“Well, well, Young Master, you're awake? What are you going to do without your nanny?”
“Wahahaha!”
As the bandit leader mocked Ikael, the gang burst into boisterous laughter.
They still had no idea whom they had picked a fight with.
Ikael calmly surveyed his surroundings.
Five bandits had formed a ring around him.
‘Five of them. I can handle them well enough.’
Yet Ikael's calm demeanor somehow irritated the bandit leader.
“You bastard, hand over everything you've got! Otherwise, you'll learn what it means to be taught a lesson by us adults.”
“Wahahaha!”
The bandits erupted into boisterous laughter once more.
Unbothered, Ikael pointed to the Demon Sword.
“That sword in the bundle. Don't touch it.”
This was also a warning for the bandit gang.
The Demon Sword was not something one could handle so carelessly.
But there was no way the bandit gang could know that.
“Hmph, don't touch the sword? Like this?”
GRIP—
The bandit leader tried to draw the Demon Sword, making a show of it.
But.
WOBBLE—
The Demon Sword did not move in the slightest.
Instead, it was the burly leader who tilted.
“Huh? W-what's wrong with this?”
“Ha ha. Boss, quit fooling around.”
The bandit leader panicked.
‘W-what is this? Why won't it move?’
The leader was genuinely putting his strength into it.
He could lift a boulder with one hand, yet he could not lift a mere sword made of scrap iron.
Ikael repeated himself.
“Give it to me. I'll let this go if you just return the sword.”
“Hey, don't talk nonsense!!”
One of the underlings rushed over and tried to pull out the Demon Sword for all to see.
The underling and the leader exerted their strength together, but the sword still did not budge.
“Grrrgh!!!”
Their pride thoroughly crushed, the two bandits strained to pull the sword out.
But Ikael did not simply stand by and watch.
“The warning is over.”
THUD—
Ikael closed the distance in an instant.
THWACK— THUD—
His fists landed squarely on the two bandits' chins.
“Kuhk!”
The bandit felt a shock in his jaw as though he had been struck by a rock.
‘Something's wrong!’
Only then did the leader realize that something was amiss.
Ikael's strength was absurdly powerful for his build.
‘Silver hair and eyes. Could that boy be…!’
But before he could carry the thought any further, the leader fell onto the campfire.
THUD—
“Argh, hot!”
“Boss, are you all right?!”
Sparks clung all over the leader's clothes.
“Aaargh, it's hot! I said, it's hot!!”
The leader flailed miserably as he put out the fire. That only further enraged the bandits.
“Grrrgh. Get that bastard!”
CHARGE—!
Several bandits rushed at him, but Ikael merely stood there and watched.
“Hahaha, now you know fear?”
But.
THWACK! THUD!
Ikael waited until just before they collided, then drove his fists into them.
“Aaargh!”
The bandits tumbled all over from his casually thrown punches.
The bandit gang that had looked down on Ikael so completely was no match for him at all.
“W-what kind of bastard is that…!”
To the bandit gang, Ikael looked like a monster that had emerged from the mountains.
Meanwhile, Ikael was surprised by another fact.
‘My body feels light.’
CRACK.
Ikael lightly clenched his fist.
Power spread to the tips of his hands and feet, to the point that he could barely contain it.
Ikael did not even draw his sword.
No, he did not need to.
Even from his casual movements, the bandits were sent flying all over.
Whenever he moved, it felt as though heat gushed from his heart.
‘This feeling is, how should I put it.’
If the Aura Ikael normally felt from his heart had been like a candle flame, now it felt like a blazing campfire.
‘It's definitely different.’
The Desert Aura, infused with the heat of Bakuba Volcano, was much stronger than usual.
“Aaargh!!”
“I'll show you what for!!”
The bandit gang kept charging without tiring. Each time, Ikael brought them down with ease.
It was as if he were testing each part of his body anew—with his fists, his feet.
The body infused with Desert Aura was undoubtedly his own, yet it was far lighter and stronger.
WHAM—
Before long, Ikael knocked down the last bandit.
“Kuhk!!”
“P-please spare us!”
The bandits had lost their will to fight now.
They rolled around on the ground and begged.
SHING—
Without a word, Ikael picked up the Demon Sword. He was checking whether it had been scratched.
“You're alive. If it had been scratched, you wouldn't still be alive.”
“That's impossible…!”
The bandits were stunned once more.
The Demon Sword that had not budged even when two people tried to move it was easily lifted by Ikael.
The Demon Sword's weight felt different depending on the person.
If it felt heavy even to Ikael, who possessed Recrit's powerful body, ordinary bandits could never lift it.
‘Who is this boy?’
At first, they had merely been amazed by his strength. Now, they were afraid.
Reading the bandits' expressions, Ikael spoke.
“Ikael Pui Recrit. That's my name.”
The bandits froze the moment they heard those words.
‘Recrit?’
No matter how ignorant the bandits were, there was no way they would not know the name Recrit.
It was a name that reigned over the snow-covered mountains of the north, at the top of the world.
“R-Recrit!!”
“And we didn't even know!!”
If it was true, they were as good as dead.
Pride no longer mattered. The bandits begged to save their lives.
“We have committed a crime deserving death!”
“We'll give you everything we have. Please forgive us!!”
The bandits prostrated themselves, saying that they would give him their valuables instead.
“I'm not going to kill you. You're useful.”
“Y-yes…?”
If Ikael had intended to kill the bandits, he would have done so long ago.
Ikael and the bandit gang were so far apart in ability that they could not possibly contend with him.
