Morning came, and we were once again preparing for our journey. I altered my body size down to 180 cm, became leaner, and changed some other parts. I then wore a hooded cloak like a traveler. The kid was really surprised when he woke up and when saw the new me, he almost thought I was a different person. I also stored the remains of the Storm Roc within the storage ring while the kid was asleep and just told him I got rid of the rest of it. He seemed upset since it was a prized Beast that has never been subdued before, but I told him I got the important parts so it's fine.

"By the way, you never told me last night, but what are you planning to do?"

Hmm. Now that I think about it, I don't really have an idea where I am. I was just told to head northwest while following the twin mountains in the distance but I don't really know much about the region, let alone the continent.

"Hmm... I was planning on heading to Argodia. I'm told what I need to find is there."

"Eh? Argodia!? That's pretty far! By horse, it's a month's worth of travel from the town of Orgo. The problem is that you need a special permit to show the toll guards in order to get into the country. Also, I know you could fly, but there's a barrier over the capital. You could also get mistaken as a Demon Beast again and get attacked... hmm..."

Looks like I'm gonna have problems with traveling already. Sigh... I wonder if I can just bulldoze my way there? Haha, right. Stupid idea. I don't wanna end up an enemy of humanity.

"I got it!"

Hm? Seems the kid has a plan.

"How about registering as an adventurer? There's an Adventurers Guild branch in Orgo, and with your strength, you're definitely more than qualified. Adventurers receive privileges such as travel between countries! You just need to reach Steel Rank to get the rights to enter Argodia. I can help you with the process!"

And there it is. The sign-up-to-be-an-adventurer scenario. I did plan on it, but I didn't think I'd need to do it so soon. Well, why not? I always wanted to try it out.

"Hehe... alright kid. I'll go along with your plan. Just show me the way and I might split the Roc with you."

He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Haha... so you knew, huh?"

"Heh. It's not that hard to figure out, kid. Why else would you be willing to go out of your way to help me register?"

"Well... I also felt it's a way to pay you back for saving my life... and... can you please stop calling me kid? My name's Glenn."

"Oh right, we never did introduce ourselves. Call me Camus. So, are we heading straight for Orgo?"

"Um... if it's alright with you... can we please stop by my village first? There was an errand I was hoping to do there while I was escorting the merchant band before."

"Your village huh... well, I'm in no hurry. Just lead on then."

Seriously, he may be a coward but I think this kid's too trusting. It's not that I have any dark ideas, but if I were a real Demon Beast and just saved him to trick him, then he just sold out his village. Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding something? Well, no matter. It's good to see someone naive and honest every now and then, and he's starting to grow on me. Since I have time to kill, I might as well toughen him up before he ends up meeting with the cruelties of the world. I thought up some plans as we continued on our travels.

...

...

A few days after Camus and Glenn went on their way... a group of riders arrived on the campsite.

"Um... boss Doruk, isn't this place close to the nest of the Storm Roc? Isn't it bad to be here?"

The bandits were afraid. After all, this area was within the territory of the Ruler of the Plains.

"... Quiet down you fools. The Roc doesn't hunt near its nest during the middle of the day. We'll be fine as long as we don't stay for too long... now, Mesha, do you smell it?"

Doruk called out to his wolf. It sniffed the area and scented its target. It snarled in a certain direction after which Doruk smiled.

"Good girl. Seems like we haven't lost his trail yet. Come on, men! We ride to slay a Demon Beast! Gwooaaaaargh!"

With a roar, Doruk led the charge and raised their morale. Fired up, the other bandits followed and raised their own yells. Filled with bloodthirst, they rode on with thoughts of ripping apart their enemy and any who would stand in their way.

...

...

After about a week, we finally arrived at Glenn’s village. We didn’t really encounter much of anything along the way, and the few beasts we did encounter were handled well enough by Glenn. If he only showed as much confidence when fighting stronger foes, he’d be on his way to become a great warrior. Too bad he’s as skittish as they come… almost like how I used to be… Well, seeing myself in the kid or not, he’s a good kid, so I’m gonna help him get better.

As we were heading to the entrance, Glenn took the initiative and went ahead. After all, it would be bad if they’re to mistake me for an enemy.

“Oh! Glenn! You’re alive! This is wonderful news indeed!”

A grey haired old man came to meet Glenn alongside the villagers. Speaking of hair, his face is almost like a hairball with a nose. Is he even human?

“Elder Yadi, it’s been a while! Um… What do you mean by alive? I was only here last week.”

“The Guild sent us word that you went missing during your last mission. Although they never mentioned your Crystal Card breaking, we feared the worst. After all, we don’t know if it would break anytime between then and now… Hm? And who is this might I ask?”

