Merchant Of Yliaster

On a grass field, a young man could be seen running in circles at high speed. Suddenly, the man turned left, taking a very sharp turn before stopping abruptly, as if someone had suspended his animation.

Maxwell cracked his neck, managing not to ruin the muscles on his neck without even using his mind to micromanage muscles. It's been a week since he started training to control his new attributes, and he finally managed to do it a few hours ago.

The first few days were filled with pain and suffering, but Maxwell, fortunately, had duality, so he could decrease the physical traits of his body and make the stats more controllable. He slowly increased them over the past week and managed to reach full capacity.

He summoned his notifications to see what he gained out of the labor he put into this.

Title "Locked In" Acquired.

Locked In: You have been training for a week straight. Don't forget to take breaks.

Maybe I will receive a gymbro class option due to this. Maxwell thought, smiling.

Title Acquired "Adept Of Dexterity"

Title Acquired "Adept Of Agility"

These titles were as expected. Getting these signified that he managed to control the stat using no external means. Even before getting these, he could control his body with his high soul stat, but he got the titles only after he managed to control the stats without actively focusing on it.

Athletics Leveled Up 23→63

The Compendium Leveled Up 9→11

The athletics skill really leveled up by a good margin, but considering that Maxwell hadn't been doing anything else for the last week, it was only expected. He also absorbed darkness mana in the background the entire time, so the compendium now had the mana type on the second level of recording, just like metal mana.

I guess it's time to go. He thought before putting on his mask. In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have sent Blueberry to the bandit task, as that was a pretty obvious risk of exposing his identity.

His form turned into a shadow before turning into a streak of light moving in the air. His speed was slower than the wind element, but it was really close due to the compendium enhancing the darkness element more than the wind element.

He moved towards the direction of Blueberry, as he could actually feel that the bird was not that far away. In the last week, he felt the bird move from place to place with very unrelated locations, so he was a bit anxious about what the bird was doing. That was especially true due to the title he received.

The forest blurred below him, and it took only around five minutes to reach the location he felt Blueberry from. What he found, though, was something completely unexpected. He could see a big camp in the direction of the bird, and from what he could see, this was anything but a bandit camp.

People in rags and worn-out clothes moved through it, and Maxwell could also see that there were bandit carriages inside the camp. Maxwell figured that these were seized from the bandits Blueberry killed. All of this gave Maxwell a bad premonition. He was almost sure that the bird understood his message completely wrong.

He wrapped himself in darkness and started moving towards the camp. He stuck to shadows, and soon, was near the location he felt Blueberry from. It was apparent at this point that he would need to discard this mission, as he couldn't see how he could hide Blueberry's involvement in the mission, directly linking her to his mercenary identity.

He took off his mask, after hiding himself, and once again morphed his clothes back to what he used to wear. It would be better to behave like a master of an unruly pet at this point rather than the mercenary Drakhabgar.

He walked towards a small carriage, and it didn't take long for him to see Blueberry. Near her, a young man was working on wood, and he was speaking about something as Blueberry stood on a newly crafted perch, trimming her feathers like always.

"I don't think there are any camps left, but we might get attacked by the bigger fish if we stay here," the young man said as he cut a small piece of wood away from the thing he was working on. He was making something like a chair.

"Chirp!" Blueberry said, and Maxwell just shook his head. It was not hard to understand the situation. The bird just said something like, "More levels for me,". If he could ignore the troubles this would cause, the situation could be said to be pretty funny.

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"You needed to destroy a specific group of bandits, you know, not all of them," he sent the bird as he neared the weird duo. The young man whirled around as he finally heard his footsteps. He looked at him warily as if he was going to suddenly attack him. It was apparent that he had real trust issues, as Maxwell could almost feel hostility radiating from the young man.

Artisan - Level 13

His level was nothing special, but he also didn't seem like he had ample time to level up comfortably. His body was covered with bruises and newly healing wounds, probably caused by bandits. They didn't seem like the wounds one would receive when fighting.

"Chirp!" Blueberry chirped, radiating joy, and immediately landed on Maxwell's head. He smiled, feeling the familiar weight of the bird.

"Yes, maybe you did destroy them too, but what is this?" Maxwell said, pointing at the giant camp with around a thousand people.

"Chirp," Blueberry said, and a feeling of pity radiated.

