The two men looked at Keel, showing a smile that a simple man would give.

Keel was only a kid, he merrily approached the men whilst carrying the firewood, unaware of the danger facing him.

' Yeah I could probably kill those dudes' Ryu declared so as he prepared his spell. He had already learned how to control the power of the [Fireball], so he now has a control on how big or small the ball of fire is, this does affect its damage output tho, but I bet he can do something about it in the future.

As Keel arrived at the men, he immidiately felt a sting in his arm. He was stabbed, it was too quick too.

" Hahahahaha it stings right? right? now had me everything" one of the men used a small dagger to stab the boy in the arm.

Ryu even after seeing the child stabbed, didn't moved an inch. He was waiting for the perfect timing.

' No. fuck perfect timing, the more time I stay idle the more blood that kid will lose' Ryu aimed at the man precisely with his hand.

" Burn to ashes [Fireball]."

With those words balls of scorching fire were homing to the man. There's no escape. Death is imminent.

" Woah there!" the other man quickly saw the spell and quickly pushed his partner.

Thinking he had saved him, the man looked at the location of the fireballs origin. But it was too late.

" Those were indeed homing at the guy through [Flame Control] too bad, there's nothing he can do about it"

In the ground his partner is dead, his corpse, *ashes sorry, were still burning. It was a quick and painless death, such is the judgement that guy recieved from the Demon.

(Authors Note: Starting now level ups only occur after battle, but skill acquisition can still happen during combat)

' Its so obvious wtf, these two guys were weaklings, even the slimes were much harder to defeat than them' Ryu ridiculed the strength of the two bandits disguising as adventurers as a cover.

They were actually Iron Rank but these two climbed their ranks not by strength, but by bribing corrupt nobles to cheat the Guild Rankings. So thus even though they don't possess actual power of an Iron Class they have achieved that rank through devious methods.

So to their actual power is comparable to a simple road bandit. Bandits are common in this world, so it was also common knowledge to hire mercenaries or guards in travelling with carriages or wagons.

Not noticing that his partner was dead the man took out more daggers from his pack and aimed at the suspicious guy in the tree.

" Get up and take the kid, I'll handle this nuisance" the man's weak point was already shown. He underestimates others too much.

In this world the ability to judge an opponents strength is everything, this judgement could easily lead to your victory or to your fall. One quick fix for this however is to just be humble.

...

No response

The man looked down and his heart was stopped for a moment. His friend is dead, his friend that he was with since childhood.

" H-how d-did this h-happen?"

A face of fear and worry started to appear in the face of the man. He looked back at the tree and saw the figure still holding there.

Thinking quickly he grabbed the kid and held the dagger by his neck.

" M-move and the boy dies! "

' Hmmm hostages huh, I didn't expect that'

This was no worry however for Ryu for he already had a plan.

" It's useless, pieces of shit like you deserves to die"

' I sound so chunii wtf?'

" I-i said no m-moving!" the guy was already trembling, he didn't knew why but fear suddenly appeared before him and pressure was intense.

[Skill: 'Demonic Aura' Acquired]

[Analysis: Demonic Aura is a unique skill only obtainable by Demons, it is a more powerful skill that is a combination of [Pressure] [Fear Release] and [Will Break]. End of Analysis]

' Hikaru gets more and more advance as time passes, this is great haha'

' Now then, time to end this' as Ryu said this he increased the pressure he released using the skill [Demonic Aura] though it causes great mental damage, this skill is unable to kill.

The man suddenly stabbed the boy in the arm, near the part where he was stabbed before, he had also dropped the boy on the ground leaving him unconscious.

" No more! Aaaahhh!!!!" the man intended to run as fast as he can, but Ryu knows he can't let people like those live.

" [Flame Control] "

Ryu having practiced this skill was able to change the fire from the burning corpse to tiny Fireballs, though small in size, it still burns very hard. He then mixed all these together and concentrated the flames to on Fireball.

The result? An extremely unstable ball of fire was floating in mid air. Even the grass under it had suddenly died because of the intense heat.

" lmao bye!" Ryu smiled and bid farewell to the dead man running away from him.

[Level 15 Acquired]

[Level 16 Acquired]

[Skill: 'Research' Acquired]

['Illusory Magic Affinity' Acquired]

['Medicine Creation' LVL UP = LVL 2]

['Cooking' Evolved to 'Elite Cooking']

(Author: This MC is gonna make all them panties fall with his cooking)

- - - -

" Yeah no good, he could die from blood loss" Ryu examined Keel and moved his body to a much more safer place.

He didn't receive any loot from that battle as expected, all were burned and damaged. The only thing he probably received is the experience from killing those guys.

Using some makeshift bandages he created using 'Crafting' he took care of Keels bleeding, the only problem that is seen is that the wound is very deep. And he could see Keel resisting the pain even whilst unconscious.

The solution? He dropped some potion on the wound and also fed it to the kid.

Where did he get the potion? Well using his 'Medicine Creation' he had quickly made a potion of below-average quality and quickly used it to help Keel.

They moved to a nearby cave, to protect themselves from the coming rain, Keel is still unconscious but the wounds have slightly healed. It has been 2 days since the battle.

Ryu sat by the opposite wall facing the kid.

' He looks just like my friend's brother' this made him to remember one of his friends in the other world.

Because time is very important for Ryu, he didn't wasted time and practiced his Crafting skill whilst Keel is recovering.

He doesn't know why but he seems attached to Keel, he wants to protect that boy, he wants to make him safe.

" So this world is kill or be killed huh? How cruel" Ryu tired from Crafting and taking care of the unconscious boy, fell asleep.

- - - -

" Oh you're back!"