"Well not that I am complaining…"

Mike was now wearing black leather armor with red lining, he had received it as a gift from another adventure because he had saved that adventure"s life several times already, as for where the leather armor came from, it was brought in a city the convoy stopped in to recruit more adventures since they were running low. This spoke of the high casualty rate among the adventures, but still, morale was high as Mike did his best to save as many adventures he could, his motivations were purely selfish of course

"The more adventures alive, the more I can slack off… Besides I have the feeling that something within me is slowly changing for the better…"

Mike laid back on the roof of the carriage that was being pulled by a wooly ox and closed his eyes, he was enjoying the warm sunlight but alas the bandit"s lying in ambush nearby had other plans, soon a volley of arrows were fired at the adventures before a group of bandits rushed the convoy

"Ambus.h.!.+"

Mike"s eyes snapped open before he sat up and looked at the approaching group of bandits, for a moment he counted them before he eventually decided to help and jumped down from the carriage and slowly walked towards the approaching group of bandits, meanwhile the other adventures formed up behind him with one of them speaking to him

"Boss, what do you think the average level of these bandits is?"

Mike showed a slight smile and responded

"Well giving that they are bandits the highest level is probably 3… So be sure to take care"

"Yes boss"

Mike stopped, cracked his neck before he suddenly disappeared from view as he kicked off the ground, the other adventures also charged towards the bandits but before they even arrived had Mike severed the neck of half a dozen of bandits, their blood danced in the air before it suddenly froze into long needles that descended on the unaware bandits from above, wiping out even more of them and so before the other adventures reached the bandits they were already fleeing, Mike didn"t let them go and hunted down every last one of them before he looked at the b.l.o.o.d.y scene of carnage and spoke

"[Drink]"

The b.l.o.o.d.y scene turned less b.l.o.o.d.y in a few moments before there were only dried up corpses left, Mike then suddenly felt a headache coming on and gave a frown before he ma.s.saged his temples and his aching forehead

"Boss is something wrong?"

Mike looked up and saw the one that was insisting on calling him boss, a female non-human with hyena like ears and a short tail wagging behind her, her name was Daisy and unlike her ladylike name she was rough around the edges and carried an Aztec club which basically was a club with obsidian shards embedded on it

"What was it called again..? Oh right a Macuahuitl"

"Is there something on my face boss?"

"Nope, not at all… And it"s nothing, just the usual headaches from using my skill"

"Ah… I see… Should I give you a ma.s.sage boss? You know loosen up your neck? Maybe it"ll help with the headache"

Mike gave a slight smile

"No thanks Daisy, I"ll be alright"

"...Okay boss, just say if you need my ma.s.sage, I will serve you anytime boss"

"Sure"

Mike walked back towards the carriage while thinking about the incident that led up to Daisy calling him boss, when she joined the convoy partway through the two month journey she was arrogantly calling herself the strongest and challenged anyone that said otherwise to a fight, soon the constant fighting lead to the convoy slowing down which annoyed Mike so he beat her up and so ever since she had been following him around calling him boss

"If she wasn"t so pretty to look at I would have ended her already…"

With that thought Mike laid himself back down and on the roof of the carriage and closed his eyes, he was sleeping a lot, way more than usual and he kept getting these headaches when he drained blood with [Drink]

"Oh well, it"s probably nothing…"

Mike decided to ignore it as he let out a yawn and soon drifted off to sleep…

The convoy eventually reached its goal, the southmost port city on Darbel, after getting paid Mike left the other adventures after refusing to go drinking or at least he tried to as a very persistent one followed him with a smile on her face

"Hey, boss, why don"t we go drinking with the others?"

Mike gave a sigh and turned around before he spoke

"Because I am leaving this island and need all my money for the fare"

"Oh… I see, where are we going boss?"

"What do you mean? I am leaving this island, you are free to go"

Daisy tilted her head and asked

"Does that mean I am free to do as I wish?"

"Yeah"

Then Daisy gave a wide smile as she took a step closer to Mike

"Then I want to follow you, boss"

Mike gave a sigh before a red light flashed in his eyes before he quickly drew the knife and slashed out at Daisy"s neck, she didn"t flinch as the knife stopped millimeters from her neck, then Mike gave a smile

"In that case, I have a gift for you Daisy"

Daisy"s tail began wagging as her face lit up

"Really? A gift for me?"

"Yeah, let"s get a room in an inn first though"

Daisy"s face blushed deeply before she eventually gave a small nod, Mike knew she was misunderstanding but didn"t care to correct her, after all her reactions were amusing, soon the two of them arrived at an inn and booked a room, Mike walked into the double room like he owned the place but Daisy stood in the door and fidgeted, it looked like she didn"t know what to do with her hands either, one moment they were down by her side, the next moment they were playing with her long hair, Mike walked over and sat down on the bed before he patted the spot next to him and looked at Daisy

"Come here and sit down"

"...O-Okay boss"

Daisy walked over, she was stiff as a plank but soon she sat down next to Mike that was struggling not to laugh, outwardly though he had a perfect poker face, after Daisy sat down next to him he waited as she continued to overheat before he suddenly could not hold it back anymore and began laughing, Daisy was startled by his sudden outburst but slowly she caught on that Mike had just been teasing her the whole time and gave a angry pout before she stood up and was about to walk out of the room when Mike grabbed her by the arm

"Boss, let go!"

"Sorry Daisy, you were just so---"

"Boss you should not play with a maiden"s heart like that!"

"Yeah, sorry… But I do have a gift for you"

Daisy"s mood did a 180 when she heard he really had a gift for her and she quickly faced him and asked

"What is it?"

Mike showed a wide smile that made Daisy tremble slightly before Mike drew the knife suddenly and poked her hand

"Ouch! Why did you do that Boss!?"

Mike showed a smile and spoke

"[Control]"

Daisy suddenly felt something suck her out of her own body, she wanted to scream when she saw her own body being filled with some sort of reddish muck, but alas she quickly pa.s.sed out… From there it was only darkness...

The next morning Mike and Daisy left the inn, Daisy"s previously brown hair had turned dull red along with the fur on her ears and tail

"So Boss, what"s our next step?"

"Well we need to find a boat leaving in Threa"s direction"

Daisy gave a nod as she followed after Mike down to the docks where the two of them asked around and soon found a s.h.i.+p that was leaving at noon towards the final island between them and Threa, Kely. After paying a fee of 5.000 per person the two of them boarded the s.h.i.+p that set sail soon after towards Kely, onboard the merchant s.h.i.+p were s.h.i.+pments of food, weapons and monster crystals, Mike gave a frown when he saw the s.h.i.+pments and asked one of the sailors of the situation on Kely

"Oh, you guys don"t know? There"s a civil war raging on Kely"

Mike gave a sigh before he mumbled

"...Great"