“Find you? Hmm....” Eden sat there pondering on that question for a few moments. This was a crucial thing for Peter and the others to know. He couldn't really say that it was on a whim since it wasn't but the truth was often more deadly than lies.

“Well...”

Eden said the answer he thought up. He had to recount some experiences he had and regrets in the past as well to answer this properly.

“I don't to leave anyone behind anymore” he said with a sad smile, “And I no longer want to be alone.”

A couple of memories include killing someone he trusted and that person trusted him in the end. Another were with some instances of Eden leaving on a solo journey away from Alexandra and Viv without telling them and often being found later critically wounded.

“....”

The group was silent to his answer. They really and actually expected him to say that he did it on a whim since most of his other answers to things they asked in the past was also on a whim. It was to an extent that they felt like they were only toys to his game.

How much Eden knew and what he experienced was unknown. But this answer...told only a small fraction of it. But it was something that gained at least some small trust in the group.

“Anything else?” Eden asked wanting to get this tension in the mood out of the air as fast as possible.

“What is the purpose of this guild or rather the purpose of the Independent Guild System?” asked Hina.

“....”

Eden sat there silent which made everyone else worry about him getting angry over this and then kicking them out. There was a possibility for that after all.

But his answer was, “I can't tell you that” in the end.

“Why?” questioned Hina with a suspicious gaze on Eden. It was clear while she respected him as a stronger player in the game, she did not fully trust him...in fact none of the group trusted anyone at face value anymore including each other.

Only time and experience can allow them to trust others. Eden was holding too many secrets and this was something that the group didn't like that much.

“Honestly....” Eden let out a chuckle, “You ask the most important questions at the wrong time Miriel...no Hina. Do you really want to know why I spend over 50 years working on this?”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Back in the game...a few more days passed marking the first week of the second month passed on the trip that the group plus Viv was having.

[Master]

Luna was once again alerted to enemies.

“Bandits again?”

[Yes, there are more of them this time. Around 20 now]

Since a few days ago, bandits were attacking them frequently on the road. The number of attacks in these few days surpassed 15 now. It was something quite rare for a place outside a dungeon in this game as well.

As always, since they were used to these attacks, Sain got the group together and they attacked the bandits and wiped them out with a battle that only lasted for a few minutes at most. The sheer destructive power of the group trained was too much for bandits that were used to weaker prey.

And so passed another day.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Daaaaaaaaaamn! We are fighting more and more each day” complained Lyndis who was lying on her back to the ground. It was currently night and the group were resting since they stopped moving at night to give the bull some rest.

“But that just means we get more experience from them” said Miriel, “We managed to level up twice thanks to these attacks.”

Shadow agreed and said, “At least it becomes less boring with enemies around.”

“Boring or not, fighting all the time really stress you out” retort Lyndis to Shadow's comment.

“But at the same time it really helps you relieve some stress as well” replied Shadow.

Looking around worried, Serena said, “P-please don't get hurt too much...my healing spells...aren't good enough yet.”

Hearing this side of Serena as always, Lyndis moved behind Serena and lightly rubbed her head while saying, “If it weren't for you. All of us wouldn't be able to go on” in a kind voice like a person comforting a small child...

Well Serena was actually a child here, 13 years old to be precise. Raven was next youngest at 15 but then there was Miriel and Lyndis at 16 and finally himself and Shadow at 17 years old.

To Serena, it was most likely that everyone else was an adult while she still remained as a child.

“Healing aside” said Sain, “I'm more worried about the stamina drain fighting too much along with the training you three are doing” looking at Raven, Shadow and Lyndis, “While Serena has a spell to increase stamina...it isn't that powerful and can only delay the inevitable.”

“Why are you talking about such depressing things Sain?” asked Lyndis with a pouting face. She wanted to enjoy relaxing a bit longer before this discussing.

Sain glanced at her and replied, “Because I have to make sure none of you die for whatsoever reason. The last town here was a week ago...and the western continent is really spread out compared to other places.”

Normally there was at least a town of some size within a couple of days of travel. With the years and increase in players...this was reduced to towns being a day travel next to each other and even once isolated areas having a large number of small towns and villages here and there.

“If any of us die then we will be alone from the others since Viv has no intentions of stopping to pick you up. Make sure you don't die” Sain clearly reminded everyone of this point.

“We just need to not die right? That's simple enough” said Miriel coolly.

Shadow sneered, “That's easier said then done. Though it seems easy with you hiding at the back all the time.”

“What?” A vein was popping from Miriel's forehead. She even said, “I rather liked you better when you had your mouth shut. No...when your personality was so much better.”

“This is the real me. If you have trouble with it, deal with it else leave” replied Shadow rudely back as well.

“If you leave then there will be trouble on who can be the bait.”

“I thought that was Raven's job.”

“No, his job is to be a meat shield. There is a difference.”

“Both of you, shut it please...” plead Sain wanting this bickering to stop. He realised long ago since Shadow changed...that these two had conflicting personalities with Miriel liking to command others while Shadow not liking to follow those commands.

Meanwhile he had to deal with both of them and that stressed him quite a bit.

[Master]

“More bandits?” sighed Sain hearing Luna.

[No, are you okay?]

“Okay?” wondered Sain, he checked his body at various places and replied, “Perfectly fine. My body is at top shape.”

[Master, I was referring to your mental state. I worry that you will turn back into 'that' again and force everyone was a trip that involves wiping anything in your way out. There is a limit on the burdens you can and must endure master]

“My mind is fine thank you.”

