Year 1, Winter, Second Month, Fourth Week.

 

Today, Diana was restless.

She asked the team to gather here to talk about the last hunt. Once they did, she started asking for their forgiveness, but they insisted that anyone would have made the same decision.

They agreed that the beasts had unexpected abilities, like being unhindered by snow, dodging the arrows while running and quickly changing their paths. Next time, they would be prepared for it.

To clear this, Karl explained that the white wolves are water beasts, so they naturally have more control over their bodies. The improved flexibility increased their abilities to dodge and also reduced the impact of attacks. For example, when the wolves crashed against the shields, they didn’t take much damage because their bodies would soft impacts and quickly adapt.

Also, the white wolves are a special bread of beasts. They’re probably born in winter and they acquired some advanced properties from their core crystal.

Ice is an advanced form of water energy. Besides the flexibility and mobility traits of water, the ice increases the attack power of water, thus making the beasts more dangerous. The reason why the beasts were able to move smoothly on snow was that they had affinity to ice.

When they processed the wolves, Karl was curious to see their crystal core. Unfortunately, they only found a common water crystal inside.

Master Al reminded Karl that ice is only an advanced form of water and not another element. But soon, Karl recovered his excitement. Now, the team had fought against all the basic elemental beast. Although they had yet to fight against a LT fire beast and a common water beast.

Elder Said explained that Diana would need to rest for at least three months to propper heal her wounds, in the midtime the team members agreed to continue their daily training.

Sadly, the elder only knew the basics of healing like the use of some herbs to treat cold and other common diseases. Most of her knowledge was passed or acquired through common sense.

Said knew that a wound should be cleaned properly to avoid infection and that the bleeding should be stopped. As for broken bones, she could only keep the wounded rested to prevent moving the broken part.

As for the time that took for each wound the mend or heal, she had seen it happen so many times that she could estimate just by looking at it.

.........

Karl checked the village’s available materials and smiled satisfied.

Magic Inventory

He considered the earth and wind crystals used to enhance the team members’ weapons as unused materials because they couldn’t afford to separate them for exclusive use yet.

Karl had crafted six different tools for the village, improved several knives and tools, and enhanced the team’s weapons. However, he wasn’t satisfied. He had countless ideas and a strong desire to create even more amazing things.

Unfortunately, as he crafted more things, his time was becoming shorter. Mostly, because he had to spare time to redraw, fix and improve the magic tools. If he couldn't come up with a solution, soon he would be stuck in maintenance.

.........

The bloodcurdling screams echoed between the dead trees and invaded their way into the ears of Lew’s party. The Fighters watching over their crude-looking camp strengthened their grip over their weapons and tried to keep a straight expression, hiding the fear inside.

The Mages and other sleeping members gave up sleeping to start preparing for the announced attack. Once the screams started, the attack would come before ten minutes passed. This has been happening, at least ten times a day.

The harassment started two days ago when they entered a deeper part of the Forest. The scenario continued to be gloomy, but the smell and cold feeling got somehow worse. Another unpleasant difference was the ghosts.

When the suffering and vengeful souls didn't return to the cycle of life, they would in time develop a crystal core, like beasts, but a death crystal instead. Ghosts are LT entities that drain life from living beings.

They would only have LQ death crystals, but their incorporeal bodies made it difficult to destroy them. The easiest way to do it would be using life energy or death energy.

Soon, the ghostly figures appeared dancing between the trees flying towards the group. Their pale and translucid form, in terms of scare, only lost for their sorrowful screams.

The Fighters spread around the camp and started to engage the ghosts by slashing and thrusting their swords. Unfortunately, the attack did little more than annoying the entities. But they continued doing it, trying to prevent the ghosts from draining their vitality while gaining time for the Mages to work.

The four Elemental Mages couldn't do much more, so their job was to protect the Enchanter and life Invoker. The Flame would only cause pain and Breeze would drive them back, while the water and earth Mages could do even less.

While the scary and strange battle broke around them, the two protected Mages try to keep their attention on their spells.

The life Invoker was using her spiritual energy and the crystal in her necklace to amass as much life energy as she could. The colorful energy would flow around her and move towards her extending arms to circle the Enchanter.

The sweating Spellcaster did his best to use the supplied life energy to form several Keys. Fifteen minutes later, he opened his eyes and extended his arms, yelling the chant:

“Purgo”

Dozens of Keys shined everywhere close to the ghosts, appearing to others like light explosions. The ghosts let high pitched screams, four of them got exorcized and the LQ death crystals dropped to the ground, while the others fled with haste.

“This time you got four... you're getting better.” The painting leading Fighter joked.

“We got more death crystals... Can we leave now?” The weak and shy voice of the life Invoker was heard.

“No... We need two MQ crystals, at least...”

.........

The morning of the feast, in the central square.

“Are you sure that we can eat it raw? The meat looks softer than others but wouldn’t we get sick from eating it like this?”

All who heard the villager also looked to Karl, expectantly of his answer.

“It’s not technically raw. I told you that the meat should be marinated in an acid liquid, making it lose its raw taste. Also, we don’t need to be concerned about getting sick, since the meat is fresh and the acid would take care of any unhealthy substances. Although is strange, after eating it the cold will become more bearable…”

Despite Karl’s explanation, the villagers weren’t looking forward to eating the uncooked meat.

However, for them, Karl’s words were equal to the knowledge of the Origin so they would try this delicacy.

