The wagons would not be going faster than the horse walking pace, which would be about 6-8kilometers per hour. That means I need to leave four markers every hour, plus range on both sides. I was going to be on the go all afternoon and I think I was going to be glad I didn't have armour. I set off down the east road at a fast jog. I figured any dangerous animal would have been chased away by the fighting and noise, so I wasn’t going to leave the road until I placed my second marker.

I was thinking about Branik. She seemed pretty sure of me. I wondered if she had a skill like my Truth Sensing. She may even have a Leadership type class. That sounded very plausible. She certainly ran a tight and very competent mercenary group. I figured that unless I really stuffed up I would be employed for the duration of this contract. She had already told me what she would expect in a mercenary. I would judge that her expectations were probably higher than average.

The day was spent running back and forth. Tracking was active and so was Farsight. Nothing had levelled during the fight, not even bow. But to be quite honest I didn’t expect it to. I need a lot more practice with it to get back up to speed. Truth Sensing had levelled sometime during the conversation, but that was all.

I swung close enough to the wagons to eyeball them at least once an hour, checking they were not under attack or needed help. There was only about four hours of travel time before dusk. I found a small creek and an area of low grass close by, which should be out of sight of the road.I had practised my Throwing Weapons when I could during the day and managed to bring down a mid sized bird. I got a second with my bow as I waited by the road for the wagons to direct them to the campsite. Pip found a nest and had a meal of egg. Soon the season would move on and the eggs hatch.

Branik took the birds from me and gave them to Smeška to prep and start the meal. We would eat separately from the Wagoner crowd. I found a plank of wood and went away from camp and practised my bow. I went through two full quivers before I was starting to feel comfortable with it again. Then I did the same with me throwing knives. Kopje came by at one point as suggested some changes to my grip and wrist. It was fully dark at that point, but both moons were up and I had good perception. Then the meal was ready.

Over the meal we dealt with business first. Mostly the fact there were only four of us to stand watch. I was only used to 4-5 hours sleep a night in the quarry. The others were all physical classes as well with high constitutions so we did three two hour watches before morning spar time. One person got the night off.

Then I got to ask some questions. I even found out the name of the empire. It was the Nystad Empire and we were in the easternmost province of Nomandes heading east to the neighbouring Kingdom of Kirghiz, specifically the city of Hrothgar. Hrothgar had a very high percentage of Orcs in the population. I asked where the city of Freebourne was in relation to us and it was South and west. Nystad and Kirghiz were in a perpetual state of unrest and border skirmishes. Hrothgar was therefore a fortified city with a sizable military presence, basically being the gateway to the rest of the kingdom. The wagoners were actually part of the Torgovlya Enterprise with offices in both countries, supposedly giving them a legitimate pass through the border. However, because of the unrest there were a number of items banned from trading, especially military and enchanted items, potions and some ingredients etc. Guess what we were carrying a lot of. They had not been expecting checkpoints until closer to the border, and they were expecting to have contacts that smoothed the way for a price.

I was right. My employment would end in Hrothgar and if I did well she would put a good word out to the Mercenary Association or the Town Guard or Army etc. It was another 6 weeks to Hrothgar, so I had time to get my skills up to standard. After dinner it was weapon and armour maintenance. Spear points were sharpened, broken links in the chainmail repaired and some dents smoothed out. There is a limit to what they could do on the road, but what they could do they did, especially after a fight. Branik actually had the Armour Repair and Weapon Repair Skills at a reasonably high level and it had saved them a lot of coin over time. She had spent the time on the road putting together and adjusting armour for me. The Lieutenant apparently had a good set of leather armour in his tent which was not military standard, so it must have been personal. He had been a skinny dude so she had her work cut out. She had taken off the arms so it was now a vest. She had used the arm leather to expand the vest to fit and had me try it on while she made further adjustments. For the legs she had a pair of trousers from a sturdy material and had sliced up the leather leggings of the armour set and if she had time tomorrow she would attach the leather as a set of greaves down the front of the trousers and use the rear part of the leather and the balance of the arms for some rough vambraces to lace on to my arms. She was really pleased as it was really stretching her Armour Repair skill and it had already gone up a level, which was quite hard for her to do at her level.

I worked on the knives I had acquired and checked and sharpened all the edges. They had some oil which I used on the bow and I checked the arrows after all my practice. Some of the fletching needed straightening. I put aside some of the feathers from dinner for use as fletching later. There was space in their chest set aside specifically for repair tools and spare items.

