When he got to the first town, that had about fifty houses, the first thing he observed, from the distance, was smoke coming up from a pyre or something from a similar size. As he got closer, he observed that the buildings here had also been affected by the movement of the earth and even though nothing had fallen on top of the houses, many had partially broken-down walls and cracks that spread on them.

As it was a small town focused on farming, the houses were pretty spread out and he first came into contact with some farm animals that had escaped from their barn, which had lost a wall due to the telluric movement.

The main hub of the village, which had a small restaurant, a few other shops and a small hostel, none of which were currently active as in the main plaza, between all of these buildings most, if not all of the inhabitants were around the fiery pyre, probably praying or something of that style, based on their sitting position and the noises which he could listen to.

Soon enough he was spotted by someone, and a tiny group of people stood up and walked towards him. They were wearing normal clothes and didn’t seem very strong either, so if he didn’t see another option to leave, he’d be able to escape by force.

But these people weren’t coming with any ideas of attacking him, as they didn’t even know who he was, and this was exactly what they asked him. At first, he was going to answer with the name he had used before, Gabriel, but decided that it was risky because people may still be searching for him and even though a different name wouldn’t make them to stop searching for him, it’d work as a diversion for some time.

But what name could he take? It had to be different enough from his old one yet something he would recognize. He searched through his memories for any name that he liked, and he ended up with the books that he read, and their protagonist called Petrió. The name was quite common as well so that would probably work in his favor.

After having introduced himself, they asked him where he came from and he told them that his cabin in the mountain had broken down due to the earth moving and now, without a home, decided to move somewhere else and maybe explore the world in between.

They told him that they weren’t exactly praying, but rather making a ritual that would help them not be attacked by monsters for a while as they had to rebuild and even though they usually didn’t get attacked, now with the earthquake the monsters would move as well and they had lost some of their men in the recent events, meaning that they were in a very weak position.

Gabriel observed the ritual they were performing but observed that no one had any level of magic, so he was surprised when suddenly, after everyone had finished chanting, a big burst of mana came out and covered a sizeable chunk of the village, probably preventing monsters of breaking in or perhaps dissuading them from getting closer.

The people asked him for his help and in exchange he could get some fresh food and he also used the chance to talk with people, gaining a bit of information about the current situation. It turned out that after the thief god’s followers had made such a ruckus, the followers of other gods had also come out of their temples and declared their god to be superior to the others, which lead to larger and smaller conflicts spread all throughout the world.

This meant that many cities had their puppet leaders removed and replaced by the cults or religions that controlled them before and the people who didn’t even know about these were either hired with consent or forced to participate while others managed to escape the grasp of these groups and live in newly formed villages such as the one, he was in.

Peter was surprised that what he had experienced had spread out so much but also thankful that he had changed his identity because there probably were people still searching for him. This was also one of the reasons why he decided to stay in this village for a while, helping them rebuild their homes while also preparing his future travels. How much would he magically change his appearance? Did he have to prepare any weapons, just in case?

In the end he crafted both a bow and an axe for ranged and close combat though he hoped that he wouldn’t need to use any of them, but it was better to be prepared than hurt. He also decided to “humanize” himself, making his skin less reddish and more brownish, making it seem as if he had a tan instead of being half monster – by human standards.

After having helped rebuilding enough buildings so that everyone had a roof under their head, though they had to share homes for the time being, Petrió decided that it was time to continue with his travel and left the town without a hitch.

After he left the “border” created by the spell he was surprised at how well it worked, because soon he was face to face with a monster, though not very dangerous, that had never come close to where the townspeople were at.

Quickly defeating it with two arrows, trying to hone his shooting skills against smarter enemies, he took them out of the corpse and as the sun had begun to set, he set up camp. It wasn’t a really good one, without even a tent, but at the time he didn’t need it and with a small campfire and some covers he could make it through the night.

The next few days were less eventful, though at times he did stray away from the marked path in search for animals to hunt and then eat, but nothing special happened in these situations. The next event that he’d find was an escaping family that had recently escaped a nearby city, though it lost some of its members in the escapade.

Currently the group was comprised of a father, a daughter and a son, but after spending a night with them, camping together for the experience and information, from Gabriel’s side, but for their safety, from the family’s side, he learned more about them.

Such as they had lost not only their mother but also an older brother who had bravely fought against some guards that had gone after them once they had started their escape. They had also tried to leave with an aunt, but she was stopped before they could even set the plan in motion, in fact, it was her capture that led to them escaping so suddenly and unprepared and they said that that was the cause that they had lost their family.

But they knew that they had to keep moving otherwise their sacrifice would be in vain, making them feel even worse. Gabriel commented to them the direction of a nearby village, the one he had been in a few days ago, though warned that they might not be accepted due to their recent history. Or maybe they’d be especially accepted because of what they had experienced, because they’d relate to their experiences and feel empathy towards them.

He kept traveling, now with a goal in mind. He’d visit the city the family had just escaped from to see the current situations in larger settlements and then, with a broader view of the present situation, decide on a new course of action.

The earthquake, as he learned it was called, had had a smaller effect on the city as he had expected, because he expected that the conglomeration of buildings would’ve had a domino effect so a single building falling over would have caused the others to go down with it, but due to some clever building techniques not only was this prevented, but overall, less buildings fell over, in comparison to the village. This was probably also due to some better materials and there were also traces of spells within the buildings.

Soon enough he was face to face with one of the most fervent followers of this city’s god. At first it was questioning Petrió who he was, and he told them his usual answer, someone that had lived away from civilization but had lost his home due to the earthquake and decided to search for a new home.

The man in front of him had a delighted face when he heard of his created misery because he was prime material for new followers of the god of hunting because of his equipment and story, he realized that Petrió was a hunter.

Therefore, when the cultist told Gabriel to follow him to the temple to be initiated, after telling him all the benefits of following said god and was rejected, he laughed it off at first, thinking that it was a joke. But seeing that Petrió wasn’t moving from the spot made him realize that he wasn’t going to join them, and he got a little angry, at first only increasing the tone of his voice, but then preparing to fight Petrió over his refusal.

But before he managed to attack, he was promptly knocked out before anyone else could come close to the pair and he had seen enough of the city for a while. After clearing the mind of the unconscious man, he left the populated area and decided that he’d see how the common people were faring, though that’d be on the next day.