"...wake....up...Wake up, you sleepyhead. Hehe."

Xiao could hear Lars's voice and his usual annoying giggling at the end of his sentence that was coming beside him.

Immediately, Xiao remembers the zombie wolf who's about to eat him alive, he launches himself up from the floor and ready a fighting stance.

To Xiao's surprise, there was no sight of the zombie wolf, and it was already daylight, he was now standing beside the burn out bonfire.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong with you all the sudden, my lord, don't tell me, you are having a stomach ache? I didn't bring any medicine with me, you know. Hehe."

Xiao looked at Lars surprised as he dances around places while asking Xiao what's wrong with a playful tone.

"Was that all..... a dream?"

Xiao was confused, he put his hand on his head, as to trying to recall the incident with the zombie wolf, he then realizes that he was using his right hand to do so, which surprised Xiao as he remembers his right arm got bitten off by the zombie wolf.

"So, it REALLY was just a goddamn dream."

Concluding that the incident that ends with him dying to a zombie wolf was just a dream, Xiao wipes off the cold sweat from his forehead as a sign of relieving, until Lars smirked maliciously and says:

"No, it was not a dream. Hehe."

"What....what do you mean?!"

Xiao got taken back by what Lars had just said, his expression had changed from relieved to anxious.

"I mean, you die, pathetically. Hehe."

Lars was giggling playfully, but Xiao can felt it, that Lars was serious about saying that he had died.

"What do you mean I die? I'm still standing here talking to you! Or what, you're going to say that this is the afterlife? And you die too?"

"Uwahahaha!! You are funny, my lord, why should I die with you? That's just disgusting. Hehe."

Lars rolls on the floor while holding his stomach, laughing hysterically at what Xiao had just said, which confused Xiao and made him mad.

"Why you! Quit fooling around! Tell me! Tell me why am I still alive now? Did you use some sort of healing magic to bring back to life? Or what?"

"God oh God, my lord, can't take a little joke, can't he?"

Lars does a little smirk expression while saying that, Xiao clenched his fist as he slowly walks towards Lars, menacingly.

"Alright, alright, I will tell, I will tell, so quit making such angry face and calm your boring face down. Hehe."

Lars holds up both his hands as to calm Xiao down, though his disturbing grinning expression remains the same.

(I swear, one day, I'm gonna just snapped and punch this guy so hard that he will never get to do that freaking giggling again.)

Xiao resists the urge to punch Lars as he slowly unclench his fist while waiting for Lars to clear his throat to explain.

"Ahem, well, It has something to do with you being the candidate of hero, that's what keeps you alive, or should I said, bringing you back to life. Hehe."

"You mean that the ritual thingy you did to me when we were still in my world? What the hell did you forced into my body?"

Xiao touches his back while confirming Lars's words, as he remembers something entered his body, which gave him an unpleasant feeling, even though it was just for a few secs before that feeling completely fades away.

"Yippy yup, my lord, and free your worry, for it was a potential that I put into your body, my lord, wonderful right? Such is the power of being a hero! No matter how beaten up you are, how unrecognizable you get tear apart by a monster, how painful and how cruel a person torture you to death, in the end, you will come back to life again, and again, and again! Hehe."

Lars made a lot of physical examples while continuing his explanation, every one of the examples he made was a disturbing sight, which made Xiao uncomfortable to look at him.

(Goddamn this guy's a lunatic! Well, whatever, at least now I know that I won't get killed that easily, and I don't wish to find out how effective this new undead ability of mine can be, hell, just thinking back on how painful to get slash apart by that goddamn zombie wolf gave me a chill, no way I'm going to purposely bring myself to get kill again.)

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Xiao stopped Lars for explaining further by cutting in with another question, as to also save himself for hearing another one of Lars's grotesque example.

"Those descriptions are unneeded, and where the hell are you when I was running for my life?"

"Oh right, hmm, where was I at that time? Aha! I remember, I was taking a dump. Hehe"

Lars made a playful giggle while also squat down as if he was taking a dump to match his answer. The action of Lars made Xiao shakes his head in disappointment and lets out a sigh, for he was tired of getting irritated by Lars's action and was starting to get used to his crazy attitude.

"God, what happen to you who was calm and serious, like last night?"

"Hmm....I'm not sure myself too, now then, let's get moving already, my lord, we don't have all days to lollygagging around. Hehe."

With that being said, Lars starts walking forward, he ignored Xiao who was still waiting for a detail explanation.

"For God sake, wait up!"

Xiao quickly followed behind Lars as he had already walked for a distance.

