Chapter 309 - Bandits

It took a further 2 days to leave the Ingrid forest for real, from there it was plains for a few days before the convoy met its first real hurdle: The Prious pass.

"So… We have to pass through here or extend our trip by half a month?"

"Yeah, and it's known to be a bandit hotspot…"

The pass was not a real pass in the geographical sense it was a passage between two forests which was known to be magic beast infested, it was even said that class 10 magic beast ruled the inner parts of the forests, however, that was unconfirmed

"So basically we're riding into an ambush for sure?"

"Yep"

"Yeah"

"Sure, it's usually one or two before we pass through the pass"

Mercury sighed before he asked the mercenary beside him

"Then why do you all look so chippy?"

The mercenary smiled before he explained

"Bandits are greedy right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well that means treasure"

"Ah… I see, but won't it be a problem to leave the caravan to search for it?"

"Nah that's in the contact… 'If we defeat bandits we have a 24 hour grace period to search for treasure' It's been standard in the contacts for a long time now"

"Oh… Then I hope we can share in the ill-gained treasure of our enemies"

"Sure~ As long as you pull your weight~"

Mercury showed a smile as he patted his sheath with his free hand

"You don't have to worry about that"

"Then what about your girl? Is she any good with that spear of hers?"

"I don't know actually… She says she been using it since she was old enough to hold it"

"That's good to hear… Honestly, I was a little worried that you two wouldn't be able to pull your own weight"

"Well I can see that, though I wouldn't worry about that, I at least will be able to protect my woman myself, you don't have to worry about us"

"Huh~ Said like a true man, I like you kid, what's your name?"

"My name is Mercury"

The mercenary held out his hand, Mercury shook it his hand was rough, covered in hard skin on the palm, it was the hand of a true swordsman

"Name's Henn, I am a silver ranked mercenary"

"Nice to meet you Henn"

"Hey Mercury, what are you guys talking about?"

Marie had walked over before Mercury had noticed, he showed a smile and introduced Marie to Henn

"Henn this is Marie"

"Hello girly, It's nice to meet you"

Marie showed a smile before she looked at Hann's broadsword he was carrying over his shoulder and commented

"Nice sword, well maintained too"

"You can tell?"

"Yeah I am a level 4 blacksmith after all"

"Ehh… Really? Well you do have the build of a blacksmith in hindsight, sorry about that girly, I didn't mean to doubt you"

"It's fine, I am used to it, being a good woman blacksmith has its own problems after all"

"I can imagine…"

"Well I can take a look at your sword tonight if you want, since your friends with Mercury you are a friend of me too"

"Thanks a lot, girly, I'll gladly take you up on your offer"

Mercury nodded approvingly before he spoke to Marie

"I would like to learn the maintenance process too, I am your apprentice after all"

"Sure~"

Soon it was evening and the convoy made its camp next to the road, the night shift was soon decided upon, and then Mercury and Marie looked over Hann's broadsword and found no significant faults, after applying some maintenance oil to the blade it was as good as new

"Thanks a lot, girly!"

Marie showed a smile and nodded, Hann looked at the two of them and timely excused himself and left them alone at their campfire, Mercury showed a smile when Marie leaned against him as the two of them watched the fire Marie spoke

"Hey, Mercury?"

"Yeah?"

"...You won't forget me right?"

"No never"

Mercury answered without hesitation which made Marie happy, she showed a sweet smile before she patted his shoulder and got him to lean back, then she laid down onto his lap and looked up at him with a sweet smile and slightly closed eyes

"Ehehe~"

Mercury received a critical hit from that…

The next morning Mercury woke up when a horn was sounded, he quickly got dressed and got out of the tent, so did Marie, they both knew that the horn signaled that they were being attacked by something, Mercury opened his hand and the ground below him compacted before a cane floated up and landed in his hand, then he walked along with Marie over to where the attack seemed to be happening from, sure enough, there was a group of rowdy looking men approaching on horseback, a rather large group at that, Mercury walked up next to Hann calmly spoke

"Morning"

Hann glanced to his side briefly before he spoke

"Yeah morning kid, you ready for some morning gymnastics?"

"Sure… Just let me do some stretches first…"

Hann showed a smile

"You sure a calm kid…"

"Aren't you the same?"

"Well, I've faced death numerous times before…"

"Yeah so have I…"

"Ohh~... I see, no wonder you are so calm about this kid"

Mercury nodded and looked to his side where Marie stood, she was focused like she usually were when she was forging, Mercury patted her on the shoulder before he asked Hann

"So… Are we sure that they are bandits?"

"Yeah…"

"Then why haven't we attacked yet?"

"Well they are out of range still"

"Nah, they entered my range a few moments ago"

Mercury stepped forwards a few steps before he spoke out

"Then let me do the honors!"

Then he tapped his cane against the ground once and a rock wall shot up from the ground right in front of the charging bandit's on horseback, a few slams later the rock wall declined to into the ground again, the other side was a sorry sight with the bandits had gone full speed into the rock wall, about half of them were dead from the impact and the rest were injured, Mercury turned back to the rest of the mercenaries and spoke

"Let's go get us some bandits?"

Hann was the first to break out in a slightly nervous laugh, this was followed by the rest of the mercenaries, then Hann walked up and clapped Mercury on the shoulder a few times as he spoke

"That was brutal kid"

"...Well, I aim to please, now let's go get us some bandits?"

"Yeah let's go"

After they interrogated the bandits, (This Mercury and Marie left to the other mercenaries) they left along with the group of mercenaries to go treasure hunting after trekking through the forest for about half an hour they discovered a cliffside that had an old mine shaft dug into its side, as to make sure that no bandit would run off with the treasure this bandit group raided with all their members, so there wasn't anyone to guard the mineshaft when they arrived, after spending an exciting half an hour to looting the place the group emerged once again with big smiled on their faces, though Mercury seemed to have something on his mind and walked back into the mine shaft alone, his ears once again picked it up, the sound of shallow breathing

'Where are you..?'

He closed his eyes and tapped his cane a few times before he finally found the place, deepest in the cave were a hidden room with small air holes in the wall which even those with the sharpest senses would miss, Mercury stepped over and put his hand onto the wall and spoke

"Found you"

Then he tapped his cane once which made the wall collapse, this unveiled a stench of human waste and… A cage, half as high as Mercury, he kneeled down and looked into the cage and saw a small figure looking back at him before he spoke gently

"I won't hurt you, I'll set you free on one condition"

Some time passed before a weak voice responded

"Please… Kill… Me…"

"Hmm… Only if you don't have the will to live, do you have nothing left for you in this world?"

"There's… So… Much… Pain…"

"I can help you with that… But let me get this cage open first…"

Mercury put his hand onto the cage and used [Metal assimilation] and received… close to 20.000 points

"Wait what the fuck?"

Mercury's brain went into overdrive, receiving close to 20.000 points from a cage about 100 kilograms heavy would mean that the cage itself was a treasure, and that would mean that the prisoner inside is of significant importance for the bandits

'Or maybe to someone else..?'

Mercury sighed, what was done was done, he walked over and picked up the small figure into his embrace, they smelled horrible and likely had not seen the open sky for close to a year, this would leave psychological scars on anyone, and worst of all this was a child, a weak underweight child, Mercury suppressed the anger inside him and showed a smile

"Let's go outside"