“Ah! Elder, this is my friend, sir Camus! He’s the one who saved me from the bandits after I fell from the carriage. He’s a bit scary looking, but I can assure you he’s a good guy.”

I pulled down my hood at this cue. It’s half of what I expected but everyone appeared shock and some felt afraid. Surprisingly though, a lot seemed more surprised than anxious with fear. Looks like they all really look up to this kid if they're immediaely taking his word.

“Oh, a scalekin! We don’t get many of you around these parts, but a friend of Glenn’s is welcome in our village. Please come, sir Camus. Our village doesn’t have much, but we’d appreciate it if you allowed us to show you our hospitality.”

Even more surprising is rather than feeling cautious, they’re actually welcoming me. Aside from enhanced vision, I have enhanced hearing so I could hear his heartbeat to determine whether he’s trying to trick me, and apparently he’s clean.

“… You aren’t afraid of me? Glenn here mentioned that my kind isn’t really welcome in human or beastkin towns.”

“Hohoho. Normally that would be the case, but I heard you saved Glenn. Also, Glenn is a very cautious boy, so he can’t be tricked so easily. Seeing how he’s warmed up to you, I can tell you aren’t a bad one.”

Really? And here I though he was so easily trusting. Looks like I’ve got a lot more to learn regarding reading people. Still doesn’t change my plans though. I’ll still need to toughen him up so he can deal with trouble in the future.

“Well, if you say so. Oh right, if it’s food you need, I have too much meat on my hands at the moment. You can cook this if you like.”

I brought out 1000 kilos of Roc meat in several sacks. That thing was huge, so I still have over a ton of the entire thing not counting the inedible parts. This village seems to have at least 300 people, so that amount should be good enough to last them a while.

“… ! W-Why that’s a lot of meat! We’re truly grateful sir Camus! Not only did you save Glenn, but also you solved our food problem in an instant. You’ve truly brought our village good fortune.”

Everyone started beaming and some even started cheering. Looks like they’re really happy about the meat. Glenn, however, looking shocked walked up to me and grabbed my cloak at the sides and started shaking me.

“W-W-Wha- H-How did you bring all that out!? And also, i-isn’t that meat from the Storm Roc!? Didn’t you say you discarded it!? What’s going on!?”

Yeesh. This kid must have low blood sugar to have so many panic attacks. Now how do I explain this? I really don’t wanna mention the ring, but before I could even start thinking about it, it seems he solved the problem for me with his overactive imagination.

“… ! Don’t tell me!? Sir Camus, do you possess the very rare Space Magic!? You do, don’t you! How else can you explain how you brought out so much meat out of nowhere! By the gods! This is amazing! People with Space Magic can store things in a separate space so they don’t need to bring luggage! Merchants will want to sell an arm or a leg for your ability!”

Ugh. He’s getting waaaay too excited. Time to calm him down for a bit, so I gave him a hand chop to the head.

*bonk*

“….ooow. It hurts… Why’d you do that for?”

“Take it easy, kid. I’m surprised you could still breathe after yapping so much in one go. To answer your question, yeah, I might have something like Space Magic. I wasn’t sure if it was special or anything so I never mentioned it and I don’t like to show it often. I made an exception this time since your village was being nice.”

Seems he realized something since he nodded in understanding. The chief also looks like he wants to talk, but somehow he seems to be shaking.

“Um… sir Camus. I’m not sure I heard Glenn correctly, but did he just say this is Storm Roc meat? If I remember correctly, there’s only one Storm Roc in the plains and it’s the most feared creature there.”

Glenn looked at me awkwardly before he faced the elder to clarify with him.

“Um… Elder Yadi… my friend Camus here… slew the Storm Roc… and yes… he just gave you some of the meat… hehe…”

What appear to be the old man’s bushy brows started rising up slowly revealing his wide beady eyes in great shock. Holy, I didn’t think eyebrow-raising shock to reveal eyes was physically possible outside of cartoons!

The village decided to hold a party to celebrate, and they all wanted me to tell them my story of how I was able to beat such a creature. I’ll need to change some things of course, but looks like everyone’s already excited to hear about it. Seems like it’s going to be a long day…

…

Yawn… these people really lack excitement in their lives… They partied from noon till late night, and I had to retell the story each time a new group of villagers arrived.

It was already close to dawn, but as I drew close to the chief’s house where I’m supposed to lodge, I heard the sounds of a sword being swung. Spending 7 years training in the arts of battle, there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize that sound, so I went around to the back since that’s where the source seems to be.

I was a bit surprised, but somehow I expected it to be him. Glenn was currently doing some practice swings and stances. Seeing his sweat and the grooves on the ground around his feet, he’s been practicing all night.

