Nyx: The Worst Hero is the Best Demon

The town of Verst

Apparently, Pride's plan going forward was as creative as mine would have been: Pick a random direction and walk.

At least it was a pleasant enough walk, with the weather being clear skies and temperate. Even the forest was easily traversed, the ground still a forest floor, but it wasn't overly rooty or rock covered, so we covered a good distance. Not that I had any clue what that distance was...

"This might be a good time to inform you that I have exactly zero wilderness survival skills." I said, breaking the long, but comfortable silence that had been between us for at least an hour. "I have definitely slept on the streets before, but I am pretty sure that urban survival is way different to staying alive in a forest."

Pride eyed me, but he was a dog and there for I had no clue what he was thinking. Puppy dog eyes and snarling was as far as my doggy facial expression knowledge went, really. "No need to worry, I know the basics. But I don't think we need to worry much. I can smell humans and filth on the wind... If I had to hazard a guess, there is a town not to far from here."

"Oh, well great." I can't say I envied Pride his nose. Mine was already uncomfortably more sensitive than it had been when I was human, and I really did not need to smell 'human filth' from three kilometers away. But civilization was good! 

Turns out that Pride's nose was correct, not that I doubted it. It wasn't too long before our forest wandering took us to a dirt road that was fairly warn with muddy ruts, I assumed were from wagons. We followed the road, not coming across anyone at all.

The town was not easy to make out when we did come across it, as it was surrounded by a tall, wooden wall. It looked sturdy, but flammable. And out side a double doored gate stood two guardsmen. These were not dressed as the Stellarian knights had been, instead they were dressed in miss matched leather armor. Both had a sword strapped to their hips and held long spears.

"Er," I said to the hell hound as we slowly approached. "What are we supposed to do about this...?"

"Get out two of those little magic stones I told you to pick up." Mumbled the dog, voice low as we drew nearer. Clearly we both agreed that it would be best that the super scary red eyed dog did not also talk.

The stones were of varying sizes and colors, and all of them had been taken from some of the monster corpses from the dungeon. At the time we harvested them, Pride explained that they were magic stones, which were condensed mana formed in the bodies of monster, and that, back in the day, they sold pretty well. Supposedly, many of the monster parts we had left behind could of netted us a nice profit, if only we had a way to take them with us.

But the stones had been relatively small and, those at least, I could tuck away to sell when we eventually reached people.

I did what I was asked, slipping two of the smallest stones out of my tight jeans pockets and gripping them in a hand. It didn't take a genius to know that this was going to serve as either a toll or bribe. I might not know how to start a fire, but I did know bouncers when I saw them.

"Halt!" Said one of the men in a deep voice. They both had leather caps on so it was a little hard to make out faces, but they were both older men with scruffy beards. "What is your business here?"

I wanted to leave this to Pride, who, even with a his time underground, probably knew the culture here better than me. But we already agreed that it would be best if he spoke as little as possible. "We've been on the road for a while... We just want to get more provisions and an Inn for a night or so." I said, hoping they wouldn't question me too far.

The men looked nervous. I thought it was because of Pride at first. He was large with red eyes, after all, but he had shrunk himself to a more normal size for a rottweiler. Not that I was even sure rottweilers were even a thing in this world. I had to remember that it was a man who originally came from Earth that created his race. For all I knew, there was no such things as dogs at all, just monsters.