I got to the village just as the sun was on the horizon, the first thing I did was go up to the butchers to sell the ‘deer’ I caught. From outside the shop it looked exactly as I would expect, it was a medium sized shop with a window covering most of the wall next to the door. Behind the window was the carcass of multiple animals with sections marked in ink that said what each part was and how much that cut would cost per kg of meat.

Inside the shop was a small gnome man, only coming up to my elbow, who looked a little grumpy and had a lot of wrinkles so I imagined he was pretty old. As I walked into the shop I called out ‘hey sir, I was wondering if you would be interested in buying this game that I hunted on my way here.’

The gnome butcher looked at the ‘deer’ on my back for a second before waving me closer. I went up to him and carefully placed the animal onto a counter that was already covered in blood so I assumed it was where he did most of the butchery. He took a minute inspecting the ‘deer’ while I waited nervously before declaring ‘It’s a fine specimen, the field dressing was a bit sloppy but none of the meat is inedible. Best I can do is 2 bronze coins.’

There were five main denominations of value on Nero, each worth ten times more than the last, starting at tin and ending at platinum. If you needed more than 100 platinum coins then you would start working with precious gems, but that was only for extremely rich people so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. The denominations went Tin < Bronze < Silver < Gold < Platinum, so 2 bronze coins would be the same as 20 tin coins.

This wasn’t much but it didn’t seem like there was much meat on this creature so it was almost fair except I knew that the culture here heavily relied on haggling. ‘I see, it took me most of the day to hunt that so I was hoping for at least 5 bronze coins’ I said, a bit uncomfortable as I had never haggled before.

‘For the amount of meat and its quality I can’t go above 3 bronze coins’ the gnome said clearly used to this situation.

‘4 bronze coins’ I said, seeing where this was going and just wanting to get this over with.

‘fine’ the gnome said, not showing any emotion as if this was expected, just getting the money out and giving it to me before immediately getting to work without even waiting for me to leave the shop. With the deer sold I said goodbye to the butcher and started to wander around the village. It was pretty small with only around 200 houses in total, it also had a market square in the centre of the village with a few permanent shops surrounding it as well as the village hall and an inn.

Today wasn’t a market day so it was practically empty but I was sure that it would be full on the weekends when no one was working and would be able to do the weekly shopping. The permanent stores were a potion maker, a blacksmith, and the butchers that I had just left. Unfortunately I didn’t have much spare money and it was getting late so I went straight to the inn.

As I walked through the wooden door I was instantly assaulted with the pungent odour of sweat, alcohol, varnish, and a little bit of blood. The inn was made mostly out of wood similar to everything else and looked pretty rundown, they must not get many travellers going through the village. There weren’t many people here even though it was almost night-time so either there were better places for a drink or the drinking would start later.

I didn’t really care either way so I walked over to the nearest seat at the bar before placing a bronze coin on it saying, ‘I’d like a drink and meal of whatever is standard around here as well as a room for the next 6 nights.’

The barmaid, a muscular half-orc woman about 7 foot tall that looked like she could crush my skull between any two of her muscles, just nodded at me before replying ‘that’ll be one bronze coins for the room per night and five tin for the meal and drink tonight so in total that’s 6 bronze coins and 5 tin coins’ and turning around to start getting my order ready.

I placed six more bronze coins on the counter as I wanted to get breakfast here as well. About five minutes later my order was put in front of me with a set of keys ‘room is number 3 on the first floor, the baths are at the end of the row, the toilets are around back’ the barmaid said sounding bored. My meal was a plain stew with a piece of bread on the side with a pint of cider.

The stew was surprisingly nice even though it didn’t have many herbs or spices in it, the meat was tender and the ingredients had mixed their tastes to perfection. The bread was very soft and still warm from being baked; the cider was better than I was expecting. I had never particularly liked alcohol in my old life but I highly doubted a tavern like this would have water that was safe to drink. The whole meal left me feeling full and content.

When I had finished my meal I got down from the bar and switched my tail as I said, ‘Thanks for the meal.’ to the barmaid as I picked up my key to my room and went up to my room. The room was pretty small, just enough for a single bed and a wardrobe to keep my clothes in. Tired from all the walking I had done over the past two days I quickly got undressed before slipping under the quilt and falling asleep.

The next morning I woke up well rested and went down to have some breakfast, some scrambled eggs with bits of bacon in it, then went about my business. I just walked around the village for about two hours taking it all in, everyone here seemed very nice, saying good morning to me as I walked past without any hint of distrust or loathing.

During my old life I had always heard stories about how isolated places like this village tended to not like strangers as they usually brought change with them. I was quite happy to find out that it wasn’t true here at all.

After that I asked around where the library was before making my way there. It was pretty run down and didn’t seem particularly popular as not many people could afford to waste time reading, even if they knew how to, but it had a few people in it reading on a long table that had two benches on either side. It also had a reception area with a female elf that was tucked into a book herself.

I walked up to the desk and cleared my throat to get her attention before asking ‘Hi, do you have any books about the current geopolitical situation, a bestiary on local monsters, as well as one on local flora and fauna, and a book about any recent history. I am new around here and want to get to know the area as best that I can.’

