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「You're welcome. I'll be back soon. Need to check on some stuff first.」Zhang seems to perk up slightly at the mention that you'll be back, managing a light wave as you leave before withdrawing back into himself. You glance back as you walk away, catching a glimpse of him trudging back inside. For now you'll head home and then hurry over to Huo Mi's. You'd like to get a chance to talk to her about all this before night falls.

"Sure." Huo Mi stands up from her chair and goes to grab a coat that's left hanging from a nail. 「Sure?」She nods. "Yeah, sure, I'll take the guy in. That's what you were going to ask, right?"「Uh, I guess. That just took... less convincing than I expected.」Huo Mi throws a glance at you and shrugs. "I don't like people dying anymore than anyone else and I've been wondering about that 'raid' of Percival's. It's a no brainer. Now get ready, we're gonna go pick him up."

「Right now?」"Yup. No time like the present, and if a snowstorm rolls in things are going to get more complicated. Best just to bring him back now - it'll be dark by the time we get there anyways, so not like anyone will see us." Well, you guess that's that. Huo Mi knows her way around the forest a lot better than you, so if she's not worried about getting lost then you doubt it's a real concern. Guess you should get ready.

Huo Mi stops walking and points towards the vague outline of the cabin in the distance, barely distinct from the darkness. "This it?"「Yup.」She walks closer, only coming to a halt when the two of you have almost arrived. "You knock. I don't feel like scaring the lad." You nod and take the lead, approaching the door.

Knock, knock, knock.「I'm back.」

After a long pause, the door creaks open, Zhang Shou poking his head out. "Got to say, this isn't what I expected when you said 'soon'."「Me either, but...」you gestures behind you「Looks like you've got living arrangements.」

You step out of the way and Huo Mi approaches Zhang. "Name is Huo Mi. Heard you were gonna freeze to death out here, or maybe starve first. If you're not too busy with that, then maybe you'd prefer to stay at my place." She stares at the merchant, waiting for a response. After several several seconds he seems to process what's going on and slowly nods. "My name is Zhang Shou. It's very nice to meet you. That... that would be much appreciated, mam. What's the plan?"

"The plan?" Huo Mi raises an eyebrow and just laughs. "We head back now and you stay inside until I tell you it's fine not to. Now..." She turns back towards you. "You can see better in the dark, so you take the lead so we don't get lost. I'll take the middle and, uh, Zhang, behind me. Everyone hold hands so we don't get lost - it's dangerous otherwise. And if you see anyone, go around them. We don't want to be seen."

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>>5636146
You didn't do anything like this on the way here. Maybe she's trying to keep Zhang close at hand, just in case someone targets him or he tries to run away. Or maybe she's being cautious because he can't see as well as either of you. Who knows. Regardless of the motivations, the three of you begin slowly making your way towards Huo Mi's house in an awkward line, shuffling along.

This is going to take forever, isn't it?

"So, Zhang, you a cultivator?" As you listen to the two chat you rotate your hand back and forth slightly, looking at the forest ahead of you via the ring. "A cultivator? I wouldn't go that far. I'm fortunate enough to have passed through the gateway though." Your grip on Huo Mi jerks you back slightly as she turns to look at Zhang. "I'm surprised you got out of there without a tempering or two under your belt. I'd say you're lucky, but I don't like that word. It takes away all the skill that might not be as apparent."

Huo Mi pauses for a moment, still staring at the merchant, who just looks confused. "Well, good job getting away. But keep on your toes and try and make a breakthrough. That can't really be controlled, but, well, you should try. It'll give you a better chance of staying alive." Huo Mi turns away and gestures for you to continue, practically dragging Zhang along once you start moving again. The only response he gives to Huo Mi's lecture is a worried and befuddled "Yes mam."

You do have to go out of your way to avoid the village center and one villager who's doing some woodcutting rather late in the evening, but for the most part the route back to Huo Mi's isn't too circuitous. A relief, since the three of you were making annoyingly slow progress - grabbing onto each other and waddling forward like a line of ducks isn't exactly the fastest mode of transport, unsurprisingly.

By the time you get back to Huo Mi's it's pretty late. The three of you finally separate upon arrival, although you notice that Huo Mi lingers very close to Zhang nonetheless. The merchant, meanwhile, tries to size the place up. A bit of a futile task, giving the lack of light.

"Is it really fine for me to stay here?" Huo Mi responds instantly. "No. Get lost." Zhang's head swivels towards her, a terrified expression on her face. Then she just chortles loudly, laughing at him. "If it wasn't ok then I wouldn't have brought you. And no need to worry about troubling me too much - even if Percival comes it wouldn't be a problem for you to get away, not unless he brought enough backup. Anyways, let's get inside - it's cold out here."

"It's late. You can head home kid. Swing by tomorrow and we should have stuff figured out." You nod and bid the both of them farewell, heading back home. Nui is a bit annoyed by how late you stayed out but you fall asleep soon and she doesn't lecture you about it any further in the morning. After eating breakfast you head to Huo Mi's first thing in the morning.

>>5636147
Huo Mi is sitting at the table, sipping at a cup of some greenish brew. An herbal mixture of some sort, you think. Zhang Shou is sitting across from her, a look of exhaustion on his face. He glances at you as you come in and then brightens up, as if he just met his savior.

「Morning. What's going on here?」Zhang speaks first. "Interrogation. She's been questioning me all night. About the raid, about the caravan, about everything." Huo Mi acts innocently, but you can make out a slight smile on her face. "Interrogation? How rude. I was just making small talk. Although you may be right, and I let it go on for a little too long. Now that the kid is here why don't you go to sleep."

Zhang perks up, as if in disbelief at what he's hearing. But he's too afraid to ask if it's true, in case Huo Mi changes her mind. Instead he just nods a few times. "There's spare bedding in the back of the warehouse, on the right side. We can talk more when you wake up."

Too tired to be concerned about the second statement the merchant stumbles towards the warehouse. Huo Mi only speaks after confirming that he finds it without trouble. "I think I know what Percival is up to."

「Up to? You mean with the raid and all that?」Huo Mi nods. "Yup. A question first though. The 'jailbreak' that all the prisoners died in... have you met anyone involved in the cleanup." She clarifies after a moment. "That helped excavate the building or deal with the bodies I mean."

You think for a second and then shake your head.「Nope. Now that you mention it, I don't know who was involved in it, or at least I haven't talked to them about it. Maybe it was the first squad's job?」Huo Mi's brow furrows. "So, have you met anyone who's personally seen the jail then? What about the bodies of any of the prisoners?"「The building itself, a few people I've talked to have seen. According to them it looked like it burnt down and collapsed. They didn't mention anything like bodies or blood though.」

Huo Mi makes a quiet 'hmmmm' noise to herself and tips her finger against the table a few times. As she thinks, you chime in with additional information.「Maybe it's different because they're burnt, but they'd probably deal with the bodies the same as they did the ones from the battle.」Huo Mi stares at you, indicating for you to go on.「Anyone from the village they cleaned up and returned to their family. If they didn't have one, they buried them nearby and left a marker. Those who died from the caravan they put into a spare warehouse, saying that their bodies needed to be searched for contraband and returned to their families as soon as possible.」

>>5636149
"So if they did the same the dead prisoners should be in that warehouse?" You nod. Huo Mi goes silent for a bit and then sighs. "I have my suspicions about what Percival is up to and I don't like it. Keep an eye out and tell me if anything odd happens." She downs the best of her cup before standing up with an annoyed grunt.

「What exactly IS Percival up to?」Huo Mi stares at you for a few seconds. "You're probably better off not knowing my suspicions. It's a one thing if I annoy him, it's quite another if you get on his nerves. For now, I'd just suggest standing on the sidelines."
>「Fine.」No sense sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong.
>「...So, what's he up to?」You're already involved, and it's not like Percival will instantly know your suspicions. You want to be kept in the loop!
>「Could it perhaps be...」[Write in your theory as an explanation.]
>Write-In
Apologies for the wait, I dare-say this is a reality-bending interpretation of getting the thread up on Tuesday. But we're here regardless!

>>5636150
>「...So, what's he up to?」You're already involved, and it's not like Percival will instantly know your suspicions. You want to be kept in the loop!

>>5636150
>So what's he up too?

Yeah, we're already involved.

>>5636150
>「...So, what's he up to?」You're already involved, and it's not like Percival will instantly know your suspicions. You want to be kept in the loop!
Huo Mi is cool

>>5636150
>「Could it perhaps be...」parcieval is either a rebel himself (point at others before others point at you) supported by what we just learned form the cabin dude that the caravan leader was outspoken and believably anti-rebelmovement.
Further supported that Parcieval employs/is supported by Kanekatsu and kane?(the shady caravanleader). Or Parci is in the bag/doing a favour of some higher official in the capital province.
Also anybody believe kanekatsu was ordered by parci to get rid of chars older cousin?brother? the one next in line. and therefor parci would be indirectly responsible for our "fathers" "absence".

no worries it was just one long tuesday, but it finally ends

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>>5636152 >>5636171 >>5636210 >>5636253
「...So, what's he up to?」You're already involved in this and as long as you keep your mouth shut then Percival won't know anything. You'd rather know. Huo Mi stares at you for a second before speaking slowly. "Well, if you really want to know, I guess I can tell you. But it's technically just a hypothesis of mine, so I'll walk you through it."

"Percival isn't insane, or bloodthirsty, or anything like that. I've known him long enough to say that with certainty. No, if he was going to kill someone directly or indirectly, he'd weigh the costs and benefits first. Whether those benefits are material or emotional."

"As for 'emotional' benefits... well, I guess I can't say for sure whether Percival had a grudge with this Qi Ku fellow, but I doubt it. He runs a caravan from the next county over and the two have only interacted for work as far as I know - Zhang said they barely had an opinion on each other, let alone some deep-seated grudge. And even if he did hold a grudge, he could just attack Qi Ku alone. There's no need to make things harder for himself and get everyone else involved."

That makes sense. If it was a problem with any specific member of the caravan, then Percival could've just dealt with him alone. It wouldn't be too hard with weeks to prepare, his strength as a 5th Tempering cultivator, and as his position as the village head. But... there's a much more obvious problem here that Huo Mi's not addressing.「They couldn't just be smugglers? Percival would benefit plenty from stopping someone from supporting the rebels, wouldn't he?」

Huo Mi frowns slightly but doesn't say anything for a bit, clearly hesitating. Then she shakes her head. "It's not impossible for them to smugglers, but it's not likely. If they were smugglers, I don't see this being how he'd handle it. Too bloody and too overbearing - there's no compelling reason for him to go as far as he has. No, it was for his own reasons, not any fault of theirs. Let's try to keep on topic: what would he gain? What was his motive?"

You chase a few bad thoughts out of your head and attempt to focus on the topic at hand.「Did his motive appear after they arrived then? Maybe Qi Ku and his caravan did something?」

Hui Mu mulls over the idea for a bit. "Doubtful. He wouldn't need to go with the lame 'smuggling' excuse if he had a real reason for locking them up."「True.」The both of you stay silent for a few seconds, thinking.「Well, what if it wasn't Percival who wanted to do it? What if he was doing it for some other person or group, as a favor?」

"A favor..." Huo Mi doesn't speak for a while. Then she just shrugs. "Well, I can't prove or disprove that. It could explain why he was so thorough about it, but I don't see why someone would have it out for a random caravan in the first place to the degree where they'd want every last member dealt with. I think there's a much more obvious explanation here. He wanted the caravan's cargo. Material benefit."

>>5637855
「Their cargo? But if the smuggling was just an excuse, then...」You trail off, an unpleasant thought bubbling up. They're only interrupted by a loud sigh from Huo Mi. "Yes, then that means that the only thing to attack them for would be their declared cargo. Household goods mostly. In particular..."

「...Food.」

"Yep. The food. Almost everything they had was everyday goods and of that most of it was food. Given the loss of the first harvest, the trouble with Prosperity, and the early snow stopping us from trading most of the crop for energy-dense food... well, it's hard not to guess at the situation. But if he's willing to kill for it then it's worse than I thought."

「So the jailbreak, that...」Huo Mi follows up. "Was staged. He probably doubled down and killed them so that he didn't have to feed them. At least, that's the only reason I can see for him going this far. Raiding the caravan on a flimsy premise is one thing, and letting all the prisoners die in an accident is 'another'. He can probably smooth over the aftermath, but it's going to be rough..."

Huo Mi stops talking and just stands there. The two of you stay like that for a bit, just thinking and listening to the early morning birdsong. They, at least, are unaffected by what you're talking about. Then, so quick that you're barely able to react, you feel a sudden bout of nausea. You double over and empty your stomach on the ground next to you, retching.

You... killed a completely innocent man. Maybe you didn't see him die, but... well, he had to have died. That was a lethal wound. And you caused another to be captured. Maybe he would've been captured anyways, but...

Complicated thoughts stir about as a heavy weight latches your heart. You can't focus too well on Huo Mi's next words.

"And I just told you their was a food shortage. Come on, sit down until you feel better." You faintly sense yourself following her to the kitchen table, as if you're watching yourself from above as you do so.

"Don't tell anyone else. At least, not the whole truth. But before shit goes south, do talk to who you know. Anyone you can rely on and anyone you want to make sure stays alive. Things are going to get rough, and the more people you have close at hand the better it'll be."

>>5637857
These statements are heard as if through several layers of cloth, but your mind makes sense of them nonetheless. You gain a little more control over yourself as you think over what she's just said. People you can rely on. People you want to make sure stay alive. Char's family is an obvious one, although you imagine they can take care of themselves. You guess you'll drop by anyways. Besides that...
>No one. Everyone you tell is an additional risk, and it's just not worth it.
>Brynn. He works for the intake as the main book-keeper so he'd be one of the last people to be affected, but... well, you should warn him at least. He was a good mentor, and you owe him that.
>Jack and Han. You didn't work together for too long, but you were coworkers. They're good people, and forming a relationship with them now could come in handy later - they know to handle themselves, at least.
>Shou and Go. You haven't hung out with them in a while given everything that's going on, but you'd consider yourselves friends. You should give them and their families a heads-up.
>Wang and Suji. You'd be lying if you said you ever liked carpentry, but, well, they did mentor you. You'd feel bad if anything happened to them.
>Write-In
[Choose as many as you'd like.]

>>5637858
We can't trust anyone there.

So I'm inclined to say nobody, But we're not that callous yet.
>Shou and Go.
>Jack and Han.

Jack and Han can be useful. Shou and Go are our friends. The rest can fend for themselves.

>>5637858
>Shou and Go. You haven't hung out with them in a while given everything that's going on, but you'd consider yourselves friends. You should give them and their families a heads-up.
>Wang and Suji. You'd be lying if you said you ever liked carpentry, but, well, they did mentor you. You'd feel bad if anything happened to them.

>>5637858
>Shou and Go. You haven't hung out with them in a while given everything that's going on, but you'd consider yourselves friends. You should give them and their families a heads-up.
>Jack and Han. You didn't work together for too long, but you were coworkers. They're good people, and forming a relationship with them now could come in handy later - they know to handle themselves, at least.
>Wang and Suji. You'd be lying if you said you ever liked carpentry, but, well, they did mentor you. You'd feel bad if anything happened to them.

>>5637858
oh well i have no idea who to pick so ill go with a coin
>brynn
>shou and go
the coin has spoken

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>>5637912 >>5637987 >>5638602 >>5638837
Those you want to stay alive. Those you may be able to rely on. Honestly, the first group would be "almost everyone", but you get what she means - you have to pick and choose. Now, who would that be... Brynn was a good mentor to you and is a good person, but he works at the intake, and not in a low position either. He doesn't need any help. As for people close to you...

While you haven't talked to Shou and Go as much recently as you did before, you'd consider them friends. You're a little hesitant to head over to Prosperity, but it shouldn't be a big deal. Most of infighting has calmed down since the split, really. You should make sure they and their families head a heads-up.

Besides that, you guess there are your former coworkers. Those who are still with the militia should be fine - Percival probably won't leave his muscle out to dry - but those who have quit, like you, are left to take care of themselves. Vice-captain Han was friendly before, saying to hit him if you needed anything, so you should return the favor. You'll head over and make sure him and Jack get a heads-up about what the famine might become. Maybe they'll return the favor later.

Finally, there's Wang and Suji. You didn't really enjoy carpentry (although, now that you think about it, you were also the one who forced yourself to learn carpentry), but they did good enough by you. Sure, Wang was getting paid for the apprenticeship, but... eh. He could've gotten away with less effort if he only wanted the money. Suji did his best to help you too, even if he always acted kind of gloomy.

Right, if you're doing this you should get it done with right away. First you'll head over to Char's and tell his father. You imagine he already has some suspicions about the food situation, and that they should be more than capable of taking care of themselves, but the information could probably still be helpful. Telling them is the least you can do for their help.

