Dodging the mace swinging towards me, I push my dagger into the man’s throat, his eyes fill with despair and as his eyes meet mine, I give him a smile. Quickly pulling my dagger out, I kick the man in the stomach, resulting in him falling down on his back.
I stare as the man tries to stop the bleeding, but its useless. After letting out a couple more gurgling sounds, he falls over and dies.
Walking up to his body, I stab my dagger through his eye to make sure he is dead, and then I proceed to loot the chain armor he’s wearing and his mace. Removing my leather armor, I start Putting the chain armor on, I instantly feel less mobile, but just a little bit safer.
The mace’s body looks to be made out of Oakshyre wood,
Standing up, I open my map and see how far I have left to go. I was currently on a mission to kill a leader of a gang of bandits. She had last been seen plundering and slaughtering multiple small villages, and one of the most recent villages was my next location.
I had been casually walking towards the village when a patrolling soldier had suddenly attacked me. Probably thinking that I was a bandit, while I could have probably told him that I was a bounty hunter, and not a bandit. I chose not to, it’s not often I get to fight soldiers, so I had simply defended myself.
Giving one last look at the corpse, I turn around and start walking.
…
When I arrive close enough to see the village, I’m left disappointed. All the houses were burned down, leaving only the ruins behind. As I finally arrive at the entrance to the village, I get an even closer look.
There are charred and mutilated bodies everywhere. Most of the bodies are that of men, but there are some females mixed as well.
If I had to guess, they probably took most of the females as sex slaves or something similar. While it did make sense to capture sex slaves to help her bandit crew relieve their pent-up stress, I still couldn’t help but be disgusted by it.
As I keep wandering around the town looking for clues to where they could have gone, I suddenly feel a chill down my spine. I quickly dodge to the side, and looking at where I had previously been standing, I see an arrow lodged in the ground.
I quickly look towards where the arrow had come from, and about fifty meters away I see two men. One archer and one spear wielding warrior, I quickly start feeling my body fill up with adrenaline and a smile forms on my face.
As the man raises his bow once more, I start rushing towards them. As I rush towards them, the archer shoots another arrow towards me, but due to being so close, I don’t find the time to dodge, so I do my best in parrying it.
My dagger meets the head of the arrow, changing its trajectory resulting in it piercing my left shoulder rather than my forehead. I couldn’t help but be impressed with the mans skills with the bow.
When I’m within fifteen meters of the archer the spear-wielder steps in front and stabs towards me. I quickly jump back, dodging his stab, but just as I’m about to rush forward to close the distance between me and the spear-wielder, another chill runs down my spine and I instinctively put my left arm in front of my face.
To my shock, an arrow pierces my arm and stabs into my left eye, making me half blind. Rage fills me and I quickly pull my arm away from my face, my eye and the arrow follow suit. Ignoring the excruciating pain, I rush towards the archer.
As I close the distance, the spear-wielder once again stabs towards me, but I let him. The spear pierces through my torso and just barely misses my heart. Blood fills my throat and I puke blood. But I don’t stop. I keep up my momentum and I close the distance. The spear-wielder has no time to react before I slash his throat open.
After slashing his throat, I pull the rest of the spear out of me and I again rush towards the archer, who is now panicking.
He shoots another arrow at me, and it pierces my right lung. It quickly becomes difficult to breath, but I press on. I rush towards him and in my blind rage, I tackle him to the ground and bite into his throat and rip.
Blood spurts and the man starts having spasms, but I don’t stop. I keep biting and ripping until I no longer feel the man move.
Looking at the man under me, I stand up and wobble towards the spear-wielder, hoping to find a healing potion. But just as I am about to reach his corpse, I fall to the ground.
I try to stand up, but no matter how much I struggle, I can no longer control my body. Its only now that I realize that I can’t breathe. As I stare at the ground under me, I feel life leaving me.
Many say that your life will flash before your eyes when you’re dying. But they’re all liars, I see no memories flash, nor do I see some blinding light coming to bring me to the heavens. All I experience is the inability to breathe and my consciousness fading.
…
“oii! Stop spacing out while I’m talking to you!” hearing the loud but familiar voice, I open my eyes. In front of me stands a red-haired girl with blue eyes. “Are you just going to stare?”
