Sitting in the bumpy yet somehow nostalgic carriage that was tied to two, unhealthy horses, my ride to the royal capital of Crisedia started.

The coachman would occasionally leash the horses for no reason, making me realise why they were in this skeletal condition in the first place.

“Customer, may I know why you want to go to the Malta forest? I’ve heard it is pretty dangerous out there.”

The old coachman started talking.

'Man, here we go again. NPCs just can't seem to stay quiet.’

“Yeah well, I am going there for some business that I have.”

Suppressing the thoughts inside my head, I replied vaguely, hoping he wouldn’t ask me any more questions and just silently do his job.

“Oh? Are you going there to look for some precious herbs too? I heard that the forest is filled with such kinds of herbs.”

The old coachman again brought up a topic after some minutes of silence.

“hmm- wait, do you know anything about herbs?”

I was about to remain silent when I realised something. This was a game and even random encounters with low-level NPCs can bring a fortune to players.

‘What if he is one of those hidden bosses in games that like to stay away from mundane affairs? Although he doesn’t look any bit like that.’

Don’t judge a book by its cover and gobble down every information you can get from that book! No matter how unsightly the said book is.

“Ah me? Naw lad. I was just curious as to why everyone’s been rushing to the Malta forest these days. I don’t know a thing about herbs, haha.”

The old coachman replied, as if shy that the young man had taken him for a herbalist.

Tch

‘I knew it! My luck isn’t that great that I would find a hidden boss on every little stroll.’

“Is that so? Okay, never mind then.”

The old coachman looked back at me with his eyes without turning his head as a small smile formed on his face.

“Say, young man. Which herbs are you looking for? Anything in particular? I heard that some princess from a far land is sick and everyone is looking for some kind of medicine to cure her, so that can marry her. By any chance…?”

A trace of uneasiness appeared on my face. I wasn't really all that good at keeping up a chat.

‘Sigh, my morals are making me unable to curse the old fellow, even if he’s just an NPC. You did a good job raising me mom.’

Since it had come to this, I decided to talk as much as this guy wants. After all, it was about time I gave up on my lonely ways, at least in front of NPCs.

“Hmm. Apparently, the princess of Wenselm Dukedom has been poisoned by some kind of monster and the duke is looking for someone that can cure her. Although I have no idea about antidotes or herbs in general, I would like to save her if possible.”

“Oh, what a gallant young man. So do you like this princess so much that you are risking to dive into the Malta forest, without the fear of your own life for the sake of love? Is it because it's the only way you can marry your dream girl?”

The coachman enthusiastically formed a bullshit story as he had a touching expression on his face.

“Calm your horses' old man, it’s nothing like that. I heard you will be rewarded well if you can cure the princess. I couldn’t care less about marrying her, I am just after the rewards. They can change my life, you know?”

I replied nonchalantly, to which the old man couldn’t help but let out a ‘Tch’ noise. Maybe he reads too many romantic stories.

Since it would take more than a day to reach the royal capital, I decided to lay down my head on my hand to rest for a bit, but before my head could reach my hand, it bumped into the side of a carriage violently as the carriage came to an abrupt stop.

[You have lost 10 HP.]

“Hey, watch it old man. You almost split my head there.”

I said as I rubbed my head which was aching from the sudden bump.

Sitting up, I saw that the old man was descending from the carriage.

“Where are you going now?”

I walked out of the carriage to follow after him, finally receiving answers to all my questions.

‘Well, fuck!’

I cursed internally as I saw a bunch of men, bandits by the look of it, gathering around the old coachman as he shivered like a candle’s spark in rough winds, that would go out anytime soon.

“Hahaha. Look at this old guy, man don’t piss yourself, why don't hand over the coins in your pocket. Hahaha”

Bandit A with a scimitar laughed like a maniac as he said that, while none of his companions laughed at his lame joke.

“Ahem, Old man, get out everything valuable that you have on yourself and we’ll let you go.”

Bandit B, seemingly embarrassed by bandit A’s lame outburst, coughed and demanded like a righteous bandit.

“I-i... I don’t have anything valuable with me. The only thing worth anything are those horses, t-take them if you want to.”

The old man stuttered unnaturally and pointed at his horses.

A bulky guy came out from between the bandits with the signature cut on his eyes. He looked like the leader of this group. Looking at the weak and skeletal horses, his eyes seemed to soften as he looked at the man angrily.

