Bandit Subjugation (2)
The man shouted, and figures erupted from the sand.
"The fuck are they, moles?!"
These people were out of their goddamn minds. The sand had been baking under a merciless sun all day — it had to be scorching — and they'd been lying in wait inside it. Even a mole would've given them a thumbs-up for that kind of patience.
"Master!"
"Alan!"
"Lord Alan!"
In the blink of an eye I was surrounded, and Aquaril, Kanisia, and Abraham came charging to my aid. So all I had to do was hold out until they got here?
"Come on! Come at me, you morons!"
Sword in one hand and shield in the other, I dropped into a defensive stance.
Status window.
At the same time, I quickly checked the bandits' status windows. There were about ten of them, and luckily none were Masters I needed to worry about. Every last one was an ordinary human.
"Throw it!"
"Huh?"
Then they pulled a move I hadn't seen coming at all. They flung nets at me the way you'd haul in a catch of fish. I slashed one apart with my sword, but nets came flying from every direction — there was no dodging them all.
"You sons of bitches?! I told you to come at me, so why the hell are you throwing nets?!"
"W-whoa?!"
But there was one thing they hadn't accounted for: I was a Master. And not just any Master — one sitting on a Strength stat of 69 (61+8).
"Th-this bastard's strength isn't normal!"
"Aaaargh!"
"Hold him! Hold him, you idiots!"
"Uoooooh!"
I thrashed and twisted with everything I had, and the ones gripping the nets went down in a heap. The sandy footing didn't do them any favors — planting your feet and holding on was nearly impossible.
The bandits' formation collapsed in an instant, and my party members were already charging in to help.
"Damn it! Just blow the flute!"
Piiiiiriiirii~
At one bandit's shout, a guy who wasn't holding a net suddenly started blowing a flute. Snakes hidden in the sand burst out, lunging for my companions' ankles.
Crunch—
A plump, well-fed snake sank its fangs into Kanisia's ankle.
"What the hell is this?!"
Slash—!
But Kanisia simply shortened her grip on her spear and swept it around, taking the snake's head clean off.
This was the moment my foresight in preparing ankle guards paid off. Granted, I'd gotten the intel from the request office, but I was the one who'd paid for the gear, so I was taking the credit.
Slash—!
Aquaril followed up, her sword flashing as she severed the snakes' heads. With astonishing reflexes, she shifted her feet the instant a snake erupted from the sand, never giving them a chance to bite.
"Die, you bandit scum!"
"Aaaargh!"
It didn't take long before my party members started butchering the bandits. Red blood sprayed across the yellow sand.
"Th-this is insane! Nobody said they were this strong!"
Nobody said?
One bandit's cry lodged itself in my ear. Nobody said — didn't that mean someone had given them information about us?
"D-damn it! That one! At least kill that one!"
Piiiiiriiirii—
The bandit with the flute blew it again. Snakes poured out of a pouch hanging from his waist and slithered toward me.
Fuck, they're gonna bite meeeee!
Watching snakes crawl toward me while I was face-down on the ground was a genuinely terrifying sight. Please, just leave the handsome face and the magnificent serpent(?) alone!
Hissss—? Hissssss—!
"...Huh?"
"Wh-what the hell?! Why are they doing that?!"
For some reason, the snakes didn't bite me. Instead they coiled up nearby and just... watched. Their eyes were slightly curved, like they were giving me a smiling look.
There was no way ordinary bandits were going to survive against my 3-star party members. In the end, everyone died except the one giving orders and the one blowing the flute.
Slash—!
"You may stand now, Master."
"Yeah. Ah, don't kill those snakes."
"Pardon? As you wish."
Aquaril had helped me to my feet and was about to kill the snakes, so I stopped her. She tilted her head in puzzlement but followed the order.
"P-please spare us! I didn't want to do this! It was all Salmus — that bastard forced us to...!"
"Th-that's right! I'll prove where I stand! Salmus is a son of a bitch! Salmus is a bald fuck!"
The bandits Abraham had forced to their knees started groveling for their lives. A thoroughly pathetic display. Wait, and what's with the loyalty oath?
"You fucking bandit pieces of shit. You dared to come after us?"
Thunk—!
"Hiiieeek?!"
I drove my sword between the bandit's legs, and the guy nearly jumped out of his skin. His pants went damp.
"You wanna die?"
"No! I'm sorry! I failed to recognize a person of importance! I'm truly sorry! Please spare me!"
"Person of importance, my ass. You throw nets at a person of importance? Huh?"
"Hiiieek?!"
I pulled a dagger from my waist and poked him in the chest, and the bandit looked like he was about to faint.
"Hey. You wanna live?"
"Y-yes!"
"But I can't just let you go. If you want to live, pay me the price of your life."
"Th-the price of my life? But I don't have anything on me right now..."
"Then you die."
"Eek! Please! Please spare me! My mother and children are waiting for me at home!"
"The people you killed had families waiting for them at home too. Right?"
"....."
The heavy dose of truth left the bandit looking like he was about to cry. I looked down at him and went on in a suggestive voice.
"But you know... you don't necessarily have to pay the price of your life in money."
"...What?"
"If you tell me what you know, I might let you live. What do you think?"
"Uh..."
The bandit hesitated. To help him make up his mind, I pressed my blade to his throat.
"If you don't want to, you die."
"I'll tell you! I'll tell you where our hideout is! So please, just my life...!"
