NOVEL FROG Chapter 30: Relief and a Positive Surprise!
Two kilometers south of the small camp surrounded by wagons, Jonn and Petyr stopped at the last of the nearby hills, from where they could see the few torches and campfires of the group of travelers.
Jonn lay back on the ground as he watched Petyr. His eyes narrowed as he counted the number of potential enemies. “34 people… That’s almost the entire village,” he mumbled to his companion.
Minutes earlier, Wy had entered the village agitated, talking about a large group passing near them. Wy stayed in the walled area of the village with Jonn’s wolves, while the Village Elder went with Petyr to keep an eye on their potential enemies.
“This is more than we can handle… by a big margin, to boot,” Petyr said with a pessimistic tone that was impossible to ignore.
Jonn agreed it would be an unfair fight, but he didn’t despair. “Maybe we don’t have to fight. Let’s just watch them for now. This could just be one group traveling to the Lost Treasures. They should leave at dawn.”
“I hope so. Otherwise, we’re dead.” Petyr looked into Jonn’s eyes and spoke honestly. He wasn’t afraid of death. But fighting such a group would be suicide, and he was not the suicidal type.
Jonn said nothing to the head of the village guard. He continued to watch from a distance.
Jonn could see more details of that group than Petyr could, and soon noticed the women, children, and elders in the group.
This looks like a group like ours... Several small communities like ours must be following Acelin’s recommendation.
That’s awful. If even groups like this are willing to move, the food situation outside the region must be worse than I imagined.
The major battles of the last war had taken place in the region of Barren Hills of Deepshadow. But the painful effects of the toxic mana from the battles in that area reached places hundreds of miles away. According to reports from merchants, the poisonous mana was moving farther out of the region each year, contaminating new areas and wiping out agricultural lands.
“We need to get stronger quickly, Petyr.” Jonn said in a somber tone, drawing the attention of the guard next to him after almost half an hour of silence.
Petyr looked at Jonn again, sensing that the village elder had something else to tell him.
“I’m afraid that in the not too distant future, groups like this will pass near the village more often than we’d like. We may hide for a while, but the day will come when someone will find us.”
Petyr wholeheartedly agreed with this prediction. “Without more men to fight at our side, only better weapons and sturdy walls will help us, Jonn. There’s a limit to how far men can fight, even if they are talented. We won’t get far with only 41 villagers...
Sigh! I don’t mean to be pessimistic. But we’re limited by our numbers. If we don’t hide well, we’ll have problems.”
“We’ll figure it out. I’ll get better weapons and resources for higher walls,” Jonn said, thinking of things he wasn’t ready to tell Petyr yet.
I still have to read these books of Count Francus and see what they’re about. I hope there’s something about magic, at least a spell...
Hours passed and the two strongest members of the village continued to watch the group of travelers. The guards would not notice the eyes watching them in the darkness, while Jonn and Petyr would not move. With many thoughts in their heads, things to do to improve the village as much as possible, considering its limitations, they would slowly see the signs of the end of the night.
Just before dawn, the camped group would move. The children, women and elderly would get into the carriages, while the men would dismantle their camp. In less than half an hour, when the darkness of the night still blended with the emerging rays of daylight, the group would enter a traveling formation and head northwest.
Jonn and Petyr watched the group until the distance between them increased by another two kilometers. They would head in the same direction as the travelers, intending to follow the group from a distance for a while.
Around 10 o’clock in the morning, Jonn and Petyr began their journey back to the village, after they were sure that the travelers had not noticed them. The group of 34 people seemed only interested in traveling northwest, on the way to the Lost Treasures.
It would take them some time to make their way back to the village on foot, but eventually they would arrive at the closed site in the early afternoon.
The village was closed, and men watched the surroundings from the two watchtowers.
The wolves were near the animal area, ready to protect Jonn’s domain if intruders appeared.
With Petyr’s signal to the watchers in the watchtowers, the false alarm would sound, easing the anxious hearts of the villagers.
The gates would open and soon Wy would set off to escort Eliot, Beri, and Alise back to the village. The three should still be hiding.
Jonn and Petyr would tell their fellow villagers about the false alarm, that the group was only traveling to the Lost Treasures. That would be enough for the villagers to return to their activities and start their day’s work.
Jonn left the walled area of the village and went home to rest, not planning to mine or explore the mage’s cave for the day. Because of the hours he had lost the night before and this morning, he planned to eat something, rest, and start analyzing the books he could not read the day before due to the emergency Wy had initiated.