After a few more words with Luna on how he was fine, Miriel said to Sain, “You know it really makes you seem crazy when you talk to Luna right?”

“How so?” Sain was confused on this point. Well not really since others cannot hear with Luna has to say, some of his words may come as out of context. It shouldn't be that bad according to his mind.

“It sounds like you are an insane mad man that is getting to familiar with a wolf” answered Miriel with the others nodding in agreement.

“....”

[Master?]

“....”

Sain could only think of whether he sounded like that. Anyway, Sain decided to not talk to Luna in front of other people that much from this day on in order to not look like that. The inside of someone was the most important thing but you also need to consider the outside as well and whether it makes the inside questionable.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Back on the road, the group was doing their training. As usual Shadow, Lyndis and Raven were the ones that were off the carriage to do their own thing while Sain, Miriel and Serena were on the carriage with Viv supervising their magic training.

They had made lots of progress with them understanding one thing.

Viv was a monster on knowing these kinds of things and according to his story, an even larger monster since during his early days...when he was their current level which was in the 90s, all of his skill levels were in the advance level and had spells that were superior to the ones they used as well.

This made Sain in particular to question how strong Eden and Alexandra back then as well since Viv mentioned they were power monsters from the very beginning. The bandits that they were dealing with would've been wiped out by them in a matter of seconds while the group took minutes to do the same.

Sain could only sigh again and again of the clear difference in ability they had compared to them now.

“You are you and I am me” said Viv shortly after Sain got a little to depressed.

“Huh?”

“There are differences in people. These differences define people. There are thing you can do that we couldn't” said Viv.

“Such as?”

“Fighting with other people. We were....are too strong without restraint. There is no need for us to fight with other people to begin with since we are too abnormal in strength. You are still in the limits and others can fight with you.”

Viv had a solemn look on his face although it looked quite sad.

“Is that from your experience?” Sain had to ask.

“That is what Eden said to Gen when he asked why he wasn't as strong as Eden even with all the training he did to get stronger” replied Viv.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Lyndis was slowly mastering using the stances while moving quickly. It did however help greatly that she could now take this practice into real fights to further improve herself as well. The timing was still...off by a bit but she could now rapidly slay foes with her sword.

This was a huge change from before when she could only face one or two opponents at once. Now she was zipping around the place and attacking more than 5 opponents at once.

Likewise with her fire skills, Lyndis realised quickly that it was indeed making it so that stayed back further than she would've and actually hindered her in close combat. Because of this, her original rush in style which depending on her speed of attacks, was downgraded to a swordsman that could use and often used fire attacks from afar.

“There's still a half second delay between the change...” muttered Lyndis.

She might have managed to halve the time to set up a stance and even more so doing that while moving, it was still too 'slow' in high speed combat. Other than that, Lyndis needed to aim at places in which there wasn't any armour since her sword isn't sharp enough nor is her swings.

She had heard from Ron before that a master swordsman could cut even using a rusted sword using extreme precision and speed.

Lyndis was aiming for such a point but there was little she could do with this body not being simply able to. As such, she needed to train her skills as much as possible. Her 'Sword Mastery' was at Beginner Level 9 and was reaching Beginner Level 10 where it would change to the Intermediate Levels.

According to what everyone had been saying, there would be two things that would happen if she reached that point. The first would be an extra 50% bonus to attack which was something equal to 5 level ups of the skill and the second would be that all sword skills would only cost half as much.

The second reason more than the first was the thing that Lyndis really wanted. While her skill cost little mana, a drawn out battle would drain her of all mana especially if she used those fire skills though she could not right now.

She only had just over 1200 mana and this while was higher than what Raven and Shadow had, was still not much if you consider her spamming skills all over the place in order to deal the most DPS as much as possible.

As such, Lyndis would rather not improve her active skills but rather her passive skills which was still her main goal here.

“Should...I try to learn another skill here?” wondered Lyndis seeing that both Raven and Shadow had skills to improve their speed that she needed one as well.

Thinking back on how she got most of her skills...even though they were all fire skills; the game would reward a player if they acted on something enough time. Surely a skill could appear with the training that Lyndis was doing, it was just that this game was extremely slow on these things to make sure random actions won't generate powerful skills and become an exploit.

With this in mind, she continued her training.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Soon after, Sain called everyone again since there were more bandits nearby. It was the first time though probably the first of many battles they would have for a while.

“So....in order to make sure that all of our training does not get completely disturbed by the recent and constant bandit issue we are having, I decided to split ourselves into groups and rotate members when bandits appear” said Sain.

“Rather than just have two teams of threes...it's better to have a team of 4 and rotate one or two members in and out at a time. The first group will be me, Lyndis, Raven and Serena. The next group, Miriel and Shadow will be added in and Lyndis and Serena will be taken out.”

Miriel stayed on the carriage continuing to practise since this had nothing to do with her now while Shadow wondered off somewhere.

Meanwhile, Sain and the three that he had selected prepared to fight the bandits further up the road. Sain was worried a bit that Miriel in particular would be attacked by the bandits that slip by but Viv assured him that he would take care of any that appear.

As such, the four went ahead with only the worries of bandits which they had to face.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Luna, how many bandits are there?” Sain asked the wolf by his side. Due to Luna being here, there were actually five members going out this time which was a massive advantage here.

[Only 8 this time master]

Luna replied after sniffing them out. If Luna wasn't here, then they would've had to many times face bandits without knowing their numbers and this was the most dangerous thing. One of them may use a surprise attack after we let our guard down to kill on of them in the confusion.

