They didn’t leave immediately, though. He had definitely overpaid her for her services, at least from her perspective, so to take advantage of that goodwill, Ammanas stayed a small while longer in the cottage. He asked questions to subtly grasp at the hierarchy of power, politically, magically and martially speaking. He vaguely took the approach that where he came from might have labelled things differently, which was true, and he told her he was going to seek out those more at the top of the food chain for learning. Adeline had taken him for some kind of young erudite scholar of a wealthy background.

Perhaps unethically, he had also been lifting knowledge from the surface thoughts that came up in response to his inquiries and the following discussion. Mind magic was something vampires were relatively adept in, though he didn’t want to dabble in it too much because it was a slippery slope to paranoia and distrust. She was also being very open and helpful already, though some of the thoughts he scanned implied she thought he was asking some pretty dumb questions for someone clearly well educated. So, he really didn’t want to infringe on her privacy, but those exact thoughts told him it’d be a bit weird to ask some of what he wished to know.

He gained some clues from her responses when he implied the types and direction of those he was interested in seeking, especially from comparing her own might in his perspective to her own perspective of where she stood. She gave many replies that told him it was flat out impossible to meet a Hierarch of the druids, for example, which he found out was the nature equivalent of an Archmagis. She wasn’t even sure if there was one alive right now.

The duo left the witch’s cottage in a pondering silence, trio with Edgar sitting steadily on his shoulder, reflecting on the new information and the potential goals he would set as Ammanas came to know more. Before Harken had left, Orobas had already left a unique scent detectable to Baikou demons on the boy’s skin and used it to guide his Master towards their next destination of Harken’s home. With a thought, he asked Edgar to take to the skies and continue the scouting that Orobas had briefly started before. The flapping of wings accompanied a squawk of acknowledgement as the large bird leapt forth and rapidly ascended to circle in the air, before choosing the north-west and departing to check out the town of Runas. As they slowly strode along, Orobas would walk slightly behind and to the right, though subtle tilting of his head would indicate direction to Ammanas, who could clearly sense the movements despite not looking at him. Ignoring the same looks of surrounding villagers as they got earlier, Ammanas began to ponder, reflecting both from the perspective as Ammanas as well as Liam.

Did he want to go home? He wasn’t so sure. Most of his joy in life came from playing Ashes of the Primordial and exploring the unknown with his summons and pets that he’d come to call family, as well as challenging his limits and learning ancient knowledge in magic and martial might. His current situation seemed to represent an unparalleled opportunity to do just that all over again, learning new systems of magic and that aura he’d heard about from Adeline. He could also tell from her tenuous grasp over the mana and what she’d said about the levels of strength that he was probably just as peerless in might here as he was in the game. Witches were equivalent to wizards and were both at the lower end of the power scale of mana users, Archwizards in the middle with Archmagi at the high end being comparable, though slightly lesser in power, to gods. Multiple factions had their own system of power, including Mana, Aura, Faith, Nature, as well as Celestial and Infernal.

There were apparently deities that weren’t just worshiped on faith but had a very real presence in guiding their following. Visible and flashy miracles, the descent of avatars and gifting of power during battle were not unheard-of occurrences both as rewards to worshipers and in a constant struggle with other gods to try and expand their influence. He wasn’t too concerned with the threat posed by these divine beings, as he’d slain his fair share of the equivalent within the game. He would definitely keep a low profile if possible but if provoked he would respond accordingly. He also had an available pool of manpower to spread his influence and inquisition of knowledge in the form of his summons, who seemed like they would likely also be at the top of the food chain, especially those that had fought with him through that final arena to the higher waves.

He decided that perhaps it wasn’t him that should attend the academy to pilfer through their library. Instead he could just send one of his followers, guised as a talented commoner. He already had the perfect candidate too, another demon skilled in illusions, though an altogether different species to Orobas. He would have to send Lilith as a warrior though, as he was sure that whatever talent test they did for mana would be complicated enough to trick to not be worth the hassle. Aura could be trained by anyone with a strong body and no competency was expected yet from the commoners. You just had to be a talent at fighting. Fighting was something Lilith could do very well, despite her skillset lying much more towards magic and manipulation. She was Ammanas’ very own protégé, as he taught her everything he could about fighting with a staff as well as small blades.

