They didn't pull their punches.
And an orc punch was no laughing matter. Still, if I learned something, my body could take more than my mind could imagine. Considering, I was now living in a woman's body, this did tell me about a few things that weren't particularly flattering.
"Okay, Nati, now you try to attack me." The leader of the hunters instructed me. I wanted to try but without high hopes.
I have spent the last days training. Not into magic as I would have hoped, but close-quarters combat. I wish they would let me use my crossbow instead, but they assumed I would be proficient already. They were dead wrong, and now they had me learn to use spears, swords, daggers, and the shield too. I was terrible with all of them.
"Don't aim for my weapon, aim for me instead." The hunter told me, but I was too afraid to injure him. It's not like I had the chance to score a hit. Avalon was nonstop shaking his head watching me practice, like I was not cut out for this. "You will encounter humanoid enemies in the dungeon too. If you can't kill them, they will kill you."
"I'm trying, but I never fought anyone before," I confessed, a bit embarrassed. I never had to, back in my world, not even as much as it would have been considered normal. When I was smaller, the kids my age would beat each other up now and then, but I lived in my own, secluded world, especially once my little sister was born.
I'd much rather hang out with her than with the other kids, so their aggression didn't rub off on me that much. Even when gaming, I preferred the more wholesome and chill genres than fighting other players to death.
"Okay, listen, I understand that you are afraid of being hit, but you can't be afraid to hit someone else." Gorgon walked up to us once he could no longer watch me struggle. His words were harsh, but I could see the truth in them, which didn't make it easier to digest. "Why are you so adamant on even going to that dungeon, if you can't fight? They would be probably better off without you holding them back."
"Ugh, I don't want to hold them back forever." I panted, struggling to even keep my sword up at this point. "Next time we're attacked, I don't want to be the useless one everyone needs to protect."
"You are far from useless." Charlotte intervened, joining the practice herself. "Your inventions saved countless lives, and once you learn magic, you'll be even more useful. But not everyone is born to be a fighter, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that."
"Well, we can't have her walk into a dungeon, untouched for a decade if she can't protect herself in any situation," Gorgon argued with the chieftain. He looked like a seasoned veteran with broken horns, offering to help train the villagers and set us up in deliberately mismatched pairs. We had many species, each having distinct advantages over the rest. The orcs for example were fearsome warriors and used their brute strength but the beastmen were much more dextrous.
"Oh, that much is true." Charlotte nodded, effortlessly blocking one of the veteran hobgoblin's attacks. She wasn't even looking. "I'm not keen on this whole dungeon idea to begin with. So many traps and unexpected events are waiting to happen, even seasoned adventurers could never be sure if they will return from one. And those were usually cleared out as soon as they appeared, this one doesn't seem like something that a bunch of green kids would be able to handle."
"I will be with them too," Gitaut noted, appearing on the scene. He carried a satchel, making me curious about its contents.
"Someone got confident lately." The chieftain mocked him while continuing her fight. She most certainly knew how to do it, and yet, when the Elder and her gargoyle attacked the village, she was just as helpless as the rest of us. "So you decided to be an actual part of our tribe now? Because it was about damn time you left your little hut."
Charlotte won a hard-fought victory while talking to the embarrassed shaman. The hob seemed just as surprised by his defeat as the instructors. We, the villagers were supposed to get stronger opponents than ourselves to learn how to win against a larger, more experienced enemy, but the chieftain didn't need such a thing.
"I always aided the tribe, I just don't like crowds. Plus I didn't want the Demon Lord to find me here, but I'm probably too late to worry about that." Gitaut voiced his excuses. I started to see him in a new light recently, and at the very least I swore to myself that I wouldn't judge anyone too hastily. Beneath the surface, he was just like me in a sense. He wanted good for everyone but to be left alone at the same time.
"I won't forget how you saved our backs at the crossroads." Avalon bowed his head towards him. "And if it weren't for you, not even a quarter of our men would have survived those wounds."
"Indeed, I can promise you not to reveal your location to the Demon Lord," Gorgon confirmed. Gitaut was still a bit wary of them. "Orders and bounties or not, we have our pride as well. We are indebted to you, shaman, and will not shy away from paying that debt back to you."
