Hospitality

The first thing I saw after I woke up is a cool game-like system window in front of my eyes. I was startled. After all, I was supposed to have a good sleep after defeating a legendary beast. I think a month has already passed since I had already used all of my powers. And to defeat someone as strong as that beast, one needs to have legendary abilities like mine! Anyways, I decided to keep my praises(self) for later and take a look at this.

Stats

Name: Ren…???

Race: ???

Class: Hero

Level: 2

Marital status/Relationships: None(poor virgin)

Status: Alive(barely)

Charm: 7(Average)

Strength: 12

Speed: 15

Stamina: 13

Dexterity: 14

Passive abilities

Warrior’s Instinct (Level 1) - Used in heated combats. Activation depends on the user’s state of mine. Adrenaline rush increases by 15 times. Also useful when the user is panicked and nervous. Time limit – 1.5 seconds.Time of recovery – 2.5 hours Aura of a sidekick (Level 6) – Always activated. Extremely useful if the user is an assassin. It makes the surroundings feel that user is ‘normal’. All in all, useless. ???? (Yet to be unlocked)

Active skills

Element thunder (Yet to be unlocked) Spear Arts (Level 1) – Basics of spear techniques. Techniques: Long strike(Level 2), Spear thrust(Level 1)

Unique Abilities

Rapid recovery(Level 1) – Healing speed of wounds or injuries increases by 1.5 times. ????(To be unlocked at level 96) ????(To be unlocked at Myriad Tribulations Realm)

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Hm….I understand. I nodded my head with my hand on my chin(pretending to be calm). There is nothing with the stats shown in front of my eyes. Maybe, something is wrong with my eyes. I rubbed my eyes and went through the stats again. F*ck this sh*t!! I am stunned and currently making some new abusive words to swear…..

First of all, why does it seem that the one who made this stat seems to have a grudge against me….? I understand if I am in a very poor condition right now but can you not have some mercy…? Let me name my problems in order, the first and foremost thing I should mention is the doubt you have on my name! My name is Ren Kashikawa!! I got jet black hair and a face like that of a normal 17 year old(neither handsome nor ugly)! And what’s with that ‘???’ in my race???!! Don’t doubt my humanity! *Grumble, grumble, grumble*

*gasps*Anyways, I have important things to *gasps* look at right now. Be gone!

….

Umm…how am I supposed to make it disappear……? After few seconds, I noticed that there was a red cross button at the right hand corner of the window. Gotcha!

The screen in front of me disappeared in thin air. I looked around and found myself in an empty room with wooden pillars. Huh…where am I? I looked at my upper body which is more than half covered in bandages with my school trousers still on. Oh well….must have the little girl’s relatives. Since, I have , I should have healed by now, right?

I got up by lifting my left leg. After examining my conditions, I sighed in relief. Though, my chest injury is not yet healed and my left arm is still numb, I have no serious issues. After that, I walked up to the door and opened it. The first thing that came into my sights was a group of people that were doing their daily chores.

One of the man noticed me and hurried towards me. Noticing the man, I bowed lightly and said,”I am extremely grateful to you for saving my life.”

“Ah…that’s no big deal. Anyways, why are you up? You should rest. Lunch would be delivered to you after an hour.”, the man said while smiling lightly.

“No. It’s fine. As you can see, I am lively as ever. Can you tell me what exactly happened?”, I asked without beating around the bush.

“err, One of our tribesmen found you and your daughter in the midst of the forest lying beside a dead Canolf beast. He, then brought you and your daughter here and we treated your injuries.”, the man said.

“Ah..thank you. I am grateful for you and your tribe for treating me and taking care of my daugh-….what?” My daughter?? I think I should consult a doctor. My senses are getting weak….

Before the man could respond, a sweet voice came from behind me.

“Papa!”. Such a lovely voice! I also want a daughter who calls me ‘papa’ like this. By the way, where is the ‘papa’? I looked around to search for the ‘papa’ among the crowd but strangely the crowd is looking at me. Before I could ask anything, a small body hugged my legs from behind. I looked back and found a familiar figure. It was the little girl I saved. Eh? I get that this girl must be separated from her parents but she can’t just call anyone ‘papa’, right? I need to teach this to the girl. I crouched, looked at the little girl and asked, ”What is your name?”

“Cyrola!”, said the little girl cheerfully.”Cyrola, how come you are here? Where are your parents? Do you want some help?”, I asked trying to sound calm and collected.

Cyrola pouted and said,”Meanie! You are obviously my Papa!”

My face twisted upon hearing that. Seriously, do I need to show you my stats now? I am a goddamn VIRGIN!! Hah…I don’t have the courage to say it out loud though. While I was contemplating about my situation, a nearby man kept hands on my shoulders and said, “Young man…I know young people who are married at young age tend to have a lot of private issues but trust me, your daughter should not suffer for your issues.”

I could just awkwardly laugh…What am I supposed to do in this situation? I looked at cheerful bright girl hugging my legs. Suddenly, a thought struck me!

“Hah….that’s not the case. The thing is my wife died a few days ago….Being extremely grieved, I went crazy….killing low-ranked magical beasts and that’s how I came into this forest. I left Cyrola into my aunt’s care but sh-she followed me here.” wiping off my non-existent tears from the corner of my eyes, I patted Cyrola.

I looked around only to find the tribesmen having complex looks on their faces. They looked at each other, then the nearby man hugged me and said,” Y-you have gone through a lot, didn’t you? From the moment I saw you, I got the feeling that you and I similar….just that both my wife and daughter passed away early…..I know what I’m saying is easy to say but stay strong!”

My condolences! But can you please let me go? You have already made my school shirt wet!

