12

"There will be a small change of plans," Ray told Jake after jump-scaring Jake with his appearance.

"Oh… really." Jake nervously replied. "What changed?"

"Nothing much. I wanted to stop by the nearby bandit organization and defeat their leader."

Jake laughed shakily. "The Red Mountain Bandits; you want to defeat the famed Red Mountain Bandit leader, Jax, who is known for having the power to defy nearby city lords?"

"That's right."

Jake stared at Ray with a blank expression for a couple of seconds.

After seeing Ray's unmoving face, he let out a defeated sigh. "Oh okay. That's fine, let's go do that.

Ray made his way into the carriage, and Jake grudgingly whipped the horses to make them move.

He took back his previous dreams of safely arriving at the nearest city and getting rid of that monster in his carriage. What happened to the last week of peace and silence? Sure, it was stressful to have a Tiefling staring down your back the whole day, but it was better than walking into a den of powerful bandits!

"If only I listened to Gordon and took the longer, but also safer route," Jake muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" Ray's voice called out from the back.

"Nothing! Nothing."

The duo moved through the road, toward the Red Bandit mountain. The mountain was marked on Bill's map, so Ray could direct Jake in the general direction of it.

The closer they got to the base of the mountain, the more bandits they found, who were eager to attack the vulnerable merchant. Unfortunately for them, they were greeted with Ray's fists, and that was the end of that. The majority of the bandits were low stage 1, a few being at mid-stage 1, and maybe 1 in a hundred bandits at the peak of stage 1. It didn't make too much difference to Ray, since anything below stage 2 wasn't even worth mentioning in his eyes.

With Ray's perception and his overwhelming power, none of the bandits could escape and spread information about his arrival, so the trip was relatively safe and the chance of being discovered was close to 0.

After a day of travel, they crept upon a large gate with several powerful-looking bandits guarding it.

Jake was practically shaking in his boots, but Ray still had a calm expression as he continued cultivating.

For the hundredth time in a single day, Jake went through a small mental breakdown, questioning all of his decisions leading up to this point. He even considered making a run for it while Ray fought the bandits, but the memory of Ray's perception kept him in check.

The bandits at the base of the mountain soon caught sight of the carriage and approached the vehicle with caution.

"Is that a merchantman's carriage?" One of the bandits asked in an incredulous tone.

"It can't be, no merchant would be stupid enough to come to our Red Bandit mountain. That's like a chicken visiting a lion's den." Another bandit replied with a sneer. "It's probably a food delivery."

"Why are they using that merchant carriage then?"

"We'll see."

The bandits quickly intercepted the carriage, all of their expressions turning to surprise after taking a close look at the carriage. The bandits guarding the gate all had experience under their belts: they could easily tell the difference between different types of carriages, especially merchant carriages.

"Who are you?" One of the bandits asked Jake in a threatening tone.

Jake was in panic mode at this point, his heart pounding and his palms sweating profusely. As a merchant, a group of powerful bandits was the thing that kept him up at night. Looking at the bandit's scarred face up close was like looking at the devil in his eyes.

"I'm a wandering … mer-merchantman!" Jake stammered.

He fervently glanced at Ray, the panic in his movements increasing.

The bandits glanced at each other in confusion. Was this merchant just lacking in brain cells? That was the only possible explanation!

Right when the bandits were about to draw their weapons and rob the merchantman, Jake felt a noise coming from the carriage.

'He finally woke up!' Jake thought excitedly, relief falling onto his body. 'Maybe I can even escape if this monster gets defeated by the bandits.'

Of course, Ray was never asleep in the first place, he simply finished a segment of his cultivation. After becoming a stage 2 practitioner, sleep wasn't needed as much anymore since the ki flowing through the body was enough for basic recovery; sleep's only use would be for mental strain.

"I'm here to kill your leader. Where is he?" Ray called out from inside the carriage.

The bandits fell silent and stopped in their tracks.

One of the bandits burst into laughter, quickly followed by the rest of his group.

"You? Kill our boss, Jax, the Red Mountain leader? I've never seen a mere merchant with such arrogance!"

One of the bandits suddenly stopped laughing. "But you know, that's disrespectful to the boss. I was going to rob you and leave it at that, but now…" The bandit spoke, a murderous look appearing on his face.

The bandit at the front gave Jake a cruel smile and demanded him, "Go get your little friend from outside the carriage. We will teach him a little lesson before we deal with you."

To the bandits' surprise, Jake remained calm and silent, as if the bandits posed no threat.

This only infuriated the bandits further, 2 of them even leaping onto Jake.

The daggers in their hands glinted under the bright sun, but they never reached their intended destination, since the two bandits fell to the ground mid-jump. The only sign of death was a small finger-sized hole near their chest.

The rest of the bandits froze in shock after seeing their two friends die without cause.

Their eyes quickly moved to the gigantic black figure that appeared in front of Jake.

The split second of the bandit's shock was enough time for four more bandits to drop to the floor, all with the same hole in their chests.

By this time the bandits finally reacted, some of them immediately sprinting back to the gate while yelling at the top of their lungs, others surrounding Ray in instinctual reaction.

Ray didn't waste time with the low-level bandits and exterminated them with a few swipes of his sword. He didn't need to use a sword to kill the weak bandits, but it was superior in terms of the rate of killing.

From the beginning, his eyes weren't on the bandits that stayed back, but on the loud bandits running toward the gate. Ray already knew there was nobody close enough to hear them, but he didn't know what kind of communication device they had at the base.

The few bandits that escaped made it halfway to the gate, but that was all they would reach.

A black blur appeared behind them, instantly killing all 3 bandits the moment they met— there wasn't even a hint of resistance.

Anything below the second rank had already lost almost all their value, and even status as a living being in his eyes. The only thing he could think when he saw the bandit's bodies was, 'Weak!'

It wasn't just these bandits, but everything in the world seemed abnormally weak to Ray. Originally he came to the mountain to fight someone strong without directly attacking the human cities, but after reaching the base of the mountain, he suspected something interesting which could revamp his entire plan for the near future.

As he came closer and closer to the mountain, he felt the ki energy becoming progressively denser.

Initially, the change was so minute that he wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't concentrating on his cultivation. The change became much more apparent after reaching the base of the mountain.

He had a feeling that going up the mountain would only make the density higher.

He didn't immediately invade the mountain since he needed to clean up his traces before he could capitalize on the possible benefits.

His eyes turned to Jake who was busy celebrating the death of the bandits.

While he could ignore Jake because of his weakness, there was no point in taking the unnecessary risk. If he can eliminate the risk, Ray will not hesitate to do so, no matter how small it is.

Jame was picking the coins off the bandit's bodies with a greedy-merchant look in his eyes.

Ray silently walked behind Jake without alerting him. In one smooth move, he gave him a painless death.

The only remorse he felt was that he would need to find somebody else to cover for him if he went traveling in the future. As for Jake, he was useful while he lasted.

Thats it.