“Die, you fool!” The Bandit King leapt at him with his bloody blade raised.
The young boy managed to bring out his hidden knife just in time. As he caught the blade with his own sword, the knife slipped into the larger man’s gut. He let out a noise, stumbled back, and then collapsed to the ground dead.
Seeing their leader fall, the bandits turned and ran. This Bandit King also was their Dark Priest. That’s how he had brought so many of them to him. He had managed to acquire two jobs, and one allowed him to resurrect dead bandits. Officially, the church refused to resurrect someone who had done enough crimes to earn the Bandit job and have it be their primary profession. Priests wouldn’t change a Bandits job, and they wouldn’t resurrect a bandit.
It was possible for a Bandit to lose their Bandit profession by reforming until another job took precedence, but the more banditry you did, the more the job stuck. Thus, the rather rare Dark Priest was a coveted position among Bandits. This one just so happened to be strong as well.
With his death, none of the bandits would be able to be resurrected. Suddenly, their unstoppable reign of terror across the country-side had ended like that. They would be more careful with their lives in the future, and wouldn’t boldly attack villages as they had been doing.
The boy who defeated the Bandit King collapsed to the ground. It had been pure luck that he had managed to do it. He had seen them cut down his father, and he had been filled with rage and hatred.
“You have saved this village, for that, I grant you the token of the Hero. You are this village’s Hero from this moment onward!”
The mayor of the village tossed money and rewards on him, and the boy used it to buy good armor and good weapons. Then, he collected all the coin his city had and set out for the Imperial Cloud City to find a Priest to resurrect his father and the rest of the village. He experienced many hardships on the way and eventually was scammed by a woman out of most of his coin and armor. She had claimed to be a White Mage and had the ability to resurrect his village. However, that had been a lie, and she had fled with everything but the trinkets he needed to save them. By the time he made it to the capital, he no longer had the money to save his people.
“Please! I will pay you back! My village will pay you back!”
“Hmph! Do you think we run a charity? If you don’t contribute to the Gods, then you don’t get a resurrection!”
“But… this isn’t about me… it’s… my village, my people.”
“Who are they? You’re all nothing. If they were so important, they’d have someone more competent and richer than you to resurrect them!”
Desperate to save at least some, he got a job in the city, doing anything he could to raise money. Yet, he only had a short span of time, and by the time he was done, he had only earned enough to save one person.”
“My father, please… this is his sword. Bring him back!”
“Very well…”
They cast the spell, but it didn’t work.
“The item you selected was not attached to your father.”
“N-no… impossible. Father… he said he fought with this sword in the north. He fought demons! It’s why I wanted to be a hero!”
“Many fathers who lived unremarkable lives will make up such things.”
The boy shook for a bit, but he finally got his breathing under control and decided what to do, “Then… please, resurrect him using me as the bond.”
“The spell has already been cast. Do you have enough for another?”
He didn’t… the month passed, and he left the capital having been unable to resurrect anyone. With shame in his eyes, he returned to his mother. Even if he had his Hero token taken away, he would make it up to everyone he had wronged, even if it took him his whole life.
In the end, he didn’t have to though. When he returned to the town, all he found were ashes and skeletons. The bandits had found a new leader, and to consolidate his power, he had destroyed the village who killed the last. Worst of all, the boy could have been there on time, if he had used the Return ability. However, being inexperienced, he didn’t know about its existence, and even if he did, he was so ashamed, he needed time.
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He eventually found a bandit still plundering the wreckage hoping to find something his brothers missed and managed to corner him.
“You killed them all!” the boy accused.
“N-No… they’ll just be resurrected, right?”
“With what money? You stole it all!”
The bandit still had a blank expression on his face as the boy chopped his head off. That was the way of things. Bandits either didn’t know or didn’t care. They weren’t killing someone; that person could be resurrected. If they weren’t, that was their problem. They should have thought of that before they died. Besides, if the bandits had to put their lives on the line, then why didn’t the rest of the world?
