The first thought to pass through Jack’s head was ‘Magic!’.

The second thought passed too fast for it to be truly understood, before it came blurting out of his mouth.

“I only get it now?!” he yelled.

“What happen?” Mrk asked, already on his feet.

“I got offered a new Class. |Skirmisher|. And a Spell.”

“Mrk thinks this good thing. Why Jack mad?”

“Jack mad because I can’t accept it. I already have five Classes and even that’s a stretch.”

There had never been a moment when Jack had hated his |Forest Cook| Class more than he did then. And hated himself for accepting it.

“Mrk sees. Jack take one more Class, Jack become real Jack. Mrk is sorry.”

“It’s ok, buddy. Not your fault. But this shit is just so…. Ugh!”

“Shit is ugly.”

“Yeah… Though I guess I kind of get it. I had that fight with Louis, but it was probably too uneventful to get a Class out of it. My first real fight was with the monsters. And even that didn’t get me a |Warrior| Class, only a |Skirmisher| one. I just wish I could have gotten it sooner.”

The text was there, every time Jack closed his eyes. Waiting for him to make a decision. Unfortunately, there was never a real decision to make.

“No, I don’t want it. No sixth Class for me.” Jack finally said.

|Class Refused|

“I’m starting to think I’ll have to make do with what I have, Mrk. Kind of puts a dent in my whole become-a-warrior option for the future.”

“Mrk not happy for this. But Jack said Jack got spell?” he asked.

Jack knew his friend was only trying to distract him, but as far as distractions went, that was a big one.

I’m an idiot. What am I doing, mopping around after a Class for? I got magic!

“I can’t believe I almost forgot about that… I got a spell, Mrk! A real, magical spell!”

“Mrk is happy for Jack.” His friend grinned. “What spell do?”

“Uh, it’s called |Ensnaring Vines| so I guess it makes vines… that ensnare people?”

“Jack very wise.”

“Oh, shut up! Not my fault it’s called like that.”

“Mrk wants to see.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Jack was tired. And fatigued. And she should have gone to sleep hours ago. But there was absolutely no chance of that happening, not when there was something this exciting to test.

“|Ensnaring Vines|” Jack called out, with more volume than necessary.

It is at this point that one fact becomes apparent. Magic should not be used lightly. One should always aim magic. Because if one does not aim his spells, by will of otherwise, they will latch on to the nearest available target. That was the sign of a poor magic user, which Jack very much was.

“Aaagh!”

Vines came shooting out of the ground, catching hold of Mrk’s feet and ensnaring them. They didn’t do something other than that, they just affixed Mrk’s feet firmly to the ground, which caused the ratling to lose balance and fall down.

“Oh, sorry Mrk! I didn’t mean to… target you. Woo… sleepy…”

***

Jack woke up when the sun was already high in the sky, feeling like someone took a hammer to the back of his head. It wasn’t a migraine. Migraines were known factors. This headache was a death of the soul.

Of course, Jack could have also been exaggerating in his internal complaining.

Groggily, he stepped out of his shelter, frowning at the sun. He noticed Mrk was already up, as usual and tending to things.

“Hey Mrk.”

“Jack! Jack is good?” he asked, worriedly.

“Uh… yeah. Why?”

“Jack fell. Jack fell when use Spell.”

“Oh…” he said, remembering. “So that’s why I feel like shit. Did I hit my head on something?”

“No. Jack fell on grass. Mrk would have caught, but Mrk was tied.”

Jack grimaced.

“Yeah, sorry about that buddy. I guess I have to aim this thing.”

Mrk shrugged and ushered Jack to his usual spot, by the fire, pushing a bowl of hot stew into his hands. Once again, Jack felt bad at having accepted a |Forest Cook| Class, when Mrk did all the cooking. At least he got a good Skill out of it. Still, the stew brought him out of his thoughts. While he had been tired, he had forgotten just how hungry he was. But now that he slept… It sufficed to say that not a lot of words were exchanged until he finished munching down his first bowl.

“Jack, Mrk been thinking.” His friends said, while Jack went for a second portion.

