Tales of Tezmar - Chapter 2

Seth woke with a start. His eyes flew open as he sat up in his bed, searching his surroundings for a threat. The phantom touch of memories not his own replayed in his mind as he fought for lucidity. Slowly, he relaxed and laid back down as the nightmare passed and no threats presented themselves.

“Fuck… guess expecting the world to go back to making sense was too much to hope for,” Seth muttered with resignation.

Silently, he channeled magic into his [Rune of Cleanse] in order to remove the layer of sweat he felt clinging to his body. Seth could easily see that Rune becoming his favorite usage of magic.

With sleep far from his mind, Seth saw no reason to continue lazing around when he had things to do.

Reluctantly, he rolled out of bed and began his preparations with a resolve to face the day.

The previous Seth provided for himself by using his abilities as a [Nature Mage] to both gather useful herbs from the Vanishing Mist Woods and help one of the local [Farmers] with their sick crops.

Unfortunately, only there was only one [Farmer] who was willing to hire him, so that meant most of his income came from foraging in the dangerous woods. His plan for the day was to visit the [Farmer],  Zetla Rani, to see if she needed any help and then make his way into the woods.

Seth quickly put on a pair of well-worn leather booths and gathered his ration-filled bag, his waterskin, and his enchanted knife. There would likely be little need for it given that his thorny passenger would be his primary method of self-defense given that there would not be any witnesses in the woods, but it was always helpful to carry a knife.

With that done, Seth made his way downstairs. Although it was early in the morning, many of the inn’s lodgers were up and about. He got more than a few looks as he stepped out onto the street and began making his way along the path to the northern gate that would take him outside of the town and to the farms.

Seth plastered a friendly smile on his face as he passed by the many strange creatures that were walking down the street, he did want to make a good impression on the locals after all.

Seth directed his smile toward a young boy with the features of a raccoon, who was staring at him as he passed by. The kid’s eyes widened and he continued to stare at Seth as his mother hurried him along after shooting him a glare.

Many of the pedestrians seemed to share her opinion, either glaring or looking at him with thinly veiled expressions of distance.

I suppose word must have gone around about me…

While Drosa was not small enough to be one of those towns where everybody knew everybody else, a foreign magic user moving into the town was big enough news that people would recognize him by his features. It didn’t help that while there were a decent amount of humans in the city, they were still definitely a minority.

Seth was certain there were more than a few [Gossips] who had been talking about him since the moment he had arrived two weeks ago.

Fortunately, the Burping Badger was not very far from the north gate, so he wouldn’t need to endure the stares of random pedestrians for long.

As he closed in on his destination, Seth took the chance to observe his surroundings. Although he knew to expect it from his memories, Seth was still surprised by how advanced the city was; it was far from the foul-smelling medieval hovel he had been half expecting. He took in a deep breath, enjoying the smell of seawater befitting a city built along a massive saltwater lake. As he discreetly looked around, a growing sense of wonder filled him; he could almost mistake it for a modern city.

Well… almost.

Just as long as I ignore the Satyrs, Orcs, Gnomes, all the people with animal features, the lack of cars, the smaller buildings, and the occasional flying carriage, Seth thought with some humor.

He wasn’t especially familiar with architecture, but to his untrained eye, Drosa seemed remarkably similar to what he would expect to see from western Europe. Although there were a few more domes and pillars than he expected. His new memories suggested this was likely the result of influence from the Okur Imperium. The beastkin and the orcs had been allies for a long time after all.

As his destination came in sight, Seth abandoned his woolgathering and did his best to look as harmless and friendly as possible.

He didn’t want to have any problems with the [Guards], after all.

Thankfully, as he approached, he recognized that the [Guard] was one who usually didn’t cause problems for Seth. He generally prefers instead to simply send him through as quickly as possible.

“Good morning, Towir,” said Seth in a friendly tone as he approached the young catkin [Guard], trying his best not to stare at his cat ears and tail on an otherwise human body. “The weather’s looking lovely today, isn’t it?”

“What business do you have outside of the city?” Towir asked with disinterest, ignoring his attempt at making small talk.

“Just going to see Ms. Rani and then make my way to the woods,” said Seth, his smile stiffening. “Same as I’ve done every other time I’ve come through here over the past two weeks.”

