First, I had found human settlement in a fortress style city. But I decided not to visit it yet.
Second, I thought language barrier can prevent me from approaching the human here. But apparently I can understand their language so automatically they can also my language. I think this is privilege of human from another world.
Third, right now I'm running from three thief who chasing me effortless from behind. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's their nature to steal and rob from any people they had met.
I had put enough distance to run away from them. If I can kill Gryphon, maybe I can also weaken them. Running away from them is natural choice but I need information about this region. The most suitable target is them.
After they disappear from my behind, I choose to hide in near tree as cover. This time I will launch surprise attack to beat them. My axe will be my primary weapon to hack them. While my shield can be my protection and my secondary blunt weapon by bashing them. Now, I'm full ready.
After a minute, I see three silhouettes run in my path. They stop after realized they fail to catch me.
"Shit! Where's that man run? Boss, do we need to find him?"
The archer and swordsman both look at to bare hand man. Oh, so this man is their boss.
"Dammit!! Useless!! There's no point to chase him. Let's go back. Maybe we can rob some carriage at the road."
The boss man said while endure his anger. His grip hands look like he ready to rip apart my body. Fortunately they three can run more faster than me.
Wow, now they want to rob some carriage. I'm not a saint man who prevent bad men from doing nasty job. But I have some matter to ask them so I need to stop them from robbing people at the road.
It's obvious that the boss man here is the only strongest here compared to archer and swordsman. Compared to me? Well, let's find out.
My first target is the boss. Attacking him first can intimidate his underlings. 2 close combatant and 1 long attacker. I know how I can ambush them at the steep hill.
Silently, I run toward them while they are still distracted with what anything they discuss. In split second, I drive my axe toward the back of boss man.
The momentum is high impact that enough to kill him. While I believe my first hit is not critical enough, I kick him in the buttock while my hand retrieve back the axe. Now the boss man is rolling down the hill.
His underlings are still confused with what happening. Under five seconds they had loss their boss. Look like these thief are still amateur due to their lack of fast reaction.
Taking advantage of their cluelessness, I slash my axe a few times to the swordsman. He failed to take out his sword from its sheath. He can only scream being slashed from me. I'm kicking him like the first boss man and now he roll down the hill.
The boss man is till lie down on the ground meaning he is dead or lose consciousness.
Now the only man standing is the archer. I know, the archer can only attack from long distance and be in pretty disadvantage in close range attack situation.
The archer try to draw his bowstring but I quickly jump and bash him with my shield. The impact is strong enough to crack his bones. Now he can only groan on the ground.
The boss man is still lie on the ground. The swordsman wake up after rolling down the hill and immediately running and abandoning his subordinates. How crumble you become from few attacks, he is not even deserved to be called a thief.
Now I only need this archer to question him about this world. Lucky he brought some rope, only need me to tie him around. I bind his hand at the back like a policeman handcuffs a suspect. I'm also tying his leg so he can't run away.
His mouth full a curse word toward me. Seem he's really dissatisfied with how I treat him as a criminal. Well, he is a thief, so he qualified to be treated like a wanted man.
"Quiet!! Your mouth is full with rotten words. Do you want to eat my axe? My arm is still strong to swing a few slash to your ugly face."
Then I activated my fiery right hand by imagining the fire is enveloping my palm.
The archer's pupils is quickly become enlarge. His face is pale and be less resistant after that.
"Oh shit!! You're magician mate?? Why are you not wearing your robe? Please, don't kill me. I'm swear I will find a legal job after this."
"Yes, I'm magician and I'm also a fighter. I can use both my strength and magic to kill a man like you. Now, answer me, why are you guys attack me suddenly?"
I try to be bluff with my mystery identity. I will scare him enough so he can answer my questions without lying. I know people is quite honest if their life is threatened.
"Please sir, don't kill me. I don't have anything to offer to you but I promise I will do anything to you. Please, sir magician."
The archer become quite polite to me now.
"It's not like I want anything from you. But let's me be frank with you. I have came from far away from here and just arrived at this foreign country. Can you tell me more about this place?"
I strengthen my fire burning at my hand. This is a sign that I will burn him if I displeased with his answer or he try to lie to me.
"Urm, urm.. Sir magician, this is Kingdom of Celestine. The king here is his highness sir Thobias Dryden. This kingdom is mainly in the west continent. The royal capital is the Auglire Capital. The nearest city from here is called Selarin City. You can see the city just behind this hill. Urmm... What else do you want to know?"
Wow, the name. It is quite fantasy to me. It's like I'm just reading a masterpiece written by Shakespeare.
"So, what you called this world? The name of this world?"
"Er, er, Gaia, sir. We refer this world as Gaia."
Gaia? You mean the mother of Gaia? Does she really exist in this world?
"Ummm, I don't find any fault in your words. Do you have any money? Money that can be used in this kingdom?"
"I only have 50 Gal but my boss over there have enough to stay at wealthy hotel."
"50 Gal? I had forget about the currency of this world. Can you remind me again about Gal currency?"
"Erm... 1 copper is 1 Gal. 1 big copper is 10 Gal. 1 silver is 5 Gal. 1 big silver is 50 Gal. 1 gold is 10 Gal. 1 big gold is 100 Gal. 1 white gold is 1000 Gal while 1 platinum is 10000 Gal. This is the knowledge about our coin currency, sir magician."
"Urm, good, good. As a reward, I will not kill you neither I will take your money. The rope that I bind you is not tight, so you can release yourself after I deal with your boss."
"Thank you sir magician. You are kind enough to release me. I'm swear I will find another job."
Without minding the archer anymore, I get down from the hill and walk toward the boss. He is still lying on the ground but his neck is twisted at strange angle. Now I can confirm he had died during rolling down from my kick.
I had killed my first human, unwillingly. But he is a thief. If I'm not killed him, he will kill me.
Without being emotional, I search his body to find any worth thing. In his left hip, there is big sachet tie to his pant. I take the sachet and feel the good amount of coins in it.
There is roughly many gold and silver coins store inside the sachet. If I believe the word of the archer, I can sleep comfortably in the hotel with this kind of money. I don't need any wealth place, just a good lodging is enough to humble me.
Now, I'm confident enough to enter the city wall, ops, the Selarin City. I don't need to do scout anymore. With this money, I can ask around or I can read if the library exist in this world.
I don't want to waste time anymore. I swiftly turn to my running mode and hurry to the entrance of Selarin City. After five minutes of running, now I am queuing in the straight line of human. The carriage and wagon are queuing in the other side.