Micheal screamed “You tried to kill me!” And charged at Micky. But Mathew quickly intercepted. Only to have to block the attack that the young [Warrior] attempted to strike Micky down with in his righteous fury.

“He tried to kill me! Get out of the way! I’m going to kill this menace and solve our problems once and for all!” Screamed Michael. His family had joined his side while the others of the left wing stayed neutral. They didn’t want to get involved in case this went south. This was a no win scenario after all.

“You are the tank of the left wing are you not?” Asked Mathew.

“You’re the tank, you’re whole family are tanks. Fuck this little bitch!” Micheal screamed, as he ignored the building anger in Mathew’s face.

It looked like this young man forgot who he was dealing with. A man that punished his own nephew by crippling him. He held less love and affection for the rest of these people. With the exception of Jimmy who he owed for sparing his nephew’s life and Micky, and Pinky by proxy. All the others he owed nothing and expected nothing. So he saw fit to remind this young lad who he was. With a punch to the face. This sent the young warrior, a class with a respectable [END] and [STR] flying across the small clearing.

“Shut your whining hole. I have no time for this. You and your team allowed that [Monster] to attack our unprotected flank. Were this an official party, you would be killed on the spot without trial. Were I still a guard, I could execute you on the spot. You are lucky this is not, and that I am lenient with children. Do not test my patience.” Said Mathew.

Micheal looked at Mathew with a glare. Impressive considering he had just been sent across the clearing. Then he looked around the rest of the [Party]. Realizing that even with his allies he was outgunned by Mathew alone he withheld his tongue. But he did send a plaintive glance at the nominated group leader of the left wing.

*Cough* “You must understand that this has endangered the party and that reparation must be made. Afterall this situation can not be encouraged don’t you think?” Said the other father in the left wing.

Mathew smiled “Your right, reparations must be made, or we would encourage such actions. One gold per head of the right wing, minus my own of course. Pay up.” Mathew said, this got a knowing smile from the man. Until he saw who the hand was extended to.

*Cough Cough* “I think there has been a misunderstanding here I meant them.” He gestured to the other group. Mathew did not take his hand back.

“They are not at fault here. Your group is the one that forced that [Monster] upon us!” The man said indignantly. Mathew just continued to glare the man down. “This is outrageous we do not need-” *Glare* *Cough* “We can not afford to pay such a sum.” the man finished meekly.

Mathew finally withdrew his hand. “Then I will forgive this, this time. This is a PUG after all. However, If this happens again I will get 1 gold from each of your party members per member of the other party, whether I have to skin your hide and sell it to the [Hunter’s Lodge] to do it or not. Are we clear?” Head nods all around. “Then I will expect you to take the [Monster]s you are assigned unless either, it is too much for your party to handle and you ask for help from me to help tank, or you ask for help from the other party members. Specifically. Even if you have to [Dead] to handle those [Monster]s. If not, run the hell away because I will find you, and I will hunt you down. And you will [Dead] after I skin you alive, clear?” More head nods.

“Now that this is done, you will have to take your punishment and perform all the camp chores when we set up camp for the rest of this trip. We can’t encourage this behavior right?” The left wing nodded again. At this point they felt like their head was an a spring and there wasn’t much point to stopping, except Mathew seemed done yelling at them. This brought sighs of relief from the left wing, it was finally over with. Of course this then brought glares to Michael, who had a wronged look on his face. All he could think of was what did I do? It’s his fault!

“You know they are going to try something later right? This isn’t over.” said Simone

“And what are they going to do? I’m a [Pink Mage] anything they try to debuff us with I can remove, and you’re a [Jester] type class. The joke is literally on them.”

Of course, they did indeed try something. They put bugs in the right wings tents, dumped all of the right wings gear all over the place, and some other petty tricks. And of course, Micky just [Charmed] the bugs into the left wings tents and Simone cast [The Joke’s On Them]. This caused their petty tricks and cheep shots to backfire. This was actually a powerful [Jester] class skill that came oddly early for the [Village Idiot] class alone. Of course, most everything else that came with the class was disgusting or useless so it did not really balance out.

Nothing else interesting or exciting happened aside from the [Midnight Monkey] returning. Again he had hundreds of clones. But this time the left wing took Mathew’s advice. This meant the only one to get hit was the mule. But he seemed to take it in stride. No rather he seemed to become more confident the stinkier he got. This caused the [Midnight Monkey] to salute him with respect. It seems he found a kindred spirit even if they would never fight alongside each other, or could never be friends. Truly it was a destined tragedy, that these two would forever be forced to battle each other.

Meanwhile the rest of crew just eye-rolled at the drama playing out before them. Truly this was a battle of the ham. It was a wonder who would win, but it seemed the mule stubbornly moved on while the [Midnight Monkey] was forced to retreat in the face of this unmoving ass.

Of course Michael was voted to take care of the ritual to remove the poo in an hour. The mule seemed to be somehow affronted in this. As if the stink was a badge of honor. The rest of the crew just held their noses around the two until the hour was up.

In the morning they broke camp again and moved on. They were starting to get the hang of traveling even if none of them, except Mathew, had ever left the village before.

Traveling along they met a few more monster groups. But nothing that would actually endanger the group.

But this group was different. “Bandits.” Mathew stated. His [Guard] class senses picked up their signs from a distance off. “They aren’t actually on this road, but there’s a fork just ahead that joins this road onto a the main road for the area. It seems they use this road often to get off the main road so eyes up.”

“Bandits? But aren’t those people? Will we have to kill people? I don’t want to kill somebody.” Said Michael, for once Micky agreed with him.

*Hucktoo* “Non-human bandits aren’t people son, and don’t ever even suggest it. Their [Monster]s same as any [Slime] or [Goblin].” Said Micheal’s father.

“Your father is right that they are basically the same as [Monster]s. The system even recongnizes this and changes their class if they spend enough time as one. However, you don’t have to kill them. They are still people, and any territory will reward you for bringing them in, [Dead] or [Capitulated]” Said Mathew. “Though few career criminals will [Capitulated] because they will just end up the same either way. It just makes proving that you yourself aren’t a [Criminal] so much easier if they are alive.”

The kids just shivered, this was not a battle they wanted to fight. But [Bandit]s that had any skill would come to them. It was just a matter of if they were prepared or not.

They were in the middle of a battle with [Monster]s when the bandit arrow struck. It missed wildly but it let the group know they were under attack. “Surrender or die!” Said a voice from the forest.

“We’ll give you a third of our valuables for safe passage.” Mathew said as he revealed his coin purse. He was still in the midst of combat so he couldn’t stop fighting, but none of the [Monster]s they had come across had any real meaning to him. However it was going to get annoying if they had to dodge arrows while they were engaged in combat with the [Monsers]. Pretty much the reason the bandits struck now of all times.

*Thump* another arrow “Surrender everything down to your skivvies and we let you live, otherwise you die.” Mathew didn’t respond, but the bandits got the message as he redoubled his efforts to take out the monsters they were handling. *Thud Thud Thud* A bunch of arrows missed their mark. But it was enough to know that there was more than one [Bandit]. “Keep the mule and the kids alive. We’ll see how cooperative they are after we put a sword on the children’s throat.” said the voice. But the bandits did not leave the forest.

“You bastard you doomed us all!” Said the leader of the left wing. He turned and ran, but he was quickly hit in the leg with an arrow. As more landed around him he realized that he wasn’t going to get far. So he turned back limping to the fighting. Of course not without a glare to Mathew.

“Bring the fight to them or we will all get hit. Michael stay and take care of Skrim, the rest of you, charge the forest!” Mathew commanded, nobody denied him.