Adventurers and Bandits

Feng Ye continues towards the sounds of conflict. As he continues to head north, he can smell the scent of blood, smoke, and burnt flesh.

"It must be pretty intense. As this world contains monster cores, it may be a conflict involving lifeforms with abilities or advanced weapons. I'll have to be careful. I also have to make sure to not expose myself as an otherworlder. From the previous system prompt, this world is hostile to otherworlders. This is a huge hint as it means that the world itself will try to get rid of external visitors like me."

"Depending on the situation, I can perhaps profit in this dispute. We'll see."

Feng Ye picks up his speed in the direction of the dispute. As he nears, the forest cover is noticeably cleared. Numerous broken trees, holes caused by explosions, and burnt traces all around.

Feng Ye slows down his pace and hides in the shade of the trees in the area. Around a kilometer away in an area cleared of forest cover Feng Ye can observe the battlefield.

A heated conflict between two parties can be observed. Feng Ye can see a group of individuals dressed as adventurers encircled by numerous bandits dressed similarly to the bandits that Feng Ye had encountered earlier.

In the middle of the encirclement, the group of individuals dressed as adventurers consist of a variety of different types of clothes based on their role in the party. A large gorilla-like beast corpse can be found laying down at the very center of the encirclement. The are a variety of bandit corpses ranging from disfigured ones to ones burnt to a crisp. Several large craters can be found around the battlefield that probably was from some kind of explosive or spell.

"Perhaps, the bandits are trying to rob the beast from these adventurers." This situation is a perfect one for Feng Ye.

"It reminds me of the old Chinese saying... The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. This is a great opportunity for me to profit as a third party."

Feng Ye has a few approaches he could take. He can try to go scrap picking and pick up any items, try to loot corpses, and look for opportunities to take small advantages. He could also quickly head back and dress like one of the bandits to blend in. Lastly, he could assist the group of adventurers perhaps out of this tricky situation.

"Which one would be most beneficial for me? The bandits are much weaker than any of the adventurers but far outnumber them. The bandit leader might have some skills. I might expose myself too quickly if I were to help the adventurers. It also seems a bit unrealistic for the adventurers to leave unscathed especially if they are unwilling to leave the beast's corpse." Feng Ye's analysis continues.

Feng Ye continues to observe the conflict. There seem to be around forty bandits surrounding the party of seven. The bandits are only armed with daggers while the bandit leader has a sword that occasionally reflects various colors.

The gorilla-like corpse is around the size of two Honda civic cars parked next to each other. Feng Ye analyzes each of the individuals defending the corpse. Each member of this group seems to have a distinct role and dress based on their specialties. Similar to any western fantasy, there is a female cleric in the back next to the corpse. Next to a cleric, a human female dressed in mage robes can be seen panting and sitting down. The remaining five members are human males who have formed a five-pointed star formation defending the corpse from the surrounding bandits.

There seem to be three warriors, two tanks, a mage, and the cleric. All the members except the cleric seem to be human. The cleric has two distinct ears. Perhaps an elf…. The mage might be running low on mana as she may have cast quite a few spells already.

"Hahahaha! Give up the corpse and we'll let you walk away unharmed!" The bandit leader chuckles and yells at the group of adventurers.

"You will exhaust all your mana and stamina soon. You are also completely surrounded. Give it up!" The bandit leader continues to taunt.

The group of adventurers has sweat dripping on their foreheads as they ignore the bandit leader's taunts and continue to parry and defend against the onslaught of bandits.

Feng Ye decides to critically continue to observe. The conflict between these two parties has lasted quite some time and the noise they have made would definitely attract surrounding parties -- human or nonhuman. The bloody gorilla-like monster corpse has died the surroundings are red with its blood. Its bloody scent has also definitely been spread everywhere in this region by the light breeze. The adventures will have to force a quick decisive battle or make their escape as soon as possible. The longer the battle lasts, the more disadvantageous for the adventurers. They are exhausted and most likely the bandits here won't let them off either.

"I wish I have figured out how to use some magic or spells. Would be great to send some to the skies." Feng Ye thought to himself. Feng Ye suddenly feels the presence of another individual nearby, He steps back slowly and conceals himself further in the shadows of the forest and surveys around.

Not far away from Feng Ye's position, an individual squats behind some lush ferns completely hidden from view. This individual seems to be wearing a cloak similar to the mage robes that were worn by the female mage adventurer currently in the center of the conflict. Feng Ye takes a look closely at this individual.

The individual is a male with brown hair and blue pupils. He is equipped with a staff. The staff is not at all the same quality as Feng Ye's makeshift bamboo one. This staff seemed to be quite solid and imbued with some energy. Perhaps magical power. A rune seems to be carved on it. At the end of the staff, there seems to be a crystal-like decoration. From a quick glance, Feng Ye labeled this individual as a type of mage or caster class.

Feng Ye's intuition was correct. This individual wants to also profit as a third party. Feng Ye then sees very odd behavior.

Troubling news. The individual in the ferns not far away started to make some silent gestures as though he was interacting with some type of touch screen. Soon, Feng Ye sees him holding a purple potion from thin air. There are only two possibilities. They have a space ability either in the form of an item or ability. The other possibility is that this individual was an otherworlder.

Feng Ye continues to observe. This is not conclusive evidence. Also, Feng Ye is not quite sure of the power gap between this individual and himself. Are they also a candidate from the <World Administrator> or have they arrived with a different method?

Regardless, suddenly a crafty idea comes to him. "Haha, this would work!" Feng Ye chuckles quietly.

Immediately, Feng Ye withdraws from his hiding spot slowly and quickly rushes to the previous location where he had slain the two bandits. Once he arrives, he quickly strips their clothes and changes into their broken dark linen robes with hooded cloaks.

Feng Ye grins as he quickly heads back to the confrontation.

"This will be interesting."