A/n: Hey guys, got this chapter done just now so I'm posting it. As always, let me know of any mistakes and thank you for reading. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that this chapter has quite a bit of swearing so I apologize if you don't like that.

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“Hey, Carl.”

“Yeah, Ken?”

“Should we really be staying here for so long? That earthquake from earlier was really big. It knocked over a lot of the trees next to us and it felt like it happened pretty close.”

“Oh quit your whining. What’s the matter? Afraid of a little shaking ground? Besides the boss won’t move since those god damn soldiers from Sangin are still after us. Says we need to lay low for a while and that the perfect place for that is in this forest. After all this place is fucking huge, no way they’ll find us in here. If anything that earthquake is only helping us by keeping those fuckers away.”

“Still, I’m worried about whatever the fuck that earthquake was. What if it was some monster or magical beast?”

“Why are you so fucking paranoid? There’s no way a monster or anything can cause the ground to shake like that. Just let it off as mother nature doing her work.”

Two unruly, disheveled bandits were currently arguing about the giant rumbling that they felt earlier. They were currently on guard duty at the edge of their bandit camp deep inside the Sangin Wilderness located to the east of Sangin, the capital of the human kingdom of Freynia.

“I suppose you’re right. Still, I’m a bit antsy about staying here for too long. Come on, let’s try to convince the boss to leave a bit earlier than planned.”

“Sigh… Fine have it your way. After our shifts, we’ll go talk to him. If it gets bloody though, I’m ditching your ass right away.”

And so the two men continued to guard until their shift was over. Soon after, they walked over to the tent where their boss was. Entering the tent, they found a large rugged bald man with scars all over his face. The man was currently hung over a young woman, doing some rather unsavory things to her, without noticing the two entering.

“Yo bos-” One of the two men spoke up before a bottle whizzed past them and shattered on the ground.

“Can’t you fuckers see I’m busy right now? Get the fuck out of here before I break your arm.”

Quickly the two of them scurried out of the tent, hoping to not agitate their boss any further.

“Well, Ken. There you have it, he won’t even listen.”

“Sigh… I just hope it won’t come back to bite us.”

“Just forget it Ken. We still need to feed the slaves so let’s just go and get it over with. I can’t believe those god damn slavers don’t have enough people to feed all of them themselves, why the fuck are we always getting the work shoved onto us.”

The two then went over to the cages where the bandit and slaver group kept the slaves. Looking at the cages, one could tell it has hardly been maintained at all as the insides were caked in dirt and human defecation. The people, all women, inside had empty looks in their eyes as they all were either lying down or facing the floor. The smell alone was pungent enough to even make the two bandits retch a bit as they approached.

“They should at least god damn clean up the cages. It just makes feeding them even harder. Not only do we have to shove the food inside their mouths to keep them alive, but also deal with the smell. Speaking of which, why do they even bother trying to sell these slaves. They look more dead than alive to me. We should just kill them since the food we give them will be worth more than these sows.”

“Carl, even if you don’t like it, they’re still merchandise that can be sold for a good coin. Even if they’re broken, I’m sure just their bodies alone are enough for some people to pay.”

The two talked as they entered the cage. Soon they started shoving the gruel they got from who knows where down the throats of all the people inside. As they made their way across all the other cages, they stopped in front of a ragged young girl, who looked to be no more than fourteen years of age. Incredibly pale and sickly-looking, the girl just threw a cold glare at them before turning away.

“Heh. Still got some spirit do ya? Well it doesn’t matter. Come here and get your gruel before you have to lick it off the floor, hahaha.”

One of the two men walked over to girl before forcefully grabbing her head and turning it around to face them. He then proceeded to shove it down her throat like the others before receiving a strong bite in return, leaving large teeth marks that started to bleed.

“Shit. Fuck. Why you little brat, biting the hand that feeds you. I’ll fucking kill you.” The man feeding the girl cursed out loudly. As he was about to grab her by her collar he was stopped by the other man.