When you arrive at Char's it's still rather early in the morning. Around now Char should be starting his training, Hana studying, and his father running through his schedule for the day. Familiar enough with them by now, you let yourself in and find Mu Jing in his usual sitting room, reading something. He only briefly glances up and greets you before turning his attention back to whatever document he's looking at. After around half a minute he looks up again, seeming surprised to find that you're still there.

"My apologies for the wait. Did you not come to visit Char?" You shake your head.「No, I actually came to pass on some information I got from my teacher.」Mu Jing pauses for a moment and places what he was looking at aside, focusing on you. "Bad news?"

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>>5639736
「How'd you know?」He laughs dryly at himself. "I had a feeling. What is it?" You pause as you figure out how to word it.「There's probably going to be a famine this winter.」Mu Jing doesn't say anything, chewing over your words. Then he frowns. "I suppose it's going to be worse than I expected if you're going out of your way to tell us." He stops speaking again.

"Thank you for the prior notice. I'll make a few changes in our plans. Is there anything else you wanted to say?"「A couple things, but I'm not allowed to share, at least not now. I'll take my leave.」You can see Mu Jing thinking about the implications of what you just said on the way out.

You visit Wang next. His work is unaffected by the snow so he should be in his workshop as per usual, working on something or other. When you knock, you find that you're half-right. Wang is out but Suji is still hard at work, making... a chair, you think.

Suji glances down at you with a blank expression. "It's been a while." A short pause. "Come in." There's not much emotion in his voice, but from prior experience you can tell that that's his form of a warm welcome. You step inside.

"You need furniture?" You pause for a moment, confused. You think he's asking why you came.「No. I could take care of that myself, probably. Just came to pass on some information. But first, how are things going?」

Suji stands there for a bit, not visibly responding to your words in the slightest. After an impressively awkward silence, he speaks. "Things are going well. Wang wants me to take over the shop at some point, so he's trying to put me and his daughter together. Wants her to be taken care of, you know." His eyebrows furrow slightly. "Hopefully in a few years she'll be less annoying."

「Wang's daughter... she's around my age, right?」Suji nods. "A year older, I think." Ah. You can see why it's not going well.「Well, good luck with that.」He grunts in response, not seeming too optimistic.

The two of you just stand there after that. You end up speaking first, getting the feeling that if you don't say anything that Suji will be happy to just stand there forever.「So, why I came. I have it on good authority that the food situation this winter will get pretty bad.」Suji raises an eyebrow. "That's clear. I assume you mean worse than just 'bad'." You pause for a moment and then nod.

"...I'll keep it in mind." Suji stares at you for a couple of seconds. "Thanks." It's said in a monotone, but you can tell he means it.「No problem. Tell Wang I said hi.」Suji nods and you take your leave, ready to visit Shou and Go's families for your next stop.

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>>5639737
Not quite thinking, you first go to where the three of you would hang out most often in search of them. A gentle hill in the general vicinity of the farms, overlooking a small pond. Unsurprisingly the place is deserted, the tree you liked to take shade under drowned in snow and the top of the pond frozen over. You do your best to recall where the two's families live from the recesses of your mind and head there.

You're relieved to find that both Shou and Go are both at the former's house, playing Ousatsu - that'll save you a bit of time. You decide to pass on the news to Shou's father, relying on him to pass it to Go's, as they're friends. He seems worried, but not unduly so. He seems most focused on how their village head, Mei Gi, will handle it.

Prosperity is general seems to be very fond of him. It's a rather stark contrast to Fogtop, where Percival is not particularly disliked, but not particularly loved either. The same could be said about the last village head really - it's surprising for the locals to be more than apathetic towards a particular official.

Before you leave Shou convinces you to play a game of Ousatsu... which quickly stretches into two, and then three. By the time you leave it's already time for lunch. A bit of time 'wasted' you suppose, but at least you had fun. You even managed to eke out a win, which is quite the accomplishment against him.

Given the time you decide to head home for lunch and then go hunting for a bit, not knowing whether Han or Jack will be working right now, and if so where they'd be. You'll visit them tomorrow.

Or, well, you planned to visit them tomorrow. The next day a heavy snow comes down and you can do little more than hunker down at home, not wanting to get turned around in the snow. It's three and a half days before you leave the house again, having finally deemed the weather acceptable. You hurry over to where you recall Han living, wanting to stop by while you know he'll be at home.

Instead of Han, a woman in her late 20s answers the door. You tell her that you're a acquaintance of Han's and came to look for him, which she seems a bit confused about but doesn't question. You're let inside and can hear as he's loudly woken up from a nap in the next room over.

A moment later Han steps out into the main room, his short black hair sticking up all over the place. He waves to you as he blinks sleep out of his eyes. "Hey." He doesn't say anything else until he sits down across from you, loudly yawning. "I'm guessing that if you're here it means it's time for me to leave hibernation?" Unsure of how to respond, you just nod.

Han still seems half-asleep at this point so you decide to start things instead of waiting for him to initiate the conversation.「Nice to see you. Is the woman you live with...」After a moment he picks up on your question and chuckles. "My older sister."

>>5639741
"Since you came right after the weather cleared up, I'm gonna guess it's important?" Han speaks with a smile, but his tone isn't happy.「Unfortunately. I have it on good authority that things aren't going to end at increased food prices. Looks like there's a proper famine on the horizon.」Han doesn't say anything for a while, just making an odd noise while he thinks.

"Well, that's not too unexpected." He groans and changes the topic. "I got another job a while back. Something temporary, really."「Oh?」"I've been working as a guard for one of the general stores." He lets that sink in for a moment. "Seeing that you came to help me out, I'll share some interesting information with you too."

"There are four stores that sell food in the village. Some also sell other things, but that doesn't really matter here. What does matter is that they're all ramping up their security. Adding on guards, putting food behind the counter, so on and so forth. And that besides..." He makes a few tutting noises with his tongue while he thinks. "Well, the best way to phrase it is that they're getting arrogant."

"They would've had to increase food prices no matter what given the seasonal variations and the food problems, but they've all taken it beyond that, increasing them even further to pad the profit margins. It's hard to notice with all the other increases, so they can just blame it on supply and slip it in. Nothing illegal, but... eh. That besides, they're all getting a little self-important, if that makes sense. Uh..."

Han sighs and scratches the back of his head. "Man, am I bad at explaining. Long story short I guess, if things turn as bad as you're saying, I wouldn't be surprised if they go full warlord with their newfound influence. Until their food supplies dwindle or something else brings them to heel, at least."

You might not be fully getting it but the gist, at least, is not lost on you.「So they might throw their weight around? Get a little drunk on power?」Han nods. "That's one way to put it. It's not really a certainty, just the feeling I'm getting from hanging around them."

Hm. Well, that's concerning.
>You should probably take the chance to buy extra food before that happens. When things get bad, that option might be off the table.
>That's concerning but, well, it's also an opportunity. Perhaps you could benefit by being on one of their sides when the time comes around. If they're ramping up security there should be a spot for you, right?
>Hm. Worth keeping in mind, but not really something that affects your current actions. With everything on your plate you'll just kind of have to take these complications as they come.
>Write-In

>>5639742

>You should probably take the chance to buy extra food before that happens. When things get bad, that option might be off the table.

This is gonna get really ugly isn't it?

>>5639742
>You should probably take the chance to buy extra food before that happens. When things get bad, that option might be off the table.
If Percival is raiding caravans for food, things are going to get thought.
Hopefully this doesn't make us a target.

>>5639758
>>5639762
Not gonna close the first vote, but since votes are towards this option so far I'll put up a follow-up vote on the specifics for now, so I know which people prefer if it wins, it'll save time.
>Spend around half your savings on food. Hopefully that should give you a good buffer to work off of.
>Only keep enough money behind to pay Kanekatsu for the winter. Besides that, you should store up on food.
>Buy as much food as possible. What funds you have on hand isn't going to be important. How much food you have on hand will be.
>Write-In

>>5639795
>Only keep enough money behind to pay Kanekatsu for the winter. Besides that, you should store up on food.
Get it while we still can!

>>5639795
>Only keep enough money to pay Kane for the winter

I really don't wanna let this get bad.

>>5639795
>Only keep enough money behind to pay Kanekatsu for the winter. Besides that, you should store up on food.

>>5639742
>You should probably take the chance to buy extra food before that happens. When things get bad, that option might be off the table.
>>5639795
>Only keep enough money behind to pay Kanekatsu for the winter. Besides that, you should store up on food.

The next update will be this afternoon or tonight. Hopefully we should be returning to once a day updates soon, I've been rereading stuff and writing down a lot of notes so it's easier to keep up with story details without me forgetting things.
although I did just notice that I magically went a month backwards instead of forwards near the end of the 2nd thread and then rolled with it for several posts until I fixed it near the end of the thread. Whoops.

>>5641288
>Spend around half your savings on food.
time to step up our hunting game

tbqh as long as you dont go "its snowing" in one post to "the leaves turned brown and fell" teh next ill most likely never notice

>>5641507
>>5639795
me a lil silly

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>>5639758 >>5639762 >>5640108 >>5640390 >>5641507
Before now you thought you could get around any further bribes by just hunting for yourself, but if things are going to get worse... well, you should just suck it up and pay whatever you need to pay now. Having food is more important than having money. As long as there's enough on hand to keep Nui and yourself alive and Kanekatsu off your ass, then it's fine.

With that thought in mind you explain that situation to Nui and prepare to withdraw most of your funds. She seems worried, but after having the situation explained is surprisingly easy to convince about the matter. Maybe that's just because you mentioned Huo Mi's name - you feel like Nui trusts her judgement more than yours.

You head to the village center with a great deal of coin in your pack that same day. Traffic is low given the snowfall and guards stand outside all of the stores selling food. You approach your usual one and enter, the guard only glancing at you as you do so. Inside you find completely bare shelves, making the place mostly just a single empty room, with the shopkeeper standing at the counter. Surely they couldn't have run out of food, right?

When you ask the shopkeeper you find, to your relief, that the food is not gone. It's just all in the back. What you do find annoying is the reason for it. The supply of food has been standardized into portions that provide food for a single person for a single week, all sold at the same price. So much for selection you suppose, although it does simplify haggling and the measurement of how much food falls within the purchase limit, you guess.

"Two weeks worth for two people, right?" Instead of answering you just reach into your pack and remove a pouch of coins, dropping them on the counter. The man glances at them for a second, somewhat surprised, before counting through them.

After counting through everything the shopkeeper informs his guard to stop anyone else from coming in and then quotes you an amount you can purchase. It is... somewhat underwhelming. Still within an acceptable range, you guess, given all the price hikes and the bribes. But you'll try for better. You haggle for a bit and reach a deal that is a very slight improvement. The best you'll get, you guess.

Having locked in a price you're ready to pay at, you play the rest of your hand.「This too.」You take a second pouch of coins out from your pack. The man counts through them and then quotes you an amount. It is less than you were expecting - quite the opposite of a discount for buying in bulk, it's a premium. You try to argue about it but the shopkeeper insists that it's only fair. The more extra food he sells to you, the more effort it is for him to cover up the amount lost. It makes sense for his cut to increase.

>>5642066
You threaten to go to another shopkeeper to look for a better deal but the man just laughs, saying that their prices will all be the same. No one wants to earn the ire of their competitors by undercutting them, apparently. That... is probably true. Valuing your time and the deal you've already managed to come to, you hesitantly accept what he's willing to offer and move to the details of actually bringing the food back. For now the two of you agree to do the purchase in three parts, one today and two tomorrow. That should draw less suspicion.

While the purchase doesn't completely relieve you of your food concerns for the winter, it does make you feel a bit more comfortable about them. You suppose that's the best result you could hope for, really. The next afternoon you visit Huo Mi for training. She's carving some arrows at the dining room table while Zhang stands to the side, cooking something at the hearth. Besides his (now cleaned) clothes he's wearing a dirty cloth as a headband and a stained makeshift apron. It's... very domestic.

"Gotta thank you kid. It's nice having an extra pair of hands around the house. At this rate my warehouse and workshop might even get organized, for once." Zhang forces a chuckle at that statement, not seeming particularly amused. But he's not looking nearly as gaunt before and he's not particularly angry, so you'd imagine he's much happier with this arrangement than, well, living in the woods.

"I have to offer my thanks again for allowing me to stay until the spring, when I can leave the city. I'll have to do my best to repay you once all of this is over with." Instead of humbly refusing that offer, Huo Mi just nods. "Well, just let me move in with you afterwords and we can call it even." She throws a glance at Zhang's confused expression and then laughs, seeming to enjoy messing with him.

"Well, I'm not mean enough to barge in on two newlyweds just to save on rent. I have enough money saved up anyways. Might move closer to a city just because I'm getting older, and stuff in Fogtop has been... annoying, recently." She pauses for a moment. "...Not that there's not annoying things everywhere, I suppose."

After eating lunch, courtesy of Zhang's cooking, Huo Mi takes you train your archery out back. Like usual, your arms are aching by the time you're finished. Once that's done you head home, ready to call it a day. To your surprise, however, Han is waiting for you, Jack in tow.

>>5642068
"Sup." Han greets you with a smile, while Jack mutters a more quiet one.「Not much. You guys need something?」Han shrugs. "Kind of. Let's talk somewhere more private." Han gestures for you to follow him a short stretch into the woods, and you follow.

「You want to rob the 3rd Squad's base?」The both of them nod, but Han is the one who verbally responds. "Exactly. We need to get more food somehow and this is a good method. It's not big but they keep a stock in the 3rd Base, and since all the militia moved to the intake nobody's been around to use it. We've even kept an eye on the base and nobody's been coming in and out. There's not much risk and Percival can always replace what we took if he really wants to."

That's... fair. It's not like there's anyone starving who's relying on that food being there. It belongs to the militia, which is run by Percival, who is exactly the last person you expect to be affected by a food shortage. Well, either him or Kanekatsu, you guess.

Still, you're not quite sure yet.「Let me think about it.」"Alright. If you want in meet me and Jack at my house tomorrow morning, after breakfast. If you don't show we'll just go without you." The two bid you farewell and you head back home, ready to rest for a bit.

You wake up to a slight chill, involuntarily wanting to dig yourself deeper into the pile of bedding you're in. Another lovely winter morning. What do you plan to do this morning?
>Head to Han's house. As for that robbery, you guess you're in.
>Head over to Char's. Exercise is better with a partner, so you'll train with him this morning.
>Head over to Char's. His older sister, Hana, spends a fair amount of time studying and reading books. You're rather lacking in book-learning, besides being mostly literate, so perhaps joining her could do a bit of good for your booksmarts.
>Head into the forest. Time for more hunting.
>Write-In

>>5642069
>Head over to Char's. His older sister, Hana, spends a fair amount of time studying and reading books. You're rather lacking in book-learning, besides being mostly literate, so perhaps joining her could do a bit of good for your booksmarts.

>>5642069
>Train with Char

I don't think we need to steal for this. not yet anyway

>>5642069
>His older sister, Hana,
also, did we ever find out how the entrance procedure of the sect is exactly?

>>5642069
>Head over to Char's. Exercise is better with a partner, so you'll train with him this morning.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

Guess I'll roll to tiebreak
Char
Hana

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>>5642121 >>5642198 >>5642337 >>5642952
Han and Jack should be fine without you. And if they aren't, well, that's all the more reason not to get involved. You have something else in mind for this morning. You get plenty of physical exercise thanks both to Huo Mi and your general way of life, and honestly, you're feeling a little less pressure on that front since you underwent your 2nd Tempering. Today you want to focus more on the mental side of things, and you think you know just who to ask about that.

"You want to know what I'm studying?" Hana glances down at you slightly, tilting her head.「Yeah. I've seen you reading a lot of books and got curious. I don't have access to many myself, so...」A quiet 'ah' escapes her mouth as she thinks for a moment. "I understand. Follow me." You oblige, and are led into a bedroom that watches over the garden. A desk and bookshelf sit to one side of the room's large window, while things such as a bed and dresser are on the opposite side.

You're a bit surprised as you watch Hana approach the bookshelf and begin removing books. You knew Char's family was well-off but... well, that certainly is a lot of books. Rows and rows of them. But many look rather old, and you can see that she handles them with gentle hands as she removes them from the shelf. A collection built up over generations, you suppose.

After assembling several stacks of books Hana hands one to you. You glance at the cover. "Chao Guowang's Teachings" are written upon it in a few plain characters. Chao Guowang, Chao Guowang... you could've swear you've seen that name before somewhere. It can't be a local or else it wouldn't be on the cover of a book, no... from Jun Rei's Travels, perhaps? After a few more seconds, it finally clicks.

「Chao Guowang. So this is related to the founding emperor?」Hana smiles and nods. "Yes! It's related to his personal philosophy and school of thought. Although... well, that is just a primer. The books they're based on are over here." You turn to your attention to where she's gesturing and your eyes widen slightly upon seeing a stack of four very thick books.「'Immortals' certainly have a lot of time to write, don't they.」Hana chuckles. "They certainly do. However, chances are better than not that a large portion of those were written by others alive at the time, and merely attributed to our founding emperor. Although it's not polite to say it out loud..."

