"Why did Shanty look injured before she came here?"

"Could she have been caught?"

The bandits spoke among themselves. Of course, Kai wore a different face when he was with Shanty and without him saying anything, it was impossible for any of them to find out. Why would he invite trouble upon himself?

"You."

"Eek!"

Kai pointed at the innkeeper who quickly jumped up in fright.

"I have some questions for you, the rest of you can go back to wherever but know this, I've already memorized your beings, no matter how you hide, I can find you so don't even think about leaving. I'll give you all three rules to follow and if you comply, I promise you won't be mistreated."

Kai held out his hand and stuck out his index finger.

"One, never expose our identity to anyone I don't give permission to, not your superiors, not your friends, not even your family."

"Two, anytime I call you, you answer, any command I give you, you comply. If you can't follow the order, you better give me a damn good reason."

The bandits shivered.

"And three, don't sabotage or compromise each other, from now on, you're my subordinates."

Hearing the unexpected rule, all of them looked at each other. This was already a rule between them, they'd rather die than sabotage their own friends.

"Now go."

Kai waved his hand and everyone except the innkeeper quickly rushed out of the inn afraid that Kai would change his mind. The captain who was also in the inn but didn't participate in the thievery was still hiding somewhere and was choosing the best opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, he thought he could hide in the bandits' numbers.

"Take a step outside and I'll blast your head open."

Just as the captain was about to get his freedom, Kai's cold voice stopped him in his tracks. He slowly turned his head around and saw Kai pointing a gun from his chair.

"A gun?!"

Erina raised her brows and looked at the captain.

"Get over here."

"..."

"Now."

At first, the captain was hesitating if he should run for it but decided against it once Kai laced a bit of killing intent into his words. A gun wasn't all that frightening, in fact, it was far less efficient than using magic because it would only work on people with bodies below B-class and it took quite a while for them to reload. Sailors and pirates carried them but practically never used them unless they ran out of mana.

The captain had confidence he would be able to take a shot from the gun but Kai's gun was different from what he knew. To Kai and Erina, it looked like a modern day pistol but to the captain, it was something that looked like a gun.

"You will go to the port on the other side of the continent and trade however you can for this item."

Kai used Transfer and the image of the object arrived into the captain's brain with clear detail.

"I'm expecting it in a week."

Hearing that, the captain rushed out while cursing Kai under his breath. He knew he couldn't escape from Kai and was planning on following the three rules but he didn't expect to be given an errand like Shanty. To travel from one side of the continent to the other, although it was true he could traverse it in a week both ways, he still had to find the item.

"You, go to the room in the back, we'll speak there."

Hearing this, the innkeeper took out a key from below the counter and walked away.

"Kai, how do they know about guns?"

Erina neared Kai and asked with curiosity in her eyes.

"They have cannons which can blow holes into strengthened ships with absolute ease, far stronger than cannons in the past. How could they do that but not firearms? There are guns in this world, or at least, in this continent. They aren't very famous and were invented only a few dozen years ago, nobody had exported firearms from this continent so it's understandable you don't know about them. But still..."

Kai narrowed his eyes.

"Didn't I tell you that you weren't allowed to fight? Even if you were forced by the circumstances, couldn't you just have simply beat them with your physical abilities? What's the point of disguising your hair blue then?"

"Hahaha..."

Erina wryly laughed. Because of Amelia, she'd been quite tense lately.

"Since it's already come to this, you'll take the trial of water tomorrow. Wake up early, we'll start before dawn."

Erina gulped and nodded, Kai had told her about the trial of water and his own experiences but he was apparently a special case. During the trial of water, Kai was forced to use both his mind and body to complete the trial but a normal person would only have to show talent in that particular element and demonstrate their power somewhat.

I doubt that anyone would figure out it's her since there are quite a few people who can manipulate ice in this continent.

Kai thought to himself before bidding everyone goodnight and returning to his room with Amelia and Erina in tow.

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"Kai, do you know where Yoko is?"

"Not in town anymore, she just left a few hours ago, most likely finding some place to train."

Kai's Soul Call could sense the entire capital of Alteria and even more so. This port town was only a little more than half the size and the harbor took up a fourth so Kai sensing Yoko's soul leaving wasn't strange.

----------------------------------------

Hours away from the port town.

Yoko sat on the back of a carriage with her head down and eyes closed. She wore a brown hood and a mask that covered up to her nose while she slept. She already knew that she didn't have much to do and headed out for training after finding a carriage traveling through and became an escort.

"...Is that girl still sleeping?"

"She said she'll be ready once there are enemies but..."

Some of the adventurers and mercenaries outside that were guiding the caravan of merchants talked about Yoko. At first, she wasn't allowed to join because her identity was unknown and she wasn't an adventurer or a mercenary but after showing some of her prowess, the merchants consented. The best part was that Yoko only took half the amount the others were paid so the merchants quickly agreed.

The caravan was finally passing through the forest which would take about three days to pass through and then be at the next town. Of course, Yoko could've ran all the way there and take not even a day but she wanted to rest on the way, her goal wasn't to head to the next town after all.

"Enemy."

Yoko's eyes suddenly opened as she leapt out of the carriage. The men outside were bewildered when she jumped out and just looked at her.

"There are monsters nearby, I'll take care of them."

"Monsters? We just entered the forest though..."

Without minding the adventurer, Yoko dived into the shadows and disappeared. This was a forest, there were shadows everywhere, it could even be said that this was arguably the best place for shadow manipulation, caves were narrow and had more shadows but forests had a large moving space.

