The smith already knew what he was there for and Markus could see that he was not happy with it. Unlike Boyd he did not make an effort to make things fun or interesting, but that was OK for Markus.

Exclaiming that they were going to make a simple knife, the man gave Markus commands, when to take out the metal from the forge, how to hold the tongues and where to hit the glowing iron to get it into shape. It didn’t go too well at first, but after heating the vaguely knife-shaped lump of iron for the third time, Markus got the [Blacksmithing] skill after putting it on the anvil and striking it with the hammer.

He quickly rose the skill to level 3 and managed to salvage the project in a satisfying manner. The knife was a bit shorter and broader than originally intended, but the surface was more or less smooth and the sides straight. He even got the edge somewhat sharp.

The smith was surprised with the sudden improvement, but he looked pleased. After cooling the knife down, he sent Markus over to his apprentice. The boy showed Markus how to clean and polish the metal and how to use a grindstone to make the edge razor-sharp. While following the instructions, Markus gained the [Blade Maintenance] skill. He only raised it to level 3 and finished with mediocre results on purpose.

Finally, the apprentice pulled out a piece of wood that was already shaped like a hilt. Squeezing the blunt end of the knife into the hilt, he pulled a thin iron ring over it, tightened it and started to wrap the handle with a leather strap. After starting, he gave Markus the knife to finish the process. Failing to get the wrapping right at first, Markus finally succeeded. Not only was he rewarded with an odd looking but functional knife, he also got a [Weapon Creation] skill.

He spent the remaining time bringing his dagger back into shape and then Abigail came to pick him up. Markus thanked the smith and his apprentice and followed Abigail to the stables. He wasn’t really aiming for any ‘animal feeding’ or ‘horse droppings shovelling’ skills, but he helped the girl diligently.

Abigail saddled the horses. Because they were rarely used on patrol to avoid attracting dragons, she did so in order to keep the animals used to the process.

“Well, I also take them for a ride around the walls from time to time, but… those horses are not meant for beginners. And falling off one is really dangerous.”

Markus doubted that falling off a horse would cause him actual damage. “I see. I promise not to hold you responsible if I fall off. I just want to ride for a few minutes, promised.”

“I’m not worried about the responsibility, but I feel bad if you get injured you know?” Abigail said so while tightening strap of the saddle.

“I won’t be hurt. I am really good at falling, look” He made a small jump to the side, then rolled over the ground and got up in one fluid motion.

Abigail looked surprised at first, then started laughing “Hahaha, Ok, ok, I get it. But look where you are rolling next time, ok?” She pointed at a brown spot at his shoulder. Looking down, Markus saw a flattened horse dropping. Luckily horse poop was not as disgusting as many other animal’s droppings, but it was still a lot worse than having no poop on you.

While Markus was trying to brush off the dirt on his shoulder, Abigail at least consented to his riding idea. “The lieutenant said to support you, as long as it’s nothing illegal or weird. Letting you a ride around the walls is fine.”

She led one of the horses outside the gates. Abigail showed Markus how to mount it. Still holding onto the horse with a rope attached to the harness, she led the horse on a path around the outer palisades with Markus sitting in the saddle.

While walking, she explained to him how commands are given to the horse. When you push your legs together, how to change direction, what it means pulling the reigns or letting lose and how much effect talking to a horse had.

It sounded pretty straightforward. Walking a bit away from the palisades, she then let him steer the horse left and right using only the reigns, still holding onto the rope.

It was not enough for Markus to get any skill related to riding a horse, and he felt like a little girl on a pony rented for her birthday.

“Can I try riding the horse around by myself? Just for a little” They were on an empty field, so it was the most ideal environment Markus could think of. If he couldn’t get the skill here, he would feel bad.

Finally Abigail gave in as well. Unfortunately, the horse didn’t agree with the plan as much as Markus had hoped for. It refused to start walking at all for a minute, instead eating grass growing from the ground. When Markus got frustrated and his slight kicks into the horse’s flanks became more violent, it suddenly broke into a sprint.

