As Lowen made his way down the mountain, he moved at an incredible speed for someone his age. As the ki circulated throughout his legs and feet, it caused him to move slightly faster than the average adult. The more he used his ki, the more his body would strengthen. His eyesight would grow sharper, his sense of hearing would heighten and his muscles would grow denser and more powerful. Every aspect of his body would gradually improve.(Where the h.e.l.l am I?)
Although Lowen retained partial memories from the boy who died, there was no recollection of this mountain or any of the surroundings in his mind. With that, Lowen could only pick a random direction and head down the mountain.
As he continued on his way he had to continually stop and reabsorb more ki flowing through the world. Although this energy increased his bodily functions by a huge margin, he was still a child and ran out of stamina every few minutes. With a quick break, he could easily focus his mind and soul and recover his ki. The only real downside to this was the amount of focus one would need to absorb ki. In doing so one"s guard would be completely down and the body would be left defenseless. With enemies around the outcome becomes obvious. Lowen"s best bet was to climb a tree out of sight from the ground, steady himself on a branch and focus.
With a few focused breaths, the ki seed within his core quickly absorbed more ki, recharging himself back to 100%.
As Lowen finished absorbing some energy, he climbed back to the bottom of the tree and sat down. Taking off the sling of clay jars draped over his neck and untying the jars, he first took out a piece of dried meat and slowly began to chew. Although with ki he could easily replace a meal or two with its energy but eating and tasting food was just too enjoyable. Well, maybe not this piece of dried meat in particular but the act alone brought some form of satisfaction. In his home world Lowen had become a master at martial arts and ki manipulation at the young age of 23, after that it was rare for him to sit and eat a meal let alone enjoy it, he simply didn"t need to. At some point, he eventually formed a habit of not eating at all. As a matter of fact, for the last 7 or so years of his previous life, he simply stopped eating altogether. With this new world, however, Lowen felt that some things needed to change, that he needed to change and so his first decision was to try and have a meal every now and then.
After stuffing his mouth full of food his throat became dry and parched. Opening the other jar, it was packed full of fresh snow and bits of ice. Looking into the jar, a small smile formed on his face, for others they would have to make a campfire and wait before they could get a drink but it was completely different for Lowen.
With two hands, Lowen held the frozen jar on both sides and with a slight thought, he moved ki into both of his hands causing his hands to heat up, effectively warming the jars. Although ki is a powerful tool, the human body had quite a lot of weaknesses. For example, with ki Lowen could raise the temperature up to 2 or even 3oo degrees but with that, his hands would burn away. If he had even more ki than he could protect his hands by forming a protective layer of energy over them. If he was even stronger he could use an advance ki manipulation technique to actually force the ki outside of his body making a literal flame. Unfortunately, he was just nowhere near that level, so for now, he would simply raise the temperature in his hands to a safe but hot temperature.
Raising the temperature to over 100 degrees, he quickly melted the snow. If he had raised it a few degrees higher, his flesh would have begun to burn away.
Within seconds he infused the center of the jar with heat and the snow melted away. He continued to warm it up a bit more and within seconds had a warm jar of water. Chugging it down, he quickly finished the whole thing in a minute. Afterward, he couldn"t help but pat his stomach while releasing a satisfying belch.
*Burp*
*Phew*
( I can"t believe I actually forgot the taste of food, It"s been too long, way too long.)
Standing up and having a small stretch, Lowen"s ears began to twitch at a small sound. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a group of rabbits no more than 50 feet away. Each one incredibly huge, all of which seemed to be nearly 4-6 feet long. He couldn"t help but become surprised.
(So huge, how exactly are these considered rabbits?)
*Sigh*
(This truly isn"t my world. Is every animal in this world so big or were the ones in mine just too small?)
As Lowen continued to watch the rabbits, he noticed they were all munching on a few bushes filled with what seemed to be blueberries. After having all that dried tough meat, Lowen couldn"t help but swallow some saliva. With the thought of having some sweet yet tart juicy berries, it had been so many years since he last had something sweet. His mouth began to smack witch antic.i.p.ation.
With that thought in mind, Lowen began to walk over but just as he moved the group of rabbits quickly dashed away, running into the depths of the forest. Lowen didn"t seem to care too much and walked over towards the bushes.
Grabbing a handful of berries, he was just about to shove them into his mouth when he suddenly remembered.
(Whoa whoa, wait a minute, what the h.e.l.l am I doing? This is an entirely different world, I"ve got no clue if these are safe to eat. These might be the deadliest berries in the world, and so what if those rabbits were eating them, they might be a weird species or something immune to these berries. I probably shouldn"t have even touched them.)
Lowen began to think if the boy had any memories of this particular fruit and indeed he did have a memory but it wasn"t of this fruit but something very similar. With the current information, there was no reason to take a chance. Although with ki manipulation he could remove toxins from his body, but at the same time, this world had many differences which Lowen couldn"t yet explain.
Maybe there were poisons in this world he couldn"t expel from his body and it wasn"t like he even needed to eat. To risk his new life over something he didn"t even need, obviously it wasn"t worth it. With that in mind, he simply packed a few away, later if he found some people he would ask. In the meantime though, it was time to go. Packing more snow into one of his jars, he soon tidied up. Putting his supplies and equipment back on, he was once again running at his highest speed.
After several hours the sun was now at its highest in the sky and Lowen had finally gotten off the mountain but unfortunately, he was still within the forest. As he wandered through the forest he soon heard a large poping noise. Focusing his ears, he wanted to try and locate the general direction but because of where he was, all he could hear was an echo coming from all around him. The loud pop continued for several minutes before abruptly stopping, followed by a loud crash.