And so Xiao and Lars begin their journey, it was only after Xiao patiently and relentlessly asked Lars about their next plan while they were on the way, he learnt that their next destination will be the Julian Empire, which is the country for the Human race in this world. There, they will attend the heroes assemble ceremony, which will include other heroes, nobles, ministers and other important figures, such as the current king of the Julian Empire.

During their journey, ever since the incident with the zombie wolf, they had never encountered any monsters after that, but even so, that does not stop Xiao for constantly staying alert at any time, even though Lars was taking it lightly and jokes around on how funny for Xiao to be tense all the time, because Xiao knows, when danger comes, the only person who can rely on is himself.

Throughout the journey, Xiao did a lot of thinking regarding himself, on what he is going to do from now on, is he going to look for the culprit that's behind the death of his family? which may be hiding in the Demon God army, or it could be the Demon God himself. After the incident with the zombie wolf, he fully realizes that how different this world is compared to the world he used to live, in this world, many dangerous monsters roam around freely, that means danger is everywhere and you will get yourself killed if you are not careful enough.

Even though Xiao was made a candidate hero of the light by Lars, he was still an ordinary high school boy with no experience in fighting monsters and surviving for his life, not to mention killing a zombie wolf which according to Lars, was given the rank of C among monsters, any adventure with the rank of C could easily kill it. So with all that being said, if the culprit is the Demon God, how the hell is he going to make it pay for what it did to his family? Especially with his current state.

So after serious thought of his next plan, Xiao decided to take the long route, by interacting with more people in this world especially the other heroes, learning more information about this world, the country, the race, the monsters, magic and the Demon God, while at the same time, increase his fighting ability, especially the ability to wield magic and weapon, he also need to find a place to stay and somehow gain the ability to feed himself so he wouldn't starve to death, though he thought the King might provide support for him in terms of accommodation and daily expense since he was a candidate of Light hero from another world, it would still be best not to be that optimistic.

(To sum it all, all I need to do now is to level up myself first, grind myself to death until I obtained stronger skill, higher level and powerful gears, just like any MMORPG games I used to play, only this time, everything will be entirely physical, energy and time-consuming. To think that I used to complain about level grinding, compare to this, the mouse clicking and keyboard tapping while in a comfy environment is all I can think of right now.)

According to Lars, their journey to Julian Empire would take about one week by walking, and the Julian Empire was at the south side of Latiti steppe. Supposedly, they were going to reach their destination within one week, but because of Xiao low stamina which constantly needs to rest up, the journey would take longer time than usual. The reason for Xiao low stamina not only comes from his neglect of exercising his body during his days in his world but also the constant walking at day and camp out during night routine, which greatly affects Xiao's body as his body was in constant fatigue status for not getting used to this kind of lifestyle. The food they ate was prepared by Lars, which was still anonymous to Xiao even though he ate it every day, it was like a porridge with brown colour texture, it doesn't taste bad nor good, just plain simple food without a flavour.

"But at least it fills your tummy. Hehe."

This is what Lars always said when Xiao complains on how plain this food tastes like.

Their journey continue for another half week, until today, for Xiao thought it was going to be another long walk of a day, he followed Lars's back feeling exhausted and annoyed by the sore muscle from his leg. Xiao kept thinking on how a skinny and unhealthy looking person like Lars can walk tirelessly for such a long period while he was gasping air after 1 hour of walk, and because of that, they were forced to rest up and Lars would poke fun on how weak Xiao is, which irritated him.

"Behold! Hehe."

"Behold what? What is it this time? Found a nice looking stone? Or you stepped on a monster corpse?"

Tired from all the walking and irritated by Lars's lunatic attitude throughout the whole week, Xiao sarcastically replied Lars, for nothing comes from him was anything serious.

"Come and take a look for yourself. Hehe."

Lars was standing at the edge of a hill, waving hands to Xiao as he insisted Xiao to come over and look at the view he was looking at, so Xiao lets out a sigh while walking to Lars, thinking that how much longer for him to put up with Lars's attitude.

Xiao thought it was another one of Lars stupid nonsense, but when he stood at the hill and take a look, the first thing that came into his sight was tall towers and brick buildings standing afar from where he was, with a tall wall surrounding it, since Xiao was standing at the higher ground, he could see thousands of small houses and building within the other side of the tall wall, at the centre of all the building and houses stands a majestic looking castle, like the one he saw in any medieval theme video games. With the wall so wide and long that Xiao can't seem to see the edge of it, Xiao could tell that it was a country he is looking at right now.

Stunned and amazed by the first civilization he had encountered ever since he stepped into this world, Xiao stood still admiring with his eyes sparks with excitement while Lars took a big bow and open up his arms wide as a sign of introducing the place.

"Welcome, my lord, to the world biggest country ever, the Julian Empire!"