“Sorry Elisa, I was lost in thought. Please continue.” She looks at me for a moment before letting out a sigh. “As I was saying, your target is a bandit leader with the name of Marge Ladencrow. Her bounty is at 500 gold pieces and after taxes you’ll receive 450 gold.”
“The taxes are as ruthless as ever I see, well, Ill see you in a bit!” Turning around, I started walking towards the door, only to hear a voice behind me. “Hey! I haven’t even told you where she was last seen!” But I ignore her, I had done all of this before after all.
…
“Hey! Hold it right there! Show me your identifications or you will be seen as an outlaw!” I stare at the familiar soldier and smile. “Sure, sure. I got it right here in my pocket.” As the soldier got closer, I quickly drew my dagger and stabbed towards his throat.
But he somehow dodges and draws his mace. “You will be punished for attempted murder!” He rushes towards me and swings his mace wildly, hitting nothing but air as I dodge. He quickly gets out of breath and his swings become more sluggish, resulting in an opening of which I take.
As my dagger pierces his throat, his eyes are once again filled with despair. I quickly kick him to the ground and continue on my path, deciding not to pick up the mace this time.
As I arrive at the burned village, I don’t take the main entrance, rather, I sneak within the trees and scout around looking for the duo that had previously ambushed me.
It takes a good minute, but I finally find them standing next to the ruins of a house. As I get closer, I start hearing their voices.
“The boss is an ass for leaving us here.” The archer said with a tinge of anger.
“Well, someone has to take care of potential bounty hunters.” The spear wielder answered.
I kept stalking them, waiting for an opportunity, but even as the hours passed and the sky darkened,, they never left the others side.
“I’ve got to take a leak; I’ll be right back.” The archer, who I’ve decided to call Bob says. Standing up, he walks further into the forest. When I no longer see his shadow, I slowly creep closer towards the spear wielder who I’ve decided to call Ronald.
It takes me a good thirty seconds, but I finally arrive right behind Ronald. I slowly move my dagger towards his throat and just as I am about to cut his throat, I hear a whizzing sound and a sudden pain in right shoulder. I quickly look towards where the sound had come from, but an arrow pierces my left eye.
…
“Oii! Stop spacing out while I’m talking to you!” Upon hearing the familiar voice once more, I open my eyes and in front of me stands Elisa, her blue eyes staring daggers at me. “Are you just going to stare?”
I look around but it’s the exact same scene. “Haahh, yeah, yeah, I hear you Lisa, I’ll be on my way.” I sigh before turning around to leave. “Hey! I’ve told you many times not to call me Lisa!” she yells as I leave.
..
After exiting I repeated everything as I had before, but when the archer left to take a piss, I followed him instead.
As the man walked deeper into the forest, I couldn’t help but wonder why I hadn’t just followed him to begin with.
After a good minute, he finally stops next to a tree and places his bow and quiver next to a tree. After doing so, he stretches his back and sighs. “Hah, when can I go back home?” he grumbles while moving towards a nearby bush. He quickly unbuckles his belt, and my moment arrives. When Bob lowers his guard in order to focus on pissing, I make my move.
I slowly creep up towards him as stealthily as I can. As I arrive but a arms reach away, I pounce towards him. I grab his head and cover his mouth with my left arm and stab his throat with right. The man starts squirming, resulting in piss flying everywhere, but as I keep stabbing his throat over and over, he finally stops moving.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I carefully place his body on the ground and grab his quiver and bow. Inspecting the arrows within the quiver, I see that they are not even of common rank, the arrowheads are made out of cheap iron, which surprises me. “How did these arrows pierce my body so easily? A skill perhaps?” I couldn’t help but be surprised.
Arrows of this quality would usually be deflected by my leather armor, yet, these had not only ignored my leather armor, but even seriously injured me.
After putting the arrow back into the quiver, I inspect the bow. The body of the bow is simple Oberon wood, a strong, yet flexible material. The string looks to be made out of the silk produced by Dordingull’s. They were incredibly dangerous due to their high agility and their extremely venomous nature, but if one could somehow manage to kill and harvest their materials, they would be rich. The bow would fetch for a good price on the market… If I didn’t lose it.
I quickly put my dagger into its holster and equip the bow and quiver.
