Chapter 6: Bandits provide good leveling experience
The seven bandits sat in their simple hideout, drinking the alcohol that they'd stolen from their victims today.
「Today's haul was pretty good, wasn't it?」
「Yeah, if we take it to the village everyone else will be happy as well.」
It looked as if they were farmers sharing a drink after finishing their work in the fields, but they were definitely bandits.
The proof of that was the fact that the wine that they were drinking was taken from merchants who had been too stingy to hire adventurers to escort them, along with their lives.
Their equipment was old; their leather armor had numerous patches where they had been previously repaired and their weapons consisted of handmade spears, woodcutting hatchets, bows and arrows - they were incredibly poorly equipped. In addition, they hadn't received any formal training; if you looked at it one way, their method of fighting came from experience in real battle and brawls. If you looked at it another way, they were just a group of people who merely swung their weapons around.
In fact, most of their jobs were Farmer, so they hadn't received training for battle. The reason that they were bandits was their poverty.
The young men from a village that had become poor for to various reasons had left the village to commit crimes. Such cases were not rare in Lambda.
「Well then, I suppose someone should stand watch so we can sleep.」
The bandits' base simply consisted of several tents put up in a meadow with long grass, in a spot where they had cleared some of the grass away. They did have a lookout tower, but they didn't seem to have any intentions of using it.
In fact, there was nothing in this meadow but wild deer, so they were safe as long as they kept a fire lit. The reason they still kept watch is because sometimes a stray Goblin came to attack.
But even such a Goblin would scream loudly as it approached them, so they had little motivation to stand guard.
That was why they had no way of knowing if any enemy were to approach them quietly, concealing the sound of their footsteps.
「Hic, I've drank a little too much - UOH?」
The bandit on watch who had apparently drank too much wine was snatched up by Bone Bear's paw that had risen up from the wall of grass and disappeared.
Muffled sounds came from inside the tents, but nobody came out. Instead, Bone Man, Bone Monkey and Bone Wolf with Bone Bird on his back emerged from the long grass.
And behind them was Vandalieu.
「There are six left. Finish them quickly.」
The air was filled with the sound of rattling bones.
The bandits never returned to their village.
For Vandalieu, finding the hiding place of bandits was easier the more atrocious their crimes were, as he could use the spirits of their dead victims as sources of information.
The victims who were attacked by their bandits and had not only their belongings taken, but also their lives. Their regret and hatred towards their assailants was fierce, and having bugs find the spirits was a simple task.
Even if the spirits were far away, he could use the[Spirit Communication]technique to summon them to hear what they had to say.
And then he would send out the Undead using the information he got from the spirits, and the hideouts would be found within a few days.
With this method, Vandalieu had already found four groups of bandits operating in the area around Baronet Bestero's territory.
After finding them, he continued to gather information such as how many of them there were and how they were armed. The villager bandits that he had attacked today were the smallest, most poorly equipped group out of the four.
「Nice, the training's successful. Good work, everyone.」
Vandalieu was emotionless as he confirmed that the bandit group had been exterminated, but he was in a good mood as he praised the Undead.
Of course, the Undead, being made of only bones, were unable to smile, but the blue glow in their sockets seemed to flicker in happiness. Their MVP was Bone Bear, who had killed the one on lookout duty with a bear hug and then buried another bandit with his claws.
Bone Man had stabbed two of them to death with his dagger, and Bone Monkey and Bone Wolf had taken one each, strangling and biting them to death.
「Err, it'll be fine. You'll be able to fly soon!」
Bone Bird was the only one to be depressed. Vandalieu had made a Golem of the earth and buried one of the bandits from the neck down, and Bone Bird had defeated this bandit by diligently stabbing him with its beak repeatedly.
With only one wing, it was just a burden, but there was no helping it. Bone Bird couldn't fly.
It was obvious that wings made of only bones and no feathers would not be able to fly.
「If you keep gathering experience and rank up again, you'll definitely be able to fly. Believe in yourself!」
As Vandalieu encouraged Bone Bird, it flapped its wings with a rattle to express its happiness, as if to say that it would try its best.
After looking at Bone Bird happily and giving it a pat on its skull, Vandalieu examined the treasure that the bandits had gathered.
The first thing that caught his eye was the wagon with three barrels of wine still left in it. They were the leftovers of what the bandits had been drinking.
Evbejia prided itself on its wine, so it was probably of reasonably high quality.
「… I wonder if there's anything else.」
But to a one-year-old, it held less value than water. He had no way of selling it for money and his companions were all made of bones, so it was completely useless. At best, he could perhaps use it for cooking.
No, it was probably possible for him to drink it. Even as a one-year-old, Vandalieu possessed the Status Effect Resistance skill at level 3, so he would likely not become drunk unless he consumed a very large quantity of it.
『No~♪ You can't drink alcohol at the age of one. What if you become a drunkard later in life?』
However, his guardian would not allow it, so he decided not to drink it.
「Well, I might as well take at least one barrel back. There's even a wagon for it. And next is -」
Vandalieu searched around the wagon and inside the tents, but concluded that they were「completely broke」compared to normal adventurers or soldiers. They had apparently stolen cloth purses from the merchants who had normally stored copper and silver coins in them, but there was a whole pile of pouches filled with only seeds and oats that would normally be fed to pets and livestock on Earth. There were some dried river fish. The rest were items for the bandits' daily necessities.
The special feature was perhaps the vase filled with about five kilograms of salt.
It was a considerably meagre treasure, but perhaps that was to be expected. They were merely seven men that were normally farmers.
They would have been unable to aim for targets with a larger payout - the kind that would hire adventurers as escorts.
But for Vandalieu, it was a decent harvest in its own way.
「This is a great result. I was getting sick of eating only meat and blood, and the salt that Mom had ran out ages ago. And I'm glad I got my hands on some cloth.」
Vandalieu's lifestyle up until now had been sustained through hunting the deer in the forest. Darcia's emergency stores of wheat, cheese, vegetables and salt had been used up relatively quickly after her death. In the first place, it was only one person's worth and it was for the journey that she had been planning, so it was only an amount that she would have been able to carry.
And as Vandalieu developed, the amount that he ate also increased.
