Chapter 4 - Mysterious Loot

I ordered my chef to cook an early dinner for everyone including the captured bandits. The freed captives would definitely need to eat something as their food in captivity was those low-quality feed that my scout team burned before. Can’t give them much, though. All my army has in excess is only meat.

I can order my quartermaster to ration other foodstuffs but let’s do that tomorrow. He should be still busy checking the loot. Well, the freed captives and the bandits won’t die from just eating meat anyway. I want to give them salt at least but salt is an expensive commodity here and Jane would scold me if I really waste salt like that. The most I can give those people are fruits if my caravan found some in our way. We can forage berries, citrus fruits, and apples around this area so we will stock up if we see some.

Besides making beasts reproduce faster, mana also makes fruits produce faster. This might be the evolution on the plants' side so they could still keep up with the herbivores. Well, I don’t know the details, I can just make an intelligent guess according to the situation. Still, if I can make an orchard and a ranch, I could technically create infinite food here. Banzai for the isekai overpowered the mana effect!

For the meat, My army usually would cut it into thin strips and boil it in a large pot. Yes, just like how you eat in a hot pot restaurant in the modern day. As long as the water is boiling hot, the meat would get cooked in a short time with that technique. Ain’t nobody got time for roasting meat. There are around 300 people in this caravan now and only 5 are in my army that is specially working as army chefs. Providing food for 60 times their amount is no easy feat. So there is only thin sliced boiled meat on the menu.

Of course, if the freed captives want to help or want to cook their own food, they could. My army would only provide meat and wood if they want to cook on their own, though. I don’t know if my army keeps any spare cooking tools.

Oh, I can see the cat girl and the dog girl eating boiled meat under a tree close by. There are too many new people coming so we can’t give everyone eating utensils. We can only give them a wide leaf and a pair of chopsticks so people won’t get scalded from the hot food in the least. And the chopsticks are also just freshly cut tree branches that have their bark peeled. Chopsticks are foreign to most people but I can see some people manage to figure out how to use them from seeing our chef cooking the thinly sliced meat. The dog girl is one example. She could use it like it is natural.

The cat girl on the other hand used the chopstick to skewer the meat instead. Well, as long as the tool is useful no one will complain I guess.

The ones currently eating now are only the bandits and freed captives group. My army and I will eat later as scheduled. Most of my army members are now going off to patrol the area to kill any wandering beasts around. Yes, we have meat in excess but 300 people will eat it clean in a few days. Now that we have extra manpower, we can make them carry more meat on the way. So off my army goes to hunt more food. Of course, they would also harvest other things besides meat if they found any. Food gathering is a must-have skill if you often go to the wilderness.

And what am I doing now you ask? Well, as the owner of the army, my trooper won’t let me help them do their stuff. So I am of course left without anything to do. Well, not really. I will fill my free time doing training most of the time. So yeah, I am still wearing my weight suit from before. Haven’t had a chance to take it off but it is not that encumbering to wear so it doesn't really bother me. I think I have again outgrown my weight suit. Time to make a heavier one when I reach the capital city.

And even though my underlings keep stopping me from helping, I can still help them make some firewood. Cutting wood with an axe is great training. It was mentioned in manga before so it must be legit… Well, I just want to say silly things but still, both of the mangas that mention cutting wood as a good exercise are sport mangas so there might be some truth behind it. And I don’t just cut wood all the time for my training. Where will my army carry all those firewood if I do?

Anyway, Now that I have my curse problem, I might want to focus some of my time on training my body. After all, training your body would increase the amount of testosterone produced in men’s bodies. And then the next combo for manhood enlargement purposes is… the good ol’ leg day training set. Why leg training? Well, just by logically thinking about it, if you train your legs then blood will pump faster to the legs to supply more oxygen and nutrients. And what is the thing that is located between the heart and the leg again? Yes, your manhood. So leg day training should indirectly influence manhood growth to a certain extent. It might not be much but hey, someone said about collecting dust into a mountain or mosquito meat into a meal right?

Also, if you want to really focus on your manhood, there’s also the famous kegel exercise. But honestly speaking, I’d rather do major muscle exercises now. This isekai world is not a safe one and more effective body strength in fighting is preferable than just focusing on my manhood.

Well in short what I’m saying just now can be shortened with #Don’tSkipLegDay. Keep doing arm day every day is cool and all but balance is the way to go. Anything that goes to the extreme will turn bad eventually.

After finishing another set of repetitions, I turn my head toward a guest that has been waiting for me to finish my training. I noticed her a while ago but gotta finish the rep first for maximal results. After all, she will directly call me if the situation is critical. But as she is waiting for me there, it means that the thing she needs from me is not that urgent.

“What is it, Jane? Did you wait for long?”

