The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

Joram really came back to reality when he heard that scream, followed by a faint “thud”. But what really caught his attention was the Altaea-level foxkin sitting on him, completely nude.

A couple of things happened in the following seconds. The first being his own instinctive reaction to such a stimulating situation. The next was him realizing that his clothing created by [Ectoplasmic Creation] seemed to have expired, or at least he hoped it had. Lastly, the albino foxkin apparently decided that she wasn’t ready to be up yet and decided to lay down on his chest.

That nearly broke his brain, but years of discipline managed to pull through for him. He quickly manifested [Ectoplasmic Creation], stretching his limits by making several different things at once, in two different locations. The first was on him as he quickly rolled out from under the bombshell, his clothes manifesting on him in the process. The second location was around said bombshell, wrapping her in a large white quilt.

He then remembered the very girly scream and looked for its source.

There, just on the other side of the rousing, and apparently grumpy foxes, laid Myra.

“Damn,” he muttered, creating a pair of crutches for himself as the bombshell gave him a reproving look.

Choosing to ignore that more-than-likely volatile situation, he hobbled his way over to where Myra lay just as her parents came running out the back door.

“What happened?” they both demanded at the same time, taking in the sight of their daughter and looking even more agitated.

“I don’t know exactly why she fainted,” he said, not really lying. “I seem to have fallen asleep after Purple over there brought me outside last night. Then, that,” he said, motioning to where Myra lay, then to the large white quilt.

They both looked very confused as they took in the quilt, then nearly choked when the bombshell divested herself of the quilt as she sat up.

- - -

“No, I don’t know what happened after I fell asleep,” he replied for what felt like the hundredth time.

…

“No, I don’t know the white foxkin,” he said, though he strongly suspected some polymorphing shenanigans had come into play the night before.

…

“If something like that happened, then it happened while I was unconscious,” he said, shaking his head at that one.

Said bombshell was currently wearing one of Celys’ outfits and sitting in the living room with them all, Myra and Kalduin included. And the purple vixen, and about sixty other foxes as well.

They all seemed to want to be around the nine-tailed bombshell, which led credence to his polymorph theory.

Everyone was looking between him and the bombshell, trying to figure out if something had happened or not. Given how poorly humans seemed to treat animal-kin here, he wasn’t starting off on very stable ground; even though he’d told Celys before that he wasn’t human.

But, it seemed that just looking like a human was enough.

“Rude,” the bombshell finally spoke, her voice smooth and sultry even then sounding slightly annoyed. “I’m not ‘Bombshell’, I’m Asami Miki. You can call me either,” she said, then took another sip tea.

That got a round of looks.

“Excuse me, Miss Asami Miki,” Celys spoke up, sounding more polite than he ever remembered hearing. “Are you, perhaps, the Great Matriarch of the Spirit Foxes?”

“Rude,” she said, once more sounding annoyed. “I have never born a litter, so how could I be a matriarch?”

Her words once again stopped everyone as they tried to process them. Or perhaps the implications. Either way, they seemed both incredibly honoured to have her in their home, and horrified due to the circumstances. Which resulted in no few looks his way.

“I need to go for a walk,” he said, standing up with the help of his crutches.

Nalun seemed as though he wanted to stop Joram, but given just how favourably Asami Miki looked upon him, he couldn’t find the courage to speak. That didn’t stop Myra, though.

“You’re just going to leave after… that?!” she demanded, looking scandalized and more than a little bit angry.

“I’ve already explained myself, quite thoroughly in fact. It’s up to you whether or not to believe me,” he said, not very happy with the treatment. “Besides, this seems to be a Kirkwall issue, and I’m practically still an outsider.”

With that said, he hobbled his way to the front door, then left.

He hadn’t touched his tea, nor the snacks that had been provided… mostly for Asami Miki. Or, rather, because of her presence. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they wouldn’t have bothered with the tea and snacks.

Shaking his head, he made his way in the direction he remembered the warehoused being. It took him some time, mostly because of how slowly he was currently moving, but he eventually got there. It only took a few more minutes of asking people questions to find the warehouse that his stuff was stored in.

Once inside, he was directed to a “room” not far from the entrance. The whole place was wide enough to accommodate the large wagons that brought things inside for loading and unloading. The “room” was basically just a walled-off section of the warehouse, leaving the front completely open. He was pretty sure that it was just to make sure that products didn’t get mixed up or something like that.

He was happy to see that everything had been stacked well and that the boxes and crates didn’t seem damaged. He was still running low on space in his inventory, so he couldn’t take everything away right then. But he still did a quick inventory of things to make sure that nothing had gone missing; tales of thieves looting or robbing newly arrived protagonists prompting his vigilance.

