The next day I hunted down three goblins and found a few more herbs to sadly place into my Inventory, but no earth shaking events occurred. If the numbers remained the same as in Underworld of Armok and they were Level 0s, then I had gotten a dozen Soul Power on the nose from them. I had to make assumptions, because again only a sense of it came to mind.

The narrative steps forward yet again on the day after that. To help you readers keep your heads on straight, this was now Tuesday. Well, since there are eight days a week, I’ll translate the middle two days as Walphaday and Webetaday. That should keep connotations of being near towards the beginning or end of the week intact; the actual names of the days don’t mean much.

So it was Tuesday, and things proceeded fairly normally until midday. I did want to head to the forest to go do some grinding, but helping out around the village felt routine and didn’t want to go too long without doing so. Ross and Troy said they would be ready to head out again the next day as well, and patience is a virtue.

Even if doing so was my own will, when I spotted several distant figures on the road from Glaucen, I stopped helping clean fish with and looked off into the distance.

“What is it Alric?” One of the fishwives, Ginger, asked politely. Helping out with little things and getting to know everybody, the nervousness around spellcasters disappeared, leaving only a bit of reverence. I was becoming a respected member of the community, which wasn’t hard if you didn’t just swim and knap rocks all day.

“I see some travelers in the distance. Others say the village gets a lot of passerbyers, but I’ve never seen them myself. The road through the village seems surprisingly desolate.”

“That’s because you’re always off working, it’s rare for you to take any breaks at all. Everyone else sees them rather frequently. It’s strange for us not to see two or three in a week.”

“Really? I think I’d like to take a look at them, let’s work hard to finish quickly.” A few minutes of agile knifework from Ginger and speedy ing from myself, and the travelers were practically in the village. Anyone who reads would immediately have their attention drawn to the group.

A trio, the most solid grouping. Led by a woman closely followed by two men, with a confident gait they approached and slowed down when reaching the village. At their sides were finely crafted weapons; at least they lacked rust or any apparent flaws, but the mere fact they were so openly armed made it look like they were trying a little too hard to be imposing. Their dress was imitative of the white robes of Disciples, but with one long sleeve on their left arm.

While certainly within the realm of possibility, these two factors brought up a sense of unease. Pan awaited them near the ‘entrance’ to the village. Nonchalantly strolling to his side, I squeezed out a few words quietly before they got into earshot. Luckily the area was small, and I could make it to his side without seeming excessively rushed.

“Be extra careful around these three Pan, it looks like they might be here to stir up trouble.” I spoke in a hushed tone before they came into earshot, then added “and they may not be disciples.”

Pan looked over incredulous, but I noticed a little tension leave him. His clothes were already turning damp from all the sweat coming off of him at the prospect of Disciples arriving. A short distance away, the trio stopped and waited. Pan glanced over, yet remained silent, and the men behind the woman couldn't suppress their hateful gazes. Their female leader seemed a bit more aloof, but you don't survive as a high profile assassin without being able to detect hostility.

Experience is experience, people’s gazes at least aren't affected by whether you're in a game or not.

Silence reigned, tension slowly building. Pan seemed to have resolved himself not to go first. Shifting about at the unexpected reaction, eventually the guests spoke.

“This servant of the Patriarch greets you. Are you the chief of this village?”

“Yes, why have these noble Disciples graced our home on this day?” Pan responded stiffly. The woman now had her full attention on him, but the punks behind her kept looking over like they wanted to fight. Gracefully letting the attempts to incite away, I maintained composure by Pan’s side.

Even if they were fakes, I was sort of interested in how Pan would handle things. There didn't seem to be a process to actually elect a chief, but he definitely was the de facto leader of the village. Salt allotments, communal work, long term planning for construction, if he wasn't the end of the process, he would at least be consulted and informed about it. This only reached my ears from others, personally there were few times I saw him undertake action.

“The Church has decided to once again bless rural villages with knowledge about how to practice Tian Meng. With troubled times on the horizon, we must walk the right path and be unshakeable in our beliefs. We require accommodations as we teach, but as this is such a small village payment is not necessary. Only food and lodgings need to be provided to us.” The woman gave a dainty smile, as if she hadn't just barged in and demanded free room and board. Pan responded as if this really was a gracious request.

“The Guardian of Man lets his followers stand on their own two feet. During these troubled times, my people and I would gladly seek enlightenment from your tutelage. There are few homes here, but I will be sure you receive the best we can offer. Please, if you would humble yourselves to follow me I'll take you to a spot well suited to delivering sermons.

“Alric, go find Samuel and Henrietta, tell them to get what they need out of the house. Tell them to take it to Ralph’s, and then go tell him.” Giving an aside to me when he finished stroking the egos of the ‘Disciples’, he then bowed and led the way. Snapping to attention, I did as he asked right away.

