41. The Den

Novum dropped Jane off and without another word rode straight to the town. If he was going to be fighting a bear he needed to be prepared. He knew that after the winter he would have plenty of weapons and maybe a few sets of armor from their own activities but right now they did not have time for that. He picked up four sets of chain armor and eight swords from the smith. He also grabbed a hammer and an axe from him just in case of of the guys fought with an different style.

After he left the smith he went to the tanner's and bought four full sets of leather and some leather quivers for any of the guys that wanted to stay as archers. He was not opposed to having a few extra archers in the area. "Richard what would you offer me for a full bear that was almost twice as big as a normal bear?"

"Twice you say. That would make an amazing display. I mean if it is in descent shape it could make my name known." He had been talking to himself this entire time and did not realize that it was out loud. "I tell you what. If it is in great shape and is at least fourteen feet I will give you ten percent of my shop and all of the material that you would like will be at cost. A hide like that it a little out of my range in straight gold. Even with what you bought so that is the best that I can come up with."

"I feel pretty confident that it will be over that height I am just worried about the condition. It is going to be tough killing something that big."

"I agree. The reason that I am concerned with the condition is that if I have to stitch to much of it together anyone that looks at it will assume that I used more than one hide to make it."

"That is a possibility. I will do my best to try and not destroy it but if it will save one of my guys I will dice his ass up and toss the hide."

The man looked shocked but after just a second he thought about what Novum had said and it made sense to him. "Where there is one there might be more. Just never know." With that thought in the back of his mind Novum headed to the general store to get a few other items.

As soon as he walked through the door the old man behind the counter bellowed. "What now you have about cleaned me out?!"

"What would you say if I could get you some honey?"

"Welcome young man and how can I help you today?"

"I am going to need all the jars and bottles that you can spare for honey. I have some but I do not have anything to put it in. And I am sure that we can come to some arrangement for part of it to go to the capitol in one of my wagons."

"No more complaints here. Wait when did you become a Baron? I apologize for raising my voice at you my lord."

"It happened when I went to the capitol. I did not ask for or nor do I want it but it not something that they will let you turn down apparently. And I didn't say anything or correct you so I must not care. So cost of the jars?"

"You take all of the jars that I have and we split the profits from the capitol 60 to 40 to offset the cost."

"What about the local stuff?"

"I will save some back here but it will be at the cost of the jar itself."

"That is what I was hoping to hear. And I am also going to need at least a hundred arrows."

"There are the bundles. There are twenty in a bundle."

"Would you happen to have any special arrows behind the counter?"

"If I did I would have already offered them to you. You are about the only person in the area that can afford stuff like that. Though we do seem to be growing a little bit here and there. I heard that you gave up a house to build the new school."

"Technically I still own it and will pay taxes on it but for all other purposes it is a school."

"Good on you. Okay Baron let me know when the honey is ready to go to the city."

"Will you be going yourself?"

"With something like this definitely. Why?"

"Will it be the same trip as the mayor?"

"Didn't know he planned on going. At least one of us will go and maybe both since we now have the extra wagons."

"I already told the mayor but if it is you that leads it, I will send some of my guys to drive the wagons and do the labor part of the trip but also some of them will be picking out some animals and things like that to bring back to my stead."

"You don't trust me to pick out animals?"

"No offense meant but you run the general store and know a little about a lot of things. And I do not know you well enough to say if you know animals or not. But I do know that my guys know animal and the vision that I have for that area. That is why I would like to send them."

"You are right and I apologize at my offense. I forgot that you did not know I used to run a local farm until I got to old. I will advise your guys while we are there, advise only."

"I apologize for assuming. And you advise and mentoring of the young men will be greatly appreciated. I will probably have you handling the money then. I will have everything here in a couple of days." He paid for the arrows and then stuffed every jar that he could get his hands on into his bag.

"I will see you in a few days Baron." The man gave him an exaggerated wink and leaned back in his chair.

Novum headed back out to his place as soon as he was out the door. He saw Peter was on the porch of the house and gave him a wave. Novum had an idea and turned around. "Peter I need a favor from you."

"Of course Baron. What can I help you with?"

"I need to know if there are any records of a building on the lake to the north. Even if there is a written report from a rumor that one guy's cousin heard. Anything that you can find out would be appreciated."

"There is a lake to the north. I will look into it for you."

"Thank you. If the town records don't tell you anything you might check with the old lender."

"I will keep that in mind. May I ask the reason?"

"It is just a feeling that I am getting. I don't know how to explain it but it is there."

"Understood Baron."

Novum turned Noctis around and headed for his property. He rode hard since he wanted to be there before dark when Dan and the others would be leaving. As he got closer he could smell the food was back on the fire and it was nice. It smelled way better than the stuff that he cooked but he had not infested anything in that skill in a long time. When he rode up he saw that everyone including the hunters were back and around the table. He put Noctis up and went to the middle of the area before he got a plate of food.

"Good evening everyone. It appears that we had a really good day today. I saw a lot of progress on things and even though it is going to take a while the small steps now will lead to huge steps later. But now I need to address something serious. The other day I killed a bear and that is part of what you are eating. The reason that it is serious is that today while the hunters were out one of them noticed the tracks and discovered a bear so large that it might possible be a dire bear. Either that or a mutation of a regular bear."

The hunter that found the tracks raised his hand. "Why do you think mutation?"

"If it was a dire bear then the cub that I killed the other day would have the same characteristics as its parents even if they were not very pronounced. There were no ridges or anything that might mark it as a dire animal of any type. So tomorrow Rurik, who is not back yet, and I along with a few volunteers will hunt it down and kill it. I have armor and weapons for the volunteers that they will get to keep." A few people already started raising their hands. "Before you volunteer know that I cannot guarantee your safety. This is a huge animal and it might kill you before I can stop it. I will do everything that I can to bring you back but I can't guarantee it. Just wanted you to know."

One of the young men raised his hand. "My lord I am not very good with a sword but I am pretty good with a bow. Would you take me?"

"I have armor and weapons for both ranged fighters as well as melee fighters. And one other thing. I am not going to make anyone go if there are not enough volunteers. That is not that way that I work. So if you are only volunteering so that someone doesn't get picked do not bother. I will not make someone that does not want to fight, fight."

Dan, Joe, and Al stepped forward. As usual Dan spoke for the group. "We are in all the way sir. Al and I are more up close and Joe is the best shot out of the three of us. But we are all in."

A few more of the guys stepped in to help including Mike. A lady who was about his age stepped up and a few of the guys looked at and then looked at Novum. He simply handed her a set of the leather and a bow that she requested. He would not stop her from fighting if she wanted to fight. He knew that it was not a common thought process but he brought it with him from his old world and he had put a lot of it into this world when he created it. But unfortunately he made a few to many guys that looked down on women in order for the women to prove themselves early in the series and the system had not taken that into full consideration.

Before the sun went down the entire group had all of their stuff and were securing it. "Alright people, once the hunters or myself find the den I will let you know and we will go there straight away. This is not a threat I will take lightly."

"My lord." One of the young hunters raised his hand. "I found the den right before I came back here sir. Well based on the huge tracks that I saw I am assuming that it is the den."

"Okay then. Tomorrow morning you and I will go take a look and then once we confirm it I will come back and get everyone and then we will head out as a group. No use in taking everyone if it is not the right cave. Any questions?" He waited for a about thirty seconds before he spoke again. "Okay then everyone work as a group and figure out who is sleeping where. The two tents should be big enough for everyone until we get some houses built."