Having realized that he spent the last period of travel mostly without checking out his new harness, Niphru decided to focus on that, examining the enchantments built into it.  While he wasn’t exactly an enchanter, he did at least know the basics, so it also served as a good learning opportunity.

 

The foremost crystal focused on strengthening anything attached to it, which he felt was an excellent choice, given he had always attached the pouch with his mana stone there.  Considering that the one time he had been separated from it, he had, for lack of a better term, died, he felt that keeping it safe and nearby was his primary requirement from any equipment.

 

Apparently, the mages who produced the new harness were aware of the importance since they had prioritized the safety of anything stored at his chest.  A quick examination of the other enchantments revealed that no others were designed to do anything similar.

 

One of the others, which took up a large section on his back, was designed to transfer the weight of the harness more evenly, making incredible use of the principle of spells having a counterforce.  Somehow, it shifted a focal point around, using that to push upward with force magic on the heaviest section and the counterforce to push down on the opposite side.

 

He had wondered why it seemed more comfortable than the old one but hadn’t quite noticed that effect, merely that it felt more comfortable.  Clearly, he would have to ask who made it, as they must be quite talented in force magic.

 

The others were far, far less impressive, though they’d have been very useful if he was alone.  There was a simple water-gathering crystal, which pulled water from the air.  Another one kept a small breeze blowing when activated.  A third produced a small flame on demand, something he doubted he would ever use, given that he had his foxfire as well as fire magic of his own.

 

The second to last one was quite interesting, however.  It used earth magic to compress the ground under it, and when he asked, he learned that it was originally designed to ensure a sturdy and flat base for a tent to be anchored upon.  Since neither Dawn nor himself were terribly good with earth magic, it would prove to be quite useful if they were out without the rest of the group they’d been working with.

 

The last enchantment was extremely simple as well, simply powering a small light a few feet above the harness.  He also doubted he would ever use this one, as Dawn could use light magic, he had good night vision, and he had his foxfire as well, giving him three alternatives he could use.

 

If it was for anyone but a mage, the enchantments would run dry quickly, in some cases, at least.  The force magic one on his back would falter within a few days if he didn’t feed it the mana it needed but instead let the mana stone take the burden.  This made him very glad that he had accepted the drain without questioning it, as a mana stone that large would be difficult to replace once it wore down from repeated discharging.

 

As best as he could tell, most of the harness seemed to have been made by someone with a goal of simple generic tools, and then an expert had added the two more advanced aspects later.  Given that one dealt with strength, he guessed that Morris may have had a hand in it, since earth was often related to it conceptually.

 

The more generic enchantments had only taken a few minutes to figure out, but the one on the front that protected his mana stone was complex enough it had taken several hours to puzzle out.  The one on the back was much more difficult, taking several days—and actual experimentation—to understand.

 

By the time he had determined what they all did, they had almost arrived at the next village.  Niphru had been so focused on the task he had set himself that he didn’t remember what the others had called it, and he didn’t want to look foolish for not knowing, so he just went along with calling it ‘the village’ like the others were.

 

Instead of the normal peaceful trip into the village, they ran across numerous animals roaming the plains.  Clearly, something was wrong if they had made it beyond the village.

 

This one was beside a lake, and, oddly, it had a wall facing the lake that was covered in spikes.  More disturbingly, the wall appeared to be covered in dried blood.  The other walls seemed to be in poor repair, and the reason why became clear as they approached.

 

Once they made it to the cleared area around the walls, they saw numerous corpses of different animals, some mutated, others unchanged.  The number of predators was surprisingly high, considering that they generally had large territories within the wilderness and rarely approached the edge near the villages.

 

Additionally, the walls were all manned by people wielding slings, a rather unusual sight.  It was rare for a village to actually need their walls, let alone need to have them watched continually.

 

Eventually, they made it inside and spoke with the elder of the village, finding that the group of warriors from the church had not returned in over a week since they went into the forest.  During that time, creatures occasionally left the forest, and not all of them were stopped by walls, some of them climbing over and attacking people both during the day and night.  This explained the guards atop the walls.

 

Furthermore, the lake was more active recently, with some of the amphibious animals fruitlessly dashing themselves upon the wall.  It seemed they were more worried about dealing with the corpses and clearing the plains behind the village than defense, though, to be fair, they had killed quite a bit just outside the walls.

