章 16: Life is Fragile

While they were going to the area which the bandits was active, Leon and his teammates was talking with each other. Because Jacob was the strongest on the surface, he was acting as the leader of the group. He also shared the gossips around the bandits.

"I heard that the Leaders nickname was Bloody Albert and he was really bloodthirsty murderer. He didn't just plunder the caravans and villages, he also didn't leaved anybody alive. They say he was drinking the bloods of his victims."

When Leon heard that, he thought this Albert should be a psychopath if he were to be in earth he would be a serial killer.

"Is there any lead where we could start to search for him?" asked Leon.

"We could go to a city and hired as mercenaries to protect a caravan, if we are lucky we can encounter them." said Jacob. Leon nodded it would be the easiest way to find them.

"Hey Leon, I heard that you opened you sea consciousness. Do you have plan to go system world?"

Leon nodded, it was his plan after the mission. If there wasn't any strong magus amongst the students, he would be in the system world up coming month.

"I see, that you also plan to become a magus then?" talked Jacob with envy. But Leon didn't understand why he did say such a thing. So he asked

"What are you talking about?"

"You didn't know?" Jacob said with shock. Looking at Leon he figured that he was really didn't know and explained.

"There is countless lucky encounters in the system world, if you find some hidden quests and finished them you could even open your mana pool. I heard it happened in the past. The system world is filled with treasures which could turn a snake to a dragon."

Leon knew that the system world was a treasure trove but he didn't knew that there was a way to open mana pool there. But it didn't mattered to Leon. ["If there is a way to open mana pool, there must be a way to explosively promote fleshly strength too."] And if he could find them and if he were to find yin, yang, life, death, soul, space and time he could finish the basics of the titan cultivation. After that he could put all of his efforts to the mana cultivation.

["No, no, no, I shouldn't hope more, the more hope I have, greater the disappointment would be."] but he couldn't help but get hopeful.

…

When the group arrived a city then, they dressed up to look more like mercenaries and went to commercial area of the city. In the first day there wasn't any caravan leaved the city, the merchants were also scared from the Albert gang, this was already effecting the economy in the city. The second day they found a merchant who was looking for protection. They hurriedly made a deal with him and they leaved the city.

The first day they didn't encounter any troubles as they were guarding the caravan. The caravan filled with silks and other valuable fabrics. It have some allure for the bandits and seeing that there wasn't really that much caravans passing by in the region, soon as the bandits learned about this caravan they would attack like hungry wolves.

When the night fell, the caravan stopped and started build the campsite. After a half an hour the tents were built and the fire prepared. Leon sat down at near of the fire and watched it, he always like the camp fire and the smell of the wood when it burned and how the fire danced. After he talked with Teacher Fiona he was looking for the things that he liked. Maybe if he were to search himself, he could use his likes as a base and reach the conclusion. Soul was really mystical and he didn't know where to start. Finding core thoughts and his life philosophy was a long journey.

In a book that he read in library there was a line that made Leon thoughtful ["The universe would give a soul to you but it doesn't makes it yours. Only after countless experiences and maturing, one could make it unique and yours. "] If that was the answer then it would be better to let it the flow of time.

Leon looked over to his fellow students who have just finished pitching their tent and went over to discuss the watch order. After they decided the order they dined and most of people went to the sleep. Leon sat down in lotus position beside of fire and closed his eyes but he spread his senses to the limits. He didn't sensed any human near the camp so he focused his new Soul Artifact.

His soul artifact was still processing the remnant obsessions. When the obsessions passed through the book they leaved the knowledge behind, in the process Leon was losing the first hand experiences but it was still a gain for him. Seeing the situation Leon inwardly nodded and he spread his senses again but still there wasn't any human aside from the camp.

When his turn was over he waken Mark and he went inside his tent. The first night uneventfully passed. Maybe it was because they were still close to the city, bandits didn't scout this area. The second day they as they were moving, Leon spread his senses and looked for the bandits but he didn't find any. In the evening The head of caravans spoke;

"There is a village up close we should stay for the night."

And everybody agreed to it, sleeping in wilderness was taxing, who would say they wanted to stay outside rather than indoors. As they come close the village, there was an eerie silence. They didn't see any villagers or heard any noise. When they came close enough to the village, they could see a black smoke rising from the village. The people in the caravan became tense and stopped, didn't go anywhere further. Leon looked to the smoke;

"I'll go first and look around. You should wait here. "

He also spread his senses and he didn't catch any life from the village. When he entered the village, he could see corpses everywhere, there were women their clothes were ripped apart, stains of tears with dirt on their cheeks clearly showing what happened. Bloodstains everywhere, there were headless children corpses. There were men who their limbs torn and agony in their faces saying they were alive while it was happening.

It was a brutal scene. Leon didn't moved, just looked over the slaughtered villagers. He didn't know why they were killed or have they deserved this kind of fate. He killed someone but he didn't killed some weak villager, he killed ruffians in slums. But did ruffians deserved it? Who deserved to die. Life was fragile, it could end without seeing how. Maybe being weak was a sin itself. Leon didn't know but he could only become strong to protect his life and if he were to become stronger he could protect others too. Leon's eyes were empty while he was looking a this scene, he didn't noticed that the others also came and saw the scene, even some weak stomached people threw up. The head of the caravan told his men to bury the villagers. Seems like today they were going to sleep in wilderness again.