Kapitel 10: Meeting

The tiny speck of light became bigger and bigger, causing Derrick to madly squint.

He had been underground for so long, he had even forgotten about the warmth of the sun.

Soon, he began to hear the birds singing and the wind howling, and he couldn't help but wildly smile.

He was finally outside.

The blue sky, the clouds, the vegetation... He also didn't know how bad he missed fresh air, and wow did it feel good!

After reveling in these feelings for a while, he looked around and tried finding any sort of visual reference, only to see a completely foreign scenery.

The only apparent thing surrounding him was a thick forest that appeared limitless.

"Come out Io. We're going to do some recon"

The nightmare bat subserviently came out of his shadow and lowered its wing, with them both taking flight afterward.

Once they gained enough altitude, they saw how truly huge the forest was.

It covered every parcel of land on the horizon, which, sadly for them, eliminated any type of bearing. With nothing to base their decision on, Derrick just picked a random direction to maintain and they headed out.

This unfortunate situation resulted in multiple days of consecutive flight before eventually seeing signs of life.

Through the endless vegetation, he had noticed a plume of smoke, meaning they had finally found a settlement!

After reflecting a bit, Derrick also realized he couldn't approach while mounting Io, instead choosing to land further away to avoid causing a commotion. He definitely needed their help if he wanted to reach the nearest populous town.

He also decided to store his armor, since it'd send the wrong first impression. It wasn't like he'd need it anyway, since he had Io and Drako in his shadow.

The necromancer then began to ponder about the identity he'd adopt. After all, he was in an unfamiliar land and had nothing to his name, meaning he'd need a reason to explain his sudden appearance from the forest.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him, and he began to smear mud all over his body.

A lost adventurer!

Everything fit the puzzle, and even if he was only 16 years old, his stature exuded an aura of warfare, which made him seem much more experienced than his age indicated.

His plan was foolproof, or so he thought, and he decided to head in their direction.

"Let's do this"

Once arriving at their gate, he pretended to be in a weakened state before 'falling' to the ground and mumbling for help.

"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis!"

The guard present quickly noticed him, and he kept yelling these words, clearly suspicious of anything coming out of those woods.

That's when Derrick realized he had forgotten something crucial : the language. He didn't know where he was and couldn't understand a thing, so his best bet was to exaggerate his demise and not answer anything.

[Would you like to learn the <Yuko> language? It will take 1 hour]

The prompt rang out in Derricks' mind and surprised him. This was an unexpected gift!

He immediately accepted and didn't move.

He just had to hold on during this time, since it was evident that he wouldn't be able to use his adventurer's alibi if he couldn't even speak their language.

The burly and armed man kept shouting in Derrick's direction, but to no avail.

After a few minutes, he cautiously proceeded forward and started probing the necromancer with his spear. When he saw that there was no reaction, he finally called for help.

The small wooden gate of the village opened shortly after, with 6 people coming out. The group was composed of 5 well-built soldiers and a beautiful middle-aged woman.

They questioned the guard and carefully made their way over to Derrick. From the tone of their voices, it was easy to tell that they were frightened by the newcomer.

The woman started evaluating Derrick's condition and after another few minutes, she then ordered the soldiers to take him inside, where he was brought to a large hut before laying him on a bed.

Derrick could also tell they had stationed a guard outside.

[The <Yuko> language has been learned]

He was delighted, but there was no time to waste, as he had to pay attention to the conversation currently happening outside between the woman and what appeared to be the village's leader.

It wasn't long before he got the gist of it and realized that they were discussing whether to help him or not, making him frown.

He definitely couldn't be thrown out until he knew where he was.

The necromancer then started using <Superior Appraisal> on the nearest people to see if they were strong, but he ended up disappointed.

Almost everyone was only slightly above average while possessing no skills.

There were only 2 interesting individuals, namely the woman and the village chief. She had a <Novice Healing> skill, and he had a <Novice Strengthening> skill.

Still, this meant that if they chose to kick him out, he'd stop pretending and get the information he wanted. He hadn't just crossed an ocean of vegetation to simply leave empty-handed!

After a lot of back and forth, they finally both entered the hut and glared at Derrick before the village chief began questioning him.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Derrick, while still acting up his fake injuries, only mumbled in response.

"My name's Derrick Tarlin... I'm a lost adventurer... Please help me..."

His acting skills were rough, but they appeared to be just enough, as the chief visibly lowered his guard.

The village was in a very remote location, and Derrick could tell it was not their first time encountering lost explorers, even if extremely rare.

Seizing the opportunity, he immediately asked where he was.

"You're in the Akata village, located at the border between the Serichi and Krakow Kingdoms. Are you from there?"

Derrick was startled. He had absolutely no clue where that was, and as someone from the countryside, his education wasn't exactly the greatest. This situation called for improvisation.

"Yes, I'm from the Serichi Kingdom..."

After weakly answering the question, Derrick's gaze landed on the woman, who had remained silent so far.

"What... What are your names?"

"My name's Lacha and this is Gregor. We are both respectively from the Serichi and Krakow Kingdoms. Can I know the name of your town? We may be able to help you"

Lacha clearly didn't trust Derrick, and this was a test to see if he'd slip up.

He could tell her distrust had begun when she had evaluated him earlier and found nothing wrong, thus making his true motives murky.

She also knew the various towns in the area, which would allow her to verify his story. She was a very cunning woman.

Derrick's heart sank. He couldn't give an answer at all and realized his cover was most likely blown.

Sensing that something was wrong, Gregor's gaze turned cold, and he unleashed his aura.

"Ah... I never thought we'd have to do this... To be honest, I only want information on how to get to the nearest town. I don't want to hurt you"

Derrick sprightly got up from the bed and now stood in front of them. He tried to clumsily clean himself up the best he could, but he only ended up making things worse.

"Ahhh, why is this mud so difficult to clean?!"

"Who are you really?!"

Lacha and Gregor had both assumed fighting postures, and even though Lacha was a healer, Derrick could tell that she was proficient in hand-to-hand combat.

Nevertheless, they clearly didn't know the opponent they were facing...

"My name's Derrick. Obviously, I'm not an adventurer, but I'm -"

Before he could finish his sentence, Lacha and Gregor pounced towards him, trying to catch him by surprise.

They knew no ordinary person could survive in that forest, so they decided that going for a sneak attack was the right move.

Derrick harrumphed and his eyes grew cold, followed by a dark aura exploding from his body.