We returned to the Village guided by our escort. At the very least, they were all very nice. Their leader was the only one who was a prick about everything. They were asking about the types of traps we used and how we were able to find the coyotes, which Michael was more than happy to answer. Astrid was also having so ti in the spotlight as they kept asking about her training regint. And once she answered with a simple phrase, 'cutting wood,' all the n behaved differently.
So couldn't believe that she gained that physique just by gathering lumber, while others felt that the more impossible aspect of it was the fact that she spent ti doing such a boring task. But the Frosted Lumberjack enjoyed that type of work. As a matter of fact, it seed to be sowhat therapeutic for her. During our journey, she had stopped on more than one occasion to cut so wood just because she wanted to relax. And she did so without disrupting the environnt. She knew exactly which trees she could cut without causing any problems for the forest itself.
There were a few of the n who also tried to talk to , but I shut any attempt down. Making it clear that while we were following them, I wasn't enjoying the treatnt we'd been having. And most of them seed to be understanding of my reaction. There were one or two who even approached and said their apologies before being called by Conrad, who was demanding one task or another from the n. Eventually we reached the village and Pala was already there waiting for us with a satisfying expression. Before we even got close, she shouted.
"Did they give you their magic powers?"
Michael just shook his head in frustration. "I told you, she's delusional. Unfortunately, she's really not taking the thing that happened to her sister well."
His answer was a bit surprising to . I wasn't expecting him to be so willing to bla everything on Pala.
Conrad nodded his head and told us to follow him as we passed by. She tried to speak with the hunter but he ignored her and so did we. If I were going to say anything to her, I wouldn't end up with just words.
We were taken to the sa gymnasium where the hunters were gathered and soone had already co ahead to bring the person responsible for their supplies. Once the woman saw the amount of coyotes we were dragging behind us, she gasped with a smile. Without missing a beat, she quickly started to make a tally of all the at and fur that they could acquire.
It took about an hour for all the 19 coyotes to be counted and checked. After all, they were not in a particularly good state. There was one specific that Astrid had not only cut one off its front legs but also its lower jaw and ripped a hole in the middle of its stomach. The poor bastard was too disfigured to be counted as a full one and that would affect the amount of fur and all the materials they could get from it.
The at wasn't that much of an issue since most of our skills didn't really cause any damage beyond killing. The only ones that did were Astrid's ice based attacks and that layer of frost had already thawed out during our travels. As a matter of fact, the woman in charge of supplies was impressed on how well kept so pieces of at were. The sa pieces that Astrid had frozen using her attack. Once all that was done, Conrad was called since he had already left after we started having our supplies checked and asked how much would they gain from this? The woman blinked at Conrad for a mont, not really understanding what he was saying before realization dawned on her face.
"Oh, this is coming from us?"
I shook my head. "We are the ones that got them. But we only need so supplies. Whatever is left is going to stay with you. We don't intend to stay in the village," I replied, gaining a nod from Astrid and Michael. Both were also clearly upset at our situation.
"I'm sure we would be more than happy to accommodate the three of you. Our hunters could always use so help, and I'm sure they would agree that having three capable hands would be very good for us," the woman said with a smile, ignoring the annoyed grunt coming from the leader of the hunters.
I glanced at Conrad. "I'm not sure all of them would agree to that. But no. We're not staying. Thank you, but we have a destination already."
"Can I ask where?" the woman pressed.
I shrugged and said, "Sure, I'm just not going to answer." I made a point of staring at Conrad when I replied to her just so everybody was clear about the reason we were leaving.
Although the real reason was nowhere to be seen. Likely causing trouble sowhere else. The woman nodded and said it was a sha before starting to work out how much all the coyotes were going to be worth. The fact of the matter was that fur was extrely valuable to them. They wouldn't have only food and clothes. Both things that could be solved with the coyotes. And the cost of the bigger ones could be used to create weapons for the refugees to join the hunters, allowing them to solve the food issue even quicker.
The woman also understood that they were at fault for not having us stay close and did her best to at least give us so extra supplies as an apology. But we didn't need all that much. Just so pieces of dried at. More soap since we used so to trade for our stay for the night and a couple of herbs that could be used for dicine.
We said that we had enough bandages even though we didn't need them, thanks to our {Body Regeneration} skill. But I had yet to see how the System would interact with diseases. Which is why we focused more on plants that would help fight off a fever or sothing like that.
Once we had all the supplies that we wanted, we headed out of the gymnasium. There was another hunter already by our side saying that the village chief wanted to talk to us. I let out a long sigh, telling them that it's fine but we were going to leave by morning since it was already getting late. A statent that both Michael and Astrid agreed to. None of them was really excited about the idea of staying here for longer than we had to. Especially after everything that we saw. The frog, then the ants, the giant body of the Eater, and we had no idea if another predator would step in to take the place of the coyotes. The man nodded and said that their chief just wanted to thank us. There would be no pressure for us to stay.
