It was a little after midday and the nearly the entire bandit group including me were taking cover behind trees and shrubbery. A couple carts were being pulled by regular horses, not the lizard like creatures most caravans used when making the journey from Valden to Xyrus. Unlike the horses, the lizards didn't frighten as easily and if trained right would help fight back.
Sadly for these people they were just another set of victims for the bandits and this time I would have to take an active part. I gripped my daggers tightly and tried to disassociate, but was startled out of it when I saw the first attack hit the front wagon. And before the people inside even had a chance to do anything we already had them surrounded.
Only 3 guards had been outside the wagons, probably adventurers but it didn't matter. The first 2 went down quick, a mage looking man and an archer. This left just a sword and shield user who stubbornly took up a defensive position in front of the main group of bandits that rushed down the hill. And with the help of my training and meditation of my core I could now tell when another mage was using mana. I could see the mana flow from core down his arms and through sword.
"You can handle an element less augmenter can't ya kid?" Turning I saw the grinning face of Sev as he stared down at the adventurer who couldn't be much older than 15. He was lean, but overly muscular or big. His face and eyes were plain, someone you wouldn't look twice at in a crowd. I didn't know how to feel about it, but I felt something sharp poke me in the back and found Sev pressing one of his daggers into me.
Stepping forward I shuddered at the kid's determination that seemed to ooze of him, he was prepared to fight until he died to avenge his friends even though he knew there was no way he could get out of this alive. As I stepped ever closer the bandits tightened a circle around us, but the kid didn't seem to notice.
"Here's the deal kid!" Lurt called from somewhere behind me. "This here is one of our… er junior members. You defeat 'im and you can continue your escort mission, got it?" The kid's eyes darted only briefly to Lurt before doing a sweep around the circle.
"I-I won't leave here until every single one of your is dead! Or until I draw my last breath.." he finished the last with a slight mumble, but his dumb yet still courageous words were met with laughing and mockery.
"Brat if you lose to this sorry piece of shit I'll kill ya myself." Sev said from behind me but I just ignored him and without any signal the fight began.
"Gaaaaah!" The swordsman yelled as he charged, shield held out in front and his sword held close against the shield as if he planned to run me through with the charge. Loosening the tense grip on my daggers I watched his movements closely and timed his footfalls until he was right in front of me. Just like I thought he went for a standard charge, expecting to either impale me on his sword or bash me with the shield.
His shield was on the smaller side and circular, probably good for a standard fair fight. Sadly for him when fighting bandits or specifically someone like me trained by a dagger master, it would have been better to just use his sword. His circular shield also had a conical spike in the center that stuck out, so in time with his step as he prepared the bash I side stepped to his shield side low and quick. This dropped me out of his vision for only second but that's all I needed.
He had to move his shield to look for me and when he did I lashed out at the spike on his shield using the force to open up his already faltering guard. He was prepared for a strike to come from his shield side and had tensed his body in preparation, so when the force came from the other side it easily opened his guard. His eyes widened and he slashed clumsily with his sword as he stepped back, but I closed the distance easily dodging his desperate swing.
My first strike went to the crook of his elbow slicing the tendon there and causing him to lose his grip on his sword. His panic rose as he tried to swing his shield back in front still stepping back, his breathing was erratic and his eyes showed fear. I don't know what he saw when he looked at me, but I just wanted to end this already. I kicked at his knee as he brought the shield back over causing him to fall to a knee, trying and failing to catch himself with his limp arm.
My next kick targeted his chest but he barely brought the shield up in time to catch the blow. Seeing as my body was reinforced with mana the shield was laughed back into his face breaking his nose and causing him to cry out. Before he could recover I pushed him down and sunk one of my daggers to the hilt in his side between his ribs where it found his heart.
I slid the blade out of him and wiped it on his tunic, stumbling back as I stood. His face was still contorted into a grimace and the blood staining his mouth from his broken nose was a grim sight indeed. Had I not been killing the women in my act of "mercy" I might have liked right then and there. Still I was uneasy. This was not a mercy killing. This was not anything but something to further my own survival and I was disgusted in myself for even finding the tiniest bit of joy in the fact that I had beat someone older than me in a real life or death fight.