Another night fell over the Eternal Village and by then Eliot, Beri and Alise had returned with the fish they had caught in the East Lake. The three of them were aware of Jonn and Petyr’s results and soon went to rest.
Meanwhile, only two houses remained outside the walled area of the village. The walled area was 90% complete and 40 members of the village were already living inside it.
Of the last two houses, one was old Elder Hewet’s, which the group planned to keep as Tim’s foundry home, while the other was the residence of the current Village Elder.
In this small house, with its bamboo walls and sloping roof, a glow from the flame of a torch illuminated the interior of Jonn’s little private place.
He was sitting in front of his small table. He held the Celestial Magnifier in one hand while he held a book open and slowly turned the pages with his free hand.
Jonn had already read four books since he awoke from his day’s rest. One of these books was about the history of Eldoria, the birthplace of Count Francus. Two others talked about the Valorian wars, the sides in the conflicts, the losers, and the potential winners, among other things. The last one, surprisingly, talked about agriculture. Jonn naturally felt that the last one was the most valuable for his people.
He only skimmed the first four books, not spending much time actually learning. He just read quickly to see what each book was about and its potential for the village. All 4 had their relevance, and he would eventually read them again more carefully to learn the details in a more critical analysis. But for now, he had in mind the villagers who he should pass these books on.
Everyone should read the books about the war. As for the book on Eldoria, he planned to let Elia study it and then leave it for anyone who wanted to learn more about the history of the kingdom southwest of the village.
The book on agriculture would certainly have to pass through the hands of Arber, Betta, and the village’s agricultural helpers.
The agricultural book dealt with the planting of crops and the use of animals in the planting, tending, and harvesting phases. It would be crucial for the members of the village to learn its techniques.
But as relevant as those first books were, none of them compared to the one in Jonn’s hands now.
[The 10 Practices of an Excellent Healer], that was the title of the book, flashy, but fair. After almost half an hour of reading, Jonn left his casual reading mode and became more attentive, reading while occasionally using his powers.
Celestial Magnifying Glass couldn’t analyze the words in books. The book was just paper and ink. Jonn could even understand how to make the paper and ink behind the words and drawings in the books, but it would be impossible to understand the techniques and procedures described in the books when using [Analysis]. However, [Essence of Life] could use the information he had come in contact with through both [Analysis] and other methods, like reading.
In particular, [Projection] could work on the ideas in Jonn’s mind, allowing him to speculate on the theories he knew.
Interesting.
He stopped reading, having just read about a method of mixing mana with medicinal pastes and potions to heal the wounds of mages and mortals.
I can’t tell you how effective this method is. Without [Analysis] working on something like what is described here, I can only trust that the text is correct. But if it really is true, then I could increase the recovery rate of wounded villagers by almost 100% with such a method.
He pondered the result of his compression of living beings and interactions with medicines, as well as simulations of hypothetical scenarios.
While he went back to reading the book for Healers, Jonn took out a paper and wrote some ingredients, making a recipe with the ingredients and step-by-step instructions for something he wanted to try.
The village didn’t have some materials he needed, while he wasn’t willing to risk the pastes and potions available to treat the wounded. But he didn’t want to miss the chance to make progress in that direction.
Acelin will pass near the village in a few weeks. I’ll use some of Count Francus’ gold coins to buy the ingredients he has to sell me.
If all goes well, this could become another product for the village to exploit and get resources.
Jonn continued his reading until he had finished the small book for Healers, finished his notes on three experiments for the future and the appropriate ingredients.
He continued his reading and picked up another book, intending to read two more before finishing his analysis for the day.
The second book he read after [The 10 Practices of an Excellent Healer] was about beasts, an interesting topic, but not very useful for the village’s problems. Jonn classified it as something that the village guards should read and he would devote his time to it when he didn’t have other important reading to do.
Beasts were more common than mages, but the chances of one coming to a place like the Barren Hills of Deepshadow were the same as bees going to the sea.
When he opened the next book, his eyes widened. Golden letters appeared on its first page, changing shape as he read. His heart beat faster, and Jonn felt his surroundings distort.
‘Air Palm—A Level 2 Spell.’
Jonn found himself in an alternate space, surrounded by very white clouds, glowing so brightly that it was impossible to see them from a distance.
He saw a human-shaped figure made of clouds moving its mana through its body to its right hand. As this figure moved as if in a dance, the sound of the words ‘Air Palm’ echoed from the height of its mouth. Immediately after that, the winds in the area changed, forming a powerful impulse against the movement of the cloud man.
Jonn watched open-mouthed as it showed to him the first spell he had ever come in contact with!
////Novaro////
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