World of Karik: A Game of Villains 68 Day-to-day Life

Our extended camp continued to live its usual life. Sure, the matter hadn't been cleared up completely as we didn't manage to find the person who was behind it all. This issue became somewhat of a taboo due to Petrovich, Vlada and the redhead's decision. I had no objections however. As for the others, even if they had any, they couldn't confront the leaders. Everyone, including himself, feared for Innokenty's life. But he got used to it pretty quickly, as did the others. He didn't risk leaving the settlement; however there was a lot of work for him to do at the base, such as chopping wood and cooking. It turned out that Innokenty was pretty good at the latter. He used his imagination and was able to surprise us with delicious meals despite having a meager amount of ingredients.

People began to treat me with more respect. My geas and helping find the culprit improved the public perception of me. As for Dasha, she became an outcast. She sat alone during meetings and meals. Nobody spoke to her unless they had to. Olga moved out of their room and was now living with Vlada. Spending so much time together, they developed a quite friendly and trusting relationship. On the other hand, the younger girls caused our group a lot of trouble with their squabbles the main reason for which was the male part of the detachment that, surprisingly, included me as well. Although I didn't suffer from low self-esteem and wasn't ashamed of my appearance or occupation in the old world, I still wasn't anything special. I was a little surprised to learn that Marina and Ravshana fought over me. Women were really strange. I mean, I cut their hands off that one time for God's sake. Maybe I just wasn't able to understand them at all. For example, Dasha was with Innokenty and she still got involved in crushing his tombstone. Or maybe there was more to that... In any case, old books didn't lie. Love and hate were just one step apart, but it worked the other way around as well.

People spotted Major on the outskirts of the settlement a couple of times, quite close to its border. He wasn't hostile and would run away as soon as he was noticed. Having learned about that, Petrovich gave an order that whoever sees Major next must kill him on the spot and try to destroy his tombstone. Mikhail became more cautious and was never seen again. Olga assumed that he was hoping for forgiveness as he didn't believe that he was banned forever. So naive. Whatever the case might've been, he stopped coming. In the end, nobody thought about him anymore.

Olga was bringing me herbs regularly, while the archer would always try to wiggle out of this "unnecessary obligation" as she called it. After some thought, I decided to talk to Petrovich. I could've solved the issue with Dasha on my own, but I believed that the leader would end it once and for all. And he did. After a serious conversation with Petrovich, the girl started to bring me more herbs than Olga. I didn't know what exactly the lancer had told her, but rumor had it that he threatened Dasha that he would make her his lance's regular meal. Among other things, Olga said that Dasha told her about that while they were collecting herbs. However, I didn't know whether I should believe her or not, even though they weren't close friends anymore. Dasha couldn't keep silent all the time after all.

In any case, I now had no shortage of resources, so I could continue my research. I started using relatively clean river water to prepare the tinctures, and they turned out to be more effective than the previous ones. I also didn't forget about my agreement with Petrovich about replenishing the general stock. It wasn't difficult so it didn't bother me much. What annoyed me, however, was a lack of extra pure water. If I had it, I could confirm my assumptions about the enhancement of tinctures. Although, I did have an idea. The merchants could have distilled water, but there was no way that I was going wait for the Jones to arrive. I still had to find Baldy, and my gut told me that his family wouldn't appreciate me being reluctant to do that. I thought that I should set off to the Forbidden City in a couple of days. In the meantime, I was happy to spend my free time working on my intelligence and alchemy.

I had enough Sedge, Stonerose, and Holly at my disposal. I also prepared potions that would enhance our entire detachment's stats. I even had some in reserve. Absolutely everyone could temporarily increase their attributes by 30 points. Although, there was something that I was in no hurry to tell anyone. Olga once brought me a small bundle of strange, white grass with bluish veins.

"I don't know if you'll need it," she said, "but I decided to take it just in case."

Nodding thankfully to the businesswoman, I thoroughly examined what she brought me.

Azure Cordyceps
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Alchemical ingredient that temporarily increases intelligence.

At first, I couldn't believe my eyes so I looked at the glowing words again.

Most potent in a powdered state. Can be used in the form of pills and tinctures. Its smoke can be inhaled.

Here was the very ingredient that I had been missing this entire time! On the other hand, it did confuse me a bit. To be honest, I thought that intelligence was my unique perk in this world since other people had only three attributes. But if this Cordyceps can be used to increase it... Does that mean that there is someone who also has intelligence?

Putting aside my work, I started examining the Cordyceps. Another question that was bothering me was if Olga could see that this herb could be used to increase intelligence. It was unlikely as nobody could see minerals' description except for the redhead. In theory, this should work the same way with herbs. Otherwise, I would have to answer some rather unpleasant questions, or rather, listen to them as I had no intention of answering them. Thinking about whether or not there was something else to this gift of fate, I remembered the business lady's words. "I don't know if you'll need it..." I believe that that's what she said. She probably couldn't see anything special in the description then. Or she simply didn't tell me.

Enough with conspiracy theories, Cat. It's what it is. You always find a way out.

Chapter end