Tour In Titan

Second Mission

A bulk man with short brown hair and muscular body is standing on the small podium inside the adventurer’s guild. His face and arms have visible scars on it and he is emitting a leader like vibe as he slowly walks towards the podium.

Bollea the guild master of Slothub.

As soon as he arrives at the middle of the podium he surveys each and every person involved in this operation.

“Varic Bandits have been attacking various merchants from Northern to the Eastern side of Slothub for quite some time now. We have lived our lives in Slothub for many years but we haven’t encountered this kind of despicable bandits… this group! These animals! they murder! Everyone! Man, woman and child. They don’t care who you are! what you are! they will kill everyone! body! without mercy!”

He looks around the guild house.

“These monsters! cannot be left alive anymore. We already secured the help of Duke Nicolas soldiers. They will encircle the hideout that is located here.”

Tap!

He pointed at the map on the board behind him.

“The northeastern part of the forest is known to be their base of operation. The soldier will be positioned around here to act as a border for escaping bandits.”

Using his finger, he encircles a certain area that the soldiers will barricade.

“The adventurers and the Twin Sword guild will directly attack the hideout located near the ruins. Here in this area.”

Tap!

He taps a certain area inside the encirclement.

“Everybody! Don’t! show! mercy to these animals!”

Bollea raises his close fist up in the sky.

YEAH!

YEAH! YEAH!

A loud roar started inside the guild.

The angry voices of those people whose family and friends fell victim to the Varic Bandits are shouting to the top of their lungs.

The people roar for quite a bit until the guild master slowly raises his right hand.

The people slowly calm down and look at the guild master.

“Everyone should wear a red bandana on their right arm to avoid confusion in the upcoming subjugation. In addition, all treasures will be surrendered to the guild for processing.”

The guild master bowed down.

“The gold that will be collected will be given to the family of the victims.”

Surprisingly no one objected to the guild masters demand.

Then the guild master scanned the area and nodded with satisfaction.

“If everyone understands… the eradication of Varic Bandits will now commence!”

The Varic Bandit Subjugation is my final mission before my 8-month long free time.

Ellie’s party belongs to group 1, their group is part of the raiding team, which will directly assault the enemy hideout.

While my group, group 5, is assigned to kill or capture fugitives.

However, that is not my goal.

As soon as we arrived at the camp, I was introduced to group 5. There is nothing special about this group, just like me, those who belong here look like regular adventurers. After the introduction, they give us our task and we move towards our designated location.

We arrive with the raiding team but they push forward to the enemy base while we position ourselves in the perimeter area.

(I cannot see Ellie’s group and I don’t even want to see her at all.)

Boom! Bang! Boom!

Swiiiissh!

A sudden tornado of flame was unleashed in the distance.

(I guess I know where she is.)

AHHHH!

ARRRGGHH!

Ting! Ting!

Sword clashing can be heard in the distance.

Kill them!

Fuck!

Help! I’m burning! I’m burning!

Chaos started to spread in the forest area.

Ting!

Step! Step! Step!

Out of my way! Bastards!

Soon the desperately escaping bandits encountered group 5 and group 8.

Ting! Ting!

Fucking cowards die!

Ahhhh!

I saw bandits being stabbed left and right. One was even cleaved in half by a large axe. Another bandit was shot by multiple arrows and another one received a lightning spear.

In my point of view, this is not a raid but a massacre. The amount of bandits compared to the amount of raiders are almost double.

So… I didn’t participate at all… from the first place I didn't plan to participate.

I slowly walk away and using my ‘presence detection’, I survey the area to know if someone is following me. Luckily, I didn’t feel anyone looking at me.

I look at my map and point to my target location, a specific area near a cliff.

In the story, Ellie and Max are the main party that attack Varic’s hideout and of course as the main character they will be victorious. But as the fighting continues, a small girl carrying a bag will escape in the back of the hideout, it will catch Ellie’s attention and she will call out to Max.

Max together with other adventurers will chase this little girl.

I am now kneeling behind a tree, far away from my predicted pathway that they will take.

I’m currently using my Enhance Sense while waiting for them and I will move accordingly if they approach my location.

“There, there she is.”

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Ha! Ha!

(I can sense that 5 adventurers are chasing the bandit.)

Swiiiiish!

Puck!

(That must be the arrow that hit the bandit on her leg.)

“Tsk! Nooo!”

Tap! Tap!

Swiiish!

Pang!

(That’s it!)

Back in the book, this is actually Max humanization sequence. Max will corner the girl on the cliff and he will strongly try to convince the girl to give up. But the girl will not give up, she will fight until the end. However, Max didn’t want to kill this girl because she is just a child. However, as he kicked her, the girl tried to evade by stepping back but then the floor gave in and she fell off the cliff.

(I notice that they already pass through me.)

I slowly walk towards the sound I heard earlier.

The story is really good and you cannot find any flaws about it… that is if you are not a stupid critic. When the book came out, a forum also started to appear in the internet and as everyone knows. Everything will now be criticized on the internet.

There are topics such as ours?

‘Mystery of the missing bag?’

‘Is she Varic daughter?’

‘Are the bandits so weak that they cannot resist?’

There are even statements such as.

‘This is laughable, the story said Varic has the key on his necklace. How can the girl steal something from the vault… check your story!’

‘The story is so obvious.’

Of course I didn’t really mind this kind of criticism but I welcome them. There are various theories that appear in the forum that are not included in the book. It is a way for the fans to create their own theories and play with the story a bit.

Back on earth, I don’t care about those things but now.

(Where is that bag? And how did she get this?)

