"How much farther?"
At the moment, Micheal was walking through the mud road towards his quest.
"Two miles"
Her usual arrogant witty self was nowhere to be found as she was very silent during his journey.
"Someone's having a bad day, come on, princess, say something"
"Leave me be, human"
Normally she would sound arrogant but now she sounded terrified.
He thought he would like her to be silent but after traveling in silence for a long time, he missed the witty and arrogant princess. However, he knew what would cheer her up
"Alright, your loss, I thought I should give you another pill or two"
"Really?!"
"Only if you stop acting like a crybaby"
"I can do that, human, now give this princess the pills"
"Damn"
He didn't expect she would change her mind so soon but it made him smile.
"Let's finish the job on hand, shall we? After that, I'll give you two pills deal?"
"Deal, let's go and kill some maggots"
"That's my girl"
"NO, I'm NOT!"
He laughed and rushed towards his goal before the drizzle could extinguish the torch in his arm.
Eventually, Micheal came before a crossroads and saw the red mark on the map was not far away from here. On the horizon, he noticed a small village, and near to the crossroad, the forest and thick trees made this area a perfect ambush place for the bandits who could target the traveling merchants and the villagers on their way back to their village from the river town.
"We should have come in the day, human, now the bandits will be in their camp"
"Exactly, now they will be at their camps drinking or sleeping which makes them vulnerable"
"Even if you kill a few of them silently, you won't be able to kill all of them like that"
"I have a plan, Gaya"
Being said, he ventured into the forest where the bandits most likely set a camp and after a few minutes walking into the forest, he sensed a group of fifteen people fifty meters away from him.
"I need a vantage point, lets see what this bad boy can do"
He aimed his grappling hook at the branch above him and like batman, he took off from the ground and landed on the branch.
"Whoa, how did you? What is this thing? Where did you get it?"
"Cool huh? It's called mark 3 grappling hook, stick with me I show you more cool stuff"
"What's mark three? Who named it? I bet it might be those wretched dwarves, whatever give me that later, this princess want to try it"
"Why? Are you going to kill me with that?"
He said and moved to another branch using the hook.
"Damn you, human, I promised I won't, besides didn't you hurt me enough without thinking I'm a girl?"
"Oh don't pull that card on me princess, I'm a strong believer of equality"
Just Gaya was about to reply, she saw a campfire and a group of men around it.
"This must be their camp??
Gaya said as Micheal sensed two bandits were roaming away from the main camp alone.
"Even though there are no level 10 shits like Datra, each of these bandits are level 7 or eight and counting their numbers, it won't be easy to kill them as you did with those snakes, if they find you, they can kill both of us with a single spell"
"They won't have time to cast any spells"
It was so much easier for him to move from branch to branch using the hook than jumping. And in a few moments, he reached his first target who was peeing without any worries.
"Gross, why did you make me see that?"
"I am a free bird (whistle) free bird"
Just as he was singing, Micheal landed behind him and stopped his horrible song by slitting his throat.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level 6 cultivator. The reward is 4500 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
He didn't leave his body on the ground but took it with him and put it on the branch before moving to his next target.
"Pathetic, didn't even put a defense spell on himself"
Gaya had no idea that even if he did have a spell on him, it wouldn't have made any difference since his knife could ignore the defense of anyone who's under the Body strengthening stage, level 6.
The next bandit was returning to his camp when Micheal appeared before him and slit his throat like he did to the bandit a few minutes ago.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level 6 cultivator. The reward is 4500 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
"So far so good, thirteen more to go"
"How the fuck did you break through to level 7 in a single day? Did you take restoration pills?"
"Wait till you see me have another breakthrough"
He grinned and swung to a branch that was closer to the main camp.
"How are you going to kill them with your level of cultivation?"
Gaya noticed that every single bandit was drinking and singing without sleeping. She couldn't guess how he's going to kill thirteen body refining stage cultivators without the element of surprise or hunting them one by one like he always does.
But when she was wondering about this, she saw a small cylinder like thing appear in his hand.
"What's this?"
"We call this, the flashbang"
As he said, he removed the pin and threw it at the center of the camp, and closed his eyes and ears.
BOOM!
Just like he thought, the flashbang affected the area of the camp and threw the bandits off their balance as well as caused the much-needed chaos. Yet, he didn't jump down right away but threw the smoke bomb he bought from the shop. Fortunately, this world seemed to have a variant of a smoke bomb and the flash-bang so the price was way cheaper than the guns.
"AH!"
The bandits shouted as Micheal plunged his knife into the throat of his third bandit.
Because of his sensing skill, he didn't get affected by the smoke as he picked the bandits one by one with inhuman speed.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level 6 cultivator. The reward is 4500 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level 7 cultivator. The reward is 5000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body refining stage, level 9 cultivator. The reward is 6500 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
Each time, he swung his knife, a ding sound appeared in his mind and he was rewarded by the system. Just when the smoke cleared, the last voice in the camp was stopped by him and Gaya was dumbfounded looking at the bandits lying on the ground with their throats slit and a stab wound on their chests.
In a few moments, he was able to do this?
He had killed 13 experienced bandits in a few mere moments and they were all level body refining stage cultivators.
How… How was this possible?
This human was clearly a mere level 7 of the Foundation Stage!
When she saw his reflection in the puddle of rainwater, a cold chill ran through her spine as he was bathed in water and resembled the ancient devils that she used to read about in the books.
But what made her heart skip a beat was that he leveled up, again.
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Foundation stage Level 8]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Foundation stage Level 9]
"Is he using some ancient evil cultivation technique?"
"Why didn't you assholes have one more bandit?"
He kicked the dead body of a bandit in frustration because he could have reached level 10 if he had killed one more.
"He's dead, human, instead of kicking him, take their badges as the proof of kill"
Hearing Gaya's voice in his mind, he sighed and started to rip their badges. It was surprising to him that they all wore eagle embodied badges on their chests.
"What kind of bandits wear badges?"
"Be glad they wore badges, human, else you would have had to cut off their ears as the proof"
"Shit"
After collecting the badges, he was able to gather another six hundred silver coins from their cache and left the area without skulking around.
"I should take a bath"
He was reeking the smell of blood and his black robes were now almost turned red.
"Gaya, is there any waterfall nearby?"
"If you walk towards the east for three hours, there's a beautiful waterfall I used to travel with my maids "
"Hehehe"
He giggled while turning and walking towards the east
"Did I say something funny, human?"
"No, I just thought you were going to say friends"
"Why is that? Do you think I don't have friends?"
"I don't think, I know you don't have friends"
"Yes I have, I have many friends"
"Quickly name three"
He was waiting for her to speak again but he only heard a 'hmm' sound from her.
"Thought so"
"Well, this princess doesn't need any friends"
She rebuked and said but he could sense a slight sadness in her voice which was a big surprise to him considering her arrogant prideful self.