“Who are the men over there, Ken?” I asked.

“... They are the local thugs in the Black Wolf Gang. It is a new gang, whose leader is a Soul Initiate and is really strong. They go around demanding ‘protection money’ every week now. We paid last week, but can’t this week,” Ken was on the verge of tears at this. His mother works herself to the bone, and is currently sick from the exhaustion of it all, and still more issues arise for them.

“What happens if someone doesn’t pay?”

“They…” Ken started shaking thinking about it.

“They beat you up and sell you into slavery. That’s what happened to our Dad when he tried to stand up to them a few months ago,” Alex answered in Ken’s place.

Slavery? These fucking weak, no life scum dare to sell their fellow neighbors suffering with them into SLAVERY?!

“I see. Take this stuff we bought, and place the medicine pill into one of the jugs of water and let it dissolve into it and try to get your mother to drink some. Let me take care of these bandits and I will meet you inside, okay?”

The two boys were on the verge of crying, and I gave them my best reassuring smile and handed them the water jugs, ingredients, and medicine.

“Honey, don’t be like that. If you can’t pay this week, there might be some ways to get a.. Discount from us,” the men were making their intentions clear, and it wasn’t going to happen.

“To think no matter where you go, pathetic men like you still exist in every city. Preying on the people who are suffering the same as you? Honor is cheap in our slums, but even a murderer is kinder than one who sells their neighbors into SLAVERY!”

The men hear me, and look confused towards my direction as the boys follow behind me as I walk towards the bandits. They back away and huddle together, preparing for conflict and I open the door for the boys to enter while staring down the men.

Hearing the boys tend to their mother, I ask the men, “So, protection money, huh?” and I take a step towards the men, not hiding my anger anymore.

“What business is it of yours, my lord?” one of them says looking up and down at my simple, but clean leather outfit.

One of them was clearly drunk and holding an empty glass bottle, said, “You *hic* rich brats think you are all that because of *hic* your money, but we have our strengths too!”

The men each grabbed a different weapon, a waterlogged club, a rusty dagger with chips missing, and the drunk broke his bottle across the corner of the house and held it out with the broken end pointing towards me. All three looked poised to try to kill me, and not capture me.

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[Special Quest acquired]

[Quest: Defeat the Bandits]

> Objective: Bandits are threatening your life. Slay them or make a strong example out of them.

> Bandits Slain or Subdued: 0/3

> Reward: +10 Lumina Points, F-Rank Mystery Box

> Failure: Death

Their killing intent triggered a special Quest? Any advice, System?

[Try not to die.]

My eye twitched a few times to the System’s candid response, once again, while the bandits charged with their makeshift weapons.

Perhaps it was due to me being a Soul Cultivator, albeit an inexperienced one, but when I focused on these… Mortals? Their movements slowed down, to where I could easily dodge them without breaking a sweat.

Targeting the man with the longest weapon, the club, I stepped into his range so that he couldn’t swing his weapon easily at me, and sent my fist into his nose, feeling the crunch as it crumpled sideways on his face as he flew away from me a short distance. Once he landed, his eyes remained open and lifeless and was no longer moving as blood flowed out of his nose.

He was dead. I just killed a person for the first time… And it was easy. One hit and he was dead.

[> Bandit Slain or Subdued: 1/3]

No words of comfort from the System, not that I expected any. This man was the first life I’ve taken, and I’m sure there will be more in this life.

If this Black Wolf Gang was allowed to prosper, how many would die by their hands or as slaves when they are beaten and sold? The System was right, this is necessary.

Finding my resolve after the first death, I scan the two men who are in shock at how quickly their friend was slain, and find that the drunk with the bottle will be the best one to send a message.

Dashing towards the drunk, I pushed him onto the ground on his back, and stomped on his hands, crushing the bones to fragments. A Soul Cultivator is truly a different existence than a Mortal, even one at the first Realm like me. “Stay put or die,” was all I said to the drunk and now crippled man.

[> Bandit Slain or Subdued: 2/3]

The remaining bandit attempted to flee, running in the equivalent of a town center screaming for help from the inhabitants. Help that would not be offered by the Black Wolf Gang’s victims.

He tripped onto the ground, and tried to back away from me as I approached him, with an audience of cold stares from this man’s victims witnessing it.

Catching up to him, I infused my voice with my power and spoke to the Slums, “I, Kain Duskbane, hereby declare that any gangs that are found to be operating in this city, will be slain on sight!!” The people stared in awe and fear, as Soul Cultivators were more of a legend to people like these.

“If anyone is unsure of what awaits them if they disobey this order, ask what happened to this Black Wolf Gang member today!” and I put my fist to the man’s face, over and over. Blood splattering all over me and the ground, and I did not stop until the man’s face was a bloody pulp, hardly recognizable and long dead now.

[> Bandit Slain or Subdued: 3/3]

[Special Quest: Defeat the Bandits - Complete!]

> Objective: Bandits are threatening your life. Slay them or make a strong example out of them.

> Bandits Slain or Subdued: 3/3

> Reward: +10 Lumina Points, F-Rank Mystery Box

[Do you wish to receive the rewards now?]

Selecting “No” when the option screen appeared, I left the man in the “town square”, and made my way back to the crippled drunk, who had not moved a muscle.

“You can live for now. Take this message back to your boss: Leave town or be hunted down like the rabid wolves you are. The Duskbane will not tolerate your existence any longer,” and then I grabbed him by the throat and easily held him to the wall.

“If you or any others even think about harming the residents here in revenge, I will personally hunt and slaughter every single one of you painfully, and slowly. Do I make myself clear?” The bandit struggled to nod his head yes, but I made him do it nonetheless knowing it caused pain from my grip on his throat.

Throwing him away from Ken and Alex’s house, I watched him run off as fast as he could manage to in his drunken state, and entered the house.

“Sir, hurry! Our mother..!” Alex ran to me and cried.