[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 100 Coins]
Ashton stared at the notification in front of his eyes. The 'Observer in the Veil'. A constellation that really just liked any sort of magic and mystics in any capacity, as far as Ashton remembered. It wanted to become the Summoner's sponsor for a while, but after continuously being turned down, it stopped focusing on them all that much.
Though, why was it even here? Ashton could maybe understand them hanging out somewhere in London or Birmingham, but... Drakewood? Sure, Drakewood wasn't just some random village, it was still a decently sized town, but there also wasn't anything special about this place, beside some random, unsubstantiated myths that King Arthur, the definitely real historical figure as everyone over the age of 60 in this town would like to make you believe, was originally from here. It was a legend that nobody from outside of Drakewood had ever heard of either.
At the end of the day, Ashton figured that there was a lot he still didn't know about how constellations saw the world. They probably had numerous 'windows' open across this world. Not that it was important - he couldn't spend too much time just lost in thought.
"So you're one of the constellations I've heard about?" Ashton asked. He obviously couldn't show that he knew too much about what was going on.
[[Observer in the Veil] is curious about the source of your abilities]
'There it is,' he thought, staring at the screen. But well, he had already thought about how to respond to that question. He smiled at the system screen, "I have my ways."
[[Observer in the Veil] is dissatisfied with that answer]
[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 100 Coins]
[[Observer in the Veil] wishes to know the source of your abilities]
[[Observer in the Veil] points out that no such magic should have been part of this world]
Ashton sighed, "You think a few coins would be enough for me to tell you?"
No new notification seemed to appear, so Ashton just got back to harvesting the lizardmen's magic stones.
The Observer would come back, that was for sure. Their curiosity was like none other's, so as long as Ashton could pique their interest, he would probably get quite a few good things out of it. Maybe even a few bonus quests with decent rewards, though even just coins would be great.
The more Ashton grew and the more he stood out from others, the more constellations would pay attention to him. Frankly, they didn't have the power to mess things up too much. One of the few ways they could exert that power was by becoming someone's sponsor, which would allow them to dictate someone's actions to a certain degree, depending on how much power they give that person. Beyond that, sometimes constellations could have an effect on main quests, but that shouldn't be possible in the first phase of quests yet, so it was nothing to worry about.
So, basically, as long as Ashton was smart about it and didn't put up with the constellations' bullshit, they couldn't do anything, no matter how suspicious he was. It wasn't like Ashton did anything wrong - he was the victim in every part of this situation.
But out of all of this, the most important part was that the Observer in the Veil didn't recognise Ashton. Well, to be totally fair, he looked very different now than he did back then. Plus, his body in the other world was technically constructed with magic in the first place and was quite different to a regular human body by the time the council invaded there.
It really wasn't clear exactly how constellations saw the world, so maybe, the way Ashton was right now was completely unrecognisable. Or, which was equally as possible... they simply didn't care enough about a mere summon to bother remembering him.
Either way, that was a good sign. It allowed him to start out at a neutral point with constellations. After all, the Summoner had made some serious enemies amongst the constellations, even those that seemed to have genuinely goodhearted intentions. Or rather... especially those. The Summoner was a vile creature that did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, and a lot of the things they wanted to do were utterly... horrific.
Being able to start from a blank slate with the constellations was probably the best thing he could have ever asked for going forward.
A little while later, Ashton had extracted all the magic stones and checked their bodies for anything else useful. Every once in a while, lizardmen were born with special scales that contained a bit more mana than usual. He didn't have any luck, but he should keep an eye out from now on. Those scales were pretty useful for brewing potions, one of the next things that Ashton had to get to.
Frankly, though he had tried to hold back on the physical combat side of things, Ashton had hurt himself quite a bit. Yeah, his body was a bit sturdier after levelling up a few times, and he had the experience to push through and persist despite these injuries, but if he kept on going like this, he would be absolutely screwed.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Ashton couldn't wait until he healed normally. For that, he would have to get fully treated at a hospital, but those will be overrun by either monsters or people by now anyway, and he didn't want to take away the space for people that really needed medical attention. On top of that, it would take a while for his wounds to heal over enough that he didn't have to worry as much.
And waiting for healers to pop up would take too long as well. So, Ashton had two choices. One, summon a spirit with healing abilities. And two, stock up on potions.
Frankly, he had to do both, anyway, but there was one main problem with the summoning part right now. Ashton's contract capacity. According to what he knew, most summoners would make contracts with a few beings and continue practicing with them, growing their contract capacity over time. He would still do that, but it would take a few weeks of active practice, or a few good hidden items, for him to grow that capacity to the point he wanted.
Ashton still had space for one or two more contracts right now, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to currently use that space on a healer if potions were an option anyway. The healing spirit that he wanted to contract needed things like potions or certain medicines as its offering anyway, providing much more powerful healing in return, and for these sorts of wounds some potions would do the trick, so... that was his plan for now.
The only thing that Ashton needed were the right materials. Some of them were things he could gather from monsters, but mostly, he had to hope that the environment already started to change with the introduction of mana.
New minerals and plants would start to pop up sooner or later, and sooner would be just that much better.
