Hideki was put in charge of scouting ahead to watch for monsters as they continued to travel. Luckily, they didn't run into any more trouble of the giant snake variety. Hideki had dispatched several low level monsters here and there throughout the day, but nothing that provided noteworthy amounts of experience. It was hard to believe that he was the same person he had been just a few weeks ago when this all started. His combat capabilities were off the charts compared to what he could have done before he got stuck with the necromancer.

I have no freedom and she tortures me all the time, but I have to find the silver lining in all this shit somehow or I'll lose the only thing I do have going for me; my sanity. He was given quite a bit of freedom now that they were out of town and she let him range pretty far ahead on his own. It reminded him of the months he had spent when he first started adventuring. He had been tasked with doing the lowest quests available such as fetching materials for his superiors, and exterminating the Were-Hares out in the fields around Northpost. He pulled himself out of thought and made sure to pay attention to his surroundings. He definitely didn't want to be ambushed by some high level monster without support.

They were now firmly high enough into the mountains that they were walking through the clouds. He couldn't see very far ahead and decided that it was time to head back to Megumi. Just as he turned around, he heard the sound of screams in the distance. His instincts told him that the should run to the source of the screams and offer aid, but he wasn't allowed the freedom to go that far ahead. He cursed inside his head and his body started making its way back to Megumi against his will.

She must've heard that as well. Knowing that bitch, she's probably going to make me partake in the killing of those innocents! A few minutes later and he was back at Megumi's side. "Poro-tan, did you see what's going on up there? Megu heard screams."

He shook his head. "You called me back here before I could go check it out."

"We will go see what it is together. It might be another one of those snake beasts. Megu would rather avoid fighting another one of those if she can for now." This was one point that he somewhat agreed with. That snake had been seriously bad news. Still, they managed to come out on top without any major wounds.

The two of them went off the road and followed it from cover. A few minutes later they saw a cluster of farm houses that were all burning. As they continued to get closer they were able to see more details of what was happening. This was no monster attack. There were people lined up on the ground in front of their burning homes as armed men indiscriminately slaughtered them one by one. Half the people down there are children! Those fucking animals!

Hideki itched to go down and dispense the justice that people like that deserved, but he didn't have the freedom to do so. Come on, you fucking monster bitch, don't you have any kind of shriveled heart within that small chest of yours?! Hideki turned to her to plead for the chance to go down and fight, and to his surprise when he looked at her he spotted a stray tear run down her left cheek.

She wiped it away quickly and gave him an angry look as though he was intruding into something personal. "Poro-tan. We're going to kill every last one of them."

"That's the best fucking idea you've ever had!"

They were still a small distance from the group of farmers who were being summarily executed, but if they hurried, hopefully they could save a few of them. Hideki ran with every ounce of speed that he had in him, but he wasn't fast enough. When they arrived on the scene there were only two people left.

Corpses littered the ground and a little girl, maybe five years old, held tightly onto her mother wailing. The woman was begging for the life of her child, but the man in front simply said, "You should have thought of that before you idiots tried hiring an adventurer to save you from Tivor instead of finding a way to pay up. Now you all have to be made into examples." He ran her through without another word.

The girl sobbed and clutched the corpse of her mother. Hideki rushed in just before the man's blade could come down to finish the final survivor and parried the blow. "You fucking animals! Every single one of you is going to die. Right now!"

The twenty or so bandits looked at him with amusement. "You and what army, kid? That girl that's with you is hardly going to be any help. You two should have kept your noses out of this."

The man who spoke came in swinging and Hideki easily parried the blows. With his current sword mastery, he was clearly a far better swordsman than his opponent. For once he let himself relish in the fact that he was about to slaughter some people. He knocked the man's blade free of his hand and stabbed him squarely in the chest.

Four more of the bandits charged in and surrounded him, but they didn't know that Megumi was far from a helpless child. They're about to learn a very important lesson: never judge a book by its cover. Megumi had armed herself and the first man he had killed was now back on his feet. A look of horror and shock covered the faces of the people he now faced.

