The village announced itself with bells.
Not warning bells. Not alarm bells.
Just… bells. Cheerful ones. The kind that suggested someone thought this place was charming.
Ethan immediately distrusted it.
"Too friendly," he muttered.
Kael glanced at the wooden palisade, the tidy rooftops, the colorful cloth banners fluttering lazily in the breeze. "You say that about everywhere."
"Yes," Ethan said. "And I'm usually right."
[ SETTLEMENT DETECTED ]
[ POPULATION: SMALL ]
[ ATTITUDE: UNCERTAIN BUT OPINIONATED ]
"Oh good," Ethan sighed. "Opinions."
They entered through the open gate without being stopped, which somehow felt worse than being stopped. People noticed them immediately. A few looks lingered too long. A few didn't linger at all, which was also suspicious.
A woman selling vegetables paused mid-transaction.
A man leaned on his hoe and squinted.
A dog barked once, then sat down like it had reconsidered.
Kael leaned over. "You see it too, right?"
Ethan nodded. "The look?"
"Yeah. The 'oh no, not again' look."
[ PATTERN RECOGNITION: STRONG ]
They hadn't gone ten steps before an older man approached them. Not hostile. Not friendly.
Prepared.
"System?" the man asked.
Ethan inhaled.
"Yes."
Kael smiled. "Harmless."
The man grunted. "They always say that."
"I healed a goat once," Ethan said quickly. "On accident."
The man stared.
"…That explains the fence."
[ UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE LOGGED ]
The man gestured for them to follow. "Come on. If you're going to be here, the council will want to know."
Ethan whispered urgently, "Why does every place have a council?"
Kael whispered back, "Because arguing is cheaper than walls."
The council turned out to be four people around a table that had seen better centuries.
No robes. No crowns.
Just tired adults.
They stared at Ethan like he was a strange weather pattern.
"Healer?" one asked.
"Yes," Ethan said. "Only healer."
"Does he fix things?" another asked.
"…Sometimes?"
Kael winced.
The third council member sighed. "Last one healed a millstone. We had a grain surplus for two years and then a famine."
Ethan's eyes widened. "How does that—"
"Please don't ask," the fourth said. "We're still tired."
[ LOCAL TRAUMA CONFIRMED ]
"So," the first councilor said, folding their hands, "rules."
"Oh thank goodness," Ethan said. "I love rules."
Kael shot him a look.
"You do not love rules."
"I love rules that keep me from ruining economies."
The councilors exchanged looks.
"…He's aware," one said.
"That's new," another muttered.
Rules were established.
Ethan was allowed to stay.
Ethan was allowed to heal people.
Ethan was not allowed to heal:
Tools
Buildings
Livestock
Infrastructure
"Anything with long-term financial implications"
Ethan nodded vigorously. "I accept all of this."
Kael raised a finger. "Clarification—what about chairs?"
Everyone paused.
"…We'll discuss chairs later."
They were given a room above the communal hall.
It was small. Clean. Entirely too fragile-looking.
Ethan sat carefully on the bed.
"Do you think the mattress is load-bearing?" he asked.
[ PROBABILITY: YES ]
"Fantastic," Ethan muttered.
Downstairs, the village bustled. Dinner smells drifted up. Laughter. Normal life.
Ethan leaned against the window frame.
"They're scared," he said quietly.
Kael shrugged. "They're cautious."
"That's worse."
Kael smiled faintly. "You're doing okay."
"I haven't broken anything yet."
[ TIMER RUNNING ]
Dinner was communal.
Ethan learned very quickly that being a healer meant everyone suddenly sat near him but not too near.
A woman cleared her throat. "My son has a fever."
Ethan hesitated. Looked at the council table. They nodded.
He healed the boy gently. Slowly. Carefully.
The fever faded.
The boy smiled.
The mother cried.
The village relaxed… just a little.
[ HEALING EVENT: ACCEPTABLE ]
Later, Kael nudged Ethan. "See? This is where you matter."
Ethan swallowed. "I don't want them to need me."
Kael shrugged. "Too late."
That night, as Ethan lay awake listening to the village breathe around him, the System flickered softly.
[ STATUS UPDATE ]
[ INTEGRATION: TEMPORARY ]
[ TRUST: FRAGILE ]
Ethan closed his eyes.
He wasn't a hero.
He wasn't chosen.
He was just a boy trying very hard not to make things worse.
And somehow, that might be enough.
