Chapter 64 – Solo once more.

Roland was sitting on a tree stump that was meant for chopping wood. He had some red beans in a wooden bowl that he was munching on. This was the morning of the next day after the fight with the bandits.

It had rained for a couple of hours during the night but soon afterward the clouds had cleared up. The next day was quite sunny and thanks to the rain the stench of blood wasn’t as bad.

While eating he looked at the pile of corpses in the middle of the village that was more of a small encampment of farmers. Golgrim was just pulling the last dead bandit towards this pile.

Roland was a bit surprised about himself and how he was taking this in. He was staring at a large number of deceased but he was fine with it. He was even enjoying a meal and not once did he feel like vomiting. He could only attribute this to his new mental fortitude that came with his heightened willpower stat.

He could also see the bandit leader’s large two-handed ax strapped to Golgrim’s back. The half-orc requested it as a reward and the party obliged. It was a nice weapon made from deep steel that would probably last for a while.

Roland didn’t just hand over the loot to his three temporary partners. He mostly agreed to it as there were more weapons made from deep steel stashed away. The bandits had placed all of their earnings in one of the wagons that had remained.

The party of four wouldn’t be taking all of that though, it didn’t belong to them. There were also survivors from the caravan that were the true owners. The rescue party would be getting something in return, they were free to take things that had no owners. Even though there were survivors, not everyone had made it out alive.

He glanced at his status screen to see that he had leveled up once from this fight. It might have seemed that they defeated a lot of high level foes but that wasn’t the case. Roland’s level was above 70 with all his classes combined. That meant that anyone that was below this level wouldn’t give him that much experience.

He would start leveling up well only after defeating people or monsters above his base level. Most of these bandits were between 40 and 60, while the bandit leader was around 80. It was enough to get him one level but he still had 4 levels to go. Only then could he begin his life as a tier 2.

While finishing up with his food Roland thought back to the previous night and how it went.

They had made a fast plan of action before heading into the occupied village. He used the shadow veil spell scroll that he had. It gave him invisibility in shadows and in dark places, thus making him and Logon practically invisible.

It pained him but he had to use up most of his mine rune scrolls and his detonation ones. Both he and his elven helper planted those mine runes in front of the village house entrances. Others were stuck to doors directly so that when a bandit opened them up, they would detonate. Windows and back entrances were also booby-trapped.

Everything worked out better than expected. The bandits panicked and went right for the openings, if they barricaded themselves inside he just threw in a bomb or two to flush them out. The ones that managed to get outside were dispatched by his half-orc companion. The drunk ruffians were no match for him.

He remained hidden while using some ranged magic spells to help out Golgrim. Aredhel remained on the sidelines buffing him and the half-orc when she could. They had managed to clear out the village of bandits quite fast, after the boss was slain they all crumbled.

Defeating the bandits didn’t mean that the work was over. There were many injured people hidden away in the houses. Some of them were villagers while others were from the caravan. Most of the survivors were women and children as the bandits probably didn’t see them as threats. In all likelihood, they wanted to use them as playthings or maybe sell them off as slaves later on.

Luckily Aredhel was here and she was able to heal most of the physical wounds. At her level, she couldn’t restore severed limbs. Besides those with enough time, any internal or external injury that wasn’t too deep was healed. She wouldn’t be able to do anything about the psychological wounds though.

That being said not all the men perished, most of the farmers from this village survived and just got beat up. They were lucky that Roland and his party arrived on the exact day that the village was taken over. It was quite a speedy rescue still, there were casualties.

Roland didn’t see the family of three anywhere here that he met during the caravan ride.

‘This sure isn’t the old world that I lived in, huh?’

There was no police or army coming. No one would scour the mountains to look for survival. This would only happen if an outsider came to the adventurer’s guild with a job offer. At most, there would be some kind of formal letter to go take out the bandits if news arrived that they were roaming the lands. By then everyone would be dead and the bandits would have probably moved on if they were smart.

Many people were sobbing while putting a cloth over their deceased loved one’s faces. He could only look from afar while thinking about his own future. Even more than before he was contemplating on getting stronger. If he wanted to evade something like this happening to him in the future he needed power.

“We’ll be moving soon, what are you going to do?”

Roland placed the finished bowl of beans to the side and looked up. Logon had arrived and asked him that question. The moon elf had a full set of leather armor on that he had looted from a bandits corps. He had chosen the best parts from a wide variety of leather gear so it didn’t look uniform in color.

“Far away from here. The survivors from the caravan are going to continue towards the port city, I’m going to go with them… after that… who knows…”

There weren’t many soldiers or adventurers left that survived so those people actually needed him to protect the smaller convoy. Roland, on the other hand, didn’t really want to go on foot so this was fine with him.

From here it would only take them about two days to arrive at the larger city. They could also inform the guards stationed there about the bandit problem, maybe they would actually send someone to check out the mountains for any survivors.

“Is that so… I would like to thank you on behalf of…”

Before Logon could go through with his monologue Roland raised his hand to stop him. He didn’t really care to what faction this elf belonged. It would be even better if he had less information as he had a sinking suspicion that these two were involved in some kind of noble squabbles.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

This was something he wasn’t willing to get involved in. What if they decided to show up on his doorstep asking for more help later? That’s why he also didn’t say where he was truly headed. From the port town, he could travel anywhere so it wasn’t really detailed information that could give up his final destination.

“Logon is right. If Mr. Carmine ever ventures into the lands of Bolia you are welcome to search for us. I’m sure my father will give you a hefty reward or if you are searching for work we could also accommodate you. You just need to head over to the Irithyl household.”

Aredhel wobbled over from the side. She had been treating injured people the entire night and was probably depleted of mana. Roland knew well the feeling of overworking yourself.

He also thought about her proposal, was ditching this kingdom for another one such a bad idea? But would he have enough freedom there? He could very well be looked down upon as a human being in the land of elves.

He also didn’t want to get involved with that so-called council of elders. It sounded like it worked in similar ways as the nobles in this country. They only had a slightly more democratic way of doing things but he reckoned that in the shadows there were some shady deals being made.

“It’s fine, I’m already set on my destination, and these mana stones and what those bandits had is enough for me.”

He replied while standing up.

“You should be careful from now on. You’ll probably have to take the scenic route to get back to your country.”

By that, he meant that they would need to evade the soldiers at the borders. They were still branded as slaves and would be apprehended if seen.

If they got caught there was still a possibility of someone from their side being called over. Depending on who that person was they could be saved. Keeping nobles from other countries as slaves could be a prelude to war. Normally the people in charge would return them to their homes but could also try to silence them in fear of retaliation.

“You should probably also look into the people who knew about your departure…”

Aredhel moved her head to the side while Logon frowned. He had already mentioned this before and the two knew that the whole thing was fishy.

“Don’t worry, this time I won’t let anything happen to Lady Aredhel!”