The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Day 9 (in-game)

Possibly out of the draculkar highlands

Still lost in the Urla Mountains

Status: insisting that a bandit camp doesn't count as civilization

*

Krow dodged the first arrow, skipping back to the original tunnel and drawing his revolver.

He flung his arm wide toward the light-giving opening in the tunnel. His revolver disappeared from his hand.

"I'm not here to fight!"

He didn't manage to dodge the three arrows after that.

His body fell over, numb.

[0:00:01:59:23]

His armor was awesome. The last time around, the timer was three minutes long from just one dragoneye arrow.

The archer walked over, frowning, and shot one more arrow into Krow.

What the--

[0:00:02:38:36]

Witch.

"Don't waste your arrows."

"I can always buy more." The archer shrugged, stepping back.

"Did you have to knock him out?" The man boosted Krow to a shoulder, pauldron digging into his stomach.

Ow.

He'd have vengeance, that's for certain.

They brought him to another cave. Thankfully, Krow didn't need to memorize the tunnels as he was jostled to near dizziness by the man's gait. The Map would take care of that.

He was getting sensation back in his limbs when the blasted bandit threw him onto the floor before the leader.

"Another one?"

The leader of the camp was tall, with ropy defined muscles under the armor. He had a wide scar that bisected his right eyebrow like a red lightning bolt.

Frowning, he stood and nudged at Krow's unresponsive body with a muddy boot. "Tsk. How long before we can interrogate him?"

"Couple more minutes," the bandit who'd carried Krow snorted. "Girei was irritated."

"The weak ones are always time-wasters."

Oi, it was his minion archer's fault that Krow couldn't move! What was with the kicking? Take it out on her, not Krow!

The leader turned away. "Have more people up and alert. There might be more of them."

The female archer, Girei, nodded and left.

More of who?

It looked like the bandit camp had other prisoners. Or someone had intentions.

"This one was interesting, captain," the bandit said, amused. "He threw away his weapon and yelled he didn't wanna fight."

The leader grunted in disdain.

The timer ran out. Krow didn't move.

The bandit was chattering at his leader, about this thing and that. Krow tuned the noise out.

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Already having surveyed the room, the only exit was the tunnel they came in, and there were no windows. 

If this was the bandit leader's office, he was pretty smart.

Outside the office was a large crater with high sides, somewhat similar to the cavern Krow came out in. It was where most of the group lounged around in leisure time.

Krow had counted six bandits playing cards and one watching, almost napping.

The woman archer would probably take a few of them away, lessening the danger. There were only two in the room. He sighed mentally as Scout didn't give him any information.

Scouting people was always trickier than monsters. Depending on the level and MND of a person, they had defense against Scout and other data-gathering skills.

"…armor looks good enough. Strip him."

What?

Hands grabbed him. Krow didn't quite manage to hide his instinct to fight the hold. The bandit laughed. "Looks like this one's been playing dead, captain."

[Bandit Lvl 14]

[HP: 2800]

[MP: 230]

Krow broke a whole ten Paralyzing Mist vials in their faces.

There was no way they were getting their hands on his gear. The thought of replacing all his equipment at this stage made his stomach twist like his ulcer had returned.

He stabbed a butcher knife into the laughing bandit minion's throat while retrieving his revolver from the Inventory and emptying the cylinder into the bandit captain.

[Bandit Captain Lvl 18]

[HP: 2880/3600]

[MP: 421]

Not even a quarter of the captain's HP disappeared. Shkav.

He rolled out the exit, tossed out more vials desperately, quaffed three Low Revitalit.

[You've eliminated a Lvl 14 bandit and gained three (3) silver serpens!]

It took the guy that long to die?

A massive fire snake roared at him.

He dove toward a tunnel.

Weeping graves, was that the Ophidian Flame spell? It was a Lvl 4 Spell that when mastered took the shape of a giant snake.

The head of the snake turned to him, and attacked again.

A controllable snake.

He threw more vials, heard them break. Someone yelled in rage.

Whoops.

A Bandit Camp had anywhere from twenty to fifty bandits.

It wasn't something Krow could siege at the moment. But he'd 'attacked' by being discovered in bandit headquarters after five minutes of being uninvited.

That was one explanation.

Another was—

"Intruders!"

He grinned when he heard shouts across camp.

The second explanation was he'd inadvertently gotten in the middle of a quest or an independent player raid.

He stopped and turned back.

Aimed at the bandit captain, who hurtled toward him with murder in his eyes, he equipped another butcher knife even as he started shooting.

The bandit captain bore a polearm, extremely proficient in its use.

Krow, even with his Acrobat-given agility, lost 25% off his HP before he could swap cylinders. He backed toward a smaller tunnel, glancing at his Map.

That limited the captain's movements to mostly thrusts, instead of the deadly swings of before. It also allowed Krow to shoot without the man being able to dodge much.

-10% HP. Then another ten percent.

Krow cursed. He was even more deadly without the swings? The captain, mobility limited, instead placed more speed and force to his lunges and Krow needed to leap back more often, parrying a few of the attacks with the Uncommon butcher knife.

He could feel it start to break.

It didn't help that Krow's agility was also restricted by the tunnels.

-10% HP.

He jumped back, shooting as fast as he could.

Click-click-click.

Krow threw the butcher knife, not waiting for it to hit before swapping cylinders.

-10% HP.

"Do you actually want to kill me?!" It was half-hearted indignation. It was a bandit. Of course they'd kill each other. His revolver clicked empty again.

The captain didn't answer, just attacked again, eyes focused unnervingly on him.

Krow could only evade. He tossed more Mist vials out. 

-5% HP.

He only had 20% HP left.

He could feel the difference in his stats. Minor Exhaustion, his status warned.

