Shocked for a moment – the few seconds it took to find the face – he readied himself to run away. Then he spotted Marcus’ smile. The middle-aged man, a member of the wood cutters he had walked into the city with was heading his way followed by a group of several other crew members.

The large wagon they dragged behind themselves was once again filled to the brim with the trunks of felled trees. The heavy metal coated wheels pattering across the rough cobbled street.

Not wearing his initial fright openly on his face – at least trying to not show it – he lazily waved a hand and went their way.

“Where leads you the way, lad?” the older man asked him with a paternal smile. “You don’t seem to have gotten very far since entering the city, have you. Still milling around the city gates.”

It was obvious the man was just teasing, and Kent enjoyed the lax attitude of the man. Given that he was looking for a job, it might be good to have someone introduce him to a few people around town, and if he remembered correctly the woodcutters were rather close to the works. Furthermore, they might also be able to tell him a bit about lodging in the city and who’s a good employer and who isn’t. Lastly, though it was a stretch, they might even vouch for him to get into the second district.

“I’m on my way to the hiring post. My initial way of earning money hasn’t worked out thus far.”

Kent was sure that no-one missed the bitter undertone in his second statement, but gladly they understood that he wasn’t in to mood to further talk about it.

“Why don’t you accompany us there. The carpentry workshop is right next door. Why don’t you tell me what you are interested in and maybe I can find someone that would be a good fit.”

Kent did just that. Walking along the laborer crew and engaging with the people of it. He was hesitant at first, describing his ambitions only roughly to the group and tried to be secretive still. But he slowly warmed up to the group.

“What I really would like to do, is become a farmer, but at this point I see no way in which I could be an effective member of the farming community. My trait just doesn’t lend itself it that, and my physical stats aren’t as good as one would require of a physical laborer. I’m good with metal though, and fairly decent at fighting with metal weapons too. Especially daggers. Fighting turrls is something of a specialty of mine by now.”

“I figured you for the mental type so I can see how you might struggle with that. You seem rather thoughtful.” Kent chuckled at that, he really had become thoughtful, but that was primarily because he was worried about truthtellers around every corner, and worried about being found out as a traitless.

“Something like that,” Kent responded to the inquisitive man.

“So that’s surprising. No high mental attributes, huh,” the man said, stroking his non-existent beard. “Oh, I see, you are an almighty magus, descending from the noble line of our first emperor himself.”

Most of the crew chuckled at that.

“Firstly,” Nikolas, a man pushing the wagon, after a while interjected. “Stop fishing for stat information, Marcus. He’ll tell you once he wants to. Secondly, congrats on no longer being an exile,” Which got a few curious looks and a questioning from Marcus.

“But I think,” Nikolas turned to Marcus. “We could use another guard. Not that Estes is bad or anything, but he is out once a turrl bites him, and honestly, I’d rather stay away from those as much as possible. Don’t mind the occasional drop-pig though.”

That got a bunch of agreeing rumbles from the others. And it made sense from what Kent could tell. Two people were laying on the cart today, and a few others seemed injured slightly as well.

“Sure, if everyone else is interested we could try, but are you sure you can handle turrls, most of the times we get attacked by two to three at once. Being bit is basically a guarantee. If you do a good job, I’m sure we could pay you a styca for guard duty alone,” Marcus said after considering for a few moments.

“I can deal with the turrl saliva fairly well, should they manage to get me in the first place,” Kent responded after some consideration. “So, I could definitely help you guys out. I’ve fought a good deal of them, so there shouldn’t be any issues there either. And I would guess myself to be a good match against most monsters below around level twenty five. Especially if I see them coming. It’s just that well, a styca per day isn’t a lot.”

“I understand, but we would also offer lodging and food. Furthermore, you are unproven, so we are taking this on good faith. Payment wise, if you participate in the logging itself you can earn up to triple of that. And you wouldn’t be our only guard.”

He pointed back onto the wagon, directing his thumb at the highest-level member of their expedition. A man who was currently laying on the wagon passed out.

“Estes is already our guard, so you would be basically something like his apprentice or subordinate. But I don’t think that would be a good fit, if you have a high enough willpower to be less effected by the turrl poison you fighting styles are not going to match. So maybe don’t act like his apprentice.”

“We could try for a day,” Kent said.” I’m somewhat interested. And I’m totally happy to try for just lodging and food if I can get lodging tonight already?”

