Kiel took the rest of the day off, resting and playing with Edel, something which he hadn't expected her to like as much as she did.

He teleported above her head, booping her nose and teleporting away before she had a chance to react. They chased each other for hours on end with neither of them getting tired easily, or giving up.

He didn't know if Edel was leveling some sort of skill, but whenever he teleported she was getting quick to react, and even faster as they played. He ended up biting her tail at the end and holding on for dear life.

It was one of the most fun days he'd spent since waking up in this world, and he didn't know why he hadn't done that earlier. It also served as excellent training in getting used to his new strength. After testing how thick his head was against the trees a few too many times, he started using Spatial Shift more liberally.

Thankfully he was getting better, and it helped when his new skill leveled up. He'd forgotten how much the skill had helped him when he first woke up as a cat. He hadn't had the chance to test out its active part, but he was looking forward to it.

The next day he left after hunting breakfast. As always, lizard was the only thing on the menu until he got tired of it. Hopefully a fire mage would bring that eventuality further away.

He debated making Edel come with him on his venture to the human city, but therein lay a problem. He might be able to pass off as a harmless kitten, but for an almost meter tall wolf, that was another story. Also in case something went wrong, he could teleport away. He might not be able to teleport far but it was more than nothing. Edel didn't have that option.

After a quick meal, he followed the river further up and then towards the direction he remembered the adventurers had taken. Thankfully he remembered the general direction, so even if he got lost a few times he was confident in finding his way.

He enjoyed the feeling of his paws on damp earth, taking care not to expose his location overly much as he walked with a steady pace towards the city. Without Edel by his side he was a lot more vulnerable to surprise attacks, though with his recent power-up less so than before. He didn't expect to meet any high-leveled monsters at this level of the forest, but it would be an awful irony for the assassin to be assassinated.

He was living proof that exceptions existed everywhere, and he was still getting used to his strength so he would rather not fight anything. Which was easier said than done because surprisingly there were quite a few animals in this part of the forest. Thankfully very few of them would attack him on sight, most minding their own business.

As for the ones that attacked him, he didn't see any reason to kill them. They were all much weaker than him, and at his level it would provide almost no experience. Not every monster had a working brain though and if they continued to chase him even after he teleported away he found that a small scratch on the face did the trick just fine.

About four hours later he began to wonder if he was well and truly lost when he saw the first human adventurer! Well, he thought it was an adventurer at first, but the young man was armed with only a small knife and a backpack filled with herbs and mushrooms. Not every human in a forest full of monsters was going to be an adventurer, but it still made for a weird sight.

In his honest opinion, the man was too lackadaisical about venturing in the forest alone. Still, perhaps monsters weren't as prevalent here, and with a human city nearby, it made sense. That didn't mean he didn't wonder about why there weren't any actual adventurers roaming inside the forest.

He stopped to consider it for a moment. The slight breeze felt refreshing on his fur this time of the year, and he sat down watching the man pick another mushroom.

The adventurers they met earlier in the forest had most certainly been the exception rather than the rule.

There were the quiet zones which he wasn't sure how well humans could perceive, and in order to meet worthy monsters to fight you would have to travel quite deep inside the forest. All of those made for convincing reasons for humans to be an uncommon sight, not that it mattered too much at the end of the day.

Too tired to continue searching on his own, he decided to simply follow the young gatherer as he seemed to be ready to head back anyway. His sack was almost full, and he was content to wait if it saved him the hassle.

In the list of skills he wanted to obtain he added navigation. He'd grown too used to the internet maps of his previous life, and getting lost in the forest was a lot easier than it seemed.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He'd spent a lot of time finding his way towards the city, so he was thankful he'd started so early. He intended to be back the same day as he didn't want Edel to worry about him.

Finally, a few minutes later the tall man started to leave, and he followed further behind. This far in the outer regions of the forest the ether was much poorer and his regeneration suffered for it, so he decided to hold back on teleporting for the time being.

As the man neared the city, humans became more common. Not terribly so, but it would be hard to stay hidden and follow him if the numbers continued to increase. He could choose to teleport on top of the trees, but aside from how costly that was, he would be stuck when the trees grew more sparse. In the end he decided to fake it till he made it.

