Just like he had planned, Zenis reached the village after seven hours. The place was a lot different from the other, that was surrounded by groves. That one had a bunch of wheat fields around it, and a lot of bull-like creatures helping the people harvest their grains.

  Just like Zenis had expected as well, he was standing out like a sore thumb, a five-year-old boy, dirty to boot and carrying two spears… one didn’t have to be a genius to understand what had happened.

  “What happened, boy? Aren’t you from that village south of here? Did something happen?”

  A middle-aged farmer with a round belly and while holding a pitchfork asked after he approached Zenis. He could tell that he was worried about what happened there could happen in his village as well… while the place had some large farms, it didn’t have more than two hundred houses. Not even one fourth of those would have able-bodied soldiers.

  In any case, Zenis wondered how he should react? Like a kid and trying to get help or act like nothing had happened? What would be the best option for his goal to conquer the world faster?

  “The village was attacked, and they killed all the men. I barely escaped with my life and they took all the girls and women of the village,” Zenis replied while studying the reaction of the farmer. “They headed south.”

  “South you say…” the man said and then sighed in relief. “You should inform the guards of the village… then they will decide what to do.”

  The farmer was relieved since he knew that the guards wouldn’t do a thing since the villages were of the same size. Chasing the bandits would only make their village stay unprotected for several days, and they had no obligation to do that.

  ‘Well, it was obvious,’ Zenis thought and then walked toward the village. ‘Let’s see… their dungeon is north of here, and I should be able to check what kind of creature can be found there once I check the things that are most sold in the shops.’

  There were only two shops, and it had been hard to identify them from a distance since they looked like ordinary wooden houses. When Zenis approached, he saw some people in the shops butchering some creatures that looked like rabbits thanks to their white fur, but they had horns, and they were the size of wolves.

  ‘They use the monsters as sources of food and to gather fur as well, and they throw away the horns since they aren’t that durable,’ Zenis thought. ‘Since it is a place that is like a meat factory for them, they won’t let someone like me enter.’

  Zenis was in a peaceful area. That was why he didn’t find any monsters or animals to hunt. It was also because of that that a group of one hundred bandits could exist… monsters would make it hard for such a group to move around.

  In the end, the best option for Zenis to get stronger is to hunt the bandits… still, what could he do with his body? Zenis decided to think about that while he walked around the village. While he didn’t find many things, he found some that could be useful. Some horses, and he actually found some things that were quite similar to pepper and had the same properties.

  Zenis decided to trade the things that he found in the village for the horse and the pepper. The old man who had the horse frowned when he saw a kid trying to make business with him, but he didn’t mind since the silver cup was way more valuable than the horse, which wasn’t from a particular high class breed.

  The other merchant also looked surprised when Zenis bought all of his stock of peppers. While Zenis had a bit of a hard time climbing the horse, his instincts were good enough to make up for it, and eventually, he left the village riding it.

  “Based on the memories of this body, the bandits weren’t that strong. At best, they are at level fifteen or something,” Zenis said while he was riding his horse back to his villa. “It makes sense since bandits wouldn’t try to have fair fights, they would only fight battles that would be easy to win… anyway, it seems that I am in the border of a large country, that is why such a large group of assholes was able to be formed without being hunted down.”

  The memories of the kids weren’t that much reliable to make Zenis understand how to come and why such a group was formed. The villages looked peaceful and rich enough… finding jobs shouldn’t be that hard. The bandits should really be a bunch of low lives.

  Due to the political instability, Zenis knew that this created an environment of uncertainty and allowed bandit groups to exploit the power vacuum. In regions with weak or ineffective rulers, bandits could operate with relative impunity, as there was a lack of strong institutions to combat their activities.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Economic hardships were another factor. Famine, crop failures, high taxes, and oppressive feudal systems created widespread poverty and discontent among the lower classes. Banditry provided an alternative means of survival for individuals who were marginalized or desperate, as they could seize resources from wealthy merchants, travelers, or even raid villages for sustenance. Even if it was a bit justified, Zenis was determined to avenge the boy Zenis to make his spirit stop bothering him, and because he deserved some closure as well.

  ‘Although my knowledge was sealed, my deductions skills are still pretty sharp,’ Zenis thought.