After Sain nodded to Luna's respond which no one else here besides him could here, Lyndis had to ask, “How many are there?”

“Luna said eight” replied Sain.

“Not that many thankfully. I would rather not face 20 or so with these numbers” said Lyndis jokingly.

“F-Facing so...many of them would be difficult” said Serena although she did not mention whether or not they would lose against such numbers.

Among those who improved greatly, Serena was the one with one of the higher growth in her spells. While the number of spells she had did not increase, her skill in using them did. All three healing spells she had improved with her 'Minor Health Regeneration' nearing the Beginner Level 10 point now.

According to what Serena said which was recounting with her master Mel said, when that skill moved to the intermediate level, Serena would learn the upgraded version of the spell which was 'Moderate Health Regeneration' which while costing more mana, was far more powerful.

To that logic, there was a good chance that Sain could obtain 'Moderate Heal' as well when 'Minor Heal' went to the intermediate level which would be great since his 'Minor Heal' only did 155 healing even though it was at Beginner Level 8. Meanwhile Serena's 'Minor Health Regeneration' healed a total of 220 health when it was one level high, Beginner Level 9 and would improve to 500 health total when it reached Intermediate Level.

In this way, there was literally no way Sain could catch up to her healing abilities but thankfully his role also included other parts which the others did a better job at as well. Miriel's attack and support magic were better, Raven and Lyndis were better at close combat and Shadow's speed and burst damage as higher.

But Sain did not give up yet.

A Shaman was a jacks of all trades and a good jacks of all trade was extremely powerful.

[Master they are closing in. Trying to sneak around and attack us from behind]

When Luna warned Sain of this, he was tempted to call out on them and have a straight out battle. But that sometimes was not the wisest idea you could have.

However he decided that using his buffs often was the best idea at the beginning in order to increase the team's overall strength. If Sain combined this with Miriel's own spell, the two spell can amplify each other.

“Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!”

Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell 'Swift Legs'

Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell 'Swift Legs'

Party Member: Sain has been buffed with the spell 'Swift Legs'

Sain casted this spell three times, on himself, Raven and Lyndis. He did not believe that, some bandits would be able to take them all out immediately...but just in case.

“Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!”

He casted that spell onto Serena. For a magic user with weak defences, she would see the effects of this spell the most. Compared to Lyndis or Raven who had relatively higher defence, this spell did not much but for Serena with low defence, it could double or triple her defence in the end.

Party Member: Serena has been buffed with the spell 'Iron Skin'

“Heartbeat Healing!” chanted Serena as well noticing that Sain noticed something.

Party in range has been buffed with the spell 'Heartbeat Healing'

Health will regenerate for 15 points every second for 10 minutes

Perhaps noticing that Sain and Serena was casting spells on his team-mates or perhaps just got tired of waiting, the bandits all rush out at once behind them. But Sain and moreover Luna knew this.

“Take one down!” ordered Sain to Luna.

[Understood!]

With a small roar, Luna leaped onto one of the bandits charging at them and toppled him in one shot. The other bandits were shocked but did not stop to help the life of their comrade.

“Mana Bolts!” chanted Sain firing a large number of mana bolts at the bandits causing them to further spread out to avoid the magic attacks.

“Root Bind!” chanted Serena as well causing several tens small vines to appear on the ground hurrying to the bandits from her. Unlike before where she had to focus on creating the vines at the location of the enemy, Serena through Viv found that this method was easier and safer as well since she could redirect the vines to protect her just in case.

But this came at a cost.

“Chop down the vines!” shouted one of the bandits.

Yes, using this method meant the surprise part of using the spell was gone. However it also served as a good distraction at least. By the time that bandit shouted those words, Lyndis and Raven who didn't say anything nor was ordered by Sain charged at the bandits heroically.

“Speed Strike!” shouted Lyndis moving quickly enough to hit the bandit she charged at three times before he died and moved onto the next one.

“Anchor Howl!” shouted Raven in a rare expression of emotion.

Suddenly all of the bandits could not help but to look at Raven with sweat on their faces and bodies as if they were to die if they did not. Sain took this chance to snipe some of the bandits while Lyndis and Luna took down some of the other ones as well.

In the end, Raven battled two bandits and managed to kill them by impaling the spikes on his shield into them. At this rate, Raven would be fine with just a shield...

Speaking of Raven, he generated a new skill while training on various things. It was a powerful taunt skill and had such a description below.

Anchor Howl Beginner Level 1

Let out a scream of intense fighting spirit causing enemies to look and watch you cautiously. The extent of this skill is based on the level difference, fighting spirit difference and skill level between you and your enemies.

Range: 15 Metres

Mana Cost: 100

In Sain's opinion and really anyone, this skill was perfect for a tank with high health and defence to take damage. It forced enemies to target Raven instead of anyone else. The only limits is it's range which would not work well with far away enemies like mages or archers.

Furthermore this skill is not that great against stronger foes. There needs to some tests to see it's effectiveness against a range of enemies. While this skill could work on minions, boss monsters were probably immune to it or had high resistance to these kinds of skills.

Plus there was a chance that the enemy would just use an AOE move to attack them all at once.

Looting the bandits of what they dropped which wasn't a lot, Sain said, “Let's return” to the others.

He was quite pleased that working with 3 other people was actually easier than working with 5 people at once. There was less hassle on what role they would take and Sain did not need to pay attention to them that much and more to the enemies instead.