His reflection and planning were disrupted as they had followed a dirt path up to a small building made from a mixture of mud, rock and wood. The base third of the house’s walls were a stacking of rocks caked together with mud in place of cement. Wooden logs were hammered into the ground at the corners of the walls as well as either side of the entrance doorway, and rough planks were then inserted into cut-outs in the logs and presumably fastened with nails or something similar. The door actually was hinged on and seemed surprisingly solid. Ammanas and Orobas could already smell some herbal stew from the house a distance before and could clearly hear bustling about in the home as well as occasional conversation from Harken and a pair of older male and female voices. They were presumably making some sort of lunch, as the sun was high overhead in the clear sky.

The smell was pretty good, though neither Master nor follower were hungry, sustained by pure energy whilst physically eating was only a pleasurable pastime or done to gain buffs.

Before knocking on the door, Ammanas turned to Orobas. “I have some ideas of what I want to do in the short term and only the most general direction for long term. I’ll discuss with you once we’ve learnt a bit more, especially about the tournament, and gone back to the cave. I’ll also summon some of your brothers and sisters and give them some jobs to do.”

Orobas smiled slightly and nodded in understanding. He spoke in his rumbling growl, smoothed out by the glamour. “They no doubt look forward to being in your presence once again, Master. We shall follow your orders to the letter.”

Ammanas smiled slightly back at him, before turning to the door to rap it. Before he could, Orobas stepped forward to lightly knock in his place, though he apparently also wasn’t used to the flimsy strength of the environment as despite his best efforts at restraint, the door was thumped heavily and rattled in its frame, the knocks closer to booms. They heard the older male voice curse from being startled, before Harken exclaimed loudly. “It’s probably those two weirdos I met in the forest! They must be done with Miss Adeline.”

There was a scrambling from inside before the door was swung open with gusto. Recognition glinted in his eyes as he stared at the two of them, looking slightly up to their faces with a smirk. Orobas stepped back behind as Ammanas stepped forward with a smirk of his own. “Hello Harken, us two weirdos thought we’d drop in for a chat.” The smirk became a small polite smile when he saw a middle-aged man and woman step out of another doorway through which the smell of stew was coming at the back end of the house. Harken’s face dropped a bit, looking chagrined that his comment was heard, recalling the freaky nature of his guests, who snuck up on him in a forest and caught an arrow out of the air with ease.

Practice in mana and aura was well known to increase the perception of senses and he reasoned they were quite accomplished in one or the other. Then his face went back to normal as he looked back to his parents with a questioning look. The woman saw this and moved forward to the entrance with a sunny smile on her face. She was quite charming, with a lighter tone than both her husband and son, lacking the tan of the other two. The shortest of those here, though probably tall for a woman, she was thin and wispy looking. Her mousy blonde hair swept up into a bun on top, with some piercing blue-grey eyes crinkled with crows’ feet in the corner, probably from smiling like she was now. A button nose sat above thin lips, the cheekbones were angular and slightly pronounced. She wore a faded-green woollen tunic, coming down to her lower shin like a dress, belted in with fabric with the front covered in a homespun apron with some splashes and dried stains of liquids and food from heavy use. She wore some soft looking slippers of multilayered leather with a thick sole.

Despite her small stature in front of those present, she had a strong, bright presence and moved with purpose. Now standing next to Harken at the door, she too looked up slightly to the faces of her guests and, still with a sunny disposition, introduced herself.

“Welcome to our home, Harken had just told us he made some new friends in the forest and that you would probably be visiting later,” her voice was light and charming. She gestured to herself, then the middle-aged man behind. “My name is Celine Wode, mother of Harken and wife of Grendel, the grumpy man behind me and also the resident ranger of Sulas.”

“A pleasure,” Ammanas still gave a polite but charming smile and inclined his head forward. “I see where Harken gets his good looks from, as well as his skill with a bow.” He smiled first at Celine who beamed back at him before also nodding to her husband, Grendel, who stared back at the pair by the door with a guarded curiosity.

He continued, “I was wondering if I could ask Harken some questions, I heard he’ll be competing in a tournament for scholarship with one of the academies in Ferrent which sounds intriguing.”

Celine nodded her head in assent, turning aside and gesturing them in. “Well do come on in then, we were just about to have lunch. There’s not much, just a small stew with bread but you are welcome to join us to eat whilst you talk to Harken.”