It would be problematic to use blood for all of his dietary needs, and if he became too much like a vampire, he would become weak to the sun so that would be problematic. That was why he wanted to eat normal food as well. But meat that was simply cooked after having its blood extracted was dull as well and there were times when he could only get his hands on the meat of raccoons and foxes and such, whose meat was not tasty. Though it was much better than the times he only had Goblin meat available.
The clothes he was wearing were not really clothes, but furs that he had wrapped around himself.
He was like a barbarian child.
「If I use the bandits' spare clothes, I might be able to make proper clothes for myself. There's also money, but… well, will I get a chance to use it?」
The Amid was the currency of the Amid Empire and its countries. One Amid was worth about a hundred yen on Earth. There was a half-Amid copper coin, a one-Amid copper coin, a ten-amid copper coin, a 100-Amid silver coin, a 1,000-Amid gold coin and a 10,000-Amid platinum coin.
In addition, there was apparently also paper money used only by wealthy merchants and nobles, notes worth 100,000 Amid and 1,000,000 Amid. To be more accurate, they may not be actual notes, but something like handwritten government bonds.
The bandits had saved up about 1,000 Amid, about twice the monthly income of a worker living in an urban area.
But if Vandalieu were to enter a town, guards or adventurers would kill him without any questions asked, so it was doubtful whether he would get a chance to use it.
However, it might be possible to exchange it after moving to another country, so he decided to keep it.
「Hmm? What's this pouch?」
He realized that there was another leather pouch beneath the pouches containing the money. It was light and something clinked around inside softly when he moved it.
He untied the string and looked inside to see two transparent, colored stones inside. They looked like some kind of gem, but they were not very pretty.
「Mom, do you know what this is?」
『These are Magic Stones. You can collect them from monsters, and from this size and color, I think they're from Goblins. If I remember correctly, they sell for ten Amid each.』
The Mana in monsters' bodies crystallized in the moment they died, and the Magic Stones were apparently the result of that. They were used as ingredients in various magical items and spiritual medicines such as potions, or used as sources of power for even normal people with low Mana to use magical items.
If used as sources of power in this way, they became normal stones after the Mana they contained was depleted, so they were consumable items. But with alchemical refining, Mana could be imbued into the stones again, so they could be used over and over.
Nobody would bother refining the Magic Stones of Goblins and they would be used as disposable items, which was why their value was low.
『Incidentally, it's more common for low-rank monsters to not even drop Magic Stones when they die. The probability for a Rank 1 monster to drop one is about one in a hundred. On the other hand, higher-rank monsters are almost certain to drop Magic Stones when they die. Rank 5 monsters and above will definitely drop them.』
Incidentally, Darcia had apparently thought it pointless to tell Vandalieu about Magic Stones earlier because he had been fighting nothing but a few Rank 1 Goblins at a time.
Also, it seemed that there were some low-rank monsters that easily dropped Magic Stones, and also monsters that dropped Magic Stones of far higher quality than their original rank. But to Vandalieu, who was focusing on hunting bandits for now, this was all just information for future reference.
He wanted to register with an Adventurer's Guild and become an adventurer as soon as possible.
「Finally, let's check the status of Bone Man… Oh, just by killing two of those weak Bandits, you've gained thirty levels. You too, Bone Bear. The rest of you too. Just by killing a single man each, you've gained more than 10 levels!」
Just by ambushing and killing one or two bandits that had failed as farmers and couldn't even fight properly, their levels had risen this much. The amount of experience they got from Goblins or the monsters in the forest couldn't even be compared to this amount.
If this applied to not just the Undead but all monsters, than that meant that humans were a very good source of experience of the monsters. It would also explain why monsters were so aggressive against humans.
「Alright, I'll wipe out all the Bandits in this area and increase everyone's levels.」
After seeing this explosive increase in level, he couldn't go back to hunting small monsters.
There were still many Bandit groups left in the area around Baronet Bestero's territory. One of them had the same number of people as the one they had killed today, one of them had more than ten people, while another one had around twenty.
The Undead would surely reach Rank 3 after they were all exterminated.
『Since you were able to kill us, the guys to the south will be a piece of cake.』
『The guys west of here are from three villages over. They have a lot of people, but it should still be easy.』
『But the guys up north are professional bandits. Their leader was apparently a guard in some city, and I've heard that he's gathered himself a bunch of strong underlings. They extorted some money out of us as well.』
While learning some information from the spirits of the dead bandits, Vandalieu used the Earth Golem to bury their bodies. After loading up their loot on the wagon, Vandalieu left, leaving the tragic scene behind him.
Around a month had passed since Vandalieu's first Birthday. It was the season in which he had to get rid of mosquitoes every evening using[Bug Killer], and he was finally ready to take on the largest and most highly-trained bandit group in Baronet Bestero's territory. They moved while making sure no travelers or guard patrols on the highway found them and trained in forests or in areas with high, thick grass to polish their skills.
「Our opponents are in a different league from the bandits we've been killing up till now. Their leader is a ex-soldier, and his subordinates have been trained under him to some extent. In other words, we can't just raise our weapons and scare the enemy, we actually have to『fight』them.」
「Oooooooooh~」
「Gurururuuuuu~」
The Undead listening to Vandalieu literally had fires of determination burning in their eye sockets. Because of the experience they had earned from killing all the bandits, Bone Man had increased his rank to become a Skeleton Solider, while Bone Monkey, Bone Bear and Bone Wolf had become Bone Beasts.
They had also gained the skill[Superhuman Strength]and, perhaps because they had been killing bandits by ambushing them, they had also gained[Silent Steps.]When this skill was used, the sounds of their bones hitting and grinding against each other completely disappeared. In addition, Bone Man had gained the skills [Swordsmanship], [Archery] and [Shield Technique.]
They were all still level 1 skills, but the results were pretty good considering that they had obtained them after fighting in practice battles against golems for a month.
「…」
Bone Bird, however, was still at Rank 2. But it was at Level 90, and if today's plan went well, it would also rank up.
「That's why we need to be extra careful today. We have a lot of spare bones for you, but make sure your skulls are not damaged or broken. Also, if there are any humans that don't look like bandits… For example, humans that are tied up with rope or humans that are in cages, don't kill them. Lastly, we'll begin the plan as soon as I cast the support magic.」
Speaking in his usual indifferent tone and expressionless face, Vandalieu didn't show his internal nervousness at all as he cast the spells.
