Tiger's Den

"Fedir. Am I stronger than Mify as of now?"

"Ah, well, I…think you'd be slightly weaker Sir. Mifyr awakened his [Mana Pool] a few weeks ago, hence why he's still here. Given another month or so, he'd probably be out of the slums and working since he would have sufficient accumulations. Sir Hero lacks the time he had."

"How large is the difference between us?"

"If I compare it to what I've heard, then it's only a small amount in the first month. If you could sneak up on him, you could land a critical hit."

Interesting. I took back what I said—these men would indeed be important.

I turned to the other man's subordinates and asked "Will you submit voluntarily? Or do we need other methods?"

They stayed silent, as though there was something to contemplate.

"Fedir, did he really awaken his [Mana Pool]?"

A smirk was present as he answered.

"Yep, and it's because of me! I guided him to Enlightenment towards his Attunement! Just join, man. Even with the arm missing, you won't win."

It seemed there was a history between these two, as he heeded Fedir' words and walked over to me.

With his steps, all the others also came over to my side except from the leader who remained unconscious.

'Outpost 2, taken over.'

With the new input from Fedir, my plan had changed.

There was no need to waste time anymore.

I told Fedir to collect up any coins that were present whilst I started to gather some materials.

"Do you have bandages?"

One of them stepped out without replying and walked to a desk, picking up a shattered box. He took the contents, and threw them in my direction.

A ridiculously large coil of bandages entered my arms. Dried blood stains were clearly present on the surface. Was it any mystery on what they needed all of it for?

"Alright. Fedir, we will be confronting Mifyr now. You will be the leader this time. I need five of you to cover yourself in bandages. That's all."

"I'm the leader? Hahaha, of course Sir! I won't disappoint!"

Five people stepped up with haste, but the only face I could identify was Derif. As they came, I wrapped them all in bandages from head to toe, leaving only their eyes to be seen and a single free arm.

When they finished, it was my turn.

"Derif, cover me too. Nothing but the eyes and my arm, yeah?"

"A-Alright, Sir."

He headed my words perfectly, as I felt all my body become restricted under his wrapping.

"Fedir will guide us to wherever Mify resides. Then, everyone charges at him with their pipes. Don't let him understand that a Hero is with you."

Fedir stared at me, before replying "Alright."

With that, I left one person to watch over the coins as Fedir guided us to our final destination.

A few minutes had passed, and Fedir finally came to a stop as he declared "This is it, Sir. The building ahead of us is where Mifyr lives. Be warned, the men there are armed with knives."

"Ah, you didn't think to mention that before?"

"...Sorry Sir."

Honestly, had he remained quiet about it then there would be no issue posed. However, now that this fact had been brought to the group's attention, they seemed restless. They shared glances at each other, and began to step back.

"Um, Sir, I don't think this is a suitable job for me. It's too dangerous."

"Yeah, sorry Hero, but I will have to step back."

The fear of death.

With that factor, none of them had the courage to step forward into that building.

They seemed to have forgotten something though.

"If anyone refuses to enter, you will be killed by me. You won't have to worry about possibly dying—I'll make sure it happens."

The fear of death should have always been there.

My presence alone was meant to stimulate that fear.

And it seemed that some people hadn't understood that.

"What? You think you're invincible because you're a Hero? Fuck, I don't know why these wimps are so scared of you, but you can't fool me!"

"Damn it, we can just kill him ourselves. He has some mana curse or something anyways! Today! He hasn't even had his [Mana Pool] for more than a day!"

"What? Fedir, you threatened me with this bullshit?"

I made sure to remember every face that planned to kill me.

More people were about to speak up in outrage. If that happened, the situation would've been harder to control—I had to act right now.

[Mana Pool]. From my understanding, this was what gave me such an edge over the people in the slums. It had increased my stats by around 4 on average, and had given me a comprehensive boost in physical capability.

For as long as they lacked this, they couldn't compare to me.

Bang!

The pipe in my hand smashed into his head. This action…seemed to have been repeated by me a bit too much recently.

Unlike the previous times, I wouldn't stop there.

From my hit, a small crater of blood had begun to flow from his head before he dropped to the floor whilst groaning. As he squirmed about, another smash hit his back.

"Argh!"

Another hit to his back.

"Arghhh!"

A strike to his leg.

