Kaden approached the village. He could see it being roughly the same size as Dashire used to be. The life in it was probably very similar too. Knowing this, Kaden assumed there would be some hunters keeping eye during the night for any beasts.

Someone of Kaden’s cultivation stage would easily be able to avoid them. While he had some plans, it would still be best, if they never even notice him. Even if some soldiers passed through the area, turning over the entire village for a single person, who might not even be there, was very unlikely.

Even in that unlikely case, it would be just a few soldiers, a team at best. It would be easy to kill them and simply continue and look for another place to hide.

Kaden easily evaded the notice of the village hunters. There was still some late night activity within the village too, but a few drunk people were even less problem than the hunters.

“Now where to hide”, Kaden thought as he leaped from shadow to shadow.

At the edges of the village there were farmer houses, but they were small and difficult to hide in. Some barns, would not give much hiding place and were more obvious places, if anyone came to look. Kaden continued towards the center. There he found butchers place and he almost decided to go hide there. Smell and all the blood would hide him better, but still it was too small place.

Then he noticed it. Probably the biggest building in the town, with exception of the temple.

“This is probably the village leader’s house”, Kaden thought. It surely was large enough place. Once Kaden went closer he even found a cellar. He broke the lock outside and entered. The cellar was full of things, stored food and other things, but there was enough room to stay. “This will be fine.”

He sat down and pulled out whatever remained of Ronnald and also Fulin’s corpse. Luckily those of their cultivation level would not start rot any time soon. It was time to get all the wounds healed.

While the villagers were sleeping, Kaden consumed nearly all of Ronnald’s body until he was full again. There was basically only scraps left and Kaden wasn’t planning on keeping them. He tossed them aside planning to incinerate them later.

He wasn’t planning on wasting any time, though. There were other things to think about. Kaden wanted to have a indepth look on his internal formation. Once he determined how, he would place in the parts that would automatically refine him some fire mana. He wasn’t sure, if he should take all of that mana from his core or what. He also thought, he would likely have to arrange wind mana generation too, but fire was his first priority.

It wasn’t like his advancement was something he had not prepared for. He had general idea what to do and how, but he needed to confirm some matters. There was also room for testing. The internal formation was easily modifiable as long as the main original parts of it remained. Adding and removing any additional parts was possible while ones cultivation remained within Formation Stage.

Once you progressed to Condensation stage, whatever you had, was set in. Kaden wasn’t entirely aware what happens at True Magus stage, but he did know that at such level one was no longer tied down by some preceding decisions and limitations.

Still, while you were at Formation Stage, you better set up it well enough to get yourself past Condensation stage, if you had any plans to progress.

Kaden spent rest of the night conducting some experiments and by the morning, he had very minor experimental seals added around his core to purify mana into fire mana. He planned on observing how it works and then adjust as necessary.

Luckily he was just ending his experiments as he heard some footsteps. There were two entrances to the cellar. From outside and from inside. It seemed someone was coming from inside.

“Huh, what is that stench?” Said a womans voice. “Its like from Mihjals butchery?”

Some more footsteps and a woman stepped right in front of Kaden looking for the source of the smell. She wasn’t even at Channel Opening so Kaden didn’t plan on doing anything at all. He might even accidentally kill the woman. Not that he cared much, but that would compromise his plans for staying in his hiding place.

*SHRIEK*

“AAAAAH!” The woman screamed and ran away almost tripping. “A MONSTER! A MONSTER!”

She had seen Kaden and the torn corpse of Fulin and whatever bloody remains were left from Ronnald.

Kaden sneered and still did absolutely nothing. If things were as he expected, there was no need to do much at all. If anything.

Some time passed, but then Kaden could hear people just outside the door to outside. They were now sure that someone was indeed in and the woman had not been mistaken or anything else. Kaden assumed it was the hunters whose job was to protect the village.

The door was carefully opened and people, armed with what Kaden determined to be low quality spears and similarly low quality armor, entered making slow movements. They were barely at Channel Opening. Knowing the quality of abilities compared to what could be found from military and other such sources, these people were barely worth mentioning. One military trained expert at Channel Opening could probably easily beat all of them.

“Just get over here”, Kaden suddenly said and drew the attention to himself. “You can put away your weapons too. If I wanted to kill you, I could do so easily. Since I have been found out, its time to talk.”

The hunters still pointed their spears at Kaden.

“What the hell is that!” Shouted one of the hunters. “Illiana was right! Its a monster!”

“There is body… bodies on the floor”, said another. “Not from the village. Looks military uniform.”

Kaden listened them talk for a short while and then interrupted them. “Shut up, all of you. Does anyone of your have autority in this village?”

The hunters were not sure what to do. As far as they saw, there was something in front of them that looked like human and still quite inhuman. There was a bloody mess and some corpses strewn around.

