Drake decided that he would join the hunters guild to do missions and earn money. While going on the missions, he would gather materials to practise pill refining. When he was confident in his skill of refining rank three pills, and he had enough money saved up, he’d buy the rarer materials he needed from the merchants guild or the martial arts association, which he could finally use to refine the Three Leaf Healing pill and restore his mana core.

After restoring his cultivation… Well, no need to think that far ahead, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, Drake thought.

‘If I am going to go on hunting missions, I should increase my strength first,’ Drake told himself. He was very close to breaking through to the steel body. Drake thought he could break through in a couple of weeks at most. After that, he would be more confident in taking on the missions from the hunters guild.

Drake finished his meal and had his plan for the future ready.

He thanked Tom for his help and waved goodbye, before making his way to the inn which Tom recommended, with Helen.

Entering the inn, Drake booked two rooms, meals included, for one month, and paid for it upfront. The innkeeper was extremely happy and told Drake to let him know if he needed anything in the future.

Drake went upstairs to his room, followed by Helen.

He opened the door to view a stylish, well-furnished, ensuite room, including a comfortable double bed, a work desk, a wardrobe, and a bedside table.

Upon seeing the bed, Drake couldn’t help himself and jumped in.

“Aahhh…” he sighed. “Finally, a proper bed after three months!”

“It is very comfortable,” said Helen, sitting next to him.

Lying on this bed, Drake was inevitably reminded of his own room back in Jain village. For a moment, he stopped moving and became a little depressed. Helen noticed the change and realised what was bothering him.

“What is our plan for the future, master Drake?” she asked, wanting to change the mood.

Drake sat up and looked at Helen.

“We will start taking on hunting missions, but not quite yet,” Drake explained. “I am close to breaking through to the steel body, so I will do that first. Till then, I want you to go to different shops and find as many rank one pill recipes as you can. They shouldn’t be too expensive, given that they are just rank one. Additionally, see if you can find any information about pills that can heal damages to the mana core, especially any such pills that are readily available on sale.”

Helen listened carefully.

Drake took out his money pouch and handed her twenty gold coins.

“This should be enough.”

“Thank you, master Drake,” she replied.

“Also, we should buy ourselves some new clothes,” he laughed.

Helen chuckled.

They had been wearing the same outfit for three months and, after their long journey, weren’t smelling the best. Additionally, given the circumstances under which they left, they hadn’t packed many clothes either.

The robes Drake was wearing was actually a rank one artifact carrying his defensive rune so he didn’t want to replace it. However, he wasn’t planning to wear it twenty-four seven either. Hence a change of clothes would be nice for both of them.

Having listened to her orders, Helen retreated to her room. The inn had a spring which served as a common bath so Drake quickly grabbed a towel and decided to go for a dip.

After an hour of relaxation, he returned to his room, changed into the one pair of pyjamas he had and tucked himself in for the night.

Lying in bed, he thought about everything that happened. Given that he had already died once and came to this world, leaving behind a life he had lived for thirty-two years, he wasn’t too attached to his village like an ordinary boy of his age might have been.

That said, he remembered seeing Holt lying in a pool of his own blood, followed by Hazezel ambushing him with pitch black eyes and felt gloomy.

I will never forget that…

For a few moments, Drake recollected his numerous memories which gave rise to dark and painful emotions.

“Ahh…” Drake exhaled loudly.

‘I can’t keep thinking about the past and let myself fall into hatred and self-pity…’ he told himself. He had already learnt to move on from his previous life after reincarnating. Hence, he needed to do the same and move on from the relatively shorter life he had in his village with his new family as well, however dramatic and intense it might have been.

He had many things to do now – cultivate the steel body, become a hunter, increase his pill refinement skill, and heal his mana core.

Those are the goals I need to focus on - after I get a good night’s rest.

Thinking so, Drake closed his eyes and sunk into his comfortable bed.

…

Six years ago…

On the outskirts of the Holy Kingdom, there were many villages scattered around. Most of them were closer to the Kingdom than the Jain and the other villages were, however, they were still quite isolated from the mainland.

