An hour after Albert had left with his silver, he came back to Jacob's house.

"Here, 186 silver coins." Albert said and threw a heavy leather bag at Daniel, who caught it. After a look inside, he nodded in agreement.

"I'll take the leather armor, too. Do you know who I have to pay for it?" Daniel asked.

"You can give me the silver. I'll get it to Martha. She was the one who made the armor." Albert offered.

Daniel looked hesitant for a moment, which made Albert laugh.

"Hey don't look at me like that. I know about how you got here. The think I can't talk about. I'm not stupid enough to con someone like you." Albert explained and Daniel accepted the smith's suggestion after a moment.

After the trade, he was alone again. But, Daniel didn't have to wait long before John arrived back at the village with the other travelers. Daniel found out that he had already informed them about Jacob's request. Fedor, Anna and Isabella had decided that they would participate in the manhunt.

While he did not talk to the other villagers, it seemed like Jacob had explained the situation to them. Their hostile glares had decreased by a lot.

"I want to have a look at the murder scene. Maybe, we can gather some useful information about our target." John explained.

"Follow me, you have one hour, then we get going. Otherwise, we won't reach Crossing in time before they close their gates." Jacob responded and gestured the others to follow him.

When they arrived at the burned down house, John started to look around, while Isabella looked like she was barely able to suppress her anger.

"Killing the bastard who did this is way to merciful!" She suggested.

Daniel kept quiet, he didn't really care if the rapist suffered. He decided for himself that he would not be part of torturing someone as a punishment. He wanted to get the manhunt done and leave the matter behind him. But, Anna had a different opinion and jumped in.

"While I can't say that I really understand your feeling about this, making him suffer will only hurt ourselves in the future. I don't want to live with the memories of torturing someone just because I felt like he deserved it. The world is bad enough, no need to make it worse."

Isabella looked at the others for support. Fedor only shrugged.

"I don't really care what happens to the man before he dies. But, torturing people is a messy business. I won't be a part in it. I've seen enough of this shit in the war."

"We won't torture anybody. There is no need. We don't need any information and it would only complicate the mission. Looking at the scene, I think we are lucky that our target took the time to rape the girl." John said and continued before Isabella could say anything.

"I don't mean that the girl was lucky. This was the action of a real animal. But, he risked exposure by raping her. Our target would be far more dangerous if he'd slit his victims throats and left with the plunder. Without the fire, Jacob and the rest of the village would've probably only noticed the next day. I stated that we are lucky because we don't have to hunt a true believer with a mission. We just have to kill a thug or a common bandit you might call it. He took a great risk, just to have some fun. We should probably check the taverns and inns in Crossing. We'll probably finding him there, drinking and spending his loot. I've seen enough. We can go now." He turned around and marched back into the village where Jacob and some other villagers were discussing stuff with Azza and the travelers. The others followed.

Daniel felt a bit out of his dept with the way John and Fedor were handling the situation. For them, it seemed like hunting and killing the rapist was just a mission. Something that had to be completed and be done with. He was trying to handle it the same way, but standing at the crime scene and hearing John talk in such a clinical way about it, made his anger rise. He knew that he should try to keep his emotions out of the whole situation, like Fedor and John were doing. But, that was easier said then done.

He took a deep breath and turned to Anna.

"Are you sure you want to be part in this? We may call it all we want, but on a basic level we are planning a premeditated murder. For John and me, it was a bargain with Jacob. Isabella has her own reasons to be part in it, while for Fedor it looks like it's just a job." Daniel asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. When my father was murdered by that drunk driver, all I could thing about was revenge. While I've never gotten it in our civilized society, here I can do something. In addition I don't want to stay behind when the best fighters of our group are gone." Anna explained in a serious tone.

Daniel was surprised for a moment.

"You really thing the villagers will do something? They aren't at a much higher level than we are and Jacob is coming with us."