「First,[Bloodshed Enhancement]to their weapons, fangs and claws. Then[Energy Absorption]to their armor and bones.」
[Bloodshed Enhancement] was a magic spell that boosted the attack power of whatever it was cast on; even shields and armor could damage the enemy if they came in contact with them.
[Energy Absorption] was a defensive spell that could absorb magic, heat, electricity and even motion energy, and in Lambda it was effective against both magical and physical attacks.
Both of these spells had very strong effects, but since both were not that hard to use with the Death Attribute, mastering them was easy for Vandalieu.
「Ooooh…」
The first to move among the Undead surrounded by dark blue magic was Bone Man. He headed towards observation tower the bandits' base - a small gathering of simple huts surrounded by a wooden fence - loading an arrow into the bow taken from Orbie and his companions and pulling back the string.
The bandits in the observation tower were holding bows with quivers on their backs and seemed completely unmotivated.
「Man, we're really unlucky. Getting guard duty on the day before we're supposed to withdraw.」
The bandits were planning to take all that they had earned up till now and move to a new location. They were planning to pick up the ransom money for the hostages along the way and then go on to a new territory or even a new country, and start their jobs as bandits all over again.
Other bandit groups had been disappearing lately and they had heard rumours that a Lord had become fed up with the deterioration of public order on the highway and put together a subjugation team. If that was the case, then it really was time to leave.
They had decided to get rid of things that would get in the way of traveling, and were in the middle of a party to consume all of the excess food and liquor they had in one go.
These bandits were the unlucky ones that were unable to participate in the party, and they were too distracted by their own misfortune to notice anything.
「Gahhh!?」
Bone Man's arrow cut through the night and buried itself in one of their throats. Letting out a short scream, he lost his balance and fell from the tower.
Seeing one of their own guards fall down with a arrow in his neck, the bandits that had been drunk and enjoying themselves woke up from their stupor.
「Enemy attack!」
「Wake up, you bastards! Get your weapons!」
As they bandits tried pick up their axes, maces and spears…
「Guwoooon!」
「Uooooooooh, uooooooh!」
Destroying the wooden fence and scattering splinters all over the place, Bone Monkey and Bone Bear charged in.
「It's the Undead! Monsters! We're being attacked by monsters!」
「Calm down, you idiots! Those of you specializing in axes and maces, move forward! Those who have swords and spears, fall back! Archers as well!」
The leader of the bandits calmly gave his subordinates clear instructions, a halberd in his own hands.
This man had experience fighting with Skeletons and Zombies from when he was still a soldier. He knew that his subordinates could deal with Undead effectively if they used blunt weapons like clubs or axes rather than bladed weapons like swords or spears, even if they weren't very skilled at fighting.
「A few Rank 1 or 2 monsters are no match for twenty of us! Get 'em!」
The bandits' morale that had been withering because of the sudden attack and death of one of their own was recovered thanks to the instructions from their boss. They rushed at the boorish Undead who had rained over their festivities.
「Guooooo!」
「Ghyaa!?」
A bandit that had raised his axe went flying as Bone Bear stood up on its hind legs and delivered an attack with its front paws.
With a crunch, Bone Monkey crushed a bandit's skull like an egg.
The fangs of Bone Wolf pierced the legs of the bandits, and when they fell down it ripped out their throats.
「Oooh… Oaoooooh~」
Bone Man put away his bow and drew the long sword that he had taken from the other bandits they had defeated to cut his way into the bandits' ranks.
「Hiiii!? Gyaaah!」
Bone Man against the bandits. Both sides had never received any formal training in swordsmanship, and soon Bone Man came out as the clear winner.
Their fighting skill was about the same, and the longsword that Bone Man was using was an iron sword with a crude casting. In fact, the enemy's weapons were of better quality.
However, the strength of a Rank 3 Skeleton Solider was far above that of an average human, and especially because of the [Superhuman Strength] skill, Bone Man was far stronger than the bandits.
As humans lacked physical strength and special abilities, they honed their skills and learned martial arts and magic in order to fight against monsters. A human going up against a monster while possessing the same amount of skill as the monster had no chance of winning.
「Ooooh…」
Bathed in the blood of his enemies, Bone Man shivered from the feeling of getting experience by taking a life, and wanting to earn even more, jumped at his next prey.
「Boss! These aren't Rank 2 monsters!」
「We can't handle them! Help us, boss!」
Hearing the pitiful screams of his subordinates as their number decreased, the leader clicked his tongue.
『Those useless fools! If it's come to this, I have to get away by myself.』
The bandit leader chose to run without hesitation. He didn't think about fighting the Undead for his men for even a second.
He didn't even have enough skills to even fight one-on-one with a Rank 3 or higher monster in the first place.
He had certainly been a soldier at point in his life, and even had a level 2 skill[Halberd Technique]that allowed to him to use the Halberd. But in the end, he was just an ex-security guard. According to the Adventurer's Guild, his fighting prowess was at most a E-class.
It was said that to win a fight one-on-one with a Rank 3 monster, you needed to be at least D-class.
If he made well use of his subordinates, he could defeat maybe one of the Undead. But there were four Undead. No, five.
「…」
The leader noticed Bone Bird, who was finishing off the bandits that had fallen unconsciousness by stabbing them with its beak, but considered that to be an exception.
Even if he did manage to defeat one of them, there would be no point as they would be finished off by the rest. There was no point in retaliating if there was no hope of winning.
「All of you! Don't back down, push forward!」
Giving that unreasonable order to his men, the leader himself began backing off carefully so as not to be noticed by them. He would just jump in the carriage he had taken from the merchants and run away. If he could get away, he form another bandit group.
「Get up.」
His hopes of getting away were shattered as a wooden wall grew from the ground behind him.
「Uoh?! What?! An alchemist?!」
He had heard a shrill voice like a small girl's through the dying screams of his men and the resentment filled roars of the Undead. He realized that this was the doing of the owner of the voice, and looked around for it's owner.
He found him almost immediately.
A small child stood some ways away, wearing a rag. It was easy to tell that he was a baby.
「Are you telling me this is all this kid's doing!?」
The leader's eyes opened wide, but there was no denying the child's - Vandalieu's - strangeness.
The white hair and odd-colored deep crimson and purple-blue eyes. And even on this bloodstained battlefield, the weak, ghost-like presence. If the child hadn't said anything, he could approached the bandit leader all the way up to his feet without the leader noticing.
