[Confirmed. Stay safe, see you in a few months.]

Examining his surroundings while saying goodbye to Lux, Dax went over to the container he had jumped from s.p.a.ce with. Made out of composite materials the round, 1 meter long container had almost melted, but that was by design.

"Seems like the lid has melted shut… Oh well."

Solving the problem in typical Dax faction, he decided to solve the problem the easiest way possible, by smas.h.i.+ng the s.h.i.+t out it. With a few punches, the container shattered and a drone shot out and flew up towards the sky before disappearing.

(deployment and guidance both look good, now for the other issue…)

Reaching into the partially destroyed container Dax pulled out a set of light leather armour that he changed into before discarding his vacuum suit and landing equipment he wore in the container, then he fished out a certain crimson sword.

(Ah~ Master I've mi-~✿)

Immediately tossing the sword to the ground Dax started stepping on it in an attempt to destroy it.

"Don't f.u.c.king call me that!"

(I'm sorry~✿ Dax, I've missed you~ AW! Why are you still stepping on me!?)

"Because you're f.u.c.king obnoxious!... There we are, are we going to have any more disagreements now?"

Getting a few more kicks in Dax seemed to calm down as he asked the cursed (read: pervert) sword.

(Y-yes we have, I'm sorry~)

Slightly toning down its really annoying tone of voice, the demon sword seemed to have calmed down and as a response, Dax picked it up again.

"Then let's get this mission underway, ICI are you there?"

(AFFIRMATIVE, RUNNING IN FULL ACOUSTIC MODE, NO NETWORK CONNECTION. MANA INTERFACE OPERATING AT 20% CAPACITY.)

"Good, time to get the show on the road… Which was is the capital again?"

-

Travelling towards the Imperial capital Dax made his livelihood by hunting down monsters and selling the resources he gathered every time he came across a town, quickly establis.h.i.+ng his cover as a travelling mercenary com monster hunter.

"D-don't move! Leave your valuables behind!"

(... Are you f.u.c.king s.h.i.+tting me?)

Being suddenly surrounded by bandits, Dax could only sigh loudly as he put down his backpack and reached for a certain bloodthirsty sword.

(Blood~✿ I want some human blood~✿)

(12 HOSTILE CONTACTS DETECTED, TERMINATE? Y/N?)

(Since when the f.u.c.k did you two start being in sync? Calm down, they're obviously not worth it…)

Looking at the so called bandits that surrounded him, Dax couldn't help but sigh once more. Armed with nothing more than rusting farm tools and poor martial art stances, the qiton was lead to believe they had never fought a day in their life and would pose absolutely no threat to him.

"So you want me to not move, but at the same time leave my valuables and walk away? Those are some conflicting orders…"

"S-shut up and do as I say or you'll get hurt!"

Looking at the obviously panicking farmer Dax only got ever more tired as he breathed another deep sigh.

"Okay… What the f.u.c.k do you guys want? Is it food, or money?"

Releasing a bit of his bloodl.u.s.t Dax made the farmers more docile.

"... It's food. The harvest failed."

"Okay then, take me to your village."

"Eh?"

"Do it before I change my mind."

"R-right away! It's this way!"

Walking for a few minutes with the farmers Dax was lead to a small village that was surrounded by decimated crop fields.

"What the h.e.l.l happened here?"

Receiving an explanation from the farmers Dax it seemed some sort of large monster pa.s.sed through the area a few nights ago and completely wrecked the fields. Without any crops, the villagers had no livelihood and therefore a few of the younger farmhands resorted to banditry to try and at least get a bit of food on the table.

"... Okay then, don't touch my stuff. I'll be back here tomorrow morning with some food."

Leaving the confused villagers and his backpack behind, Dax ventured into the nearby woods.

(Dax what are you doing?~)

"I'm killing two birds with one stone, be quiet for a bit will you? I'll get you some blood."

(Okay!~✿)

Looking around Dax noticed several signs of a large monster being in the area, marks on some of the trees, large footprints and so on.

"ICI warm up the mana forge, I want to try a new spell out."

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED. INITIATING AMBIENT MANA ABSORPTION, ALLOCATING PROCESSING POWER FOR SCRIPT… COMPLETE, MANA FORGE ONLINE, RUNNING AT 10%)

"Yeah, that's perfect."

Feeling mana surge throughout his body, Dax formed a thin smile as he concentrated on formulating a new spell with the help of ICI's processing power. Slowly a quiet wind started to surround Dax in a whirlwind before scattering apart and spreading throughout the forest.

"And now we wait…"

While having the time to spare Dax glanced at his right arm which housed the tool that allowed to use mana in the first place. Throughout its 1 year of development, the prototype that relied on leftover organic material from a certain 3 winged angel had come a long way. No longer reliant on some bulky housing, the so called mana forge had been implanted all over Dax's body and was housed within some of his bones. Using an artificially grown special type of tissue Dax was now able to replicate the pa.s.sive mana signature that was normal for all living beings in the world of magic and therefore blend in, moreover, he could finally use mana to his advantage.

