Friends in a Foreign Land

Arden rose early the next morning and set out to find Christi. He passed several folks who have already started their day and noticed everyone fell into one of two camps. They either stared at the ground or glared at him. Realizing that smiling at the folks who glared at him seemed to bother them more, Arden made it a point to just keep a smile on his face.

When he reached the north gate of the village, he saw that it was still closed and a single guard was standing watch. Said guard gave him directions to where the other guards were doing their morning exercises. Arden thanked the man and tossed him a copper. Ten minutes later, Arden found said guards and approached the older man who appeared to be in charge.

“Good morning, sir. May I speak with you for a moment?”

The man turned and glared at Arden before answering with a curt “No” and turning back to the guards.

Now it was Arden’s turn to glare until he realized what he was doing. Then he plastered his smile back on and turned to look around the area. He noticed a clearing across the street behind the older man. Arden walked over to it and did some light stretching before he started to mimic what he saw the guards doing. Because of his low stats, he was unable to get as many repetitions as the guard, but he followed along with their entire exercise program. Once the guards were dismissed, Arden flopped to the ground, pulled out his water skin, and drank heavily. When he looked up, he saw the man glaring at him again. Arden just smiled really big and nodded his head toward the man, who grunted and walked away.

Once Arden had recovered, he returned to his room at the inn and got cleaned up before going back downstairs for breakfast. While waiting on his food, he fiddled with his status screens. He was trying to see if there was one that would show him progress made toward raising a stat but wasn't having any luck.

Nolan was the next to come down, and about a half hour later, Hazel, Ewan, Willow, and Arlo also come down.

They were eating breaking and just enjoying their morning together when Christi walked in and motioned for Arden. As he got up, he told everyone to get ready to go hunting and then walked over to the guards woman.

“Good morning, ma’am. What can I do for you?”

“Was that you exercising this morning near the guards and thoroughly pissing off my sergeant?”

“Yes.” Arden said, slightly on guard.

“I saw the shrine had been cleaned up and repaired. That your doing, too?” Christi said in a terse tone.

“Again, yes. Is there a problem?” Arden asked, tone getting firmer.

“What game are you playing here? Your actions make no sense. You say you were sent here to help, yet it seems like you’re going out of your way to bother people. I’ve literally had people come up to me this morning complaining about you smiling at them. My town has enough problems without some outsiders coming in, making things harder.”

Arden raised his hands in front of him as if to ward off the tirade before he answered in as calm of a voice as he could muster, “Game? Let’s take a breath and think about this. Your neighbors are mad about me smiling. And rather than asking them what their problem was, you come to me? And you say that my actions don’t make sense?” Arden just shook his head. "And you still haven’t answered my question. What does it matter that we repaired the shrine? I get that you’re not a fan of the gods, though I don’t understand why. I’m not forcing anyone to worship at it. I just wanted a clean place for my family to do so.”

“Why am I not a fan of the gods?” Christi snapped back loud enough for everyone in the common room to hear. “Have you seen our town? Our farms have been razed, our people slaughtered, and you want to know why I’m not a ‘fan’? What have they ever done for us? When was the last time they did anything for this town?”

Arden, speaking low and soft, replied, “When was the last time your town did anything for them? How long was it between the last time this town paid respect to the gods and the farms getting razed?" Noticing a change in Christi's body language, Arden knew he had hit a bullseye, so he continued forward. "You were happy to live your lives without their aid when things were good. But now that they’re bad you expect them to immediately drop everything and come to your aid? And then, when the gods actually did send people here to help, instead of accepting that help you yelled at them and made them feel unwanted. Maybe the town just isn’t all that religious. That’s fine. No has to believe anything they don’t want to. But you’ve let bitterness and resentment into your heart. That’s unhealthy regardless of your religious beliefs.”

