Brad got up from his seat and picked up his sword. He raised his sword and struck a thick branch of a tree. The branch snapped and fell to the ground, catching fire in several places.

"Rex's gift," Alex and Frank said in unison. Brad grinned and said, "When I killed the bitch, I tiered up. I had a few options, but I always envied Rex's power, so I chose this one."

Then Frank said, "Boss, why don't we kill that werewolf or something so we can level up?" Daniel said, "If we kill that creature, we can level up once, but if we let it heal and terrorize an entire region, we can level up many times over by taking care of the adventurers who come to hunt it." The bandits all had sly smiles on their faces.

"What about the bodies?" Brad asked. Daniel said, "I'll make sure the trail doesn't lead back to us." Alex asked, "How?"

Daniel raised his hand and four wogs came howling out of nowhere. They began to tear and eat the fresh grass with great gusto. "These four are my wogs," Daniel said to his men, who raised their weapons and looked at the wogs in horror.

Frank nervously lowered his spear and asked, "What are their names, boss?"

Daniel hadn't given his wogs any names, seeing them only as useful tools.

But he said, "Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo." Frank said, "Very good names, boss." There was no one to laugh at his joke but himself. So he smiled to himself.

They went back to their camp, happy. Even though they hadn't hunted any traders, they had all profited a lot from it.

"What do we do now, boss?" asked Alex when they reached the camp. Daniel said, "There is no hurry, we have food for a long time and fighting skills to improve.

The three bandits all went "owww". Daniel was kicking their asses in the drills. "But first you should rest for a week, you have wounds, the stupidest thing you can do is to train before they heal." The wounds were only minor abrasions, but it was not like the smart boss to demand from his employees too much.

It would have been wise to give them some time to heal and also to get bored of being idle. "Alex, Frank, you rest." Brad looked up and waited attentively for his instructions.

Daniel "Brad we are outnumbered, how is the balance of power with the other bandit groups?" Brad "Unfortunately we are not even competitors boss.

Both Lola and Tomas are second tier. Altogh you will soon be second tier too, besides that Tomas has two first tier men and Lola has four. Lola has twenty men and Tomas has fifteen. But all these men are said to be good fighters.

Daniel "Then is it possible for you to find me ten good men, good fighters?" Brad "I can find ten men who will make good warriors after training, but I need to spend two weeks traveling from village to village, scouting the inns, and they won't join us right away, they need to see the warm side of money."

Daniel "How much money are we talking about?" Brad "At least five hundred silver." Daniel counted ten gold pieces into Brad's hand. "I want men who are healthy, strong, not whiny, I don't care if they know how to handle a weapon, you can teach them." Brad nodded. "What are we going to do about weapons?" Daniel said, "Leave that to me."

In his previous life Daniel had been a blacksmithing freak. He consumed everything he could find on the internet about blacksmithing. But he was also aware that blacksmithing required a lot of labor. He could not afford to spend all his time blacksmithing, so he put on his merchant clothes again. He get his two donkeys, which were tied up in the camp, and filled their sacks with tree leaves to make it look like they carry goods.

At the entrance to Danburg the guard said to Daniel, "You are back so quickly." Daniel replied, "I had business in the immediate area." Lawmen were like that. Sometimes they would just throw something out there, and if they got an exaggerated reaction, they get suspected something is wrong. Daniel, of course, did not fall for this trick.

When he entered the town, he walked around and watched the town's five blacksmiths. One young man caught his eye. This young man was the blacksmith's journeyman. He was doing his work with great skill and energy.

When his master left him in charge, Daniel went to the journeyman. "My friend, I like your skill, you could be the pinnacle of the blacksmith's art. I have a proposition for you."

The blacksmith boy looked into Daniel's eyes "You didn't notice, did you?" The young blacksmith pointed to a tattoo on his wrist. "I noticed it, but I don't know what it means," Daniel said. The young man smiled, "I'm not surprised, slavery is not common in these parts."