Hundreds of years to live and he couldn't even finish his memoirs. You feel your respect for this man decreasing at a perceivable rate... although he put in the effort to found an entire empire, so perhaps you shouldn't judge him on what books he may or may not have written.「Hm. Well, what are they about? In broad strokes.」

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>>5645063
"Well, the first emperor's school of thought is known as Naturalism. It's pretty broad, but I'll go over a few central parts. There are some moral codes and advice advocating things like filial piety, cultivating the self, and stuff like that. That makes up an entire book, basically. Besides that Naturalism holds that a countless number of gods reside in everything, ruling over the world and keeping nature in balance. They provide the energies which humans use to aid in cultivating themselves, commonly known as spiritual energy nowadays. These myriad gods are to be respected and their existence studied as a path to enlightenment."

Hm.「Interesting. Did that used to be the official creed of the empire then?」Hana shakes her head. "Oh no. I'm not an expert but from what I've read the founding emperor didn't seem to insist on his beliefs over others. Naturalism was very friendly in regard to other faiths that existed at the time and they could be included without too much trouble. I've read that some of the religions that exist today traces their origins back to very old religions that took on elements of Naturalism."

You wonder if that choice was made on purpose, so as to avoid fighting with already existent religious elements. Your thinking is interrupted when Hana continues. "The current stance isn't quite the same, however." You turn your attention back to her and watch as she picks up a second stack of books.

"These are written by the cur- er, previous emperor. The 2nd Immortal Emperor and the founder of the Sheng Dynasty, Sheng Zheng Fu." You interrupt, curious about that last part.「The founder of the Sheng Dynasty? He succeeded the throne from the first emperor 486 years ago then?」Hana stares at you for a few seconds before laughing a few times. "Yes and no. He did become emperor 486 years ago, but he didn't succeed the founding emperor, also known as the 1st Immortal Emperor."

You try to sort that out in your head for a minute.「Then why are there no others between them?」Hana thinks for a moment before answering. "There were a great many emperors between the two of them, and several dynasties besides. They were just the only two emperors to be deemed worthy of the title of Immortal Emperor. Both were very powerful personally and the 1st Immortal Emperor founded and stabilized the empire, whilst the 2nd Immortal Empire doubled the size of it. Before his reign the entire western half of the empire belonged to a wide array of other kingdoms, Fogtop included."

"Actually, that's a good place to bring up Sheng Zheng Fu's school of thought." You raise an eyebrow.「He made one too?」Hana nods. "Yes. It's referred to as the 'School of Force'. They hold that there is a natural order to the things - something similar to 'survival of the fittest'. The strong are superior and it's up to them to take action and set laws in order to ensure the well-being of the weak, while it us up to the weak to obey so that order and safety is ensured."

>>5645068
「...That's assuming that the laws set by the strong benefit everyone else, of course.」Hana sighs. "Yes, it takes quite a few things for granted. It's rather overbearing and was apparently very popular in the military. They developed on it heavily and added in the study of war, strategy, and weapons, among other things. Sometimes that's considered part of the School of Force and sometimes it's considered the School of War, a different entity entirely."

"But there's something much better than listening to me talk about them! Reading about them yourself!" Hana grins while staring at the book you're holding, as if urging you to read it. Well, that's what you came here for anyways. You find a place to take a seat and then begin reading.

...and then begin asking Hana about the words you don't recognize. A complicated text like this is a good reminder that you're not quite literate, despite being what passes for it in the village. Oh well. That will be smoothed out with more practice. For now you just need to get through this rather dry read.

By the time lunch comes around your brain is exhausted. The book is rather interesting, but at the same time it manages to be really, really boring. A result of the writing style, you think. The man could've gone on half as long and you would've been able to learn twice as much. You glance towards Hana, who's silently reading something or other, as she has been for some hours now.

「Why this choice of books specifically? Do you like philosophy?」Hana glances towards you and then stares at the ceiling for a bit. "No, not quite. Because it's widely available, I guess? Naturalism and the School of Force are both major topics on the Imperial Examination, so there's a lot of well-circulated texts on them. It's just the kind of thing that people read, maybe?"

Huh. You guess that makes sense. A bookshelf is a lot of books relatively speaking, but in terms of how much someone can read in a lifetime... well, you'd just read whatever's there. It's not like Fogtop has a wide selection of books to purchase. But that besides...「Are you planning to take the Imperial Examination then?」Hana doesn't respond to that for a while to that.

The reply Hana does give is hesitant. "I don't know about that. I do intend to see the wider world at some point and a position as an official would be good for that. But that's not the only way to go about things. If I do it won't be for a little while though. If I left at the same time as Char and left dad all alone then I'm sure he'd be lonely. I'm still thinking about it."

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>>5645073
Not too long after Hana goes to tend to the garden and you go to Huo Mi's for your daily training. It's not until the next day that you meet up with Han to ask about how their 'heist' went. His answer is positive, saying that they got in and took what food was stored without too much trouble. But he also notes that 'not too much trouble' means they cut the hinges on one of the recently installed gate doors away from the wood, simply leaving it propped up against the surrounding wall when they left. That's... probably going to be a significant amount of work for someone to fix. Well, it's not their problem, or yours for that matter - you're sure it's a minor problem for the militia, all things considered. Not worth worrying about. You're just glad that they didn't get caught.

Over the coming days Han's vague predictions of the food sellers acting like warlords seems to come true, at least a little. Their shops come to resemble crudely built fortresses just a bit more, and their prices and actions become more overbearing. Apparently several of them have taken in some of the poorer villagers as servants, paying them in what can only be described as underwhelming amounts of food in exchange for their service. A depressing state of affairs, if better than starving at least.

Among the air of unease this creates, you visit the burnt ruins of the 'jail' with Huo Mi. Apparently the two of you are going to dig through it all and search for any member of the caravan's body, burnt or otherwise. For what reason, you're not quite sure.

"Hm. Doesn't look like they dug through it much." Huo Mi frowns as the two of you stare at the burnt ruins. "Well, let's get digging." Without further ado she approaches a pile of charred rubble. You follow.

While you don't get through everything, Huo Mi calls for a stop to your excavation around sundown. A relief, as you were getting exhausted. During your search the two of you turned up a massive amount of ash and scorched wood, as well as some burnt furniture. But what your search didn't reveal were any bodies, burnt or otherwise. The closest you found were a couple pieces of bloodstained wood, but that's all. Even if the fire burned fiercely, getting rid of flesh, there would still be bones - a fire that didn't burn all the wood to ash certainly wouldn't burn all the bones to ash. No, something else is going on here.

Huo Mi mumbles and grumbles, staring at the remaining ruins while covered in soot. "I can think of a few explanations for this. First, we didn't dig deep enough and there are bodies further down. I doubt it, but that could be the case. Second, Percival is telling the truth and this was all due to a messed up jailbreak via talismans. In that case I guess it's not impossible that the temperature near the center of the ignition was extremely high, so much so that it burnt the prisoners away, bones and all." She stands there for a few moments before cackling.

>>5645076
"But we both know those are bullshit. We're the first ones to put this much effort into looking through the ruins. Even if that was the true story there's no way Percival could know that. No, it's more likely than not that there wasn't anyone in the building when it was burnt down, prisoners or otherwise." That's... not what you expected going into this, although it seems pretty clear given the current situation.

「Why's that? Does it mean that Percival faked their deaths for some reason?」A faint hope rises up within you, but Huo Mi quickly crushes it. "No way. If I'm completely off-base about the famine idea then that's possible, but... well, I really doubt I am. No, I think they just killed the prisoners elsewhere, and the fire was their excuse."

「...and why would they do that?」Huo Mi stays silent for several seconds before just shrugging. "Dunno. Maybe Percival thought that they didn't deserve such a painful death and wanted them taken up and executed quickly. Maybe he didn't want any of his men to have to hear an entire building of people burning to death. Maybe he didn't want to deal with digging them up when they started rotting. Maybe there's some other reason. All I know is that more than likely, that's what he did."

"I'll go home for now, and think on it some more. See you tomorrow."「...See you.」The two of you part ways for the day and return home. Thoughts of what exactly Percival is up to can't help but creep in as you head back home, even though you don't have a satisfactory answer for any of them.

In the coming days the deathly silence of winter that's been settling over the village is suddenly broken. A small group of villagers, unsatisfied with the actions of the food sellers, go to the intake to complain to the village head. Percival, who has more or less been cooped up in the intake for some time now, does deign to meet them, but apparently the response he provides is less than satisfactory. Just an explanation, rather than an apology or a promise to fix things.

From there, things develop quickly. Part of the group breaks off and begins planning an expedition. A plan to leave the village, reach another settlement on foot, and then enlist their assistance in order to stabilize food prices. A good sentiment but... well, a sequence of events that's hard to believe will go smoothly. Or in Huo Mi's words, a wild goose chase that's bound to end in someone freezing to death.

>>5645079
But, according to her, it's not her job to talk fools out of their errands. Percival and Mei Gi seem to think similarly, not getting involved. The group is left to their own to plan how to best reach another population center and to decide who would be the best candidate for assistance. A small hope for the village, if one that everyone is rather cautious about panning out.
>You ought to take the common course of action: Ignore them and see how things pan out. It's not your job to get involved in this.
>You should approach and see if they need an extra hand. You have some wilderness experience and wouldn't mind tagging along IF they know what they're doing. Even if the plan doesn't pan out for the village as a whole, food prices are likely to be lower in another village. Hell, if Nui's willing to go along then maybe the two of you could just move for the winter.
>You should approach and temper their expectations. Remind them of how much of an obstacle the snow and the temperatures are and of the difficulty of transporting any significant amount of food through the snow, even with another village's dedicated assistance. A few will probably go through with it no matter what, but it's worth trying to dissuade those on the edge.
>Write-In

>>5645080
>You should approach and temper their expectations. Remind them of how much of an obstacle the snow and the temperatures are and of the difficulty of transporting any significant amount of food through the snow, even with another village's dedicated assistance. A few will probably go through with it no matter what, but it's worth trying to dissuade those on the edge.

>>5645080
>You ought to take the common course of action
keep on staying on the down low,
also we do still go hunting yes?

>>5645080
>You ought to take the common course of action: Ignore them and see how things pan out. It's not your job to get involved in this.

>>5642337
Kind of? Ken Yu, the one-armed member of the Verdant Mountain Sect, gave you a vague rundown, mentioning that your cultivation and an interview was taken into account as well as some other tests.
>>5645227
Yes, when the weather allows for it.

>>5645080
>Temper their expectations

I'll roll for a tiebreaker tomorrow if nobody comes in to break.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

1: Don't get involved
2: Temper their expectations

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>>5645160 >>5645227 >>5645660 >>5645786
You're rather worried about those planning the expedition, but when you think about it, it's neither your responsibility nor your place to intervene here. Getting involved would be more likely to anger those involved than to actually achieve anything. They have their own reasons and anything you say won't make food easier to get. It's not like you carry much persuasive force anyways - you're viewed more as a precocious child among strangers than anything.

The group of around 10 sets off from the village only a few days later. Like the rest of the village you'll hope for their return for cautious optimism. If they do end up striking a deal with another village that would be a boon for you too. ...Although you know that even calling that possibility 'unlikely' is stretching it. If it was so easy than Percival would've already done it. The more realistic thing to hope for is that they manage to get back with some food for themselves and their families, with minimal fatalities out of the whole thing.

Over the next week you continue your usual training and hunt in the forest, pouring any time leftover after all that into trying to get through the rest of the book Hana has lent you. The first and third tasks are going alright, but results with the hunting are, well... less than satisfactory. In recent weeks more and more people have started hunting in the forest close to Fogtop due to the food issues, whether out of need or the assumption that there will be a need in the near future. This has made hunting for yourself harder in a few ways.

The best way to sum up every problem is that "there are more people in the forest". This does make things safer, you guess, but that applies for both you and the prey. Most people are neither trained in hunting nor cultivators, and struggle to hide their presence. Most of the prey in the area near the village is scared away, or if not, killed by the large number of people scouring the forest for prey. The large number of people also reduces the amount of forage, like berries. That means you come across very little prey in your normal hunting area, and even when you do, you're constantly worrying about someone wandering in or even trying to follow you and (unsuccessfully) poach what you're tracking. You have to go further out to even try getting any hunting done.

Going further out means more time in transit, less time spent hunting, and more danger if (when) snow rolls in. A worrying change, but one that you can do nothing about. All you can really do is try to fit in hunting trips in between your training, even if the haul isn't as good as usual. After all, you have other things to be worrying about - like the situation with the food sellers.

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>>5648392
As expected, their prices, demands, and egos only grew. While the merchants behind things were more than happy to profit off of the food situation, the villagers haven't taken kindly to it. Just the other day, in the middle of the night, a few people got their revenge on one of the food sellers.

Perhaps inspired by the recent burnings of the storehouse in Prosperity and the 'jail' that was used for Percival's prisoners they burned down one of the merchant's shops, which also happened to be his house. Said shop was situated in the village's main street and the fire quickly spread to some of the surrounding buildings. Frankly, it's a miracle that it didn't torch the entire street. Instead only the shop itself and a neighboring store burnt down completely, although a few more buildings suffered fire damage.

Through what gossip you've picked up the arsonists were taken into custody and held at the intake without much trouble, going voluntarily (if upset at not getting to immolate a second food merchant before they were captured). Not that the easy arrest helps the merchant whose store was burnt down much - he was in the building, and burnt with it. Although you're not sure if you can feel bad for him. Apparently the main arsonist organized everything because his wife was forced to have sex with the man for food, and the others with him had... well, similar grievances. A messy situation to be sure, and one that has left the remaining three store owners scrambling to find a way to stop themselves from meeting similar fates.

While all this is going on you stop by Huo Mi's for your archery training, as you usually do. Different from the usual, however, Huo Mi has some guests. Not Zhang, who's living there, but a couple of others. You recognize one of them, a very muscular man, from the village head election last year. A friend of Huo Mi's, as you recall. The other, a pale, lanky woman, is unfamiliar.

"Hey kid." You return Huo Mi's greeting, although it's almost drowned out by the muscular man's loud "Morning!" that's sent in your direction. After some delay the pale woman opts to just grunt at you. 「What's going on here? Am I interrupting something?」

>>5648394
Huo Mi shrugs. "Sort of. But I was going to bring it up anyways, so take a seat. We're talking about the spiritual beast." The spiritual beast...「The rabbit then?」Huo Mi nods.

"Publicly Percival has forbidden people from going to the section of the forest where the thing lives and said that it's dangerous, but, well... people aren't really prone to listen, especially not when they need to hunt. The death count has hit nearly two digits given the number of people poking their heads into its territory and we're looking to deal with the problem. Was wondering if you wanted to join the crew for getting rid of it."

「The crew, uh...」You throw glances towards the other two people at the table, not saying anything else. Huo Mi seems to get what you're hinting at and waves her hand dismissively. "Don't worry. Both of them are pretty old friends. The big oaf is the hunter I told you about, actually. Neither of them will gossip about anything you do. Although... well, they probably won't be the only ones coming."

"The militia's supposed to be handling these kinds of things anyway, but seem to have their hands full with, well, other things. Thankfully our great and merciful lord Percival has deemed to 'consider the issue' and should be sending us some support, at least." Huo Mi rolls her eyes before continuing. "Mei Gi seemed more eager to help and will be coming along with some helpers, although I'm not sure how many. We're also hoping to get a couple of other competent villagers to help out, if we can find any." Huo Mi stops for a moment, perhaps wondering if there's anything else she missed.


"Oh yeah. Kanekatsu and Kain are already out, although I think the latter would've joined if it weren't for Kanekatsu refusing on his behalf - he seemed bored. Anyways, we're still looking for more manpower. It'd be good to have you, especially since you can use a bow. Gives us a better chance to end things quickly and cleanly - if the thing dies immediately then it never gets a chance to use its mark in the first place."
>Well, you don't see why not. With so many cultivators there it will be less dangerous than it would be otherwise, and you'll be helping others and yourself by participating. Besides that, it's not often that you'll get the chance for battle experience like this. You're in.
>No thanks. You don't feel like showing off any of your abilities in front of others, even if that cat's already out of the bag and they can generally be considered trustworthy. You'll leave it up to them - you're sure you won't make too much of a difference anyways.
>Write-In

>>5648401
>Well, you don't see why not. With so many cultivators there it will be less dangerous than it would be otherwise, and you'll be helping others and yourself by participating. Besides that, it's not often that you'll get the chance for battle experience like this. You're in.

>>5648401
>Why not?

>>5648401
>Well, you don't see why not. With so many cultivators there it will be less dangerous than it would be otherwise, and you'll be helping others and yourself by participating. Besides that, it's not often that you'll get the chance for battle experience like this. You're in.

