A moonless night and the rustling of leaves, many sounds of creatures moving and disturbing the forest floor, but no word or signs of Viper Ridley. Bones exhaled in annoyance as Skully and Murdok finished a pack of direwolves. Even out-leved, the monsters didn't avoid confrontation with Bones and his deathly entourage - which started to get on his nerves. He's been looking for his target for hours and began to think the marked location on the contract was invalid.

This is pointless. I'm not getting anywhere looking for him in the middle of the night. And the monsters… What is with them? They're clearly outmatched but they're coming at us in a frenzy. Is it because it's nighttime? Or hunger because there’s a lack of food? It is winter after all.

No, there is plenty of game to hunt from what I hear and the amount of encounters with different beasts I had in the last few hours. That's it. I give up! I'll climb a tree and wait for the night to pass. Maybe I'll have more luck in the morning.

Like that, Bones waited until morning on a leafless tree, providing zero cover until he finally saw movements in the distance. A group of humans accompanied by hounds and carrying prey moved North. Bones paused for a few seconds, observing the group leaving his sight before deciding to follow from the distance. He didn't know if the humans were bandits or simply hunters from a nearby village, but it just dawned and he had to start somewhere.

They shouldn't be hunters. The nearest village is somewhere around twenty kilometers away - too far from home to hunt.

Bones followed the party for three kilometers before noticing the group was missing a few men. He stopped and turned around, carefully observing his surroundings.

[a whistling sound of an arrow flying]

Three arrows hit Bones in the chest with a thunk and he fell down on his back. Cackling and remarks could be heard bouncing between trees and Bones sensed three men approaching.

"Told ya we was followed!"

"Yeah yeah go through his pockets! See who it is."

From the sound of their voice, their inarticulate vocabulary and overall trashy way of talking, Bones concluded they were in fact the outlaws he was searching for.

The tree stopped and towered over his body. One of them knelt beside him and started going through his pockets when in one clean swoop, Bones yanked an arrow out of his chest and jammed it through his eye. The man's body went limp and leaned forward. Bones pushed the body to the side and out of the way, then jumped to his feet.

The other two bandits froze on the spot, the shock of seeing one of them die made them hesitate. Once they snapped out of the initial stupor, both dropped their bows, jumped backwards and drew their daggers. Bones was already on his feet, however, and didn't give them any time to counter attack. He easily suppressed both of them, leaving one alive so he could answer his questions, then killed him too shortly after.

Viper Ridley had made a temporary camp a kilometer north from their position, and the party was just heading back from the hunt. Bones asked a few more questions, how many bandits there were and what skills Ridley had, but the man succumbed to injuries.

"What feeble bodies, but finally signs of Ridley!"

Bones left the bodies as they were and rushed ahead, hoping to catch up to the hunting party. Getting rid of them now would make clearing the camp that much easier, but he was slow - the snow slowing down his movements. He realized he couldn't catch up to them in time so he hurled the golem core ahead and before it hit the ground, Skully appeared and continued sprinting, leaving Bones behind.

If anything, he hoped Skully would be able to stall the party long enough until he and Murdok arrived. His orc golem, unfortunately, didn't have the agility of the lizardman and wouldn't be able to keep up with the two of them so Bones kept him stored for now.

A minute later, Bones came to a stop and saw Skully in front of the camp's fortifications, engaged in a fight against a single figure. The golem had arrows sticking out of his body and he noticed dark green spots around the arrow's entry points. The most striking ones were gashes made by the figure Skully fought. Every slash of his weapon left a sizzling gash that eroded the leather armor he wore.

This must be Viper Ridley with his poisons.

Bones glanced at the camp and saw bandits jumping down the fortification walls and rushing toward the two fighting while the others hid behind the walls, knocking arrows and aiming at Skully.

"Bastards…" Bones murmured then tossed the golem core in an arc. The core flew over the two fighting and landed at the rushing bandits feet. Murdok appeared like a genie in a bottle but instead of granting wishes, he plough through the snow and cleaved the closest bandit in half with his new greataxe. The rest stopped dead in their trek.

"What are you doing, fools! Spread and surround him, then kill the fucker!" Ridley shouted while skillfully avoiding the thrust of a spear. The man was slightly faster than Skully, smaller and more experienced. It showed. Skully wasn't able to land a clear hit the whole fight and they have been exchanging blows for a while now.

This is a good experience for Skully. If he has the capability to learn, the fight should help him grow. Murdok will handle the melee fighters and I'll clean up the rest.

Bones dashed to the side and started circling the encampment, looking for an entrance while lobbying skull bombs over the wall. At some point he casted Bone Storm and riddled the fortification wall with spikes, then climbed over the wall by using spikes as stepping stones. The moment he got in, spelled doom for the few bandits still lingering inside. He took care of them easily.

