Plants and ruins

The last two wolves tried to be more careful while they fought against me. Instead of trying to jump at me in every situation, they seemed more reluctant to attack without an opening that I caused. They were smart enough to know I could kill them, but not enough to set me up.

In the end, I had to bait them. I made a sudden movement towards one, which caused it to jump back. The other took the chance and attacked. I took the time to slash it with my sword. I managed to hit it and cause 51 points of damage, it whimpered and fell to the ground between me and the other.

The one that skipped back started to growl at me while keeping some distance. And I stabbed the one that fell between us for 50 points of damage, killing it and gaining 50 points of XP.

The one left turned and left, running away from battle. I sighed.

"I don't have time for this!" I yelled while turning towards Dara, who was sitting on a rock reading a book. Where was she keeping that? And why is she relaxing while I am halfway dead?!

"I needed to ascertain how you do in battle against more fair odds towards you," she said while closing the book and standing up. The whole time she was keeping her serious demeanor. "That, and to make sure you attain sufficient XP so you can grow stronger"

"I don't care about that, we need to get going. Is not like I am staying with you lot anyway"

"You are planning on taking little Maple and Reynard with you, right?" she said, serious and looking at me with a look that told me she was analyzing my reaction.

That question caught me by surprise, it came out of nowhere, it was like a low hit.

"Why are you bringing them to this?"

"Well, you seem to care about them and they appear to have imprinted on you after you saved them. We vulpin do that as a way of survival when we are young" I noticed her tail sway a bit behind her when she mentioned that aspect about her race.

"Let's just move. We are wasting time"

"Certainly"

I had the feeling that the whole talk was going to end up in an argument about my staying. I still do not understand why they want me to help them out as if I was some form of help. All I could do was stall for time and pray that I wouldn't get killed.

And besides, about those two kids. Is not like I did get attached to them... did I? They started to follow me around, and is not like I know how to deal with children.

Did they imprint on me because I saved their life? Now I feel responsible for them. I hope that was not an attempt by her to try to manipulate me into staying.

Dara then approached the items dropped by the wolves. It really was like a game. Some meat, bones, a couple of fangs, and some pelts.

"If we get enough we could make you some protective gear, or even a special weapon" she mentioned.

I had to admit, something about hunting monsters for their resources and making gear with them seemed fun. However, I shook the emotion off as I had something more important to collect.

When she took the items, they disappeared from her hand.

"Let's just go," I asked, wondering where did they go.

After walking for a while without any encounter, I decided to ask her directly. She seemed to be scanning the surroundings with her ears and sometimes I noticed her nose twitch. I do remember both children explained they found me with my scent.

"Why do all of you want me to stay?"

"We already told you, we need all the help we can get"

"None of you know me! And is not like any of you have given me any reason to stay"

Were they really that desperate? Wouldn't it be easier to level up the people on the castle so they can help defend and fight? They have a few soldiers. Thos goblins and orcs. Why not train them like they want me?

We arrived at some ruins in the middle of the forest. Dara looked around and scanned with her sight and ears.

"Here we are," she said "Let's seek some flowers quickly before the wolf decides to appear"

"No need to tell me"

Then she makes an item appear on her hand. it was a small bottle with a red liquid.

"Drink this. We only have a couple more, so you better avoid getting hurt too much"

Easy to say after what happened. I drank the liquid without question. A warm feeling passed through my throat towards my stomach and I felt like my body relaxed. A green light engulfed me for a second.

HP: 110/110

So that was a healing potion. Good to know they exist.

We started to roam around the place and looked at the different plants that were there. Dara did take some of them.

"We could make some more antidotes and medicine with these" Then she saw a plant that seemed to be like any other kind of green leaves plant around the place. It was hard to make apart "That one is the Satin's root, the one that poisoned Maple"

"What?" I looked at it. It only had very simple differences from other plants that were hard to miss. Mostly some points on the border. I could see how she managed to touch it by accident. "It looks like any other plant"

"That is what makes it dangerous. Novice gatherers tend to fail at recognizing it or take it with their bare hands" She stands up and cleans her robes from dirt "Touching it can be dangerous, but you can clean up the poison. But when it enters your bloodstream, there is not much you can do other than taking an antidote"

"That sounds awful..." poor Maple. What was she doing gathering plants by herself alone? I had to ask her later.

"Hey, I don't remember you having gatherer by profession," I said, looking at her with curiosity. When she showed me her status screen, she did not have a profession like gathering.

"Ah... no, I don't. It is getting close to the first level, though. Never had much chance to come out and pick up resources" She looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. "But someone taught me about the plants around her a long time ago"

The sound of her voice was full of something I could name nostalgia and longing. Must have been someone important for her.

"There!" Suddenly she yelled, startling me. She pointed somewhere and I looked. In the middle of a couple of decaying walls were a couple of small flowers. White and I could see the center had a blue core. It was the one we needed.

We walked towards them and Dara started to cut them, by the stem with care, making sure to not hurt the petals.

"We should have enough for Maple" she smiled while saving the items like she did with the resources from the wolves.

"How are you storing those items? They disappear on your hands"

"Ah. Yeah, normally you need a bag, but once you get some levels on your gear, you can give it some traits. Some of my clothes have special storage for resources. Is small, but works for this. Keeps them safe as long as they stay on me and don't break."

She seemed a bit more upbeat than usual. Probably gathering was making her feel happier. She said she barely had time to go out and do this.

Her ears perked up at that moment, and the faint smile that was on her suddenly disappeared. I was surprised by the sudden change in her demeanor. 

Before I could react, she stretched her arm toward me and I felt a force pushing me backward. The force made her body be pushed back in the other direction too. Is the same spell she used yesterday to make me dodge Kali's attack. Something was up. But this time she made herself move back.

A couple of arrows hit the positions we were in. When I managed to stand back I quickly looked for a wall and pushed my back against it with my sword ready on my hands.

Dara made a book appear on her hand and held it open, floating over her hand. I could see a bit of energy pouring from it.

"Damn, we missed them, sis" I heard the voice of a masculine man, a bit young.

"Seems we did, bro" Then was a woman's voice, young too.

I followed the voices and saw two figures on top of one of the walls of the ruins. Two people wearing hoods and a bit of light armor were standing on top, looking down at us. Both had bows on their hands, besides an assortment of different weapons and equipment.

"Welp, we cannot go without finishing our job, anyway," said the woman.

At that point, I noticed the colors of their clothes. They were wearing a yellow tabard and cloak with a symbol I recognized.

I was ready for a fight with a big bad wolf. Not the Sacred Army lunatics.