Halfway on his way to the town, Arthur heard the sound of several footsteps.
"Is it a patrol?" Arthur wondered before shaking his head.
The footsteps were mismatched and didn't seem to be that of soldiers marching. But ten seconds later, he finally got a glimpse of the people that were coming towards him.
"Bandits…" Arthur narrowed his eyes, having seen the appearance of the people.
The only difference this time was that these bandits looked better than the ones Arthur had killed earlier. Arthur counted them and found there to be around twenty of them!
"You there!" Arthur wasn't the only one who had looked at the bandits, as they also spotted him. "Stop!"
A few thoughts rushed through Arthur's mind as he made a plan. He was ready for combat, but seeing the number of bandits he was wary about them. After all twenty was a higher number, and while he had Brambles, Arthur still reckoned it was better to be cautious.
The first thing he did was to quickly use Dragon's insight on the bandits.
But when he did that, he was astounded.
"What the…" The information about the bandits popped up in front of Arthur, surprising him.
>Dragon's Insight has been successfully activated!<
~DING~
——
Target: Forest Bandit x 5
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Warrior
Level: 15
***
Target: Forest Bandit x 4
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Archer
Level: 15
***
Target: Forest Bandit x 2
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Mage
Level: 16
***
Target: Forest Bandit x 4
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Thief
Level: 15
***
Target: Forest Bandit x 2
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Swordsman
Level: 15
***
Target: Forest Bandit x 2
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Shieldbearer
Level: 15
***
Target: Bandit Captain
Race: Human (NPC)
Class: Warrior
Level: 21
——
Arthur used the skill on all of them simultaneously and only looked at their basic information. But it was still a to surprise him.
'How the hell is a group like them even here?' Arthur couldn't figure it out.
While it wasn't unusual for there to be bandits of this level, it was a different thing for them to be on the highway that led to the Ocher Plains. After all, this was a highway that was being patrolled by the soldiers from time to time.
Thus the bandits would avoid it at all costs.
Arthur was also sure that these bandits weren't exactly 'exiled' like the others.
Furrowing his brows, Arthur thought about his options. He could always run, but that was a viable option if it was just melee attackers among the bandits. Unfortunately for Arthur, there were also ranged Archers including two mages among the bandits.
Just the mages alone could be concerning when combined with the rest of the bandits.
"You! Who are you?" The bandits shouted while approaching him hastily.
It was clear that they wouldn't let any random person run away after seeing them. It would be problematic for them if the person who had run away told them about their appearance to the authorities, after all.
"Me? Who are you!?" Arthur questioned them instead, without showing a hint of fear.
Instead, he had a scowl on his face as if pissed off at the people in front of him.
"Hah? Did water fill your head?" One of the bandits said.
"Look at this bastard, who do you think you are to talk to us like that?" Another bandit shouted.
"Humph! I am Gabriel, the headhunter!" Arthur replied.
"A head hunter?" The bandits were surprised.
"What's a headhunter doing here?" this time the captain of the bandits spoke.
He was a tall man with a scar on his face. But compared to the disguised height of Arthur, he was still shorter.
Arthur walked up to the captain and looked down at him with sharp eyes.
"What am I doing here? Hunting for heads, of course." Arthur replied.
"Whose head?" The bandit captain questioned.
"Just some adventurer who had a bounty on him.' Arthur answered without much thought.
"An adventurer huh… and why do you have that pelt on your back then?" the Bandit captain questioned.
"That's my spoils," Arthur replied. "Took everything from the dead adventurer."
"What proof do you have that you killed that adventurer?" one of the bandit swordsmen asked.
"Yeah, it could just be you pretending." Another archer chimed in.
"Do you think I need to show that to you?" Arthur scoffed.
The bandit captain gave him a fierce look before speaking, "You better show some proof or we might as well end you here."
"As if you all could. Humph!" Arthur didn't break his act. "But I don't want to waste any effort." He said before throwing an identity card to the bandit chief.
