It had taken Kent two more barely sleepless nights to reach the outskirts of Reinsteel. Halfway through the second night, the entire forest had been cleared as a group of several hundred identically equipped people rushed through the forest from Reinsteel. Issar’s legion if Kent wasn’t mistaken.

He had been lucky for just being ignored or not seen but it had driven him to even greater performance. His cloak had seen several use cases, allowing for safer and quicker turrl disposal – especially groups. A shame that not even the passage of hundreds of soldiers had given a halt to the endless waves of annoyingly small squirrels. He would kiss whoever was to break that stupid dungeon. The turrls truly were a pest. Doing so himself was far out of Kent’s abilities, and so was finding it.

The best events of the last couple of days had been actual changes in his status. Something about his vastly inflated mana used or the cloaks enchantments had inflated his magic rating by a whooping addition of two. Endurance had seen a point of growth as well, quite unexpected given how high that already was.

The most important takeaway was that he had four more seconds under the effect of his cloak. And he was still able to use it just as frequently. Due to a fear of being found he had completely given up on using his firestone, the dangers of creating a fire were just too great.

Now basking in the feeling of safety just on the edge of the soothing effect of Reinsteel’s zone of civilization began he considered his next steps.

He had glimpsed the town walls and they had been disheartening. The few one- and two-story houses outside the wall didn’t even reach halfway up the stony obstacle. Climbing was not an option even if there were sufficient handholds to be found. Walking up to the front gate not even worth considering.

Kent regretted his lack of funds currently. With a bit of coin, he would have been able to buy some food from the farmers that were harvesting the fields currently but instead he would have to sustain himself with the few veggies he had found on his way. He would not make the mistake of potentially eating dungeon-born monsters.

Had his magic attribute been higher and to a lesser degree his senses attribute, he might have had a chance of finding a few drips in the plethora of monster carcasses he had left behind. But without the shoddy, short, ranged mana sight one developed at a magic and senses counter of ten he was helpless and didn’t have the time to rummage through monster intestines for hours, only to be rewarded with nothing.

No matter, he thought. This was an old issue; one he had mourned a few times the last couple of days.

His only real option, just like Garof had said, was to move on. Get to Farburg or maybe one of the villages between here and there. With any luck they wouldn’t bother identifying him, maybe thinking him too young yet.

It was a stupid risk to take. But it would also allow for a bit of calm, less stress than the previous days, and most importantly a full night of sleep. Kent scratched across where hours before had been a large open wound, caused by falling out of the tree he had taken a break-in.

Definitely need a place to stay for a couple of days.

Sadly, it seemed that Reinsteel couldn’t offer this, he threw a long glance at the still long queue of people from his home, waiting at the city gates to be admitted into the very same.

No doubt they are checking for all sorts of things, maybe even full status checks.

He hesitated just a moment longer before taking off again. The half-day he had waited here for his village, to try and spot his family, had been spent in vain. Ironically everywhere else their green hair would stand out, just not in a village where about a third had the tendency to develop colorful hair as a manifestation of their trait.

The journey along the zone proved easy for the most part. Due to the size of it, he would spend the better part of the day until he reached the designated road. But maybe he would finally be able to use trodden paths instead of rushing through the underbrush.

Dusk had drawn closer when he could make out the paved road that led to Farburg a couple hundred paces away. He had spied a small grove sometime earlier and planned on checking it out before heading down the road in hopes of finding a good place to rest. Due to its placement inside the actual zone of civilization, he deemed it to be an actual safe sleeping spot. Surrounded by fields on all sides it would offer ample time to spot approaching people – not that he would be able to spot anyone asleep.

***

(Day 7)

As luck or maybe one of the dead or alive deities out there would have it, Kent was able to get a solid bit of sleep in without being disturbed even once. Yet something had woken him up before the sun crested the horizon.

That was as good a sign as any for Kent to get on his way.

With his stamina finally regenerated to full once again he felt as invigorated as he hadn’t been in days. His high spirits in combination with being tired from travails of hiking through shrubbery for too long made the temptation to walk the path too enticing. To forgo the arduousness of navigating shrubbery was calling him.

He justified it by telling himself that any high-level conquerer usually traversing between the towns would be asked to stay for the potential defense of the city.

Walking stopped being a chore and became almost boring on the road. So much that he strummed up a light jog to keep the boredom at bay. He hummed children's rhymes and songs as he went along the path, enjoying the occasional ray of the sun burning through the canopy.

Twice he had hidden in the dense shrubbery, only paces away from the road when he had heard voices approach and both times, they had been none the wiser.

Hunger eventually caused Kent to spread his awareness on the sides of the road. Over decades people had grown trees and bushes along the long connecting paths between cities to enable more carefree travel and trade.

It being Autumn lend itself to the harvest of nuts and seeds. Food that would sustain him for longer than the berries of spring and the fruits of summer.

He came to a stop under a hullm tree. Its thump-sized, slightly curved seeds being one of his favorites. The earthy yet fragrant smell in combination with a crunchy texture lend itself to accent fragrant soup dishes or stews. Yet, he was not to enjoy the delicious taste of the roasted nut, time might not be as important a factor as it had been on the way to Reinsteel, but it still wasn’t a luxury.

Cracking the hard shell between two rocks was easy if a little time-consuming. The nuts he had picked from the ground proved plenty.

“Heh! ‘ou hear that. Think that’ight a monster?” a voice yelled from further down the road. The accent was odd, and unplaceable for Kent, the voice unpleasantly rough and ambisexual. As the first syllable had thumbed through the forest Kent had begun rushing off into the shrubbery. Not stopping for a good while.

“Don’t be so jumpy. I bet it was… nevermind,” a quieter voice said, carrying better than it should have given by its volume. There was no better indicator for someone of a bard class.

Slowly the other person’s soft bass got lost under the singing of birds and the rustling of trees blown by the wind, yet it was still discernable.

Judging his position to be far enough removed from the road he hunkered down behind a dense bush. Regardless of how good perception was, no one could look through obstacles.

He still heard the melodious bass of the bard but oddly enough it never switched direction nor changed in volume or pitch.

“You think bandits? Na, I highly doubt that,” said the bard followed by a brief lull in the conversation.

“You’ll get plenty of people to measure against when we meet up with Rook and Vecs in Reinsteel.”

Suddenly a large paw pressed down on his shoulder.

“Now who are you and why are you running away from us?” asked the pleasant bass of the bard from right behind him.