Perhaps....things would be actually better with less people.

'No no....better not think that. Numbers are still the greatest advantage that a group can have. It give so many other options and safety rails as well' thought Sain quickly returning with the others to continue their journey.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Another week passed with the same thing still happening. A total of 1 month and 2 weeks passed now, a substantial amount of time for the group as they neared the one year mark bit by bit. By the time they would finish this trip, a total of one year and three months would pass in game when they started.

But they were still at the 10 month mark and half of them surpassed the level 90 point. Both Raven and Lyndis were at the level 86 point due to gaining the least amount of experience earlier on while later on gaining the same amount of experience as the others.

In contrast, Serena was at level 89 since she was in most of the fights and Shadow at just level 90 due to the same reason. On the other hand, Sain was at a large level 92 while Miriel was at level 94. The main reasons here include when they didn't die in the 'Eternal Dungeon' some month and a bit ago while being the only two ranged magic attackers which can usually kill bandits quickly in a few shots.

Because of this, they gained more experience than the others where Lyndis had her fire skills sealed and Raven still with no spear.

It was simply due to a lack of pure firepower that caused them to fall behind in levels. But that didn't mean they didn't get stronger. Lyndis was slowly being swifter in her strikes while Raven was luring in enemies faster and faster as a distraction.

Along with this came that these two had the greatest stat gain of the group constantly improving their strength, agility and stamina all at the same time that this gain equalled to the levels that they would have gained either way.

If you combine this with the fact that Miriel's ice magic was getting stronger rapidly and Sain and Luna helping out with Serena binding enemies and Shadow attacking critical points, the group could probably fast enemies about 30 levels above them just fine.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Hmm? You want to ask about levels?” said Viv in responses to Lyndis saying something about her level being much lower than everyone's else.

“Yep yep” said Lyndis on her knees and nodding her head at Viv while the others were taking care of bandits again or collecting firewood. This was something that Lyndis wanted to discuss but never gotten the chance to.

“Levels are only one part of this game even though they tell you the rough skill of the other side” replied Viv.

“Yeah but at this rate I might be weaker than everyone else!”

“That has nothing to do with me.”

“But you're one of my guildmasters! You have to help your juniors on this!” plead Lyndis with hands clapped together. Seeing this act, Viv sighed and decided to help her a tiny bit.

“So you're worried about falling behind with levels and then fighting abilities later?”

“Yes!”

“The you have nothing to worry about at all.”

“Huuuuh?” Lyndis had an exaggerated expression on her face showing her disappointment in Viv. Viv decided that this person was slightly like Al and had to treat her as such.

“You know that levels represent the experience a being has right?”

“Of course! That is a basic knowledge everyone know!” she replied happily.

“Then how does levels work?” asked Viv.

“....”

Lyndis paused for a second and then asked, “What does that mean?” in a shy manner.

“How does the level that represent you and the level that represent a monster work? How does level tell you how powerful you are?”

“Ahh....the level tells you how strong they are compared to others....?”

“Then are you weaker than say Serena who is level 89 while you are level 86?” asked Viv.

“Of course not! Serena is-”

“Someone I can defeat right? If that's the case than you have nothing to worry about. Everyone has their own strengths. There is nothing wrong with being weaker than someone else. Being troubled by it will only cause you to fall when you need to stand.”

“I understand” replied Lyndis. What she got from this was that she had to deal with it. But she wasn't completely finished on her questions yet.

“By the way, I heard about it a lot but how can some people defeat monsters that are much higher level than them? I mean, I read posts where there are some players in their early levels defeating foes even a hundred levels above them when they should be so slow and weak that they shouldn't be able to.”

“That is an interesting question” said Viv thinking about it.

“Levels represent the experience that a person has right? Then do all players have the same experience starting off?”

“No...?”

“Then it can be that there are players should have higher levels starting off than others right?”

“But that's impossible since you can't measure a player when they start off.”

“However when they start to fight, the game can. Defeating higher level monsters means that your skill level in the game as in actual skills not game skill is higher than what your level is. By doing this your level adjust up to your skill level.”

“Shouldn't it be the other way around?” asked Lyndis. Most players skill power levelled via others to a high enough level if they have the cash to do so.

“Ah yes, those types of people. They are those who exploit the levelling system to quickly gain 'strength'. To me, there are four types of players in this game.

The first is the type of person that uses their level for strength, the type that want to get stronger without much work done. The second are the lone wolf type where they are strong alone but struggle with other people. They are strong on their own but are questionable working with others. The third are those who grow with numbers. The centre of attention I say, with charisma to lead others into battle. The final type of person are monster in their own rights. Namely people who cannot be categorised the same as other people. Level, stats and skills cannot define them at all.”

Viv continued.

“This game rewards hard work. That is something that is said over and over again and yet so many people want to take the short path and fall short in the end.”

“Then...me and everyone else falls under the third type right?” asked Lyndis with a frown.

“Yes but that is still a good thing. If you're in that type then you can become strong as well” Viv let out a sad laugh, “Those in the second  type and also perhaps in the third type as well are quite rare and often are geniuses in their own ways or work hard enough that the game needs to catch up. I believed Weed in an interview said that he always fought against strong foes no matter what.”

