"F***, chase after him!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"You guys go. I'll stay here and guard the exit... I am not very useful in such closed environment," said the ranger.

"Ok," The mage quickly approved and moved his hands to tell the others to start moving.

The rest of the Red Bandits chased after Li Wei but suddenly, the lights went out.

"Damn... that kid is taking out the torches... Quick! light up some"

....

After Li Wei made the turn, he quickly drank down another Health Potion, bringing his HP back to 59/80. There was no cooldown time on the amount of potion one could drink. However, he could be interrupted by taking damage and with the Red Bandits chasing him, he did not want to risk it and only drank one.

Then he thought that he only needed to delay them for 15 minutes, but it was not as simple as it seemed. Outside were the Red Bandits, while inside, were the Mine Rats. He did not know if they were still there or had already left but they were his only chance.

Li Wei tried to buy as much time as possible, taking out the torches was one of his ideas. Li Wei quickly used his sword to cut out the torches and take out the fire. He then ran deeper into the mines, repeating the process.

While running, Li Wei strangely did not feel any fear. On the contrary, he was excited. Even in total darkness, he wasn't scared. He could not see anything but somehow, he never stumbled on any obstacle. He would occasionally have to use his hands to guess the direction of the tunnel.

After a few minutes, Li Wei started to slow down, he could distinctively hear the footsteps of the red Bandits behind, but he did not mind it. And finally, he listened closely and finally heard what he wanted to hear, "eek eek". It was a Mine Rat; they did not all leave. Li Wei's plan was something he had commonly seen when playing; to use the aggro of monsters to distract his opponents.

Li Wei charged at the Mine rat but did not use his sword. He did not want to injure it. The rat quickly reacted and turned around to bite Li Wei. The latter blocked it with his shield and used the imitated version of [Bash]. He repeatedly hit the rat with his shield, dealing negligible amounts of damage. His goal was only to stun the rat enough to be able to pass through.

While Li Wei could see almost nothing, he could feel the presence of the rat and its movement, after a few strikes. Li Wei grabbed the rat's tail and threw it towards the entrance. Li Wei took a quick glance behind him and saw the light coming from the torches of the Red Bandits, he smiled and then ran deeper into the mine.

When Li Wei took out the lights, he did not only want to delay the bandits, he also wanted the bandits to attract the aggro of the monsters. It was a normal reaction for animals to be attracted towards light sources.

Li Wei ran into the tunnel, he could faintly hear swearing and sounds of swords hitting the ground. He ignored all that and ran... He repeated the same thing on all the rats he found.

A few minutes later, he checked the countdown in his quest log, 3 minutes and 30 seconds left. Suddenly, Li Wei felt danger, he quickly crouched and raised his shield and surely. "Takk! Takk", 2 throwing knives sank into his shield.

‘F*ck… How did they get here so quickly?’

A shadow appeared and was quickly followed by another Red Bandit holding a torch. The two were both rogues. The quest was not that easy after all, even if Li Wei invested heavily in Dexterity, he was not as fast and agile as a rogue and rogues were used to fight and travel in darkness.

Li Wei faced the rogues but slowly retreated backward, he only needed to hold on for a few minutes and the militiamen would arrive. Seeing that, the rogues dashed towards Li Wei, one on each side, one having 2 curved daggers and the other a dagger and the torch.

Li Wei blocked with his shield and parried with his sword, but it was inevitable to take some damage and his HP bar started to deplete. But then, he started to feel a familiar feeling, it was the same as when he fought the Red Bandits on the path from the Eastern Forest.

The fight continued, Li Wei kept taking damage but gradually, he started to be able to predict the moves of his opponents. The damage he took gradually lessen and he was even able to dodge the daggers. His feet became more stable and could see openings in the two rogues' attack.

At the moment, Li Wei was fully focused on defending. He did not care about defeating his two opponents; his only goal was to survive. As long as he did not take any direct damage, he would be able to survive long enough for the militia to arrive. Li Wei’s strategy was no different from the annoying players that would spam their shields or counters in fighting games.

Eventually, Li Wei saw a good opening. He parried a rogue on one side and thrust his sword towards the other rogue. "Cling Clang!" It was easily parried and violently pushed back the sword but then, Li Wei used the force from the parry to quickly make a spin and strike the other rogue.

As the rogue saw the sword strike coming, he tried to block it, but the strong force made him feel a terrible pain on his wrist. He did not expect such strength and eventually let go of his dagger. Being disarmed and with one hand holding the torch, he had no choice but to take a few steps back.

However, Li Wei did not allow him to do so. He ignored the other rogue and pounced towards the disarmed one.

"Cleave"

"-20"

But Li Wei could not continue his attack as the other rogue quickly reacted and attacked Li Wei, forcing him back on the defensive. That bought time for the disarmed rogue to take out another dagger. He then rushed back towards the battle but did not attack with the dagger.

When he saw Li Wei raising his shield, he coldly smiled and did not use his dagger. Instead, he struck the shield with the torch. It dealt no damage, but the shield was partially made of wood. If Li Wei did not quickly retreat, his only means of defense would start burning.

"Crap"

Li Wei had no choice but to jump back... He did not expect such a dirty move. While retreating, his hand grabbed a throwing needle and aimed it at the rogue holding the torch

But then, a bright light appeared from behind the rogues. Li Wei jumped back quickly but still took damage. It was a Mana Bolt; the mage and the remaining rogue had arrived.

"You are very fast kid, but this is the end. This is what you get for killing our teammates!"

The two rogues quickly went past Li Wei to prevent him from escaping deeper into the mines.

