Collecting Rewards

Diego kicked the dead carcass of the bandit king to see if he would wake up. He sighed in relief, "you know, sometimes, there's plot twists. Like the guy you killed wakes up and comes after you for revenge."

"I never heard of anything like that before unless he's like the walking dead. I assume that may not be the case." Ira bends down, checking the corpse's vitals. "And that's if we cross a forbidden territory. We wouldn't see such a thing over here."

"That would be a scary case. He looks ugly as hell. Imagine a British zombie..Jeepers," Jaimie cried, biting their nail. Diego walked towards the corpse and stripped the bandit's armor off. It was sturdy despite the battle with Ira. "You don't mind if I keep this, right?" Diego looked at Ira, grinning. He hastily removed his top to put the armor on, not allowing Ira to reply.

[Flashy Armor, +6 Armor]

"This armor perfectly suits me, look at the name 'Flashy Armor,' not like I'm flamboyant or anything." Diego smug's face started to irritate Jaimie, she chose to close her eyes at his display.

Ira shrugged his shoulders at Diego's actions. Standing back up, he gestured for them to come over to heal their wounds. Diego had multiple cuts on his body. He kept flexing with the new armor, and his wounds opened again. Blood was pouring through his shirt, but he didn't care as long he looked good. Ira used wrapped his light magic around Jaimie first.

"Wauugh this feels amazing, I feel like I'm back in the womb again." Said Jaimie.

"What about me? I'm more wounded than her!"

"Be patient. You're both gonna get healed anyways."

"Yeah, Diego, stop always trying to be first in everything. They always say ladies first." Jaimie snapped back. Diego's eye twitched, looking at Jaimie. "You're far from a lady," he whispered under his breath, "especially with all that poop talk."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Before Jaimie could fight Diego, Ira gave them both a glare, and they settled down. Jaimie mumbled under her breath, "at least I didn't almost die, then tried looting right after like Ira wasn't fighting a whole British dude.." Ira karate-chopped Jaimie's head, and it got healed right after a bump appeared. "If you could talk this much, I don't think you need healing after all." Ira scolded Jaimie, "You too, Diego." After healing Jaimie, he went toward Diego and wrapped him with a warm light. "Can you not heal all the way? These are my battle scars, if people look at me they'd have to think twice." Diego asked.

Ira wasn't even bothered to entertain Diego and healed him entirely, just like Jaimie which made him a bit depressed. Ira thoughtfully into the distance, 'I'm sure they should be back around this time. I know Fae can look after Pota and River.' A few moments later in the distance the villagers were making their way back into the village with River in the front and Fae and Pota behind him. Finally making it back, the villagers caught up with each other and made their way back into their houses, some of them were even cleaning the battlefield and stacking corpses in a pile, deciding what they could do with it later. Fae and Pota reunited with the group and they both shared their experiences with the bandit camp. "It was my first time killing someone, but maybe because of my familiarity with the forest it felt like I was returning someone back to the earth so I didn't feel that much guilt." Fae was explaining his experiences on what it was like for him to the group. Jaimie shared that it felt like stabbing into a mushy sandbag that could squirt blood when you inserted something in them. Diego was just thinking he was the main protagonist during the whole battle.

After River finished talking to his younger brother, he caught up with the group. "Thank you guys for rescuing the villagers and especially getting my younger brother back I was worried sick. I wish I could give the rest of you something but we don't have much right now since we have to build back our village and all the other stuff," River grabbed a bag of coins from his pocket giving it to them, "Here's some coins that I looted from the bandits, and I already gave Pota and Fae a map so I hope it guides you in your journey. This is all I can give you for now... In the future, it would be nice if you guys visited us." River bowed towards them and then went to help the rest of the villagers settle in.

[16 Gold coins]

Fae gave Ira the map River gave them. Opening it showed cities around them, and they spotted their next destination. "It's time to make our way to the city... Lunaria." The group waved their goodbyes and walked out of the village, heading to the city according to the map.

Walking through the forests they made a couple turns. Diego and Fae killed some beasts on the way using Fae to track them and Diego to finish them. At night they set up a campfire, grabbing some sticks they cooked the meat kebab style. "This is really a spongebob campfire atmosphere." Jaimie said sitting down while eating. She then started to sing,

"I call this one the "Campfire Song Song"

Let's gather around the campfire

And sing our campfire song

Our C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song

And if you don't think that we can sing it faster, then you're wrong

But it'll help if you just sing along."

Soon Diego started to join in then Fae and Pota. Ira was the only one confused he started to rub his head in stress, 'Master why have you left me with these people..' The atmosphere was joyous and the sun began to rise. Everyone was sleeping peacefully while Ira kept watch.