"An ancient land bridge?" Cole asked, "a remnant from the age of Wonder… but it is said such places are cursed."
"Yeah, he's right," Frank added, "it is known."
Aldrich chuckled, "don't tell me you believe that nonsense? Anyway that's my idea, if anyone here has a better one feel free to share with us."
The party members looked at each other in silence and no one spoke up.
"Well, I say we go to the guild and try to change this quest. It's obviously unrealistic for us to do this…" Emma said.
"Please, what will you tell them? Do you really think that a guild like the Knights of last Sustar made such a mistake?"
"I agree with Aldrich, the fact that it was included here must mean that it could be done." Cole said in agreement.
"I mean, I don't think they'll fail us for complaining but I have never heard of a case where the guild agreed to change any of the allocated quests…" Nathan added.
"I guess we really don't have much of a choice…" Helen sighed.
"Okay, why don't we focus on the matter at hand first and then we'll move on." Aldrich said.
"What do you have in mind?" Emma asked.
"Well… first of all I propose myself to be the leader of this party. We should get these details sorted out in my opinion so that we can tackle the other issues more smoothly." Aldrich smiled and explained.
"And why do think you are fit to be the leader?" Nathan asked.
"Well, for a few reasons. I have supernatural strength, I have hunted grade zero level three monsters before and I am basically the most experienced here."
"Aldrich helped my uncle escaped from goblin slavers, he's the real deal." Cole baked Aldrich up.
"Yeah, I too think Aldrich would make a reliable leader." Frank chimed up.
"I'm with Frank on this one." Added Emma.
Looks like helping him out was not in vain, which made Aldrich nod.
"If that's true then I guess it would make sense for you to be the leader, but if you fuck up in the Bandit quest we will choose someone else." Helen acknowledged.
"Yeah, I agree with that."
"Great," Aldrich clapped, "I'm glad we came to a quick decision. I hope that I will be able to take you all to greater heights, we will definitely accomplish these quests without a doubt."
In fact Aldrich wasn't that interested in the leadership role but he wasn't about to let anyone else have it either. So the only way was to take it for himself and hope for the best.
After his latest experience with an incompetent and reckless leader he wasn't too keen on putting himself in that kind of position.
That is not to say that he didn't trust these party members but he just couldn't take that chance.
In Aldrich's opinion the most dangerous thing in this mission was not the thirty or so bandits, it was instead these inexperienced party members.
They were talented, that couldn't be denied, but ultimately talent was not experience. He was able to sense the fear and reluctance in them when they heard that they would have to kill humans.
Almost all of them were green, except perhaps for Cole and Nathan. He was sure that Cole already killed once but he wasn't sure about Nathan due to his weird personality.
Going on this kind of quest with people who haven't killed before was a recipe for disaster. He knew first hand how hard the first time was, and a life or death battle was decided in a moment.
A single second of hesitation was enough to get you killed. Their opponents were by no means experts but they were bandits, killing was nothing to the likes of these scum.
If a bloodthirsty killer faced with a greenhorn that subconsciously held back the result was not hard to predict.
This was the most difficult part of this quest as far as he could see right now. Which is why he already did some preparations, perks of knowing which 'random' quest you will get.
"Alright, my first contribution as the leader of the party will be this, since I seem to have heard of these bandits beforehand, I think I can get someone who has already encountered them to share some information with us."
"What? Really?" Cole asked as if to mirror the rest of the party's feelings.
"Oh, yeah" Aldrich nodded but added, "but it's not a sure thing. Since it's such a short notice… but I will try my best."
Of course it was already done but he didn't want to seem too sure, that would draw unnecessary suspicions.
Besides if he told them the truth he didn't think that they were going to appreciate him willfully taking on the most dangerous quests. And of course Ayemon told him to not speak a word about their meddling.
"Oh, if you can really do that, it would help so much." Helen said sounding impressed.
"Well, well, well, our leader sure has a lot of tricks up his sleeve doesn't he?" Nathan remarked.
"He might be the real deal." Emma said.
This worked better than expected to cement his role as the leader and instill a sense of trust in the party members.
"Well we shouldn't delay more than three days before departure so I will arrange the meeting to be tomorrow morning. Have you guys heard of Dane's coffee and pastry?"
"Hmm, oh, the one in the academy district by the bank?" Helen asked.
"You know it? Yeah it's that one we should meet there for breakfast at ten, and I will bring that person there so all of us can hear what he has to say."
"Sounds good to me. I heard about their coffee too, I might have heard that they were closing down soon?" Frank asked.
Aldrich smiled as he said, "you can't believe everything you hear, Frank. That joint is going to be around for a long time, trust me on that."
****
"Ladies and gentlemen, this here is a member of a certain escort agency that was escorting a merchant and his goods through the trade rout that skirts the Zurn woods."
The group was sitting in the second floor in an open air area, the table was packed with all sorts of sandwiches, pastries and cakes. Along with coffee of course.
Aldrich introduced an awkward looking one armed man, he had shaved his beard recently and his clothes looked like they weren't ironed in a long time.
"For reasons relating to confidentiality he will remain nameless and so will be his associates. He was there to witness and survived the attack of the bandits so he will fill us in. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask."
"Uh, so why don't you tell us the general gist of what happened."
"Alright," the man replied with a gruff voice, "uh, our employer already knew about the bandits, the had become infamous in the area. So he hired fifteen well trained, equipped and experienced guards."
The man coughed, "but that was not all, he also got information of the usual striking spots of the bandits along the rout. His plan was not simple either, he made us change rout an hour before the bandits usual barricades."
"Aha, he wanted them to think that you guys were non-the wiser to let down their caution." Nathan analyzed, "as for why he only changed the rout then it was to make sure the bandits were all concentrated and not spread out."
"You are right, he even abandoned one carriage full of goods to circle around the woodland rout… but, we were still attacked all the same."
"But how? That makes no sense. How could they have known your location when you changed route abruptly." Aldrich asked.
"I don't know, nobody knows, but they were all there almost all thirty of them, waiting for us as if they knew…"
"Humph! I figured it out," Helen declared, "it must have been a traitor from within, that's the only explanation that makes perfect sense."
"Yeah, but… how can are bunch of bandits…" Nathan's words trailed off but everyone understood what he was trying to say.
How can bandits have people already in a merchant caravan, either it was great coincidence or these bandits were really a front for a syndicate of some kind.
"No, it wasn't one of us!" The nameless man said indignation lining his facial expression, "it couldn't have been."
"I understand you want to trust and believe in your companions but…"
"No, it's not that," the man shook his head vigorously, "it couldn't have been because no one except the head merchant knew that we were going to change route suddenly. It was a secret kept by one man."
At this point the the atmosphere got heavy, and for good reason. It made no sense for the bandits to have been prepared for a sudden change of plans especially when they have already set up their barricades.
Unless the head merchant told on himself, obviously that was out of the question.
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