An hour later, they found themselves traveling once again. The carriage ride was bumpy. They had been traveling for over two hours on rough terrain. No one else seemed bothered, only Kai. To pass the time Kai would occasionally use gravity pillar on random objects, not letting his already low mana dip too far.

Two beasts were pulling the carriage. They had some kind of natural hard plating all around their bodies. While they appeared threatening, they were very docile instead, eating food directly out of Kai’s hand before they left the ranch.

[Plated Bovine – Forging Level 3]

“I see you have unlocked your magic young master Kai,” indicated Steve. “I can sense the use of the mana, but I can’t rightly tell what ya doing.”

“I’m using gravity magic.”

“Gravity magic, eh? That’s quite something. Ain’t ever met someone with gravity magic.”

Kai sat straighter, finding pride in the compliment. “If you don’t mind me asking. How long have you worked as carriers for the village?”

“Believe we are approaching our 40th year.” He looked to his companion who gave him a reassuring nod.

“Why don’t you tell him the story of how you entered into our service?” His dad spoke up for the first time in an hour.

“Well alright. To start with, some 40 years ago my wife and I were attacked. Back then we ran our own caravan transporting goods to cities and towns. Weren’t humans that attacked us, they can be reasoned with, instead, we were being chased down by Ash Wolves. Nasty beasts that only appear during an Ashfall. We ran as fast as we could, but they stuck to us. We didn’t stop even though it felt like hours. Found ourselves at the edge of the mist. Knew the rumors that all who enter vanish, we gambled anyways and entered. Still, the wolves followed.

“After only a minute in the mists, our pursuers were slaughtered. We didn’t see what happened, but we could hear the cry of the wolves. I’ll never forget those howls, rightly haunted me for years. Shortly after, we found ourselves surrounded by some of your village guards. After explaining our situation, we found ourselves meeting the chief, your grandfather. He offered us a job as carriage drivers. Would have likely died had we declined. We accepted after considering how our carriage and property had been destroyed. A house was built for us at the edge of the mists. We have been here since.”

Turning to his dad, Kai asked, “Is it true? That they would have died if they declined?”

Nodding his head, Octavian replied, “Yes. One of the core tenants of the village is all intruders must be killed to protect ourselves and our secrecy. Why do you think that even though our home is between the Hart Empire and the Ashbourne Kingdom, neither will travel through our domain to get to the other? The reputation of the Illusionary Misty Region is even more notorious than the Ashbourne Mountain Region. Better chance of surviving through the Ashbourne Mountain Range than making it through our home.”

Kai could see Bettrica and Steve shiver. So strange. How do they defend against intruders? There are bound to be powerful people that have entered our territory before.

After a pause, Bettrica finally called out, “Roads at last.” She gave Kai a knowing wink.

The carriage traveled up a small hill onto a paved stone road. The carriage immediately smoothed out afterward.

With a sigh of relief, Kai closed his eyes intending to get some rest.

“Young master Kai, wake up,” Bettrica hissed.

Kai’s eyes flung open, he looked around and instantly noticed that his father was missing. Garren appeared on edge, with a hand on his sword in the scabbard, ready to pull it at any second as his eyes shifted left to right. While Steve appeared nervous, his wife showed the opposite. Her hands remained steady as she steered the Bovine straight down the road.

“What’s going on? Where is father?”

“He detected bandits close by. They are surrounding us as we speak. Your father flanking them, getting ready to ambush them should they make a move,” Bettrica said, her eyes narrowing on certain trees or brushes.

“Hello!” A voice called out loudly. A group of seedy-looking humans stepped out from the brush standing in their path on the road. There were at least a dozen men all around, some smirking, while others looked on impassively. Some of their armor was stained with blood. It was a familiar sight Kai knew by heart. This was clearly not their first time doing this.

Identifying the visible people, they all ranged between the foundation realm and higher than he could identify. Kai settled his nerves as he observed Bettrica, who still appeared calm. Either she was an expert actor, or she was not worried about the group before them. In fact, looking closely he could see the smallest uptilt of the side of her lip.

One of the men stepped forwards. “I think you can guess how this will go. Unload your valuables and coin, and you can leave unharmed,” the supposed leader opened his arms wide as if he was giving them a merciful option. He was armed with two swords, one on each side of his hip.

“Sorry sir, ain’t no valuables here. Just delivering this child here to school,” Steven spoke aloud, nodding his head towards Kai.

