Chapter 7: C7- Taking life into your on hands

I was 9 years old now and currently on my way back home, after fetching fresh water for us.

We needed to fetch fresh water every other day from a small stream, which is located an hour away from our house.

“Ahh the weather was so nice today. Praise the sun! Who knew that the lack of a modern heater turned me from a winter boy into a summer boy Hahaha”[Me]

“Brother, what are you talking about?”[Flora]

“Nothing.. I just got emotional cough”[Me]

Flora had volunteered to accompany me, because she wanted to pick a few mushrooms. We were poor, which meant that mushrooms, bread and plants were basic ingredients of our diets. Meat was too expensive for us.

Flora was 11 years old and already started to develop womanly charms. You could already see two small hills protruding her clothes and her getting her first curves.

Maturing in this world was bizarre, some village kids were maturing normally while others were a couple years ahead of their time. Our family seemed to be the most extreme case of maturing ahead of one's age. Mother had said it was because of our bloodline, but she didn’t want to elaborate it further.

Apparently the family connection had nothing to do with our bloodline, so even mom didn’t know where it came from, only that it appeared right after I was born.

“Look, Dav! There is a Pink Head Mushroom, Luna loves those!”[Flora]

She was kneeling on the ground and showing me the mushroom, waiting for a praise.

I went up to her, grabbed her sides and picked her up.

“You did great, Flora”[Me]

Flora put the mushroom into her basket and took my hand. Then we resumed our walk home.

It was a delightful walk home. You might think it was annoying carrying the water jug strapped to my back, but for me, it was enjoyable.

We were already few meters away from our house. Suddenly we heard a woman’s crying.

I left Flora and ran to our house. There I saw two male and a female adventurer near my mother, who was lying on the floor crying.

I panicked. Random images and fears popped into my mind. My hand grabbed the knife from my belt and I rushed to my mom.

The adventurers noticed me.

“Calm down, boy”[Male adventurer with glasses]

He noticed me rushing to them and tried to calm me down with a consoling tone.

“..Dav”[Mother]

Mom woke up from her stupor and noticed my panic.

“..everything is alright, they are my former adventurer party”[Mother]

“Yes, now put away your knife and stop being so hotheaded”[Female adventurer]

“How did he die?”[Mother]

The female adventurer looked to her two party members. They hesitated.

“I just want to know”[Mother]

“Puhh Okay, Ellena. It has happened 3 months ago. You know how Derik is, and that he liked to flirt with women..”[Fem. Adventurer]

Mother’s faced turned pale.

“Just tell me.”[Mother]

“So.. ahmm, we didn’t want to hurt you.. Derik didn’t stop having intimate contact with women, even after he got you pregnant.”[Fem. Adventurer]

Mother tried to scratch the wooden floor with her fingernails.

“Mom..”[Me]

“Cough, so 3 months ago, Derik got in a risky situation. He seduced the wife of a knight and with Derik’s luck the knight walked into them.. doing stuff. Derik immediately fled the scene. Unfortunately, he got chased by the knight and his companions”[Fem. Adventurer]

“And then?”[Mother]

Mom asked with empty eyes.

“The knight didn’t give up and Derik fled into the next best thing, a Grad 5 Dungeon. We waited for him for a month, but as expected, there were no signs of him”[Fem. Adventurer]

“He is really dead. Grade 5 Dungeons are impossible for him.”[Mother]

Mom’s body tension collapsed. She had to accept the whole situation.

I walked slowly to her and took her into my arms.

“Everything will be alright, I’m still here for you”[Me]

“Mom, Luna and I also won’t leave you, don’t worry!”[Flora]

The adventurer party looked at us silently. Then they took out a small pouch and gave it to me.

“We are sorry, for Derik’s behavior. Here, it’s not much, but we got together and gathered a small sum for you. We won’t distract you anymore, my condolences”[Glasses Adventurer]

They bowed in the end and left us.

Life was already hard. Derik’s money, that he gave us, was all spent. Furthermore, mother’s savings were already running dry, she even sold most of her old mage stuff. She couldn’t get much out of it in this remote location.

‘I need to do something, we are already malnourished and our savings are running out. We can’t live out of our tiny land, especially not in the winter’

–

The next day, I decided to learn hunting.

‘I need a plan. First, I need to learn how to craft a bow. Buying a bow is expensive so a self-made one should suffice. Then I need to learn how to use the bow and how to skin my game’

I told my family that I’m going collecting plants and that I will come back in the evening. At first, Flora wanted to accompany me, but I prevented her and said she should watch mother.

I went to the only smith in our village. ‘If you want to craft a bow, you need to see someone who knows how to craft it.’

The smithery was right beside the village market. I looked at the door for a few seconds and went inside.

“Woow”[Me]

It was my first visit to the store. ‘Hmmm?’ I noticed the lack of weapons. There were a lot of hoes, shovels and knifes, but only a tiny amount of weapons. Fortunately, I discovered that there were still a good amount of bows. ‘It does make sense, hunters need bows. Too bad, I thought it would be more fantasy like with glowing weapons or something like that.’