Thankfully, he’d stored the most valuable things inside of his inventory, leaving the things he wouldn’t be broken up over if they went missing while being stored in the warehouse. Sure enough, though, he found that a few panels of drywall were missing, along with a pack of drywall screws. A few of his weights were also missing, likely due to them being made of moss stone, though he’d left them unpolished. The concrete blocks, in brick form or cinderblock form, had been left untouched, while some of the vents had also gone missing.

He sighed, then created a fully formed crate and began stacking the more valuable things into it. Things that he wouldn’t be able to easily replace, like the various metal items and some drywall. He’d already packed away the ingots that he’d created, so there was no worry there.

It was just annoying that he now had to worry about thieves.

Then he started wondering if he could get an extradimensional space like Altaea had. If he could, then he wouldn’t have to worry about leaving his stuff where thieves could pick through it. But that also led to thoughts on how he would deal with his home security.

Grumbling to himself, he finished packing away the important stuff, including his weights, as they would be able to sell quite well if he ever needed, the stored the crate in his inventory.

“Hmm, two spots left,” he grumbled, not quite happy with how little space he had to play with.

Then he remembered that the crates weren’t permanent creations and nearly cursed.

He then retrieved the first crate and sighed as a pile of his stuff was deposited onto the ground.

“Welp, and least I know what happens when the crates expire,” he said, trying to look at the bright side of things. Like, the stored items not immediately being ejected from his inventory. Or, heaven forbid, being lost in some extradimensional space.

He then created another crate, repacked it, then stored it away again.

With that done, he left the warehouse and made his way to the town hall.

“How may I help you today?” the clerk asked, a middle-aged man this time.

“Is there some sort of book that shows what properties are available for purchase outside of Kirkwall?” he asked, annoyed that he didn’t know the word for ‘catalogue’ yet.

“Yes, please wait a moment while I retrieve it,” he said before getting up and heading into an office behind him.

A minute later, he stepped out while holding what looked like a large binder.

“Feel free to take your time going through it,” the man said as he passed Joram the binder. “Choosing a place for your home is very important, after all.”

“Thank you,” he said, feeling genuine gratitude towards the man for his kind words.

Joram then made his way over to a small table at the side of the reception area and began flipping through the listings.

He was pleasantly surprised to see that Celys hadn’t been exaggerating the low cost of properties outside the walls. He was also impressed by how organized the listings were. At the front of the binder he found a key of sorts that demarcated the various property lines, and their listing. Which made flipping through and finding the listings so much easier than it could have been.

Looking at things, he found that the west side of Kirkwall wasn’t at all popular. Upon further inspection, it was due to it being practically in the forest, while also being on the opposite side of where the main road entered the village. Which meant that anyone on the west side of Kirkwall would have to travel further, and longer, than was otherwise necessary if they’d instead chosen to build on the east side. Which, it seemed, almost everyone had.

He then found a section of land surveys, which also provided insight into the east side preference. Yes, it wasn’t in the forest, but it was also generally flat land that was perfect for farming. Horticulture or animal husbandry would work well there. On the other hand, who wanted to try clearing out massive trees like that? Never mind what might be lurking in the forest that might either choose to snack on you or your livestock.

The south side of the walls also seemed to be less popular, though still sparsely populated. He must have missed the small farmsteads as he ran for his life. Which go him wondering if anyone would be safe down that way with the goblin issue still extant.

The north side, though, seemed to be where the “suburbs” were, as the land wasn’t quite suitable for farming or raising large herds of animals. That said, they were more like scattered acreages than suburbs. Which led to slightly higher prices when it came to land.

He really liked the forest, though, and had enjoyed living where he had been up until he’d been forced to leave. The prices were also quite tempting, as large plots only went for a single gold coin each. As in, about twenty acres or so per plot, which seemed to be plotted into a rectangle. If he had to put a measure to it, he’d say it was about 402m by 201m to a side.

Now, if he could afford to buy the plots in bulk, he wondered if that would be wise. He’d need to build his own walls, and have them guarded to keep him safe. It would be a lot of work, especially before he got the hang of the more advanced [Modify Matter, Greater] which would allow him to affect even greater volumes of matter per manifestation.

He looked at the number of gold coins he had and sighed; only sixteen. He wondered if he could place a hold on property by paying a bit of a deposit. Because he really wanted to buy a block of four by five lots, effectively giving him a four-hundred square acre piece of land to play with. Which left him four gold coins short.