“School?! Must be that fancy academy in the capital. Boy must have coin if he is going there. Give it to us now, and their swords. This is the only time I’ll ask,” the leader of the bandits spoke calmly. He didn't stutter as he delivered an ultimatum.

Not waiting for a response, the group of bandits began pulling out their weapons to further their point that they would attack if the group didn’t comply.

Shaking her head, Kai could hear Bettrica mutter, “Go.”

All at once, six of the bandits exploded into dark red mists. Yells of terror joined in with the blasts. Garren leaped off the carriage, his longsword in hand as he charged toward the leader. Four identical blades of ash appeared above him, as he moved to the Leader. All five swords attacked the bandits at once as if they had their own minds. To his left Kai could see balls of fire splattering across a translucent barrier around their carriage, blocking each blast as they exploded against the shield. Cracks appeared after each consecutive blast, only for the cracks to vanish shortly after as the barrier repaired itself.

Kai froze, for the first time ever in this life, the enemy was truly beyond him. His rational mind told him he would be a hindrance if he went out there. The most likely result was his death.

Bettrica was gone from her seat, having vanished from his sight. Behind him, he could hear screams of terror. In a matter of half a minute, the yelling ended. Kai squeezed his fist. Sitting back and watching had never been his style. As much as he wanted to help, he would have only been a liability.

“Kai come here,” his father called out from the right side of the carriage.

Obeying his father, Kai stepped off the carriage onto the ground. The smell of blood and iron was heavy in the air. Bodies parts were scattered about, and not one body lay complete. Although it had been a while, the smell of battle and carnage was familiar to Kai. He tried to remain indifferent to what he was seeing, but it reminded him of that last battle, all of the innocent citizens had looked similar to these bandits. Poor souls that stood no chance in the face of greater power. Not that he had mercy for those who would threaten him or his family.

Kneeling on the stone path was a young man, Octavian stood behind him with his sword extended next to his neck. Kai noted that he wasn’t much older than himself, likely a year or two at most. The man smelled strongly of urine. A large wet stain stained his pants.

[Human – Foundation Level 52]

“Collect their goods and coin Steve. All the coin will go towards Kai’s future tuition,” Octavian said before he turned to his son waiting in silence.

The young man was shaking head to toe. Tears streamed down his face as he muttered, “please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,” over and over again.

“Fight him son, and kill him,” his father commanded. “I had not planned on doing this, but this is a good opportunity. You need not feel guilty about killing him, his life was forfeit the second he and his friends attacked us.”

Inwardly Kai was shocked his father would choose to do this. He hadn’t foreseen this trial of events, but he wouldn’t pass up such an opportunity. His father had spared the young man just for this purpose. His father must have been confident in his victory if he would let this happen. Judging from the hard look in his father’s eyes, if Kai didn’t fight him, he had no doubt the young man would die immediately.

Kai’s body shook with excitement and nervousness. It had been so long since he had fought another human for his life. Not since his past life on the day he died.

This is the beginning of my path again. I can’t show mercy for those who would do me harm. His breath quickened as he pulled his sword out of its scabbard. Holding it with one hand, he pointed it at the young man, “If you win this fight, they will allow you to leave unharmed.”

He didn’t have the heart to tell the young man that he was playing him. No matter what, the bandit would die today. The bandit likely knew Kai was full of shit, but there would be a part of him that would hold on to that small hope of surviving. The harder the bandit fought, the more levels Kai might draw out of the fight, assuming he won. After all, there were no levels to be gained from an enemy who had already given up. It had been the same way for criminals he had hunted down and given up in his past life, he always gave them a choice to die on their feet or die on their knees. He just hoped his dad went along with his plan, after all, he was contradicting what he had just said.

The young man’s head shot up. Hope spilled into his eyes. Likely he had identified Kai and thought his chances of winning were very good since he was twice the level Kai was. The young man twisted his head to look at Kai’s father, likely wondering if he would uphold his son’s words. The young bandit received a silent nod in response to his unspoken question.

“But only if you win, now get your weapon and let’s do this,” Kai said.

Octavian had a small smile behind the young man. He retracted his sword and nodded once before teleporting fifteen feet backward. The young man grabbed a spear with a black spearhead and a wooden shaft off the ground. Taking a stance, he held his spear forward with both arms.

“What are you guys waiting for a signal? Begin already,” called out his father.

