Huh, did I do something wrong? The average citizens act like me. Ah, maybe because he’s one of the citizens. He acts rude. Well, I was rude too. Ah, well.

As Allen was in thought, Eren looked at the man from up to down. “Sir, you don’t happen to be Don Sandino, do you?”

The huge man glared at Eren. “Who are you, la—Eren? Eren, is that you? It’s you, Eren!”

“And it’s you, Uncle Don!” Eren leaped and hugged him. The man coiled his huge arms to him. Eren coughed. “U—uncle, I can’t breath.”

“Oh, sorry.” Don let go of Eren and turned back. “Oi, lads! Come here! Looks who is coming!”

After a while, several people came; there were two twin men and a woman who was carrying a kid.

“Why are you so loud in the morning, Old Man?” The twin said together.

The old man moved aside as his hand opened to Eren. He smiled widely.

“Brother Eren, is that you?” The woman asked.

“Rose!” Eren’s face beamed when he saw the blonde woman. Then, he looked at the girl she carried who resembled her. He stopped smiling. “Are you well?”

The twin elbowed Eren’s stomach and slapped his back. “Holy crops, you are still alive and strong, brother. I thought you were dead.”

“It was a long story. How are you? I thought everyone was….”

Don ruffled Eren’s head. “Let’s talk inside.” Then, he looked at Allen. “By the way, who is this man?”

“He is my best friend, Allen Vos. He thought acting like those bandits were good to give a good impression. But, he is usually a polite man.”

Don glared at Allen. A vein popped out in his temple. “Oi, do you think we are the same as those bastards?”

“Calm down, father.” The woman called Rose pinched Don’s arm. “Let’s talk inside.”

“Come, come inside, Allen.” The twin acted familiar with him and pulled him inside.

In the dining room, Rose had prepared a lot of foods on the table. They were talking about what happened in the past. Don was the one who explained the events.

“It’s true Night Cricket had reported their founding of an ancient magus’ grave in this village. Our small village who was outside the jurisdiction of the Alliance couldn’t do anything as they invaded our village even though we had a good relationship with other cities and villages.

“Night Cricket wanted to slaughter us because they didn’t want us to take revenge. We looked for protection to Ground Dragon Group. They protected us with a condition we had to work for them like a bandit.

“Several years later, we parted with Ground Dragon and created our group, Green Crops. That time, the last top faction was formed too, Blue Wind.

“We attempted to take control of this village because of the trade route. Then, Vinesmoore Family from the capital came and taught us how to plant a magical crop. Since then, we did less plundering and more planting crops.

“Aside from illegal levies on the roads, there are not many of plundering. You can trust me. Though, it’s true most people afraid to pass here because they always intimidate them. They only intimidate. No more than that.”

Allen sipped a tea and said, “It is not as dangerous as I thought.” He then remembered the words of the woman he had slept with. Should I trust her or him?

One of the twins, Corey, gnawed a chicken leg and joked, “If you go to taverns here, you will encounter many swindlers who like to tell lies.”

“It is a pleasure to trick people for them,” Moray, the other twin, added.

Eren smiled. “I see. So, you are still working as a farmer even now. What a relief.”

Rose chuckled. “Well, fights between bandits often occur. We like to plunder each other too. So, we are a half bandit. It is not that bloody, though.”

Don drank his beer until empty and retorted, “If we meet those bastards of Night Cricket, we won’t give them any mercy. We trample them on sight. So, you want to join us, lads? You have to read the manual about planting our special crop in three days. Then, you can experience field practice in another three days. After that, you can work for us. I hope you are ready.”

Don gave Allen and Eren the manual book after breakfast. The Sandino’s men already went to the field. Rose was cleaning in the kitchen not far from the dining room.

Eren occasionally would steal a glance at her. Allen sighed and tapped his shoulder.

“Eren, don’t be a coward. You like her. She didn’t have a husband too. This is your chance.”

“B—but I afraid if she has trauma to have a relationship with a man. She was raped. I could sympathize with her. Elder Sweetfish always—”

Allen stood up. “I have given you advice. Just do it. You can worry later.” He left the dining room and went to his room.

Allen locked the room and sat on a pile of straws that was supposed to be his bed. He took out the undead tower from his leather sack and put it down.

Previously, Allen had bound this magical treasure with a drop of blood. Since then, he could connect with it.

Allen willed the tower to release a soul. He directed it to his soul cage and refined it.

After having Necromancy Aid, Allen could refine a soul almost instantly without experiencing any pain. The undead tower released several more. After a while, a lot of souls came out of its door.

Without Allen realizing, the sun had sunk. He had become a level 12 in just several hours of meditating. The speed was comparable to people with top spiritual roots.

“Necromancy Aid is compatible with my Lifesteal Aura Technique.”

Allen opened the planting manual and read it. The system floated to record the book too.

In the next three days, Allen’s activity was reading books, psychical routine, meditating, refining renegade ghosts.

Allen could only make three renegade ghosts out of thirty souls. He frowned. The chance was low even with Necromancy Aid. He believed his chance would increase as long as he kept doing it.

