Yes, I Have a Cheat

As a bandit leader, Lynn occasionally took on missions to exterminate Magic Beasts in between his raids.

After all, it was all about making money, and gold coins didn't care where they came from.

In the Northern Kingdom, where primeval forests were everywhere, Magic Beasts appeared frequently, and scholars had never stopped studying them.

However, because the power and land of the Northern Kingdom were highly fragmented, and the great nobles who held power tended to invest their limited resources into their armies, research on Magic Beasts had never been able to go deep.

Only a very small number of wealthy and interested scholars conducted research at their own expense.

The already scarce Magic Beast scholars were scattered across the kingdom, and hindered by the terrible transportation in the North, they usually worked in isolation, each forming their own school of thought.

Lynn had once met the wife of a Magic Beast scholar in the south of the kingdom.

That scholar was the son of a wealthy merchant and often left home to investigate Magic Beasts.

His wife would host parties at home to alleviate her loneliness.

Taking advantage of a party, Lynn entered the scholar's bedroom and flipped through his notes.

According to the records in the notes, Magic Beasts did not come from reproduction, but were produced by the mutation of ordinary animals, and the conditions for mutation were still unclear.

After mutation, the body size of a Magic Beast would expand significantly, and its strength and defense would increase exponentially.

Not only that, but Magic Beasts also possessed intelligence and senses far beyond those of ordinary animals.

According to this scholar's findings, most Magic Beasts hid in the depths of the forest and would deliberately avoid humans.

Perhaps it was because they knew how terrifying humans were.

Only a very small number of powerful and arrogant Magic Beasts would actively attack human villages.

Regarding this, Lynn's attitude was simple: anyone who dared to attack his territory had to be killed.

Never mind a Magic Beast; even a duke would have to die if he tried.

He had hunted two Demon Bears before and understood the habits of these beasts.

They relied on their massive size and thick fur, which was why they dared to attack human territories so unscrupulously.

And such attacks mostly occurred in autumn or spring.

In autumn, bears needed to store fat for the winter, and in spring, they had just woken up and were too hungry, so they would come to human territories to eat what was readily available.

How could the taste of tender grass and berries compare to the grain and livestock in a farmhouse?

A Demon Bear that had just woken from hibernation was quite sleepy; once full, it would return to its den to catch up on sleep.

It would only come out to forage again when it got hungry at dusk.

Lynn was certain that this gluttonous Demon Bear would visit Spruce Village again.

You can't catch a bear without baiting the trap. To ensure the Demon Bear took the bait, Lynn used his authority as a Lord to keep all the livestock in Spruce Village inside the farmhouses.

He and his twenty-five men moved into the farmhouses in groups of two.

The Demon Bear had a super-strong sense of smell and was not low in intelligence; if it smelled more than twenty people gathered together, it likely wouldn't take the bait.

To make it as realistic as possible, Lynn even ordered his men to light fires and cook porridge in the farmhouses.

For a time, smoke curled up over Spruce Village, and from a distance, it really looked like a peaceful little village.

Second Brother sat by the fire pit, his spear and loaded heavy crossbow placed beside him, skillfully stirring the rye porridge in a clay pot with a spoon.

"Big Brother, the porridge is ready."

"If it's ready, eat. I have sausages here."

Lynn took two hard pork sausages out of his bag, turned around, and tossed one to Second Brother.

He was prepared for a protracted battle. If the Demon Bear didn't come today, he would wait in Spruce Village for another two days.

If it still didn't come, he would lead his men into the forest to search.

In short, the Demon Bear had to die.

If it didn't die, the entire White Bear Territory would have no peace, and Lynn's Spring Planting plan would inevitably be severely hindered.

Second Brother caught the sausage and took a bite: "Big Brother, how tall was the Demon Bear we killed last year?"

Lynn ate half the sausage in one bite and mumbled, "Over five meters? Probably less than six."

At the beginning of last year, it was also March, and Lao Liu hadn't joined the gang yet when Lynn and his men took a bear-hunting contract.

That Demon Bear was extremely cunning; whenever it smelled too many people, it would flee to its den deep in the forest, but it was eventually cornered by Lynn and his men in a cave. It took over a week to find the tracks of the Demon Bear, but the battle itself was extremely short.

They used smoke to force the Demon Bear out, then attacked with spears and heavy crossbows, finishing it off in less than a quarter of an hour.

Besides the bounty, they had an extra harvest from that mission: the Magic Stone inside the Demon Bear.

A small number of powerful Magic Beasts would develop a translucent, crystal-like Magic Stone inside their bodies.

Most of the Magic Stones on the market were bought by the Church at high prices.

It was said they were offerings to the gods.

Some powerful warriors also seemed to be able to extract power from Magic Stones to strengthen themselves.

'Warrior' meant an extraordinary individual.

Becoming an extraordinary individual was actually not particularly difficult.

In this world, humans had a chance to break through the limits of the human body and step into a higher level after rigorous training and a reasonable diet.

In the North, such people were called 'Warriors'.

Basically, every noble of the rank of Baron or above was a warrior.

They were born without worries about food and drink, had plenty of time to hone their physiques, and could go to the courts of high-ranking nobles to receive instruction from powerful warriors; it would be hard not to become a warrior.

According to Lynn's estimation, the minimum threshold for an extraordinary individual was roughly the D-level strength on his panel.

The five brothers under his command had all crossed this threshold.

Second Brother served Lynn a bowl of rye porridge, then sat down to eat it with the sausage. After he was half-full, he said: "Big Brother, this Demon Bear is a full seven meters tall; there must be a Magic Stone inside."

"There should be. As usual, you guys split the money from the fur, and the Magic Stone goes to me."

Lynn glanced at his attribute values on the Lord panel.

[Command C+] [Strength B] [Physique C+] [Intelligence C+] [Internal Affairs C] [Charisma B-]

A solid all-rounder with no obvious weaknesses, and his strength was particularly outstanding.

As the protagonist, Lynn's panel did not have star ratings.

He estimated that his attributes would probably be rated four stars.

He didn't know exactly how he ranked in the North, but he hadn't seen anyone with higher strength than him yet.

Possessing such attributes at a young age was not because Lynn was gifted.

It was because he had a cheat.

Through the panel, Lynn could consume Magic Stones to increase his own attributes and those of his followers.

The Magic Stones he had obtained in the past had all been spent on adding points to himself.

Mainly on strength.

The [Strength] attribute did not just include raw power, but was a comprehensive evaluation of personal martial prowess.

In short, the higher the strength, the stronger the combat power, and all kinds of weapons could be mastered with ease.

A bandit leader had to be the strongest in the team.

Otherwise, how could he suppress a bunch of wolf-like subordinates?

Powerful personal martial prowess created Lynn's unparalleled self-confidence.

For this hunt for the Demon Bear, he made no extra arrangements, and he even stationed himself in the farmhouse at the westernmost end of the village, becoming the bait and the sharp blade for the entire force.

"Understood. This time I'll be careful to only shoot the eyes to ensure the bear's head is intact."

Second Brother knew his Big Brother's strength well and was already calculating how many gold coins the bear fur would sell for this time.

As his words fell, the ground suddenly began to tremble noticeably.

The Demon Bear had arrived.