"I have no idea. For all we know, there could be a bounty on travelers heads. So, I want to stay with the rest of the you." Anna responded shortly before they arrived back at the village square. Jacob had turned his head in their direction when Anna had mentioned the bounty, but that could've been a coincidence. Anna hadn't been talking very loud and they were still 20 meters away. There shouldn't have been a way for him to understand their conversation while he was standing next to people that were in a loud discussion.

When they explained Jacob that they were ready and who would accompany them, he looked annoyed.

"This is a manhunt and not an excursion. We need to cover more than 30 kilometers in less than two hours." He scrutinized the armor wearing Fedor and Anna and Isabella who were still wearing goblin fur clothes. When nobody reacted, the sighed. "Ok, wait a moment. I get some other clothes for the girls. The plate armor can stay." With that and turned to two village woman.

"Girls?" Isabella asked with an annoyed tone when Jacob left. Daniel chuckled.

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"Well, you have to excuse him. He is over 80 years old and for him we are probably all children."

Isabella looked stunned, but like the rest of the party, she kept quiet. Two minutes later, Jacob came back with two sets of leather clothes.

"That will be five silver, each." Jacob explained.

Knowing that his friends didn't convert their silver yet, Daniel decided to pay for it.

After Anna and Isabella changed their clothes, they said their goodbyes to the rest of the travelers and started to run after Jacob in a southward direction.

Daniel had no problems to hold the pace, but Isabella and Fedor looked strained after a few minutes. When he gave them a questioning look, they just shook their heads and gestured him to continue.

A bit later, Jacob, who was looking like he was taking a relaxing stroll in a park, started to talk.

"You know, the girl was right. It is not widely publicized, but there is a bounty on travelers." He explained.

"What?" Daniel asked surprised. Both by the fact that Jacob had been able to listen to their conversation and by the bounties.

"To explain the situation, I have to explain some stuff to you first. Our kingdom was founded by clearing a massive dungeon. To our east, we are bordering another dungeon that is so deep and strong that nobody is able to destroy it. It is sending wave after wave of creatures to attack the kingdom. More than eighty percent of our army is monitoring that dungeon. Our first king made the law that the strongest person in an area has the right to claim the noble title. The next noble then has to gather information about the claimant and if there is nothing wrong, hand over the title. The king probably wanted to motivate people to get stronger. He probably had the hopes that someday the dungeon to the east could be destroyed and the kingdom expanded." Jacob explained.

"What has that to do with us?" Anna asked.

"Let me finish. The first king was a traveler himself. People like you tend to have a high chance of getting very powerful. I don't know exactly why, but that is how it is. Our own baron is very young and not that strong for a noble. He mostly has his position due to the influence of his father, who is a count and the noble in charge of this region. People who get powerful enough to claim the barony tend to leave the county on their own or they disappear. What do you think would happen if the count finds out that over twenty travelers arrived. With all of them having the potential to threaten the position of his son."

"Shit!" Fedor cursed.

"Wouldn't the king do something about it? It goes against the law that was set up with the founding of the kingdom." Daniel asked.

"The king is far away and young. Well, I mean he is only 200 years old. Compared to the most powerful nobles, that is still young. After the old king, his father died, there was a rebellion because some of the dukes were of the opinion that he was far too weak to rule them. I don't know what happened on that day, but two of the six dukes were killed. You must know that the dukes are strong enough defeat armies by themselves, but someone killed two of them. The rest then agreed for the new king to be crowned."

"So, if the king himself was not following the spirit of the law, the count could expect to have his actions ignored. What about the duke?" Daniel asked.

"Well, we are in the duchy of Ashcroft. Our ruler is very reclusive. The only thing I've heard about him is that he has a very hands off approach and only intervenes if his officials fuck up in a big way. Rumors say that he is a traveler, too and that he was in the party of the first king that cleared to dungeon." Jacob continued.

