Jin couldn’t have predicted that they were dealing with the terrorist group from his past life—a group he had only heard about from rumors. Moreover, they weren’t satisfied with just attacking the Runcandel cadets. They also planned on kidnapping the girls.

“How long has it been since Mesa was captured?”

“It hasn’t been an hour yet.”

“Then they must still be on their way to the beastmen’s territory’s entrance.”

Jin approached the dead body with the dagger in the head and pulled it out. He then received two more daggers from the cadets and stored them in his boots and inside his robe.

“We will also prepare to pursue them, Young Master.”

“No, I’ll go rescue Mesa on my own. You stay here and finish treating your wounds. Once you’re done, reunite with Group 1 and request for assistance from the clan.”

“Yes?”

The cadets all showed surprised expressions.

“The attackers we faced were all about 4-star warriors. How could we send you alone when there are twenty of them?!”

“You mustn’t, Young Master. Please take us with you.”

“Rescuing Mesa is important, but your safety is our utmost priority, Young Master. In fact, it’s far too dangerous for you to pursue them. Let’s return and ask for reinforcements from the clan together…”

The cadets all raised their voices in disapproval.

According to the now-dead assailant, there were a total of twenty members in their branch.

The cadets were right. Chasing them to rescue Mesa was foolhardy. Especially if he were to go alone.

“And he might’ve been lying when he said there were twenty of them. If we all die—including you, Young Master—the promise you made with him would be voided. Please make a careful judgement.”

“Mesa is a comrade we all care about, but deaths happen regularly on missions. And if we immediately ask for reinforcements from the clan, she could be safely rescued…”

“Scott.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“As you say, deaths happen regularly on missions. But how can a legitimate Runcandel child sit by and not do anything when a cadet was captured?”

Jin calmly looked around, making eye contact with each cadet.

“I am stronger than you all think I am. So stand up straight and follow my orders. Any other objections will be considered insubordination.”

The cadets all erased their distressed expressions. They couldn’t say anything else due to Jin’s powerful tone and gaze.

“I await with impatience for all of you to grow stronger so that we can fight side by side in the future. I will get going now. Oh, and Bellop.”

“Yes.”

“Since everyone from Group 2 has been wounded, you are the strongest person after me now. Do you understand? You mustn’t hesitate anymore.”

“I shall bear that in mind.”

Now that all was said, Jin sprinted away as time was of the utmost importance.

All the cadets bowed in his direction until he was out of view.

***

Currently, Jin has reached 3-star spiritual release, 3-star swordsmanship and 4-star mana.

Nobody would believe it if someone said these were the abilities and strengths of a 15-year-old boy. However, it was still reckless to face twenty 4-star warriors simultaneously with these abilities.

Furthermore, if the low-ranked lackeys were 4-star warriors, it was likely that the superiors were 5-star or stronger.

However, Jin was confident enough to go face them all alone, as the enemies weren’t aware of his ‘spiritual power’ and ‘magic’.

Moreover, although his swordsmanship was 3-star only, he had gained the knowledge of the secret tomes of countless martial clans. His chances of winning were not that low.

‘I won’t have to fight against twenty opponents at the same time. They’ve all scattered around, looking for the cadets, so I just need to deal with one small group at a time while searching for Mesa.’

Jin judged that there was enough distance between him and the cadets as he came to a halt.

As he calmed his breath, Jin created a ball of mana on his right palm. He planned on using mana to search for the enemies.

‘Seismic Sense.’

Seismic Sense was a 3-star earth magic spell. As its name implies, it is a spell that senses the state of the ground, and is often used to detect earthquakes or other natural disasters.

In other words, it wasn’t the appropriate spell to use to track down enemies.

However, depending on its application and links, magic has an infinite amount of possibilities and usages. Be that as it may, ordinary magicians require cooperation with another when trying to make use of the application and link tricks.

Whoosh!

As the ball of mana on Jin’s right hand gradually permeated the ground, Jin created a second ball of mana on his left hand. This one was partially transparent as it was of the wind attribute.

Multicasting.

This was a skill that most magicians around the world could only dream of mastering. Without an aptitude for it, even 7-star magicians are unable to use this crucial skill.

Jin could use multicasting since his past life, as soon as he became his magic teacher’s pupil.

‘Wind Pursuit.’

As he finished casting the second spell, wind began to gather around the transparent mana. After the wind blew around Jin for a few seconds, it detected the slight reaction from Seismic Sense and began flowing in that direction.

The wind was following the information given to it by Seismic Sense.

‘I’m lucky they’re moving in the grasslands. If they were in the woods, it would’ve been hard to track them even with these two spells.’

If the members of Kinzelo had gone through the forest, the trees and lifeforms in there would’ve disturbed the detection, making it nigh-impossible to find them.

Jin cancelled his magic.

Multicasting consumed an extreme amount of mana, and if there was a magician amongst the enemies, they could find out that they were being pursued.

‘They haven’t gone very far.’

After running for around an hour, Jin could finally see physical traces of the terrorists around him, such as footprints or flattened grass.

As he was about to start running again, Jin flinched and immediately stopped all movements.

When he checked the footprints again, the number of pairs had gone down.

Thwish!

An arrow came flying at him through the high grass. Jin effortlessly avoided it and aimed his sword in the direction it had come from.

There was a ditch.

The attackers had expected the cadets to follow them, and had dug a hole in advance.

“As I thought, a Runcandel cadet! Your movements are good. I can see why Chaph had such a hard time earlier.”

“The kid dodged the arrow, Clark. Give me a gold coin!”

Three men wearing masks came out of the burrow and giggled amongst themselves.

It seemed they had made a bet when they saw Jin: whether he would be able to avoid the surprise attack or not.

The man they called Clark took out a gold coin and tossed it.

