Chapter 983 Bandits
It isn't that late yet and according to Queen Tanya, the enemies have yet to fully reach halfway of our location but because they have already spotted us from the distance, they are now eager to plunder our belongings to the very last scrap as well as to take the mansion by themselves.
"Just how dangerous are we talking about in here? They might just be a laughingstock and we are just wasting time preparing when we can defeat from a distance easily."
"A lot more dangerous than the bandits we encountered along the way. There are even magic users and some high-level guys present there as well. I can't take this matter lightly, to be honest. And the leader seems to be a level 400 guy as well."
The moment Queen Tanya mentioned a level 400 bandit, I immediately knew who she was talking about.
At first, I was not connecting the bandit camp that Queen Tanya discovered and the one I am thinking of due to the fact that the bandit camp I have known is considered a boss area. The level 400 boss is considered a boss that changes every time it is defeated. The enemies are always not identical to each other and they always differ in the patterns of their attacks, making the place a unique boss experience every time the boss is slain.
Now that I don't consider this world as a game, I can see why the boss changes every time. Because the old one is killed, they will have to replace the ones ruling the bandits which results in a new boss. And since they don't just casually change bosses, the new bosses take time to respawn before they are back as a level 400 boss, which is most likely being trained for their position.
Seeing how the boss is still alive, it's either the players have yet to discover this place or they have already done so, but since the boss is dead, they are not here. But if that is the case, then perhaps this new boss just recently became the new boss and as the new big boss, for his first deed, he wanted to snag a big haul to impress his subordinates which is why they are targeting us right now.
I grabbed my Versatile Weapon and changed it to a sniper rifle. Since I can change the form of the Versatile Weapon into different guns, this gun is more suited to snipe the boss from ahead or even deal with those enemies that are totally dangerous if not dealt with immediately.
"Are you going to pick them one by one from here?" Queen Tanya asked.
"It's a good way for target practice. Besides, they are still far from us. It's best to reduce their numbers while they are still far here. Once they get close, a cannon should further reduce their numbers."
I lie down in my stomach as I aim the sniper rifle towards the direction where Queen Tanya spotted the bandits and sure enough, a lot of them are indeed marching towards us. They only use a few lights that are enough to light up the way. Seeing that those lights are just balls of light floating in the air, they do have a mage in their ranks.
It's hard to see in the dark while sniping for them so I opened up my inventory and grabbed one vial of eye drops called "[Owl's Vision]" that will allow me to see in the dark without the need for lights. After the drops are now in effect, I look back at the scope and the view is much clearer now and I can see the enemies now, regardless of whether the area they are in is well-lit or not.
"Let's see...ah gotcha!"
I took a few breaths to relax before I fully aimed it at the enemy far away. As I exhaled my breath, I squeezed the trigger, and the mana bullet shot off into the distance where the guy that I aimed the gun with fell. The log revealed that I killed the guy in one shot, so I am happy about that.
As for why I decided to deal with the mage first, the mages are more troublesome in terms of unpredictability due to how they can sometimes be capable of turning the tides in battle and sometimes capable of doing some abilities that can be annoying to deal with.
As a result of shooting one of the bandits, one of the balls of lights disintegrated after the caster died. The bandits are now confused and are looking around them for enemies. Since they didn't know where the attack came from, every one of them was now on high alert as they looked all over who attacked them.
Scoping for the next I looked for the other mage in their group. Since there are only two balls of floating light, there are only two mages, with one of them already dead. I repeated what I did before by calming my nerves and shooting them again which caused the marching bandits to have lost their only source of light.
"Oh? You seem to know what you are doing, Manato," Queen Tanya looked impressed.
"Haha, really? I was just following some instructions I learned before in shooting sniper rifles. Also, I just imitated how it works in games and honestly, I am not sure I am doing things correctly. But hey, if it works, it works."
With Japan being strict in gun and sword laws, there is no way for me to even see or touch a gun without searching the internet. The closest I have to a real gun are only some police officers I have seen around before and most of them uses pistol instead of rifles so unless I decided to go as a soldier, I don't think I will be able to touch or use a gun at all.
As for the instructions that I found for using a sniper rifle, I remembered that one as I searched before if real snipers hold their breath when sniping since that was the case in games, turns out, that it is half true and half lie. They only hold their breath if they are inexperienced or need the extra momentum that holding their breath gives which is useful during competitions of some sort.
With two mages down, the bandits decided to use torches to proceed. They are still going at us without stopping which means they are more inclined to proceed.
Now that two mages are down, I decided to look for lesser-equipped people and those who carry equipment for the group. Without anyone to carry their equipment, the bandits will be forced to either carry their own equipment or perhaps retreat preemptively.?Either way is fine for me.
The bandits are too tense and are now looking around their surroundings where the enemies are coming from. They don't suspect anything else that the one who killed their mages currently is watching them from far away. After a few more scopes, I soon found one of my targets. He is busy giving the bandits torches and lighting up every one of them while also managing the inventory of the whole group.
"I don't have any grudges on you but since you are one of the backbones for this group raid, I am afraid you will have to go this time."
Pulling the trigger, another bullet shoots through and the guy falls down, dead. Another one tries to go and rescue the guy that I just shot but I stopped him by shooting him as well.
BANG!
A single bullet is enough for most of these bandits. As for the boss, I doubt one bullet is enough for him to die. Once I got all of the mana bullets loaded shot, I reloaded it with a new set, and this time, I aimed it at the more well-armored bandits. Because the bandits were still in panic due to the multiple bandits dying one by one from an unknown assailant, the leader stopped everyone from going further and decided to retreat. But because I am not some easily fooled guy, I am not just going to let them go like this and think that they are done falling one by one. Because if I do fall for that trap, then they will know that someone else is currently attacking us from a distance.
I aimed and then squeezed the trigger and one guy fell over to the ground. I didn't stop and another one fell over. Seeing that the tactic of false retreat is not working, the bandit leader screamed to his other companions to retreat for real this time.
Hearing this, the bandits started running from where they came from. I still shoot those I can shoot but most of them are far from the scope and range of my gun so I stopped doing so and sighed in relief.
"Alright... those guys are gone although I am not sure whether they will come back, but I am quite sure they are not going to be around for a while."
Queen Tanya gazed at the location of the bandit camp and grinned. It seems she got some idea on what to do.
"Hey, how about we raid that place and deal with them after their massive losses?"
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