“Hey Ken, why the fuck are you stopping me? This brat needs to learn her place here.” The man shouted to his partner.

“She’s still merchandise Carl, you can’t touch her… Yet.” The man named Ken gave an evil grin. “Still I’m sure if you asked the slavers they will probably giver her to you. Considering her condition she probably won’t have long left. I’m sure that the slavers will agree if we said we were going to discipline and make an example out of her for the rest of the slaves that might get some ideas.”

“Heh, you’re right Ken. Alright, let’s take her over to the slavers right now while I’m still in the mood to make her bleed.”

The two men then dragged the girl as she tried to struggle and brought her over to one of the slavers to which they subsequently got permission. They then dragged the struggling girl over to one of the large trees nearby that didn’t fall over and tied both her arms and legs to the tree. After which they took out a bunch of throwing knives, much to the horror of the girl.

“Hehe, little girly. I’ll show you what happens when you mess with me. I hope that spirit of yours earlier will be able to hold up otherwise this won’t be much fun.” The man chuckled.

One by one, knives were thrown and lodged themselves into the girl, leaving bloody gashes where it hit. The knives were at first aimed at the arms and legs before making their way towards the center of her body. Fresh blood splattered all over the rags that covered her body as she soon started to look like a pin-cushion instead of a person. The girl was shuddering in pain while tears rolled down her eyes, yet she never ceased the cold glare she threw at the men nor did she cry out much to their displeasure.

“Tch. This is boring. I expected her to cry out a bit more. Well, whatever. I’m done here let’s just leave her to die like that. Maybe she’ll get lucky and one of the magical beasts around here will eat her quickly before she bleeds out.” The man said to his partner before they both turned to leave.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

However, before they could take even one more step, an eerie silence fell upon both the two men and the entire camp, followed by a nerve-wracking chill. The two men involuntarily shuddered and started letting out cold sweat. They nervously turned around back to the forest and what came in front of their eyes was a man wearing an intricate gold and black robe with a hood draped over his face. From under the hood, all they saw was darkness and a pair of glowing golden lights that flickered as they met its gaze…

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‘Bandits, huh.’ I thought as I slowly got closer to the camp.

Earlier, I saw traces of blood that belonged to an animal and a scuffle of footprints that indicated the presence of people, likely out on a hunt of some. From what I can tell, the footprints and blood seem fresh so it’s likely that they were near. As I followed the trail, I soon came across a clearing that, sure enough, had a camp set up. As I ducked behind a tree before anyone noticed and observed the camp, I came to realize that it was in fact a bandit camp. Unruly men wandered the camp with weapons at their sides as they talked to each other vulgarly. In the distance, I spotted a cage that were full of women. Slaves from the looks of it.

‘I see slavery is still quite rampant even now.’ I thought with a hint of disgust.

I had my mana sense limited to about 100 meters around me since using it constantly over a large area gives me a headache. It’s not that it hurts me physically, rather it’s that it’s too much trouble having to organize all the information I receive when I’m not concentrating on it.

Slowly, I made my way around the camp as I continuously observed all details of it, from the number of people to if any of them can use magic or not, which of course none of them can. I figured that there was no harm being extra cautious as I don’t know what the world is like right now since my ‘death’. I had already decided that I would be destroying them but it will be my folly if I get overzealous and make a mistake.

Determining that they were no threat at all, I was about to make my move. However, before that, as I took another step, my mana sense detected two individuals a bit detached from the camp. They were just a bit outside of my detection range so I only saw them just now. When I saw what they were doing, I sharpened my gaze and decided that these two would be the first of my victims.

I slowly stalked through the surrounding forest and made my way towards them. As the both of them turned around and was about to go back, I stepped out and released an icy cold killing intent that would very likely freeze the hearts of even the best of fighters. As they nervously turned around and met my gaze, I unleashed my dark magic upon them as hundreds of black tendrils rose out from shadows of the surrounding trees and proceeded to envelope them before they even had the chance to scream.