Branik and I took longer than the others so while we were finishing Kopje and Smeška sorted the loot. There was a good selection of potions and they identified them for me so I would know for the future. The most common were minor health regeneration potions, the physical agility, then a couple of Physical Perception potions from the archers. The real score were two potions for Spiritual Strength and Spiritual Agility found in the Lieutenants tent. He probably had a skill that used those, and thinking about it now it may well have been what he was doing when I entered the fight. I asked the question and Branik said she had specifically invested in Spiritual Perception so she could see people using such skills and she was prepping a shield charge even before knowing I was there. She could see him preparing. She had been expecting the archers to take down one or maybe all of them during or after the charge. She had used the ability before for timely interventions that had saved their asses. Most people can’t use any skills after being hit with one of her shield charges. I knew Orcs usually had very low Spiritual attributes. It was one of their weaknesses. She must have invested quite a lot of points. This must have been part of her training and I was very impressed. I would be even more impressed if it came from her own initiative, but I wasn’t game to ask. Attribute allocation is very personal.

The remaining loot was chainmail and short swords and other equipment. There was some debate as to whether I would be better to learn the short sword rather than just knives. I was quite keen to have both. They said a variety of weapon skills was good but I shouldn't learn a second weapon until my first weapon was at the journeyman level. They could help me with a melee weapon, but they couldn’t help with the bow. None of them had any archery experience. That triggered another memory that a weakness of Orcs was a lack of ranged weapons. The normal way the Orcs compensated for a lack of raged options was having fast movement skills to get in close, fast.

I had that first night off from watch. I guess they were still feeling me out. We were up well before dawn and stretching for our sparring. Unarmed Combat was first and I spent the better part of the next hour getting punched and kicked and thrown. It was pretty much as I expected, but it still wasn’t pleasant. Granite actually helped here and I was able to withstand more than they expected on a couple of occasions and retaliate faster. It meant I got a bit closer to hitting them. Unarmed Combat did level.

Small blades training was very instructive. They had me doing a series of movements over and over with the blade to get it into my muscle memory. While I was doing that Branik sparred with Kopje and Smeška separately with their spears and then together against her shield. Then she sparred with her axe and Kopje used a short sword. Smeška then used a one handed mace. All the while I was going back and forth and up and down and thrust and again and again. If I slacked off or slowed down I was yelled at. When they had finished I had to show the same moves, but with Smeška as an opponent. Small Blades didn’t level but I think this is what it needs to break through to the apprentice level. The benefits of proper training. These people had this sort of training from the beginning, with all their skills. No wonder I am so outclassed. And out Skilled.

I left to scout while everybody was still eating breakfast. Things started to fall into a routine. It wasn’t till a week or so later that people really stopped looking behind them for pursuit. After that first week Small Blades finally moved to Level 5 and the Apprentice levels. That was when I finally started sparring with my knives regularly against Smeška and progress was being made. I received a base increase in Physical agility when Small Blades went into the Apprentice level. It was the first Attribute increase in a long time.

My Bow skill had been stuck at level 5 for a long time. I practised every day and it was becoming more and more familiar and I practised shooting from all sorts of angles and positions and gradually increased the range. It was one day I was out scouting and saw a deer, except around here they are called a gazelle. It located me and took off and I still nailed it. Bow went up to 6 and I needed to find a way to practice on moving targets.

Unarmed Combat was improving by leaps and bounds. I wasn’t just getting beaten up any more but getting actual instruction on holds and throws and different techniques. I was still getting beaten up but not just getting beaten up. It was ready to break into the Apprentice levels any day now, which was fast according to Smeška. He seemed to think I was a natural at it. I did like Unarmed Combat but I know how much my Granite affinity, strength and pain resistance helped. Especially the Granite. Being more robust and being able to lock joints definitely gave me an advantage. Granite Bones had even gained a level.

Farsight and Tracking have both improved. Farsight is on the cusp of the Apprentice levels. By contrast Throwing Weapons has barely improved. I am definitely going to need to find someone to get training from. There is no one here who knows more than the absolute basics. I haven’t levelled my hunter Class, but I hope I am getting close.

In contrast Pip was having the laziest life. He barely has to hunt for himself. Bits of meat appear near him, even the occasional egg. He gets carried everywhere.I think he is definitely putting on weight and he can’t blame the Granite this time. When I told him that he just looked at me and poked his tongue out.