“Then...he fought against monsters that were much higher level then he was?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Yep, because he was strong enough. Those who can fight within a 10 level gap to their enemies are considered above average in strength, those who can do the same within a 20 level gap are quite strong, a 50 level gap means they are an expert in the game and sit near the top of all other players, a 100 level gap means they are part of the top tiny percentage of all players known as masters that are more than often part of the top rankers. More than 200 levels in the gap means they are a monster you cannot mess with. Al and even Eden referred to such people as 'The abnormal bunch that break the game'.”

“....”

Lyndis thought about it. The group could probably handle foes that were 30 levels above them so that meant they were quite strong in the game? However they would still be owned by a level 200 foe instantly.

“Were you, Alexandra and Eden part of the abnormal bunch?” asked Lyndis after thinking about it.

“More or less. It actually gets easier later on when you have all the skills you need” replied Viv before they were interrupted with the rest of the group returning from their fight.

In particular, Miriel looked at Lyndis who was in the ground on her knees and then Viv and asked, “Did you do something bad again?” with a smirk on her face.

“Heeeeey! That's rude you know!” shouted Lyndis back.

And so started another argument.

“Oh god, they're shouting at each other again...” muttered Shadow disappearing to get away from the noise.

Serena looked around not knowing what to do while Sain sighed and sat down with Raven who had nothing to do but observe what was happening.

Inside Viv's mind, he thought to himself, 'Those two have the same relationship as Eden and Al in the past....yes before Eden changed that day....well they won't end like them either way.'

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Another week passed in game and the group was now completely stressed due to the bandits.

“What the hell is with them?! I swear we have killed hundreds of them by now and yet they still come!” screamed Miriel in rage which was a surprise. It looked like the constant alert of bandits was taking a large toll on her.

Sain could see that Lyndis shifted a few centimetres away from her. However she did not say anything that countered Miriel in fear of what could happen.

“Calm down Miriel, this isn't like you” said Sain seeing that the others did not want to take this role, “I was expecting Lyndis to be the one to shout like this first.”

“Hey!”

Lyndis made a displeasured face to Sain.

“I'm sorry but I can endure fighting for three weeks or even three months straight but to be alert all the time not knowing anything is worse” said Miriel sighing and supporting her head on her hands looking tired.

“....”

Neither Sain nor the others countered her words again. This time they knew it was to be true since all of them were more or less tired of bandits now. While gaining experience and further improving their skills against human type enemies was good, it came to the point that they were sick of it.

“Anyway I talked to Viv about this before and he said there was going to be a rather large town we're stopping at in a week's time. At most we have to deal with the bandits for another week” said Sain hoping this could encourage everyone a bit.

“Urg...another week of this?” said Shadow in a downed tone. Out of everyone, Sain knew he was the most stressed out ever since he got a certain skill.

Raven even muttered, “Too much stress in fighting” at the notion of fighting this way for another week.

“We just have to deal with it...or find out why these bandits keep on attacking us” said Sain.

“That might but even worse than fighting some small time bandits in the short term but....a week without attacks is something I would really want right now” said Miriel.

“But...how are we going to find them?” asked Serena which was the most important question.

“No idea, but we really want this to stop right?” said Sain looking around.

“....”

For some reason Lyndis didn't speak up yet and was also doing something with her hands...

“Lyndis?” asked Sain directing everyone's eyes to her. She looked around a bit but kept quiet despite this.

“You have anything to say?” asked Sain with a smile not wanting this awkward feeling to continue to exist.

“Actually....well....” she muttered not knowing what to speak. She looked quite afraid of saying something. But Shadow cut into her words without any kindness and said, “She is a battle freak and likes the feel to fighting.”

“Hey!” she shouted at Shadow with even more displeasure in her face. Then she realised that everyone else was staring at her and then became smaller.

“Oh that's all?” asked Miriel who recovered from her stressed out state. She was clearly uninterested in feelings that Lyndis had.

“That's all....?” Lyndis muttered quietly, “Don't you have anything to say like how unladylike I am or how I should stop showing off?” he looked as if she was expecting this to happen.

“Rather than you being this way a bad thing, it's actually a good thing since we will be fighting together for a long time” said Sain, “Besides, if your abilities actually decreased due to trying to so something like ladylike....” Sain had a cold expression on his face as he thought about it. He would never let someone to be useless like that! However at the same time this brought him some pain as he was weaker than the others in all areas.

Shadow added in, “Yep, it's much better since I have less things to stress about like being mobbed if you can kill monsters more quickly.”

“I..have to heal you less if you fight better!” said Serena in support as well.

Although Raven said nothing this time, it seemed that he didn't mind Lyndis the way she was.

“You guys....” muttered Lyndis almost tearing. This was the first time people actually supported her the way she was...others in the past always wanted her to be this or that that she couldn't be in the end in matter how much she tried.

[Master....]

“Sain...” said Shadow as well with an irritated voice at the same time.

“How many?” asked Sain with a sigh. It was once again late at night and it was at this time that bandits liked to attack them the most no matter the numbers they slain so far.

“A group of thirty this time...like the first time” said Shadow with a grim voice before Luna could say anything. While they grew stronger...numbers wasn't something you can deal with easily.

“Looks like all of us has to fight this time....” muttered Sain. He hoped that some of them could at least get some sleep tonight. Sleep was an important thing and would only drag you down later on if you don't.

“How much time do we have?” asked Sain to either Luna or Shadow.

[Around 5 minutes at most at this rate]

“5 Minutes...that's should be enough for at least a trap. They know we are here right?” asked Sain to Shadow this time.

Shadow shook his head and said, “They're making lots of noises but I can't hear their conversation unless I'm near. They probably do since they are heading straight to us in a line not even bee-lining away.”