That is the question that comes to my mind when I’m trying to remember the story.

As I walk towards the sound I notice a bag lying on the ground.

It looks like an empty looking brown string bag, it is a standard size bag like the one students commonly use. They are similar in size compared to my bag except for the high quality material that is used in creating this bag.

I pick it up and open it up then a black empty space can be seen inside the bag.

“Gulp!”

“A dimensional… bag…”

Dimensional bag is considered a very rare item.

It can be made with rare materials, a master level magic tool crafter and a 6-circle mage that knows space magic.

I remember a statement on the forum.

‘This is a stupid story, why would the Duke even involve his soldiers in a mercenary work.’

(The Duke! This might be for the Duke or for the King!)

That is something that I realize.

Only the nobles in that level of prestige can own such expensive items.

I immediately folded this weightless bag and put it in my own backpack.

(Shit! This might be the reason the guild wanted to horde the treasures.)

I immediately left the area. I distance myself to the ‘path’ and use my Enhance Sense to detect the surroundings. After a while, I notice that Max group are now going back to regroup with the guild.

I waited until everything was ‘clear’ before approaching the cliff.

When I arrived at the location, I looked down on the cliff and I could see the girl’s body at the bottom of the cliff.

I scan the surroundings.

“… This is just a big ‘IF’ for me but it’s worth a try.”

I climb down the cliff, using an available path on the side of the mountain. Even if Cole can rock climb I will not risk my life on falling down that height just to get down to the dead body. At the same time, there is no assurance that I will get anything from her.

(How did she get that treasure?)

I wondered about it.

(Now, that I got my hands on it… I now knew how valuable that thing is… so why was it not properly secured in the bandit’s storage room.)

(Is she an official, a very good thief or maybe she is Varic’s daughter as suggested on the forum or…)

(She has an Essence that allows her to successfully take this treasure.)

I slowly approach her.

A 15 year old girl was lying on the ground above the pool of blood. Her body is totally broken and there are no words I could possibly describe. However, she looks peaceful.

“Sorry little girl!”

I pulled out a long knife and inserted it below her chest and made a cut under her ribcage.

A nice and clean cut.

Blood started to flow out and some of it even splattered on my clothes.

I didn’t care though.

I put my hand inside her ribcage and a wet and squishy texture welcomed my hand. I immediately located her heart, I tried to pull it out but it seems like it was still firmly attached to her arteries. So using my sword I slowly cut the arteries and carefully pulled out the heart.

When I was about to secure it I noticed that my hands were bloody.

Therefore, I wipe my hand on my clothes, which is already full of blood splatter and then I open up my bag.

I bought a large jar in the city and filled it with water before coming here. I clean the heart using water and clean cloth then put the heart inside the jar.

However, I didn’t put it back on my bag, instead I put it inside my ‘dimensional bag’.

“This will be troublesome. For sure they will inspect everyone because of this item.”

“This item is already worth 2,000 gold, I’m sure that this is the reason why the soldiers are tasked with barricading the area. This is not just about preventing the bandits from escaping, it’s also about checking everyone that came in contact with the hideout and the bandits.”

I smiled.

“However, this is a rare opportunity. I will not give this up so easily. I knew that this ‘scenario’ would not affect the main story line.”

I don’t remember Ellie and her party having a task to find a dimensional bag. In addition, after this mission they will move out from the Kingdom of Slexor towards the Kingdom of Osmega on the far western side of Slothub.

So I decided to hide the ‘storage bag’ in my groin area. It now acts as a napkin, but people will not recognize it because I wear loose clothes and at the same time I also wear metal plates on my legs which will make it look like my hips are pretty big.

After my preparation, I look at the kid one more time.

“A 15 year old kid should be playing around with her friends…”

I shake my head.

“This is a trash world…”

I feel as sad as walking back towards the camp.

***************************************

Natty is part of the adventurer guild and she was tasked to check the adventures before they exit the camp.

Guild Master Bollea gives a task to the adventurer’s guild administrative office. We are to ensure that no participants will take loot from this raid.

Together with the soldiers, we check each adventurer before they leave the camp.

“Next!”

The soldier shouted.

A man wearing bloody clothes came in front. This is not surprising at all especially, we just finished the raid.

“May I know your name?”

“Cole.”

Cole approached us with confidence which looked like he was a noble of a certain region. In addition to that he looks tired which is a common face around here right now however, he also looks sad which is really different from the victorious atmosphere here.

“Can you put the bag on the table please?”

Cole followed without question and he slowly put it down on the table.

I, together with the soldier beside me, checked the bag.

“Bread… bottle of water… clothes…”

(Nothing to see here.)

“That’s all. Here you go.”

Then I saw a small pouch in his belt.

“Can we look at that pouch?”

I pointed to the pouch on his belt.

He was startled at first then he looked at my finger and traced it towards his pouch. He shakes his head, that feels like he just remembers something, opens up the pouch and pulls out several vials of bottles.

I took them and scanned each potion.

“These are red potions… but what are these?”

There are several different color vials in his collection.

He scratches his head and smiles. It looks like he was shy when he said this.

“Ah… experiments… he. he. (dry laugh) I’m just trying basic alchemy in my free time.”

(Oh…)

Then the soldier looks at his pouch and then searches his pockets.

“Nothing here!”

Then I take down notes of what I saw, as instructed by the guild master, and put a ‘clear’ beside his name.

“You're clear… Next!”

He bows down and takes his leave.

Sigh…

(This is very tiring.)

I look at the line.

(It will take me all day just to finish this line.)

(At least we have a bonus after this.)