And here is the second chapter of the first day of the new year. Enjoy. :D

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When I woke up I felt a pain to the side of my stomach. It wasn’t as bad as when I fought the bresqurrer. When I felt there with my hand I noticed that I had a bandage around my stomach. As my brain was beginning to wake up and my thinking capacity was put on, I noticed that I was now in a house. It was a very special house since everything seemed to be made of wood. There also was this wood scent lingering in the air.

I stopped thinking when I heard a door open. After it opened there was a little girl running towards me. She stopped just in front of me like she just remembered that I was injured.

- “You are finally awake.” She said with a big smile.

- “Eleena? Where are we?” I asked still not really here.

- “We are in my village. You have been asleep for two days.”

- “Come, lets talk more while we eat.” A much more mature voice that came from behind Eleena interrupted.

- “Can you walk?” Eleena asked.

- “Yes I think so.”

While walking to where we were supposed to eat I saw on the way that we were actually in a tree and that it was not a house built from wood, but rather a house built in a tree. I looked through a window on the way and it was not only this house. You could clearly see that there were houses in the trees.

The room where we now sat down and eating wasn’t anything special but it had this ancient feel to it. The table and chairs seemed to have been grown from the tree.

- “So could anyone tell me what happened and where we are? And how is Laelia?” I had completely forgotten about her because of my surroundings. But just as I asked that question a woman that had some similarity to Eleena, but also this mature feeling to her came through another door with Laelia behind her. She had her left arm in bandages and it was hold up with band across her neck.

- “Let me introduce myself first.” It was the man that came with Eleena to me that began speaking.

- “My name is Ersius and this is my wife Lentina. We are eternally grateful to you for bringing back our daughter.” He said and took his wife’s hand. I finally started to make the connection. Laelias was still as silent as always and just observing.

- “And I take it that this is your village then?” I said looking over at Eleena.

- “Yes.”

- “So what happened after we killed the bresqurrer?”

- “That was really some feat you managed.” It was Lentina. Eleenas mother that spoke. Her voice was very alluring. Not quite sure how to else put it.

- “Indeed it take twenty of our fines warriors to kill one and you still manage to do it with just three and one only being a kid at 47 years old.” I couldn’t have heard that right?

- “Wait. You said 47. Isn’t Eleena like twelve years?” I was really surprised about what they said. But then I remembered that in most stories elves have a different lifespan.

- “Yes. Ah, we elves have a different lifespan that is about five hundred years give or take a few.” I have to say, just reading about it and being told that it is actually true is very different.

- “If you don’t mind me asking how old are you two?” I was very curios. I guess you really can’t judge a book by its color here.

- “I’m 258 this year and my wife just past her 200 and is 209." This really was a different feeling that you couldn’t describe. I mean a kid that looks twelve is older than I am.

- “H-hem, it seems we are getting of topic.” He was right. I looked over at Eleena for an answer.

- “After you fell unconscious I rushed to you. I tried to take care of both of your wounds as best I could. Laelia was in far worse condition than you since her arm was a real mess and ad lost a lot of blood.” She paused for a moment and looked over to Laelia. Laelia responded with a grateful nod.

- “After an hour I thought she was lost and that is when they showed up.” She said and looked at her parents.

- “We heard the roar of the bresqurrer and put up a team to hunt it down rather fast. Since we can’t let a bresqurrer run around free so close to the border and our village. Normally they don’t ever get here but sometimes they do and that is when we hunt them down. And because it was our best warriors it didn’t take them much more than an hour. I and my wife are included there.” This really was a surprised information I got. I have to remind myself never to really piss someone off if I am not sure of their strength. Both Ersius and Lentina looked like your every normal and average parents and not some warriors or magicians.

- “When we found the corpse and an elf sitting at two wounded people, one human and the other a demi-human we were really shocked" Lentina followed up on the story.

- “And when we got closer I could see that it was our baby darling and broke out in tears while calling out to her.”

- “When I first heard people coming I was a bit alarmed but when I saw that it was mother and father and the others from the village I was relieved and quickly asked for their help. That is how you ended up here.” They seem to be happy together cause they follow up each other with no signal or anything. Almost as if they know what the other is thinking.

- “So how much have Eleena told you?” I was a bit nervous if she told them about me being a hero and wanted to get rid of me. I clearly couldn’t fight off a whole elven village.

- “She has only told us that you helped them escape from the bandits and that you were travelling to the elven kingdom and that she and Laelia accompanied you and that you were nice enough to make a detour for her to the village.” I was a bit glad that she skipped the whole hero thing.

At this time we were all done eating and was just talking. The meal was very nice and there was nothing to complain about. Ersius asked everyone if we should move in to the living room which we all agreed to. I really admire Laelia. Despite her arm she hasn’t made a sound and are not complaining about it at all, while I am here grinning with pain only because of some ribs. We sat down and continued talking.

- “So how did you manage to kill the bresqurrer? No matter how much we ask her she isn’t willing to tell without your consent.” It was Lentina that asked a bit curios. I looked to Eleena with thankful eyes.

- “I would like to keep this secret before I make myself known if that is okey with you I can tell you.” They both seemed interested now.

- “We understand. If it is something that can kill a bresqurrer in one blow there is no wonder that you would not want it to not be known.”

- “Well who knows maybe you could even help me. Any way it was my magic that killed it.” They both seemed a bit confused. Probably since they knew that I was inferior to them in magic and not strong enough to kill a bresqurrer.

- “The thing is that my magic affinity is void.” They both immediately got a very serious expression on their faces.

- “And I was told that there is no known magicians that have void affinity and there is no magic to learn, that you have to either find someone with the affinity or discover what it can do and develop your own type of magic. That is why I am asking f you know anything about it.” They both had very serious faces.

