Nomad inhaled deeply, spitting blood as he rolled, just a split second, avoiding the attack by a hair's width, hearing the crack of the tree splitting open, and the thud of something hitting the earth. It was now or never.

His senses tingled and his heart burst forth, feeling the adrenaline surge and pulse, he ignored the searing pain in his sides.

Nomad breathed in, Aether slowly flooding to the edges of his knuckles, pulsating in tune with his heartbeat, bringing forth a throbbing and tingling sensation as his hands healed just in time for him to refocus his attention to the Head Goblin's silhouette as its fist connected with Noamd's stomach.

He went reeling, gasping.

Nomad pushed himself and ducked, letting the next fist ram onto the tree and slam into his arm as he dashed away, pulling himself together.

With a clear vision of his surroundings, Nomad found the dull sword stuck in the dull. He swallowed; that would have been deadly if its blade was sharp. Nomad focused, propping up his fists and glaring at the creature.

Fat and heavy, it was hard on its feet, and took moments to change directions, so once the attack was dodged, Nomad could take that chance to get in a few free hits if he managed to get behind it. If it fell it wouldn't be able to get back up quickly.

He bolted forward with a rush of Aether focused on his lower half, shooting him forth like a cannon. The Head Goblin, noticing his fast swift movement, brought its hands down into a double punch toward him, the move lumbering and heavy.

Nomad lowered his head, ducking under, and rolling through its legs, hearing the thud of its fists as they struck the ground. In its back now, he quickly came onto his knees and spun, turning around and using all that momentum into a swinging kick at the creature's shins. His heels buried into the bone.

And the creature went reeling and lost its balance.

Good.

With no time to lose, Nomad thrust to the side, dodging as it fell on its back. Aether flooded his arms, his veins pulsing with power as Nomad jumped atop the creature, and unceremoniously slammed his fist into its eye socket, and into the soft inner bits. He disrupted the flow of Aether into his hand and pumped into it just after, overflowing it. His punch erupted through its skull and struck the ground.

[Head Goblin (Lv. 14) killed — Aether rewarded!]

In a rain of brain ooze and blood, the Head Goblin seized up and convulsed as it went lifeless, leaving a smoking pile where its eye had once been. Nomad winced as he brought his fist out, now bloody and battered from the small explosion. His body wasn't nearly ready for such a high output of Aether just yet. Three centuries of hibernation had cost him his stats after all. He was back to a low-level human with some advantages.

Nomad jumped from the creature's head and stretched. That was some nice de-stressing.

Aether rushed out of the Head Goblin and slammed into Nomad's chest, and he let the Aether stream and fill him.

His bones jostled, his skin tightened, the cuts on his hands healed, and bruises cleared. The sensation was one unlike any other, making his entire body tingle, leaving a calm in its wake. Nomad looked around at the fallen bodies of goblins littered around.

Gone. All dead. Nomad yawned. It felt nice to let loose. He grabbed the Head Goblin's sword and spent a few minutes getting it out of the tree trunk on the ground. He looked at where it had been cut, and blinked. That was no cut. The creature had brute-forced its way through and split the damn thing in half. Well, at least the metal used in the sword might fetch some money. He doubted the little thing had anything worth a while.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That reminded him, he could cut the goblins' ears and sell them to any adventurer's guild he could find. They had to be still there, right? The world couldn't have changed so much that adventurers weren't needed.

Regardless, first thing first, Nomad plopped down on the ground and touched the shard in his chest. It pulsed, glowing a faint purple through his clothes.

Nomad tapped his lip, he needed to hide this somehow given that it glowed anytime he used Aether. Throwing that thought at the back of his mind, he pushed Aether into the shard, slowly. The glowing brightened, slowly as a screen popped up.

[Requirement to Level up the shard: 03/540 Aether]

Oh. The requirement for Lv. 00 to Lv. 01 was the same as the first time he'd done it, that was easy enough. Nomad began pouring in more of the Aether collected from his recent kills. However, he stopped after a while. Aether was necessary to him, too, after all.

[Requirement to Level up the shard: 52/540 Aether]

Nomad sighed. He'd leveled up his shard to Lv. 01 in an instant back when he'd got it first, but it seemed it would be taking a lot of time this time. Given time, he knew he could grind. Time, he had, an ocean, and more. After all, cursed as he was with immortality, he was still immortal. Time he had aplenty.

Standing up, Nomad cut the ears off the fallen goblins, dragging his new dull sword along him back to where the little thing should be.

He found Emma trying to light the fire when he got back. He put the sword down with a thud.

"Oh, you're back—aaaaargh!" Emma shrieked before she recognized him. "Gosh. Don't do that. You can't be sneaking around drowning in goblin guts and stuff, teacherman. I almost had a heart attack"

Nomad stared at her and tossed the bundle of goblin ears he'd brought along.

"Ugh..." Emma pinched the bridge of her nose. "You stink of goblin guts."

Nomad blinked. He'd have to jump in the waterfall to clean them, if they found one.

"Let's go," he said, and they began picking things up.

***

Nomad and Emma had spent the night walking, then rested in a cave. Thankfully, he'd manage to find a river to bathe in and wash his clothes. It took long for his clothes to dry, and he enjoyed the time submerged, dipping himself and washing in the river, with the little thing doing whatever she wanted some distance away.

Eventually, though, Emma made her annoyance known by the cluck of her tongue, and they went on, back on the track, following the river down through a clearing, eventually coming upon a town just as the sun started peaking on the horizon.

Wary after the goblins, the two looked upon the large and bulking wood and straw-roofed houses with a look of apprehension on Emma's part and stoic on his. The town seemed fine, albeit a bit big, not much of a city.

When they were approached by the guards patrolling outside, Nomad had no choice but to dub the little thing his daughter, and their travel a 'pilgrimage' to the Temple of Nier. A God he knew should still exist, being one of the Greater Gods the mortals had worshiped for a very long time.

"—Yeah, so we'll be passing through, just need to rest for a few days." He finished.

"Is that so?" The Guard said. Nomad could easily knock him out if he so wished, but he had no intention of causing unnecessary trouble for the townsfolk. "I'll have to ask you for your traveling pass, sir."

Nomad stood silent. A traveling pass. What the bloody hell was that?

Though it was obvious what it was, Nomad had no clue how to get one—after all, there had been no traveling pass required to travel in the past. But this was no longer the past; it was a future unknown to him, and this moment was exactly when he realized that things might have changed more than he could imagine.

The little thing watched in silence, and sighed, opening her bag. She pulled out a small slate tablet the size of her hand, holding it in her small arms with care. Emma smiled and handed it over. "It was really hard holding onto this thing for you, Dad!"

Nomad almost winced at the 'dad' and strained a smile, grabbing and offering the slate to the guard, observing it as he did so. The slate was like glass, an unfamiliar material. It was translucent, somewhat glowing with green flecks embedded in its very texture. It felt cold to the touch, and had runes embossed onto it.

"Well," the Guard took it and squinted at the runic writing. "An Attestation Stone of the Kingdom of Sut. You're free to pass, traveler. As for a lodging and stay for the night," The Guard pointed in a direction. "Follow the orange flags and ask for Ms. Lahey. She runs the best Inn in the town."

Nomad doubted she did—he was likely simply promoting. But the inn would have to do, for now.

"Thank you, kind sir," Emma said, her hand outstretched.

"Have a safe journey." The guard nodded with a smile, handing back the traveling pass to Emma, and she quickly tucked it back into her bag.