When I finally managed to calm down my mind in the aftermath of my battle, I quickly gathered up all the bodies of my enemies, as well as their weapons and materials, and spread them out on the floor.
One thing I noticed was that all the men without exception carried at least one side-gun, a bush blade, combat knives and throwing knives, and explosives in the form of fragment grenades, gun powder pouches, or fire fuel bottles with igniters.
I quickly took many throwing knives, some of the knives, two side-guns, and one bush blade.
As for the explosives I took all of them except for a few, those were things I lacked and I needed urgently.
The rest of the weapons were individual to each bandit, three crossbows of different types, an automatic rifle, an automatic shotgun, spears of different types, and the leaders’ sawed-off shotgun, special side gun, and special ammo.
I wanted to take all the weapons but most of the weapons were too big and not as special to warrant risking making myself carry so much weight.
The automatic rifle and shotgun were alluring but since I managed to survive and resist their onslaught I figured they weren’t all too useful in reality and might even put me at risk.
The spears were metal spears with slightly different weights and head shapes, but in truth except for the leader's spear weren’t anything special.
The leader spear on the other hand was a formidable javelin that I realized was made of a similar metal as the special ammo he was shooting at me.
I counted myself lucky Tokir didn’t find the proper chance to use his spear before I disarmed him with my slingshot shot.
I decided that adding the spear to my collection was worth it and doable due to its special traits.
What I wanted and considered my consolation prize for risking my life as I did was Toriks special Silver and Red side-gun.
It was bigger than the average side-gun and seemed to shoot special bullets.
The bullets were bigger than the average side-gun bullets and seemed to be made of a special alloy.
I knew that since the alloy managed to penetrate my robe and damage my magical armor the ammo wasn’t anything to scoff at.
I took the ammo boxes and the gun and added them to my collection of ranged weapons.
After picking up some ammo for my other two side-guns I considered myself satisfied and went over to the bandit's body.
They weren’t wearing anything spectacular, just normal clothes with bullet-resistant fabric and armor plates in strategic spots.
The bandits prioritized their mobility over heavy armor.
But what had me curious was what had prevented me from stabbing Torik with my magical knife.
It had to be something of magical quality at least, after removing his clothes I noticed a marking on his skin that flashed blue and white.
I figured that the marking had something to do with what I was looking for.
Noticing that Royem and his crew had recuperated enough to walk towards my direction I quickly severed that part in his body with the marking and put it in a beast sack for later study.
I quickly went through their treasure and although they had quite a bit of stuff I only found the ten platinum coins on Tokir of interest and worth carrying.
Everything else I was planning to leave to Royem and his crew so that they could safely get out of the wilderness.
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Royem and his men respectfully approached me and stopped a couple of meters away from me.
They put their hands together in their chest in gratitude.
“I and my friends are eternally grateful for you saving our lives, powerful Expert. Please tell us your name so that we may repay you in the future.”
“My name is Ranker Warrior Guso, you guys are lucky I just happened to be in the area. Usually I travel in a way to avoid people, had you not ran into me, I don’t know if anyone would’ve helped you.“
“ We know, we know, we are independent adventurers from Will City, who just set out a couple of months ago to pursue our dream of becoming Rankers. We thought that by heading out in a big group of six, a good combination of Warriors, Marksmen, and Rangers, in addition to having decent equipment due to Lassina here being somewhat wealthy, that as long as we didn’t go in over our heads we would be alright. Little did I know that just traveling with such intent was already going in over our heads. The deep wilderness is nothing compared to the protected zones close to Will City and today we encountered mortal danger giving us a glimpse of how outmatched we truly are.”
“The deep wilderness is indeed nothing to play with, but you're not doing so bad most of you managed to survive that’s already a good experience for you, the leader of the bandits was called Tokir and he was a formidable Ranker that even I struggled with, you guys shouldn’t feel bad. For now, at least until you guys get stronger and get better equipment, stick to the roads and populated areas, as nomad Experts, Rankers, and dangerous Villains are less likely to make their moves in front of government authorities.”
“Thank you for your advice honorable Ranker Guso, I’ll engrave your wisdom in my memory.”
“If you guys don’t mind me asking what made you guys come around this direction, it's pretty far off from Will City with not many interesting things in particular.”
“That is because one in our group had caught wind of information about the location of a secret Ranker Market that would take place around here. We were eager to find it since all of us thought that might be our big break into the Ranker world. But we’ve been out here for days and can't find any sign of that Market.”
“Even if you find the Market at your guy’s current power level it is nothing less than finding a pack of wolves, you guys aren’t ready for such an event. I suggest you go back south in that direction, in one day’s travel you’ll hit Martial Citadel where you can rest and heal your wounds. I’ve already gotten what I needed from the bandits. The rest is yours, restock your equipment with theirs, I think I even saw some healing items on them. For now it's time for me to take my leave. It was nice meeting you guys.”
“It was a pleasure meeting you as well mister Guso, my names Royem the weapon master, this here is sword expert Sonb, Ranger Kilop, and Marksman Lassin, if ever we meet again we’ll repay you this huge favor you've done us.”
“Don’t worry too much about it, it was my duty as an honorable ranker, it's not the expert way for the strong to prey on the weak. Hopefully we see each other again next time.
I quickly departed knowing fully well that staying at the scene of the crime was not too safe.
I hoped Royem had such wisdom as well, and that he and his crew didn’t stick around for too long after taking what they needed.