I didn’t have much time until Ronald got suspicious, meaning I had limited time until a surprise attack would be impossible.
I quickly make my way back and when I arrive a good twenty meters away, I can see that Ronald is still as oblivious as before. I stealthily make my way closer until I’m ten meters away.
Grabbing an arrow from the quiver, I raise the bow and place the arrow upon it. As I pull the string back, I aim and after making sure that it will hit, I release.
The arrow flies hitting Ronald’s collarbone, I had aimed for his throat, but this was an acceptable outcome. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” He screams while attempting to stand up.
I calmly grab another arrow and after aiming, I release yet another arrow. This time I aimed for his heart, but somehow ended up hitting his left thigh. “ AAGHH YOU FUCKER!!!” Ronald screams once more.
Even though an arrow had pierced Ronald’s left thigh, he still somehow stood up, grabbed his spear and has started to quickly limp towards me.
Based of his speed, I wouldn’t have enough time to shoot another arrow, so I put the bow on the ground and unsheathe my dagger. But after giving it a thought, I sheath my dagger and pick up the bow again. “ILL KILL YOU!!!” I hear Ronald yell in front of me, but I ignore him and run away.
I hear Ronald yell explicit things behind me, but I completely ignore him and opt to stealthily kill him from afar. There are two reasons I’m doing this. First, I only have a dagger when he has a spear, meaning that I would be in a disadvantage.
Second, this was good training, I had a perfect target and thirty-two arrows left.
After running into the darkness, I slow down and stealthily make my way back. Upon arriving back, I can see Ronald sitting down while bandaging his thigh and the arrow that was lodged inside his collarbone had been pulled out.
Upon closer inspection, the bandages were fully covered in blood, and if I had to guess, the man had about 5-10 minutes left before he’d pass out from blood loss. “Fuckin bastard…” My thoughts were interrupted by Ronald’s mumbling.
I slowly stood up and after aiming, I release another arrow. The arrow travels quickly and hits the man’s stomach. “AHHH WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?!” Ronald screams, his voice filled with pain, anger, and despair.
The man in front of me attempts to stand up once more, but stumbles at each attempt. It was a pathetic display. So, I release another arrow, this one hits its mark, and pierces the man’s throat. Shock and despair fills Ronald’s eyes. I walk out of my hiding place and as my eyes meet his, he dies.
The fight was much less exciting than before, but I had finally survived. I quickly put the bow around my left shoulder and grab Ronald’s spear.
The spear’s body is made out the same Oberon wood as the bow and the blade is made out of steel. I couldn’t help but smile. The spear was most likely of the uncommon rank. Why would a simple bandit have this? I had no clue, but it was a good haul.
Giving Ronald one last look, I turn around and head back towards town.
…
Waking up, I smile. “Hah, finally it’s not the same.” Putting on my equipment, I exit my room and lock the door behind me and walk downstairs. Walking towards the reception, I pay for three more nights, costing me thirty copper coins.
Quite expensive, but I had to keep my stuff somewhere.
…
Elise’s Pov.
Reading the reports from HQ I couldn’t help but sigh. The bandit group led by their leader Marge had caused a lot of trouble. With all the murders, robberies, rape, pillaging and kidnapping, the bounty of the bandits had risen by a huge amount.
Many bounty hunters had been sent, but even among the stronger ones, none had returned. It seemed as though the strength of the bandits had risen explosively based of older reports.
When the noble Ladencrow family was found to be traitors of the kingdom, every member except for Marge Ladencrow had been executed. She had survived due to taking a couple hundred soldiers with her and escaping during the conflict.
According to earlier reports, at the time of the conflict most of Marge’s soldiers had been around the rank of 1–3-star warriors. Only two or three exceeding four-star. Marge’s own power was unknown, but her strength was estimated to be that of a 3-star warrior.
Yet, even when bounty hunters who were of 6-star strength had been sent, none of them had returned alive, and due to all these factors, even 7-star warriors were recommended to be careful.
When I had sent Jack on the mission, I never expected him to return due to him only being an ordinary 1-star warrior. But to my surprise, he was now standing in front of me.
“So, what have you come for Jack?” I said while inspecting him. “Well, you see, the village I was sent to had two bandits there. One archer and one spear wielder. Both were around 1–2-star warriors. Before killing them, I stalked them and listened in on their conversations. According to one of them, their leader had told them to station up there.” After giving his report, he looked at me expectantly.
