Chapter 4: Chapter 4
[You have acquired the skill to read and write Draph]
'Huh?' Theo was left confused as the slight headache left him and the notification appeared. He hadn't done anything to gain a new skill, had he?
He looked around the shop, but there was no one else here except him and the blacksmith. There were no new additions or events that had transpired, other than acquiring the information written on the parchment.
Reaching that conclusion, he snatched the piece of parchment from the countertop where the blacksmith had just placed it. He then began to read it. The symbols that had before made no sense whatsoever, were now perfectly clear to him.
He recognized what each symbol meant. He read the whole piece of parchment from start to end, and it was the same as what the blacksmith had told him. Word for word.
Was this just another gift from the gods or was it something else? Everything pointed towards the former.
"Sorry again for tricking you into going to the forest." The blacksmith apologized once more, still looking quite guilty.
The blacksmith had already pulled one of the rabbit carcasses towards him and put it behind the counter while he had been reading the piece of parchment.
"No hard feelings, at least I discovered what I would lose when I died early rather than later." Theo waved his hand and looked around the shop, he saw some basic leather armor and a bow attached to its quiver hanging on the wall.
"Earlier you said something about trading extra game for weapons. Does that apply for armor too?"
"Yes, yes, of course." The blacksmith responded while following his gaze. "You want these?"
The blacksmith walked towards the wall where the leather armor was hanging from and took it down, then he walked towards the bow and quiver displayed up on the wall and did the same. He brought the items on to the counter and looked at Theo.
"You can have both of these for those two rabbits, take it as an apology." He pushed the items towards Theo.
"Well, I'm not going to say no to that." Theo pushed the carcasses towards the blacksmith and reached out for the items.
Just as he touched them, there was another notification in his vision.
[Quest completed]
[A rabbit… or two?
You brought back three rabbits to the blacksmith who had given you this request. You used one of the rabbits to receive the information left on the piece of parchment the priest had given you.
With the two extra rabbits, and the addition of guilt the blacksmith felt for sending you into the forest with little to no warning, you were able to trade both carcasses for a basic leather armor and a finely crafted bow attached to a leather quiver.]
After reading through the notifications, he started to inspect the armor closely. The system gave no information about the armor, so there was no notification window or equipment status window, which was disappointing.
The armor was not very striking. There was nothing that would draw the eye to it. There were no decorations, and it was just a piece of leather armor held together with metal straps.
Equipping the armor revealed that while most of the armor was flexible and soft, the chest and shoulders were considerably stiffer. While the armor only covered his upper body, it did not restrict his movements at all.
Directing his gaze towards bow and quiver, Theo unlatched the bow from the quiver and picked it up to turn it around. While the weapon looked plain, it seemed to be crafted from fine wood. There were no ornate decorations on it, but the grooves of the wood added a simple beauty to it.
The quiver itself was simply made from leather with leather straps to which one could attach the bow. The quiver itself held around twenty arrows inside of it.
The arrows seemed to have been modestly constructed from wood and goose feathers with iron tipped heads.
He strapped the bow back to the quiver and attached the quiver to the back of his leather armor.
"These will do just fine." Theo directed his gaze back towards the blacksmith, who had by now pulled the other carcasses behind and under the counter as well.
"You said something about there not being enough hunters to keep the wildlife populations in check, what's that all about?"
"It's just as I said, there aren't enough people remaining who are capable of hunting them down." The blacksmith sighed and looked behind him, through the window to the streets outside.
"Why is that?" Theo asked curiously, it smelled like another quest or, at the very least, a lead.
"You might not believe it, but this village used to be a bustling place with lots of people coming and going on the regular." The blacksmith had a look of reminiscence.
"The village used to be quite wealthy and prosperous thanks to the forest and a specific type of wolf that lived there. The village even gained the name Wolfspine because of the special properties of that wolf species."
"Alas, the influx of hunters and adventurers who came looking for profit through them gave this little village but a glimpse of wealth. People started moving here and we were steadily heading towards town status." At this point, the blacksmith sighed and stared into space for a moment before continuing.
"Sadly, the wolves were hunted to extinction. There was nary a single wolfspine left within the forest. That stopped everything in its tracks, our village, which had suddenly become quite prosperous, started to decline once again. People started to gradually move towards more prosperous places."
"Even still, we were able to keep our village standing, we still had everything necessary to survive. The farms produced enough food for us and what few merchants ever came here supplied us with the goods we couldn't grow or find ourselves."
The blacksmith's facial features suddenly twisted into an angry snarl. "Then those fucking bandits appeared."
"Two years we spent in peace after the adventurers left, but then six months ago they came!" He slammed the counter with his fist. "They came to the village and raided our food supplies and took our wealth, they burned down the farms and killed most of the hunters that were trying to protect the village."
"After they had stolen what they had come for, they left the village and we thought it was the end of it." The blacksmith seemed to deflate. "It was the end of the raid, yes. But the bandits had started to attack the few merchants that made their way here."
"Without those merchants, we had no way of sending requests for aid or even buy necessary supplies."
"Are they still there?" Theo asked once it seemed like the blacksmith stopped.
"The bandits? Yes, they're still there. Have been for approximately six months now."
"Wouldn't someone do something about them? Don't you have some sort of guards around here?"
"There are guards, but not around here. This village is too backwater for it to matter to anyone. There are no rivers or lakes nearby, the only way here is through that one route that they now occupy."
"We had hoped that the discovery of that wolf species would elevate us to some matter of importance, but that dream has already been crushed."
"Does there exist any reward if I somehow manage to drive the bandits off?" Theo asked curiously.
