Renard let out a sigh as he closed the door behind him. ‘I understand she is grateful, but she didn’t need to go one for 20 minutes.’

Thankfully, that time was not a total waste as he found out where her brother had gone out to collect herbs. It was out of the west gate of Littlefeather, about an hours walk away from town. Jem had also given him a small map which had the key landmarks to look out for. She hoped that it would help him fathom his way to the forest where Jem’s brother had gone.

According to Jem, the forest was quite small, its speciality being the cave in its heart. Inside it grows a special moss, which was what Jem’s brother had gone to get.

As Renard was leaving, he realised that he hadn’t asked for her brother’s name yet, he had only been referring to him as ‘Jem’s Brother’.

Acting as natural as he could, he quickly shot a questioning towards Jem as he kept walking towards the door. He really didn’t want to get dragged into another conversation with the woman. Thankfully, she obliged Renard's wishes and simply replied, “It's Charlie.”

With the door now closed behind him, Renard thanked himself for remembering to ask about it. He felt it might have been awkward to look for Charlie if he could refer to him only as ‘Jem’s Brother’.

‘Hi, I’m looking for Jem’s brother, have you seen him? Are you Jem’s brother? That would have destroyed Charlie’s reputation in the hunting circles. I doubt they would know Charlie by that, anyway. If they did though, he would be stuck with that nickname forever.’

It wasn’t that Renard really cared about someone else’s reputation, but he would always feel guilty for doing it. As it would be caused as a direct result of his own stupidity by not asking for what his name was.

Renard walked back towards the town centre, as he remembered seeing a general shop nearby.

Leaving the general store, Renard checked through what he had just bought. The first addition was to his outfit, it was a simple belt that went around his waist. The next addition was a small leather pouch attached with string to the side of the belt. Renard bought this as he thought it would be better to store small items in instead of just using his Inventory, he could also use it to disguise using his inventory too.

On the right side of his belt was a waterskin. This new addition was thanks to Renard’s keen insight. He knew he would be adventuring, it was obvious that he needed some essential supplies. Clean water was an important resource that he might not find in the wild, so he didn’t want to be stupid enough to leave without it.

Moving on from the belt area, there was now, hanging behind him, a hessian satchel. Coarse rope wrapped around his chest and held it in place. ‘Quite useful for a store to sell a pre-made adventuring pack. Comes with ration bars, bedroll, matches and some rope. Covers the basics that I should need out in the wild. It should be enough to support me whilst I go find Charlie at the very least.’

Renard held his hand over his eyes and looked into the sky, ‘I’m not sure how long the days are here, but the Sun is still far away from the horizon and quite high up. There should be plenty of time to get to the forest and back before it gets dark.’

Getting stuck outside in the dark didn’t sound very pleasant to him.

The map Jem had scribbled down started from the west entrance of Littlefeather, reaffirming what he had heard from her. So, after working out how long was left of the day, Renard headed towards the gate.

Littlefeather wasn’t that large, it only took a few minutes before Renard was in front of the western gate.

Two guards were stationed there, one on either side. Their heads were constantly on the move surveying the crowd, perhaps their movements were exaggerated as to make sure the comers and goers knew they were being watched and not to try anything. Renard noted the guards as he went through, he felt like they would pounce at the smallest sign of a trouble maker.

As quickly as Renard had time to think about the guards, he was already past them and outside of Littlefeather. Once outside, he quickly stepped to the side and off the dirt path and onto the grass. There were big carriages that were coming in and out through the gate every few minutes and he didn’t want to get in the way while he fathomed what to do next. Renard took out the map and held it in front of him.

‘The deterrent effect of those guards definitely works, it is intimidating having someone holding their swords out and just looking right at you.’ Looking down to the map, he tried to decipher what Jem’s directions meant.

‘So after the third farm building, look for the lone tree with three bushes around its base. Once I get there, I should be able to see the forest. At least, I think that’s it, Jem’s map skills aren’t very clear but those look like farms, and she told me about the tree so I’m gonna go with that.’ Renard rolled the map up and placed it into his pouch, transferring it into his inventory.

‘Still can’t get over how useful that is.’

Renard stepped back onto the path, and started to walk away from Littlefeather. ‘Time for adventure, I’m ready for what this world has to offer. I’m not gonna be scared of it and hide in Littlefeather. If I do that, it would just be a waste of my new life. I don’t want to get too attached to this place either, as soon as I get that cultivation technique, I am out of here to explore and get stronger. But I need to be strong to get that in the first place. Thankfully, I got Quests to help me with that, all my gratitude really needs to go to this system.’