“I am sorry to disturb your training, young master, but we need some water here and most of the troopers have squeezed their mana dry. I hope you can help us”

“I see, lead me to the water storage”

“Right this way, young master”

What Jane said just now implies that there are others in my army that can cast magic, right? Well, there are indeed people in my army that can cast magic. I taught them myself after all. Besides training their body, I also train their magic or rather, their mind. Again, balance is the way. I don’t want the people in my army to be all brawn but no-brain type of people. I taught them the basics of meditation, mana sensing, mana control, and the knowledge needed so they can cast my magic. Of course, most of them could only do the less fancy magic like finger firelighter and conjure water which I force everyone to master because those two are essential in surviving the wild.

And of course, I also know that everybody is different so I don’t really punish the one who can’t do the magic… in fact, there’s only one person in my army who could not cast any magic whatsoever. That person is actually Leon. I personally find it kinda weird actually since his mastery over mana sensing and mana control is not that bad. He is even one with the highest mastery over those two basic mana training but he just could not cast any magic no matter what.

He was disappointed at that time when he realized that he can’t cast magic but I encouraged him to not mind his ‘disability’. He might have something else that other people don’t and he immediately proves it by becoming a tier 1 knight faster than everyone. His high mastery of basic mana training also helps him a lot in imbuing his own body with mana. He might be locked in only knight class but he did a darn fine job at it.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Anyway, yeah, everyone can cast conjure water in my army except Leon. So we don’t really bother rationing our water. But the sudden increase in the number of mouth-to-feed instantly dried out our storage. It seems to also sap dry the mana in my soldiers too from conjuring water too much. That’s not good. The state of mana depletion will give the one suffering from it an uncomfortable feeling like when you got car sickness or sea sickness. I hope my troopers can endure it. Or they will receive another special training again from yours truly.

Why did it sound like filling up the water storage is not a problem for me? Well, of course, it is not a problem for me. Who taught my troopers magic again? That was me. I trained more in magic before I even taught other people. Even if I am only a tier 1 knight, I am already a tier 2 mage. My mana capacity is far higher than the others so I can easily fill up the storage a few times over.

Jane also looks a bit pale. She might have also squeezed her mana dry. But it seems that her training allows her to endure the uncomfortable feeling. I sometimes feel guilty making these 15-year-old kids endure harsh training like this… Nah, I’m just joking. This world is a cruel one. If you are weak, you will die easily. Becoming strong is a good thing. Almost always anyway.

I follow Jane’s guidance to the water storage barrels' location and start filling it with my magic. It is just collecting water vapor and condensing it. The basics of my conjure water magic. So the environment also plays a pivotal role in ensuring the magic's effectiveness. As I am currently close to a forest, the humidity here is making it easier for me to ‘conjure’ water. I quickly fill the barrels for water storage.

But I must still say this, it is not healthy to always drink conjured water. As it is close to purified water without any minerals, one might get sick from lacking those minerals in the long run.

After I finished filling the water, I asked Jane to bring me to the quartermaster to check his progress in sorting the loot. I hope that bandit magician left his stash behind in the bandit’s hideout. Who knows what kind of treasure he left behind?

I quickly meet my quartermaster and he immediately gives his report to me. It seems that most of the loot is ordinary trading goods that the bandit stole from merchant caravans. There are also quite a number of coins found in their stash. Those bandits have been making a killing, I guess. Both literally and metaphorically. I order my quartermaster to check with the captives whether they got anything stolen from them. If they do then return the goods back to them. Of course, we will charge them for carrying their goods with us until we reach the capital city. Like I have been saying before, I am running an army, not a charity.

I also ordered my quartermaster to give some coins to the freed captives to help them return to civilization after we reach the capital. I did this to buy some renown from the freed captives. Giving charcoal in the winter would be more appreciated than giving food at harvest time after all.

After that, my quartermaster tells me about the loot that was owned by the dead bandit mage as one of the interrogated bandits says so. I immediately get interested and check them out but quickly feel disappointed. There are some books in the loot but most are just ledger and transactional records. There is also a diary but it is mostly reporting the daily task of the bandit group. Other than that, there are also some clothing and weapons but nothing magical. Where is the magical loot? The drop rate is rigged!

Well, I shouldn’t hope much from a mage that got easily killed by arrows. That mage seems like to be still in either tier 1 or tier 2. Just a small fry in other words.

“There is still one item left, young master”

“Oh, you are right, what is this? A stone?”

After taking all the clothing in the pile, a perfectly round black rock rolled out from one of the clothing articles and fell to the ground, rolling away. I immediately catch it and start examining the weird black rock.

“What is this stone? Any words from the bandit’s side?”

“According to the bandit that confessed to being the quartermaster of the bandits, the mage used to gaze at the black stone for hours when they were resting. I infer that the black stone might be the mage's most precious possession” It is my quartermaster who answered my question.

