"I didn't see a dragon," I said trying to speak as calmly as possible to the frightened woman, "I think you are safe for now."

A small amount of tension seemed to release from her face, but she still was shaken from the attack and I wasn't surprised. The town was in shambles with multiple buildings completely destroyed and others still burning. I motioned for her to come out as I wasn't sure of the structural integrity of the building she was in.

"You should come out and help me look for other survivors," I was trying to be as calm as possible, but people could still be in danger.

She pulled open the broken door which took some effort with the damage it had sustained and her eyes went from building to building welling up with tears.

"You're right. We need to look for others. I can save my tears for later," she said wiping her eyes and steeling herself. She had a look of sad determination and was ready for action.

"Mae, could you help me look for survivors?" I asked the matronly fairy.

"Who is Mae?" asked the woman looking around to see who I was speaking to.

"You're the only one who can see or hear me, Teddy. You're also the only one I can heal," Mae explained.

"Nevermind," I said to the woman as she joined me in the main path through town.

We started moving towards the next house. "What is your name?" I asked as I pulled open the front door.

"Nina," she answered as she entered the house with me. We searched the small house finding no one. "Either they ran into the woods or into a nearby house when the attack started."

"We will find them," I said trying to offer some comfort, "My name is Theodore."

It took us about an hour to search the rest of the intact buildings in town. Calling out for survivors as we went. Nina's husband ran into town from the woods about halfway through our search. He had been out on a hunt when the attack occurred and wasn't aware anything was wrong until he was on his way back. They embraced and the search continued.

There ended up being about 30 injured or hiding residents of the town. We gathered everyone into the town square I did what healing we could. More than double that number had not survived the attack. Nina's husband Shamus was the town's leader and he quickly organized the healed survivors to gather the ones who didn't make it.

"We need to bury the dead so we can begin to rebuild," Shamus said to the townsfolk, "we will get through this together."

I could tell this was a close-knit community. We finished burying the last fallen resident, Shamus said a few words, and everyone joined in the mourning process. At this point, the sun was setting and I was surrounded by people weary from the day's events.

Shamus came over to me and said, "Everyone is thankful for the assistance you provided today. We all understand that you could've just turned a blind eye and headed to the next town easily enough. We don't have many beds left with roofs over them, but we want to offer you a place to sleep."

I accepted his offer and helped get the town ready for the evening. They made a central fire for those who would be sleeping outside complete with a few large pots of stew for the town to share.

"Thank you for everything," said Nina as we sat around the fire with the rest of the townsfolk, "We will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see what we have left to pay you for your assistance."

"You don't have to give me anything," I said as I stared into the fire thinking about all the loss these people suffered. I didn't get a specific number we buried, but it was easily half of the town. I shuddered as I thought about how young some of the victims of the attack were. "I chose to help and it was all on a volunteer basis."

Shamus sat next to his wife and nodded his head in my direction at my response. We sat silently around the fire for a little while as people finished eating. The last of us got up and prepared our bedding for the night and after little effort, the town was silent except for the crackling fire.

"Wake up, Teddy," Mae said as she gave my arm a tug, "Everyone else is up already and we should get moving if you want to find a town with a trader."

"Can't we stay and help these people?" I asked somewhat surprised at the lack of empathy.

"They are just NPCs, Teddy, this journey is for you," Mae said flatly looking back at me with a strange lack of emotion.

"If it's my journey then I should be able to choose what I do on it and I want to help them," I said starting to get a little upset.

"Well done, Teddy," said Mae with a huge smile on her face, "I'm so proud of you."

"Wait, that was just a test?" I asked.

"Life is all about tests," Mae said still smiling, "I can help guide you on this journey, but I can't tell you what to do exactly. You have to make your own choices."

I walked over to Shamus who was standing by a nearby building looking it over. "Hey Shamus, I know I was just passing through, but I'd like to help the town if I can. I don't have anywhere to be and I'm not in a rush to get there. I don't really know the area and I need to beef up my archery skills before I head out into the great unknown again."

"I don't think anyone in town would be against me offering you a place here for as long as you'd like to stay and help," said Shamus, "I'd be happy to offer you some training in archery. I've been a town hunter since I was old enough to use a bow just like my father before me."

