Chapter 5 - A Town

[Don't underestimate the power of Bonk.]

Albert's eyes twitched before he shook his head. "Well, I heard they were apologizing to each other when I was running away, so I guess this is fine as well.

"And with the fact that there are people around here means there should be a settlement nearby." Albert thought for a moment. "Should I go there? Will they get angry with me? Whatever. Securing food and water is my priority."

Having decided what to do, Albert shifted his focus to the second matter on hand. "That's right. I saw something like the first kill and EXP thingy… What's that again?"

[It's related to your status. You can just say "Status" and it will be displayed in front of your eyes, but I will open it for you this time.]

Name: Albert Gran

Level: 1

EXP: 67%

Race: Demon Dog

Title: Bonk Junior

"Oh?" Albert raised his hand with great interest. "Isn't this easy? I mean, I have bonked four people and killed one goblin and now the EXP is filled by two-thirds."

[It's going to be harder and harder from now on.]

"Like the game." Albert nodded a few times, understanding what he meant. "So, what will I get from leveling up?"

[You will get stronger of course.]

"Oh. That's all?"

[Yes.]

"In that case, I can start looking for a settlement around here." Albert shrugged, not having any desire to level up just yet since he needed to take care of his well-being first.

He raised his head and started searching for the sound while returning to where he helped the couple.

It was clear that tailing them would make his job easier.

Unfortunately, the couple had left even though he was only away for a few minutes.

There were only two goblin corpses whose ears had been cut lying on the ground.

"Hmm?" Albert furrowed his eyebrows and looked around. "The couple can go in all directions. But if I think about it, there are only a few they can go to.

"First of all, I came to this forest from the right and I didn't hear anything when returning to this place, so behind me was also not an option.

"I wanted to go forward, but when I was in the grassland, I didn't see anything around there. In other words, the settlement is inside the woods." Albert thought and looked at his left, gulping down.

"Time to go then."

Albert chose to go deeper into the woods while trying to pick up all sorts of noises.

Unfortunately, despite walking for thirty minutes, he couldn't find anyone. He even needed to escape from several goblins after hearing their voices.

He ended up returning to the previous place and sighed. "I have no idea where to go…"

Dejected, he decided to cross the woods next to the edge, trying to find a road or people.

To his surprise, he found a road not far away.

"Hmm?" Albert's expression brightened as he heard footsteps in the distance.

Out of curiosity, he approached the footsteps and found a total of ten people.

He could see the previous couple and two other people with pink skin, but he also found several others. There was a muscular guy with blue skin and one eye. He also spotted a female human and that amused him.

Her facial and body features were completely similar to the ones he knew. She had long blonde hair tied into a ponytail. She had silver armor covering her body and wore white pants.

A sword was hanging on her waist as her left hand rested on top of the handle as if she prepared to swing her sword at any moment.

'A human walking with all those weird people from other races? This is really another world. Seeing how they're moving together peacefully, I can expect to be treated normally, which is good.' Albert thought.

Out of curiosity, he peeked at her status.

Name: Alisa

Race: Human

Level: 39

Gender: Female

"Holy—" Albert hurriedly covered his mouth.

On the other hand, as if noticing something, Alisa stopped, turned to the left, and raised her vision, finding nothing other than the usual scenery.

"What's wrong Alisa?" The one-eyed guy asked.

"Nothing…" Alisa shook her head and continued to walk.

Little did she know, Albert was covering his mouth behind a tree. His heart beat rapidly as he feared to be found like this.

After all, they could easily suspect him of something if they saw him peeking at them. Hence, Albert chose to hide and meet them in a better situation.

He used his ears to listen to their conversation and felt relieved when they went away.

"Huft." Albert let out a sigh of relief and finally put down his hands. "I'm safe now."

He took another peek at the now empty road.

The road was just dirt stretching in two directions without any trees on it. Its width was around fifteen feet to the side, making it look quite big.

When he looked to the right, the road led to the outside and he could leave the forest without a problem.

"I didn't see this road earlier, but… who cares?" Albert shrugged and turned to the left.

He couldn't see that far, but he believed there was a settlement in that direction. So, he suppressed his fear from earlier and walked to the road before following that path.

After five minutes, he started hearing many footsteps as the sign of the settlement.

To his surprise, he found a thirty feet wooden wall stretching to at least a few hundred feet to both sides.

There was a ditch in front of the wall, making it hard for them to climb them. At the same time, the top parts of the wall had been sharpened.

He found the only entrance leading to this settlement with two blue-colored guys standing outside. They wore body armor and wielded a spear. With their muscular build, they looked menacing.

There was a wooden bridge that connected the land to the settlement, so Albert knew he couldn't sneak inside.

"Well, either way, I need to go sooner or later." Albert smiled as he steeled his heart.. "It's time to go… to my first town in this world."