"Stay away! Misha, stay behind me!"
"Sis, le-let's run!"
"We can't out run them!"
Arlan stood, hearing 2 girls yelling to each other, as he approaches to the voice, a new roar could be hear.
"RRR!! Arg! Arg!"
The barking of a wild dog, sensing the danger, Arlan immediately rush toward the sound. As the wild dogs about to jump to the girls, Arlan block the wild dog path and slash the charging wild dogs and kill them.
"You guys not hurt?"
"Wh-who are you?"
"Just some stranger, any hurt?"
"N-No, thank you"
"We're not safe yet, prepare your sword!"
Arlan remind the older girl to prepare for another attack as there are 6 more wild dogs around them. 4 wild dogs start their attack toward Arlan, and the other 2 circling Arlan and try to attack the girls.
"I won't let you!"
As he yelling to the wild dogs, he grabbed one of the wild dog's neck in the midair and slash another dog. Nimble and fast, Arlan took care 4 dogs in front of him. The girl behind him able to hold the other 2 dogs but couldn't kill it. One of the dogs tries to attack the smaller girl so he threw his sword and hit the head of the wild dog and grab the neck of the other dog and kill it right away. With his current status, he manages to do all that by himself, but since his body not looks capable to do that, it ends up looks strange.
"You guys okay?"
He grabs his sword from the dog's head where he threw it earlier and asks the girls.
"Yes, we're fine, thanks to you, um...."
"My name Arlan, and you guys?"
"My name Musha, and this is my sister, Misha"
"Hello big brother Arlan, nice to meet you"
Unbelievably, the smaller girl, Misha, is not trembling anymore. In fact, she shows Arlan her bright smile to greet him. The girls are beastfolk, they are from cat-kin tribe, as showed in their status.
"Where are you going?"
"We are going to the Kukiri Town, to meet our relative"
"Me too, I was planning to go there myself, would you like to travel with me until Kukiri Town?"
"Of course! We loved to! Eh, um.. I mean, yes, we will feel safer with you"
"Yes, big brother Arlan is strong, so Misha love to travel with big brother!"
Not knowing why, but Arlan like their personality. In his past life, he rarely traveling with other people, forget beastfolk, even human always saw him as dead weight. But now, he wants to change those memories with better one.
"Have you guys eaten?"
"We only eat wild fruits that we can find"
"Is that so? We better take some rest first before nightfall. Here, some grilled meat"
He knew if he took out something out of nowhere, he will attract attention, so he pretends to took out a wrap grilled meat from his bag and share it with the girls.
"I-is it fine?"
"Sis, I want some meat!"
"Yes, it is fine, please eat it"
A gentle smile while he handed over the grilled meats to the girls. The girls took it and savor the smell, taste, and the fat of the meat bit by bit. It shows how long they haven't eaten some meat. Wild dog's meat is not good, it is almost same as rotten meat, so they couldn't eat it, instead, they just burn the corpses so it won't give any sickness to nearby environment.
"So delicious! Uh...!"
"Sis, it is delicious! So tasty!"
"Eat it slowly, I still have a lot"
He pats Misha's head as she savors the taste of the meat. He could see both of their information from the status shows up beside them. From there, he knows Musha is 16 years old and Misha is 10 years old.
"Say, Musha, why did you leave your tribe?"
From what he knows, beastfolk rarely leave their tribe. Since most of the human hate beastfolk, they rarely go to human's town or city, unless something happens in their tribes or exiled from the tribes. He learns all of this since he is always by himself and never discriminate beastfolk in his life so he had a good relationship with other beastfolk.
"So you realized it..."
"Is something happened?"
"Actually, an illness started to spread in our tribe. We don't know what it is, so the tribe chief sends us to our relative which we believed stay in Kukiri Town"
"Your relative is a healer?"
"No, she learn apothecary, so we want to ask her opinion"
"Why not find a healer?"
"We don't have any relative in healing, besides, if we want to find a healer, human will ignore us, the payment will be too much"
That is right, Arlan almost forgot about that thing. Healer usually found within temple or church. Most healers are human, although only a few healers hate beastfolk, but the payment will be too high for them to pay. Traveling to the tribe, healing entire tribe, and return, will be huge payment. Small tribe won't be able to do that.
"Apothecary, huh? We have to find your relative sooner then. Can you describe the illness your tribe suffered?"
