Back in the City

Lyle walked through the forest with steady steps, most of the bleeding had now stopped since he had used his ability in order to coagulate the blood in order to stop the bleeding.

His mana had replenished by a bit, and even though he was still nowhere to being back to his full strength, he had enough for a battle, if there was any.

Lyle still didn't plan on fighting, even though he had mana and he had managed to stop his bleeding, fighting again could worsen his injuries, something he definitely wanted to avoid right now.

With the bleeding stopped, and the blood from his body gone, Lyle was now more confident when it came to going through the forest and avoiding the monsters that inhabited it.

His spear, even though it was still in one piece, had a few small cracks on it. Lyle figured that it could be used for a battle or two before it would break, a pity since he couldn't really stop to get a new branch and create another spear.

It mattered little, however, as Lyle wasn't planning on fighting if he wasn't forced to. His gear was back in the city, and his outfit and daggers were in an inn he had checked into yesterday. He had paid for a whole week in the top room in advance.

Lyle had luckily disguised himself when he tried to assassinate the duke so that nobody would recognize him. His plan was to get caught before assassinating the duke in his chambers, he didn't need his gear as it would simply be confiscated by the guards, and trying to find it after breaking out would have been a nightmare.

To be even safer, Lyle made a simple magic formation in the room, it was one that was used to create the most basic of an illusion. The illusion was cast on a corner of the room where Lyle had removed the planks of the floor and hid his gear in.

Even if the owners of the inn were to go into the room, they would find nothing out of the ordinary in it.

He had also left the room by jumping out of the window. He made sure that nobody had seen him as he had already disguised himself at that point.

His disguise, coupled with the fact that he was never seen leaving the room should make the receptionist and the two owners of the inn believe that he was still in his room, sleeping.

They would probably feel shocked to see him after he returned, but it was of little concern to Lyle who was planning on switching inns right away.

Lyle walked toward the city with slow steps, he didn't need to hurry since it would still take a while for the sun to rise. Avoiding any stray monsters was what he needed to do right now.

Luck seemed to be on his side as even after walking for about 2 hours, he hadn't come across any monster.

'It seems like the part closer to the city is still devoid of the monsters, good, that makes it easier for me to go deeper in the forest to fight, not to mention that leaving the forest is now much easier for me.' Lyle thought as he walked normally now.

His mana was full once again and the bleeding had stopped completely. Lyle had used his ability a couple of times previously in order to stop it, after he finished coagulating the blood at all the places where he was bleeding, he once again looked for a river or pond.

He didn't fully get in this time, however, but merely used his hand to wash off any blood that was present on his body.

After about 30 more minutes of walking, Lyle could finally see the city.

The gates were open. That was the most important part.

'Good, it seems that the commander had ordered for the lockdown to be lifted, this makes things much easier for me.' Lyle thought as he finally left the forest.

The city was still a bit away, and it took Lyle about 4 minutes to walk over to it.

"Halt!" The guards yelled out as they stared at Lyle.

'Hmm, the royal soldiers?' Lyle thought as he stared at the soldiers that were guarding the gates. There were only three of them present, but even one was enough.

Nobody would dare cause any trouble upon seeing the royal crest on their armor.

"Who are you?" One of the soldiers said as he observed Lyle. His ragged appearance alarmed the soldiers as they could see claw and bite marks on his body.

"I, I'm a hunter, sir, I was in the forest and lost track of time, while I was returning that voice rang inside my head, monsters suddenly appeared and, and I almost died, please, let me go in, I just want to rest." Lyle presented a distraught face as he went down on his knees.

The lack of mana made the soldiers less wary of him. Lyle had used his ability to change the color of his eyes and hair into black, which was a lot less eye-catching than his usual red one.

'I can simply tell them the code so that they know I am the assassin they are working with, but that would put too much-unwarranted attention on me, they will definitely escort me to the castle and interrogate me about Ilya and what had transpired in the castle, that will be my final resort.' Lyle thought as he stared at the soldiers with teary eyes.

"Monsters appeared, in the forest?!" One of the soldiers asked in shock as he stared at Lyle.

"Y-yes sir, I don't know why, I was a bit deeper in the forest, but there had been no sighting for a while, suddenly goblins, toskars, wolves, all manners of monsters had appeared inside, I barely managed to survive," Lyle said as he pointed to his wounds.

The wounds had started bleeding once again and Lyle had even manipulated the blood to flow out more and cover a good portion of his body. If he had simply arrived without any bleeding, the soldiers would have definitely become suspicious of him.

The soldiers glanced at each other before one nodded and approached Lyle.

"It's alright, you can go in, but first, take this and smear it on your wounds, it should stop the bleeding." The soldier said as he gave Lyle a small bottle of what looked to be a balm.

'Healing balm, how nice of you.' Lyle thought as he took the balm from the soldier's hands before opening it. His hands trembled a bit as he applied the balm to his injuries, faking being in pain to make them less wary of him and to cause more sympathy from them.

"Can you walk, do you need any help in getting back home?" One of the soldiers asked as he looked at Lyle with slight concern.

"You don't need to be shy, the information you have given us about the forest changing is valuable, this is the least we can do." Another soldier said before Lyle shook his head.

"No, I will be fine sirs, this bottle you have given me is more than enough, thank you," Lyle said as he stared at them with tears falling down his face before bowing slightly to the soldiers that looked to be bit uncomfortable.

"It's alright, please, get in, go and get some rest." A soldier said before urging Lyle to get inside.

Lyle bowed once again as he entered the city before walking towards the inn.

He first made sure that the soldiers were not following him before going in a roundabout way and finally reaching the inn.

A lot of people had been woken up by the mage when he had shouted about the duke's death, which made people panic.

Most were still up, but they luckily stayed in their houses.

Lyle approached the inn before looking around and jumping on a nearby house. He quickly started climbing up on roofs before jumping on top of the inn. He scaled the wall down before entering his room through the open window.

'Everything is still the same, good.' Lyle thought as he looked around the room, it seemed that nobody had entered it after he had left.

He first entered the bathroom. There was a shower installed inside, a couple of large barrels of water were placed on the roof of the inn and small formations that drew in heat were created on the bottom of them.

Thanks to that, the last two floors of the inn, where the best rooms were located in, had access to warm water.

Lyle took a quick shower before drying himself with a towel. He then took some of the clothes he had left in the room and lay down on the bed.

The night had been full of surprises and he almost lost his life twice. The arrival of the system would without a doubt cause great turmoil in the world, but for Lyle, it was a chance, a chance to rise up and become more powerful than he had ever dreamed of.

With those thoughts in his mind, he closed his eyes before falling asleep.