「Are you the one controlling these Undead? I-in that case, I give up. I surrender. I'll let you have all the treasure, go ahead and hand me over to the Adventurer's Guild or wherever.」
Throwing down his Halberd, the leader put up both hands and gave up.
If he couldn't win, he would run. If he couldn't run, he'd live by giving up. Stubbornness and pride wouldn't get you even one Amid.
「Surrender?」
「Yeah, that's right.」
Forcing a smile to his face, the leader replied to Vandalieu who spoke in a flat tone.
「There's a bounty on my head. And I also have information about the other bandit groups in this area. And the half the money made from selling criminal slaves goes to your pocket. Don't you see? If you capture us alive, it's a lot more profitable for you.」
The things that the leader said were all true. This was man that was willing to sell off other people in the same trade if he was able to live.
Also, depending on the severity of their crimes, the bandits that were captured alive were sold off as criminal slaves. Most of them were overworked in mines and the army, doing odd jobs and labor. Half of the profits earned from them were not to be underestimated, and depending on the number of bandits captured alive, it could be worth even more than all the treasure that the bandits had gathered.
「… Are you an idiot, perhaps?」
But what came was an insulting reply; a baby asking about his mental capacity.
「What did you say!?」
「As you can see, I am a Dhampir. If I took you to the Adventurer's Guild to hand you over, I would just be killed. I would be dead before you could be sold as a criminal slave.」
In the Amid Empire and its countries, where the people worshipped Alda, the God of Law and Fate, Dhampirs were treated as monsters rather than people. Even if he entered the city with the intention of handing over the bandits, the guards or adventurers would prioritize dealing with the Dhampir over the bandits.
The bandit leader was not an adventurer and he was unaware of the Dhampir panic that had happened a while ago, so he was late in realizing that he was talking to a dhampir.
「Then make me one of your subordinates! I'll be really useful. Your Undead are pretty strong, but you do need one human subordinate as well, right?!」
In that moment, Vanadalieu's impression of the bandit increased slightly as he thought that he was more clever than he looked.
In fact, Vandalieu had been been feeling the same thing from quite a while back. The Undead that followed his every command. The spirits of Darcia and the others. Their presence alone could not solve the small inconveniences of his day-to-day life.
However, using the man in front of him to solve them was unthinkable.
「While it is true that I need a living companion, I don��t need a bandit who would sacrifice his men to run away. But I can make you one of my subordinates after you've died.」
Pointing at the leader that had first expressed hope and then despair, Vandalieu asked Bone Bear and the others.
「Do it.」
「Please wait! I-I don't want to die!」
「…? Wasn't it same for the people that you killed?」
This man was oblivious to many things. By the time this thought occurred to Vandalieu and he turned around to talk to the leader again, Bone Bear had already crushed his neck.
「Gu, guru?」
Crap, did I kill him too early? Bone Bear seemed to ask, but Vandalieu waved a hand to say「It's fine, it's fine」and exhaled heavily.
「Ahh, that was nerve-wracking. It was my first time talking to anyone besides Mom, so I was pretty nervous.」
He had suffered from stranger anxiety in all three worlds: Earth, Origin and Lambda. He wished that he could have avoided having this kind of face-to-face conversation in this bloodstained place.
「The smell of blood is so strong that I'm getting hungry. But I don't want to get closer to being a vampire by sucking the blood of the bandits, so I have resist. Resist… For now, I'll check if there are any survivors.[Sense Life.]」
To distract himself from his hunger caused by the smell of blood, he used a death-attribute spell that detected all the life in the vicinity.
Ignoring the reaction from bugs, weeds, germs and fungi, he searched for reactions from animals, humans containing magic or large monsters.
There were… three large animals behind the large hut, probably horses. There was also a reaction from the basement of the hut. From the reaction, it was human.
He had heard from the spirits that the number of bandits had been nineteen. The number of corpses was also nineteen.
「There's someone in the basement of the hut, is it a new guy?」
『No, that one is not my subordinate. It's a peddler I caught a few days ago. Ugeh. I let him live because it seems like he has a family business or something in a town over in Viscount Maggio's domain, and ransom money can be Expected. My Neck.』
Because of the shock and fear he had received at the time of his death, the neck of bandit leader's spirit was still twisted. Vandalieu wrinkled his eyebrows as he processed the information he had given.
Things had become a little troublesome.
Name: Bone Man.
Rank: 3.
Race: Skeleton Soldier.
Level: 39.
Passive skills:
Dark Vision.
Superhuman Strength: Level 1 (NEW!)
Active Skills:
Swordsmanship: Level 1 (NEW!).
Shield Technique: Level 1 (NEW!).
Archery: Level 1 (NEW!).
Silent Steps: Level 1 (NEW!)
Name: Bone Monkey/Bone Wolf/Bone Bear/Bone Bird.
Rank: 3.
Race: Bone Beast.
Level: 24~32.
Passive skills:
Dark Vision.
Superhuman Strength: Level 1 (NEW!)
Active Skills:
Silent Steps: Level 1 (NEW!)
Chapter 7: Unlasting revenge complete, now, work hard
The merchant Rudy considered himself to be blessed.
As the third-born son of Viscount Maggio's noble merchant family, he couldn't inherit the household, but he had been raised without suffering discrimination at the hands of his parents and two older brothers. He had received the same high-level education as the first and second sons and had been prepared to become independent from an early age, as he couldn't inherit the household.
And so once he became an adult, Rudy began to gather experience as a merchant. He had received a one-off support fund from his family to become independent and had experienced various hardships to get to where he was today.
This was now his third year as a merchant. His business had succeeded to a point where he was deciding whether he should use the money he had saved to buy a carriage and invite other merchants to form a caravan, or settle down somewhere and open his own store.
However, Rudy had been captured several days ago and thought his luck had run out.
He had hired E-class adventurers as escorts, but they had been killed by the sheer numbers of a bandit group with twenty members. He regretted not hiring more escorts, but it was too late now.
He had his goods and money taken, and when his life was next, the words he had shouted were「My family will pay a ransom for me!」It was the worst way to beg for his life.
But dying proudly was not a merchant's job. He would cause trouble for his family, but he had to do whatever he could to survive and rebuild his business. He could repay the ransom his family had paid for him by earning more money through that business.
It would be best if a group of adventurers or knights appeared gallantly to exterminate the bandits, rescue him and return his stolen goods and money. But the world was apparently not such a nice place.