Soon after, a gut wrenching crunch can be heard as blood seeped out of the black cocoon and splattered on the ground.

I wasted no time and continued onward towards the camp, slaughtering every single person I saw along the way in a similar fashion. Soon the camp was completely dyed in a crimson hue as blood went everywhere. As I got to the center of the camp where the largest tent could be spotted, I heard a loud roar as a man emerged from it dragging alongside him a beaten looking woman.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE ALL OF YOU PIECES OF SHIT DOING.” The man bellowed in rage. “I SWEAR TO GOD FOR ALL THE NOISE YOU GUYS ARE MAKING I’LL BE BEATING EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU SENSELES-.” Then the man stopped as he spotted me and the surrounding area.

“Who the fuck are you and what have you done to my men?” The man asked coldly as he threw the woman to the side and got his two-headed battle-axe ready.

‘Hm, this guy appears to be the leader of the bunch. I think I’ll siphon some information off of him since he looks to know a lot more than what his appearance may imply.’ I thought inwardly.

The man soon charged at me as he deducted that I wasn’t going to answer anything. As he got closer and swung his battle-axe down, I simply sidestepped it as the axe got lodged into the ground. Before he had the chance to pull it out, his weapon arm was already flying through the air as it landed away from him.

As he roared in pain, I subsequently cut off his other arm and his legs as well, all three of them, to which he then fell onto the ground looking like a ball of meat with a head. At this point he was already past yelling and was laying there whimpering while face down.

As my black tendrils wrapped up his body excluding his face and brought him upright, I made my way up to him. Looking into his eyes I could already see that he was on the verge of tears. I then stretched out both of my bony hands and placed them on both sides of his temples as he desperately shook his head. Soon after, he released an agonizing cry as I siphoned his soul and extracted the memories that it contains. After I was done, the sorry excuse of man was foaming at the mouth with his eyes rolled back, to which I simply dropped him on the ground and crushed him completely with my black tendrils.

Now that all the bandits were dead, I was mostly finished with this place. I walked over to the woman who got thrown aside earlier and looked her in the eyes. What I found was a hollow gaze that stared into my own without any semblance of will left in them. Realizing that she is completely broken and can’t be saved, I simply made my tendrils grab the knife of the nearest dead bandit and placed it in front of the woman. I then got up and walked off towards the cages I saw earlier.

As I went through all of them, I saw the exact same dead-pan expression I saw on the woman before in the face of each and every one of them. I proceeded to do the same thing I did to the woman before and dropped a knife in front of each of them.

I then left the cages behind and proceeded to loot the camp of anything useful, getting a handful of coins, books, and, thankfully, a map. I left the camp afterwards and went back in the direction I came from. As I arrived at the outskirts where I killed the first two men before, what I saw there made me raise my non-existent eyebrow. The girl that I saw earlier that was tied to the tree and made into target practice was still, albeit barely, alive. After the wounds I saw on her, I just assumed she was already dead and now that I see her again she looks to be just barely holding on through sheer willpower alone.

The girl stared at me sharply as I met her gaze. In them, I felt no fear at all. Instead, in her eyes, I saw the reluctant acceptance of her fate, and yet, I also saw her determination to struggle until the very end. How nostalgic, reminds me a little of a certain old stiff that I knew before.

As she struggled to hold on, I made my way over to her and kneeled in front of her. Then, softly and emotionlessly, I whispered to her using mana to project my voice, “Do you wish to live?”

At this question, she opened her eyes wide as her body shuddered once more. Mustering up what little strength she had left in her body, she forcefully and exhaustively gave me a slow nod with each millimeter of movement causing her great pain.

At this, I simply smiled inwardly and told her in a gentle voice “Very well” to which the girl then lost consciousness after using up the last of her strength.

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