Start of a Mission

"Recently bandits have been getting a hold of yutri bracelets, and according to one of them, there's a man who's been going to different bandit bases and choosing a few bandits to give the yutri bracelets to. He would bring them to a secret route only accessible by him and once he's given them the yutri bracelet, he'll force them to use a device to level them up."

One of the receptionists brings a cart with bandanas and masks with the bandit symbol on them. "Team Reizo and Soaring Lucks will investigate the base in Feilo Forest while Team Rising Fury and Great Shine will investigate the base in Kaku Mountain. You'll need to wear one of these to disguise yourself as a bandit."

I stared at the bandit symbol on one of the bandanas and got reminded of how much I detest the tarsec gang. They're constantly trying to ruin my life even in this world. Reminders about me having to live in fear because of them kept flooding my mind. The only reason why I'm not dead right now is because I was lucky enough to meet and convince Saliza to help me. I reluctantly put on the bandana and waited for more instructions.

Reizo and Testra stepped out of the headquarters without a mask or bandana. Both of them summoned dragons in the sky that slowly descended while releasing alot of smoke into the surroundings. "Stand clear!" Everyone moved away from the dragons and the blinding smoke that covered them.

"Bandits have been stalking us recently so we'll be using this to prevent them from seeing us." Reizo and Testra put on a mask and guided the teams to the dragons. We departed and the dragons flew in opposite directions while being concealed in smoke.

"What's wrong Zeigel? Why do you look like a kid who's been told they're not getting ice cream?" Saliza asked. I pointed at the bandit symbol on my bandana. "This not just the symbol of bandits, it's the symbol of a notorious gang back on earth. They're constantly making me live in fear, and they're still doing it even in another world."

"Hold on, you're saying that the people who came to errale before you are a gang of evil people?" I nodded my head.

"When I was younger, they terrorized the whole country by killing countless people and destroying alot of businesses. Some people were afraid to step out of their homes because of them. After a few years passed, their activity died down alot and the police handled them pretty easily. Turns out that the reason why their activity died down was because some of them got stuck in errale."

Saliza listened to the story and despite not knowing what a police is, she wanted to comfort me. "Look on the bright side, if we put an end to that gang in this world and tell everyone about your story, then maybe you can reveal that you're from earth and not get ripped apart." I smiled at the thought of being able to at least find some peace in this world.

"See, it's not so bad. I'll also make sure that no one finds where you're from until we can get everyone to understand your situation." I turned my head to see Saliza taking off her bandana and smiling at me and thanked her.

Reizo looked down from the dragon and spotted something. The dragon descended and everyone got off it. "The trees, from above they're arranged to show the bandit symbol." Reizo taps the ground with his foot until he hits a metal structure. A loud ringing sound emitted from the ground and an entrance slowly opened from the ground.

The ground started rumbling and a pack of five arborex was spotted running towards us. Everyone drew their weapons to fight the arborex and I tried to hide behind a tree since they should be able to handle it. "Stand back everyone, I'll handle this." Light surrounded Gyanku's hand and a bow appeared. He drew back the string of the bow and a yellow arrow appeared.

He shot the arrow at a tree and it ricocheted off it. The arrow hit one of the arborex's leg and cause it to trip over. The arborex ended up hitting the other four and caused them to fall as well.

He then fired five purple arrows into the sky that hit each of the arborex. They all suddenly lost the strength to even get up. Gyanku closed his eyes and shot a bright green arrow behind him. The arrow ricocheted off several trees until it finally landed on the arborexs and created a big yellow explosion.

Gyanku took a bow as everyone except Reizo clapped for him. Suddenly, vines grabbed him and pulled him into the jaws of one of the arborex. All five of the arborex were no longer wounded and seemed to be overflowing energy. The explosion that Gyanku created didn't kill them but instead, it healed them.

"Oh come on! Why'd you have to do this to me you stupid bow!" Gyanku held the arborex's jaw open with his bare hands and cursed his bow. Suddenly, a flash of electricity appeared and the heads of the arborexs fell to the ground. Reizo stood near one of the arborex and light faded away from his hand.

The entrance finally opened and the sound stopped. "Thanks for the assist but I had it all under control." Reizo ignored Gyanku and walked into the underground entrance. We all followed Reizo and went in as well.

Two bandits were standing near the entrance and saw all of us walking in. Just as they were about to run, Reizo grabbed them. "Don't worry, the boss wanted us to gather here." Reizo deepened his voice as he talked.

The bandits were nervously sweating and made way for us. Just as we were about to walk into the base, one of the bandits opened a panel on the wall and nearly pressed it. Reizo turned around and dashed to the bandit. He crushed the bandit's hand and snapped his neck.

