013

I was still recovering seeing as the light green paste was almost completely absorbed by my body.

The dark green paste had long done its part of healing my stomach. I can only say that I’m surprised at just how effective this is. Other than a small scar, there is nothing there, and even that scar would probably fade over time.

I am only alive because these people decided to help. I will definitely pay them back. I promised myself in my heart.

After a while, we could see two figures walking towards us in the distance.

Looks like Walter and Gina knew how long they might be gone, so by the time those two were coming back, the carriage was almost ready to leave. I was busy chatting it up with Aagon to notice. He was showing me some of his magic.

Of the two people, one was a tall muscular man in his forties wearing pretty bulky clothing, he was also carrying a shield on his back. He must be the party leader, Kyle. The other was a young man with a clean shaved face, he wasn’t as remarkable or tough looking as the other one but he looked calm, his weapon of choice was a pretty thin, almost 1.5 m long sword on his back and he was also holding a small sack in his hand. He must be Jacob.

“Took you long enough.” Said Walter.

“Yeah, our friend here made quite a mess of the place.” Answered Kyle as he looked at me.

“What do you mean?” asked Gina curiously. Kyle’s words had picked up her interest.

Even I was curious. What did I do?

As if to answer my question, Jacob threw the small sack he was carrying on the ground. All of us with the exception of the two had their gazes fixed on the bag, just what was it?

Instead of answering any of us, Kyle instead looked at me and threw me something. My hand instinctively caught it in mid-air.

“This…”

“You defeated the twenty snow wolves near your camp, didn’t you? I assume you also made this knife yourself?”

“Yeah, I did.” I answered honestly.

From his words, the small bag contained something of the wolves I defeated, but why would he bring something like this back?

“It’s quite nice, you should keep it.”

I only nodded at that. The others noticed our conversation and were confused but only Gina was carefully looking at the antler knife.

She was a hunter, maybe she recognized what animal it came from.

“Do you want to take a closer look?” I asked presenting the knife to her.

She was baffled by my sudden question as she didn’t know I was observing her. Her face turned beet red, but she still didn’t let herself lose her cool as she calmly replied.

“No, thank you, I was just looking.”

I don’t understand, I mean, I made it from a deer, it isn’t that impressive.

Kyle and Jacob got in the carriage, Walter took the reins and we were off.

“This trip, it’s quite long and we are still around a day’s distance away from the town. You should probably rest seeing as your body still hasn’t absorbed the healing paste.”

Listening to Kyle’s advice, I slept in the quiet corner as the group made small chat among themselves.

I dozed off a while later completely oblivious to what they were talking about next.

…

Seeing as Grant was finally asleep again, Walter stopped the carriage after a few kilometres of travel. It was going to get dark soon, so they were setting up camp.

“So Kyle, what did you actually see back there?” asked Aagon.

Gina who was busy preparing the fire and Jacob who was helping her, their ears perked up listening to that question. Even Walter who was tying up the horses, was curiously listening.

“Let me ask you something. Do you sense anything from him?” Kyle asked mischievously.

“Nothing. He has almost non-existent Magic Power and the same amount of Battle Aura. I’m surprised he was able to last this long against the wolves.”

It was Gina who said it.

“Exactly, I wasn’t sure when I found him in the forest, but when I saw him after I returned, I was surprised to say the least, I sensed nothing from him. I’m even inclined to say that I’ve felt more Aura from a farmer. But here comes the interesting part.”

Saying that, he took out a small bag from his backpack, it was the same bag that Jacob had thrown on the ground containing the claws of roughly twenty wolves.

“This…”

“We checked all their injuries, his camp, everything, he did defeat all of them.” Said Kyle while pointing the carriage where Grant was still asleep.

“But how?” it was now Aagon’s turn to be surprised.

“Not even this, the knife that I gave him back was made from a White Blade Deer’s antlers. One that he hunted himself without any equipment. Add onto that the fact he was moving around almost naked in this strong of a cold. Our friend inside has a lot more skill that he shows.”

“Why don’t you tell them about the silver wolf?” it was Jacob who suddenly said that.

“What about the silver wolf?”

Kyle smiled and answered.

“It was already injured when we got there. Although I couldn’t make the connection back there, his hand most probably broke after he attacked the silver wolf also leaving its face mangled.”

The others didn’t say anything, but they all saw Grant in a different light.

The only conclusion they could come to was that he had some special skill that allowed him to do all these things. They still didn’t know much about him anyway.

He had been lost in the icy forest and had survived for who knows how long in there.

“We still don’t know anything about him other than his name. He says he doesn’t remember where he came from or where he was.” Said Walter.

