An Unbound Soul

A shout roused me from [Meditation]. Jumping to my feet and heading back to the line of defence, I saw a second wave of slimes approaching. These were slightly bigger than the last wave, but otherwise still looked like the same bouncy blue water balloons. There was one slime in the middle of the pack that was larger again. [Appraisal] identified them as big slimes and a giant slime, levels two and three respectively. Some simple barricades had been set up while I was resting, made up largely of overturned carts, with the defensive line waiting behind. There were a few people with bows, which I thought strange until I remembered that our village did a small amount of hunting. Obviously they'd need something like bows for that.

Long before the new wave came within my range, the giant slime popped, a stalagmite poking up through where it had been. Looking around, I saw Kari grinning to herself. Showing off just because she had access to offensive spells... Darn it.

That seemed to act as the signal for the archers to let loose. Kari fired off [Stalagmite] a few more times before stopping, presumably out of mana. The archers managed to pop several more. I didn't have the range of Kari or the archers, but with [Far Reach] I could still project attacks beyond the barricade, so I started swinging as soon as the slimes came within my striking distance. These ones were definitely tougher, and it was a tight balancing act between swinging hard enough to pop them but not so hard as to break the spell. I failed a few, but nevertheless popped enough of them that, added to our ranged efforts, the rest were taken care of by a single thrust of pitchforks through the barricade. Another anticlimactic battle. Camus, who I was still curious about, hadn't needed to move a muscle.

ding

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Staff] advanced to level 3

Skill [Far Reach] advanced to level 7

Yup, killing monsters was definitely the way to go for boosting my weapon proficiency quickly.

There were no further attacks that evening. Camus started organising a rota for night watch after becoming the de facto leader. It wasn't official or anything; he had simply started giving orders and people had listened. He didn't give me a night shift and this time I didn't quibble, so I headed back to the tavern. I'd never actually been there before, it being generally used as a place for adults to get mildly drunk after a long day's work, and not having anything to offer kids. It wasn't even open in the daytime.

A large portion of the village was crammed into the space, with people on watch surrounding the whole building. We didn't have the manpower to barricade around the whole village, so the small line of defence in the way of the most likely direction of attack combined with a three-sixty degree guard around the village's population was the best we could manage.

Wait, what unit did they use here for angles? I doubted it was degrees, given that everything was in base ten. It had never come up before...

For a population so used to peace, they'd certainly reacted quickly and made good tactical decisions. I would have expected them to flap around wildly for a bit and then run away. Was this all Camus's doing? Perhaps, but on reflection, the tavern didn't need to be as big as it was. It was as if it was designed to be large enough for the village to evacuate to in the first place. And yes, people had started gathering here before Camus returned from the fields...

"Peter!"

Really? She was still up? I had enough mana left for a [Minor Strength], which should be enough to catch her, but the expected flying tackle never came. Instead, I turned to see Cluma standing with ears drooped. I realised she was staring at my staff, which I was still carrying.

"Peter, fight?"

Uh-oh. I did not want to be the one responsible for giving Camus's daughter weird ideas. I don't think he'd ever forgive me. "The adults are the ones fighting. I just helped out a little."

"Protected?"

"I... Like I said, just a little."

She nodded, and her ears perked up. "I protect Peter!"

Oh drat. Silently apologising to Camus with all my heart, I led her back to the centre of the tavern where the children were gathered. It was not a comfortable sleeping arrangement, and I slept lightly, grip kept tight around my staff and ears kept open for the sound of screaming. Despite my vigilance, morning came without incident, so I left the tavern for the front line. I noted several horses tied up there, in all their polka-dotted glory. A team from Dawnhold had already arrived, then? Yes, I saw people I didn't recognise talking with Camus and Henry, so I headed over to eavesdrop. Apparently I was too late, though; they'd already finished sharing information and were now just preparing to head off. Camus saw me and frowned.

"No, you are not going with them. Forget it."

I blinked; I never intended to! Mum had only made me promise about dungeons, but that didn't mean I'd abuse her overly precise language to go running into a mana field. A mana field was just as dangerous a place as the first few floors of a dungeon. "I didn't want to. I may be able to pop some slimes, but I'm a bit young to go running into a mana field. Besides, there's no way I could keep up with a professional monster hunting team."