Hideki took the opening and cut down two more of the weaklings, who promptly joined his side of the fight. A few of the men had crossbows and fired bolts in his direction. One landed squarely in his abdomen, piercing his armor. It did a small amount of damage, but wasn't anything that could even slow him down in his current state of mind.

Recklessly he charged into the group of armed men and used Tiger Style to cut them down one after another. Moments later he heard the sound of corpses exploding behind him. Megumi was probably having a grand time blowing these fuckers up. In what must have been only a couple minutes, there were only a handful of enemies left. They all ran away as fast as they could and hopped up on their horses. *Ding*

Congratulations! You have reached level 18!

+1 TP

Unfortunately, Hideki didn't have a way to catch up to mounted foes. They galloped off up the mountain road and out of sight. Hideki probably looked like something out of a horror story with all the blood and gore that now covered him from the fight, but he rushed over to the little girl. "I'm so sorry, little one. We couldn't save your mom."

The girl looked up with tears in her eyes and shook in fear. Megumi made him move away and went over to the girl instead and leaned down, giving her a hug. "Megu is sorry for what happened. Tell her who they are and she will make sure they never orphan a child ever again."

Hideki was extremely surprised to see this side of her. He didn't know she cared about anything or anyone in this world. Before he wouldn't have even been surprised if she had orphaned some children herself. Although, now that he thought about it, she had never killed any children before that he had seen, not even in Whitegrove.

"The bad men come from up the mountains. They come and make us give them things. We couldn't pay so we tried to get help... and then.... and then..." the girl cut off in a fit of sobbing.

"Do you have anyone who can take care of you? Megu will help you get there."

"M-My auntie S-Saria is in Riv...ean," she replied.

"You can come with us. Megu and Poro-tan will protect you."

The girl looked up at Megumi and then to him. "I don't want to leave mommy!"

A twisted look of anguish appeared on Megumi's face. "Megu understands... but all you can do is move on. Someday maybe you can grow strong and get revenge. Will you come with us?"

After a long while of trying to convince the girl, whose name was Tara, they finally succeeded. In another rare act of kindness from Megumi, she had the undead bandits bury the dead farmers. It took a couple hours, but when it was all said and done there were fifteen freshly plotted graves with markers. Afterward she cast that weird blood spell on every one of the undead before dismissing them.

"You are good guys." the girl said solemnly as she sat down on her mother's grave.

Megumi knelt down next to her. "We aren't good guys. Even so, Megu can't stand to see things like this happen. Let's go, Tara, Poro-tan." The three unlikely companions left the burial site and continued up the winding road once more.

Spoiler: Poro-tan's Stats Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 018 (14,317/15,860 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 710/850 MP 50/50 TP 1 Adventurer Rank C Attributes Vitality 30 Magic 3 Endurance 25 Magic Resistance 7 Strength 22 Luck 7 Agility 15 Dexterity 16 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 3 (+30 HP regeneration/min)

• Sword Mastery - Level 5 (+50% proficiency with swords)

• Tiger Style - Level 1

• Turtle Style - Level 2

• Stalwart - Level 1 (+5% natural defense)

• Fortify Health - Level 2 (+100 HP) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)

• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade) Spoiler: Megumi's Stats Name Megumi Level 020 (21,347/21,911 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 400/400 MP 800/850 TP 2 Villain Rank C Attributes Vitality 16 Magic 61 Endurance 9 Magic Resistance 43 Strength 5 Luck 15 Agility 8 Dexterity 9 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 4 (+120 MP regeneration/min) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 10 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 10% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims)

• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 6 - (+60% damage from explosion)

• Corpse Absorption (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)

• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)

• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1)

• Soul Trap Mastery - Level 1 (+1 to all stats of Summoned Soul)

• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 1 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)

• Magic Skin - Level 1 (Actively consumes MP to negate physical and magical damage. Higher levels lower the MP cost)

• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 11 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)