Several months had passed since their graduation, and at this moment, Nio was alone in the middle of a forest inspecting a map.
At the moment, he was on a mission to retrieve some cargo that was being transported by some commercial partners of the Nell family. According to intel, the merchant group that was transporting the goods suddenly disappeared.
Considering the value of the cargo and therefore their importance was not that high but not low enough to be ignored by the higher-ups, they decided to send the young Vice-Captain 9-1-1 from Squad 9, who was gaining quite the reputation in the most highly valued circles of the family and those who contracted the Nell family's services.
That was the reason he was right now in a dense forest in the south of the Western Continent. He had been following various clues over the past week, and he believed he had finally found the area where the cargo was.
He was able to piece together a probable cause of disappearance. The cargo was stolen, and the ones transporting it were killed. Ever since then the cargo has been passed down through several different criminal groups, which were disposed of thanks to Nio.
What he was now considering was something other than a plan of attack and retrieval.
Ever since he had reincarnated, he had made a point of collecting several pieces of information about key locations that might have treasures or special cultivation spots.
And right now, around twenty kilometers from the place he was resting was one of those places. The area where the cargo was being held was in the opposite direction at a full thirty kilometers of distance.
"I should've been smarter with this. I don't have supplies for a trip like that, and if I injure myself in the battle with the bandits, my traveling speed will take a toll, as well as draw attention from the higher-ups. Perhaps I should go to the place with the excuse of hearing a few rumors and wanting to investigate. Thankfully, they gave me some liberty to accomplish this mission. Well, first time for everything, I guess."
And so he decided he would travel to the place and investigate.
Bzzt Bzzzt
Feeling the vibration, Nio's hands went to his pocket, pulling out a circular object, a voice communicator, an invention from the East, and the closest thing to a phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello there! Team Leader Nero, reporting to the Vice-Captain!"
Nero's voice could be heard from it, blatantly revealing her name, which earned her a scolding from Notres.
"Don't say your name when talking to the communicator, haven't you heard the rumor about the Nell family hearing the various calls made by Stygian clan members?"
"Wouldn't they hear this whole conversation then?"
"Ah! . . . Ahem. Team Leader 9-3-1, reporting to the Vice-Captain!"
"Proceed."
"The mission was accomplished successfully. Permission to deliver the full report to the Captain in order for it to reach the family?"
"Granted."
"Thank you. . . Talk to you later."
"Yeah, talk to you later, Vice-Nio! Don't forget to tell us everything about your mission later!"
"Alright, let's talk later. Goodbye."
With a smile, he turned off the call. He missed them. He had been away for a while in order to gather the attention of the higher members of the family so he could figure out who wanted to kill him. He ended up taking too many missions for the family, he had barely any time to spend with his siblings. Thankfully, his actions were able to deter 9-1-2 from interfering with him with his Squad Captain status.
For a while he kept staring at the communicator before he once again stared at the map and then at the communicator. His thoughts travelled around his memories.
And then he crushed the communicator.
"Oh no~! My communicator has been deemed unusable, so now, according to protocol, I should go towards the nearest Stygian Squad in order to report, which so happens to have a special location in between."
The idea was simple. Crush the bandit group and then head in the direction of Notres and Nero in order to "report", and along the way stop in the place he was planning to investigate.
The plan seemed solid.
He kept the broken communicator in his bag for evidence and verified the location of the bandit group's location before setting off.
It was a long distance for a non-cultivator.
As someone who was in the Martial Beginner Realm, although it was not a short distance, it wasn't as far away as one would think. For an average male, if they were capable of running all the way, they would take perhaps more than three hours, but for Nio, he would be there in one, especially if one considered that he could actually keep running at great speeds the whole time, unlike the average person.
And so, as expected, he had reached the place in an hour.
The place was around what he had imagined.
It was in a clearing, neither too big nor too small. The bandits were not that numerous, just around ten of them, all sitting around a campfire, either drinking or chatting with each other.
The cargo that had been stolen was loaded into a carriage that clearly belonged to the merchant group that was originally transporting it.
None of them was standing guard.
Nio reached into his waist and drew his sword, careful to not let the light of the fire reflect onto it and hit a bandit in the face, alerting them of his position.
Hanging on a branch, he entered a stance, using chakra to make sure he did not fall, and then he jumped forth.
[Water Breathing 1st Form: Water Surface Slash]
Fwoosh
In an instant he had cut down the head of the closest bandit. The others, finally realizing the threat, reacted, trying to pick up their weapons that were nearby. They struggled for awhile, it would take some time for them to completely adapt to the situation, not that Nio would give it.
[Water Breathing 3rd Form: Flowing Dance]
Nio's image flashed with great speed, swiftly dancing through the battlefield, successfully killing or incapacitating various bandits.
"Stop right there!"
The first bandit to finally react was the apparent leader. He was taller and bulkier than the others, but that alone did not tell Nio that he was the leader.
It was his armor, too pristine and knightly for a bandit, he was clearly the one that profited the most in their operations.
"That mask and cloak. You! Are you a Stygian?"
Nio only had an answer for that.
[Water Breathing 4th Form: Striking Tide]
Reinforced with everything he had, his sword cut down at several weak points of the bandit's armor, like the joints.
Splurt
"Gaah!"
Feeling the pain from his neck, he tried to reach it with his hand, just to find he couldn't because it had been cut off and his limbs incapacitated.
He continued to bleed until he died.
"Fuuu . . ."
Nio exhaled, his breathing calm and controlled.
He looked around and counted how many people were alive. He had decapitated one with his first strike, with his second move, he attacked around eight people, leaving the leader alone, killing him with his third move.
"It seems that I still need to improve my [Water Breathing 3rd Form], with so many targets, I still couldn't kill them all in one go."
Of the eight targets of his Flowing Dance, he had killed three and incapacitated the other five with cuts to the arms, back, legs, and groin.
It was to be expected. Unlike the skills he had first bought with the system, since he had received the first form in scroll form, he decided to buy a few other forms as scrolls with the rewards of killing 3-1-2 and the points he had received.
Because of that, his understanding of each technique was not imprinted into his brain like the others and was, in fact, built on top of hours of training and study.
He had bought three scrolls containing the rest of the first four forms of Water Breathing.
So now he had:
[1st Form: Water Surface Slash]
[2nd Form: Water Wheel]
[3rd Form: Flowing Dance]
[4th Form: Striking Tide]
And it was one hell of an investment. One might underestimate the potential of breathing styles, but he was able to see it. For example, in this situation, although none of the bandits was a cultivator, they had various weapons that, with enough skill and preparation, would give Nio quite some trouble if he wasn't as talented as he was.
But with water breathing? Dealing with them was much, much easier than one would think.
And training with it? It had given him so many good habits and had shaped his fighting style to be so fluid and flexible.
Even without a sword, he could switch between two different strikes in a simple motion with ease.
"Well, now that this is done, I should get moving."
*************
Author's Note: One more chapter and a little time skip, hope you are enjoying it.
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