Arden took a calming breath before continuing on, “Listen, we aim to be law-abiding citizens while we’re here. We are here to help out your village. I've not said anything mean to anyone nor started any trouble. I wanted to work out with your guards. My stats are far lower than I’d like and it seemed like a good way to get to know some locals. When I was told no, I didn't argue. I just walked away and found my own place to work out and did nothing to interfere with your sergeant. And I can’t help it if your people are so sour that seeing someone happy upsets them. But I'm not going to change. I'm still going to work out, and I'm still going to smile, and I'm still going to pay my respects to the gods. And if you have a problem with any of that, you're welcome to try to stop me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Jacob has asked us to do some hunting for him.” Looking back to his family, Arden said, “Let go kill some things.” Turning back to Christi, “Have a good day, ma’am,” and he walked past her and out the door of the inn.

The rest of the group, having heard the bit about smiling, made sure to plaster a huge grin on their faces as they walked past Christi as well.

As they walked in silence until they got past the village gates, then Nolan looked over to Arden, “Did I hear that right? You got up early to go exercise?”

“I told you my plan was to raise my physical stats the old-fashioned way,” Arden replied with a grin. “And, honestly, I slept crazy well last night. I was really worried that not having a memory foam mattress would suck but I didn’t miss it at all.”

“Probably because of all the walking we did yesterday,” Willow suggested before looking at Arden, “Dad, in my sleep last night my level-up screen appeared. Evidently, my class gives me four ability points to per level but it auto assigns one point to Athletics and one to Mental, leaving me two points to assign. And I unlocked the ability to shape-shift twice a day but I can only choose one animal to shift into.”

“That’s awesome Willow. Where are you thinking of putting your ability points?”

“I put both into Athletics. Hopefully that’ll help me keep up with Arlo when he’s running.”

Arden nodded, “Sounds good to me. Hazel, how did your leveling go?”

Hazel answered all chipper. “Like Willow, I received four ability points and it auto assigned one point to Athletics and one to Mental. The other two I put into Athletics as well.”

“Wait a second,” Arden said, stopping in the road and looking at Hazel. “Your class automatically assigns a point to Athletics? That’s odd for a spell caster. How much health do you have?”

Hazel’s stare blanked for a moment before she replied, “178. Is that good?”

Hearing this, Nolan turned around as well. “As sorceress? That’s amazing! My heath is only 164.”

“Yeah, I’m no where close to that.” Arden added. Looking to Nolan, “I know this isn’t D&D rules but I can’t help but see her class as constitution based. I wonder what the weakness is?”

“Hmm… Not really sure. Maybe mana recovery speed?”

“A caster class with gimped mana recovery? That seems like a bad design.”

“That’s a strange class you have there Hazel, but it appears it’s going to make you a rather tough spell caster. Did you get any new spells like you were hoping for?”

“Actually no. But I think I got something better.”

“What’s that?” Nolan asked

“A class ability that allows me to alter spells on the fly. I can change my fire bolt to ice or make it bigger. Things like that. And if I alter the same spell in the same way enough times I can learn it as a spell of it own, which will reduce the mana cost.”

“That is insane,” Arden said in awe. “I hope Liam doesn’t get any broken shit like that. He’ll find all sorts of ways to game the system.”

“Talk to Uncle Liam for ideas, got it,” Hazel replied with a smile.

Shaking his head, Arden looked back to Nolan, “Where were your points auto-assigned?”

“So, I was warned that because I received a unique class, that three of my points would be assigned for me leaving me only one free point. I didn’t know where they were going to go though. Turns out two went to Athletics and one to Mental which I’m fine with. I tossed my free point in Athletics as well,” answered Nolan. “What about you?”

“Points were auto-assigned to Mental and Social. I dumped the other two into Athletics and I still have less health than y’all. Oh, and I got a class ability called [Divine Aura] that I can use once ever couple hours. It says that it boosts willpower and composure for ten minutes for allies close to me.”

“Some of these stats must have uses that I’m not seeing,” Nolan answered. “That said… how are we going to hunt?” Nolan said bringing everyone back to the job at hand, “I remember some basic tracking I learned as a kid, but not enough to even have a skill point in it. And I don’t think any of us have a bow and arrow do we?”

“Honestly, I hadn't thought about it. Maybe Useless the wolf there could find us some fast food and the girls have some magic they can use to bring down an animal. Ewan will keep us entertained and you and I get to escort them in case they find something that doesn’t run.” Arden replied.

“He’s not useless.” Willow snapped back

“Prove it. Tell him to go find prey.” Arden said with a grin.