Immortal Freeloader 3 (Patreon)

I started moving at dawn, feeling more relaxed and stronger than I ever felt, moving toward the nearest village even as I tried to come up with an ideal way to introduce myself to a bunch of strangers. 

A way that simultaneously showed that I was best left untouched, yet was not a threat. Unfortunately, it also needed to explain where I was in the middle of nowhere, with no money, no shirt, and no shoes…  

“Feels like a tasteless frat prank,” I said with a chuckle, then my eyes widened. It made perfect sense. “I’m a rich kid that was abandoned by his friends as a poor joke. Excellent.” Even better, it might help me get a few pity gifts from them.  

I doubted a bunch of villagers had a lot of treasures, but it would be different after the System multiplied it. 

As I walked, I twirled the broken branch I had with me, treating it as a staff. I didn’t know how to use a staff, but as I moved it with mock movement, I somehow deduced a decent pattern, one that felt like it might actually work in a fight. 

As I got nearer the village, I found a thin path. I took that, not wanting to sneak. Once I saw a hunter at a distance, I raised my arms and shouted. I stayed near a tree, ready to jump behind it if he lifted his bow. 

He didn’t. “Who are you?” 

“I’m from the city,” I answered, deliberately deciding to not to give any detail, not even a name. “We were having a feast, but once I got drunk, my friends pulled a prank on me and dumped me here naked,” I said. 

He said nothing for a moment. I walked closer slowly, my hands raised. He looked suspicious at first, but the closer I walked, the more he paid attention to me. I noticed he was paying a particular attention to my hands and my cloak. 

Something clicked, and his eyes widened. “Young master, my apologies for the slow response. This one is stupid and slow.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” I said as I walked closer, feeling calmer. Unless I was facing someone that could act well enough to get an Oscar, I could see that he was too scared of my presence to do something. Luckily, the language jade gave me a general impression of how to talk to people of lower status — mostly without a care, and expecting to take them in my words as order. “Just give me some food,” I said. 

I didn’t enjoy talking like that, but I was hungry, and the guy didn’t look like he was about to die of hunger. “I-it’s not to your taste, young master,” he said, but he still hurriedly pulled some bread and dried meat, giving it to me. 

I didn’t thank him, mostly because I knew it would actually scare him more. I didn’t want to torture the guy mentally. 

I waited expectantly as I took the bread, but it didn’t trigger the System. Either it was about his weakness, or the System didn’t take it as a gift. I devoured it. The bread was the foulest I ever tasted, dry and lumpy, but I was too hungry to care. I ate faster than ever, yet felt unsatisfied. 

“Is there anything else you want, young master?” he asked. 

“Your clothes,” I said. He looked surprised. “I’m going to give you this, and you’re going to give me your outfit,” I said as I pointed at the cloak. 

His eyes widened. “I wouldn’t dare,” he said again, but this time, I noticed greed as well. 

“Look, I don’t care about this garbage,” I said as I pointed at the clearly expensive cloak. “Feel free to use it or sell it. One of my idiot friends left it with me. But I need to return to the city without being noticed, so I don’t shame my family,” I said. 

He repeated the fact he wouldn’t dare several times, but his excitement was clear. I insisted a few more times. “Would those be alright, young master?” he said as he pulled some spare clothes from his bag. 

“Good, pass them to me, and your shoes and your knife,” I said, pointing at the ripped leather mess. He didn’t blink before he removed them, passing them to me. I threw the cloak at him. He grabbed, looking shocked and fascinated by the trade. 

His excitement worked to my benefit as he turned chatty. I learned that the closest town was called Dumassa, and it was barely two days of walk away. Apparently, one needed to pay two silver coins to enter, which was a significant amount of money for the villagers. 

Also, to my surprise, I learned that the forest was supposed to be very dangerous, with a lot of wild animals, but they were scared away after a weird lightning. Though, unlike the earlier magic lady — cultivator, according to hunter’s babbling — he cared little about it, treating it as some kind of cultivator spell. 

Apparently, such things were more common than I expected. 

After two hours of walk through the forest, we arrived at a dirt road. “Just follow the road, young master, and it’ll bring you to Dumassa. From there, I’m sure you can find a caravan that goes to the city.” 

“Very good, you can leave,” I said. He left, holding the cloak tight like it was a treasure. Maybe it was. I had absolutely no idea how the economy worked here. 

Instead, I started walking while I started playing with the knife I had received from the hunter. I started swinging it, and realized that, just like boxing and staff-combat, it felt smooth and natural like breathing. 

Earth-rank was apparently more fascinating than I first realized. Not that I was unhappy about consuming it. If it was too expensive, trying to sell it would create too many questions. And, as far as I could feel from the languages that were dumped into my mind, personal combat power was an important part of social status. 

I slowed down half an hour later. Not because I was exhausted — I felt like I could run a marathon while breaking all the records easily — but because the hunger felt crippling. 

I walked away from the road, picked a broken log as a target, and started practicing knife-throwing. The blade I traded for was not a throwing knife. It had a poor balance, and even poorer edge, yet ten minutes of practice was enough for me to hit the target every single time. 

“Incredible,” I said, once again revising the efficiency of the earth-grade pill upward.  

With that, I moved a little more inside and started hunting. I had never hunted before, but it turned out to be easy. Five minutes later, I had noticed a rabbit hidden behind a bush. A flick of my wrist later, it went down. 

Starting a fire and preparing the rabbit to be cooked was more difficult. Martial aptitude didn’t translate to prep work. It took ten minutes for me to start a fire, and that only worked because I rubbed two sticks together with a speed that was impossible to attain for any young scout on Earth. 

The rabbit was large enough for a nice group meal, yet, once I finished, I was still hungry. I was full to the point that it felt uncomfortable, but it didn’t solve my hunger. Helpless, I continued walking … but that sensation of being stuffed disappeared after an hour. 

Apparently, my superpowers also included super digestion. I hunted two more rabbits during the next two hours, and only after that, I felt somewhat sated. “It looks like I’m going to spend a lot of money on food,” I said. “A little more practice, then back on the road,” I said, and once again started boxing. 

I stopped barely a minute later. The moment I started practicing, I felt the gnawing of hunger return. Food was important. And, it looked like even a basic practice was enough to set my situation back significantly. 

I paused for a moment, considering my options. The easiest thing was to stay in the forest, hunt, and forage while slowly practicing martial arts as some kind of hermit. But not only that was hard work, it would also expose me to the risks in the wilderness.

Or, I could go back to the town, and test the limits of the mysterious System that brought me to the new world. Combined with the introduction of the System I received from some kind of goddess before I was thrown into a new world, it was clearly supposed to be an insult.  

Too bad. I was an expert, shameless freeloader. 

I extinguished the fire and started running. I only slowed when I noticed a group in the distance. Several oxen-pulled carts, moving toward the town at a leisurely pace.