Speaking of the team, there were five of them, two female and three male. One of the men was in half-plate armour, while the others were clad head to toe in what looked like a couple of layers of black leather. The man in half-plate had a large shield strapped to his back and a long sword sheathed at his waist. Of the others, two were holding staves, rather more professional looking than mine, which was nothing more than a cylinder of wood. The remaining two were catkin, and had bows on their backs. One had several daggers sheathed into various parts of his armour and the other carried a short sword at her waist.

Xander, Human, Bulwark Knight (?/?)

Freya, Human, Fire Mage (?/?)

Jared, Human, Life Mage (?/?)

Noah, Beastkin, Scout (?/?)

Robin, Beastkin, Ranger (?/?)

[Bulwark Knight] sounded like it might be rank three, but the others didn't. Interestingly, the two mages were wearing armour that was no different to the beastkin. No defenceless robes for mages in this world, apparently. Striking yet another blow against fantasy norms, the healer was male and the offensive mage was female. Yay for gender equality.

Of course, I was so busy analysing their team makeup that I missed how intently they were staring at me. Right, I was plenty old enough for complete sentences now, but that was probably pushing it a bit.

"Did that kid just..."

"Yup, I heard it too."

"He's an abnormal one," Camus sighed. "Just roll with it."

Oi! I mean, I know I had a trait that literally called me abnormal, but that was no excuse for him to go agreeing with it... Ah well, I guess I should introduce myself. I gave a little bow. "Peter, [Apprentice Mage], almost five years old."

Freya's eyes were sparkling. Uh oh, I knew that look. It was the look Kari sprouted when she was about to burst into one of her hour-long lectures about magic. Fortunately, Xander grabbed her by the collar and started walking towards the forest.

"Nooo, don't drag me away. This is far more interesting than a brand new mana field that only produces slimes, even if the slimes are acting a bit weird!"

ding

Skill [Privacy] advanced to level 3

"It's not even as if he's only just switched class. He's level six already!"

From the point she chose to pick up on there, that must have been an [Appraisal] rather than anything worse. And I got an immediate level up, too. I'd freaked out about [Privacy] advancing while in front of Lord Reid, assuming he'd used some ridiculous skill, but maybe it was actually easy to level? I couldn't really complain about her being rude, either, given that I'd just done it to all of them.

Jared and Noah ignored the spectacle, presumably used to her antics, but Robin was laughing her head off. "I advise you to run. Start now and don't look back."

I sighed as the complaining drifted off into the distance. Perhaps I really should hide somewhere before they got back? We did still need to guard the village until they confirmed the mana field had been cleared, though. Besides, if a delver wanted to talk to me, I wasn't going to say no; I had plenty of questions to ask them. Starting with what she meant about the slimes acting weird... All we saw them do here was a slow hop followed by a quick death.

I hung around by the barricade all morning, but nothing interesting happened. I pondered telling Camus about Cluma, but chickened out in the end. Hopefully she'd forget about it by the time they were let loose. The delver team returned in the afternoon, looking thoughtful. Freya was positively brimming with excitement. I'd made the wrong decision here. Was it too late to hide now? Fortuitously, as they got closer, it became obvious that it was no longer me she was excited about.

"But it's not possible. It was too small!"

"Yes, you've said that a dozen times. We'll report it to the guild. That's all we can do."

That sounded like something hadn't gone as expected, causing Camus to start frowning again. "What happened?"

"Are you sure it was a giant slime you saw?"

"Yes."

I chimed in as well. "[Appraisal] called it 'giant slime, level three'. There was only one of them, the rest were big slimes."

Freya looked down. "You can use [Appraisal] too? That's... No, not important right now. What's important is that the mana field we found could not possibly have produced a giant slime. Not even a big slime. It was tiny!"

Camus frowned further. "Are you saying there's more than one mana field out there?"

"No, not at all," Xander answered. "The field had several more giant slimes in it, but the mana density wasn't high enough to sustain them. Frankly, even if we'd left the thing alone, the slimes would have starved to death and it would have dissipated naturally."

Jared chimed in: "It's possible that this happens naturally all the time, but the monsters starve and die off before the mana field is ever discovered. Nonetheless, it does need reporting to the guild."

Xander nodded in agreement. "We'll need to head back immediately. We're certain that there are no further mana fields in the area, but I advise you to remain vigilant."

He headed towards the horses and started to untie them. Freya was flicking her eyes between him and me. "Can't we stay just five minutes?"

"No."

"Just me then. I'll catch up!"

"No."

"Aww..."

