Chapter 12. The village head is back

From the gate came an angry villager, he was a bit different from the others, he was a cleric, and I could tell that since he was wearing the same outfit as the cleric in the game, he also had hair, unlike the other villagers. Once he arrived closer, he looked at everyone with worried eyes, after he made sure that everyone was ok he finally looked at me.

"So are you the one that made all of this? "

The villager looked at me with hostility and spoke a full sentence, which surprised me.

"Uhh... Yes, my name is-"

"I don't care who you are! With what purpose did you come here? Who sent you? "

The villager looked worried at my iron armor. But before I could try to respond another villager spoke up for me.

"Village Head! Hero no danger, hero saves village from monsters at night! "

"Are you saying that you were attacked by monsters last night as well?"

The villagers nodded their heads.

"You there! Tell me what happened in detail."

He said that while pointing at me.

"I don't know why you're so mad but ok. I came from faraway lands in the hope of finding people to trade, I followed a map that I found in an ancient desert temple that led me here. Once I got here I made some treadings with the people in this village. But it was getting late, so I asked if I could stay here. Bob showed me an empty house where I slept until I heard a scream that woke me up. I saw that the village was attacked by monsters so I quickly defeated them. There was also an Enderman here, but he quickly teleported once I got close to it. After that fight I realized how defenseless this village was, so with the help of everyone here we built this magnificent wall."

The villager looked intense at me, but I could see that he wasn't hostile anymore just cautious.

"Bob the librarian, is that true? "

"Yes village head!"

"Thank you..... hero, for the help. Sorry if I seemed aggressive, I've just come from the neighborhood village that was attacked last night by the monsters with the help of an Enderman. I was worried that my village was also attacked so I tried to get back as quickly as possible, but the road was more populated with monsters than usual, which only furthered my worries. Thank you again for building this wall, it's a great peace of mind, for my people."

"Oh, it sounds like you've been through a lot. And don't worry about that, I only did what anyone with power and knowledge would do."

I tried to comfort the village head by saying that, but he only looked like I was a weirdo for saying that.

"If you say so... Can you tell me where you came from hero? you don't look like the people from this kingdom."

"I- Uh... I came from a faraway land where everyone looked similar to me, but I came in peace and intending to trade."

I started to get worried about those questions. I just found out that there is a kingdom, so that means that this world is much more advanced than the one in the game. Even this villager is capable of having a full conversation with me, which made me happy and horrified by its implications. I just don't want to be hunted because I look different.

The villager looked at me and then responded.

"I think I read something about you at the academy, are you perhaps a wondering trader? "

"Wandering trader? I guess you could call me that."

Let's just go with that, until I'll find more information about this world and its inhabitants.

"Well wandering hero, we welcome you with open arms! And thank you for helping this village so much. People of the village! it's time to celebrate with milk and bread for our new wall and it's the hero!"

The village started to cheer loudly and chant our names.

"""Hero!""" """Village Head!"""

They started to bring bread and wooden bowls filled with milk. I also brought the apples that I had which they happily took.

The party lasted until nightfall, then everyone retreated into their home to rest their tired body.

I was also preparing to go to some sleep when I was summoned to the stone church, where the village head lived.

Once I arrived at the wooden door, I started to get anxious, and despite that, I still knocked.

"Come in! "

The voice responds from the other side. I opened the door and finally saw what the interior looked like. The floor and the walls were made with cobblestone, on the right side of the building was a lone white bed, and on the left side were some chests and barrels as storage. What caught my eye though was at the end of the room. There was a campfire with a trapdoor above it, and on top of the trap door was the brewing station. It was a weird setup for sure, but before I could examine it more carefully, the villager spoke.

"I'm sorry if I scared you when we first met. I thought you were sent by the nobles to cause me trouble. Not everyone can afford a full iron armor, and with your..... appearance, that made me even more skeptical."

Looks like this villager has some problems with the nobility, I wonder why? And why is he so different from the other villagers I saw?

"Don't worry about it, I made a drastic change to the village without your permission, it's understandable for you to panic. But I see you different than the others.... "

"Thank you for understanding. And it's not that I'm different. It's that everyone in here is a person touched by the corruption. Once a person is corrupted they start to lose hair and intelligence, usually to the point that they can't even speak. It's a miracle that they can even speak at all."

