Name And New Friend

Quite some time has passed since my encounter with Camish and Santos. I would not go so far as to say it was a pleasant encounter, for after all blood was shed due to our skirmish. That being so, it was not all for naught as I managed to gain something useful from that.

I realized something with my powers after that brawl. "Blood manipulation" still needed some output adjustments, and unlike "Ability Absorber" it required an activation sequence. Ability Absorber is always active, hence gaining the skills of my victims was not much of a task. Although, blood manipulation apparently lagged when used without incantations.

Preferably speaking an activation sequence would be for me to call out the name of the skill I want to use. Skill "piercing blood" is fast as it already is, however it was obvious to me that actually calling out the name of the skill before activation gave it more power and stability.

I was also enlightened by how much knowledge I had gained from those that had died by my hand. In comparison to the abilities gained from the monsters and creatures I had hunted, this was surprising because they had no knowledge to be taken other than their survival instinct. But apparently the more an intelligent species I hunted, the more knowledge I would gain from ability absorption skills. This will definitely prove to be quite useful to gaining knowledge about the world of the humans.

There was nothing left to do anymore at the town of "Brogue", hence just as planned before, departing the town was already in progress. Back when I was apprehended by Camish and Santos, their hideout was quite a ways far from the town. Since there was no longer any need to go back, from there continued my journey to wherever my legs would take me to.

Traveling beforehand was a breeze since I was accompanied by the {four legged creature} and since we parted ways, the only option left for me to do was to travel by foot.

It took about two days long of walking before coming across a caravan full of people which was coming from the same direction as I did. Although I was now fairly able to understand their tongue, communicating was still quite a difficult task to accomplish. Nevertheless, I was able to have small talks. After all, I had been practicing that for the two days I've been traveling. They paused their journey as they spotted me on the way and decided to give me a ride. I was perplexed at how openly eager they were to offer a ride to a stranger, but it was of no consequence since I could handle them if it came down to it. That aside, walking for two straight days was starting to tire me out, so I accepted their offer and hitched a ride with them.

After I had joined them on their journey, one of the men amongst them approached me and asked of my name. It was then that I remembered, during my encounter with Camish and Santos they referred to each other by addressing themselves as such.

Eager to know what he meant by name I asked, what exactly is a name and do I have one? Judging from how he went silent after my question, I thought maybe he did not quite understand the question I'd asked. Although it was nothing of that sought, the man then explained to me what having a name was and it's meaning.

[******]

I would later on come to find out that, that particular caravan had a rule about not digging up any information whatsoever about the people that ride in it. The motive behind this rule was to avoid getting entangled in the business of others. That is probably the reason why that man had asked me no questions concerning if I had a name or not.

His explanation to my question was short, and all he said was that having a name meant having an identity. He then introduced himself as "Jin the blacksmith". From then on Jin kept on talking to me and answering any questions I had asked of him. Apparently the caravan was headed to a town close to the capital city, the town in question was known as "Mumbai". After another two days stretch of traveling, he asked if I wanted a name of my own. Without giving me much time to think about it, had he written down a couple of names on a sheet of paper and told me to choose any one from them.

That was when I made him aware of my incompetency to read, and so Jin had pronounced the names out loud to my understanding. Among the names he mentioned was "Raphael", that caught my attention and we settled upon that name to be my own.

After that Jin introduced himself once again to me and asked me to do same.

[***]

My name is Raphael.