Chapter Fourteen: A Long Walk With Tough Thoughts

Kenjiro was on the road, or in actuality a dirt path, towards the nearest town. From what he had heard from the villagers when he was staying there, it was fairly big for a town and had everything one would need.

It wasn't that hot out today so Kenjiro didn't need to take off any extra layers. He still had his clothes he got from the village and had his mask that was now hanging around his neck so he could get some fresh air.

He was carrying an okay made sack over his shoulder that was carrying the Lion Sword and the one piece of leather armour that he took. He also had some other necessities in it, such as food, a flask of water, some money that the village could spare for him and a blanket to keep him warm during the night.

Kenjiro wondered what the town would be like. How many people would there be? And other stuff like that.

Although if he could he would try to not interact with many people. He never liked social interactions before coming here, but now the thought about it repulsed him a little. Maybe he had trust issues? Social anxiety?

Now that he was thinking about it, it would make sense. He got betrayed, and all that stuff. He prefers not to think about the details. And if he did have trust issues then the only reason why he probably got along with the villagers was because they saved him.

Kenjiro started to get a headache just thinking about it. Nothing seemed to go his way in life, and now he had trust issues, that he was unsure if he actually had them? Just brilliant, wasn't it?!

He stopped thinking about it and focused now on something he could control, something he already had.

His stats and skills. He hadn't actually checked what they were after eating the Goblin Lord mostly because he was in a rush to leave, especially after Danno saw the blood on his shirt, which he somehow knew was the Goblins. Kenjiro looked down just to make sure he didn't have any more blood on it. He didn't thankfully.

Now that he looked at it the Goblin Lord didn't give much skills and some of his stats had improved massively, others… not so much.

And that kinda annoyed Kenjiro, it wasn't as balanced as it was before, it was kinda hurting him to look at it. In games, he would always choose characters that had the best average stats, unless he already knew they wouldn't work.

Kenjiro stopped walking and thinking for a second before scoffing at himself and then continuing his walk. He couldn't believe his thinking just then, just because he had a status he thought of it as a game. Even if it was just for a second he was disappointed in himself, this wasn't a game, and he knew he could die very easily. Hell, his first day here he almost died twice- and there he goes thinking of bad stuff again.

Kenjiro shook his head clear from those thoughts and instead focused on his stats right in front of him. Although he could still feel his mind thinking about it, he tried to ignore it.

[STATUS:

NAME: Kenjiro Yoshihisa

GENDER: Male

AGE: 16

CLASS: (N/A)

MANA: 43

STRENGTH: 78

AGILITY: 46

DEXTERITY: 39

ENDURANCE: 68]

He was impressed by his stats, as much as the unevenness of it bothered him. His strength was close to one hundred and his mana finally went up, which was a great improvement in his mind.

And then his skills, although he only got two new ones they were useful in their own right.

[Basic Regeneration

Source: Goblin Lord

Type: Passive

Description: Accelerates healing using natural means. It only heals moderately faster than normal but can't heal anything fatal, within the time to save the user, and can't regrow limbs. Doesn't heal anything with curses.]

That was a very useful skill, even if it only slightly increased his healing slightly faster than normal, and probably wouldn't be useful in a fight, at least he had some healing ability.

And then the next one was… he looked at it for a second before letting out a slightly annoyed sigh. It was useful, it was very useful in fact, but him thinking about the trust issues he might have, even if he wasn't sure about it, made him look at this skill in a slightly… disfavorable way.

[Leader Species

Source: Goblin Lord

Type: Active

Description: Using mana the person can increase the strength of people he is fighting with for the amount of mana they use. Only works within a certain range of area from the user.]

Now as useful as it was, he didn't even like talking to people normally before coming to this world, so either he would have to suck it up and work with someone else or… he could work by himself.

He was already leaning towards just working by himself, just the thought of it sounded good. Plus he wasn't going to go out of his comfort zone just to get use out of a skill.

And then another reason popped into his mind. And it had to do with what Danno said before he left.

"Just make sure no one finds out about your eating habits. I don't know why or how you're doing it, but…"

Clearly eating monsters wasn't common, and Kenjiro didn't expect it to be. They tasted like trash, even though it was only the Goblins that he had eaten, he didn't expect the others to taste any better.

It was pretty much confirmed at this point that Kenjiro would be working alone, at least in his mind. Maybe something would change in the future and he would get a party to work with, but for now he was fine working by himself.

He slightly creased his eyebrows in annoyance and let out an annoyed sigh. But what if the adventurer guild made people work in party's. That would be annoying.

