“Looks like a typical bandit, his armor is obviously made in-house by the bandits. Those guys are idiots and savages but have a knack for jury-rigging what they find. Even saw one of them wearing Stone’s edge knight armor with cloth covering the punctures.” Ishmael kneeled next to the corpse, examining the body and checking his pockets.

She took out a few random items, tossing them to the side until she took out a folded piece of paper and a pouch.

“Not much, from the looks of it this bandit’s team must have been a small rookie team. Not rich nor well-armed. Odd how they managed to breach this place.” Ishmael tossed the pouch to Kayd. As it landed in his hands, it began to vanish, the wealth card appeared in front of him with a notification.

12 coins added to your wealth!

Well she was right about them not being rich

Most of the team huddled around the body, they managed to rescue anyone they could in the camp, letting Lia patch them up.

“Regardless of armor and weapons, enough numbers and a smart tactician can turn the tide, even on a position that is this isolated,” Quellin explained, looking back at the destroyed camp wall.

“And not many guards were found here, just a handful. Whoever did this seemed to break down the gate too.” Kayd added. Ishmael stood up and walked towards one of the recovering merchants, clutching her chest with blood near her mouth.

“Do you know anything about who did this to you?” The woman coughed out, thinking for a bit.

“It’s best if they have time to rest-”

“We need information, just heal the others.”

“Yes, ma'am!” Lia returned to patching up the wounded, no longer trying to stop Ishmael or even look at what they were doing.

The woman tried to sit upright, holding her head, “It might have been the nearby bandit group…Those damned guards didn’t even say a peep about them to the kingdom, now this happened.” She spat.

Nearby bandit group, so they just let them camp around their home? No wonder they got attacked.

“Odd, this is considered a nearby settlement of the kingdom and they can’t even protect it?” Ishmael looked confused, she stood up and began asking the rest of the surviving guards and merchants.

—--

“A nearby bandit camp did this, and a whole bunch of complaints about lacking security. Back then security wasn’t a problem for settlements, it was only caravans that needed help. The expansion fell hard here didn’t it?” Ishmael put a hand on her chin, recollecting all she heard and planning on their next move.

Quellin looked frustrated, seeing nothing but setbacks, mistakes, and issues with the settlement and security. Kayd could feel he was silently complaining about all of it.

“I guess first order of business is to find those bandits and kill em. And also to see if you guys can handle it.”

“Humans are not that different from animals right? This should be like the rats.” Ikari remarked with a smirk.

They returned to Pip, finished with aiding the survivors, and now moving to their next task: locating the bandits.

Kayd recalled the memories he had before, of hunting down similar bandits and fugitives from before. He scavenged around his mind of methods he used before, and ways he managed to uproot these targets and kill them.

Through one of them, he gained a vital piece of information.

They always left tracks from the incident. Those idiots sometimes managed to take down Snowblades and soldiers but couldn’t hide their tracks.

He grinned for a moment and chuckled. He looked out at the horizon, focusing on the sand around them, checking for any odd shapes in the sand.

Just neat one of the crumbling walls, Kayd managed to find what he was looking for. Faint footprints marked in the sand, both heading to and away from the camp entrance.

“I think I found where they headed.” Ishmael looked at him curiously. He responded by explaining the footprints, sure that they were the key to finding that first bandit camp.

“A good eye and a sharp mind is what we need especially with these aging ones. I have to say you only surprise me more and more. I wonder if there will be more surprises from you when we keep going.” She grinned.

With Kayd’s guidance, and also the aid of Ikari’s eyes, Ishmael led Pip onward to where the trail was heading. It continued far from the camp until the walls became faint. Kayd wondered how they even managed to travel in this sun.

Kayd felt his tongue dry up and even with the shelter of the cloth and structure, the sun still found its way to hit his skin.

I’m starting to regret not spending more time hunting those desert rangers and skirmishers back at the wastes.

He wiped the sweat from his brow.

Quellin was right about this being full of attrition

—---

Kayd sat down, the sun bore down on him and he was struggling to think or even keep himself stable. His focus dwindled before feeling something brush against his arm.

It was Lia, handing him a small bottle of water from her bag.

“Thank you,” Lia nodded while grabbing another bottle for herself.

“Good job patching up those settlers.”

“I was just doing what I was told, and what Ishmael ordered me to.” She replied. She glanced at her arm, noticing no more black bars on it.

Kayd looked at his wrist, they were both in a similar predicament. But Kayd remembered Lia’s unique card.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Lia, can’t you craft those satiation potion things? Don’t they replenish this?” He asked, Lia turned to him, taking a few moments to remember then suddenly plunge her hands into her bag, hastily grabbing something from it.

A bundle of five red-colored roots and three glowing blue mushrooms.

With a tap on the cards tucked in a small pocket, dozens appeared in front of her, and she immediately grabbed the satiation crafting card.

“How does this work?” She looked at it curiously, while gazing at it and thinking what she can do with it, it slipped form her grasp and onto the pile of shrooms and roots below.

A bright green glow burst forth from the pile until it fully consumed it all. It continued glowing and Kayd realized it was contorting, molding into a new shape. After a few seconds, it took the final shape of a bottle and the glow vanished in an instant.

