The hunters all offered me their gratitude in the form of this gigantic Spirit Orb. I had intended on asking them for it in exchange for some money, as I had a lot of gold as savings and I was willing to buy it at a cheaper price than I could get it in the market, but at the end, they gifted it to me.
"Ah… Thank you very much for your kindness."
"You really helped us out there."
"I hope you don't go hunt alone though; it would be dangerous…"
"Make sure to bring some meat to your parents and your father too!" said Gradus.
I had not really expected them to be this nice with me, this was the first time we truly interacted with one another, and it could be said that I had forced them to find the boar, so I cold gain more EXP… but at the end, these people were grateful I had saved their lives, and also that with my help, we were able to get this job done.
Now, deep down, I felt a bit bad for having forced them to work, but at the end of the day, things ended rather well, so there wasn't much I could think of. I had to just accept the gift and not think badly of myself, I will try to be more considerate.
I had realized that this people… they were my friends, perhaps. The neighbors I always ignored had their own lives, their own families, and each and every one of them had their own personalities.
Since when did I ever had such a feeling before? It feels like I had put myself in their shoes for a bit, is this… Empathy? Yes, it is… Such an interesting feeling. I had not felt empathy in a while, but I had begun to develop it in this second life. First with my family and now with these brave hunters.
This entire village… Perhaps I really like it. I had not imagined myself in this situation. Deep down I still thought I was rather cold-hearted with others, but at the end, I had grown fond of these people.
I don't really like to be a sentimental person. It is hard for me, mostly because I had forgotten about my emotions long ago, regaining them really feels quite strange, but it does makes me feel more alive than before.
So this is what it feels to be a human, huh?
The smiles of the hard-working hunters brightened the night, as we quickly decided to celebrate by roasting enormous chunks of meat from the boar. Of course, most of it was going to the duke, but the boar was so big that he would never notice that we took a part for ourselves, and it was already a tradition to have a big dinner with boar meat after a successful hunt.
At the end, I decided to bring my mother, my grandmother, and my father, who was now able to walk well enough to come out and enjoy some food with the rest of the hunters.
Chris, Eric, and Erika were stuffing their cheeks with the meat of the boar, and the rest of the hunters began to drink beer while singing with my father, the wives of the hunters including my mother were also celebrating with the hunters, some were cooking and others were serving more food, they were happy to help.
"T-This meat is really good! I can't stop eating!" said Erika. "Maybe we could eat it every day? There's a lot!"
"No, the rest is going to the duke." I said. "This is all we'll get for now."
"Ugh… I see…" sighed Erika. "I wonder if we could get some more by buying it."
"This meat is way too expensive and the duke always buys it, so I doubt it." said Eric. "The best thing you can do is go hunt a boar."
"Yeah, but how could you hunt a boar?" asked Chris. "We are all kids after all, so I doubt we could be able to do such a thing to begin with."
Hunt a wild boar… It could be a good trial for the kids. Although they're developing their Qi and Mana pretty well, they need to level up gain enough power and slowly unlock their true potential. And all three of them got very strong Talents, which are all three stars at the very least.
Talents seem to have stars that determine their rarity, Chris Flame Wizard is a four-star talent, Eric's Druid is a three-star talent, and Eleanora's Princess Talent is five-star.
Meanwhile, someone with no talent like me is zero star, the lowest possible talent, so I would be often called a waste of oxygen by the elite.
People can be born with low star talent but a strong spirit, but the Talent is still important, it determines their future potential and even how fast they can progress, level up, and even break their level cap.
I don't really know if there are other ways to cultivate a spirit orb, but only those with three-star talents and above can even reach higher ranks of spirit orbs… Perhaps there could be hidden ways in other countries, but in here everyone judges you based in the Talent.
As someone talentless, I can only reach a certain level and then my growth would stop, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the Grimoire.
Something will certainly happen after I reach Level 10… I am almost sure of it.
"Hmm… Perhaps we could go hunt later on, you all need to grow stronger after all." I said.
"E-Eh? Us?" asked Erika.
"Y-You must be mistaken, Blake… How can we go hunt ourselves?" said Eric. "We are very weak…"
"Don't be such a coward, Eric!" said Chris. "If we can go hunt, then we'll be able to gain blessings and grow stronger as well, maybe we'll be able to help Blake on his hunt as well."
"Oohh! Sounds fun, I've been wanting to hunt monsters for a while myself…" said Erika.