"Interesting, I never heard about something like that. But what are you doing here? You don't seem to be corrupted."

"I don't know how your kingdom is run, but even here, this is not common knowledge. I only found out about them by accident, while I was browsing through the library. They're not a common occurrence, and the ones that do appear are usually exiled to a faraway village for fear of spreading corruption to others. As for why I'm here. Let's say that some nobles didn't like me, and decided to punish me this way."

Now that's a bomb full of information. There is something that corrupts people in this world. The civilization is advanced enough to write down information in books, and I think the nobles have control of what regular people can do and can't. I wonder how much they keep hidden from the community folks. And what did the village head do, that infuriated them so much for him to be punished as such?

"Sounds like you have a rough time then. I'm also curious if your name is Bob by any chance?"

"No, of course not! Only the villagers in here have that name as an easier time to remember and communicate."

"Ok, that's pretty weird, so what is your name if you don't mind me asking?"

"I can see your confusion, but don't worry. My name is pretty distinct from the others. My name is Bobby!"

He said that while spreading his arms, to show how grandiose it was. I looked at his face in case this was a joke but he was pretty serious, and I didn't know how to respond. So then I looked at the brewing station and asked:

"I see you're a cleric, do you also make your potions by any chance?"

I asked that since in the game, the brewing station is only used to get the cleric job, and ironically not selling any potions, with maybe the XP bottle if you count it.

"Oh yes! I'm fortunate enough to be almost at level 4, at my brewing skill."

He said that with pride. So they do have the skills system, I wonder if they know what's the maxed level. And how can I ask him about that without giving myself away?

"Wow, congratulations! But why do you have this set up?"

"Oh, I don't have access to blaze powder, so I have to use the campfire to heat the station. Unfortunately, I also have to control the heat, since it doesn't give the perfect temperature like the blaze powder does."

"So you're using the trap door to block or let the heat in? That's pretty ingenious."

"Thank you. You know my job and my skills, but what are yours if you don't mind me asking?"

I started to panic a bit since I didn't know if we even had the same system, or what was a normal amount of levels to have for a skill. I then quickly opened my Skills tab.

________________________________________   

                                     SKILLS

_Crafting lvl 4

     10.600/100.000

_Enchanting lvl 1

     0/100

_Brewing lvl 1

    0/100

_Trading lvl 3

    340/10.000

________________________________________

It had gone up from the building of the wall and a few more trades with the villagers, but I didn't know if what I had was a lot or too little. But I decided to be truthful and improvise based on his reaction.

"I only have level 4 in Crafting and level 3 in Trading."

"Trading? I never heard of that skill before, is that related to your wondering trader job?"

"Yes, I was as surprised as you when I suddenly got this out of nowhere."

That's a pretty nice cover-up story if I say so myself. Can't answer questions that I don't know the answers to.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I hope it's not too bad of a skill though."

"I don't think it's that bad, since it can give me a very small discount to certain trades."

"That's pretty good! Be careful who you'll tell that around those lands since some people would be very interested in your skill."

Bobby warned me, which made me realize that I was too open with my secrets, and only because I finally had a normal conversation in maybe a month.

"I'll be careful from now on then."

"That's good. Do you have a plan on what to do next?"

Once I was asked that, I realized that I don't have a lot of plans, I bearly have short-term plans, but I don't think I made any long-term plans besides maybe getting home. And I don't even know how to do that, or if it's possible to do it on the first chance. The more I thought about this, the more I realized how much I distracted myself with work, so I don't have to face the new reality.

"From your expressions, I'm guessing that not. Don't worry, you can stay here as much as you like until you figure things out."

I looked at him and saw that he was pretty uncomfortable with my reaction. How kind of him to comfort me, I should probably get some sleep after such an eventful day.

"Thank you, Bobby, is it ok if I sleep in the same house as the last night?"

"Yes of course! I'm sorry that I don't have something more comfortable for a traveler like you."

I smiled and told him not to worry as I retreated to my logging to sleep.

Once I sat in the bed, I didn't manage to sleep right away, all these new thoughts I had now hunting me. But after some time, the exhaustion finally caught on, and I managed to fall asleep.