“Say,” he spoke a bit louder so that the clerk could hear him. “Are there any discounts for bulk purchases?”

The clerk gave him an odd look before answering.

“No, there are not.”

“What about reserving some land? Can I pay a deposit or something?”

“Yes, that is indeed possible,” the man replied, looking a bit relieved. “The cost to reserve a plot for one month is one tenth the value of the plot,” he explained, seemingly happy at the prospect of a sale.

Joram nodded, then turned back to the key. Now, he just needed to decide exactly where he wanted to build. The area claimed by Kirkwall went pretty far, two miles if he had to guess. Did he want to be out that far? Just over three kilometres was pretty far if you had to try to run to the city if something happened. But he also didn’t want to be too close to the walls, as he really liked the quiet of the forest.

Nodding to himself, he got up and hobbled back to the front desk and presented the binder to the man.

“I’d like to purchase these plots here, and reserve these ones here,” he said, indicating a square of sixteen plots surrounding four plots. The four being the ones he intended to reserve.

“Are you sure you want to build so far out of town?” the man asked as his eyes flickered to his missing leg, showing that the guy was all right.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he replied with a smile. “I don’t intend to let this issue inconvenience my life,” he finished, nodding towards his missing right leg.

“That’s a good attitude to have,” the man said with a warm smile before the got down to the serious business of payment.

It took a little while to get things sorted out. Contracts, land titles, showing his identification and proof of citizenship, and all that. Which led to him updating his information with the man. He also arranged for any property payments or taxes to be withdrawn from his account after hearing that that was an option.

After all that was done, deeds and reservation agreements safely stored in his inventory, he made his way to the bank to update his information there was well. Which was pretty quick, all told. He even made a small deposit into his account in to cover any expensed that came up. Specifically, if he forgot to make payment for the reserved plots in person.

He was once again relatively poor, which was pretty much how things went in life when you were getting on your feet. Get some money, spend that money. Rinse and repeat until the money coming in was higher than what was going out.

Thinking about money led him to remembering the goblins that had contributed to his pocket money, in terms of cores, that is. He still wondered what he’d get if he “looted” their bodies. Shrugging, he decided to head to the west side of town again, though not because he wanted to go back to Myra’s house. That was a powder keg that he didn’t want to mess with right now.

So, he hobbled along westward, though taking a different street to get to the walls than he would have taken to the Manelle household. It was a pleasant enough hobble, all things considered. Even the skulk that started following him shortly after he left the bank didn’t dampen his mood, nor the fact that the purple vixen was back.

He still wasn’t sure how he felt about her part in what had happened last night. Sure, it was probably something innocent along the lines of “I’m just bringing the fellow to my superior,” or something. Still, coming to with a bombshell in her birthday suit sitting on you didn’t make for a relaxing morning. Or a less confusing one.

‘Indeed,’ Avi agreed, nearly causing him to trip. ‘You’ll have to watch out for that one.’

‘You don’t say?’ he sent, dry as a desert.

Avi just gave him a cool look before vanishing once more, leaving him wondering what was up with her.

Then he put that out of his mind, instead focussing on the sight of the wall that had just come into full view.

The gate here was even smaller than the south gate that he’d entered a few days ago, but no less sturdy looking. He figured that one of the wagons that had carried his stuff could still fit out of it though, so that was a relief.

As he drew closer, he could see that there were stairs built into the walls on either side of the gate that ran parallel to the wall.

Wonder if they’ll let me up to have a look? He wondered idly, then decided to ask. Because, if you didn’t ask, you wouldn’t ever know, or get the opportunity to do something.

“Say, would you mind if I had a look from the wall?” he asked the first guard he came to, someone he didn’t recognize.

“Oh, you’re that guy,” the woman said, eyeing him up. “Sure, head on up,” she finished, waving him along in a rather brisk manner.

A bit confused by her reaction, he slowly made his way to the stairs, then carefully made his way up. Once there, he looked out and saw the forest.

It was closer than he’d thought given the land surveys, but that might have just been his misreading it. That said, anything taller than the grass had been cleared out to a distance of just over two hundred metres or so. After that, the great trees of the forest started in earnest, with a few smaller trees here and there- which were still respectably huge compared to most trees he’d seen growing up.

The treeline was basically where his plots started, making him realized that most of his land was inside of the forest. Perhaps looking at things in person should have been the first thing on his list. Well, he’d been a bit too excited to get his own place, so now he had more work ahead of himself because of it.

Shaking his head, he was about to head back down when movement in the forest caught his eye.