He walked for some distance before seeing some lights. His Dragon’s Eye passive ability allowed him to see farther and also clearer in the night. He could see some structures ahead. It looked like a small wooden fortress, which was constructed between a small rocky mountain and a forested hill. The lights he saw came from Outlaws patrolling around the fortress holding torches. The numbers were alarming.
“That is a bandit outpost,” Peniel explained to him after seeing it as well. She had come out from her hidden dimension to take a better look at the structure.
“Bandit outpost?”
“Remember the monster settlement? This is sort of the same. The difference is that an outpost is populated by Outlaws instead of monsters. Another difference is that an outpost did not spring up randomly. There is normally only one in each region, and they will grow in size as time passed. From the look of it, this is a small-sized one that is closed to become a normal size outpost.”
Jack crept closer to have a better look at the outpost.
“Are you going to try to pull the same stunt as that time with the monster settlement?” Peniel asked. “You are going to be sorely regretting it if you do.”
“Don’t worry, I am not suicidal. I’m just going to check it out.”
“I remember you said the same thing the last time. And you still went and attacked that monster settlement…”
“Hehe.”
Jack observed the fortress as he crept around it, but he kept a safe distance from it. If the rule governing this bandit outpost was the same as monster settlement, then he did not want to alert the sentries on the fortress. If he was caught, all the Outlaws inside would come swarming out.
There were multiple watchtowers around the perimeter of the fortress. Each watchtower had two Outlaws guarding it. It would be impossible to sneak into the fortress unnoticed. There were also random patrols around the vicinity of the fortress, similar to the lizardman encampment which he decimated in the past. He paid attention to his radar in order to avoid such patrols.
After finding no possibility to infiltrate the outpost, he started roaming around the terrain nearby.
“What are you looking for?” Peniel asked.
“To see if there are any environments around here that I can exploit, like the ravine in that Lizardman Encampment from before,” he answered.
“I knew it! You are such a stubborn reckless outworlder. You really intend to try challenging this outpost. You perfectly personified the term of foolhardiness.”
“Hehe, the loots I got from that monster settlement in the past were just too amazing. If this outpost was similar, then you can’t blame me for being tempted. But don’t worry, I don’t see anything I can use like the ravine from last time, so I won’t try to attack this outpost. I’m not crazy.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“Come on, don’t you–” His sentence was stopped when he heard a whistling sound, like something sharp cutting through the wind. His body recognized this sound as he swiftly ducked. He felt something grazed through his shoulder.
A thud was heard, he saw an arrow which was stuck on a tree nearby. He then turned to the direction where the arrow had come from. There were three people in the distance. One was holding a bow, he had been the one that had shot the arrow. He was in the process of nocking another arrow on his bow. Another two were running towards him, each holding a long polearm.
Jack was surprised. They were more than one hundred meters away. He had taken care to keep at least that distance from the patrolling Outlaw, he had never met a monster in the wilderness that could perceive from such a long distance.
Peniel seemed to detect his puzzlement. She said, “some monsters or Outlaws possessed a longer range of perception. That archer there must be a scout type that can see farther than his regular brethren. That’s why he had noticed you.”
“You only telling me now?!” Jack complained. He then heard a loud alarm sound from the fortress. Soon more torchlights filled the fortress.
“Crap!” Jack cursed. He turned around and fled. There was no way he could contend with the whole fortress.
The archer was still shooting at him, but the Outlaw’s aim was not that good. With him running, the arrow had even less chance of hitting him.
Jack made an Inspect on the two Outlaws that ran towards him, and found out that they were basic Outlaw at level 30. It seemed that the Outlaws from the fortress were higher level than the three he met previously. This further added to the argument that he should not try to attempt raiding this fortress at this time. He ran as fast as he could.
Luckily those Outlaws followed the rule of monster settlement. They only chased for a limited range. They stopped chasing not long after and returned to the fortress. Jack panted as he looked at them returning.
“Still want to try attacking that outpost?” Peniel teased him.
“Some other time then,” Jack replied as he took out his Town Return scroll. He finally activated it and was brought back to the capital.
Back into the safety of the capital, he felt more relaxed. It was late in the night already, so he headed back directly to Amy’s Bakery to call it a day.
When he entered the bakery, Amy was there welcoming him, with a piece of envelope.
“What’s this?” He asked.
“Someone came today and asked to give it to you,” she answered.
Jack looked at the envelope, there was a wax seal on it.
Was it from the kingdom again? Jack thought. Perhaps a request for another special faction quest? He had been visiting Commander Quintus’ tower every day, but for the whole week, he only got that one faction quest which gave him enough points to become a Baron. He was starting to regret picking the nobility branch of the kingdom faction already due to the scarcity of the quests.
He thanked Amy before going up to his room. Once inside his room, he tore the envelope open and read the letter inside. It was from Duke Alfredo. The letter told him to come to his estate tomorrow morning.
Had he made progress on those Fragments of Map? Jack wondered. Jack could not think of any other reason the Duke would call for him apart from that. Perhaps it’s time to continue his chain quest again.
Early the next morning, Jack went directly to Duke Alfredo’s estate. He was very eager to find out if the Duke had completed the fusion of those fragments. He was very curious as to where the map showed. Then again, if it was a location too far, then it would still be a long time before he could travel there. After all, he was only level 21 at the moment. He had not even reached the distance that allowed him to arrive in another town of this world.
He had asked Peniel how high of a level he needed to be in order to reach another town. Peniel had informed him that every town was surrounded by low-level areas. It made sense considering if there were high-level monsters nearby a town, the inhabitants would not feel safe as well. NPC soldiers patrolled the vicinity of a town and kept the monster population on a safe threshold.
It was the regions in between towns that were the problem inhibiting cross-town travel. The lowest that Peniel knew of these regions hold level 30 monsters. Unless Jack could sneak through these regions with stealth, Peniel advised against him trying to go to another town at this stage. Jack made an estimate that he might try the travel when he reached level 25 in one of his classes.
He passed by the library on the way, which was bustling with players. The librarians had even barred the place to stop people from entering as it was too full already. Jack was puzzled by the commotion. Little did he know that he was the cause of it.
When he was fighting the challenges of those small fries, no one really paid attention. But after his victory over Red Death, everyone had believed the story about him having two classes. Many guilds and independent players had gone into the library to search for information on how to gain the second class, with futile results of course. There was no such information inside the library.
Jack did not pay attention to that hubbub for long. He never needed to visit a library, since he had his own personal portable library with wings by his side. He continued onto Duke Alfredo’s estate.
He arrived in front of the duke’s manor before long. He knocked on the manor’s door. When it opened, he was alarmed to see that it was Winston who had answered the door.
