Chapter 11: Cliché-san Strikes Again (this time it's bandits)"Zhao Linghua!"

  "Yes, master!"

  "Are you done preparing the camp?"

  "Yes, master!"

  "Then come here."

  "Yes, master!"

  Taking out a bag from my subspace, I threw it towards her. She caught it and opened it before her eyes widened in surprise.

  "Master, are these...?"

  "Yes, it's purified low-grade Magic Stones. They should be enough for you to break through."

  I had purified them myself. Normally that would be a herculean task, but for somebody with as pure mana as mine, it was as simple as sweeping the floor. My pure mana just pushed out the impurities within the stone.

  "May I ask why?"

  "I don't wanna enter the secret realm without you."

  Frankly, it was just my desire to show off in front of somebody in the secret realm, but she didn't need to know that.

  "Practice during your free time."

  "Yes, master."

  We were currently camping after having departed that morning. I had allowed her to say goodbye (and maybe take a bit of travel allowance) before we started the journey. I had estimated the journey to take three days and the first day was now almost over.

  {An interactive map of the world created based on my memories is in front of me.}

  Looking at our progress on the map magic I created one day, it seemed like we had travelled twenty kilometres. Since Linghua City was apparently forty kilometres away, we had travelled more than expected.

  The next day, we resumed our journey and soon I could see some humans on the minimap, that I created with:

  {A minimap that shows my surroundings in a one-kilometre radius from the bird view is in the bottom left corner of my sight.

  The minimap will show beings as elongated triangles, that point towards where they look. I'm a light green arrow, allies will be dark green arrows. Everyone else will be a red arrow. They will have numbers above them that show the amount of cores they have.

  The minimap will always point towards the north.}

  This was a long spell and it took quite a bit of Mana. That's why I typically used only a ten-meter radius when staying still. Only when travelling, did I make it have a one-hundred-meter radius.

  Nevertheless, even with a one-hundred-meter radius, my Mana regeneration barely outdid the consumption.

  Back to the humans. Considering they hid in the forest around the way and were looking toward the way, I could deduce that they were bandits. But looking above their arrows, I saw something peculiar.

  And so I had an idea.

  "I have some things to take care of in this forest. You continue. I'll catch up when I'm done.", I told her before promptly jumping into the bushes.

  Zhao Linghua pov:

  Seeing Master jump in the bushes, I'm surprised for a bit, before I continue running on the way. Whatever he has to do in this forest has nothing to do with me.

  Soon I sense a few presences on the road, or rather hiding beside the road. I instantly know it's bandits. They have one two-core and five one-core bandits. The other twelve haven't formed a core yet.

  I decide to catch them off guard and thus jump into the bushes. Sneakely approaching one of the one-cores from behind, I cut off his head with a clean slice using a knife I always carry with me.

  *thud*

  Catching the body to prevent the sound of it falling from making the others wary, I'm unable to catch the head as well. Luckily the leaves dampen its fall.

  Soon I'm behind another one-core bandit. Deciding to learn from my previous mistake, this time I just stab the knife into the side of the neck and shortly after the bandit breathes its st.

  I continue killing bandits and soon I get rid of six of the remaining sixteen bandits. After killing all the one-core bandits, I opted to go for the zero-core bandits. I wasn't sure I could kill the two-core bandit, that I presumed to be the leader, without alerting anyone.

  Then I hear a scream.

  "We're under attack!!!"

  Seems like one of the bandits had found a body. Knowing they're under attack, they move together to form a circle and thus get rid of all blind spots.

  Judging that a sneak attack won't work anymore, I opt for a frontal assault. Charging with my fastest speed, I attack the side opposite to the leader, cleanly slicing the off heads of two bandits. Then I dodge a longsword by jumping to the left.

  "You bitch die!"

  While shouting vulgar words, the leader continues attacking me with his longsword. By now, the other bandits understand that they have no way of interfering with our fight.

  I dodge all of the leader's attacks, searching for an opening to exploit. Shortly after, my chance comes. He makes his swing a bit too big, allowing me to close in and swoop his head off.

  Then I go after the other bandits. They try to flee, but there is no way a zero-core can outspeed a two-core. Even more so when the two-core is nearly a three-core.

  Shortly before I can kill the st bandit, however, both my and the bandit's body stop. I recognize the sensation instantly.

  "Master!"

  Then a fist nds squarely on my head.

  "Why, master?", I ask with a teary-eyed face.

  I thought Master would be proud of me. Instead, I got a bump on the head.

  By the way, the reason I can be so pyful with Master is, that on the journey I found out that he isn't as bad as I thought he would be.

  He would even answer most of my questions.

  "Do you not think at all?"

  "Huh?"

  I cocked my head.

  "Did you never ever think about the fact that they may only be disguised as bandits? Think carefully. Why would a two-core become a bandit?"

  "I don't know."

  "Exactly. It's highly unlikely that he's just here to rob people. Instead, he's probably not even a bandit at all. He's probably just pying Bandit for some other purpose."

  "Oh!"

  "Now let's find out why they are here."

  Saying that Master turns toward the only still-alive bandit.