_______
Morning arrived with optimism.
This was immediately suspicious.
Ethan woke to the sound of birds, distant voices, and the unmistakable clatter of routine. Nothing was on fire. No one was screaming. The building remained structurally enthusiastic about standing.
Ethan sat up slowly.
"…We survived the night."
[ CONFIRMED ]
[ NARRATIVE TENSION TEMPORARILY LOW ]
Kael was already awake, sitting on the edge of the bed and adjusting his boots.
"I think," Kael said, "this is the first time I've slept in a village without being chased out at dawn."
Ethan frowned. "That's not comforting."
Downstairs, breakfast was underway.
Bread. Porridge. Something fried that Ethan decided not to ask about.
He sat carefully at a long table.
The villagers sat near him.
Not with him.
Near.
A man leaned over. "You can heal toothaches?"
Ethan blinked. "I… maybe?"
Kael coughed loudly. "Council rules."
The man nodded solemnly. "Of course. Later."
[ SCOPE CREEP DETECTED ]
After breakfast, Ethan was immediately given a job.
Not healing.
Watching.
The council decided Ethan's safest contribution was existing quietly while being supervised by three separate adults pretending not to supervise him.
Ethan stood in the square.
People did normal village things.
A child tripped.
Ethan flinched.
The child got up.
Ethan exhaled.
[ SELF-CONTROL IMPROVING ]
Kael wandered off to "assist" with some light hunting instruction, which involved him confidently explaining bow theory while missing stationary targets.
A group of teenagers watched.
One whispered, "Is he an elf?"
Another whispered back, "I think he's just… tall."
Kael heard them.
He bowed.
[ AESTHETIC BONUS APPLIED ]
Ethan was approached by an elderly woman carrying a basket.
She squinted at him.
"You glow?"
"Sometimes," Ethan admitted.
She nodded. "Figures."
She held out the basket.
Ethan tensed.
"…I'm not allowed to heal objects."
"Good," she said. "These are eggs."
She handed him one.
"Hold this."
Ethan stared.
"…Why?"
"To see if you explode."
[ TEST FAILED SUCCESSFULLY ]
He held the egg.
Nothing happened.
The woman grunted. "All right then."
She walked away.
Ethan stared at the egg for a long moment.
"…Was that a test?"
[ YES ]
By midday, the village had relaxed enough to begin doing something worse than hostility.
Joking.
A man passed Ethan carrying a ladder.
"Don't heal it," he said.
"I wasn't going to!"
A woman dropped a spoon near him.
"Careful," she said. "He might fix it."
Ethan groaned.
"I can hear you."
[ SOCIAL INTEGRATION: PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE ]
At lunch, a child sat next to Ethan.
"Are you a wizard?"
"No."
"Can you fight?"
"No."
"Can you beat up monsters?"
"No."
The child frowned. "Then what are you for?"
Ethan paused.
"…I help."
The child considered this deeply.
"…Okay."
[ PHILOSOPHICAL ACCEPTANCE ACHIEVED ]
Kael returned mid-afternoon, sweaty and triumphant.
"I taught them posture," he announced.
"You hit nothing," Ethan said.
"They felt inspired."
[ INSPIRATION HAS NO DAMAGE REQUIREMENT ]
The day ended quietly.
No emergencies. No repairs. No glowing incidents.
As the sun dipped low, the council approached Ethan again.
"You did well today," one said.
Ethan blinked. "I did nothing."
"Exactly."
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ]
[ RESTRAINT ]
Dinner was livelier.
People sat closer.
Someone laughed near Ethan instead of away.
Kael leaned over. "See? Progress."
Ethan smiled faintly. "I like this better."
That night, as Ethan lay on his bed listening to the sounds of a village that had not been disrupted by his existence, the System flickered once more.
[ STATUS UPDATE ]
[ VILLAGE: INTACT ]
[ ETHAN: NOT YET A PROBLEM ]
Ethan closed his eyes.
For the first time since arriving in this world, he fell asleep without bracing for disaster.
Which probably meant tomorrow would be awful.
But for now?
This counted as a win.
______
The scream came at sunset.
Not a dramatic, villain-reveal scream.
A functional scream.
The kind that meant something had gone very wrong and someone had noticed late.
"FIRE!" someone yelled.
Ethan bolted upright so fast he nearly healed the mattress out of reflex.