He closed the panel and pinned the other bandit to the floor. "Scream, and you'll be joining your friend over there." Reizo grabbed the bandit's bag and tossed it to Gyanku. "What gave us away?" Reizo asked with a menacing tone. The bandit looked like he was about to crap himself and started crying.

"I found something. It's some sort of spray."

Gyanku used the spray on his hand and smelled it. "This smells like the body odor of the bandits."

Reizo put his foot on the bandit and caught the spray Gyanku threw at him. Reizo sniffed the spray and smelled something familiar. He stepped outside and summoned an arborex. A flower bloomed on the arborex's back and released a similar scent.

"This spray must be used by bandits to protect themselves from arborexs. The entrance will emit a sound to attract arborexs while this spray protects bandits from them by making the arborexs think they're one of them." he thought to himself.

Reizo tossed back the spray to Gyanku. "Tell everyone to spray themselves with it. The bandits will know something is off if they don't smell it on us." Reizo search the bag of the other bandit and used another spray he found.

We all covered ourselves with the spray and entered the base. I was the last one to spray myself and noticed that the spray was nearly empty, but I kept it anyways. It was just a large area with no tables or chairs. Bandits gathered in groups to plan how they would rob people, trade stolen goods, or eat scraps they found.

When we got closer, bandits would avoid and ignore us, but they didn't suspect anything. We made our way to the back of the base and waited.

As we waited, I overheard a conversation between two bandits. "Nice ring, how did you get that?" A bandit chatting with his friend laughed and placed the ring on his finger. "I robbed an old guy who had this in his bag. When I took the ring, he went 'PlEaSe GiVe It BaCk, ItS aLl I hAvE tO rEmEmBeR mY wIfE!' you should've seen his face." He laughed and kept showing off his ring.

"With this, that earth guy will make me a rich ventgard!"

Earth guy? He must be talking about a tarsec gang member. Maybe I can get my revenge on them in this mission. They're gonna pay for everything they caused to me.

A tunnel opens up and a man in a tuxedo wearing shiny and tacky accessories walks into the base. He's accompanied by two heavily armored guards nearly twice his size wielding giant maces. All of the bandits gathered around him, but they stayed a certain distance away from him.

"All right you filthy scavengers, show me your loot." The bandit earlier squeezed his way through the crowd and made it to the front to show the man his ring. "You there, that's a pretty ring you've got." The bandit makes his way to the man and gives him the ring.

"Hmm...Not bad. This ring has a high quality."

The man inspects the ring and puts it in his pocket. "Thanks, I robbed it off an old guy."

The man raises and eyebrow at the bandit. "An old guy you say? Well unfortunately I won't be bringing you with me."

The bandit was dismayed. "W-What do you mean? You said that ring has high quality so why won't you let me join you?"

The man laughs at him. "I should've expected such stupidity from a bandit. The loot you're supposed to bring should be evidence that you're worthy enough to join us. If the old man was a ventgard then maybe I would've let you join, but alas, you're nothing more than a filthy scavenger that I have no use for. I'll still keep the ring as a token of your appreciation for letting you talk to me."

The furious bandit took out a dagger and tries to stab the man in the chest. The dagger shattered into pieces upon impact, and the man wasn't surprised one bit. One of the guards grabbed the bandit by the head and crushes his skull in between his fingers. The man wipes the blade fragments off his suit and points at another bandit.

"Show me what you've got there." The bandit cowardly approaches the man and hands him a wallet. He claims that the wallet belonged to a ventgard. Gyanku leans over and sees the man opening the wallet. "So that's where my wallet went!" he thought to himself.

The man found Gyanku's lucky casino chip and smiled. "All right! That's what I'm talking about. You're in." The man tosses the wallet back to the bandit and tells him to wait behind him. The bandit could hardly contain himself.

"Anyone else?" The crowd erupted and all of the bandits were showing their best loot to the man. He takes a good look at all of the items and notices us standing at the back.

"You lot at the back. Come over here." The bandits became silent and cleared a path for us. Reizo walks to the man as he inspected each of us with his eyes.

"So, you bandits finally became ventgards and thought it would be funny to come back here and show off. Didn't we make it clear that once we've made you ventgards, you're supposed to stay in Hashiru. What reason do you have to come here?"

Reizo remained silent and stared at the man.

"Not gonna say anything huh? Let this be a lesson to all of you, this is what'll happen if any of you disobeys us, even after becoming ventgards."

The two guards raised their weapons. Serith wanted to help Reizo, but Gyanku pulled him back and shook his head in disapproval. When the guards brought they mace down on Reizo, he caught both of them.

"Actually I have a reason to come here." The man lost his composure and his face was filled with dread.

"I'm here to kill you all."