As Vahn approached the village, several men tending their fields and animals began to gather along his path. They weren't overtly hostile, but he noticed that their grips on the farming tools they held tightened as he drew near enough for conversation.
"Now, where are you coming in from, friend? If you're an Adventurer, where's your plate...?" asked a burly man with short brown hair and a tanned, weather-worn body that had been sculpted from years of hard labor. He was wearing a blue tunic over an off-white, long-sleeved shirt, brown hide pants, leather boots, and a red wool cap. In his right hand was a well-maintained hatchet, but Vahn didn't mind it outside of noting that it was made of steel.
Raising his hands to demonstrate to the group he intended them no harm, Vahn calmly replied, "Unfortunately, I don't have one. As for where I came from, it's a distant place called Termina. More to the point, I came here to inform your people that there was a colony of Goblins in the forest behind me. I was able to eliminate most of them, but several escaped."
"You're saying you took on a colony of Goblins all on your own?" scoffed one of the burly man's companions, a markedly younger man who couldn't have been older than twenty. His impromptu weapon of choice was a hoe, resting on his shoulder as if he thought it looked cool.
"If you need proof, I can draw a map for you, and you can send someone to investigate," answered Vahn, appending, "Their cave is a two-hour walk from here, but I wasn't in a particular hurry."
"You don't look like someone who just took on, much less eliminated a colony of Goblins..." noted the burly man, his dark brown eyes carefully scrutinizing Vahn's pristine, high-quality equipment. Had his blemishless skin been paler, he would have assumed he was the son of a particularly well-off Noble house.
"I have nothing but my word to offer as proof," stated Vahn, lowering his hands and smiling as he added, "If that isn't enough, I would ask that you point me toward the nearest city. I will not insist on staying where I'm not welcome."
Following a tense pause, the burly man gestured with his chin and said, "If you travel the carriage route heading southwest, you should end up at the city of E-Rantel within two days. If you have coin, we can provide you with food and water for the journey..."
"I have coin, but it's not likely a currency you'll recognize," hummed Vahn, producing a large gold coin based on those used in the world of Mushoku Tensei.
"Great Gods...look at the size of that thing..." muttered one of the younger men in the group, his eyes flashing with greed. Even their burly leader had a coetous gleam in his eyes, but instead of submitting to his evil thoughts, he coughed loudly into his right fist, snapping the rest of the militia out of their trances before affirming, "Assuming that's real gold, it will more than cover the cost of two days' worth of supplies..."
"Alright, sounds good," responded Vahn, flicking the coin with a loud ting sound that echoed sharply until it landed heavily in the burly man's hands. Its weight served as an initial confirmation of its legitimacy, but to make sure, the man brought it to his mouth and bit down on its edge. Gold was soft and malleable enough that biting down on it could leave teeth marks, so when he saw that his teeth had left indentations in its surface, he gave Vahn an affirming nod before ordering one of the younger members of the group to fetch two waterskins and a bundle of their best bread...
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'Well, that was a bust...' Vahn sighed. He had expected to have a chance or fortuitous encounter within the village. Instead, he was leaving it with a bundle of hard bread that needed to be soaked in liquid before it could be eaten. He learned that the village had been called Carne, and that he was south of the Azerlisia Mountains in a region called the Re-Estize Kingdom, but nothing came to mind when he heard them.
'I guess the most sensible thing to do for the time being is head for the capital...' Vahn concluded, raising his gaze to the sky, which had started to dim from the sun's descent. For several minutes, he just stared blankly at the sky, ostensibly lost in thought. In reality, he was waiting for those who had been pursuing him to decide whether they were going to attack him or return safely to their homes.
shsshftshsffsshskshaa
Closing his eyes and exhaling from his nose, Vahn continued to hold his position as a group of five young men armed with hatchets and a single sword encircled him. The man holding the sword was one of those who had headed him off to the village, and though he was doing his best to appear determined, his voice cracked as he exclaimed, "H-Hand over all your belongings, and I swear you won't be harmed...!"
"You're lying..." countered Vahn, his expression and tone flat as he met the young man's gaze and maintained, "You wouldn't want me informing the guards in E-Rantel that I was robbed by men from your village, so you aim to have me disarm myself to make me easier to kill..."
Leaving the men at a loss for words, Vahn calmly shed his gear as he was speaking. His actions directly contradicted his words, but his intentions became apparent when, after discarding anything that might impede his movements, he spread his hands and said, "Well, come at me..." in a calm, unconcerned tone.
"Hey, Jake...I don't think this is someone we should mess with..." uttered one of the men, wielding a hatchet that looked a lot like the one wielded by the burly leader of the militia.
"I-It's too late for that! He's bound to report us, so we have no choice but to see this through!" shouted the sword-wielding youth, evidently named Jake. Then, with sweat beading down his brow, he seized the initiative, his voice rising as he shouted, "Die...!" while rushing toward Vahn and leaping into the air with his sword raised.
