For the last few weeks I have honed my hunting skills. In doing so my adeptness with a sword and shield have grown tremendously. I bring more meat into the village than Mickie can easily use in a week. Beyond that, I have continued my study in carpentry and masonry. I find building to be a natural fit for me. Soon I may take on learning more fine skills when it comes to carpentry. Like furniture and barrel making. It feels wonderful to no longer be useless. My confidence has improved vastly since the fateful hunting trip

Learning more about the culture of this world has been another focus. According to Mickie there are three gods that people follow here. Each god focuses on a different aspect of the world. Drind is the god governing forests and fauna. Rokul is the god of mountains and fighting and Mandorla is the god of creation and oceans. Interestingly according to Mickie each god has many followers, yet they all exist together in harmony. Most fighting here is over territory and resources. The concept of religions co-existing is a hard one for me. Then again it makes sense in a way, that this world is completely different from my former home.

Mickie also explained that raiding parties from other regions are the biggest thing to fear. Which explains why Maria was so nervous when she returned from that resource expedition. From what I understand this world is made up of about a dozen large islands. All of them separated by oceans. I am guessing they would be what I know as continents. Mickie informed me if I wanted to know more about that I should see Ephraim. Understanding the workings of this world is critical to surviving in it. I got a chance to head to Ephraim’s the next day.

Amusingly I had forgotten that Ephraim can tend to ramble. So I spent the better part of the day at his home listening. Rambling or not I gleaned a massive amount of knowledge from our discussions. Mind you that also meant consuming a large measure of wine as well. So much so, I don’t even remember walking home that night. Probably should just be really thankful I remember anything I learned. Upon reflecting upon my new-found information for a few days I think it can be distilled into this.

This world is ruled over by a king. The king lives many weeks travel from my current location. Which by the way is about in the middle of the world. There are several islands that are attempting to break away from the kingdom. It is these rogue areas that send out raiding parties. As it stands now, neither side has enough power to crush the other. So the king has appointed defenders to stop the raiders. While at the same time the raiders capture people and resources where they can. The defenders are not part of an army, but they do exist in great numbers. It seems the strategy is to use them more like officers of the law. Essentially doing the same job the police did in my old world.

What I shall do in the coming days is go talk to the man who brought me to Arcana. The idea of becoming a defender appeals to me. I loathed feeling helpless when I first arrived and so becoming a defender of the helpless feels natural. That along with my other practical skills will make a nice set. I am aware there are many things I must learn to reach this goal. The first step will be to seek out Braidan of Mountain Shadow to acquire more training.

Part7