The biggest advantage Bones had in fights was the element of surprise his adversaries got when realizing he couldn't be stopped with arrows and swords. Then the crippling fear followed that made them freeze and hesitant. Bones of course used that opportunity to strike the killing blow. When he finished inside, he opened the gates to the camp and saw Murdok surrounded by mutilated corpses.

There's not a sliver of grace in his fighting style, just extreme violence.

He looked behind Murdok and saw a wounded Ridley, gulping for breath while throwing insults at Skully. For a moment, Bones sympathized with the man as it wasn't the first time he saw confusion, frustration, anger and finally resignation in the eyes of men when confronted with the inevitable. Ridley's poisons were ineffective - one of the reasons Bones picked the bounty on him. The other reason was that the man was level fifty-two and would provide both an easy win and plenty of experience.

Bones had Murdok join Skully and with the two of them attacking relentlessly, Ridley didn't last long. Skully's spar robbed him of his speed and Murdok's greataxe of his life. Bones gained a level in class and skill levels. It bothered him that he was just a level away from getting a new skill in Soul Magic but he was reluctant to use it given what happened last night.

Maybe I'll take it slow and easy on the soul magic until my weakened status disappears.

Bones focused on the adventurer's badge and checked his progress. A screen appeared before him displaying he had "cleared" the Viper Ridley wanted contract.

"Ah good, good - no need to cut off the head."

He approached the dead body and searched for valuables. Ridley had equipment of decent quality but given his small stature, everything was too small for his golems and he himself had plenty of spare clothing. The daggers the man wielded were eye catching though. The hilts were decorated with viper shaped ornaments and the blade shone with a familiar black metal sheen. Bones picked both up and stored them in inventory. He had no use for them, neither did his golems, but they would fetch a good price in the store.

"On second thought…" Bones returned inside the camp and looked for extra large winter clothing for his golems. He found it ridiculous how quickly they tear through the clothes when fighting. The bandits had plenty of winter coats made of direwolf pelts and Bones picked a few large enough for his golems and one he immediately put in for himself. The coats were heavy and would obstruct movements in battle but they provided a lot of cover to his golems features out of combat.

"I think we're done here boys." Bones said and took out a small map. His next two contracts, his second and third, were close to the border. The second one was east, a few days' journey away and the third was a few kilometers north from the second one. The reason the two bandit leaders could pose a problem is their levels and their proximity to each other. The second contract, Black Eyed Daryll, is level fifty-five and Jazmyne Smokes, his third contract, is level fifty-six.

Jazmyne is a woman, which came as a surprise to Bones as there weren't that many women in this kind of business. She was also a whip user, which came as another surprise. The other one is a muscular type wielding a greatsword named Daryll, another one with "something something eye" in his name. Both had plenty of men within their ranks and appear to be really close to each other. Bones doubted the bandits operated this close to one another and had a hunch that the relationship between the two was more than just partners in crime.

Could they be a husband and a wife? Rather romantic if not for all the robbing and the killings…probably not. There would be no reason to operate separately if they were.

Bones decided to wait out the duration of his weakened status debuff before engaging the two. There was a small town around fifty kilometers away from the border and the bandits by the name of Tarnstead, and that was his next destination.

The next few days were spent on the road with occasional stops at the nearby village or small town. Bones was relieved to read there wasn't anything related to him in the article on the fire at Greed estate in the local newspapers. In fact, Eliot seemed to have collected a huge amount of money from the insurance on his mansion and blamed the fire on a spider infestation. A single charred skeleton resembling the spider was found at the sight of fire and Bones almost spat out the coffee he was drinking when he read the part.

After a week of traveling, he reached Tarnstead. The town was like any other town in The Remore Kingdom and after settling down in the nearest inn, Bones made a visit to the town's branch of adventurer's guild. He wanted to find out more information on his next targets, but the Guild's information network isn't the reason he was there.

After entering the Guild, Bones surveyed the hall. Like most Guild branches in small towns, this one was humble in both its size and the level of adventurers. On one side of the hall on the wall there was a contract board and on the other there was a bar serving drinks and fast food. Bones approached the bar and told the waiter he needed information on the contract he was on. The waiter eyed for a moment then asked him what he would like to drink and to take a seat at the table.

Bones waited ten minutes for that drink and thought he might have been misunderstood until a different man appeared holding his drink.

"An odd choice of a drink but here's your mana potion sir." The man said and introduced himself simply as an informant, then took a seat across Bones.

"What can I help you with Mr…?"

"I go by Jones and I need information on a bounty… two bounties." Bones replied then took out his two contracts and slid them over to the informant. The informant took them and raised an eyebrow after seeing who the targets were.