“What… what is this?” Asked one of the hunters finally. “What are you doing here. What are you?!”

“Do you have authority?” Kaden asked. “I’m not going to waste time repeating myself later.”

“Uh… no”, the hunter shook his head. He seemed to be able to barely maintain his calm as he explained the matter. “Leir should be coming soon. This is his house. We were merely the first ones to notice Illiana, who found you first.”

He assumed this Leir was the hunter leader. He didn’t really even care, if more of these Channel Opening weaklings came. Even if they teamed up, they would not accomplish anything.

The hunters merely continued pointing him with their spears. Kaden paid no attention to them and merely inspected himself. His wounds had healed up quite a bit. Some were still left, but he expected Fulin’s corpse be enough to fully heal him.

Right in front of the hunters, Kaden started to incinerate Fulin’s body causing stench of burnt flesh waft in the air. The hunters tensed up as soon as Kaden used any magic, but did nothing since it wasn’t aimed at them. They also could tell Kaden was far more powerful than any of them. Therefore pointing spears at him was that they felt they needed to at least do something.

They still took several steps backwards once Kaden started to Devour Fulin’s corpse. They merely watched as flesh was torn from the charred corpse and seemed to disapear into Kaden’s body. One of the hunters vomited in the corner.

Around at this time Leir finally came running with the hunter who left to fetch him. He looked extremely angry and still in quite shock.

“What the...”, Leir started to shout. “Unholy thing! Everyone we must...”

“Shut your mouth”, Kaden told him and exerted his power a bit. It was enough. Leir immediately realized Kaden was far beyond him or the village.

“What … what is it that you want?” Leir finally asked.

“Hehe, its very simple”, Kaden said and grinned. “You will pretend none of this ever happened. I’m not here and you will act like that. If you do this, everything will be as if nothing out of ordinary ever happened. This should be an easy task, yes?”

“Your clothes. You are from Saint Empire”, Leir said after he got a good look. “Do they create monsters in there?”

“Whatever I am is none of your business”, Kaden replied. “But yes, I’m from Saint Empire and that should explain you why I need to hide for a bit. Whether they have passed the area or ever will, I’d rather not have my pursuers know I am here. You will obviously not tell them anything.”

“Why should we do such a thing for a monster and heretic like ...” Shouted one of the hunters angrily, but then was Leir raised his hand to silence him.

Leir was staring at Kaden very intently.

“Looks like your leader at least understands why”, Kaden continued and ceased Devouring Fulin. He was full again. It would take at least some hours for that fullness to go away. Within that time, he expected his wounds to be gone too. Despite that he was planning on staying in the village for several days to let the search pass.

The hunter looked at Leir questioningly. Leir then sighed.

“We can do nothing to him”, Leir sighed and started explaining. “I don’t know what kind of monster he is, but he should be at Formation stage. We would all die, if he so desired. Tavil, our home, would soon follow after.”

“What about reporting this to the military!” Another hunter shouted.

“If military comes here, he will fight them”, Leir continued. “Yet again, we can have no part in it. Tavil would suffer major damage and many innocents would die as collateral damage. Lives and homes lost.”

At this point everyone started to understand. This was Kaden’s plan. These little villages and their loyalty was first and foremost to themselves. If question came to choose between their empire or the village, they would choose their village.

“If we don’t do anything and hide his presence, we might all survive just as he said, like nothing ever happened”, Leir explained. “We also can’t later reveal anything about him. We would be treated as traitors.”

Everyone was silent for a moment. “Find Illiana”, Leir then said to one of the hunter. “Tell her to speak nothing. Make sure she understand why.” Then he turned to face Kaden. “I will agree to your demand. I have no choice, so know that I’m accepting unwillingly.”

“All I require is your acceptance”, Kaden said. “I don’t care slightest bit whether you are willing or not.”

“I only hope once you decide to leave, you will do so quietly and leave us be”, Leir said calmly.

“Hehe”, Kaden chuckled a bit. “As it happens, my path started from very similar place like this. I have no plans of inlicting any pain to you, if I don’t have to. I understand your point of view point perfectly. Make sure you don’t make me do something I would prefer not to do. For example, how is your village priest? Would he stay silent about a heretic even, if it means doom of your village? If I feel like someone would speak about me once I’m gone, I will kill them before I leave.”

Leir looked down silently for a moment. “I understand. While there was some commotion, we should be able to say it was a beast that had found its way into my cellar during night.”

“That is for the best”, Kaden said with a nod. “Should any soldiers come, act like I was never here. Even if they want to search your houses. I was never here.”

Leir nodded and had everyone leave. No one would come to the cellar.

“That went well”, Kaden thought to himself and started cultivate.