He needed to set up a decent supply network for himself, and get his hands on some actual magic items, even if he had to make them himself like the improvised magic compass.
Amongst the items that he did end up grabbing from the shopping street was a small souvenir map of Drakewood for the handful of tourists this place actually got. He may have grown up here, but after spending a lifetime away, he could barely remember the way home when he returned yesterday.
"Urgh..." he groaned loudly, "It's just been a day? I would've guessed it's been at least a week since all of this started."
He shook the thought out of his head and looked down at the map while starting to walk through the streets, with the Salamander currently resting in Ashton's vessel.
"This here is market street, and... this must have been the small park where I killed the orc. Then this over here is where my apartment is, and..." Ashton muttered quietly, using the dormant Pen of Insight to mark anything that he could remember. Most importantly, there was one place that he still had to figure out.
"Where the hell was Sam's company again..?" he stared at the map, squinting annoyedly. The worst part was that he couldn't even remember what the company's name was, so he wasn't able to ask people either. The only part he still knew was that it had something to do with software engineering, since that was what he studied back in university and why he wanted Sam to get him a job there.
"I wish I had a seeker spirit with me right now..." Ashton groaned, orienting himself a bit by looking at the nearby street names. While he didn't know the exact location, he had a rough idea. It was somewhere in the city centre, so it should be fairly close to market street.
Not that this helped him, since there were tons of random companies around here.
"... Maybe I should have asked the dickhead trio. I'm pretty sure they knew Sam as well..."
Ashton sighed and put the map away. Ashton knew for a fact there was something he could use as reference, something that Sam kept talking about that he loved going to during his work breaks. Back then, he wasn't particularly interested, but now Ashton was beating himself up for not listening to his best friend when he was speaking sometimes.
"Stupid, self-absorbed asshole..." Ashton groaned to himself. But just then, he heard a sound. It came from one of the nearby alleys. At first, he thought it was monsters and was about to call back the salamander, but then he heard voices.
"-just hold out a bit longer, we'll- we'll get this figured out, I promise!"
"... No, this is... I can barely feel my arms and legs anymore... I'm done for, just... just leave already..."
A third voice quickly yelled in response, "Shut up! We're not leaving you behind! I'd rather die than just leave you!"
Ashton rolled his eyes, "If you keep being that loud, you are going to die," he walked into the alley. The trio turned around to him, startled.
"Who are you?!" the loud one of the three asked.
"Just someone passing by. What happened to him?" Ashton pointed at the guy sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall with his arms limp by his side.
"... We were trying to clear the quest, and apparently one of the monsters we were trying to kill was venomous, and..." one of them replied, and Ashton raised his brow.
Venom, huh? That was a common ingredient in tons of potions. He quickly squatted down and took a look at the guy sitting on the ground. His shirt's sleeves were cut up, and some kind of barbs or thorns dug into his skin. There was still something stuck in there, too.
"Excuse me for a second," Ashton quickly grabbed the small thorn, though one of the two others was trying to pull him back.
"What are you doing you-"
"Trying to figure out what it was that got your friend, so hands off," Ashton snapped his fingers, calling the Backpacker. The pair took a step back, startled, thinking that a monster had snuck up on them, "Some paper and a bottle of ink."
The backpacker quickly provided both. The ink was really simple, just regular ink he got from the store with a ton of magic stones ground up and mixed into it. Not perfect, but good enough for now.
Ashton looked at the pen, "Time to wake up."
He linked the Pen of Insight to the ink and a piece of paper, and then focused on the small thorn. Quickly, the pen began to autonomously write a short description on the paper.
---
Blue Moondew's Thorn
Grade - Rare
A thorn belonging to a rare species of carnivorous plant, the Blue Moondew. It is hollow on the inside to hold a small amount of venom, and easy to snap off to bury itself in the plant's victims.
---
"Okay, I've got good news and bad news for you guys," Ashton smiled, standing up. He knew this plant, "First, the venom is purely paralytic and wears off in an hour or so, it's not very strong. Especially considering you flinched in pain when I pulled the thorn out, so... you clearly didn't get a strong hit."
The trio looked at Ashton, startled, and the two friends looked down at the third, who seemed a bit embarrassed.
"And, uh... the bad news?" he asked.
Ashton shrugged, "It's just a plant. A carnivorous plant, but... a plant. It doesn't count as a 'creature' as far as the system is concerned. And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of plant-type monsters, this just isn't one of them."
"Wait, so we tried to fight that thing for no reason?!"
Ashton laughed a bit, "Yeah, sorry, you did fight a plant for no reason, and then lost. Anyway, more importantly... head over to market street, they're building a camp there. It looks like they've got some tactics figured out, so you should be able to get help in clearing the quest."
The three seemed relieved and extremely happy to hear about this. As the two that seemed 'okay' helped the third off the ground, Ashton looked at them. And he was more than happy he asked.
"Where did you find this thing anyway?"
"It was in the botanical gardens... there were a few different things there, and some of them were definitely monsters. The quest ticked up when we killed them, at least."
Ashton smiled. That was it. The botanical gardens were the part that Sam had so excitedly told him about, since they were just a few minutes away from the office.
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