There wasn't a single city around the path he selected. But that didn't help him in the end.
William didn't know that the seal he had wasn't that simple. It carried the scent of the Hot Snow lands, and it'd grow thicker the more he resisted it.
If he let the seal work its effect and didn't partially break it using his arrays, then he wouldn't have faced such a weird situation against monsters.
It wasn't the problem of monsters having strong senses to his battles or humans, but it was because of him acting like a magnet for trouble. Anywhere he went, his scent would start to spread out fast, covering up an area of tens of kilometres around, turning monsters crazy and drawing them all towards him.
This was all related to the true origin of this seal. The ones who were behind such a thing in the first place made sure that no one with the ability to break this curse would survive long enough in this world, fearing to teach another master the right way to undo the seal or something.