>>5648401
>Well, you don't see why not. With so many cultivators there it will be less dangerous than it would be otherwise, and you'll be helping others and yourself by participating. Besides that, it's not often that you'll get the chance for battle experience like this. You're in.

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>>5648418 >>5648771 >>5648880 >>5648952
Well, you don't see why not. It shouldn't be too dangerous given how many cultivators will be there and given that you do now possess some level of strength you should probably help deal with the murderous rabbit in the nearby woods. The safer hunting grounds will help both yourself and everyone else.

「Sure.」Huo Mi nods in acknowledgement and turns towards the other two. "Since you're participating, I guess I should introduce you. The big guy is Ryu Do-" The large hunter waves in your direction. "-and my anemic acquaintance here is Xue." The pale woman glances at you for a few seconds before mumbling 'Nice to meet you' in a scratchy voice.

After exchanging greetings the three don't pay much attention to your presence, opting to focus more on their plans for the hunt instead. You just stay silent as you sit in and listen to the three talk strategy. It takes around half an hour for the trio to settle on an idea and for Huo Mi to turn her attention to your archery training for today.

Huo Mi's training is especially fierce today and you're exhausted by the end of it. The way your arms ache reminds you of when she first started teaching you archery. Once you're finally done she just tells you to head home for the day, get some rest, and prepare for the hunt the day after next. A slightly graver tone than her usual mockery of your abilities.

You take her advice and don't do much the next day, exercising lightly, reading, and double and triple checking what you have packed. Not wanting Nui to worry you don't tell her the particulars, just mentioning that you're helping Huo Mi and her friends with some hunting. She wishes you good luck.

Before you know it the dawn of the next day comes. After eating breakfast you head to the agreed upon meeting place: a cabin on the edge of Prosperity. It's Ryu Do's house. Once you get there you see quite the assortment of people standing outside.

Of course there's Huo Mi, Ryu Do, and Xue. But besides them there's quite a few more. Mei Gi stands to one side, polishing an axe, the head of the sawmill standing next to him. As you recall he also ran in the election for village head, getting quite a few votes. You think his name is Mao Kitsugi?

Ryu Do, Mei Gi, and Mao Kitsugi are all rather massive and muscular, making quite the... spectacle. Standing in stark contrast to that is Char's father, Mu Jing, whose hair is a bit greyer and figure much more compact. He sits on a tree stump reading a book as everyone waits.

>>5650575
Besides those you recognize, there are a few you don't. A man holding a pitchfork and a woman with a knife grouped with those from Prosperity, as well as a young man holding a bow. In total that makes... 10 people, yourself included. ...It seems like they're going through quite the effort to deal with this rabbit.

It's around 15 minutes until someone else arrives: A thin man in a large overcoat. Unlike you his arrival seems to grab everyone's attention, pulling Mu Jing out of his book and causing Mei Gi to frown. As you try to remember where you recognize the thin man from he addresses the group.

"The village head sent me to assist." After a short silence, Huo Mi is the one to respond. "Just you?" The thin man nods. "Yes. Sir Whitford wished to assist as well but is needed to guard the intake." No one present seems to like that response but neither do they bother to question it, perhaps just figuring it a waste of time.

Huo Mi glances around the group one more time before addressing everyone. "Looks like that's everyone we're going to get. Not quite what I wanted, but I think we have a decent shot. Now, for the plan..."

"Me, Ryu Do, Mei Gi, Tetsuya, and Kai." She points towards the young man holding a bow as she ends her sentence. "After I find the target the five of us will launch a volley of arrows simultaneously. We need to create as little noise as possible before doing that, and even afterwards. Our best chance to hit the thing is catching it unawares. Got it?" You nod in acknowledgement and the rest of those addressed do similarly.

"Everyone else needs to take up positions in a ring further away, equally spaced out. If we fail then you can stop worrying about making noise and close in slightly. The spiritual beast's mark allows for some method of teleporting objects, including itself, so if it attempts to teleport away then you're to do your best to intercept it. If one of you can at least wound it, then it will be much easier to deal with in the future."

"Any questions?" Everyone stays silent for a bit until the young man holding a bow, Kai, speaks up. "Why are we taking a kid with us? Are we certain he won't make noise and ruin everything?" You feel everyone glance towards you. Huo Mi pauses for a second before chuckling. "Because he just barely qualifies and we need more archers. Anything else?"

>>5650581
No one has any other questions and Huo Mi leads the group in setting off. As the group of you march towards the relevant section of the forest, Mu Jing approaches you. You greet him.

「Char must be upset about not being included, huh?」Mu Jing laughs. "He would be, if he knew. I'm afraid your teacher would've skinned me if I told him - there'd be a very real chance of him putting this entire plan in jeopardy. But more importantly..." Mu Jing stops speaking for a moment before continuing hesitantly. "...are you going to be alright? This is rather dangerous."

「I should be, hopefully. Do you think I should leave?」Instead of answering immediately, he sighs. "Yes and no. Having another archer is of help, even if you're not as strong as the rest, but... well, I don't like putting children in harm's way. But it's your choice, and it's certainly not like it's a death wish or anything - I imagine that it'd be hard for the beast to do anything when surrounded by so many cultivators, and you're not defenseless."

You mull over the answer for a bit and glance about the group.
>「What do your say our chances are?」Mu Jing seems to have a pretty good understanding of the situation. May as well get his opinion on it.
>That thin guy who Percival sent - you still feel like you recognize him. Maybe if you talk to him it'll jog your memory.
>Ryu seems cheerful despite the situation. Guess you'll say hi.
>Kai's the only other one of the archers who you've never met before. You'll head over and get acquainted.
>Write-In
Next update is tomorrow, if there's a tie I'll probably end up breaking it without warning.

>>5650585
>「What do your say our chances are?」Mu Jing seems to have a pretty good understanding of the situation. May as well get his opinion on it.
>That thin guy who Percival sent - you still feel like you recognize him. Maybe if you talk to him it'll jog your memory.
>Kai's the only other one of the archers who you've never met before. You'll head over and get acquainted.

>>5650585
>「What do your say our chances are?」Mu Jing seems to have a pretty good understanding of the situation. May as well get his opinion on it.
>That thin guy who Percival sent - you still feel like you recognize him. Maybe if you talk to him it'll jog your memory.
>Kai's the only other one of the archers who you've never met before. You'll head over and get acquainted.

>>5650585
>what are our odds?

>That thin guy reminds me of someone, lets go talk

>>5650585
>That thin guy who Percival sent - you still feel like you recognize him. Maybe if you talk to him it'll jog your memory.
>Kai's the only other one of the archers who you've never met before. You'll head over and get acquainted.

>>5650585
>「What do your say our chances are?」
>Ryu seems cheerful despite the situation
>Kai's the only other
socializing go

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>>5650681 >>5650807 >>5650867 >>5651063 >>5651150
「So, what do you say our chances are?」Mu Jing glances at you and slows down his pace for a bit as he thinks. It's a while before he responds. "Depends on what you're asking specifically. The chance that everything goes cleanly and we kill the thing before it can react? Probably not great, But the chance that we manage to at least injure it and can then track it down later? Pretty good in my estimation."

"Or, well, the best it'll get without much more support, at least. We have a cultivator at the 5th Tempering, three at the 4th, and three more at the 3rd. Unless Percival or Kain feel like throwing in their support I don't see it going much better, and even then, they're not archers, so..." Mu Jing shrugs. "We just have to wait and see, I guess."

Hm. That seems like a fair appraisal. You can't really guarantee anything when the enemy can just disappear. But...「Three cultivators at the 4th Tempering? That's Ryu Do, Mei Gi, and...」Mu Jing glances at the thin man as he responds. "Fisher. Percival's assistant. Besides Kanekatsu, those are all of those at the 4th Tempering in the village.

「Fisher...」So that's him. You've heard his naming in passing a couple of times, actually. But despite supposedly being Percival's assistant, he doesn't really show his face. Thinking about it the last time you saw him was... the tryouts for the militia, maybe?

「I guess I'll go 'make friends' for a bit, since I have the chance. Sorry for the trouble, but could you carry my spear for a bit? It'll make too much noise when we're approaching the rabbit.」Mu Jing nods. "Certainly. Good luck with your role." You remove the spear from your back.「Same to you Mr. Mu.」

Interest peaked, you speed up your place slightly and approach Fisher. He glances at you for a moment but decides to ignore you and continue walking. You guess you'll have to be the one to start the conversation then.

「My name is Tetsuya. You're Fisher, right?」Fisher lowers the hood of his coat slightly and glances at you. After a moment's pause, he nods. "That's correct. It's nice to meet you. What may I do for you?" You fumble slightly for a response.「Er, I don't need anything in particular. I just came to make conversation. So, uh... you're Percival's assistant, right?」

"Percival's assistant..." Fisher scratches at his head from over his hood. "Well, that's not wrong. I owe Sir Whitford a lot, so I help him with his work. Although that tended to be arranging travel, doing errands, and helping him prepare for social engagements until recently."

「So you were with him before he returned to Fogtop?」Fisher nods again. "Yes, for quite a while. Sir Whitford's venture here had already reached the stage where it could manage itself, for the most part. It was a better use of time for him to build relationships and negotiate trade deals than to stay in the village and micromanage. We stopped by occasionally before, but this is the longest I've ever stayed."

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>>5651561
「I see. Are you enjoying your stay?」Several several seconds pass before Fisher replies. "It's not terribly exciting here, I must admit. But I can see why Sir Whitford cares about the place, at least. It's pleasant, when things aren't like... well, you know."

Before you can say anything else Huo Mi interrupts your conversation with an announcement. "We're arriving in the beast's general area. Gather up, keep your eyes peeled, and sit tight while I try and track it down. Might be back in a few minutes, might be back in a few hours, but be ready to leave at any time." Huo Mi leaves the group without further ado, heading out to find the target.

You talk with Fisher for a bit longer but he doesn't seem to be too focused on the conversation as he starts sharpening his weapon - a thin sword he'd kept sheathed at his waist. Besides the fact that it's not disguised as a walking stick, it reminds you a great deal of Percival's. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree you suppose - although you guess that phrase doesn't really apply here.

After making sure that everything's in place with your own weapon you rearrange your small pack and retie your boots. Huo Mi still doesn't return by the time you're done. A bit bored you decide to talk to the other archer, who you're not acquainted with. Kai, you think his name was.

The young man glances between you and his bow as you approach, polishing it. Once you reach him he pauses and moves slightly, leaving enough space on the log he's using as a bench for you to sit. You thank him and take a seat.

"You know how to replace a bowstring?" The question takes you a bit off-guard, but you answer.「Yes. I brought spares, just in case.」Kai nods to himself a couple of times. "Good, good. I guess the old apothecary did teach you properly, then."

「'Properly'... if you mean from the ground up, yes. She stopped just short of making me carve my own bow... although she still made me do the arrows.」Kai chuckles. "It's an important skill. Saves money too." Can't deny the second part - a good chunk of the arrows you use for prey you made yourself. Although the ones for today, at least, you purchased.

「You're an archer too?」Kai hums to himself for a moment. "That and a hunter as well. As my father was, and his father was before him, and his father was before him. I'd say 'so on and so forth', but before him, well, I don't really know. But we lived here before the empire stepped in, I think."

The two of you fall silent for a bit as Kai continues polishing his bow. He's the one to break the silence. "Anyways, make sure not to mess up. It's fine if you miss, but don't make noise at least." You can't help but frown a bit as you glance at him. In response, he just shrugs. "Just being honest. I'd say the same to myself at your age."

>>5651566
「...So I'm guessing you think you're a pretty good archer.」"Not think. I am." He stops polishing his bow for a second. "Although Huo Mi and Ryu Do are probably better."「Not counting Mei Gi there?」Kai shakes his head. "He's a dabbler."

The two of you chat for a bit longer as you wait for Huo Mi to return. Kai talks about a 'coming of age' ritual that his family performs. Unlike the ones you're familiar with it doesn't happen at a set age, but when one feels they're skilled enough to achieve it. Also unlike the ones you're familiar with, theirs doesn't involve presents, drinking, or any sort of party, but... leaving home temporarily and killing a bear. Kai did his a few years ago apparently, and while he admittedly did nearly die, you're impressed nonetheless.

Your conversation is once more interrupted by Huo Mi. Having finally found the rabbit, she makes a call for everyone to pack up, get into formation, and move out. You stand up from the log with a grunt - you were getting a little too used to sitting there.

"I forgot to ask. What was your name?"「Tetsuya Kinzou.」"Yuzan Kaibara, but I go by Kai. Good to make your acquaintance. Let's make it a good hunt." You shake the hand he offers and head on your way, following after Huo Mi.

You keep low to the ground as you advance and walk slowly. Barely dug burrows litter the ground nearby, indicating that you're in the rabbit's territory. Apparently it isn't far away, having last been seen grazing by a stream nearby. You creep up to the bush in front of you and then pause, glancing around and waiting for your next order.

Eventually, you receive it. A thumbs up from Ryu Do. That means the target is still in place and that it hasn't noticed you yet. Not too long later he holds up five fingers - that means fifty seconds until you shoot. You start counting time in your head and glance to your right, where you confirm that Kai is still there. You wait a bit and then hold up four fingers. He gives you a signal acknowledging that he received the message and then you turn your attention elsewhere. There's only thirty-s- thirty-five, seconds left, and you need to take aim.

The rabbit sits slightly below you, your entire group having the high ground. The sound of the stream next to it is, thankfully, much louder than the sounds of you adjusting your position and readying your shot. You aim for its body. Any hit will deal a lot of damage to an animal as small as it is, even if it is... marked, or whatever it is.

>>5651572
As you count down the final seconds in your head you stare at the rabbit. The tangle of thin lines of pitch black fur covering its face follow no rhyme or reason, seeming more like some sort of elaborate art project than anything natural. Apparently that 'mark' is a sign that it possesses a power of some sort, but, well... you just can't get how the two are related. Maybe it's just a visible indicator of something that's more than skin-deep. What's underneath could be very interesting if you get the chance at an autopsy, you guess, but more qualified people have probably done so before you.

Four, three, two, one...

You let go and watch as the arrow rapidly approaches its target. Another, to your left, does so first though - Huo Mi's, probably, since it's the fastest. You see the rabbit glance at it as the arrow rapidly approaches its flank, and -

At the same time the arrow hits the rabbit it suddenly disappears. Or to be more accurate, it disappears and then comes soaring out of a barely-dug burrow in the ground nearby. After that the rabbit suddenly disappears from view, nowhere to be found, and the other four arrows which were about to hit it come in contact with nothing but air.

"It's injured, but not dead! Move to plan B!" Huo Mi's loud yell sounds through the woods. Presumably everyone who isn't an archer should be getting ready to intercept now, in case the rabbit goes in their direction.

In the meantime you scan the nearby area to see if you can tell where it went, but nothing turns up. A heavy silence falls over you as you keep looking, somewhat frantically. Then, after what feels like longer than it probably was, you hear a yell from your right as Kai stands up.

"It's in the trees! Look at that big tree, across from the stream!" Your eyes start to follow where Kai's pointing and you catch a glimpse of fur in the trees, the rabbit nearly hidden among the leaves. You grab for your bow, hoping to get another shot off... but just as you do, you hear a sudden gasp of pain from Kai's direction.

You glance over and see that he's suddenly fallen to the ground. His back is facing towards you but you think he's... grabbing at his arm? You can't quite tell from here.
>Turn your attention back to the rabbit and line up a shot. Your chances of actually hitting it aren't too good, but you should deal with it first.
>Keep your head down and head over to Kai's position. You don't know what just happened, but if he's injured then you should help.
>Lower your bow and start retreating. ...If you stick around then you could be the next one injured.
>Write-In

>>5651575
>Keep your head down and head over to Kai's position. You don't know what just happened, but if he's injured then you should help.

>>5651575
>Keep your head down and head over to Kai's position. You don't know what just happened, but if he's injured then you should help.

Watch out! He's got big pointy teeth!

>>5651575
>Keep your head down and head over to Kai's position. You don't know what just happened, but if he's injured then you should help.

Looks the rabbit can transfer or share wounds with the one the person that injured it

>>5651575
>Keep your head down and head over to Kai's position. You don't know what just happened, but if he's injured then you should help.

>>5651575
>Turn your attention back to the rabbit
dudes killed a bear, as long he isnt screaming hes good.

>>5651700
quick assumption there + it was huo mi who injured the rabbit. my guess it teleported the arrow or a stick or anything really.

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>>5651577 >>5651658 >>5651700 >>5651781 >>5651900
Even if you shoot at the rabbit again it's probably only going to be a distraction at best - the thing can just teleport your arrows away, right? It'll be a better use of your time to head over and see if you can help Kai. Except Huo Mi you're the only one here with any medical training at all, and she's your main combatant. For now, you'll have to step up.

You take your pack off of your back as you head to Kai's position while crouching. Hopefully the nearby foliage should serve to hide you and stop... well, whatever happened to him from happening to you. As you advance over you spare a glance towards the rabbit's position and see somethi...uh...something...

