Crime is something unavoidable no matter where you are, as regardless of the world you are in there will always be people that want to tread the easy way, and the Origin World is no exception to this rule.

Crimes in the Origin World can be found in many different forms; from blunt robbery to the most schemed heist, targeting from the homeless street kid to the richest of nobles. But even with such a large range of combinations of crimes and targets one, in particular, would always stand out among the rest, not because it’s the most lucrative or easy, but it’s because it is the most common.

The crime is robbery, and the targets are travelers.

The Origin World is a very big place with many people traveling around all the time, meaning that targets are certainly not lacking, making stealing from travelers the main street of business for many bandit groups.

But stealing from travelers is not exactly easy, common people when going around would use the more guarded roads, and only those with some means to protect themselves would travel the least guarded ones; Merchants most of the time have their personal escorts, and adventurers that dare to travel alone, considering they are not idiots, generally have some level of strength or at least something under their sleeve to safeguard them.

But those groups that are used to this type of crime are not simple either, to be able to survive in this branch of work many would step up on their game, using tactics or greater levels of strength that their targets some groups ended standing out among the others.

But not everyone could handle fame well, some groups with inflating egos would let success cloud their reason and would be ended up claiming that they are more dangerous to travelers than magic creatures. One of these groups that has an area of action close to a certain forest in the south-west region of the Aleora kingdom is about to discover that this claim could not be further from the truth.

In the banks of a river close to the edges of the forest, an interesting scene has been set up.

A circle of tents made from the hide of low-level magic creature had been set up near the river. The circle is composed of five layers with a more-grand tent in the middle of everything at the last layer, a campfire with a large cooking pot was built at the side of the circle, a soup made with a mix of parts of blood-boar being prepare on it. Behind the circle of the tents in the opposite direction of the river some carriages had been parked, getting closer to them you would see some spots of blood on their wheels, marks of swords slash at the doors and other signs of struggle could be found in the body of the carriage.

A Bandit Camp

The group had about sixty members that could be found around the camp as they ate and chat about their day, this bandit group is called Crew of Shadow and they had just finished an ambush against a merchant transporting his goods. The merchant had a good number of escort guards that would have not lost in a frontal clash against the crew, but unfortunately for them, the crew also knew that hence they made a well-prepared ambush that resulted in all the guards being killed.

After collecting the prize the crew of shadow left the crime scene before anyone could show up, hiding in the wilderness is a dangerous but effective plan as the magic creatures would unknowingly hinder anyone that came chase them, the crew would escape scot-free with the many goods, a good plan. This, of course, considering that they themselves don't become prey to the many magic creatures living in the wilderness, but this is just the edge of the forest, they thought, we can handle the magic creature around him, they thought.

Sadly they don’t know that this forest has two powerful owners now.

…

“I hate to keep watch”

A little far away from the camp in the now dark forest two bandits stood in watch, the two wore a simple leather-armor made from a magic creature similar to a bull called tourom, both of them had heart and shoulder guard made from tempered iron, and both of them also had had short steel swords at their waists. The one who spoke had brown short hair, an average face with light brown eyes, the other one by his side was actually somehow good looking, with deep green hair and dark brown eyes.

“Are you gonna keep complaining all night Alex?” asked the green-haired bandit to his partner.

“I probably will Elvin” grunted the bandit Alex as he passed a hand through his hair “I mean, why do we even had to keep watch? Is not like the beasts around here are strong enough to pose a threat to us”

“You said that because you spent too much time holed up in the base and really don't know the dangers of the wilderness, even if we are only in the edge of it it's still dangerous to let our guard down” said Elvin the green-haired bandit as he shot his friend a stern glare.

“Hmph, If is such a concern, them why the boss hadn’t bought a surveillance array? I’m pretty sure the people of Monroc would have given our boss a pretty good price” Alex looked at his friend who opens his mouth to retort but eventually just gave a sigh “I thought so”

Magic is a very essential and key part of everything in this world, so since the first era of the world people tried to find ways to use magic to help their needs and easy their lives, one of these ways of using magic is through arrays.

After studying the abyssal depths of mystery and knowledge of this mystical force called magic some people came up with the idea of arrays, magic circles that would normally only do certain specific actions are brought together, and then programmed to achieve wondrous effects that they wouldn't be able otherwise. Arrays are just like computer programs from Earth, even though they are made using deep knowledge and skills they still can be used by normal people, because magic arrays, in general, have default set actions that at most would need you to put a certain level of magic to active it and use the basic effects, of course, higher-level arrays would still need some depth of knowledge to be used.

