‘Depending on how wealthy the bandits are I could easily afford a mana stone and a nicer place for a few months. I have been living in a tavern for long enough, might as well find a place worthy of a mage such as myself.’ I thought to myself with a deep smile.
It had only been a day since I was testing out the basic ritual spells and it was still morning. I had plenty of time to take a look in the Pelcester forest for both ingredients that I would need for my potions in addition to the bandit camp that I, alongside the stone elf Titia, infiltrated to capture their dwarven leader.
‘I am assuming that the camp even exists right now, but even if it doesn’t I will have an opportunity to swipe something from the main base of the Rusted Daggers if I keep my head straight.’ I was a little nervous but I was just as excited about the trip to the forest which was why I had my mana at my fingertips just in case something happened.
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Passing through the fields with growing crops I headed south to the Pelcester forest that was no more than twenty minutes of walking away. I followed the familiar path and passed by the small lake with the cave, like every time before I saw no sign of anybody walking anywhere near it. It was a little unnerving to know that someone without magic was able to hide their tracks so well, it was almost more mysterious than if they did use magic.
Pushing my curiosity out of my mind I continued down retracing my steps I took with Titia towards the bandit camp. It was deep within the forest, so deep that it was really unlikely that anyone would even stubble across it by accident, you would need to know ahead of time where it was to avoid walking around in circles for hours which was likely what the city guard had done when they were looking for the place.
For a moment I mentally voiced my thanks towards the guards for the work they did that technically doesn’t exist anymore before I continued on my way with only my task on my mind.
It took me nearly a whole hour to find the place but it was certainly there. The first part I noticed was one of the watchtowers with a bandit lazily keeping an eye out for anyone who could have been walking around. I couldn’t see anyone else but I didn’t do anything just yet as more bandits could be watching from behind the log wall surrounding the camp. Instead I circled around the camp just past the tree line the bandits created from all the trees they had cut down to build their wall.
From what I could tell there was a minimal amount of bandits on guard. Each of the three watchtowers had only a single bandit using them with just a bow as a weapon, and each of the two entrances on either side of the camp had only two bandits who instead of standing guard were doing other things they likely weren't supposed to. The first two were playing some sort of game with a table and a cup while the other two were sleeping.
Since I was still close by, I stepped closer to the second entrance with my hands ready to conjure up some earth bolts or an earth vine at a moment's notice. When I was right next to the entrance and hidden behind the log wall I peeked around the corner to take a look at the camp and see what sort of activity was happening.
What I saw was a bit of a disappointment.
I didn’t see anyone that wasn’t either face down on a table or standing guard, the two guards that were supposed to be guarding the entrance I was at also suspiciously smelled like alcohol along with the half dozen bottles laying at their feet.
‘Looks like they were really lazy until the captain of the southern district got caught with my involvement. I don’t think there is anyone, excluding most of those on guard, who didn’t have a large amount of alcohol last night. But I would have assumed they would be doing something at this time of the day. They have weapons, shouldn’t they be maintaining those?’ I shook my head at the sheer sloppiness of the bandits I could see, the ones I couldn’t see were likely just as bad or even worse. Since I had no intention of sparing any of these bandits I turned my attention towards the two drunks to my left who were currently sleeping rather soundly while everyone else I saw today was busy working.
Worrying about the noise that could come from drawing my sword I instead chose to conjure up a knife in my hand. Slowly the blade formed in my hand and I stepped closer to the closest sleeping bandit with the conjured knife in my hand pulled back like a snake. Just as I was close enough and about to stab him in the neck he suddenly stirred in his sleep and mumbled something while he moved around.
For those few seconds before he became motionless again I watched not moving a muscle while my heart was beating like a drum in my chest. It only slowed when he stopped moving around and I took a very slow and deep breath. ‘I should have just killed him from a distance.’ I thought to myself as I was nearly face to face with the bandit and I quickly inserted the knife into his neck and clasped my hand over his mouth. He still managed to let out a soft grunt as the knife slid out along with some blood but thankfully it wasn’t quite enough to wake his friend up.
Unwilling to risk waking the other sleeping bandit I raised my hands up and quickly conjured up three earth bolts with only a small delay and aimed for both the eyes and the mouth which was wide open. I had to change my position to get the best angle, when I was in position I flicked my right hand forwards and in one motion all three bolts flew forwards towards my target.
The first two bolts each pierced one of the closed eyes both waking and startling the bandit who quickly opened his mouth wide to scream out in pain, the last bolt however was right in the perfect position to go straight into his mouth and pierce the inside of his throat. Instead of shouting this bandit barely managed to cough the blood that quickly was pooling in his mouth and he fell to the ground from his chair. He looked up at me with his blind eyes that somehow still had his desperation plain as day. He reached towards me and started crawling towards me on his knees which was a bit surprising and further disgusted me.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Seriously?” I asked, my voice dripping with contained anger. “You people kill innocents and have the audacity to try and ask for help when someone else gets revenge. Nice try, but the only mercy you will be receiving is dying here rather than in a prison cell.” He didn’t seem to hear me as he continued crawling towards me just moaning softly before he slumped to the ground and stopped moving.