"Yes, the body, start to get weaker and become hot overnight. We thought it was a normal flu, but with flu medicine, the illness couldn't be cure, so we tried mixing some herb which lowering their body temperature a bit, but it only slows the sickness. One of our people died because of this strange-flu"
"Wasn't that dengue fever?"
"Dengue Fever? What is that?"
"A fever brought by a specific mosquito. Never mind, you cannot heal them with normal herb. As long as your people can slow the sickness down, we still have time about a month or so"
"You know about this sickness?"
"Sort of, but I will need some specific herb, hope your relative have these herbs"
Dengue fever, one of scary fever if people don't know how to treat it. Basic medicine won't help, it requires continuation nutrition while supplied with the medicine daily for at least a week until the victim regain their healthiness. Luckily, Arlan know how to treat this fever, he just needs some herb, which is he hoping that the girl's relative has it.
The next morning, they continue their journey to the town. A few hours past, they reach the gate of the town.
"Halt, are they your slave?"
Another common sense, slave is a normal thing in this world. If a human traveling with some beastfolk, the beastfolk usually treat as slave. In this situation, Arlan explain the things before hand before they reach the gate to the girls.
"Yes, they are"
"Alright, 5 pennies for entrance and 1 penny each for slaves"
"Here"
"Make sure you don't make any trouble inside"
With the gatekeeper warning, Arlan gets inside the town with the girls after he pays the gatekeeper. In this world, there are some currency from the lowest are Penny, Copper, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Coin. Some kingdom has their own currency, but basically, these 4 are common currency. 1 Copper coin is 10 pennies, 1 silver coin is 50 pennies or 5 Copper coins, 1 gold coin is 10 silver coins, and 1 platinum coin is 200 gold coins. The gap between gold and platinum are high, so it is quite valuable. Thanks to the Dragon Gods, they gave Arlan 100 coins each except the platinum. For a starter, it's quite a large amount of money, but not for a long-term situation.
"Thank you for warning us earlier, Arlan"
"No problem, it is just a common sense. Now, where is your relative stayed?"
"Her store's name is Brewing Herb"
Arlan check his map and quickly found the mentioned shop.
"It is this way"
"Eh, how did you know?"
"I've been in this town and I memorized the layout"
Lies, this is his first time in this town and he used the map to locate the shop. Soon, they arrived at the store. Before they go in, some people arguing in the store, 2 male and a female voice could be heard.
"We delivered the herb, why our payment only this much?"
"Like I said, you guys not handling the herb carefully and now it is damaged"
"What? Don't bullshit me, I even bring more than the request, you need to pay more"
"Yeah, right, we even risk our life fighting the monster"
"Bring more than the request? You only bring at least 70% weed, not herb, the rest 30%, half of it damaged, and you want me to pay you more? You lucky enough I paid you, just leave if cannot handling the herb carefully"
"What did you just say, women!?"
Right before the man grab the girl's nape, Arlan grabs his hand and throws the hand away.
"Huh!? Who are you!?"
"I'm her relative, if you dare to lay a hand on her, you will deal with me"
"Acting Hero, aren't you!? This is none of your business!"
"Oh, but it is my business, she is my relative after all"
"You brat! You don't know me?"
"Like I care who you are, just get lost, stranger"
"You! Little shit!"
The guy was about to hits Arlan, but Arlan dodges the attack and grabs the hand and throws him outside.
"You!"
The other guys try to avenge his friend, but end up the same as his friend.
"If you guys won't leave, I will have to beat you two"
Instead of obeying Arlan, both of them stand up and charging Arlan.
"Still not give up"
As he dodges one of them, he tackles the guy at front and gracefully dodges the other guy and hits him in the back.
*You Acquired New Skill: [Martial Art (Passive, Level 1{98%})]
[Martial Art (Passive, Level 1{98%})]
A skill which is allowed the user to uses any martial arts easier. Increase the power of any martial art by 5%. Gain EXP from any success attack with martial art.
"You little brat! You want to die!? Feel my sword!"
Both of them unsheathe their sword. Arlan's Sword still in it is sheath as he planning to beat them with just his bare hand.
"Come on, attack me"
Charging, both of them attack Arlan at the same time. Nimble as he is, he dodged both of the swords, hits both of their hand to disarm them, and hits them on the back of their neck to make them unconscious. Looking at them unconscious on the ground, Arlan took their sword and store it sneakily into his [Infinite Storage]
"Now it has been taken care of, let's continue our business"