Alaric eventually approached the point on the map that he was headed towards,
sure enough, there was a beach.
Along his way, there were a couple other run down shacks that he saw in the forest. He could eventually explore those, but first he needed to focus on his run down shack.
Alaric soon enough came close enough to the beach. There were some trees near the beach, so Alaric decided that he would tie his boat to the trees.
He had initially thought of making his own dock, but that would be a lot of work.
Also, it was more variable. If it fell apart and his boat went out to sea, he was as good as dead. There would be almost no way he would be able to survive going through the numerous deadly woods in order to get back to civilization. The area he was in was very remote.
In this world, remote was a relative term. Because of how dangerous the wilderness can be, most populations are based in cities, such as Merchant Coast.
Humanity was spread apart in high-population pockets. It was incredibly rare to have a standalone village in a secluded area.
The run down houses out here existed for a couple possible reasons.
For one, they can sometimes be hunting outposts for mages. Having a place to go and rest between fights would be useful.
Two, there were people like Alaric who wanted isolation. The introverts of the world suffered everyday being in large cities where there are people everywhere.
For some people, the dangers of being more isolated were better than the dangers of being around lots of people.
Alaric eventually tied up the boat on the beach, he whistled a tune as he did so. He would have to find some way to occupy himself.
Alaric took the rat out.
"Don't go far. It's not safe." Alaric said.
The rat nodded.
"It's so crazy how you understand what I'm saying. Maybe you don't. I don't know." Alaric said to the rat.
The rat was just a rat. But, after being with Alaric, it attended to him a little. At this point, the rat saw Alaric as his closest companion. He wouldn't have gone this far with him if he didn't like Alaric. Plus he got food.
As a matter of fact, the rat was thinking more of what he could do for Alaric. He really had provided nothing for him.
He needed a purpose.
Alaric now had tied it to the tree. He was good to go to start bringing stuff up to the house.
The river was nearby, as well as the woods.
Next to the river, the land was flat. The woods had little texture.
But there was danger. Even now, Alaric could hear faint noises coming from the forest. If his memory served him correctly, his house was in the wolf side of the river.
Alaric shrugged. He just decided to start taking stuff up.
He filled up a couple bags full of goods, and made his way.
Alaric was fit and had a decent body, so it would likely take him thirty minutes to get to the house. This was due to the backpack and the things he would be carrying.
Alaric made sure to keep the machete on him. He would have to be extremely careful. He had also bought a couple other weapons with him as a backup. These served dual purpose of possible bait for the shotgun, as well as for defending himself. But these weapons were of poor quality.
In the story, the shotgun was fished up with a rusty sword. Not an amazing strong sword with an amazing personality made by a pretentious craftsman.
Alaric imagined a bulky man wearing some kind of artisanal weapon making apron forging a sword in a volcano with the breath of a dragon or something.
The weapons he had were nothing like that. They were toy-tier weapons that Alaric could trust a small child with. In fact, most of them were children's weapons.
Alaric's machete was still the premier weapon that he would use.
Hopefully Alaric would be able to fish up something better. If he could get whatever the shotgun was, or use the flame fish to burn things, that would increase his damage ability by a lot.
While thinking about this, Alaric finally ended up reaching the house.
It was even worse than he thought. Seeing the picture in his mind, it must have been a couple years since that person drew it.
The house could be describe as a shit hole.
The outside was made from crumbling brick. This brick house however would likely easily topple from the huffing and puffing of a wolf.
There were two windows on the house and a door. The one side of the house that faced the ocean was the face that had no window.
Both of the windows used to be made of glass, but they had since shattered.
The roof was made of wood, and was a classic triangular roof.
The outside didn't make the house seem that large. Alaric estimated that the house was about 150 square feet.
Alaric headed inside to inspect it.
There was nothing inside. It just had a crummy floor that was also made of brick. It was effectively a plot of land with a shell on it.
For an average person, this wouldn't be considered an adequate living space.
Alaric didn't love it either. But he would be able to change it.
Alaric put down the stuff he brought, and hurried down back to the boat.
He took three trips to get all of the stuff up.
Then he started to unpack.
He made a crude bed, and a place to keep the food.
He had plenty of bags, so he created a food bag to rest in the house.
He placed his pile of bait down as well. There were various flame related goods, weapons, and bottles of alcohol.
Alaric made a clothes pile as well.
After he had totally unpacked, the room felt even more cramped. It was truly a utilitarian living space.
But it would have to do.