“…How long do I have to keep flying over the desert like this?” I asked Nico through the magic conch.
“Until you find the bandits. We’ve been over this already.” She replied.
“But we’ve been flying for two days, and we’ve found nothing already!”
It was midnight, and it would’ve been impossible to see anything for a normal human – Nisos had complained about not being able to see his own hands when we were traveling under similar conditions.
Fortunately, Ati, Jezibel’s owl, and I all have powerful eyes that can see through the dark. It was the same eyes that let us see every grain of sand on the ground that was thousands of meters beneath us.
“The desert is tremendous; what were you expecting? Finding the bandits was never going to be easy or quick. Now stop complaining and keep flying.”
I grumbled and gave Ati the conch back as we continued flying.
We flew over the area of the road that Nico suspected the ambush would have taken place and the areas around it, but we found nothing but sand. With no choice but to expand the search deeper in the desert, we’ve been flying relatively blindly, and the lack of landmarks wasn’t making the search any easier.
Right now, we’re flying over the Qatarri Depression, which was a massive valley below sea level that was covered in salt.
“Isn’t salt pretty expensive? Why isn’t Tamery packing this stuff and selling it for a fortune?” I asked Ati, looking for a distraction.
“This salt is different from the salt we use on food, and it’s inedible. There’d be no point.”
“That’s a shame. Is there anything you can do with the depression at all?”
“Well, not with the salt directly, no. But there were some earth mages who were suggesting a project to connect the depression to the sea, hoping to flood it and create a lake filled with fish and greenery surrounding it.”
“Well, why didn’t they go through with it?” I asked.
“The Pharaoh got people to look into it, and they said that trying to pull off something like that would result in a lake so salty that only monsters could live in it. It wouldn’t create much plant-life on the shores of the new lake, and what little it did would be within reach of the sea monsters lurking within. There are also a few nomadic tribes that live here, and a project like that would displace them and ruin the environment. The final nail in the coffin was that the project was projected to be astronomically expensive, so the Pharaoh shut down the plan.”
“Huh. Well, I wish she went through with it anyway; we’d be looking somewhere besides this infernal salt pl- hmm?”
With the aid of my powerful draconic eyes, I spotted someone moving near a salt pillar roughly twenty kilometers away.
“I see someone. Let’s follow him!” I said excitedly, beginning to speed up.
“Be discreet, Kiara. Make sure to keep your distance and maintain high altitude. We can’t spook them into leading us elsewhere. I know it’s incredibly dark, but we shouldn’t risk it.” Ati said, and I reluctantly slowed down to comply.
***
We followed the bandit for a while, and he eventually entered a cave, forcing us to land nearby to follow him. I transformed from my bipedal dragon form into an [Archon of Harmony], which was Nisos’s race. I didn’t look outwardly different from regular humans, but the ability to coordinate silently was going to be incredibly useful here. I immediately put it to good use.
“Can you hear me?” I asked.
“…Yes, I can. Being able to just switch races like that is obscenely unfair.”
I giggled silently and followed Ati inside the cave.
Jezibel’s owl sat on my left shoulder as we went down the cave and weaved through its tunnels, eventually leading us to an open space with plenty of goods and people all over the place. We then quickly tiptoed behind a nearby pillar before anyone inside could see us.
“Stay hidden and look for anyone who might pose a threat while I locate the members of the caravan. Alright?” Ati asked through the connection, and I nodded.
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He then slipped away as I started taking in the bandits.
[Human Lv. 1 – Bandit Lv. 6]
[Human Lv. 2 – Bandit Lv. 4]
[Human Lv. 1 – Bandit Lv. 7]
[Human Lv. 1 – Bandit Marauder Lv. 4]
[Human Lv. 1 – Bandit Scout Lv. 5]
As I appraised the bandits, I saw nothing particularly special or threatening. I was confused as to how rabble like this managed to take down the twenty guards of the caravan, much less a gold ranked adventurer party. I counted about a dozen or so of the bandits, but that was about it.
I reported it to Ati, and he responded promptly.
“That’s strange. I haven’t seen anyone threatening myself. Stay hidden until I find out more.”
