We had packed up everything and all the moon elves started travelling towards Modran as well. It seemed that they were going to same way as us anyways so we were going to have company during our travels. I was glad for that since that meant more bodies to throw at the Retributionist if he somehow found us. I double checked with mana sense but found nothing nearby other than us, the moon elves and some small animals. I sighed and continued walking along with the rest of the group. They were fiddling with their 1 use warp devices. They were pretty much useless now since we can't change their targets. I can change the warp target of mine since It's a more expensive version but it seemed we needed to get more warp coins.

I heard Ornal whispering to the elder nearby but ignored it. They had been doing that a decent bit since the staring contest. I had been expecting the elder to come and ask how I was at the massacre of Twiity forest since I wouldn't have even been born then, but surprisingly they didn't ask and gave me a bit of space. I had been tense for a while during our travel but eventually relaxed when I wasn't asked anything. I was glad about that since it meant less lies to keep track of.

"Hey Zane, you still didn't answer my question you know? Why the hell do you have an orichalcum butter knife? I saw you use it while we ate dinner and it just boggled my mind someone would buy something so dumb." said Ray.

I turned to face him while we walked and just shrugged my shoulders and said "Meh, it was a gift so it didn't cost me a single copper. Its a cool novelty you know, but one thing that's annoying is that I keep cutting chunks out of tables with it by accident."

The others chuckled at that as I put the knife away back into my inventory. The trip had been rather plain to be honest but we were making good time. It had been 4 days and we should arrive at Modran within 2 more days of walking. I was just glad my feet weren't in pain. This much walking in my old world would have killed my feet. Not so much in this one, something I was thankful for. I kept thinking of random thoughts as we walked along, encountering the odd kobold or wolf as we travelled. I sneakily used the Nercon Heart on some of them to try and charge it. I mean I could now have the Nercon fuze with me and I could absorb health and mana from creatures from range like magic, so I didn't need to have the Nercon out and get exposed which was a plus. I just disguised it as a type of magic and told anyone who was curious about it as such. I had been very cautious at first when I fused with the Nercon again, but it turned out that nothing would happen even after having it fused for extended periods of time. I still didn't risk it and removed the Nercon once I was done using it.

It originally took me a whole minute to fuse or remove it but with practice I gained a skill called 'Nerconic Infusion' The skill levelled up to level 5 during our travels as I continued to practice with it. No one noticed me since it appeared under my clothes and instantly melded into my chest, but I still made sure to take precautions before fusing. By the time we were less than a day from Modran I had levelled the skill to 7. Getting it higher than that was difficult for some reason. It seemed I would have to keep the Nercon fused for extended periods of time and maybe do something else. I didn't know and didn't try since I wasn't comfortable with some potentially sentient necromancer thing sitting inside me for several days or weeks.

~~~

I was peacefully enjoying a snack while we walked and listening to Ronia talk about her previous failed cooking disasters when I heard someone rushing towards us and then shouting.

"Hey! There's a lot of fire nearby! It's from a village nearby I heard screaming!" yelled a scout that had now made his appearance from the forest brush. Everyone perked up and checked their weapon and armour after hearing that, ensuring they were combat ready. Several people pulled out bows as we now carefully walked towards the village on fire. After a minute of walking everyone could see the smoke and all talking and merriment ceased entirely. We kept moving and got to a clearing eventually but what we saw made everyone stop.

Stolen novel; please report.

We saw a village but it had been ransacked. There were several buildings on fire with some already destroyed. Bodies littered the place, mostly men with a few children or women. We saw several corpses that seemed to look like bandits littering the outside of the village as well as inside the village. The small wooden palisade wall that defended the village had several holes blown into it. The whole place was a mess. I heard someone moan and beg for help, which caused everyone to snap out of it.

When our party started to move to help we saw that a good portion of the moon elves had already moved before us, still with their weapons drawn they checked the area and helped any living villager they found. I heard Ronia say "Cmon, lets get moving, we need to help these people!" She led the charge as we rushed towards the village. I used water magic to put out fires along with other moon elf mages. Ronia and Herald split to go find and rescue wounded people trapped in buildings or dying. Ray went with some other moon elfs to patrol the village and search the surroundings to try and find any hints of the bandits that did this.

"Oi one of the bandits is still alive! Get a healer before he dies!" Someone yelled off at the other side of the village. I heard a small commotion and then a bow twang. Several other bow twangs and the sounds of magic impacting trees was heard along with some shouts. I started to rush towards the noise but by the time I got there I just saw a bunch of dead and dying bandits, with a few injured moon elfs.

I asked some of the nearby moon elfs what happened and one replied to me saying "We found a small camp of those bandits nearby, so we stalked them for a bit to see if they would go to the main group, but unfortunately they just head back to the village for whatever reason, which lead to this result."

I said "Have any of them spat out where the main group is? Also did they have any captured villagers with them? It seems the bandits captured a of villagers, men woman and children alike."

The elf sighed and said "Sadly, we only found 2 dead women and some sacks of food. Nothing more." I didn't say more and patted him on the shoulder saying "Oh well, at least we can find the main group from these morons." I kicked one of the tied up bandits in the leg as I said that and that earned me a small smile and a chuckle. One particularly fierce moon elf spoke in his deep voice while cracking his knuckles, saying "Time to find out what they know."

I left while hearing the terrified screams of the bandits, to see if there was anyone still alive that needed help. It was hard work but after 20 minutes we scoured the village clean and got anyone still alive healed and fed. The elder asked what had happened and the villagers spoke in shaking voices. "We first heard the guards on duty screaming about a raid and this got the men of the village to arm up, but arrows rained down as well as spells..." The person continued on to say that the bandits raided with mages and blasted holes into the palisade wall and then charged in. The fighting had been fierce but the bandits won, slaughtering several people, but they tried to capture everyone alive. Those that were too unruly were killed off in front of everyone.

It seemed to me that these weren't mere bandits by the sounds of it. They sounded more like slavers than anything, what with the capturing everyone alive bit. They still stole everything from the village worth value that wasn't nailed to the ground but their main focus according to the survivors was capturing as many villagers alive as possible.

After hearing the story from several villagers the elder went into thought, while everyone tended to the wounded, patrolled the surroundings, or just did damage control on the village, trying to fix it up as best as they could. I saw some mages use magic to make trees grow at an accelerated rate and bend in odd shapes, making the rough shape of a house or repairing still standing homes with the magic, while other earth mages made stone walls around the village. I decided to join in with my magic to help make the wall surrounding the village. I heard from the elder that we would be setting up camp here for the rest of the day and travel tomorrow. Several elves went off into the forests to search for bandits while the living ones were interrogated.

I just hoped we were far enough from the retributionist that we were safe and continued to work on helping the village repairs and construction. I wondered why the elder wanted to bother helping the village this much but didn't question it and continued working. It seemed I wouldn't be able to relax anymore. I sighed and got back to work with that thought.