A look at new areas

Done with checking his updated Status, Jay decided to stay seated where he was for having a look at his inventory. He knew that he had found quite a lot of good and rare items in the mines aside from the minerals and other riches.

Aside from the countless items already stored inside, Jay first found the boxes he had looted on the Juggernaut and in the warehouse. As he clicked on them, they revealed what was stored inside, that was altogether thousands of ores and gems, quite the amount of processed metals and minerals as well as numerous gold bars.

Those bars and the gold coins looted alone would probably enable Jay to live his life in peace however long that was. But that was nothing to compare with what Jay already had banked or in his completely stuffed inventory. Even the riches found in the vault some days ago were multiple times of those boxes from what Jay saw.

He still left the boxes like they had been after checking them, giving him a rough estimate of just how much wealth he had.

Deciding to get a bit more lax with spending money as even the platinum plates were in the hundreds, Jay concentrated more on the equipment he had found in the mines and before that.

The two swords he normally had equipped - the Cruel Barb and the Wingblade - aside, Jay found a few other swords and hatchets of good quality. The rest was basic equipment that he sorted to the rest of those junk weapons.

Then he continued with the armor and parts he had found.

The best one of the latest additions was of course the Stormshroud Set, though he still had a while to go until he could wear it. But the black Defiers Armor how it got called, was quite nice. Jay had ignored it since he hadn't even needed any defensive equipment from the time he came back out of the mines. Even for the ride that day he hadn't put on more than his white linen shirt as it had been warm and sunny.

Deciding to use the best possible items from then on, Jay pulled them from his inventory and placed them on the table. When he was done and looked at the equipment set in front of him, he thought it really looked like something an assassin would wear.

Storing it all together back in the inventory to equip it the next morning from there, Jay concentrated back on checking the rest he had found. He sorted through the rest of the armors first, then continued with the sparse accessories and jewelry he had found over the last weeks.

Within those he spotted a certain ring he had received and used in Arathor. It was the one he got from the Gnome couple and as he retrieved it from his inventory, Jay got a new idea. After searching for something more in his inventory, he rose from his chair and left the tent.

Outside Jay looked around to make sure no one was watching and then retrieved the thing he had searched before from his inventory.

What appeared in front of him was a giant pile of flesh, at least three yards wide and more than one high.

It was the corpse of Rhash'Korr that he had stored back in the mines not to leave evidences or if he had to bring proof.

With no more use for the Ogre's corpse, Jay could dispose of it and got one step closer. But as he by then knew the function of the small trinket, he was going to at least make a tiny bit use of the giant figure before him.

Lifting the shabby loincloth Rhash'Korr had been wearing, Jay glanced at the shriveled but still enormous manhood the ogre had in disgust. But as he touched it with the metal ring in his right hand, the thing completely vanished inside, together with the testicles and all. What was left was only a blank space of dirty skin.

A bit taken aback, Jay thought about directly checking the toy in his hand, just to make sure it had worked. But then he decided against it and stepped back.

He still had a few more corpses in stock, though only one of them he was going to take out as well.

It was Mr Th'wack's corpse of course.

The Tauren had been not much smaller than the Ogre, though even more broad shouldered. Without wait Jay had it appear next to Rhash'Korr's and again stepped closer. This time he had to first get rid of the leather pants the Tauren had worn.

It didn't pose a problem though as Jay simply used the same tactic as before and simply stored the over-sized shorts back in his inventory.

What he saw beneath didn't really disgust him and was completely different to what he had expected. Just like with all bovines, there was just a stump surrounded by longer fur there. What had become visible though was a pair of humongous balls dangling to the ground beneath.

Like before, Jay touched the hairy stump with the ring and it vanished with every attachment. All he still had to do then was to get rid of the two, by then genderless corpses.

Thinking about burning them for a second, Jay decided against it as it would only alarm the guards and taking them somewhere else would have been a hassle. Like this, Jay once again stored them in his inventory but was going to dispose of them as soon as he had the chance.

As sorting through his inventory and checking his gains had taken more time than he had thought, Jay directly went to bed.

Of course his curiosity still had won and he had put on the small bracelet sized ring once he was in bed. Thanks to a certain skill it wasn't difficult for him to test the function, though the result once again surprised him.

While the Ogres still somehow wobbly thing was of a size he at least shouldn't use with human or smaller woman, the Tauren's disappointed him a bit:

Most questionable fictional works he knew from his past had always depicted Tauren with gigantic and mostly shaped like horse's dongs. But what reached out over the giant balls that would have made it hard for Jay to walk, was a slender and pointy bulls one, not longer than his own.

It wasn't like he really cared about it as he wasn't planning to use them anyways. But even if it was somehow logically this way, it had destroyed a fantasy picture of him.

Canceling the ring and storing it again, Jay rolled over in his comfy bed to finally get some sleep.

Once again it was a silent and dreamless night until Jay woke up with light shining in from the tent's entrance. It got accompanied by relatively loud grinding and sawing noises, bringing Jay to sit up instantly.

He had completely forgotten to shut the entrance last night and was lucky no one had come looking inside.

Jumping out of bed, Jay equipped the armor he had set together last night and exited the tent. The workers at the sawmill about forty yards to his left were busy and as no one else was close, Jay directly stored the tent.

From there he made his way over to the Inn.

As it was quite late in the morning, Jay was glad he still could get some breakfast, though in his old world it probably would have counted as brunch. He really had slept in that day, even though he has had shorter nights before.