“If that's the case....”

Sain talked about the plant that he just thought of. Comments such as 'this is cruel' and 'you are evil' were spouted thanks to this though but Sain didn't care. He wanted to 'test' out something for fun for a bit.

Unknown to them all, a faint constant glow was hidden by the glove that Sain wore.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

The group of exactly 30 bandits, the same number in which they faced the first time crept to where the camp was easily. There was one reason for this, that was the only light source in a very large area so it was near impossible to not notice.

Among these bandits was an actual bandit leader. (Note: Never be a bandit leader in my story...all of them get killed >_>)

This person was a large man that by some chance happened to not only be 2 metres tall but also quite thin and held a short sword and an axe around the same size as each other in each hand. His toned muscle and frightening stare was not something you could ignore easily.

Next to him were his best 10 men plus another 19 quite powerful bandits in their own rights. These men were former soldiers or otherwise powerful men that went through many battles and lived though many of them lived via running away in the first place.

None of them were archers or mages though. If they were, they would still in their army and not as bandits. As the fate of the lowly soldier was almost always death else the skilled ones, these bandits were those who did not want to die and faked their deaths in wars.

In total, this bandit group numbered a few hundred in total and hid on this particular road where there was enough hunt and kind travellers to feed them all. It was a quiet and peaceful life but the Kingdom won't ever let them go as deserters. Because of this they started to hunt down people in order to keep them out of their safe haven.

But recently something very strange was happening. The first was that a group that numbered 30 suddenly disappeared without warning. There were no traces of them when they checked later as if they disappeared...or killed and the bodies were hidden.

Following down the road, there were less of them in groups as they would need to pass through a large group from the left or right. These groups usually only numbered a few, at most ten or even fifteen at times. The reason was this was that each group would fight and then retreat if they could wearing down the target as much as possible until they were wiped out with the least amount of deaths in their ranks.

It was a simple plan but one that was very easily done with people who actually ran from large battles and war.

But it came to the point where a large number of them disappeared...or died, one of the two. Half their numbers were now gone and they were at the point of breaking even with a few hundred more people left though these numbers did not participate in the 'hunting' and hid away in the deep forest.

Really, these last few men were the only ones that were on the roads now attacking travellers as the others could not bear to attack them as former protectors of such people and yet could not return back the way they were before they deserted.

Because of this, the bandit leader...one of many bandit leaders that are cooperating this time with each other wanted to seek out and get rid of this problem quickly.

“Surround them first then strike” whispered the bandit leader to one of his men. That man nodded and directed the rest of them to completely surround the camp fire closing in slowly. Thick trees covered the place but light still shone through meaning they had to charge in to kill them all.

From the size of this camp they were only a small group. Nothing to be worried about. No monster that were high level were going to come out to this middle of nowhere either way.

When he was signalled that everyone was in position, the bandit leader yelled, “CHARGE!”

All thirty men broke through the trees and ran into...nothing?

“What?” the bandit leader looked around, there was even food cooking here. They could not have gotten away that far even if they noticed them.

“Search the area! Find them at all cos-”

Someone sharp dug into neck of the bandit leader and he died.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

'That's one down' thought Shadow as he quickly fled back into the darkness. The bandits quickly panicked with one of them suddenly lying on the ground dead. Shadow took this chance to, using 'Stealth', 'Burst Speed' and most importantly the darkness to kill another three bandits before they got smart and moved away from the trees where darkness sweep through.

Shadow remembered Sain's plan. The first thing was to create a place with lots of light to draw them in. There were two reasons for this. The first was to draw them all in at once and the second was to cause their eyes to adjust to the light and make it harder to see objects moving in the dark.

Moreover, Sain had Viv manipulate the trees to literally force them in since they could not see in the place besides some glimmer of light. To make this even more foolproof, he had Lyndis and Miriel set up some food cooking as well since people did not leave food cooking without being there.

Step one of the plan was to get them all there.

Step two was Shadow killing or harming a few of them to get them to huddle together away from the trees and escape.

Now was to step three...

“Ice Bolts!” “Magic Arrows!”

Both Sain and Miriel hiding on the trees fired their magic attacks at the 26 bandits that remained killing a few of them in the process while causing more panic in them as they could not see their enemy.

The two continued to fire as the bandits realised that they were going to die and went for an escape. However step four now moved in...

“Root Bind!”

All of a sudden, the bandits that tried to escape tripped over and were even dragged back into the series of magical attacks without warning. Their numbers by a few tens of seconds were reduced to 20 with most of them having high health and armour and therefore armour on them.

By now, their eyes sharpened and they threw some weapons at Sain and Miriel forcing them to stop attacking and move away. Serena's position was still safe though since her attack did not originate with her.

Both Sain and Miriel dropped down intentionally in front of the bandits as if mocking them. They, two 'mages' stood defenceless in front of them.

After killing so many of their comrades, how could they not be angry and charge at them.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Half the bandits charged at the two while the other half charged in the opposite direction intending to escape before anything worse happened.

“Now!” shouted Sain proceeding to step five of the plan.

Raven step into the battlefield and shouted, “Anchor Howl!” in a scream that resounded at the centre of the battlefield and forced all of the bandits to turn their heads to him.

As he was in the middle of the place, the bandits that were charging at Sain and Miriel and those who were escaping had to all stop to look at Raven and could not draw their eyes away from him due to unknown fear.

It was at this point that the final step, step six started.

“Speed Strike!” “Backstab!” “Magic Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!”

