With the locations and rough knowledge of everything my brothers had been getting up to in the last couple of days since they got to town ahead of me.
All that remained of my self imposed quest was to figure out where my sister Alison was, once her situation was known i would be free to work to earn my keep and just live a simple life while watching them from the shadows.
If their current states were only temporary and they realigned into the proper path of the hero, then i didnt mind adjusting their stats to power them even more, but this time they would need to earn the right to get the boost.
Finding Alison turned out to be trickier than i thought, Cade and Cole almost couldnt help but announce themselves to the entire town the minute after they entered, but Alison...
It seems she chose the more modest route, it took me all day to finally locate any sign of her trail.
And that only came after giving a few iron pieces in donation to the church, asking about a young lady who had recently arrive in the town, covering up my own identity as her brother simply saying i had followed after her.
The priest whom i payed had a rather creepy grin on his face no doubt misunderstanding something but, at least my story and coins produced a tidbit of information from him.
He didnt tell me all that much but it seems after she arrived in the town, and revealed herself as a Miko to this priest he didnt hesitate to send her on to the central church for proper processing.
A small town or even city couldnt properly provide the training and support a future Saintess would require.
So it seems for the time being at least, Alison would be free from my surveilance but being a high profile job, rumors about her would surely spread throughout the kingdom so if she did anything tnews of it was sure to spread.
In the meantime i would be free to continue looking after my brothers who seemed the most at risk of going further astray, Cole even more so than Cade.
As i was searching for new on Alison, i got a first hand view of the person Cole was becoming.
His tiny taste of real power had clearly gone to his head, i was forced to watch as he threatened a stallkeeper, before destoying the mans stall and wares, then claiming all that remained as his own compensation for some scratches he'd gotten on his hand, and for scuffing his armor.
The keeper couldnt resist, to do so would be risking getting arrested or worse.
Thankfully this injustice did not get to stand for long as Count Reigns own knights arrived on the scene and stopped any further actions by Cole and sending his own troop of knights packing back to the Barons estate.
The count was the ruler of this town, along with a couple others this side of the country, and even our home village fell under his territory.
For a landless noble like the baron, the Count was an enemy he couldnt risk provoking, so while his forces could harass the locals once the true power arrived they could only scurry away with their tails between their legs.
And action that Cole looked to hate beyond all other things, as his face was all scrunched up like he'd bitten into a bitter bug, or been forced to consume excrement.
The question was raised in my mind, if Cole really cared about power and position so much why wouldnt he try to enlist into the counts knight order?
Or was it that he had, but was rejected leaving him no choice but to go for the only other available option of serving the Baron, either that or abandon the dream of being a true knight, and instead going off to become an adventurer following in the heroes footsteps and living in his shadow.
Having found out all i need to find out, and my wallet significantly lighter than it was before.
The need to complete some quests was a high priority now.
Having already taken on some requests from the blacksmiths guild i spent the last of my coppers on getting a simple pickaxe, then left the village to head back south a little ways to an area i'd passed through on my way to the town.
There was a simple cave which i had used as a safe shelter during my travel not realizing how close to the town i actually was.
Rather than using it as a shelter to sleep in again, i instead chose this as the site for my own prospecting work.
Sure i could go to one of the known mines to get what i needed but that was like saying i wanted to get robbed openly and accept it.
Using the lords mine would mean giving up more than half of whatever i mined as a sort of taxes for the right to dig in the lords mine to begin with.
But if i located my own source of ore, without claim, i could keep 100% of the ore and maximize the amount of money i could earn and buy a bigger buffer with which to live off of while keeping my brothers in my sight.
Thanks to my boosted Strength and Stamina not to mention also doing a three point investment on myself to unlock Dexterity, Tool Mastery, and placing 1 point into Pickaxe.
The tool which felt foreign in my hand quickly became no less comfortable to me than when i had last had a sword in hand.
I didnt jump straight to the investment having first tried to mine without it, but it was clear after only a few minutes of trying to swing the pick against the walls that i was out of my depth.
The hits against the hard stone caused my hands to go numb and the bones of my arms feel like they had cracked from the impact.
But the moment after spending the points to increase my stats, the pick was able to carve its way through the stone as if it was a knife slicing into a potato.
Swing after swing caused more and more stone to fall from the walls, only stopping to take a break while carting the hewn stone out of the cave and forming a dumping pile outside, but not just a mountain of stone.
instead i formed a crude wall with it to protect my back as i was focused on digging deeper.
Deeper and deeper, expanding the interior of the cave while also digging down to expand the cave into my own personal mine site.
By the time the sun was getting low enough to call it quits the pile of removed stone and earth was fairly significant, and the labor netted me a tiny amount of ore.
Just a few pieces of copper and iron which was good enough for me.
Turning these nuggets in to the guild would get me some coins, enough to stay another night at the inn, while getting to also have a simple bite to eat.
After that would be a repeat, of today.
Without needing to spend as long looking into things, just a quick stop to see how Cade and Cole are doing before i set out to the forest, seeing if i could hunt anything, before them also further expanding the mine.