  Zenis returned to the village in the middle of the night. He stopped to eat some fruits along the way since he was hungry and also to clean himself when he found a river in the distance. He didn’t see that before because he was too short, but things changed thanks to the horse.

  Regardless, the smell of death was starting to spread around the village, and the horse didn’t want to approach it. Still, that was necessary for Zenis, so he tied up the animal in a nearby grove and let him rest there while Zenis approached the houses and began to look for pieces of cloth and the charcoal that had been cooled down already.

  ‘This should be fine, since it won’t cause damage to them,’ Zenis thought and then looked for a good stone as well.

  Zenis used the stone to crack the charcoal in small pieces and then smashed the pepper as well, before mixing everything into small bags that he made with the pieces of cloth. They were all tied well, just enough to keep everything side from leaking, but not so well that a single impact wouldn’t make them spread around the area.

  (The skill Alchemy was unsealed)

  (Alchemy: passively improves the effectiveness of your chemical creations by five percent per level. It also improves your learning and production speed when creating new chemical creations.)

  ‘Oh, this is unexpected… I didn’t imagine that Alchemy would be related to this. I never messed with alchemy before, after all,’ Zenis thought, surprised but satisfied at the same time. ‘Still, it makes sense.’

  Zenis felt that he probably could use Alchemy to make a bunch of things that will make him stronger. He was supposed to know what those things were, but since most of his useful memories had been sealed, he couldn’t. Regardless, he will eventually have flashes of inspiration, just like he had when he saw the pepper.

  Zenis was planning to work the whole night, but after some point, even though he wasn’t doing anything really tiring, he began to lose stamina every minute… he was feeling really sleepy.

  “I can’t even recall the last time I felt weak like this… mortal bodies are truly inconvenient,” Zenis said and, despite his words, he smiled. “This only adds more to the tension. Let’s see if I can get some skill out of this by resisting it.”

  Using all his mental fortitude, Zenis tried to fight back his drowsiness. That was a bit dangerous, since he was making some dangerous things. He felt that recovering the technique that makes him able to rest with his eyes open and work at the same time would be better. He would be able to work automatically and it was the best tool that he would have in such a situation… but it was too much of an advanced technique for him to have right now.

  (The skill Sleep Resistance was unsealed.)

  (Sleep Resistance: passively increases your resistance to sleep and abilities that might put you to sleep, making them ten percent less effective per level.)

  Once he got that, Zenis felt relaxed, and he was unable to focus, so he went to sleep. In the end, he slept for around six hours and opened his eyes when the sun was rising. Although his mind wanted to go back to work, his body was quite stubborn and lazy.

  ‘I will have to train this body properly. This kind of behavior is unacceptable for someone like me,’ Zenis thought.

  A bath with cold water in the nearby river did the trick to wake Zenis up and he also began to work faster since soon he leveled up the Alchemy skill. He gained ten points per creation, after all.

  ‘This might not be so good. I was planning to make something like a gas bomb for each one of them, but I guess that would be too much," Zenis thought. ‘At best, I will be able to create thirty of them.’

  Even if the best scenario happens and he can kill thirty bandits with all of them without suffering any damage, it is hard to imagine that Zenis would level up enough to get stronger to kill all the others by himself and in a direct confrontation… he will need something more. Unfortunately, he will have to think of that while he looks for the bandits and the villagers.

  As Zenis began to cross the village after he finished his job, thanks to the horse, he noticed a few things. He was high enough on the horse to see the marks that the bandits left while they were taking away the villagers, and only a couple of them had horses.

  ‘I can use my agility to my advantage in this situation,’ Zenis thought. ‘Staying light on my feet, constantly moving and maneuvering to avoid being surrounded or overwhelmed by my opponents. By staying mobile, I can create openings for counterattacks and evade attacks more effectively… what else can I do?’

  Zenis accessed the memories of his body again and he recalled that those who were the weakest and skinniest, probably the newcomers of the group fought as a team… Instead of engaging in an all-out brawl, trying to isolate and neutralize opponents one by one. Identify weaker or less skilled adversaries and focus his attacks on them. By reducing their numbers quickly, he will even the odds and create opportunities for escape or further tactical advantage.