Chapter 10. First touch with civilization
"Hello, stranger."
The villager answered.
"I-Uhh... "
Oh no, I've been so excited to talk with someone who just started the conversation without a plan, and now I don't know what to say.
"I came from far lands to trade with you! My name is-"
"Stranger has emeralds?"
"Uh... Of course, I have emeralds! "
I then took out an emerald from my inventory to show it to him. When the villager saw the green rock in my hand, a flash of light ran through his eyes.
"Stranger always welcome to trade! "
"Ok, your speech is a bit weird but it's better than just a hum. So how can I trade with you? I don't see a uniform that would tell me what you sell."
"Bob too poor for uniform. "
"Aha... So your name is Bob?"
"Yes! I'm Bob the farmer! "
"Oh, so you're a farmer. "
"Bob is a farmer, yes. "
The villager looked proud when he said that. Even though my first interaction with a normal person didn't go as I expected, it felt good to finally talk with someone who could answer you back. I'm pretty sure that people would think that I'm crazy if they saw me when I talked with myself out loud.
"So Bob, do you want to trade? "
"Bob wants! "
As he said that, an unknown tab appeared before me out of nothing. It looked like a normal Viliger trading tab with the exception that it had only one trade.
20 Wheat → 1 emerald
"You only trade wheat for emeralds?"
"Bob trades others as well."
So he does have other trades but I can't see them. Is this where the Trading skill is used? I guess I have to level up my skill to get other trades.
"OK Bob, I want to trade some wheat for emeralds, is that ok with you?"
"Bob happy to trade! "
Pleased to hear that, I took a stack of wheat out and handed it to him. But instead of taking it he just looked weird at me.
"Bob doesn't need stranger wheat."
"How else am I supposed to trade then?"
"Give wheat to system. Stranger weird."
I hesitantly took the wheat back and looked at the system tab again. I then touched it with the grains and all of a sudden they disappeared from my hand leaving it empty. I didn't see an emerald popping out of nowhere so I checked my inventory next, and there they were 3 emeralds and the rest of the wheat. I then opened my skill tab to see how much XP I got from this transaction.
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SKILLS
_Crafting lvl 4
10.320/100.000
_Enchanting lvl 1
0/100
_Brewing lvl 1
0/100
_Trading lvl 1
30/100
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So I got 30 Xp out of all that, that would be 10 Xp per individual trade. Unfortunately, I don't have any more wheat to trade and get to the next level to see what would change. But wait! If this is a village, then maybe there are other villagers that I could trade with.
"Bob! Are you the only one in this village?"
"Bob not alone. "
"Perfect! Can you show me around if you don't mind?"
"Bob, happy to show. First stranger meet Vilige Head."
As he said that, he turned around and started walking towards the village.
I wasn't too far behind him. The village was small, with the houses looking broken and patched with unmatching blocks, and the path was made with gravel, there were some other villagers outside who looked at us for a moment before continuing to do what they had done beforehand, but what surprised me the most were the lanterns on the houses to prevent the zombies from spawning, looks like I wasn't the only one with that idea. We didn't walk for too long and we arrived at a tall building made of cobblestone. It was the church.
We stopped in front of the door and he knocked it with force.
"Village Head!"
But nobody responded, he kept knocking at the door with no results. Until from behind, we heard somebody call us.
"Bob looking for Village Head?"
It was another villager who looked pretty similar to Bob with the exception of having a hat, it was a librarian hat.
"Bob is looking for Village Head. Bob found stranger. "
"Ahh... Hello? "
"Village Head left the village, coming soon from trading."
"Ok."
Bob then turned to me.
"Sorry stranger, Village Head not here."
"Don't worry Bob, thank you for showing me around, I can walk around and maybe trade with some of your friends."
Bob nodded his head and then left, leaving me alone. I then turned towards the other villager with the hat, but he was getting back into his house.
"Hey! Are you a librarian by any chance? "
The villager stopped and looked at me again.
"Bob is librarian."
"Is your name also Bob?"
"Yes."
"But the man that brought me here isn't also named Bob?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that confusing for everyone? "
"No, I'm Bob the librarian, he Bob the farmer. "
"Is everyone in this village named Bob? "
"No."
"Phew, so only you two are the exception."
"No."
I looked at the librarian with a confused face.