A bottle was the only thing left, filled with an odd dark blue liquid.

“Is that the potion?” Kayd asked. Lia cautiously picked it up, shaking it and examining the contents.

“It looks like it made so fast. Normally potions take an hour to make a batch or even longer, especially the healing ones. Harming ones though are faster.” Lia stopped herself from rambling any further, turning embarrassed.

“Sorry for talking about unimportant stuff. This looks like the potion.” She slowly put the potion on the ground, taking out her notebook to write on it.

“How many new things did you jot down there?”

“About five new species. This place has interesting flora.”

Kayd held the bottle, studying it and seeing not much irregularities with it other than the color. He had seen potions before and it seemed like a normal looking potion to him.

“Now for the taste test.”

“The what?” Lia gestured to Kayd to hand it to her. And within a moment of holding onto it, she twisted the cork and downed the entire thing without a moment’s hestiation.

“Hey, aren’t you afraid of its effects?! Or the taste?” Lia looked at him, confused.

“Not really, we are taught to eat new things to see if they are poisonous or if other equipment isn’t present. From potions to ingredients, consuming them is a faster method. This one just tastes bitter.”

“So you’re now our taste tester too,” Kayd teased, but Lia was concentrating on noting what she experienced.

Lia looked to her arm, her head recoiled back in shock. The black bars were slowly appearing on her arm again, ten in total.

“Did my healing magic return?” Lia asked herself.

She dumped a pile of shrooms and roots at the center, creating more and more potions until the ingredients were all gone. Once the glow died out, they were left with 4 of these satiation potions.

“No adverse side effects right now apart from the bars returning. Here try some.” Kayd took the bottle from her hand, unsure of its effects, pausing himself in worry of what this potion would do.

Psyching himself up, Kayd held his breath and downed the entire thing in one go.

He didn’t taste much of anything, but after he swallowed, he felt an immediate and extreme bitter taste, wanting him to vomit but he resisted.

It felt like a fight in itself to handle the aftertaste, but he already saw the effects of the potion as bars began appearing once more on his wrist.

Once the final bar returned, the vile taste left. He fell to his knees, gasping for air. Lia held him in place with a napkin ready.

“Just bitter!?”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Lia apologized profusely until Kayd breathed normally again.

“My taste buds must have gotten numb over the years, I’m sorry. I should have been more cautious.”

“It’s fine, at least I can use my ability again.”

Lia stored the remaining bottles in her bag, just in time for Pip to make an abrupt stop.

“Look alive! We found what we were looking for!” What appeared to be a camp stood far from where they were, just close enough to be seen.

“We will travel the rest of the way on foot, they might get spooked by a giant crab.” Ikari and Kayd both groaned, realizing what this meant.

Nevertheless, they jumped down onto the hot sand, feeling the temperature rise in their boots and the beating sun hit open parts of their skin again.

Their walk quickly began, boots sinking into the sand while braving the extreme heat of the sun, all the while heading towards that damned camp.

“Hope you’re just as capable kid,” Ishmael nudged the arm of Mian’s teammate.

“Don’t worry, I can still fight. As long as it isn’t rats.” He replied, holding a short sword.

Along the way, Lia stumbled to the ground, unable to handle the constant walk and having to pull her legs from the sand with each step,

“Lia, get up and keep moving,” Quellin ordered.

“Yes, I’m sorry.” She placed any dropped items back in her bag, and Kayd helped her.

“Thanks,” He can see the fatigue on her face, worn out by the sun and the walk. But they couldn’t stop, they had to keep moving.

“It doesn’t do well to easily get tired in the sands. Passing out anywhere here is guaranteed to kill ya. If the bandits won’t kill you, the sun will.” Ishmael explained.

“Sorry, Ms Ishmael. Won’t happen again.”

—---

They reached an elevated mound of sand overlooking the camp. Peeking their heads they began getting information on the camp before attacking it.

A few tents and a group of bandits wearing a mix of metal and leather armor.

“Scavenged armor, signs of a lesser bandit group.”

Just a lesser bandit group? And they managed to destroy a settlement?

“What’s your experience fighting these lesser bandits?” Kayd asked to which Ishmael chuckled a bit.

“Easy to kill, untrained, just numerous. This one though seems more quality over quantity.” She replied. She drew up a plan of action from what she was looking at.

“Alright, they are rather average in numbers and have good armor, it would be easy if we rush in and kill them all, shock and awe-” She stopped when she turned her head to face everyone. One of them was gone again.

“Lia, get back here!” Quellin raised his voice enough to be heard but still quiet.

Lia studied a nearby cactus, cutting out a portion and sealing it into a jar. Upon hearing Quellin she hastily ran back, laying down with them with an embarrassed expression.

“Might I remind you to keep your exploration to when we are exploring or at a safe area? Not in combat and scouting missions.”Quellin berated with a harsher tone.

“I’m sorry, cacti have healing properties and water so I thought it would help us greatly when the time needs-”

“Quiet,”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

Even with a couple of missions, she struggles to follow basic stuff. At least she still knows how to heal and follow orders.