Chapter 3: Manifestation

There were sets of clothes hanging in the main bedroom’s closet, male and female tunics with a trace of modernism.

As Zax’s clothes were beyond redemption, after getting stained by the Black Chrome Alligator’s blood and gore, he was looking to no avail for a tunic of his size.

Around five minutes after he began to skim through the closet, Zax heard the cottage’s entrance door open and the steps of someone entering.

Observing with his Soul Sense, Zax saw a middle aged woman standing in wait at the ground floor of the cottage, holding a pile of folded male tunics.

Covering his lower half with the towel he used to wipe himself, Zax went downstairs.

From the woman’s patient behavior, it appeared that she was aware of Zax’s presence, yet upon seeing the muscular structure of a young man at the peak of his prime and is furthermore an expert which even got the chief warrior’s respect, despite her experiences, her face flushed.

“Sir, my name is ‘Razela’. During your stay I will be the temporary attendant of the fifth cottage”. Razela composed herself and said with a bow.

Each of the village’s six cottages had a permanent attendant, but due to language limitations, Garnet sent temporary replacement who knew Earth, Zax’s and Nea Earth’s language, to the fifth cottage along with instruction to bring larger size tunics for the respectable tenant to measure – apparently Zax’s physique was bigger than the standard of Selivereb.

Zax did not intend to correct every person who timidly calls him ‘Sir’ or uses other honorific. He nodded and received the pile of tunics, guessing why Razela brought them.

“Thank you. Don’t concern yourself with me, just let me know when the service is about to begin”. Zax said in a relaxed tone, at the very least, letting Razela feel more comfortable toward this stranger.

...

Sitting on a chair in the kitchen’s corner, finishing a fruit of some sort that was full of taste, Zax picked up in his free hand the dictionary he received from Garnet and browsed in it.

‘There are notes’. He was glad to find them among the pages.

The notes were in both Earth and Netherling. Most were in the latter. They helped Zax in understanding a bit the pronunciation. Regrettably, they were not so helpful in learning the proper use of verb forms.

As a cultivator, given enough time, it was simple for Zax to memorize the dictionary. The lexicon of an entire language laid before him in a book format of thousand pages, would probably take him between ten to twenty hours, depending on the similarities of the new language and Earth.

Outside the sun was at its descend to the horizon. Zax was limited in time and could only go through key words that he specifically searched, arrange them in his mind and practice with himself before the door to the cottage opened.

“Sir, the village’s head, the elders and chief warrior invite you to the service”. Razela said politely. Pain and sadness were apparent in her voice.

Placing the dictionary in the inner pocket of his tunic, Zax stood up, compiling to the invitation.

As for not keeping the dictionary in his Blue Stone, Zax did not want to do so in front of Razela. He was unsure of the small stone’s worth in Ercas Mir and regardless of his confidence in himself to prevent others from stealing it, he assumed that for now he would be better off not revealing it casually.

“Please show me the way”.

...

The village had a number of squares, the largest one at its center, and that is where the service for the departed and afterwards the banquet were designated.

There were already hundreds of villagers encircling the square when Zax and Razela arrived. Men and women of age were building a great bonfire, but from Zax’s recollection it should not be to cremate the dead, since they were already buried.

Fifteen or so meters from the bonfire was a crescent platform with wooden, tall chairs, nine in total. On seven chairs sat a group of elderly men and women, the youngest looking, surprisingly, was the middle aged Garnet.

Garnet sat to the right of an old man who was sitting in the middle chair. The man was shaved, with short white hair and had a somber look in his eyes as he stared at the bonfire.

Led by Razela toward the platform, on the way Zax noticed Mendor mercenary band, along with the man himself, standing close to the platform and the carcass of the Black Chrome Alligator guarded nearby.

“Zax”, Garnet got up to welcomed him.

He was not the first to pay attention to Zax. All the old the men and women and even Mendor and the rest of the mercenaries paid attention to the young and fearsome, they saw and heard about, the instant he entered their field of view.

“Come on up. We already arranged a place for you at the platform”.

To the side, Mendor climbed up the stairs to the platform. Before Zax’s arrival he did not care about the seats that was prepared for him. Having some interest in Zax, he decided to accept the gesture in order to get familiar with the lad.

“Head, elders, allow me to introduce to you Zax, a benevolent expert who helped us in today’s battle to turn the tide and rid ourselves from the menacing Deformed Being”.

Garnet spoke a little exaggeratedly deliberately.

Although it sounded like all the credit was bestowed to Zax and omitted the participation and sacrifice of his mercenary band, Mendor remained silent. He already concluded the issue of the additional fee with the village’s head, after the battle, and even secured the creature’s valuable, yet unripe, Pure Core!

To his ears, Garnet’s words were only a pitiful effort to recruit Zax’s services until the village’s condition will stabilize.

The village’s head and the elders courteously got up from their chairs.

“Young hero Zax, I am ‘Leonard Virgil’, the head of Virgil’s Pasture. Elder chief warrior has acquainted myself and our circle of elders of your selfless deeds. I and the entire village thank you from the bottom and hearts”.

From his way of conduct, background as a foreigner, level of strength and, most importantly, the fact that he did not squabble for a piece of the Black Chrome Alligator, all the people present on the platform had a satisfactory impression of Zax.

“Thank you, young man”.