Andius was starting to feel pretty confident in his stats and skills. He was only level five, but with the way he was specializing, he would be able to take on monsters and people outside of the normal level range so long as he was in the right situation. That didn’t mean he was invincible though, he knew quite well that if he hadn’t caught those two players off guard, they would have killed him without breaking a sweat.

He checked over all of the gear he had taken from the chest and seemed happy with the results, so he hid all he could under his cloak and left the room, heading down to the main floor of the tavern and ensuring that his hood was up to obscure his face. Just like before, the room was fairly empty this early in the morning, just a few regulars nursing hangovers and enjoying their breakfast, and the barkeep was replaced once again with the young woman who Andius had met before. He walked up to her and set a gold coin down on the counter, “Two men attacked me in my sleep last night, this is to cover any damages.” He whispered to her, trying to make sure no one overheard. He knew it was far more than he needed to give, but he didn’t want to lose his only place to sleep.

The girl’s eyes went wide, either from the expensive coin on the counter or from hearing about the assault, and she immediately took the gold and pocketed it, “I-I’m terribly sorry sir, there h-have been bandits in the area, I didn’t know they were in the tavern!” She seemed distraught, far more upset than she should have been, which made Andius pause for a moment and give her a look.

“Why are you so upset? I’m sure stuff like this happens all the time lately.” He replied in a quiet tone, the curiosity in his voice very easy to distinguish despite his attempt at remaining calm. The woman looked torn, as if she wanted to say something but was worried about the consequences of doing so, and it took her some time to mull it over in her head. Andius had the time to wait, he didn’t exactly have a game plan just yet.

Eventually the woman looked up at Andius, a sort of determination in her eyes. “My family owns this tavern, have ever since the town was founded. Woodsdale has always been one of the most peaceful villages in the human territories even with the goblin attacks,” she explained, sounding almost embarrassed, “but lately these bandits started showing up and hurting people… actually a lot of people started just showing up randomly, but these guys are the worst. They refuse to pay for the time they stay in the rooms, and they killed one of the other workers a few nights ago…”

Andius grimaced, so these people weren’t just attacking players, but also the NPCs of the game? He didn’t know what was worse, since the NPCs were all so lifelike, and they didn’t respawn like players did. “I’m guessing it’s bad for business then.” Andius replied with no humor in his tone, he was dead serious right now.

The woman nodded a few times, looking completely distraught, “Y-yeah… So please uhm… if you don’t tell anyone else that you were attacked, I won’t charge you for staying here, and I’ll give you meals for fre-”

“Don’t.” Andius cut her off, He didn't like that at all, she reminded him way too much of himself when he was working at the gas station, trying to make up for a mistake to an angry customer, “I don’t want any of that, you didn’t send those guys after me, the night guy did. Besides, it was a bloody good time.” He joked with a grin, trying to bring some humor into the situation to try and calm her down.

His joke did not have the desired effect, as her face paled considerably and she went as still as a board, “I-I-I’m g-glad to hear that sir…” Came her forced reply, looking all at once more afraid of Andius than the bandits. “I-I’ll make sure that Rupert won’t work for us anymore, so please…”

Andius blinked a few times, his dry humor had a tendency to go over people’s heads pretty often, but this is the first time it had actually scared somebody. “Er, sorry no, that was a joke. Just trying to cheer you up!” He explained while shaking his head, “But there is something you can do for me.” He shifted some of the gear he had under his arms and continued, “I have some gear the bandit’s stole from other pla-… from other adventurers. If you really want to help get rid of these guys, hand it out to adventurers who claim to have been attacked.”

The woman looked shocked, but nodded a few times and moved to the side of the counter and opened the swinging door, where Andius deposited the gear in his arms and the backpack, before standing and waving to her with a smile and walking away. The woman grabbed his arm to stop him, taking hold of the Shadowheart Bracer and immediately flinched back, looking up at Andius in shock, “Y-you’re a….” She went completely silent for a moment, and Andius just looked at her with a question written on his features. She leaned in very close, far closer than Andius was comfortable with and whispered, “You have magic… right? Please, do something about the bandits!”

Andius’ grin just widened and he nodded, “That was the plan. See you around.” With that he walked out of the tavern into the early morning light. He felt pretty good about himself for donating all of that gear, when it was probably worth a lot of gold. Besides, he wouldn’t have been able to sell it anywhere without looking like a bandit himself. Despite it being so early in the morning, the dirt paths of the large village were already packed with laborers and farmers, a few adventurers mixed in here and there, which made this place seem far more important than just a forest village.

Andius looked around for a little while, seeing what stores and other places the village had to offer. There was the tavern he had just walked out from, and beside it was what looked like an herbalist shop, if the mortar and pestle was any indication. There was also a blacksmith hammering away on the eastern side of the village, next to what was probably a barracks. Andius decided to check out the herbalist, if he was going to play a rogue or assassin build, it would probably pay to get stocked on some poisons since they could make his lackluster combat abilities into something a bit more deadly.

Walking inside the shop was like stepping through a portal to a completely different world, the smells of different herbs washing over Andius like a cool breeze in the fall. Herbs weren’t kept in pots or planters, but were rather growing wherever they wanted, scaling the walls and coating the entire interior in shades of green, violet, red, and any other color one could imagine. The air was humid, but the cool temperature of the room made the feeling pleasant and inviting.