“What about?”

“Why Jack get spell?”

That was something that Jack thought about as well. He wanted magic, true, but up until now he had no magical aptitude. He didn’t even know how to go around obtaining it. Swinging a self-made club enough times might reward one with a fighting Class, but how to you practice magic? There was only one answer that really made sense to Jack.

“I think it’s because of the Gift.”

“Gift from Dryad?”

“Yeah. I mean, think about it. When I used her Gift on those monsters, giant roots and vines came out of the ground. Sure, they acted like spikes or ropes, since they either impaled or chocked the monsters, but they were vines.”

“And crushed.”

“Yeah, that too. So, I’m guessing that my Spell is what’s left of the gift. I didn’t become a warrior or got to have more Classes than normal, true, but I feel like this Spell is tied-in with the Gift. Like… well done, you used the Gift like it should have been used, here’s a little something extra.”

“Mm. Mrk not understand magic.”

“That makes two of us.” Jack laughed.

He drained the last of the stew and stood up. Truthfully, he should have been more shocked at finally having magic. Happier, at least. But enough things have happened to Jack that he was now just taking them as they came.

“So, want to try the Spell out gain?”

“Yes. But no more targeting Mrk.” the ratling responded, shaking a finger.

“Of course, not. I promise. But accidents happen, right?”

“If accident happen, Mrk accidentally bite Jack.”

“Fair enough.”

It turned out that the |Ensnaring Vines| Spell didn’t need a living target. Jack learned that he could ‘ensnare’ pots, a tree, a stick planted in the ground. He could also just have the vines sprout in a clear patch of land. But if he did, that, they lost their mobility after a few seconds of wiggling.

Not good for traps then.

Jack also learned that using this Spell repeatedly took something out of him. He didn’t know exactly what it took, but he got tired quite fast. After the fourth attempt, he had to sit down.

“Alright, good news is that I can use it multiple times. Bad news is that after the third time, I get woozy. So, not that powerful, but still good to have.”

“Yes. Also, vines not last too long.”

“What do you mean?”

“After Jack fell, Mrk had to rip vines to be free. Ripped vines, dragged Jack in shelter. When I come back, vines are dust. So, not last long.”

“I see. Well, they’re not natural. I guess they only last as long as the Spell makes them last.”

“True. But. Mrk thinks Spell is very good. Very good because not needs Class to use.”

“That’s… true. Huh, I didn’t even think about that. I mean, I can’t become a warrior or something else, not with as many Classes as I have. But I think I could learn magic… somehow.”

“Mrk says Jack use spell when he can. Now Mrk says Jack get up. We has work.”

“We do? What work?”

As a response, Mrk just pointed.

Some distance away from the fire, the corpses of the monsters lay. Of course, it wasn’t far enough not to notice, but Jack’s mind had simply chosen to forget the grueling task ahead.

“Right. That work.”

The tasks at hand weren’t hard, not harder than building a shelter out of nothing, so to say. But they were somewhat disgusting. Neither Jack nor Mrk had any experience with butchering before, but they still had to tediously skin the hides of the Rockhide wolves. Which, given their namesake, had a very, very resilient hide. It was slow work. The fangs and claws of said wolves also had to be removed, as well as certain internal organs.

The slime coated rabbits were easier, in that nothing was required out of them, except the slime itself. Which Jack and Mrk deposited in a number of clay pots. At last, the rock looking monsters were easiest. Elia said they weren’t the ‘right variant’ of monsters to harvest their eyes, so she only had them remove certain pebbles off of their ‘skins’.

And after they had finished with their harvesting, the two still had to make a trip into the village, carrying the more perishable items, which in this case meant the wolves pelts and internal organs. The pebbles and slime were to be carried off the next day, when neither of them felt like dropping down and taking an impromptu nap.

Though, even as tired as they were, Elia’s exuberance was still infecting. She sat them down and served them food. Which didn’t help with the drowsiness at all, but it was nice to eat cheese and meat for a change.

Their last track was building a mass pyre and burning all the unusable parts.

