20 - Clean Up And Finding the Bandit Hideout

Val exhaled deeply, this fight had been the hardest, most dangerous, and most stressful thing he had ever done. He was exhausted, and so was everyone else but Jamal and Mr. Gregory could not allow everyone to rest just yet, there was still more they had to do.

Jamal approached Mr. Gregory and asked,

"David, did you keep one of the bandits alive for interrogation?"

"Yes, he's unconscious and tied up over there." Mr. Gregory responded and pointed to a restrained and unconscious man laying on the ground in the distance.

"Good, everyone will clean up the corpses and stack them in a pile. We will burn them and get rid of them. Whilst you guys are cleaning up, I will interrogate the captured bandit for information about their hideout. Once we have the location, Val and I will go and investigate, bringing back any treasure we find. The treasure will then be split among us. The distribution will be based on contribution, obviously."

Jamal finished explaining the plan, and everyone started completing the job at hand. Margret probably would not wake up till the morning, she had completely drained her entire mana reserves, so it may take even longer.

Mark and Becky stored Drake in a spatial storage device so that he could be buried later on. Val however was not paying much attention to anyone else, the adrenaline had worn off and he could not believe the merciless killer he had been during the battle.

He had been killing bandits nonstop the entire time, there was no resistance or restraint. There was no vomit coming out of his mouth but he felt sick to his stomach. He knew that he had done what he had to do but that did not change the fact that he felt like a vicious, murderous beast.

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The group continued to clean for about an hour, however soon after Val was called over by Jamal. It did not take much interrogation for Jamal to obtain the information about the base from the bandit.

Jamal had decided that he and Val would investigate the base and bring back the loot, he had chosen Val to accompany him because he wanted to assess Val's mentality after killing for the first time. He had also found out that there were still a few bandits who stayed behind to guard the base, a total of 10, as well as some captured females, who had been kidnapped by the bandits a few days ago.

When Jamal got all the information from the captured bandit, he prepared to set out with Val and Leo. Jamal had a spatial ring but he also took another spatial ring and a few spatial pouches from Mr. Gregory, because from the information gained, it seems the bandits had procured quite a large amount of wealth.

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Val, Leo, Jamal, and the restrained bandit walked through the outskirts of the forest for about 2 hours. The forest was far more creepy and intimidating at night time. Val could hear strange noises from the distance and found it hard to see far ahead of him, as the only light source was the moon and stars.

The four of them continued to walk through the eerie forest for an hour and a half, Val would have been frightened but he knew how powerful Jamal was and could still recognize they were in the outskirts of the forest. Thus Val knew that there would be no monsters or beasts that could threaten him.

After walking for an hour and a half, they began to see a light in the distance, as they approached the bandit informed them,

"That's the hideout, the light must be a fire that is used by the night watch."

Val focused his sight on the light and what was surrounding it. He could not really make anything out though. Jamal also looked ahead, he could see far better than Val and could see that there were two bandits in front of a cave entrance surrounded by trees and bushes.

"So that cave is your hideout?" Jamal asked the bandit.

"Yes, there should be two guys guarding it at this time of night." The bandit responded quickly, hoping if he appeased the man, he would not die.

However, the bandit could not be more wrong. As soon as Jamal got confirmation he pulled out a knife he had hidden and slit the bandit's throat.

The bandit fell to the floor with blood spurting out of his throat. He died quickly.

Val watched everything happen and as they were close to him he could see clearly. His eyes opened wide and he was surprised, but after some thought, Jamal's actions made sense. It would have been stupid to let the bandit live and could cause future problems for them or others.

After Jamal killed the bandit, he looked toward Val and told him his plan,

"We will go into the hideout and kill all bandits inside, I will be the one attacking, you just need to observe the situation. If something unexpected occurs you can attack or run. Got it?"

Val just nodded, giving his agreement.

The three of them walked towards the bandits on night watch. As soon as they got close Jamal moved toward them to eliminate them immediately. He moved so quickly that Val could not see him moving, and felt like he was basically using [Port].

It did not take much effort for Jamal to kill the two bandits, they were only low rank after all. They did not know what had killed them and did not have time to wake the other bandits and warn them they were under attack.

They moved quietly into the hideout, there should be a total of 8 bandits left to kill. The 8 bandits should be sleeping right now and should be easily killed. There was supposed to be one B-Rank bandit, who had stayed behind to lead the bandits defending the bandit base.

As the trio moved down the hallway they started to hear the cries and screams of a woman. It was not hard to tell what was happening. The trio began to quicken their pace. There were torches on the walls of the cave which allowed them to see where they were going and what was ahead. They found the hallway split into 3 separate paths. The noise was coming from the leftmost path, so they decided to take that path first.

As they walked down the path the cries began to get louder. Finally, they got to the end of the path and there were 3 doors. The crying and screams were coming from the door on the right side. They could also hear thumping. To Jamal, it was obvious what was happening, but to Val, who was naive to sex and rape, it sounded like some sort of torture. In a way, Val's thoughts were not wrong.

The duo opened the door to see a dirty man mounted on a woman with blonde hair. The woman was naked but the man was still wearing his top, with his pants by his ankles. The woman was laying on her stomach crying and screaming, while the man rhythmically pounded from behind.

Even someone like Val who had no understanding of sexual acts knew this was not right and as if on instinct, Val appeared above the man, who was so focused on his act that he had not even noticed the door being opened. Val drew his sword and stabbed the man through the skull.

The man died instantly, stopping his thrusting. Blood dripped from the hole in his forehead onto the woman's back. It was only then did the woman, slightly turn around in fear. She was confused and scared but when she saw the dead bandit, who had been raping her up until a moment ago, being moved off her by a handsome man and an adorably cute boy, she felt like she had been saved. She looked at the duo, not even noticing the little cat beast behind them. Jamal was the first to speak,

"Hello ma'am, are you okay? We have come to rescue you and the others."

The lady did not respond, she was still in shock from everything that had happened, and she had also become fearful of men, she had been captured and brought here 3 or 4 days ago and had already been raped a few times by different men. Val left the room, he was feeling anger and rage but did not know why. He went to have a look at the other two rooms, assuming the captured woman would be in there. Val attempted to open the door on the left, but it was locked, he then tried to open the door in the center but that was also locked. Val sighed and walked back into the room with Jamal and the lady.

The situation had improved slightly, Jamal had explained who they were and why they had come. The lady understood and calmed down slightly.

When Val entered he asked,

"Both the other two doors are locked, do you happen to know where the keys are kept?"

Val's question was straightforward, it did not show much empathy for the lady who had been traumatized, but she answered regardless. She also wanted to release the other woman. So she replied,

"The keys should be in the pocket of his pants."

Val grabbed the pants, searching the pockets. He soon found a ring with several keys attached. He went to leave and Jamal followed him, the lady got scared thinking they would leave her. She quickly asked,

"Where are you guys going?"

Jamal turned around, and replied,

"We are not abandoning you here, we are just going to release the other woman, you should take this chance to get dressed."

The woman's eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. She had just realized that she was still naked. She had just been raped so she was not embarrassed about being seen naked by a man and a boy, it was due to the combination of her thinking they were leaving her, the fact she was naked and had not thought about getting dressed, and that it had been pointed out by a handsome man who she assumed was powerful.

As Val and Jamal left the room, she quickly started getting dressed.