"That would be amazing," I said shaking his hand excitedly, "What is the next step for getting the town back on its feet?"

"We need to get these houses cleared of debris," said Shamus, "Would you mind getting started with that while I gather helpers and start getting lumber and roof material ready?"

"No problem at all," I said heading off towards the first house, "I have a special dimensional pocket where I can store all sizes of items with no limit except I have to be able to lift the item."

"That's amazing," answered Shamus, "That could save us a ton of time. At this point, everyone has grabbed any valuables from their homes so you can keep anything you want. It would actually be really helpful to have the houses completed cleared out beside any usable furniture of course."

"I can do that and if there is any reusable lumber I'll pile it up in the square," I gave Shamus a thumbs up and turned to move to the first repairable house.

"Theodore, you should start with that house there," Shamus pointed to a smaller house that looked a little shabby but repairable, "The owner of that house passed away in the attack. He had no family and no close friends. You can have anything you find in the house as a thank you for everything you are doing to help us."

I shot him another upward thumb and started moving to the designated house. Mae fluttered beside me as I entered. "Seems weird to clear out this guy's house as a reward, but maybe you'll get something good," Mae said as we looked around the first room.

"You seemed pretty keen on looting corpses earlier, how is looting a corpse's house any different?" I asked giving Mae some raised eyebrow action.

She ignored me and flew off to a different room. It took me about 5 minutes to clear out the entire front area of the house. I was able to grab a small table and chairs, a small cupboard complete with dishes and silverware, and all the broken wood and debris

"I absolutely love this inventory system," I said to myself.

"Get in here, Teddy," Mae shouted from the bedroom, "I found something good."

I ran into the bedroom area and saw what Mae was talking about. Sitting on the small dresser beside the bed was a beautiful, leather-bound book. I stepped over to the book and was amazed at the intricate details on the cover. It had a rune that was surrounded by a circle of waves embossed around it.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked Mae.

"Sure is, Teddy. Give it a read," she responded.

I pulled the book into my inventory to examine it.

Waterball Spellbook

Sends a Waterball in a straight line from the user's chosen point of origin to their target area.

Size is determined by the amount of MP used during casting.

I selected the option to read the spellbook and it popped into my hands. The pages turned quickly from one side to the other and blue light streamed from the middle of the book into my chest. The whole process took seconds and I knew the spell.

"When we are all done cleaning out the rest of the houses you should play around with that spell and try to imbue it into an arrow. You are an arrowmancer after all," said Mae.

"I can't wait!" I exclaimed. I was so excited to finally have a spell to get to the bottom of this arrowmancer business, but I told Shamus I would clean out the houses and I would keep my word.

I picked up everything in the bedroom except for the large furniture. Then I hurried to the next house excited to play with my newly acquired spell. Despite my desire to perform magic as soon as possible, it took me almost two hours to clean out all the houses. I left all the usable furniture as Shamus had requested and I stacked any lumber that was large enough to utilize for repairs in a stack near the center of town.

I found Shamus helping the town woodworkers as they made planks from a downed tree. "Shamus, I got all the houses cleared out. I'm going to take a little training break before the next task."

"Sounds good to me. You made quick work of clearing out those houses," Shamus said, "There is a training dummy behind my house if you'd like to use that." He pointed over to which house was his and then got back to work.

As I walked to the training dummy which ended up being a wooden facsimile of an orc with a small wooden shield covering its chest. Mae explained thinking about the spell I wanted to use and how to hold it before casting to make it stronger. She also explained how to imbue the spell onto an arrow which was almost the same process, but required more focus and skill.

I decided to just try casting it sans arrow to make sure I could cast it successfully before making it more difficult.

I aimed my outstretched hand at the dummy's head and thought of the waterball spell. As I focused magic points into the spell a literal ball of water formed in my hand. At 5 MP it was about the size of a softball and I couldn't hold my excitement. I let the waterball fly and it sped like a fastball straight at that dummy's face.

It was dead on and the direct hit had almost no effect on the training dummy besides general dampness. It was as if I had thrown a water balloon at it. The waterball popped as soon as it made contact with the wooden target.

I stared at the dummy as it stood there gloating as much as a dripping, inanimate object can. "Well, that was a little disappointing," I said feeling deflated, "I don't know what I expected from a spell called waterball."