The boy, feeling great despair, walked off into the mountains and began to train. He found an isolated dungeon, and every day he dived into it to grow his Hero skills. Eventually, he pursued the Bandit King and then brought him down. It had been a mad suicide rush into the center of the bandit camp, and at the end of it all, he found himself surrounded by hundreds of bandits, expecting to die.
This Bandit King was smarter than the last. He had a Dark Priestess who worked for him. So, these bandits had no fear of dying, unlike the boy who had nothing but the blade he thought was his fathers. The Dark Priestess snapped her fingers, and the Bandits followed him. He had killed the last Bandit King, so now he was the Bandit King. He realized he recognized the girl. She was actually the supposed White Mage who had stolen everything from him all those years ago.
Yet, he no longer could feel anger. All his anger was directed at himself for being so ignorant. He took the priestess to bed, and she became his lover. She whispered in his ear every night about the injustices of this world. They slowly started to seep into his soul and affect his personality.
The Bandit Hero… that’s what his name became. He stole from the rich, and he gave to the poor. He wouldn’t hesitate to senselessly slaughter nobles, merchants, and heroes. Meanwhile, he would have the priestess resurrect those who were destitute and poor. Of course, although he gave money to the poor, most of it was kept for the Bandits.
Under his reign, they were wealthy and even allowed to feel good about themselves. They were saving the people from a government full of thieves.
Yet… the problem with killing those who were rich and could come back was that they would inevitably seek vengeance. That’s what ended up happening, and the Bandit King’s camp was eventually attacked by a coalition of unhappy nobles. A price was put on his head, and the Bandit King was forced to flee. However, he was pursued wherever he went. The price on his head was so vast, that even the poor which he had helped and the bandits who once served him turned. Everywhere he ran, he was attacked by people eager to obtain the reward for his head.
Eventually, he decided to leave. He had heard of another continent across the vast sea, and he desired to go there and leave this place behind. He set up a deal with a captain. He couldn’t get to the docks, so the plan was for him to meet up with the ship once it set sail. There was a lighthouse with a friend of the captain. He would wait there until the ship appeared and then swim out to it. Then, they would set sail for a new world.
Yet, that lighthouse owner had been greedy for the reward too. He poisoned the food. The Bandit Hero remembered growing sick and then dying. His finger was taken as evidence, and then he was buried. The lighthouse keeper was an old Priest, and he had a spell that would keep his soul trapped. He feared his resurrection or retribution, so he kept the entire thing on the down-low, burying the body under the floorboards and etching a complicated rune that would prevent him from haunting the man.
He collected his reward anonymously but never used it. He just wanted the money. As if to just spit in the face of the Bandit Hero’s life, he buried the money next to the body. He never had kids, and he lived stingily for the remainder of his life, never telling anyone what he did. He even told his captain friend that the Bandit Hero never arrived.
After the lighthouse keeper finally died, the dungeon formed, hoarding its treasure in the same way as the lighthouse keeper before it. There, the spirit remained, its resentment and scorn festering into a dungeon that overtook the once existing lighthouse, ironically preserving the rune and preventing its natural decay.
This was the information that was slammed into my head as a tattoo formed between my shoulder blades on my back. Another dungeon lore had become part of me.
{Congratulations, you have completed the Calypso Tower Dungeon.}
{True Dungeon Diver has increased to level 41.}
{Dungeon Builder has increased to level 15.)
{For completing the lore, you have gained 0 dungeon points.}
{Calypso’s lore is now a part of you. You have gained Calypso’s Blessing.}
{You have an increased affinity with dungeon points. You will earn more dungeon points for conquering a dungeon. Those in your party will earn a portion of your dungeon points. You can use dungeon points for those in your party.}
{Lydia has gained 5 dungeon points.}
{Miki has gained 5 dungeon points.}
{Celeste has gained 5 dungeon points.}
{Terra has gained 5 dungeon points.}
{Shao has gained 5 dungeon points.}
“…”
Did the dungeon just steal all my points and give them to those who had less?