Everything Looks the Same (1)

I spent the next week camping outside in the wilderness, never truly getting any sleep. Unlike a carriage, food, shelter, and defense was my own responsibility -- a challenging task for any party, much more a single blind woman. Additionally, I only had a few pieces of food since I hadn't planned on leaving so soon.

Not the worse case scenario, but it was definitely a miserable time.

Hunting beasts was the easiest part. Most of them chose to attack directly than hide behind anything, making them simple to spot and encounter. As for those that tried an ambush, I was usually able to dodge, getting away with only a few scrapes.

Then came the harvesting. Trying to carry the beast as it was a great way to get myself killed, so I dissected the beast where it died. It wasn't that clean given my lack of sight, but I could roughly feel where to stick in my sword, leaving a bit of space to avoid hitting any organs. As for getting rid of the blood, most paths generally followed alongside a river, so using my ears, I headed over, dunking the meat for about an hour. Blood mixed with water had a slightly more viscous feel, so I used my other hand to check when the meat was clean. The few beasts that dared to attack during then found themselves in the river.

As for cooking, a quick sear and flip in a collapsible pot did the trick. I was only 40% consistent though, with the majority of the flips landing on the ground. In those cases, I just picked the half-cooked meat and threw it back in.

Sleeping was its own set of issues. Finding a place wasn't hard: a high tree branch was the best, but actually figuring out which and how to get up required a lot of effort. I had to use my physical enhancement to not only inspect the tree, but also to determine which surfaces I could use as a foot hold to climb up. It was better than being constantly attacked by beasts through the night, but my sleep remained light in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

And hygiene? Yeah, not happening. Water hampered most of my senses, even with physical enhancement. Falling in and losing my bearings was basically a death sentence. And with the probability for attack, I could deal with not being clean until I reached the next town.

Every day, I repeated the same thing over and over, using my senses as effectively as I could. It was draining. And yet, it was the only option I had. I really hope the next place has a carriage service or something.

At the end of it all, I finally reached the next town. Well, it was technically more of a village. The fresh breeze gave away the wooden fence behind the two sentries standing guard.

Luckily, neither of them stopped me as I passed by, only checking if I came through Edith. They didn't comment on my mask or anything -- the usual in these smaller places.

While villages were much more insular than towns or cities, they didn't completely reject visitors. After all, you had to pass through them to get to one of the bigger provinces. So, it was more of a 'if you don't cause any issues, we won't bother you' type of thing. The only ones that dug any further were those that provided services.

The main thoroughfare went straight through the village, from one exit to the other, where shops and inns normally lined the sides. Occasionally, there was a smaller road running perpendicular, where I imagined the homes were located. At least, that's how it's setup where I was from.

At this time of day, it was pretty busy. Although the dirt muted the surrounding footsteps, the loud conversations gave a clearer picture of approximately fifty or so people -- a quarter of a village's population.

Unfortunately, this was as much as I could discern. I didn't hear any metallic clinging, meaning there were no adventurers around. Usually, I would follow them to find the inn, guild, or a smithy, but it seemed like that wouldn't work here.

So, I had to ask one of the locals.

"Excuse me." I tapped the shoulder of the nearest person.

"Hmm? U-um, what do you want?" The voice was indistinct, as though it could belong to a man or a woman. There was an underlying tone of fear, but both genders tended to respond strangely to my mask. Well, I'll just refer to them as Villager A for now.

"Can you show me where the inn and smithies are? Also, is there an Adventurer's Guild in this village?"

"A-ah. Eh-em. Ah. Sure." Realizing I was asking for help, Villager A let down their guard. "The inn and smithy are right across from each other, just down the street. The inn has a sign with a mug on it, so it's impossible to miss. Oh, we don't have an Adventurer's Guild."

A sign. Of course it's a sign. When is it not a sign... It wasn't hard to tell why that wouldn't help me at all. Sure, most blind people rarely left their home town, much less their own home, but it still happened sometimes! "I was hoping you could take me there."

"Take you? Um... well..." Villager A hesitated.

"I'll give you a copper for your troubles."

"I'd be happy to guide you!" Their voice jumped an octave as they took me by the hand and pulled me towards another building. "This is the inn! The smithy is right over there." They pointed with their hand, but the smell of smoke made it quite obvious.

"Thank you," I handed over the coin.

"Of course!" And they wandered off just as quickly.