"Take a look." Arthur stated.
The bandit chief looked at the adventurer's ID card for a moment before calling out to a mage. "Boron, check this."
The mage named Boron came forward and held the card before using an appraisal skill on it. It was evident that the mage was more proficient in it than the others.
After using it on the card, Boron used it on Arthur too.
"He's right," Boron spoke. "This card belongs to Arzhur. That is not him."
"So you killed this adventurer, Arzhur?" The bandit captain questioned.
"Yeah. Killed him and took all he had." Arthur replied.
"That spear also belonged to him?" The bandit captain asked next.
"What do you think?" Arthur rolled his eyes.
It was now that one of the bandits at the back spoke in a low voice. "That spear's blade seems to match the wounds on the dead exiles we saw earlier."
"Indeed." The bandit captain replied.
"What? Did that adventure kill your men?" Arthur chuckled.
"It seems like he did… kill some of our exiles." The bandit captain replied. "And why did you kill that adventure?" he asked next.
"He offended some people he shouldn't have. Had a price put on his head that I found convenient." Arthur replied.
"Hmm… is that so." The Bandit captain said furrowing his brows thinking about a few things.
"So what do you want from me?" Arthur questioned next.
"You do know we can't let you go." The bandit captain replied.
"That would be a bad decision. You wanna pick a fight with me and the company behind me, hah?" Arthur threatened them openly.
Hearing this the bandit captain narrowed his eyes.
He thought about Arthur and his behavior, which seemed to be nonchalant.
"Which company do you belong to?" The Bandit Captain questioned finally.
"Pentadagger Mercenary company," Arthur said with a smile.
As soon as the bandits heard that, they all gasped. Even the Bandit Captain was taken aback thinking about all that Arthur had said and the way he had acted so far.
"What? Cat got your tongue?" Arthur chuckled. "I wonder how the higher ups would like if they heard that Dozla's Bandits are interrupting in their business?" Arthur finally threw in his trump card.
"You!" Upon hearing that, the Bandit Captains' expression changed to that of a mix of anger and hesitation.
"How do you know that?" The Bandit captain couldn't help but ask.
"Do you really think it's hard to guess? Who else other than Dozla would have enough bandits to freely wander around these parts?" Arthur replied.
The bandit chief became silent after hearing that, and a frown appeared on his face. He didn't speak for thirty seconds after which he finally opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, Arthur interrupted him.
"Now then, I need to get on my way. You all are wasting my time. I still got more heads to collect." Arthur said nonchalantly.
"Fine…" The Bandit captain replied. "Let him through."
"And the card, I still need to show it for payment." Arthur extended his hand.
"Here," the mage named Boron gave it back to Arthur.
Having taken the card, Arthur stored it away before walking straight through the bandits who parted for him.
"You all should really be careful. Appearing in the open like this would be bad if the patrol catches you." Arthur spoke. "But then again, Dozla should know this… so if he sent you all here despite that, you all must be really desperate to get to those exiles." He added, making the bandits a bit nervous.
Arthur's gaze made them feel strangely intimidated without them understanding why. Unknown to them, Arthur was using Dragon's Insight on them and reading all the details he could on them.
A few clues were already presented to Arthur, and he was already developing an idea of why they were here.
"Anyway, it's getting late." Arthur finally said. "Watch y'all heads. Or someone might just reap them away without you knowing, Hahaha!" he stated before leaving.
Once Arthur was gone, the Bandits were left shouting in anger.
"Who the hell does he think he is?!"
"Just because he belongs to The Pentadagger Mercenaries, does it make him that arrogant?"
"We couldn've just killed him right away. We are literally twenty!"
The lower ranked bandits weren't satisfied evidently.
"Enough!" But the bandit captain's shout silenced them. "The Pentadagger Mercenaries aren't to be messed with… Even Chief Dozla owes them a debt."
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