Alastair thought about were to put his points for a moment before deciding to split his points between athletics for speed and small weapons for the skill needed to kill the monsters more efficiently. immediately after leaving the system menu all the muscles in alastairs body rapidly tense and release as a new set of muscle memory ingrains itself into him. a flood of knowledge enters alastairs mind about the proper forms used by various small weapons as though he had the skill of someone professionally trained for years , which was a strange experience to be sure.
After the odd sensation passed alastair continued to go through the field road killing every monster in his way while collecting any resources he found until he reached the village of faust netting him a total of of two hundred and fifteen experience putting him just fifty points shy of level four. alastair had also lucked out and acquired several drops from the monsters including two extremely rare drops called bunny tails that boost ones luck by a small margin when placed on ones person. alastair of course clipped both of the fluffy pink balls on opposite sides of his hip giving him a strange look with his green cloak and brown cargo pants outfit.
Alastair decided to stay in faust village for the night as the sun was going down and he had no intention of camping out if he could avoid doing so. faust village was different than cobblestone in that most of its buildings were made of wood carved in the image of various monsters that nearly perfectly looked like those monsters. this strange architecture was rather off putting for most people so the village of faust was ignored by most travelers but alastair merely how the buildings only slightly unique nothing more.
Alastair was greeted with excitement and joy by the villagers since it was strange for them to get visitors who weren't bothered by the architecture. once alastair said he was staying for the night if he was allowed many of the villagers volunteered to host him leaving him with the awkward situation of having to choose whose offer to accept. in the end alastair decided to accept the invitation of the village elder who was an old man that was extremely easy to overlook but alastair had an eye for unusual features and this elder was far from ordinary.
This elder wore a long green robe that covered his body but alastair could tell from his movements that the old man had an incredibly lean and muscular physique hidden under those loose robes. the elders home was designed in the shape of a ursa major which was a bear shaped monster that was well known for its extraordinary strength that could toss boulders that were as tall as it was with ease and these monsters were ten feet tall on average making them the worse kind of monster to fight head on.
Entering the elders home alastair noticed that the interior was about the same as every villagers house in cobblestone. the elder had alastair sit on the wool couch while he prepared a meal for the two of them since it was dinner time. the meal was a wild vegetable stir fry with marinated chicken cooked with rich white wine and various herbs. the meal was so well made that alastair was sure even a certain Scottish chef from his past life would weep tears of joy at the sight of.
After a truly remarkable meal the elder sat down on a soft reclining chair while looking at alastair curiously. "pardon me if this is sudden but could you enlighten this old man why you chose to come to my house out of everyone in the village?" he asked while eagerly awaiting alastairs reply. alastair smiled "to anyone without keen senses you appear to be an ordinary old man however you forgot something with your disguise." he said calmly making the elder raise an eyebrow. "oh? and what might i have forgotten to make you say i am not an ordinary old man?" he asked curiously.
Alastair rolled up his right sleeve to reveal a lean and muscular forearm much to the elders surprise. "when someone trains their body it causes them to move a certain way even if they don't realize it and if one is perceptive enough they can pick up on those subtle hints." he said with a smile while rolling down his sleeve again. the elder laughed after alastair spoke. "old habits die hard i suppose." he said while rolling up the sleeve of his robe to reveal a heavily scarred but lean arm with muscles like strings of steel making it obvious how much power they held.
Rolling down his sleeve the elder straightened his posture and immediately the entire air around him changed into the air of a warrior who had tasted a long life of battle. "before i retired i was a traveling chef that had an insatiable desire to cook all manner of dishes." he said with a fond look as he thought back on his memories. "in order to cook with the best ingredients i walked all over the world battling all manner of creatures to obtain the ingredients i was after. as you should be aware of the more one battles unless they are an idiot they will grow stronger and stronger."
Alastair nodded in affirmation "i ended up battling so much in my culinary quest that i reached a bottle neck that stopped me from improving further which is a depressing state let me tell you. in order to continue my quest i knew i needed to do something drastic to break this blockage. looking back i must have been half mad to do what i did." the elder says seriously. alastair was enthralled in the story so he asked "what did you do?" the elder sighed "i challenged an ursa major to a wrestling match."