Karl, also thought it was strange when Master Al told him the best way of extracting the nutrients of water meat.

Karl asked the villagers to cut the meat into very small parts and let it rest for hours in the juice of an acid fruit. The fruit was commonly used in the village to treat stomach pains, so the villagers weren’t against using it, but eating uncooked meat was a different subject.

The day quickly passed and evening came, since the villagers were used to the central square heating formation, they change the time of the feasts for the back to the early evening. Since the magically inexperienced villager body would require a lot of time and energy to properly digest the nutrients, it would be preferable to sleep after the feast.

As usual, Chief Omero would do a speech before the feast. He was always excited about it, but after Diana got badly hurt he was a little depressed. He knew that they would have to make sacrifices to achieve their goals but living through it was a different matter.

Diana was raised to be a survivor, so Omero always thought that she would be okay and now she was paying the price for his ambitions. But what was the alternative? He had carefully prepared today’s speech but at the last minute, he decided to talk from his heart, it was risky but if the villagers didn’t see his suffering how would they get inspired by his words?

“Today is a very important day. We used to think of winter as the most terrible time for the village, we lost many loved ones for it. But look at what we accomplished, winter is here and we’re out in the open, eating meat that we hunted from the beasts that we used to fear. For this, we should be very grateful and happy... ”

“But I’m not, I’m scared... My granddaughter got badly hurt while she was hunting... I’m afraid because I wasn’t there for her…”

When the Chief started the villagers were feeling happy and proud, but now they were also afraid, like him.

“But when I told her to quit hunting, quit trying to make the village a better place, she asked me: ‘For what? What’s our alternative? Should we just die from cold or starving? Should we send our friends to be slaves? What’s the alternative?’ Then, she told me that she is free… When she’s out there, she’s finally free. This wasn’t a defeat, nobody died, 17 young villagers slew 11 strong beasts. Imagine what we will be capable of in the future?  Nobody is gonna give us freedom, we’ll have to earn it and take it! To freedom!”

Chief Omero pointed his fist to the sky as a sign of defiance and strength and so did all the villagers.

‘The time is coming, next winter... I think we can wait one more year...’

Old Bill wasn’t affected by the sadness and fear inspired by the ‘I’m afraid’ part of the speech, he knew what Omero was doing. However, the reason for his pleased mood was his granddaughters.

He didn’t encourage them to be leading stars like Diana, this didn’t suit their personalities. But he wanted them to grow in the team and carve their way in the village uprising, and they were doing it perfectly, from what he learned, they killed three wolves without taking a scratch.

Similar to Diana, Old Bill also taught them how to fight from early. Unfortunately, they were younger and didn’t have the same drive as the young Diana. Probably because their parents were still alive. Sadly, tragedy could serve as a great incentive, but now the twins were finally catching up to Diana and making their marks.

Samia was also very excited about today’s feast. Usually, she wasn’t very expressive, not because she didn’t felt anything but because she preferred to keep her thoughts to herself. She looked at her sister smiling and talking with the villagers.

Sania was also happy. She liked being part of the team, but she thought that they were too naive. Also, she didn’t agree with the Chief’s approach. Of course, they should share the meat between the villagers, but if it was up to her, she would reserve a part of the meat to increase the development of the hunter’s team.

Additionally, she would increase the number of teens training and the number of hunts they did. Every time they went out, they might find a different type of beast or different materials, so they should do it more.

Chief Omero also considered focusing more on the hunter’s team and investing in more hunts. But he chose to slowly increase their experience and create a more united village. Experience told him that it was better to push towards a more egalitarian community than to create a group of elite heroes. In his opinion, it was better to make everyone stronger than making a select group special.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t push everyone past the ordinariness without a leading group, so he was trying to even them as much as possible.

‘I really don’t understand why we have to wait in line to get our servings, like everyone else. Since we’re the ones that hunted, we should get it first... Since I’m not doing anything now, I guess it’s ok...’

Opposite to her sister, Samia didn’t care about having to wait in line, for her it was just inconvenient.

The villagers that took their cold servings with the sliced meat and fruits hesitated a little before tasting it, but after they saw someone else eagerly eating, they decided to try it.

Samia looked expectantly at their reactions, the ones the tried it, shivered a little before smiling and taking some more. Since the villagers didn’t have cutlery, they could only take one piece at a time.

When she tried a small piece, the first sensation was a cold feeling that made her shiver, but when she started to taste it she felt the acidity mixed with another flavor she didn’t recognize.

When she swallowed it, she felt a refreshing sensation and a slightly spicy aftertaste. Samia smiled unknowingly.

Karl thought that the taste was very amusing, he had taken two pots of serving and had given one to the resting Diana before tasting his. She, on the other hand, didn’t like it very much, her preferences were already being influenced by the use of the fire crystal, so she preferred hot foods.

She asked Karl if he could heat her serving, but he refused, if heated it the magic nutrients would be lessened. Diana only quieted down when she heard that the magic nutrients would speed her recovery.

Soon, the feast was over and everyone besides the elders and the sick went back to their huts. Surprisingly, the snow was easier to bear now.

The villagers weren't very attentive to festive dates. Previously, they couldn't afford to celebrate. After the other elders slept, Chief Omero met with Bill and Marlen outside the community pavilion to discuss some plans. He looked thoughtfully to the falling snow and said:

“I was thinking, we should be around New Year... We could even say that today was our first New Years' celebration...”