“Oh Goddess Merila! Please guide this young man and his dear daughter to their paths and may this young man’s wife rest in peace for eternity.”, an old woman cried out after which everyone followed.

Should I feel sorry for lying to them or feel proud because of my acting skills?

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Though I was already healed on the day I got my consciousness, I still decided to stay the next day. I was feeling somewhat guilty by getting food and lodging for free. I heard that it was not uncommon that the tribesmen give shelter to people especially adventurers. It makes sense. Adventurers are someone who complete quests given by the guild and the quests are often about hunting magical beasts. Talking to with the tribesmen, I heard that they were not the only tribe here in this forest. There are a total of six tribes in this forest- Shatu, Lokner, Werts, Turett, Klandimer and Rakhwas tribes. Lokner being the tribe I am with. When I asked about the leading tribe, I got the answer that all the tribes are almost equally strong and that they had no conflicts. I was honestly a bit surprised about that because it’s not every time you get to hear that there are no ‘conflicts’. Also, I heard that this forest is somewhat large and has many mysteries surrounding it. One of them being that there is a small lake whose water is black. Scary!

Aside from that, I got some information about this world in general. There are three main continents in this world. Union of Races Realm, the continent where humans and the magical beasts live in. This is the biggest continent in Nomero. There are further two divisions in this continent. Five Kingdom Alliance, Mighty Triplets Union and Jahlui Kingdom. The Kingdom with most military power is the Jahlui Kingdom. Despite it being a single kingdom, the people living out there are ridiculously strong. Even a villager could combat equally with a D-ranked mercenary. It is because the mana present in the kingdom is somewhat mysterious.

Noble Demonic Realm, the continents where the demons live. It has no further divisions as the supreme authority of the realm lies in the hands of the Demon King. It was once the strongest power in Nomero but degenerated slowly due to Reuken. It is also said that the demons don’t look any different from humans. Due to that, it is very easy to send spies from the realm. Though there is a symbol imprinted on their back, it is strictly applicable only to the royals. In other words, there was no ways of identifying a demon who is not royals. Nowadays, the demon nobles runs a major part of the Union of Races so due to that they introduced several methods of identifying a demon. Though, even if a demon was found spying, the demon would neither be executed nor be punished.

The Lost Continent. It is as the name sounds. At the Primordial Age where all the races coexisted, the only continent present is this continent. But due to a cataclysm, the world was separated. Currently, there are no inhabitants in the continent and is only used for research purposes.

While I was wondering about the world, I heard someone knocking my door.”Come in. It’s open.”A middle aged dark colored woman came in my room. My mind was quite uneasy because of Cyrola. After all I’ve said yesterday, I don’t doubt that they won’t question Cyrola about it. Well, I could only hope that she won’t bother about it.

“Ahh…I would get my packing done in a few seconds.”I said as I got up from the bed I was in and picked up the spear.”Done.” I replied as I looked at the woman with expectant eyes.

“err, do you not have any other items?”, the dark skinned woman asked me looking a bit confused.

“Uh…no.”I was not lying about it. The only thing I have as of this moment is my spear. The coins which the palace gave me were with Xie.

The woman sighed and asked,”Do you not have money? Perhaps, we could lend you some.”

“Ah..don’t worry about money. I have plenty.”I couldn’t owe them more. I already told them a huge lie. Now that I’m thinking about it, I could have told them a ‘small’ lie and could’ve avoided the situation. But unfortunately, my brain didn’t work that time. Anyways, no crying over spilled milk. Its time to execute the plan.

“Umm…there is something I have been wanting to talk about. The thing is I will be training in this forest. So, it would be very dangerous for Cyrola to tag along since there are dangerous magical beasts in this forest.”I sighed and continued,”The fact that me and Cyrola are standing here is in fact no less than a miracle. Due to such, I would be very grateful if your tribe could shelter her for a few days.”I spilled out whatever I had in my mind without beating around the bush.

The woman was taken aback a little, and then pondered about it. When she seems to reach the conclusion, she smiled amiably at me and said, “We would be glad to only if you promise to not forget us in the future.”

Though the last sentence sounded like a joke between friends, it was more than that. In other words, you must promise to repay us in the future. Well, it’s not like I’m against repaying debts but I can’t come here anymore. It might sound a bit rude but they (including Cyrola) don’t mean anything to me. Even though I saved Cyrola, it doesn’t mean that I will take her as a companion. I’m just not that cold-hearted to let her die while she died while saving me. And the tribes did something any normal person in Earth would’ve done. Hah….I’m tired of giving excuses. But well, if I have time in future I will repay this debt but currently I don’t have any plans to do so.

I laughed dryly and then lied.”Of course. I will repay this debt in the future.”

The woman seemed to be glad that I got her meaning. After some discussion, I left the room with her. After a few minutes, I am standing at the exit of the residence seeing the tribesmen, who were interacting with me. They asked me whether they should bring Cyrola to bid me goodbye to which I flat out refused. After bidding them goodbye, I was walking towards the interior region of the forest carrying a map in my hands.

Suddenly, I heard rustling in the bushes. With spear which was already in my hand, I took a fighting stance. After a second or two, a small green-haired girl came out which made my mouth agape.

“err, did you come here to pee? Sorry, it would not be lady-like if you do so. If you want, I could take you to the tribesmen’s residence.”

“No! You are bad Papa!! YOU ABANDONED ME!!”Cyrola screamed as she started crying. I gulped a mouthful of saliva and my throat was dried in an instant. My eyes looked like they would burst a fountain of tears in a few moments. The few moments didn’t last long as I got on my knees and burst out.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH”

“WAAAAHHHH”

….