Done with his simple meal of fried eggs and bread, Jay walked over to the small military camp that had gotten erected after McBride had left and Haggard got the command over Eastvale again.

The new Lieutenant there, a lean man in his late twenties Jay had met a few times in the garrison, welcomed Jay friendly. He introduced himself as Miles, asking Jay to refrain from ranks as he was not officially with the military and from his achievements it would have been awkward for the Lieutenant to be named as that.

Thanks to Jay the forest had calmed down considerably and they had not much to do other than taking care of some wild beasts that came close to the settlement or the road. That was one of the reasons there was no longer a Captain needed as the troupes had gotten reduced.

Another reason was that the unit got split and half of it was then stationed at the old guard tower in the south-east. Thanks to this the few Gnolls that got sighted in the south were no longer a problem Miles had to take care of, but the men stationed over there.

Using this chance, Miles relayed a request he had received from Brightwood to Jay.

The small village close to the main road in the south east had asked for help as some incidents with Gnolls had happened. Even the biggest hunting camp in close proximity had gotten attacked and the unit there was even smaller than the one in Eastvale.

Just as Jay accepted the quest, it got a bit noisy in the camp as a group of 4 people saddled up on horses and rode over to them. They notified the Lieutenant that they would leave for changing shifts to what Jay inquired. Apparently the soldiers kept switching between Eastvale and the broken guard tower Jay had freed from bandits as he trailed Sira.

Taking this chance to leave as well, Jay summoned his horse and rode with the four men after excusing himself.

The trip to the next crossroad only took a mere fifteen minutes, even though they didn't hurry. But thanks to this he had learned that the tower ruin would be build into another fort when the ferry station got finished. While it would be a small one, the units stationed in Eastvale would then be stationed there.

As the four men would travel the smaller road south they said goodbye to Jay and rode off while he followed the main road.

Alone again he sped up his horse and galloped down the road for some time. The scenery didn't change in the slightest for quite a long while, with thick forest to both sides of the well maintained road.

About an hour later, Jay noticed the forest getting lighter and even could spot the mountain range in the north through the treetops.

A few minutes later he arrived at another crossroad with a signpost reading Brightwood in the direction Jay was traveling and Eastvale from where he had come from. Jay would have welcomed if the distances had been engraved as well, but that concept seemed too developed for this world.

Sighing in his mind, Jay looked around on the crossroad.

Down the small path that led from the main road, Jay could already see a small farm on an open plane in the distance. Cattle was roaming free on the grasslands to the side of the path. He continued his trip towards Brightwood after readjusting in his saddle as he still wasn't used to riding long distances.

At least not that long...

Until it slowly got dark later that day, nothing much had occurred to him. Jay had only met one small patrol in contrast to Eldrin where units of thee to five soldiers patrolled the main road in regular intervals.

Since he had passed the crossing to the farm, the surrounding forest hadn't changed at all. The only variety had been the carriages and other travelers on the road, though both had been pretty sparse.

As he had reached another rest area, Jay decided to call it a day.

This one was bigger than the other places he had seen on the roadside and two carriages already had stopped there. Dismounting and walking over to the fireplace where some travelers gathered, he learned that his decision had been right as even the hunting camp close to Brightwood was about another two hours to go.

The merchants welcomed having another Adventurer there as well and even asked Jay to eat with them. He took them up on their offer and sat with the group of five men, listening to what they were talking about.

Most of it was about how their business was going and that some goods were no longer available, nothing that interested Jay much. But as the two merchants were complaining about the declining safety on the roads in the east and south, Jay inquired further.

It seemed there had been multiple attacks on travelers and merchants in those regions. It had happened more in the south before, most of what they had heard in the neighboring Hilder Forest. But recently there had been stories of attacks even on this road.

"That's the reason we left our families at home! I really could have used their help on this trip. You know, only few merchants still go to Brightwood or even further to Stillwater like Rowan over there. It simply is not safe enough!" said the old merchant called Pavel. After he had mentioned the younger merchants name, latter continued that he had no choice as he made a contract with the hunters. He would take the slight detour and resell their furs and pelts, as well as some meat from their game to Brightwood.

"And I even heard that all those attacks had been done by Gnolls!" R.

"Ah, don't believe such a bullshit! I bet it had been those damned bandits..." P.

"But didn't Eldrin got cleared of those bastards? I hadn't heard of any bandit attack there recently, nor in Westfield or any close by region." R.

"Whatever… " P.

The two merchants kept on talking about their trips from then on while Jay ate another bowl of stew that he had been offered.

It wasn't really that tasty, but not bad at all. Apparently one of the two hired Adventurers had cooked it, what brought Jay to another question.

To his surprise, the merchants didn't need him to take a watch as well. They had already agreed that they would stay up for a while and their guards then take one shift each, so Jay was free to sleep. But in case of emergency they would rely on his help what he naturally promised them.

Not even an hour after Jay had emptied the second small bowl of stew, he thanked the two merchants and left the fireplace. Out of sight behind one of the carriages, he took out his tent and went to bed.

Like he had said to the two merchants, he would take the small detour as well and have a look at the hunting camp there. Most of the reported Gnoll sightings came from there, what had bolstered the credibility a lot.

If he was lucky, or unlucky depending on the point of view, Jay might find another totem as the source of those attacks.

At least he was going to take a look at the region of the camp...

Ceasing to think about what might happen the next day, Jay closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep in no time.