After checking the back of the shack, Kyril proceeded along the path in front of his shack. This path was abnormally long, at twenty metres, compared to the paths which were around three to five metres that connected the other houses to the main street. Apart from this, Kyril also realized that his shack was the only shack he could see. The houses in the distance, although they were far inferior to the quality of houses on earth, they were still a hundred times better than Kyril’s shack! If Kyril’s shack could be considered a house, then the houses in front of him were mansions! To this, Kyril only smiled lightly. He knew the reason why it was like this, but could not be bothered to waste any energy complaining about it.

As Kyril neared the main street, he started to see other people walking along the middle of the street and men and women chatting normally by the side. Occasionally horse driven carriages carrying baskets and barrels of goods would drive by, causing all the people to spread to the sides and stare at it with curious eyes. It was an atmosphere that seemed to be from a fairy tale. However, when their eyes landed on Kyril’s body, the atmosphere from before instantly turned tense. The people stopped talking and some of the people’s eyes showed signs of disgust and loathing, and when Kyril turned to look at these people in the eye, the signs of disgust and loathing intensified.

“Look! That boy Kyril actually didn’t die!” someone among the people cried out, drawing even more attention towards Kyril.

There were also some people who expressed astonishment at the fact that Kyril was still alive. These people had seen the state Kyril was in and so everyone assumed that the stab would undoubtedly have killed him, especially since he could not cultivate. Never did they expect him to stand upright again.

“What! How could he still walk with such a wound! He's also a cripple, there's no way his injuries could have healed so fast!” someone shouted.

When Kyril heard this, he too felt a little surprised at how fast he recovered. Never mind the deep stab wound, the rust on the knife should have been enough to kill him or at least keep him bedridden until his death. The only answer he could think of was that it was due to him being reborn.

Not thinking about it any longer, Kyril ignored the shouts of the people around him and continued to walk along the street. Unlike, the orderliness often found in towns on Earth, Vale Town was quite disordered. The streets were not uniform, resulting in a parts of the streets wider or bumpier than the rest of the street.

As Kyril's sight drifted into the distance, he noticed a distinct change in the houses. The houses around him were quite plain and boring, but the houses in the distance had beautiful designs. There were steel gates that surrounded some of the distant houses and reflected the sunlight like mirror, while the gardens the gates guarded let out a sense of tranquility.

Seeing this, Kyril knew the reason for this change.

“That must be where the wealthier people live and the place I'm in right now should be where the common townsfolk would reside.”

As Kyril looked at the distant houses, a mocking voice entered his ears.

“Ha! Do you think you're qualified to enter that place, you, a cripple? Dream on!”

Turning his head, Kyril looked at the source of the sound. When his eyes landed on the person, Kyril only shook his head. These people were the two boys who previously drove the Kyril before himself into attempting suicide.

“These boys… After nearly sending someone to their death, they still dare to speak like this? They were clearly shaking on the ground when the previous Kyril stabbed himself and now here they are trying to act tough.”

Kyril had recalled that the two boys were close to wetting themselves after realising what they had done before. But now they were acting like this, as if they had completely forgotten about it. This was a sign of being extremely thick headed!

Not bothering to waste his time, Kyril simply ignored them and continued walking onwards. When the two boys saw this, their face turned red and gnashed their teeth. Thinking back to how they were near wetting themselves on the ground, humiliation welled up in them.

“You! You'll regret this you trash!” the two boys shouted at Kyril while looking at the metal pail in his hand. A strange glint flashed within their eyes before they began running away.

Kyril just walked on unaffected, reverting back to the curious gaze, he started looking around once again. Even though he knew what everything looked like from his memories, seeing it in person was a completely new experience.

…

Once the sun had reached its peak in the sky, Kyril finally stopped walking around aimlessly. He didn’t try entering the wealthier area since he knew that the people there did not welcome him.

Turning his head to look at one end of the street, he walked towards it with the metal pail swinging in his hand.

“Now that I've explored the place, it’s time to earn some money.”

The place Kyril was heading to was the Grassy Mountains. The Grassy Mountains grew various types of herbs and plants, getting its name from the abundance of plants that covered it. Different animals also roamed the perimeter of the Grassy Mountains and as one went deeper, Magical Beasts would also start appearing. Of course, the previous Kyril never dared to venture too deep into the Grassy Mountains. With his strength, it would simply be courting death.

Fifteen minutes later, Kyril had entered one hundred metres into the Grassy Mountains. The Grassy Mountains were filled with different coloured flowers with each of them having its own unique fragrance. But so far, Kyril had not found a single herb.