"They were caged?" Maxwell glanced around him. So, all of these people were formerly slaves? He didn't know Blueberry had such a good heart to save so many people and gather them in one place. The fact that he absolutely had no idea about where to place so many people was a different problem altogether.

Considering the weird glances the young man was throwing them for some time now, he supposed this was high time he actually said something out loud.

"You don't need to worry, Blueberry is my tamed beast. You were saved by her, I suppose?" Maxwell said, looking at the man. The artisan's expression turned weird for a moment as if he couldn't comprehend this simple fact. Maxwell supposed the reaction was earned, as Blueberry did not exactly behave like she was a tamed beast.

"I and a lot of others were saved by... her?" the man said, using the pronoun hesitantly, still looking at him warily. Maxwell, meanwhile, observed Blueberry to see how much the bird had progressed. He doubted that the bandits would have a very high level in general, but the bird seemed to be working especially hard.

Blueberry - Etheric Sialia - Level 26

That's actually really good. Maxwell thought. Considering that Blueberry only had things to hunt in the forest, this was an insane achievement. The tiger he killed, for example, had 2 months to progress to reach around this level.

"I suppose you don't have a plan on how to proceed from now on?" he asked the man, turning his attention toward him once again. The young man was probably older than Maxwell's current body, but Maxwell hardly looked like a boy anymore.

As if answering his question, immediately they could hear voices coming from the side of the camp facing the city. People were rushing around in the camp in a hurry, as if they were trying to run away. The artisan's face turned ugly as he stared into the distance, squinting.

"Since your beast killed almost all the bandits, probably one of the bigger fish will attack here. They are more organized than one would expect from bandits. My dad used to say that they were more competent than the military when it came to protecting their interests," he said, as he rushed into a small hut nearby.

Maxwell sighed. This would become a real problem soon enough. While he had no problems fighting with strong bandits, he was pretty sure that somewhere along the line, the military would involve itself. No governing power was completely free from working with bandits and such, and he really doubted that nobles in Kralor would be.

He still couldn't blame Blueberry, though, if he were in her place, he would probably do the same thing. The problem was that he didn't have a reliable place to house a thousand people. This made becoming a noble a must.

"Let's go deal with this," Maxwell sent to Blueberry before walking towards the chaos. Soon, they were near the edge of the camp, and Maxwell could see a big group of bandits approaching from a distance, bringing terror with them. He silently waited until the group was near the camp. There were around forty people in the group, and they seemed to be better armed than the usual bandit.

A man was walking in front, apparently being the leader. Maxwell observed the guy. The bandit looked like a professional fighter instead of the gruff-looking bandits around him.

Knight - Level 28

A bandit with a knight class? Maxwell was amused by the contradiction. The level of the man, though, was more than impressive. Considering that there were around forty people behind the man, maybe the artisan's father was right about bandits being better than the military around here.

The man seemed to have spotted Maxwell, and he didn't feel any observations coming from the man. He probably didn't take the risk. He glanced up at Maxwell, seeming weirdly detached from the situation. They had the high ground, as Blueberry and the other people were at least smart enough to place the camp in a defensible position on a hill.

"I suppose you are the smart guy who decided to end slavery?" the man asked, sounding cynical. Maxwell was surprised to hear no anger in his voice. He expected a great deal more screaming, but all he faced was a healthy dose of cynicism. I see a story behind this. Maxwell thought.

"You have to start somewhere, I guess," Maxwell replied, causing the man to laugh briefly.

"So, I suppose you won't give me the slaves without a fight?" the knight said, as he slowly unsheathed his sword. Maxwell finally felt an observation come, and saw the man's eyes go wide.

"Woah, I can't see your level. That doesn't happen usually," he said, before breathing deeply. His shield, armor, and sword started to glow golden. Maxwell could see them getting covered with light mana. The man kept contradicting the bandit image.

"You guys go deal with the camp; this guy is too strong for you!" the man said, preparing to dash at Maxwell. He immediately felt that something was wrong, though.

His command met emptiness, as no one seemed to acknowledge it. He took a glance back and just stared at the scene before him. "Huh?" he said dumbly.

Behind him, forty bandits lay on the ground sleeping like babies. They were definitely not in any situation to deal with any camp.

After all, they were all in Maxwell's dominion.