“So about your current occupation, I wanted to know what measurements did you take before planting anything here, also Smith told me you previously had livestock, if is not rude for me to ask I wanted to know, what type of animal were you breeding?”

“Only two questions but both kind of hard to answer, first of all my plants, I removed all he earth from the surface and fertilized the one below that, I waited a week for the land to absorb the nutrients and then I planted the seeds, it´s been two weeks since then and I think half of the seeds didn't make it, the rest is struggling to grow.

So you remove the upper layer and fertilize the under layer, the process sounds expensive if you want to have a big green field, right now i'll just put it as future thing to do if I´m still here when I have the resources to do something like that.

“And regarding my livestock, I had 8 buffamoos, I got milk from them and sold most of it, I gave a part to the ones that didn't have a job, the rest went to the cook so she could make me some cheese or some kind of dish with it.

I can make myself an idea of the skills this person has, but not being able to use them properly he has to get through hard times, I guess that applies to everyone here, they´re skilled and adaptable but there´s a limit of what can that skill and adaptability do for them.

“One last question, have you ever gathered fruits or something?” - “at some point I was a gatherer but the forest is a dangerous place, recently even more than ever, i might be hanging from a fine thread but as long as I'm not starving to dead I won't go near that place.

Recently...I suppose something happened and the amount of monsters suddenly rose, I don't know what´s the level of the monsters there so I won´t go near as well, even so I ask the farmer for directions to the forest to have it as a reference.

Satisfied now that I know a few more things I go back to Smith, there´s not much sunlight left and I´m pretty tired, I know the place where I will sleep won't be comfy but a mediocre rest is better than no rest, Smith receives me with some breath and water, after I eat I grab my sheet and go to sleep.

Once again I wake up having my arms numb, the pain is less compared to yesterday, I stand up and stretch, then I go out and i catch a glimpse of Smith, looks like he's starting the fire for the oven, this takes a while so we eat and talk a little as we wait for the oven to be ready, though I must say that looking at him holding the bread with his hand covered in ashes is a little uncomfortable, I guess it can't be helped, using the water to something that is not drinking it is a luxury.

After a few hours we finished forging 2 swords and took a break to eat, I decide to use this opportunity so to ask a few more questions to Smith, this time i will focus on smithing to avoid a weird situation like yesterday.

“Aside from swords what have you forged here?” - “Axes, hammers, armors, you name it, I was never a great smith but I wasn´t useless either” - I have the feeling he just called me useless

“Have you made bolts? how about cap screws?” - “What are you playing at boy?”

“I just wanted to know if you recognised some words” - did he just call me boy?

“That´s right, I forgot you were a merchant, it´s normal for you to know weird terms” - I'll take it as a compliment, if Smith doesn't know how to make those things I guess I will need a little imagination and a lot of experimentation to make them, since I don't know how to make them either, if there´s not basic compression technology I guess my plan A to make more swords can´t be used.

After we finished eating we got to work again, those hours passed very slowly, I´m asking too much to my arms, I think they might fall off at some point, having some daylight left I decide to go talk to the mayor, I tell Smith that I will go talk to him and he sees me confused, being confused because of a commentary made by me is becoming a habit of him.

I start walking through the place while I focus on looking for the mayor to keep my mind busy, I guess it will take some time to get used to this place, on the bright side, finding a person on an empty town shouldn't be that hard, just as expected it doesn't take long before I find him, I get close and greet him but he´s not greeting back in a very friendly way.

“Good day, i was looking for you, I had a couple questions and I was hoping you could answer them” - it´s pretty obvious he doesn't want to talk to me, but it doesn't matter, because there's a special kind of smile someone can do, a smile that in the moment the other person sees it that person knows there's no running away, the man might not be friendly but he´s rational, he accepts to answer even if it´s a nuisance to him.

“Smith commented that you were the mayor, I was wondering what did you do before...you know, the beasts” - the man seems bothered by my question, I´m sure I asked something complicated again, I pretend not to notice his discomfort and try to fix my error.

“Smith told me he used to make all kinds of weapons and armors, the farmer used to take care of buffamoos and I'm pretty sure the cook used to make more than just bread” - that went pretty well, he seems more relaxed now, the best way to talk about a complicated subject is to give some examples on how easy can be the answer.

“Well, before this place became hellish I was in charge of managing the workers; gatherers, miners, farmers, lumberjacks, but there's not many people now so I just walk around this dead place”

He said farmers, plural, looks like there's more story here than just “the beasts attacked my buffamoos”, I'm curious but is pretty obvious by the state of this place and the time the farmers has been attending his field that the wounds are deep and haven't got the time to heal.