“Hoooo, aren’t you Ellena’s kid?”[Smith Guntharz]

“Yes, sir. I just wanted to see cool bows”[Me]

“Bows? Do you want to become a hunter?”[Guntharz]

“Yes!”[Me]

‘Oh man, I hate acting like a child’

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“And what do you want from me? I doubt a kid has 1 silver Gulden for my cheapest bow Hahaha”[Guntharz]

This world used the Gulden currency. Mom told me you can’t counterfeit Gulden, because you needed a special artifact to forge Gulden Coins and only kingdoms had it. Gulden was divided into 3 coins. The first was the copper Gulden, the second was the silver Gulden and the third coin was the gold Gulden. The golden Gulden was mostly only used by nobles, merchants or famous adventurers.

100 copper Gulden were equal to 1 silver Gulden and 1000 silver Gulden were equal to 1 golden Gulden. One loaf of bread costed 3 copper Gulden and a piece of meat costed 7 copper Gulden in the village. By the way, some people said Gulden and some called it coin.

“No, sir.. can I watch you craft a bow?”[Me]

“Haha you want to steal my secrets? Ahh come her young man, coincidentally I need to craft two hunting bows”[Guntharz]

‘What a nice dude, but I bet playing the naive kid helped a lot’ I laughed mentally.

The smith led be deeper into his shop, where his workshop was located.

“Young men, I will now craft two bows, so observe well”[Guntharz]

He went and brought back his equipment and material.

‘AIS’

[Yes, host]

‘Put your everything into recording and analyzing the craft process’

[Command accepted. Host, I recommend that you use Truth Seeking to get more details and data]

‘Good idea’

Guntharz started to prepare the wood. He didn’t talk, just did his thing and let me watch.

My eyes were full with numbers. Truth Seeking did it’s job, I even saw clearly the details of the wood, the characteristics of the string and how exactly his fingers moved.

He repeated the bow crafting one more time.

“Haha and kid? Are you satisfied?”[Guntharz the smith]

“Yes, sir!.. I doubt that I could ever replicate your skill”[Me]

“Of course, of course! I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years!”[Guntharz]

The smith sounded proud. He even went on and on about how much the hunters loved his bows.

“Kid, come to me if you want to become a smith. I will teach you right Hahaha”[Guntharz]

I said my goodbyes to him and went on. My next stop was the butcher lady.

‘AIS how was it? Tell me please how much Truth Seeking helped’

[Data quality: low - - -> Data quality with Truth Seeking: mediocre]

[Analysis duration with host’s current intelligence: 1h and 20min]

‘Hm, doesn’t sound too bad. AIS, can you record data during the analysis?’

[Yes, host. Analyzing data is an independent process. Furthermore, host can analyze multiple data, but it will affect the duration of every one of them.]

‘Okay, record and analyze the data of the next activities.’

[Yes, host.]

Brtsh Brtsh

The closer I got to the butchery, the more sound of cutting meat I heard. To be honest, it made a creepy atmosphere. I had goosebumps all over my arms.

There she was, the butcher lady, outside of her butchery. I don’t know why but she was always processing the animals outside of her butchery, while gazing into the woods.

“Ahm..”[Me]

Brtsh Brtsh

“Madam?”[Me]

Frakh Frakh

‘Davron, stop being a bigear bunny and say it louder, god dammit!’

“Madam Brunhilde”[Me]

The butcher lady slowly turned her head around, while still doing her work.

“Oh funny little man, do you like seeing this?”[Brunhilde]

‘Man, she gives me the creeps. Why is she talking like a that?’

Brunhilde, also called the butcher lady, was a middle-aged widow. She had short black hair and was awfully thin. Yes, thin despite spending her days around meat.

“Can I watch you process the game?”[Me]

“Oh, you can little man, but don’t go near this young lady, or you will need to marry me. Fufu cough hihihi”[Brunhilde]

‘RELAX! I’m doing this for my mom, Flora and Luna. Mom, Flora and Luna, remember! Davron, you’re an adult man, you can do this’

“Thank you!”[Me]

She started to dissect a deer with painter-like movement. Sometimes she looked up and gazed into the forest. She stayed like that for few seconds and continued her work.

“Thank you! I watched enough, I need to go home now, byee”[Me]

I watched her for 1 hour and had enough. Sometimes I even felt like she had eyes in the back of her head.

“Okey dokey”[Brunhilde]

She didn’t even gaze at my direction.

I took my legs into my hand and walked out of there like a gazelle fleeing from a cheetah.

After getting far away as possible, I stopped to catch my breath.

‘Uff I hope it was worth it. AIS, how long until it’s finished?’

[Analyses duration of “Processing Game”: 1h and 40min]

‘Not bad. The analysis of bow crafting was already finished. I will test it later. I hope it goes well..’

I started to search for someone practicing the bow. After searching the whole village center, my results were zero.. absolute zero.

‘I guess I have to learn archery while hunting…’

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