“The first part is a lie, the second, I’m not sure.” Said Gina from the back. She was busy putting ingredients in the pot, so she had said this while her eyes were fixated on the utensil.

Gina had a special part in the team, she as a hunter had very high intuition, so she was very good at telling when someone was lying or telling the truth.

The reason she hadn’t been talking to Grant much is because she knew he had lied about not knowing where he came from, that was why she was being wary of him.

Kyle had a serious expression when he heard her say that. He had absolute trust in her, she had saved their asses on multiple occasions, and he was sure she wouldn’t just say something like this out of the blue.

“It’s almost dinner time, wake our guest up, we’ll ask him some questions during dinner. Maybe he’ll be willing to open up to me.”

…

I awoke to a sweet aroma, wait there is something spicy as well. I immediately opened my eyes and saw Gina looking at me from entrance of the carriage.

She looks at me with the same cold gaze as always, maybe it’s even fiercer now.

“Come, dinner is ready.” She said slowly.

I nodded and got out. They had given me some of Jacob’s spare clothes as his height was the only one that matched mine.

They also gave me some warm clothes but I didn’t wear them as I didn’t need them, and also, I wanted to slowly but surely increase the level of my only resistance skill.

I lightly stretched my body and let all my muscles loose as a satisfying pop was heard all around my body, now that the paste was completely absorbed and with the rest that I took now, I’ve fully recovered.

Lv.6 [990/2500]

HP: 167/167

MP: 0/0

BA: 0/0

QI: 311/311 [0.3/sec]

DEF: 50

Skills:

Sprint Lv.5

Quick Dash Lv.-

Cold Resistance Lv.3

Qi Manipulation Lv.4

Qi Regeneration Lv.3

Awareness Lv.3

Blessings:

Blessing of Understanding

With my health back to full, I feel incredible. And with this much Qi, I feel quite safe now.

Seeing me stretching, Walter said,

“You look quite healthy, come let’s have dinner.”

The dinner made was a stew with rice on the side.

Seeing me sit down with no warm clothes whatsoever, Aagon couldn’t hold it in and had to ask.

“Don’t you feel cold, Grant?”

“Not really, I have a resistance skill.” I answered casually.

But my answer seemed to have triggered something in these people, they all stopped eating and looked at me.

“What did you just say?” asked Kyle as if to confirm what he just heard.

“I have [Cold Resistance] that’s why I don’t feel cold…”

Did I say something weird? Are skills not a thing here?

“And what level is it?” this time it was Walter.

At least it looks like there are skills here, I’m not the weirdo here. I once again answered honestly.

“Level 3.”

“And what level are you?”

“Almost halfway level 6.”

Once again, silence. I’m definitely the weirdo here.

No one knew what to say, I didn’t know why they were acting like this, and I also don’t know what I said wrong, so I was just standing there looking at these people.

Kyle and the others looked at Gina for some reason and seemed to ask her something.

After what seemed to be a signal from her, they looked at me again.

It was Kyle who eventually broke the silence.

“That-That’s quite impressive, I’ll say Grant, where is your hometown? Are you from the Ice Garden Plateau as well?”

Ice Garden what? I knew he was trying to change the topic, but for me this was something even more difficult.

“I don’t know where that is actually…”

Telling someone that you don’t know something is extremely embarrassing, but it is still better than stupidly lying and saying anything.

I don’t actually mind if they think I’m dumb or something.

Sensing this as well, it was Kyle who said something first.

“Do you remember how you came here?”

“Umm, I don’t actually remember, the last thing I remember is the forest.”

He smiled wryly and looked at Gina, she seemed to have confirmed something and nodded.

He asked a few more questions similar to those. All of my answers receiving the same kind of confirmation from Gina. Eventually he too seemed tired as the food was starting to get cold, so he asked one last question.

“What were you eating in that place anyway?”

“It was a disgusting rabbit, I found it across from the huge lake in that direction.”

I said pointing towards the forest we had just crossed.

Kyle’s face had gone from being surprised to being horrified.

“A-and how long were you eating them?”

“I’ve lost count of the days honestly.”

Now all of their faces were filled with surprise. I didn’t understand why they were all making such a face, did I do something bad? What happened?

The most surprising one was Aagon, he almost had tears in his eyes as he looked at me. Even the remaining people were looking at me with eyes filled with pity.

“Gina, give him seconds.”

Gina nodded and filled my small bowl with even more stew and she added extra large pieces of meat along with it.

No one elaborated further and I was honestly too confused to ask again so we just ate. After dinner, they each took turns staying up to guard, when I volunteered, I was met with the most pitying eyes I’ve ever seen.

‘The people here are weird.’

I gave up and slept the entire night.