One such village was located in an area to the southwest of the Holy Kingdom. Inside this village was a small and quiet house. A nine-year-old, red-haired young boy was practising martial arts moves just in front of the house.

Suddenly, alarms started blasting across the village as people screamed.

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“Bandits! Oh no, bandits are attacking!”

“Everybody run!”

“Men, pick up your weapons and come fight with me!”

Everyone went into a panic as a large group of bandits rapidly approached the village on horseback. The villagers’ panic infected the boy’s quiet home as well, and a young woman ran out of the door.

“Theo!” she yelled out to the boy, but the boy was curiously watching the people running amok.

“Theo Vancouver! Come inside, NOW!” a man’s voice boomed.

This time, the boy, Theo, obeyed and immediately turned around and headed inside the home. The woman hurriedly closed the door and bolted it shut as soon as he entered.

“Take our son and hide in his room!” the man yelled. The woman grabbed Theo and immediately fled. As they left, the man picked up a large sword and stood in front of the door. Though the man put on a brave front, his arms were shaking uncontrollably.

A few minutes passed and the man started to hear the villagers’ panicked screams turn into pained cries. Wives were mourning their husbands, and children were mourning their parents, as the bandits cut through everyone mercilessly.

“Please don’t come here, please don’t come here...” the man whispered, praying to whatever god was listening.

Either no god was listening, or whatever god was listening did not care, because just a few seconds later, the door was kicked open.

A group of four bandits entered brazenly. They spotted the man pointing a shaky sword at them and laughed. The father steeled his resolve and slashed at one of the bandits with his sword.

“Aargh! Take this!”

But the bandit easily dodged to the side before stabbing him through the chest with his own sword.

“Aaa-!” the woman was about to scream but placed a hand over her mouth to stop herself. She and her son Theo were watching the fight through the small crack between the door and its frame. Before her eyes, her husband was mercilessly stabbed multiple times by the bandits, before being left to bleed out on the floor.

The bandits started rummaging through the house, taking any valuables they could find. One of them began heading directly for the door to the room where the woman and Theo were hiding.

“Quick, hide there!” the woman whispered as she pushed Theo under their bed.

Just as she finished hiding Theo, the bandit broke open the door.

“Ai!” the woman flinched. Her body instinctively rotated to face the bandit while pushing herself against the bed.

“Please! Take whatever you want, just leave me alone!” she begged.

“Ha! See this, boys! We got ourselves a pretty one!” the man laughed. “Maybe we can finally have some fun after a long time!” he spoke lustfully while approaching her.

The woman was terrified and pushed herself against the bed more and more but it was useless. The bandit was just inches away now and she turned her face away, unable to make eye contact. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, her body temperature rose, and her breathing became heavy and ragged.

“Enough Derek, we don’t have time for this,” another bandit called out from behind the door. “Just finish her quickly. We gotta get going. Boss’s orders.”

“Ugh, fine…” the man sighed, disappointed. He stopped moving closer and unsheathed his sword instead, placing it against the woman’s neck.

“Please… you don’t have to do this…” she pleaded.

“I don’t have to… but I want to!” a smile of evil delight appeared on his face as he raised his arm. “Don’t worry hun. This will be quick!” He swung the sword across her neck.

Blood splattered everywhere as the woman’s headless body fell limply to the floor. The bandit became drenched in blood; but instead of being disgusted, he took his bloody sword and licked it.

“Um! Delicious…” he mumbled, as if it was a delicacy.

“Psycho!” the bandit outside the door said.

“Hey!” the bloody bandit protested. “What’d you say you piece of-”

He stopped himself mid-sentence as he spotted something completely unexpected.

When the woman’s body fell to the floor, the space behind her was revealed. And right there, underneath the bed, was a young boy.

Derek had raided many villages in the past and killed many people. It was not uncommon for him to spot children hiding under their beds. He quite enjoyed dragging out the terrified kids and stabbing his knife into their tiny throats.