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+ 50 Exp X 2 (100)
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With nothing nearby to hear anything I did I unsheathed my sword and poked the bandit to be certain that he was dead. When he didn’t react I walked behind him and picked him up by his arms and dragged his body off to the side of the entrance. I did the same with his ally before I started searching through their pockets.
The first and most obvious prize I took was their weapons which turned out to be a pair of half decent iron short swords. They were definitely human made as the quality of just about everything made by a talented dwarf was easily twice as valuable as these two swords were, but it was still a good thing to have either to sell or if I needed a backup weapon for some reason. The next prize was the money they were carrying on their person.
Checking their pockets resulted in a combined seven copper pieces, not a terrible amount but not what I was hoping. ‘Though this doesn't mean they won't have anything nice in their tents, when I deal with all the conscious guards I will need to look into those and see what I can find.’
I quickly discarded the idea of keeping their clothes as they weren't anything special, they also were not wearing any armor which left me with little else to take for my time.
Looking to the nearest watchtower from behind the wall I noticed that it was a good distance away from the others, in fact they were all roughly evenly spaced apart. That would be good for watching for enemies if those doing the watching were any good at their jobs. Luckily for me they didn’t really seem to be doing their jobs that well and I doubted they would be looking at each other unless one of them shouted something.
Slowly I crept through the entrance like a cat and stayed low while I slowly made my way to the base of the tower. When I reached the base I took a good look to make sure that nobody had seen me and then to see if there was anything I could take advantage of.
The watchtower was very simple in that it was just four large logs with a platform on the top and a ladder to climb up. Both the ladder and the watchtower looked rather old as if they had been sitting out in the elements for years at this point. ‘Given how lazy these bandits are acting, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.’ I thought to myself as I took one last look around before starting up the ladder.
When I reached the top I peaked over the edge and for a moment watched the bandit on guard sitting on a chair holding his bow. On the ground nearby was a cheap glass bottle indicating that he was drinking alcohol not long ago, but unlike the two by the entrance I came through he was still conscious and doing his job.
With a deep breath I slowly pulled myself up onto the platform and slowly conjured up another knife from earth and held it in a reverse grip to better stab the bandit from behind.
With bated breath I slowly walked forwards with my knife to the side while my left hand was slightly reaching out to easily grab and prevent the bandit from shouting.
For a moment I was standing right behind him barely an inch from the back of his head when I finally did it. With as swift of a motion I could muster I brought my hand against his mouth and the conjured knife into his chest, I stabbed him several times in both the neck and chest until he stopped struggling and practically fell out of his chair.
I hurriedly kept my hand against his mouth and conjured up some earth to cover it like a gag in case he tried shouting for help but he never did. He just fell backwards and looked up at me with a terrified expression like I was some sort of monster. I had to resist saying anything at the expression as it angered me.
‘I’m not the bandit murdering people just for a small amount of money, I’m not the one with a friend inside the city guard who does me favors and helps me get away from the law. I am justice and unlike you I am doing the right thing.’ I mentally shouted at the bandit as I stared holes into his eyes. I didn’t know why but that look of fear angered me for a reason I couldn’t understand and I had no desire to entertain it.
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+ 50 Exp
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To try and push these thoughts away from my mind and calm myself I started looking through this bandits' things the moment he stopped drawing breath. The first and most obvious thing was the bow he was carrying along with the quiver with ten arrows. I didn’t know much about bows but this one looked like it was of decent quality and the arrows didn’t have any apparent flaws that I could see.
Looking through his pockets I only found four copper pieces leaving me with a total of eleven copper pieces from the bandits so far. ‘Shouldn’t these bandits have more money on them? They are basically at the height of their entire lives at this point, they should have all the money they could want from raiding the merchants that come by the forest. Anything from money to valuables they should have an abundance of because they will not get caught.’
I looked over towards the other two watchtowers with a strange mix of disbelief and annoyance at this apparent poverty these bandits were living in. With a small grunt I climbed back down the ladder and started walking towards the next closest watchtower which was directly ahead from where I was along the very same wall.
Like before I kept low to the ground and made my way towards the second watchtower and climbed up it. At the top was an elven woman this time that looked like she was having a difficult time standing up straight, she was leaning against a small log that was placed in the middle of the platform which each of the watchtowers had. I noticed several empty bottles strewn across the platform each looking the same.
Like I had done before I conjured up a knife and partly restrained the bandit before quickly stabbing her in the neck, though unlike the ones that came before she started putting up a struggle as I stabbed her. She managed to swing her arms around and hit me several times in the face as well as anywhere else she could manage.
Annoyed with the struggle I was dealing with and stabbed the bandit several more times in both the chest and stomach which resulted in her trying to force the knife out of my hand.
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+ 50 Exp
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