The first realisation I had when looking at the people we were about to meet closely was that their skin and skin colour were quite interesting. Since the Change had introduced attributes to people, skin condition had improved to a certain extent, as a lot of environmental factors, things like harsh wind or sunlight, were apparently considered ‘attacks’ or harmful and thus subject to reduction due to the Endurance attribute, resulting in a few interesting effects.

From what I had observed, tanning still worked, but, unless I missed my guess, the extent of it was dependent on the person getting the tan and their preferences. As in, if a person felt that a tan looked good or was healthy, they would get one but to get sunburned one would need to remain in harsh sunlight for a long time, or one had to have a condition similar to mine or Lia’s, where the resistance granted by Endurance was essentially wiped out, with a brutal vulnerability thrown in for added trouble in Lia’s case.

The people here were, almost to the person, tanned, their skin showing clear signs of the harsh conditions they had endured, making me wonder if the majority of them had looked like that before the change, causing the rest to subconsciously consider that appearance as the norm. If that were to be the case, their attributes might not have protected them from the environmental conditions as they usually would, though a part of me wondered whether their tanned, almost leathery, skin would have the same troubles such skin had before the change. I remembered that skin conditions like that had been linked to cancer, though I could honestly say I had no idea how genetic predisposition, environmental factors and the system itself would play into that. After all, it would be somewhat weird if some incredibly powerful being, a divine archmage or something like that, suddenly fell just because they missed a cancer screening. Amusing, at least the idea, though also very, very strange.

Something to ponder and investigate later, for now, I had people to meet and introduce myself.

None of the people were obvious Legacies, nobody had a non-human physique, but that didn’t mean all that much, especially when looking from afar. Sure, it was nigh impossible for a Centaur or Naga to hide their features, especially if they didn’t know about the ongoing observation but a dwarf might, quite literally, slip under the radar, while an elf could keep things under their hat and humans, well, there wasn’t an easy way to recognise them from afar, at least I didn’t know of one.

Similarly, none of them stood out as incredibly powerful, though I made sure to keep my observation passive and not employ the Observe ability. As useful as that ability was, it was also blunt and, much like most blunt objects, getting hit with it was highly unpleasant. Instead, I felt the magic emanating from them and, as Luna and I were walking up the valley towards their community, I activated my magical and soul sight, trying to get a better idea of what we were heading into.

What stood out to me the most on the way through the narrow gorge they used as their home was the lack of any actual defences. Any Shattered, Withered or Undead could easily make their way up the hill as we did; there was even a nice hiking trail following the path of a small river running down the valley, making it fairly obvious why they were living here. A source of running water was precious after all, at least if a community didn’t have the ability to use Water Magic so they could slake their thirst that way.

The height of the defences these people had was a small wooden fence, barely coming up to my chest. It might keep out a curious critter or two, but as soon as the critters became desperate or hungry, the fence would crumble like paper, making me wonder if there was something I missed on the way up. I couldn’t believe that anyone would have security this, well, insecure, though it might be that their lack of security was due to a lack of dangers in the immediate vicinity.

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Given the devastation the nearby town had undergone, there might be no Shattered or Undead, whatever had crushed the town might have destroyed them, too. When it came to beasts, I doubted that bears or wolves would deliberately go out of their way to intrude on a human settlement, not if there was plentiful game to be had in the wild and the settlement didn’t have any livestock for them to prey upon. Why that worked here but hadn’t worked quite so well elsewhere, I had no idea, though it might have to do with the system’s influence on animal populations.

Or it might be that here, in an overall quite rural, remote and, for lack of a better word, wild area, the animals had retained their instincts before the change while having a larger population, while the animals in the tamed areas, or those locked up in a zoo, didn’t have their instincts at the time of the change and were given a sort of baseline operating instinct by the system. Or there might be something else going on; there were almost limitless possibilities, and I wasn’t about to think that the first, somewhat rational idea I came up with was correct. It might have been, but it was a lot more likely that it wasn’t, though; ultimately, it didn’t really matter. These people hadn’t felt the need to set up defences, and maybe the Bitumen would make them pay for it. Though, to be fair, any defence they could set up wouldn’t stand up to those monsters anyway.

Our appearance caused an amusing reaction. At first glance, the people ignored us, at least for a moment. They took in our calm, collected and relaxed behaviour and dismissed our presence as a threat, but then, after that moment passed, they took a second glance and realised that they had never seen either of us before, and we were both dressed completely different from their clothes.

To make matters worse, the sun was out, forcing me to pull up my hood to protect my face and hair from those detestable rays, which only added to the strange impression we must be making. I could easily see the looks being exchanged, as various people began to wonder who was supposed to deal with us, either by challenging our presence or welcoming it.

A part of me was quite amused, realising that these people likely didn’t have visitors for quite some time, maybe not since they started this place, probably shortly after the change, meaning they didn’t have some sort of established or customary behaviour, maybe not even somebody who was supposed to interact with non-locals because there were none.

My expectation was that someone would have the courage to approach us; by my estimation, it would most likely be a somewhat young male, between eighteen and twenty-five, as I considered that this demographic had the highest likelihood of acting rashly.

However, it didn’t work out quite as I had expected, and the first to approach me wasn’t actually trying to approach, though at least I managed to get the gender right. The age, not so much, I was off by over ten years, though that only confirmed my opinion that males could be idiots. Granted, females, too, but that was an entirely different topic.

In this case, the idiot in question was hooting and hollering as he tore down a narrow path between a couple of somewhat improvised, one might even say ramshackle, buildings, clearly acting with more enthusiasm than sense. Said enthusiasm, however, was not a proper replacement for balance, and, as it almost inevitably had to happen, the boy took a fall; his speed, combined with the fact that he had been going downhill, caused him to tumble. His tumble didn’t get all that far, luckily for him, and his dirty body came to a stop just a few steps away from us, the scratches already bleeding, and moments later, the boy made sure everyone knew about his pain by starting to wail loudly.

“That looks painful,” Luna whispered just loud enough for me to hear, especially with the noise the boy was making. Briefly looking between Luna and the boy, I realised that, purely chronologically, the boy was only about a year younger than Luna, making the contrast between the two stark.

Sometimes, the system was really weird. Luna might be able to pass herself off as the mother of a boy that age, though it would be a serious oddity.

The bawling attracted the boy’s mother, and I could immediately feel the worry and the distrust with which she eyed us, especially when I decided to start approaching the boy, just in case he needed some magical healing. It wouldn’t do to have a child be crippled by sheer foolishness and bad luck, especially not if healing him would give me a nice boost to my local reputation. Being thought of as benevolent and powerful was almost the best reputation one could have, as long as it was coupled with one that warned people about exploiting you.