Chapter 453: The Devil Among Bandits

As Cain awakened, he found himself in some tent. Looking out, he saw some men dressed in black, sitting around a campfire, cooking food. Yet none of them seemed to be Lilith, which annoyed him; he wanted to mess with the guy more.

But at least it was good since he could actually learn about the world, and not have him trying to fight him instantly after seeing each other.

Getting out of the tent, he approached the men, who waved to him as they saw him. They looked like bandits, exactly like the bandits you used to read about: angry faces, dressed in black, scars. Though if they were bandits and waved to him, it meant that he was also one.

Not that he cared all that much.

Among them, a man with white hair, put inside a small ponytail, approached him, the others making way when he passed, which made him think that he had to be important; he wanted to go as far as to say that he was probably the leader of this whole gang,

"Finally awake, boy? You slept quite a lot, must have been tired from our last mission." The man smiled, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Though, I have to say... didn’t remember you being the type to sleep naked, nor did I have any idea of all these scars."

Cain looked down, remembering he still hadn’t put on a shirt. "People change, even if some changes are less meaningful than some others."

The man chuckled. "If you say so, though, you better be prepared. Tomorrow we are going to be raiding a village; you’re going to need the energy so you can fight."

...

"Oh, trust me, I will have no problem with it." He said, a wide smile on his face.

Happy with his answer, the old man stepped back, standing back where he had been before Cain came out.

Looking around, they seemed to be in a forest, a pretty dark one if he had to say. But after hearing what the man had to say, it made him question just what the chances of Lilith being inside that village were. ’Close to one hundred... but at the same time, that means I can just put him in his place while also helping with the story.’

The only bad part is that he had no idea what the original story could be; maybe the Bandit leader was the original protagonist, and that in the authentic narrative, he dies horribly while trying to take down the village.

That was the only story he could see with him as the protagonist; after all, if he was to succeed, what kind of story would that be, since this group had probably done this before. So it would be just another one for them. It wouldn’t make sense.

A part of him believed that the true protagonist was inside the village; who knows, maybe Lilith had taken the role of main character, after all, he was probably also inside the village. There was a good chance of it happening. Though even if he wasn’t, he was probably going to take the show.

’No matter what he has planned, whether he wants to hide his powers or not, he is going to have to show them if he wants to fight me.’

The third and probably the most possible scenario was that the protagonist was just another person from the village that he had no idea about; this created a different path that the story could have taken, but he couldn’t make any because he had no idea how the village worked or what was inside of it.

He was just going to have to wait for tomorrow and see, though; while he knew he had chosen a book that wasn’t that big in rank, he did wish to find some Seeker people inside, after all... he was this close to ranking up to Monster.

’If everything goes my way... by the end of this book, I would be a Seeker Monster of the Enlightenment level.’ He clenched his fists, smiling. ’Wonder if there is a Seeker with a higher class.’

As he stood there near the flame, there was suddenly a noise heard. Many of the bandits quickly stood up. "I’ll check it out; I doubt that there is anything serious," Cain said, leaving before anyone else could come with him.

Entering the dark forest, his eyes wandered around, trying to find what had caused the noise, but it was too dark...

Luckily for him, the thing that had made the noise had gone for him.

Suddenly, from the darkness, a figure appeared, stabbing him right into his heart.

’Of course... bandits have rivals, shouldn’t have thought about that.’ He sighed, staring the masked man into the eyes. He was... beyond confused; after all, he had just stabbed the heart of someone, and yet they were still standing as if nothing had happened, and more importantly, he hadn’t made a noise. It was as if he didn’t feel anything.

Cain chuckled, gripping the blade as it cut into his palm. "Devils have three hearts, you know? Destroying one won’t be enough."

Breaking the blade into pieces, Cain’s hand quickly moved and clenched the man by the neck, crushing it, before throwing his body onto the ground, but sadly, it was only a Reader.

Looking at his chest, he watched as his body regenerated; yet to heal the heart, it was going to take some time... but it wasn’t like he was in any danger of dying, after all, his body wasn’t of a human anymore, but of a Devil; it regenerated itself.

"Now... the ones that are still hiding, are you guys going to run or fight? Just say so I can go back?"

He waited for a second before seven men came out of the shadows, all with their blades out. "I guess it’s the latter... good choice, you will die faster this way." He said as his horns appeared.

Moderately intensifying the effect of his Affinity.