Forest of Tob, herb picking, first enemy encounter?

Next day (still in Carne Village)

The day was still dark, maybe an hour or two before sunrise. Enri was about to knock on Merek's door. She woke early to leave the village before anyone noticed.

When she knocked, Merek answered almost immediately, she thought 'how is he able to answer so fast each time'. But he seemed to read her thoughts as he said "I can hear the footsteps near the house".

"ohhh I see…" She took a pause inspecting the new outfit he was wearing.

Brown pants, white shirt, brown leather shoes and a vest that looked like a scaled vest but it was leather.

"mmm right. The herbs should be in the forest of Tob. I can show you the way, follow me."

"Lead the way miss Emmot"

During the way they talked about various topics, at the beginning most of them were not personal; like what kind of wares did he sold, and if he planned to stay on the village for a long time.

Later, when nearing the forest they started to talk about things like where did he came from or if he had a family or companions. At the end Enri even talked about her parents, the way she felt on the village and a little bit about Nifrea Bareare (her alchemist friend).

From what she told, they used to be friends during her early teens when he used to come to the village to then gather herbs at the forest

Then his grandmother (the owner of the alchemist store) started to decay because of old age and Nifrea, feeling responsible for her, decided that he could not just leave her alone for the 2 or 3 days journey it takes to gather the herbs in the forest.

To add insult to injury, her father died as a result of a goblin attack where 7 villagers died. She was on the fields that day and he stayed back to protect her and the others, but perished as a result.

Merek felt bad for her but since he could not do much, decided that probably it was better to change the topic. Which brought them to their current conversation.

"Say, miss Enri, that Billy boy seems to like you, I guess you have noticed right?" asked Merek

"bah, that stupid kid, he keeps bothering me, trying to ask me to date him. He doesn't seems to understand that I just don't like him."

"Ahhh so… have you made it clear?"

"Yes, I have. The last thing I've found works is talking about Nifrea, he gets bothered and just goes away"

"Ohhh I see, it seems to work, but… do you actually like the alchemist?"

"WHAT? NO, PLEASE." She burst laughing. "He is a nice boy, but he's to awkward and never stops talking about alchemy and such. He's a nice friend but while I liked him once, I lost all interest fast."

"We are almost there, there should not be any dangerous beast or monsters around here but still it's better stay on guard here" said Enri a couple of minutes after they crossed the first line of trees of the woods.

"Very well, I can protect us if any stray beast or monster comes from the forest" responded Merek

This seemed to cause some flashbacks to Enri as she paled and started sweating, after he asked her if she was okay she responded with "I'm fine, just some bad memories" and left it there.

Merek did not push the situation and kept following when she started walking again.

Soon they arrived at a place that had some shrubs, mushrooms, herbs and such in between the trees.

"This should be it, I'm no expert herbalist but these plants should hold some healing properties" said Enri.

Quickly identifying the problem (He was not an expert herbalist either). And while he had the job classes that worked with them, such as [Druid], [Alchemist], [Herbalist], [Witch doctor] and such. They would not give him knowledge of plants he has never seen before.

He thought on how to solve the issue.

He could just harvest everything and start experimenting, but that seemed like a real waste of time and resources. As such, and to not waste time thinking about identifying the herbs, he created a new spell.

Using a combination of more simple spells like [All appraisal magic item], [Detect magic], [Decern enemies], [Greater magic vision], [Greater identify], [Life essence], [Mana essence], [See through] and most spells he could think that were used to identify something, he created the new spell.

[God sight]: Upon casting, the castercan identify anything under his sight. The object subjected to the spell and the details required can be specified by the user's intent. (Tierless)

'Ooff this spell was automatically categorized as tierless, probably because it's a mix of more than 15 spells. Now I can…'

Just when he casted the spell, he felt some mana run toward his eyes. But this was not the feeling a buff had, it was like it has integrated with his being creating a skill.

'Sure, I already had a god's body, so having a god's sight is only natural' was what he thought about the situation.

From Enri's perspective, when she told Merek about the herbs he stopped moving. Stood still for like ten seconds and when she was about to ask what was wrong his eyes started glowing.

A blinding blue glow was emitted from his eyes which seemed brighter than the sun for a couple of seconds leaving her blind for a moment. Then it rapidly dimmed until his eyes only glowed, finally turning pale golden.

This must have been the most impressive thing she has seen given her dropped jaw. Which caused Merek to apologize.

"Sorry for the sudden light show. I was casting a spell that I did not have mastery of… took a couple of seconds to adjust."

Her answer was just an "ohhh as she kept her jaw dropped." Then, when she realized the foolish face she's been doing, she tried to act as if nothing happened. But the small blush on her face could not be hidden.

"Anyways, I'm going to start gathering the herbs" said Merek

With his skill active it was rather easy to identify the non medicinal plants from the herbs he wanted to harvest.

Things like [Common forest grass], and [Green forest moss] with their descriptions of being a common variety of plant natural to forests were pretty much useless.

While things like:

[Amanita Muscaria]: Heals a small amount of health when consumed, can give stomachache if eaten as is.

