Andrew blinked his eyes open from his deep slumber, her head was in great pain as he grunted. He remained laying down on his back looking up at the ceiling above him.
'Well, it seems that expending all of my mana causes some issues.'
[well, when youre as weak as you are then yes. It goes away as you get stronger.]
Andrew sat up slowly and looked around the room, the light shining throught the window reflected lightly off the brown wooden walls. The smell of cooked food drafted through the air
GRUMBLE
"Ah" Andrew exclaimed in surprise. He had completely forgotten about eating, normally he would only be in the dungeon for no longer than an hour. Actually it was more like he would only be in there until he was injured.
A small head poked through the door in response to the loud gurgling noise from Andrew's stomach. A little girl peered at him with interest as Andrew looked back at her.
"Hello there" Andrew said warmly as he waved his hand slowly to hopefully get his message across.
"H-halloo?" The girl responded unsurely and waved her hand.
Andrew looked at her with surprise before laughing outloud, this was the first time someone here has tried to say something in his language and it was a nice refresher for his mood.
The little girl lowered her head in embarrassment and started saying something in her own language.
Andrew didnt quite catch what she said as he was calming his laughter. Soon a hand landed on the girls head who turned to see who the hand belonged too. The village chief looked at her sternly before seemingly scold her.
Andrew could tell that they were probably father and daughter based on their attitudes towards each other. The girl lowered her head and walked away from the room Andrew was in and the village chief walked in. lowering his head in apology which Andrew shook his hand to assure him it was no trouble.
Andrew moved his legs to try and get out of the bed to which he was stopped by the village chief in a scramble. Andrew looked at him with confusion to which he pulled out another blank notebook.
'Ah, this thing again.' Andrew looked around him in thought to try and find a notepad himself. He found one laying on a nearby night stand supposedly put there for this reason. Picking it up he turned to see the message he had wrote.
"Carefull, we assume you fainted due to mana exhaustion. If thats the case it may take a while for you to be alright." He showed him before reaching behind him anpulling out an envelope.
Andrew watched him hand the envelope to him and took it respectfully. Andrew set it beside him and began writing his own response.
"Alright, thank you for treating me." Andrew kept his thanks as short as he could as it was annoying to write so much in the time he has been conscious.
The chief nodded his head shortly and began to head out of the room. Andrew watched him leave and then brought his attention to the envelope beside him. It was stamped messily with ink and was rather thick, like a rich kid stuffing his birthday money into a single card.
Opening the envelope with care Andrew looked inside to see multiple pieces of paper inside, he them out tenderly and opened the first one.
"Dear Andrew
We thank you for saving our village, we are sorry for being scared of you. As we can not talk to each other we are expressing our thanks the only way we know how too. I know it's not much as we have no form of "currency" as you described it to us. But we hope this will get our message across.
From Village chief, Boulder."
"Ah, so that was his name." Andrew laughed to himself, he had never heard Boulder call himself anything other than village chief to probably assert his status over Andrew to help him understand his importance.
Andrew grabbed the rest of the envelopes to find a large variety of thank yous and expressions of gratitude. This was more than he was expecting to get as he was only doing this out of obligation to complete the mission. But now it was beyond that, each and every letter was filled with personality and character. You can read out how the person acts and talks, some were lengthy providing their life story while others were a couple of words long.
But the things that hit him hard the most were a pair of drawings. Apparently they were bundled together with a parent note.
"The kids really admired your courage too save our feeble village and wanted to draw this for you. We didnt know if you would like them in such a serious thank you so we are attaching them to this not eto explain that we are not teasing you."
Behind the note were a couple of crudly drawn pictures of a man with a stick sword with a couple of wolf corpses and a happy village behind them. This alone changed Andrews view on the people in this world. No matter how big it was he would slay every monster to keep this purity intact and to help them lead a long safe life.
Andrew put most of the letters back into the envelope but he kept the two drawings and the chiefs thank you note. Putting them all in his back pocket before laying back down on the bed, he was given the opportunity to rest, and he will take it.
He looked up at the ceiling above him and called out the trial panel in his mind. While he was taking a small rest, that doesn't mean the task is over.
—------------
Welcome to Trial #1
Missions needed to complete Trial #1
Kill wild wolves 32/100
Kill an evolved beast 0/1
Survive for a week 3/7
Side missions:
Save Montec Village 0/1
Find what's causing the abundance of monsters in the area 0/1
—------------
'Well danm, i knew that the wolves wernt enough to cause a threat to the village but to see that that wasnt the thing i needed to save them from still hurts a little.' Andrew thought to himself as he read through the list with a small smile.
"TWO DAYS?" Andrew blurted out loudly to himself in confusion causing him to sit himself up again and wiggle himself out of bed.
"I'm not even halfway on anything forget the extra side missions, if I sit around I don't think I will get anything done on time." He said to himself out loud and walked out of the room in a hurry.
The village chief was talking to two other men and when he saw him his eyes widened in surprise and began to walk over to him.
Andrew waved his hands to try and calm him down, taking out the note packet almost out of habit now.
"Im just fine, But i've realized that the wolves are not here out of their own violation. So im going to get to the bottom of it while I have time." Andrew wrote down quickly.
One thing he did like about writing for communication was the fact that you could lie much easier through pen than through your teeth.
While Andrew was leaving to get to the bottom of the issue, it wasn't about the problem with the wolves but rather he was about to go on a rampage to try and get the trial done as fast as possible to help the village. The thank you notes were a huge boost of momentary motivation and it would be foolish to not act on it.
Boulder read the message and looked at him with a bit of worry, but Andrew just shook his head. Boulder sagged his shoulders and nodded slowly before walking back to the two soldiers to continue their conversation.
Andrew turned back forward and strutted out of the two large wooden doors that were in front of him. Pushing them open he took in the view of the village, the village was lively again like it was before the fight against the wolves happened so that was a good sign.
But a nagging feeling in the back of his mind was telling him, if they were already back to the way they were before. How many times did this happen? Were they used to the constant attacks? Regardless Andrew strode through and waved at a couple of kids who stopped and waved at him.
Exiting the village he turned left towards the direction opposite of the way he came to the village from. The trees bloomed in towards him as he neared and sunlight was practically cut off aside from a couple of glares that made its way through the fenced branches.
Andrew looked around his dark surroundings for a couple of seconds before continuing down into the dark.