I'd never seen an adult do puppy dog eyes before, in either world, but Freya was doing a damn good attempt. A completely wasted one, given that Xander wasn't looking at her, but a good attempt nonetheless.

"Fine..."

Guess I wasn't going to have a chance to talk to any delvers today after all.

The rest of the day was spent on cleanup. The barricade was partially dismantled, so as to not obstruct the way to the fields but to allow it to be put back into position rapidly if required. The non-combatants were released from the tavern and people rushed to tend to livestock that had been abandoned for a day. Camus insisted that we maintain a watch for at least a few days, but I could tell he wasn't really expecting anything to happen because he asked me if I wanted a day shift. I accepted; it was seeding time, and me taking a shift meant one more pair of hands in the fields where they were needed.

"Peter!"

Cluma tackled me on my way to my first watch, having even more energy to burn off than usual after being cooped up in the tavern for a whole day. "Sorry, but I can't play today. I need to work."

I probably owed an apology to Clana too. "Sorry if I've put any weird ideas into her head."

Cluma pouted. "Not weird!"

"It's fine. As yesterday proved, you never know when a new mana field is going to sprout nearby. Being willing to defend yourself and others is a good thing. As long as she doesn't go deliberately looking for trouble, even Camus wouldn't object to her learning a weapon skill."

Really? In that case... given her dexterity and speed, she struck me as a dual wielding dagger sort of person, like the [Scout] Noah. I had time. I turned back to my house and grabbed Dad's carving knife and a couple of small blocks of wood. I spent my watch whittling away, and by the end I had a pair of toddler sized wooden toy daggers. They wouldn't cut anything, but I'd be willing to bet my remaining soul points that Cluma would love them. I even got a skill up from it. Another interesting point for my research; did making something that was actually meaningful have more chance of a level up than producing something purely for the sake of practice?

She was still running around by the time my replacement turned up and I got back. Camus was keeping an eye on her, Clana having left for the tavern. They probably weren't doing a great trade today, a portion of the population being sick of the place after yesterday. I really didn't want to give Cluma daggers, even toy ones, under Camus's watchful eyes without checking with him first. I also didn't want to talk to Camus, but I didn't want to waste the daggers I'd just made, either. I stood there in my indecisiveness long enough for him to notice, which forced the issue.

"Want something?"

"Peter!"

I sighed and walked myself over to Camus with the limpet firmly attached to my back, her feet dragging along the ground.

"I made these for the little hugger behind me. May I give them to her?"

He frowned. "What for? She doesn't need them."

"If yesterday proved anything, it's that you can still be attacked by monsters even if you don't go looking for them. She just wants to be able to protect people, not deliberately get herself into trouble."

"Protect?"

Camus sighed. "You're a bad influence," he complained. "If, as you say, yesterday proved anything, then it's only that combat skills aren't required to take care of monsters from a freshly spawned mana field. We have no need to teach our children to fight."

I guess Clana was wrong then... Waste of my daggers, but at least I got a skill level from them, and it passed the time while I was on guard duty. "Okay. Good night then."

I turned and took a step towards home, but Cluma pulled me backwards.

"No! Want to protect!"

I'd bet Camus regretted calling me over now. It forced us to have that conversation right in front of Cluma... "You don't need to right now. Maybe when you're an adult."

"No! Now!"

"Cluma, you should listen to your daddy. Weapons are dangerous." I felt that my argument would be far more persuasive if I wasn't more or less the same age and still carrying my staff... Please chime in here any time, Camus...

"Daddy is just afraid!"

Camus was suddenly trembling, his face turning beet red and his fists clenched tight, his tail rigid behind him. Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the anger left as if it was never there. Instead, he looked tired and defeated. He stood up and walked back into his house, leaving me and Cluma alone. With the door half closed, I heard him mutter, "Do as you like."

Well, this was awkward. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I'd been left on my own with Cluma... I think he'd just given me permission to hand the daggers over, but seeing that reaction, I really wasn't sure it was a good idea.

No; whatever he thought, I disagreed with Camus here. He'd obviously experienced some sort of trauma in his past, but over fifty slimes in total had assaulted the village yesterday. Yes, they were weak, but apparently there had been even more of them still in the mana field. What if they had all come? Having people around capable of defending the village was a sensible precaution, whatever he said.

"Here you go, Cluma. A present."

"Present?"

"They're called daggers. You can use them to protect people."

"Protect Peter?"

"Me, your mummy and daddy, your friends. Whoever you want."

Cluma clutched her new daggers tight.