"Ahh! Stop, you fucking dog!"

Bang!

I swung directly at his elbow that was beginning to rise. Although I had some temptations to bash his head, I needed him to stay conscious.

His screams had to be heard by everyone.

"Argh!

"Stop!

"F-fuck, fuck!

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

"Please!

"Sir, I beg you!

"Please Sir, I'll do anything!"

"Ah, for real?"

"Yes, yes, yes! Of course! I'll enter the building with you!"

"No, no, don't force yourself man. If you don't want to go, you can stay here."

"No! Sir, I really want to!"

"Huh. I guess I shouldn't force you to not go then. Ah, by the way, if anyone is thinking of running away, I'll abandon this takeover and focus on finding you. Since he didn't leave yet, I haven't killed him but it'll be different for anyone who runs."

No-one responded.

Done~!

Like that, I positioned myself and the other five bandaged people near the middle of our crowd and waited for Fedir to lead inwards. Of course, the people who planned to kill me were positioned at the front.

Fedir spoke out.

"W-We are entering!"

The building had two floors, and was made of a grey material similar to concrete. It was independent from everything else in the slums—being located in the direct centre of the slums.

Fedir knocked on the door.

'...'

"Hi, could we talk to Mifyr please?"

"Fedir? When did you become their leader? Wait, is that Kire? Kire, what happened?"

A voice from our crowd said "We got taken over. You're next, I guess."

"Haha! You betrayed Mifyr to follow Fedir?! Stupid bastard, hah—!"

Bang!

Fedir' struck straight to his face.

But the man had parried the pipe using a small dagger that dropped down from his sleeve.

'Ah, this is going to be a lot harder than the other outposts.'

Thankfully for Fedir, the moment he struck down the crowd began to charge into the building, forcing Fedir to push the man back. As we entered inside, we were greeted by 9 people armed with knives, excluding the man who opened the door. They all wore a dirtied black shirt matched with evenly dirtied black trousers.

I had approximately 25 people under me—nearly three times the amount. But, the issue lay in quality.

Every person they had could probably defeat 3 of my men. So, the solution was me. The nine men didn't recklessly charge at us, instead choosing to stand still and wait for us to move.

One of the nine began to speak.

"Fedir, why have you chosen to rebel? Mifyr wasn't going back on his words—you would've been selected when the time was right. Instead, you choose to do this?"

Fedir clicked his tongue as he replied "Tch, you've been saying that for months. Even moreso, is Mifyr really that great? Our scope is in the slums, the lowest of the low. I want more now. Just being an outpost leader can't satisfy me anymore.

"But, you heard my pleasure in a time of desperation. And for that, I'll tell you this. Do not fight us. You know me more than anyone else here, Serie. Trust me. You could kill nearly all of us, and you would still lose your life."

Fedir…seemed to be of a different character than what I had first thought. His connections within the slums proved to me that he had spent a long time attempting to latch on to a higher position of power.

A man of ambition.

'Good. Loyalty without reason is unreliable—loyalty for personal fulfilment can be trusted.'

Fedir' position within my head had increased several fold. Not only had he been someone with ambition, but was also willing to act on it.

"...Why?"

"I can't say."

Serie took a few moments in silence.

–Swshh!

He retracted his knife back into his pocket, and began to walk over to our crowd.

"Serie? Kekeke, stupid bastard, you're going to betray Mifyr for the words of that rat? Kill them!"

With those words, the now 8 joined with the door opener charged at us with their daggers readied.

Fedir shouted out.

"Attack!"

This was the start of our bloodshed. The daggered men moved in three's, opting to gang up on one person at a time

Although they tried to swing their pipes, the men would simply parry the untrained swings and smoothly link a counterattack to the chest

–Pkkkk!

A dagger had plunged into the shoulder of the man, just inches away from his heart, before it was swiftly pulled out. He fell on the floor whilst screaming, causing the dagger wielder to click his tongue.

My pipe had slightly poked his forearm, forcing a change in direction without revealing myself. And in the time buffer from pulling the dagger out, I managed to smash the pipe on the centre of his face.

One down.

The remaining two made space between us, and charged at a different member. Unfortunately, I couldn't do much to help them—nor did I want to do anything to save those with murderous intent towards me.

Wasn't that why I placed them at the front?

'Thank you for your sacrifice~!'