Daniel tried to keep his smile on the outside while laughing on the inside. Then he asked what he was really curious about. "You were working so well, why does a slave work so well and with such energy?"

"To be honest, I like blacksmithing, my previous owner was a pretty lousy guy. This blacksmith is good. He makes me eat whatever he eats, he doesn't get angry and insult me unnecessarily. He says, "We spent so much on the slave, let's spend some on his bed so he can work well. That's how I got to sleep in a comfortable bed again for the first time since I was captured."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Daniel was surprised, the slave blacksmith couldn't have been more than twenty years old. "Captured, how old were you when you were captured?" The slave smiled bitterly, "Fourteen."

Daniel "I'll ask you straight out, I'll buy you from your owner and you'll make weapons for the bandits, do you have any objection to that?" The blacksmith's face lit up "I like making weapons, I don't like the people of this country, when I was fourteen years old I was chained and enslaved in my village trying to protect my family, they enslaved me, they enslaved my poor mother, and in front of me..." his voice trailed off. "So killing them, robbing them, raping them, none of that is a problem for me.

But don't expect me to work well if you don't give me good food and a comfortable bed."

Daniel held out his hand and said, "I'm Daniel." "I'm Seth." Daniel's first question was, "Seth, there is only one forge in my camp. Make a list of the other materials you will need, and by the way, I don't intend to pay much for you. Please don't misunderstand what I will do to get it." Seth smiled "You want to get it cheap, then go to the inn nearby, the blacksmith is getting drunk there. It should be easy to get it cheap."

Daniel entered the inn with quick steps and a grin. The inns served as hotels, restaurants and taverns. The blacksmith spoke, beer mug in hand, "I'm the best blacksmith in Danburg. That asshole Kyle thinks he's something."

Daniel took an empty chair at the blacksmith's table. "Honestly, the stuff I get from your shop is much better than Kyle's," he said with a friendly smile. The blacksmith raised his mug and said to those around him, "Hear, hear, hear."

Daniel gave a big smile and said, "But I heard it was the slave who actually did the work. I hear you've been living off him." The blacksmith roared in anger "That idiot is not worth ten coppers, I feed him out of pity, what do you mean I live off his back."

Daniel threw ten pieces of silver on the table "If what you say is true, he is not worth ten coppers, he is not worth ten bronzes, I give you ten pieces of silver for him." Ten silver pieces for a slave was a ridiculous amount, no one would sell a slave that cheap.

The blacksmith said, "Do you think I'm a fool, do you know how much gold I bought him for?" Daniel said, "You don't need to tell me, you don't know the business and you can't do without him."

The blacksmith "I paid ten gold pieces for it." Then he grinned "If you have ten gold pieces we can gamble for it."

"No, Sam, no, you lost your horse last time. If I ever get drunk and gamble again, stop me you sa..." Daniel gave the innkeeper a piercing look. The innkeeper fell silent.

Daniel said, "I accept gambling, but I choose backgammon as my game." "Bring the backgammon!" the blacksmith shouted.

Daniel intended to cheat, but he didn't even have to cheat, the blacksmith didn't know how to play backgammon properly.

When the drunk man lost his slave, he said, "No, we'll play again." Daniel grinned and asked, "For what?" The blacksmith said, "I'll put up my shop for the slave and ten gold pieces." The innkeeper wanted to open his mouth again, but Daniel strengthened his frightening gaze with his increased strength and struck fear into the man's heart. The innkeeper walked away, trembling with fear.

Daniel was not even close to losing the game, he would have cheated if he had fallen a little behind, but again the Blacksmith was crushed.

"My house and my daughter for what you have won so far!" the blacksmith shouted again. Daniel looked at the blacksmith "You don't even know how to play the game properly. And you would give your own blood and life as a slave? Calm down. You have lost."

The blacksmith shouted "You keep playing until I say it's over, my luck will turn, the dice will be right." Daniel said, "Suit yourself."