Pretty sure the Nymph would have taken offense at this.

Which would have been most likely true, since the resulting smoke smelled foul and fogged part of the clearing, even if most of it went straight up.

As Jack went to sleep that evening, he felt pretty good for all the hard work he and Mrk had done. Elia promised them a profit. The Winnow’s had been taken down a notch. He and Mrk could do whatever they wanted in the forest. He wished he could have taken everything to Elia, but there were only so many hours in a day.

I’ll take the slime and everything else tomorrow. There’s no rush.

Thinking that, he fell asleep.

***

Three days had passed since Jack had gone to Elia with the first batch of resources. The first day after that, Jack felt he didn’t really feel like making the trek. He had won a fight with monsters. He deserved some downtime, so he preferred to help Mrk with the garden. The second day, it rained. First time it ever happened and Jack was too busy enjoying himself and slipping on wet grass to get on with his task. The third day… There wasn’t any real reason why he didn’t do anything on the third day. He just didn’t take the materials to Elia. Didn’t even think about it.

It was on the mourning of the fourth day, when Jack received a visit from Lola.

“Hi Jack? How’ve you been?”

“Hey. Good. I’ve been… here. Not much. Hey, it rained yesterday, did you know that?”

Lola looked at him funnily, before handing him a clay vial.

“What’s this?” he asked her.

“A tonic. You should drink it.”

“Uh… that’s kind of weird. Why do I need a tonic?”

“Jack, please!” she said. “It’s… I’ll tell you after.”

He looked at her, tying to make heads or tails of the situation, but finally shrugged. Lola was Lola. She wouldn’t give him bad things. He downed the tonic.

And felt something lift from his eyes.

“What…? What happened? I feel like I just woke up.”

“Elia was right. Something happened to you.”

“Yeah… But what?”

“We’re not sure. Elia got wind of the Winnow’s buying a magical curse of some kind. Since they only had a few major targets and she wasn’t affected… Well. Who else would they have targeted?”

“A curse? But I didn’t feel cursed. I just felt… I can’t even describe it. I felt kind of like I was in a dream. Everything just… happened. That was it?”

She shrugged, though she looked concerned.

“Probably? Elia didn’t know what it was or even if it had affected you. But you not coming over with the rest of the materials was odd. She did think that what they placed on you couldn’t have been major, since the Winnow’s buying something truly dangerous would have made waves. So she made that ‘tonic’ that I’ve gave you. Which was general purifying… brew… I think she called it? Or maybe that was one of the ingredients. Still, she told me to give it to you and only tell you what it was after you drank it.”

“Right. Uh, why?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged again. “But that |Potioner| Class seems to be paying off.” She smiled.

“True.” He laughed. “This thing with the curse though… the Winnows should pay for this.”

“They did, kind of. Even if it was a minor curse, it still cost them a lot or so Elia says. It not working on you, for more than a few days… I’m sure Mrs. Winnow will turn red next time she sees you.”

“Then I’ll make sure to visit the village right away.” He grinned. “Oh, by the way, guess what I can do now?” he grinned.

“What?”

“Magic.”

“What?!”

Jack repeated his performance, as he did with Mrk, to the amazement of Lola. She was beyond bewildered, first because she had never seen magic being done before and second because she couldn’t comprehend why Jack could do it in the first place. Even with the Gift-related explanation, Jack and Mrk still played the magic bit off as Jack-related shenanigans. Lola was less of a fan of that theory. Still, she couldn’t give a real reason for it either so, after the excitement of it grew down, she simply made Jack promise that he wouldn’t abuse his newfound power.

Right. Because I’m so not going to use this on Louis. Not at all.

Since he still had to go visit Elia, now three days too late, Jack used the opportunity to accompany Lola on her trek back. She offered to carry some of the things too and since Jack didn’t have any |Greater Strength| Skill, he didn’t put up much of a fight.

“How’s everyone in the village?” Jack asked, as they walked. “I didn’t get to ask.”

“They’re… fine. Certainly better than I remember them being the last time we had to fend off an attack.”

