Sorry for a late chapter but some things have happened in real life. I have quit college and are looking for a job. (It is at that level of college education in USA, in swedish it is directly translated to high school but the level is college.)(And yes I am from Sweden)

I am going on a vaccation with my family tomorrow, I will try to write some chapter since I probably have nothing else to do eitherway. The release of them will be on new year as a little present for you guys.

I alsot feel like it is better to write when i feel like I am motivated to it instead of forcing myself since the quality will probably drop otherwise. This chapter was a bit hard to write and I am not really sure how good it is compared to the others but PLEASE do comment, rate and review so that I can further improve the story for you to enjoy.

PS: I will remind you that this story is planned in a long term and something that I write as a hobby. If there is more intrest in it I will try to get a premanent release schedule.

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This is my last meal at the inn before I continue my journey. I still wen with pancakes for it, I mean who doesn’t love pancakes? Mei was a bit down because I was leaving but I told her that I will be back someday. And who knows, if she haven’t found any lover we might go out. But that is for later. I have pretty much everything prepared. All that is left is too see what request the woman found for me at the guild.

Done with my meal I directly head out to the guild. The streets were quite busy despite that it was quite early in the morning.  I walked up to the same woman that helped me before. Dunno if they have an organized system so that I could talk to someone else but better to be sure right?

-       “So did you find any request fitting what I was looking for?”

-       “Yes, there is a caravan that is heading in that direction. Their destination is the last town before the elves kingdom, Writhf. They are requesting some adventurers to guard them on the way.”

-       “Okey, how many have accepted the request?”

-       “There are ten people including you. They are gathering at the west gate and will depart in an hour.”

-       “Thank you.”

This was quite good. The only thing I would have to do is defend against beasts and bandits and it is not sure that anything happens on the way either.

The introductions at the west gate was quite brief and nothing special. There seems to be some strong people but no one overwhelming. I got the information that it would take about two weeks of travel to Writhf. That is like a whole vacation back home. But I suppose that is normal since there is no planes or cars or any vehicle at all. Only caravans drawn by various beasts. This one had the normal horses that was drawing it.

Finally on the way. We were travelling at walking speed. The caravan didn’t seem to be in any hurry and they were not rich enough to give everyone a horse. We stopped and set up camp when it got dark. A few were keeping watch in case something happened.

Nothing happened on the first few days since we set out but on the sixth day while I was sleeping I woke up due to someone screaming. When I looked out of the tent I saw that we were being attacked by bandits.

-       “Everybody gather at the caravan!!” someone yelled out.

I quickly took my katana and headed to the caravan. We were protecting it in a circle with the few who were left. I saw a bandit running towards me with a sword over his head. I quickly sidestepped and slashed right across his chest. My first slain human. It was a disgusting feeling but at the same time I understood that it was either kill or be killed.

The other were fighting a bandit each some were struggling more than others. The next bandit came running towards me and I parried his blow. The small recoiled from the blows gave me the opening to pierce his chest which I took. Two down and who knows how many to go. Just as I was thinking that one bandit came right beside me. He killed the one standing beside me and was heading for me next. His blade was heading for my head and just before it was going to hit I manage to duck. I saw my chance and slashed against his legs, quickly pulling back and then once again slashing down at the now crawling bandit.

But just before I was going to hit I felt something hard against the back of my head and my conscious faded.

I started to regain my awareness and felt a massive pain in the back of my head. Slowly raising my upper body I noticed that there were others near me. Once I started looking around I saw that I was looked inside a room with others.

-       “Where am I?” I blurted out with a pained voice.

-       “You are finally awake. You were captured by bandits and are now in their base.” A voice that only could belong to a kid answered.

-       “Who are you?” my pain was a lessened a bit and my voice started to turn back to normal.

-       “My name is Eleena, and I was captured just like you.”

I could now look at the one who was speaking to me. It was a kid around 12 years. Blonde hair small build and beautiful blue eyes. The most surprising part was that the ears was not normal looking. They were longer and pointe right out.

-       “Are you an elf by any chance?” That was the first thing I said after looking at the girl.

-       “Yes, I am a high elf and was kidnapped around the border.”

Now that I looked around I saw that not all were humans. There were quite a few with animal parts. I guess they are the demi-humans. But still they do really come in all shapes. There were a male adult with the normal dog ears and tail that you saw in manga and anime. Then the next one was a woman around 30 that had a pair of wings on her back with black hair and claws for hands. But by no means was she ugly. Next to her was a girl in her teenage with silver hair. She had both tail and ears in the same color. But she also had something that looked like fur on her arms. And that was just a few.

-       “You all were kidnapped?” I asked already knowing the answer. What I needed now was information.

