The wind pressed against my face as I shot through the atmosphere with the ground moving past me far below. My energy was at least for the moment filling up as fast as it was draining so I had no intention of landing to move on foot. I covered miles in moments this way but all good things end as I had no choice but to land when the effects of that mana potion wore off and my cursed energy started to drop. It was no matter though as I had covered about a quarter of the journeys length in this span of thirty minutes.-
Ignoring the scorched ground I set off at a jog using the sun as my guide along the dirt road. The roads this far from any major settlements tended to be of poor condition. Road creation and maintenance were expensive after all what with the monsters that tended to lurk about the wilds. The roads that saw regular use were better maintained of course but the rest only saw repair maybe once a decade if they were lucky. One of the biggest problems with roads in this world is actually the different kingdoms all getting fussy if you set foot on their land.-
Maintaining a road only halfway was kinda pointless after all and that gunked up the process as everyone needed to agree for maintenance to get it done. The road I was on was smack dab in the middle of Orario and Telskyura influence though technically unowned by either. A buffer zone between the two if you would, a place of transition. The closer to Telskyura you got the more the people living there became more culturally attuned to the countries practices and vice versa with going toward Orario.-
You'd think Orario's stance on true equality for all would clash with Telskyura's female dominance stance but it really didn't all that much most the time. For most amazoness this buffer zone was actually an ideal place to settle down as they could treat their men well without stepping on toes pointlessly or giving up their usual lifestyle either. In fact most kingdoms had a similar buffer zone philosophy going on which is why wars were quite rare. The only real exception to that was Rakia and the elvish kingdom but that was both sides fault.-
Rakia was a mostly human militaristic kingdom headed previously by the Ares familia and was always itching to conquer everything. The elves were just all around dicks to any race but their own on a cultural level and just so happened to be situated next to Rakia, the outcome was obvious. Now you'd think getting their forests burned down and many of their number killed or enslaved the elves would figure out that treating every other race on the planet as filth was a bad idea but no. Instead they became not only even MORE reclusive but now they all acted like they were only victims without fault of their own.-
Anyways I was taken out of my political thoughts when a hellhound ran out of the woods to my left with blood seeping out of various scratches on it's side. It paused when it noticed me which was apparently enough time for it's hunter to burst from the trees as well.
"Got you!" a youthful female voice roared out as a plain sword fell upon the beast.
The hellhound cried out in pain before the blade pierced into it's magic stone and it burst into smoke that flowed into my body. The young blonde amazoness holding the blade looked at me with an incredulous expression. She looked to be no more than thirteen or fourteen with a small petite form and bronze skin. Her outfit was standard fare for amazoness consisting of a red cloth bra covering her chest and red cloth panties covering her groin and backside. She also had leather sandals on her feet and a leather belt at her waist with a sheath hanging off it. -
"What was that?" she asked curiously.
"A skill." I lied calmly.
Her eyes lit up "You're an adventurer from Orario aren't you!?" she exclaimed in glee.
"I am. I take it you intend to become an adventurer yourself?" I asked and she nodded eagerly.
"My family has been adventurers for three generations. We even had a level three!" she said puffing out her chest proudly.
"Not bad at all for someone outside Orario." I said sincerely.
I meant it too as the stronger monsters had for the most part already had been cleared off the map outside Orario so leveling up at all was a colossal task unless you got lucky. Doing it twice was even harder.
"What level are you? Gotta be at least a level two not to flinch when a hellhound shows up outta nowhere I reckon." she said with a sage nod as though she already knew she was right.
"Five." I said with an amused smirk.
"Eh? I'm sorry, did you just say five?" she asked looking as though she thought she misheard me.
"That's right. I am a level five, the strongest level five in fact." I said with a chuckle as her eyes bulged in shock.
"Fight me!" she said before charging at me with her sword.
I didn't even bother moving as her sword hit my armor and slid right off without leaving so much as a scratch.
"Why would I do that when you couldn't possibly hope to even scratch me with that sword?" I asked with a smug grin.
"That's not fair! You have armor!" she whined petulantly.
I casually flexed my energy and she was frozen in place up to her waist.
"Even without it wouldn't matter. My skin is hard enough to handle a weapon like that in the hands of child like you and besides that my magic alone allows me to kill you before you can even blink." I said as I controlled the ice to recede leaving her a bit cold but unharmed.
"Showoff!" she said with a pout.
"Indeed! What is the point of being so powerful if I can't show off every now and again? Still as amusing a distraction this was I am on a bit of a short schedule and need to continue my trip. Best of luck little girl, you'll need it if you ever become an adventurer." I said before resuming my jog eastward.