He approached the young man when there weren't any other humans nearby, acting innocently. At first the man raised his small knife in defense, then let out a breath as he saw what had startled him. He meowed affectionately, and approached slowly. The man did not let his guard down, but he let him approach. He rubbed against the man's leg and could see a smile forming on his face as he bent down to pet him.

Easy as stealing candy from a baby. Only without the moral implications.

As a cat he had a few innate abilities, one of which was called being cute.

Having gained the man's trust he followed next to him, and enjoyed the pets when they came. It wasn't so bad; he expected it to feel like someone ruffling his hair when he was a human, but the scratches around his ears and back felt divine. The man offered some of his mushrooms to him which he didn't take. Seriously, he knew only one thing about foraging and that was that mushrooms were dangerous more often than not.

They continued walking towards the city, meeting sparsely more humans until they were at the gates. The city was surrounded by a massive wall over four meters tall. If he didn't have his teleportation, getting inside as a normal monster would have been quite the challenge. As it stood now, however, the guards barely took any notice of him as he followed the young man inside the city.

He took a moment taking everything in. If it hadn't settled on him that he was in another world, this certainly sealed the deal. The city had a medieval feeling to it which he supposed was appropriate. Most of the houses were built out of stone or wood, and the ground was paved uniformly with large stones.

He felt like he was living inside a history book until he saw a fire mage entertaining a small crowd on the side of the road with impressive flair and remembered he was in a world of magic.

The man looked at him questioningly, and he decided to follow him for a while more. If he was being honest he didn't know what his plan was now that he'd gotten inside the city. He wanted to recruit the two adventurers he and Edel had helped leave the forest to cook the lizards for him, but now that he thought about it out loud, it wasn't a plan at all.

He didn't think of the forest as a place to necessarily escape from now that he had Edel by his side, and he didn't want to leave her behind even more. As they walked further into the city and he took in the sights, he noticed a large building much more grandly built, one of which all sorts of people entered and left. They were dressed how he imagined an adventurer would, and he was pretty excited to find what seemed to be an actual adventurer's guild!

One of the guys leaving the guild had a hawk the same size as him as a pet. The hawk stared at him intently, and he couldn't help but notice the collar around its neck. It seemed to emit a weird aura of ether, and he wondered what that was. He only hoped it wasn't a device to capture monsters against their will. Going by how the hawk acted, he didn't think so, but he was hesitant to allow one to be put on him considering this was his first time seeing something like that.

He decided he would stop here and rest under the shade of the tree a few meters out of the guild. The man seemed sad to see him leave but didn't stop him. He passed by various humans running from one place to another without a care in the world. Most of them seemed pretty weak if he was being honest.

The adventurer with the hawk, on the other hand, had an air of danger to him and he wouldn't be underestimating humans any time soon in any case.

Humans back on Earth were hardly the strongest beings, yet they still managed to take over the world.

He rested lazily under the shade of the tree watching people come and go. The most interesting people always came from the large building in the middle of the city.

He almost fell asleep when a small child not older than six left his parents' hands and ran up to him. The mother didn't seem to notice and the father was speaking with another guy on the street, also not noticing their child was running off to play with a wild animal.

He was hesitant to stay in place, but he decided it would be too bothersome if he left every time a child ran up to him. He was still ready to teleport away if the kid looked like he would grab his tail, or worse.

The child, however, surprised him pleasantly. He slowed down as he got closer, trying not to spook him into running away. The young child tentatively extended his arm to pet him, and he let him. When he didn't move the child smiled brightly.

Kiel eased back into the warm stone and let the kid pet him. The child gently stroked his fur and he couldn't help but purr. Seeing the child's smile made his day in a way he didn't expect. Like playing with a younger sibling he never had. He got up and approached the kid on his own sitting next to him.

He kept the child company until his parents noticed he left their side and yelled at him to come back. The boy was sad to leave but the smile on his face was unmistakable. If he could've read the expression on Kiel's face he would have seen his smile mirrored.

Kiel was getting ready to go back under the tree's shade when he noticed two adventurers walking inside the guild and he couldn't help but cough in surprise. Well, that was easier than I thought.