As he thought that, a sound reached the ears of Rudy, who had been living a simple lifestyle in a dark, damp dungeon.
『Has someone come underground?』
Rudy, becoming aware of the soft sounds of someone coming down the ladder, lifted his body from the crude, slightly smelly blanket to peer through the wooden bars, but it was pitch-black and he couldn't see anything.
If it were one of the bandits coming down, there should be a candle and signs of living magic. He had thought it was just his imagination, but he could hear the footsteps of someone steadily approaching.
Those footsteps stopped in front of his prison. However, in the darkness, he still couldn't see anything.
「Who is it?��
In response to his high-pitched, fearful question, a voice came from towards the ground.
「Ah, I apologize. I had not realized that it is dark down here.[Demon Fire.]」
Whoosh. A blue, fist-sized flame lit the dungeon.
「?! A Ghost?!」
Standing in front of Rudy's eyes was a small infant with disheveled white hair and candle-wax-like skin, wearing rag-like clothes.
Rudy had assumed that this lifeless-looking figure must be an Undead child that had been killed by the bandits and come back to haunt this place. He clutched his blanket tightly and began to tremble.
「… No, I am alive.」
When Rudy screamed, Vandalieu had wondered『Can this person see spirits too?』But when Vandalieu realized that it was he himself that had scared Rudy, he lowered his shoulders. He thought that Rudy shouldn't be so afraid of him when he had come down here to help, and sullenly put his own appearance out of his mind. He gathered his thoughts again and continued.
「I have taken care of all the bandits that captured you. And as you can see, I am not an adventurer, but a Dhampir.」
As Vandalieu spoke with a disinterested tone, Rudy began to gradually calm down. But he realized that his position hadn't changed for the better and his face turned pale.
「A Dhampir… so does that mean you're going to kill me?」
Dhampirs. In the country that Rudy was born and raised in, they were treated as monsters and targets of extermination. The priests of Alda in particular did not hesitate to label them as special kinds of Undead.
Therefore, it was not just a matter of Vandalieu not feeling any obligation to rescue him like an adventurer or knight would. It was highly likely that he would be silenced now that he had seen the Dhampir's face.
However, the Dhampir child before him shook his head.
「No. If you are willing to stay quiet about me, I have no intention of killing you.」
「Really?」
「Yes. You were captured once by bandits, but you succeeded in escaping during the conflict with another bandit group. Please spread that story. Please do not say a word about me to anyone.」
Rudy was only half-convinced. Though it was understandable, as from his point of view it was as if he had met a virtuous devil.
Vandalieu himself actually knew that it would be better to silence the merchant. But he had a reason for not killing Rudy if he could help it.
『I want to make my normal activity as good as possible. For the future.』
That was his simple reason.
It was fine to kill bandits for his own protection, as nobody would consider it a crime even if he were to kill every last one in all of Lambda. However, killing a pitiful victim like Rudy for his own protection would be the act of a fiend.
Vandalieu thought that this kind of behavior, even if nobody found out about it, would have a terrible influence on his own personality.
His uncle's family who had mistreated him on Earth, the terrorists who had used a bomb to blow up both themselves and the ferry, the researchers in Origin who had performed human experiments on countless humans including himself - all of these people were simply evil lunatics in Vandalieu's eyes.
He couldn't become an evil lunatic like them.
Because he hated them, he felt that he didn't want to be like them. But even more importantly, Vandalieu wished to live the happy life that he had never had a taste of on Earth or in Origin. This was to make that wish come true.
A prosperous, comfortable lifestyle and warm relations with the family and friends around him. Could an evil lunatic build and maintain such a lifestyle?
And though it was still about half a century away, one day Amemiya Hiroto and the others with cheat-like abilities would be reincarnated here. If he turned to evil, it was likely that they would purge him in the name of justice.
Because of their cheat-like abilities, Vandalieu had the feeling that even if he left no witnesses, they would somehow dig up and expose the crimes of his past. There would probably be some of them who could read a person's mind or see into the past or otherwise expose his crimes directly, and they would be very skilled with magic.
Therefore, Vandalieu wanted to avoid having to kill victims like Rudy.
「If that is all, then I understand. Since I am not an adventurer or anything.」
And fortunately, Rudy wasn't a fanatical worshipper of Alda, so he accepted Vandalieu's conditions and chose to live.
The other wise decision that Rudy made was not to look down on Vandalieu because of his age. He was fearful and careful of this child whose height did not even reach his own waist.
With that said, it was the natural response for Rudy.
Vandalieu's mature tone that didn't match his appearance and the ominous aura that he was giving off. It was clear that he was not just an infant.
With a clank, the padlock was removed with the key that the bandit leader had been holding. Now that Rudy was free, he gave a sigh of relief, but -
「Ah, if you tell anyone about me, I will send evil spirits after you. So please do not change your mind.」
With a pale face and chattering teeth, Rudy nodded in response to the threat that Vandalieu made just in case.
Rudy climbed the rope ladder to the surface and shuddered violently as he saw the bandits' corpses on the ground, the blood-covered Undead and Bone Bird who was now covered in pale, bluish-white light after increasing in rank, letting out ominous cries of joy.
And then he swore that he would definitely keep this a secret, even if he was offered a mountain of platinum coins.
Rudy drank the alcohol that the bandits had been drinking to mask his fear as he retrieved his belongings that the bandits had stolen. In addition, he had been told「I can't use living horses」so he had been given the bandits' horses. And then he tied the wagon taken from other bandits to the horses and left.
He was traveling alone with no escorts, but Vandalieu had exterminated all of the bandits that had made this area their territory, so as long as he wasn't unfortunate enough to encounter a group of Goblins, he would be able to reach his destination.
He had unexpectedly received horses, so now he would be buying a carriage, forming a caravan of merchants and expand his business, but this was irrelevant to Vandalieu.
Vandalieu spent the remaining time until daybreak to replace the chipped bones of the Undead with spare parts: the animal and human bones that he had been collecting up until now. He also played with Bone Bird, who had increased in rank and gained the ability to fly with its new spirit wings and buried the dead bandits. And then he slept soundly until noon.
He left Bone Man and the others to see Rudy off.
No matter how much of a stranger Rudy was to Vandalieu, he thought he should at least do that.
And then Vandalieu woke up and ate the bandits' leftovers for lunch.
