Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Wutsch Bandit Raid

The bandits on the west side of Ildhena didn't really have an official name, but since their leader was named Gerard, they generally thought of themselves as 'Gerard's Gang'. Not many people outside of the gang knew his name, though.

They had originally been a small band of mercenaries, but when a prolonged period of peace left them unable to sustain themselves, they had turned to banditry to survive. And discovered that they quite liked it. They had started out in Eronite, but as they had failed to find a good hideout they had been driven out.

While there were large border fortresses placed at important locations, it was not hard to find an unguarded place to cross, especially not for ex-mercenaries that were accustomed to such things. And so the fifteen humans had found their way over to Hanoleav, and stalked their way through the forest. They were skilled fighters, so they hadn't had much issue getting through.

They hadn't had any special destination in mind beyond maybe reaching the ocean, but when they had almost crossed the entire forest, they had come across an abandoned hunting post in the west. While the mobs in the area had been aggressive, it wasn't beyond what they could handle, so they had fixed the place up into a suitable hideout. The road between Komeron and Larien had a decent amount of travel, valuable goods going to and from the sea, and only a few patrolling guards. It was pretty much the perfect place to set up. And they knew that the elves didn't have the resources to intensify their control, and certainly not to retake the hunting post.

As word of them started to spread, they had slowly, but surely attracted more members as well. Former Adventurers, other mercenaries like themselves, ex-convicts unable to find honest work, fugitives, and more. They had come from all the surrounding nations. There were nearly 50 of them now, and they'd had to expand the old hunting post a bit. Gerard still had the fancy (by their standards) cabin that had been there at the start, but most of the rest was new, or at least upgraded. The increased number did mean that they had to actually do some hunting like the place was originally intended for. There just wasn't enough travellers to rob to manage to keep them all fed, but they didn't have trouble getting what they needed from the forest.

Adventurers sometimes came after them, but it was hard to make it all the way into the camp, so they were left mostly alone. Gerard had started to wonder if maybe they should start getting a little ambitious in terms of what to do next. Though he wasn't sure what that would be. Even if they tried to move somewhere more lucrative, there was no guarantee they'd find another suitable hideout. He'd have to send some of the gang out to scout. Even though they had become much stronger than they used to be, he knew it was dangerous to get careless. There were things that a respawn couldn't fix.

Suddenly there was an extremely loud bang that interrupted his thoughts. He burst out of the cabin, and demanded:

"What the hell was that?!"

"Something hit the wall, boss," one of the guys replied. "But we're not sure what!"

There was another loud bang, accompanied by the sound of breaking wood, and then the entire forest around them lit up with howls.

* * *

Sara had underestimated the strength of the walls, and needed two salvos to break open a hole. The wolves had started their charge as soon as the hole was made, rushing both for that, and for the entrance to the camp. She figured she could open two more holes before needing to conserve her MP for the fight. The MP Regen could only do so much.

She decided to try something a bit different. She opened with a salvo of Greater Fireballs next, and followed that with a salvo of Rock Shots, which shattered the wall even more spectacularly. That was a much bigger hole. She repeated that once more at a different location, and then charged in herself, ignoring the soft dings notifying her of popups.

Her target was the boss.

The air space above the camp was filled with Night Ravens, and Gale Crows who were gleefully unleashing their spells on the bandits as the wolves charged along the ground. They didn't even have time to attempt to close the gate before the furry tide rolled in.

Once Sara made it inside she saw the absolute havoc that was being wrought, though the bandits were putting up a decent fight. There were a fair amount of them, and individually they were stronger than a wolf. They showed better teamwork than she would have expected from bandits as well. If it had been only wolves, then maybe they could have barricaded themselves within the buildings, and held off the tide. No matter how many wolves there were, only so many of them could enter melee range at once.

Some of the bandits were trying to hole up, but the corvids weren't about to let that happen so easily. The birds were having the time of their lives. While their power was fearsome, the way the crows danced around in the air was kinda cute.

Sara launched a Fireball at the roof of one of the presumed barracks to create some additional chaos, and then noticed a man on top of the stairs to the cabin. He was shouting at the others, some of whom had formed a perimeter in front of the cabin, while firing and reloading a couple of pistols he had on hand. They were only single-shots, but almost every time he fired a wolf dropped.

