CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains gore and attempted rape.
Jackson sprinted towards the entrance while I awkwardly hurried. While the people behind this had been kind enough to put me in my traveling boots rather than the house shoes I'd been wearing the day before my departure, this dress was not made for running. By the time I reached the entrance, Jackson had already dashed off into the forest. Several of the men were standing guard with weapons, and I asked one of the nearby women what happened.
"Carter says he saw a monster, my Lady," she replied. "It came after him and chased him all the way back to the walls. But it seems all the people scared it off. Jackson said he would go and take care of it."
"If it was scared off by a crowd, I expect it will be far less dangerous than a wyvern," I replied. "We've left the matter in good hands." I considered staying to await his return, but I decided to return to my work. There was nothing to see here but trees and bushes, and once he made his way back, there would likely be another commotion. I set back to rolling the log.
It seemed that the other women were led by my example. After a brief hesitation, they returned to work as well, and before long the only change was that the strong men of the camp were waiting with their weapons in case the monster decided to return.
It took longer than I expected for the next commotion, perhaps half an hour. I took a more relaxed pace to the entrance this time, and there was Jackson. He was carrying a man who was missing one of his legs below the knee. Jackson had tied a tourniquet.
"Where's the medical tent?" Jackson asked. He was brought to a larger shelter which had been made for this purpose. Once the man was situated inside, one of the women went in to treat him. In addition to being the wife of a farmer, she was also her village's healer, so we could entrust him to her care.
"Are you well?" I asked Jackson once he'd emerged. I was mostly asking to be polite — if he could slay a wyvern that easily, I doubted anything could pose much of a threat to him.
He did not seem at all shaken by what had happened, but he was slightly crestfallen, probably because the man he'd rescued had lost a leg. "I'm fine, my Lady," he replied, sitting on one of the makeshift chairs we'd set up. "It was an owlbear. Bit that guy's leg off right when I got there. But I made quick work of it, patched him up, and brought him back, so he'll live at least."
I tried to parse what he was saying. The owlbear ate the man's leg as Jackson was arriving. Jackson swiftly killed the owlbear, bandaged the man's leg, then returned to camp, and so he survived. At least, that is what I thought he meant. I decided to reassure him. "Do you not remember what the window said? Any injuries we receive will be healed so long as we survive. That man will be perfectly healthy once this all concludes."
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Jackson said, suddenly smiling. "Thanks, I feel a lot better." He seemed to consider something, then said to me, "I didn't mention it before, but something happened when I killed the wyvern and the owlbear. The system said that I leveled up, and when I checked my status my level had gone up. I also had a point to distribute to my traits."
"Leveled up?" I asked, bewildered by his speech. It was one thing when he spoke with his strange dialect about things I was familiar with, but now it seemed that he was talking about the windows? I couldn't make any sense of it. "I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Check your status, my Lady," he said. Once I told him that I was looking at it, he continued, "You see where it says 'LEVEL: 1'? Mine says 'LEVEL: 8'. It increased by five when I killed the wyvern, and two when I killed the owlbear. I also gained seven 'trait points', which I used to increase my traits."
