Back when I turned twenty, I had enrolled in the only imperial academy on the Pangea continent—the Darmina Imperial Academy, also simply called the Imperial Academy, a three-year program.
This year I had graduated and was returning to the place I considered my second hometown after three years away.
I had stayed at an inn tavern, and these bandits, who had been eyeing my belongings, followed me after I left the inn and enjoyed lunch and a nap in Cargo Forest.
“That thing on your wrist—that’s a bracelet made from Mohican morti, isn’t it?
Hand it over if you don’t want to die, you savage.”
The leader of the four bandits pointed at my wrist.
Morti was a plant that grew only in certain regions of Galatea, where the Mohicans lived.
It was processed into clothing and accessories, and though the supply was limited, it fetched a high price outside.
“I can’t give it to you.
It’s very precious to me.”
I had two morti bracelets on my right wrist.
One was made by my mother, and the other by someone else very dear to me.
So I naturally refused.
“Acting tough just because you’re a barbarian, huh?
But we’ve already stripped plenty of barbarians clean.
Today we’ll add you to that list.
Kukuk!”
Grin…!
Shing!
The bandit leader, Ivan, confidently drew his sword with a crooked smile.
Ah, how did I know his name?
“So you’re Awakeners.”
Because I had activated the cheat trait Eye of the Transcendent and checked their status windows.
The two lackeys were combat level D, one was E+, and Ivan was D+.
Naturally, that level of power required awakening abilities.
At that level, his claim of having stripped multiple barbarians stronger than humans was probably no lie.
“But so am I.”
Thud, thud, thud, thud!!
After all, Conqueror Geum Taeyang’s combat level was B+.
I closed the distance in an instant and entered striking range against Ivan.
“—Kuaaaagh!!!”
Crash, crash, crash!
The fight ended in an instant, far beyond the level difference.
The opponents had no special skills or tools either.
Ivan took the first hit, but it was his three lower-level subordinates whose lives were taken first.
Ivan, hit by the final follow-up strike, also coughed up blood and collapsed.
‘As expected, somewhat cold-blooded.
Even after killing three people, I don’t feel much agitation.’
The Awakener bandits had served as a perfectly sufficient tutorial mission.
They had let me taste the physical abilities of a transcendent being and also experience the barbarian mindset accustomed to bloodshed.
“Please spare me!
Just spare my life!”
And the sight of Ivan begging for his life in terror stirred another aspect of my personality.
“You’re asking a lot from a barbarian.”
Stomp!!
Right—aggression.
Without asking or questioning, I immediately stomped down and crushed Ivan’s skull.
Why were barbarians called barbarians?
Because they were savage.
All barbarian tribes were born with beast-like physical abilities, and their aggression was equally tremendous.
Especially male barbarians.
That’s why fighting barbarians in real combat never ended halfway.
Even if it was against their own kind.
Especially the Mohicans I belonged to—fights only ended when an arm, an eye, or a life was lost.
Refusing that meant being branded a coward in Mohican society and losing your place.
That brutal way of life applied without the slightest hesitation, even though I had only just been possessed.
‘These clothes were pretty well-maintained, but now they’re a mess.’
But this Geum Taeyang was a half-blood barbarian who had also lived a fairly civilized life, so he felt a sense of reality after the bloody battle.
Since I was returning to my second hometown after three years, I had dressed neatly.
That was probably why the bandits had acted so confident.
As I quickened my steps again and checked the blood splatters here and there, I wondered what to do about it.
‘The point where this trail ends—three years ago, I headed out of Cargo Forest from here.’
I reached the end of the trail.
This symbolic point marked the separation from civilization in Cargo Forest.
Going further in would lead to the deeper, denser inner forest, and eventually the area where the Mohican tribe had built their village.
Three years ago, I had left that place to enroll in the Darmina Imperial Academy.
‘Nothing’s changed.
The empire, the center of the continent, sees big changes every month or two.’
The deepening forest made the three years feel meaningless.
I had roamed this region for over ten years, so every single scene was stored in my mind.
The inner Cargo Forest scenes filling the eyes of the twenty-three-year-old Geum Taeyang returning in glory were no different from those memories.
They were filled with longing, familiarity, and the scent of home that triggered pure instinctual return.
While I was reminiscing about old memories and admiring the beautiful inner Cargo Forest, a voice spoke from the dense forest beside me.
“You’ve got some nerve coming this deep, intruder.”
‘A Mohican with considerable combat power.’
Swish!
It was a Mohican.
A barbarian Mohican whose combat level was clearly higher than mine.
I immediately stopped and turned toward the voice.
And the one who appeared there was—
“Even if you turn back now, you’ll have to leave an arm behind.”
A masked female Mohican.