Davron was 9 annos old now and currently on his way back home, after fetching fresh water for his family.

Fresh water was needed every other day. It came from a small stream, which was located an hour away from the house.

“Ahh the weather was so nice today. Praise the sun! Who knew that the lack of a modern heater turned me from a winter boy into a summer boy Hahaha”[Davron]

“Brother, what are you talking about?”[Flora]

“Nothing.. I just got emotional cough”[Davron]

Flora had volunteered to accompany her brother me, because she wanted to pick a few mushrooms. Their family was poor, which meant that mushrooms, bread and plants were basic ingredients of their diets. Meat was too expensive for them.

Flora was 11 annos old and already started to develop womanly charms. You could already see two small hills protruding her clothes and her getting her first curves.

Maturing in this world was a bit bizarre, some village kids were maturing normally, while others were a couple annos ahead of their time. Davron and his sisters seemed to be the most extreme case of maturing ahead of one's age. Ellena had said that the reason was their bloodline, but she didn’t want to elaborate further.

Furthermore, the family connection apparently had nothing to do with their bloodline, so even Ellena didn’t know where it came from, only that it appeared right after Davron’s birth.

“Look, Dav! There is a Pink Head Mushroom, Luna loves those!”[Flora]

Flora was kneeling on the ground and showing Davron the mushroom, waiting for a praise.

Davron went up to her, grabbed her sides and picked her up.

“You did great, Flora”[Davron]

Flora put the mushroom into her basket and took my Davron’s hand. Then, they resumed their walk home.

It was a delightful walk home. Davron had to carry the water jug strapped to his back, however for he enjoyed it.

The siblings were already few meters away from their house. Suddenly, they heard a woman’s cry.

Davron left Flora and ran to the house. There, he saw two male and one female adventurer near his mother, who was lying on the floor crying.

He panicked. Random images and fears popped into Davron’s mind. His hand grabbed the knife strapped to his belt. Davron rushed to his mom.

The adventurers noticed Davron.

“Calm down, boy”[Male adventurer with glasses]

An adventurer noticed Davron rushing to them and tried to calm him down with a consoling tone.

“..Dav”[Ellena]

Ellena woke up from her stupor and noticed her son’s panic-stricken face.

“..everything is alright, they are my former adventurer party”[Ellena]

“Yes, now put away your knife and stop being so hotheaded”[Female adventurer]

“How did he die?”[Ellena]

The female adventurer looked to her two party members. They hesitated.

“I just want to know!”[Ellena]

“Puhh Okay, Ellena. It has happened 3 months ago. You know how Derik is, and that he liked to flirt with women..”[Fem. Adventurer]

Ellena’s face turned pale. She knew how Derik had been, before they married.

“..just tell me.”[Ellena]

“So.. ahmm, we didn’t want to hurt you.. Derik didn’t stop having intimate contact with other women, even after he got you pregnant.”[Fem. Adventurer]

Ellena’s fear came true. She violently tried to scratch the wooden floor with her fingernails.

“Mom..”[Davron]

“Cough, so 3 months ago, Derik got in a risky situation. He seduced the wife of a knight and with Derik’s luck the knight walked into them.. doing stuff. Derik immediately fled the scene. Unfortunately, he got chased by the knight and his companions”[Fem. Adventurer]

“And then?”[Ellena]

Ellena asked with empty eyes.

“The knight didn’t give up and Derik fled into the next best thing, a Grad 5 Dungeon. We waited for him for a month, but as expected, there were no signs of him”[Fem. Adventurer]

“He is really dead. Grade 5 dungeons are impossible for him.”[Ellena]

Ellena’s body tension collapsed. She had to accept the whole situation

Davron walked slowly to his mother and took her into his arms.

“Everything will be alright, I’m still here for you”[Davron]

“Mom, Luna and I also won’t leave you, don’t worry!”[Flora]

The adventurer party looked silently at the family. Then one of them took out a small pouch and gave it to Davron.

“We are sorry, for Derik’s behavior. Here, it’s not much, but we got together and gathered a small sum for you. We won’t distract you anymore, my condolences”[Glasses Adventurer]

They bowed in the end left.

Life was already hard. Derik’s money, that he gave them, was all spent. Furthermore, Ellena’s savings were already running dry, she even sold most of her old mage stuff. She couldn’t get much out of it in this remote location.

Davron looked at his mother and Flora. ‘I need to do something, we are already malnourished and our savings are running out. We can’t live out of our tiny land, especially not in the winter’

–

The next day, Davron decided to learn hunting.

‘I need a plan. First, I need to learn how to craft a bow. Buying a bow is expensive so a self-made one should suffice. Then I need to learn how to use the bow and how to skin my game’. Davron had already came up with a task list.

He told his family, that he was going to go collecting plants and that he will come back in the evening. At first, Flora wanted to accompany Davron, but he prevented her and told her she should watch their mother.

Davron went to the only smith in the village. ‘If you want to craft a bow, you need to see someone who knows how to craft it.’

The smithery was right beside the village market. Davron looked at the door for a few seconds and went inside.

