Chapter 32 - 10000 Crystals in 1 Week

A tall man, bigger than everyone else, was banging on the door early in the morning. At least 9 feet tall, holding a two-handed axe.

Long fur cloak, and the head of some beast used as a helmet. I could already tell he was different from everyone else.

Bigger, better clothes and weapons, not to mention scars covering his arms and chest.

Had to be the leader of the village. The man who lived in the house I was staying in talked to him, tried to calm him down. I was ready to bolt if I had to.

My arm was still broken, but the burns on my body had healed up nicely overnight, thanks to that water mixed with herbs the woman used. So at least I could run pretty fast if I needed to, or fly.

When I first arrived at the village, I hadn’t seen this guy. If I had, I’d have remembered someone that massive.

So why wasn’t the leader in the village before? Handling business elsewhere? Visiting other villages, maybe?

My mind was running wild with theories, since I didn’t know much about these people. Good chance there was more than one village nearby.

They kept arguing. I got up from the bed to give myself a better shot at escaping if it came to that.

Once I was up, the leader looked at me and gestured for me to follow him. He left the cabin, heading outside.

Didn’t feel great following him, but I did. What the hell did this guy want with me?

Once we were both outside, he turned to face me. I stood there, not sure what to expect. Then he suddenly lunged at me, axe raised in both hands.

The fucker was trying to cut me in half or something. I quickly summoned my dimensional cube, not caring anymore if they saw it or not.

I shaped it into a shield, holding it above my head to block the attack. When the axe connected, I could feel the power behind the swing. Strong, but not strong enough to break through.

The leader stumbled back after his weapon hit my cube. He frowned.

I could tell he had no idea what I’d just done, and judging by how he fought, I was starting to think they didn’t have awakened powers like we did back on Earth.

Their bodies were clearly strong, though, so maybe they could still boost their attributes using monster crystals like we did. Couldn’t be sure.

The leader pointed at my cube. Think he wanted to know what it was. So I shifted its form, a weapon, then a shield, then a bucket, a wolf’s head.

I ran through a few uses of my ability. The more the leader watched, and not just him, the other villagers too, the more excited everyone got.

The leader wasn’t looking at me with anger anymore. More like admiration, like he’d stumbled onto something incredible.

He set his axe down and gestured for me to follow him again. This time, 3 other men came along too.

One of them was the guy whose house I’d slept in.

We left the village together, walking alongside the river. The early morning was cold, a light rain hitting us on the way out.

Birds and other animals were already stirring, bringing the forest to life at that early hour.

No beasts came for us. Maybe they only showed up at night, or maybe we just got lucky.

They led me to a cave up in a small hill. While they climbed it easily with their long limbs, I struggled to keep up with those giants.

So I shaped the cube into a flat disc, hopped on, and flew straight up the hill. They watched me pass them, and I heard their excited shouts behind me.

Felt pretty damn cool, not gonna lie. Since I’d gotten there first, I waited for them at the cave entrance.

Turned out this wasn’t just a cave, it was a mine. They’d built wooden structures inside, and I spotted several tunnels branching off.

Really dark in there. Torches were their only light source, which said a lot about how primitive these people were.

The leader showed me a massive vein of ore. Then he pointed at my cube, and pointed at the ore.

He tried breaking the rock open himself first, but even with all his strength, it wouldn’t budge. Like the rock was resisting.

Maybe a different type of rock than what I knew from Earth. Couldn’t assume the rocks and ores here worked the same way.

I frowned.

Was this guy trying to get me to mine for them? The fuck? I’d sunk a lot of hours into a certain game back on Earth, and just the thought of mining sounded exhausting. Didn’t want to do it.

But they’d helped me, so why not? Might even get more help out of it. I wanted to stay in the village for at least a week to let my arm heal before continuing to explore.

So I shaped the cube into a mining drill. They all looked confused when I did that.

Anyway, with the drill, I broke the rocks open easily, making it simple for them to collect the ore. When the leader saw how fast it was going, he shouted for the other men to bring the wooden carts to haul the ore back to the village.

Pure strength wasn’t enough. Getting the ore out took a proper tool and precision, which explained why they’d been struggling with it before.

In 1 hour, I mined a ton, enough to fill 2 carts. The leader bowed his head slightly to show his appreciation.

We headed back to the village with the ore. Everyone started cheering the moment we showed up. Wasn’t sure why at first, but I got it soon enough.

Their weapons and tools were worn down, and they needed fresh ore to make better ones. Probably what the leader had been out doing when I first arrived, which explained why I hadn’t seen him.

I helped them again, shaping my cube into an anvil, a grinding wheel, and whatever else they needed to craft new weapons and tools.

At one point, before the unknown energy came looking to kill me again, I stepped into the forest to pee, and slipped into my pocket dimension to refresh the timer. Hoped it worked the same as last time.

Everyone in the village was treating me like some kind of savior, bringing me food, water, even flower collars.

But I wasn’t doing all this for free. I wanted payment, and I knew exactly what.

That night, the warriors from the village killed a bunch of beasts. Used the bodies for meat, fur, all of it.

I pointed at one of the monster crystals they pulled out of a beast, then pointed at myself.

The leader got the message. He handed the crystal over. Not just that one, either, but every crystal they gathered for the entire next week.

Every night, beasts came to attack the village. I helped them fight them too. The beasts weren’t powerful, maybe like D-Rank at most.

During the day, some monsters came too, but way less than during the night.

By the end of the first week, I had a total of 1000 monster crystals, and that was before I gave them to Bob...