"Heh heh heh. You should've said that from the start. Go on, then. The more detailed the information, the better your chances of staying alive."
"Well..."
Judging by the snake-controlling, these guys were definitely the Snake Bandits we were after. Sure enough, the bandit spilled the location of their hideout.
"Hearing it described, I have no idea where that actually is."
"What? Th-then..."
"Since you're telling us anyway, you can guide us there. I'll let you go once we reach the Snake Bandits' hideout. Deal?"
"That's..."
"Take it or leave it. There's still one more of you, after all."
"I'll do it!"
"Good."
Watching the bandit so eagerly volunteer to be our guide, I felt a growing urge to spare him. Hmm... about the size of a match flame?
After finishing the interrogation, I stood in front of the flute bandit.
"I saw you controlling those snakes with this flute earlier... How'd you do that?"
"I... if I tell you... you'll spare me too?"
"Of course. I'm a firm believer in give and take."
"Well... it's actually thanks to the flute in your hands, my lord."
"The flute?"
At that, I checked the flute's information.
Type: Flute
Grade: Rare
Value: 500,000 Gold
Effect: Control snakes by playing the flute (3/10)
What? This thing's worth 500,000 Gold?
It looked like any ordinary flute you'd find at a market, so I'd assumed it was nothing special. It wasn't. It was a 3-star rare-grade flute.
The (3/10) next to it is probably the number of snakes it can control.
My party members had killed seven snakes, and three were still alive. A flute that could control up to ten.
But this guy had something like this?
If he'd been a Master, I could've understood. But he was an ordinary bandit — an ordinary human. Sure, you could buy one if you had the money, but if he had that kind of money he wouldn't be out here banditing. And more to the point, a flute like this wasn't something you could just pick up even if you were rich.
The value displayed on the flute's status window was 500,000 Gold. But you couldn't take that at face value.
That was the value as it circulated in the game — a fixed number. In reality, something could trade for far more or far less than what the status window listed.
A flute with the power to control snakes would sell for a lot more than 500,000 Gold.
"Where'd you get this?"
"Th-that's..."
The flute bandit hesitated. To get him talking, I pressed my sword against his ankle.
"Think you'll find it easier to talk if you spend the rest of your life as a cripple?"
"I-I'll talk! Lord Salmus — I mean, Salmus bestowed it upon me!"
"Salmus? You mentioned Salmus earlier too, and now here he is again. He's the leader of the Snake Bandits?"
"That's right! That bastard is a real piece of shit!"
"And where'd that bastard get this?"
"There's a dungeon near the hideout. This is an item that drops there."
"Wait, what? There's a dungeon?"
"Yes, that's right."
"What rank?"
"D-rank."
"Hmmm..."
At the flute bandit's words, I looked at my party members. They were smiling too — thinking the same thing I was.
Why were we out here in the middle of a scorching desert, brawling with bandits in the first place? Because dungeons were so hard to get access to, weren't they?
And the bandits were sitting on a dungeon?
This was an opportunity.
The Witch Queen won't know about a dungeon occupied by bandits. Hell, it won't just be the Witch Queen — most Masters won't know about it either.
D-rank difficulty, too. Not bad. The one concern was that the recommended level might be high, but I decided not to worry about that for now.
We dragged the captured bandits back to Jert village. Since we'd started searching from the areas closest to the village, we made it back before the sun had fully set.
"Is the village chief in?"
"Ah, you must be the folks who arrived in the village today. What can I do for you?"
"Would the village happen to have a place where we could lock these guys up?"
"Hm? Don't tell me... they're bandits?"
The chief's eyebrows twitched when he saw the bandits in my grip.
Jert village fell within the Snake Bandits' territory. The Snake Bandits would have come through here often to plunder. Naturally, the chief's feelings toward bandits weren't going to be warm.
"That's right. Snake Bandits."
"You — you miserable bastards! You stupid bastards! I'll tear you limb from limb!"
"Aaaargh!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Aagh!"
When I nodded, the stooped old chief started beating the two bandits with the walking stick in his hand. He was so old that the way he swung it looked awkward, and there wasn't much force behind it.
"Please, calm yourself. You'll collapse at this rate."
"Huff... huff... Forgive me. I've suffered so much at those bandits' hands that I lost my composure in front of our guests."
"It's all right. I understand. In any case, I plan to take these two back to Baidu tomorrow and turn them in. Until then, is there somewhere we can lock them up?"
"Yes, we have a jail. You can put them there."
"Then I'll leave them in your care for a bit. I'll make sure to cover the jail fees separately."
"Ah, no, that's quite all right. Catching these wretched bastards is more than enough. Saxon! Saxon! Come out here!"
"Yes, Father. What is it... hmm..."
At the chief's call, a well-built man emerged from inside. The chief's son. He let out a low groan when he saw the two bandits in my grip.
"These are the bandits this distinguished guest captured. Drag them off and lock them in the jail."
"Yes, Father. Get over here, you miserable bastards!"
"Aagh! I'm sorry!"
"I was wrong!"
"I could take them myself..."
"No, no. You've already done a great service for the village today. This is nothing."
"Then I'll leave it to you to make sure they don't escape."
"Don't you worry. We'll guard them like a fortress."
At the chief's words, I handed the captured bandits over to his son. Saxon, the chief's son, led the now-docile bandits toward the jail.
Watching them go, I shook my head inwardly.
How is it that not a single thing has gone against my expectations...