—–
“T-That’s a kid?!”
“Doesn’t matter, kill the damn brat! He killed Jon like nothing!”
“You shitty kid! Is this all your doing?!”
Three bandits rushed in. I quickly recognized the face of one of them, that was the Brigand Barbaros, a man that is being wanted dead or alive that has been part of several bandit groups that had been constantly destroyed. He somehow always managed to escape mysteriously, only to form a new bandit group later and begin his pillaging and thievery once more.
“Naturally.” I said, taking out sphere-shaped iron chunks I had saved inside my pocket and throwing two at the same time towards the faces of the two other bandits than the boss.
BAAM! BAAM!
“AGGH!”
“M-MY EYE!”
Naturally, Level 4 [Throwing Technique] was as useful as ever. Granting a great attack increase and also accuracy enhancement, I was able to throw two iron balls at the same time with a single hand to two separate directions. This way, I blinded both bandits in a single go. However, this is the world of spirits, and therefore, when someone is cornered, they usually bring their spirits out, even as weak as they could be.
“Gyysha!”
“Roar!”
The two bandits didn’t had shitty spirits at that, a large three-meter-big anaconda appeared, alongside a dog made out of darkness, both looking fierce, they immediately charged my way.
“HAH!”
I swung my spear and pierced their heads without any trouble, however. Spirits of this level, as Rank 1 Initial Stage, were incredibly weak. It wasn’t anything hard to easily kill them without any problems. A spirit is stronger than their user, but their growth is still connected to them, and due to their nature as beings made out of spiritual essence, they usually die after a few hits or a very strong one towards their head.
POOF! POOF!
With both spirits disappearing from my sight, I locked my eyes into the two men bleeding in the ground, kicking their heads and knocking them out in the spot, quickly realizing the boss was… gone.
“Huh? Where did this bastard went?” I asked, pretending to be surprised.
Suddenly, I heard the breathing of somebody right behind me. The man had suddenly become invisible and pointed a sword towards my neck, quickly swinging it.
“DIE, YOU BRAT!”
SLASH!
CLASH!
However, I easily intercepted his sorry excuse of a surprise attack, sweeping his legs and making him fall over his face.
“AKH!”
“Barbaros, a Brigand Boss wanted for eighty thousand Telis. It is presumed that your Spirit or Talent might give you the ability to easily sneak away or even… become invisible, huh?” I asked with a smile. “Seems like the rumors are right.”
“S-Shit!”
The man, having lost his weapon as he had dropped it when he fell over the floor, quickly tried to crawl away while abusing the power he had to turn invisible. I chased him back rapidly, throwing my spear into his right leg and sticking him over the rocky floor.
CLASH!
“GYYAAAH!”
A pathetic scream resonated across the caves. It wasn’t that strong at all, the man was more like just very good at escaping, huh? He just ran away from me…
“I guess a fitting challenge is not something you’ll give me, right?” I sighed.
Eleanora quickly appeared at his side, as her sharp heels pierced his right hand, while I crushed his left hand with my hand.
“Aagghhh! S-Stoooop! I-I’ll give you anything here! Please spare my life!”
“Oh really?” I asked with a smirk.
“Y-Yes!” He cried.
“Hm, alright then!” I said with a nod. “As long as you answer a few questions, I’ll let you go.”
“Eh?! Questions?”
“Yes. First question: Where are the other bandit hideouts?”
“T-There’s a map in the second room here, you can find them all in the map marked with a cross!” He cried. “T-They’re all just lowly and shitty thieves that don’t compare to me, so you can have them all for yourself!”
“Hoh, so fast at selling your comrades… Second question: Are you related with nobility or any organization?” I asked.
“N-Nobility? A brigand such as me?! That’s not even a thing!” He said. I quickly tightened my foot over his hand, as he cried out a bit and spoke. “W-Well, there’s someone employing me for it…! B-But I can’t really say who he is or he’ll kill me if this becomes widespread!!!”
I continued asking him various things, he answered them all half-heartedly. Sometimes he simply denied responding to my questions, but ultimately, I think I had asked him almost everything I could. However, the things he didn’t wanted to answer truly made me enraged, so I decided to change my plans with him.
“S-So will you let me leave now?” He asked desperately.
“Hm… Change of plans, Eleanora, turn him into your servant.”
“Eh?!”
“Alright.”
If he becomes a servant, he’ll speak all he knows anyways. I can behead him afterwards without many problems.
“Agggh…!”
Eleanora used her Skill [Blood Contract] and shared some of her blood with him. The man began to struggle to survive, his transformation was half-way through it but…
He died before fully turning.
“Huh, no luck this time, eh?” I sighed.
“Well, that’s all there is to it.” Elenora said.
We had captured roughly 13 Bandits in this raid. But there’s no way I have the capacity of carrying all 13 of them back home. So we decided to make of this bandit hideout our second underground base for the moment. We carried all the paralyzed bodies inside again and lined them up. Eleanora began turning them all until she reached her limit of servants she could have all while I was picking up all the things they pillaged. There was a small fortune in here. As always, stealing from bandits is an easy way to get money.
There were thirty small gold coins, five big gold coins, three hundred small silver coins, and a few thousand bronze coins, that was a lot of Telis. I ended packing everything inside of my Inventory Bags I’ve already made. They were able to store everything without issues, but they’re incapable of storing living things.
“They’re ready.”
“Very well, let’s begin the interrogations.”
—–