“I thought people would be angry with what happened with Melena. …and me.”

“They are. Well, everyone is angry with the Nymph, but with you… no, only a few. You saw them speaking up for you. I don’t think they consider you a knight in dashing armor just yet, but they certainly don’t think bad of you anymore.”

“Well, that’s good.” He grinned.

“Something of an understatement, but yes.” She laughed.

“And the village itself? I heard folk talk about rebuilding.”

“Not much was destroyed. Most monsters passed right through. Only the Ball Bats remained behind and caused a bit of damage. But that’s mainly them carrying people atop roofs to…”

“I get it. Did… anyone you know die?”

“A few. But no one I knew closely. Small village, Helmrest. You know that.”

“It’s big for me.” He shrugged. “What else do I have to compare it to?”

“True.”

“And the Winnows? Or, Louis? Still giving you and Elia trouble?”

“…no, oddly enough. I saw Louis, but he didn’t even look at me. He doesn’t stand in front of Elia’s shop anymore, either. And with the exception of this little spell they placed on you, his parents haven’t caused much fuss.”

“Huh. I’d have expected Mrs. Winnow to be shouting from the rooftops. You know, foaming at the mouth, bulging eyes and-“

It should be said that Jack has a decent imagination.

“Yes, funny, very funny.” She laughed. “But, no. All quiet from their side.”

“That’s weird.”

“I think so too. But… maybe they decided to lay low for a while? Until the villagers forget how they acted.”

“Yeah… maybe.”

The rest of their trek back to the village was uneventful. Serious subjects out of the way, they made small talk, hitting as many of the small subjects as they could. Boring subjects. The weather. How they could start hearing animals. Lola’s plan on buying a new tunic. Jack needing a bath. Getting some better foodstuffs. Jack needing a bath. Boring subjects to Jack, but Lola seemed to be somewhat insisting on that last one.

Entering the village itself was different from before. Jack was used to getting blank stares or people quietly ignoring him. The reactions this time around were more… varied.

Some frowned at him, true enough. But most were pleasant. Not pleasant in the sense that they smiled or waved, though a few did. Pleasant in the sense that they didn’t look like they still considered him an outsider. He was a known quantity. Perhaps even a likable one. For the first time, Jack felt like one of the villagers.

Which came with its own downsides.

“Lad, lad! You there, yes. You look like you know your way around a sword. But what about a club? Everyone needs a club!”

It took Jack a sweet second to realize that A, he was the one being addressed and B, the street vendor was actually trying to sell him something. The odd thing was that he was actually considering buying it.

Well, everyone does need a club.

Lola took him by the arm and dragged him off, before he could have his first encounter with reckless shopping.

“Don’t mind him.” She told him. “He tries to sell anything to everyone. And if you don’t have your wits about you, he’ll get you to buy too.”

“I wouldn’t buy just anything, Lola. But that looked like a pretty good club.”

She gave him a sly look.

“Really? Was it good? You’re sure it wasn’t just a branch with the bark ripped off?”

“I mean… it was. But… huh.”

She gave him another few seconds, before bursting out in laughter.

“Don’t feel bad, Jack. It was a Skill. Nobody knows what Skill exactly, but you learn to resist it after the first few attempts.”

“A Skill? That guy had a Skill? Wait, what’s his Class?”

“|Peddler|. He doesn’t deal in stolen goods… I think. But he doesn’t specialize either. He tries to buy and sell everything. Came to the village a couple of years ago to make a living.”

“I see. Didn’t think a Class like that existed. Did you know that was my first experience in being peddled?”

“Couldn’t imagine, Jack. How did it feel?”

“Kind of good, actually.” He grinned.

She only laughed in return.

They made it to Elia’s shop in no time. It was looking even better then the last time Jack had seen it. She had stalls, plural, outside of her shop, all full of neatly ordered bundles of herbs. More surprisingly was the small crowd, gathered in front of Elia’s shop. They found Elia herself inside, haggling with two customers at once. She motioned at them to wait. Jack used the time to glance around. If before, the inside of her shop was full of herbs, it was now full of jars. And vials. And pots. Containers might be a better word.