- “The truth is that we don’t know anything. But it is said that people with void affinity will affect the world in one of two ways. They will either take the world to its destruction or prosperity.

I tried to make sense of what he said. And sure if my voidball was enough to kill a level 5 magic beast then I can only imagine what those who have mastered the void affinity could do. Everything was after all born from the void and will one day return to the void. We continued with some small talk.

It would take some time for our injuries to heal. It didn’t really matter because I wanted to stay here for a while observing the elves and their culture. When I told them that Ersius offered us to stay with them and I gladly accepted the offer. Even though the village wasn’t very large it was still quite big. It was almost like a big town or a little city but still considered a village. After our little small talk we all headed off to bed to get some real rest.

Morning came and we ate breakfast with Eleenas’ family. After the breakfast Eleena decided to show us around the village. The village was really beautiful. Every house and building was incorporated in the trees like the trees naturally grew one house.

Eleena told us with some pride that this was because of the wood elves. They all have nature affinity that is stronger than others. There are some differences between their magic. A good example is that some of them are more directed to the agriculture kind of magic while another is the one who make their houses and manipulates the trees to become like they are now.

Usually the villages are made up of one kind of elves and some of the other elves are there, but in this village there is an equal amount of high, wood and dark elves. If not slightly more than the other but still about the same amount. When I further asked about this Eleena said it is because their village is close to the border and despite being a minor village their fighting potential is quite high.

It is not like the elves dislike each other it is just that they are more comfortable with those of their same kind. Not that it matters much to them and in the bigger cities they are all gathered anyways and it is just the smaller villages that is this way. Or that is what I was told anyway.

While we were strolling around the village I still couldn’t keep myself to admire how they lived. It was quite a simple lifestyle yet seemed so relaxing. There was of course money here but most of the time they just helped each other out.

I saw that many of the elves just gave away things and when I asked Eleena she said that it was normal. They all had their own role. There was those that gathered the food and then those that built their houses and those that kept them safe from beasts and magical beast. In short they all barter instead of using money. A favor for a favor type of system. But this only applied to the elves living here.

The few travels that actually came here were paying with money. And that is another thing I noticed. There weren’t many other people here except for those that lived here. I guess that it has to do with their barrier. So far I have only seen a few merchants and fewer adventurers.

As we were walking around some elves girls that looked to be the same age as Eleena came up to us. As I thought this I remembered that she was older than me which just gave a strange feeling.

- “ELEENA!” one of the girls yelled at us as they were running towards us.

- “Mel.” She replied with a smile.

When they reached each other they hugged and the three girls almost had tears flowing out of their eyes. What followed was one of those tearjerker scenes that we all know of. How the kidnapped girl are reunited with her friends and everyone is crying and hugging each other. When that had settled down Eleena introduced us to her friends. I won’t mention anything about them since they were not important right now.

After she had said her greeting and explain a few things we continued our tour through the village. But not long after she stopped in front of a bigger tree. It was a lot larger than the others. Or at least what you could see and compare of the trees. The trunk was a lot wider so that was what I assumed anyway.

Sticking out her small chest (no I am not a pervert) and with a proud confidence in the air around her she looked over to me.

- “And this is our library. Even though our village is at the border we have a big library with a lot of books on magic. It was gifted to the village a long time ago when the village managed to defend from an attack but not without many fatalities. The king at that time gifted the village with many magic books in hope of improving our strength so that next time there would be less fatalities.” We got a small history lesson from her while she was having a proud look in her eyes through all of her lecture.

But still a library with a lot of magic books is just what I need. Since I can’t seem to find any remnants of void magic anywhere I will have to develop my own magic. A lot of the light novels I have read had the mc develop magic depending on their imagination from their previous world. Guess I will just have to do the same. And what better place for inspiration than other magic to create my own?

- “And just to be sure there are no records of void magic?” I asked with no hope since I knew by now how rare it was. You had a bigger chance to win on lotto than find anything.

- “No, not that I know of and if there even is it is well hidden.” And she shut down the small tiny little speck of hope that I had.

- “But there are still a lot of information considering magic.” She said trying to cheer me up.

Well at least I have something to do since we are here healing our wounds. I don’t know what Laelia will do during the time but she could use some rest and look around for anything interesting while I delve into my magic research. I have to say, I was never really the type to study but now I feel like a real bookworm. I guess it has to do with the subject. Instead of learning things like what year that war was and so you magic that can change reality is much more interesting.

After she had boasted about their library we headed back to her house for lunch. Nothing exceptional happened more than that the food was really delicious. I made a small mental note to try to always eat delicious food. Hey in hard times you have to take pleasure in the little thing right?

After the lunch we took some time to just relax in the other room where Ersius took us before. After a little while Lentina came in and sat down. I started a small conversation that later yielded a very interesting piece of information.

Although she said before that they knew nothing about void magic, she told me of a story that there once was an elf that also had the void affinity. The elf was considered as a precious treasure and he quickly got invited to live with the nobles ruling the area. They didn’t take no for an answer and he was sheltered while growing up. The only problem was that the elf was a lot smarter than his age and understood what was going on. Silently h lived with the nobles while training his magic. He got whatever he wanted from the nobles in hope that they could use him later on. Sadly he knew this and one day he destroyed the mansion he was living in and killed everyone within except for the workers. Then he just disappeared and nobody know where he went. It is said that his tomb is somewhere in the forest of magical beasts to the north.

This was very interesting but she also reminded me that it was nothing of a rumor and that it is a story that have traveled down in generations. And considering the lifespan of elves that seems to be quite a long time ago.

While continuing the small conversation for a while I then left Laelia and Lentina to head off to bed early. I was thinking of the information and what seemed to be our next goal while heading off to sleep early at the evening.