"What should I start with?" I asked myself while staring down at the mess left after the raid.
This wasn't a question of what I would have enough strength to carry around, but what I could justify having.
If I went into the world a peasant, anything beyond a few coins in my sack would only serve to arouse suspicion.
Then again, why would I do that?
'Regardless of what world, certain things will always still stay the same,' I thought, before moving to scour through the broken carriages. And soon enough, I found the treasure.
A dead merchant who dressed well enough to pass for a lesser noble.
My memory jogged, flashing me the images of a man bowing down to another man who was accompanied by the bitch I axed just a moment ago. Most likely, a lower-level contractor who worked under her father.
A poor, slightly older guy whose fortune brought him to an ill-prepared caravan only for him to reach his end from a jagged arrow.
Rather than the man himself, though, his clothes drew my attention.
'With enough finesse, that should allow me to pass for a knight,' I swiftly moved to undress the poor victim of the bandits.
Silence.
Out of nowhere, a world of science-filled my consciousness… Only for me to realize that that bitch-goddess' voice continued to ring in my ears all the way to this point.
'Just how many notifications does that…'
I rolled my eyes and pushed the thought aside.
What need was there for me to listen to what she had to say if I could pretty much feel it myself?
During the fight and in its direct aftermath, my body clearly… grew.
It wasn't anything grand or exaggerated. Just a slight increase in body mass and its responsiveness. A detail hardly anyone would notice.
And that was just one of the many changes I could feel.
Whatever this bitch-goddess was yapping in my ear, I subconsciously managed to mute it all, turning it into kind of an annoying, white noise.
Still…
Now that this tirade of verbal notifications came to an end, I could finally focus on changing my clothes properly.
This wasn't all that easy of a task. Compared to modern or simply expensive clothing, the garb worn by the middle strata of the population came with a lot of… ingenious native solutions.
A tangled mess of small knots that held various parts together turned out to be quite a handful as I had to continue for over a minute to get just one sleeve done right…
'Good thing I remembered how he looked before,' I thought, recalling the sight of the formerly-dressed merchant.
Fully suited up, I covered the cadavers with some furs lying around before moving on to the next, important task.
While not exactly hurried, I still had to mind my time.
With every minute that I dawdled around the remains, those bastard adventurers were getting even further away from here!
From my memories, I could tell that the city the caravan planned to reach was still about two days' worth of travel. And depending on how long it was between those cowards running away and me reincarnating in the dead body of some sort of a simple peasant.
'Now then, shall I take a look?'
I took a heavy breath before focusing on the swarm of notifications.
Like a horde of loyal familiars, the notifications rushed to the center of my vision, swarming at first before arranging themselves into a nice, well-organized array.
As much as I hated the idea of relying on whatever this bitch goddess gave me, it would be foolish not to exploit the advantages hidden behind the swarm of data I faced.
Yet, the moment I gave a long sigh as I was about to raise my eyes and start reading through, all of the notification windows started to distort, soon swallowed into a much smaller bunch of much bigger notifications. Then, all of those gathered up into just one, massive notification…
[Talents grouped and evolved!]
A mere moment after this appeared, though, the massive notification fractured into several pieces, splitting into the following four.
[Unlocked new talent!]
[Talent: Inspired observer: Amateur(0)>Novice(123)]
[Bonus: Can see 1st tier of information. This talent can grow in two dimensions]
[Unlocked new talent!]
[Talent: A collection of basic weapon arts[5]: Amateur(0) > Amateur(77)]
[Collective talent for wielding and utilizing basic weapon arts. This talent can grow in two dimensions!]
[Unlocked new talent!]
[Talent: A collection of specialized weapon arts[3]: Amateur(0)>Novice(44)]
[Collective talent for utilizing unorthodox weapons and tactics. This talent can grow in two dimensions!]
[Unlocked new talent!]
[Talent: General movement: Amateur(0)>Novice(67)]
[Collective talent for adapting one's momentum to its surroundings and one's own designs. This talent can grow in one dimension.]
The influence of my observer talent couldn't be more obvious just when looking at my other talents. But that wasn't enough.
Just by raising my eyes over the ruined caravan, it was like… As if I could somehow feel the call of loot. It was as if the world around me had scattered points of interest, each with a certain, rather distinct weight of impression.
I ignored the massive nexus nearby and turned towards another big spot nearby. There, despite moving as if at random, I found a small, broken, wooden box a solid bunch of coinage. Another spot brought me to a rather convenient stash of preserved foods that sat right by the side with a set of simple weapons one of the merchants brought for trade.
In a matter of mere moments, I scoured through the battlefield, quickly collecting pretty much everything to back out the persona I was going to pose for.
'But first, I gotta do what I gotta do…'
With those cowardly adventurers in mind, I… turned back towards the bloodied ruins before spending a whole hour digging a proper resting place for the remains of my biological mother of this life.
'It's a pity that bitch didn't let me wake in this place earlier…'
A sudden thought overtook my head.
Even if it means that bitch-goddess effectively killing my body's original owner, even if I wouldn't be that woman's son… Maybe she would turn into someone I would strive to protect?
After ten lifetimes in the service of that witch, I've long lost the joy of simple, basic emotions. With nothing but the goal of ending my job to light up my exhausting path ahead, I continued to kill, slaughter, and conquer. Using every means to push the demon offensive back, recover the lands, and then eradicate the enemy who dared to raise its hands at the goddess property!
But now, this one hope for a more humane tomorrow lay dead in a simple grave I've erected a bit away from the scene of the massacre. And as much as I wished to bury the rest of the bodies…
Those accursed adventurers were still getting away!
Outfitted with all the money, weapons, and decals necessary to pass for a more modern, city knight I paid my respect to the grave before turning in the direction I could remember those bastards going.
This was one thing I just couldn't ignore. One demand of my human nature that I simply couldn't refuse if I wanted to remain human. For me to properly take over this body, I had to avenge the death of this body's mother and cast my retribution upon all responsible.
And so, with enough coins, rations, and weapons to last me a while, dressed in the light, slightly fancy robes, I moved down the road, picking up the tempo and settling it on a slightly hurried rate.
'It was only a few hours at most. If I go through the night, I should be able to catch them.'
It was only evening by now. But it would take quite some time for me to catch up with them. Although…
As long as they opted to rest through the night, they couldn't escape. Humans were ultimately pursuit predators, fitted to outlast their prey.
It was quite likely I could never catch them in my new body if I just ran after them. As long as I endured the strain, though…