"I give up! I wanted to ask you if you wanted to trade. "
Once I said that, a light flashed through his eyes and I could see he paid more attention to me.
"Bob like to trade! "
Once he said that a trading tab appeared in front of me.
23 Pages → 1 emerald
It was exactly as I expected, only one trade with the farmer, unfortunately, I had only 30 pages with me so I could only trade with him one time. But he seemed pretty pleased with that and returned to his house.
I also started to explore the village on my own and traded with who I could. I found out that everyone is named Bob, the only difference is that they can tell each other apart from their profession, and that would bring trouble if there were two villagers with the same profession, but surprisingly there weren't, it was one villager for each job except the cleric which I'm guessing is the Head.
But even with all of this the most important thing was that I managed to level up my trading skill to level two.
I then walked to a villager that I thought was the farmer.
"Hey there! Are you Bob the farmer? "
"Yes, stranger. "
"That's awesome, would you like to trade."
The villager happily opened up his trading system.
20 Wheat → 1 emerald
1 emerald → 6 bread
Yes! I did it, I unlocked the second row. So with each level, I can unlock a new row of trading. I quickly spent the emeralds for bread to get as much XP, and it stopped trading after I spent 12 emeralds. I then looked at my Skills tab:
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SKILLS
_Crafting lvl 4
10.360/100.000
_Enchanting lvl 1
0/100
_Brewing lvl 1
0/100
_Trading lvl 3
230/10.000
________________________________________
It's only been a day and I already managed to level up twice! If only crafting would be that easy to level up.
I then looked back at the trading tab only to see something I didn't expect.
18 Wheat → 1 emerald
1 emerald → 6 bread
I didn't unlock a new trade but instead, I got a discount. Now that's interesting and could be useful when I have to get a lot of emeralds.
"Thank you, Bob, I got a lot from you."
"Bob happy! Bob rich now."
I wonder how the system works for him.
"I'm happy to hear that Bob. By the way, could I borrow a house to sleep in tonight since it starting to get dark? "
"Strangers not allowed, but you no stranger anymore, you friend."
I was shocked to hear that, but I felt good to earn their trust. He then guided me to an empty broken house and left after I thanked him.
I started to fix the house with what blocks I had and then lit up the area with some lanterns that I brought. I then entered a house and lucky there was a green bed waiting for me, I put my head on the pillow and fell asleep.
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"Help! Help! "
I quickly got up once I heard the shouting, I looked around confused, and saw that it was still night. I can still hear some shouting from outside and I quickly got up and checked out.
Once I was outside I saw why the villagers were shouting. They were running like headless chickens while some zombies and skeletons followed them.
I quickly took out my shield and sword and attacked the monsters. The fight wasn't too hard since I started to get used to fighting with them after all the encounters I had, so I finished quickly. But right when I was about to ask what happened, I heard shouting from the other side of the village, I quickly ran towards the danger, but stopped once I arrived.
There was a monster that I knew about, but didn't manage to see even once in all the time I've been in this world, it was an Enderman.
The Enderman was tall and slender, with long arms and legs. Its eyes glowed a bright purple, and it seemed to be studying me intently. It had a block of wood in his hands, and the villagers were just scared looking at him. Surprisingly he didn't seem interested in attacking them, I knew that Endermens were dangerous, but I couldn't help but feel curious about this one. As I approached it cautiously, the Enderman started to teleport around me, as if trying to confuse me.
I drew my sword and shield, ready to defend myself if necessary. The Enderman seemed to sense my readiness and stopped teleporting. Instead, it stared at me for a moment before slowly disappearing into the shadows.
I was relieved that the Enderman had left without attacking me, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was watching me from afar. I then checked the rest of the village for other monsters, but the Enderman was the last one.
I took a deep breath and sighed in relief that it was over, I turned around and wanted to tell the villagers to get into their homes and wait for the daylight, but was interrupted by a chant.
A chant of the village.
"Hero! "
"Thank you, hero! "
"""" Hero!"""
The whole village was there chanting those words in harmony. It made me a bit embarrassed to hear that, but tossed those feelings and started to shout.
"People of the village! I did not do something heroic, I only did something that everyone with power would. Now the night is still dangerous, so please get back to your houses and wait for the daylight. "
They slowly stopped their shouting and returned to their homes. I also returned to my house and went to bed.
"In the morning I have to seriously build some defenses for this village."
With that in mind, I went to sleep.