“Woow”[Davron]

It was his first visit to the store. ‘Hmmm?’ Davron noticed the lack of weapons. There were a lot of hoes, shovels and knifes, but only a tiny amount of weapons. Fortunately, he discovered that there were still a good amount of bows. ‘It does make sense, hunters need bows. Too bad, I thought it would be more fantasy like, with glowing weapons or something like that.’

“Hoooo, aren’t you Ellena’s kid?”[Smith Guntharz]

“Yes, sir. I just wanted to see cool bows”[Davron]

“Bows? Do you want to become a hunter?”[Guntharz]

“Yes!”[Davron]

‘Oh man, I hate acting like a child’

“And what do you want from me? I doubt a kid has 1 silver Gulden for my cheapest bow, Hahaha”[Guntharz]

This world used The Gulden currency. Ellena had explained that you can’t counterfeit Gulden, because you need a special artifact to forge Gulden coins and only kingdoms owned it. Gulden was divided into 3 coins. The first was the copper Gulden, the second was the silver Gulden and the third coin was the gold Gulden. The gold Gulden was mostly used only by nobles, merchants or famous adventurers.

100 copper Gulden were equal to 1 silver Gulden and 1000 silver Gulden were equal to 1 golden Gulden. One loaf of bread costed 3 copper Gulden and a piece of meat costed 7 copper Gulden in the village. By the way, some people said Gulden and some called it coin.

“No, sir.. can I watch you craft a bow?”[Davron]

“Haha you want to steal my secrets? Ahh come her young man, coincidentally I need to craft two hunting bows”[Guntharz]

‘What a nice dude, but I bet playing the naive kid helped a lot too’ Davron laughed mentally.

The smith led Davron deeper into is shop, where his workshop was located.

“Young man, I will now craft two bows, so observe well”[Guntharz]

Guntharz went and brought back his equipment and material.

‘AIS’

[Yes, host]

[Command accepted. Host, I recommend that you use Truth Seeking to get more details and data]

‘Good idea’

Guntharz started to prepare the wood. He didn’t talk, just did his thing and let Davron watch.

Davron’s eyes were full of numbers. Truth Seeking did its job, he even saw clearly the details of the wood, the characteristics of the string and how exactly his fingers moved.

The smith repeated the bow crafting one more time.

“Haha and kid? Are you satisfied?”[Guntharz the smith]

“Yes, sir!.. I doubt that I could ever replicate your skill”[Davron]

“Of course, of course! I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years!”[Guntharz]

The smith sounded proud. He even went on and on about how much the hunters loved his bows.

“Kid, come to me if you want to become a smith. I will teach you right Hahaha”[Guntharz]

Davron said his goodbyes to him and went on. His next stop was the butcher lady.

‘AIS how was it? Tell me please how much Truth Seeking helped’

[Data quality: low - - -> Data quality with Truth Seeking: mediocre]

[Analysis duration with host’s current intelligence: 1h and 20min]

‘Hm, doesn’t sound too bad. AIS, can you record data during the analysis?’

[Yes, host. Analyzing data is an independent process. Furthermore, host can analyze multiple data, but it will affect the duration of every one of them.]

‘Okay, record and analyze the data of the next activities.’

[Yes, host.]

Brtsh Brtsh

The closer Davron to tot the butchery, the more sound of cutting meat he heard. To be honest, it made a creepy atmosphere. He had goosebumps all over his arms.

There she was, the butcher lady, outside of her butchery. Davron didn’t know why, but she was always processing the animals outside of her butchery, while gazing into the woods.

“Ahm..”[Davron]

Brtsh Brtsh

“Madam?”[Davron]

Frakh Frakh

‘Davron, stop being a bigear bunny and say it louder, god dammit!’

“Madam Brunhilde”[Davron]

The butcher lady slowly turned her head around, while still doing her work.

“Oh funny little man, do you like seeing this?”[Brunhilde]

‘Man, she gives me the creeps. Why is she talking like a that?’

Brunhilde, also called the butcher lady, was a middle-aged widow. She had short black hair and was awfully thin. Yes, thin despite spending her days around meat.

“Madam, can I watch you process the game?”[Davron]

“Oh, you can little man, but don’t go near this young lady, or you will need to marry me. Fufu cough hihihi”[Brunhilde]

‘RELAX! I’m doing this for my mom, Flora and Luna. Mom, Flora and Luna, remember! Davron, you’re an adult man, you can do this’

“Thank you!”[Davron]

She started to dissect a deer with painter-like movement. Sometimes she looked up and gazed into the forest. She stayed like that for a few seconds and continued her work.

“Thank you! I watched enough, I need to go home now, byee”[Davron]

Davron watched her for 1 hour and had enough. Sometimes, he even felt like she had eyes in the back of her head.

“Okey dokey”[Brunhilde]

She didn’t even gaze at his direction.

He took his legs into his hand and walked out of there like a gazelle fleeing from a cheetah.

After getting far away as possible, Davron stopped to catch his breath.

‘Uff I hope it was worth it. AIS, how long until it’s finished?’

[Analyses duration of “Processing Game”: 1h and 40min]

‘Not bad. The analysis of bow crafting was already finished. I will test it later. I hope it goes well..’

He started to search for someone practicing the bow.

After searching the whole village center, his results were zero.. absolute zero.

‘I guess I have to learn archery while hunting…’