4: A little village called Gorn

[Year 8 Month 6: Continued]

[1 Blessed have died]

Huh, probably one of the people I blessed a few years ago.

One of the nicest things about settling down was that the number of Blessings I gave out increased dramatically. While most of the adults requested a blessing within a day or two of my arrival, it had taken a bit longer for parents to wrangle their kids long enough to do the same, but eventually, pretty much everyone had received one.

[You have 453 Blessed]

[+45.3% Mana Regeneration and Resistance]

I had gained 299 Blessed, and by the end of the week, I would probably have just over 300 more when the final stragglers came by.

Pleased by the bonus to my mana regen and resistance, I was pretty satisfied with the number. I kinda wish I had been dropped off in a bigger town, or had a bit longer to grant blessings before the cathedral was converted into a nest, but alas.

Some of the adults had expressed a little unhappiness with the bonuses I have, as the protection from evil spirits and magic was a little more esoteric and less useful for a rural town, but anything was still appreciated, and it wasn’t like I charged anything for my blessings. If I ever need money, though!

Interestingly enough, I was like a local celebrity to the kids here. I imagine that there wasn’t a ton to do here, though, so anything newish was going to be rather novel.

There were only a handful of kids, so far I have counted a total of 8, but only one really stands out to me in any capacity.

When one of the kids was receiving their blessing, I noticed something off; her ears were pointy, and her eyes were a little off. At first, I hadn’t noticed them as my way of seeing made it harder to tell when things were covered, and her hair mostly had hidden them, but after closer observation, it was pretty obvious she wasn’t human.

Unlike the stories back on Earth, she actually had some pretty big differences, mostly being the bone structures around the eyes and legs. While she wasn’t ugly, it still gave me an uneasy feeling. Reminds me of the uncanny valley, just close enough to resemble a human but distant enough to freak me out.

I doubted the woman holding her hand was actually her mother. I am not completely sure how genetics work in this world, but the woman was firmly human, so unless the dad was elven and the little girl was half elf, I don’t think that would work. I am pretty sure she is fully elven.

Once the little elf had left, it was mostly the same boring procession, adult human, adult human, is that a halfling? Nope, adult human.

After everyone else had left, Inra had approached my hill, and I watched curiously as he did some prayer thing with his hands, and he bowed his head slightly. I hadn’t noticed any of the priests doing that at the cathedral, but what do I know?

I heard the older man say a quick thanks, and as he was turned away, I had a thought, Well. I probably won’t be leaving anytime soon, so I might as well.

Before I could psych myself out, I activated the telepathic side of my skill [Ambient Mind] and did my best to project warm and appreciative feelings to Inra as words felt too complex to send.

He froze, having clearly received some of the emotion. Looking at me, I could see a glimmer of curiosity and surprise in his eyes. Waiting a few more seconds, he turned and walked back down the hill, eventually leaving my sight.

Hey, you can’t just do that. I have 8 years of silence just to be ignored? That’s not fair!

It was the next day when Inra spoke to me. “I assume it was you whom I felt last night?” He said this while pulling a scroll out of a pocket.

I didn’t respond, curious to see what he was doing.

Seemingly not expecting a response, he just huffed for a moment and unfurled the paper.

As he did so, I could feel the brush of a skill pass over me, mana having been released from the scroll in a surprisingly large wave.

[Detect Spirit]

I watched as the mana traveled back into the scroll, and from the way Inra’s eyes passed over it, had words written into its paper.

Having read its contents, Inra dropped it, letting it fall to the ground. Curiously, I watched as the mana woven into its fibers dissipated, seemingly spent.

Now that’s interesting. Single-use skills can be in scrolls? That reminds me of some of the games I played on Earth.

Inra walked up to me, pressing his hand against the cold, hard surface. “So you are in there. I may be old, but I am not senile just yet.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Throwing subtlety aside, I sent across a wave of curiosity directed toward the scroll, more specifically, on why he had it.