On his menu was salted meat, bread and cheese. There were dried vegetables in place of a salad, and a soup with salted fish. For dessert, he ate fruit that he had obtained from the forest.
「Even bandits eat better than I do…」
As he ate, Vandalieu realized this and became a little depressed.
After having attacking bandits and taking their food, his dietary situation had improved significantly; he no longer had to eat the hard, smelly meat of raccoons and foxes. However, when he had tried to use the Cursed Tools and Undead cookware to cook the food, it hadn't gone well.
The Cursed Tools had been made by evil spirits possessing them and were monsters that moved on their own, but they had no strength or dexterity. Because of that, they weren't suited for cooking.
In that case, it was possible to have Bone Man do it, but the spirits inhabiting him were not that of humans, but of small animals such as insects and mice, so he didn't understand the concept of cooking. When ordered to「cut the vegetables」, he had swung his sword at the vegetables with full force, cutting straight through the chopping board.
The fact that he had learned to use a sword and bow was more than enough development for him.
As for Vandalieu himself -
『No! To be cooking when you're only one year old! What will you do if you burn yourself?!』
「But Mom, I think directly eating dried meat and burnt bread is bad for a one-year-old child's digestive system. Though I have several times the jaw strength of a regular one-year-old.」
『No means no! What will you do if you burn yourself?!』
「… I'll use water and[Heat Leech]to cool it down.」
Since the Death Attribute was the opposite of the Life Attribute, he was bad with things like healing. He did have an ability that could heal, but it was a strange one that only worked for「healing fatal wounds and serious illnesses, but not injuries that do not endanger one's life.」
If he burned his whole body, he could heal it, but if he was burned just enough to form a scar on his hand, it would be hard for Vandalieu to heal it with his current abilities.
『Then you can't!』
「Alright~」
This was probably because Darcia had thought「I have to be careful not to let him get burned while he's still a small child」while she was alive. This notion had possibly gone a little wild after her death.
But Vandalieu had only just turned one year old and his arms and legs were short. There was definitely the risk of an unexpected injury if he tried to use a pot, so Darcia wasn't wrong to warn him.
As a result, Vandalieu was now heating water using embers created by having pieces of firewood rubbing against each other, and having the Undead add broken bread and torn pieces of dried meat into it. This had become his daily meal.
The taste was… well, better than raccoon and fox meatballs.
「It's fine. Once I grow up, I'll earn a lot and hire a skilled chef to make me delicious meals every day. Err, more importantly, today's harvest is…」
First of all, there were the bandits' weapons. All of the other bandit groups that he had defeated earlier had been using handmade spears made by attaching knives to the ends of wooden sticks, and their clubs, bows and arrows were all of low quality. But this group wasn't called the biggest bandit group just for show. Every one of them had been using good weapons.
They were made with normal iron, but they weren't the inferior quality made by just pouring molten metal into a cast, no. These had been properly forged by a craftsman. And although some of of them had become chipped over time or broken by Bone Man and others in the fight, some of the bandits had been killed swiftly without the time to retaliate, so their weapons were still spotless.
The same applied to the leather armor the bandits had been wearing. Compared to the leather armor of other bandit groups, which had been repaired over and over, this was still in very good condition.
They had surely attacked the wagon of a weapons merchant previously.
There was also the treasure in the carriages. He had returned all of Rudy's belongings, but there was still a considerable amount left in the three-horse carriage.
There was about 50,000 Amid in money and a small amount of accessories, though it was hard to discern their exact value. There was also a small pile of a high-quality cloth with a pretty color and two barrels of seemingly high-quality wine. In addition, there was the sugar, which was a valuable ingredient as it was not produced in the country of Mirg.
Finally, there were the bandits' spare weapons and food.
Including the carriage, all of this was likely worth more than 200,000 Amid. It would be about 20,000,000 Japanese yen if converted, and although it was a lot of money, it was not quite enough to be called a fortune. However, looting that much money in this area where the only town around was Evbejia was quite a feat.
Though in this case, instead of praising the bandits for their skills, it might be more appropriate to blame the ineptitude of the guards.
『With that said, everything other than the food is useless for me.』
Vandalieu would still have no opportunity to spend the money, and trying his best to make clothes out of the cloth had ended in the rags he was wearing right now. As he was unable to fully utilize the treasure the bandits had gathered, his situation hadn't changed.
But Bone Man could use the weapons and armor and the leather armor could be taken apart to make defensive gear for Bone Monkey and Bone Bear.
However, with this amount of treasure, the problem was how to transport it. He had given all of the horses to Rudy and only the carriage itself remained. Even if he wanted to have his Undead to pull it, the carriage would have to be altered.
Vandalieu had an idea.
「Now then, who should I get to do it?」
As Vandalieu murmured and looked around at the spirits around him, there were not only the spirits of the bandits who had just died. To his surprise, the spirit of a thin middle-aged man whose appearance from when he was alive was preserved stepped forward.
『Please allow me, Sam! In my lifetime I held the posts of caretaker of horses and coachman for a nobleman. My skills in handling a carriage are second to none!』
It was fortunate for Vandalieu that the spirit of Sam, who had apparently handled carriages during his lifetime, had not moved on yet. The fact that his spirit had maintained his appearance from while he was alive without needing Mana supplied to him meant that he had considerable emotional strength as well.
In a way, Sam's spirit was the greatest find out of all the treasure here.
『Vandalieu-sama, you have avenged myself and my daughters! My daughters, who were treated as playthings and then killed! In our gratitude, my daughters and I will serve you for the rest of your life!』
The two spirits standing behind Sam with their heads bowed were likely those of Sam's daughters. Their burnt, black bodies were barely recognizable as those of women, so Vandalieu couldn't be certain.
The bandits had probably gone too far using them as playthings and they had become unsellable, or perhaps the bandits had no connections with any slave traders. They were likely killed for one of these two reasons.
From the fact that the spirits of the bandits were trembling as Vandalieu looked at them, this was probably correct.
「Well then, I'll leave it to you, Sam.」
Firmly deciding that he would use the bandits' spirits until they were no more, he sent Sam's spirit to the carriage.
「Get up.」
As Vandalieu gave this command and poured Mana into the carriage, it began to creak.
「… Go forth.」
And with those words, the carriage's wheels began to turn, even without the horse that was normally essential in its function. Seeing this, Vandalieu gave a satisfied nod.
