Chapter 21: Home

The group hurriedly packed up their camp, which took very little time as they had to leave their village in a hurry and were unable to bring much. Once everyone was ready, Derek took the lead and continued walking towards the direction Leon had given him.

They were making great pace with Derek in the lead. They no longer had to move cautiously. Without having to worry about ambushes and fights, it would only take them a few days to travel to Rayna’s village.

As Derek was walking, he was getting more and more bored. He had wanted to use Greater Meditation to try to level it up, but he decided it would be best to wait until he was not leading a group of survivors to level it. Then, he thought about channeling the void through his body to try to level his Void Channel skill. But after looking at Leon, he figured that the man would lose his mind if he saw him channeling the void again.

Finally, he decided to level up his Dismantle skill. He pulled a rabbit out of his bracelet and began the process of skinning it. With a quick and fluid motion, he removed the head and feet of the rabbit. Then he made a cut down the front of the body, making sure not to puncture the stomach. With one tug, the skin of the rabbit was off. Huh, that was way smoother than before. And that was while walking. He looked at the rabbit in one hand and the skin in the other.

I really don’t want this stuff taking up the space in my bracelet. He looked down beside him to see Thomas looking at the rabbit. “You want this kid?” He asked.

“No, I was just surprised to see you do that all of the sudden.” Derek realized that he had misinterpreted Thomas’s gaze.

“Oh, well, what should I do with this.” He motioned to the skin and the rabbit. “I guess since we don’t have much food, we can cook up the meat the next time we stop, but what about this?” He held up the skin.

“I… I… Can I have it?” A shy voice sounded out from behind the two. Derek turned to see Brandi walking close behind them with her head down.

“Don’t see why not, I’m not going to use it. Heads up.” Derek tossed the skin to Brandi, who was barely able to bring her head up in time to see the rabbit skin flying towards her face. She shrieked and raised her hands, stopping the flying skin just before it hit her in the face.

Derek put his ‘dinner’ back inside the bracelet, and took out another corpse, this one a small wolf. He soon made quick work of it. When he was finished, he heard the shy voice again.

“Can I have that hide too?” Brandi asked.

“Sure.” Derek was going to toss the wolf hide over, but stopped after seeing her small stature. He held his hand out. “Here, give me the rabbit hide.”

The girl pouted and slowed her pace.

“I’m not going to keep it, I’m just going to store it. I’ll give it back when we get to Thomas’s home.” After the clarification, the girl regained her spirit and gave Derek the skin back. “Why do you want the skins, anyway?” Derek asked.

“I… I put my skill point in Leatherworking, I want to help make armor for the village so that...” She stopped, tears forming in her eyes. “So that they can be safe.” She finished.

Derek smiled. “Well, you’re in luck, I have a bunch of these things and I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. I guess when you get settled, I can just give the things to you.”

“Really?” She asked.

“Yup, they’re yours if you want them.”

***

The group continued on at a moderately fast pace. During travel, they had only come across two small packs of low-level wolves, which Marshall made quick work of, and a single level 18 bear, which Derek allowed Leon and Marshall to handle. Derek used Dismantle on the wolves and bear to gain more experience with the skill.

When the final corpse in his bracelet was dismantled, the familiar notification popped up in Derek’s vision. Derek focused on it.

Congratulations

Dismantle skill has reached level 4

I guess getting the skill to level four in this short amount of time isn’t too bad. I doubt it will help much with the Void Beast’s body yet, though. Since Derek was out of things to Dismantle, he decided to just stay up front and focus on getting the refugees to the village for the rest of the trip.

Their pace was quick, and without having to travel cautiously, the estimated week-long trip only took a little more than three days.

***

Thomas was giddy with excitement when he saw his village in the distance. He had tried to maintain his calm, but the closer the group got to the village, the more he felt like he was going to burst.

He had only been away from his grandpa for less than two weeks, but it had felt like ages. With all that he had experienced, he was ready to be home. Mostly, he wanted his grandma and grandpa to know that he was safe. He was sure that his grandma would be sick with worry.

Finally, unable to contain himself, he took off in a sprint towards the village. If someone would have asked him earlier, he would have said that he did not have the energy to run after the long days of travel. He made it to the front of the village, where there was an open gate. He dashed in.