Even though Renard's thoughts sounded very resolute, he was trying to disillusion himself. His old life still haunted him, telling him to stay in the safe town, the world was too dangerous. It felt like a writhing mass of tendrils that wrapped around him, digging in deep into his psyche. The feeling was like an itch in the back of his mind.

He ignored as best as he could and kept walking. Although Renard didn’t know where the stifling feeling came from, he continued on, choosing not to listen to the doubts from deep within him.

The gravelled roads of Littlefeather had bled out onto the dirt path. Evidence of the traffic that had passed through the gate over the years. Renard's feet crunched in the gravel as he walked away from the town.

It was clear that there was a lot of activity at the western gate, much more so than the gate he entered into Littlefeather from. He hadn’t seen any gravel on the road at that gate.

'The workers on the farms are probably largely to blame for the popularity of this gate.’ Renard thought to himself.

There was a cart in the distance heading away from Littlefeather, it had many barrels on the back of it. Renard assumed the cart was probably used for transporting the goods between the town and farms.

Looking around, he also noticed that there were quite a few people walking on both sides of the path.

Although the path was wide enough to allow for a cart to travel in both directions at the same time, people walked on the extremities of the path, keeping the main path clear. It seemed as the people were conditioned into a structure due to the high activity of the gate.

People like Renard who were leaving Littlefeather walked on the left edge, whilst people coming towards the town walked on the right.

Whilst observing the movement of the people, he also noticed that most of the people who were walking towards Littlefeather had a large satchel slung over their shoulder.

Renard inferred, ‘It must be cheaper to hire the workers to take produce into town rather than the cart. I’m surprised that the farm managers trust these workers to take and sell the produce, I can’t imagine they have good enough pay to get rid of the urge to steal. The guards got to have a good policing force to dissuade stealing then.’

As Renard kept walking, he saw what he assumed to be the first farm quickly appeared in the distance. It was the first building he’d seen since Littlefeather, just set off the path by a large split to the left. As Renard was just coming over a small hill, he could see down onto the Farm.

The main building was built better than most of the houses in Littlefeather. It looked like a large shed, with walls made of big stones with a thatch roof plonked on top. People seemed to be milling around the site, some going in and out of the building, others heading towards the farmland that surrounded the building and others on their way towards the path carrying satchels.

Renard couldn’t see any carts at the farm. Which he assumed meant that the farm took advantage of its proximity to Littlefeather, only using manual labour for transportation of goods.

In Renard’s mind however, he thought the carts probably paid for themselves over time, due to their speed and increased capacity. Therefore, he couldn’t be sure why they didn’t use them.

The way this world worked was interesting to him. The farms and the way people used the paths seemed very mundane, but he couldn’t help but see the similarities to his old world. ‘This is probably how the farms used to work in the past in my world. With no industry-grade machines to help, they just have to make up for it with loads of workers.’

After passing the first farm, he started to notice different people who were travelling on the opposite side of the path, towards town. Renard labelled them as adventurers in his mind that was not correct. Those people were more likely hunters just trying to make a living. There was often dried blood stuck to their clothes, their skin was scarred and they looked like they hadn’t had a proper wash in years. Some dragged a corpse behind them or on their shoulders and others had nothing but disdain on their faces. Renard could at least tell that these people clearly risked their lives daily without the promise of a stable income.

To Renard most of these “adventurers” were surprisingly alone. Renard had expected more people to be in parties like in the books he read back on Earth. However, that was because Renard was thinking of them as “adventurers” and not as hunters. These people were not powerful, they only relied on their tactics to help them survive and kill prey. The more people with them, the more variables to account for, and the harder to stay hidden from a wild animal. Every moment they were in the presence of an animal waiting to go in for the kill, was a moment with their life on the line. If they got detected, it was unlikely they would still be able to keep initiative in a battle and keep their life.

Although Renard didn’t catch on to this immediately, it didn’t take long before he realised that these people weren’t the “adventurers” from the stories in his past life. Their attire, expression and general existence just didn’t mesh with the image in his head. The more he looked at them, the more discrepancies he saw.

Regretfully, he accepted that most people in this world probably didn’t have powers like ‘Almighty Power’ or could become cultivators. They had to fight with mortal techniques, against beasts that were naturally enhanced by the world. It almost seemed cruel to humans really. Sure, they could cultivate but why weren’t they born with any gift from the world like beasts had.

Renard sighed, ‘No point wasting time trying to find an answer, I barely understand this world at this point. For all I know, there could be, I mean Kathy was pretty strong, she could have been born like that. Either way, it's not that unusual, people fought for their lives to survive in my old world too. Even though humans aren’t born strong, thankfully we have the intelligence that allows us to become strong. Which is even more prevalent in this world with cultivation as an option.’