“Alrighty, sweet loot,” said Rami, rubbing his hands together.

“Loot?” asked Alice.

“Yeah, loot, you know the rewards we get for clearing a dungeon. The room after the boss fight usually has loot. How do you not know what loot is?”

“How do you not know when to shut up?” said Bonetta. “The system that rules over Sfiraz gives out rewards to people that defeat threats in this world. You will get loot from clearing dungeons, defeating high-level threats such as A-grade or above monsters, and the short-lived system quests that you are currently getting.”

Grimmy chimed into the explanation and gave a much longer and more thorough explanation than the one needed while the party made their way to the other room. The team finally reached the door and opened it.

They entered the door and entered a smaller room with three chests in it.

“Loot!” yelled Rami as he rushed towards the chests. He suddenly started slowing down almost to a crawl.

“Hey, do any of you feel sleepy?” said Rami as he fell to his knees.

“What do you mean?” said Alice, snoring. “Actually I do feel a little tired.”

Bonetta dropped to the floor followed by the rest of the party.

image [https://i.imgur.com/7THHRk0.png]

“Wakey, wakey,” said a deep voice.

Alice opened her eyes to find that they were surrounded by four bandits, one of them particularly small with clothes implying he was in charge. His clothes were much more elegant, and higher quality than the others, and had a pirate hat with the word “BOSS” on it.

The rest of the party woke up moments after Alice did, tied with what seemed to be magical rope. The rope was glowing pink and was incredibly tough. They were all still in the same room with the three chests.

“Nice of you to join us. We needed to give our proper thanks for defeating the cyclops and giving us your loot,” said the small boss bandit with the same deep voice.

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“Well, you’re welcome, but we are not giving you our loot,” replied Rami.

“Oh, I wasn’t asking. You see. You are tied with a magical rope. One that cannot be untied unless I say the safe word.”

“Safe word? Dude, I don’t know about Rami, but I can speak for both me and Bonetta, and we are not interested.”

“What do you mean you don’t know about Rami?” asked Rami.

“Well, I don’t know. You’re the first fish person that I meet. I don’t know what your race is into. Maybe you like short fat hairy bandits.”

“I don’t think any race would like that,” chimed in Bonetta.

“ENOUGH!” said the short fat hairy bandit. “Pete, give them the poison.”

“Poison?” asked Alice.

“Yes, you see we do not like to get our hands dirty, so we will simply force feed you each a vial of this poison, and we will let the poison do the work for us.”

The party looked at each other and back at the short fat hairy bandit. “Oh no, please don’t poison us,” said the party in unison in a monotonous tone.

The short fat hairy bandit raised an eyebrow in confusion but paid no further attention.

“Yes, we will poison you, and you will suffer. This poison is particularly nasty you see. This poison will not only slowly kill you, but it will also inflict an incredible amount of pain that will make you wish you were never born.”

“Will you poison us at the same time, or one at a time?” asked Alice.

“What kind of question is that? Is that really what you’re worried about right now?”

“Ummm… I’m just curious?”

“Fine, if you must know, we will poison you all at the same time, and once you are dead, we will be able to open those chests.”

“Oh, before you poison us, do you mind answering a few questions?” asked Alice.

“Oh, trying to delay your inevitable death huh, I guess I will grant you a few questions.”

“Awesome. First question. Are these your headquarters?”

“Yes, we made the room after the loot room our headquarters. We figured we could use the dungeon boss as a shield for whoever wanted to catch us. Then if they managed to defeat the cyclops, they would be too weak and vulnerable to defeat us.”

“Uh, that’s a smart move. You see, Grimmy, they were smart enough to think of it themselves.”

“Who is Grimmy?”

“Second question. Where are the rest of your bandits?”

“They are out and about. I have some guarding the entrance of the dungeon and others are out gathering treasure.”

“I see. Last question. Do any of you have the identify skill?”

“None of us do. Are you done now?”

“Yep. I’m done. You can kill us now.”

The fat short hairy bandit instructed the other three bandits to poison them. A few minutes later, all four bandits were on the ground in excruciating pain screaming for help.

“Good thing the short one believed you when you said you would cure him if he said the safe word,” said Rami.

“I know. I was worried he would be in too much pain to say the word, and I was not looking forward to the trip back to town tied in that magical rope. Also, who uses ‘Asparagus’ as a safe word? Didn’t even know this world had asparagus.”

“Oh yeah, we do. Not that popular though.”

“Grimmy, can you get down here now. No need to hide anymore.”

“I was not hiding. I was waiting for the right moment to help you all,” said Grimmy, floating into the room.

“Sure, you were,” said Rami.

Grimmy gave Rami an annoyed gaze and turned back to Alice. “Anyway, let’s go open those chests.”

Bonetta opened the first chest.

You have received a Rock Anklet Bracelet.

Rock Anklet Bracelet. This bracelet was crafted out of the corpse of a rock elemental. The remnant of the rock elemental lingers in this bracelet boosting the user’s physical defense. Reduces physical damage by 5%.

“Not bad,” said Bonetta.

“Uh, Ankle Bracelet. Sexy,” said Rami with a grin on his face.

“So that’s what you’re into. Never would have guessed,” said Alice.

“Hey, I don’t discriminate, unless you’re that guy,” responded Rami, pointing at the boss bandit.

Rami opened his chest.

You have received Enchanted Hilt.

Enchanted Hilt. This hilt was magically enhanced to increase the damage output of any conjured blade. The conjured blade will automatically be summoned on this hilt whenever equipped. +5% Magical Damage.

“Nice! I’m going to look incredible with this.”

“Sure, you will,” said Grimmy.

“Oh, you’re here? I thought you were still hiding in the other room.”

Grimmy was about to start arguing when Alice grabbed Grimmy and said, “That’s enough, you two. It’s my turn to open the chest.”