Two could play at that game, so Sara cast a Water Jet aimed directly at his head. Which he managed to just barely duck out of the way of.

Yup, that's definitely the boss. Probably has Danger Sense or something.

She wasn't sure how long the respawn timers on the bandits were, but they probably had at least 15 minutes until they started coming back. The ones they had taken down in the woods before they started their assault might actually be close to respawning, but thankfully the wolves had gotten inside before they could send a warning.

"Gloria! The boss is over by the smaller building! Cover me!" she shouted, hoping her fellow boss could hear her. And her hopes were met as the inside of the camp started filling up with mist. It had a peculiar smell to it, but otherwise it caused her no issues. It only targeted opponents after all.

Sara added a bit of cover of her own, by casting Poison Cloud with the stairs as the target. It wasn't as big as she had hoped, leaving most of the bandits alone, but it was enough to startle the boss, and cause him to back up to get out of it.

She leapt up onto the roof of the nearest building to the cabin, and ran as close as she could before leaping into the air, and using DFA. The boss looked up, saw her coming, tried to shoot her out of the air, realised he had been interrupted from reloading, and tried to change his plan to dodging out of the way. Unfortunately for him he was too late, and Sara smacked on top of him. Even more unfortunately the mist was rolling onto the cabin, meaning Gloria was fast approaching as well.

Sara unleashed her Pack Leader's Howl to invigorate all the nearby wolves, which also shook up the bandits' defensive line, and with the mist further confusing them they started getting torn down.

The boss quickly managed to recover, and throw Sara away. He was impressively strong for a human, but she wasn't about to let up. She didn't really have the time to cast much when in melee, especially since it left her open, and gave him time to reload. Those pistols seemed to pack quite the punch. However she still had instant-cast spells, and her physical skills.

It had been a while since she'd been in a proper melee, and she could tell. She wasn't as sharp as she should be, and the bandit boss swapped to a sword and shield which let him block, or dodge several of her attacks. Her own dodging wasn't great, but attacking back made him hit her Thorn Armour. Even if she was taking more damage from the hit, it was chipping away at him, and she was recovering some of it with Rejuvenate and HP Regen.

Using Arcane Blast caught him off-balance long enough for her to land a Pounce, but he managed to throw her off again right away. Not just the lack of melee practice, but the lack of the boss buff was dragging this out. Though that came to an end as Gloria caught up, and landed an Ambush right on the distracted boss's back. That took out everything he had left HP wise, and he dropped to the ground. Sara was quick to loot him.

"Thanks, Gloria," she said.

"You're welcome! You were right, this is fun!" Gloria beamed so much it showed through the mist.

The two of them turned their attention to the rest of the camp, only to find that most of it was dealt with. Maybe bringing so many wolves was overkill, especially with the corvids covering them, but she had wanted to be on the safe side. Finishing off the last bandits, looting the lot of them, and then fleeing the scene before anyone could respawn took no time at all.

Sara quickly sifted through the defeated enemies popups to find the one for the boss. She had forgotten to use Identify in the heat of the moment, but she was still curious who and what he was.

[ Gerard Pikester - Human Bandit Boss (Soldier Lvl 32) Defeated. ]

She hadn't seen the Soldier class before, but it was presumably evolved from Fighter, just like Warrior.

Level 32, huh? I guess that explains why he was so strong.

"What now, Sara?" Gloria asked once they had gotten to somewhere they could stop.

"I guess we're done for now," Sara said, which made Gloria look a little disappointed. "I should lead my wolves back to Nyolund, but maybe we can do this again sometime?"

Gloria perked up. "Yes! Do it again!"

"I said sometime," Sara said with a chuckle. "We should probably wait a couple of days, so they don't expect us." They might be fine with less wolves next time. It had been hard to do an exact count of the bandits, but she estimated at least 40, and probably no more than 50. Several of them had been outside of the camp as lookouts, or in the forest doing... something. But those had all fallen pretty easily. There had likely been about 30 inside of the camp itself, but she hadn't gone in with the first wave, so she didn't know how many had been taken down before she got there.

She did a quick count of their own numbers, and saw that they had lost over 50 wolves. They would either respawn with their packs, or back in their dens if the entire pack was taken out. She had no idea how many of the corvids had been taken down. Maybe none of them, for all she knew.

