He and Era walked side by side and she answered all his questions when he pretended to have lost his memory.

She told him what she knew about the geography of this world: the continent they were on was separated between the Empire in the South and the Coalition of States in the North.

The Kingdom they were in was part of the small non-aligned countries that were used as a buffer zone between the two superpowers.

The kingdom was a typical monarchy, but the nobles seemed quick to abuse their authority, controlling and abusing the people under them at their whims. Guess every world has its fair share of assholes.

When he inquired about levels she explained that every intelligent race had one, it represented their experience in this world, it was a gift to them by the goddess to survive in a savage land full of monsters and disasters.

One could steal the vital life force of other races in the form of experience points to strengthen themselves.

That was just great, now he had to add religion to his worries, he didn't exclude the possibility of actual gods in this strange world, one of them may even be responsible for bringing him here. Should he try praying ?

She continued her explanation and told him that an average villager was level 2 or 3 while a basic soldier often reached level 10 from clearing monsters periodically.

"Wait, if that's how it works then how come there is no inflation of levels whenever there is a war ?"

"Inflation ? Oh ! you mean why the soldiers don't level up crazily whenever they kill each other ? That's because humans don't get any experience points from killing other human beings."

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"Really ?"

"Yes, I believe its a safeguard the goddess put into place to avoid her children killing each other to become more powerful"

The traveller nodded but didn't answer.

Wait a goddamn second ! What was the meaning of this !? He was certain he leveled up twice when he killed those soldiers. Was he not considered the same race as the humans from this world ?

It was better to keep this under silent for now. Would he be chased as a monster if he revealed he could slaughter people to level up ? Yep, better not to say a word.

"Oh ! I just realised I didn't even ask you for your name "

he realized that he didn't really have one in this world, even his interface only showed question marks, he simply replied that he had forgotten it.

"Say, it is not practical to call you 'hey' or 'mister' right ? What would you say if I chose a name for you ?”

To tell the truth, he didn't really care, but her smile and blue eyes shining with good intentions made him accept. She thought for a moment and then spoke again.

"So from now on your name will be Ran."

“Does it have any special meaning?”

“Indeed ! Its from the God of war called Rania. From what I saw you were probably a soldier or an adventurer before you lost your memory and you use really powerful magic weapons too !”

She was probably referring to his guns.

Magic was a new concept for Ran, apparently it could manipulate the elements using mana as fuel, everyone had mana but not everyone knew how to use it.

His new skill [basic mana control] supposedly allowed him to feel and use this energy in his body but he had no use for it at the moment.

The mage who had attacked the village apparently had mastered basic fire magic and could shoot fireballs with a diameter of 20 centimeters at about 300°C from Era’s description, in other words, nothing serious for him and his armor...However, a shadow passed on her face when she described it, if she saw him use it there was a high chance the bastard threw this magic at her village, at least now he won't do any harm anymore...

The group kept going for the rest of the day and finally stopped when the sun was about to disappear in the horizon.

When they were about to set up camp, one of the villagers let out a scream. Everyone turned around as one. There, emerging from the forest, appeared a huge black bear with six legs as wide as a human chest and ending with sharp claws.

Fortunately, it was at a good distance from the group, several men came forward trembling, only armed with the swords taken from the soldiers as equipment. They were not trained warriors and it showed.

Ran could have easily shot that bear from where he was, but he preferred not to use his weapon in front of all those people. Last night he had been able to do it under cover of darkness and only Era had properly seen what had happened.

Moreover, this was his chance to increase his close combat experience. He was indeed made aware of a crucial fact after his run in with the goblins... His ammo will not last forever.