Yoko didn't have Soul Call like Kai but she could feel the presence of the monsters nearby. She quickly arrived to the place where some goblins were gathered and beheaded them without making a sound before returning back to the caravan.

"Goblin scouts, three of them. Need more guards at night."

"Goblins? Those guys are supposed to be deeper in the forest though... More like, where did you find them?"

They looked all around earlier but they couldn't even find a trace of Yoko fighting goblins. Without minding the adventurer who asked her again, she leapt back into the carriage and closed her eyes.

"..."

The adventurer who got ignored thrice snorted and paid no more mind to Yoko. If it was just any other person, then he'd probably already snapped but Yoko managed to defeat three of the mercenaries in an instant, he had no confidence in doing the same.

To the others, Yoko may look like she was sleeping but in reality, 40% of her consciousness was dedicated to feeling any presences creeping nearby. Sure enough, five minutes after the goblins, more monsters arrived in the vicinity. Yoko made quick work of them but sensed more and more as they kept going through the forest.

They were all weak but none of them seemed focused on attacking, it was as if they were running from something.

Yoko had a bad premonition from seeing the monsters' behaviors but still followed the caravan and stayed in the camp at night. A girl sleeping alone with a bunch of men in a place like this would normally incite something bad but the scene of Yoko beating three mercenaries in an instant was still fresh in their mind.

One, two, three...

Although there were lookouts, most of the escorts and merchants were asleep. Yoko sat up and began to feel presences creeping up from all around them.

"There's too many..."

Yoko furrowed her brows and quickly woke everyone from their slumber, it was already dawn and some were already awake but majority of the people were still asleep.

"What is it...?"

"Enemies, a lot of them."

Adventurers were still adventurers after all, they quickly prepared their gear and set up defenses. Sure, they could treat Yoko's words as nonsense but in the slightest chance that it wasn't, what would happen to them?

Yoko peered into the direction of the beasts closest towards them and held the daggers in her hands. She had sweat dripping down her forehead because the bad premonition from earlier was making alarm bells ring in her head.

"...I need to contact Kai."

Remembering the general location of the inn, Yoko created a bird made from shadows and strapped a letter to its foot. It wasn't alive but it could still find Kai, this technique was taught to her by Kai himself.

"Everyone, focus on the north!"

Dozens of bats could be seen flying at an insane pace in front of them. Once Yoko caught sight of the bats, the other two directions where monsters were arriving from quickly cleared up, the monsters were retreating.

Her entire body shuddered and she quickly used mana to strengthen her body.

A few meters from the barricade, the bats suddenly crashed into each other and combined to form a man wearing a cloak, he had red eyes and blond hair, his fangs were sharp and his skin was pale. Yoko knew a person like this but the one in front of them looked more savage.

"V-vampire!"

An adventurer yelled and fell down on the ground in fear. Meeting a vampire was akin to being killed, there was no chance that they'd survive.

"...There's something strange about that one."

"The only thing strange about that is that it hasn't killed us yet."

A man with a bulky figure stood right beside Yoko and pointed his great sword at the vampire, he had a dark complexion and had an eyepatch covering one of his eyes. He looked to be in his forties or fifties and he easily towered over Yoko's height.

"Lass, I'll stall the vampire, can ya take care of everyone while they retreat?"

"...No."

"Ya don't trust me? I may not look like it but I can also use magic, I'm at A-class, same with my body, that vampire looks like the ones that've been appearin' recently."

"It's not that, it's just that I can probably take that thing down. I don't think I can probably protect anyone anyway."

Yoko looked at her daggers and shrugged.

"...Alright, I'll trust ya. Everyone, retreat! Protect the merchants! There shouldn't be any beasts nearby!"

The man loudly yelled.

Knowing they were helpless in this situation, the adventurers and mercenaries quickly began to retreat as fast as possible. They would only get in the way if they were to stay here, they might've stayed if it was just any other beast but this was a vampire, the more people it can kill, the stronger it can get.

Seemingly provoked by the man's shouting, the vampire narrowed his eyes and leapt forward. It was so fast that before the man could realize that the vampire arrived in front of him, it was already far too late to counter.

The man held up his great sword and was blown away with a single hand but he kept his foot on the ground.

"Damn, my arms are numb. This thing must be about to enter S-class!"

Yoko didn't waste time and used the shadows of the trees to boost her speed momentarily.

DING

Yoko's daggers were stopped by the vampire's sharp nails. The vampire quickly used its other hand to attack Yoko but anticipating that movement, Yoko twisted her body and ran her dagger through the vampire's arm before retreating several tens of feet backward. Staying at close range was basically suicide.

"Wow... I underestimated ya, lass. But I can't very well get upstaged, I'm the senior after all!"

The man roared and charged like a bull towards the vampire. He slashed down with his great sword with enough force to make one feel the wind surrounding it from far away and the vampire used his nails once more to block but was forced to use both hands to cancel the force.

"Lass!"

Yoko arrived even before the man's words were over, she held her daggers in a reverse grip and crossed her arms around the vampire's neck.

A rain of blood covered Yoko and the man as the vampire's head was sent flying but they didn't hesitate to retreat as far as possible.

Sure enough, it only took a few seconds for the vampire to go back to its head and reattach it, its neck was fixed with smoke.

"...Is that really a vampire?"

"That's what the guild is trying to figure out. Vampires are able to regenerate even with missing body parts but these vampires that've recently been appearing need the parts, they seem like an inferior version to me and this is, by far, the strongest one I've encountered, most of them are at C or B-class."

With their short conversation, the vampire once more leapt to attack.

"[Shadow Chain]."