'Horses? Deers? No, those are horse trails.' Someone was visiting village using horse and means of transport. It could be anyone, still Aron had suspicion that it was clue about bandits.

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'I need to find those bandits…earlier or later.' He didn't care about outlaws, the problem was when they were acting against him. As future lord of this land, leaving them without any action would cause necessary trouble for his people.

In most cases one group will be replaced by another, but this region was really poor and not worth controlling.

'They are after copper? I don't know about any other things that are worth staying in this s.h.i.+thole.' Group like this needed money to function properly, lack of lambs to rob meant only one thing. There is some kind of reason, they are staying in this area for so long.

'Treasure? I need to find them and find out.' Having strength of 10 men didn't make him feel safer, his worries were even multiplied.

'If I can reach such strength in short time…Maybe, not anyone can do it…still there are people who can.' World of magic and martial arts was filled with mysteries beyond any comprehension. Some of bloodlines allowed toddler to beat adults or even weaker monsters. He couldn't lower his guard down, his achievements were only beginning of the road filled with blood and iron.

"You are grandchild of village chief…Why are you so stupid?" It was simple question, Joe was descendant two most influential families in Copperhead village. Becoming chief wasn't impossible, he could become blacksmith. The influence of his family could grant him any job, he wanted in surrounding villages.

'Still he decided to become r.e.t.a.r.d… People's choices are sometimes weird…' It wasn't first case of wasted opportunities, he met many people who could have anything. They explained that if you could have anything, there is no sense in putting an effort.

"I grew up without father. My mother couldn't control me and I wanted attention of my grandfather. Messing around was only chance. He scolded me few times and started to ignore me. Years pa.s.sed and I couldn't go back as I didn't learn anything to become reliable grandson…" It was simple story of ignorance and lack of proper discipline in family.

"What about Ian? Isn't he your father?" Joe said that he grew up without father, story was bizarre.

"Ian is my biological father, still I didn't know about him for first 10 years of my life. My mother told me about this relations.h.i.+p only because I was wasting my life…" It was reasonable explanation. His father was Ian's brother, and their marriage was arranged by family. She and Ian were in love, but family didn't care about such things. Joe was result of their last night together. Two years later, his father died in accident.

"I hope you won't waste anymore time. I need reliable slave…" It wasn't kind of encouragement and warning at the same time. Aron didn't need useless people, those people had special place in his plans. They would become fuel to science and medicine. There must be someone to experiment on.

The copper village wasn't any different from other villages, it was definitely bigger than Amber village. Most obvious difference were forges around the town and copper mines. The rest was similar or the same.

[Terry]

[Profession: Miner]

[Traits:…]

Presence of mines created jobs for people, mining and smelting copper ore into copper was crucial for those villagers. Joe explained their business with Blood city and surrounding villages.

'Copper is main ingredient for ordinary soldiers…It's Bronze era, so copper is extremely precious for those people.' It was the base of entire metallurgy in this moment, it will take them some time to get to era of iron or steel.

'I will be change bringer. Let me find iron ore…' Steel armors will be impenetrable to bronze weapons, so he could practically create unkillable army and wage wars with mortals. Ignoring presence of thing beyond of ordinary world, it would be ultimate plan. Magic and monsters made this plan practically less realistic.

'You don't need to penetrate the armor. If you can crush person inside…' Aron spotted someone different than all settlers.

[Filip]

[Profession: Bandit]

[Traits: Slick hands, Coward…]

"Who is he?" Joe was part of Copperhead village, so he should know this person.

"It's Filip, he is friend of my cousin. They are hanging out very often." It was intriguing, person from village chief family was hanging out with bandit. There was something off about this situation, it was impossible for his cousin to know Filip's ident.i.ty.

'I will track him later. I hope he will lead me to his group.' There was chance that Filip wasn't part of Backwind Bandits, still it would be great thing to put down any bandit group.

"Go visit you mother. I want to stroll around little more!" It was simple order as joe wasn't good at being invisible. Aron needed to be mobile to follow Filip's every step from far, having burden like Joe would cause failure or even discovery of his target.

"As you wish. It's building…" Joe described his house's position and appearance to Aron, so he can get there on his own later.

Following Filip was just too easy, man acted like he was king of this village. The villagers were nothing in his eyes, Aron found out couple of facts about relations.h.i.+p of Joe's cousin and bandits.

'He is selling weapons to bandits cheaply and they ignore this village… Good deal…Still problem is other villages are attacked from time to time. I need to get more information…' From their conversations Aron discovered that Filip will leave village tomorrow at morning. There was still a lot time, so he entered the s.p.a.ce and cooked a meal as his hunger started act up again.

'Is there a way to negate those side-effects?' Aron asked system as it could do many different things.

[It's impossible at current moment.]

's.h.i.+t…I can live with this hunger still…' There was no solution for now, so it will be one in the future or he needs to discover one himself.