And now right here was another problem of his, over-thinking stuff that he stressed about. Sometimes it wasn't even that big of a deal and he would be stressing over it badly.

Kenjiro hated stressing over stuff, but he knew in this world it was going to be a more common thing for him. The reason he hated it so much was because his body just randomly skyrocketed in heat when he was stressed, making him more stressed.

By this point in his journey away from the village he had gotten pretty far. He had seen some other paths join the bigger path that he was on, so he wouldn't be surprised if he saw someone. The paths probably went to other small villages or smaller towns.

Hopefully he could put his mask back in before they saw his face though.

It was starting to get late by now, the sky starting to change into an orange hue. So Kenjiro decided to just keep on walking until he couldn't see the sun anymore.

It wasn't actually that long until it happened, at least to Kenjiro it didn't feel that long. So, Kenjiro decided that was enough travelling for him that night and settled down at the edge of the path, so when he woke up he could continue his journey.

It was cold out that night, but it wouldn't kill him so he just sucked it up and tried to get as comfy as he could with his blanket and travelling sack.

Surprisingly it was easy to fall asleep at night, perhaps he was tired from all the walking he had done, he wasn't sure.

And surprisingly when he woke up the next day, although sore because he slept on the ground, none of his stuff had been stolen. Although he wasn't sure if bandits were common here. And yes, he knew about bandits, they were basically mediaeval robbers, so of course they would exist.

So, although sore, he got up and started his journey once again. From what Eisen had told him, the town was about a day and a half's travel on foot, so he should be reaching there today.

To keep himself occupied he started to kick stones in front of him. Focusing on one to see how far he could take it with him.

He actually got fairly far with, before he kicked again and his foot got stuck on a solid piece of dirt and he tripped.

So with a face plant that irritated his scars because he wasn't wearing his mask, he wiped the dirt off his face after he got up and looked around to make sure there were definitely no other people there.

Once he was sure there wasn't he decided to take out his embarrassment on the ground by stopping on it before moving in with a curse. "Fuck you." He muttered before continuing and not kicking anymore rocks.

Kenjiro kept walking for a bit until he heard something coming behind him, when he turned around he saw a carriage, maybe a merchant, coming towards him. Not that it was heading straight towards him, as it wasnt the horses were still under the control of the coachman, it was just he was on the path, so of course it would be reading towards.

So with a little bit of a hurry he put back on his mask. He just didn't feel comfortable with someone seeing his scarred face like this. They would look at him differently, and he didn't want that.

So he walked over to the side of the path, onto the grass so that the carriage could pass him while he continued to walk along. Although now that he saw a carriage here, that probably meant he was near the town he was heading to.

The carriage didnt stop and now that he looked at it, it probably was the carriage of a merchant, as it had wooden crates in the back. And Kenjiro doubted anyone in a high position who could afford a carriage would have them in the back, they would probably have a separate carriage for it.

It went a few metres ahead of him before it stopped and a person got out of it. Kenjiro looked at the man a little bit curious, but also wondering why he stopped in front of him. And with that worry in his head, even if only subconsciously Kenjiro started to clench his fist.

The man that got out of the carriage was a little bit on the fatter side, he was wearing a suit that looked good compared to the rest of the clothes kenjiro had seen in this world but he had seen some suits in his world and this suit couldn't compare to them.

"Hey you, need a ride? I'll let you on the carriage for eight copper coins. What do you say?" The man asked as a greedy grin grew on his face.

Kenjiro wasn't going to say yes in the first place, to anything the man would have to offer, but just seeing the look on his face just increased his need to get away from this guy. He didn't like the feeling the guy gave off. It wasn't that Kenjiro could feel that he was evil, no it was that Kenjiro could literally feel the amount of greed this guy had. And it wasn't the healthy kind, it was the type that he would do anything to get what he wanted.

So Kenjiro just shook his head in denial and walked past the shocked man, who was just about to start rubbing his hands together.

The tubby man turned around faster than should've been possible and looked at Kenjiro in shock and a bit of rage. "What do you mean?! Don't you know who I am?! I am the Great Julius von Everbuild!" Kenjiro didn't turn around to see the man who was probably waving his arms in the air. "I'll remember this!" He shouted before he got in his carriage and went ahead, and Kenjiro could see the coachman shake his head, clearly he didn't like his employer.

And it was good that Kenjiro didn't accept his offer, as when he climbed up a small hill in front of him, he saw the town. It was much bigger than the village, with big stone walls and a big gate, there was a little queue outside the town with a seperate line for people and carriages.