I’m so certain because it’s happened to me

I was a hero too,

but

power destroyed every thing I held dear

and I became the villain.

You won’t be far behind.

After falling for a while he felt weight under him again but, unlike when he ended up in ‘Trans’Du Niir’, it wasn’t a comfortable weight. Based of the creaking and rocking it was probably a wood cart. Opening his eyes confirmed his suspicion, as he saw that he was in a wood cart loaded down with burlap sacks and jars that were emitting a strong odor, despite the seals they had on top.

Looking to the front of the cart he saw an old man driving the carriage biting on the stem of an unlit pipe. He had a straw hat on his head and well worn clothes. Looking closer he noted that the man wasn’t that old, his hair was white, giving him the impression of being older than he was, but he only appeared to be in his forties.

The man noticed that he was awake and turned around with a cocky grin smugly adorning his face, “You sleep like that on the job and you won’t get paid kid.”

Thinking quick he decided to roll with the situation and said in a flat tone of voice, “I’ll finish the job without any issues.” Hopefully this statement would bait out details for the ‘job’.

“Hah! With hands like yours, I bet you’ve never done farm work boy.”

“Doesn’t matter, I learn quick.”

The driver snorted and was content to let the conversation die after that.

Crimson was pretty confidant that he wouldn’t have any issues, he really was a fast learner and was good at remembering instructions and…wait. Crimson? Where did that come from. He tried to ascribe a name to himself and what came to mind was Crimson Hokori. He thought of himself as Crimson, and had been since he’d woke up without thinking about it.

Even when he looked back on his past life he knew that he had a different name before, but when he imagined his mother calling his name all he could imagine was ‘Crimson’. Well, it wasn’t that big of an issue, Raften did tell him that he’d be getting a new name, the only thing that surprised him was the way he learned it.

Anyway, focusing on the situation it appeared that Crimson hadn’t been left high and dry by Raften like what usually happened in those fantasy world novels he’d read before. Instead, Raften probably set him up with a job from the offset to earn some money to live. The fact that the ‘old’ man wasn’t questioning him to deeply was also a huge blessing; Crimson wasn’t a fan of lying and tried to avoid it as much as possible. Though it might be hard to go along with the situation he’d do his best.

As the cart started to slow the ‘old’ man called back to him, “We’re here boy, get your lazy carcass outta the cart, I need to show you where you’ll be working for the next few days.”

Crimson nodded and stood up. He noticed for the first time that he had a bag slung over his shoulders and he was wearing rough clothes. They actually looked worse than they felt. The pants looked like wool and touching the outside they felt like that too, but the inside pressing against his leg felt more like silk or fine cotton. His shirt was the same, uncomfortable and cheap from the outside, fit for a king on the inside. His bag was also bulging with stuff, but he didn't have time to look as he hopped out of the cart and followed the ‘old’ man -now his Boss- around the old and weathered farm house.

“I’ll start you out chopping wood. It’s an easy enough task for even a kid like you.”

“Yessir.”

Boss grabbed the wood axe leaning against the back of the house and led Crimson over to a tree stump. There were un-cut logs on one side, and cut ones on the other.

“Do as much of this pile as you can. We’ll have supper when the sun hits the tree line. Got it kid?” Crimson nodded, “Good, if, by some miracle, you finish the pile come talk to me, I’ll be tending to the missus. I’ll get you set up with another task. Let’s hope a city kid like you can survive five days on a farm.”

“Don’t worry sir, I’ll do the work.”

Boss grunted and walked off.

Crimson felt deeply annoyed with Boss, but did his best to hide it. He didn’t mind doing the task so much as he hated that Boss was looking down on him. It wasn’t a good feeling, and it dredged up memories of being stuck in a wheelchair. A shocking amount of ‘sympathetic’ people are just pretending to be nice, while they looked down on him as they smiled so ‘kindly’.

Rolling up his sleeves he picked up the axe and got to work chopping wood. Raften had really done a number on his new body, it felt like he could go forever without getting tired.

That thought was disproved just a little while later as he started panting heavily while chopping. It’d probably been a few hours since he’d started, but getting tired like this was weird to him. How he was used to it was that his hands would start shaking abruptly and he’d be forced to stop whatever he was doing. This bone creaking, muscle burning tiredness accompanied by heavy breathing was not something he was used to in the slightest. It was…nice.

