While his parents thought they were having that conversation in secret, Gaius could hear everything because of his high perception. Still, it wasn’t like he would be proud of having better skills than a four-year-old boy. There was no reason to be proud of that. That was why their concerns weren't necessary. Another reason for that was in his past life, Gaius reached the apex of mediocrity, and he wasn't planning to follow that path again.

Gaius Lv 36 (28,800/36,000) - Limitless Summoner

Health: 115/115

Mana: 260/260

Stamina: 120/120

Strength: 06

Endurance: 01 + 15

Adaptability: 01 + 08

Magic: 51

Resistance: 01

Wisdom: 46 + 10

Dexterity: 01 + 07

Perception: 01 + 19

Luck: 01 + 13

Free points: 80

Summoning List:

Ant Lv 09 (Perception), Gray Spider Lv 07 (Dexterity), Worm Lv 08 (Perception), Lizard Lv 07 (Adaptability), Bird Lv 09 (Wisdom), Hawk Lv 12 (Luck), Poisonous Snake Lv 13 (Poison Bullet), Horse Lv 14 (Endurance), Slime Lv 18 (Observe), Desert Wolf Lv 25 (Wind Sphere), Goblin Lv 18 (Blunt Weapon Mastery)

In those two years, Gaius made quite a bit of progress, at least in other aspects, but his parameters didn't increase much since he focused on saving them. He only increased his Wisdom to recover and be able to control his mana better. Thanks to that, he could use his mana to enhance mostly all parts of his body—make them stronger, more durable, or make them move faster.

"I have one more year to put my plan into action, but as expected… it will be hard," Gaius thought once he finished his training session and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Everything will depend on whether I can defeat that guy or not. Things will get insanely hard if I fail, but they could take a positive turn if I succeed."

During those three years, a lot of people got sick and injured due to the overwork they had to endure. It was only a matter of time before things got out of hand, and the village was unable to pay their taxes. Things were about to break apart, so Gaius had to make his move. Forget about defeating anyone—being underhanded was more his style.

Maybe Gaius had even less time than that, and he had to speed up his plans. He had a fairly good idea of how he should do things, so it was only a matter of time and how much stronger he could become to increase his chances.

Around three months later, about ten or so people got sick due to exhaustion. So, some guards took their place on the farm. However, the other guards had a hard time fighting the desert wolves.

Gaius bought them some time by making his own desert wolf hunt the others more often, but that only alleviated things for the guards. The others didn't have much experience with farming work, so their produce decreased. About one month later, Herac returned to the village and checked on things.

"This isn't enough..." Herac said. "It seems that you all will have to be punished for trying to fool Lord Ekirenton."

The other soldiers readied themselves to fight once Herac moved to check the stocks of grain from the village. He was determined to grab some extra barrels, and he didn't want anyone to stop him.

"Argh!" one of the soldiers screamed when he felt something biting his leg.

Soon after, he moved to the side, and his spear hit and broke one of the wheels of the closest carriage. He looked at Herac and gulped.

Stolen story; please report.

"What are you doing, you fool?" Herac asked, raising his voice.

The soldier gulped, finished off the snake, then went to check the wheel he had damaged and gulped again. It wasn't good. They didn't have a spare, and repairing that one would take a few hours—it was already mid-afternoon.

"This has to be fixed by tomorrow morning, or you will pay for it with your life for any further delays," Herac said while glaring at the man.

"Yes, sir," the wounded soldier said.

The other soldiers didn’t even try to help their companion in order not to anger Herac. It didn’t take long for him to start sweating bullets since the snake was actually poisonous. Still, the man resisted for quite a while.

In the end, Herac grabbed some other barrels of grain. Everyone knew that a lot of people were going to sleep hungry now, yet they couldn’t do anything without risking causing even more problems.

"We can’t carry everything without that carriage... we will spend the night here," Herac shouted. "You will give us food and water in exchange for those problems. This imbecile wouldn’t have gotten wounded if the security of this place weren’t a joke."

Gaius watched all that from the entrance of his house with a smile on his face. That guy was prideful enough not to demand a house to sleep in since it would make him look weak, so things were going exactly as he had planned.

In that world, there were no people who could control snakes, so no one imagined that someone was behind them, even less so a four-year-old boy. Still, that was just the first part of the plan.

When night fell, Herac and his men had already set up camp on the western side of the village. They felt more comfortable there than in a place where they would be surrounded, like the center of the village. Even though they knew there was no chance of the people there revolting, maybe it was thanks to their experience. After seeing him a bunch of times, Gaius couldn’t help but see those morons as mercenaries instead of soldiers.

Since the soldier was in a hurry, he managed to fix the wheel around midnight and sighed in relief. His leg was burning like hell thanks to the snake bite, but he knew he wouldn't die from that alone. He was tougher than that.

After he managed to relax a bit, the man felt the urge to water the plants. He moved away from the camp and started to piss on the wall of one of the houses, until all of a sudden, his head was hit by a wind sphere, and his neck snapped. The soldier wasn't dead, but unconscious. Even if he wasn't unconscious, he wouldn't be able to move his body. In any case, the desert wolf approached and dragged the enemy toward Gaius' house where Gaius slightly opened the door of his home and finished him off.

The human Rein was added to your summoning list.

Rein Lv 00 (00/1000)

Cost: 3000 mana

Charge: 00

Summoning Bonuses: Sword Mastery Lv 00

Health: 60/60

Mana: 60/60

Stamina: 60/60

Strength: 06

Endurance: 06

Adaptability: 06

Magic: 06

Resistance: 06

Wisdom: 06

Dexterity: 06

Perception: 06

Luck: 06

Free points: 00

"Still, to think that I could summon a human with only three thousand points of mana..." Gaius thought while slowly leaving his bed. "He's at level zero as well, but he should be useful."

Gaius had to wait for an hour to accumulate enough mana to summon the guy. During that time, he waited to see if his allies would find his corpse, but it seemed like they didn't care that their friend had disappeared for an hour. Mercenaries truly were self-centered.

In any case, once he had enough mana, Gaius opened the door of his home a bit more and summoned Rein before closing the door. While the man was confused since he suddenly appeared somewhere else, Gaius headed back to his bed. Rein thought he had fallen asleep since he appeared in a weird dark place and stayed there for a while, alone.

"Take the body outside the village," Gaius ordered. "Don't say a thing, don't do anything suspicious, and don't look at anyone."

Rein panicked when he suddenly heard that voice in his head, but he couldn't do anything else since he felt an extreme urge to follow those orders. During that time, Gaius' mana decreased a bit, but Rein could only resist so much while at level zero.

More than disobedience, Rein showed absurd levels of hesitation. It was only natural that someone wouldn't want to touch their own dead body. Still, he couldn't disobey.

Rein took his body to the area with tall grass on the northern side of the village, and then the desert wolf approached to finish the job.

"Take the clothes and the weapon and equip them," Gaius ordered. "Hurry up, we don’t have all night."