25 Wardrobe Change

The three men's corpses laid side by side, stripped clean of all their clothing and possessions. Wu Niu had dragged them down to a large swampy area filled with wet, malleable mud. It was the perfect place to hide a body—or bodies in this case.

The items stripped from the men were laid in a pile off to the side. Most of the things in the pile were relatively fresh clothing. It was a huge step up from the tattered rags that Wu Niu used to call clothes, to be sure. And whatever Wu Niu didn't end up wearing could still be useful whenever he needed spare cloth: something that had become a luxury after months without it.

Besides clothing, Wu Niu had found three more demon crystal on the men (all of which were less than 1-star grade), three canteens full of liquor, three money pouches with a collective 68 silvers, and even a silver band ring with no discernable engravings.

Dragging the chubby bandit's lifeless corpse up to the edge of the swamp bog, Wu Niu threw off his clothing and jumped into the bog, shoveling away at the squishy mud with his bare hands.

Wu Niu knew he would have to hide all of the evidence of his little run-in with the bandits. There was still the chance that their supposed buddies were real. If so, It would be ideal to not have evidence of them having had died so that they might be assumed to have deserted.

***

It was twilight hours, and Wu Niu was no longer at the swampy bog but rather at the river. More precisely, he was in the river. Having finished burying the bandits in the swamp bog (and having been covered in mud), he decided it would be best to take a detour to the river, so he could clean himself.

Crawling out from the river, Wu Niu dried himself off with a pair of pants that belonged to one of the men.

-My foot is killing me.

The men laid buried under three individual graves hidden deep within the layers of mud. Each grave was placed far apart from each other to make it seem as though they were unrelated events. If they did have more comrades, there was no way for them to link each of the men together—hopefully.

After drying off, Wu Niu slipped on a pair of linen underwear that he had found on one of the men. The underwear was large and had a string that allowed for it to be tightened at the waist.

-I didn't know they made undergarments like this for men. It sure beats the loincloths we have back home.

Wu Niu picked up his usual baggy orange harem pants and slipped them on. He once hated how baggy they were, but now he preferred them to other apparel.

Reaching to grab his orange robes, Wu Niu stopped himself midway. His eyes were drawn away by fancy-looking gambeson. It was dark red like dried blood and cut off at the sleeve, exposing the wearer's shoulders. Its collar formed a cuff that jutted up and was fastened tight by a deep brown belt strap. It had multiple belt straps, starting from the bottom left of the waist up to the top right shoulder.

Wu Niu slipped it on and tightened it to his chest, tucking the excess length down his pants. It fit him relatively well for adult-sized armor. It was most likely worn by the chubby bandit due to how short he was, but it was still surprising, nonetheless.

-Did I hit a growth spurt?

Sitting down, Wu Niu cut one of the men's pairs of white pants into cloth bandages, wrapping them around the hole in his foot.

Slipping on his wicker sandals, Wu Niu's outfit was now almost complete. With the stone weights in his hands, he clapped them on and tightened them down with fraying twine. After that, he grabbed a backpack from the cloth pile and began to search through it.

There were multiple bottles of nutrition pills in the backpack. They weren't the best-tasting food—In fact, they were awful— but they get the job done. As long as you take three pills at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you could technically live solely off the nutrition they provide.

-I guess I won't have to go looking for food for the next couple of months.

Other than the pill bottles, there was only one other thing in the bag: a letter that read:

For hogging the mutual spending funds to yourselves, don't even think about showing your face until you attain at least 100 silvers worth in loot. If you come back empty-handed, you'll have to pay the price. You know what that price is and I'm sure it is not one you look forward to. The ring has tracker qi infused in it so that I'll know where you are at all times. Also, destroy this note once you read it, in the case that something happens to you. We wouldn't want anyone to find out about the ring, now would we.

From your frustrated leader,

Brown Bear

Upon reading the letter, Wu Niu hurriedly rifled through the items to find the ring, which he promptly cast into the river, along with the transformed spear-like sword, just as an extra precaution. He watched as they quickly sank into the deep murky depths of the river.

Checking his backpack once more for any other hidden things (like a ring), Wu Niu found it was totally empty. Sighing with relief, he slipped the backpack onto his back and stood back up.

Wu Niu grabbed an oversized linen shawl and wrapped it three times around, completely covering his shoulders and neck. Then placing, a conical hat on his head, he was finished playing dress-up.

Putting his belt on, Wu Niu grabbed the fish bag and began to walk back to the path. He needed to find a safe place to sleep for the night. If he stayed near the ring, it might be problematic.

-Well, I won't have to cook food tonight. So, there's that, I suppose.