Be warned that there is cliffhanger.

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I heard the Spirit's voice, but my mind was too clouded, to even register what he was saying.

So many people, and I can eat all of them. Maybe their souls can finally satisfy my hunger.

I take a step in the people's direction, then my body froze. I still don't feel anything towards this people, and compared to before, right now all those negative emotions, or rather instincts erupted like a sleeping volcano.

But my memories are still there. Be it another time, before the void, I think I would stand no chance against this temptation. It would swallow me whole and make me a monster, but now, after living through the void for who know how long, experiencing the fear of losing myself, becoming something else, or just ceasing to exist, I can't let something like this turn me into a monster. I won't lose myself because of instincts like some animal.

I am me, I won't let anything change it, be it so called gods or the void.

In my previous world, I never liked violence, and if I could, I always wanted to fix all the problem talking, explaining. But I'm not so naive, as to think, that any conflict can be solved with words, there were some cases when I was forced to fight. First time it was when I had no choice but to help my friend when he was bullied.

That's when I decided, that I will do my best to avoid any conflict, but when it arises, I will be ready to fight. And in this world, that's even more true. I won't be able to talk to those bandits who already killed a number of villagers. I won't be able to scare them away. The only thing I can do is fight.

This is who I am.

After clearing my own thoughts, I can feel the negative emotions like hunger, desire and anger dissipate slowly. It was like the fire inside me started to extinguish little by little, my mind clearing and returning to my calm self. But my determination was as strong as ever, and I could feel other emotions, my real emotions becoming a little stronger too.

Not putting any more thoughts in that, I darted forward, and could feel the increase in speed, but more importantly, my bones felt like they are indestructible, the mana surging through them evenly and without any fluctuations. Every cell having the same amount and resonating with each other.

So that's why it was so important to have evenly distributed mana through the whole body, not just to protect all the parts of the body, but to make them resonate and strengthen it even further, it's like a net, that will take the impact and disperse it through the whole surface, instead of taking the whole damage. I had an advantage over the cutting attacks to begin with, and now with this net, I have no fear against blunt attacks too. Of course there should be limit to how much I can withstand, but it's reassuring nonetheless.

But to have a boost in speed shouldn't I need muscles and guide the mana through their cells, how do I move in the first place? I'll just blame it on god's magical magic.

Also having a clear mind without emotions, or when they are surpassed to some extent can be useful at times like this, I can calmly observe everything and even make some judgment using my knowledge through the all games I've played. Even if I can't use the swordsmanship or magic from those games, strategy and battle basics always stays the same no matter in which world you are. Know yourself and know your enemy...

My tactic will be to use Spirits directions and stealthily knock out as much of them as I can, before the fight begins. They are escorting a large group of people after all, and they are forced to scout in a large area as to detect any animal attack.

And yes, I decided that I won't kill any of them, I will disable as many as possible, but not kill. It's not only because I would never kill in my previous life, but also I have the feeling, that if I give to the temptation once, I will lose the control over my instincts, and the caged beast will be freed.

Moving through the forest, making as less noise as possible, and failing of course because of the lack of experience, I move closer to one of the scouts, that casually walks in the forest, giving bored glances around. I notice a sword in his belt. It's not as well crafted as the two I took from the imperial army soldiers. He has a red armor, and although not fancy-looking knight armor, but still I imagine it should cost quite some money. Shouldn't bandits walk in rags or leather armor at least? Their business must be flourishing

Finally when I am at around 20 steps from him, he notices the noises from my approach and starts unsheathing his sword. Once his line of sight landed on me, I already sprinted forward.

In short span of couple of seconds, I'm already in an arm reach to the scout, who tries to pierce me with his sword, panicking a little because of my speed. The sword pierces right through the cloak, and making a dull sound like hitting a wall, stops. All the while I punch towards the bandit's chin.

*fwoosh* *chong*

*crunch*

Of course the blade haven't done any harm to me, and the bandit lands on the ground after a brief flight. That unhealthy crunching sound of bones on his chin makes me look at my raised fist, wondering how much strength I have now. And I initially held back, because believing the Spirit, the guy was at D rank. So I guess my speed and strength can be considered a C then? I don't want to be too overconfident, because liches should be mages after all.

I take the time to think about what to do with the guy. Will it be alright to just leave him here? He is still breathing, but he will have a really painful experience healing broken chin and he must've got a concussion too. I can't waste too much time, so I just took his sword and the dagger he had in his hip and moved to the next target. I'll have a use of those weapons soon and I don't have a problem hiding them inside my hollow carcass. So I just putted it between my ribs, the handles facing outside, and the blades inside me. A very efficient way to carry those swords if you ask me, even if it sounds ridiculous.

Now that the swords weren't clattering and making sounds, and were dead struck inside of me, and now that I have a bit of practice, I moved a bit more stealthier, some bored bandits didn't even manage to notice me, but some vigilant ones were able to see me from even farther away than the first one, and at that time with spirit's help they became dizzy and I took them out before they could raise the alarm.

Like that I patiently and stealthily spent near two hours, circling the large group of people that were making their preparations to leave, and taking out a scout after another. I was in a close enough distant to hear the huge crowd but haven't really seen them close yet. Like this I managed to take out 8 scouts and confiscated their weapons, before they started to get alarmed.

They thought that it's some kind of a stealthy monster, that is hunting their scouts one by one, and raised the security. Scouts were a lot more alerted and nervous now, and they weren't getting too far from the group, also they were scouting in groups of 3-4 now, and not only that they were ready to support each other at any moment. I was lucky to have Spirit's information, or else I would've blindly attacked and get surrounded in no time.

Right when I was thinking of how to proceed now, Spirit's voice resounded in my mind once again. '~I have a plan, this is what we will do...

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