Day 31
I think it's best I stay back at my base today and take care of it a little bit. I've plenty of wood left, and there's something I've been itching to do for quite some time now.
Not enough wood apparently. Oops! This animal pen I'd built is really bigger than it appears. But hey, animals are long overdue for some roof above their heads, and I'm in a building mood.
Accidentally fell down into the chicken pen while building the roof, decided to hatch some eggs (by throwing them really hard against the ground, naturally), and got quadruplets from a single one. Wow. I just hope they don't consider me their mommy. Actually, with how many momma chicks have surrounded the new"born" right now, I don't think that's a problem. The problem is, I managed to use Arc Luck and accidentally threw an egg into the sheep corral. And of course it hatched. Now I need to make sure both that the baby doesn't get squashed and that the sheep don't escape while I carry out my rescue mission.
got the little chick to follow me back into the chicken pen after some trying times, then went ahead to go and complete the roof. What I'm seeing from it right now is a rogue chicken freely roaming the territory within my walls. Must have forgotten to lock the pens (I just use simple wooden gates with a crude metal lock); great!
To be honest, I use the same kind of gate for my walls. Perhaps it's best to look for a more solid alternative.
the chick managed to burn itself on my signal campfire
fucking come on. Now I have to dig the remains out and relight it. ugh
atleast I get a somewhat overcooked meal out of this. Well that, and a lesson on how to be a better caretaker.
Well, as things turned out, my newly-relit signal campfire wasn't erected for nothing!
I'd been peacefully organizing stuff in my chest when I heard someone banging on my walls; that, and Wolfy barking set me off. Naturally decided to check it out; deal with it, should it have been hostile.
Not quite, as it turned out. I was met with a sight of a man in rather colorful robes desperately trying to calm down two animals he'd led on a leash. For a second I thought I was actually meeting "someone like me" (what that means I am yet to understand; an adventurer perhaps?), but that lasted only for a second, as the man turned around and I saw the tell-tale huge nose.
Meet my current guest: the Wandering Trader. That is what he called himself, him being a rather large, tan-skinned, middle-aged man. Per his words (and oh man, he had a lot of words), he saw the smoke and decided to check, and, seeing as the sun was setting, hoped to ask for temporary shelter. I, of course, obliged, letting him and his pair of animals in (through our conversations later I learned that they are called "Llamas"; I don't think Remnant has any of those, despite numerous similarities between the two worlds).
Soon there turned out to be a little problem in my plan of providing refuge: I didn't actually have anyplace to let the man stay in, besides my own house, and, while he assured me he was no stranger to "roughing it on the ground", I decided to go an extra mile in terms of hospitality: made him a bed (more of a sleeping cot, really), and built a very crude shelter out of planks on a small part of my territory not occupied.
The man's smile and genuine gratitude were more than worth it.
Having introduced himself, we settled down in the temporary house I'd built for him, and, with two bowls of hearty warm rabbit stew (truly a blessing food here does not go bad), we started talking. Mostly he started talking, actually. This man – he may as well have been Port's reincarnation: just as loud, just as boisterous, just as full of life, just as able to rob others of it through his stories. Maybe not that last part, to be honest – the stories told were actually decent and not at all boring, even if the man saw the need to "embellish" them quite a bit every now and then. As a trader, he said, he spent his time travelling the land, collecting "treasures", looking for other travelers or villages to trade with (though, he mentioned, the villagers would eventually kick him out). He spoke of the lands he roamed – deserts, thick jungles, "snowy plains with giant ice spikes growing out of the earth" and "dark forests where giant mushrooms fight for space with trees". Hence the "embellish" part.
With this one-sided conversation done and our stews finished, the man asked if I wished to see his wares; wanting to see what "treasures" he spoke of, I agreed. His stuff was packed and carried by the llamas, so we went to check on those.