Allen went to the field with others. It was time to field practice. He glanced at Eren who was flirting with Rose. He smiled. It turned out his friend had bigger guts than he thought. He spotted them kissing passionately in the kitchen yesterday too.

It’s good that Eren has a place to come back. After I have done with my purposes, I will leave them alone. I can pursue the pinnacle of strength alone.

Allen imagined himself escaping from the abyss. He climbed a rope.

“You, Pretty Lad, don’t let your mind wander around. Comes here.”

Allen approached Don. The man lifted a hoe and thrust it deep on the ground. He pulled it, picking up the soil. He put a seed inside and buried it.

He tossed around the seed pouch before Allen’s face. “This is the seed of Monster Potato. What I mean by a monster is they are alive. This field is empty. I will show you the ripe crops. Follow me.”

The field was large and divided into two sections, east, and west. The crops in the east field contained unripe to freshly planted crops. They moved to the west field.

The ripe crops had thick, yet flexible vines that waved around like tentacles. In the middle of those vines were a round flower with green leaves around the sides and a mouth in the center.

“That’s a potato plant?” Allen asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes for your answer. Now, do you know the first thing you have to do when you want to harvest it?”

“Singing with a certain magic spell.”

“Have you memorized it?”

“Of course.”

“Now, start singing as I harvest them.”

Allen cleared his throat and screamed. The potatoes were furious. They extended their vines toward Allen.

Allen was dumbfounded. He cast a chain to a tree in the back and pulled himself.

“You stupid potato!” Don directed his curse toward him. “You need to sing, not screaming!”

As the vines came back to normal, Allen jumped from the tree. “Mr. Sandino, I was singing. The spell isn’t effective.”

“Curse you, bland potato. Do you call that singing? Looks at me!”

Don cleared his throat and started singing. The potatoes’ vines were waving slowly in unison.

Allen blinked, dumbfounded. “This singing….”

Don swung his sickle, cutting the vines. He pulled the head from the ground, revealing roots and potatoes. Don threw the plant to a basket on his back. He moved to the next plant.

In the end, Allen could only watch him. Eren was singing normally at the next mound. This was the first time he felt useless. “I—I can’t sing?”

 

……

 

At night, Allen had done with his meditation. He got out of the room. He heard a low moan in Eren’s room next to him. He nodded. “He is fast.”

Allen went to the kitchen where he met Rose’s daughter. She was around three years old. The kid stopped playing with a handkerchief and stared at him. Her body became tense.

He only took a glance at her and headed outside. In the middle of the night, people still did activities at this hour. Allen went to a dark alley and disappeared in the dark.

 

……

 

Allen was on an open field outside of the village. He went to the woods not far from there. He looked at the surroundings to make sure no one was around. He took out the undead tower and released many undead minions from it.

“I finally have a chance to check it. Many of them have reached level 30. I can feel the presence of spirits inside them. Indeed, our necromancy isn’t inferior nor superior. They don’t have lifesteal attribute, though.”

Allen shot a darkness chain to a minion around his level. He aimed at the arm and it severed.

“Although I can injure them, I can feel their bodies are tough. Inferior to the sect’s zombies, but this is the true usage of Limitless Vigor Body Arts. If the sect’s zombies can’t advance in cultivation naturally, these minions can do it.

“I can make them move by my will because I am not their creators, but at least they obey my command. Their intelligence was only slightly inferior to humans.”

Allen pointed at a minion and ordered it to perform his ability. The minion summoned a mind rune and shot a flame ball through it.

Allen was enlightened. “I see, so that’s how you cast a spell if you can’t chant. I can do it with a bit of training. As for creating mind rune inside a minion, I can do that when they awaken spiritual roots and gain enough intelligence.”

Allen compared his undead minions’ numbers with Green Crops Squad. From what he remembered, they only had around one hundred man powers. His size of minions was around that number too.

“I have more minions above acolyte level. Sadly, Gerard didn’t let me control them until I reach the magic foundation realm. My minions now are comparable to a bandit group. But, if I do something to them, I will offend the family that has a business relationship with them. They need to fight each other.

“I will make them fight each other, so the Green Crops Squad can control the village alone. I will get those potato seeds. Then, I build more army from the corpse of bandits. I leave this village and contribute to the war against the church. I will get fortunes enough to prepare my breakthrough to the next realm.”

The undead tower pulled the minions inside it. He left the woods.

 

……

 

Inside a private garden, a young man looked up at the giant tree before him. He had purple hair that combed neatly to sides. He had a broad forehead and thick eyebrows.

He grinned as he looked at the seemingly alive tree. He threw some potatoes to a mouth in the middle of the trunk. “With this tree, I can win the favored tournament. I need to feed this tree with more potatoes. I will defeat you, Mircalla Karnstein.”

A maid entered the garden and bowed to him. “Young Master, we have a guest.”

The man turned back and saw a familiar figure beside his maid. He was the same favored as him, but his rank was lower. He had a jellyfish tattoo on his right cheek.

“Oiya, look who is coming to our Alliance’s territory. Isn’t it Johan Ashker? What do you want?”

Johan spoke, “Joeri Vinesmoore, I want to cooperate with you.”