The bandit shot forwards, already proving his speed to be faster than Kai’s, but not enough to instantly determine the winner. The spearhead blurred as he randomly thrust it at Kai. Deflecting one stab after another, the young bandit gave him no room to breathe. Leaning back, one spear thrust went too far over his head. Grabbing onto the shaft below the spearhead with his offhand, Kai held it in place long enough to slash down towards the man’s neck with his sword.

A sudden pain assaulted Kai’s mind without warning, forcing Kai to cease his attack as he clutched his head in pain. Through squinting eyes, he could see the man smirking. Kai felt the spear shaft ripped from his grip before it was once again thrust at him. Stumbling backing Kai dodged while clutching his head.

“Fucking mind mages,” he muttered. Shooting forward, he ducked under the spear. His sword slashed the mage’s legs making contact. Blood splattered from his legs, with a yell accompanied as the headache instantly vanished. Kai didn’t pause for a moment, his sword slashing into the neck of the man, he felt little resistance as he cut through bone. The head bounced for a few meters before rolling into the brush off the road. The body swayed for a second before dropping with a thump.

You have slain [Human - Foundation Level 52]

‘Vanguard has reached Foundation Level 27’

Kai took a deep breath; the battle had been tough. The stats had indeed given the young psionic mage an advantage. What surprised Kai was that even though most mind magic was a mage type skill the young man had moved like a warrior. A clumsy untrained warrior, but a warrior, nonetheless. He had clearly put stats into his physical attributes. If he hadn’t, Kai might have received something more substantial than a headache. His health was only a few points below its max, proving that the mind magic was lacking power. It had been surprising at first, but once he got used to the sudden headache, he was able to grit his way through.

Kai quickly put his newly available points from the 4 levels gained, into his stats, splitting it up so he could be more versatile for now until he found his combat style. He still chose to focus more on vitality and strength so his body would be able to handle his gravity magic like he had been cautioned to do.

Vitality: 50 (52)

Strength: 45

Dexterity: 20

Endurance: 25

Intelligence: 30

Wisdom: 25

“You knew he was a mind mage?” Kai asked his father, his tone bitter.

“Of course. I have a skill that can sense that much at least,” Octavian said.

“Couldn’t you have told me?”

“Why would I? You’re not always going to have the luxury of knowing the skills or elements of your opponent beforehand,” Octavian countered.

Kai’s anger fled from him. His father was right of course, Combat was often messy and unpredictable. More often than not, he would not have knowledge of his enemies before fighting them, monsters included. Kai had momentarily forgotten the challenge of fighting something unknown. The soft and easy life of living in the village had inadvertently dulled his hard edge when fighting for his life. It would come back to him in time.

“Are you alright son?” Octavian’s tone turned soft.

“Yea, why? He didn’t hit me”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. You just took a human life for the first time.”

Kai froze. It’s not like I can tell dad that wasn’t my first time killing someone. Furrowing his brows, Kai told his father a half-truth. “I’m fine really. I just treated him like any monster I have killed. If I didn’t kill him, then he might hurt my family or others.”

“That’s a good way to think about it. But, if you need someone to talk to about it, all you need to do is ask,” Octavian said sympathetically.

Kai stared at his father. This was his first time seeing him in this armor. He was completely outfitted in full silver-colored metal plate armor from his toes to his neck, the only thing he was lacking was a helmet at the moment. His hands, arms, and legs were all covered. On his chest was a crest of a pair of wings with two swords crossing each other in the middle. Red streaks ran down his pristine-looking armor, signifying he had killed a few people during the battle.

“Have– Have you killed a lot of people dad?” Kai asked, his tone hesitant.

“Yes... And no. I’ve killed plenty in my short time alive. But compared to others, I haven’t killed many. I’ve done what has been required of me.” Octavian’s armor melted off his body, turning into liquid metal until it formed into a ball in front of him. The ball spun until the blood had vanished from its surface. After which it touched his chest and began spreading out over his body, until his armor formed once again, this time without the color red.

Standing before him, his father placed both his hands on Kai’s shoulders, his eyes were full of empathy. “Let me tell you what my father told me after my first kill,” he said, “The laws of these worlds state that only the fittest shall survive. The weak shall become the foundation for the strong. Only those who accept killing and embrace it will survive and prosper. But one must not stand shoulder to shoulder only with death, else they lose themselves.” Giving his son a pat on the shoulder, Octavian turned and began heading back to the carriage.