“Thomas?” He heard a voice coming from the gate, but it was not the voice of his grandpa or grandma, so he ignored it and kept running. Soon, he was in the middle of the village. He changed directions and made a B-Line to a small residence, made from mud and brick.

Thomas slammed the door open and ran inside the home. “Grandma! I’m back. Where are you?” He called out. The residence was small, with only two bedrooms and a common area. His eyes instantly shot to a lady sitting on a bed in one of the rooms.

Her hair was just beginning to grey. She had only a few wrinkles, but the bags under her eyes made her look much older than she was. It seemed that she had been suffering from a lack of sleep recently.

Seeing his grandma in such a condition, Thomas ran over and enveloped her in a big hug. She had not been able to say anything from the moment the door swung open, to the moment Thomas was in her arms.

After a long hug, the two finally regained clarity. “Thomas! I’m so glad you’re okay.” The woman’s face was already drenched in tears. “Where have you been? How did you get back?” The woman asked.

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell everyone later.” Thomas replied. “Where’s grandpa? I have to tell him that I’m okay.” He paused for a couple seconds. “And we have guests.”

The woman wiped her tear-stained face with the back of her hand. “Your grandpa has been worried sick. As well he should. He should have never taken his eyes off of you.” The woman reached over to her right shoulder with her left hand and then moved her right arm in a circle. “I gave him a good beating when he showed up without you.” She smiled. “He should be meeting with Rayna right about now. And what do you mean guests?” she asked.

“You’ll see, c’mon, we’ve got to go.” Thomas grabbed his grandma’s hand and pulled her up from the bed. The two exited the house and Thomas raced to the Chief’s residence, his grandma struggling to keep up.

Thomas barged into Chief Rayna’s house too, not spending any time on etiquette. Three heads turned at the commotion. Two men and a woman. On recognition, one of the men jumped to his feet, grabbed Thomas and lifted him into the air. He spun him around once before holding him out in front.

“Thomas! Thank the Great System, you’re alive! What happened, why did you run off?” The man peppered Thomas with affection and questions.

“Put me down.” Thomas struggled against his grandpa. “Put me down.” He said again. He was finally released from his grandpa’s grasp. Thomas’s cheeks turned rosy from being embarrassed in front of the chief of the village.

Thomas turned to Chief Rayna and cleared his throat. “Chief Rayna, Chief Leon should be arriving at the village soon, with the…” Thomas’s words trailed off, and he looked towards the ground. He looked back up at Rayna with a frown and continued. “With the remaining survivors of his village.” He finished.

The attractive woman with pale skin, long blonde hair, and green eyes pursed her lips and squinted. “Survivors? What happened to the village?” She asked.

“They will be here soon. They will be able to tell you more than me.” Thomas answered. He was still shy around Rayna, but the days with Derek and the others had hardened him and he had grown.

“That’s fine. Let’s go.” Rayna stood and walked out of residence. Thomas, his grandparents, and the other man trailing behind.

***

Derek watched as Thomas took off towards his village. He did not stop him as he did not sense or see any danger. As Thomas went to the village at full speed, he casually dropped back beside Leon.

“You know the people here, so you can go ahead now.” Derek fell in behind Leon, with the rest of the group. He ended up walking beside the little girl who wanted the hides.

“What level are you?” He asked.

Startled that Derek would talk to her, she answered shakily. “I’m only a level one. I just turned 13 not long ago.”

Derek smiled. “I see, well, you’re going to need to level up. Who knows, maybe the Great System will reward you with some kind of Leatherworking or crafting class.” Derek felt sorry for the little girl who had lost her father, and he was impressed at her drive to help her villagers.

“It will be a long time, but I will definitely be able to help my friends and family someday.” Brandi said with resolve.

Behind the two, Malorie could only smile a sad smile.

***

The group soon reached the gates of the village with Leon in the front. When they arrived, they found five people there waiting for them.

Derek looked over the people. There were two men and two women. Thomas was the fifth. He was standing in between the older man and woman, while they all seemed to yield to the beautiful blonde in front.

Making no small talk, the woman got straight to the issue. “Leon, what happened?”