My daggers clumsily found themselves back in their sheaths and I turned back to Lurt and Sev who both had broad grins on their faces.
"It's really your lucky day kid! Hahaha! The rest of the people in caravan are just a bunch of old hags and dickless bags of bones. Why don't you finish the rest of them off for us?" Lurt said with a vicious smile and I forced myself to hold back my complaints. I was supposed to only have to kill one adventurer, now this?
Nodding absently I walked over to where the elderly were huddling in one of the wagons. They shook with fear as I climbed up inside, but I barely registered it. Same with how I didn't even realize I was already stabbing one that had threw himself at me as if to try and protect the others. His words came in a brief gargled gasp.
"You'll rot for eternity, scum." His words were punctuated with a blood filled spittle as he rasped out his last breath, sliding to the floorboards of the wagon. Soon I was stepping back out of the wagon, 2 bloody daggers gripped in my palms and I just began walking back to camp. I had expected someone to stop me but they didn't, so I just kept on walking.
As I passed by the swordsman I remembered watching his man flow from his solid red core down his arms to his sword. That's when it clicked why I overpowered him so easily, yes my core was already light red. Though that was only part of it, he had only reinforced his arms and sword whereas I had reinforced my entire body with mana. Are the adventurers really so far behind in mana manipulation?
Soon I was back at camp and I slumped down by my pack and sleeping bag, taking out my maintenance kit and began cleaning my daggers. I didn't notice the tears until they dropped onto the blade, wiping them with cloth only for new ones to fall right after. Anger sparked through me and I had to reign it in as my mana was fluctuating with it. Fire, water, earth, wind and even my healing threatened to spill out with my emotions, but brought them under check.
Wiping the tears I thrust my daggers back into their sheaths and began meditating again with a renewed focus on the process. Something I had learned after the fact of my duel with the adventurer. Efficiency… I had superior training and knowledge of mana manipulation. But if someone like me. Someone that has only been in this world for 7 months. Someone that had never even actually thought I would ever be able to do magic, could take out a 15 year year old while being only 6 then I could really be something.
As long as I was efficient. So I dig deep into my meditation, thinking back on anything I thought might help from my past life. Anime, movies, books, games, even sports and science. There were lots of ways to purify, or separate something bad from the good. Fire burning something, but that leaves Ash. However that could work, if I already began filtering the mana that comes into my body and purged the "dirty" mana I already had.
That would surely make the process a lot easier right? I already used all elements, so I didn't need to filter what element particles I needed to bring in. But what is the cause of the impurities? Is there something on the mana that I'm pulling in or is the purification process for mages that don't have all 4 elements?
My brain hurt from all the thinking and could only curse myself for having put off TBATE for as long as I had. Even after just 7 months the specifics were starting to get hazy, having had to learn and adapt to so much. For now I would filter what I consciously brought in while meditating and try to unconsciously do it while not meditating. If I was constantly bringing in as pure of mana as I could from the get go then surely that would boost my core progression.
I dove deeper and deeper into my core using the elements I had at my disposal to burn, dilute and blow away impurities I came across. As I went deeper though I was met with the view of my core on a pedestal in a field that reminded me of home. Looking closer I could tell it was and I couldn't help but feel like my core seemed vulnerable just out in the open like this. So I began setting up defenses.
Core went inside a box, and the box itself was a puzzle which i used my fire and earth to form a casing around. Then I built a stone hut around the pedestal, that soon had a set of walls surrounding it and of course any good set of walls needs a moat. Soon purifying my core took a backseat to making and upgrading and redoing every defense I made. It didn't stop until I awoke the next day with a smile on my face.
——————-
Hi first Author's note. The ending is basically MCs version of what Professor Vanesy had that hurt Arthur when he tried to gauge her core.
That's all.
Enjoy.