Two days later in one of the many offices on the top floor of the Merchant Guild stationed in Arbington, an elderly man sat at the table and read the tabloid his subordinate brought to his attention. The elderly man wasn't alone. Two men in adventurer-looking garb sat across and waited until he finished reading.

*slam*

The elderly man slammed the newspaper on the table after finishing reading but didn't allow himself to lose in anger. He exhaled and addressed the two.

"You read the paper?" He asked.

One of the men, Bastian nodded while the other one, Alsen, asked if they should bring Eliot for questioning.

"No, I can tell what happened without listening to that idiot's lies. To summarize, someone robbed the robber that robbed me!"

The two adventurers shared a glance but didn't comment. "What do you want us to do, Lord Spendius?" Bastian asked.

"I already told you to call me Theo. I want the two of you to follow up on that lead and deal with the one responsible for stealing my core! Don't disappoint me. Bastian. Alsen."

"Of course we won't!" Bastian confidently replied.

"Good. Here." Theo handed a small pouch to Alsen, then added. "This should be enough to cover all your expenses. Now go."

Alsen peeked inside the pouch, smirked, then stored the pouch inside his coat. "We won't fail you Lord Theo. I'll send a report once a week. Until then."

Theo didn't bother correcting Alsen about addressing him as Lord again. After the two left the office, he stood up and approached the window overlooking the town. In his hand he held a translucent object he kept rolling inside his fist, helping him relax.

"One less wouldn't make much of a difference but it would sully my reputation."

*tsk*

Theo Spendius was one of the elders in the Merchant Guild that held a considerable influence in the matters of the guild. He was also a merchant with the reputation to be able to acquire that which isn't easily acquirable… like artificial dungeon cores all the major guilds are in need of. For a person with connections like him, one dungeon core wasn't hard to find. But when your client is in need of five, it presents a challenge. He already spent a considerable amount of his own money to make this deal successful - in the excess of over a hundred thousand gold. He had managed to acquire four at the premium price of twenty-five thousand gold per dungeon core and with the stolen core - he would have all five needed to finally seal the deal that was made a year ago.

*the door opens*

Without knocking, a middle-aged man walked into the office. Like Theo, this man held a position of the elder within the Guild.

"Ozwell, to what do I owe the pleasure of the unexpected visit?" Theo turned and greeted his guest, but his face was cold, expression uninviting.

"Don't be like that Theo. I just came to see how you're doing! I heard you suffered a financial loss recently. What was it - an artificial dungeon core, yes?"

Theo narrowed his eyes and swiftly stored the dungeon core in his hand, then walked back to his desk and sat down.

"Please, take a seat." He gestured to his guest to take the seat as well, then took out a bottle of fine aged wine from the drawer. "You wouldn't refuse to drink with me would you?"

"That would be rude of me." Ozvell said while sitting across from Theo.

The two chatted about frivolous things for a while until Theo decided to change the subject to a more concerning matter and be more direct about it.

"Is the theft of my dungeon core your doing Ozwell?"

Ozwell finished his glass and replied without much thought or consideration. "I suppose it was. I wasn't directly involved but I may have slipped a bit of information to the Thief's Guild. How the cogs turned from there on, was out of my expectations. Honestly, I didn't expect for the Bandit King to get involved."

"Damnit Ozwell. I know we have some sort of rivalry going on between us but your little prank will cost us both if I fail to retrieve the core! The Bandit King won't be a problem but you will reimburse me for the failure out of your own pocket!"

Ozwell shrugged, put down his glass and stood up in order to leave." And I shall. Thank you for the wine. Sell me a bottle or two next time will you?"

Theo snorted and waved the man away.

"What a headache."

I hope Alsen and Bastian will retrieve the core safely. If not…

"I better start writing a letter of apology."

Dear Esteban, Guild Leader of The Fortune Jackals…

While Theo was busy writing an apology, Bones hung from the top of the tree with a clear line of sight at the bandit encampment in the distance. There were still two days left before the weakened status expired and before he would be confident enough to take action. In the meantime, he kept Skully and Murdok busy keeping surveillance on the camp. Or at least it was supposed to be a surveillance but Bones couldn't tell what his golems saw or heard. Didn't stop him from trying though.

By the end of the third week, Bones couldn't explain how, but he finally managed to feel the surroundings through his golems. He sensed the layout of the camp, the position of the guards and how many men patrolled the area. He also felt the snow crunch under Murdok's heavy footsteps and the lashing of Skully's tail as it whipped left and right. The weakened status however, didn't disappear as expected.

Bones kept doing the same until a week later, just like before, he felt the burden, he had gotten used to, leaving him. The Soul Link with his golems felt stronger, and with that so did what he sensed through them. The new sensations were difficult to process. Afterall, the influx of information he needed to process was a few times higher.

That night, Daryll left the camp with a small entourage of fifteen men, pulling carts loaded with goods and heading toward the other camp led by Jazmyne. Bones wasn't going to miss the opportunity presented to him with a third of the camp gone, so he waited past midnight to make a move and until the majority of bandits either passed out from drinking or tottered into their tents carrying booze and falling asleep. The only sober ones left were the few guards guarding the camp, making it easy to approach without being seen. With his back against the fortification wall, Bones started his assault with a bang.