“Let's see… The previous Kyril would usually manage to gather three or four herbs every week, enough to feed him for a day. But that’s just for food. I also need a new set of clothes and possibly a new knife. This knife looks like it’ll break when even cutting butter. So if I can at least pick up ten herbs per day, then I should have some left over money for other necessities as well as emergencies.”

In order to identify herbs from normal plants, one must look for the tiny crystals of Martial Essence embedded on their leaves and stem. This is the most common way to identify Herbs, but this required the person to check each herb individually. It was also the way Kyril previously gathered Herbs.

“This method is too inefficient. No wonder Kyril would only manage to obtain very little Herbs within a week. With such a huge area this mountain covers, there's bound to be enough Herbs to gather more than even five a week. Perhaps I just don’t know where to look.”

Kyril believed that there was a more efficient way of gathering herbs that he didn't know about.

“I should go to the library to research later. I might be able to find out other efficient ways of gathering herbs. Also, I might learn something beneficial there too.”

The further Kyril walked deeper into the Grassy Mountains, he started noticing a growing number of footsteps imprinted on the grass.

“Strange. There shouldn’t be this many people gathering herbs,” Kyril said to himself. “Aside from myself, only around three other people would collect herbs, but by the looks of it there are at least ten people present.”

Kyril began following the footsteps.

…

Not too far away from Kyril, a group of twelve boys were moving hurriedly amongst each other. Each boy carried a pouch bag by their hand and were vigorously pulling plants from the ground and stuffing it into their pouches.

“Alek, don’t you think this is enough? We’ve been running around here for several hours already. We’ve never even picked herbs before!” complained one of the boys.

“Yeah, our feet and knees already hurt from walking…”

“Shut up! This is what the boss says! Or do you plan on going against the boss!”

While Kyril followed the footsteps through the different plants and trees that grew on the Grassy Mountains, a series of shouting could be heard near him.

“Huh? This voice sounds familiar…”

Narrowing his eyes, Kril looked around him.

Roughly a hundred metres away from him, he spotted the twelve boys that were pulling plants from the grounds and placing it into their pouches.

“So they're the ones who are taking all the herbs…” Kyril said softly.

As Kyril moved closer, he immediately recognised one of the boys.

“It's that boy again. It seems like he hasn't given up on me.”

Kyril stopped moving and silently listened in on them.

“But Alek, from what we’ve found, that cripple is only able to find at most four herbs a day. We've already scavenged the whole place, if he's lucky he'd only be able to find one herb!”

“Did you not hear me! This is what the boss wants us to do! If you don't want to do it, go tell the boss that! Before Kyril manages to find herbs, we must pick them all up so there is nothing left!”

Hearing this conversation, Kyril managed to understand who the boy was and and the reason for the lack of herbs.

“So that boy who nearly wet his pants is called Alek and the leader of this group. As for the others around him, they appear to be like dogs under him.”

Kyril shook his head and turned back around.

“Those boys should have been sent by this ‘boss’ character. For him to be able to control a group of twelve boys, he should be quite powerful.”

Thinking this, a hint of sadness appeared in Kyril's eyes before immediately disappearing.

“I guess if I want to pick up herbs by tonight, I'll have to go deeper into the Grassy Mountains.”

After another fifteen minutes of walking, Kyril arrived two hundred metres deep into the Grassy Mountains. If this was the previous Kyril, then he would already be trembling in fear, but due to the merging of personalities, this fear was replaced with curiosity.

Kyril slowed down his walking pace and once again looked at everything around him very carefully, like an animal seeking its prey.

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye a slight sparkling could be seen. Turning to look at it, a light smile formed on Kyril's face.

“Finally found one!”

Kyril immediately rushed to the herb and then stopped to observe it in great detail. Wonder and shock had filled him. Even though he knew what it look like from memory, looking at it in person he still couldn't help but be taken aback.

The herb was covered in small crystals that were similar in size to grains of sand. These crystals were spread out on the leaves and the stem, and emitted a yellow glow.

“This world is really too exotic! It's just like something from one's dreams!” Kyril said in awe of the world.

After calming himself, Kyril carefully picked up the herb, ensuring that the roots were still intact.

“Hopefully by leaving roots, the herbs can grow again.”

Once that was said, Kyril got up and began looking for more herbs…

By the time the sun had almost disappeared and the sky tinted red and orange, Kyril was able to collect five herbs in his metal pail. Although he had not obtained ten herbs like he wanted to, he was still satisfied. After all, this was his first time doing something like this.

- END -

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