Considering they had lost over a fourth of their number, maybe taking only half of the wolves next time was risky, but it was hard for everyone to get to do something when there were so many of them. Though it might still work out if she got Gloria to agree to this final incentive.

"You know, we might be able to get some of the elves to help charge in with us if we ask them first. That could lead to more interesting raids as we have more diverse forces," she said. "But you would have to become part of the alliance for that."

"Hm..." Gloria thought about it. "Okay!" But not for very long. Seemed like all of this jolly cooperation had convinced her of the fun of working together with others.

"Do you remember everything I told you about how it works?" Sara had to ask.

"Hmmm... yes," Gloria said with a confident nod.

"Alright." Sara wasn't sure if she fully believed that, but all she could do was trust Gloria. "I'll fill them in on things when I get the chance." Which should probably be as soon as possible. "If you have any questions, feel free to call for me. This was fun."

"Yes!" Gloria beamed.

So now I have two friends, I guess, Sara thought with a smile as she headed back to her own zone.

* * *

Once she was back in the north forest, and she had told the wolves to go back to their patrols, Sara found a place to sit down, and look at all the popups. She was worried that if she waited until she was all the way back at the den, they might fade away on their own. That might not be how it worked, but she didn't feel like testing it at the moment.

[ Level Up: Level 27 Reached! ]

That was an important one. Even with reduced experience from being part of such a large group, she couldn't be that far off level 28 either. Probably.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Nyolund Mystic Wolf (Nyolund Guardian Beast) | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

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[ Class: Druid (Beast) ]

[ Role: Nyolund - Northern Great Forest of Ildhena Zone Boss ]

[ Level: 26 -> 27 (30) ]

[ HP: 177/177 -> 196/196 (202/202) | SP: 185/185 -> 204/204 (206/206) |
MP: 182/182 -> 204/204 (199/199) ]

[ VIT: 58 -> 70 +14 (80 +16) | END: 69 -> 81 +16 (87 +17) ]

[ STR: 64 -> 76 +15 (74 + 14) | DEF: 45 -> 56 +14 (56 +14) ]

[ AGI: 87 -> 100 +20 (108 +21) | DEX: 55 -> 67 +13 (66 +13) ]

[ INT: 87 -> 101 +20 (105 +21) | WIS: 80 -> 94 +23 (109 +21) ]

[ LUK: 141 -> 157 +31 (60 +12) ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 4 -> 8 ]

Looked like All Attributes had gone up another level already, so she was basically caught up to where she had been before evolving the skill. As for the other skill up notifications there were just too many, so she quickly sifted through them to see if anything had hit max.

[ Mass Rejuvenate Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
[ Copy Cast Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]

Seemed like it was just those two. Mass Rejuvenate probably got a ton of experience from hitting so many targets at once, and she had used Copy Cast a fair amount both to practice, and during the assault. No further unlocks from those two, but that was probably fair.

[ Mass Rejuvenate (Active): You restore HP over time to all party members within 30 metres, and all allies within 15 metres. Recovery value: 1+(1*skill level)% of Max HP every 3 seconds for (12+(0.9*skill level)) seconds. Nature element property. Cost: 15 MP. Refresh: 30 seconds.
Max level bonus: Restores 10% SP every 3 seconds as well. ]

[ Copy Cast (Passive): You are able to cast extra copies of the same skill at once. Only applies to targeted magical skills with cast time. Triples the refresh timer of used skill. Each copy adds 50% of base cast time, so a skill with 3 seconds of cast time gains 1.5 seconds per copy. Each copy costs an additional 25% MP, so the first copy is increased by 25%, the second by 50%, and so on. Cast time added, and added cost slightly decrease with skill level. Number of possible copies increases with skill level. Scales with Intelligence and Wisdom. Able to pick new targets for each copy. Warning: requires a lot of concentration.
Max level bonus: Magic power increases by 2% per copy. ]

That Mass Rejuvenate was the same as Rejuvenate didn't surprise her. Copy Cast seemed innocuous at first glance, but it was something that would very quickly add up. If she cast her maximum amount of copies that might be enough to blow away almost anything. 11 or 12 copies with more than 20% boost would be incredible. But it would take a long time to charge up, and probably also eat most of her MP in one go. She didn't feel like doing the exact math. And she had forgotten to check Identify earlier.

