13 Recruitmen

Many of the surrounding people were shocked, but they felt more relieved. As far as they were concerned Leo's strength meant more protection for them from any monsters in the mountains, and people. Many were also under the impression that Curly deserved what he got for his attitude towards Leo and Iris. Leo on the other hand looked calm on the outside, while on the inside he felt rising panic. 'What did I just do?!'

He remembered seeing Curly about to grope Iris, he reached out his hand to stop him, then next thing he knew Curly was on the ground begging for mercy. When Leo thought back to that moment he felt slight revulsion from remembering the feeling of Curly's bones grinding under his hand, and the feeling of blood on his fingers from where his nails pierced Curly's flesh. Looking at his still blood covered hand, he wondered how his nails managed to dig into his arm so deeply. While he didn't doubt them breaking skin, what he did could almost make his nails be considered weapons.

What he was most concerned about though, was Iris's and the villagers reactions. If they thought he was dangerous, or psychotic, then they might kick him out! He only knew them for a week, but he was already really Attached to the people here. He was especially worried because as far as he knew, his whole family died in the crash. Plus seeing as this was an entirely different world, he literally had nowhere left to go.

In the few moments that all of this went through his head they arrived at the house, and Iris suddenly said,

"Let me see your hand for a moment. " He worriedly held out his hand, and she... pulled out her water skin and started scrubbing his hand with her own. Dumbfounded at how she acted like it was nothing unusual that he just destroyed another persons arm, she washed the blood from his hand. Finishing her task, she went to go inside the house and said,

"There's going to be a few more people coming over tonight, so wait to set up the other bed. And, thank you for helping me." She rushed inside, trying to hide her blushing face. But Leo saw her ears had an especially deep red to them. Relieved she wasn't mad at him, Leo quickly rushed to help her prepare dinner. When they had almost finished preparing dinner for five people, there was a knock on the door. Leo opened it and was surprised to find out the two extra people were Natalie and Jack.

Letting the two of them and elder grandma into the house Jack suddenly said,

"HAHA, I heard you gave Curly quite the scare! He ran crying to Austin to heal his hand, but Austin only did the bare minimum to ensure he didn't lose it; and told him he was gonna leave it to heal naturally as his punishment! You gave him quite the lesson boy!" Even further confused by how everyone was not angry at him, but was actually happy at his actions, Leo cautiously asked,

"No ones mad at me for what happened?" Seeing his confusion at their acceptance of his near mutilation of another person, elder grandma smiled and said,

"Curly provoked you so we don't intend to blame you one bit, as long as you don't intend to randomly attack people. Plus, you probably haven't realized but it is actually quite dangerous living here in the mountains. When everyone saw you easily overwhelm Curly, their first thought was that we have someone else to rely on to protect the village." Leo sighed in relief, at least for the moment he wasn't going to be forced away. As they started eating Jack then spoke up and said,

"Now onto the reason we came over. Leo, how would you like to join the Warriors? " Leo looked up in shock. Jack, who apparently also served as the leader of the village warriors, asked Leo to join them! Before he could say anything however, Natalie spoke up,

"Before you rush to accept this boneheads invitation, I would also like to ask you to join the hunters." Leo was astounded! He thought he would be disciplined for his actions, but instead everyone was apparently trying to recruit him! Leo saw that Iris's eyes were shining, and as he looked back at Jack and Natalie,

"What's the difference between the two?" He wanted to be sure of what he was going to be part of. Though he was partially leaning towards joining the hunters. (A certain goddess found that his intentions were quite funny since she didn't influence him yet) Jack and Natalie both started to reply, but before they could,

"Technically both groups work to protect the village, the Warriors guard the entrance to to village, while the hunters focus on hunting prey. This in turn keeps the monster populations down enough to prevent most threats. They prey that they hunt, also provides the village with more food." Elder grandma spoke up before either one could start a fight over recruiting Leo. Personally thinking she felt he should go to the hunters, especially when she remembered what took place the last full moon. Natalie then spoke up,

"For the most part, you'll spend the next couple weeks training to move around the forest and identifying monsters. You'll also primarily be practicing with the bow, and dagger. Identification and movement don't mean much if you can't shoot your target or a monster gets you." Seeing his wife had finished speaking Jack took the opportunity to speak up,

"As a warrior, you'll mostly be training to engage monsters directly. We'll see what kind of magic you're best at and go from there. Though personally speaking I think you'd be best as a physical chi fighter." Thinking over what the two of them said, Jacks words caught Leo attention.

"I'll be learning magic? " Jack seeing his interest spoke up,

"Yep, there's three different kinds. You'll be trained on those to see which type suits you best and focus on emphasizing that to maximize offensive abilities." Natalie then took over,

"While with the hunters, we focus on learning mild amounts of all three to better adapt to situations in the forest."Leo after hearing their words fell into deep thought. After a while he asked,

"If I choose the hunters would I still be able to learn more about magic beside what I specifically need to survive?"

"Of course, as long as you give priority to what's more essential." Hearing her reply, Leo then said,

"I want to join the hunters."