In the middle of the clearing that the stream runs through you see an arrow falling straight through the air, landing on one of the burrows that that damned rabbit barely dug, and then reappearing above that same burrow from the crown of a tree. Then it falls into the burrow again, and reappears at the top of the tree again... gaining speed all the while.

You think you have a good idea of how Kai just got injured.

Appropriately terrified you push your head down lower and continue advancing towards Kai's position. Before you arrive he manages to get up and take a seat against a nearby tree. The upper section of his right arm has an arrow pierced partway into it. He clamps down on it with his left, staunching the flow of blood. As you near he throws you a glance.

"The damned arrow came out of a tree. Bastard rabbit and its seven generations..." Kai stops swearing as you open up your pack, removing a first-aid kit you made. "I don't imagine you can just cut it out?" You respond as you prepare some disinfectant paste.「If it went all the way through I'd cut it into two pieces, pull it out, and then treat the wound left. As is... well, we don't have time for surgery and I don't think you want me performing it.」

"What are you going to do then?"「If you want I can just leave it alone, or I can cut off most of the shaft and cover up the wound so that you can move around, temporarily.」Kai takes a sharp breath in. "I'll take the second option."

You prepare a bandage, cover it in disinfectant, and then cut off most of the shaft from the wound. That will make it a bit less obvious where the arrowhead is later, but, uh... well, there's enough left in his arm that you don't think that will be a problem. Then you start to tightly wrap the bandage around Kai's arm, so that it can apply the pressure needed to slow the flood of blood. As you do so you notice that there are several stones that are lightly lodged into Kai's arm near the arrow wound, kind of like he just fell and had a bad scrape. You do your best to quickly remove the ones you see before finishing the bandaging.

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>>5652433
「I get that it's not really possible, but try to move as little as possible. The more the head digs around before it's out, the worse the risk of infection. I could only clean the surface.」Kai swears under his breath. "Great. Guess I'll have to ask you t-"

Kai is interrupted before he can finish that sentence. An odd falling sensation engulfs you and your scenery changes. For some reason you're staring at the top of a tree. Why are you staring at the top of a tree?

Before you figure out the answer to that your brain manages to make you brace yourself for the incoming fall. You glance down and see the ground approaching. You get ready to roll, and...

Your scenery changes. For some reason you're staring at the top of a tree. You now know why you're staring at the top of a tree. Kai seems to know why too as he's started swearing again. It seems that you're both falling, aren't you?

Before you hit the ground you manage to get a good view of your surroundings. The rabbit in its tree, staring at the two of you. Kai, much like yourself, flailing helplessly in mid-air next to you. The branches of the tree you were crouched next to you becoming smaller as you fall closer to t-

Your scenery changes. You're staring at the top of a tree. You're accelerating. You need to deal with this quickly, or else the consequences are going to go from unpleasant to lethal whenever the rabbit decides to stop moving you.
>Muster as much strength as you can and kick Kai in the chest. The force should send the both of you flying elsewhere, which will hopefully stop the rabbit from teleporting you any further, or at least force it to choose a person. Er, assuming it can't just do this to the both of you at once.
>Do your best to prepare for the fall, whenever it's going to come. It can only spend so much attention on tormenting you and Kai. Eventually someone else will kill it while it's distracted or draw its attention elsewhere.
>Reach out as far to your left as you can so that you can grab hold of a bough of the tree you've now become rather intimately acquainted with. It should be sturdy enough to halt your fall.
>Try and grab your bow on the next time down so that you can shoot that fucking rabbit. Even if the arrow isn't perfectly on course, maybe it will distract it from doing, well, this.
>Write-In

>>5652436
>Do your best to prepare for the fall, whenever it's going to come. It can only spend so much attention on tormenting you and Kai. Eventually someone else will kill it while it's distracted or draw its attention elsewhere.
>Reach out as far to your left as you can so that you can grab hold of a bough of the tree you've now become rather intimately acquainted with. It should be sturdy enough to halt your fall.
These two seem to be fall preparation

>>5652441
>Do your best to prepare for the fall, whenever it's going to come. It can only spend so much attention on tormenting you and Kai. Eventually someone else will kill it while it's distracted or draw its attention elsewhere.
This is a choice to explicitly wait and do nothing.
>Reach out as far to your left as you can so that you can grab hold of a bough of the tree you've now become rather intimately acquainted with. It should be sturdy enough to halt your fall.
This is to try to reach out towards a nearby bough and stop your fall.

>>5652442
Then I'm voting only for
>Reach out as far to your left as you can so that you can grab hold of a bough of the tree you've now become rather intimately acquainted with. It should be sturdy enough to halt your fall.

>>5652436
>Kick Kai in the chest.

Sorry Kai! But try to grab something.

>>5652476
plus to my vote
>CALL OUT THE RABBITS LOCATION.

>>5652442
>Reach out as far to your left as you can so that you can grab hold of a bough of the tree you've now become rather intimately acquainted with. It should be sturdy enough to halt your fall.

>>5652479
Kai did earlier, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to do so again.

>>5652441
>>5652476
>>5652786
Can I get three 1d100s, DC is 45 and the more successes the better.

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>5653263
rabbit genocide when?

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Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>5653263
Die bnnuy

Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>5653263
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>>5653340
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>>5653340
dam

Will update when I'm free, so roughly 3 hours from now. Hoping to get through the rest of the fight today.
>>5653340
At least it's not a 1 like last time!

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>>5652441 >>5652476 >>5652786 >>5653266
The tree. You think you're close enough to reach one of the boughs, to your left. You just have to stretch a bit. No, as far as you can. Come on, come on...

You do your best to move while speeding through midair, extending your arm so far left to the point it's uncomfortable. To your relief, you feel your hand brush leaves and then come in contact with a large piece of wood. Enough to grab hold of. You grip as strongly as possible so that you don't lose hold and feel yourself suddenly slow down.

Thankfully the bough of the tree doesn't give out once you grab onto it. What does give out, however, is your arm. An overwhelming burst of pain comes from your left shoulder as you hear something akin to a popping noise and you lose hold of the branch. You aren't sent straight down but instead hurtling forward to what was previously your left, your remaining momentum redirected by your midair maneuver. You do your best to brace yourself for landing, covering your head and other important bits, and then a second later have your breath knocked out from you as you crash into another tree.

Everything hurts, but some parts hurt more than others. Namely, your left shoulder and your chest. You have to push through several sharp bursts of pain as you force yourself into a sitting position with your right arm. You're just in time to see Kai, who's still hurtling through midair, make his own bid to reach safety.

Kai pulls a large skinning knife from his belt and uses both arms, his injured one included, to stab it into the tree in front of him. He barely makes it. He slows down slightly as metal catches wood but, as the knife catches a hard part, he's bucked away and loses hold of it. A moment later he's teleported upwards again and, after slowing himself very slightly with the top branches of the tree (which snap almost immediately as a result), he takes advantage of the fact that he's now slightly closer to the tree and uses it as a springboard to kick off of. Much like you he's sent hurtling away from the tree, to make a rough landing of his own. You can't see where he lands, but the loud thud seconds later confirm that he has.

>>5654099
God, this fucking rabbit... wait, the rabbit. There's something about the... oh! You remember now! Kai already did, but you should call out the position again. You force yourself up slightly and peak around the tree you're at, to check that the rabbit's still where it last was. You confirm that it is, but then spot something climbing up the tree from behind it. After a moment what it is becomes clear - it's Fisher. He's climbing up the tree right now, to try and surprise it.

Not wanting to scare it off you keep silent and just watch. Fisher climbs up to the bough the rabbit is situated on, grabs a hold of it, and then starts pulling himself up slowly. As he's partway up the rabbit suddenly glances in his direction. At the same time the thin point of Fisher's sword sails towards it, ready to impale the creature.

Not wanting to be stabbed through, the rabbit suddenly jumps out of the tree. It comes hurtling towards the ground, and instead of going splat, disappears. It reappears about 10 feet away, from one of its half-dug burrows in the ground, flies into the air slightly, slows down as approaches the ground, and then... teleports again as it lands.

What you can see in the clearing is absurdity. Fisher has found his way out of the tree and is joined by Ryu Do, Mu Jing, and Mei Gi as they all take up different positions and try to tackle and grab the rabbit. Instead all they get is air as they have no way of predicting where the rabbit will appear, and it decreases how long it stays in a given spot as it gets rid of the momentum leftover from jumping out of the tree.

Once it's no longer sailing through the air the rabbit decides to leave the stream and clearing entirely. A moment later, it's near you. Or to be more directly, it's around five feet in front of you, with its back to you. Did it forget you were around here? Does it think you're dead? Did the fall send you flying that far? Does it just not care?
>You're able to stand, at least. If you're injured it might aggravate things to take a bad fall, but... tackle it! Now! You just need to grab the rabbit!
>Grab your knife from your belt and lunge towards it. You'll get more reach that way, and another good wound on the thing might be enough to kill it.
>Stay where you are and ready your bow. Maybe, just maybe, the damn thing will stay still long enough for you to shoot it. If you get off a shot from this range, hopefully it shouldn't have time to dodge.
>Write-In

>>5654102
>Stay where you are and ready your bow. Maybe, just maybe, the damn thing will stay still long enough for you to shoot it. If you get off a shot from this range, hopefully it shouldn't have time to dodge.

>>5654102
We can't fire a fucking bow with a dislocated arm.

>Grab our knife and lunge.
If we are any good at throwing, do that.

>>5654102
>You're able to stand, at least. If you're injured it might aggravate things to take a bad fall, but... tackle it! Now! You just need to grab the rabbit!
Seize initiative while we still can
I'm ok with going with knife if there's a tie

Quick heads-up to keep you all up to date:
One of my drives may be getting close to the end of its lifespan, I just had sudden major problems with one that Windows Automatic Repair thankfully managed to clear up, but which temporarily left me unable to boot.
I need to backup a ton of stuff to my external that I either never bothered with because I was lazy, or that just aren't up to date.
This will delay me from updating tonight, but I will be back... soon(tm). Friday evening, probably, assuming it doesn't die completely, although I guess I could just write from a public PC if I had to.

Also, backup your data, there's no replacing all your screenshots of smug anime girls.

>>5654102
>You're able to stand, at least. If you're injured it might aggravate things to take a bad fall, but... tackle it! Now! You just need to grab the rabbit!

>>5654102

>Grab your knife from your belt and lunge towards it. You'll get more reach that way, and another good wound on the thing might be enough to kill it.

Is there any guarantee that grabbing it can even stop it from teleporting?

I do have to really wonder if the right move wouldn't be to try to silently indicate the location of the rabbit, say by quietly holding our arm out so it's visible to people nearby.

Ironically enough it was just my backup drive failing, but apparently even an external drive can stop you from booting if it has major errors. On the bright side I got scared into making a cloud backup of my quest notes, at least.
>>5654104
>>5654108
>>5654179
>>5654440
>>5654613
That's 1 for the bow, 1 for tackling it, 2 for lunging at it with the knife, and 1 for tackling or lunging. Knife wins, can I get three 1d100s? I shall be back to update when I am free this evening, or roundabouts.

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>5655374

>>5655374
>>5655377
so do you want more rolls or are you accepting we dont wanna risk it, wuxia?

Rolled 42 (1d100)

>>5655374
lets go

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>5655374

Rolled 48 (1d100)

>>5655374

Hell, we might actually have this

>>5655377 >>5655438 >>5655451 >>5655481 >>5655534 >>5655694 >>5654104
Your bow... that's out. You think your left arm is too bad for that right now. Your knife then. Just grab it as quietly as possible and go for it. Get that thing before it leaves on its own, whether because you scared it away or it just decides to.

You slowly reach down with your right arm and take your knife out from under your belt. The rabbit doesn't react in the slightest. If you were thinking harder you'd think it's a little odd, how it's practically in a daze, but... well, you aren't really thinking right now. You practically jump towards the thing, falling to the ground as you shove your knife in its direction. The glint of its small red eyes enters your vision as it turns to face you, but at the same time your knife enters its hide. Blood is drawn and another wound made.

The rabbit makes a panicked squeal as the knife pierces through its hide near its left hind leg. Driven on by the unexpected success, you try and drive it deeper in response. You feel the feedback of fur against your fist as you push it down and...

...lightly pat it on the leg. Where did your knife go?

Before you can figure that out the rabbit suddenly disappears. Fuck. Just as you're about to glance about, looking for where the thing went, you notice an odd sensation. A light pull, like the ground ahead of you is trying to suck your hand in. Curious, you look at it closely. A few small pebbles roll across the ground to where the rabbit was standing and then just disappear, the same as it did.

You tentatively touch that patch of ground and watch in confusion as part of your hand simply phases through it. Instead of dirt, a moment later you feel wood - the bark of a tree. You reach a bit further in and can distinctly make out a warped piece of wood on the other end of this piece of ground. From the way you're feeling it you think you're... below it. Or your hand is coming up from the bottom of it, at least.

Just as you wrap yourself around what you're feeling and consider whether jumping into the strange unperceivable hole in the ground is a good idea, you feel something on the other side bite your hand. You grunt in annoyance but bear with it. A moment later there's a rough constricting sensation around it where your hand meets the ground, like the opening is shrinking and your hand is in the way. The mild suction force around the hole reverses and intensifies and your hand is pushed out like someone just smacked it. A bit painful, but nothing serious.

There goes your chance. You doubt you're going to catch up to the rabbit, so you'll just check up on Kai for now. Ignoring the aches and pains that ail you, you push yourself up again and slowly totter in the direction the young hunter previously fell. The walk is the hardest part as there's a clear trail of destruction left on the ground between where he landed and where he stopped, undergrowth broken through and dirt stirred up.

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>>5656094
You glance down at Kai, who's currently lying spread eagle on the ground and blankly staring up at the sky. He seems to struggle slightly as he turns his head to glance at you.

"Did we win?" You shake your head. "By the emperor. May his wrath rain down upon..." Kai's cursing fades to mumbling as he returns his attention to the sky, but he cuts himself off after a moment. "Well, come get me when we're done here. I could probably move, but find the idea... unappealing right now. Too many bones hurt."

That is... alarming. Yes, alarming is the best word here.「Should I get someone?」Kai doesn't bother to look in your direction as he responds. "No need. I don't think I'll die, at least not now. Best to deal with this first."

Fair enough.「Guess I'll...」Before you can finish, you're interrupted by a loud yell to your left. "BULLSEYE!" You recognize the voice as Huo Mi's. That should be good news, you assume. You speed up your walk and head towards where you heard Huo Mi. From behind you a quiet "Make sure to bring me if we're done!" can be heard.

You're not the first one to reach Huo Mi and find Fisher and several others gathered around her when you arrive. The group of them are quietly staring at a patch of ground some distance away, where a furry corpse is lying. It's the rabbit, significantly worse off than the last time you saw it.

「How'd, uh...」"I get it?" You nod your head. "The first arrow I shot was poisoned pretty heavily, so that might've kicked in and helped. But, practically, I moved, laid in wait, and waited for an opening while you were all forcing it to move. Then I got it when its back was turned, shot it out of the tree, and it ended up just slamming against the ground instead of whatever it did back there."

「...So why are you just staring at it now?」Huo Mi raises an eyebrow at you. "Do you want to mess with a dying spiritual beast with strange powers? Just leave it for a little bit, until we're sure it's at least unconscious." Hm. You guess that's fine - you're in no hurry. You go to take a seat when you remember something.「Wait, you said your arrows were poisoned?」Huo Mi glances back towards you and speaks offhandedly. "Huh? Yeah. Why'd you..."

She pauses and throws a long look back at the rabbit, and then at those around her. Several have suffered teleportation inflicted arrow wounds of varying severities.

"...Let me get the antidote."

Once immediate treatment is performed and the rabbit is deemed sufficiently dead everyone returns to Huo Mi's home for further medical treatment. You're sent ahead as they haul along Kai. Ostensibly this is to prepare a couple of things for her, but it's really just so you can tell Zhang to say cooped up in the warehouse while everyone is there.

>>5656097
When Huo Mi gets around to performing proper examinations the true cost of the mission becomes clear. Your left arm is dislocated and you seem to have broken a rib but as far as the entire team goes you got off decently. Besides those with more minor wounds there's Mei Gi who suffered a significant arrow wound to the shoulder; Huo Mei's pale friend, Xue, who broke both an arm and a leg; and last but not least, Kai, who broke an arm, suffered a wound to the other, and likely broke several ribs and his collarbone landing.

...Not to mention being mildly poisoned and thrust into a mild delirium before treatment could take effect. Fortunately on the last point the quantity of poison Huo Mi tipped her arrows with was rather lacking for a human, particularly for a cultivator who'd tempered their internal organs. No, he was more in danger of internal bleeding than anything else. That's where he got lucky, avoiding any internal injuries even if he was going faster than you when he fell. Or, well, any internal injuries that Huo Mi would be able to notice anyways.