Having appraised all the bandits in sight, I took a look at their ill-gotten gains for a while. I hoped to get a hint at the bandits’ scale of operations and success. It was mostly the odd trinket here and there, and a few caged livestock. The most exotic caged creature was a rank E [Desert Wolf]. I was starting to get bored until Ati connected to me hurriedly.
“Kiara, I don’t have time to explain, but I need you to create a distraction. Attack the bandits but keep blocking the entrance. We can’t let anyone escape. Expect dangerous reinforcements from deeper inside, but nothing you can’t handle. Also, don’t try to capture them. Kill them all.”
I was confused, but the urgency in Ati’s tone forced me to just trust him and carry on with it. I jumped out of my hiding spot to the cave’s entrance and fired a bunch of mana blades at the surprised bandits as I yelled out a line I’d spent more time than I cared to admit thinking of.
“Come at me, you plundering, murdering, thieving, rat bastards! I am your ending!”
Some of the bandits were cut down as others hid behind cover, with the remaining mana blades crashing into the crates and the cave walls. Some of the bandits rushed at me with weapons drawn as others nocked arrows or threw javelins at me. The fighting caused an infernal racket that echoed down the halls of the cave as I viciously grinned and stared down the rapidly approaching bandits.
***
Ten minutes and nearly a hundred dead bandits later, I sat down at the cave’s entrance waiting for the threatening enemies Ati had warned me about. Ati wasn’t responding to communications, but I could tell he was alright, so I just let him be. A few distant footsteps began to echo, and I stood up to kill whatever bandits tried to make a run for it again. Unlike the previous times, however, these footsteps were rather leisurely.
“Well, well, well. Look what we have here. It seems like a lost lamb stumbled into my humble abode. Let’s get to know each other better inside over a cup of tea! I insist...” A pale man said with a rather raspy voice.
“The girl single-handedly killed all of the bandits. It’s too dangerous to toy with her. We need to silence her as quickly as possible.” The woman next to him said, shrouded in black leather armor that covered her entire body. Even her eyes were hidden beneath ethereal black wisps.
“Now wait just a minute, you damned buzzkill. I’ve been bored to tears in this stinkin’ dirthole of a camp. Go look for your spine while I have a go at her for a bit before we kill her – breaking the feisty ones is always a treat! Hehehehehehe!” a third man on the other side of the pale man said, giggling maliciously at me as he licked his lips.
[Shadow Spawn Lv. 12 – Dark Acolyte Lv. 56]
[Lesser Vampire Lv. 14 – Novice Necromancer Lv. 76]
[Man-Eater Human Lv. 15 – Serial Killer Lv. 63]
I immediately went up to my feet, alarmed at the newcomers. What I saw as I skimmed through their race and class descriptions was deeply disturbing. Three forbidden rarity, rank D creatures, all with forbidden rarity classes as well. I should stall for time to call Ati, appraise them, and prepare an escape plan.
I tried to appear as nonchalant as I could as I addressed the three in front of me.
“I heard the Assassin’s Guild is recruiting somewhere in the depression, so I found my way here. Are you lot the recruiters or something?”
The three of them stopped walking towards me for a moment.
“Huh? Which moron told you that?” the creep on the right asked.
“A few other poor bastards who were also looking to join the guild told me. They tried to kill me in hopes of impressing the guild, but I turned the tables on them and took their lives instead.”
The lunatic blinked twice then started laughing like a madman. The shadow spawn then addressed me.
“What have you done with their corpses? Surely you have a sample of their bodies – killings need to be properly offered to our Lord through the ritual.”
“…Erm, yeah. I had left it at home so that I could conduct the ritual when I get back.”
“You dare to conduct the dark sacrifice yourse-?!” the vampire screamed in outrage before he was interrupted by the shadow spawn, who raised her hand to his chest.
She then turned to me.
“Just a question to verify that you are who you say you are; one that any who wish to join our guild would know. What is the name of our Lord?”
“Pfft. Seriously?! You’re asking a question that bas-”
“Answer the question.” She demanded in a curt tone.
The atmosphere chilled rapidly as the necromancer and the madman put their hands on their weapons; a frown, and a maniacal grin visible on their faces respectively. The tension was so thick that you could almost taste it.
I looked the shadow spawn in the eyes, or whatever the abyss her equivalent was.
“The patron god of the Assassin’s Guild is the Evil God of Vengeance, Ozraag.”