Daniel looked at his team and when he saw the look on Fedor's and John's face, his heart stopped for a moment. Shit, he thought, they can't be serious. He shook his head in an energetic way when they looked at. In his opinion, trying to silence Jacob wouldn't be very. For one, it wasn't right. In addition, he was not sure they could win. Even if he pulled out both of the guns and emptied their magazines in the man's back. When he saw the two man nodding back, signaling that they would not follow through with their idea, he felt relieved. Daniel's mind went back to the information Jacob had told them.

"Did the king die from old age?" He asked and Jacob only nodded.

"Wouldn't that mean that the duke would be at a higher level than the king if he is still alive?" Daniel continued.

"Who knows. I only heard rumors and the king could've been old when they cleared the dungeon and founded the kingdom." Jacob responded and for the next part of their way, they continued in silence.

Their path led them near the small river with a thick forest on their other side. Daniel was surprised that there were no wagon tracks on the ground. But, then he thought about the system and the inventory. It would be a lot faster to just take 4 tons of stuff into your inventory instead of using a wagon. He kept observing the surroundings, but he didn't see anything that was interesting.

With nothing better to do, he started to activate Advanced Haste to train his magic. When the others saw what he did, they activated some spells themselves. Daniel was a bit surprised when he saw John and Isabella had created a wind magic spell similar to his own Haste themselves. He hadn't known John's elements, but Isabella had always used fire spells only. Even after getting access to a second element at level ten.

An hour later, the stone wall of the village Crossing came into their sight. By now, Fedor was covered in sweat and looked like he was going to collapse any second. Isabella didn't look much better. John and Anna only looked a bit exhausted, while Jacob still looked the same as when they started. Daniel himself was sweating a bit, but his high regeneration had kept up with the stamina use. He was still at 100%.

"Wait, let's talk about our plan before we enter the village." Daniel suggested and the others stopped.

"How many places are in this village where a stranger could spend coin and have fun?" John asked Jacob.

"Only two, both inns." He responded.

"Let me go and check them with Jacob." John pointed at the rest of the group before he continued. "You all made a very striking impression when we first met outside the dungeon. Especially Daniel and Fedor with their little intimidation exercise." He turned to Isabelle and Anna. "If he raped the girl in the village, you can be sure that he fantasized about raping the two of you, too. After all, you both are not exactly average looking. He will be able to recognize all of you right away."

Anna blanched for a moment while Isabelle was only starting to get angry again. Daniel himself had to agree with John and cursed himself for not thinking about that earlier. While his beard had grown a bit longer since he last met their target, his dark hair that was bound in a man bun was very distinctive. He had gotten used to listen to bad jokes from his friends about it. But, a had tested different hairstyles and he kind of liked it. At least, he didn't need to go to a hairdresser that often with the bun.

"You are right. We should have gotten other clothes for Fedor, too." He turned to Jacob. "Is there a barber and a clothes store in the village?"

"Yes, but we would need to hurry. They'll probably close soon." Jacob answered looking in the direction of the sun that was close to setting behind the horizon. Then he turned back to the group and continued.

" Oh, and one more thing. You are humans, probably from the same world where all our ancestors came from. You'll likely see non humans in this village. Please refrain from doing anything stupid."

The rest was stunned and didn't know what to say. They had talked about meeting non humans, but it had always been a more theoretical exercise.

"I hope there are dwarfs like those in the stories. They like to fight and to drink. They are my kind of people" Fedor declared with a childish smile on his face.

"You managed without alcohol before and I don't think your MMA fighting and alcohol were a good combination." Anna observed and Fedor got serious again.

"Of course not. Just because you like something, doesn't mean you do it all the time. I would have gotten my ass kicked if I didn't train hard enough and went out drinking." Fedor explained in a serious tone. Then, the smile appeared back on his face and he continued. "Well, in this world with the system, you might get away with it."

The rest of the group was only shaking their heads and they continued their way to enter Crossing.