บท 3: A long way
The night carried with it a cold breeze, which brought a slight sense of danger in the darkness. In the middle of the forest, howling sounds could be heard at times, while the moon brought a bit of silver light.
"We should hurry up and head back soon, or we might end up being attacked by those wolves." A young-looking man said as he looked at the surroundings with fear.
Beside him, a man with a sturdy body and a full beard, let out a light laugh and said in his deep voice "Don't worry, boy, I've been hunting in this forest since my youth, and look at me, I'm in one piece!"
The two were carrying a dead boar, with each of them pulling a rope, which tied the animal's legs. And the burly man also carried a hunting rifle with him.
Without stopping moving, the younger man said "Well, but I'd rather not risk too much. In this darkness, these animals have an advantage over us"
The man with the full beard smiled "Don't worry, we're very close to the village, nothing will happen until we get there..." His eyes slowly focused on the boar and he continued speaking "And look what a good hunt we had, it was definitely worth staying a little longer"
As they continued walking, listening to the sounds of insects echoing throughout the place, a different sound caught their attention.
The sound of branches breaking behind them. The younger man looked back in astonishment, but tried to keep silent.
The older man looked on intently as his hunting rifle slowly aimed towards the source of the sound. Despite his confidence and experience, his heart still raced as his eyes strained to see in the darkness.
Amidst some bushes, a hand appeared, grabbing the air. "Ah, how great to see people here!" A cheerful voice mixed with relief sounded.
Before the two men, a young man slowly appeared from the darkness. A sigh of relief sounded from the young man, while the older man smiled as he returned the rifle to his shoulder.
"You almost got shot, kid. What are you doing in the woods at this hour?" The bearded man asked, staring at the handsome young man who had emerged from the forest.
The other man looked at the boy strangely 'What happened to his clothes, it looks like he was attacked by some animal'
The young man who appeared was Akira, who had spent the day wandering through the forest. Even though he followed the river, it still took him the entire day to find the end of the forest.
His clothes were torn from a few encounters with animals on the riverbank. After absorbing the energy from the dead bodies, he recovered from any injuries he had, even the small scars left by the jaguar disappeared from his arm.
However, the healing didn't affect his clothes, so they were still torn. If one looked closely, one could see some blood on his clothes, but it was barely noticeable, especially in this darkness.
Akira looked at the rifle resting on the bearded man's shoulder and thought 'Maybe I can already resist bullets, like Goku, but I'd better not take any risk'
"Actually, I got lost in this forest, I was having a hard time finding the way out" Akira finally replied, before giving a smile "Luckily, I found you guys! I hope you don't mind if I follow you"
His words were sincere, he had been very pleased to meet people, especially when they carried a gift for him. That boar, although it wasn't a great increase to his power, was still something significant for his current level.
"Did you get lost in this forest?" The man then looked at Akira's clothes, noticing the cuts on them, but he could also see his unharmed body. 'Did he manage to get away unharmed after being attacked by some animal?' His mind was confused.
Despite having the same doubts, the younger man took a step forward "We should go quickly, I want to get out of this place before something happens" His tone was clearly worried.
A smile appears at the corner of the bearded man's mouth, he looks at Akira and says "Well, whatever, you can follow us, it's already quite late anyway"
Akira then followed the two, while placing his arms behind his back, with a calm expression on his face.
...
The remaining path between them and the village was very short, a few minutes were enough for them to arrive.
The village was more like a group of houses, which was not that extensive, with only a few dozen houses. The place was silent, with most people inside their homes, with only one or two outside their homes.
Akira was accompanying that younger man, while the other took the boar to one of the houses.
After arriving in this world this morning, Akira had no opportunity to earn money, and even if he had, this village didn't seem to have any places to rent. So before they even arrived, the younger man agreed to let him spend the night at his house.
It had been a long day, but he wasn't the least bit tired, his energy was charged with every body he encountered.
During the night he was slow to fall asleep, with anxiety pounding in his heart. His death was no longer on his mind, as if it had happened decades ago, all that mattered was his future.
'Tomorrow I must ask how to get to Mount Frypan and leave as soon as possible... I don't know how many days it will take them to get there, but I can't miss this opportunity' Akira planned, while his mind wouldn't let him sleep.
In the darkness of the room where Akira was going to sleep, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Looking from the outside, he seemed to be sleeping, but in reality he was focused on something.
At the beginning of the day, he didn't feel anything different in his body, despite getting stronger, it just seemed like that, but after being attacked by the jaguar, he began to notice the difference in being in this world.
There was a faint feeling that an energy was inside his body, and it grew stronger each time he absorbed the power of the bodies. Akira had already known this even before he felt it, so he wasn't surprised.
'I guess I can really consider myself a talented human, since I was able to sense my Ki so early...' He was proud, even though it was given to him, it was still his talent now.
He was very eager to use Ki skills, after all it was like magic, giving a huge variety of uses, but he held back, determined to focus on his current objective, which was to find Goku and Bulma at Frypan Mountain.
...
The sun rising was the sign of a new day beginning for the people of that village. Akira woke up before the sunlight even reached the village, mainly because of his anxiety.
As soon as he had the opportunity, he asked for information about where they were and where Mount Frypan was. Especially since Mount Frypan had been burning in recent years, its location was well known, so they were able to give him the information, but however, it wasn't all that simple.
Drawing a straight line, completely ignoring the relief of the mountains and everything else, Akira was 1,400 km away from his destination.
He didn't know how many days it would take to travel this entire path, especially knowing that there would be many obstacles along the way.
If he had a ship and knew how to pilot it, this could be resolved in a few hours, but that was not the case. Even if they were kind people, no one in that village would take him that far, and none of them had a ship, just a few cars.
With a map in hand, Akira set off running, as this was his only means of getting around currently. His running speed could easily beat the records of his old world, but he still felt slow, knowing how far away he was.
'If it was a straight path, with nothing in the way, I would probably make it on time...' He was running non-stop, but just a few kilometers in front of him, there were huge mountains 'If I have to go around everything, I think it will be impossible to make it on time'
The way to shorten this and still keep it straight, so as not to end up getting lost along the way, would be to use the flying ability, but even he didn't trust that he could fly so easily.
He could remember Videl learning to fly, so he had some basis, however, he didn't know how long it would take to be able to fly.
'I remember Videl was able to fly a little after training for a day, but it certainly took her a few days to get better control...' Maybe he could fly in just a day, but what would his speed be like? It would probably be slower than running.
He was undecided whether he should stop to train or simply go around this mountain and hope there weren't too many obstacles in his way. While he was deep in thought, something caught his eye.
Not far from the mountains he was supposed to pass, there was a group of dark-furred animals eating the grass in the area. Akira looked at them with a glint in his eyes, as if he was looking at a banquet just for him.
There were bison, not just one or two, but more than a dozen of them. Akira increased his speed, while clenching his fist "You'll be a fine addition to my strength!" He shouted, as if the animals would understand his words.
The animals did not back down, with only a few of them staring intently at Akira. There was no way for mere animals to know the true strength of that single human.
...
Minutes later, the green ground was stained red, coming from the blood of the bison, whose bodies were scattered around the place.
There were about 16 bodies, most with their skulls cracked or even broken. Beside them, Akira had a faint smile on his face, sighing as he smelled blood.
"I couldn't notice before, having never encountered bodies together, but it seems to take ten minutes for me to absorb it again" He said with a serene expression.
This small waiting time didn't affect almost anything, it just made the process slower. It would take him just over two hours to absorb the energy from all those bodies.
Sitting a little away from all the mess, Akira smiled "Well, if I'm going to have to wait, I'll take advantage of it to train"
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