"You would try to do that?" The blacksmith seemed to return to his original state, with a little bit of hope, badly hidden beneath his face. "We don't have much we can give, but I am sure we can come up with something if you're successful."
[Quest received]
[A bandit… or a band?
You heard of the troubles plaguing the village Wolfspine. Bandits seem to have appeared around six months ago, they raided the village of their food, wealth and hunters.
You asked about a reward for driving these bandits out of the region, and while the village doesn't have much, the blacksmith said he would come up with something if you're successful.]
The quest itself didn't indicate what the reward would be, only summarized what had been spoken just minutes before.
"You said before that there were not enough hunters to keep the wildlife in check, does that mean that there still are some here in the village?" Theo asked once he had finished reading the notification.
"Yes, there's the son of one of the hunters killed in the raid six months ago. He survived because he was in the forest during that time, hunting. He's quite capable, one of the reasons most of us are still alive and not dead because of hunger."
"Can you point me in the direction of his lodging?"
"Yes, but can I ask why you're looking for him?" The blacksmith asked curiously as he led Theo out of the shop and out into the streets.
"You see, while I can't die, I also don't know how to fight that well yet. I died to a lone wolf; I can't beat bandits with my current abilities."
The blacksmith nodded in response and pointed towards the direction where the supposed hunter was living. "Pardon my manners, I haven't even asked what your name is."
"It's Pendrake." Theo answered as he started to head towards the direction where the blacksmith had pointed. "You should also probably warn the people who go to the forest about my dead body, I left it there. It might have been eaten by now, but you can never be too certain."
The blacksmith sported a slightly disturbed look on his face as Theo turned around and continued walking towards the hunter's place of respite.
The blacksmith had given him a general direction and a description of the shed he was looking for.
While walking through the village, it was not as ghost-towny looking as it had been before. There were more people mulling around, though most of them looked malnourished and desperate. They were just going through the motions that they might have once had when life was more enjoyable.
Theo directed his gaze forward and focused on finding a shed matching the description the blacksmith had given him, trying to ignore all of the gloom that emanated from the village itself.
While he was trying to ignore the villagers, they were certainly not trying to ignore him. Most stared at him curiously, having not seen him before. Yet they fled and hid once they saw the armor he was sporting in addition to the quiver behind his back.
He noticed none of this, so focused was he on looking for the correct shed. His search led him to the outskirts of the village, near the forest once again. There, on the edge of the village stood a lone shed.
The shed stood out amongst the haphazardly built and weak looking houses. The shed was entirely made from wooden logs, finely crafted and put together. It looked much better than any of the other houses amongst the outskirts.
On the side of the shed, there were racks that were full of freshly killed game, indicated by the slight bits of blood still seeping out of the carcasses.
They were mostly small animals like rabbits and squirrels. But attached to the side wall was a bigger rack where there was a wolf carcass laid down, from what he could see, it was slightly smaller and less robust looking than the one that had killed him previously and it looked much more like the pictures of wolves he had seen in real life.
None of the game had been skinned or prepared yet, so he inched closer to take a more careful look at the wolf.
Before he was able to even approach the racks, the doors of the shed opened and a man looking to be around thirty years old came out. The man's short, dirty white hair drew his gaze to it immediately.
The man had stopped walking once he saw Theo standing in front of the shed. His piercing blue eyes narrowed.
The man raised his left hand and swiftly took out his bow and nocked an arrow with his right before Theo even had the chance to speak. "Who are you, and what do you want with me?"
"Easy, easy. I'm not one of the bandits." He raised his hands above his heads, showing him that he was no threat.
"Don't move!" The man yelled as he saw him raise his hands.
"How do I know you speak the truth? I haven't seen you here before." The man asked as he started to slowly move towards the side of the shed where the racks were. "And none of the villagers wear armor or bows on their back."
"I've come here to ask questions, not to kill you." Theo tried to muster a non-threatening stance as he talked. "I asked the blacksmith where to find you, you can confirm it with him."
"The blacksmith, huh? What's his name?" The man asked as he reached a position behind the racks. A place with even some cover as opposed to the open field he had been standing in previously.
"Uh… I didn't ask…" Theo said with an awkward expression on his face.
"You expect me to believe that!?" The arrow was now dangerously tightly wound in the bow.
"I know the temple priest's name! His name is Gething Hulme!" Theo yelled out as he instinctively closed his eyes as he saw the bow string loosen.
There was a moment of silence and peace as he noticed that there was no searing pain to indicate that he had been hit by an arrow. Slowly he opened his eyes and saw the man leisurely walking out from behind the racks and towards him.
"You should have said that from the start, I honestly thought you were a bandit. You dumbass."
"How was I expected to know you would threaten me with an arrow when I just came here to talk!" Theo yelled at the man as he slowly lowered his arms, but the man just ignored his yell.
"Also, you just believed me when I said that priest's name? Why?" He asked once his arms were by his sides once more and the man was standing a good five meters from him.
"None of the bandits could gain entry into the temple and the priest never leaves." The man answered with a slightly annoyed twinge to his voice.
"Why are you looking for me? I have important business to attend to. I found another dead villager in the forest today. I have to go and get his body to the temple soon." The man looked at him annoyed.
"Huh? A dead man? He didn't happen to be dressed in rags and have a torn abdomen and a neck?" Theo asked.
"I guess he did, were you in the forest today too? It's dangerous to go into the forest, you dumbass!" The man yelled at him angrily all of a sudden.
Theo brought his hand up to rub the back of his head awkwardly. "Uh… That body is mine, 99% sure."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone