Ragoth should've left for E-Asenaru by now. It's been an hour since the sun had risen and he was still in the village.
The reason for him being late to leave was Mary. She was at the village temple, praying to the Four Gods. Usually, one would pray to one god and be over and done with. But Mary is pious to the point of being zealous, she has to pray to all of them.
Ragoth was kneeling next to her, his eyes wide open, while the priest of the temple glared at him for not closing his eyes.
And Ragoth refused to close his eyes, even as the [Priest] leered.
Mary would spend another hour in prayer before she finished and they could leave.
The [Priest] wanted a word with Ragoth as he was about to leave with Mary.
"Young man, your soul is headed for damnation if you choose the wrong path."
The priest was around the same age as Ragoth. They were both young adults. And yet the [Priest] spoke as if Ragoth was a child.
"Is that all? I'm about to travel."
The priest shook his head. Then he pulled out a jug of water.
"Drink some [Holy Water] so that the Four Gods may look favorably upon your journey and protect your soul from evil."
Holy Water? Ragoth was a [Demon, would the water kill him? He didn't know and wasn't going to try and find out.
"No."
"Are you a heretic?" the priest asked, alarmed.
"What? No."
"Then drink the water and accept the Four Gods. You have nothing to fear unless…"
"Unless what, priest?" Ragoth raised a brow. "You're going to accuse me of something?"
The priest gulped, "No! Forget everything, you may leave."
"No," Ragoth protested.
"No?"
"You offered me [Holy Water] and then accused me of being something evil. I won't let my honor be spat at like that."
Mary approached from behind, "Ragoth, let's leave."
Ragoth was having none of that. If rumors spread of him being something other than human, it could make things awkward.
He used [Appraisal] to assess the [Holy Water].
The color drained out of his face. The Holy Water wasn't even enchanted. Ragoth was worried for nothing.
So he grabbed the jug from the [Priest] and chugged it in one go.
The priest's mouth hung open.
Ragoth wiped his mouth, "I hope you're happy now."
"I apologize, Ragogth. I doubted your humanity. You must understand, the gods have favored humans as the race destined to be stewards of this world. I couldn't allow a non-human to pray in this temple."
"Don't the gods love all the races?" he asked, annoyed.
"The gods do love all the races. But some are evil by nature, they've chosen the path of darkness."
Ragoth had no further interest in debating with the [Priest]. He turned to leave. But he knew that the words of the [Priest] will come back and bite the temple.
With a couple of silver coins in hand, Ragoth tried buying two horses from the village chief.
The village chief refused to accept his money.
"You've done so much for this village, I couldn't take more from you," the village chief, Calak, said to him. "Take these horses as a form of gift."
"I don't mind paying, old man."
Calak refused once again to take Ragoth's coins.
"I must insist," Calak said. "You saved our village. Two horses are the least I can give you."
Ragoth shrugged. "If you insist then fine."
When Ragoth went around the village trying to buy a cart, a villager who had an extra cart refused to sell it. Instead, they gave him the cart for free.
The village was poor but the villagers were not stingy at heart. They were generous to Ragoth and as a sign of thanks for saving the village they gifted him a lot of stuff.
Such as food and ale for the journey, a tent and some bedding were gifted to him.
By midday, everything was packed in the back of the cart and Mary, Ragoth and Mary's two sons were off to E-Asenaru.
The road to E-Asenaru was rocky and bumpy. In this world, the carts didn't have any springs. So any bump in the road, they could feel and there was no shock absorption by the wheels.
As the horses pulled the cart, Mary's two sons were quite busy talking. Ragoth was trying to focus on driving the horses but the boys were far more interested in conversation.
"How did you become so strong, Ragoth?" the eldest son of Mary, Edvard, asked him.
"Training and practice," he answered.
"So what level are you?" Edvard prodded.
Ragoth knew that the adult villagers had levels around 10. But he didn't know how strong the adventurers of this world were. So it was better for him to low ball his actual level.
"I'm about level 50."
"What?!" the two boys stared at him in shock.
Is level 50 that high? Had he been honest, they'd probably have a heart attack. Maybe level 100 is unbelievable to them.
"Level 50 isn't that high," Ragoth tried to downplay his level.
The boys shook their heads, "You're strong. You could be an adamantite ranked adventurer. You'll be rich!"
Edvard turned to his mother, "Mom, you should marry Ragoth. Marry him mom and we'll never be hungry again."
The younger son, Terrel, agreed with his older brother, "Mom, you should really marry Ragoth."
Mary's face turned red.
Ragoth had to intervene, "Boys, stop embarrassing your mother."
"But–" they tried to defend themselves but then a whistling noise suddenly emerged.
An arrow landed in front of the horses, spooking them.
"Easy there. Easy!" Ragoth tried to calm down the horses before they did something stupid like trying to bolt away.
Two men appeared from a nearby bush.
They looked dirty and carried rusted swords and an axe.
"Don't resist and give us everything you have. And we'll maybe let you live," they chuckled.
"I don't negotiate with criminals," he laughed at them.
"Who are you calling a criminal, fool?"
"You two of course," Ragoth grinned. "[Dread]."
An aura of dark and dreadful energy shot out from Ragoth and spread to the two highway robbers.
When Ragoth's aura reached them, they dropped dead on the ground. Their hearts stopped beating from fear.
Ragoth turned his sight to the bush.
"You there who shot that arrow, get out of that bush. Or else I'll burn you where you hide," Ragoth growled.
The third criminal carrying a crossbow hurriedly got out of that bush. He dropped his weapon and put his arms up in the air.
"Spare me. I didn't want to rob people but the Eight Fingers forced me. I have a family and a wife. My mother is also sick and she needs me to take care of her…"
"Womp womp," Ragoth rolled his eyes.
With a flick of his finger, Ragoth caused the arrow on the ground to glow and it pulled itself up in the air. It then turned and shot itself into the left eye of the third criminal. The arrow's head stuck out at the back of his head.
He fell to his death.
Ragoth whipped the horses and they strode forward.
The boys were now more quiet as the journey continued.
Even though the peace and quiet was what he wanted, Ragoth knew that the boys were quiet out of fear.
"Edvard. Terrel. Do you want to be strong so that no one can bully you or hurt the people that you care most about?" Ragoth asked them. He had to change the tense atmosphere.
The boys' faces lit up, "Yes! We do want to be strong."
"Are you sure? I can be a strict teacher."
"YES!"
Ragoth chuckled. If that's what they wanted then he could humor them.