FIVE MONTHS LATER
A group of men were drinking around a fire.
"I knew that was a tough job, but I still can't believe that only a tenth of our group survived," One of the men spoke.
He had a completely dishevelled appearance with yellowed teeth and an eyepatch.
"KEHEHEHE! Why are you complaining? That just means more dough for the rest of us!" Another man laughed with a maniacal grin. He looked like a walking corpse, as he was so skinny that you could even see the outline of his bones in some areas.
"Heh, your right! We'll have enough money to spend the rest of our lives drinking booze and screwing whores! Who the fuck would care about those dead idiots!" The earlier man responded.
The skinny man turned to the buff man who was drinking ale straight out of the barrel. The man had an air of leadership mixed in with his intimidating aura.
"Boss Zalcon, how much further until we reach the client? It was some duke, right? 'Khaler' or something?"
Zalcon put down his barrel and wiped his mouth with his hand and belched audibly.
"The client's name was Duke Rhaler, don't know what they want with the kid, but the job was to kidnap them and bring them to him."
Zalcon pointed to a cage where a young boy was huddling in the corner fearfully.
The boy had a sunken complexion and his eyes looked devoid of life. It was as if the boy had given up living entirely.
He knew what fate awaited him, but the men who kidnapped him didn't even let him kill himself.
When he tried to bite off his tongue, they used a healing potion to keep him alive and shoved a piece of dirty cloth in his mouth to prevent him from trying it again.
Not after beating him up for his little stunt as well as taking out their anger on him for wasting a precious healing potion.
Healing potions were a form of elixirs that served to heal injuries rather than increase one's magic circle. However, like elixirs, they tended to be quite expensive depending on the grading.
Having to spend a healing potion just to keep their cargo alive served to piss the entire bandit group off. Ensuring that the youth's treatment would not be the best.
After beating him up, they let him starve for a while, resulting in him losing a great deal of weight.
'Someone please just kill me… I don't even care enough to be saved anymore, please just let it all end.' the boy thought to himself.
Suddenly the man with the eyepatch fell backwards while clutching his throat while making gagging noises.
White froth was forming around his mouth as he began thrashing wildly on the ground.
"Hey, you ok there Konas?" The thin man asked.
He didn't particularly care if Konas lived or died, but instead, he was more concerned with what had happened to him than anything.
"URGGGHH"
Another man fell over and began clawing his throat while also foaming at the mouth.
Zalcon stood up and grabbed his sword before looking around warily.
"They've been poisoned! Prepare for an enemy attack!"
Zalcon had been a bandit for countless years and had developed an instinct that had saved his life countless times in the past.
Now that same instinct was screaming to him that this was too suspicious to be a coincidence.
Ignoring his team members that were writhing on the ground he got into a fighting position and warily surveyed his surroundings.
Zalcon himself also felt the effects of the poison acting in his body, but he was able to suppress it purely by will. Unfortunately, he was still severely weakened compared to his normal peak form.
Suddenly two jet-black skeletons rose from the ground.
"What are these black skeletons-" One of the men wheezed, before breaking into a coughing fit.
"(cough) Is it a necromancer?, but (cough) why are the skeletons black? They should (cough) be white! Something is (cough) wrong"
At this point, those who could stand had already grabbed their weapons and joined their leader by getting into a fighting position.
Contrary to everyone's predictions, the pair of pitch-black skeletons didn't attack the group of men. Instead, they attacked the firepit, bathing the campsite in the darkness of night.
Instantly all of the men felt fear and apprehension.
They tried to find their companions to stay grouped up in case they were to come in contact with their attacker.
"AHHHH!"
"NOOO!"
"HELP ME!"
Cries of terror rang out in the darkness setting everyone on edge.
"If you can cast fire or light magic! We can't do much in the dark!" Zalcon yelled.
His words dragged everyone out of their stupor.
When they cast their fire and light magic they were surprised to see a young boy with silver hair. The boy had glowing amethyst eyes and appeared to be no older than thirteen.
However, that did not take away from his ethereal beauty. He was like a divine figure that could charm both women and men alike with his otherworldly complexion.
While they stopped to admire him, they paid attention to realize that both he and his sword were drenched in blood…
The blood of their comrades to be precise.
"KEHE (cough) HEHE! Boss (cough) let's catch that boy! I feel like there are some (cough) old perverts who would pay a hefty sum for someone (cough) like him! With him and our (cough)earlier cargo, we can live the rest (cough) of our lives in luxury!" The skinny man laughed amid his coughing fit.
The Surrounding men joined and laughed with him, completely disregarding their opponent after seeing that it was just a boy. He appeared to be just as old as their 'cargo'.
Zalcon however didn't share their opinion. His danger senses were still going off after looking at the boy, and he felt that his group's fighting power had decreased significantly due to the poison that they had unknowingly ingested.
Zalcon looked at the silver-haired man who had an unsettling smile on his face and suddenly realized something.
"Where are the two skeletons?" he urgently inquired.
However, instead of his men, he heard two pained shrieks.
The two skeletons were holding swords that cleanly went through two of the bandit's chests going straight through their lungs and spilling some of their guts.
Their lungs collapsed and they couldn't breathe anymore, simply falling to the ground lifelessly.
The two skeletons chattered their jaws unsettlingly. Their display completely changed the group's outlook on the boy.
If before they treated him like a lamb that was completely under their control, now they treated him like a proper enemy.
The group was not that dense to not notice death staring at them in the face.
Zalcon looked back at the young boy
"I'll attack the boy, long-range mages back me up. Everyone else who uses a sword deal with the black skeletons."
He didn't know if the young boy was the summoner so he could not allocate everyone to attack him and ignore the skeletons. If he wasn't the summoner and they ignored the skeletons to kill the boy, they would suffer more casualties due to the skeletons.
The group's movements were incredibly sluggish due to the poison, and they could only exert around 10% of their normal strength.
The boy appeared to be unsurprised by their decisions and stood there as if waiting for Zalcon to come closer.
As Zalcon approached the boy and swung his sword, something incredibly strange happened.
The boy disappeared from his position, letting Zalcon's sword hit the air.
'Was it just an illusion?' He thought to himself.
"AHHHH"
Zalcon heard another scream suddenly ring out behind him and quickly turned around.
He saw the boy he just swung at suddenly stab his sword at one of the long-range magicians, swiftly beheading him in one stroke.
The silver-haired man still had his unnerving smile as he happily bathed in the blood of the man he killed.
It was almost as if he enjoyed it.
"I hope at least one of you can put up a decent fight"
His silver hair and piercing Amethyst eyes paired with his maniacal smile made him look terrifying to the bandits, to say the least.
In fact, Zalcon and the rest of the bandits felt an overwhelming sense of terror when witnessing this scene, and one thought went through all of their minds.
'He's a monster!'
Arvell smiled eagerly at the men who were looking at him in pure terror.
Normally these men would have been able to kill Arvell effortlessly, being that they were second and third circle mages.
However, Arvell had followed their group unnoticed for a few days now and had anticipated their hunting patterns.
He had administered a slow-acting poison to a few boar-like beasts in the vicinity that he had created using his newly acquired knowledge of plants and herbs.
After Lykos taught him about the various uses of most if not all of the plants that inhabit this world, he learned how to mix those herbs to create various poisons and remedies.
One of these poisons was the one that he'd given to the boar-like creatures.
As he had anticipated, the bandit group hunted and ate those boars, effectively transferring the poison to themselves.
Even those who hadn't eaten the boars yet had inhaled the smoke from the boars when they were being roasted, effectively poisoning them as well.
With the bandit's current condition, even a 1st circle such as Arvell would be able to kill them.