Lucian immediately frowned as slight frustration surfaced on his face.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew what he was getting himself into. But if he wanted to gain strength as quickly as possible, he needed to spend this chance gaining as much strength as possible.

With a frown, Lucian took a look at her status.

[Aerith Rencardo (The Windstream Serpent) - LVL ??? G]

Lucian grimaced. Another fucking OP character.

Reigning in his anger, Lucian took a breath and gave her a long hard stare. Unrelenting, she stared back with equal determination.

He spoke slowly yet firmly. “You won’t be able to stop me forever. You stopping me now will do nothing.” Lucian said flatly, his previous warm exterior gone and replaced with the remains of a broken man hiding unspeakable darkness within his beautiful golden eyes. The world seemed to darken for the briefest moment as his sclera darkened to an eerie gray color.

Aerith shuddered as a chill passed her body. Her staunch position wavered slightly as some concern appeared on her face. Lucian knew he wasn’t fully prepared to fight those beasts, yet he was diving head-first into the arms of danger. Honestly, she knew she really didn’t know enough about the guy to try to stop him, but she couldn’t help but ask herself; What could make this man do such a reckless thing?

Shaking her head, She stepped to the side, her meaning clear.

With a final stare, he walked toward the exit once more.

“Go to the Questing Board once you’re in town. You can probably find a quest to complete for some coins. Oh, and try to come back before nightfall, okay? ” Aerith finally asked just as he was about to pass.

Turning towards her, he gave a small nod as he left, his fox walking beside him as his broad shoulders carried the weight of the world.

Aerith sighed. Hopefully, he could heal from this...

Lucian walked calmly towards the shopping area.

“Woo...” His fox whined as it felt the sadness and anger surrounding him. Turning towards it, he squatted down and gave it a rub on its head, an affectionate smile on his somber face.

He didn’t know why, but he had always felt an intrinsic feeling of closeness he couldn’t explain with this fox. He would never let anyone get close to him so quickly, but he felt something similar to... kinship to the beast. A feeling he couldn’t explain apart from the familiarity he subconsciously felt with it.

“I will call you Halia,” Lucian suddenly said as he rubbed Halia’s head. Its soft dark hair clumped under his fingers as it closed its eyes in delight, obviously enjoying the rubs.

“Woo!” Halia howled happily. It seemed to like its new name very much.

With a smile, Lucian finally stood up and continued his pace towards the market.

They went towards the only Potion Shop in the town. If they were going to take this risk, they would need to have some protections in place. Health potions seemed like a good choice somewhere to start.

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Unfortunately, the Potion Shop was closed, which he found pretty weird since it wasn't too late into the day yet. After asking a couple of passersby, he came to the conclusion that the shop owner was quite fickle with the times her business was open.

Lucian could only look around town to find other items to help him on his journey.

As they walked, he found a Rune shop. From the last time he was here, he knew that runes worked similarly to inscriptions, except they were heavily dependent on emotions, making them perfect for making scrolls for buffs and boosts.

He entered and took a look around to see. The store owner seemed busy with other customers, so he didn't pay much attention to him. Halia simply just walked around him calmly. It seemed much more comfortable with people than before as it walked around sniffing the floor here and there.

Stopping in front of a glass mirror laced with inscriptions, he identified one of the scrolls in it.

Scroll of Physical Strength(Grade 1)(Rank E) - Increase all Physical Stats by 10% for 3 minutes. Cannot be stacked.

Reading it, Lucian definitely saw the benefits of having such a scroll. In a tight situation, it would definitely come in handy. However, he didn't think it was worth the 100 Astral Currency he needed to buy it. Not that he even had that much.

Looking further, he found another good scroll; however, it was still too expensive, which seemed to be becoming a trend far too quickly for Lucian's liking.

Minutes later, he exited. There was nothing he could buy now, but he planned on buying some when he had more money.

"Hey, you!" Someone yelled in his direction.

Confused, Lucian turned to see a man carrying around what he suspected to be a stand to sell products. Multiple types of Scrolls and trinkets glowed on the stand as they shook from the man's rush toward him. It was commendable he was able to carry such a thing while running. Lucian associated it with the difference in body types between his world and this one.

The man eventually reached him while breathing heavily.

"haa...haa...I...haa...Just..."

"Take your time," Lucian responded as he watched the man. He was a chubby old man about a meter and a half tall. Wrinkles like creeks covered his face, and his whitened beard shuddered as he regained his breath.

Eventually, he was able to speak again. "Ah. Thank you for your patience. One as old as I need a bit more time to recover compared to you younger folk," He jested with a chuckle.

Lucian said nothing while Halia simply looked on curiously.

Noticing this, the man got straight to the point. "I just saw you exit that rune store. I bet you didn't get what you wanted, did you?" The man said with a knowing smile.

"Well, Luckily for you, I have similar wares here at a fraction of the cost! Everything from buffs to explosion spells is discounted just for you!"

Hearing this, Lucian took a look at some of the scrolls.

Scroll of Physical Strength (Grade)(Rank E)(Damaged) - Increase all Physical Stat by 10% for 3 minutes. Cannot be stacked. 60% Chance of causing a small explosion once activated.

"They're damaged," Lucian stated.

The old man's face fell slightly before he smiled once more. "It is, but it can definitely be us-"

"I'll give you 15 Astral coins for 3 of those," Lucian immediately stated as he pointed at the scrolls.

"Deal!" The man exclaimed with excitement, almost breaking out into a small dance.

Lucian smiled slightly as he brought out his money to complete the trade.

Soon, Lucian was the proud owner of three damaged scrolls.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" The man shouted out 3 meters away as he ran. He seemed like he wanted to get away as fast as possible before Lucian changed his mind.

Staring at the scrolls in his hand, Lucian smiled. He knew exactly what these were useful for.

Walking toward to exit of the town, he noticed a giant billboard he hadn't paid much attention to before. However, this one seemed to fit his current needs perfectly. On top of it, in giant letters, wrote 'Questing Board.'

This was what Aerith most likely was mentioning before. By her definition, there should be different quests he could choose from to gain Astral Currencies.

Walking towards the board, he took at the current quests he could complete.

[Kill 25 Dark Jaguars (Common) and return their Claws. Astral Currency 500. Minimum Level: 9]

[Kill The Shadow Tiger (Rare). Astral Currency 2500. Minimum Level: 20]

[Steal 20 Sonic Hummingbird Eggs. Astral Currency 150. Minimum Level: Any]

Looking through, he found multiple different types of quests he could work through, although most seemed to be locked under a minimum level, most likely to protect the hunter.

Looking through, Lucian found one quest that he liked.

[Kill 15 Draconic Iguanas (Common) and return their tongues. Astral Currency 350. Minimum Level: 7]

It seemed pretty simple, and it also comfortably fit his power range which he did like as well. The greatest thing about it was it also came with a small map as to where to find the iguanas, so he wasn't walking around blind either.

The only drawback was the minimum level required, but Lucian simply ignored it. At the end of the day, as long as the quest was completed, would they really care anyway?

He grabbed the paper from the board as he walked toward the exit.

Human traffic seemed to have died down tremendously due to the time of day, so they were virtually alone as they reached the exit.

Passing through without a hitch, he turned to the side of the gate to see a guard fast asleep under the job. From the looks of it, he would probably be knocked out for quite a while.

Taking out the map in his hand, Lucian followed its instructions as he walked down the main path. From the description, they should be roughly 8 km away.