章 24: Chapter 23: Adventure in the woods, part 2

Subtitle: Entering the Virakali Range

Practicing archery for a week straight refreshed the little boy a lot. The new way of pulling a bowstring; putting force in different muscle areas than when practicing the sword; the less use of legs, yet the inevitable support provided by them, also the use of eyes and ears like never before, everything was all new to him.

Although he focused on archery, Kiel would never give up on his other trainings, as he felt everything was necessary. Kiel practiced everything, but just lessened the time to each, so that he could add a new training regiment to his existing one.

After focusing on archery for a few days, he could even feel that drawing his sword was becoming a little smoother.

But after a week of non stop practice, Kiel felt that he should get some knowledge of the topography from the hunters. He looked like a healthy 5 years old. And at that age, everyone could start real adventures, instead of training. After all at that age they would come into contact with mana.

So Kiel started collecting information about the forests from hunters. Most of the time he would eavesdrop on others' conversations. Sometimes he would even ask for a particular information from anyone, and in exchange would help them a little with their work.

Kiel didn't know anything about hunting or tracking. So he would often listen to the different adventures of the many hunters. How they track their prey and how they ambush them. How they set up traps and how they hunted their games. They even detailed their difficult fights with various wild beasts. For Kiel it was a totally different experience. So he paid even more attention.

There were also some hunters teaching how to set up traps, and tracking, for some extra income at a low price. As the price was not that high for their family, Kiel also started learning to set up traps for wild. He didn't have much time though, so he only learnt the basics.

Sometimes even Agatha doubted what he was doing learning such things; but Kiel convinced her that it will come in handy in the future and he wanted to protect her in the absence of his father. Seeing how her little kid acted, Agatha just hugged her little baby and started crying.

"There there... Momma. Don't be sad."

Seeing her little baby consoling her, Agatha just smiled. But then she heard something which made her mouth twitch.

"Momma if I work hard, Can I hug them to sleep?" Kiel said, pointing at her breasts with his signature puppy eyes. And Agatha was really bewitched literally.

"Ok baby." She replied in a daze. It has been somewhat a long time before Kiel requested something like that. So she readily agreed. She sometimes thought that if her baby didn't love her anymore. But now, all here worries were for naught.

Seeing that he had distracted his mother, 'hehe…' Kiel continued his various preparations, mostly learning about the forest.

He spent almost a week in his various preparations. He even learnt that the two kilometres from their village was a safe zone called the 'Outer Region', only with some wild beasts no that difficult to hunt; and this area was periodically cleared out of any dangerous beasts. The next three kilometres were the 'Middle Regions' and was where the veteran hunters hunted.

There were also the 'Inner Regions' and 'Core Region'. But no one dared to venture in those. And the fools who did, never came back.

Kiel also heard that there was a beautiful waterfall somewhere in the deeper parts of the 'Middle regions'. But only a few saw the scene sometimes. And even strangely no one remembered where it actually was. Kiel didn't think much about the fantasy stuff, as he only planned to venture in the outer areas.

Kiel even talked to his mother about joining a camp in the outer regions. Although she vehemently denied at first, but after Kiel's coercion that he would only leave during the day and come at night and there would be many other with him, also that they would just be ahead outside the village, she didn't see any harm in letting her child do as she wished. She also wanted the little kid to make friends of his age. So although she panicked a little, after knowing that he would just be outside their village and could also make new friends, she readily agreed.

She even started imagining her little Kiel bringing home a small girl with him after some time, just as in those stories. They would then become childhood friends and finally fall in love and get married and be settled. But just as she thought about it, her heart soured up somehow. She felt a little ache imagining her son with someone else.

'No he is my son. I will never allow anyone to take him away from me.'

Unknown to even Agatha, there was a determined gleam in her eyes as she thought about her little kid.

After convincing Agatha, Kiel spent the rest of the day purchasing dried rations, a small bag, a steel bottle and a few bandages worth 25 copper coins. He was now only left with 5 copper coins. It was all the savings that he got from his various gifts. After buying the necessities, Kiel kept them in his adventure bag and went to the smithy next.

After reaching the smithy, Kiel informed Eva, and entered the workshop to pocket his bow and some arrows. He took about 50 small arrows, as he thought they would be enough.

Finishing his stock up, Kiel was about to leave the room, when suddenly his eyes fell on a black dagger at the side rack. He remembered Derek saying that this dagger was unusually sharp. A level 2 weapon, which even had a name of it's own "Stinger". It was basically a gift to his father from a stranger, whom he had once helped out. Derek never put it up for sale and was only displayed it in the store. But for now,it was stored in the workshop because it attracted too much attention.

Kiel paused for a bit and then walked towards it, picking it up in the process.

'Maybe this one will be helpful in my journey. As the saying goes, precaution is better than care. I should keep it just in case of any unusual trouble. Although it needs mana to operate at its full capacity, it is still very sharp nonetheless.'

So Kiel now had an extra card in him. He even thought of adorning some simple armour, but eventually discarded the idea as it didn't sound feasible. Kiel was not even four. So wearing an armour even if it was light, would only add extra burden to him. And he would even need to carry his bag. So he denied armours. Also, he was not venturing deep. He would only be in the outer regions. So he didn't take any armour. Safeguarding the sharp dagger in his bag, Kiel came out. After greeting Ena, he came back to his house.

Kiel didn't plan on training today. He only wanted to relax and practice some light breathing exercises. He didn't want to physically exert himself.

Coming back home, he relaxed down and prepared himself up mentally for the next day.

***

The next day Kiel got up fresh. Eating his breakfast, then picking up his bag to finally go out.

"Mom I'm going out. Will be back by evening"

"Ok. Be careful on the way. And remember to listen carefully to your Aunt Ena."

Kiel didn't inform his mother that today was the day, he would be going into the forest. He just told her that he would be going there in a while. As he didn't want her to be worried, he kept it to himself.

Draping the adventure bag over his back, Kiel rechecked his stuff as he walked along the way. It was early morning yet many people were still awake. Many in the village, knew that he was Agatha's son. So he didn't want to be seen going alone to the woods or it would only let him be reported back. Hence, deciding on the early morning, he slipped in quietly through the sides.

After walking for about half an hour, Kiel finally reached the outskirts of the wilderness of the Virakali Range. Realizing that his destination was in front of him, Kiel took a few minutes rest. He didn't think that he would have to walk such a great distance. Although he knew the general direction, he had never come here. So he had a few problems. But he finally reached it.

Reaching till this point, Kiel was excited. But he didn't even find one person nearby. "Looks like I'm early. Well it's good. Don't want unnecessary attention in my little trip."

Nervousness still shrouded him, but Kiel picked up his courage and walked inside. His curiosity and excitement, overcame his fear of the unknown. It was going to be his first adventure in this world.

As it was still early morning, the sun had just started showing it's might. The light blue sunlight had just reached the summits of the hilly mountains, causing them to cast their lonely shadows over the deep woods. But Kiel was not in the mood to appreciate any of it.

He had two concerns now - first direction and second testing his strength.

Fetching out an arrow, Kiel cracked it into two pieces. He discarded the body and only took the pointed head to help him carve marks.

Moving up to the nearest tree, he carved a small 'K' inside a circle. This would his mark, and would help him in identifying his way back. Kiel planned to carve a new tree a little distance to the previous. After all, he didn't have any cheats to easily identify his way. And he could only come up with such a method with his little brain now

After engraving his sign, Kiel fetched his bow and arrows from his backpack, and hung them over his shoulder. He also took out the Stinger, but just wrapped it in a cloth and placed it on the right side of his belt. Now he was ready to begin his adventure.