[Russela Viriscense]: boosts stamina for a brief time but decreases cognitive power

[Lactarius Indigo]: increases cognitive power briefly but its use can leave the person listless.

[Silybum Marianum]: helps improve metabolism and cleanses the liver but can induce diarrhea if too much is consumed.

[Mentha spicata]: clears the mind and helps to cure insomnia, it can make people drowsy

[Melissa oficinalis]: gives a refreshing feeling, help regulate breathing. Can function as a diuretic.

[Panax quinquefolis]: helps boost the body functions generally by a small amount.

Were the real deal. Picking up only the necessary parts of the herbs so that the plant heals and produces more for later use, Merek spent some time on each, ranging from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes depending on the plant.

While he was picking the herbs, they were speaking from time to time. Mostly Merek listening to Enri and replying when necessary.

When picking some leaves from a shrub Merek noticed Enri's sudden silence. Looking towards her, he noticed the girl was looking toward the woods and frozen as in fear from what she is seeing.

Inspecting to where her line of sight, deep in the woods he looked at what could be described as a giant dog with yellow glowing eyes and a green fog coming from it, a chain was surrounding the "dog" while parts of the chain seemed to float.

The "dog" mouth emitted some light intermittently as result of it chewing the meat of a dead being that was lying beneath him.

He had noticed it's presence beforehand but chose to ignore it as it was a harmless beast for him.

"He just laid there waiting for the monster to eat it" spoke Enri toward no one in particular, terrified while breathing roughly and sweating profusely.

Merek understood the situation easily. The huge "dog" was playing with his prey until it got too tired and when the prey gave up, he just proceeded to eat it.

By a glance he could tell it was a [Barghest]. While in Yggdrasil barghest existed, they were the wolf/goblin shape-shifting type. In this world it seems barghest are the spectre/ghost type that hunts possess a dog.

When identified using the [God's sight] skill he could tell a more detailed description.

[Barghest]: Has the appearance of a giant wolf with horns and a chain around its body. Has a good sense of smell, and like to toy with its prey. They have superior intellect compared with other non-magical beast and can cast some magical abilities. (LV14).

For a villager or a normal merchant this magical beast would be their demise. But for Merek is was a beast that he would not even bother with. No different than a normal street dog.

The [Barghest] however did not seemed to notice Merek's power. After eating its prey it started looking towards the still frozen Enri and to Merek as if he was looking at a buffet.

To Merek this was amusing. 'hmm I guess they are not as smart as the description says… or maybe I am hiding my abilities rather well?'

The beast quickly ran towards them, aiming to attack Enri first. She tried to back away but stumbled against a tree root and felt on her butt.

For Merek, time usually passed at the same rate as for everyone. But when he decided to retaliate against the [Barghest] he seemed to enter some sort of combat mode.

The details of everything was much more clear, and he felt as if time stopped. The beast halted mid air during its leap. The short distance of the leap took forever in Merek's eyes.

He had not cast any spell; all this was the result of his stats. The difference between him and the beast was such that he could basically kill it without it even noticing he moved.

He summoned his cane from the [Inventory] and channeled a "weak" tierless [Kinetic blast] through it. The spell was a wave of non-elemental energy that shoot from the cane.

When the spell hit the [Barghest], it was sent flying towards the tree behind it. The force was such that bark from the tree flew everywhere and when the [Barghest] fell to the ground a deep impression was left on the tree.

The spell did not killed the beast immediately, but it started to spasm and cough until it died. Meanwhile Merek was inspecting his cane and the [Barghest].

'pfff one shot with a spell of meager damage… hmm the carcass remains so, is there any use for it? Maybe the chains and its pelt… the meat can be given to some animals, or maybe made in a stew?' After deciding what to do with the carcass he looked towards Enri

"Are you ok miss Enri?" Asked Merek noticing she was still on the floor trying to understand the situation.

"The [Barghest] is already taken care of. Stupid dog couldn't even identify his superiors." added Merek as a "funny" remark

"I-I, y-yes. I t-think I'm alright" replied Enri, still nervous. She started to make sure she was not injured. Her body seemed ok.

But when she tried to stand up, she was not able to set foot. Her ankle was sprained. When Merek got closer to inspect the ankle Enri spoke

"I- I'm ok, its just the ankle, it will heal fast in like a day or two".

"Let me help you really quick" he pointed his cane towards her, which scared her a little bit.

Next she heard. "[Cure light wounds]". And felt a refreshing feeling all over her body. After that, she noticed the pain on her ankle vanished.

"Better?" asked Merek.

Enri stood up and tested the ankle, getting awed from the whole situation.

"I said I'd take care of any beast or monsters… why were you so scared? I understand it looks big and ugly, but its just a big dog at the end. You thought I would not be able to take care of it?"

"N-no its just that w-when it came running, it was so fast and…"

When Merek noticed she was about to tear up he changed the topic.

"Letting you go around injured is not very good for my image considering you are here because of me. But when I was about to heal you, you were… scared? Why?"

