Chapter 10: Part 2

- Arthas -

Our team located the first bandit hideout on our second day.

From our scouting, we estimated about thirty three of them. Twenty three T2 and eleven T3 members.

"There could be more of them inside." Shiroe said.

"They could have hostages." I added.

"They could have people pretending to be hostages." Veena warned.

"Yes. It will be harder to determine if the hostages are even hostages as they are all humans. Be careful and don't get attacked from behind." Shiroe warned.

Sensing someone approaching, we looked at the place to see Star coming back.

He was sent to scout for any other passageways that could lead to the cave.

"DId you find anything?"

"No. The entrance at the front is the only entrance it seems. We don't need to worry about them escaping from other sides."

"Alright then. We start in an hour when they change the shift of the guards."

I looked at the entrance of the cave and at the bandits and a few scenes flashed in front of my eyes.

The scenes of the day I met Veena for the first time and killed those players.

They were humans….no. They looked like humans. They were just data.

I was much more used to killing in all this time but we hadn't hunted any humans before this.

Was I nervous?

It would be a lie to say I was completely fine….and yet, I wasn't as worried as I thought I would be.

As we were thinking of this, something changed.

We heard some voices and looked in the direction to see three bandits coming towards the cave.

They weren't alone though.

They were dragging three girls behind them and one of them was a player. A T2 Player, a Scribe to be exact.

Not only that, the leader of the three was at T4 a Bandit Leader.

We looked at each other and decided to hear their conversation.

"That's a good haul you got there, Randal. Where did you find them?" One of the guards of the cave asked.

"These three were hunting for herbs in the forest. We were lucky to catch them while returning from our rounds. Look at this skin. They could entertain the boys. You all have worked hard in the raids after all hahahaha." He said while grabbing one of the girls and forcibly caressing their cheeks.

We looked at each other and no more words were needed.

Almost immediately, all of us got into position.

I brought out my bow and arrow and both Star and I took aim while Shiroe and Veena prepared their spells as well.

And then, at the same moment all of us fired.

Star and I shot the two bandits with the T4 Guy at the same time.

Aim Eyes.

The bandits were shocked at the sudden attack. The one whom I had hit actually died on spot as he was just T2 while the one hit by Star fell on the ground.

The bandit leader let the girl fall and tried to draw his sword but Shiroe was right behind us and used his new Skill, Thorn Bind Hostage, binding the guy.

The girl who had fallen scrambled away from the three and that's where Veena came in and used her Earth Wall spell to provide them some cover and hide them from the bandits. By then, I had put away my Bow and Arrow and drew my sword and shield and ran ahead.

Star gave me cover fire by using Aim Eyes on another Bandit, one of the guards. Shiroe's and Veena's spells came right after and fell on the other two guards.

The sound would attract the rest of the crowd so we have to finish it soon.

I directly headed towards the Bandit Leader and used my strongest Skill, Holy Blade, taking down a third of his hit points at once.

The attack also cut several of the vines of the Thorn Bind Hostage, taking down more of his HP.

I didn't give him any reprieve and followed with another Skill.

Double Slash.

All the vines binding him were cut and he barely had any HP left and fell down with just one more attack.

Damn.

The Man Slayer Class was really something against these types of enemies.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to awe at my skills as we were in the middle of a battlefield.

I went to the downed enemy next and sent two attacks on him and then went behind the Earth Wall and threw a few daggers from my inventory at them girls.

"Take this and finish off the one laying down there and hide behind the wall." I ordered and went to the entrance of the cave."

Shiroe had used his Create Mist Skill inside the cave, making it hard for the bandits to see around.

This made my work easier as I was able to weave between them and attack them without much problem.

Star on the other hand was like a reaper reaping lives.

I was pretty sure he was not using any Skills and yet all his attacks were all hitting vital points.

The Create Mist Skill didn't interrupt the sight of the user and their teammates which made it an extremely useful Skill for crowd battles and with Shiroe's brains, it made him a menace to face.

The weakness of the Skill is that the enemies can just walk out of the area of effect or any Mage with wind magic can blow it away.

The area is not that big at the earlier levels but for us, it was perfect in this scenario as the cave was already a closed space with a narrow opening and I doubted any of the bandits were able to use any wind magic.

Over the next twenty five minutes, we fought continuously.

I personally took down twenty two of the enemies and my health was still in the green zone after using just Holy Light.

"The area is clear." I shouted after going inside a bit and not seeing anything.

It took us 30 more minutes to check the whole place and we found several weapons, gold and other valuables there.

"This is much more than any normal raids we did so far."

"It was obvious, wasn't it that we would get better loot when we take down other human enemies?" Star said while picking up some crossbow bolts we had gathered. "The quality is bad but it's usable."

"We can always sell these and get better stuff so gather everything." Shiroe said while gathering even the smallest piece of armour.

The girls we had saved were given some medicine by Veena and were recovering.

The player was a girl called Elaine. She was going towards Llyne when she was kidnapped by these bandits along with two other girls and brought here.

And guessing from what we had heard, they were going to….

I know I had seen the same done by Goblins in that cave but perhaps it was wishful thinking that I was expecting that such kind of things will not be done to players.

Sigh.

"Don't worry. The bandits on this route have been cleared. You can go ahead safely to Llyne." I said and the girls agreed after some thought.

We escorted them to the road towards Llyne.

"If you need any help in Llyne, you can visit the Knight Academy or the Fairy Tail Guild and ask for us. I will inform someone to show you around." Veena said as she offered the girls some money and then looked at me.

I understood her intentions and sent a Guild Invite to her.

She looked at me in surprise but accepted it nonetheless and bowed to thank me.

I noticed that the girl used formal etiquette generally used by those old families. I had visited some of them due to my dad's business and could recognise this.

In fact, Veena also had similar traits but they were more….imperial than hers. Like she was used to being in a position of power while Elaine was more like she was some kind of attendant.

As the girls went their own way, the rest of us gathered to go over the battle.

Shiroe and Veena had gained one level each while Star was levelling his Apprentice Swordman Class and gained two levels. I….I gained only 20% exp for the current level.

"This was….quite underwhelming." Veena finally broke the silence as she started the subject.

"Hmm. Even at the end, I was waiting for some kind of Boss fight but it seems that the Boss was taken down by Arty at the very start. That first attack was insane. Just how much attack do you have?" Star asked me.

"I have a 50% boost in damage against human and half human species. That's the trait of the Man Slayer Class."

"50%! Damn…."

"Still this is beyond my expectations. I was expecting things to be easier but not this easy." Shiroe said, straightening his glasses.

"We didn't even need any consumables for the entire battle." Veena added.

"It might be because we suddenly got a large increase in power during the raids. We shouldn't rush to face anything more until we get used to it." Shiroe said.

We thought about it and his words did have a point. This increased strength could just be something we haven't gotten used to yet.

Finally, we decided to wait and see till the end of this quest and then decide.

_________________________________x___________________________________

Nothing changed.

We fought for the next three days, even did the Ranger quest for Star and yet, nothing changed.

The enemies were just too weak.

By the time we were done with the quest, all of us were of the same mind.

It was too easy.

"Maybe we should increase the difficulty a bit. Our team can take down T2 and T3 enemies very easily."

"Alright, then it's decided. We go to more dangerous areas after Star gets his Ranger Class." I spoke up.

"Sounds good."

"I don't see why not."