-       “Yes, we are to be sold as slaves to some human. We all were kidnapped or attacked and was captured.” The dog man answered with a husky voice.

I took in his words and started thinking of a way out. If possible I also wanted to help hem since I really hate slavery. I mean slavery only exist because others think that they are above other people or because they are a bit different and such not as worthy as themselves. And by such logic everyone would be enslaved. Think about it if you have to different humans with different hair colors they are not regarded as slaves, but when you have in this case a demi-human that looks just like the other girls with the same hair color but with beast ear instead they will be treated as a slave. And this is just a poor example.

I noticed after some time that my katana also was gone. A bit worried since it was very precious to me.

-       “Do you know where my belongings are?”

-       “They store everything in one of their warehouses.” The silver demi-human answered.

I guess that they have been here for quite some time since they knew where they stored everything that they stole.

-       “Do you know how many of them there are?” I was thinking of a way out. I was certain that I could escape by myself, but to help the ones here I need to plan a bit more. If there were not too many I might b able to kill them and then set everyone free. If there was too many it would become much harder too free everyone.

-       “I think that there are about 50 of them.” The dogman answered with a bit of hope in his voice. I guess they were starting to get that I was about to flee.

That was a bit more than I would like but it would still be doable.

-       “Is there anyone with fighting experience here?” I would like to have some more if we were going to kill them.

The result was quite good. The dogman said that he was a warrior and the silver girl also spoke up and said that she could help. There were two more human males that also said that they had some experience.

With this we had a little group of five including me. It was possible that we could kill them but it will be difficult. I started to explain to them what I was thinking of doing. First things first. I needed to get back my katana. So our first target was the warehouse where they stored everything. It would also help to give the others weapons so that we could give them a fight.

The entirety of the plan was quite simple. Get the weapons and eventually kill some on the way. After we got weapon we will find a small place where they can’t come with everyone against us. After that we will keep slaughtering them until they are all dead or have given up and fled.

-       “But how do we get out of here? We have already tried to break through the door but it wouldn’t break.” One of the human males said.

-       “No problem.” I simply answered him.

I walked up to the door and used my void magic. I created something like a cut but with the void as the blade instead. The result was nothing less than the door giving away and fell to the ground. This was the only improvement with my magic. I meant for it to coat my sword so that I could cut almost everything. To defend against it one would have to have a higher mana pool than me and infuse heir mana to their weapon. I always trained at night when I was under master’s wing and it didn’t stop when I left either. I don’t know if I should be happy or sad that this was my only advancement in magic.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

(Au Note: I will use sword instead of katana when I mention Cardiz katana. It just sounds better.)

It didn’t seem like anyone noticed that I just broke the door. We quietly made our way to the next door. I listened and could hear two voices on the other side. I sure hope that we won’t be discovered. At least not before we get to the weapons.

On my count we rushed in and quickly apprehended the bandits before they could do anything. They didn’t even have enough time to yell out before the dogman and the silver girl punched them unconscious. Their strength seemed to be much greater than your average human. As expected of demi-humans I thought.

I quickly went up to them and broke their necks. The others just looked at me with a very surprised look.

-       “What? They have already killed and if you have killed someone then you can only accept you yourself are going to be killed by someone. No need to show any mercy.” This really was my opinion on the take. If you ever kill anyone then you should expect that you yourself will be killed someday. No hard feelings simply an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth noting more and nothing else. This was also my thought in my previous world and I think that was one of the reasons why I didn’t really fit in.

-       “This is where we will make our stand once we have our weapons. It is small enough to not let more than ten people in at a time.” The room was smaller than the one before and was just like one room apartment. There wasn’t much except from a wooden table and a few chairs. There was also only one door and no windows.

I checked out the door carefully. To our luck it was dark outside and it didn’t seem like there were many bandits around. Maybe we didn’t have to fight all of them and could simply take out the guards and get some of the horses and leave. I kept it in my mind as we continued forward.

The humans seemed to have been here the longest. They knew where the warehouse was and the layout of the bandits headquarter. We quietly followed as they took us around a larger building. It looked like a big house. Just like the ones in Skyrim.

We ducked and sneaked past the windows on the house. Inside was a lot of bandits. They seemed to be drinking and wasn’t on guard. We continued forward until we came across something that looked like shed. There were bandits out so if we choose to go through the door to the shed we would be discovered. So I decided to create a little door on the back of the shed.

I used my void magic to create three cuts through the wall. It didn’t make much sound but I was still a bit nervous that we would be discovered and casualties was unavoidable. But to our luck nobody reacted to the sound.

Inside the shed was a lot of stuff. It took a while to find my sword but it was still found none the less. The others also picked a weapon each. The both of the humans choose a great axe. The dogman picked up a great sword and the silver girl took a longsword. There were a lot of other valuable things here and so I took a moment to gather what looked to be valuable. I stuffed the things I picked in my inventory. I couldn’t take much since my inventory wasn’t very big.