“I see. I can’t see anything special outside. Let’s try sensing the inside then”

I hold the black stone with both of my hands and concentrate my mana on it and it immediately reacts. Tentacles actually come out from the stone and swiftly dig into my hand.

“Young master!”

“Don’t come close! Guard the perimeter! I will try to calm it down”

“But, young master”

“Please listen to my command, Jane. We don’t know what this thing will do. At least we need to reduce the casualties!”

“But I…… Understood, young master. May you be blessed with good luck”

“Thanks, Jane. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on dying yet!”

Well, even though I said that I still don’t know what the hell this thing actually is. All I can do is push out all the alien entities that tried to enter my body. But it doesn’t seem to stop those tentacles at all.

When I almost lost my calm, I suddenly heard a scary sound echoing in my mind.

“YOUTH WITH GREAT POTENTIAL, DO YOU WISH FOR POWER?”

The scenery in front of me changes. I am now hovering over an endless darkness like I am thrown into outer space. there's a large figure with several moving body parts that would nauseate people if they stare for too long. There's a feeling of fear and oppression that tried to squish my heart flat but...

…… Seriously? Are we going to use this old material again? I am beyond speechless that the fear and terror don't get me much.

“I ASK YOU AGAIN YOUTH WITH GREAT POTENTIAL, DO YOU WISH FOR POWER?”

“Are you seriously asking that question? Well, my answer is that I indeed wish for power…”

“THEN DO NOT REJECT THE POWER THAT IS ENTERING YOU!”

“I haven’t finished answering, goddammit. I wish for power but I will obtain that myself! Borrowed power is just an illusion! Get the hell out of my body!”

“FOOLISH! YOU DARE TO REJECT THE GIFT FROM THIS GOD? THEN BECAME A FLESH PUPPET THAT WILL ONLY OBEY MY COMMAND!”

“Goddamn, this plot twist also came unexpectedly!”

I immediately concentrated on rejecting all the alien intrusion in my body. I could only slow the flow but could not stop it. The pressure of terror and fear became heavier as I keep my resistance.

“HA HA HA HA, PUNY MORTAL, YOUR EFFORT IS FUTILE! FUTILE! FUTILE!”

“God dammit again you even say the famous quote as well!”

Seems like I can’t fight the power infiltrating my body at all. Then if I can’t push it out…… I just need to devour the power to make it my own!

I have read many kinds of fantasy novels in my previous life. It also includes the xianxia genre which is the fantasy genre that is heavily inspired by Chinese myth. And the basis of xianxia genre is the ability to cultivate.

Cultivation in xianxia novels is simply an act of refining foreign energy and turning it into our own. As a transmigrator, I need to use everything I know to strengthen myself. I have tried meditating to cultivate energy from that concept before. Although the results are not that great, I still continue trying to perfect my cultivating technique hoping that one day I could also become a cultivator like in those xianxia novels.

This is a high-risk gamble. But I don’t have any other choice. I immediately sit down in a meditating position and then start circulating the energy that tried to infiltrate in. I need to prevent it from reaching my brain in the least and my heart is also a no-touch zone so I immediately focused the energy circulation in my dantian which is 3 to 4 fingers below my navel. The dark murky energy from the tentacles started to circulate inside my body.

“YOU, WHERE DID YOU LEARN THIS TECHNIQUE!? STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND ACCEPT THIS GOD AS YOUR MASTER!”

I don't wanna dude. Ugh, the pain. Every time the dark murky energy circulates through my meridian, it gives me a lot of pain. I thought I have already gotten used to the pain as I often push myself hard when training despite my muscle pain but I am not ready for this kind of pain. It’s like my insides are getting swarmed and bitten by a horde of ants. Added to the pressure from fear and terror that keep on discouraging my heart, the situation is full of despair. But I know this is a do-or-die moment so I keep my concentration on refining the energy.

My body is hungrily sucking the mana in the air. That mana will then get absorbed and follow the dark murky energy in my meridian, slowly refining it into my own energy. I can already somewhat guess from the god (lol) reaction when I start my refining technique but it indeed worked as I expected. The dark murky energy is slowly digested and gathered in my dantian.

As I refined more and more of the dark energy, the refined energy that gathered in my dantian started to condense and formed some kind of rock there. I recognized that. Isn’t that a cultivation core that is described in most xianxia novels?

“YOU USE MY ENERGY TO CREATE A CORE!? DESPICABLE MORTAL, JUST WAIT FOR MY REVENGE! I WILL MAKE SURE YOU REGRET CROSSING THIS GOD BY GIVING YOU THE WORST TORTURE!”

Yeah yeah. Begone you wannabe devil. Oh, and thank you for the energy! Whether this is a good thing or not I need to check it later. There is still some dark energy left so I continue on my refining technique until all of the dark energy is refined. By the time I managed to refine all the dark energy, I relaxed my guard and everything turned black all of a sudden.

It looks like… I have fallen unconscious.