“Old man, are you mocking me? Do you call those horses? They look like a bunch of walking skeletons! Don’t you feed them!? Look at the right one, he looks like he’d fall any moment. Fuck, Bandit A! Do we have any food on us? Feed the damned horses!”

Watching the situation from the back of the carriage, I couldn’t help but feel strange. Was this how it normally plays out when a bandit tries to rob someone.

As I was trying to sneak peeks of what was happening, Bandit A’s eyes, which were looking around here and there for food, fell on me.

“Boss, there is another guy there. He’s trying to hide from us!”

Bandit A shouted for which bandit B gave him a slap on his neck as he said.

“What the fuck are you shouting for? If you discover someone, go catch them. Pointing fingers at them would just make them run away, idiot!”

Bandit B ran right in front of me and pointed an old shotgun right at my head. Raising my hands while awkwardly smiling, I walked towards the bandit leader.

“Hehe, good sir, I wasn’t trying to hide. I was sleeping in the carriage and just woke up. I swear I was planning to attend to you as soon as I saw you!”

I said, almost amazing myself as to when my boot-licking abilities improved to this level.

‘Ah, it must be from all the bootlicking I've to do at my part-time jobs...’

I reminisced about the past that didn’t even exist.

“I ain’t gonna repeat myself. Hand over anything of value to us and we will spare your lives.”

The bandit leader growled. To him, looting one person alone was always much more beneficial than looting a group. There were always stupid people in the group that would rather die than hand over their belongings, he just hoped that this newcomer didn’t belong to that group.

“Ha..ha..haha. Sure, sir, everything I own is now yours, which is basically nothing. Ah, I can give you these clothes if you want.”

I said nervously to the bandit leader. It was true, I didn’t have any valuables on my body except my clothes. The rest of the items and coins were in my inventory.

“Bandit A, check his body and strip anything valuable that he has.”

“Ok, boss!”

Bandit A came and started feeling my body.

“Hey….h-hey… ah…hahaha….stop tickling. Hahaha.”

My body kept twitching due to the tickles it was receiving.

“You dumbfck, boss told you to check his body, not to play tickle-tickle.”

Bandits C to F said at once, clearly angry at the unnecessary actions.

“Let me check.”

Bandit B, who seemed to be the wiser one, strolled both his hands from my neck to toe. After thoroughly checking around, he shouted.

“Boss, these guys are poor pigs. None of them has a single copper coin on their bodies or anything valuable.”

“Wait, what? You don’t have any money on you? How were you planning to pay me my fare? Were you planning to scam this old man? What is this…?”

The old coachman started throwing a tantrum and was visibly indignant. He was angry to the point of forgetting his current situation.

Nerves started popping up at the bandit leader’s forehead as he angrily howled.

“Kill these fuckers! Fuck! They wasted so much time and most importantly, my patience! Skin these pigs alive and feed them to the wolves in the Kenly Mountains!”

The angry leader took out his sword as he roared at us. But before he could do anything, I slowly disappeared from where I was standing.

“Where did that guy go? Is he a magician? I should have known! Sneaky bastards. Kill that old frog over there, I’ll go look for me.”

The bandit said, not being able to see that I was right in front of him. Bandit A started running towards the old coachman with a loud cry. As soon as he was about to land his scimitar on the fearful old man, I ran right behind him and stabbed him in the back.

[Camouflage has been cancelled.]

[You’ve dealt 1456 damage to Band A.]

[Bandit A has been defeated.]

[1,31,989 experience has been acquired.]

[Bandit’s Scimitar has been acquired.]

[60 gold has been acquired.]

The poor bandit A died in just a single hit. And he was a level 20 guy.

‘Sucks to be you.’

As I was thinking that, the old man in front of me showed a surprised face.

‘Maybe he didn’t expect me to help him? Old man, I am not such a bad guy. I am just a loner who dislikes unnecessary chit-chat.’

“Behind you!”

I moved on reflex to the old coachman’s shriek, but a sword passed by my right hand, cutting it off as a horrible pain struck me. It wasn’t as unbearable as it was during the Prytiz quest, but it was still enough to make me feel dizzy.

[You have lost 253 HP]

Turning around, I saw the bandit leader with a bloodied sword and an angry face.

[Bandit Leader - Jay]

[Level - 65]

[40000/40000]

‘I’m fucked…’