As the two hands shook, he inadvertently noticed just how much strength still resided in this chief. It was no less than his, and this man was very obviously past his prime. It made him wonder just how the warriors were so powerful.

“A bit of sand is too cheap for this much though… How much did you need?” The chief greatly appreciated the prospect, but also accepted that all trading had to be done fairly. It had been many moons since their village actually bought or sold resources though.

“I need to check, this thing’s space is limited. Can you just bring as much as one person can carry? If I need more we can discuss some more.” It didn’t take much for the chief to ask a warrior to head to a warehouse outside the village for a large pot of sand. The jar, which the warrior barely wrapped his arms around, was placed in an empty spot near the entry point of their village.

Without much waiting, he removed the leather piece tied around the top and simply dropped the cube into it. In less than a blink, he saw the orb glow on all sides with its orb symbol and the entire jarful emptied. Only a light layer remained at the bottom, much to the surprise of the warrior.

When he picked it up to check, it surprised him to know that this whole jar had been 56 units of sand. With enough on hand, he left his inventory and thanked the chief who asked the warrior to take the jar back.

His job was mostly to just stand guard by the door anyway. For most adults and children alike, today was perhaps the most interesting day they’d had in years.

“That’s excellent, I doubt I’ll need more sand now.”

“Not at all… Although, it still seems a bit lacking. Is there truly nothing else we could provide?” Still, the chief pressed on to equalise the trade, and possibly encourage him to make the trip some more. “Ah, you will have to bear the journey from here to your home. We can provide a weapon if you do not have one.”

He unconsciously looked over to the shiny chrome spearheads and considered just how useful one with a rune may be, but found that a bit excessive. Additionally, weaponry meant little when he didn’t have any intention of fighting with such poor skills.

But the real reason was even simpler. “I’m sorry, I prefer to make those things myself. I’d like to only trade in resources and knowledge for now, or perhaps even training.”

“Knowledge is beyond my control, Whether any of my people wish to impart it is based on their whims. However, I know Diavolo wants to speak with you with regards to magic. As for training, please feel free to ask any of the warriors for advice. Ah, I do have one thing you would like.” The chief smiled at him like the sappy old man in a movie, and he couldn’t help but feel for the man who felt responsible for this village’s troubles.

“What is it then?” He was led back to the Reader’s table and pulled out a specific scroll of the lot. This one was different from the others with slightly yellowed edges, instead it remained a pristine white no different from paper he’d expect on Earth.

But on its finally woven strands, he saw something of real interest to him.

A map of the surroundings. Rudimentary to a degree, but still easy enough such that an uninformed individual like himself could easily read.

“Here’s the plains we noticed the ritual took place in. Meanwhile, our village is here, to the north-west. As you can see our little corner of the continent is already rather large, supposedly, long before the malignant power arrived it was all controlled by a single force as a kingdom.” The telling did not end there, as they went over all the places of interest nearby.

For example, that massive tree they passed by was called a gravel-maker tree, and constantly dug deep below the whole forest to drag up small pieces of stone for the gravel trees to grow in.

Closer to where he began, the dense forest to the east was known as the ‘dark forest’ for an obvious reason. However, what made it inhospitable were that the trees possessed excellent fire retardant qualities, to the point where they didn’t burn when placed in a normal campfire. If he went in there… it was unlikely he’d come back out without a lot of power.

He also learnt of a sort of dividing line between his starting place and the village. It appeared that the plains, forests, prairie, and swamp were all in a ‘low magic’ region effectively. This was almost the best natural ward against ferocious beasts and the like as they sparsely hunted in places devoid of magic.

After all, when stronger, they became a lot pickier as magical things almost always taste better. It simply wasn’t worth their time to stay in such places, and as such practically the only monsters he’d see were zombies.

For now that is… Every ritual he completed raised the magic of a given area to a certain point. No doubt, stronger beasts and monsters would appear in time.

Besides that, he found out that besides the coal and copper mine, there existed a tunnel leading to a tin mine at the north end of that prairie. Also, an iron mine resided near the boundary of the brown tree forest and the dark forest.

Lastly, one other mine of interest existed nearby the iron one. An extremely deep mine which he was told to avoid without some sort of heat protection, but some incredible things resided at its depths. The chief had never seen such things personally, but old records stated an item called ‘Power stones’ which were used in the Forger’s construction of golems.

While he appreciated all this knowledge, he cared most about the tin for bronze!

“Honestly, this all helps me more than you know. I can’t make trips here too frequently… But I’ll try to return soon. One more thing before I go see him, how are the people here so fast?”

“I’m not the best to explain that to you… Go see Shalner and her apprentice after Diavolo, she’s the herbalist for our village.”

“Thank you for all this. My name’s Joey,” he gave one more handshake to the chief whilst giving a temporary farewell.

“Mine is Tolomir, although most refer to me as Chief Sarnos. Do enjoy your stay traveller, I’m sure you’ll learn lots in just this day.” The two men separated like that, with the chief returning to his rocking chair whilst tapping his finger without a single missed beat.

There was so much to do, and people to speak to. Since nature magic stood out due to its importance, he opted to head to see Diavolo first. The old man eclipsed everyone in terms of age, and it was as though his face was one massive wrinkle when he moved. However, even with that, his hand maintained its taps.

