"Can you scout ahead?" asked Scias.
"Also, even if you changed your form, I think you should stay in the air."
"Stay in the air? And miss all the fun?" replied Vel.
"Then just hide in some tree."
Vel reluctantly agreed and took off. It took him a moment to adjust to his new form of a blue jay.
After a while, Vel got closer to the village.
The images Vel sent to Scias's mind were disappointing.
The village wasn't very large, maybe fifty wooden structures were built around something resembling a well.
The settlement appeared to be in a rough shape.
The buildings on the outskirts of the north side of the village, the side they were coming from, were almost fully demolished.
The houses had huge holes in them. Some were missing walls. And the roofs were all collapsed.
It was surprising that there were still parts of the structures still standing. It looked like that slightly stronger wind could easily topple them.
A vegetation was growing through the houses, slowly claiming them.
Houses farther from the outskirts were in better condition. Some were damaged. There were houses with holes in them, some had partially collapsed roofs.
Most houses on the southern part of the village were dilapidated due to time and abandonment.
The biggest structure close to the center seemed to be built sturdier and from better materials. This building was in the best state. Probably the village chief's home.
Similar to the destroyed houses, nature was reclaiming every other structure.
Circling in the sky around the village, Vel didn't see any smoke coming from chimneys, nor anyone moving around, be it people or animals.
Communal places for washing and hanging clothes were still recognizable but nothing could be seen there.
The road Scias walked on lead directly to this village.
In the afternoon light, shadows stretched long across the abandoned village, giving it an eerie feel.
"It's abandoned," Vel projected to Scias. "And has been for some time."
"Not a single person in sight," Vel continued. "No movement at all except for some birds nesting in one of the collapsed roofs."
Scias was getting nearer to the village.
Now, he could see it with his own eyes.
What greeted him were the most destroyed houses that looked even worse from up close.
Walking through the ruins and seeing no people or any danger, Scias told Vel that he could change back if he wanted to and that he didn't need to keep his distance now.
Vel didn't hesitate. He landed on the roof of the best house and changed to his original form.
"Much better," he projected, feeling relief.
This put a slight smile on Scias's face.
Vel wasn't interested in looking around, so he stayed perched on the roof, basking in the sunlight.
Scias continued walking around the abandoned village, finding nothing useful.
When he got to the better houses, he carefully entered them, looking around.
Inside, he found furniture, mostly shabby chairs and tables, some of them even had beds. Here and there were some cooking utensils and some forgotten clothes.
Nothing he could wear or use.
Scias approached what he thougt to be the village chief's house, a two-story structure that was clearly different from the rest.
Unlike the dilapidated houses all around, this building retained most of its structural integrity.
The walls were from thick timber beams rather than the simple planks used in other houses, and stone reinforced the foundation.
The roof, though caving in some places, remained largely intact.
A short set of steps led to a wide porch. The double doors at the entrance hung slightly askew, one partially open as if inviting him in.
"This isn't so bad. Let's take a look inside" Scias muttered to himself as he carefully pushed the creaking door open.
As he was opening the door, Vel landed on Scias's shoulder.
"I thought you weren't interested in looking around."
"This building looks different from the rest," Vel projected with the feeling of curiosity and interest.
The door opened to a long hallway leading to a large space.
There were chairs arranged in neat rows facing a wooden protrusion coming from the floor, likely some sort of a podium.
'This looks like a gathering place for the whole community,' Scias thought.
After looking around and finding nothing interesting, Scias went back to the hallway. Apart from several doors on either side, the hall was empty.
One by one he went around all the rooms on the first floor.
One room must have served as a kitchen. There were pots and pans and other cooking utensils.
A fireplace of fitted stone stood against one wall, its hearth cold and filled with years of debris.
The kitchen was connected to another room that looked like a dinning hall with chairs and a large table.
There were still bowls and plates with remnants of food on the table.
He found a storage area with only junk laying around.
'Everything valuable must have been already taken,' Scias thought.
One door lead to a living room with a big hearth, similar to the one in the kitchen. The stairs to the second floor were here. There were also two paintings on the walls.
One painting depicted a village bustling with people. It appeared to be this village, before it was destroyed and abandoned.
The other painting was a family portrait. A man, woman and three children. One young boy no more than seven years old with curly black hair. Two girls, one looked to be around eleven years old and the other around fourteen years old. The younger one had a piercing gaze, her long brown hair cascading down her shoulders. The older girl had shorter hair and a kind expression on her face.
The woman, presumably the mother, had longer black wavy hair and looked like older version of the younger daughter.
The father had short brown hair and a scar on his cheek. A sword was hung on his waist.
Their clothes seemed to be well made, but not too expensive.
"This must be the family that lived here."
Vel projected the image of the oldest daughter to Scias. He was mesmerized.
"This is your type?" Scias teased him.
Vel woke up from the daze and asked. "Type?"