He came in with two llamas. Coming back, we found only one. One of them snapped the lead with which it was tied and decided to go for a stroll outside the walls. The gates were locked, too. The only explanation I can come up with is that it managed to climb the mount of gravel I'd used to climb up and build the roof for my animals and vault right over the walls.
This wouldn't be such an issue if it wasn't nightfall and I couldn't see local non-friendlies already roaming by the walls. Before I could come up with a reasonable plan to get the llama back, however, the trader ran right past me, past the gates and out into the open. My blood ran cold – I could already see a pair of shambling zombies making their way towards him. But then this place found yet another way to surprise me – the man quickly pulled some sort of a bottle out of his robes, chugged it in one go and disappeared.
In hindsight it should have been obvious from the get-go that he had managed to turn invisible; in such a stressful situation (where, for once, it was not my life that was on the line) it took me a couple of seconds to understand what'd happened. Still, the disappearing act worked out rather well for him: after a brief period of confusion, the walking dead (now much more numerous than just a pair) saw my face over the wall and decided I was a better target.
Preparing for a fight, I could, out of the corner of my eye, see the llama being guided towards the gate by an invisible force – quite literally in this case. That was all I saw before an almost literal battalion of undead descended onto my walls.
It was a slaughter – on my part of course, else I wouldn't be writing right now. The undead could not climb over, but my sword had just enough reach for me to easily punish those who tried. In just a minute it was over. Before I could leave and check on my guest, however, one more zombie shambled into my line of sight.
Familiar green robes. Very familiar nose. And groans that very faintly sounded as speech. This one must have been a recently infected villager. Face stuck in an angry scowl, eyes as red as blood, skin just beginning to rot – and not a shred of humanity left. Gods. I put him - it down, of course, but it was so much easier back when the zombies were just a faceless pile of death.
Still, it was technically a monster, right? An unfortunate victim, but still a monster. My conscience should be clear. I hope.
With that done I walked away – just in time to stumble into the trader - now visible and completely unharmed - tying his llama back. First thing I asked him was how had he managed to turn invisible. He simply said that it was a "potion", that those "potions" were rarely sold in villages, that he specifically looked for invisibility "potions", with them being a very rare offer, and that he had just about run out of those. He didn't elaborate any further.
(That must imply there are more types of "potions" out there. Guess I'll be on the lookout.)
All previous annoyance in his voice gone, the trader finally offered to show his stock.
His wares were...questionable. No, screw that, they were downright freaking awful!
WHO would buy an oak sapling for 5 emeralds? Or a tiny pile of gunpowder for one emerald? Or a single bag of what looked like red dye for three? Were these the treasures he spoke about? With wares like these it's no wonder he's been getting kicked out of villages so often: this is a scam!
The worst part is that he looked so unaware of what he'd been doing, like he legitimately thought these prices were acceptable. I didn't want to burst his bubble, so instead I settled on buying just about the only "valuable" things in his collection: a bag of beetroot seeds and a pair of Nautilus shells, similar to those I'd fished out yesterday. Part of me thinks I've been played and scammed; the other part remembers how genuine our talks were and doesn't know anymore.
The fact that this guy has been the only person so far around here to not be distrustful or wary of me doesn't help.
The man's sleeping right now; just in case he tries anything, I ordered Wolfy to stay by his "shack" and hopefully alert me should he try anything. I don't know. He said that, come sunrise, he'd head south, looking for another village. With the new knowledge in mind, I was rather hesitant about telling him that the nearest village was actually to the west (or east - both are pretty close), but in the end I went ahead and told him - I still believe man's not a scammer, just massively misguided. By his words, he'll leave very early in the morning, to cover as much distance as possible. Fair enough.
He spoke of the south. I haven't walked in that direction yet. Maybe there's another village? I can only hope.
P.S: I should really build a toolshed, move my furnaces and stonecutter there, maybe even a few chests. I'd count this as a shower thought, but without the shower part.
should have a couple more chapter us in the coming days, if life doesn't get in the way