[ ALERT ]
[ THIS IS BAD ]
[ IMPORTANT NOTE: NOT YOUR FAULT ]
"Oh thank gods," Ethan breathed. "I didn't even move."
Kael was already on his feet. "Smoke from the granary."
Ethan froze.
Granary.
Big building. Full of food. Full of economic implications.
"Nope," Ethan said. "No. I am not touching that."
Kael blinked. "Ethan, that's—"
"I KNOW WHAT IT IS," Ethan snapped. "I have rules."
[ SELF-AWARENESS LEVEL: UNCOMFORTABLY HIGH ]
They ran anyway.
The village square was chaos. People shouted. Buckets were being formed into lines with the kind of optimism that suggested no one had practiced this recently.
Smoke poured from the granary roof.
The council members were already there, arguing loudly.
"The lantern fell!"
"No, it was the beam!"
"The beam only snapped because the roof was sagging!"
Ethan skidded to a stop at the edge of the crowd, hands clenched tight at his sides.
"I am not fixing the building," he muttered. "I am not. I am not."
[ INTERNAL CONFLICT DETECTED ]
[ YOU WOULD BE VERY GOOD AT THIS ]
"I DON'T CARE," Ethan hissed.
A beam inside the granary cracked.
People screamed.
The fire surged.
Kael grabbed Ethan's shoulder. "Hey. Look at me."
Ethan did.
Kael's voice dropped. "You're not fixing the building. You're helping the people."
Ethan swallowed.
"…That's allowed."
Kael grinned. "See? I listen."
[ RULE INTERPRETATION: CLEVER ]
A man stumbled out of the granary coughing, arm burned badly.
Ethan was already moving.
He knelt, hands glowing softly, carefully keeping the light small. Controlled. Gentle.
The burn faded. The man gasped.
"Holy—"
"Don't say it," Ethan warned.
The man nodded rapidly and scrambled away.
Nearby, a woman collapsed from smoke inhalation.
Ethan healed.
A child cried, singed hair smoking.
Ethan healed.
[ HEALING PRIORITY: ACCEPTABLE ]
[ COLLATERAL DAMAGE: MINIMIZED ]
The granary roof partially collapsed with a thunderous crack.
Ethan flinched so hard he almost glowed at the fire.
[ DO NOT HEAL FIRE ]
"I WASN'T GOING TO," Ethan yelled back.
Kael was everywhere at once—shouting directions, dragging people clear, waving his bow dramatically and achieving absolutely nothing with it.
Still, people listened.
Which was frankly impressive.
Eventually, the fire died down.
Half the granary stood.
Half of it did not.
No one died.
Silence fell over the village.
Smoke drifted into the evening sky.
The council slowly turned toward Ethan.
Ethan froze.
"I didn't fix it," he said immediately. "I swear. I only healed people."
A long pause.
One of the councilors sighed.
"…Good."
Another nodded. "Very good."
A third added, "If you had fixed the granary, we'd be rich for a year and starving the next."
Ethan slumped.
"Oh thank god."
[ ECONOMIC DISASTER: AVOIDED ]
Kael clapped Ethan on the back. "You did great."
"I almost healed the fire," Ethan admitted.
Kael winced. "Yeah. Don't do that."
"IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?"
[ UNKNOWN ]
[ LET'S NEVER FIND OUT ]
The villagers slowly began cleanup.
Someone handed Ethan water.
Someone else thanked him quietly.
No one looked afraid.
Just tired.
As the stars came out, Ethan sat on the steps of the hall, wrapped in a blanket that definitely was not load-bearing.
Kael dropped beside him.
"See?" Kael said. "Near catastrophe. You didn't cause it."
Ethan laughed weakly. "My standards are so low now."
Kael smiled. "Welcome to growth."
The System flickered softly one last time that night.
[ STATUS UPDATE ]
[ ETHAN: NOT THE PROBLEM ]
[ TODAY ]
Ethan leaned back and looked at the stars.
Tomorrow would probably be worse.
But tonight?
Tonight, the world had almost fallen apart.
And for once, it hadn't been his fault.
__________
They left at dawn.
Not in a dramatic banished at sunrise way.
More in a quietly slipping out before someone asks you to heal the wrong thing way.
Ethan packed his bag carefully, double-checking that he hadn't accidentally acquired responsibility overnight. Kael stretched, yawned, and looked deeply satisfied with himself for surviving another settlement.
"This," Kael said, stepping onto the road, "is the correct way to leave a village."
"No yelling?" Ethan asked.