Lyndis and Luna running in at where the bandits running away were about to escape through, Shadow who appeared from the darkness and the combination of Sain and Miriel all attacked at once with the bandits having their backs turned to them.

A few shots in, some bandits decided to kill Raven first and charged at him despite attacking raining from behind them.

But Raven was a tank, and a sturdy one with a shield. If he could not take a few strikes, who could? Raven quickly moved while activating 'Anchor Howl' for a second time to renew the taunt at the bandits and attacked using shield to at least distract the bandits while his comrades quickly disposed of the rest of them.

This battle in which before almost killed them in a straight battle was won easily and quickly with almost no harm to them with Sain's despicable...I mean smart strategy. They did not even break a sweat to this and actually found it disappointing while the bandits were of pretty high quality ranging up to level 150 though the group did not realise it.

With the battle ending Sain said, “Now...to loot these bodies” like a bandit....

[p=center]xXx[/p]

With Sain now also actively making plans against the bandit attacks, the number of battles that went by became easier. This was especially the case since with Luna and Shadow warning him of whether there were bandits around, they had at least a few minute each time to prepare for an attack.

Speaking of which, Shadow gained a certain skill which was a sensor skill.

Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 3

Allows you to target an area far away in which you hear all sounds much better in. Sounds such as movement of a living creature or conversation will be easier to pick up as this skill increase in level.

It was quite an interesting skill for Sain at least but was described as a 'pain in the butt' since when active, Shadow had his hearing amplified by several times which hurt his head a lot before he got used to it.

He had to combine it with his 'Hearing' skill as well in order to make it effect enough for long distance alert which in turn made the sounds closer even worse. As such, no one dared to even move while Shadow was busy hearing whether there was anyone around though Luna still had his nose which was just as good.

According to him and generally what skills do when they increase in level, the negative effects of the skills will decrease while the positive effects will increase as it got stronger.

Another thing was that there wasn't that much that changed in the following few days. By the time a week passed, there were really no more bandits left to face as they entered a relatively small town that sized around 300-500 people based on the number of buildings they had.

Before they entered the town though...Sain checked the progress they made.

[quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 92,Level: 92]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 625,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 3928,Health: 3551]Mana: 1601,Mana: 657[/quart][quart=Strength: 119 +31,Strength: 113 +32]Agility: 137 +36,Agility: 336 +36[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 112 +25,Intelligence: 10 +14]Wisdom: 113 +34,Wisdom: 10 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 131 +14,Vitality: 114 +14]Stamina: 86 +17,Stamina: 107 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 36 +22,Fighting Spirit: 42 +22]Endurance: 22 +14,Endurance: 18 +14[/quart][quart=Leadership: 9 +14,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 4 +14,Luck: 29 +24[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 23,Defence: 26[/quart]

Status Window

Sain

Shadow

[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 86,Level: 86]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 610,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 5982,Health: 3636]Mana: 692,Mana: 1177[/quart][quart=Strength: 207 +45,Strength: 201 +31]Agility: 130 +26,Agility: 157 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +19,Intelligence: 102 +27]Wisdom: 15 +19,Wisdom: 12 +17[/quart][quart=Vitality: 208 +34,Vitality: 115 +14]Stamina: 114 +22,Stamina: 91 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 48 +27,Fighting Spirit: 26 +20]Endurance: 41 +19,Endurance: 25 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +19,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 0 +19,Luck: 2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]

Status Window

Raven

Lyndis

[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 94,Level: 89]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 625,Fame: 630[/quart][quart=Health: 1693,Health: 1654]Mana: 2590,Mana: 2279[/quart][quart=Strength: 15 +21,Strength: 14 +33]Agility: 116 +26,Agility: 118 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 311 +26,Intelligence: 203 +24]Wisdom: 114 +26,Wisdom: 194 +34[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 12 +19,Fighting Spirit: 12 +25]Endurance: 15 +14,Endurance: 15 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 25 +14,Vitality: 25 +14]Stamina: 61 +17,Stamina: 58 +29[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +14,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 0 +14,Luck: 2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]

Status Window

Miriel

Serena

Concentration: 25 +13

Concentration: 29 +14

Seeing this, Sain saw that according to what he remember when they started, Miriel gained the most levels numbering at 10 while Shadow gained the second highest at 9 levels in total while Sain and Serena gained 8 levels each and finally Lyndis and Raven only gained 7 levels each.

Meanwhile only Sain, Shadow, Lyndis and Raven gained any strength during this trip with Sain gaining 1 stat point, Shadow with 4 and Raven and Lyndis at 5 each. This was the same for the agility stat where Sain only gained 2 points, Shadow gained 7 points while once again Raven and Lyndis gained 5 each.

However in the endurance department, only Lyndis and Raven gained stats there with Lyndis at 4 stat gain and Raven at 7 stat gain. On the other hand, they are excluding in the intelligence stat gain where Sain, Miriel and Serena only increased there with them gaining 4, 6 and 5 respectively. The same was for wisdom with each gaining 3, 2 and 3 respectively again.

Finally everyone gained some stamina at least thanks to the month march though the forest and then the march after that on the road. Sain gained 5 points there, Shadow gained 9 points, Miriel gained 3 with Serena at 3 as well, Lyndis was at 7 points gained and finally Raven gained 9 stamina points as well.

With this, Sain could tell that they really were strained during these month and 3 weeks of travelling for them to gain this much. However they were still in their 'growth' period in the game with their lowish stats and this still did not compare to the training Eden gave them for a month...called hell.