A surveillance array as its name imply, is a type of array that would keep watch a certain area of effect and warn its owner if anyone not allowed step in the perimeter, at most basic it can detect movements, while the more advanced ones are able to detect even disturbances in space itself.

A very useful array that unfortunately is out the reach of normal people, as even its most basic form costs around five hundred gold coins, for normal people that don’t really have that much of a need for a magic alarm system, the cost of five hundred gold coins is really not worth it. For people that travel deep in the wilderness, on the other hand, surveillance arrays are really good investment to make. In the wilderness, danger can come from about any direction, so having an 360° magic system the work for you is a really good way of keeping your life safe, but putting this aside just the fact that you don’t need to stay awake at night is already a huge positive point to many.

Unfortunately, not everybody wants to spent so much money in an array, when they can have about the same thing by using living guards that are a lot cheaper.

…

Putting the matter of arrays aside the two bandits started to talk a little to pass their boredom, with Alex obviously being the talkier of the two. They kept watch for about three hours without nothing happening, the camp activities ended and almost no one was awake apart from them and the others in watch duty in the opposite side of the camp.

Looking around Alex decided it could not sit still anymore “Hey man, I go take a leak”

“Be careful out there” said Elvin in advice to his talkier friend, who just returned a dismissing wave of his hand as he walked away “Sigh this guy…”

The wind of the night blew through the forest bringing with a cold feeling to the place, the moon so bright and entrancing in the sky was only able to give a dim light to the forest, thing that accentuated the quiet dark and cold feeling of the place, but at same time also gave the forest a very unique and mystical feeling that was hard to really put in words.

But the silent darkness of the forest wasn’t able to faze Alex who was taking a leak behind a tree near the river, the confident bandit kept his cool the entire process, even taking extra time in his task at hand. Finishing his business behind the tree he walked to the river to wash his hands, the silence of the forest never changing as the moon now appeared reflected in the water.

“Hm?” as he was about to leave Alex that was calm all the time felt a strange feeling, turning back he looked at the river with a watchful look. In the silence of the night, the only sounds you could hear were those of the wind in the air and the water in the river, not a single presence could be felt by him there. He stood there for about two minutes, but concluded in the end that what he briefly felt was just his imagination “This place really has nothing…”

Alex walked back to his post while complaining more about the place, the matter about the feeling he felt apparently tossed to the back of his head. But unknown to him while he looked at the river, underneath the waters of the river two pairs of eyes looked back at him, and they continued to look at him as he left the place. They remained in that area a little longer, setting their eyes at the bandit camp before silently going away, swimming the river back to the depths of the forest.

All the while, the bandits remained unaware of the danger that now will be heading in their way.

Swimming up the river you would eventually ended up back in the depths of the forest, the trees would change from their normal size to giant, the variety of plants and herbs would rise and the magic creatures would started to appear way more than before.

The figures that were spying on the bandit camp swam to the side of the river arriving in a more open shore, climbing up from the water the figures revealed to be two kobolds.

The two red-scaled lizardmen had about one meter and seventy-five of height, their wore the standard loin-cloth that most kobolds use, the difference being the ones they wore are more well made, with a strange tribe symbol drawn on them. Surprisingly they also wore a chest piece of armor, similar to a heart-guard, made from the hide of a magic creature. Both of them also held a spear each, with shafts made from iron-wood and the head from steel, those spears are clearly very well crafted weapons that you would normally not see in the hands of kobolds.

Exchanging a look the two nodded at each other and without uttering a single word they walked forward a few meters, marching past a dense bush near a giant rock the two arrived in a giant wall made of wood logs and rocks, and atop the walls two other kobolds similar to them if not a little taller, wearing similar equipment to the two below stood guard.

One of the kobolds atop of the walls saw the other two kobolds approaching, recognizing the two he looked back inside the walls “Open the gate, Kalgu and Hokba from the river patrol have returned!”

With a gruff deep grunt as response part of the wall bellow the kobold guard started to lift, showing to be a gate of sorts. “Thanks, Akko” “Yeah, thanks man” said the two kobolds from the river to the guard kobold before walking inside the wall, just on the other side beside the gate stood an ogre holding a chain attached to the gate. The giant that was both fat and muscle wore apart from the usual loin-cloth an iron helmet at his head, along a sort of belly armor made of iron, and at his feet a mace fit for his size in one side and a slab of some meat in the other.