That is all, of course, not including one of the helpers Mei Gi brought. They punctured a lung and died before proper treatment could even be administered. This, combined with everything else, causes the hunt to end on a somber note. Huo Mi refrains from acting with too much snark, Mei Gi stays awkwardly silent, and Fisher simply says that they'll talk about how that beaten and battered rabbit corpse is dealt with later, even though you get the feeling that he'd really prefer to deal with it now. After taking care of things most everyone takes their leave, leaving only you, Huo Mi, and her three new inpatients.

「They gonna be alright?」Huo Mi nods. "Probably. Mei Gi's wound didn't hit anything too important, although it'll take a while to heal up and he might have a fracture. I'm even less worried about Xue - just give it a couple months. As for the kid..." She glances at Kai, who's sleeping in a hastily acquired bed. "Well, he won't die, probably. Depending on how he heals his arms may take some getting used to after he's better though." She lifts her right arm and points at the jagged scar the rabbit left her with previously. "I would know."

>>5656099
"As for you, how's your arm holding up?"「Fine, I guess. It hurts, but that's a given. I can move it.」Huo Mi nods to herself. "Good. Tell me if your shoulder pops out again. As for your rib, going exploring inside your chest would just be a meaningless risk. The best course of action for now is to just take it easy and wait for it to heal." As you're about to respond she continues on. "Oh. And while it's basically impossible for it to pierce your lung even if it is broken... well, if for some reason there's unexplained blood in your mouth, do tell me. That might mean you've suddenly started dying."

「...」Huo Mi clears her throat. "But as I said, that's basically impossible. Anyways, just take it easy while it heals. It'll restrict your activity a little until then."
>Take it easy. Fine. It'll get better before the sect examination, so you don't need to worry about it. You can just focus on stuff like making medicine and reading for now.
>Take it easy... that's a little hard right now. You do still need to hunt after all. But that'll be fine, right? As long as you don't run too much and you avoid letting anything dig into it and stuff. You use your arms for shooting a bow anyways.
>No need for that. Just like she said, it'll heal on its own. You'll just do what you usually do until then, if perhaps a bit worse than normal.
>Write-In

>>5656100
>Take it easy. Fine. It'll get better before the sect examination, so you don't need to worry about it. You can just focus on stuff like making medicine and reading for now.
While you were all partying and having sex we CULTIVATED THE MEDICINE DAO

>>5656100
>Take it easy. Fine.
guess we got a nice story to tell now

>>5656100
>Take it easy. Fine. It'll get better before the sect examination, so you don't need to worry about it. You can just focus on stuff like making medicine and reading for now.

>>5656100
>Take it easy, fine.

Also. WE KILLED A FUCKING SPIRITUAL BEAST!

>>5656100
>Take it easy. Fine. It'll get better before the sect examination, so you don't need to worry about it. You can just focus on stuff like making medicine and reading for now.

Will find some time to post after I have obtained sleep. I don't think we'll get to the end of the winter by the end of this thread but we should get through it and onto spring and the sect examination by the next one. Sorry for the slow pace of updates, the past month or so has been packed and I needed to assemble proper notes for the quest. Fortunately the latter is pretty much done with.

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>>5656115 >>5656156 >>5656162 >>5656170 >>5656295
Take it easy... that's easier said than done given present circumstances. There's no guarantee that if you try to push through a broken bone, that it won't try to push through your in retaliation. Best to leave it to its own devices and wait for the fracture, or break, or whatever it is to heal on its own time. It's not as if you can't do anything else productive in the meantime.

By the time you arrive home it's getting very late. You told Nui that you were going out hunting so she doesn't really have any problem with this. What she does have problems with are the vast amount of scratches, tears, blood, and bruises on yourself and your clothing. You think of mentioning that a good portion of the blood isn't yours in order to quell her motherly fury, but deciding that it will probably only make your predicament worse, opt to leave that tidbit out while explaining things. It's some time before her lecturing stops and you both settle down to eat dinner. Your promise to take it easy while your rib heals ("Of course you will!") helps in keeping Nui's reckoning shorter than it could've been.

A great deal of the next day is spent looking for your knife. With the time-pressure to treat everyone's wounds yesterday you weren't able to spare any time to look for where that rabbit teleported it, but now that it's not a problem... well, you'd like your knife back. It's a nice knife, you spent your money on it, and if you can't turn it up your only really chance of getting a replacement would be to bother someone else you know who might have a spare. ...Perhaps Kai, given that he physically can't use his knife right now.

You'd rather not have to stoop to that though, and so you spend several hours poring through the area around where you lost it. Char lends a helping hand in the search and eventually finds it most of the way up a tree, in a hollow worn into the trunk. You might not have been able to get up there right now even if you tried, so you're really glad you took help along. The two of you head back to the village proper as Char continues a series of extended complaints about not being allowed to come along to help hunt the rabbit, especially since you were able to. Perhaps you'd hold a bit of sympathy in regards to his grievances yesterday, but after seeing the aftermath of the fight... well, he's just looking a gift horse in the mouth. But you don't say that out loud, managing to weather through his complaints directed towards no one in particular until he gets tired of saying them and moves onto something else. Not getting into a petty argument with him about the topic is the least you can do as thanks for the help.

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>>5658840
In the coming days it comes to your attention that very little talk about the rabbit slaying has actually occurred. Whereas there was at least a vague warning in regards to the thing existing, after it's dead there's been... well, nothing. You bring it up in passing to Huo Mi and she just shrugs, saying that everyone involved is probably trying to hide potential weakness. You take a minute to make sense of that but once you think on it it makes some sense. Huo Mi was the strongest of those involved and even she was injured by the thing before. Even if bragging about defeating it might inspire confidence among the normal villagers, it would also advertise that a large portion of the hunting party was injured to anyone who didn't already know...

...Which now that you think about it, is essentially only Kain and Kanekatsu. Or, well, at least that's the only group that you can think of that would be able to take advantage of that fact. You guess them not knowing about the proceedings is a bit of a silver lining of them not helping... even if having the two of them along might've been a help at the time.

Although, well, you couldn't honestly guarantee that Kanekatsu wouldn't have 'accidentally' done worse to you than the rabbit did if he was there, so you guess this silver lining might be the best outcome you could have hoped for.

During the week after the hunt new years rolls around. One of the biggest holidays of the year and one which you hold fond memories of. This year, there's no festival. In contrast to the lantern-lit streets of last year, filled with carefree people celebrating, the streets this year are eerily deserted, even for winter. Riddles aren't posted, fortunes aren't told, and Percival doesn't include one of his indulgent couplet installations. The only reminder that it's new years is a kindly old man with some sweet nuts still stored. He hands them out to some of the young children, wanting to spread holiday cheer. A small spark of joy in what has become a very dreary place recently.

But despite the village setting into a near-silence you still keep busy. Sometimes you help Huo Mi with whatever she happens to be up to in her workship, while others you sit at Char's house and read from Hana's library. You've managed to make significant progress in your reading on the core tenets of Naturalism and the School of Force, and in response she excitedly prepares several basic history texts for once you finish the book you're on now. ...You can't help but think that rather than a government official she'd make a good fit for some wealthy family's tutor in the future.

>>5658844
The situation with the food shops begins resolving itself, although whether for the better or worse you're not sure. Percival clamps down and demands that the three shops submit their food to be distributed by the intake and cease business for the time being. A demand that might have made sense to make earlier, but that from what little you know involves seriously offending... well, most of the most influential families in the village, the Mu family being a notable exception.

One of the shops obeys immediately and falls under control of the intake, perhaps having reached a prior agreement with the Percival. The other seeks shelter under Kanekatsu and by extension Kain, whilst the third stubbornly holds out its independence for the time being. You wouldn't be surprised if the militia raided it any day now frankly, but it seems things haven't quite reached that point yet - perhaps the owner is just quibbling with Percival over terms.

On a day a little more than a week after the hunt you talk with Huo Mi about the going-ons. She doesn't talk much in response, seemingly thinking about something.

You turn your attention away from her and glance at the corner of the kitchen. A cot has been set up where Kai is currently lying, having become Huo Mi's first long-term patient in some time. He enthusiastically chats with Zhang as he cleans the hearth, the two having become surprisingly fast friends after Kai got bored of silently lying in bed all day.

"You have to go with hard horizontal strokes to get the ash out - like this." Zhang rubs harder against the brick he's cleaning. "Is that necessary? It'll get dirty again soon enough." Zhang pauses what he's doing for a moment before speaking up again with renewed vigor. "Necessary? Perhaps not! But a clean home begets a clean mind or so they say. I-"

Huo Mi pretends to cough loudly, interrupting their conversation. "Sorry to inte- er, nevermind, I shouldn't lie. I want to interrupt so I am. I was thinking about what the kid was talking about earlier." Kai turns his head very slightly towards your direction, although you doubt he can see you with his laid flat. "Percival's plans to distribute the food himself?" Huo Mi nods her head. "Yes. Having him rationing everything worries me."

You tilt your head.「Why's that? Won't it be better having him distribute food for free over 'food barons' charging out the ass for it?」Huo Mi bits her lower lip. "Usually, yes, but... well, he also has quite a few bodies in storage."

>>5658850
Everyone freezes up, not quite sure how to respond to that. Huo Mi just continues speaking. "I don't think he'd want to use the dead bodies as food, even if he does still have some or all of them on ice, but, well... if he runs out at some point, wouldn't he rather cut them up then let everyone fend for themselves? For better or worse he doesn't want to just leave people to handle the situation by themselves, so he'll do what he can to handle it, even if it's ethically questionable."

Huo Mi scratches her head. "Anyways, I'll not be taking any rations. I'm an experienced hunter, I have a cellar, and I put a lot of effort into making and preserving my own food. I'll be fine even with my unexpected house guests. It's just not worth the risk to me."

No one is really sure how to respond to the topic and Zhang breaks the awkward atmosphere by returning to his talk of how a hearth should be cleaned. You zone out a bit and think about what Huo Mi just said.
>She's right - you don't want to risk taking food from someone who also has human corpses on hand. You'll have to pass up on the rations and find some other way to get by.
>You don't have to write off the rations completely - only any meat you're given. That's wasting what's probably the best part, but oh well.
>For the time being you doubt those worries will become reality. The stores and the intake still have a lot of food on hand and if rationed it can be stretched out for a while. You only need to start worrying if further food problems develop that suddenly and inexplicably get resolved, or if they start serving mysterious stew every day. If something like that happens... well, you can think about how to handle it then.
>There's no need to worry about this becoming reality for now, and... well, if Huo Mi isn't going to claim her portion of the rations than you guess you may as well claim it for yourself. She wouldn't mind and the intake shouldn't deny a dutiful student the right to take his teacher's rations to her... if only because they're a bit afraid of the teacher.
>Write-In

>>5658853
>You don't have to write off the rations completely - only any meat you're given. That's wasting what's probably the best part, but oh well.

>>5658853

> All of the above

Snag Huo's ration, then when things get bad don't eat the meat.

>>5658853
>You don't have to write off the rations completely - only any meat you're given. That's wasting what's probably the best part, but oh well.

>>5658853
I'm inclined to go with the other anon

>Claim huo's portions
>Don't eat the meat when things get lean

>>5658853
>You don't have to write off the rations completely - only any meat you're given. That's wasting what's probably the best part, but oh well.

I guess that breaks the tie (unless someone else shows up, I won't update for quite a while yet), but to doublecheck, do any of you three want to take Huo Mi's unclaimed ration (but still not eat the meat), or are you specifically opposed to taking it?
>>5658876
>>5659111
>>5659640

>>5659673
I'm fine with taking it as long as she doesn't want it, she does have a guest to feed after all

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>>5658876 >>5658996 >>5659111 >>5659194 >>5659640
While you have your doubts about whether Percival would actually resort to that, or least whether he would do it immediately, it never hurts to be safe. You feel an instinctive revulsion towards the idea of cannibalism, and on a more logical level, would like to avoid getting any rare, unique diseases that consumption of human meat may result in. It's best to be careful.

You scrunch your face up in mild disgust as you respond.「Alright. I'll make sure to avoid the meat then. But, uh...」You trail off, slightly embarrassed.「Mind if I take your ration too? If you don't want it, I mean.」Huo Mi shrugs. "Sure, I'm not hurting for food. Just keep the meat. Someone around here might be brave enough for it." She glances at Zhang and Kai, who are on the other side of the room.

Zhang turns away from her gaze, not saying anything. Perhaps remembering that his friends are the one's she's casually hypothesizing about being eaten, she looks away awkwardly. Kai's the one to speak up. "I'll take it." He elaborates a moment later, his inability to see other's reactions possibly making him eager to explain himself. "I don't think what miss Huo is proposing is very likely at all. But even if it happens, it'd be more insulting to waste the meat after someone prepared it, right? Bury me to be remembered, cremate me with prayers, but if you're going to make stew out of me then at least eat it."

Huo Mi's the one to speak up after a few second lull in the conversation. "He'll take the meat then." Then she snaps her fingers and turns to look at you. "Oh, and he should have a ration too. Claim it for him while he's here. Fisher and Pericval know about him being laid up here, so just tell them." You nod your head.「Right. But... along with my mom that means I'll be taking four rations. Doesn't that make me a bit of a target? I don't really want to get into fights with my rib like this.」

She just shrugs. "I guess. Bring a friend with you. Or a lot of friends. It's not like you'll need to convince them to come anyways - almost no one's rich and paranoid enough to just skip the rations." She chuckles derisively at herself after saying that. Fair enough. The two of you continue talking, moving away from the gloomy conversation as Zhang can be heard resuming his talk of proper hearth cleaning technique in the background.

When you arrive in the village's main square the next day on the way to Char's house you find that the situation with the food stores has changed greatly. The hold out that hadn't given in to either Percival or Kanekatsu got raided. Last night the owner was still in control, several hired guards stationed outside to protect the store, but overnight Percival personally led a portion of the militia in raiding the building. Whether or not they just meant to negotiate better terms by delaying, the meaning is clear - he's no longer asking.

>>5661422
As if in a show of force carts very publicly show up at the store, food being loading up and taken away. This continues throughout the morning not too far away from Char's home, where you're currently studying. It dies down a bit by the afternoon, but then Percival and the rest of his workers very clearly surround the other store, which had looked to Kanekatsu for backing before. You and Char go to rubberneck and watch the standoff for a little bit. The owner of the store exits before long, bowing slightly as he faces Percival. Only minutes later food starts being unloaded from his store as well. For now, at least, there's no stores remaining that sell food in Fogtop...

...well, unless you count Kanekatsu's house, as you've heard Kanekatsu is very excited about being able to sell some of his 'spare food' to 'those who are in need'. Part of that last store's inventory, perhaps. You can only hope Percival decides to raid him too, but you won't hold your breath. If he was willing to do something about Kanekatsu or Kain then he probably would've acted before now. At least Kanekatsu seems to taken a loss today, if the rattled lackeys practically being chased out of his house are anything to go off of.

With the seizure of the last store an announcement is made that the first round of rations will be handed out the day after next. There's grumbling and complaints about this taking too long but it does calm some of the outcry about Percival shutting the stores down without actually organizing an alternative ahead of time, even if most everyone has a couple weeks of food on hand.

The early morning, two days later. Nearly half the village is gathered in front of the intake. Most families just send one person through the snow to retrieve the family's rations, usually the father or eldest son, although some families have come in their entirety. There's nothing else to do for most you guess - work has ground to a halt for those not doing something essential to the village's function, really. Not much money changing hands for anything but food, medicine, or other absolute necessities.

You rub your hands together and watch your breath condense into moisture. "It's freezing out here." You glance towards Jack, who's practically hugging himself for warmth.「Yup. Been that way every day, really.」Han grunts something in response.

Char's family should be coming here a bit later. His dad said that they would be able to get their portions at any time that day and didn't need to hurry over in the morning... although the rest of the village seems to not care about that fact, having rushed over first thing in the morning, yourself included. It makes sense to be anxious about, you guess. Frankly, you're doing better than most in terms of well, having food, and even you're eager for it.

>>5661429
The large wooden gates isolating the intake from the rest of the village begin opening. The chatter among the crowd drops down and everyone's attention locks onto the men pushing them open. It takes a while, some snow still in the way. But it does open eventually and two carts exit the intake, escorted by several guards.

"Line up in single file to receive your rations. Do not push and do not cut or you will lose yours for the day. If you are here to collect rations for your family as well state their names and relations. We will know if you lie, and the punishment will be worse than losing rations for a single day." Your former captain, Ryou, goes through the rules as he begins organizing things. You follow the organizing crowd and get a place in the line - near the front actually, which is nice.

After getting to the end of the rules Ryou pauses for a bit. The crowd watches him anxiously, eager to start collecting their ration. Once several seconds have passed, he continues. "The ration for each person today will be one third-loaf and an apple." He removes a hunk of precut wastebread from a sack in one cart, and an apple from the other, holding them up for the line to see.

