21 Encounter

After walking for a while, Lucien realized that the Darkness particles in the Dusky Woods were almost twice the normal amount, if this place was used to train Darkness path it would be twice as fast. The stream a practitioner can attract in his body would be denser and thus grinding at the doors faster, or when improving the Soul with the Darkness manual after each full completion of the route, you could inject twice the amount of particles into the end of the route, thus speeding up the training of the stat.

'There are probably some practitioners, deep in the forest, hidden away from the world, trying to progress toward the next stage of their path.'

The increased amount of Darkness particles made this place gloomier and darker. If a commoner entered, just by being here, he would feel uneasy and uncomfortable. It was inducing a feeling, as if something would jump up from behind a tree and devour you whole.

Another day passed, with nothing major happening, Lucien caught a rabbit, which was a bit skinnier than normal. It was not worth hunting anything more than needed for survival, especially the common animals, it was too time consuming for the amount of existence points they offer.

He was walking for more than a day with nothing happening and Lucien was already getting a bit bored, he still kept his guard up. He was a rookie, but that didn't mean he would make such simple mistakes, like letting his attention waver and getting ambushed.

All of a sudden he heard a cry for help from a direction, it was a girls voice.

'This again, I'm getting tired of saving ladies in need.'

While thinking this, Lucien still covered himself in Darkness Particles and walked that way. As he progressed to Rank 1, he could now hold the particles in that space beyond the 9th door, and could draw them when needed. So using them was getting more convenient as it was not just the passive effects. He could now use them to cover himself, even if there was no shadows, his presence was decreased by a lot, much more than when he was at Rank 0.

'It's not a proper method, just roughly covering my body, I really need some proper methods.'

'But it's still good enough, I don't think anyone with Soul below mine can notice me.'

As the Darkness particles were more in this environment, it also made his cover much more effective, it was like when in a jungle it's harder to notice a camouflaged soldier, compared to one dressed in a striking color like purple.

The Darkness blending with the already dark environment made him almost invisible.

He crouched and moved in the bushes slowly, gradually closing in on the commotion, they had stopped running and walking around, obviously the prey had nowhere to run to anymore.

What he saw in the distance was again that repeating scenario, 3 men surrounding a teenage girl.

The men were skinny, assassin like builds, looking very sinister. It was strange but they all had the same builds, like there was a selection process and this type fit the best.

The girl was beautiful like an angel, she looked a bit innocent, but was already developing a very amazing body, it was obvious from the lustful looks that the men were trying to restrain, that they were very interested in her.

"So nowhere to run anymore, SilverMoon girl, all your guards are being held off by our bosses, no more hope for you."

The girl looked desperate, she had more than 10 guards who were Rank 1 and above, it was a planned strike in this forbidden forest, they had enough power to hold of her guards, and send someone to pursue after he escaped.

She had just turned 15 and was already peak Rank 0, but as any flower grown in a greenhouse, she couldn't hope to beat three battle hardened brutes of the same rank, so she ran with all she had, but in the end was surrounded, she tried to scream and see if someone would show up and help, but no response was heard till now.

"My family is rich, they will pay you, please don't hurt me."

Even if she knew it was pretty naive, she could only try.

"Hehehe, don't worry, we know all about your family, we just want them to do a certain thing for us."

"Letting you go on the other hand, is probably not happening."

"You see, we just need you in our hands to achieve the goal, nobody from your family will know what we do with you while you are with us, they can just hope."

"Keeping you alive is a must as they might ask for proof."

"We will all enjoy you till your family completes that task, by that time you might wanna join us, as out plaything."

The girl was not in complete despair, she could imagine her faith and her end. She was crying, but was prepared to end her life, to spare herself the humiliation. The moment they attack, she would go for it.

Lucien took in all of this.

'Hehe, this is better than last time, I think keeping her alive this time would be more beneficial.'

'Using the Vampire charm might help in making her my pawn.'

'I should try to get an ally just in case, I need a shield.'

'Maybe I will get a surprise as I don't know anything about a SilverMoon family, there are no books on them in the imperial library.'

'The guards might come or more bandits, so I should hurry if I want a piece of the pie.'

'Three peak Rank 0, I should think of a way to take out atleast one out by a surprise.'

'My strength lies in Soul, and that doesn't help much with close quarters combat, only if you don't know how to use it, I guess it's time to try some of my theories on human subjects.'

Thinking so far, Lucien made up his mind on the method he would use.

Just as the bandits were about to attack, and the SilverMoon girl was about to try to suicide, a small wimpering sound was heard.

Looking at the bushes, they saw a small boy walk out, while crying, the boy was startled, as he didn't expect to see people here, then he was overcome by joy, as if he saw his saviors.

The bandits were stunned, even the girl stopped the dagger she was preparing to thrust at herself.

Why would a little boy be here, in the middle of this godforsaken forest?