(CONTACT 11 O'CLOCK, 1600 METERS.)

"Yeah, I see it… That sure is some monster."

Taking advantage of his greatly enhanced senses, Dax quickly located the large monster that was charging towards him. Standing about 3 meters tall it was a large quadrupedal monster with thick brown fur and ma.s.sive, blood stained tusks and bloodshot eyes.

"I sure did p.i.s.s it off by spreading my mana throughout its territory... Wake up Crimson, food has arrived."

(Ehh~ But Dax I want human souls! I'm sick and tired of all these monsters.)

"All in good time. For now, look alive."

(Boo~)

Drawing the cursed blade Dax took a low, one handed stance as he waited for the gigantic hog to get closer. Charging through a few trees, the monster arrived in the clearing Dax had chosen to fight in and looked with rage in its eyes at the tiny creature that dared to invade its territory.

"A displacement of about… 900 kilos? That would be 4-500 kilos of edible meat."

Beckoning the monster closer Dax estimated its weight and therein how much meat was on it, then smiled. 

"Here it comes~"

Holding his ground as the monster charged him with its tusks clearly aiming to sewer him, Dax waited until it had fully committed to the charge, then he sprang into action. Instantly closing the distance, Dax slit along the ground as he tore into the monster's side with his sword, creating a deep lash all along its side.

"Hey, do your thing."

(Boo!)

"Are you a f.u.c.king child?!"

With his weapon refusing to cooperate Dax wanted nothing more than to throw it away, but he barely restrained himself as dealing with the monster's thick skin without a weapon would be a pain. While the monster howled out in pain Dax did a few light jumps in place, then he jumped about 10 meters into the air and landed on the side of a tree right above the monster. Launching off the tree Dax completely shattered it as he swung his sword towards the monsters neck, cleanly decapitating it by taking advantage of his downward momentum and the extremely sharp but otherwise useless sword.

"There we go. Now to drain the blood… s.h.i.+t."

Realizing the true scope of his current task, Dax regretted choosing this opportunity to test out his new spell as he started looking for a tree ma.s.sive enough to hang the monster from.

---

"He's been gone all night, let's just take his stuff and sell it! That way we can at least fed ourselves for a bit longer."

Back at the village, the day had dawned and there was still no sight of the strange demonkin mercenary some of the farmhands had tried to mug, therefore a rigorous discussion had broken out over what to do with the things he had left in their care.

"We can't just sell his stuff, what if he comes back?"

"Then we just hire a mercenary ourselves!"

"Yeah? With what money? We still need to eat!"

"We're not going to sell these things!"

But when the village elder finally intervened in the discussion it immediately died down and the other villagers calmly waited for the elder to keep speaking.

"This person offered to help us, then left to do that while leaving his possessions in our care. Even if he has perished there's absolutely no way we'll be selling these things! Doing so would be an affront to our values and would be no worse than what some of the young people tried to do yesterday!"

Giving a stern look to the farmhands that had tried to mug Dax the day before, the elder continued speaking.

"If we lose our values we would be nothing more than common beasts and like common beasts, we would in time be hunted down and slain."

"But elder if we do nothing we're going to starve! Or even worse, we won't be able to pay the yearly tax!

"Which is why we'll start searching the forest for food. It has provided for us in times of need before and it will so again."

"But that's… Dangerous….. Hey, what's that?"

Stopping mid argument one of the villagers pointed towards the forest were some sort of figure slowly emerged from. Standing a bit over 2 meters tall clad in light leather armour that allowed the clan markings on his arms, legs and face to be clearly visible the demonkin from the day before had returned. On his back, he carried the body of a ma.s.sive monster which head he held in his right hand. Walking up to the centre of the village in complete silence the demonkin dumped the ma.s.sive monster and its head before taking his backpack out of the hands of the village elder.

"This should be enough to last for a while. I would recommend selling the tusks and monster core in a nearby city, that should be enough to buy food that will last the winter and help restart the crop fields next year. I'll be on my way now, good day."

Turning to leave Dax was immediately stopped by the villagers as the village elder walked up to him before looking him up and down.

"Can I help you with something?"

"You certainly can! What's your name demonkin?"

"... It's Dax."

Nodding a few times as he quietly repeated his name the village elder took a deep breath.

"Dax, the savior of our village! We would very much like to hold a banquet in your honour, why don't you stay just for a day?"

"... Sure."

Looking at the expecting villagers Dax couldn't bring himself to say no.

"Perfect! Bring out the large pot and the alcohol, we're holding a banquet!"

As the villagers around him erupted in cheer Dax formed a thin smile on his face as he sighed.

(Well, this might work to my advantage. In more ways than one.)