But just as we started to approach his house, Pala walked towards us, stomping her feet. "What the hell did you do? How are you lying to everybody?"
"We are lying? Listen here you b-," before I could continue speaking, Michael cut off and stepped between the two of us.
"Pala, listen, I know you're upset and you're dealing with a lot of stuff right now, please, but you got to stop being delusional. There's no such thing as magic. I don't know what you think you saw, but that wasn't it. And the sooner you accept that the better is for everyone."
"You're saying that I'm a liar?" Pala sounded extrely shocked at that notion. "I saw you using magic. I saw you making your staff grow and you," she turned to Astrid, "you can make ice out of nowhere. Don't talk to like I'm crazy. The three of you are witches. And if you don't share your power with other people, then everybody's going to die. Or you're just holding it to yourself so you can control everybody."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because if I had a superpower, I would waste my ti traveling and hunting monsters instead of just finding a cushy place to control everybody. Please stop being crazy."
"I am not crazy," Pala gasped. "I'm going to show everyone how I'm right," she shouted and rushed at while holding a knife.
I didn't need {Mind Of Possibility} to think about the results of this. If I fought back, she would just continue to be annoying and people might start to believe her soday. If I was too rough with her and ended up using a skill, everybody would know that she was telling the truth and that's a whole slew of problems I didn't want to deal with. The best option was to prove once and for all that this woman was just crazy.
I shifted my body just enough so that her attack, if you could call it that, cut my right forearm. It wasn't a deep cut or a large one, but just enough to make bleed. Without knowing if it would work, I also talked to the System.
'Sis, make sure that the area she's aiming at is not well protected by the particles. I don't want the knife to bounce off my skin.'
I received a single response, [Acknowledged], just before Pala made contact and her next reaction was even better than what I was expecting, she grabbed my wrist and raised it up to the sky.
"Look, look," she gasped while waving my own hand. "She doesn't bleed. Even though I just cut her, she's not bleeding."
Pala stopped when she looked to the side and saw that my arm was indeed bleeding. As the cut she gave was enough to pierce my skin. I pulled my arm back and gave her a good punch across the face.
"What the fuck do you an, I'm not bleeding? What do you think happens when you get stabbed?" I pulled back and tried to look at my injured arm. "Fuck, I managed to kill off all the coyotes without getting hurt and now you do this crap? What is the matter with you?"
"What?" The woman stared at . "No. I saw you. You don't bleed when you get hit. And even when sothing cuts you it stops bleeding look." She grabbed my wrist again and started rubbing my bleeding wound. But instead of the fixed arm that she was expecting, her movent only made my arm bleed more. It was starting to stink so I pulled back again while giving her another punch, which this ti caused her to fall to the ground. It was very tricky to control my strength enough not to knock her out in one blow.
She stared at again and asked, "How?"
I snapped, "Bitch, how what? I'm not a superhero. I don't have magic powers or any kind of that bullshit. I'm just a damn good hunter. But silly , when I'm in a village I don't stay on edge all the ti. I guess I should expect everybody to start stabbing now."
"No but," she tried to protest again, but I just turned around and started walking as a couple of hunters quickly moved to her side to make sure she couldn't hurt again.
"Now get the fuck away from . If you get close to again, I swear I'm going to kill you." I stomped our way towards the Chief's house. But I couldn't help but add one more demand after she hurt . "And find sowhere else to sleep tonight. You're not sleeping in the sa place that we are."
By the ti we reached the Chief's house, he was already aware of what happened and didn't even try to make us stay. He just thanked everyone for our effort and promised that no one would bother us during the night. Even offered to throw a party in our na, but we refused. We said that we wanted to just have a nice al, sleep and be out of here by morning. The man sighed and nodded, understanding that at this point, too much harm had been done. Especially considering that Pala made Conrad co after us. He did ask if we had any intentions of taking the woman along, but at once, all three of us replied with a definite no.
And just like we promised, that's what we did. We got so food from the kitchen, thanked them for making our al, went back to the house that they had assigned us and slept through the night. Making sure that all the doors were properly locked and that the windows barricaded. This ti we even slept all together in the sa room just in case anything were to happen. Pala really didn't show up and honestly, I didn't care about where she could have gone to. By morning just minutes after sunrise the three of us had gathered our stuff and started making our way out of the village leaving behind a few coyote corpses so uncomfortable mories, a very strange vision and one human size piece of baggage that hopefully we would never have to deal with again.
Reviews
All reviews (0)