“We won’t?” Bowler asked with bewilderment. “Bro, I know you are strong, but don’t take us as useless. Not everything you can do by yourself, we can also help.”
“You misunderstand me. If everything went according to plan, I also don’t need to fight,” Jack said.
Bowler was getting more puzzled. “What are you talking about? Are we going to have a negotiation with the bandit?”
Jack grinned at him instead of answering. “If you want to come, come then! Summon your mounts.”
“Wait, we don’t have one!” Bowler uttered. Before they used the Town Return scroll and left the expedition, Commander Quintus had gone and collected the mount whistles from them except for Jack’s one.
“Are you kidding me? Go and buy one! I will leave you if you are late,” Jack exclaimed.
Luckily there was a stable that sold or rented the mounts nearby. With the coins they had gotten from the expedition, the mount’s price was affordable even with the inflation.
After everyone got a proper mount, they left. A group of over fifty people riding out into the wilderness drew some attention, but the onlookers didn’t give it much thought. These days where guilds were already growing in size, many large groups like this came and went every day. However, there was a small group of people who went in the same direction not long after, keeping a distance of at least four hundred meters from Jack’s group.
With mounts, they arrived in the area nearby the bandit outpost in a bit over three hours. Jack could have gotten there sooner because his mount was faster, but he kept his pace with the other.
The structure of the looming bandit outpost soon appeared before everyone’s vision.
“We are going to attack that?” Bowler exclaimed with a gasp.
“Keep your voice down! We don’t want to alert any sentry before the time. There could be patrols from that outpost going around here,” Jack warned.
“Before the time, we are not attacking now?”
“Not yet,” Jack looked at the position of the sun to tell the time. “Around half an hour more.”
“What are we waiting for?”
“You will see.”
Seeing that Jack did not intend to give any answer, Bowler gave up on the question.
“That outpost sure looks big, are you sure your plan can take it down?” Jeanny asked. A hint of worry in her voice.
“It was not this big when I encountered it the first time,” Jack informed. “It was categorized as small-sized that time, now it has grown to a normal-sized outpost.”
“That was normal-sized?” Bowler exclaimed. “There are bigger ones?”
“There are large-sized and town-sized which are much bigger than this one,” Peniel explained.
“Haha. Though our foes appeared formidable, we will not cower! Comrades, an epic battle is ahead of us!” The Man exclaimed.
Jack gave him a side-eye, “I told you already, we are not fighting! You will just kill yourself if you go in with your level. Those outlaws inside have an average of level 40!”
The first time when Jack encountered the outpost, the average level of the outlaws was at 30. Now that the outpost had increased in rank, its occupants apparently had also undergone an upgrade.
“So what do we do?” The Man asked.
“Just stay still, be quiet, and wait!” Jack told him.
Far away from there, the small group that had been following Jack’s group hid behind rows of trees and watched. Jack’s group was just small figures in the distance, they can’t make out anything just watching from there.
“How about I go in and eavesdrop on what they are saying? I’m confident in my sneaking ability, combined with my Silent Step skill, they won’t know I am there.” A rogue in the group offered.
Earmouth, who was the leader of this group, shook his head. “No, Scarface warned that this Storm Wind guy has something that can detect others’ positions. He had confirmed that it was still safe with this distance, but he was not sure how far is that guy’s tool’s area of coverage. So we have to maintain this range.”
“What are they doing anyway? Are they planning to attack that large structure over there?” Another asked.
“If they are, they are looking to die. We have some people passed through this area already. They reported that the structure is populated by human-type monsters. They average at level 40. Our members who went over to check on things end up getting massacred as the denizens inside swarmed out.”
“I doubt they came here for no reason. Are you sure that Storm Wind came around here every day?” Earmouth asked.
Another rogue, who was being asked, replied, “It isn’t exactly this spot, but he did go around at different places not far from here.”
Earmouth had been sending people to spy on Jack and his newly formed guild, Everlasting Heavenly Legends. Urgh, he still shivered every time that name came up in his mind. How the heck did those people come up with such an absurd name for a guild?
Scarface had given him the permission to utilize the members of the guild for this purpose. Scarface was also wary after hearing about Jack forming a guild.
During these few days, the members of that newly formed guild were doing what a new guild normally did, actively doing guild quests to increase reputation. Only Jack was doing all sorts of random things.
“Can that be the bandit outpost they mentioned before?” Earmouth mumbled, then turned to another of his people. “Have there been any reports from the people who search for info in the library about the bandit outpost?”
“Nothing new yet. The last info they found is only saying that it was a place where outlaws gathered. If one successfully raids this outpost, which is by destroying the outpost’s core, the reward will be abundant, though no indication of how this abundant is referring to. Also, it was said that there are different sizes of an outpost. However, no indication as well on these sizes interpretation, so we can’t really measure what size category that one is.”
“A bunch of uncertainty then,” Earmouth pondered. “What I don’t understand is, why these people are so interested in it. Are they simply targeting that abundant reward?”
“Let see them try then. If they somehow managed to get to the Outpost Core, we can ambush them. Then we can break the core ourselves and get the reward,” the rogue who offered to sneak ahead suggested.
Earmouth turned to that rogue and said, “you obviously were not there during the battle of the Crestfall Plain, were you?”
“I did hear about this Storm Wind’s terrifying power, but going against those bunches of level 40 Outlaws, I doubt that even he will get out of this unscathed. He should have exhausted all his trump cards during the fight, we only need to capitalize on it. It will be a great contribution if we manage to get the outpost’s rewards and taking that Storm Wind out at the same time.”
Hearing the rogue’s reasoning, Earmouth thought it did make sense. He said, “I will ask for some more backup.”
“Is it time yet?”
“You have been asking that for the third time now. Even if boss Storm did not mind your pestering, I am getting irritated by it,” The Man berated Bowler
Jack did not show annoyance. Instead, he said, “It’s time.”
Jack then took out a rectangle piece of Jade. It was the Themisphere Beacon Stone. He had been saving this thing for a long time. He could finally make use of it for something important.
“What’s that?” Jeanny asked.
“It’s something that can call over the soldiers in Themisphere in a radius of 300 kilometers who will protect me for three hours.”
“Wow, isn’t that super powerful? So you are going to use these soldiers to deal with those outlaws in the outpost.”
John who heard the description said, “I see, so the last three days you have used it to check on the patrolling soldiers’ routes.”
“Yes. Even though the radius of this item’s effect was very large, it only lasts three hours. If the soldiers are too far and take too long to arrive. The effect will expire before the outpost is completely raided. From my previous roaming, I have found two powerful patrolling troops who are passing by not far from here around this time. It should only take them a few minutes to arrive.”
Jack crashed the jade in his hand. A torrent of energy shot out into the sky before they exploded into a firework of multitude colors. The effect was similar when he used the beacon gave by Duke Alfredo near the Temple of Divine Squall.
They didn’t have to wait long before rumblings were heard. From its sound, it was not a small force. Soon, they saw figures appearing, everyone was uniformly armored. From the size, they estimated the force could be closed to one thousand strong.
Before that first force arrived, someone called out and they turned in the opposite direction. Another similar force was seen coming over.
“Damn, I guess we really won’t have the chance to fight,” The Man uttered.