“That would be lovely, thank you.” Ammanas and Orobas moved inside, Orobas’ height meant having to duck slightly under the doorway, despite being shorter than his true form when under a glamour. Celine bustled back towards the kitchen, as they and Harken trailed behind her. Grendel stayed standing where he was within the open living room space that took up the majority of the house. Harken was the spitting image of him, though Grendel had a bit less of an angular look to him. He had some flecks of grey that ran through his shoulder-length hair, which he wore tied back with a leather thong. He was taller than his son by half a head, just a half head shorter himself than Ammanas.

He looked worn and rough in his leathery skin, clearly an outdoorsman of considerable experience. He was very trim and wiry, with broad shoulders, narrow waist and long limbs of ropy muscle instead of bulk. He wore mostly leather from the waist down, a similar green tunic top to what his wife wore, though his shirt stopped at the waist. The clothes were of a seemingly higher quality compared to what Ammanas saw other villagers wearing, but Ammanas could tell they were homemade. The Wode family of Rangers seemed quite well off here.

The room contained a fireplace dug into the wall on the left, with a thick rug from a skinned bear of some sort splayed out in front of the fire. Two wooden rocking chairs faced the fire with the bear skin rug between them. A round table sat on the right side in front of a window shuttered with wood, accompanying stools made of thick logs that had been smoothed out to a flat angle apparently served as the dining table.

A small collection of tools, weapons and odds and ends sat on the wall and floor at the front of the house on the right facing in. To the left of the entrance was a wooden wall that cut away from the small entryway and led to what seemed like a small bedroom, probably Harken’s. Opposite side of the fire was another doorway on the far left that probably led to his parent’s room, whilst the doorway further along to the right clearly led into the kitchen, through which Celine just passed and Grendel stood near.

Harken led them to the dining table and pulled two of the log seats out for them to sit on before he went to the opposite side of the table and found his own. They all sat down, Grendel still standing quietly by the kitchen entrance and staring at the two sitting opposite his son. He felt a quiet unease from the taller one, almost like he was looking at some predator he’d find in the Wildlands. He gave the impression of a wolf, an alpha in his own right though he clearly deferred to the youth beside him. His gaze spoke of one who just saw your weaknesses, where he could strike, a predatorial stare of hunger instead of looking at you like you were human.

This was something Orobas could easily fix, were he trying to blend in or infiltrate a group of some sort, something requiring adept social skills and a non-threatening presence. However, right now he was just posing as the protector and elder of his Master, so he kept up a toned-down version of the intimidating presence of his natural state. His milky white eye was exactly for what Grendel was feeling. It was an eye of prescience and was exceptionally useful for spotting weaknesses, magic in use, traps and also gave slight hints of the possibilities of the future. Were he to cover it up in a glamour, he would lose those abilities until the eye was revealed once again. It was currently not worth it.

Orobas and Ammanas both noticed the uncomfortable state of Grendel, but both decided not to do anything about it. Harken and Celine didn’t care, though likely because they weren’t as perceptive as Grendel and Adeline, and Harken was the one who would give them the information they sought, whilst Celine seemed like she was the one who wore the pants in this household.

With the bustling Celine in the kitchen, preparing the final touches on the stew, and the silent and guarded Grendel staring at them, Ammanas focused on Harken in front of them. He leaned forwards with a friendly smile at the youth, “I heard from Adeline that you were being tested in the tournament in Runas soon, will you be competing with your bow?”

Harken was unguarded before the two ‘weirdos’ and was quite happy to chat with these interesting people who came out of the Wildlands. He grinned, “Sure will, there’s no one who’s my match in Archery within the surrounding villages other than the dedicated Rangers. Besides, I learned everything from my Pa, the best Ranger of the bunch so I’m sure I’ll overtake the other Rangers soon, too.”

Grendel coughed behind them, before glaring at his son, whose grin dropped a bit from the eye contact. Harken also coughed a bit in embarrassment, his cheeks briefly turning red. “Well... maybe not soon, but I’m confident in front of any my age when it comes to archery!”

Grendel still gave him a disapproving stare, not liking the arrogance he felt from that and the previous statement. He spoke his first words in their presence, a gruff and deep voice. “Try bringing back some dinner first before you try impressing anyone.”