“You made money thanks to that fucking brat. Good for you.”

The winner of the bet caught the coin and smirked as he took out his sword. Jin was still silently observing his opponents.

They were composed of one magician and two warriors.

‘Their aura and mana aren’t that strong. They must all be around the 4-star stage.’

While Jin carefully judged his enemies’ strengths, the people in question thought the boy was frozen in fear.

“Don’t worry too much, kid. I don’t have a habit of torturing people to death on purpose. We’ll end this asap.”

“But why is he alone? Where are all the other brats?”

“They must’ve all been killed by Chaph and Greg, kekek.”

“About this Chaph and Greg, does one have a scar on his left cheek and is the other bald?”

When Jin spoke up for the first time, two of the men burst out in laughter.

“Bwahaha, scar on his cheek, bald!!”

“It’s gonna be hilarious when we tell them about this, hahaha!”

However, one of them wasn’t laughing. The magician.

“You, how do you know about Chaph and Greg’s appearances?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I took off their masks to check after killing them. They were fighting against my subordinates, you know?”

The glee in their eyes immediately disappeared. Jin was still holding his sword casually with an indifferent expression.

“Stop bluffing. Those two are 4-star knights. They’re not people some Runcandel beginner class cadets can defea—”

“Do you guys actually call assholes who gang up on kids ‘knights’ in Kinzelo? Your group seems vastly different compared to the Runcandel Clan.”

“Clark, Mills. Check our surroundings. It seems there weren’t just children on this mission. This brat isn’t a cadet. There must be a guardian knight somewhere!”

The men didn’t seem to think that Jin could’ve killed Chaph and Greg. Even if he was a pure-blooded Runcandel, they couldn’t imagine that a child who had yet to fully develop had killed two 4-star knights.

Thus, the three of them immediately steeled themselves. Death could arrive at any moment for them. Before joining Kinzelo, they were either mercenaries or knights. And during those days, they had heard plenty about the strength of Runcandel guardian knights.

Pfft hahaha…

Jin let out a chuckle.

“Even though you guys fear the Runcandels, you didn’t think twice about attacking our cadets? There are no guardian knights here. I came alone.”

“Bullshit!”

“If I had a guardian knight with me, you guys wouldn’t have been able to chat leisurely like this. And if I had one with me, where could they be hiding in these plains? Also, there’s no way our knights would need to hide in front of three baboons like you.”

The nervous men controlled their breaths as they observed their surroundings. Jin’s words weren’t wrong. There was nowhere to hide in this open area.

And so, the men returned to their threatening and arrogant attitude.

They were embarrassed and felt humiliated for being afraid of a kid like Jin—a brat who seemed 20 years younger than them.

“You really came alone… I thought you were an arrogant kid who trusted his clan’s knights, but you’re just an ignorant brat who doesn’t know when to fear for his life.”

“You think so? It would’ve been better for you guys…”

Before letting Jin finish, Clark dashed to him and swung his sword at the boy’s neck.

“If I were merely an arrogant kid who trusted his clan’s knights.”

“Dieeee—urgh!”

Clark suddenly fell flat on his face with a groan even though he was just about to kill Jin. One of his legs had been cleanly sliced off without warning.

‘Good thing I bought time.’

The cause of Clark’s amputation was a spell called ‘Wind Blade’. It was one of the hardest spells to use amongst the 4-star wind magic spells.

Jin had secretly prepared the spell while chatting with them.

“Clark! What kind of Runcandel uses magic…?!”

The magician began to cast a spell to counterattack while Mills sprinted towards Jin in a fury as he wielded his sword.

“You bastard!”

Clang!

Jin took a stance as he parried Mill’s downward swing. The aura-covered attack felt heavy to Jin due to his immature body.

Nevertheless, a single 4-star knight was no problem for him.

As Jin pivoted and aimed for Mill’s flank with his sword, the magician yelled.

“Mills, fall back!”

Fwoosh!

A huge flame had formed on the magician’s palm. He then launched his spell, swinging his arm, and the flame streaked towards the boy like a rope.

A 4-star fire spell, Flame Whip. It was the strongest spell the Kinzelo magician could cast right now.

Jin didn’t avoid the attack and received it with his body. The corner of the magician’s lips rose as he saw his spell hit. Jin then used the fact that his body was hidden by the flames to stab Mills in the neck with Bradamante.

Slrrt…!

With a blade in his neck, Mills couldn’t even cry out in pain and fell into death’s embrace. The magician stepped back in shock as he couldn’t believe his eyes. The final member, Clark, was still on the floor, crying in pain as he held his stump of a leg.

Jin grabbed the Flame Whip clinging to his robe with his hand and extinguished it. Sparks scattered around as the mana in the spell disappeared in the wind like ashes.

As he had fully absorbed the Phoenix Heart, all fire spells of 6-star or lower rank couldn’t inflict damage on Jin anymore.

“Blasted!”

The magician began casting a new spell when he realized Jin had high resistance against fire magic. Icicle Shot. The same spell that had attacked Jin’s carriage on his way to the Garden of Swords.

“Don’t approach me!”

The Icicle Shot flew towards Jin, but this time, it broke apart and fell to the ground before even reaching him.

Beast King Orgal’s Pendant. The artifact’s mana had protected Jin. Penetrating the pendant’s mana with spells of 5-star or lower was going to be difficult for the magician.

“H-How…! Uwack!”

Bradamante drew a parabola as it slashed the magician in the waist. When Jin twisted the blade inside the man’s body, the trembling magician bit the dust.

“I have a nice sister, that’s how.”

After finishing off Clark who was going into shock, Jin began running across the grasslands again.

Obviously, he made sure to disguise Clark’s injury as a sword cut instead of a magic attack before leaving.