While Andius was reeling from seeing such an otherworldly sight, he noticed there were very few people in the building; an older woman behind the counter with long brown hair that was starting to gray, a middle aged man with a bow strung over his back, shaggy blonde hair that… wait, this is the guy he saved from the Gnolls! Andius almost called out to him before he noticed the tension in the room. The only other person here was a man wearing a full suit of metal armor, a red dagger crest in the middle of it that signified him as a member of the bloody blades.

Andius immediately pulled the shadows under his hood together with his darkvision spell, making them level out and look as natural as possible as he watched the man browsing. The man and woman near the counter were watching him as well, suspicion clear on their features, but the woman turned and looked at Andius, “Let me know if you need anything.” Her words were short and sounded irritated, so Andius just nodded and started to browse as well.

He couldn’t tell what was what in this place, nothing was labeled and he wasn’t willing to just go grabbing at any random plant and risk poisoning himself. He did his best to pretend to be interested in the things lining the building while keeping his attention mostly on the player. It didn’t take long for things to escalate.

“Lady, where’s the poison?” The man asked, his voice deep and threatening, he sounded like he was from the countryside somewhere, though his accent certainly wasn’t American. “Nothing is labeled in this place. Just gimme any good stuff you got.” The man turned and looked over at Andius after he spoke, and foolishly Andius met his gaze. The man blinked and immediately looked confused, but the woman spoke up and took his attention away.

“We don’t sell poisons. This is herbalism, not Alchemy. If you want poisons you’re going to have to go to a bigger city,” Came the woman’s reply, her voice hoarse and dry, “Most of my stuff is no good for… adventurers.” Her voice was tense, irritation and the promise of violence hidden just under her professional words.

Andius backed away into a shady corner of the building and held completely still, his body fading away to next to nothing in the span of just a few seconds. What shocked Andius was that the woman looked directly at Andius as he faded away, suspicion in her eyes growing even stronger now. Andius just ignored her for the moment and slowly pulled out his blades, he didn’t want to fight if he didn’t have to, but he wasn’t going to sit on his thumbs if this guy decided to make things violent.

The player looked around for a second, a confused look on his face when he realized that Andius had vanished, but he just laughed and said, “Guess he chickened out.” Before pulling out a short sword from his hip. The hunter reached for his bow, but the armored player was incredibly fast, his hand at the hunter’s throat in a mere second. “Now, unless you want blood all over your precious plants, I suggest you stop lying to me.”

A scowl of disgust came across Andius’ face, the man was grinning, he was enjoying this. With a silent breath, Andius crept closer to the player, knowing that while his stealth was low, he might be able to sneak up on him while he was distracted.

“No need for that! I’ve already told you I don’t sell poisons!” The woman shouted, immediately falling into a violent coughing fit with the strain of shouting, “J-just let him go!” Oddly there wasn’t fear on the woman’s face, just hatred. The anger behind her eyes was more terrifying to Andius than the murderous man clad in metal armor, this woman meant business, and he could tell even from here that she would have killed this man if she weren’t already hurt.

The bandit player looked over at the woman, taking weak blows to his chest plate from the hunter over and over. The look in his eye was one of offense, the kind of look a bully gets when their target dares to fight back, “What’s with that look? I guess you really don’t care if this guy dies, hu-GAHCK!” He suddenly shouted in pain and dropped the hunter, a hand flashing to the fresh stab wound on the back of his neck, turning and looking at Andius in rage and immediately swinging his blade downwards at him!

Andius barely managed to step to the side, even with his enhanced speed dodging blows from this behemoth of a man was a difficult task, he was just as fast as Andius himself! Andius jumped backwards and ran into one of the shelves that held a collection of herbs, causing the plants to rustle and jerk around. Before Andius could move anymore, the man was on his and was swinging his blade to the side, intent on cutting him in half! Andius leapt in the same direction the blade was flying, taking a hit to side side that tore through his armor and bit into his flesh, stopping at one of his ribs. The pain made Andius’ concentration waver, and the shadows on his face started to fade away slowly.

“You idiot, just had to be a hero, huh? Well I hope you enjoy respawn!” The armored player move forward and pressed his boot against Andius’ chest before he had time to roll away, raising his blade high above his head with rage in his eyes! Just before he swung the sharp weapon down, a whistling sound tore through the air, followed by the top of an arrow jutting from his attackers eye! He fell over atop Andius, the weight of his armor knocking the wind out of him and making him cry out in pain.

The heavy body was moved and the hunter helped Andius stand, a grunt of exertion coming from him as he lowered his hood and gave a weak smile to the man who had saved him twice now, “Why is it every time I try to save you, you end up saving me?” he asked with a laugh, feeling just a bit awkward for having to be saved again.

The hunter blinked a few times, a look of shock on his face that would have been priceless if Andius hadn’t just been nearly cut in half, “You!? Why do you always show up right before I die!?”

Andius couldn’t help himself, he started laughing like an idiot in possibly the worst possible situation, nearly doubling over from the sheer hilarity of it. After he managed to regain his composure, he looked the hunter directly in the eye and spoke with a grin, “Guess I’m living life in the danger zone!” The last words coming out almost singsong, a joke that only he seemed to get, judging by the confused looks from the other two in the room.