I woke up in the afternoon of what i can only assume is the next day, I have a little strength in my body, not much but enough to move as I sit myself up..
I crinkle my nose at the smell that I'm just now noticing, I was right about that shark, it stinks big time...
I take a look around to get my bearings a little more as I slowly hoist myself onto my own two feet, and I see a forest about a kilometre ahead of me to the northwest, and just beach and cliffs everywhere else....could be worse.
If I had to guess I've washed up somewhere on the coast of the beastkin alliance, which is funny because I took the plunge in the elven forests which is thousands of kilometres from here... how long as I out for? And how did i survive so long in the ocean like I was?
A lot of mystery there but I can only account it to my flaroonian biology and black out anger…..
Over the decades I've been fighting I've learned Survival tips and tricks and one of the biggest was always have food and water in my inventory, which I may have taken overboard as I always keep almost a years worth in there.
Which is good for me now as I'm pretty sure my body somehow survived on drinking seawater and eating raw seafood in my black out state, my lips are more cracks than actual lips, and I have no moisture in my mouth, so I take out a jug of water and spend the next 10 minutes draining roughly a dozen 10 litre jugs of fresh water.
As I finish up drinking enough water to drown a normal man in his own body, I quickly pull out as much grilled meat as I can fit in my hands as i stuff my face with as much as my body allows me too, I needed to recover.
So after at least an hour of rehydrating and stacking calories I manage to calm down a little more and take stock of my situation again and how I want to proceed from here on out, and as I start making my way to the forest I start thinking about how I'm about to start a new life and how I want it to go.
Do I want a family? Probably not for awhile yet, need to settle down first and make sure I'm out of the kingdoms crosshairs before I even think about something like that.
But I am going to want to fuck…..I'm not virgin and I've definitely had some fun over the last 60 years and while I'm not looking for a family I'm definitely going to want some lovin…..so I'll have to figure something out, maybe have a few of the maids at my tavern?...I'm getting ahead of myself, no family for now, let's stick with that and sort the rest out later…
As I made my way into the forest I spotted a decent sized tree and just leaned my back against it and slid down onto my ass, I'm so sleepy, my body is still nearly wrecked, I have a little mana left I've been trying to heal my internal injuries with but it's going to take time.
And after some food and water and now I'm in the shade, and there's no danger I'm just so....heavy...tired, my body needs rest after I've fulfilled its biological needs, and it got heavier after I'm out of that scorching sun…
Over the years I've gotten pretty good at getting a feel for my environment, and I can say that there is no danger to me here, animal or otherwise, and with that thought in my mind I slowly drift off to sleep again..
I woke up again the next morning with considerably more strength and magic than yesterday, feeling much better, I'm not 100% maybe 50% but that's more than enough to start my journey to find the perfect spot for my new tavern.
I could make it back in a few days with short distance teleportations, but that would kill my sense of adventure, I'm starting a new life, I don't need to run to it headfirst, I'll make it when I make it.
I suppose I should head north to the dwarvan kingdom, since I want to start my tavern there it should take me a few months, but that's more than fine, i should avoid towns as much as I can, and stick to small villages if possible, I will have to pass a few larger towns but it should be fine..
Oh, I need to change my look…the wild long black hair and beard will stand out, I could change its colour easily enough but I feel it's time for a change....
So I take out a mithril knife and start shaving off my hair, I'll go bald...always wanted to try it in my old life but never had decent enough face to pull it off, but now? I'd look good with anything.
So as I shaved my head bald in front of a mirror I brought out from my inventory, I like the look….. but I'll keep the beard, just trim it and keep it tidy, I can use magic to dye it as well, I'm thinking white to make me look older? No that wouldn't work I don't have the wrinkles for it….blonde…..that should work.
So I dye my newly neat and trimmed beard blonde, I must say it looks nice with the bald head and chiseled features, and now for the eyes…..I'll go with green, a fairly common colour.
I spent the next 20 minutes fussing over my new looks and when I was finally happy with them I looked down a realised I'm naked, well that's got to change…..
I pull out some blue trousers, socks, some black spiked greaves I kept as spares but never wore and a white long shirt to put on to keep the elements off my body…..not that I needed to, flaroonians could survive nearly naked in the far north, this southern weather is very mild….even the coldest winters the "south" have they suffered are quiet a bit warmer than my childhood summers…
So now I'm dressed, fed, rested and back on my feet with enough strength to travel it's time to set off, I know I'm in the eastern part of the beastkin alliance, it should take a month or more normally for a person to travel this far to the nearest civilisation, If they could survive the wilds that is, I know there were rumours of S rank beasts in the forests.
But that's S rank for the "south" honestly bedsides some of the demons I've fought over the last decades, I couldn't find anything worth my time, if I had to grade the strongest monster outside of the demons I've fought, it would be that ancient hydra I fought with the "heroes" and to be honest I could have taken it down easily enough almost instantly, but I didn't want to hurt the "heroes" pride at the time
Even then, that hydra would probably lose to even the "herbivores" in the true north, it's poison was annoying and would mess around with my magic kinda and slow me down but it wasn't really a threat outside its regeneration, it was slow and soft….I wouldn't even need weapons…everyone else's though? I drop of that poison would take down an army...
All the creatures of the "south" are weak due to evolving in such a soft environment, not that I blame them for it, but even the "heroes" i fought with were very weak, if I wasn't for that perfect ambush I would have ripped all of them to shreds in seconds, they would have had to use almost an entire litre bottle of concentrated ancient hydra poison just to slow me down enough for thats poison dowsed arrows to hit my heart and lock my muscles at the same time mess with my magic, and Hugo locking space preventing me taking anything out of my inventory, and I could tell he would have to have had almost every archmage supporting him to achieve that…..which wouldn't have mattered if not for the 2 sets of poison temporarily locking my body and magic.
When I think back to all those years, the "hero" team valued teamwork, and I just went along with it so I didn't rock the boat to much, but it was just them trying to peacock their own abilities, I could have done 1000x more damage to the demons alone…..but I was young and naive and beloved their bullshit…..they just didn't want me to be in the spot light to much, which suited my fine….
So I spent the next 4 days just traversing this little forest of weak creatures….I found plenty of hellboars, an "S" rank monster, that died to a tap on the head…..but plenty of meat to store which is great…..
I must say the feeling of being "dead" and starting again feels fantastic, the freedom of it all it is a breath of fresh air….and as much as I like it…..I'm still going to open a tavern...nothing will stop me..
At the end of the 5th day of my journey the trees started to thin out as I finally started to see signs of civilisation again, logging and such, and my excitement took me as I started to jog faster toward the horizon…..and I finally see a small village, maybe 600 people? Most likely all beastkin being where I am but that's fine…
Ok my new life is about to begin…..I suppose I'll need a new name...I know I'll call myself...