"Do you like her?"
"Like her?" Vel still didn't know what he meant.
"Well. Do you like how she looks? When two people like each other and want to be together and…"
Now Vel knew where Scias was going and quickly stopped him.
"I'm not a kid! You don't need to explain this. She just looks very pretty. Don't you like pretty things? Besides, she's like you, not me." came Vel's slightly embarrassed response.
Scias laughed and answered. "You're right. I do like pretty things. Who doesn't?"
"So, which one do you like?"
Scias just smiled and didn't answer.
Vel kept pestering him about it until they left the room and entered a study room.
There weren't many things there. A large desk with quill and dried ink and some papers.
Along the walls were empty shelves. A painting was hung opposite the desk. It was a portrait of the mother from the previous painting, here she looked younger and more vibrant.
Scias moved to the table. Most papers were blank, but one paper had something written on it.
The letters faded by time and were barely visible, but Scias recognized the symbols. They looked exactly like those he saw when he looked at the System information.
He could read only some words, 'help', 'monsters', 'Dark Forest', 'attack', 'leave', other words were too faded.
From this, he pieced what happened here together.
"It looks like this village was going to be attacked by monsters from the forest and they knew about it in advance, which would explain this letter asking for help. By the looks of it, the monsters got here first which caused the people here to flee." Scias told Vel.
"Why do you think they escaped and weren't killed?" Vel wanted to know.
"I didn't see any bodies. More importantly, there was no blood anywhere. Some people would surely hide in their houses and if they were killed there, blood would be everywhere. Yet, we didn't see any."
Then he continued, "that's just my conjecture. We don't know how long ago it happened. Or what really happened. In the end, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we are here and it's safe."
It sounded reasonable to Vel.
"I still don't know why a village is so close to the forest full of monsters. Or why were they making a road there," Scias said after a while.
"Maybe they thought that the monsters are weak? Or maybe they were just dumb," Vel suggested.
"I don't know. And we have no way to find out. Let's just drop it and go check upstairs." said Scias.
Preparing to leave, he noticed a small bag under the table.
When he looked inside it, he found several silver coins and many more copper coins.
Vel quickly picked up one silver coin with his beak.
Before he could do anything with it, Scias snatched it and put it back in the back, closing it shut.
"Don't take that. It's money and we'll need it," Scias admonished Vel.
"Money?" came Vel's bewildered response.
"It's used to buy things. In towns, we can exchange these coins for food and clothes and many other things," Scias explained.
"When people do some work, they get these coins to buy things. Like this, people can focus on what they're good at, they get paid for it and buy what they need," he continued.
Vel was slightly confused.
"You'll understand when we get to a town with actual people."
Scias was happy with what he found. Lack of money was one of his worries.
Even though he didn't know the cost of things, he thought that he definitely could buy something.
The last room on the ground floor was a bathroom with a huge wooden bathtub.
Scias's eyes gleamed when he saw it, imagining a nice and relaxing bath.
As Scias moved to the second floor, the stairs were creaking and he was afraid that they would break under his weight.
To his relief, he made it upstairs without problems.
The second floor was full of sleeping chambers. In total, there were six bedrooms.
Two rooms looked like they were never used. Likely guest rooms.
Three rooms must have been the children's. Scias only peaked inside these room, not going inside them.
He felt like going through child's room is not very dignified.
Finally, he came across the master bedroom. Apart from the big bed and some furniture, it was nearly empty.
He moved toward a closet. Opening it, Scias saw only woman's clothes. He was about to close it when he noticed something tucked at the bottom.
It was neatly folded man's leather clothes. Pants and jacket.
A smile crept onto Scias's face. Finaly, he found some clothes he could use.
He put Vel on the bed from his shoulder before he dug the clothes from the closet.
Vel hopped to the window.
"I'll find us some dinner," he projected to Scias before jumping out.
Scias was so occupied with exploring that he lost track of time. It was almost night.
He thanked Vel and went to try the clothes on. They fit perfectly.
'Now I just need to find some boots,' he thought, a smile on his face. 'But first, I'll get myself a proper bath.'
Scias went back downstairs to the bathroom.
This would be the first time he'd use magic after obtaining a class.
First he examined the bathtub. Everything was ancient in this village, so he wanted to make sure it was all right.
After finding nothing wrong with it, he undressed and summoned water.
It felt so natural that he stopped breathing for a moment. Water flowed from his outstretched hand.
The water was cool, so he focused on increasing the temperature.
Even in this warm weather, he wanted to get a nice and relaxing bath
Soon, steam started to rise from the bathtub.
After the tub was filled half way, he stopped and checked his mana. It felt like only a small amount was gone and quickly recovering.
He marveled at this. Before getting class, he could just barely achieve this.
So much water. Adjusting temperature. Using magic felt so easy now.
He got into the tub and relaxed to a point where he fell asleep.