In a flash of light Maro phased into existence, it felt like he had a huge headache as all his senses came back at the same time, like he was just hit with a flashbang grenade. He had a bit of trouble processing everything, but as his mind was catching up to his senses, his training kicked into gear. He immediately tried to grasp his surroundings, he was in the middle of a forest, the thick treeline prevented his vision of the sun, it was daytime but he was unsure of what time exactly. It smelled and sounded like a regular forest and he couldn't hear anything larger than small forest animals, for the moment he was safe.
He wondered how he ended up in leather sandals and a cheap linen shirt/pants, it was extremely comfortable but not sturdy enough for survival, he had to eventually replace them but he was grateful he wasn't naked, night time would have been difficult being cold.
Maro was a survival expert, he had trekked weeks at a time, in the most inhospitable terrain in the world from Deserts, Jungles, Mountains, Arctic and even swamps to get to his mission targets. A regular old forest wasn't going to challenge his survival skills, he decided to get his bearings in order so he started to climb the nearest tree…
"Damn"
He was too heavy to get to the top branches and he couldn't see more than 100 meters in any direction due to how thick the canopy was, but he did catch a glimpse of a running stream and water was his priority currently. After climbing down and drinking some water, he started walking up stream towards the source. Whatever the hell a woke fantasy world was, the deity implied it was populated and everyone needed water, a lake was a good spot to run into other living beings.
Along his walk up the stream, he picked up a nice and heavy walking stick, worst case scenario if he ran into anything, he would bludgeon it to death. He felt physically amazing, better than he had in years, but he was a bit worried about his physical strength as he remembered being middle aged, he wasn't planning on any direct engagements any time soon.
However as he walked up the stream he found that the stream was coming from a small lake. Maro looked down at the still water and nearly had a heart attack, he was young, no liver damage young… he looked to be about his 18 year old self. He seemed taller, more muscular and more handsome than he remembered. He had a full head of black hair again but it was cut really short somehow, he would definitely grow it out as much as he could.
"Nice" he thought outloud, no liver damage, he could drink alcohol without worry again… what if this world had no alcohol, now that would truly be a punishment, worst case scenario he would figure out to brew it himself, he thought. Voices interrupted his thoughts, quickly he hid underneath the roots of a giant tree, looking at where the sounds were coming from.
The voices were high pitched, fast talking and guttural like. Maro was dumbfounded at what came out of the bushes, 2 green monster things. They were less than a metre tall, had long crooked noses, ears and teeth… They wore what looked like rabbit fur loin cloths and a simple linen shirt. Maro could only assume that these were goblins, he decided to wait a bit and see if anyone else would show up, the goblins had a bucket in each hand, they were here to fill up on some water, which meant their village wasn't too far away.
As the goblins put the buckets down, he saw that they each had long knives on their hips. He needed them, Maro was a master at hand to hand and Knife combat, if he had those knives his ability to defend himself and survive would go up measurably. He decided to wait until the goblins had their hands full with buckets of water before he would strike.
As the goblins were too busy yelling at each other while sploshing half the water out of the buckets, he quietly snuck up from behind with his bludgeoning stick, wound up his swing…and caved in the first goblins head. It immediately died.
[5 experience points gained]
What the hell was that, but due to his training, that distraction was quickly ignored and he proceeded to bash the second goblin's head in. small and weak creatures… pathetic… truly evil and disgusting beings.
[5 experience points gained]
Again, what the hell is this, a small notice popped up again in the periphery of his vision and went away just as fast. His first thoughts went straight to 'fuck, this better not be some nerdy magical isekai world' and his second thought went to 'actually, maybe it could be one where I have a harem of beautiful women'
He looted the goblins, tucked one of his knives in the back of his pants and pulled his shirt over it to conceal it and he put the other knife on his side for easy access. The knives were definitely not modern steel made to perfection by precise machinery, they were crude, unbalanced iron knives, but they would do the trick for now.
Aside from their clothes, knives and buckets, the goblins did not have much. He found a little sack of dried mystery meat and a small but weighty coin purse with what looked to be copper coins. There was just a crude image of a crown on one side and a castle on the other, there must be some sort of city or town around here, he took the meat and coins and decided to go down the path the goblins came.
Before he left, he stabbed the lungs and guts of the goblins and threw them in the lake. This way once the bodies started getting bloated with gas they wouldn't float to the surface. He didn't think he really needed to but he didn't want to leave evidence out of habit.