“I understand it’s just a job kiddo. Sure thing. Follow us.”

***

For the remainder of the afternoon and evening Kent got a tour of the city’s worker district and a pub. Before tagging along the others on their way out to have better dinner than what was served for employees of the mill, he was shown a small room to take rest in for the night. The bedding was fine, and rather comfortable if one considered that he didn’t have a matrass at all. He even had a wardrobe for his personal belongings. Not that he ever considered leaving any of his valuables here upon leaving.

The carpentry workshop had an excess of rooms he was told, primarily as a way to advertise their craft, show what they were good at and had experience with. The two-story structure the room was situated in was partially a living space for most of the workers, had a small canteen which served food catered by a larger soup kitchen, and had a large hall that housed the workplace of twenty carvers.

Kent was told that this was one of the three major logging campaigns of Farburg and that their wood crafting was exported to several nearby cities that had wood of lesser qualities. The Viscount to which Farburg belonged had decreed that only finished products may be exported, not raw unworked wood. Allowing for a thriving wood working community here.

The next morning, he was awoken with a heavy knock on the door and told to come down now if he wanted a meal before leaving. Of course, Kent went down to fetch an unappetizing but warm bowl of grains and some fruits. Sadly, no birins or any other particularly sweet fruits, but dried ones tough ones.

He checked his status, then, seeing that most people still were rather groggy and not in the mood for talking.

Kent Larsson [Level 13] [9%]

Pools:

Health: 159/159

Health Reg: 36 - 142 /d

Stamina: 214/214

Stamina Reg: 66 - 261 /d

Mana: 228/228

Mana Reg: 293 - 1160 /d

Stats:

Vitality: 36

Toughness: 15

Endurance: 41

Strength: 28

Agility: 25

Senses: 17

Mind: 29

Magic: 114

Willpower: 163

Regeneration: 74

Skills:

Accelerate Metal (8/20) (363/400 Exp.)

Penetrate (6/20) (17/300 Exp.)

Metallic Affinity (8/20) (362/400 Exp.)

Metallic Extension (3/20) (12/150 Exp.)

Mosquito (2/20) (28/100 Exp.)

Metallic Presence (5/20) (212/250 Exp.)

Magical Wellspring (8/20) (60/400 Exp.)

All was fine and going as predicted, but what really opened Kent’s eyes was the range his regeneration spanned across all pools. During sleep he would now regenerate about four times as much as while awake. Not even his stamina was a sore factor in his eyes anymore. For the first time having regenerated fully.

Soon he would be able to see what was offered in the core tier of Metallumancy, Metallic Insight, and Mage’s Augmentation. As things were going and with dedicated practice it would only be a few more days. If he went about all this stuff smart it would only be until tomorrow morning.

The most annoying thing he was currently experiencing, was that he couldn’t really effectively train most of his skills within city limits. He could use some of them, but the gains that came from understanding them weren’t really available without experiencing combat.

Kent had trained skills by attuning a nail he had found and accelerating it into the ground for several minutes every day and thus trained Accelerate Metal and Metallic Affinity. Penetrate, Metallic Extension, and Mosquito however had seen no gains in the last two days.

And with his increasing mana regeneration Kent really wanted to also take the Mana Core skill as soon as he could – which would be at level twenty if things would proceed normally for him now.

He slurped down the slob in haste and excused himself to visit the latrine before the crew would head out. He had roughly until sunup, and he would use that time to grind out as much experience for Accelerate Metal as he could get without taking any risks for his upcoming job. Maybe he would be able to even sleep on the cart out of the city. If they took half an hour to get to the logging site he would have regenerated enough mana another 20 seconds of Accelerate Metal. Not that the skill had been super helpful in many recent encounters.

The speed buildup was a good effect, but it only worked if Kent was the one starting an engagement.

But Penetrate and it’s weird interaction with Metallic Extension was great for everything else in the level range up to twenty.

***

After Kent’s small trip to train his skill, which had risen a rank during the effort he returned to the others, and they gathered up tools and went on their way.

They picked up Estes at the city gates and at that point Kent had also convinced the group to let him take a nap on the wagon while the worker pulled and pushed it. Having tried his hands at the wooden structure earlier that morning he was rather impressed with the force the group could muster to push the wagon along.

The roughly twenty stride long vehicle had to weigh several dozen barrels, and from the sounds of it the axels weren’t properly oiled. Which was confirmed when Alex, one of the younger workers complained about that for half the ride.