Chapter 40 - First battle

*CLANG* Joren's sword collided with the Bandit leader who was caught off guard by his strength. Joren managed to push the leader back as two lines in the dirt could be seen from the leader being pushed away. 

Everyone was stunned. Not just because Joren managed to push the bandit leader back, but because of how he effortlessly killed all of the bandits hiding in the bushes and trees. 

"What are you all standing there for? Get them!" The leader shouted. 

They all drew their weapons and charged at Joren but because of their temporary shock hindering them, Joren had already made his next move. 

Jumping like a monkey, he perched himself on the closest bandit, stabbing him in the face with his sword. Turning his head, he threw his sword into the throat of the bandit behind him. 

Joren kicked off the bandit he was on and fired a mana ball at the dead body which collided with another bandit. As soon as the two came in contact, Joren clenched his fist forcing his mana to explode which caused the body to burst sending blood, bones, and guts everywhere, some impaling in the unfortunate bandit that happened to be in the blast zone. 

"That's three down. Seven more to go." 

Holding out his hand, his sword dislodged itself from the neck of the bandit it was impaled in and flew over to Joren's hand while he formed five mana arrows over his head. With the wave of his sword, he sent an aura slash towards his enemies. Most bandits managed to block or avoid the aura slash but two of them lost their hands trying to block. 

He dashed towards the bandits firing two mana arrows at the bandits who lost their hands, impaling them in the heart. 

Moving to his next target, he ran at him reading to cut him down. 

"D-Don't look down on me!" The bandit spoke. He slashed down at the approaching kid, closing his eyes in the process. Joren casually dodged, sliding to the side while cutting off the bandit's ankles. 

"Ahh-Gawrhhh-" Before he could even scream, Joren, without looking, reverse-gripped his sword and stabbed the bandit in the back of the head which exited out of his mouth. 

Keeping his momentum, he fired his remaining three mana arrows at three bandits while he approached the leader one, the swords clashed as he went in for an attack. But instead of having all three mana arrows attack the others, he only had two attack them while the third was a fake out. 

Joren used his mana and guided the third arrow around the bandit it was going to hit and approached the back of the bandit leader. 

"I'll admit, you're strong, but don't think you'll win against me!" The leader shouted 

"In your next life, don't bite off more than you can chew. Oh, and be aware of your surroundings." Joren smirked as he used more of his strength to force the leader off of him. 

"What the hell are you-" Blood slowly dripped from the leader's mouth as he looked down at the source of pain he felt in his chest. There, he saw a misty white arrow which had decided to make his heart its home. "You son of a bitch." He then collapsed to the ground, dead. 

"Leader!!!" 

"Don't worry, you'll join him soon." Joren held his hand out and formed mana around each of the bandit's necks. Their neck became red as the air was blocked from entering their body. Falling to their knees, they huffed, puffed, and wheezed for air, but to no avail. One of them looked at Joren, their eyes red from suffocating, holding up his hand as if begging to be spared. But he simply smiled crookedly and clasped his fist, snapping their necks and killing them instantly. 

"Well, that's all sorted out. Time to get our spoils of war, hehe." 

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!!" Joren was about to start his treasure hunt before he was stopped by Lenny's loud and confused expression. 

Looking behind himself, he saw all of his companions with their mouths agape and eyes as wide as a baby trying sugar for the first time. 

"What? You all should close your mouths before you start eating flies." No one responded to Joren so he turned around and started collecting his spoils of war. 

"Hey, Glenn. You said you've only trained him for three years but it was mainly the fundamentals right?" Lenny questioned still shocked at the situation. 

"I did have him hunt sometimes but yeah, that's basically it?" Glenn replied. He knew how strong Joren was, or at least he thought he knew. He trained him after all so he should have had a good estimate of how strong Joren should be. He did not expect him to slaughter every bandit within two minutes. 

"So how the hell do you explain what just happened?" Pointing at Joren who was robbing the dead bodies, Pantera looked at Glenn trying to get some answers. 

"Honestly, I have no idea." Glenn was as shocked as the others so he had no answer to their questions. 

"He's a prodigy," Arnold spoke proudly. 