But Ikael wanted something from them.
“Guide me to Bakuba Volcano.”
Bandits like these were the best guides because they knew every corner of the land.
At the name Bakuba Volcano, the bandits went pale.
“Y-Young Master! That place is too dangerous!”
“That's right! We've seen several swordsmen set out for Bakuba Volcano, but most of them end up dying!”
SHING—
Ikael drew his longsword.
“Is that so? What a pity. I thought you might be useful.”
GASP.
“Then live decently in your next life.”
As Ikael raised his longsword as if to behead them.
“W-wait!! We'll guide you. We'll guide you all the way to Bakuba Volcano!!”
“That's more like it.”
Ikael smiled in satisfaction and put away his sword.
The bandits could not say a word and bowed their heads.
To them, Ikael was already an opponent they could not contend with.
“All right, let's go.”
Ikael gave the order.
It was the beginning of the most comfortable journey, with the bandits as his guides.
***
“Ah, I should've done this sooner.”
Putting the bandits in front had been an excellent decision.
They truly were the best at finding their way.
Since he no longer wandered around in the wrong places, the journey became much more comfortable.
That was not its only advantage.
As he encountered demonic beasts less often, he naturally had stamina to spare.
‘I'll put all my remaining stamina into aura cultivation.’
Cultivating aura while watching Bakuba Volcano grow closer day by day—there could be nothing more enjoyable.
Ikael made up a rough excuse and went outside. It was to practice aura cultivation.
“I'm heading out for a short walk.”
“Yes, have a safe walk.”
Once Ikael was gone, the bandits exchanged glances.
“Boss, we should run away now. What are we going to do by entering such a dangerous place as Bakuba Volcano?”
“Right. If we run away while he's not looking, how would he know?”
“He might not really be Recrit. Why would someone that exalted come here?”
But the leader's face only hardened.
“Don't talk nonsense. We will guide that boy to Bakuba Volcano.”
“What? What do you mean…”
“That's how we survive!!”
The leader roared.
The bandit leader had once secretly followed Ikael.
And he had witnessed a startling sight.
WHOOO—
An unknowable pressure radiated from Ikael. It was as though an intangible force enveloped him.
The bandit leader had no way of knowing that Ikael was practicing aura cultivation, but he could at least sense that Ikael was using a mysterious power.
As Ikael sank deeper into concentration, the campfire swayed as if dancing.
Remembering that moment, the bandit leader muttered.
“He is undoubtedly a Recrit.”
That was why the bandits could neither dare to attack nor run away.
To abandon Ikael and flee was the same as daring to defy a Recrit's command.
Meanwhile, Ikael was absorbed in aura cultivation in a distant cave.
As usual, he lit a campfire and concentrated.
WHOOOOSH—
Not long after he closed his eyes, the campfire began to flicker.
It was a much stronger and faster reaction than when he had first started, but Ikael was not surprised.
This degree of growth now felt natural.
The heat of Bakuba Volcano and Ikael's Desert Aura fit together well, doubling the effect of aura cultivation.
Ikael practiced aura cultivation to his limit every day, to the point that it felt as if his heart had been plunged into lava.
The Desert Aura had originally accumulated at several times the efficiency of other Auras.
Moreover, practicing aura cultivation as he headed toward Bakuba Volcano was like giving wings to a galloping horse.
‘This much just from sensing the volcano from afar. Just as expected of the notorious Bakuba Volcano.’
It was enough to make him shudder slightly.
‘Though it isn't enough to surpass my limit yet.’
They said that when Desert Aura reached a certain level, it created an Aura Circle in the heart.
Each trajectory of an Aura Circle was said to possess potential powerful enough to create a vast desert on Earth.
Desert King Pkelon was said to have possessed as many as nine of these circles, shining like the trajectory of the sun.
But no Aura Circle had yet formed in Ikael's heart.
He could feel heat rotating around his heart, but it only seemed as distant as sunlight that became impossible to see the harder he tried to look at it.
Ikael decided not to be disappointed too soon.
Even without creating an Aura Circle, he was already close to the level of a One-Star Knight.
‘The fact that I'm this strong without an Aura Circle means that I can possess much greater strength once one is created.’
Desert Aura.
Ikael knew well that it was a power that could not be measured by any number.
***
A few days passed.
At last, Bakuba Volcano drew near.
Bakuba Volcano lay in the center of the continent, and the route there was long and complicated. Ordinarily, it would take a month to get there.
But thanks to using the bandits, Ikael had arrived much faster.
“Thank you.”
Ikael put his hand into his pocket to give them some reward.
But, perhaps fearing that he would make them run another errand, the bandit gang quickly departed.
“Then we'll be off-”
In an instant, Ikael was left alone. He looked around.
‘From here on, the atmosphere is certainly different.’
Should this place near Bakuba Volcano be called land, or lava?
Scarlet magma flowed through the cracks in the ground, and stone fragments clung all over like a giant's scabs.
It was a landscape as if he had fallen into the heart of a ruined Earth.
And in its midst, Bakuba Volcano towered.
“I've found the right place.”
Seeing the source of the raging hot Aura before him stirred his emotions deeply.
CLANG— CLANG—
In a landscape where no one seemed likely to live, only the sound of the Volcanic Blacksmith's hammering echoed.
Ikael tightly gripped the Demon Sword.
‘Seventh Demon Sword.’
The blacksmith who would refine the Demon Sword, which was still nothing more than a hunk of scrap iron, was right up there.