「Making a Cursed Carriage with Sam, success. With this, I've gained a method of transport as well. Well then, I'll have it run Goblins over to level up on the way back to the forest.」
Two days later, the highway patrol stepped into the bandits' base after receiving the information from Rudy, but all they saw were the piles of dirt where the bandits had been buried and the beasts and Goblins that had dug them back up greedily.
Tracks made by the wheels of a carriage continued off outside, but they assumed that these were those of the bandits that had been victorious in this conflict and didn't bother investigating any further.
The commanding officer of the patrol tilted his head when he realized that there were no hoofprints accompanying the carriage's tracks, but it wasn't something worth mentioning in his report.
Baronet Bestero had been in a good mood for the past year.
After that witch had been caught and executed, only good things had been happening. Yes, the High Priest and his men had occupied the forest for the next two months and three hunters had gone missing, but those were trivial things.
Though the Dhampir's corpse had not been discovered, its death had been accepted and Bestero had received a medal from the king of Mirg. WIth that, the scorn from the feudal lords of the surrounding areas that he was merely 『the feudal lord of a countryside with no redeeming features but its wine』had been drowned out.
Even this year's wine and the grapes that were used as ingredients for it had turned out well, and the bandits that had caused headaches and threatened the public order had been dealt with near the beginning of summer.
He was a little dissatisfied that it wasn't resolved by the highway patrol, protege knights or even adventurers. But the bandit problem had been a serious one, so he was happy that it was dealt with, even though it had been done through disputes amongst the bandits themselves.
The best thing was that he had been promoted.
Though it had not been formally decided, he had received private word that he would soon be summoned to the the Amid Empire's imperial capital.
The position of Baron that his great-grandfather, the first-generation Baronet Bestero, had longed for. That would be his soon.
Knowing this, even if the liquid in his glass was not wine but vinegar, he would surely drink it happily. That was how joyful he was now.
On a humid summer night, there was a shadow prowling around outside Evbejia's outer walls.
「Go in, go in, go in.」
Vandalieu was followed by countless spirits, and he began to have them possess the outer wall one by one.
Even if someone were to see Vandalieu now, they would have no idea what he was doing. Unless one had an aptitude for death-attribute magic or was a Necromancer, they wouldn't be able to see spirits that had not turned into monsters and Undead.
The guards might have shot arrows at him if they saw him, but their job was to prevent monsters and criminals trying to enter the town over the outer walls. It was not their job to deal with monsters and criminals that appeared outside the walls at night. Their attention was focused on the gates and the areas surrounding them.
The chances of them spotting an infant moving around some distance away from the outer walls without even holding any source of light were incredibly low.
It would be possible for adventurers or experienced knights with a Mana Detection skill to notice him. However, though Vandalieu himself was not aware of this, his Mana was difficult for others to sense due to his aptitude for the death-attribute magic.
Therefore, a person with a level 1 or 2 Mana Detection skill wouldn't be able to sense his magic, even if he were to cast a magic right in front of their eyes.
Even with a level 3 or higher skill, it would be impossible without great concentration, but because there were no Devil's Nests with strong monsters around Evbejia, it's Adventurers' Guild's members were D-class at best, so there were none with a level 3 Mana Detection skill.
After making a half-circle around Evbejia's outer wall, Vandalieu exhaled heavily.
「With this, I'm done… It's taken me two days, but the preparations are finished. Now I can achieve my revenge with one word. But let's leave it until tomorrow morning.」
The next day, the morning sun shone upon the people of Evbejia just as it had yesterday and they were completely oblivious.
Oblivious to the fact that today was the day that Evbejia's name would be known not only in all of Mirg, but across the entire Amid Empire.
Known as the『town of the mysterious incident.』
「Collapse.」
A sound came from the five-meter-high walls that had protected the town from monsters such as Goblins, dangerous wild animals and bandits.
As the guards showed puzzled expressions, the outer wall crumbled with a loud noise.
『UOOOOON!』
It seemed that the outer wall had collapsed, but one by one, large, human-shaped creatures began to form and let out evil-sounding roars of malice that echoed out into the blue sky.
And then, with thundering footsteps, they began to walk away.
「What?! What just happened?!」
「Commanding officer! The outer wall has turned into a Golem!」
「I can see that!」
Even as the commanding officer of the guards was shouting, the gate that the guards had been watching became part of another Golem and began to walk off.
「Don't just stand there, stop those Golems!」
「But commanding officer, they're rampaging around, just walking away. It would be a different story if they were walking towards the town, but at this rate, even if we don't do anything…」
The bewildered commanding officer's subordinates did not seem eager to obey his command. But that was to be expected; who would want to stand before Golems made from five-meter-high stone walls?
And how would the guards even fight the Stone Golems with their iron spears? Looking at it from the guards' point of view, it wasn't surprising that they were questioning the sanity of their commanding officer.
「You fool! That's the town's outer wall! Without that, how do you plan to protect the town from now on?!」
However, the guards were taken aback as the commanding officer pointed out this big problem.
Without those outer walls, the wild boar, wolves and bears that came out at night would enter the city, eat the crops and livestock and attack people. Goblins and bandits would be able to enter the town as they pleased.
Though there were enough guards to watch over the few gates of the town, they definitely lacked the manpower to guard the entire circumference of the town.
They had now become aware of this problem, but there was nothing that they could do about it.
「But…」
The guards showed their uneasiness, but no matter how grave the situation was, they couldn't simply increase their manpower.
They couldn't do anything but watch the backs of the Stone Golems that had once been their town's outer wall as they left.
The outer walls suddenly turned into Golems and walked off. Everyone in Evbejia noticed this, but they couldn't immediately do anything about it.
Baronet Bestero froze in terror, the knights and soldiers were in a panic, the Adventurers' Guild's personnel were running around in a hurry and shouting to send out an emergency request and the townspeople were simply dumbfounded.
However, that wasn't the end of it.
「The dirt, the dirt has turned into a Golem!」
「That's my vineyard! That's the dirt from my grape vineyard!」
「Wait, my wheat field! Wait!」
The earth of the fields, along with the crops and trees that were growing in them, turned into Golems and followed in the footsteps of the Stone Golems that had left the town just a little earlier.
The farmers saw this and desperately chased after them.
Even though the Golems were just made of dirt, the farmers were quite brave to try to stop the Golems that were larger than themselves. But because they were farmers, they couldn't simply allow the Golems to leave.
