As I walked through the forest, I thought about the 4 exercises from my dream. 'They seemed easy at first but when I actually tried them out, those things were not only difficult but also dangerous' I thought. Although I could die as many times as I wanted in that dream, there was a price to pay for that as well.
I was lost in my thoughts as I walked. After a while, I arrived at the camp and placed my bag down. I then heard a familiar voice speaking to me from behind. "We meet again, friend". When I turned around, I noticed it was the group of people that I encountered a while back.
I said "Is there anything you need?" and the guy smiled while saying "Your information was really useful to us this time. It's a shame you lied to us". I looked at the guy who spoke and said "I didn't lie, if you found those creatures, then that means I told the truth". The guy just laughed and said "I'm not talking about the creatures, I'm talking about the man we were searching for". He then continued "We found him and he also told us everything. He didn't even budge when we asked him about you. He told us what you guys did and even went to extend to tell us about your skills".
I wasn't impressed. The guy I met that day was a coward. I covered for his ass to give him some time to escape, I wasn't expecting loyalty from him. I said slowly to the guy "And? I did try to cover for his sorry ass. Does that change anything? You are a pile of bones walking around, if you want to die so badly… make your move".
The guy obviously didn't expect that as he seemed a bit shocked. I added "I'm just curious. How did you manage to track me? You should have a special method to do so, I assume". I didn't hear an answer but I heard some movements from behind me. I said to him "Even if you try to surround me, you will all die". The guy in front of me was now visibly shocked. He asked "Who are you?"
I smirked and said "Someone you should not mess with. I don't know stuff like mercy. When half of you die and you would like to surrender, I will still kill you". Before the guy could say anything else I asked "Should I show you?". I didn't wait for an answer as my hand flashed. The guy behind me that was trying to sneak attack, got two new holes in his body. I said "This is an example of what I can do and now? All of you die" as the lifeless corpse fell down behind me.
The guy in front of me was not only shocked, there was fear in his eyes. I didn't have many daggers left therefore I opted to use close combat as the means to kill. I sprinted forwards to attack the leader standing in front of me. He didn't expect my acceleration and because he was quite close to me, I caught up to him in an instant. I passed right next to him and stopped. He tried to rotate his head backwards but his neck was already cut.
I said to him "I told you, you will all die". I then sprinted towards my next target. In overall there were 5 people there. Two already died and other 3 were nearby, also trying to ambush me. Of course due to the situation, things changed a bit. One of them was not stupid enough to just sit there staring, he begun to run. I caught up to him and slashed his back. The strength I possesed was not something to be toyed with. That slash alone almost separated the guy in half. 'If I used a sword instead of a dagger, there would be two halves laying on the ground instead of intact corpse' I thought and speed towards my other targets.
They finally woke up from their shock and started to run. It was still useless. My speed was much better than theirs and it didn't matter what skills they had. My strength alone allowed me to dispose of them very easily. When I arrived in front of a woman this time, she pleaded me to spare her life but as I already said "No one will survive" and killed her. The last guy was actually quite crafty and hid himself. Good thinking but he forgot that I also knew the Art of Stealth. If someone wanted to hide in front of me, they would have to be at a similar level that Nick was.
I found him and killed him as well. All was done. The middle aged man I met while traveling north died because he was a coward. These people died because they thought being a part of some large organisation means they are invincible. 'I avoided conflict whenever possible, yet these people still looked for their doom. I wonder why? Maybe that is why Nick forbade me to go into cities and villages?' I thought.
I searched for my daggers that I threw at the guy trying to ambush me and then looted the corpses. They had loads of stuff on them. Each had at least one bag that functioned the same way as mine did. 'No wonder they gave me one, They had loads of them'. The leader guy had 3 of them alone. I didn't find anything concerning the Flaming Silver Wolf or the Flaming Grey Bear. 'They must've lied about finding those beasts, they wouldn't be alive if they did try to fight them. Even I would have difficulties fighting one of them' I thought.
They did indeed find the man that carried a large sword, they did kill him as well. To prove it, they had his head in the bag as well as his sword. I took out the sword, it was quite heavy but with my current strength, it was nothing major. I swingged it couple of times 'It's nothing amazing, it does weight a bit. They must've been as strong as him in order to kill him but I'm much stronger than I was in the past' I thought and placed the sword down while taking a look at other things.
There were no books or manuals of any sort. I was a bit disappointed, I wanted to find out how were they able to track me but it didn't matter, they died anyway. I also found something familiar. 'So they also have those emblems of some sort. I wonder what type of thing this represents. All of them had the same emblem, except the leader guy' I thought. The emblems depicted an eye half closed on a grey background. It was probably the sign of the group that was chasing the guy with the heavy sword.
The leader's badge was a bit different. Besides showing the eye, it also showed a tear drop coming from the eye. The badge was still grey. This probably meant he was a member with better position compared to the others. I took the leaders badge and threw the rest of them into a bag that I emptied. 'I don't want to carry all that clutter with me for no apparent reason. I will use one of those bags to store all those useless objects and throw it away somewhere' I thought.
I started sorting through all the things that seemed useless and threw them into the bag, one after the other.