Darius sighed and rubbed his hair. There was no need to continue here then. He had come here initially to farm a bit more experience and raise his level by a little, but he had thoroughly lost his appetite for further fights after being hit with this revelation.

Darius estimated that his current level threshold might be 5 levels based on the level of the Plains Lion, so he would keep his eyes out for a level 6 enemy to test the validity of his theory.

For now, he took out a House Portal scroll and used it to return to the homestead. When in his room, he rummaged through the closet and found a nice blue cloak that could cover his entire body.

Darius immediately wore it and made sure his features were undetectable this way. Of course, there was nothing he could do about his height, but he decided that it shouldn't be much of an issue for what he was about to do next.

Darius raised his head and his hazel pupils suddenly became serpentine slits that would chill the heart of an onlooker, but such an onlooker would be rendered confused as they saw that his eyes returned to normal the next instant.

Was it a trick of the light or an illusion of sorts?

Whatever it was, Darius smiled widely as he blinked away. It was time to begin phase 3 of the plan.

.........

35 kilometers southwest, there was a mountainous ridge that overlooked a small valley. The valley was a known merchant pathway and was even used by smugglers sometimes when coming to and from one of the nearby towns.

Above this mountainous ridge, there were 21 men dressed in a mishmash of hide and leather armor that was in poor quality and smelled worse than dead animals.

They all wielded either rusty swords, axes, or greatswords that had splotches of blood all over their edges. The men were currently laughing and feasting as they sat around their campfire.

Next to them was a mess of 7 caravans laden with goods ranging from jewelry to foodstuffs. Besides the caravans were a few people, male and female, tied up in a circle as they could only watch the men around the fire eat heartily while they starved, lucky to still be alive.

The men around the fire were the Diato Bandits, one of the three biggest groups that hung around Poleria's Homestead. They focused on raiding merchant caravans that occasionally passed through these valleys in order to make a profit.

They only got a good haul like this every other month since most caravans that passed here were well defended. In fact, this one had been too. Less than an hour ago there had been more than 50 bandits alive, now slightly less than half.

However, the guards of the merchant group had perished first and they could always recruit more cutthroats from the smaller, struggling bandit groups around.

They also kept captives for ransom, which was why they had killed anyone that looked common and reserved those who looked important as hostages. Right now, they held 7 hostages, 3 females and 4 males, all of them wearing fine attires that showed status and a good background.

They fearfully watched the Diato Bandits revel in their heist, which was technically an insult to them, but what could they do? The females especially were subdued as they had heard the stories about what bandits would usually do to captive women, and tried to make themselves as invisible as possible.

While the bandits reveled in their joy, they did not notice a cloaked figure suddenly appear near their camp. This cloaked figure sat down to recover his mana as he listened in on the conversation the bandits were having.

He spent his time assessing the location in total as well as 28 people. He quickly ignored the hostages as Darius had no interest in them. Taking any of them under his brand would be even more problematic than the villagers of Poleria's Homestead due to their backgrounds.

Once Darius' mana climbed above 250 points, he blinked into the midst of the bandits. It took the group a whole 10 seconds to even notice he was there as their chatter abruptly died down, replaced by shock, confusion, and awe.

Darius sat there quietly, a cloaked figure that one could not tell the features of. The only thing one could barely make out were hazel colored eyes that roved the group lightly and callously.

"The Diato Bandit Group. Led by Diato, ex-mercenary under the guild and his two vices, Kevin, dishonorably discharged footsoldier and Jorge, wanted thief and fledgling assassin."

Darius looked around. "Supposedly made up of more than 50 men, but seeing your current numbers, this must have been quite a battle. Less than half remaining means that your group must've faced at least 20 opposing guards with one of them at the Journeyman stage."

Darius's eyes then landed on the trio he had named, the leaders of this group. "With your three leaders at the pinnacle of the Amateur stage, they likely had to team up to handle the Journeyman guard, while the rest struggled to deal with their better-trained opposition."

Darius's eyes landed on the lovely ruby dagger by the side of Diato. "The thing that saved the day must have been the two vices creating a distraction while your leader used his Cursed Dagger to inflict a curse upon your foe."

The more Darius spoke, the more the bandits around the fire felt chills in their hearts. From his appearance to his sudden monologue, everything was eerie as hell. It was as if he had been there with them as they raised the caravans… for his assessments had been completely on point!

Eventually, Diato spoke in a heavy voice that tried to cover his fear. "And who are you? What do you want?"

Darius smiled but none of them could see it, obviously. Instead, he raised a single finger, making the sign for 'one' as he said: "As for me, I am nobody of interest. As for what I want from you…"

Darius' upraised finger suddenly doubled as he added his middle finger, but caught between the two digits was a Gold Ando Coin that shimmered in the light of the campfire.

"Attack the Poleria Homestead and slaughter everyone there."