Chapter 5 - Civilization.

After hearing that Raymond had a family name, Talia understood that her uncle had been right, there truly was something special about this young man. Having a family name implied that your family had some kind of history and that you weren't some normal beggar or peasant. Since she didn't want the atmosphere to get too awkward, Talia decided that it was time to get a move on.

"Alright, we can talk more later, let's get going for now."

No one questioned the young lady's decision, and they all started moving again. Raymond just followed a few steps behind them, wary of their every move. He had gotten a little more used to this new body of his, which meant that he could mask his feelings easier. This came as a surprise for everyone else, since the stiff and awkward body language suddenly disappeared, replaced with apparent calmness.

"When you introduced yourself earlier, why did you stretch your hand out like that?"

After walking for a while, and familiarising themselves with each other, one of the guards suddenly asked an interesting question. Talia's ears visibly perked up a little, awaiting an equally interesting answer.

"Oh, yeah it's an old habit. It's a custom where I'm from to shake hands with people you introduce yourself to."

"Now that you mention it, you never said where you're from. You don't seem like you're from around here."

"I'm from a country called Sweden, you've probably never heard of it."

As she was silently listening in on their conversation, Talia was intrigued. She had never heard of this country called Sweden before, which meant that it's probably very far away.

"Hmpf, Sweden? Never heard of it, you sure you're not lying to us?"

The maid cut into the conversation without hesitation. She had been silently reprimanded because of this beggar that appeared out of nowhere. She couldn't endure listening to him spout nonsense without worries.

"Jävla idiot."

To her rude interruption, Raymond simply cursed at her in Swedish with a smile on his face.

"Huh?"

She was naturally taken aback since she had no idea what he just said. Not only that, but the language he just spoke was something she had never heard before.

"I just said that you have beautiful eyes in Swedish."

The maid blushed a little and decided to shut up. She had already said more than she should. Questioning Raymond more would only displease her master, and to be quite honest, she still wanted her life. Since this bum seemed to at least know his place, she decided to let him off. Raymond had no problem saying something so shameless out of nowhere. There was no point in antagonising anyone here, that would only make things more troublesome. If the maid knew what he had actually said, she would probably not decide to shut up.

"That language seems pretty unusual. This country you're from, Sweden was it? It's pretty far from here right?"

The old man decided to speak up. He was getting more and more interested in this young man in front of him. The language he just spoke was very foreign, even to him, which meant that the country he was speaking about should be very far away, maybe even on another continent altogether.

"Yeah, to be quite honest, I'm not entirely sure where we are right now, but it's a country situated far north. Even if I spent my entire life walking, I would never arrive."

Technically, he wasn't lying. There was no way for him to walk back to his old world after all. Although he wasn't actually sad, the desolate look in his eyes worked wonders to make him seem pitiful. When the only noticeable characteristic about him, his glimmering golden eyes, suddenly dimmed, he looked like he was reminiscing about something really sad.

This naturally made the mood a little gloomier, no one was sure what they were supposed to say as a response. This was the kind of reaction Raymond wanted. Although he didn't want to take advantage of other peoples' feelings, he wanted to ensure that he lived for now. Making himself seem pitiful would deter most people from easily feeling animosity towards him.

Like this, the trip continued on for almost an hour before they all stopped to let the injured guard rest for a while. After resting for a little while, they resumed their trek through the woods. On the way, they ran into multiple demonic beasts, that were all taken care of by either a guard or Talia herself. This was the first time Raymond had seen a cultivator in action, and it was quite the wondrous sight.

Through some prodding, Raymond also learned a little about the levels of demonic beasts. Unlike cultivators, the demonic beasts' cultivation system was pretty simple. First of all, they were classed by numeric ranks, with the lowest being a rank 1 demonic beast. They were then further classified into three grades: low, mid and high grade. A low-grade rank 1 demonic beast was equivalent to the first three revolutions of body refining, whilst a mid-grade rank 1 demonic beast would be the equivalent of the three middle revolutions of body refining.

What further awed Raymond was that Talia could easily take care of low and mid-grade rank 2 beasts on her own, which meant that she had completely surpassed the body-refining realm altogether. Watching these people easily surpass the limits of the human body, achieving superhuman feats made Raymond more and more excited. In the future, he would also be able to achieve similar feats, and if his system was as amazing as he thought it would be, then he would probably be way more powerful than just this.

After almost 3 hours of walking non-stop, they had finally managed to leave the forest. The forest he had just been in was called the Wise Willow Forest, and it was a fairly popular spot for low-level cultivators to temper themselves. They left the forest just in time to see the sun slowly set over the horizon. Raymond was entranced by the beautiful image, and his anxious heart slowly settled down. Soon, he would be able to get into town and leave these people behind.

No matter what, he was uneasy. It was hard to stay around people that could easily kill you with a snap of their finger, especially if they have unknown intentions. After only walking for a few minutes on a narrow dirt road, the group could see Greencrest City in the distance. Or to be more precise, they could see the 4-meter tall walls, as well as the alchemy tower that seemed like it was trying to pierce the sky.

The alchemy tower was something that you could find in most developed cities, and their influence reaches far and wide. They are the number 1 supplier of medical pills and cultivation pills in all of the northern continent, much less the Herus kingdom. Since they had already arrived at the city as promised, it was time for them to walk their own ways.. On the outside, Raymond looked a little solemn, on the inside, however, he was in a great mood.