I went back to the stable and sold my horses and carriage before finding a place to sleep for the night. I spent a few hours in the Adventurers Guild today and should rest up before going on foot tomorrow.
It didn’t take long to find an inn and book a room for the night, but it was still pretty early to sleep, so I looked through the maps again and planned my route to Saltashia. I should also find out more about the Grand Duchy and its royal family if I’m going to live there.
I woke up early and packed up what little I had and left Westcliff. It was time to test my speed, so when I was in the clear outside the city, I ran as fast as I could. I was fast, but also mobile, meaning I could easily run almost full speed in a forest without worrying about crashing into a tree or a rock.
My stamina was nothing to joke about either, with my insane stamina and magic pool, plus my Stamina Recovery, I could probably fight or run for weeks. Though I would need to eat and drink.
When I got closer to the bandits' known area, I started looking for signs of humans around the forest. The forest is massive here and as long as they want to hide, it will be hard to find them. If they know they got a bounty in the Adventurers Guild, then they might have gone into hiding.
After several hours of looking around, all I found was animal tracks, no signs of humans. They are after all a small group. I decided to act as prey and switched out my armor with civilian clothes and found a road and started walking towards Torkley.
Yepp, it worked. It took an hour or so of walking, before I was surrounded by 6 young men, all in their twenties.
“Well well well, what do we have here? Are you lost, lady?” One of them asked as they inched closer to me.
“Nope, I’m here from the guild to get rid of you.” I said, I would have played along with them I hadn’t wasn't so much time searching for them.
They got cautious right away and took arms, they seemed to fear adventurers. I switched back to my armor using the inventory, I love that function. Along with The Furnace and shield, I charged the one closest to me with no hesitation and killed him.
It didn’t take long to kill most of them, I kept one of them alive to show me their hideout. I had to make sure these were the only ones in this group. I figured I could turn in the guy, seeing as I already kept him alive.
He showed me their hideout, which was a cave hidden in the forest. It was very hidden and I would probably not have found it myself.
Inside the cave were all their loot from their heists and a makeshift prison of sorts. There were two men in there, they looked like they were on their last breath. Tired and scared.
I secured the bandit to make sure he didn’t escape before walking to the prison.
“Are you okey? Are you hurt?” I ask as I rip open the door. I was genuinely worried, I didn’t see any blood, but they were malnourished and pale.
“Thirsty… and hungry.” One of them let out while looking at me pleadingly.
“Of course, here, drink this.” I offered them my waterskin. I helped them drink and I could see on their faces that it even hurt to swallow for them.
“Thank you! Thank you!” The older one said as tears started filling his eyes.
One of the men was younger, maybe around 18-20 years old and the other was around 40 years old. They were definitely related, probably father and son.
“Let's get you out of here, alright?” I said as I helped the older man up, he had a hard time walking.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Kid, hold him up while I heal his foot.” Yeah, he had a sprained foot. Fortunately it didn’t seem broken. The young guy helped, but both were so malnourished that they barely had enough energy for this.
I healed the foot, and also used Stamina Recovery on both of them, maybe it helps.
Both of them suddenly looked better. They were still malnourished, but didn’t seem tired and exhausted anymore.
“Wha..?” The older man looked at his feet and then at the younger man in confusion.
“I Healed you, and also used a Stamina Recovery spell on you. Let's get you something to eat.” I said to clear up their confusion.
“I’m Rudy by the way, E-rank adventurers. Got a task to clear out the bandits. Figured I’d try to find their hideout after defeating them to make sure I got them all, and well, here we are.” I mention who I am and why I’m here, to clear any suspicion.
“Adventurer?” The young man said, he looked thrilled and happy. I guess the common people have high expectations of adventurers.
“I’m Carl-John, and this is my son, James. You can just call me CJ though, everyone else does.” The old man, CJ said as he looked at me in gratitude.
“Hello CJ and James, pleased to meet you, even under these circumstances.” I greeted them and gave them some field snacks I had made before I even arrived in Stonehold. I was just jerky, but it's something.
We sat inside the cave and talked, while they were eating and drinking. They were a small family of traveling merchants. Though they had a home in a town called Wigham, where they had more family. A younger boy and a daughter.
Seeing as Wigham was south and pretty close to where I had planned my route, I figured I could escort them home if they wanted me to. They had just been through hell and just needed to relax a bit, traveling with me could give them a sense of security they really need right now.
James, the young man had apparently wanted to become an adventurer at some point, but was beaten by a e-rank douche-rookie when he tried to sign up. It made him lose his confidence in being an adventurer. Though he had some skill with the sword, not enough to defeat the bandits though. His father made sure he didn’t even try. CJ thought they had a much bigger chance of survival if they didn’t fight back, if they fought, they would have definitely died.
We have been in the cave for a few hours now and both of them have fallen asleep. I didn’t try to wake them, they needed proper rest. I decided to clear the cave out of all the stolen goods, putting them in my inventory.
They woke up a couple of hours later and it was starting to get late, but we both agreed to start moving towards Torkley right away. I found some rope around the cave that the bandits were using for whatever and used that to tie the hands of the bandit and another around his neck and tied the other end to my arm.
Torkley was the ones who put up the request for this mission, so I figured they would be happy with at least one survivor to punish.
It took a few days before we even got close to a road, and whenever we stopped, I tied the rope on my arm around a tree and went to hunt some small game to eat. I used water magic to refill my waterskin when needed.
Once we reached the road, the way to Torkley went much smoother. Whenever we stopped, I sparred with James and instructed him on this swordplay. I wouldn’t call him a prodigy or genius, but had some talent. He unfortunately didn’t have any talent in magic, that could have helped him.
After a little over two weeks, we arrived in Torkely. We were let in instantly when we told them who we were and why we had a prisoner. One of the guards ran away, probably to let the town lord know of the bandits' demise.
Torkley was a very small town, almost a village. It has a population of almost 6 000 only and they didn’t have an official Adventurers Guild. The guild in this town was located in a town hall. Turkey didn’t have a good adventurer presence, which is most likely the reason why such a small group of weak bandits were able to do so much.
We arrived at the town hall and gave the prisoner to the guards. I could tell he didn’t have good days ahead of him just by seeing the faces of the guards when they found out who he was.
I let the clerk know that I gathered some of the stolen goods I found in the bandits hideout and if there was any one who had lost anything to them, they could find me here tomorrow morning.
With that done, me, CJ and James went to get rooms and then some food and drinks. I of course paid if it all, they didn’t have much on them when the bandits got them, mostly only enough for fees and their products.
We quickly found an inn and booked two rooms, one for them and one for me. We went to a tavern and ordered a feast and lots of drinks.
CJ and James were happily celebrating the fact that they survived. Now we only have the long journey to Wigham, their hometown.
It was late and we were all tired and headed back to the inn for some rest. I had to get up early to prepare for both the next journey and if there were people to claim some of the stolen goods I got from the bandits.