Elia finished with the two customers, before walking outside.

“Alright, everyone, I’m taking a short break. I’m closing the shop for a few minutes. Lola will be taking your orders and I’ll look at them once I’m done.” She said, closing the door behind them.

It seemed to Jack that Elia’s air of command only increased since the monster attack. He had no idea.

“It’s nice of you to close your shop for me, Elia, but I could have waited until you were done.”

“Are you serious? And make my favorite supplier wait?” she joked. “Oh, I see you brought the goods!”

She’s looking at the pot of slime like a child looks at toys.

“Yup. Hope these last you a good long while, because I am not doing that again.”

“I know what you mean, Jack. Monster harvesting is never a nice activity. Though I think some people even get Classes out of it.”

“Ugh, no thank you. I’d rather not turn into a |Jack| from something lame like that.”

Elia looked up from her inspection and peered at Jack curiously.

“Jack, there’s something I meant to discuss with you. I… want to ask you something. And then bounce an idea off of you.”

“Sure. Shoot.”

“First off, are you sure you don’t have any more hidden powers? I know you can’t get a new Class, not without risking it all, but is there something else you have that could make the forest a true refuge again?”

Her question somewhat blindsided Jack, but he did think of it seriously. He didn’t have the Gift anymore. He didn’t have good Classes and even if the ones he had Leveled up… he didn’t see how he would get combat Skills out of them.

“Not really, Elia. I’ve got a few Skills I could use in a fight, but they’re not made for fighting. I also got a Spell, but-“

“You got a what?”

The novelty of it was wearing off to Jack, but he still demonstrated his new Spell and described the circumstances in which he thought he had acquired it. By the end of it, Elia was impressed. Majorly impressed. But even she didn’t think it would be good enough to replace the Nymph.

“That Spell’s useful. It might become stronger or you might get stronger magic, but given that you yourself don’t know precisely how you got it, it’s a gambit.”

“Yeah.”

“So. This is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

She was fretting, Jack noticed clearly enough. The normally carefree Elia was fretting and looked like she hesitated to speak. When she finally opened her mouth, her voice was lower in tone, hesitant.

“The village is safe for now, Jack. But a new monster attack will come. That or bandits or something we didn’t even think off. We need to make it safer and… since I don’t think the forest is a true refuge anymore, we need to work on the village itself.”

She waited, looking at him.

Why is she so tensed?

“Alright. I mean, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. With Melena gone, people should start looking out for themselves.”

“Right? Because I though of it and Hemlrest is too big for a village. Too big to act like a normal village. We can’t just hope that danger doesn’t come our way, it will come our way. Even if it’s just because we have so many resources gathered in one spot.”

She was talking faster now.

“And I don’t think we can rely on the Winnows for protection. They only look after themselves and it’s not like Mr. Winnow did much to help the village after he became |Village Head|. Only fill his family’s coffers.” She frowned.

“How did he become |Village Head|? I never understood that.”

It was one of the things Jack couldn’t wrap his head around. Hemlrest was a nice village. The people were mostly alright, even if more judgmental than they had any right to be. But Mr. Winnow was a dick. Like his son was a dick. Different types of dicks, sure, but dicks all the same. The entire family was comprised of… well, Mrs. Winnow didn’t really fit into that analogy, but Jack hadn’t been working on it for long.

“Skills. Skills and coin, I guess. I wasn’t that interested in the entire affair, when it happened, but I got the gist of it.”

“Skills? How do you get elected using Skills?”

“You influence people. You saw what he did in the forest, right? He could do that even before he was the |Village Head|, thanks to his |Merchant| Class. Which also earned him a fair amount of coin. And that coin was put to good use swaying the opinions of others.”

“Wait so he bought his way into the position? He got a Class by… by… manipulating the minds of some villagers and buying the opinion of others?”

“Uh… it’s a little more complicated than that. He got elected as Village Head, but his |Village Head| Class only came some time later. He got that on his own, even though I’ve never seen him use a Skill that benefited the village instead of himself. Some Classes are like that, Jack. They give you Skills depending on what type of person you are.”

