Chapter 3: A Lonely trail
After a random three legged dog showed up and disappeared in front of my eyes k traveled wearily because obviously the witches could cast spells regardless of the distance a good thing to know if I was going to be dealing with any more in the future and I wasn't kidding myself that it would happen because it would probably as they tended to be the best source of new spells at least in my limited experience so far. My first week of travel was cold but I'd managed to keep fed first by a loaf of bread then wild onions and carrots eating them raw kept some of the hunger away but left me wanting more sadly I'd forgotten to pack any kind of cooking utensils and I had a dull knife for cutting anything that I might have to but sadly it was really only good for butter the edge was nearly too dull for much else though I could work to correct that so I searched for a good sharpening stone. My second week travel I found a rabbit den and had myself some hasenpfeffer it was delicious but sadly I had nothing to go with it though I had found out just how powerful my force bolt spell was which I suppose was a good thing before I'd gotten into a fight as the incident with the witches showed that a stout iron cauldron was not impervious but strong enough to stop my force bolt spell.
The weeks blurred by as I traveled each town I'd come to I'd work a few odd jobs and then move on it was a pretty boring way to live but it kept me in clothes and my feet covered as I'd also trade the few hides I gathered on the way. Far from satisfied with my new life I traveled to a larger town and found a notice for an extermination of a goblin infestation and I decided to try my luck and followed the directions to the goblin cave and then the games began. I knew that my limited number of spells that I could cast at a time probably wouldn't help overly much and my stave would be totally awkward in a cave so I started a fire inside the caves entrance and it was a decent sized fire that I started with and then I started throwing green branches on it and pine boughs and grass and then I started throwing anything that I could think of on it that would poison the air and cause the smoke to sink and then I started hearing the goblins screaming and running towards the cave entrance so I threw a jar of oil into the cave before casting my force barrier spell. The goblins were angry and soon my force barrier was tested and I realized exactly how it worked each time it was struck it drained some of my energy proportional to how hard it was hit and quickly my reserves were gone and a pounding headache had set in forcing me to drop the spell though now the goblins were struggling to get out of the burning cave entrance and I set into the first goblins to make it out my stave striking out into their bony heads and disgusting green bodies and soon there was a pile of goblins laying on the ground mostly dying and suffering from the smoke and poisons I had used. I ended every goblin I could find and waited patiently for the fire to burn down and the smoke to clear before I headed into the cave myself and I was glad I had started with the fire because there were at least seven more goblins burned down to unrecognizable piles and there were four that must have fallen to smoke and poison though I made certain that they would not be getting back up and proceeded deeper into the cave.
It was a slow walk down to the lowest depths of the cave but I cleared every room and path I found and I explored looking for enemies as much as loot and I found precious little a hand full of coppers and a single guilder along side enough shattered pottery to put a craftsman in business for months it was slightly depressing though it was still worth it as the single guilder would pay my wages for a single job during my travels and I would be paid for clearing the cave as well as the loot I'd found so in the end my efforts were worth more than I would have made in the same amount of time as any other job I might have done. I collected the payment for the job and was about to set out when I was approached by a older gentleman who asked me if I would be interested in a better paying job which honestly I was though I could tell he wanted someone to be his enforcer he wanted a tough and I was not interested in being a bandit for hire but I held my tongue until he had finished his spiel and then I told him that I couldn't and that I would be leaving within the hour. Payment collected and the little bit of new knowledge attained from the goblins I went to the towns trading district and searched for any books that I hadn't read yet and finding only one I bought it and headed out I knew staying too long might be dangerous as men who hire toughs generally don't take no as a answer.
Setting out I realized that I had been alone for months now and I had truly started missing people not just for company but entertainment and maybe more though I knew that anyone that I brought with me would have to know about my magic at the very least and that was a dangerous thing indeed. My pondering came to an abrupt end when just as I was nearing the last house out stepped four men and behind me I could hear at least one or two more and I knew it was an ambush meant for me. I decided to see if I could diffuse the situation so I asked "if it's money your after I don't have much but if it's on the orders of a certain individual then you might regret it after all no is no after all I'd hate to think that it wasn't too someone" this got their attention but then I heard " it's not about money it's about respect and the man says you disrespected him" and then I started swinging. It was a fairly one sided fight but I managed to knock a few teeth out and break at least one wrist with my stave and then it was lost to their combined strength and then it was down to my fists which went poorly for me though I did manage a few good swings that put another guy out of the fight but there were six all total but I only managed to knock down three which was left three more plenty enough to beat me into pulp no matter how much I struggled.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone