Ch 101. Thinking Differently

After taking a break for rest and food, and a chance to rest the horses, we were soon on our way again. The soothing smell of wildflowers filling the cabin as Tammy held onto my spontaneous gift, Belle sniffing the new scents curiously but quickly losing interest as we settled back into our places. The day mostly passing in peace, the three of us watching the scenery roll by, flirting occasionally as our interests eventually turned to other things. Belle flushing with expectation as she realized she still had another potion to take, and the 'side-effects' that would entail. The three of us passing the time enjoyably, albeit somewhat quietly as we tried to mind our surroundings. The hours passing  before the fading of sunlight slowed our caravan to a stop, indicating the need for all of us set up for the night. 

Given that I had everyone's gear in my inventory, or most of it anyways, I had quite a bit of things I needed to do during this time. Unloading a great deal of material that my newly hired men would need to set up a perimeter. Precut logs that we could organize neatly into palisades, tents and blankets for the men, food for the dinners. My inventory skill had made things so easy that there was really not much they needed to be doing, but even so the relative inexperience of the men was easy enough to see. 

Most of them wandering about somewhat uncoordinated, each trying to figure out where they should be arranging the wooden barriers at, and each looking with expectation not only at my brothers, but at me as well. They were all relatively green recruits, the older ones all had some form of loyalty to Jagen after all, and even Tristan and Gerald were not much better, being freshly promoted knights. Neither having led before, and far more used to following orders than giving them.

Seeing the men struggle to coordinate themselves forced a grim smile to my face, things were never so easy. I suppose this is good enough for a first try. Cutting them some slack due to the fact that a perimeter like this was not typically a job for a frontier soldier. Most of the time they were inside the walls or patrolling the streets, and in some cases they were out fighting monsters; there was simply never a need for them to build a defensive perimeter like this. 

But even if we weren't in a mana rich area like the forest, we were still in an area that was still at least somewhat dangerous. This was still the first day, and Tromwell was not far behind, at most twenty miles by how far we had traveled. Monsters were still very much a thing we should worry about. 

Feeling a bit awkward to have so many expecting eyes on me, I cleared my throat before wandering off a few steps. Thankfully seeing Cal step out of his carriage as a needed distraction, one arm on Ashley's waist and the other hand on Kaya's back. Our eyes mutually affirming each other's presence, and briefly comparing our choice of companions to each other's. 

"How was the carriage ride?" Cal asked in a rather upbeat mood.

"It's a little hard to be cooped up all day long," I complained, not at all used to that method of transportation. After the initial excitement had faded I quickly realized carriages weren't really special after all, more comfortable with walking than with sitting for prolonged periods. My body's excess life energy just made that preference even more clear, as I began feeling restless after being constrained to inactivity for too long. 

"Well, you'll get used to it." Cal smiled, knowing that we had a long trip ahead I practically had no choice but to get used to it. Otherwise I'd be doing a whole lot of walking, with how long we had to go it would probably be no less than a month of this. Sitting in a box all day wasn't interesting to me, but it would be a lie to say I didn't enjoy the sense of adventure being out on a trip like this gave me. If I could explore a little bit from time to time that would be ideal. 

The six of us sitting down on a set of spare timbers that had yet to be incorporated into the defenses as men worked busily around us, putting up tents and digging holes to secure the logs into as we built up a temporary encampment while the light still held. Noticing a particular person who was watching us from the background, standing out because they were the only one neither working nor eating. Still tied to Tristan's horse with a weary look on their face as they watched us eat. 

Finishing up with our meal before I decided to approach her, the words the system left me with giving me something of an idea. 

The classes I receive have to do with the mentality I have at the moment, it has to do with my intentions. Holding a shield while fighting wasn't enough for a defensive class, rather some of my classes like [fighter] were already generic enough to cover such a fighting style. If I wanted to get a defensive class, I need to be thinking about protecting something, or at least that's the way I interpreted it. It was just that protecting someone wasn't a thing that I encountered very often, and even if some of the events I had encountered had some relation to 'protection', probably most directly was the time I saved Tristan, but even so I still lacked any explicit class. 

This was something I needed to experiment with, and I knew the perfect test subject. 

"Hello, Marcella." I greeted her while she peered up at me suspiciously. 

Keaton's stat window