A manipulative jerk can get manipulative Skills. Good to know.

“And using those Skills… it’s not considered cheating, since you can resist them. Either because of your personality, because of your Class, your Skills or your sheer willpower. Even magical trinkets help or herb mixtures, like I make. So, doing that is in bad faith, but not exactly cheating.”

Her expression as she described his actions told Jack exactly how much she didn’t think what he did should have been considered cheating.

“But, anyway. Mr. Winnow is in power now and he doesn’t look like he’s helping. I’ve heard rumors that he’s meeting somebody from outside the village. Maybe to help, but I don’t think so. More likely, he’s just looking for a way to help himself and his own.”

She stopped again, looking at Jack.

“Right. With you so far.”

“And… after your help, which I very much appreciate, I came into more business than I’ve had since… ever. Made quite a bit of coin. Leveled up both my Classes. Also, after the monster attacks, I noticed that folks around here tend to respect me more. Sooo, given that Mr. Winnow won’t be of any help, that we desperately need help and that I don’t see a better way, I thought I should run for |Village Head| myself, but for that I need the coin I owe you, pleaseletmetellyoumyplan!”

“What?”

“I know I owe you a lot, Jack, both coin and gratitude, but I think this might really work!”

“Uh-“

“I’ve gotten better at my business, made more coin, but it’s not enough to influence things. And I’m not talking about buying people’s votes, believe me!”

“Elia-“

“No, please hear me out! I want to invest the money into businesses around the village, maybe hire a guard or two. It won’t be enough, but if it sways enough people to make me the new Village Head, I could make some real changes around here.”

She started talking quicker and her torrent of words was only growing stronger. It was becoming impossible for Jack to get a word in.

“I get, Elia, but-“

“Helmrest could finally become safe! I know I should be paying you and it goes against everything I stand for as a shop owner, but the monster parts are really valuable and I truly want to-“

“Elia!” Jack almost shouted. “It’s fine. I get it and I totally agree. I think you would be an excellent Village Head.”

The woman, who looked like she had prepared herself to rant for another half hour or so, was now open mouthed and silent. Of course, this being Elia, it only lasted for a few seconds.

“REALLY?! Oh, thank you, Jack! Thank you, thank you, you will not regret it!” she beamed. “And you’re not mad about the coin? I promise I’ll pay it back to you!”

“All good, Elia, really. I’ve made do with little coin before. Besides, Mr. Winnow and his family is… a plague. Honestly. Helmrest needs you, now more than ever.”

“Good. Uh… you really think I have a chance? I haven’t talked with anyone about this. Not even Lola.”

“Of course. You’re nice. You’ve built a good business. You’ve got Classes. And you care about the village.” Jack reassured her.

“Oh, thank the Gods!” she breathed out. “Do you know that I’ve been tearing my hair out over this for days? Now, here’s my plan!” She grinned.

Jack tried to grin too, but he knew what was coming. An excited Elia was a blast to the eardrums. Still, she was his friend, so he listened to her and heard her ideas for both winning the popular opinion as well as helping the village grow. He thought they were good, at least as far as the protection side went. He wasn’t that good with business. She also assured him that she would still pay him for materials gathered from the forest. It was only the coin for the monster parts she needed to fund her plan.

Jack left her shop half an hour later, facing a growing crowd and an exasperated Lola. He felt good about the day so far. Sure, he ‘lost’ some coin, but what was coin to him? He got to make Elia happy and maybe even lay the foundation for a better Helmrest. They villagers weren’t part of his forest or his clan, as Mrk would put it, but he felt… nice helping them.

So content that he was, he got distracted enough not to notice a salient fact. There was a crowd outside Elia’s shop. That was normal. Everyone from the crowd was staring in the same direction. That was less than normal. Jack turned to see what the fuss was about.

What he saw was a horse. Which was, again, normal. He’d seen a few until now.

What was not normal, was the full-blown knight riding atop it.