"Um well, I appreciate it." The shaman in question seemed to be struggling with words now. Yes, I could see some of my past self in him. Who am I kidding, I was still pretty much like that. "In any case, have you seen Omerta and Ember? I promised them something too, and I'm here to deliver, but I haven't run into them all day."
"Oh, lady Omerta was with me until recently." The dwarf smith joined us in the courtyard. Now we had not just one, but two blacksmiths in the village. Though the building processes slowed significantly without Fenna's volunteers and the golems, the tribe kept growing. "I requested her aid to enchant this armor piece I've been working on."
"Ah, the wyvern breastplate!" The leader of the hunters yelled, disengaging from our practice duel. "Finally, I wanted to see it finished for so long. So did you do it, and both are enhanced now?"
"I'm afraid not," Gomel said apologetically. He was pushing a hand cart full of brand-new spears, shields, and leather armor. "As it turned out, etching the runes into them was far more difficult than the lady Witch assumed. She only enchanted one before depleting all her magic powers for the day. She is in the swamp now with Lady Ember. This is the finished one and this will need some more work."
The difference in size between the two armor pieces was huge. The one he said was unfinished seemed to be the hunter's size, but the other was only half of that. Was it for Omerta? Even I could fit into it.
The dwarf handed them over to the orc, then distributed the rest of the weapons too. My practice opponent approached me with a wide grin, holding the leather garment towards me.
"Would you care to try it on, Nati?" He asked, surprising me. It was easy to tell, the armor was made from a wyvern's skin. It looked vaguely like an overgrown lizard, dyed dark green, but the texture acted like a natural camouflage. It was masterfully crafted too, on par with the clothes Fenna's beastmen could do. "It is only fitting that if you supplied us with the strongest of bows on the entire continent, I'll have an excellent armor piece made for you as well. It should aid you in the dungeon too."
"What? For me?" I was blushing heavily. I kept getting the most expensive-looking gifts from the people here, it was a real emotional roller coaster. I felt completely useless at one moment, then suddenly they could make me feel appreciated. "Can I have this?"
"Of course, and don't let the others get you down either. You deserve the best of everything." He claimed, and the others, currently not fighting their matches joined in too, clapping their hands for me. I felt my face burning and wanted to disappear, but I did appreciate it.
"Two separate runes enhance it," Gomel interjected while I tried to equip the armor. "One is a strong barrier, so while it's light, and won't limit your movements, it should be able to deflect hits that only the knight's armors could survive. I managed to fix them too, by the way."
"The other is to protect you from magic attacks," Omerta explained herself. She did look exhausted, walking in from the main gate. "I had lengthy discussions with Lambert about defensive spells, and he said, the blue-haired paladin had an armor set that was resistant to magic of every kind. Which made her impossible to heal while she was wearing it too, so we were tinkering with a spell for nearly a week, that would only resist offensive magic, but let the beneficial ones through."
"I... Don't know how to thank you for these!" I yelled, starting to get a bit emotional. Was it all right for me to have it? Considering how hopeless I was in a fight, it would improve my chances of survival. The orc put on a tired, but happy smile.
"You already did, and our shaman seems ready with his part too." She noted, glancing at the satchel Gitaut brought with him.
"I am, although the result surprised me in the end." He claimed, shaking the container a bit. "Will wait for the Fire Witch before I hand them over though. What is she doing at the moment?"
"She's out in the swamp, trying to make a golem," Omerta explained with a smug grin. "I had Lambert teach me how to do them, and now I tried to pass on that knowledge to the next generation. But she seriously sucks at it. I guess I'll have to start making them soon."
"Golems? Didn't I give you enough of them? Or did you break them all already? Just what kind of abuse do they have to deal with here?" I heard a very familiar voice from behind. It was easy to recognize, since it was my voice too, for the last month and some now, which could only mean one thing. I spun around, clad in my brand new leather armor, and sure enough, the snow-white copy of my body was just about materializing in front of me. At long last, the Goddess of Luck has returned.
"Where have you been?" I asked, nearly at the same time as about half of the people present. The other half had never seen her before, at least not in her current form. But there was something else to note too.
Or rather, someone else. As if stepping out of a portal behind her, I saw a young girl clad in a classic school uniform. It felt so unreal in this world, yet so familiar to me. My heart nearly stopped.