It's been six years. I'm now nine years old. I've learned so much from Ozari, but I can feel it. It's time to leave. There's not much left for me to learn.

"Thank you." My voice is husky and dry. To be honest, I can't really imagine leaving the forest.

...I kinda don't want to anymore. Well, I never wanted to. But I have to. I have to go murder the Hero.

"Go find your siblings, once you leave. They will protect you." Ozari's a lot quieter than he usually is, and Ozari's usually as quiet as a mouse. I smile a bit. It's nice, being like this.

Unfortunately, good things always come to an end. I don't really trust my voice anymore, so I half-heartedly push my finger against my temple and flick it outwards. In ranger-speak, that's the non-verbal way of signalling goodbye. He responds with one of his own. Damn, my vision's blurring a little. I turn and start walking. I can feel Ozari's gaze on the back of my skull from the cabin, but I can't turn back now. If I do, it'll be even worse the next time I try to leave.

"...fuck you, Xeno. Fuck you. Take your finger, stick it up your fucking ass, and suck on it."

This is blasphemy of the highest order, but it helps me concentrate, to push everything else to the back of my mind. I keep walking, with longer strides this time, and finally, I can no longer feel his gaze. I keep walking, because I know I can't stop. It's night by the time I really regain my senses. I'm at the edge the forest. Just a little further beyond lies vast plains.

I'm here. I'm no longer there. I keep walking, out on to the far-reaching plains and starry night sky.

Man, I fucking hate this.

----------------

While Ozari pointed me towards the north, to where my family most likely fled, I can't go there. The whole reason I left the cabin was to get this Divine Quest out of the way. As such, I go south, towards the former human-demon border. Right now, I'm standing in front of my first human settlement. It seems fairly large, maybe the size of a large town. In front of me lies a large wall, maybe 20 feet, attached to a gate. A little in front of the gate is a guard taking money from passerby.

"Hoo..."

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Lesser Transformation. I will it, and my body responds. My eyes change color, shifting from dull red to light brown. My skin changes color from its once-dark brown to a light tan. I'm trying my best to mimic what Goldy looked like, all those years ago. My hair turns from a dirty white to a golden blond. My teeth shift, and now they're somewhat flat. Lesser Transformation's just that: lesser. I can't make any large changes to my physiology, but I can do some minor editing.

Okay. I have to go inside the gate. However, I assume there will be some kind of toll, and yet I don't have any money. As such, I muddy my clothes and my face, and I boldly walk up to the front gates.

"Toll?"

"I don't have any money."

"...Then why are you wasting my time?" That's a bit harsh.

"Well, I'm but a humble traveller-"

"Oh, Goddess Mari, it's one of these scammers. Greg, Elliot!" Two guards, who were hunched over a table behind the toll guard, stand up.

"Throw him out!"

"Wait-" One of them grabs and pulls me by my neck, and the other picks me up from my waist. Hey! Stop! I struggle a bit, but one bashes my head with his elbow. They toss me into the dirt road after nearly two minutes of pulling.

"Dicks..."

So that didn't work. Well, fine. If I can't get in the legal way, I'll just climb the fucking wall. I wait until the dead of night to circle around the wall, looking for any indents to climb. I find a good place halfway across the settlement from the gate. I grab onto the indents in the walls, and hoist myself up, digging my feet into tiny ledges. From there it's a ten minute climb to the top. I've scaled larger walls in less back in the forest, but it's a fairly smooth wall, and I have to blindly grope for each handhold. With one last oomph I push myself over the wall, and onto its 2 feet thick top. I look over the edge. I can't see much, but I think there's a small alley on the other side. I brace myself to jump down when I stop for a second.

This is too easy. It wasn't a hard climb for me, which means that most adults could take this path. In addition to that, there's a convient alley for me to jump down to? Hasn't the administration of the city thought about this at all? Unless...

Unless this is a trap.

I look left, then right. I see no guards. Perhaps they're somehow alerted when I jump down? I move along the wall, searching for a different alley. I can't find any more in the 20 feet I crawled, which only makes this more suspicious. A convienient alley, leading straight to the wall, which happens to have a decent path to climb? Please. I find a decently high roof a bit farther away from the alley. I prep myself before quietly lowering myself off the wall, and onto the roof. I try my best not to make any sound, though I might not have been too successful. I then move as quietly as possible across the roof. In actuality, I probably don't need to move so quietly. My passive Skill, Unnoticed, makes sensing me by any means very difficult. However, I really don't want to take any risk, and so I employ maximum stealth when traversing the rooftops. Finally, I come across a decent alleyway to drop into. I slowly lower myself down once more. I'm in.

Well, this was a great way to start my journey...