"I-its just that priest usually use staffs, and monks use those things with the rings in them; s-so when I saw you pointing the cane towards me I didn't thought it was to cast a healing spell." Replied Enri

"So, you thought I was about to attack you?"

"nonono… it was just that…"

"You know what? Let's just leave it there. Just remember, I wouldn't attack a costumer, and even less after I had the benefit of the transaction but have not done my part." Said Merek, while storing the [Barghest] carcass in his [Inventory].

Enri seemed more and more bewildered at his very action. When he looked at her, he just said "remember, magic store merchant…"

Enri replied with a "right…" and kept looking towards Merek.

After a couple of seconds of awkward silence Merek decided to ask "so Enri, I have already got my part of the deal, have you already thought about what do you want for it?"

An almost instant red flush showed on Enri's face and neck. And she took a deep breath.

For Merek this was very suspicious 'what in the world is this girl going to ask? Maybe I should have made sure before accepting the trade'.

"W-well Merek, you see… I have not had a very productive life, and here in the village I feel like my life is going to pass without leaving anything to be remembered…"

'I don't think I like where this is going' thought Merek while listening to her slowly softer rambling.

"I have always lived on the village and the only place I have visited is this forest and well, I would like to see new places and such…"

'Ok, now I don't have a clue where this is going.'

"As a traveling merchant you must have visited a lot of places sir Merek. But you told me you didn't have any companions or family so…"

'don't tell me…'

"It must have been boring… I'm not saying you are a boring person sir Merek, it's just that I can only imagine traveling for days or weeks without anyone to speak to or anything…"

'Ohhh God, just f☆☆cking say it.'

"Maybe you allow me to be your traveling companion?" finally said Enri, so quiet that if Merek didn't had such a good hearing he wouldn't have heard a thing.

"sigh" 'finally said it, took what? Like 8 minutes?'

Merek had not even told Enri anything and she almost went full panic mode in fear of him rejecting her proposition.

"I'm sorry sir Merek, I would never consider myself as an equal nor someone deserving of your trust. The way I said it, I didn't meant to…"

"Enri…"

"Follower, that's a better word, yes, if you allow me to be your follower, I promise I can help with…"

"Enri…"

"I know how to clean, and cook, and… I'm strong even if I look as if I have a frail body. I can take care of myself so that I'm not a bother…"

"Enri listen… I don't really need a companion but…"

"I'm sorry sir Merek it's just that.." Enri started to tear up

"LISTEN ENRI" Merek spoke loudly, making Enri freeze.

"What I am saying is, I don't actually need a companion but maybe you can help by managing the store from time to time while I gather resources..."

"YES, SIR I CAN DEFINITELY DO THAT" replied Enri ecstatic

"Enri I have not finished speaking…"

"ohh sorry sir" apologized Enri

"However, I need to understand your knowledge in numbers, reading, writing and such"

"Ohh that… well, in the village there is no need for those. So, I didn't bother." Said Enri with a meek voice

"Now that's a big problem, since there is not much you can help with if it's not that."

"Wait, wait I can do anything else like cooking or cleaning…"

Merek started to think 'cooking, cleaning? I don't need any of those… maybe I can teach her to write and read, math as well… she's a bit old, but it's never too late to learn right?'

While he was thinking how to help her, she noticed the doubtful look on his face. This made her think that he was backing out.

"I can even serve you directly if necessary" she said quieter than before.

That brought Merek out of his line of thought "Hmmm serve?" asked Merek, his mind blank as he did not fully understood what she meant.

Thinking he was interested in having her as a woman, she was a little bashful, but she already said it so there was no going back.

"I'm not experienced in the relationships between men and women, but you are a very handsome man and a respectable person so…" Enri started to say, her face red as a tomato.

"Look Enri you don't…"

She quickly interjected "I know I am not qualified to be your wife sir, probably not even your concubine, so maybe I can serve as a mistress when you need me to…"

'Concubine, mistress? Interesting, in this world it seems that is acceptable to have more than one woman, it was not a dream of mine to have a harem or anything before coming here but…'

'Whatever, how it goes? When in Rome do as the romans do? Still, I don't really know how willing she is, and she is… rather young right?'

Taking his silence as an affirmation Enri started to get up close and gave him a hug, sinking her face on his chest.

This surprised him somewhat, but he didn't say anything and rested his hands on her. One patting her and the other on her waist.

***writing notes here since nobody reads the ones on author's thoughts***

It was kinda hard making Enri be with the MC without looking to forced... (probably the result of them having meet each other for only a day?) but you know... we can't have a harem tag without them girls.

I'm not thinking of making them go all the way until they spend some more time with each other doe.

As you may have noticed I take a lot of time giving details that may seem unnecessary. but this is on purpose as, with an character as OP as this one, the only interesting way I can think of writing is a "slice of life" style ff.

Soon the first attack on Carne will happen. I will change a couple of things, but one of them I'm not sure which way to go is Gazef. for me he was pretty much useless in the novel. besides introducing brain and climb, trying to put Ainz in good light and then dying in a duel and use that as an excuse to finish the war he was just there... keeping him alive, or letting him die seems the same to me.

***end of notes***