Shawn

We travel for half an hour before a camp comes into sight.

Several men can be seen moving throughout the camp with each of them carrying a rusty short sword.

Aldred raises his hand to call for a stop and whispers, "Get ready."

We all ready our weapons and wait for Aldred's signal.

The moment Aldred lowers his hand, both he and Amber fire spells into the bandit's camp.

Amber's spell immediately freezes the legs of one of the bandits, as well as most of one of their tents. Meanwhile, Aldred's fireball blasts one of the tents to pieces, throwing the nearby bandits down to the ground in the process.

We all charge straight towards the bandits before they can recover from the surprise attack.

"Shit! We're under attack!" One of the bandits shouts before getting covered in my miasma.

The bandit immediately starts shouting in pain as his flesh is devoured by miasma until I thrust one of my swords straight through his chest.

Another one of the bandits sees this happen and swears, "Damn it!"

The bandit then rushes towards me with his sword raised, only for a dagger to impale his throat.

I glance towards the source of the dagger and find Elizabeth several meters away pulling another dagger out of a hidden sheath strapped to her thigh.

I give her a brief nod before turning to another bandit.

The battle lasts for another minute or two before the rest of the bandits either die or are captured.

"And that finishes the quest," Aldred says as he finishes tying up the last bandit.

I look around while saying, "That wasn't very difficult."

One of the bandits tries to say something but fails due to the rope in his mouth.

Hank kicks the bandit in the back and says, "Shut up."

Josh winces after seeing Hank's actions but doesn't say anything.

He is too soft.

I turn back to Aldred and ask, "Is there anything in the tents?"

Aldred looks surprised but shakes his head.

"No, there isn't anything in the tents. They are completely empty," Aldred says with a frown on his face.

Amber looks at the remaining bandits and says, "So they most likely already sold it off or gave it to someone else."

"Which means that we will have to interrogate these bandits," I mutter as Aldred nods and signals Hank who then drags one of the living bandits off into one of the tents.

Soon, screams can be heard from within the tent.

Josh once again winces when he hears it, but he also seems used to it.

I guess he isn't as soft as I had first thought then.

The screams don't last very long, and Hank comes out of the tent with the bandit still alive being dragged behind him.

"Am I to assume that he gave in and told you what we need?" Aldred asks Hank with a small grimace.

Hank nods his head and says, "Yeah, apparently they had transferred the stolen goods to a demon called the Ash Bandit."

"The Ash Bandit?" Josh asks in confusion.

"If I remember correctly, the Ash Bandit is one of the leaders of the criminal society within the Isle of Drifting Ash. The Island Lord doesn't bother with dealing with him because they have a deal set up, and Luke hasn't had the time to deal with him as of yet, so he is just doing whatever he wants at the moment," Elizabeth surprisingly comments from the side.

Interesting.

I wonder why she knows so much about the criminal society on this island?

Amber turns to Aldred and asks, "Should we report back to the Guild, or should we go after this Ash Bandit?"

Aldred shakes his head and says, "Our quest was to capture or kill the bandits on the Ash Plains, not to go after a criminal overlord for the Isle of Drifting Ash who has 3 stars. Therefore, we report back to the Guild to turn in the quest."

3 stars?

Interesting.

Elizabeth looks surprised at Aldred before saying, "I'm surprised that you know how many stars he has."

Aldred smirks and says, "You're not the only one who knows a lot about this island."

He then turns to the bandits and says, "Alright, let's head back to the city."

We turn the bandits over to the Guild officials as soon as we reach the Guild before turning in the quest.

"Those bandits were annoying," Hank mutters after we finish turning in the quest.

Aldred ignores him and says, "We should look for another quest."

"Sounds good," I say before turning to the quest board again.

"You already finished your first quest?" I hear a voice ask from behind me.

I turn to see Luke floating behind me with a grin on his face.

When did he get here?

"Yes, now leave so that we can find another quest to do," Aldred says before turning to the quest board again.

"How rude," Luke says with a frown.

Those two have a very strange relationship.