“I see, you did good Jack. But I have some news for you as well. You’re too weak to handle this bounty.” Upon hearing my words, Jack met my gaze and responded with a questioning tone. “What do you mean?”
I let out a sigh. “The estimated power of the bandits has increased. According to a recent report, even when a bounty hunter who’s a six-star warrior was sent, he never returned. Meaning, that even a six-star warrior can’t handle this, let alone a one-star warrior such as yourself.”
He stopped looking at me and simply let out a sigh. “Alright, I understand, got any other bounties?” To my surprise, he actually heeded my warning, something he had never done before. A smile formed on my face. After pulling up a book full of bounties, I couldn’t help but feel relieved.
Jack’s POV.
Elise had always been one to worry about me. Normally, I wouldn’t really listen due to knowing that I could definitely beat something. But with her giving me the information that even a six-star warrior couldn’t beat the bandit-troupe? It’s better to heed her warnings for once.
Opening the book of bounties, I started looking for suitable missions.
Mission Rank: SSS
Bounty: 5 Platinum.
Target: Duke Morgot – Original Vampire.
Location: Shade Forest.
Estimated Strength: Full Moon – Tier 7.
Description: Duke Morgot’s age is estimated to be in the thousands, his skin and hair are jade white, and his eyes a deep crimson. After having turned the whole kingdom of Shade into vampires, including the royalty. He took over as the king and is now waging war against the kingdom of Tela.
Requester: King Drake – Ruler of the Tela Kingdom.
Mission Rank: SS+
Bounty: 10 Platinum Coins.
Target: Fire Dragon Kurlak.
Location: Mawark Mountains.
Estimated Strength: Rising Moon – Tier 4.
Description: The Fire Dragon Kurlak is a four-winged fire dragon, he reaches 200 meters and one of his horns are missing. Should be easy to identify. He recently slaughtered thousands of humans living in the area. Tens of Nine-Star warriors have been sent to vanquish the dragon, none have returned. The dragon is estimated to be 400 years old, so proceed with caution.
Requester: King Loid – Ruler of the Mawark Kingdom.
After reading the first two, I knew that those two would be for a future me. For now, I moved all the way to the end of the book and looked at three bounties that were more suitable for me.
Mission Rank: E – D
Bounty: 5 Silver Coins.
Target: Goblins x50
Location: Lofest – Forest of green.
Estimated Strength: One-Star.
Description: Goblins up in the Forest of green have been harassing nearby villages. At the time of the last report, there was an estimate of 50 goblins within. But due to the goblins enhanced breeding capabilities and growth, the number might be much higher.
Requester: The Bounty-Hunter Guild.
It was quite a good mission, but with their capability to breed and them growing into adults within thirty days, it simply wouldn’t be worth it.
Mission Rank: E+
Bounty: 1 Silver Coin.
Target: Wolves x5.
Location: Lofest – Forest of green.
Estimated Strength: Two-Star.
Description: Wolves required for materials. It has been requested that the damage to the hide, eyes, claws, and bones is as low as possible.
Requester: Carl – The tanner.
It wasn’t that difficult of a mission, so might be what I go for.
Mission Rank: F
Bounty: 40 Silver.
Target: N/A
Location: Tom’s Alchemy shop.
Estimated Strength: N/A.
Description: A highly skilled Alchemist called Tom is looking for a test subject. The mission requires that you try his potions. Caution is heeded, survivability of subjects is estimated to be 5%. Upon death, mission payment will go to the deceased family members.
Requester: Tom – The Alchemist.
The reward was great, so the mission was settled. Ripping out the page, I showed Elise the page and the color of her face dropped a shade. “A-are you serious? You’re basically asking to be killed! The survivability is less than 5 percent!” Her reaction was expected, but it still gave me a laugh.
“Why are you laughing at such a serious matter?” Her tone was filled with both anger and confusion, and I could see worry in her eyes. “You don’t need to worry, I wont die, I promise.” She didn’t look convinced but knowing that she couldn’t legally stop me from taking the bounty, she let out a sad sigh and gave me the contract. “Just don’t die okay?”
After leaving the guild, I went towards Tom’s Alchemy shop.