Then he turned to the innkeeper and asked, "Do you have the right to enslave your own daughter?" The innkeeper was sad, "Her mother was a slave, so unfortunately he has that right by law." Daniel could not help looking at the man with disgust.

His luck had really turned in the last game, despite his poor play he kept getting good dice. But even good dice couldn't save such a bad player. Daniel won the game again without cheating.

When Daniel and the blacksmith were finished, the blacksmith collapsed, shaking.

He had gambled away everything, everything. Daniel tied the blacksmith up. The next day he would take everything from him.

In the morning he tied the blacksmith up and took him with him, and the man was like the living dead. He didn't even protest. When he entered the town, he unloaded the load of leaves on the donkeys to an empty parcel in the town.

They came to the blacksmith's shop, the blacksmith in front and the donkeys behind. He gave Seth the donkeys. "Load these animals with whatever is useful to you in the shop."

Seth looked at his old boss with pitying eyes, "He gambled again, didn't he?" Daniel "Yeah, I guess you felt sorry for him." Seth "He's not a bad guy, but if it wasn't for you he would have lost everything gambling on someone else. Because he can't help himself."

Daniel said, "Yeah." While Seth loaded the tools, Daniel went with the blacksmith to the small castle in the center of town.

This building could be called a stone villa, not a castle. Because it was very small.

He and the blacksmith entered the clerk's office. The clerk looked at the blacksmith with pitying eyes and said, "What did you lose gambling again?" Daniel said, "He lost everything." The blacksmith just stood in silence with dead eyes.

The blacksmith formally transferred the ownership of his house, his shop, his slave and his daughter, who was technically his slave.

Daniel left the blacksmith at the castle and went with Seth to the blacksmith's house. The house was a simple stone building. Daniel knocked on the door. A beautiful young girl with auburn wavy hair opened the door.

When the girl saw Seth she asked, "Seth, has something happened to my father?" The look on Seth's face was sad. "I'm sorry Sarah, your father gambled away everything, including you, to this gentleman."

The girl Sarah was shocked Daniel "I found out that slave marking of yours is not done, I will take you to the castle to get your slave mark done." She fell to the ground "No, please, I don't want to go through the horrible things my mother went through before my father took her, please Seth, tell him something."

Seth wanted to say something to his boss but he couldn't. Danny said to Daniel, "Daniel, you know what will happen if you take this girl to camp." Of course Daniel knew. Every bandit camp needed camp whores.

Daniel looked at Seth's face. Seth obviously cared about this girl. Finding a camp whore was easy, finding a good blacksmith was hard. Daniel turned to her "Sarah you are very lucky, because I felt that Seth loves you, he is important to me, so from now on you are not my property.

A slave doesn't have slaves, but you can consider yourself Seth's slave, because when he work successfully and gain his freedom, I will give you to him."

Sarah ran and hugged Seth. Apparently these were lovers who could not meet.

Daniel asked Sarah, "This house, do you run it all by yourself?" Sarah said, "Yes," and then replied, "My father brings the money and I take care of everything."

Daniel turned to Sarah and gave her a gold coin, a large sum of money. "When we come into town from time to time, we will stay here, not at the inn, and you will keep your mouth shut about what we do, what we come in, what we leave, what we do. Officially you are my slave, but if you are the girl Seth loves, I will not tattoo you as a slave, and no one in my group will touch you except Seth.

Know this and tell me if anyone crosses the line."

Daniel gave Seth two gold pieces. "With this money, buy whatever you may lack, spend a week with your lover. Then come back to the camp with the sketch I drew on this piece of paper. Remember, I'm already showing you how generous I can be if you're of use to me. When you arrive, you'll need to start building weapons with great speed.

Sarah hugged Seth as Daniel left. They started kissing. Daniel was sure Seth would do a good job. After all, he had probably given him everything he had ever dreamed of. And he didn’t seem like nether inconpetent nor ungreatful type.