“Go on ahead,” said Towir, waving him through. Drosa was currently at peace, and Seth went through the gates frequently, so the [Guard] was, so he was not particularly surprised by the casual attitude of the [Guard].

Seth thanked the [Guard] and began making his way to Zetla’s farm, taking the chance to enjoy the scenery as he did. Thankfully, it didn’t take long walking down the dirt road before he caught sight of his destination, which made sense given that monsters made it unwise for civilians to live too far away from a city.

The farm itself was larger than what Seth would expect a single person should be able to manage, especially when that person was an elderly woman. However, given how many levels Zetla had in [Farmer], he knew that she was more than capable of handling herself.

Seth walked past the large fields filled with various grains and headed in the direction of the barn, where he knew Zetla would most likely be at this time of day. This proved an accurate assumption when he saw that the gate of the barn was wide open and he could hear an elderly woman loudly singing folk music.

As soon as he entered the barn, Seth couldn’t help but stop to stare when he came face to face with a grazorn, the large domesticated bison-goat hybrids with large twisting horns that the locals used as livestock.

The creature was currently chewing on a mouthful of hay, while staring at him with a completely unimpressed expression.

“Are you waiting for an invitation, [Mage]? Or are you just going to stand there staring at the cattle all day?”

Seth was pulled out of his impromptu staring contest with the grazorn by the sound of Zetla yelling at him.

“Good morning, Zetla,” Seth said politely after making his way farther into the barn and laying his eyes on the farm woman. “I just wanted to stop by before my trip to the Woods to see if you needed anything.”

Zetla Rani was a woman old enough that she would not have looked out of place in a retirement home back on Earth. The woman was wearing leather boots, gloves, and a large straw hat along with brown overalls over what looked like a linen tunic.

Seth felt strange as he watched the elderly woman calmly finish milking the grazorn Heffer, lead the animal back to its stall, and easily lift two large and heavy buckets filled with milk.

[Lesser Strength] really is no joke. I’m pretty sure this old lady’s stronger than I am.

“You’re earlier than usual, boy,” said Zetla as she carried the milk to the back of the barn, Seth following closely behind her.

“I woke up a little earlier than usual,” Seth explained as he watched the old woman pour the buckets of milk into a large vat. A part of him wondered whether or not the vat was enchanted to keep the milk fresh, or if the [Farmer] simply had some kind of Skill for that.“I had a bit of trouble sleeping, is all.”

“Hmph. Well, if you’re here for work, then you’re in luck,” said the woman, immediately turning to make her way out of the barn as soon as she was done transferring the milk. “One of my Skills, [Detect Crop Illness], is telling me there’s some kinda sickness brewing in some of my Frost Nettles. Ain’t much I can do about it myself besides pulling up the plants, but I’m looking to avoid that if I can.”

Seth understood Zetla’s concern; Frost Nettles were expensive plants that were generally used by [Alchemists] to create potions that would allow people to better resist the cold. Something that could be very valuable to Adventurers or wealthy people who didn’t feel like wearing heavy clothing during the winter.

The plot of Frost Nettles was sectioned off far away from Zetla’s normal crops, likely due to the effect that the magical plants had on their environment. Seth could feel the air gradually grow colder as he followed the [Farmer], and by the time they reached the rows of pale blue plants, he could see his own breath.

“The problem’s in this corner, right here,” said Zetla, pointing to a portion of the plants that looked no different from the rest “If you can’t save these plants, then I’ll have to pull ‘em up by the end of the day to stop the sickness from spreading. You do this and I’ll pay you thirty silver. That sound good to you, boy?”

Seth’s eyes widened in surprise; thirty silver was almost twice the highest amount that Zetla had paid for his services previously. The Frost Nettles must be even more valuable than he had realized.

“That sounds like a fair price,” said Seth, nodding his head eagerly. “I’ll just take a quick look now if that’s okay with you.”

Zetla signaled her approval with a lazy gesture and Seth turned his attention to the allegedly sick plants. As he leaned in to get a closer look, he could make out that the leaves of the Frost Nettles were coated in little bits of ice, despite the fact that Drosa had a temperate climate and it was the middle of summer.