Samuel was one of the few villagers who didn't fish all day, every day, but nevertheless could be found near the riverbank inspecting the barrels to be used for preservation, as well as mixing up some sort of paste to help repair and seal cracks. I’d thought about giving him the Livewood oil, but after asking about his job a bit it seemed redundant. The waxy paste more than sufficed, and stated that Livewood oil wasn't great for fixing containers meant to be watertight.

We were slightly familiar, so informing him wasn’t preluded by an abrupt introduction. An expression both slightly happy and rather frustrated crossed his face, but he just said he would get his wife as I went to inform Ralph. With OGP having come from Kallahall, Ralph acted much more accepting towards strange ideas. I talked with him about the village’s faith in Tiaism. There were no competing ideologies, people within a day from Glaucen were blood-spilling zealots, yet here everyone seemed to just nominally accept it.

“The Patriarch is good, course we know he exists. But like my old grandpappy said, when you're ta far from home, ya don't recognize anything.”

“Umm…”

“Well if ya get ta far from home, things look different. They have all the big temples over in Glaucen; we've only learned from our parents and the occasional traveling Disciple. How da ya think we're supposed to learn about that kind of stuff? Honestly I'm not even sure I want to be a good follower, look at Melissa. She’s young, but already so batty.”

“Mm, but what I really want to know is how this will affect everyone. Do you all really have to go and listen?”

“Ah boy, we’re definitely going ta listen.” Ralph chuckled mirthlessly and stared into the stream a while before responding. “There isn't much naws other than from travelers, but what everyone hears about is when some heretics get their village flattened. Disciples think not enough people attended and it vanishes.”

“...no way.”

“How else would ya know the trath if there were liars out there? If they leave a place like that out there, evenchally there'll be whole towns unaware of the Patriarch. From what I know, that would mess up the Flow of Life somehow, if that many people stop giving back ta it.”

“Thanks for answering those questions.”

“No problem, ya come around soon.”

Well then, Tiaism once again showed a brutal side to it. Putting it in perspective, with all the possible land they had to cultivate, even dozens of villages didn't amount to much. The ones most likely to defect were already the farthest from centers of prosperity and were usually the least productive.

It became easier to see why so little had changed over thousands of years.

Still, I felt uncertain as to whether or not those three were really Disciples. If they were, given the way sparks flew when they looked at me, calamity would descend on the village. If they weren't...well who were they then? They imitated Disciples, and I doubted the church would be lenient with that action. It was a fairly large risk to take considering that they were coming out to such a rural place. What gains were worth it, perhaps there was some sort of hidden treasure about?

I headed over to where Ross and Troy worked on peeling bark and began preparing boards. Of course in this small settlement, it was almost impossible not to walk by everyone. Passing a few yards too close to where Pan was showing a spot near the stream with several large stones to use as seats, the female Disciple called out.

“So who is this mage that lives among you? Why do you not introduce yourself to us?” This was too much of a stretch, I am clearly outside the radius you should feel comfortable casually bringing me up. I'm going to have to walk over there so there's no need to shout back and forth.

Suppressing my reluctance in case they were the real deal, I approached the lady and her escorts with an even pace.

“My apologies, your cohorts made it appear as though my presence was not welcome. I am Alric, a...Mage from the outskirts of Braan. In the quest for *mana*, I have stopped here for the time being.” The demure smile was overlooked as the woman sent mild glares towards the men.

“These two should know that all are to receive the teachings of The Patriarch, they will not make the same mistake again. I am the Disciple Tyra, and these two are Tomas and Harold. Tell me, why exactly is a mage like yourself hiding away in a small village like this?” Chastising Tomas and Harold, she didn't preface their names with ‘Disciple’. Surely acting in an official manner she wouldn't forget such a thing, or was it only in the presence of higher ranks that such formalities were observed?

“The mages of my homeland understand magic could be used for good or for ill. Remaining in ivory towers leads to ignorance, one must undergo constant worldly tempering to remain steadfast.” Sounding enlightened and hearing of my ‘purpose’, Pan smiled and seemed even more relaxed. The Disciples didn't quite buy it, but looked a little softened by the response. Not to the point the men no longer looked hostile though.

“Since you have acquired the belly band, I won't press further at the moment. However as a mage, there are additional teachings that you must be made aware of.”

“I understand.” Yeah I understood, whatever these con men were after, had to do with me! I should have just been narcissistic from the start and guessed that. That didn't reveal why they were after me though, it wasn’t like I made any enemies…

Oh, right.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Wheeee, I wrote 7k words yesterday!

...4k were for a sidestory tho...