"No torches."
"No one shouting my name like it's a curse?"
Kael nodded. "Textbook success."
[ DEPARTURE STATUS ]
[ VILLAGE: STILL FUNCTIONING ]
[ BLAME: UNASSIGNED ]
Ethan glanced back once.
The granary stood half-charred, half-standing. People were already repairing what they could. Slowly. Carefully. With tools.
Ethan smiled.
"I didn't ruin anything."
Kael clapped him on the shoulder. "You saved people and didn't fix capitalism. I'm proud of you."
They walked for hours.
The road narrowed, turning from packed dirt into something more like a suggestion. Trees closed in, their branches whispering overhead. The forest felt older than the village—older than most of the ideas Ethan had encountered so far.
"Okay," Ethan said. "I don't love this."
Kael nodded. "Forests always feel like they're listening."
[ FOREST AMBIENCE: JUDGMENTAL ]
They rounded a bend and nearly ran straight into a man standing in the middle of the road.
He looked young.
Not Ethan-young, but maybe early twenties. Clean face. Sharp eyes. Simple robes that suggested a mage without trying too hard.
Except for the beard.
The beard was ancient.
Long. White. Braided with careful precision. It looked like it belonged to someone who had personally watched multiple empires collapse and then complained about it.
Ethan stopped dead.
Kael squinted. "What… what happened to your face?"
The man smiled pleasantly.
"Oh," he said. "Chronological disagreement."
[ SYSTEM USER DETECTED ]
[ MANA DENSITY: YES ]
[ BEARD: CONCERNING ]
"You're System," Ethan said automatically.
The man bowed slightly. "Guilty."
Kael leaned in. "Is the beard a class feature?"
The man sighed. "No. It's a side effect."
[ SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY ]
"My name is Orrin," the mage said. "And you two are… glowing."
Ethan crossed his arms defensively. "Only sometimes."
"Don't worry," Orrin said cheerfully. "I'm not here to recruit you into a cult, overthrow a local lord, or trigger a prophecy."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "That's a suspiciously specific list."
Orrin waved a hand. "Learned experience."
He cleared his throat and the air pinged softly.
[ GROUP QUEST AVAILABLE ]
[ TITLE: WOODSIDE MAINTENANCE ]
[ DIFFICULTY: LOW ]
[ RISK: MINIMAL ]
[ DESCRIPTION: INVESTIGATE MINOR ARCANE DISTURBANCE ]
Ethan stared at the floating text.
"…That sounds fake."
Kael read it twice. "That sounds harmless."
[ HARBINGER WARNING: WORDS LIKE 'MINOR' ARE OFTEN LYING ]
Orrin clasped his hands. "See? Perfectly reasonable. Something's buzzing in the woods. Animals acting odd. Lights at night. Probably nothing."
Ethan's eye twitched. "You said probably."
Orrin smiled wider. "I'm a mage, not a liar."
Kael perked up. "What's the reward?"
Orrin shrugged. "Experience. Insight. Maybe some coin. Definitely answers that won't actually answer anything."
Ethan groaned. "That's the worst kind."
"But," Orrin added, pointing at Ethan, "you're a healer who doesn't want to break the world."
Ethan stiffened.
"And you," Orrin continued, pointing at Kael, "are an aesthetic ranger who looks like a decoy."
Kael beamed. "Finally. Recognition."
Orrin spread his hands. "Together, you're exactly the sort of people who don't escalate situations."
Ethan stared at the quest text again.
Low difficulty.
Minimal risk.
Investigate.
No fighting mentioned.
No economy.
No buildings.
Just… woods.
Ethan swallowed.
"…How far into the woods?"
Orrin pointed. "Not far. Maybe an hour."
Kael grinned. "Come on. What's the worst that could happen?"
[ LOUD INCORRECT STATEMENT LOGGED ]
Ethan sighed deeply.
"Okay," he said. "But if this turns into a cursed ruin, a forgotten god, or a goat—"
Orrin raised a hand solemnly. "I promise. No goats."
The System flickered.
[ QUEST ACCEPTED ]
[ PARTY COMPOSITION: QUESTIONABLE ]
[ EXPECTATIONS: LOW ]
Kael clapped his hands together. "Well then. Lead the way, Beard Wizard."
Orrin stroked his beard fondly. "It's seen worse."
Ethan adjusted his pack and stepped off the road toward the trees.
He had a bad feeling.
But then again—
That was normal now.