Markus could barely remain seated in the saddle and would have fallen off if it hadn’t been for his high agility. The sudden violent movements made Markus forget most of the instructions for riding the horse. After reaching the edge of the forest, he started to get used to the motions and started to use the established way of riding a horse.

He was clinging onto the horse so tightly with his legs that it nearly broke its ribs and pulled the reigns back with some force. The horse finally started slowing down. Markus then released the pressure from his legs on one side, pulled the reigns to the other and the horse changed direction.

[Skill: Riding] gained.

What a troublesome skill to learn. Markus raised it all the way to level 10 and made his way back to Abigail, who was looking quite desperate from far away, but calmed down after seeing Markus still sitting on top of the animal and riding at a reasonable speed.

To reassure her everything was fine, he raised the speed just slightly and cleanly circled around Abigail before approaching her very slowly, then getting off the horse. Riding an animal was something completely different compared to using a bike or car, that was the main issue at first. With the skill at highest level, he had a complete understanding of the animal’s behaviour and felt how he could influence it most efficiently.

“Moa, that was so scary” Abigail was jumping at Markus with an angry expression. When he thought she would somehow attack him, he was suddenly embraced. Luckily he had suppressed the urge to avoid her, having her cling onto him felt surprisingly nice. As suddenly as she had hugged him, she let go of him again.

Blushing, the girl took the horse’s reigns and led it back to the gate without looking at Markus, or talking. Markus apologized for making her worry and thanked her for letting him try riding. Feeling mischievous, he then patted her head while walking next to her. Abigail let out a surprised voice and her face and ears got even redder, but she did not turn towards him or say anything. This girl was surprisingly easy to embarrass.

Back at the stables, they got the saddle and reigns off the horse, then went towards the kitchen. Abigail had calmed down again and handed Markus something that looked like an apron with sleeves. Both of them washed their hands properly, then Abigail started preparing the food.

A young soldier had already peeled a basked with potatoes and washed off a pile of other vegetables. Apparently Abigail was the cook, while the soldiers took turns being on kitchen duty and acting as helpers.

“Hey, are you good with using magic tools?” Abigail then pointed at something that resembled an electrical cooking plate. It did not look out of place in a kitchen, so Markus had not thought much about it, but of course there was no electricity in this world. It was probably running with magic.

There was also a large iron stove in the corner that could be used with coal, going by the large heap of charcoal nearby.

“I think so, do you want me to turn it on.” Markus said so while going over to the cooking plate, looking for the place where he had to inject mana. Turning around to Abigail, she was looking embarrassed yet again.

“Yea, I’m really bad with charging tools. If I use the stove, people complain because it gets hot inside. But it’s not my fault, this thing just uses way too much energy.”

“It’s true, for me most other people as well. It usually just runs for a few minutes then you have to charge it again. I once passed out trying to keep it going.” The young soldier said so, perhaps to comfort Abigail. The kitchen was in the same room as the tables were the soldiers were eating, so it was no wonder that it could get hot. The main building was made of stone, so it was usually cool inside compared to the outside.

“Leave it to me then. Is this the spot where I charge it?” Markus placed his hand on a small extrusion on the side. Getting a confirming nod from Abigail, he started pouring mana inside. Immediately small, red flames came out from numerous holes in the surface. Markus’ mana pool dropped noticeably. After a few seconds, the device had already absorbed 100 mana points.

The flames did not get any larger, so it was probably just a matter of how long the stove kept going. Markus quickly poured another 100 points into the device, then stopped.

He helped Abigail put a large pot on top of the metal frame that was attached above the flames, then they filled it with water and potatoes.

Then they turned towards the pile of other vegetables and started cutting them into small pieces. Markus was watching Abigail and tried copying her as well as he could. It was only cutting though, so his high agility and possibly his skills with daggers made it an effortless endeavour. The bowls in front of them filled and Markus was pleased that he was even faster than the others in cutting the vegetables.