Not to try to recover the crops and trees sprouting from the Golems' backs, but because the dirt itself that made up the Golems' bodies was most important to them.
The earth was important in agriculture. They had spread fertilizer and ploughed the fields to ripen their produce for many years; it was essential to them.
If they lost it, they would have to rebuild that earth from scratch. On Earth and Origin, one could get their hands on fertilizer immediately, but in Lambda it would take time.
For the farmers who owned vineyards, it was even more serious, as they would have to raise their trees from scratch as well.
And not only the fields, but -
「Uwah! The feudal-lord-sama's house! The house is collapsing from the second floor and becoming a Golem?!」
「The Adventurers' Guild as well! My friends are in there!」
The feudal lord's house and the Adventurers' Guild building became Golems and began walking outside the town as well.
The Golems' movements were slow, but their their bodies were large so their strides were long. The townspeople, knights and adventurers who wanted to stop the Golems were now on a chase to recover the rubble of their buildings.
Vandalieu watched all of this, feeling satisfied.
The outer walls, the fields, the Adventurers' Guild and the feudal lord's house. Having all of the various spirits possess these and wait for his signal had been difficult. The outer walls alone had taken two days and the fields and the Adventurers' Guild had taken a day each.
But once it came to starting it, he only needed to say one word. Like dominoes that had been painstakingly arranged finally falling down, it was a very satisfying revenge.
「Look, Mom. The guys who laughed at you are all crying with pathetic looks on their faces now.」
With its outer walls and structures turning into Golems, Evbejia was now in a situation from which it couldn't recover. Even if they defeated the Golems and retrieved the rubble that had once been the buildings, they would still need to do repairs.
Much of the rubble would be unusable; the only thing that could somewhat be gathered up and returned to normal would be the earth of the fields.
Evbejia would have to rebuild those tall, thick walls. Unless this was done, the town would not function, not in the world of Lambda in which dangerous monsters roamed.
Of course, the guards would have to be prepared while the repairs were ongoing. Hiring more guards, putting out more requests for adventurers, ordering materials from stonemasons and arranging for the workers would take a great amount of time and, most importantly, money.
So much that the reconstruction of Baronet Bestero's house would have to wait, no matter how much he tried to use for bribery.
Of course, he would beg for help from Mirg's government, and then his position of Baron would disappear.
In addition, Vandalieu had even extended his reach into the wine warehouse.
He had applied[Decomposition]magic to the barrels of wine in the warehouse and caused it all to spoil. And then he had used[Sterilization]to kill every single particle of yeast that was preserving it.
Nobody had noticed it yet, but Evbejia's entire industry had been obliterated. It would take literally decades to rebuild it.
『Mhmm, thank you for what you've done for me, Vandalieu. It was hard, wasn't it? To do this kind of gentle revenge.』
Darcia's spirit looked lovingly at her son who possessed a vast amount of Mana. There would be many who would demand what was gentle about this revenge. But considering Vandalieu's magic and Mana pool, it could be called gentle, just as Darcia had said.
If he had the Golems that he had made from the outer walls go into the town rather than outside, he could have caused large amounts of damage to the town and many would have died. Including the Golems made from the feudal lord's house and the Adventurers' Guild building, catastrophic harm could have been caused.
Because High Priest Gordan and the Five-colored Blades, led by Heinz, had left this town long ago.
He could have used[Deadly Poison]to contaminate the well water or simply used[Disease]magic to start an epidemic.
If he had wanted to, he could have killed every single person in Evbejia.
Darcia had thought it kind of him to not do this, and he had even waited until morning before causing the outer walls to crumble.
「I just did to them what they did to me.」
Vandalieu didn't confirm or deny Darcia's words. But he hadn't intended to show compassion for the townspeople. In his mind, there was not a single guiltless person in Evbejia. Every single one of them were criminals who had watched Darcia's execution and laughed as if it were some kind of show.
That was why he had done the same to them.
「From now on I'm going to spend years, decades to get you back, Mom. I'm going to make a new body that will match your spirit. I've made it so that these people have to work for decades to return to their original lifestyle, that's all.」
There wouldn't be a single casualty directly caused by this event. He had even thought about the order in which the Golems began to move, with the walls first and then the buildings, so that they wouldn't collapse partway through.
He had only destroyed things that could be repaired.
『You're right, you gave them a chance. Vandalieu is a gentle child, after all.』
If one thought of it one way, he had inflicted damage that would take decades to repair, but… Darcia, who had been charmed by the Death-Attribute Charm skill, had no intention of pointing that out.
As Darcia patted his head with her hand that he could not feel, his eyes narrowed a little.
「Well then, let's get going. Bone Bird, I'm counting on you.」
「Geeeeh~」
Letting out a cry that sounded like a person being strangled, Bone Bird, who had become a Phantom Bird, spread its bone wings.
Putting away the fragment of Darcia's bone near his chest, he took hold of both of Bone Bird's legs.
The bone wings, covered in shining, blue-white spirit feathers, began to flap and Vandalieu flew through the air to return to the Cursed Carriage where Bone Man and the others were waiting.
Name: Vandalieu.
Race: Dhampir (Dark Elf).
Age: 1 year old.
Title: None.
Job: None.
Level: 100.
Job history: None.
Attributes:
Vitality: 34.
Mana: 100,001,247.
Strength: 32.
Agility: 7.
Stamina: 33.
Intelligence: 45
Passive skills:
Superhuman Strength: Level 1.
Rapid Healing: Level 2.
Death-Attribute Magic: Level 3.
Status Effect Resistance: Level 3.
Magic Resistance: Level 1.
Dark Vision.
Mental Corruption: Level 10.
Death-Attribute Charm: Level 2.
Chant Revocation.
Active skills:
Bloodsucking: Level 3.
Surpass Limits: Level 2.
Golem Transmutation: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
Curses
Experience gained in previous life not carried over
Cannot learn existing Jobs
Unable to gain Experience Points independently
Name: Bone Bird.
Rank: 3.
Race: Phantom Bird.
Level: 17.
Passive skills:
Dark Vision.
Spirit Feathers: Level 1 (NEW!).
Superhuman Strength: Level 1 (NEW!).
Active Skills:
Silent Steps: Level 1 (NEW!).
Swift Flight: Level 1 (NEW!)