His only full cylinder left was the shieldburst one.

He turned and ran for the tunnel end.

"Coward!" the bandit captain roared, pursuing.

He found Krow, in the next tunnel, unmoving, facing him.

The captain grinned, and Krow imagined bloody teeth. "Honor will kill you."

Krow aimed, shot eight shieldbursts.

The other's grin widened, stalking slowly, wringing every ounce of intimidation from the movement. "You missed."

Krow grinned back.

Except nothing happened.

"Oh." Krow huffed, deflating. "Yeah, probably."

He shot one shieldburst at the captain's feet, causing the man to jump backward. Then three above.

The stalactite fell.

The captain jolted, surprise on his features. He swung his polearm, cleaved the largest of the falling rocks in half with a glowing slash attack. He was barely touched.

He laughed, derisive. "Such tricks cannot hide your weak—"

His eyes widened, gaze on Krow's cold face, suddenly so near his own. He opened his mouth, but the spike bayonet through his throat prevented him from saying anything.

I am weak, those cold eyes told the captain silently, and you died because you underestimated me. They were the last thing he saw in his life.

[You've eliminated a Lvl 18 bandit captain and gained ten (10) silver serpens!]

Krow quickly divested the man of all usable gear. Six items, two Rare, four Uncommon, including the weapon.

Two Rares, bah, were all bandits so rich now?

[Bloodcrow Pauldron] [Uncommon][Quality: C+]

[Bloodcrow Captain's Gorget][Rare][Quality: B]

[Lagravad's Earstuds][Uncommon][Element Shadow][Quality: B]

[Bleakscale Viper Vambraces][Uncommon][Quality: D+]

[Bloodcrow Captain's Tassets][Uncommon][Quality: C]

[Howling Comet Lance][Rare][Element Light][Quality: A]

Not bad.

Unfortunately, the Bloodcrow items could only be traded on the black market, which he couldn't access at the moment. Alternatively, turning in any Bloodcrow item at a Guardhouse would gain a small reward and an even smaller RP bonus.

Krow consumed vial after vial, restoring his HP and removing debuffs.

He walked back to the center of the camp, reloading.

He peered into the central cavern.

The battle was still on-going.

Krow met no bandits on the few tunnels back, all likely been attracted by the attack happening from another entrance.

It was a good thing the captain was wrong, saying he had something like honor.

Else he would feel very guilty about what he was doing.

He slipped into the bandit leader's office. The body of the laughing bandit, throat slashed open, still lay there.

Where oh where, would a bandit hide treasure?

He quickly made a circle of the cave.

Disappointing. Obviously the loot was kept elsewhere. Krow broke open the locked drawers of the desk with a knife. Money pouches, a broken stone tablet, and an intricate box of the kind that held jewelry.

He tossed them all in his inventory, eyed the tapestries only a moment before carefully unhooking them from the walls to take with him as well.

They were pretty, alright?

He then quickly stripped the corpse.

"Who is stripping who now?" he muttered under his breath, still not forgiving.

The haul was disappointing, after the captain. Only three Uncommons, the rest being Common. Then two of the Uncommon ones were Bloodcrow armor items. 

The third Uncommon was a pendant necklace he was fairly certain didn't belong to the bandit as it was labeled [Amela's Hopegiver] and held a portrait of three siren children when opened.

He sidled out of the cave, glancing at the battle that was winding down. Did he have enough time to look for the loot caches?

"Hey, you!"

Nope.

Krow casually walked away, ignoring the yell.

It couldn't be that someone saw him?

When he turned into the tunnel, he ran.

He had no desire to explain himself to an entire player party. They could be very possessive about loot.

Krow earned what he had, mostly. They can have the rest.

Were they using strategies he knew in the future? He wondered how early the common tactics used in bandit camp raids formed.

If this was organized properly, there would be scouts watching all around the bandit camp. Some quests didn't end until all the bandits were gone.

Krow returned to the sunlight cavern, then back into the crevice that led to the other end of the mountain. He checked the rocks for scuffs and scratches he may had inadvertently made.

There were none that he could see.

The vines would hide most of it anyway. He stuffed the cleft with stones for good measure, then climbed upward, into the darkness. 

He found himself a ledge and lay down to wait.

If that bandit leader hadn't found this out in how long they'd been lairing here, the players who were only concerned with loot wouldn't, right?

Periodically, he found his eyes seeking out the bit of light that shone into the hidden tunnel.

[You've assisted the Silver Phoenix Guild with the quest, 'Mountain Bandit Lord'! You've gained 10 RP with the Silver Phoenix Guild and 1 RP with Marfall Continent.] [A]

Finally.

It was over.

Can everyone all leave immediately now?

[You can exchange association RP for guild credit from the Silver Phoenix Guild.]

Hah.

That was a blatant urging to join a guild.

Nope.

Not to mention, players could be unpredictable. Who knew what Silver Phoenix would do if they learned he'd been skimming on their quest?

They'd only know his name if he told them himself.

He'd give them a few hours to leave before resuming his travels.

Krow signed out to the account navigation area.

This was still within the virtual world, but separate from the game. RSI allowed players this small leeway of a personal virtual room.

Equipment didn't follow here, so he couldn't use the place for gun-handling practice, though he was still in his avatar.

Krow sat on the armchair he'd bought for the room, accessed his messages from the secure link.

Holographs on Earth were still unwieldy. He'd only used them a few times for company reports.

Here, in the virtual world, he could indulge in the sheer utility of having a holo-terminal.

It was Thursday afternoon. He hadn't been planning on playing at this time, since he had his first day of work tomorrow and a ton of orientation materials had been sent to him.

The game thought otherwise apparently.

Now, he was reduced to this.

He settled against the comfy armchair and started to study.

Tsk.

What a pain.