to travelers that occasionally stays or passes through Novus, it held the reputation of having many strong warriors that defend the village.
The people here work together in order to support each other, others manage the fields, raise livestock, gather materials, and work in craftsmanship. Those who can fight train themselves, they guard the village, others just help around in other tasks if they can, and some hunt in the nearby forests. Each and every one of the villagers have their own roles, like cogs in a machine, without one to do a role, they will not function efficiently. They lived with cooperatively, the common sense that was ingrained in each one of them, honed through the passage of time ever since the first settlers made the place as their home.
As each one of them does their work, as usual, a ripple has appeared within their calm daily atmosphere. The hunters have returned from the [Forest of Beginnings], they have returned like usual, but they are in an unexpected state, out of the original six hunters that set out, only four returned, not only that, they had another person with them. They were carrying various materials with them fur pelts, meat, but what catches the attention of the villagers who saw them, was an unconscious young girl with jet black hair, with beautiful features that make her seem out of place within a group, she was being carried by the middle-aged hunter on his back.
This aroused the curiosity of the residents, and also they grew worried, the group only hunted small fry, for them to lose two individuals was strange, and now they have a stranger with them, knocked out for the count. Ignoring the stares of the other villagers the group of hunter hurried toward one of the buildings in the village, it was a simple stone house with a wooden roof like any other building within the village, only that it was larger. It has two floors and covers about 70-80 square meters.
The group stopped in front of the doorway, the middle-aged hunter instructed the other three to take the materials somewhere and rest. The others complied but still gave worried glances at the unconscious girl on his back. He proceeded inside and was greeted by an elderly woman; he gave a polite greeting towards her and then walked in with the girl he was carrying. The old woman did not say anything; she was looking at the young girl with keen interest as if she was something that she has never seen before.
“Where did she come from?” the old woman asked as she helped the hunter lay down the girl in a bed in one of the rooms in the first floor, once inside one can notice that the building’s purpose is actually to heal the injured.
“In the forest,” the man replied. “She bumped into us when we were hiding from that Bronze Mountain Boar.”
“Oh enough with your jokes Rye,” the elderly woman said, clearly not believing what he had said, of course, how can she believe that? A young girl, probably fifteen years old, in that dreadful forest, even the stubborn hunter named Rye is cautious towards that place, how can she survive in there?
“I’m serious Aunt Verna,” Rye said patiently, heck, even he doesn’t get it, but what he saw in that forest was crystal clear. “She may look like a sheltered young lady, but she killed that boar herself, she got knocked unconscious though, tough kid, she’s got more guts than those boys her age.”
“Barehanded?” Aunt Verna inquired once more; she doesn’t see any sort of armor on her, even a weapon scabbard.
“She used this,” The hunter showed the black dagger, the heavy and dull dagger, but the very thing that she used to kill one of the most tenacious things in that forest.
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“I’m not going to ask anymore,” the old woman sighed, the more she knew, the more ridiculous the whole story seemed. “You must be tired, go and rest, leave whatever this little gal has here.”
“She only had this,” said Rye as he put down the dagger on the bed beside the unconscious girl. “Tell me if anything happens, I’ll send Maria to help here later.”
The old hunter left the building, leaving Aunt Verna alone with the girl who was lying on the bed. Only then the elderly woman managed to calm down a bit, the very moment she saw the girl, she was incredibly shocked. Rye didn’t notice it, but she did, she doesn’t truly believe the girl had killed the Bronze Mountain Boar, but she does know that this girl was extraordinary. Keeping her thoughts to herself, she inspected the unconscious young lady’s situation, she found out that she passed out due to hitting her head, which is why she passed out, there were a few bruises on her back as well, but overall she is fine, no wonder even the seasoned hunter like Rye actually called a fragile looking girl as tough.
Verna concluded that she might wake up soon enough, she then treated the bruises and scratches of the girl.
As she did her own thing, she was focused, but cannot help but get distracted; she can see what most of the villagers cannot notice. She stopped after doing basic treatment, and then stared at the unmoving girl, eyes focused. Rye might not see it, but Aunt Verna can clearly see, in her eyes, a large number of small wisps of light with different colors were swarming around Alex, and more and more were coming. The old woman has never seen anything like this before, and she can guess that this is unprecedented.
Verna Greyleaf is one of the people that are called Spirit Priests or Spirit Priestesses; they can sense and interact with spirits and can use spirit magic with the help of the spirits themselves. As to what these spirits look like, no one really knew, they can only be seen as wisps of light by the Spirit Priests and Priestesses, but it is known that this is not how they truly look like. It is said that if spirits are attracted to a person, especially if it is a certain color then they must have a high affinity for that kind of spirit and spirit magic, the affinity of a spirit priest and priestess depends on what color and amount of spirits that they can attract. To Aunt Verna's surprise, not only that Alex managed to attract spirits, they have all different colors, they are nearly dozens of each color, and currently, the numbers are increasing, as if the young girl was attracting every single spirit even from the various forests around Novus. Across the whole continent, even people with high affinities for two kinds of spirits and spirit magic do not even exceed a few hundred, if more than two, they are almost like legends, and yet, the young unconscious girl managed to attract a whole variety and a huge amount of spirits. Clearly that Alex has a limitless future.
Even the normally calm Aunt Verna was excited, still with disbelief, it was obvious how phenomenal the young girl's existence was, but since she is currently unconscious, there is no way of knowing who she was, where she came from and why she was here. The old woman can only sigh and continue treating the wound of the girl.
"If she is some sort of a Spirit Priestess, why does she even have a dagger?" She thought to herself, as she tried to pick up the dagger that was placed beside the girl, she was thinking of putting it away so it will not be a hindrance. The old woman's expression changed when she tried to lift it up, it did not even move an inch as if it was ridiculously heavy. She was amazed at how strong old Rye was, but she was more surprised at how this frail looking girl can even wield it to kill a huge beast.
While Alex was unconscious, being treated by the extremely curious Aunt Verna, the whole village of Novus was stirred, there was never an incident where their hunters got killed, not in the previous two hundred years, the hunting groups that the village sends out are extremely experienced and strong, and also the group that lost two men are with Old Man Rye, a very strong hunter, he's not showy, but every single villager have inklings of how unfathomable the man's strength was. They did not know the whole story, and the Forest of Beginnings is really mysterious to even begin with, there will be inevitable events, and the deaths of the two hunters are among them. The villagers were all curious but all information came from the hunters own statements. From what everyone knows that those two got separated and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of beasts where the rest of their group came too late, they managed to kill the beasts but the two were already lifeless, and then Alex came and the Bronze Mountain Boar showed up, which she killed before passing out, which now lead to the current situation.
It was only after a few days that Alex awakened, wearing different clothes, in a different place, and somehow she leveled up, she was now level two.