The reaction to this announcement is not positive. Angry jeers flood towards Ryou as villagers express their displeasure. "That's not even a single meal!" "Do you expect us to starve!" "Coldhearted bastards!" Ryou doesn't seem sure how to reply, just standing there.

Perhaps having expected this, Percival steps forward, having been hanging back near the gate until a moment ago. "Quiet! Quiet!" "Quiet!" The crowd settles down. "It is certainly not pleasant to be in hunger, but you will still be fed. Portions have been divided ahead of time in case snow continues cutting off access to the outside. There will be hunger, but not death by hunger - you will get enough to live."

Some of the complaints are quelled, but others continue. Instead of hearing them as individual complaints they all seem to mix together into a singular yell, a slurry of words directed towards Percival. "Cruel miser! There may be hunger for us, but not for you! We should've sent you and your immigrant family back!" They continue for a while, escalating instead of dying down. Then you think you see Percival sigh before he unsheathes his sword from the cane at his waist and focuses on the crowd. He speaks loudly but clearly.

"Anyone who continues to disrupt the distribution of rations will be ejected and receive nothing. And anyone who says anything further about my parents may step forward and duel me like a man." The complaints die down very quickly as Percival glares at the now jumbled crowd. "That's what I thought. Captain, begin distribution the rations." Ryou nods and gets to work alongside several members of the militia - a mix of old ones and a couple of new hires, who you think were recruited from the intake's employees.

>>5661430
When you're about half a dozen spots from your turn you hear yelling from in front of you. You glance towards it and see an older man cursing one of the men distributing food, a slightly plump young man.

"Aye, you're sure eating well, ain't you?" The grey-haired man pokes the guard in the gut. "Bet you're getting 10 times this, huh! Eating well while we're all out here looking like fools, begging for your scraps!" The guard is saying something in response, but it's drowned out by the yelling. Ryou's attention has been drawn, and he seems to be freeing himself up so he can go and intervene.

"Bastard's whoreson!" The old man pushes the young guard, who stumbles. This seems to make the guard panic. "Stop! Stop! Stop now, or your family will get nothing at all, and never again!" The guard paws at his waist with one arm as the old man advances, yelling louder. "What's that supposed to mean? You'll kill my family for complaining?" As the older man seems to be getting ready to punch the guard and as Ryou is running over you see the guard react first, finally getting what he was grabbing for at his waist.

It's hard to make out exactly what's happening past the other people in the line ahead of you and those distributing the food. But you can see that the old man suddenly falls back, moving away from the guard. It seems that the situation is defused... then...

Wait, no. The old man is literally FALLING back. The guard is holding a sword. You're not sure what happened, but there's a lot of screaming from where that just happened. Half in fear, half directed at the guard.

Ryou finally arrives at the scene of whatever just happened and you see him take the weapon away from the guard, who you think is just staring at it. But that doesn't stop the rising clamor. "HUMAN-SKINNED DEMON!" A teenager exits the line and suddenly tackles the guard to the ground. Ryou intervenes and you think is trying to pull him off, but that's just the spark. As several of those in charge of the food distribution try to stop the conflict someone rushes forward towards an unguarded sack of bread and grabs as much as they carry, sprinting away with it. Several others follow - some succeed, while others are punched, tripped, or tackled by guards to stop them.

Things are devolving quite rapidly.
>Leave the line and get to a safe distance. This is bad.
>Stay where you are and wait for the situation to calm down. It's still relatively under control and there are more men ready to intervene inside the intake. Running now will just add to the confusion.
>Dash forward and join those going for food. If this goes south there might be trouble with rations for a while. [State whether you want to try and take the ration(s) you are entitled to or just as much as possible]
>Join the guards and try to stop anyone who's attempting to steal food. Maybe you can help get this under control.
>Write-In

>>5661433
>Leave the line and get to a safe distance. This is bad.

>>5661433
>Leave the line and get to a safe distance. This is bad.

>>5661433
>Leave the line and get to a safe distance. This is bad.

Broken ribs don't do well in crazy mobs.

>>5661433
>Leave the line and get to safety.

We're not hurting for food this badly. Yet. And with our lack of profound skills the sheer press will kill us.

Rolled 58, 16, 9 = 83 (3d100)

Have the update plotted out but not written at the moment. Excuse me while I roll some dice.

>>5661437 >>5661472 >>5661479 >>5661581
This is too much for you, especially right now. The best thing for you to do would just be to get the hell out of here. You immediately turn and start jogging away while keeping an eye out for anyone who might run into you in the confusion. Seeing no one immediately you throw a short glance back. Jack has followed after you after hesitating for a moment, while Han is nowhere is nowhere to be seen. Mildly worrying, but it's not surprising that you can't find him among what is quickly turning from a line into a messy jumble of people rushing to and fro. You slow your speed to navigate through as it becomes more chaotic.

For a while you have to focus on weaving through those rushing towards the front of the crowd, in your direction. Fortunately they're a minority, if a large minority, so it's doable. Before too long the crowd clears up and you're left among those fleeing in every direction, down the trail back to the village center and into the surrounding forest. You stop around the edge of the forest, turning back to get a good luck at what's going on.

The place you were just at has devolved into a melee. What you would estimate as a high two-digit number of citizens are milling around the area, trying to take what rations are still remaining and fighting with the guards. The reasons behind each individual fight are impossible to discern from so far away and you feel like not even those involved know what they are at this point, muddied as the situation is. All that's left is the struggle to survive.

Only seconds pass before you spot Jack, who's making his way towards you. You wave a hand to signal him and watch as he approaches. He stares back at the intake as he arrives. "This has... really gone to hell." You just nod.「Any idea where Han went?」Jack scratches the back of his head. "Towards the food carts, I think." You draw a sharp breath inwards. That is a... risky decision.

Eventually the two of you do spot Han, who has by this point separated himself from the crowd still in front of the intake. You can make out what you think are two bags under his arms as he approaches. He spots the two of you standing around near the edge of the forest and goes to join you. As he nears you see that there's a tear in his shirt and some blood on his shoulder... although given how energetic he is, you don't think it's his.

"Hey!"「Hey. What happened?」Han smiles as he lifts up one of the small sacks. "Got some bread!" Jack is the one to respond. "Congratulations. Anyways, I think..." As Jack is speaking your attention is drawn elsewhere. A citizen on the periphery of the fighting, cradling a bag in their arms, suddenly collapses to the ground. Apples spill over the nearby ground as he lies there. Only moments later two others collapse. It takes a moment for what's going on to click. Some of the archers inside the intake opened fire.

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>>5664181
You turn your attention towards Percival. He's been embroiled in the melee right now, doing his best to restore order, but now you see him rushing back towards the inside of the intake. Even from here you feel you can hear him yelling something, but it's drowned out by the rest of the yells and cries. The situation is only worsening.

As you catch sight of a bearded man with an axe chasing after another that's running away from the scene you decide that it's the best if you just left. The sooner the better really. Your companions strongly agree with this suggestion and the three of you depart towards Han's house. Han's older sister greets the three of you upon her arrival, although her expression becomes both confused and worried as she sees the three of you.

Han sighs. "Things went to shit. I'll explain later." The three of you follow him to a large table in the center of the home's main room, where he starts going through his food. "I'm not going to lie and say I'm eager to share, but you guys should've gotten your rations today. Don't have any fruit, so I'll just give you twice the bread. How many people were you collecting for?" "Three."「Four.」

You watch awkwardly as Han quickly counts out hunks of bread. You consider turning his offer down for some moment, but decide against it before seriously thinking about it. You went to get Kai's food too, so you can't decide something like this for him. After a second, eight pieces of bread are placed on the table in front of you.

「Thank you.」"Thanks." Han just nods and waves his hand dismissively. "Just don't count on it if things get worse." The three of you sit in silence for a moment.「Hey, Han?」He turns towards you with a raised eyebrow.「How do you feel, about the uh, stealing? I can't make a moral judgement myself, but...」He interrupts you with a laugh.

"How do I feel about it? Not great, not terrible. Normally I wouldn't do things like this, but..." He pauses and leans in. "Have you seen the village lately? It's not looking pretty. And when times like this come around the first to die are always the poor. My parents taught me that. And while I'm not the worst off, I sure ain't rich. So looking after myself and my family comes first." He sits back up.

"Anyways, I'd be conflicted if it were stealing from someone who needed it, but Percival? The intake has plenty in storage, at least compared to us. Even if he gives some up trying to help I know for a fact that he, at least, won't be going hungry this winter."

The three of you talk for a bit longer before leaving. You stop off at home to drop off your portion of the food and tell Nui about what happened at the intake before heading over to Huo Mi's for the day. She seems exasperated by what's going on, if not entirely caught off guard. You train for a bit that day but it's quickly interrupted by the arrival of several people who got injured during the rationing earlier. Huo Mi is held up treating them and you have to help.

>>5664184
You spend the day making more of a few basic medicinal pastes and preparing things like bandages and equipment to help speed up Huo Mi's workflow. Zhang helps, although he wears a cloth over part of his face and keeps out of sight whenever possible. You aren't able to return home until long after dark.

By the next day the cost of what happened becomes clear. Dozens are left dead or severely injured by the riot. Most on the side of the citizens, although a couple of guards are dead. The young guard who killed the old man isn't among them, which makes a great many who were there unhappy. While the need to conserve energy means that there aren't any loud complaints or crowds of people directed Percival's way just yet, a general tension begins building over the village.

But more important than how the aftermath is dealt with, for most, is whether they'll still get rations. Food comes first, after all. Fortunately that much isn't in question, with Percival announcing that the distribution of rations will resume as normal the next day. You can only hope that it goes better than before.

That day you return to Huo Mi's again, helping her with the aftermath from yesterday. While doing so you can't help but notice that no one from the intake's side has arrived. Huo Mi chuckles when you mention it. "Percival knows I'm busy and that arriving when I'm treating injured civilians will just stir up more shit. Must be a lot of work trying to stop that tightrope he's on from snapping." You don't say anything else and return to your task.

The distribution of rations resumes the next day. Unlike before, there are a lot more people arranged to guard the food, many not of the militia. Huo Mi helps by standing at the side and helping intimidate anyone who would act out - by her own words, even if she's suspicious of what the man is handing out, she'd rather less people die than more.

It takes a long time for the procedure to finish - everyone has to go up in small groups now instead of just lining up, so that too many people don't get near the food at once. But things do come to a close without any violent outbursts, if only thanks to Percival's threats to permanently bar anyone who acts out further from receiving rations. Although this can't stop the clear distrust and animosity between both sides from showing itself, for now, at least, things are starting to settle into a new normal.

>>5664185
Three more days pass before Percival shakes this up. Instead of acting on the muttered complaints to hand over the guard that helped start everything, he arrests several citizens complicit in the riot instead, claiming they killed a member of the militia in the fighting. Expectedly, this does not go over well. But afraid of losing their source of food and not angered to a peak, most people stand by. Only a few of the most infuriated stop by the intake, where the gates are closed and they are simply ignored. ...Well, until they attempt to set the place on fire at least, which causes the militia to open the gates and all those present to scatter.

It's a confusing mess on both sides and only continues to be over the following days. For now, you just have to live with it and hope that whatever's building up doesn't boil over again. Just like every night you settle into an unsteady sleep, trying not to think about what's going on.

You wake up to see a cloaked figure looming over you, firmly pressing down on your mouth with a hand. Only a moment later you hear a barely audible whisper from your right side. It's clearly the voice of a man, although it is a bit high-pitched.

"I will let go of you in a moment. No matter what, do not make any noise. Then stand up slowly, taking care not to wake your mother. After that you'll follow me outside. I do not want to hurt you. Give me a thumbs-up with your right hand if you understand."

You blankly lie there for a couple seconds as you try to process what's happening. Who is this? What's going on? What exactly are you supposed to do?
>Make a thumbs-up with your right hand. Stand up slowly, taking care not to make your mother. Follow the man outside. You don't really have the room to do anything here.
>Bite him hand and try to kick him wherever you can reach. You're not going quietly.
>Makes a thumbs-up with your right hand. Stand up slowly, taking care not to wake your mother. Attempt to grab your pack that you left by the door before following him outside. If for some reason the man isn't hostile, you won't need it. If he is, it has your hunting knife at least. You only hope he won't try to stop you.
>Write-In

>>5664187
>Makes a thumbs-up with your right hand. Stand up slowly, taking care not to wake your mother. Attempt to grab your pack that you left by the door before following him outside. If for some reason the man isn't hostile, you won't need it. If he is, it has your hunting knife at least. You only hope he won't try to stop you.

>>5664187
>Makes a thumbs-up with your right hand. Stand up slowly, taking care not to wake your mother. Attempt to grab your pack that you left by the door before following him outside. If for some reason the man isn't hostile, you won't need it. If he is, it has your hunting knife at least. You only hope he won't try to stop you.

>>5664187
>Make a thumbs up, get our pack.

>>5664187
> Makes a thumbs-up with your right hand. Stand up slowly, taking care not to wake your mother. Attempt to grab your pack that you left by the door before following him outside. If for some reason the man isn't hostile, you won't need it. If he is, it has your hunting knife at least. You only hope he won't try to stop you.

If he wanted us dead, we'd be dead already.

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>>5664261 >>5664354 >>5664360 >>5664372
You give the man a thumbs-up with your right hand. A moment later the pressure on your mouth lifts and you see the man straighten up. As he does so his true height becomes apparent. You can tell that he has a rather lithe figure, even under the cloak. Slowly, slowly, you struggle your way out from under the cover and to a standing position as his stare bores into you from the darkness. It feels like this takes forever, although even the most generous estimate wouldn't put the process at over a minute. Once you're done he gestures for you to follow and backs up towards the door, his eyes still on you. You hesitantly follow.

As the both of you reach the door you take a short detour and reach for your pack. In response the man stares at you, one of his arms leaning forward slightly. You can make out an odd bulge out from under his cloak where it lays. He whispers at you, a bit louder at this time. "What are you doing?"「Grabbing my pack. We'll be out for a while, right?」He stares at you from underneath his cloak.「I always take my pack.」After a second longer the man takes a step back, tacitly giving you approval to continue. You pick up your pack, gently slinging it over your shoulder, and then continue your way outside as he stares at you.

Once you step outside and lightly shut the door behind you the man seems to relax slightly, although he stills keeps his eyes on you at all time. You follow him a short distance towards the side of the house, where he picks up a lantern, which he lights. While you could see pretty well in the dark already with the help of the ring, it does illuminate his face a bit better. Similar to his build his eyebrows are thin, and his eyes rather deeply set.

"That's better. Follow me." The man continues staring at you and takes a couple steps away from the house. You don't immediately follow.「Why?」He stops on the spot. "Your father said he wanted to talk to you specifically." You perk up. Takigi?!「Dad?!」The man's expression stays static as he gives a quiet response.

>>5664384
"Not so loud. Yes, your father, Takigi. The pain in the ass said he wanted to stop by even though we're already behind schedule, and since he helped with the escape I could hardly say no." He takes a couple steps away again, towards the forest. "Now hurry up Tetsuya, I don't want to waste too much time on this favor."
>Follow. The man doesn't seem hostile and you'd really like to see Takigi again and make sure he's alright. In the meantime you can ask about what exactly happened in the past year and a half.
>Follow, for now. The man doesn't seem to be an immediate danger at least. While walking you can try and probe as to whether he's actually a friend of Takigi's or if this just a front for something.
>Follow, for now. The man doesn't seem to be an immediate danger at least. While following you can try and ask him about himself, figure out who he is and if there's any deeper meaning to this.
>Follow, for now. You don't trust this man at all, but you're also unarmed and within feet of someone who could be used as a hostage. You'll try and get your knife out while the two of you are walking.
>Stop where you are and get your hunting knife out of your bag as quickly as possible. You don't trust this man. [State whether or not you want to attack proactively if he doesn't do anything or defend unless he attacks]
>Write-In

>>5664384
>Follow, for now. The man doesn't seem to be an immediate danger at least. While walking you can try and probe as to whether he's actually a friend of Takigi's or if this just a front for something.

>>5664386
>Follow for now, probe as we go.

>>5664386
>Follow, for now. The man doesn't seem to be an immediate danger at least. While walking you can try and probe as to whether he's actually a friend of Takigi's or if this just a front for something.

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>>5664520 >>5664587 >>5664603
Well, if he wanted to kill you then he already could have. You may as well give him the benefit of the doubt for now and follow him while you try to pin down the truth of what he's saying. ...If he does turn out to be hostile then that's probably the best course of action anyways.

「So you and my dad are friends?」The man responds in a monotone. "Colleagues, more like. He might say yes, though." The two of you continue walking.「How'd you meet?」"In jail, awaiting trial." Several seconds pass without him saying anything further.「...Any more detail?」

The man stops walking for a moment and stares at you, perhaps annoyed. A second later he restarts. "He'd been there for some months while I'd just arrived. The trial had been left hanging for a while, since it was a murder case. He said he was framed, but I don't know if I believe that." As if sensing your displeasure he focuses his attention more fully on you. "No need to be offended. You'd be surprised who ends up being a murderer - you can never know. And without knowing the circumstances I can't really judge."

