After working on with his Kampilan swordplay, Rakin switched to practicing Karate.

He had been practicing so intensively that he looked like he just came out of the shower with how drenched in sweat he is. He didn’t even notice that it was already so bright but just kept practicing and practicing until...

Rakin slumped down on the ground, dropping on all fours while panting heavily as his four limbs could be seen trembling from exhaustion.

“I’ve...I’ve never worked hard like this before. So the saying that when death is looming above you could motivate anyone is true. F*ck, this is tiring as hell”

Rakin eventually lay down on the ground and gazed at the peaceful sky through the canopy of leaves and branches while murmuring, “I just realized that I’m now feeling quite hungry. I wonder what’s for breakfast, or maybe brunch instead?”

After resting for a few minutes, he slowly stood up from the ground with little difficulty while picking up his Kampilan lying on the ground beside him.

Limping along back to the tribe, Raking muttered with a bitter smile, “I think I overdid it. I could barely feel any strength in my legs and arms. I’m feeling so weak that I think a simple gust of wind is enough to sweep me off my legs”

But maybe because of how refreshing and bountiful his surrounding was, he slowly gained a bit of energy by eating the fruits and berries he encountered along the path home, and the people he encountered along the way couldn’t help but show concerns in their faces when they saw him dragging his tired body, and Rakin could only reassure them that he was just feeling weak after practicing.

In the eyes of these villagers, Rakin is a good kid even though he was labeled as a spineless coward in their village, but seeing the change in him during the past few days truly made them see him in a new light.

If they were feeling admiration with his bravery of saving the kids before.

This time, they are anticipating his growth, as they did see and hear how he was practicing a lot from the gossipy kids of the village.

Rakin thought that his new found hiding spot was secluded, but it only became one because the other villagers just didn’t want to intrude on him.

Making him think that the place was secluded, when it clearly wasn’t in the first place!

After all, the distance between his spot and their village is more or less than three hundred meters, and it ain’t that far when the territory of their tribe spans for tens of miles!

With the village in sight, a group of five kids suddenly ran over towards him with smiles on their faces as they called out to him in excitement.

“Brother Rakin! Let’s play!”

Rakin smiled at them as he rubbed their heads saying, “Next time, I’m too tired right now”

“Aww~! You always say that!”

Disappointed, the kids couldn’t help show disappointed looks on their faces as they all looked down on the ground and with their mouths curved downwards.

Looking at their expressions, Rakin could only laugh because he knows he can’t reject them as the original owner of his body was close to the kids, and everytime he thought of starting to distance himself from them, he couldn’t help but feel bad.

But at the same time, they also bring him a lot of benefits as they tell him a lot of things going on in and around the village.

Sadly for him, the kids seem to know how to keep their secret that they had been spying on him everytime he goes and practices his swordplay.

After all, relying on the memories of his body isn’t enough to learn the ins and outs of the village, especially to the neighboring villages.

Not wanting to let them down, Rakin quickly said, “How about a story for tonight?”

One of the girls looked at him and said, “Again~? We already heard all of the stories from the adults”

With a laugh, Raking ruffled her hair and said, “Ohhh~ but this is a new one, are you sure you don’t want to?”

Raking wasn’t laughing because of their silly expressions, but because he could understand that they have already grown bored of hearing the same stories over and over again, and for him, it's like eating the same kind of food everyday and eventually would make you want to throw up just seeing it.

And according to history, it prompted a certain individual to begin a historic journey to circumnavigate the globe because he had grown tired of eating the same kind of bland food.

Which eventually started the search for spices.

“What is it about brother~?” asked a little boy around four or five years old as he tugged on Rakin’s clothes that can’t even be called pants as it only covers the back and front of his lower body, and showed off almost all of his entire inner thigh.

Rakin smiled and looked at the kids, “It’s...Ang Halimaw at Si Maganda~”

“Ang Halimaw at Si Maganda!?”

When the kids heard the name of the story, all of their eyes couldn’t help but light up as this is the first time they heard it, making them giddy in excitement!

“It sounds fun!”

“I think it's related to Aswangs and Maria Makiling!”

While walking and hearing the chatter of the kids around him, Rakin heard a word that quickly got his attention and pricked his curiosity.

“Aswang? There are aswangs here? Wait, Maria Makiling exist?” Rakin came to a screeching halt as he turned around and sat down at eye level with the kid who uttered those words, and held the kid’s arms.

The kid looked at him in confusion, and while lightly biting his finger, the kid replied saying, “Yes! You even told us the story of an aswang who came to visit you when you were a kid, but the Rajah and the others had chased it away. Have you forgotten Brother Rakin?”

“Ah no, I was just asking, and what about Maria Makiling then?” Rakin then asked the most important question with anticipation.

The kids tilted their heads as they looked at each other in confusion, then the oldest among them, a girl around ten years old opened her mouth and said, “Maria Makiling lives in Mount Makiling, and they they would need to meet her before someone can become a Rajahr, and you’re the one who told us about it”

Seeing their confused and doubtful expressions directed at him, Rakin just smiled calmly, “Ahhh, I must have forgotten about it. After all, it's been a while”

Then one kid scrunched up his face in doubt and said, “But you told us about it, uhh one, two, three…” then the kid started counting before eventually looking up at Rakin and continued “twenty seven nights ago, it wasn’t that long”

Rakin looked at the kid with a blank look on his face, then he slowly stood up, turned to the side and slowly walked away under the confused gaze of the kids, he even ignored Minera who said hi to him, making the latter fume in anger as she walked away

Quickly walking up the stairs, Rakin entered his home and grabbed a chair made of sticks tied together using vines and brought it to the door and sat on it as he looked at the people walking to and fro around the village deep in thoughts.

‘I had already confirmed that I’m truly in the early era of the Philippines because the people here speak the same ethnic language as the rest of the modern Ilocanos, but Aswangs? I thought they only existed during the Spanish Colonial Era? The most absurd thing is that Maria Makiling is not just a myth to these people, but someone or something that exist’

‘If so, they weren’t just myths created by the Spaniards and natives, but something that already existed before their reign! Damn historians! I should ask Minera about this later. How troublesome, and I should have figured out about the Aswangs the moment I saw that hanging there’ Rakin thought while looking at the whip hanging inside his home, which is made entirely of a stingray’s tail.

‘And why can’t I recall any memories regarding that aswang incident mentioned by those kids or those things that they had mentioned?’

This one confused him as he can’t recall anything about that incident when he was a kid, or about the aswangs and the deities, but at the same time, it also made him come to a conclusion.

‘If I can’t remember, then that only means that I have not inherited all of this body’s memories. I should take note of it and make sure I don’t slip up and make them think that I’m possessed or something. This an era where science doesn’t exist in this land, and even if it were, I doubt it could even explain my current circumstances’

Thanks to his scattered memories, he knows the danger he’d be in if the villagers find him acting weird, far from his usual behaviors, and he’d certainly be doomed if these people who are devout believers to their gods and earthly spirits, labels him as a demon spawn or something similar and had possessed Rakin.

And he doesn’t want to mess with these devout believers, as they are the hardest to deal with because they don’t listen to reason!

Even his father, the Rajah of their tribe, wouldn’t be able to save him if that happens!

“Those aswangs, just why do they even exist? God, I’d rather fight in tribal wars than face those supernatural bastards. I just hope that they’re just stories to scare children at night” Rakin mumbled to himself, he was truly troubled as he doesn’t even know how to properly fight!

His practice sessions aren't even enough to label him as an amateur warrior!

But more at the level of a child randomly swinging a deadly weapon!

A noob!