I woke up fully rested and for better or worse alive, I don’t know how many hours I have slept but I do feel somewhat refreshed. I still have some lingering thoughts about what happened that day, but I put that behind me and move on. I need to get out of this country as fast as possible!

And like that I proceed forward. A couple of days come and go as I make it through the dense forests. At one point I even wonder if I am going the right way or if there is anything to where I am heading in the first place.

Now that I think about it, there is no guarantee Ryo did not just send me on a wild goose chase... But at end of the day, I don’t really have anywhere to go. And at this rate my food supply will not last long…

I tried my [Identify] skill to see if with help of [Creationist: Analyze Everything], I can get a bit more information about things, but found it somewhat useless as seen.

Ancient Mithril Dagger

A dagger made out of mithril which has been lying around for many millenniums. It is so old that it began to deteriorate out of old age, which is saying a lot considering mithril is known for its longevity. Due to the deterioration, the properties of the dagger have been significantly weakened.

+6 STR +4 AGI +4 INT +1 DEX

Durability: 24 / 15,000

Analysis: Made of mithril

Talk about “no duh sherlock”! The information it gave me was pretty much all over the place of mostly things I already knew to begin with. I probably need a higher [PER] or higher level to make any actual use of it. Until then, I am stuck with captain obvious.

Putting that aside, the question comes down to what exactly do I plan to do moving forward. Do I attempt to make contact with civilization again? Or do I try to somehow make it out in the wilderness?

So far, I did my best to avoid monsters through detecting them early with [Smell Sense] and [Hearing Sense]. And sometimes even running away with [Charge] and [Sprint] or hiding via [Blend Stealth]. With this reservoir of skills, I was able to somehow avoid fighting for the time being.

Now sure, I will be able to gain levels if I fought. But back then I fought because I had no choice, now though things are a bit different. There is no reason to take any extra risks, unlike before I do not have a second person looking out for me, so who knows what kind of situation might arise. I also do not have a 100% safe place to sleep and rest after a fight. So the risks are even higher.

Of course that does not mean I have given up! The most efficient and safe method is to utilize traps! The ideal would be if I make a trap and get XP for my production class, then when killing the monster who fell in the trap get XP towards my racial class. I would then get an extra bonus for utilizing my trap! Talk about hitting 3 birds with one stone!

So even if I remain outside of civilization, I should be fine? Probably?…

Well either way, it does not change the fact that I still need to find a town. Even if I plan to avoid civilization for the most part, there are a few things that I require. The first thing is learning if I have left the country I was in...wait a second...what country was I in? Ugh! I only know the name of the village but not the name of the country!

This puts a huge damper on my original plan on spying on merchants to get information...I may be able to manage if I come across a merchant in the middle of the road that I am positive I can defeat and say something like “I came from Diara Village and got lost while heading towards a neighboring country to the south east, do you happen to know the directions?”.

Though there is definitely a risk in that...If there is now a bounty on me, then it would provide a hint for tracking me down. Not to mention the merchant may refuse to even talk to me...I can threaten him, but if there is no bounty on me, there will surely be one after.

There is also the option of killing the merchant after I get my answers… But can I really do something like that? Sure I killed that middle aged man...but I still believe he deserved it… killing someone innocent… Can I really do that?

Lets get back to that thought at a later time… There is also other benefits of getting close to a town. For one, the amount of monsters near towns and villages are less abundant, so even if I decide to stay away from civilization, I would be more likely to find a safe place to sleep.

And if the town is the size of Diara Village with low security, during night days I can probably sneak in and snatch some stuff with the help of [Night Vision] and [Blend Stealth]. Maybe on some days I can stay hidden somewhere with [Blend Stealth] and steal some production skills as well!

On top of that, if I get attacked by a powerful monster that I won’t be able to run away from. I can kite it to town and get assistance. Now obviously there is no way I can get away with doing that without some repercussions, this isn’t a video game where you bring the boss mob to town and NPCs take care of it for you and then just let you go scot-free.

But even still, I’ll take 80% chance of being killed to 100% any day...Speaking of which… the amount of monsters have decreased quite a bit the past day… does that mean I am closing into a town? Though knowing my luck, I might be closing in the territory of a strong monster instead…

No! No! Lets not jinx myself and trigger any flags...I’ve had enough BS already!

Either way… I am still hesitant on joining civilization… and there is definitely issues with just living in the wilderness… unlike animals, monsters actively seek you out and try to kill you. So I think a good compromise would be a hybrid of both… live in the wilderness not to far from town…

And if I can sneak in and steal some production skills...and with some luck maybe I can do THAT cheat! You know the good old golem cheat! If I can make golems to protect myself during both sleep and hunting, that would be awesome! Of course there is a possibility create golem is a magic skill rather than a combination of blacksmithing and enchanting… It could also be both…

Well anyways… lets not get too distracted…

And just like that I made up my mind on the path forward.