Before, getting tired was a sign of his weakness. He’d barely do anything strenuous and be forced to stop for a long time. Now, it was a sign of how hard he had worked. It felt like his body was saying: “This is what it’s like to work hard” and he felt a satisfaction from it as permeating as his tiredness.

He was forced to take a break not much longer. Raften had definitely messed with his body, there shouldn’t have been a way for him to finish most of the pile with only one break. Anyone else probably would have needed five or more at this point. The ‘him’ of before would have had to rest every log or two.

After just a five minute rest he felt ready to get back to it, and it didn’t take him long to finish off the pile. Looking up at the sun he…had no idea how long it would be till the sun reached the tree line. Maybe another two hours? He’d never read the time by looking at the sun before, apparently Raften didn’t give him every skill he needed to survive, not that this one was very important, and it was at least something simple he could learn on his own before he gained a Status.

He walked back across the yard and knocked on the door. After a few seconds of rustling and the din of footsteps heading toward the door it popped open and Boss stuck his head out the door.

“What is it kid? Chicken out already?”

“No, I finished the pile. What do you need me to do next?”

“Finished al-!! *Ahem* Very well then. Follow me.”

Boss led Crimson across the yard and to the field out back. By industrial standards it was tiny, but by that era’s standards it was probably a huge one.

“We have those [Earth Mage]s who pass through every year replenish the field so we don’t usually have to worry about the yield, but I’m busy looking after the missus so I can’t give it the time and attention it needs. Your job is to go through the field and check on the plants, weed them, whole nine yards. Got that?”

Crimson nodded and Boss launched into an explanation of which plants were which. He pointed out all the weeds and explained how to ‘take care’ of each one. It turned out that the field was split into two halves. The first half was food for the family, the second was medicinal herbs they sold to [Alchemist]s and [Pharmacist]s for a profit. Apparently the area was really good for growing herbs that were used in tier I through IV Healing Potions, and Tier I and II Antidotes. So they got a tidy profit from their sales, it was also helped by the fact that they were only half a day’s travel from the capitol.

It explained quite a bit. From what Crimson understood of this era of history -admittedly it only applied accurately to Earth- Boss’ farmhouse was way too big for his profession. It also explained why he’d hire help. Why he’d hire Crimson was something only Boss and Raften knew, and maybe not even that first one. Though, that info about the capitol being close was useful. He’d have to go there soon.

“By the way kid, are your hands okay?”

“Huh?”

Boss rubbed his finger under his nose in embarrassment, “Well, you’re a city kid, if you aren’t used to working with farm implements you’d probably get a blister or two.”

Looking down at his hands Crimson did indeed see a few blisters between his two hands, and a few slivers. He pulled the slivers out and shrugged. He hadn’t noticed them because he was used to tuning out pain, and they were quite a bit less painful than his legs had been.

“Don’t worry Boss, I’m fine. It’s not a big deal. I’ll get to work now.”

Boss nodded with a bit of concern on his face as he walked off, the checks over his shoulder unnoticed by Crimson.

Crimson got to work checking the plants. He’d only received a crash course in plant care so he couldn’t do everything, but he could handle the basics, and it wasn’t like it was a task requiring surgical precision. He did have to be careful, but it wasn’t hard. He walked through and checked the field until he noticed that the sun had hit the tree line and headed in.

Learning about Alchemical herbs was very interesting to him. It wasn’t like he was going to become an Alchemist, but he might find it useful to know that stuff down the road. Especially if he has to collect it for a request or quest or something. He was kinda running under the assumption that the Adventurers Guild existed, visiting the capitol after the job would allow him to double check that. Well, assuming he made enough money from his current job, if it wasn’t enough he’d go looking for work again. Simple as that.

He knocked on the door again, “Come in boy!”

Crimson eased the door open, he felt a bit guilty just walking into someone’s home - even with their permission.

There was a big front room and stairs in one corner of the room, for being just a farmhouse it had a reasonably rich interior. There was a table in the center and he could see a kitchen-like area on the other side of the room from the stairs. He could see Boss coming down said stairs with a basin of water in his hands.

Boss looked at Crimson and curled his lip, “Boy, you’re filthier than a goblin, go wash up in the well out front, then you’ll get your meal.”

Crimson crushed the wave of annoyance he felt and walked over to the well and washed off. It was going to be a long few days.