Turning his body and sidestepping to the man's right, Vahn effortlessly evaded Jake's highly telegraphed blow. The latter followed by trying to swing back at him from an awkward angle, but there was no force behind the blow, allowing him to grab the blade directly with his left hand before redirecting it upward. Jake's grip on its handle caused his arm to nearly be dislocated by the sudden torque to his shoulder, so even though he really didn't want to, he released the sword from his grip and stumbled onto his face.
"Trying to split someone's head open when the only thing you've split until now is firewood...I'm not sure if I should pity you or be offended on behalf of swordsmen around the world..." sighed Vahn. At the same time, he tried to snap the tip off the sword, but his reduced strength made the action an impossibility without augmenting himself with Touki. Instead, he tossed it to the side before he met the gazes of his remaining would-be assailants.
"Pick this fool up and return to your families. And the next time someone tries to goad you into robbing a complete stranger, you would be wiser to knock some sense into them..." stated Vahn, his words cutting through the men as effectively as any blade.
Cowed by Vahn's words, the men dropped their weapons one by one and fell to the ground like they were bowing before a King who held their lives in his hands. Vahn had to resist the overwhelming urge to roll his eyes as the men thanked him profusely for his mercy and sparing them. In reality, they were simply lucky that he had grown weary of killing that day. If they had pressed their attack or exhibited genuine bloodlust, their fates would have been the same as the Goblins who ambushed him. After all, it wasn't an organism's species that made it into a monster. It was how they chose to behave...
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With nothing else of note happening for the rest of the afternoon, Vahn made camp along the side of the road where a clearing separated it from the forest. A creature that resembled a car-sized honey badger came over to sniff around his tent, but as he spread his Domain, it turned and fled as fast as its stubby legs could carry it. After that, no other animals came up to him, allowing him to rest his mind and focus on the perspectives of his other two bodies until the following morning.
(It's time to wake up) said Sis, her voice emanating from the back of Vahn's mind, stirring him from his static state.
"Hmmn...?"
Rousing at the sound of Sis's voice, Vahn experienced a brief moment of incongruence as he sat up and habitually looked around. He was used to being awoken by a blowjob or waking up surrounded by naked bodies, so it felt wrong waking up by himself.
(Knowing you, that won't be the case for long~) teased Sis, her voice suffused with mirth.
"Mmn...probably..." conceded Vahn, shifting forward and emerging from his tent completely naked. Like Rias, he always slept in the nude. And as it had been decades since he last cared about being seen in the buff, he did his morning exercises and prepared breakfast naked. Had there been any monsters or bandits observing him, they doubtlessly would have attacked him. Since nothing happened, he concluded that the compacted dirt route was cleared fairly regularly.
And, thus, Vahn's second day in the setting of OL-2138 commenced with nothing of consequence occurring. At the very least, he had yet to come across anything that felt like it was tied to the broader narrative of the setting—suggesting he had either overlooked something or taken a wrong turn somewhere. Either way, the plot was certain to reveal itself sooner or later. In the meantime, he would continue to gain information and build an identity for himself...
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With his stamina replenishing nearly as quickly as he exhausted it, Vahn completed what should have been a two-to-three-day journey before the sun began its descent.
"Oh, wow..." Vahn muttered. He had seen far grander structures, but as the walled city of E-Rantel came into view, he found himself reevaluating his assessment of their technology level. The city was built atop a large hill, giving it a multi-tiered structure like a wedding cake. Even from afar, he could see that it had three massive walls, each tens of meters tall and comprised of yellow-brown brick. The gate he was headed for was more like a small fortress, and along the battlements, dozens of ballistae could be seen, suggesting the city frequently fended off waves of monsters or invading armies.
As the path he had been following invariably converged with many others, likely leading to other villages, Vahn found himself having to make way for an increasing number of horse-drawn carriages. Most carried barrels and leather-covered crates of supplies, but a few ferried groups of people that wouldn't look out of place at a fantasy convention.
"Hmmn...?"
Seeing one of the carriages ferrying passengers slow down, Vahn raised his brows. What followed was a fairly muscular woman with a purple cape, leather pants, worn armor, and a sword slung over her shoulders, dangling near her lower back, approaching him with a smile. She had ashen hair, and though he couldn't pin her exact age, the laugh lines around her eyes suggested she was getting on in years.
"Hey, there, you headed into the city? I don't recognize your face. Where are you traveling from...?" asked the woman, spreading her gloved hands disarmingly while openly scanning Vahn from head to toe. There was clear desire behind the woman's muted violet eyes, but as he was well aware of how he appeared to women, Vahn just smiled and answered, "I hail from a land called Termina, but I'm traveling here by way of Carne Village to the northeast. My name is Vahn—Vahn Mason."
"And I'm Tamara, a Platinum-Ranked Adventurer. Nice to meet you," said the woman, extending her right hand, which Vahn promptly accepted. He noticed that her grip tightened like a vice as they shook, nearly crushing the bones in his hand, but with S-Ranked Pain Tolerance, he was able to maintain his smile and respond, "The pleasure is mine..." with the corners of his lips curling upward...
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