After he verified that there was truly no visual difference between the sick Frost Nettles and the rest of them, Seth turned his attention away from his visual senses and focused on the strange sixth sense granted to him by his Class.

[Sense Nature Spirits] was a skill granted to every [Nature Mage] from the moment they gained the Class, and was essential to much of their magic.

Nature spirits of varying degrees of strength existed in every plant in this new world, and Seth could feel any in a thirty-foot radius of himself. At first, Seth had found it incredibly distracting, especially given the plant he could sense living under his own skin, but he had eventually adapted.

Thorny had a fairly powerful spirit due to the fact that they were semi-sentient and had the potential to grow further. Their spirit felt hungry and dangerous, but also young and incredibly… innocent. The Cult of the Bloodvine intentionally taught their vines to be bloodthirsty monsters, but Seth felt like Thorny still had the potential to avoid that fate.

The Frost Nettle, on the other hand, had a stronger spirit than the rest of the non-magical plants but was nothing in comparison to Thorny. The ones that Zetla had brought him to look at felt like a combination of a cold winter breeze and a latent slowly growing disease.

Oh, yeah. These things are definitely sick, Seth thought with a grimace.

Looking at the spirits of the sick Frost Nettles made him feel as if he was covered in mud. Seeing no reason to wait, and eager to get rid of the gross feeling, Seth gathered his mana, pointed to a particularly sick Frost Nettle, and vocalized the name of the Spell that would allow him to heal the plants.

“[Bolster Nature Spirit].”

Immediately, he could feel his mana flow out of his body and into the plant, strengthening its spirit. This Spell allowed Seth to enhance a potentially wide variety of attributes in the target plant, but the only one he was interested in right now was its health.

The effect was immediately obvious, and he could tell that the plant would soon be cured of its sickness, causing Seth to let out a sigh of relief.

It was lucky that the sickness was apparently something relatively simple, otherwise, his level would not have been high enough to handle it.

Seth shared the good news with Zelta and received a satisfied smile in return. The [Farmer] gave him some kind of strange fruit to eat while he spent the next half an hour casting [Bolster Nature Spirit] and monitoring the health of the plants.

It tasted like some kind of weird combination of an apple and a kiwi.

As he ate the fruit, Seth could feel his gratitude for the woman’s gesture of kindness growing. While the [Farmer] had her own reservations about him, it was nice to have someone treat him well after experiencing the blatant animosity of the townsfolk.

Seth had never felt such obvious hostility before, so it was a… stressful experience.

It made it obvious to him that earning Drosa’s trust would not be a simple endeavor. If Seth had an easier option, he would much rather travel somewhere else instead of trying to change the minds of people who were prejudiced against him.

It was a shame that easier option did not exist.

“You done then, [Mage]?” asked Zelta, just as Seth finished with the last of the Frost Nettles. “My Skill’s saying that they’re all relatively healthy now.”

Seth confirmed that the Frost Nettles were healthy as far as he could tell, and Zelta immediately handed him a small pouch filled with silver coins. Seth thanked her and was about to say his farewells when a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

Not only was Zelta willing to tolerate him despite his magic Class, but she had also lived in Drosa her entire life and knew the city inside and out. If anyone knew how he could earn the people's trust, it was her, and Seth had nothing to lose by asking her opinion.

“Zelta, I have something to ask you, if you don’t mind,” said Seth.

The old woman raised one wrinkly brow as she looked at him with faint curiosity. “Go ahead and ask your question,” she said after a moment of silence.

“Do you have any advice for how I can get people around here to trust me?” asked Seth hopefully. “I understand Ivadmore has done a lot to cause the people around here to hate magic classes in general, but all I want to do is build a life for myself.”

An expression of surprise flashed across Zelta’s face before turning into one of assessment as she quietly stared at him. The silence dragged on long enough that Seth started to fidget awkwardly under the old woman’s gaze, but the [Farmer] must have eventually found what she was looking for.

“Come with me,” said Zelta, turning around and walking off without any further explanation.

Seth didn’t know what exactly the old [Farmer] had in mind, but he quickly followed her, feeling hopeful that she would be able to show him a good path forward.

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Planning to slowly write an original story for Royalroad. If you have any criticisms, then please feel free to share them.