Life in the village began settling into a routine in the following days.

Noel, and occasionally Cain, would lead the hunters in regular patrols that keep the village stocked with the meat from birds and larger animals that proved edible.

The meat from the ‘manna-crazed’ animals seemed to have adverse effects, and some of the newer villagers claimed that they’d seen people turn insane from consuming the flesh of such beasts and even the ‘monsters’.

Some people initially balked at the idea of eating the flesh from some of their less savory catches, such as rats the size of large dogs, but most welcomed the change in their diet from candy bars.

Many of the hunters now sported scars from battles small and large, though none had died. Noel was a good leader, and contrary to her class of being a Berserker, she knew when to retreat and when to push the attack. She never hesitated to fight dirty either, perhaps an artifact of her time on the streets.

Having finished building a shelter for each of the villagers, and a large warehouse for storing dried meats, Ralph and the builders set about fortifying the village.

They methodically went about cutting down stones that accumulated ambient manna to a stable degree, which were identified by Cain, and replaced the wooden stakes that had previously encircled the goblin camp.

Ralph also experienced a breakthrough with his wooden sculptures. It seemed he had more of an affinity for sculptures of birds, and was finally able to imbue a wooden carving of some kind of bird (he insisted it was a heron, but...) the size of a human forearm with the Will of The Sea.

[Statute (F-grade)]

 Will defend the settlement it was created to protect.

It hadn’t done anything special yet, but Ralph claimed that it would do… something should the village come under threat. He continued his sculpting efforts with a renewed vigor.

But the most ‘systematic’ change in routine was Cain’s morning training sessions.

What had initially started as a training method for the hunters were attended by nearly every villager now.

The morning training sessions began with light stretching followed by Cain and Harundal teaching a concept from martial arts or one they had picked up in practical battles.

Cain was able to teach concepts and techniques more relevant for human fighters, such as basic footwork, keeping your guard up, or how to utilize your muscles more efficiently.

As a Duruk, Harundal had been through countless life and death fights, and enjoyed talking about his people’s philosophy on fighting for your life.

The villagers also learned from Harundal that different species, or even tribes, had different methods for ‘cultivating’, the universal term for strengthening the Body, Mind, and Soul.

This was due to the naturally different affinities of each individual and species.

Turuks, for example, excelled in a mixture of Body and Mind cultivation, centered around shamanic spell-crafts involving blood, lineage, and sacrifice.

Duruks, on the other hand, primarily cultivated their Bodies, a practice bolstered by their cultivation of Soul through battles.

The humans seemed far more versatile, Harundal commented, as he had seen Cain cultivate what seemed to be a mixture of Body (his Blood-burn and martial prowess) and Soul (Dao of True Sight).

On the other hand, Ralph obviously cultivated a mixture of Mind and Soul, as his Will of the Sea seemed to involve attuning himself to the manna of the materials he worked with and breathing life into them with his Soul. Noel also seemed to focus primarily on Body, with a divine item that strengthened her Body and a class skill that did the same.

Therefore, Harundal said, he had no idea how to help the villagers other than provide them with general ideas of cultivation that the Duruks used.

The hunters would then hold sparring sessions supervised by Noel while the builders, led by Ralph and Joe would discuss the progress of their projects. Cain would practice fighting against Harundal while not using any of his traits or blessing.

The villagers always left the morning training sessions sweaty, pondering on Harundal’s perspectives.

As the rest of the villagers went about their day, Harundal choosing to help either the hunters or builders for the day, Cain focused on absorbing the Soul Crystals he’d received from gaining the Warbringer title. Though the title had brought no other perks, 50 Soul Crystals proved to hold an enormous amount of soulual energy and it took Cain the better part of a day to go through a single one.

He kept up at it consistently however, and his Soul broke through to D+ after he’d absorbed about 5 Soul Crystals. Based on the next Soul Crystal he absorbed, Cain thought he might just barely make it up to a C- rank by the time he finished absorbing the 40-ish crystals that were left.

By then, he would be able to use his Dao of True Sight to identify objects, people, and monsters with almost a miniscule amount of Soul, though using it in battle seemed to take quite a bit more Soul.

Thankfully, other than the goblin war-band that Harundal had decimated, none seemed to be in the area, for whatever reason. In fact, it was like all of the goblins in the area had disappeared into thin air.

It might have been due to the fact that the city was becoming filled with more and more plant life, making traversing difficult, or the fact that the wildlife and insects were now likely able to hunt a grown human man with ease, albeit a regular human man.

It did make Cain feel a little bit at unease, but he had decided along with the other Chosen and Joe to stay in the village and continue to fortify it while growing stronger.

The villagers had just finished their training session when a man in tattered robes showed up from out of the ruins of the city in the distance, followed by a few stragglers, and began walking towards the camp.

The plants that now covered the grounds and crawled over the rubble seemed to sway in his path.

“Ahoy!” He cried out.

“I come in peace! I am Chosen, and If there’s a leader amongst you, I wish to speak with him.”

Cain was fetched immediately by one of the guards that were posted at all times at the entrance of the camp, now guarded by stone walls the height of a full-grown Duruk.

Thankfully, since it was right after the morning training session had concluded, all the Chosens of the town gathered, and walked out to meet the man.

Reluctant to let the strange Chosen into their camp, Cain, Ralph, Noel, and Joe, walked out of the camp to meet the man, though Harundal remained in the camp as to not startle the new group.

“Hello. I suppose we are the leaders of this… village. My name is Cain. How can we help you?” Cain asked.

Ralph just blinked slowly, while Noel crossed her arms and glared at the man. Joe looked over the tattered group with thoughtful eyes.

Cain also refrained from using his True Sight. He had found that using it indiscriminately on people he’d just met tended to offend them, and he did not want to piss off the Chosen.

He noticed that the stragglers behind him didn’t seem all that coherent, standing a little distance from each other and especially the man in the tattered robes.

“Hullo! The name’s Derek. Forgive me, but I’ve been traveling a long way, and would like to inquire as to whether you have any foods that you might share with us. Though I am not particularly gifted in the way of fighting, I daresay I have some things that may be of interest to you.”

He said as he reached into his robes and pulled out a small bag. Noel relaxed her grip on the axe that had suddenly appeared in her hands, but not by much.

Cain approached the man, and took in his appearance. The man had olive skin, pleasantly tanned, with warm wrinkles around the corners of his mouth and eyes. His hands were well-callused, Cain noticed as he took the bag from him.

He took the bag, opened its drawstrings and peeked at the contents.

A broad smile began to bloom on his face.