Village Encounter

Instantly, Ragnar was surrounded by people with all sorts of farm tools. He started panicking not understanding what is going on here. He took a deep breath and raised his hands.

"Calm down elder, I think we are having a misunderstanding here. I just came here from the forest in that direction. This is my first time here; I never stole anything. Please believe me." Ragnar sincerely pleaded while putting his weapon on the ground.

The old man who is presumed to be the leader of the group squinted his eyes on hearing this and asked. "Who are you then? And what do you want from us?"

Ragnar scratched his cheeks upon hearing that and chose to go with the amnesia story.

"Well...The thing is that I don't even know how I got here. I even don't know where this place is. The first thing I remember is waking up near a river. I don't remember anything before that. I was hoping of getting some clues and information from this village as I really don't know much about this world." Ragnar replied.

Just then, a man came from the back and spoke in the elder's ear. His expression relaxed a bit and he spoke neutrally.

"It seems you are telling the truth. Come with me and throw that bone away for god's sake. Who even uses that nowadays." The Village elder said.

Everyone started dispersing and went to their abode as the threat was not real. Ragnar followed the elder man to a wooden house located in the centre of the village. Upon entering, he saw the interior and got made reminded that this is not his world anymore.

'Woah, it really is like the days before technology. The setting is quite minimalistic.' Ragnar thought.

"Before we talk, here take that and go behind the house. There is a barell filled with water. Use it to clean yourself and wear those." The village chief gave Ragnar a set of clothes.

"Thank you elder, I will repay you later." Ragnar accepted the kind gestures as he was in really need of clothes.

He went behind the house and washed himself quickly. It was weird to bath like this in plain sight, but he did not think much about it, he quickly washed himself and dried himself. He wore the black pants and white shirt given by the elder. Turns out that the clothes fit him very well.

He thought he would look old fashioned upon wearing that. But the clothes were telling a completely different story. He looked good in it. He slicked back his dark silky hair and went back inside.

"Thank you for the clothes elder. It fitted me really well." Ragnar expressed his gratitude.

The elder looked at him for some times reminiscing on some old memories. "Think not much about it. These clothes would be rotting if not for you. At least they got a new owner." The elder sighed.

Ragnar decided to not pry much into it as it seemed that it was something quite sensible for the elder. As he sat down on the chair opposite to the elder and asked him.

"Elder, are you the chief here?"

"Yes indeed, I am this village leader or chief Moran if you will." Elder Moran replied.

"So, as you know, I currently don't have any knowledge about how things work and how I got here. When I was trying to escape the forest..." Ragnar started narrating his adventure since he woke up to the elder.

Old Moran stroke his short beard and said, "You should be grateful you met unawakened monsters. Most likely, the place you woke up from is in the outskirt where the danger is rather low. The forest of Grandia is known to have dangerous beast of rank 3 level. Us normal people are basically lamb to the slaughter the moment we met a creature of that level."

Ragnar was confused, so he asked for more clarification about this rank thing to which the elder said, "In this world, humans and other beings can achieve powers that rival those of deities. Due to the mana available in the surrounding, most living being underwent drastic change as they get affected by it. This is why the flame wolf was literally burning but not harm by it. Most likely, he was on the verge to reach a rank 1 flame wolf."

He saw Ragnar contemplating on what he said, he chose to give him some time to process all this before continuing.

"From what I know, the ranking system we used is to classify the number of breakthroughs a person went through. Once a person underwent a breakthrough, he will be goes through a transformation depending on which path he is following. The highest rank I know of is rank 4, more than that, I have only heard rumour."

Ragnar took all these information and processed it all. Now that he had a good idea on how the world works and its power system, he can think of a way to maximise the system usage to reach the pinnacle of strength. At least he can theorise it.

"Thats all I can tell you for now, take your time and think about what are going to do. But don't take too much time, as you have noticed the situation is not that good around here. Bandits have been harassing and stealing from us these days. Two of our people got killed in the process. Sigh, this is the fate of normal people; to be preyed upon by these types of people." Elder Moran said.

"Thank you a lot elder Moran, you have helped me a lot by telling me all this." Ragnar expressed his gratitude sincerely.

Ragnar got up and went out. He walked around the village observing the people working in the field, some butchering and other works. As he walked, he felt someone following him, though he was doing a really bad job as he was so loud with the footstep.

He turned around and saw his stalker. It was a little girl of around 7 years old. She was peeking from behind a wall. As she noticed Ragnar seeing her, she immediately hid behind the wall. Upon seeing this, Ragnar smiled warmly and said:

"Are you lost little miss?" He asked gently.