[ Identify (General): You are able to see information about targets and items you focus on. Higher skill levels increase range, and unlock more information.
Level 1: Target's race/species name, level, and HP bar. Item's name.
Level 2: Target's class.
Level 3: Target's SP and MP bars. Item's general quality.
Level 4: Numerical values for HP, SP, and MP bars. Able to assess the quality of uncommon items.
Level 5: Target's Status screen, and occupation.
Level 6: Target's Skill List.
Level 7: Target's Equipment screen. Able to assess the quality of rare items.
Level 8: Names of targets who are not allies.
Level 9: Target's Resistance Values. Able to assess the quality of epic items.
Level 10: Able to assess the quality of all items.
Max level bonus: Identify range +25%. ]

That's it, mother? That doesn't seem very impressive for the final level.

"For a skill like Identify it's better for the good unlocks to show up earlier. By the time you reach level 10, there isn't much relevant left. I will reveal that there are some skills that have max Identify as a prerequisite, but that's all you're getting."

Fine...

As intriguing as that was, she knew that pestering Aina wouldn't get her anywhere.

Next up was her new skill gains.

[ Skill Gained: Spear Expertise. ] [ Language Learned: Troll. ] [ Skill Gained: Cooking. ] [ Language Learned: Human. ]
[ Skill Gained: Slash. ] [ Skill Gained: Ranged Attacks Up. ] [ Language Learned: Beastkin. ]
[ Skill Gained: Blacksmithing. ] [ Skill Gained: Sweep. ] [ Skill Gained: Medium Armour Expertise. ]
[ Skill Gained: Snipe. ]

Considering how many bandits they had killed, that was a low number of skills gained, but that suited her fine. Three new languages was a good haul, and Cooking would be nice for later, but the rest she had no particular need for. They would be disabled anyway, and it was hard to say which of them might be useful in the future. She could probably find some use for Blacksmithing, but the rest depended on what weapon she'd like to use whenever that was an option. She was curious enough to look at the description of some of them.

[ Ranged Attacks Up (Passive): Increases the attack power, and critical hit change of your ranged attacks by (1+(0.5*skill level))%. Cast time for your ranged attack skills reduced by (1+(0.5*skill level))%. ]

What does it count as ranged attacks? Presumably not magic?

"Correct. It's mainly bows, guns, and throwing weapons."

Throwing? Great...

It was probably way too petty to still be grumpy about that skill, but she couldn't completely let it go.

[ Medium Armour Expertise (Passive): Increases the armour value of any medium armour you equip by (2*skill level)%, and reduces the durability damage taken on medium armour. Examples of medium armour: Leather, heavy/padded cloth, and ring-mail. (Ai-note: You cannot wear armour, so this skill will be disabled.) ]

She hadn't seen an armour expertise skill before, but it wasn't really any more exciting than weapon expertise. It did its job.

[ Snipe (Active): You fire a powerful projectile with greatly increased range. General accuracy is increased, but it is hard to aim precisely. Damage value: (1.2+(0.6*skill level))*attack power. Defence piercing: (10+(2*skill level))%. If you strike a vital point it is a guaranteed critical hit, and does +50% damage. Cost: 15 SP. Cast time: 5 seconds. Refresh: 20 seconds. (Ai-note: You cannot use weapons, so this skill will be disabled.) ]

She was acquiring several ranged attack skills in her disabled section now. Maybe she should become a gun mage, or archer mage, or something when she had hands, and the ability to equip things. Something to spend her SP on when she ran out of MP, maybe.

And finally one more box.

[ Title Gained: Smooth Talker: Learned at least five languages besides Common! Minor charisma increase when talking to someone in their native language. ]

While raids were fun, there was a lot to sort through afterwards. And that left her with:

