Kidnapped? I Prefer Borrowed From Society

The group of bandits looked at William and laughed. "Don't you know what situation you're in, boy? How are you going to hurt us?"

William smiled at the group and said nothing. The leader realized he wasn't getting anything from William, so he gave an order. "Red, Kill him. We will take his items off his corpse."

One of the bandits codenamed Red stepped forward and performed a quick slicing motion at William's neck. The bandit sheathed his knife and walked away with a calm smile on his face.

The other bandits were quite still when he returned so Red asked, "Was I too cruel to the kid? He was quite annoying."

A bandit with green eyes spoke, "He's not dead you idiot."

"What?" Red turned around and was surprised to see William standing still with a smile on his face.

"You bandits done or what? Is it my turn now?" William was still smiling. The bandits felt nervous for some reason, but that didn't make sense as William had no Cultivation.

The bandit leader issued another order, "Attack him together! Something is off about the way he blocked that attack."

The bandits replied by moving in unison. Their knives flashed in the sun as they stepped forward to attack the immobilized William.

The outcome didn't change though, as their blades continuously bounced off William's skin. He had recently discovered he could adjust the range of his forcefield at will as long as he didn't expand further than its limit.

The bandit leader finally realized what was wrong about their attacks. He shouted, "He's hiding his Cultivation! That's a Spirit Aura!"

Spirit Aura? William was both amused and interested by their misconception. Does this mean there are Cultivators with the same ability somewhere in the world?

He didn't think about it too much. The bandits heard their leader's shout and were in the process of retreating, so William needed to make a move now. "It looks like you're done attacking me. Time to return the favor."

William broke free from the Confinement Array and spread his fingers. An Advanced Confinement Array was formed and expanded to cover a range of 25 meters, trapping everyone within. As William's Array, he had no trouble moving around while the bandits tried to break free with no success.

The bandit leader looked at William with a terrified expression. He never expected that the first person they robbed today would be a hidden expert. Not only that, but he was able to trap their entire group in one move, the kid must be involved with the Array Hall!

William looked around at the seven immobilized figures. "I thought you were going to kidnap me, it's only fair that I do the same to you." he constructed a few Advanced Arrays in quick succession to bind the Cultivator's movements everywhere except their knees. William disabled the Advanced Confinement Array, allowing the Cultivators to hobble forward.

"You will all follow me. If you don't, then I guess it'd be better to kill you. Your choice." William spoke with a goofy smile.

The bandits replied by walking toward him. William unsealed the mouth of one of the weaker Cultivators, allowing him to say a few words if needed.

"What name do they call you?" William asked.

"S-Sir I am Blue." the bandit replied.

"Okay, Blue. Are you part of a larger group, or is this all of you?"

"This is all of us Sir. I guess you could say we are part of the Thieves' Guild technically, but I've never met any of their other members, we are just cannon fodder compared to them."

William seemed to have chosen a talkative bandit. 'How lucky.'

"I see. Walk with me, we are going into the City." William started walking down the path at a slow pace so the bandits could keep up.

"Sir, we are bandits. We can't enter the City or we will be thrown in jail." Blue had a worried expression.

William was unperturbed. "That won't be a problem, just follow me."

The bandits had no choice but to follow William. The group walked awkwardly for the next four hours, finally reaching the gate by that afternoon. As expected, William was stopped by the gate guards.

They checked his Guild Badge and confirmed him to be a Platinum Ranked Adventurer, then looked at the bandits. "What business do you have with them? They also need to show their identification."

William shrugged. "They are just a bunch of idiots that tried to kill me, are ID cards really necessary?"

"Do you have proof that they tried to kill you?"

William was confused. Since when do Cultivation worlds ask for proof that someone wanted to hurt you?

He showed an angry look at the gate guards, "Do I need proof for this? I'm taking responsibility for them, just call the City Guards or whatever you people do."

The gate guard instantly realized he had misspoken, "That's not necessary Sir, go right on in. We will inform the City Guards of your presence." the guard motioned to the other, who dialed a number on his communicator.

A few moments later, the second guard nodded his head, "They will meet you inside."

William and the bandits entered the City together. Flip happened to be part of the City Guards that received him. "Kid, you have a knack for causing trouble. You've resorted to kidnapping now?" his mouth twitched a little when he noticed that none of the bandits could move properly.

William looked at Flip with a smile, "They're bandits, and even if it was kidnapping, I'd prefer to call it borrowed from society." his last sentence reminded Flip of why William was so detested by the guard Captains.

"Hahaha, well said. We can take the bandits from here. You can receive a reward from the Guild Hall if the bandits have any active bounties." Flip waved to William and turned around with his group.

"Wait!" William called out.

Flip stopped, calling over his shoulder, "What is it?"

"I've cleared out Section 4 like you asked. Just wanted to let you know in case I needed rewards for that too."

Flip smiled, "Oh so that's it. Yes we will have a suitable— Wait you've finished already?" he felt it hadn't been much more than a week and a half. How fast did William work? Was he by himself, or did an army of Cultivators help him hunt the Beasts?

William noticed Flip's disbelief. "If you don't believe me, you can check it out yourself. Anyways, I'm going now." he was glad to be rid of the bandits, as they walked incredibly slow. Well, part of that was Williams fault but who's pointing fingers?

The bandit he spoke to on the trip, Blue, had also transformed from a valuable tool for learning about the dark side of the world to an incredible annoyance. The guy absolutely did not stop talking!

William did hear a few interesting things from Blue though. The Thieves' Guild seemed to have a unique recruiting method.

To join the Thieves' Guild, an individual or group has to commit enough crimes that their names or codenames must be known by many in their region and feared. It seemed a bit vague, but William assumed it depended on the region.

The bandit group that attacked William was actually in its probation phase with the Thieves' Guild, hence why they considered themselves cannon fodder.

William felt a bit sorry for ruining their chances at a good life in the Thieves' Guild, but it was their fault for getting caught.

William entered the Guild Hall to turn in his quests. He brought out all the Beast Materials and sold them to the surprised receptionists, earning 540 Gold Coins in total. The old Quests were swapped with new ones, but William wasn't planning to re-enter the Foam Desert just yet.