"Did you see the way he used his aura? It was amazing! Especially for someone of his age and level. He moved way faster than he should have." Although Derry was also shocked, she was more interested in Joren's application of mana. 

"Are you guys just going to stand there? Come on, let's quickly loot these guys and get out of here!" They all finally came back to their senses after Joren yelled at them. They too started looting some of the bodies before moving them out of the road. 

When they finished, they checked their spoils. It wasn't anything special, some bronze, silver, and gold coins, weapons that needed maintenance, crappy armor, and three spell books. There was one thing that stood out to Joren though, it was a gold ring with a red gem in the center. He could feel mana on it be he didn't know what the ring did. 

"Wow, that's a storage ring! That's a great find bro." Lenny leaned over Joren's shoulder examining the ring.

"A storage ring? Like a ring that has a sub-space in it that can hold items?" 'I've read a lot of novels and manhwa that storage rings.' 

"Yup. It's super expensive. Like, a commoner would never be able to purchase one in their lifetime and even nobles have to spend a pretty penny to acquire one." Lenny explained while patting Joren on the shoulder. 

"Woah, this is literally treasure. You want it?" Joren asked

"As much as I appreciate the offer, I'll decline. This is your reward. You cleaned out those bastards so you keep the best prize. It could also be beneficial to you in the future so you should keep it." Everyone agreed with Lenny's words and were satisfied with the little things that they got. 

Joren put the ring on. It was too big for his finger and he couldn't activate the storage function. No matter how much mana he poured into the ring, it simply wouldn't work. 

"Uhh, how do I work this? It's being difficult." 

"Put your blood on the gem. It uses a type of binding magic that only allows the person it bonded to, to use it. Since its previous owner is dead, you should be able to use it." Derry explained 

Joren nicked his finger on his sword, drawing a bit of blood. He then painted the gem with his blood and a bright red light flashed from the gem. Immediately, the ring fitted to his middle finger, and not only could he sense the fact that he could now use the ring, but he could also sense the contents of the ring. 

"Huh? There's something in here." Joren willed the contents to come out of the ring and a bag landed in his hand. When he opened it, he saw a bunch of glowing stones. 

"The fuck? Why would they be walking around with fancy rocks in a storage ring?" Joren was about to throw the stones when Derry stopped him. 

"Wait! Stop! Don't throw those away! They're very valuable!" 

"Holy shit those are mana stones! You really hit the jackpot kid." Lenny playfully smacked Joren's back, causing him to rub it to soothe the slight pain he felt. 

"What's a mana stone?" Joren questioned

"Mana stones are formed when an area has a super high concentration of mana and it gets to the point where the mana solidifies, turning into a mana stone. They are very expensive, some of the most expensive things you can purchase, especially depending on their quality. Practitioners after the 5th circle use mana stones to help in their cultivation." Arnold appeared out of nowhere and explained everything to Joren. 

'How the hell did this giant sneak up on me like that' 

"Two low-ranking mana stones, four mid-ranking mana stones, and one high-ranking mana stone. If you absorb them, you could break through to the peak of the 4th circle." Derry was jealous of Joren's catch. Anyone would kill to get their hands on mana stones, especially a high-ranking one. 

'This is a good find. Focusing on it, I can sense a large amount of mana radiating from these stones, even the supposed low-ranking ones. This would definitely help me get stronger faster...but I don't need them. My mana absorption speed is already insanely fast. I could break through to the 2nd circle if I wanted to but solidifying my current power is more important.' With that thought process, Joren decided to hand the mana stones to his companions. 

"I don't need them. I think it would be better if you all took one instead of me having all of them." 

"Are you sure? You can save them for later to aid when it's needed." Pantera was surprised that he was willing to hand out such a treasure and not keep it to himself. Not just her, all of them were. 

"Yeah, besides, I have the ring anyway. I'll keep the two low-ranking mana stones, you guys can have the rest." He handed each of them a mid-ranked mana stone while he gave Glenn the only high-rank mana stone.

"Since you're the leader, you should have the best one," Joren explained. 

No one disagreed with his reasoning and thanked him for his generosity.