That’s what made it fun for him - seeing the terror in their eyes fade and be replaced with nothingness, that’s what fulfilled his sick, sadistic, desires.

But this boy was different. He was hiding under the bed, yes, but there was no terror in his eyes.

On the contrary, despite having just seen both of his parents be slaughtered right before him, and with the murderer standing in front, that boy just had a pleasant smile across his face.

“Interesting…” the bandit whispered to himself, licking his lips.

…

A couple weeks before the present, Duskville.

Night fell upon the small town of Duskville. Rays of light fell from the full moon and dispersed over the ground, making its streets, houses, and buildings sparkle mystically. One of the taller buildings in the town was a popular inn. A young man and woman were sitting next to each other inside one of its rooms, both in meditative poses.

Suddenly the girl opened her eyes, and a strong aura was released from her body.

“I’ve broken through!” Astoria exclaimed. She had reached the late-stage true mage realm.

“Congratz!” Sam rejoiced. “But damn, you just cultivate way too fast! At this rate, you will reach my level very soon.”

“Haha, not likely,” Astoria replied with a smile. “You have already cultivated the steel body!”

“That’s only natural,” Sam laughed with his usual, slightly arrogant tone. “Still, you’re very close to the middle-stage true body as well. That’s just crazy!”

“Maybe I’m just special,” Astoria giggled as well. She still hadn’t told him that she had formed three mana cores. She didn’t mean to hide it from him, but Sam just never asked her explicitly so she never mentioned it. Hence, this cultivation speed must seem miraculous to him.

“Maybe. Even Drake and Elwin didn’t cultivate this fast,” Sam laughed but then wanted to punch himself.

Astoria became visibly depressed, her earlier joyful mood completely gone.

As with Drake and Helen, when Astoria and Sam tried to enter the town and explain their situation, the guards were already aware of the demons attacking and destroying some settlements. Astoria had fled with Sam before the full-scale demon invasion, hence, she didn’t know that her village was destroyed until she spoke with the guard.

After hearing that, she broke down on the spot. Her father, brothers, her entire family, everyone – they were all dead. She did not even get to say proper goodbyes to any of them, especially her father.

The last time she spoke to him, she had fought and cursed him! Sure, she felt that he deserved it at that time, but she didn’t want that to be his last memory of her. How she wished she could go back, and meet them just one last time!

Alas, there were no second chances in life. She had been mourning her family ever since. Sam tried his best to help her, but he knew what it felt like to lose someone you loved, let alone four of them at once; he could only imagine what she was going through.

Initially, she didn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. Sam had to drag her out every morning to eat. Slowly, she started to do more routine tasks, albeit mindlessly. Afterwards, something seemed to change in her, and she threw herself at cultivation again.

Feeling that the only reason she was forced to flee her village, unable to protect her family or be with them in their dying moments, was because she was too weak, her resolve to cultivate and become the strongest mage she could, strengthened even more.

No matter what, I cannot afford to be weak.

Thinking so, she was cultivating all day every day, whenever she had free time. After starting to focus on something that wasn’t just the loss of her family, she started feeling better and acting more normal, though she would occasionally daze off into the distance as if recollecting a fond memory. She also became closer to Sam.

After registering with the hunters guild, the martial arts association, and the mages association, the two started picking up some missions to earn money and make a living.

That was their life now – do a mission, earn money, eat, cultivate, sleep, wake up, and repeat. It was a simple life, but it was a life that allowed them to be together. So, they were both happy.

Astoria recovered from her sadness and smiled at Sam as if to tell him that he didn’t need to worry about it. The two laughed and chatted for a bit, before resuming their cultivation.

If they had looked outside the window and focused on the horizon, they might have made out three blurry figures rapidly approaching their town.

One was an old woman wearing a black hooded robe, another was a young man, and the last was also a young man, but was carrying a spear, and had a lifeless, half-decayed body.

They were naturally Dalia, Henry, and the undead Jin Tong. The shadow of the town of Duskville was coming into view for the trio.

Dalia’s eyes flashed with wicked excitement.