What a slaughter...
I had received some notifications but was too busy staring at the bloody corpses of beasts lying around. And it was all done by me.
Even if I did it in self-defense, I had killed quite a few living beings now. I couldn't avoid the blame anymore. I was no longer innocent. One could call me a murderer.
But I wasn't exactly guilty either. I understood that this wasn't entirely my fault. This was a different world and these creatures were not normal animals but monsters.
If I hadn't done what I did, I would have been dead. For that, I was truly grateful to the system and this amazing Katana.
Ah, now that I think about it, I still haven't named you huh?
I did say I would name it but the obstacle of finding a good name was a bit too high for me right now.
Well, I still have time. I promise to name you properly. After all, you've been my trusted partner in this dangerous place.
I swung the Katana in the air to get rid of the blood spilled on it and put it back in the sheath. I also stored all the wolf corpses in my Inventory.
If worse came to worse, I would be eating wolf monster meat today or tonight…
I hoped and prayed that the monster meat was edible.
I will try doing an Appraisal on the cut meat before eating it. It should tell me if it's edible or not. Not that I am fond of eating monster meat. But who knows what will happen in this forest?
With everything done, I wiped my face with one side of the folded handkerchief to wipe out the blood and sweat accumulated from this battle and then walked in the direction I was heading. I had wasted a bunch of time from these small incidents and I couldn't afford to dilly dally all day here. I walked and ran for the next 3 hours before I started to get thirsty.
From what I could tell looking at the map, I had covered a fair bit of distance from where I was standing originally. It probably exceeded 50 KMs and that wasn't a brag. I was running at a tremendous speed after my level-ups.
My body felt light and athletic, my breathing was organized and I didn't feel out of breath even after hours of constant running.
Even now I was still capable of running another marathon, but I was thirsty. I passed through plenty of openings and dense regions but didn't see any river or lake. My map was just filled with forest land and occasional open areas. I also found a few creatures like a horned reindeer-like monster, a black bear-like monster, and a python-sized but cobra-like monster hanging from a big tree not so far away from where I was running. My Map showed these creatures as red dots and so it wasn't very difficult to miss them as I checked the map constantly for directions. The snake monster was big enough to swallow a few of me whole and the Appraisal showed its level to be 47 and that it was actually a Giant Viper, a boss monster of sorts. So I didn't pick any unnecessary fight and just left it to its device.
When the sun was starting to go down the west and the light started to show long shadows, the forest made the light coming even smaller and I concluded it would be dark soon.
But fortunately for me, I had found what I was looking for. Well, not a settlement, but a river. I first heard the voice of water falling from somewhere Northeast and after following that sound, I found a clear river with a waterfall about 4 meters tall dropping the white, fluffy, and cold water down the stream. There were even small fishes in the water a little ahead of where the water was calmer.
Great! The water problem is solved at least!
I took a scoop of water from my cupped hands and tasted a little. It was sweet and cold.
"Ahh~"
It was great! It was fresh and cold water straight out of nature's embrace. Probably the most refreshing water I had drunk in my life. And that wasn't an exaggeration by any means.
After I was content, I looked around and then stripped from all my clothes, watch, and sports shoes, even my underwear, and kept it all in the Inventory. It auto-arranged the stuff in boxes, which was quite convenient.
Then I put my feet inside the cold river and a shock ran through my body. It was refreshing.
Man, I feel refreshed already. All the weariness from running and mostly from slaughtering monsters is being wiped out by mother nature. Nature is truly the best, even if it's probably not the one I am acquainted with.
I went a bit deeper till my waist was submerged in water and cleaned my sweaty body. After that, I cleaned off the few blood stains on my clothes and the handkerchief was in an even worse condition with the same water.
After about 30 minutes, I was back in my normal attire and feeling refreshed. I then sat down on a nearby rock that had a decent field of view so that nothing would sneak on me suddenly and attack and I finally opened my Character Profile.
***Character Profile***
Name: Rio
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Race: Human(712-Human)
---
Level: 19
HP: 1900/1900
MP: 3800/3800
---
Job:
Primary: Swordsman
Secondary: Apprentice Spearman, Apprentice Ax user, Apprentice Monk, Apprentice Priest, Apprentice Fire Magician, Apprentice Water Magician, Apprentice Earth Magician Apprentice Wind Magician, Apprentice Light Magician, Apprentice Dark Magician
---
Titles acquired:
Lost Person, Holder of Entranos's last will, Person from a different world, Holder of ???? Sword, Ruin Explorer, ????'? ???????, Goblin Slayer, Wolf Slayer
---
Stats:
STR: 1900
DEX: 1900
DEF: 1900
AGI:1900
VIT: 1900
INT:1900
Luck: 80
---
Special Abilities:
Appraisal, Inventory, Map, Logs, Entranos's Blessing, Universal Language Acquisition
Abilities:
Sword Technique III, Fire Magic II, Water Magic II, Earth Magic II, Wind Magic II, Darkness Magic I, Light Magic I, Barrier Magic II, Presence Detection II, Martial Arts I, Dash I
***
My level rose to 19 after the encounter with the wolves.
It seems my Sword Technique has gone up a rank. What's the max level for these abilities?
My stats had once again increased by quite a bit and Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Barrier magic also ranked up by 1. Light and Dark magic didn't go up. And I had learned a new ability called Presence Detection II, which as the name suggested, was an ability to detect the presence of enemies around me. Another was Martial Arts I. But I wasn't sure if I was suddenly capable of performing martial art techniques or what. The details were too vague.
After closing my Character Profile, I lay there on the rock for a few minutes and collected my thoughts on the whole matter. I was in a different world with monsters and I was in a Forest. I had a game-like System and a great Katana given to me by a female Dragon I freed/killed in a ruin.
It all sounded like something out of a fantasy adventure novel but I, by no means, was a protagonist. No, I didn't feel like one. In the first place, I had no plans and was just going along with my whims which didn't have any solid foundation. I had encountered monsters but had managed to deal with them somehow. At any point in that fight, I could have been severely injured or even died if I had made any mistake.
So the point was, I had been very lucky. Those 80 points in luck must be doing their job properly because I was not dead yet.
And with the river on my side, I could now hope to find a village or city close by it. There is always a settlement near rivers and such. I heard it in a survival show I watched long ago.
I followed the downstream current.
I was addicted to those survival shows, along with cartoons, back when I was still a kid but I stopped watching them sometime in the process of growing up.
I finally decided to continue my journey.
I didn't have to worry about my thirst now and my stomach showed no signs of starving. I had plenty of energy both physically and mentally as well.
My goal to find a settlement seemed no longer a pipe dream.
I will find one before the sun sat in between the trees!
I ran for about 2 hours when it finally caught my sight. On my map was a circular type of area with brown structures.
That must be a settlement!
At long last! I made it out!
The area started to clear as well and now I was in the clearing as the forest was now behind me.
"You've been relatively nicer to me so thank you for not making me lose my way and get killed by starvation or monsters."
I said to the forest and walked ahead to safety.
***