Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Congratulations! The skill Dash has leveled up

Congratulations! For leveling up the skill you learned by yourself, you obtained ten coins.

Congratulations! The skill Rest has leveled up!

Congratulations! For leveling up the skill you learned by yourself, you obtained ten coins.

Several hours had passed since Ethan started that new journey, yet, he didn't find any sign of civilization, animals, or monsters. Ethan even brought several stamina potions to increase his pace, and those helped him. If he could just obtain five thousand more coins, Ethan would be able to buy a certain pair of boots that would increase his running speed by fifty percent and decrease the consumption of Dash by half.

However, obtaining that in the middle of nowhere alone was impossible. Ethan was already considering using the potion Ian gave him or even using his power on the first creature he found. He didn't know how Hannah was, so he would do everything just to confirm her well-being, even if a single second faster.

"Screw it," Ethan muttered. "If in another hour, If I don't find anything or anyone, I will use my skill points. By using them, I can probably triplicate my movement speed and my recovery capacity. Those skills are only useful in situations like this, but I don't really care at this point in time."

Fortunately, after half an hour, Ethan found a village in the distance. It seemed pretty simple, but it would do for the job. Even if the people there lived in isolation or were poor, they would know the location of the most important city in the world and which direction one should go to follow. Ethan hurried to the place when he heard his legs cracking due to exhaustion. Even if potions could recover his stamina, they couldn't make the tiredness of the muscles disappear. Not regular potions, anyway. Regardless, as if that was some kind of joke, the village was empty.

After walking around for a while trying to find a map or any vestiges of what had happened, Ethan learned a few things. The people there left in a hurry, and they had left more than a few days ago. The dust in the houses was starting to pile up, and Ethan found some signs of unfinished meals.

"No maps, but I should find a road around here," Ethan muttered.

Ethan quickly found the road or at least some signs of human activity. Although the village didn't belong to a group of wealthy people, some merchants would eventually come and go, and the 'road' was the mark of their travels.

"East, huh," Ethan muttered. "Why they left in a hurry, and why I can't see any signs of monsters? In words like there, only the movements of monsters would make people abandon their homes. Sometimes not even that is enough. Some people don't care as long as they die in their homeland, and they won't abandon their homes."

Ethan will have a lot of time to think about those things, so he begins to run again. It didn't take long for Ethan to find other villages, and their conditions of them were the same as the first he found. They had been completely abandoned in a hurry, and the villagers headed to the East.

"Something is off," Ethan said while looking around. "Even if something big happened, usually, a complete and perfect evacuation would be impossible. Even ordinary folk in fantasy worlds have mana, but they can't sense the monster's approach from so far away to the point where they would be able to pull that off. Unless…"

Ethan experienced a similar situation in the other world. The more he approached the territory of the demons, the fewer villages he found along the way. It was dangerous to live close to the frontlines, after all. However, sometimes people don't have a choice. If the same thing happened in Meizibio, then it was safe to assume that some soldiers on the frontlines alerted the villages of that region. Still, that wouldn't explain why Ethan didn't find signs of the monsters yet.

Maybe Ethan was being too narrow-minded. Monsters weren't the only thing the people in fantasy worlds had to worry about, but it was one of the few things he could think of, given his mindset.

After running for what had seemed to be ten or so hours, the sun was finally starting to set. Although Ethan was hungry and exhausted, he didn't stop. Fighting under those conditions became the norm for him a long time ago and since he wasn't fighting, just running, he could keep that for an even longer time. There was a possibility of him getting lost while moving during the night. Still, fortunately, Ethan found a huge fortress in the distance. He also saw a lot of smoke coming from it, alongside some dark things moving around.

"I'm too late, huh," Ethan muttered and then hurried to approach the fortress while looking for a decent spot to hide."

While he was approaching, Ethan found a decent hill that would give a great view of the fortress and the situation around it. As long as he stays low, Ethan probably wouldn't be found. Even if there is a decent mage among that swarm of monsters, they probably won't see him since they were expecting to be attacked from behind. Besides, Ethan didn't have that much mana.

"The walls seem fine, but there are too many smoke spots inside the fortress," Ethan muttered. "I guess this was a warehouse of some sort, made to store the supplies of the frontlines. The guards here didn't put much of a fight, and if the villagers came here, then…"

No, it was a bit too soon to assume that. Ethan didn't find a single sign of the monster's movements until now, so most likely, they had been teleported here from the frontlines. Still, things were weird, considering that all this started with the tremor two weeks ago.

"Since I can see monsters outside, they didn't completely dominate the fortress," Ethan said. "Before everyone there dies, I have to give them a hand… I'm not the hero of this world, but the people there still can give me some information."

It seemed like a bad idea to join that fight since it was clear whose side had the advantage. That being said, Ethan participates in battles that have even worse odds, so he dashes toward the monster's armies without a hint of hesitation.