Otherwise, Sain could tell that fighting also rapidly increase stat gain as well and was a good method to increase certain stats since only walking gave you so much in stamina and rarely strength and agility if none at all.

Next he checked everyone's skill windows.

[third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Beginner 9 (12/100)

- Nature Mastery Beginner 9 (22/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 5 (39/100)

- Mana Burst Beginner level 2 (2/100)

- Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 9 (250/1700)

- Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 8 (151/1500)

- Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100)

Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100)

- Blood Burst Beginner level 5 (77/900)

- Root Bind Beginner level 8 (322/1500)

- Heartbeat Healing Beginner level 6 (59/100)

- Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100)

- Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 (0/100)

- Health Restoration Beginner Level 3 (1/100),- Magic Mastery Beginner 9 (19/100)

- Whip Mastery Beginner Level 4 (12/100)

- Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (32/100)

- Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (22/100)

- Ice Magic Mastery Beginner Level 7 (53/100)

- Magic Control Mastery Beginner 7 (12/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 5 (96/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 3 (43/100)

- Identify Beginner level 2 (12/100)

- Mana Bolt Beginner level 6 (852/1100)

- Clairvoyance Beginner level 4 (156/700)

- Melody of Sound Beginner level 7 (130/1300)

- Cracked Barrier Beginner level 5 (120/1800)

- Shriek Beginner level 5 (99/900)

- Ice Bolt Beginner Level 9 (1260/1700)

- Ice Burst Beginner Level 4 (345/700)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 9 (22/100)

- Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 5 (18/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 3 (15/100)

- Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (54/700)

- Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (873/1500)

- Life Burn Beginner level 3 (380/500)

- Power Strike Beginner level 7 (840/1300)

- Speed Strike Beginner level 7 (870/1300)

- Power Stance Beginner level 7 (260/1300)

- Speed Stance Beginner level 6 (410/1100)

- Precision Stance Beginner level 6 (455/1100)

- Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (622/700)

- Flame Strike Beginner Level 6 (223/1100)[/third]

Skill Window

[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 6 (24/100)

- Shield Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (55/100)

- Shield Bash Beginner level 9 (121/1700)

- Double Strike Beginner level 5 (453/1100)

- Footwork Beginner level 8 (344/1500)

- Repair Beginner level 3 (72/1200)

- Ram Beginner level 6 (15/100)

- Shield Parry Beginner level 8 (61/1500)

- Spear Parry Beginner level 6 (7/1100)

- Body Reinforcement Beginner level 9 (15/1700)

- Anchor Howl Beginner Level 4 (120/700),- Dagger Mastery Intermediate 1 (11/100)

- Stealth Intermediate Level 7 (44/100)

- Hearing Beginner level 8 (98/100)

- Dark Vision Beginner level 4 (25/100)

- Night Vision Beginner level 4 (78/100)

- Locate Trap Beginner level 5 (25/100)

- Disarm Trap Beginner level 5 (42/100)

- Backstab Beginner level 7 (311/1300)

- Double Strike Beginner level 5 (574/700)

- Climbing Beginner Level 9 (59/100)

- Become Mist Beginner level 3 (16/100)

- Burst Speed Beginner level 8 (725/1500)

- Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100)

- Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 3 (66/100)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 4 (15/100)

- Mana Control Beginner Level 5 (19/100)

- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 5 (12/100)

- Identify Beginner level 2 (50/100)

- Party Scan Beginner level 5 (12/100)

- Mana Bolt Beginner level 8 (955/1500)

- Mediation Beginner level 8 (8/100)

- Summon Familiar Beginner level 4 (4/700)

- Minor Heal Beginner level 8 (422/1500)

- Weaken Beginner level 8 (446/1500)

- Bursting Will Beginner level 5 (50/100)

- Wolf Summoning Beginner level 2 (17/100)

- Magic Arrow Beginner level 7 (823/1300)

- Water Fill Beginner Level 5 (14/900)

- Iron Skin Beginner Level 3 (35/500)

- Swift Legs Beginner Level 3 (35/500)

- Berserk Fury Beginner Level 3 (35/500)

- Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 (2/100)[/third]

Skill Window

There was an interesting increase in the number of skills they could use here. Most skills increased by at least one level thanks to them being in the beginner levels still while some did not gain any since they could not be used.

Sain was actually surprised that both Raven and Shadow managed to get a skill each in the intermediate level. Raven with the shield of course since he did not have a spear to use without Viv taking it away and Shadow with the dagger though he used a short sword...did the game count that as one then?

Feeling satisfied with the progress they made, Sain caught up with the others and entered the town.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9600~

- This chapter came out quickly....wrote 12 pages in one day and the rest in another (today). I'm quite surprise I could do that(again)...though I believe it was due to the fact that things are happening and I wanted to laze around (does writing this much count as lazing???) when I have a test early tomorrow...(bad idea here but that's what the train is for; to study on!)

- Well this is the first time in a while since I shown the status and skill windows. Lots of new skills in there and some of them (finally) in the intermediate level (yay). There will be a number of new skills in there since not even half the trip finished and there will be more training parts in there(had to change some bits to fit in the ideas I had in the plot).

- This time, there was a focus on Lyndis in there(You know, part about her skills and later with Viv)...didn't know how that happened wanted to write about her since her training and conversations seemed relevant enough (definitely not that I couldn't think of something else to write with the other characters...)

- So much rambling here...could go on one what I thought on each section but I won't...