Li Wei panicked and quickly looked at the remaining time. When he saw the number, he started to relax; only two seconds were left. The mage approached Li Wei and raised his staff. A light started to appear on his staff, but another light appeared behind the mage and exploded on his back.

It was another Mana Bolt but this one was clearly bigger and brighter than the one the mage used. From behind, a group of militiamen appeared, Most of them were in heavy armor, but there was also a mage and a priest.

The priest quickly used [Heal] on Li Wei, "+25" appeared in white above his head. In the meantime, the rest of the militiamen moved forward and engaged the Red Bandits, the militiaman with a badge on his chest approached Li Wei.

"Good job, we can take it from here on... You can relax, there is no way they can escape!"

"There is also a ranger, he was guarding the entrance," replied Li Wei

"Yes, we already captured him, just go and stay with the priest, he will protect you," hastily replied the man as he joined the fray.

While the Red Bandits fought ferociously, they were simply outnumbered and could only end up captured. The Red Bandits were tied and tightly guarded. The whole group then left the mines. The priest kept casting [Heal] on Li Wei whenever it came off cooldown until his HP was fully restored.

Li Wei finally relaxed, he had completed the quest; he only needed to go to the barracks and talk to the commander now.

The group walked out of the mines. At the entrance, they saw a bunch of scared miners. The miners had noticed the Red Bandits but chose to not interfere with their business and just gathered near the entrance. Another group of militiamen was also present there, with the Red Bandit Ranger tied up.

The two groups of militiamen then merged into one and went back to the town. Li Wei followed them but not without talking to the miners to complete the quest "Mine Rat Extermination" from which he got a lot of exp, almost enough to level up.

...

Little Root Town, Barracks

Li Wei was sitting in the Commander's office. The Red Bandits were imprisoned and were being interrogated right now.

"To be honest, I did not expect you to be able to survive that. I apologize for that. I hoped to take advantage of the fact that you can simply revive. I know that you adventurers, having received the blessing of Gaia, will just revive after their death. That was pretty impressive."

Li Wei simply smiled and did not say anything. By the looks of it, he would soon get his rewards.

"You already took a full set of militia's equipment, but I cannot be stingy. Tomorrow, go talk to Elder Jari, he lives in the southern part of the city, I already talked to him and he will definitely give you something that you will like."

[System prompt: You have completed the quest "Bait the Red Bandits", 2000 exp awarded. Additional rewards upon visiting Elder Jari]

[System prompt: Congratulations player Seven. You leveled up. You are awarded a free stat point]

Li Wei was puzzled, what could Elder Jari give him? But he just smiled and then answered "Thank you, Commander. However, I have a request. From the looks of things, you are going to attack the Red Bandits' Hideout soon, I would like to participate in this operation."

"What? Impossible, you are way too weak, even though you could deal with the Red Bandits, the higher-ups of these bandits are as strong as our captains. You won't be able to contribute to this battle"

"Commander, did you not say that I was going to die when baiting the Bandits, but I am still alive and well. Even though I cannot say that I will be able to contribute greatly, I can guarantee that I will not be a burden to the team."

The Commander hesitated for a while and then said, "Are you sure about this? We already have the location of their hideout. The operation is for tonight. Aren't you tired from today's event?"

-"This is perfectly fine; doesn't the militia have resources for this sort of situation?"

The commander briefly looked at Li Wei without blinking his eyes. He then sighed and tossed out a bottle. "Drink that, we are meeting in one hour for a briefing before starting the operation."

"Got it," answered Li Wei. He was overjoyed.

What Li Wei received was a fatigue recovery potion:

[Fatigue Recovery Potion](Grade 1)

Reduce fatigue level by 30%

It was actually a grade 1 potion. It was not expensive, just rare. In Little Root town, Craftsmen able to produce Grade 1 items were rare and their items were quickly sold and always in high demand.

After this whole day of fighting, Li Wei's fatigue was at 63%. He readily drank the potion and briefly went to the inn for a meal. He did not need to be at his peak condition since he would only spectate. He wanted to see how other people fought and also see if he could take advantage of the situation to gain some resources.

...

19:10, Barracks

Li Wei was seated in the briefing room, surrounded by militiamen. They were going to launch their attack in 20 minutes. According to the commander, it was the optimal time as people would usually be eating and the Bandits would probably be all grouped in their hideout. There was a chance they could capture all of them at once.

The Bandit groups had about 100 individuals and most of them were class holders varying from level 5 to level 8. They also had some level 9 and two level 10 fighters. The militia was sending 10 teams of 20 individuals, twice the number of Bandits.

Li Wei was graciously allocated to a team consisting mainly of warriors. Their task was to provide backup and clean up the weak bandits. Usually, the outcome of the operation would be decided by the fight between the strongest individuals, namely the commander and the Red Bandit leader.

The hideout of the Red Bandits turned out to be the underground of the Solas Department Store. After some torture, the imprisoned Red Bandits quickly gave out the location of their hideout. They naturally valued their lives above that of their companions.

According to them, the Solas Department Store associated with Red Bandits and they worked together to inflict damage to other businesses so that the Solas Department Store could grow without competitors. They also developed a scheme by posting the quest about Wild Mushrooms, inciting adventurers to go far into the Eastern Forest, so that the Red Bandits could easily ambush them.

The assault plan was very simple; surround, charge and kill all Red Bandits. As for the Solas Department Store's staff, they were to be captured and interrogated later.

After clarifying the last details such as the order that the teams would proceed and where they would assault from, the militiamen all stood up with their teams and separated into smaller groups to surround the Department Store. As for Li Wei, he quietly followed his new teammates.