-       “Do you know where they keep their horses?” I asked the humans.

-       “They are in the middle, between all he building.”

That makes it a little harder with the plan to escape.

-       “Do you think we could take out the guards without anyone notice and steal the horses to escape instead?

-       “It is possible. They have plenty of horses and there are about 20 of us. The only problem is the guards but if we can take them out silently then we have a chance.” It was the dogman that replied.

-       “Let’s do that then. I and silver girl will continue forward and take out the guards that is on the way. You three go back and notify the others. Once we are back we will take out the remaining bandits at the center.”

-       “My name is Laelia, not silver girl.” She said with a little angry voice.

-       “Okey, Laelia lets go. The faster we move the better.

We continued forward and dealt with the few guards that we saw. I got to admit that I am quite jealous of the demi-humans inborn strength. Laelia just sprinted forwards and cut the head of from most of the bandits. The few that I took care of was cut clean in half. I didn’t dare to do things half assed so I coated my sword in my void magic. I have decided to name it void cut. Simple but describing.

The number of guars outside of the little settlement were only eight. We met up with the others in the building where I first woke up.

-       “All of the guards outside have been dealt with, the only ones left remaining are the ones near the stable. What we could see there seems to be ten of them.”

-       “Are we really going to escape?” the little elf from before asked with a lot of expectations in her voice.

-       “Yes unless you want to remain here.” I teased her a little.

-       “NO!” She almost yelled out. Luckily it wasn’t that loud.

We all went out to the next room. It got crowded as there wasn’t much space to begin with. We decided that the five of us would go first and silence the rest of the bandits that were patrolling. I took a quick peak and saw that they weren’t looking this way. This was our chance. I signaled the others to follow me and to choose a target each.

I swiftly went up to the bandit and cut his head off with void cut. I didn’t have much time to think as I needed to get the next bandit. I ran up to him and stabbed my sword in his heart before he could notice anything. Just as I looked up too see how the others handled their bandits I saw one of the bandits had noticed and shouted out to the others before one of the humans attacked him with the great axe.

I looked around to see if they noticed. And sure one of the bandits had gone out from the room and quickly went back in after he saw us.

-       “Come on!!! We don’t have much time. They have noticed us!!” I yelled out as all of the ones that were left ran out to the stables. Just as they reached the stables the bandits started to run out from the house.

-       “Laelia! Dogman! Quick help me to keep them busy while the others flee. The rest of you take a horse and stat running! I ordered the others to move.

I ran up to the bandits that kept pouring out from the house. I killed of one bandits after another as they came at me. They didn’t have any weapons since they were probably celebrating and drinking in there. It didn’t take much more than one attack to neutralize them.

-       “We are all done here! Everybody has left it’s only you left!” One of the humans yelled out before taking a horse by himself and started to run away.

-       “Retreat!” I called out to Laelia and dogman that reacted to my words and started to run to the horses. I did the same.

At the stable I set free all the horse on my way and smacked them with my sword so that they started to run away. I should slow them down enough for us to get away.

-       “GET THEM!!!” Someone yelled out. At the same time I took my own horse and started to run away.

We had finally escaped the bandits. I, Laelia and dogaman had reached the others. They all looked at me with thankful and teary eyes.

-       “Thank you.”

-       “We are very grateful.”

-       “May Chauntea have mercy for you.”

They all expressed their thanks to me. I didn’t really bother with them as I turned around facing the ones that had helped me with the fighting.

-       “So what will you do now?” I asked out to all of them.

-       “I and my brother are grateful to you. We will follow the others to a city and make sure they are safe on the way.”

-       “I will follow them. The names Brad and thank you for your help.” The dogman said.

-       “What will you do?” a voice from behind said. I turned around and there was the elven girl Eleena staring up at me.

-       “I am on my way to the elven kingdom.” I didn’t really have any reason to hide it. And responded without a second thought.

-       “E-ehm could I travel with you? I want to go back to my family.” Who wouldn’t want to see their family after being kidnapped?

-       “You can but I will go with my own pace.” I did’ have a reason to refuse either. And who know maybe I could get some information from here or some connections with the elves.

-       “I would also like to come with you. Could I?” Laelia blurted out. She seemed to have something that she have to do. You know those that seems to have a purpose or a mission that they have to carry out.

-       “You can.” This really was a good outcome. Two sources of information that is not human. It may really have been good that I was captured by the bandits.

As we said out farewell we all split up. I Laelia and the Eleena were heading to Writhf while the others were heading to a nearby village. We also got some directions from them so we knew where we were and where to go.