 

When asked why they hadn’t disposed of the corpses, the elder laughed and remarked, “We have no mages, and very limited firewood.  With the forest so dangerous, we can’t get more wood to burn them.  We’ve been occasionally throwing them into the lake, but the attacks from that direction got worse, so we aren’t doing that too often.”

 

On the other hand, they simply didn’t want to burn down the grassland, despite it being part of their job of protecting the plains.  Hearing this, Morris simply told Niphru to go ignite them, and he gladly left, leaving the talks to the others and taking Dawn with him since this village didn’t know him.

 

It only took a few moments to reach the walls from the elder’s house, and from there, he could easily hurl bolts of flame into the grass.  While they did weaken quite a bit over the distance, simply lighting grass on fire was easy enough.

 

Interestingly, some of the villagers cheered when they saw the smoke rising from the plains, and he couldn’t help but ask about it.  While they were wary of the talking fox, seeing Dawn following him with no concern seemed to relieve some of their worries.  It turned out their previous elder had died two months prior from a heart attack, and the one to take over wasn’t exactly performing their duties well.

 

Following that bit of information was a mention that they shouldn’t blindly follow their orders.  After a short discussion with Dawn as they walked back, they met up with the group again at the elder’s home just in time to hear Morris shouting at him.

 

As they walked in, he glanced over at them, a deep scowl on his face, then turned back to the elder and firmly stated, “Since you can’t handle your own village, you are no longer in charge, and I will be directing things from now on.  Call for a meeting of the entire village.  Now.”

 

While the man scurried outside, cursing the whole time, Dawn and Niphru rejoined the rest of the group as Morris sighed.  After shaking his head, he looked up again and asked, “Dawn, Lisryn, Viera, you’ve got more experience than the others in how villages actually function; what would you suggest we do?  If your ideas are good, I don’t mind implementing them.”

 

Lisryn hummed under her breath for a moment before shaking her head and replying, “I should let the others speak first.”

 

Dawn frowned as she thought, then stated, “Either the elder, I mean former elder, is a coward, or the villagers are, and I don’t think they would have survived if they were.  More active beasts just means you can’t send out small groups of people.  When it got bad at our village, my mother told people to group up with multiple hunters.  It should be possible to get wood to burn the corpses if we do that.”

 

Viera nodded, adding, “I was going to say the same thing.  We should also be careful of the lake.  I can send lights into the water to make it easier to spot anything trying to approach while we are busy elsewhere.  Fire won’t work very well there, so a handful of villagers with slings are the best bet if something does attack.  We should also find out the situation with food.  If there isn’t an abundance of food, we could use some of the bodies outside.”

 

Lisryn smiled at their ideas before joining in as well, “Both of those are good ideas.  You missed that we don’t need as many guards as are currently on the walls.  Nor do all of them need that many people, even if an attack happens.  We are facing wild animals, not soldiers or bandits.  One or two people can easily sound an alarm, and there will be time for others to get ready and join them.  We also need to talk with the villagers and get to know them better.”

 

She paused for a moment to take a breath before continuing, “It seems they are well-armed already, since they seemed pretty confident when I was examining them.  It is possible, however, that everyone who can use a sling well was on the walls, however foolish that would be.  I don’t trust that man to not work people to the bone with how he was acting.  I didn’t see any farms when we arrived, so we should ask about those as well, and get them properly maintained again if they have any.”

 

After taking another quick break, she resumed, “And we need to know what happened with the group from the church.  We didn’t send our best, but they weren’t pushovers either, and they should have reported back by now.  Morris, do you think your hawk could help with that?  Niphru as well, maybe?”

 

Morris nodded, replying, “Those are all good ideas, and we can start with them.  I’ll ask Kel to take a look from above, but I’m worried about his safety, so he will not be checking too closely.  Niphru, the choice is up to you if you want to go into the wilderness.  We can’t take the whole group this time, however, so there is much more risk.”

 

Niphru paused to think before stating, “Before anything else, we need the villagers to know who I am and accept me.  I don’t want to run back and get attacked.”

 

This caused everyone other than Dawn to pause before Morris slowly responded, “I’d honestly forgotten about that being a problem, Niphru.  Is that why you never strayed from the group in the last village as well?”

 

To this, Niphru nodded and remarked, “Yes, I can use my illusions to appear human, but that won’t work if I’ve got to move quickly.  I’m surprised no one said anything about me not using any at our last stop.”

 

“Alright, it sounds like we have a good starting point thought out, so let’s wait for the village to gather and explain the changes we are making.”