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Chomp Lvl 9 -> Max (Max) | Rend Lvl 9 -> Max (Max) | Body Slam Lvl Max (Max) |
Savage Blow Lvl 5 -> 6 (Max) | Pack Leader's Howl Lvl Max (Max) | Sprint Lvl Max (Max) |
Root Bind Lvl 5 -> 6 (Max) | Poison Arrow Alt. Lvl 4 (Max) | Frost Arrow Lvl 3 (Max) |
Greater Fireball Lvl 1 -> 4 (Max) | Water Jet Lvl 3 -> 4 (Max) | Arcane Blast Lvl 4 -> 5 (Max) |
Thorn Armour Lvl 6 -> 7 (Max) | Growth Lvl Max (Max) | Budding Regrowth Lvl 1 -> 2 (Max) |
Rejuvenate Lvl Max (Max) | Mass Rejuvenate Lvl 7 -> Max (Max) | Sense Presence Lvl Max (Max) |
Bear Form Lvl Max (Max) | Cat Form Lvl Max (Max) | Tree Form Lvl Max (Max) ]

[ Concealed Active: ]

[ Charge Lvl Max | Ambush Lvl Max | Throw Lvl 1 | Strong Poison Strike Lvl 9 -> Max |
Death From Above Lvl 6 -> 8 | Solid Kick Lvl 2 -> 3 | Back Attack Lvl 2 | Struggle Lvl 1 | Stomp Lvl 1 |
Pounce Lvl 1 -> 4 | Shred Lvl 1 -> 4 | Crush Lvl 1 | Rock Shot Lvl 1 -> 5 | Mass Thorn Bind Lvl 1 |
Poison Cloud Lvl 1 -> 2 | Poison Enchant Lvl 5 -> 7 | Water Bubble Lvl 1 | Water Film Lvl 1 | Earth Wall Lvl 1 |
Leech Lvl Max | Roar Lvl 1 | Taunt Lvl 1 | Erase Presence Lvl 11 -> 12 | Thermal Vision Lvl 8 -> Max |
Sense Mana Lvl 8 -> 9 | Slow Fall ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Keen Senses | Danger Sense Lvl Max (Max) | Claw Expertise Lvl 6 -> 9 (Max) | Firm Grip Lvl Max (Max) |
Enhanced Movement | Insulation Lvl 8 -> 9 (Max) | Solid Coat Lvl 6 -> 8 (Max) | Leadership Lvl Max (Max) |
Nature Element Up Lvl Max (Max) | Mana Manipulation Lvl Max (Max) |
All Attributes Up (Medium) Lvl 1 -> 3 (Max) | Commune With Animals ]

[ Concealed Passive: ]

[ Trap Sense Lvl 4 | Intuition Lvl 3 -> 4 | Dig Lvl Max | Burrow Lvl 2 | Spider Climb Lvl Max |
Spider Silk Lvl Max | Thread Manipulation Lvl 2 -> 3 | Paralysis Venom Lvl Max | Swim Lvl 6 | Dive Lvl 1 |
Chameleon Lvl Max | Pursuit Lvl 5 | Ranged Attacks Up (New) Lvl 1 | Copy Cast Lvl 8 -> Max |
Fire Element Up Lvl 6 -> 8 | Water Element Up Lvl 1 -> 2 | Poison Immunity | Fire Resistance Lvl 2 |
Dark Resistance Lvl 1 | All Regen (Small) Lvl 5 -> 6 ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 9 -> Max (Hidden) | Communicate: Family (Hidden) | Conceal Status Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ Concealed General: ]

[ Languages (Hidden): Common, Beastkin (New), Goblin, Elf, Human (New), Troll (New) |
Life Magic Lvl 8 -> 9 | Decryption Lvl 1 | Double Skill Experience (Hidden) | Skill Gain (Hidden) ]

[ Disabled (All Hidden): ]

[ Tough Scales | Flight | Spider Net Trap | Logging | Cleave | Chop | Bow Expertise | Woodworking |
Power Shot | Glide | Disarm Trap | Smack | Skewer | Spear Expertise (New) | Cooking (New) | Slash (New) |
Blacksmithing (New) | Sweep (New) | Medium Armour Expertise (New) | Snipe (New) ]

[ Skill points: 12 -> 19 ]

Ranged Attacks Up went into her passives, since as Aina had pointed out she could technically throw things. It just wasn't very effective. Everything else besides the languages went into the disabled section, which had grown a bunch. There didn't seem to be any particular order to things in there, beyond the order in which she had acquired them.

There were several things at level 9 again, but they looked like they were all things that would just happen naturally, and she didn't really need to go out of her way to level them.

With all of that sorted, she should probably go talk to the elves before doing anything else.