“Not bad, kid. Your moves are pretty solid, so there’s little room for improvement. You’re stronger than you look since all the villagers look up to you.”

“… ! Oh, it’s you sir Camus. Haha… that’s what others say but I’m not really convinced. After all, during the Guild’s Ranking tests, I always ended up getting low scores… Some of the others kept making fun of me as the Copper King… “

“Copper King?”

“Oh right… I never told you, but I’m actually still at the lowest rank of Copper in the guild. Because of my rank, I always end up partying with newbies and rookies even though I’ve been an adventurer for 2 years…”

Seriously? Seeing his sword skills, he’s as good as me around 5 years ago, when my dad finally approved of me as having reached acceptable standards. By HIS standards it was acceptable, but I later found out in the martial training books that my level back then was already around an expert swordsman’s by estimate.

“Hmm… alright, I think I know what the problem is… Glenn, come and attack me.”

“Huh? What?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself, come and attack me like you mean to strike me down.”

“B-But I’m nowhere near your ability sir Camus! There’s no way I can fight you! Besides, I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Sigh… are you seriously underestimating me? If you think your weak ass attacks can even touch me, keep dreaming. I’m not asking you to fight me, I’m asking you to try and attack me like I’m your worst enemy. Now enough talk, attack.”

Glenn still stood in place looking confused. Looks like I’ll need to push harder.

“… If you won’t attack me, then I’ll kill everyone in the village here and now.”

“What!?”

Oh? Looks like he’s finally showing a fierce expression.

“You heard me. I tricked you by saving you in order to lead me into your village so I can kill everyone. That’s right, I’m one of those so-called Demon Beasts that you were so afraid of! Now, what are you going to do about it?”

“Graaaaah!”

He yelled fiercely and swung his sword at me. Good form, but it lacks focus. I continued to dodge his flurry of attacks since he made them so predictable. Eventually, he showed an opening and I made to swing my claw at him. Frozen in fear, he closed his eyes but I stopped my claw a few centimeters from his face.

“… Do you understand what it is you lack?”

He opened his eyes when he realized I didn’t finish him. In his exhaustion, he slumped onto the ground and looked at me questioningly.

“The chief told me of your history. It seems bandits attacked your village when you were younger, and you lost your parents when they tried to protect you. You vowed that you’ll become stronger in order to protect everyone in this village, and that’s why you became an adventurer. Does this still hold true?”

He grit his teeth in frustration while shedding tears from his eyes. He then started throwing his fists into the ground as if in a tantrum.

“I’ve been trying! *hic* For the longest time, I’ve been working hard to get stronger! I’ve already learned all there is to know about fighting from the Guild instructors, but everything I do seem to fail no matter how much effort I made! *hic* I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore! What am I doing wrong!?”

“… it seems you’re misunderstanding something. You already possess the skills, you just lack the means to wield them.”

“…*hic* what?”

Alright! Time to bust out another one of my favorite quotes from my previous life. This one is from one of my favorite video games.

“This is something I heard from an old warrior wearing gold speaking to his pupil… A sword has no strength if the hand that wields it lacks courage.”

“…Courage?”

“That’s right… what you lack, is courage. In the midst of battle, one must have courage in order to think and see beyond that, which threatens your life. Only with courage will you have clarity within the throes of death to be able to wield all the skills that you possess.”

“… But… I’m a coward… it’s not that simple for me to just stop being afraid.”

“Again, you misunderstand. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the ability to move forward despite being afraid. Everyone is afraid of something, but sometimes we just lack the means to face it. And that my friend, is courage.”

It seems my words sunk deep in him, as he appears lost in thought for a long while. After some time, he finally raised his head.

“… I now understand… but… how do I find my courage?”

I’ve been waiting for him to ask that. Now my plan comes into fruition.

“Haha! Simple my friend! All you need to do is experience constant battle and threats to your life, so that you’ll gradually build up courage. Since you lack it in your nature, we need to build it through experience until it becomes great enough that you’ll simply laugh in the face of fear!”

“…Um? What?”

“Come Glenn! We have much training to do to help build up that courage! Since it’s already dawn, we have a whole day ahead of us!”

“Um… sir Camus, that sounds… great… and all? But, I seriously lack sleep… uh… sir Camus? Sir Camus!?”

As I held Glenn by the scruff of his neck, I brought him over to a place far from the village to begin his Hell Training Session 1. Looks like I’ll finally be able to put to good use what you taught me, dad.

...

As the day went on, Glenn’s village became aware of a strange wailing of agony coming from across the hills…

The sound occurred daily, and it was as if a man was put to the most extreme of tortures just before his death… Fearing it may be an unfortunate soul who couldn’t pass on, they prayed so that it may somehow find peace…