The ogre seeing that the two kobolds had already walked in close the gate, sitting down he picked his mace with one hand and the slab of meat with the other “You guys are late” said him to the kobolds with his deep gruff voice before taking a bite at the meat in his hand.

“Just to you know, we are not late” said Hokba the kobold on the right with a roll of his eyes to the ogre as they passed by him, to which the ogre only shrugged before going back to his meat “This guy…”

The other kobold named Kalgu could not help but laugh at his friend expression “Good to see you too Blorig” saying his greetings to the gatekeeper ogre he resumed his walk with his friend.

Inside the walls simple but well-made big wood huts had been built using wood from giant trees, going past the huts the grassy ground would give way for a more rocky terrain, that would then lead you downhill to a cave with clear sign of excavation, all the while you would see kobolds, ogres and a few dwarfs going past and forth around the place. This is the south river mine or fort, built by order of the brothers Lucas and Will after they had acquired a map of the region from the fallen tower in the swamp.

Although the map was somehow outdated, it still helped the brother point out the location of a good mining area no too far from their territory, which was good considering the needs for resources their tribe will have in the future. After having Thalgrim send a few dwarfs to the place to confirm the information in the map, the two new Lords sent a few of their subordinates to secure the place, then using the strength of ogres, with the skills of the dwarfs and the numbers of the kobolds a base around the mine was build.

….

As they walked through the fort Kalgu and Hokba would occasionally greet some of the tribe members passing, who them would return the greeting or simply reply with a nod. The vibe of the place was unusually harmonious considering that some there used to be enemies, kobolds would mingle with the ogres, something that could only really happens thanks to the brothers influence. The incident between the Blood-Fang ogre tribe and the others became something of the past really fast, and even if someone still has some bitter feeling about that time, they still would not dare to show it thanks to the pressure of the two brothers.

At some point the two also walked past what appeared to be a simple looking barn, stored inside a group of big magic creatures would draw the attention of any normal person. The magic creatures in question had the shape of a rhino, it’s body at first look appeared to be covered in full plate knight armor, but it’s not, the hide of the creature has a metal element in it that causes it to grow in a fashion similar to a knight armor, and just like a rhino the creature also had a horn, the difference being that his horn was made of metal. The armored look of the magic creature besides a great defense, also gave the creature the name of Armored beast, because of his body an armored beast would seek resources of metal to eat and was because this trait that the brothers had been able to find this creature near the mine location. Taking into account the strength of the armored beast, that was capable of even serving as mount to ogres with armor, thee two decided to tame the group and use as their tribe car pushing animal, all they needed was show their strength and feed the guys with some metals.

Walking just a little past the barn the two kobolds scouts arrived in the biggest building in the fort, made in a more grand way than the rest the place was the heart of the fort, and where the head figures put forth by the brothers would be. Inside looked similar to a war room, two of the three head figures of the place stood behind big a table.

One was an ogre with pure muscles and no fat, in his face, a large well-groomed beard, instead of the usual loin-cloth this one used pants made from magic creature hide, he wore a well-crafted steel armor and had two big maces hanging from his waist. The other figure was that of a muscular one meter and ninety tall kobold, he wore loin-cloth similar to that of Kalgu and Hokba, but his was clearly of better quality, because of his scales he didn’t use much armor, only a single shoulder guard made of steel and a chest piece to protect his belly where the scales are more soft, in one of his hand he held a spear with the shaft made from a type of slightly gold metal, with the head made from black iron.

The ogre was Orok, and the kobold was Rokdo.

It had been a month since they had become the subordinates of the brothers, and the changes could not been more clear, while they still pretty basic the equipment that they now use received a very welcomed upgrade, all thanks to Thalgrim and the dwarfs that now got to put their skills to use without being forced to.

“”Head Rokdo and Orok”” the two scouts kobolds walked a little closer to the table before saluting the two powerful warriors before them.

The two heads of the fort nodded back in acknowledgment “Good work you two Kalgu and Hokba, now what’s your report from the scouting?” asked the head kobold Rokdo as he looked at the two before him.

Kalgu exchanged a brief glance with his friend before taking a step forward “While scouting down the river we had come across a few humans, apparently a group of them had set up a base near the river!”

Hearing the mention of a base of humans down the river made an astonished look appear on the two heads face, followed them by a serious face with a dangerous glint in their eyes.