“So… You’re the boy with talent for nature magic. I certainly thought I was going to die without an heir, but this is fine too. Firstly, how did you learn of it? The ritual.”

“I found a hut in the woods, and inside was a windchime and some paper detailing the full process.”

“Excellent, I have a very easy student. Take these, when you complete the ritual, return and I’ll give you another.”

The man he had high hopes for simply picked up a binder besides his chair and took out a few pieces of yellow paper for him to take. It was far messier than the ones he found in the shack, but all the major information about the ritual was there.

This one spoke of the ‘Ritual of the serpent’, which only worked whilst in a body of moving water. Additionally, it required another totem which appeared far more intricate than the owl. If the box didn’t have a recipe for this… it’d be a long time till he completed it. But that didn’t stop him taking it and waiting to see what the man would say.

“What are you waiting for? Go and get it done! You did a ritual on your own, clearly you just need the information.” He snorted with that sentence and waved Joey away.

“Wait, what even is nature magic? Why weren’t you surprised about the house I found the paper in? And why don’t you need to teach me how to do this stuff? Can’t I be injured from improperly doing the ritual?” Question after question peppered the man, and he clicked his tongue from the realisation that the student he found was curious.

“You want those answers? Well too bad. Finish the basic seven rituals, then we’ll talk.”

So he had to perform seven different rituals first? That sounded more than doable, and the man’s ambivalence meant he saw it as trivial for Joey. “Fine. I’ll try to have it done by the time I return.” The man nodded in a reply, and for a moment he felt like snapping back about the attitude.

It was one thing to act as though it was easy, but he’d practically been ignored!

“Hopefully the herbalist is better… What was her name again? Shalsha?” Obviously not, but no matter what he tried, the name didn’t come back.

He walked down to the herbalist’s little stall as before, and noted how far back it extended. In fact, he realised that there should be a room behind it akin to the one opposite, which meant it belonged to her for whatever reason. Likely storage and crafting.

Quietly waiting on the queue of three, just some villagers collecting various remedies, he reached the front soon after where her apprentice instead greeted him. Just like everyone else in the village, his skin was tanned too, but with a somewhat paler shade, he wondered if they stayed indoors pretty much all the time due to constant workflow.

“Hello, is there something I can do for you?” The apprentice spoke to him with a partially deep yet breaking voice, he must’ve been around 13 years old and in the middle of puberty or something like that. With a rather wide smile, it was hard to tell if he put it on for the job or he truly enjoyed being a herbalist.

“Your chief said that I should come here to learn about some things? Like how people here are so strong or fast?”

“Ah, so you really aren’t from any village. I can do this part, no need to bother Ma’am Shalner.” He turned around and picked one of the many clay jars off the shelf to place on the table between them. He’d taken a good look before but hadn’t noticed much difference between the shelves full of them. Each jar was just the perfect size to grip in his fist, and he simply guessed them all to be medicinal salves or the like.

“Medicine?”

“No. While many call Ma’am Shalner a herbalist, she likes to study alchemy more often than not. However… The resources she needs are hard to come by, and over the years she modified a few recipes so that the villagers could make use of certain potions. You must understand, but alchemy is a magic of its own, and can’t be judged like herbalism. And Ma’am puts in no effort less than Diavolo or the Reader when it comes to these matters, if it weren’t for her the potions to increase strength and endurance would’ve been useless! She–”

A slim hand with long nails draped onto the boy’s shoulder, instantly stopping his monologue. “What did I say about this bragging? Silan?” Her voice was cold, yet just as smooth as everyone else’s in this place. He saw the boy’s cheeks go red and he vanished into the back, embarrassed from being caught in the act of all things.

Holding back his laughter, he looked at the verifiably stunning lady called Shalner. Her face was slim but rounded out towards her chin, while hair flowed down to her back whilst held by a few bone clips.

“You must be Shalner then. I’m told this village increases their strength through something you produce?”

“Yes, there are many alchemical recipes like that, but those ingredients are rare and too far from here in most cases. Instead, these weakened forms can be created through our farmed and easily gathered herbs, however, it takes three to equal a single potion it was derived from.”

“Say I wanted some… What could I personally use to pay for them?” It wasn’t too hard to gather what he suggested, and from what he saw, she already leaned into the idea.

“Take this one, on me. Just gather alchemical materials I need and I’ll gladly gift you more.” As well as that, she pulled out a small stack of notes, placing them on the counter besides the gift. “We’ll say for every three you gather, you can have one more. This one improves your strength, just swallow it all in one go.”

He nodded at the deal, and took the notes, on the top right he saw some fresh ink which said, ‘Up to two’, and he nodded a bit. She already prepared for all this, although it made sense given that twenty of the same ingredients weren't at all useful.

But after that was finished, he finally got to asking a warrior if anyone would be available to help him use a spear better.

And, fortunately, there was actually a capable warrior of the village who taught spear fighting to the less trained warriors.

It was the awkward guy who came with Kalgon. And when it came to fighting, he really didn’t let up.

Who knew using a spear could be so complex?