The receptionist was a bit startled as she looked up at me before saying ‘yes, of course, I’ll show you to the non-fiction area and pick out some books that should be what you are looking for.’ Before getting up and walking down one of the aisles, stopping every so often to pick up a book and handing it to me.

Once I had reached five books the receptionist turned back to me and said ‘that should be enough for now, if you need any more they will be in this aisle or the next one over’ before turning around and going back to her desk. I quickly made my way to one of the tables before sitting down, making sure to keep a decent distance between me and any fellow scholars.

The first book I looked through was about the local countries with a bit explaining their history and what they were like. The country I was currently in was a small landlocked duchy called Northern Lidan, its population was quite varied, not really favouring one race above the others, it was surrounded directly with four countries, one on each cardinal direction, it was quite a peaceful country and had good relations with the surrounding countries.

In the north was the Cafluogua empire, which was essentially a giant forest, even bigger than the one I currently reside in, populated and run by elves. It was mostly closed off to outsiders as they were very protective of their forest but they weren’t expansionists, instead just wanting to be mostly left alone unless they needed something. They allowed certain merchants to work in their empire and pass through but you had to get a certificate that was apparently pretty hard to obtain.

To the south was the Laspearia tribes, a large steppe that a bunch of nomadic tribes roamed around having never settled. Most of them were a specific race as they didn’t like to mingle with anyone outside of the tribe. If anyone started to question the status quo then they would be exiled and most likely end up settling in one of the countries that bordered the steppes.

The reason they were nomadic was that the area wasn’t fertile enough for farming so they relied solely on hunting and gathering. If they settled one specific area then they would over work it causing it to become a baron wasteland. This was also the reason that no countries had invaded them, the land just wasn’t worth losing soldiers over.

The eastern country was called Broqua and was a mountainous region filled with artisans of many races but mostly the smaller races such as dwarves, gnomes and halflings, as it was easier for them to build into the side of a mountain. Some of the greatest inventions come from here and any artisan that wants to become a master in their craft will go here to seek tutelage. Unfortunately most of them end up being turned away as it took a lot of energy to take on an apprentice.

The western country was called Ethenum, it was a standard country about double the size of northern Lidan. There wasn’t really much special about Ethen other than apparently it had been around for 1000 years, which technically made it the oldest country on the continent. Cafluogua officially became a country 900 years ago even if they say that they have been around for much longer before that.

Once I was done learning all I could from the book the sun had set so I put the book back before taking the rest with me after making sure it was ok with the librarian and going to the inn. I left the books in my room before going back down to have dinner, tonight was shepherd’s pie and cider which was just as good as my dinner yesterday.

I then spent most of the next week reading over the rest of the books either in my room or in the library while taking a few breaks to walk around the village. A few nights I also talked to the barmaid about the new dungeon that had opened near here just loud enough to make sure that anyone else in the bar could hear me, hopefully it would help get me some traffic.

The rest of the information I gathered was pretty useful for my dungeon but other than that it was pretty boring so at the end of the week I returned the books and then went on my way back to the dungeon in the morning. As I had already gone through this area I was just daydreaming while walking down the path when I heard a high-pitched scream that sounded pretty close.

Going into autodrive I dropped down to a crouch as I took out my bow and knocked an arrow before slowly moving forward towards the sound. It didn’t take me long to find out what made the scream, a human lady that was unconscious and being approached by four goblins, probably from the same group that I passed on my way to the village during my hunt.

First I had to get rid of the goblins so I put my bow away before quickly climbing a tree and sitting on a branch that was too high for them to reach but low enough that the canopy didn’t obscure my shots. I prepared my shot again as I looked over them to choose my target, most of them looked to just be carrying clubs with no armour or shields except for one that looked thinner and carried a bow and arrow.

I cleared my head of any thoughts about what I was about to do and just focused on my aim before I let the arrow loose. It struck the archer goblin in the chest striking either one of its lungs or its heart as it instantly fell over dead. Before the rest of the goblins could react I shot two more arrows at one goblin each, killing both almost immediately.

The last goblin ran over to me to try and climb the tree, which is what I expected. I put the bow away, took out my dagger and dropped off of my branch onto the goblin and drove my knife into its skull and twisted it. I heard a pop that almost made me throw up before the goblin fell to the floor, joining his ‘friends’.

With all the goblins down I checked to make sure they weren’t getting up again before I went over to the lady. On closer inspection I wasn’t sure what gender they were as they had long hair and were wearing a dress (well I assumed it was a dress, all that was left was a bunch of rags that kind of resembled a dress), but they had a masculine face with a bit of stubble and had a masculine build.

Until they could tell me otherwise I just decided to refer to them as they/them. They didn’t seem too injured, luckily, but they were bleeding from their forehead a lot so I emptied my waterskin onto it before ripping a strip out of my sleeve and using it to clear any leftover blood. The cut looked pretty bad, being about five inches long, and would need stitches.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a Medi-kit on me and I couldn’t materialise things while out of the dungeon so I ripped another strip out of my dress and used it as a bandage. I then thoroughly checked over them for other injuries, not finding anything, before picking them up and rushing the rest of the way to the dungeon.