Chapter 2

Leaving his home, Gary was very excited to see what the future would bring him. At the same time, he was also very sad to leave the comfort of his family behind.

All he could do now, though, was to look forward to a bright future he would make for himself. He knew he was strong for his age, but in the overall perspective of the world, he was just a small child with a bit of strength compared to the rest of the children.

On the way to the capital from his home, there shouldn't really be any trouble, as it was one of the very populated roads. The only place that would pose some threat was the forest at the halfway point.

There were never really any accidents, but there was still the occasional robbery there. Gary was not really that scared. Mostly because he did not look like a rich nobleman's son; he looked more like a beggar. Another reason was just the arrogance he had gotten from the stats he felt was quite high.

No bandit in their right mind would do anything to a beggar, as they had nothing they could steal. All they could take from a beggar was his life.

A day went by in his travels without any signs of trouble. It was also at this moment he arrived in front of the forest.

Gary saw the entrance to the forest and felt it was quite a beautiful sight to behold. The road he was walking on had been made from the many carriages driving along this route, which had made brown lines where the wheels were going.

The trees around this small road were quite tall and had grown over the road he was on, making it feel more like a tunnel. The forest bed under the trees was completely overgrown with many different plants in many different colors, which made the forest look more vibrant.

Going into the forest, Gary felt naturally energized. He had no idea why, but his whole body felt like he had just woken up.

After enjoying this feeling for a few minutes, he started to walk once again through the gorgeous forest.

He did not get far into the forest before he heard something he didn't expect to hear. He heard something akin to the sound of metal hitting against metal. It was not a sound that could be made from anything else, as it was a very distinct sound.

The sound came up in front of him, further down the road he was walking on. Gary knew that since he was in a forest, these sounds must be from fighting, something he did not expect to happen this early in his journey.

He was both a little scared but also a little excited. This meant he could fight a real person, not just someone from his imagination.

He stood a bit before he decided to be reckless and ran straight toward the sounds coming from the front.

It did not take him more than a few minutes before he arrived at the scene of the sounds. In front of his very eyes, he saw 5 knights fighting 15 bandits by themselves. He could see the bandits had the upper hand in this situation because of their number. He could also see the knight's determination in the fight.

He was so mesmerized by the knights fighting with all their power, not giving in, even at a disadvantage, that he did not see the carriage by the side.

The carriage carried the crest of the royal family, and it was very luxurious. One could not see from the outside who was inside the carriage.

Gary was very focused on the fight between the knights and the bandits. He could clearly see the skills of the knights as they were in perfect formation. Every time a bandit came to hit them, they were blocked by one guard before another immediately slashed after that bandit again.

The bandits' numbers slowly fell with time, and it was clear that the knights would win the fight. All Gary could do from a distance was admire their fighting power and teamwork.

The bandits were now down to ten fighters overall, as far as Gary could count. What he didn't expect was that one of the bandits suddenly left the formation of the other bandits as he started to move into the forest.

Gary found this quite puzzling but figured that the bandit was running away, trying not to get noticed.

The next minute, he saw that same bandit appear behind all of the knights and beside the carriage that he hadn't seen before now.

Immediately after discovering the carriage, he saw the crest. It was a crest his parents had always told him to swear allegiance to. So he knew that the people inside the carriage were very important.

This made him realize the bandit had not gone away to run. He had gone behind the knights to capture the people inside the carriage, to have some hostages.

Realizing this, he looked to the knights who were busy fighting the bandits. Seeing that none of them had seen what was behind them, Gary was a little disappointed in them, but he was also a little panic-stricken.

'I have to help!' Gary placed a trembling hand on the wooden stick on his back before he ran straight to the carriage where the bandit was.

As soon as the bandit arrived at the carriage in front of him, he opened the door with a forceful pull. While looking inside, he saw two beautiful girls. They almost looked identical, except one of them was a child, while the other looked more mature.

The bandit tried to reach inside the carriage to grab the two girls right in front of him, but he was hit on top of the head and fell back.

Looking up, the bandit saw a young kid standing in front of him with a stick in his hand.

"Did you just hit me?" The bandit stood back up while looking at Gary with an infuriated look. "Prepare to die, you f'cking brat!" The bandit drew a sword hanging by the side of his hip and slashed straight down at Gary.

Gary already saw this attack a long time ago, but he couldn't really block the sword with his wooden stick. All he could do was use all of the power in his body to move to the side and avoid the slash coming in. As he avoided the stroke, he countered with a stab straight toward the crotch of the bandit.

As the bandit had thought he could finish the kid with just this one swing, he was quite surprised to see him jump to the side and avoid his strike. Because of this, he was caught off guard by the stab Gary pulled, and it hit straight in the crotch, making him fall down, having a hard time breathing.

"Stay in the carriage. I will hold him off until the knights come!" Gary said with a resolute voice while closing the carriage door. He hadn't even seen who was inside the carriage, as all his attention was on the bandit.

As Gary was a kid, he didn't know how to grab this chance to immobilize the bandit completely, as all he did was stand there, waiting for him to get up from the ground again.

It did not take long for the bandit to get back up to his feet. When he stood back up, his face was red with anger and embarrassment. Looking at Gary, all that could be felt was pure killing intent.

"YOU ARE F'CKING DEAD!!" The bandit yelled as he ran at Gary before slashing his sword in many different ways.

Gary had a hard time seeing all of the attacks, but he barely managed to avoid most of them, while a few of them left scratches on his body.

In the end, the bandit stopped his barrage when he saw all the small cut wounds he had inflicted on Gary. His face had also become less red, and he felt much better.

Seeing that the barrage had stopped on him, Gary chose once again to stab his stick at the man's crotch, but this time the bandit caught it.

The man's grip was so tight that Gary could not pull it back. Before he knew it, the man had made a huge yank, at pulled it out of Gary's hands. The bandit followed up with a fist to the face of Gary, making him fall back a few meters with a bloodied face.

Seeing Gary lying in front of him, the bandit gave a cruel grin before he went over to where Gary was lying.

He gripped a fistful of Gary's long hair while raising his sword across Gary's neck. "What did I tell you? You are going to die here!" The bandit said while grinning at Gary.