"That being said, I did hear that his was particularly gruesome. Lots of torture. That he'd spent hours slowly pushing his victim to the edge of death, flaying flesh from skin, experimenting. That his victim was begging to die by the end of it, but that he wouldn't let him, not until he was done at least." The man says all of this in a very dry manner, but you can make out a slight smile on his face. "But that's likely embellished. Information is scarcely available in jail, but there's nothing to do but gossip, so... well, you can guess."

You stay silent for a few seconds, not sure how to respond to that. Holding back a simmering urge to yell at the man, you just continue your questioning.「And then the two of you escaped?」"Yes." He leaves you in suspense for a moment before continuing, perhaps having realized by now that you wouldn't accept that as an answer. "Or to be more accurate, a lot of people escaped. But we worked together to get out of the city by ourselves. The other options were getting caught again or working for the main leader of the jailbreak, and, well... I don't like following orders, and he said he was tired of working for shit bosses. So we did it ourselves."

That certainly sounds like something Takigi would do. You can't imagine him agreeing to work under another criminal after what happened with Kanekatsu. That, at least, lines up.「And after that?」 "We ran, and ran, and kept running. And then when we finally got some breathing room we stopped and found work, so that we could save up for a one-way trip somewhere else."

>>5665147
「What kind of work?」"I did manual labor and he worked as a bookkeeper. It was his old job, apparently. Could probably make a bit better relying on his cultivation, but oh well." He continues after a short pause without further prodding. "And before you ask what happened next, we managed to save up money, prepare for an outing, and set out recently. But then the snow rolled in where we were, progress slowed, and the pain in the ass insisted that we still stop here instead of getting as far away as possible. So we made camp nearby and I burnt valuable lamp oil stumbling my way to your house in the darkness."

Well, that concludes the obvious questions. It's certainly not impossible. But there should be a way to make more sure. You think for a few seconds and then try probing him from a different angle, making up a trivial lie.「Does he still have the hat mom gave him?」The man in front of you pauses for a moment. "A hat?" He resumes walking a second later. "The only one I've seen him wear is one he bought during autumn to keep warm."

「Ah.」You try to feign disappointment.「I guess they took his ring too then?」The man focuses his attention on you again. His expression stays static but again, you feel like he's annoyed - something about his demeanor broadcasts it.

"He mentioned a ring, actually. Said he had to sell it to pay a debt. Before the murder." He knows about Takigi's mother's ring, then. "While we're at it, his wife is named Nui, he's a man in his late 30s with short black hair, he's recently reached the 1st Tempering, and he has a burning hatred towards a man named 'Kanekatsu' who supposedly framed him, who he wants to kill with every fiber of his being. Is that enough proof, Tetsuya?"

He stops speaking, seemingly satisfied that he's made his point. As you mull over whether that was enough proof, he eventually speaks up again. "It's not much farther."
>Continue following and turn your questioning to the man himself. You're satisfied enough by his answers to believe that he's involved with Takigi.
>Continue following and turn your questioning to what their plan is and how things are going for them. You're satisfied enough by his answers to believe that he's involved with Takigi.
>Continue following, but try to quietly remove your hunting knife from your pack as you follow. Something feels off here. [State whether you want to attack proactively or only attack if the man seems hostile]
>Stay where you are and remove your hunting knife from your pack as quickly as you can. Something's odd. [State whether you want to attack proactively or only attack if the man seems hostile]
>Run. You don't believe him.
>Write-In

>>5665148
>Continue following and turn your questioning to what their plan is and how things are going for them. You're satisfied enough by his answers to believe that he's involved with Takigi.

>>5665148
>Continue following, but try to quietly remove your hunting knife from your pack as you follow. Something feels off here. [State whether you want to attack proactively or only attack if the man seems hostile]
Don't attack but be prepared for any sudden movement. Something seems off here but I can't quite tell what's wrong. Honestly I'd try running but by now but it'd be useless.

>>5665148
>>5665358 +1

>>5665358
+1

>>5665207 >>5665358 >>5665431 >>5665677
Alright then, let's get three 1d100s for seeing if you can get your knife out without him noticing.
DC is 50, the more successes the better.

Rolled 30 (1d100)

>>5665708

Rolled 33 (1d100)

>>5665708
Rollan

Rolled 60 (1d100)

Scuse me

>>5665791
You saved this

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>>5665713 >>5665733 >>5665431 >>5665677
You're not sure what, but something feels... off here, for lack of a better word. Either way you'd feel better if you had a weapon at the ready. Actually doing that is complicated by the flap you need to open on your pack, the sheathe still on your knife, and, most important, the fact that this guy keeps glancing back at you... but it is dark, and the range of his lamp is limited. Maybe you can get away with taking your knife out without him noticing.

He glances back for a moment before looking forward again, checking where he's going. You take the chance to shove a hand into the pouch your hunting knife is in. The latch catches for a moment, stopping you from reaching in properly. You hastily pull your hand out and go back to waiting. That would've taken too long. You'll try again after the next time he looks at you.

A few seconds pass. He looks back for a second, and then forward again. This time you get the latch first, and then you reach your hand in. It fumbles around for a moment, grabbing hold of different objects, before you feel the distinctive grip of your knife's handle. By the emperor's blessing, you've got i-

"What are you doing?" The man's staring at you. Or in particular, he's staring at your pack, where your right hand is hidden, gripping a still sheathed knife.
>"...Just getting something to eat." Let go of the knife and grab some dry rations that were next to it. You weren't doing anything suspicious.
>Ignore him and go to unsheathe the knife as quickly as possible. If you stop now you won't get another chance.
>His guard is raised. Run.
>"Getting my knife. I don't trust you." May as well be upfront about it. If he's who he says he is there's a good chance he won't care, and if not... well, you'll find out very soon.
>Write-In

>>5665808
>"Getting my knife, forests can be dangerous, specially at night. I would rather have my spear or bow if a starving predator shows up, but it's better then my fists."

>>5665808
>"...Just getting something to eat." Let go of the knife and grab some dry rations that were next to it. You weren't doing anything suspicious.

>>5665808
>Write-In
Can we lie about hearing a wild animal nearby? 'Warn' him to be careful and that the animals around here can be dangerous. This is honestly the best excuse I think of without directly stating our suspicion
Man we're so fucked if this is someone's ploy

Was hoping to close out this (and the thread) before today but oh well. Will update tonight when I'm in my hotel, I am going on a trip.

>>5665832 >>5666105 >>5666143
「I think I hear something.」You adjust your posture slightly and manage to slide off the sheath with one hand while keeping the knife hidden in the bag. 「This forest is pretty dangerous at night, y'know? You have to stay ready.」You slowly withdraw your hand from the bag, the knife in plain view. You watch the man stare at it as you readjust your bag on your shoulder.

He doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds. Then he takes a single step forward. "If anything comes that can hurt me I don't think you'll be of any help. Why don't you put that away?" The night-vision camera which you're viewing him through picks up some metal within his cloak that you can't make out with your naked eyes. Part of a blade, maybe.
>「No thank you.」Keep your knife at the ready and wait to see how he responds.
>「...Okay then.」Put your knife back at your belt. You've followed him this far, so may as well see this through to the end.
>Say nothing and run. You can see better in the dark than he can, so it's your best shot.
>Lunge forward. You should try to wound him while he's still unprepared.
>Write-In
Or I could update whole waiting for the plane, I guess.

>>5666315
>「No thank you.」Keep your knife at the ready and wait to see how he responds.
>I study under Huo Mi, the local huntress, alchemist and a strong cultivator. And her style of teaching is first hand experience. So I disagree with not being of help.

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>>5666325
Supporting, maybe we're just overthinking things but a cultivator needs to be schizophrenic I mean paranoid to survive. Plus this sounds way too good to be true which means it's probably bullshit.

>>5666328
I had personally voted to not be paranoid because I'm worried of what happened with the two guys before, but we already made ourselves look suspicious, so I don't see how backing down would be of any help now.
Although if this guy is telling the truth about Takigi, then he did get imprisoned for just causes. So maybe we would be getting into a fight for now reason? Being weak in a cultivation world is harsh.
Where's the cheat powers that destroy everyone like the low quality stories when you need it?

>>5666315
>「No thank you.」Keep your knife at the ready and wait to see how he responds.

"I'm walking through the woods at night with a mysterious man, humor my paranoia."

>>5666325 >>5666328 >>5666336 >5666458
「On the contrary, I think I'll be quite a bit of help if something shows up. My teacher is quite the hunter, and she prefers 'hands-on' training, so...」You trail off. The man's expression distorts a bit from his usual blankness when you say this, fixing itself in an odd mixture between a frown and a sneer. After a moment though it returns to normal, and he responds in a flat voice.

"Fine, then. Just take care not to stab yourself with it first by accident." As the man leads you forward he keeps his eyes on you nearly the entire time, only glancing away occasionally to check the direction you're going in. Perhaps he's as on guard towards you as you are towards him.

The two of you continue your slow walk in silence, too focused on glaring at the other to make any conversation. Not too long later, perhaps after five or ten minutes, the man stops. "We're here."

The man stops in front of a narrow entrance towards a large clearing. From a distance you can see a fire burning in the middle of the clearing, an old pot hung over it. A couple of bedrolls and a pack can be faintly seen near the fire.

This would be rather convincing, if not for the fact that you're able to 'see' in the dark. Past the glow illuminated by the campfire you can see several things that make you instantly suspicious. Such as the lack of anyone else in the camp, your father included, and a large tarp that's been driven into the ground with stakes, with what you think is a large multi-level box of tools sat on top of it.

And that doesn't even mention the position: cliffs on two sides, a particularly wide, heavily-flowing river cutting off another one, and this dense thicket with only a narrow entrance as the fourth. It'd make sense if someone wanted an easily defensible position yes... but it'd also make sense if someone wanted to construct a trap.

As you're pondering over this the man steps away from the entrance. "He should be in the camp, although he might be asleep by now. I'll stay here while you two talk." He stands there and stares at you, waiting for you to enter.
>Enter the clearing and then examine the camp more closely, while keeping an eye on the entrance. Maybe you'll find something interesting, track down a better weapon.
>Enter the clearing and look for a place to hide.
>Enter the clearing and try to scale one of the cliffs. If you manage to get up, he'll hardly be able to follow.
>Enter the clearing and then attempt to escape over the river. The current is fast and chunks of ice float within it, but once you're past it you'll be safe.
>Enter the clearing and try to ride the river downstream, away from here. Fairly reliable, assuming you don't drown or get hypothermia.
>Pretend to enter and then lunge towards him when the distance between you is as short as it's going to get. You need to wound him while he's off guard.
>Turn around and run. Immediately. There's no way you're entering that clearing.
>Write-In

>>5666543
>"How about you go wake father first? It's your camp, it should be easier to you to find where he is."
If we run, he can try to kill mother later.

>>5666558
Actually I'll support this, I'm stupid. Good one anon, should have thought of this.

>>5666543
>You can wake him up first, if he sent you to get me then he shouldn't be that deep in and I can't see the way.

>>5666543
>>5666558 +1

>>5666558 >>5666561 >>5666565 >>5666959
「Why don't you go wake dad first? I'm not the one with a lantern.」You point towards the lantern the man is holding. He glances done at it and frowns.「You should know where is better than me, right?」He falls silent for several several seconds, the blank expression from before returning to his face. Then he fixes his eyes on you.

[b]"Takigi! Wake up! Tetsuya is here!"[/b] The man yells at the top of his lungs without so much as a change in expression. Then he just stares at your somewhat taken back expression, a slight smile creeping into his. "There, he should be awake now. Although I can still go in with you, if you prefer?"

You... did not expect that. That he would be willing to yell so loudly out here seems to indicate that he values not letting his eyes off of you more than staying hidden... or perhaps you're simply (justifiably) paranoid, and it's so far out into the woods that he just doesn't care about such a thing. Regardless, it seems you're at an impasse.
>「Why don't we just wait here? He should be coming.」If Takigi is there but out of your current field of view he'll probably come. If he's not... well, this will probably push the man to the limit of his patience.
>「...I'll go on my own.」Enter the clearing and examine the camp more closely. If Takigi is really there you'll stumble across him, and if not then at least you can examine the place some more, and maybe find a better weapon.
>「...I'll go on my own.」Enter the clearing and find a place to hide. Then you can wait and react to what happens.
>「...I'll go on my own.」Enter the clearing and try to scale one of the cliffs.
>「...I'll go on my own.」Enter the clearing and try to cross the river.
>「...I'll go on my own.」Enter the clearing and try to ride the river downstream.
>「Sure. Let's enter together.」Move to enter the clearing with him, and then try to stab him when his guard is lowest.
>Turn around and run. You're still not going into that clearing.

>>5667063
>「Why don't we just wait here? He should be coming.」If Takigi is there but out of your current field of view he'll probably come. If he's not... well, this will probably push the man to the limit of his patience.
I don't really give a shit about his patience and I'm sure Takigi would want us to be careful, especially when it comes to dodgy strangers.

>>5667063
>[Yeah, We're just over here Dad. Hurry up!] He's gonna get his ass moving if he's there.

Two can play at this game. Because he isn't asleep, due to the empty bed rolls.

>>5667064
>>5667099
Support

>>5667064 >>5667099 >5667128
Roll three 1d100s.

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>5667159
Man this would be a terrible time to roll a nat 1.

>>5667159
Grumble grumble hand typing quotes
>>5667128

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>5667159

Rolled 69 (1d100)

>>5667159

>>5667064 >>5667099 >>5667128 >>5667215
You stare at the man for a couple moments as one thought fills your mind: You're not going inside that clearing. 「Well, why don't we just wait here? If he's awake, he'll be coming.」You make a point of yelling towards the empty clearing. 「Hey dad, we're right over here! Hurry up!」The man just stares at you, as if thinking, and stays silent for several several seconds.

"Hey, Tetsuya?" You raise an eyebrow. 「What?」The man replies in a flat voice. "Has anyone ever told you that you're annoying?" As you try and process the meaning of that the man rushes forward, trying to close the short gap between the two of you as quickly as possible. An arm reaches forward from his cloak as it billows around him, a well-maintained hatchet coming into view as he swings it towards your shoulder mid-dash.

More than a conscious reaction, you just dodge instinctively. You stumble backwards and practically throw yourself against the round, moving into a haphazard roll backwards as the hatchet passes through where you were just standing. A sharp pain comes from your chest as you do so, your rib screaming out in opposition to the sudden burst of activity, but you do your best to ignore it and get yourself back on your feet.

"You want to be a gullible idiot? Fine. You want to suspect me? That's fine too. Just choose a stance, for fuck's sake." The man stares down at you in clear annoyance and speaks in an exasperated tone. By this point his hood has fallen from his face and his appearance is clear. Thin, messy strands of black hair fall around his face as he glares at you.

"Wanna give death a try, brat?"

Hormones are released throughout your body and your heart thuds in your chest as your thoughts converge into one.
>FIGHT
>FLIGHT

END OF THREAD 4
I'm still quite literally on vacation, so we'll finish this up after I'm back. Hope you're all enjoying the quest, feel free to leave feedback, and hopefully I'll get to archiving this tonight.

Oh yeah, and without spoiling anything important, there is one hint in particular I'm surprised no one mentioned in regards to him.
He kept calling you Tetsuya, not Kinzou.

>>5668694
. . . Oh yeah.

Oops.

>>5668691
>FLIGHT
Wouldn't being gullible means believing whatever you are told? I think we are being the opposite of that.

>>5668691
>Fight

We're a child, yeah. But I feel like this is the best time to get out hands dirty.

>>5668694
I feel like an idiot.

File: 1645118698912.png (74 KB, 366x130)

74 KB PNG

>>5668694
Honestly a part of me wanted to go full Fang Yuan and attack him first but I don't think it would fit our character, just yet at least (maybe this will be a important lesson for Kinzou to not fuck around with potential threats)
>>5668691
>FLIGHT
We're at a massive disadvantage and lack any proper techniques. From the looks of it this guy isn't clueless when it comes to the art of combat either, fighting here and now would be reckless at best and suicidal at worst. Survival comes first, revenge later.
>>5668696
I think his point was that we tip-toed around without going all in on either running/attacking or trusting him which is true enough.

>>5668704
>I think his point was that we tip-toed around without going all in on either
That makes more sense

>>5668709
That makes more sense then what I thought.
It's early for my, sorry.

Have to do some stuff for work today, although I don't start full-time for a while longer. I'm currently planning to have the next thread up tomorrow or the day after, and will make a post in the /qtg/ about it when it's up.

>>5668691
thanks to night vision
>flight
plus id like to know if we could swallow our ring and use it as a artificial dantian?
oh and can we still do the soul crushing thing?

thanks for running and have a good vacay.