Gresvin's Decision and his first Hunt

In between the grey, aging hair, the strands of black stood out, and it was pretty attention-grabbing. Gresvin's eyes were glued onto the man for a moment.

Before the village elder could speak, Gresvin introduced himself in the same manner as he did in the fishing village: "Do not be afraid; I am but a mere traveler seeking shelter for the nights to come."

The village elder observed Gresvin silently before speaking, "You seek shelter, traveler? I welcome thee." The voice was loud and powerful. 

'This… doesn't feel like it belongs to an elderly man,' Gresvin mused. The tone of the elderly man was something he would never have expected from someone at such an age, well, at least not in a mere village anyway.

Gresvin observed the elderly man, and a few thoughts and reasons came to him. 

His first and most likely guess was that the elderly man used to be a warrior of rank.

Gresvin had no intention of prying into the man's life, but that did not mean he was not curious. 'Well, I can figure it out later,' Gresvin thought, seeing the man leave. Gresvin walked through the village and, after a long time, finally found a place to seek shelter. It was an old cabin, further away from the rest, lying securely within the forest itself.

He made himself comfortable and gave his horse some food and water before he, too, ate whatever food he had left. The building was abandoned, and there was little to no furniture. What furniture remained were old and worn out. 

During the last few months, he had adjusted to sleeping on the hard ground with only small clothes and his satchel as a pillow. The constant traveling had made sure of it.

The following day was quite cold compared to what he had expected. Dew had settled on the fields, and the crops sparkled like diamonds as the sun's rays came shining down. The chirping and singing of birds in the early morning were like a soft melody. Only when one traveled into the village area did the sound of the woods become faint.

Gresvin had already woken up and had taken his time to enjoy the sun's ever-increasing warmth cascading down onto his face. 'I missed this,' he sighed. The sun was not particularly warm when he was in the fishing village, but here, he could feel the warmth of the yellow star.

The feeling was exactly like when he traveled through the Howling Peaks and saw the sunrise early in the morning.

After bathing in the morning light, Gresvin picked up his sword and walked deeper into the forest. His food was all but finished, and he needed another source; he did not have enough money to buy food from the village that would sustain him for long periods. Thankfully for him, the woods behind the cabin are great providers of all kinds of food sources.

Gresvin sauntered his way into the depths vigilantly. He did not want to experience the same fate as he did in the forest near the Howling Peaks.

His eyes constantly scanned the lush greenery, observing every possible movement. His ears were focused; he kept quiet to listen to any disturbances. Whether beast or prey, it made no difference; both would become Gresvin's source of food, he had vowed before venturing into the woods.

The morning continued to pass, and thankfully, for Gresvin, the outer regions of the woods did not have an abundance of predators. He did not encounter predators, but his goal was somewhat fulfilled. He had plucked a bag's worth of berries and fruits with some vegetables, and then the last and greatest prize was his small herbivore. 

He had found a small herd of white-spotted deer, and it took him the whole morning to run around trying to kill them. Gresvin was able to kill one deer when the sun struck its highest point in the sky.

 He needed another weapon; during his skirmish with the carrion stalker, he must have lost his bow; he did not have any recollection of where he lost it.

He only realized it was missing when he traveled to the fishing village.

With that in mind, he went into the village and sought out a suitable bow. Thankfully, due to the village's close proximity to the forest, there were plenty of bows to go around. The only problem was that they were the worst kind of bows, called simple short bows. 

The second problem was that his money was meager. Even with all the fish he had sold, he was only able to gather 21 Aurums; the fishing village could not buy any more than that. He needed to buy the bow and a set of arrows.

"How many for a set of barbed arrows and a simple short bow?" Gresvin asked the village smith. The smith was not as old as the village elder, but signs of aging had already appeared on the man's face. Gresvin guessed the man to be in his late 50s. 

"Mm, the bow has 15 aurums, and a set of arrows will have 3 aurums. The total being 18 Aurums." The man spoke softly; his voice was not loud nor powerful. Gresvin nodded and handed the man the money. 

When Gresvin returned to the abandoned house, he carefully examined the weapons. The simple short bow was not very good. It had issues with its range and accuracy. The set of arrows he had bought amounted to nine arrows, which completed one set.

While Gresvin shot the arrows, he also realized that they did not have much penetration damage and were below standard. Gresvin compared them to wooden training arrows.

After a series of tests, Gresvin put the bow down and sighed, "Well that will have to do." His disappointment evident

He gathered his belongings and once more ventured into the woods. And just like that, day in and day out, Gresvin would spend his early morning hunting and his afternoon going to the fields to learn the village's way of agriculture.