A hissing sound coming from the potatoes alerted them. Foam was coming from underneath the lid of the pot and dropped onto the flames, evaporating.

“What, it’s still running?” Abigail rushed to the cooking plate and put her hand on the charger, trying to stop the device. “How much did you charge it? Wahh, it’s not stopping!”

Markus gently pushed her aside and drained the remaining energy within a few seconds. “I don’t know, was that bad?” he asked her. The young soldier also made a puzzled expression.

“It normally just turns off by itself after a few minutes. Cooking potatoes does not need that much energy, it’s enough to boil the water, then take them off the stove and let them steam for a while” Abigail explained. “Well, it’s not bad though, the potatoes are fine.”

The remaining work was uneventful. Abigail let Markus do some of the work and in the end he got a [Cooking] skill like he had hoped. Abigail was in charge of the details and measurements, so the quality of the finished dish was in line to what he was already used to.

Markus left the keep together with the girl, who was heading back to the tavern. It was already early evening and he had learned a lot of new skills today. There was only the magician and the alchemist remaining.

“Are you planning to do anything else today?” Abigail suddenly asked him. He actually had some plans, but it seemed like she had something in mind.

“Nothing concrete. Do you want to do something? Go on a date with me?” Markus was just messing with her, but even if she said yes he would not mind.

“What? N-no, not like that!” she was quick to refuse, but he had managed to make her blush again. “The lieutenant said you were a traveller, so I was just wondering if you would stay at the tavern in the evening. I mean, I wanted to ask you if you had any interesting stories to tell or something.”

“Hmm? Don’t the soldiers have more interesting stories than me? I mean, I just walked around for a bit, that’s not interesting, is it?” They had already reached the tavern by now. Abigail sat down on a bench in front of the building, so Markus sat down beside her.

“Most soldiers are stupid and some are downright creepy. And I’m not interesting in stories of them bullying villagers or fighting off wild beasts and bandits. Well, sometimes it’s interesting, but I don’t mean those kinds of things.” The girl was looking a bit sad, so Markus decided to hear her out at least, even if he did not have any stories to tell.

“So, what kind of things are you interested in?” he asked her.

“I have never really left the village. The only other places I have ever seen were destroyed by the dragons. With all the dragons and only the army around, I sometimes wished our house would have been destroyed as well and we would be living somewhere else now. I want to know what it’s like to live in a big city. Or how it is to live like a merchant. They had always good stories about nice places, and they had nice clothes and stuff. But they don’t stop here anymore.”

“Hmm, I see. I’ve never been to a large city myself, and I don’t think you want to hear anything about me walking around the countryside. The most interesting story I have is me sleeping outside under a table when I couldn’t find a better place. And that is just sad I think.” Of course that wasn’t true, but everything he could tell her was either from Earth or about the unbelievable stuff that happened to him over the last few days.

“Hmm, is that so?” Abigail was looking down.

“Well, I heard the dragon won’t stay long here. Perhaps it is gone by next year, it might have even left already and no one noticed.” That was a fact of course. Things would get better soon, but the girl had no way of knowing.

“I wish that stupid dragon would have never come. It was so nice here when I was young. There were so many people around and everyone was looking happy…” Abigail wiped her eyes. “I have already decided to go somewhere else soon, so I had hoped you could tell me where it would be nice.” She then stood up, and went to the entrance of the tavern. “Well, thanks for taking some time anyway. I’m going to help my mom now.” With that she entered the house, leaving Markus behind.

He felt slightly bad for the girl, but he had limited options to help her. It was dangerous for a single person on the road. He had already met bandits and wild beasts and there were dragons and trolls and probably worse things around. Even the cities were bound to have some pit-falls. There were likely a lot of ‘bad-endings’ for a pretty young girl on her own.

It was ultimately her decision though, and it wasn’t like Markus could just take her with him. He wanted to explore the world and a companion would slow him down a lot.