He lobbed two Skull Bombs over his head and blew up one of the tents where he saw a tenant bring alcohol inside. The explosion wasn't big, just large enough to make the surrounding tents catch fire. One of the guards rang the bell, raising an alarm and the rest of the bandits quickly sobered up and ran out of their tents, looking for the source of the fire and the intruders… but they didn't find any. Instead of continuing his assault, Bones chose to immediately retreat and watch the commotion from a distance.

Him setting tents on fire served to see how well the bandits would react to unforeseen situations. And while vulgar and disheveled, grimy and under the influence, the bandits were decisive and actually quick to react. Two bandits caught on fire and were swiftly put down before they could spread the flames further. The surrounding tents were put out shortly after and when everything ended and without finding the culprits, the fire was to be looked as an accident. Any booze previously brought to the tents was carried outside so as not to repeat the accident, and two pairs of bandits carried the dead bodies out of the camp where Bones lurked and waited in ambush.

When the bandits didn't come back, the camp raised an alarm again. The patrol of eight was sent to check what happened to the missing and this time, Bones didn't have as easy a time to get rid of them without being noticed. The patrol moved cautiously and five died in the initial ambush, two while running away and the last one reached the camp and warned the rest of the bandits of the attack.

"Fuck! Who is it? The adventurers?"

"I don't know for sure. But at least two of them. Very dangerous! A warrior and a rogue!"

"We haven't heard anything about this! There are probably more than two - consider it a whole party! Send a signal! We have no choice but to hold on until the boss comes back! I want the area around the camp lit and watch out for any movements!"

Bones heard the bandits shouting while he sneaked back to the camp and hid again right under the fortification wall. One of the bandits was giving orders and then he saw a red streak surge out of the camp and high into the sky. When it reached a certain altitude, the red streak exploded into hundreds of little fragments, lightening the sky.

What the… Bones looked at the fireworks display in wonder, then realized that was the signal and that Daryll, the leader, would soon find out his camp was under the attack. While he was looking up, a shadow appeared above him, obstructing his view.

"Gotcha!"

One of the bandits shouted and thrusted his spear down, aiming to pierce Bones's head. Bones rolled away from the wall, avoiding the spear while manifesting two Skull Bombs in his hands he then hurled at the bandit atop the wall. The skulls exploded and sent the man flying off the wall and crashing into the ground. The other bandits quickly gathered at his location and forced Bones on the run… And boy, did he run. He ran around the camp while throwing Skull Bombs at the wall. Another bandit suffered from an explosion caused by the bomb while the others were ambushed by his golems from the inside.

Skully climbed over the wall and Murdok sliced the camp's gate open and walked in. The fight was a mess and even when overwhelmed with numbers, Skully and Murdok came up on top. The only bandit that successfully fought back before running out of stamina was the leader, Bathu, who turned out to be Daryll's right hand man.

Bones didn't kill the man. He had Skully pierce his vitals with precision and when he was incapacitated, Bones used Soul Magic on him. This time, he didn't feel restricted when casting Haunting Touch and easily extracted what little information he could before Bathu's body went limp. Bones's proficiency with the skill and Soul Magic was lacking and the amount of information he could extract was limited.

Afterwards, he had Skully stationed on the wall and on the lookout for the reinforcement while he searched around the camp.

This camp isn't their base of operation. It serves as something like a watchpost while dealing with other bandits, traders and the like. I thought the camp looked off when I saw the shabby tents they used as an accommodation.

"There's nothing useful here."

And the experience was rather lacking - the bandits were too weak to pose a challenge. Even Bathu, the right hand man, was level forty-seven and in the end, didn't amount to much. Daryll took every other capable man with him which means, I'm going to have my hands full when he returns… I'm just glad I can use Soul Magic without putting a burden on my soul. Now… What should I do?

"More fire would be nice!"

Bones had Murdok spill all the booze he could find around the camp, the tents and over the bodies, then lit it all up in a giant bonfire, visible from the other camp ten kilometers away.

Ten minutes before Bones finished clearing the first camp and when the signal flare lit the sky, the guard stationed at the watchtower in Jazmyne's camp raised the alarm, then came rushing down to report that the camp was under the attack.

Jazmyne's camp wasn't like any other run of the mill bandit camp. She had high fortified walls made of stone, watchtowers, barracks, armory, training grounds, a smithy and stables, and her very own fortress, two stories high in the center. In the basement of the fortress were prison cells and in the front were stationed four bloodthirsty large guard hounds.

The guard rushed past the hounds and up the stairs all the way to the top where he stopped in front of Jazmyne's private chambers. The guard was hesitant. He could hear the moans coming from the other side, muffling the sound of the alarm.

[whipping sounds]

*gulp*

The guard swallowed hard and banged on the doors.

"Boss! The camp is under attack!" He shouted.

The whipping sounds stopped, the doors opened and the thong of the whip wrapped around the guard's neck and pulled him inside. The guard was dragged on the floor until he bumped into Daryll's feet, standing firm as if embedded. A burly, bare-chested man grabbed the guard's head and picked him up like a watermelon.

"The fuck did you just say?"