Failing to locate where the noise was coming from, Lowen decided to get a better viewpoint. As he climbed a tall tree, he put ki into his hands and fingers, as well as his arms, shoulders and upper back. By doing so he raised his climbing ability by several degrees and like an agile monkey, he ascended a huge tree in seconds. As he looked out from the top of the tree, he scanned around until he spotted a large clearing with many stumps in the ground. The location seemed only a few hundred feet away, seeing this filled Lowen with pure excitement and so he quickly climbed down the tree, remembering the right direction, Lowen once again began to sprint through the forest.
As he arrived at the clearing, he noticed hundreds of stumps strewn all around. Observing the stumps it was quite clear that they had all been cut from a tool and not from something natural. Looking around, there were no people anywhere to be seen. Looking around further, Lowen had found a tree freshly cut down.
(Whoever cut this tree must have just left.)
Looking around, Lowen noticed a large dirt path with deeply grooved track marks.
(They must drag the trees through here.)
Lowen began to walk the path cautiously, although he was excited to see other people, he didn"t know how they would respond to him. They might be like those bandits and see him as an easy target and just attack him.
Following the path for several minutes, Lowen could hear people murmuring a little ways away. Once again his pace sped up and soon the path opened up and what greeted his eyes was a small but lively village. All the houses seemed to be made of wood and were slightly on the smaller side, every house was only one story tall and most of them seemed to be in need of repair.
(Although I"m on a small hill I can still see the entire village. There seem to be only 60 houses spread out randomly. There"s one huge house about 3 times the size of the others a little further in. Next to it is the village square where many people were gathered and looked to be trading. Hmm, there"s one dirt road connected to it that goes all the way through the village and continues off into the distance somewhere. No horses no cattle no one has a fenced yard and pigs and chickens roam around freely. Although I say pigs there"s not that many at all I could count them all on one hand. There seem to be a few chickens pecking the dirt here and there.
As Lowen continued to inspect the village soon a few people began to take notice he had been so caught up in his own thoughts he had forgotten to hide first and then observe them.
(Dammit you old fool I got so caught up in seeing people that I forgot myself how can a royal guard be so incompetent. I need to focus.)
Seeing as though the people were just staring and whispering Lowen figured they weren"t too bad. If they were gonna attack him then they probably would have by now.
(Well I do have the appearance of a child I guess if a child just showed up yes it would be suspicious, but threatening, no.
With that in mind, Lowen slowly yet cautiously walked into the village. As he did a person was heard shouting before another person ran off into the direction of the biggest house. Some children stood behind their parents while the more curious ones began to approach before an adult knocked them on their heads and scolded them or simply dragged them behind them.
(Although the adults don"t seem to be afraid of me their eyes are filled with suspicion. A young kid like me covered in dirt and fur with no shoes and no sleeves walks into their village from the out of the blue, id be suspicious of me too.
As Lowen continued on, he made his way to the village square before he stopped and simply sat down and rubbed his tired feet. Soon word had spread and what seemed to be the entire village filled the village square surrounding him in a matter of minutes. Whether they were young or old everyone seemed to be there whispering, looking and pointing at the oddness of this little boy.
Soon an old man broke through the crowd. He wore a simple but long brown robe. In one hand he held a long thin cane made from a nicely aged piece of solid oak wood. It as well was simple, but observing it, its simplicity gave it a nice feel. The man looked around his early 50"s his height was slightly above 6 feet his hair was a good mixture of grey folded over bits and pieces of dark black. His eyes were a bright emerald green while his eyebrows were thick and bushy. Across his face, you could clearly see his age but his eyes seemed to make him look younger than he actually was. Last but not least around the man"s neck was a thick copper amulet embedded in it was a bright purple jewel. Out of everything that he wore it was the only thing that stood out.
As Lowen was observing this man carefully the man was looking back at him with just as much curiosity if not more after a few moments the man began to speak.
"Little boy, can you speak? what"s your name?
At first, Lowen was a little panicked after having someone speak to him in this worlds language even though he could clearly understand it. Still, it sounded very weird yet at the same time natural. At this time Lowen couldn"t help but take a big gulp before he finally relaxed a bit and replied.
"My name is Lowen. Who are you?
With just this response all the villagers began to whisper and murmur as they looked on curiously. Hearing how the kid sounded the people"s suspicion immediately lowered a bit.
(G.o.d my voice sounds so childish I"m close to sixty yet I sound so infantile.)
Hearing Lowen say his name and asking him the same question back with such a serious expression the village chief couldn"t help but smile a little. The kid"s childish voice just sounded too adorable but him being the chief he quickly regained his composure and cleared his throat.
*Ahem.*
"My name is Roland Wint I am the chief of this village and the person in charge here, Lowen was it? tell me, where are your parents why did you come here alone are you lost?"
Lowen began to ponder on what to say if he told the truth he would no doubt be looked at with even more suspicion but lying didn"t sit too well with him either. In his previous life he was a soldier and eventually a royal guard to his king and in order to have that high position and honor beside skill, trust was what he needed most. And in order to have trust, he was always honest with his king. At the same time, this was a new world for him. Trust was something he would only give to someone important to him but he needed to say something. So Lowen decided to just give a bit of the truth not too much nor too little just enough to slide under others suspicions.
With no immediate answer, Roland wondered if the young boy in front of him was scared or simply didn"t know where his parents were. Maybe they had become lost or even abandoned the boy. Many thoughts began to swirl in the village chiefs head before Lowen"s next words shocked him.
"They were murdered on the mountain."